Sligo Co Sligo Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Sligo Co Sligo Female Conversation

Conversation

I was born and raised in Sligo here in Ireland and I’ve never been very far out of Sligo and I was in New York for the first time ever last February and my daughter brought me and, cause I’d had to put her through her college and it was her first job so she was paying me back cause I’ve always wanted to go to New York. So it was amazing, I loved it and if I was younger, if I was 50 years younger I would go down and I would go to America and I would stay working there for a couple of months. No, I loved it – I absolutely – dreading I had to come home after a week.

Male: So did you end up seeing some shows?

We seen Mary Poppins – that’s the only one we went to and it was lovely. I really enjoyed it and we went to see the Statue of Liberty and we went to Ellis Island and I seen a picture on the wall of Mary Wallis from Sligo in nineteen twelve – they went over to Ellis Island – making her first Holly Communion. I did – I spotted the picture and they were all laughing at me. I was “Oh, look she’s from Sligo.” So...but I loved it. No, and I loved it – I was up at the top of the Empire State Building, even though I nearly had a heart attack. Went up looking at the lifts gone up two, three, four, thirty, sixty, seventy, ninety – ohhh, I was panicking I was. But the biggest thrill of it all was when we went to the Twin Towers. Yeah, I absolutely loved that. I’m fascinated with what happened at 9/11 and even last night I was watching a program about the 9/11 where they were trying to say – these crowd were trying to say it was conspiracy, that it wasn’t – you know, that George Bush was behind it but my daughter says to me, “You’re not looking at that rubbish, are you?” and I said I was – I was glued to it. I wouldn’t turn over the television till it was over. But I’m a devil for those type of things, anything true that happens. No, I love things like that. So I’m working here, I’m four years working here. Before this I worked in a local factory in town called Hanson’s and it was American factory and it was, they made kitchen scales, bathroom scales – you may have often seen Hanson on them – and clocks and it closed up seven years ago. So I only worked in the factory – I was an assembly operator – and when it closed up then you see I didn’t know what to do because now if you want a job in – most jobs you have to have, you know, your education and in my days I hadn’t got any – the education that the young people have now. So anyway, I went down to a place called Voss where they retrain people and I went in and they helped me to learn how to work computer. So then I got out and I got the job in here and as you know, as you can see I’m great at talking. So I’m ideal for this. So if anybody comes in I have a good old chat with them. So last Friday night we had a fellow called Arlo Guthrie and he’s American, and we had a full house and he was very, very good – he was very friendly when they come in like and very nice he was and I had two really old records – you know the, years ago they were – we used to call them LP’s – I don’t know what you call them. I don’t even think...

Male: Oh, I had a large collection. Yeah.

Yeah, and I had two of them of Arlo Guthrie and I asked him will he sign them and he – when he seen them and he seen his photograph on the outside and he was roaring and laughing. He says, “My God, look at me when I was a young fellow” cause they very, very old – like, you know they were - belonged to my brother-in-law – they’re not – weren’t – belong to me now but, cause I’m not big into music now you know but...and I like good music, you know but.

Male: I used to have the album for Alice’s Restaurant.

Did ya? Oh, he – they were all shouting for him to sing it in there on Saturday night but he wouldn’t sing it because he said it goes on too long. So I...

Male: It’s a very long song and I’m sure that he’s tired of playing it. So he never did play it?

No, he just said he doesn’t play it on his tours now anymore.

Male: Interesting.

Yeah.

Male: I’m sure people were a little disappointed because that’s what his most famous work is.

They were – yeah, they definitely were because...but even though every, any – when them people were coming out and you know I said to them “Well, did enjoy that?” “Oh, it was fantastic – it was you know, it was great you know.” So at the moment now we have a singing camp on – we have a crowd of young people who – “wanna be’s,” wants to be Britney Spears and all that so that they’re in all week and there’s two professional singers in there with them and they’re training their voices and showing them how to move and all that type of thing, you know. So we have...Dean – what’s his name there – Stockwell. He’s a psychic – medium and we’ve Rebecca Storm – she’s coming – he’s not coming now until the end of September and Rebecca Storm is coming in November. So they’re good to go ___ with the fellow that plays the piano. He would be famous in Ireland – he’s Frank McNamara, is his name – he’s here on the 5th of September. So this is the quiet time for the theatre because of all the summer camps and things like that, you know. So they take up most of the time but...so the most – the thing that goes down best in the theatres nowadays is the comedians cause the young people love the comedians and the young people have plenty of money and the ones that are working, like, you know, and they’ve plenty of money and they don’t care what they pay for – if they want to see something they will pay you know. Oh, and last weekend we had a great weekend here in Sligo – we had Leonard Cohen at Lissadell House and it was fantastic. He played for Saturday night and Sunday night and there was ten thousand at the show both nights and his tickets sold in six minutes on the internet when they went on sale. Now Leonard Cohen – and he’s seventy-four, but now he really, he was worth it. Everyone said he was brilliant. Now well I wasn’t at it myself but it was...I wouldn’t go down because of the rain and things like that, I mean, it was outdoors like a concert, you know and it was down at Lissadell house where W.B. Yeats spent all his time when he was a little fellow, like when he’d be running around and playing down at Lissadell but it’s open to the public now – you can go down and look around but now you won’t get in to see the house but you can go down and – well, it’s a good bit out of the town like you’d need transport to get down.

Sligo Co Sligo Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Sligo Co Sligo Female Conversation

Conversation

Okay, I’m from Sligo, County Sligo. I lived there until I went to secondary school. Went to boarding school in Mayo, which is next to Sligo. Then after that, I came to work in Dublin. I was a police officer. I’m now retired. And just to get back to the accents, the linguistics you asked me about. Cork and Kerry, what sounds very similar, their accent. Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary would sound similar. Then you move into the west. The west would get very, the vowels get very elongated when you go up into Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon. They would be very similar. Then when you go into the Midlands, they have a much flatter kind of an accent, where you go Offaly, Westmeath, Laois. Meath then borders onto Louth, and they again have a different type of an accent. And then of course, you have the counties that would border the northern part of our country, which is Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal. And they would have the real Northern accents. Then if you go down to Wicklow, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Carlow, their accents would be very, very similar. Waterford as well. I think that’s the whole twenty-six counties that we own. 

I would think that your best bet to go Sligo is to look for somewhere rural. Because I was only listenin’ to a guy, he’s just written a book, and they’re doin’ a film, and it’s around Boyle and Lough Key, which is Sligo-Roscommon border. And he was sayin’ that he lives in a house down there and he writes all the time and it’s very quiet. Okay, if you’re lookin’ for a social life, wrong place to go. Off the top of my head, because I’m gone from Sligo so long. It’s Yeats country, yeah. That’s because W.B. Yeats, poet. And then you have all the Yeats on the other side, who are artists. Now, there’s a lovely place on the Maeve in Sligo, where you can go. It’s a library, and it’s kind of a museum and you can see all that kind of thing. Benbulben. You can actually climb it if you’re… You’d be fit enough to climb it and…

Female: And I’d be telling them that. Young and fit. Walkin’.

Yeah. Then Leitrim. Leitrim would have Glencar Waterfall, which is a lovely place. Donegal then would have big estates. And Donegal are very into their fishing. And that’s kind of mostly Killybegs. Yeah, Sligo, Donegal, and Galway. Then if you go down to Cork, they’re also big trawlers down there. Some in Waterford. Some in Wexford, as well. And then if you come up… Because if you come up the East Coast, there aren’t so many fishing grounds. That’s why you have them on the other, the West and the South Coast. I really wouldn’t have an idea. But I would say that if you go to ___, they would recommend B and B’s. There’s a ___ office inside in O’Connell Street, isn’t it?

Yeah. ___. Ask them for a list of B and B and ask them for recommendations on B and B. Because they’re about the most reasonable… I mean, this time of year you’ll pay an arm and a leg to stay in a hotel. Then you’re confined… Yes, yeah. And as well as that, all the schools will be goin’ on holidays. Some of them are gone already. Second level are gone already. Primary will be gone in about two-weeks time. So it’s top…

Female: Busy.

But we’re just trying to figure out the cheapest way to get around the country. But it’s either hosteling or B and B. Hotels are too expensive. Usually, you will find in Ireland that the… where difference makes huge is the surnames of people. Like I know there was a family at home, and we called them Falynns. It’s… They originated from Kilkenny, but if you go to Kilkenny they’re Falynns. Do you know that kind of… that’s kind of the only thing… It’s mostly surnames of people. Powell is another one that I’m familiar with Clare. Powell. P-O-W-E-L-L. In Clare, they’ll call it Powell. You think it’s P-O-L-E. You know, that kind of scenario. But and as well as that, if you go down to Cork, it’s difficult for us even. Because the accent lilts. Cork and Kerry would have that lilting kind of a thing that you would find in south Wales.