Denis O’Donoghue recounts the intriguing narrative of John Joe Hourigan’s descendant, John Jerh, who was saved from execution after the 1798 rebellion. You can forget about the Lynx effect when you have the Honey Scent !!!!
The fireside in the old Castle Bar was a cosy spot, the flickering light from the fireplace melding bar-room and customers in a warm hazy glow. For close on two hundred years it has served the intricate weave of community kinships and bloodlines, new alliances and old scores accumulated over five and six generations. Story-telling and the ancient art of ‘tracing’ are respected and it was here that my friend John Joe gave account of his paternal great-grandfather and the ‘Honey Scent‘.
The curious tale stayed in my mind for the rare light it turned on accidents that set so much of man’s mortal course. It was St Patrick’s Day 1961 and I was in my native parish for a spot of rest after a stint in the Congo with the 32nd Irish Battalion. The little village in the lush pastures of eastern Duhallow was cheery in the frosty sunlight as we spilled out from second Mass. Hustling through the familiar throng, I came up with John Joe. Greetings were not necessary, our joint mission was to ‘wet the shamrock’ in the Castle Bar.
John Joe was a lively stocky local farmer. He lived happily in a house full of womenfolk and faced the outside world with the open smiling face and heart of a child. Yet he was a tough customer a Fianna Eireann veteran of the Tan War. He was an all-round sportsman of ‘county’ standard until well into early middle age.
An intimate of my father and grandfather, John Joe and myself were especially bonded by a mutual passion for all aspects of sport and local history – bridges that readily spanned our yawning generation gap. In the crisp Spring air, John Joe was un-typically redolent of a spicy body perfume and headed-off my inevitable comment with the explanation that ’the girls’ had given him an expensive body spray for a birthday present and he was wearing it to humour them………….. Continue reading “The Honey Scent”
