by Ed Forry
Publisher

The month of March is here – it’s time to get your Irish on! There’s an array of events this month to celebrate Saint Patrick as winter winds down, with dances and concerts and other events all over town.

One of the joys of the season is connecting with the estimable Barbara Fitzgerald, who grew up in Milton with parents from Roscommon and Galway. A long-time member of the Eire Society, she is someone who enjoys talking and writing about her Irish heritage. Along with her late husband, she has been a mainstays of the Boston Irish community for decades. Barbara especially enjoys collecting Irish stories and anecdotes and passing them along via emails and social media postings to her many followers on Facebook.

In a recent conversation I asked her about that heritage: “My mother was a domestic servant, and her employer helped her to establish a savings account at the Milton Savings Bank. Most employers offered room and board to these young ladies, which allowed them to have a down payment on a house when they married. My mother saved enough to put down on a house here in Milton; most didn’t have any money. 

“And so going back to when these young Irish-born maids were all single, they would go to one of the old big houses where there was a maid’s quarters, and they had a party, which they called the kitchen racket. There would be a melodeon player or an accordion so they could do their set dancing. Not having much money after they married, these parties continued in their homes almost every Saturday night. It went from home to home. Oh, my Irish heritage roots. I just want my roots to continue. I want the young people to know about our Irish roots. 

“Our parents weren’t well educated, but they were adamant about making us go to college, making us strive to be better than them, and didn’t want us to be stuck. I don’t know if you ever heard the term ‘a mucker’? It was a derogatory reference to the Irish who dug out and filled in the Back Bay. They were called ‘muckers’ because they filled in the bay when it was marsh and water. It was a very derogatory term, but they were so anxious to work that they would do that, and they didn’t get a very nice name for doing it. They were the laborers that did the work, in the mud. And they were Irish. No one, no other nationality would do it”

What’s her source for these stories? “Usually, I lie in bed in the morning before getting up, and I think what my day is going to be, and usually if I’m not doing too much, I’ll do some research on Irish heritage – Irish American history, Ireland’s Fun Facts, Celtic World and Cultures and the Wild Geese.”

Recently she noted on social media that all pubs in Ireland are required to serve tea: “Well, my family was strictly the agrarian culture. And the pub was across from the church and when they went up to confession or something, some of the ladies would drop into the pub afterwards. And see, the ladies –most of them – didn’t drink, so they’d order a cup of tea. So, then it became mandatory that all pubs in Ireland serve tea. “

Barbara relishes the memories of St Patrick’s Day rituals when she was young. “My mother would joyfully open the little packages from Ireland before St. Patrick’s Day. Inside was a sprig of live shamrock, which by that time had turned brown. She then would put in a tepid water and try to bring it back. On St. Patrick’s Day, my dad would tuck the shamrock into his cap and go off to work.

“We, the children, would wear our green badges with the gold harp surrounded by tiny shamrocks. We would pin these to our outfits with the brown Shamrock from Ireland and we all had to go to Mass in Boston. It was like it was a holy day of obligation, and then you could celebrate after that. And then we went by subway over to South Boston, to watch the parade. 

“And it was very dignified back in those days. Everybody was very respectful of the marchers and the fact that it was a double holiday – Evacuation Day as well as St. Patrick’s. But it wasn’t a celebration, the nonsense and the green hair and all that that’s going on now. It was quiet. And I appreciated growing up in that culture rather than the culture now.”

Following are a few of her recent postings:

Half Door in Ireland: The king of England wanted to raise extra money, so he put a tax on windows. The clever Irish took out their windows in their cottages and had two doors instead, front and back. They cut the doors in half and would leave the top door open to let in air and light. 

In those days most people were poor and would keep their animals inside the house – chickens, pigs, sheep – as it meant they could sleep at night knowing that they were safe from wandering off. Cottages truly were an Irishman’s cave and we as Yanks think our taxes were bad. This Irish Window Tax was repealed in 1857.

Aran Sweater: Originally, womenfolk spun the wool from the natural fleece of the sheep. And the Aran fishermen knitted the garments, using goose quills for needles that evolved into patterns of great beauty simply as befitted those who lived close to nature but symbolic and dignified. It is said in the Book of Kells that David was depicted wearing an Aran sweater. 

The stitches on the garment are an allegory of the way of life: Cable stitch-Fisherman ropes; Diamond stitches- small farms on the island, it also means the fishermen’s nets; Zig zag stitches- the ups and downs of marriage; Honeycomb stitches- the sweet for the tea; Tree of life stitches importance of family