The Mayo News

Walking into a time machine


Going out
Edwin McGreal

ALL that was missing was a duel in the courtyard between ‘Fighting’ Fitzgerald and one of his many adversaries, because to be at Turlough Park, Castlebar, at the weekend was like stepping into a time capsule to transport you to a bygone age.
The annual Féile na Tuaithe festival at the Museum of Country Life brings to life an era we normally are only able to read about in the history books.
Leaving your car at the gates, switching off your mobile phone for an hour and ambling through the many attractions, artefacts and displays of the free festival was to project you from the era of the iPhone to that of the horse and cart, and it was a surreal experience.
Master craftsmen and women were at work weaving baskets, shaping pottery and demonstrating woodturning in the park grounds, while the museum itself was witness to that most ancient of arts – storytelling. There was also an array of exhibits that brought home to you an altogether different way of living: the old country life that the museum aims to demonstrate.
And having been brought up on tales of ‘Fighting’ Fitzgerald only two miles away in Breaffy NS, I nearly expected his ghost to stride into the courtyard for a duel, such was the authenticity of the experience.
For those of you who have never heard of ‘Fighting’ Fitzgerald, it is safe to say that before Turlough House become home to the Museum of Country Life and Féile na Tuaithe, it was this extraordinary character that the magnificent Victorian mansion was most identified with.
A brief history lesson (he’s worth it!). George Robert Fitzgerald was a prolific duellist who spent much of his adult life in Turlough House. An Etonian, he had fought eleven duels by the age of 24 and was famously involved in a sword duel through Castlebar with Caesar French of Clonbur.
Regarded as a ‘good’ landlord, he fell out with some less-popular members of the aristocracy in Mayo and was sentenced to death in 1786, aged 40. Even his hanging was dramatic. The first rope broke, the second one was too long but the third attempt was successful, from the hangman’s point of view anyway.
And you would have to think that Fitzgerald would approve of the fine attempts to recreate a little bit of times past in his old manor. The era the museum aims to recreate stretches from 1850 to 1950, and while the last year may be over 150 years after the death of Fitzgerald, the Ireland of 1950 had much more similarities with the mid 18th century than it does with the current day, less than 60 years hence.
And it is amazing to see and reacquaint yourself with how things were in a bygone age. An age where weavers, tailors, blacksmiths and shoemakers were ten-a-penny. Most homesteads were largely self-sufficient. Shops were only used for the purchase of the rare things that could not be made at home, and the shopkeeper was a good source of news. (Well, some things don’t change!).
Storytelling was a medium altogether more common than in the current age of mass communications, and those present at Féile na Tuaithe were fortunate enough to bear witness to a performer of the dying art – Donegal’s Gearóidín Ní Bhreathnach.
It was fascinating to see the Harry Potter generation of children spell-bound by tales of fairies and bad-luck signs, such as the cutting of a blackthorn tree, by someone with no aides or accompaniments, just her own voice.
I’m not going to go all twee and suggest that society has moved in the wrong direction and sound like my grandfather talking about the ‘old days’, but it’s nice to be able to glance through the window all the same.
And for children the experience appeared all the more captivating. Thousands of people streamed through the gates over the weekend, and I’d bet not too many left disappointed.
On the way out, the food stalls were just too tempting to pass. The garlic and herb boxty was delectable and the array of homemade chocolates were enough to attract even the strictest of calorie counters, a category I certainly don’t fall into.
One sumptuous looking apple pie looked ideal for the dessert table. But the price, €30, certainly didn’t belong to a bygone era. Welcome back to the 21st century!

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