Life in Ballycroy, Co. Mayo, Ireland 1975
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2022
- Emigration, the closure of schools, poor land and no electricity are some of the challenges facing those who are living in rural west Mayo.
The ‘7 Days’ programme travelled to Ballycroy in Mayo an area where often the landscape provides only intermittent farming as a means to earn a living. Those who have not emigrated believe that the realities of living in this type of rural area are not recognised and the remaining population feels forgotten.
There is joy and celebration at a wedding in the church at Keenagh but the reality is that the young couple have come back to Ireland to be married but will then return to their new home in Coventry in England.
To provide education to the dwindling population three schools in the area have had to amalgamate into one. Children have to travel longer distances and the bus service will only collect pupils where eight can meet at a pick up point.
The Kilroy family explain the difficulties of living in a rural area trying to get their daughter Mary to school and running a household without electricity.
This ‘7 Days’ report was broadcast 4 November 1975. The reporter is John O’Donoghue. - Розваги
My mother originated from Mayo before coming to England for work in the early 50's
We would go home, via ferry, every year, during the school holidays.
We have contiued our annual return to Mayo up to this present time
Poverty back in those times was mad. Can't believe they didn't have electricity in the mid 70s. I'm 24 and from meath. My mam grew up without plumbing or a toilet in her house well into her teenage years in the 1980s. Not long ago at all. Ireland is really struggling these days particularly for my generation but we are much better off than those in times gone by. My grandad was out of school at 12 and working in england at 15 in the 1950s. Im living in the states at the moment with no intention of returning to ireland for a long time because its too expensive and the salaries are too low. Its sad, I miss home
Couldn't agree more. The way this Republic has been run the last 50 years is a stain on our great Nation.
@109 Countries are you for real?
@109 Countries Ah, don't be giving us that shite.
@109 Countries Babbling gobshite detected. "You must return and fight for your nation" - Oró, sé do bheatha abhaile, that were Pearse's words. Who are you talking to?
"It’s time for all European Men to step up and make our ancestors proud".
What about the women? Our ancestors are dead, you won't make any of them proud by talking rubbish.
What do you want? A Europe of the 1950s with half of each Irish generation having to emigrate?
@@Mostrichkugel he’s telling the truth while you sleepwalk you’re way into a bleak future.
I understand why my family left Mayo. However after visiting I feel it is incredibly beautiful!
It's a funny thing- my grandparents left the north of Scotland in the 20's, 2 years bad crops and no fish so the government paid them to go. For me, a Canadian, it's my happy place, where I feel at home, but they would be horrified. For them it was cold and poverty. I sometimes go to the ruined settlement that they left and it's like a dark cloud over it, so many died of TB and just plain moss-eating poverty.
There's a saying " you can't eat the view " . That was just over 100 years since the great famine . The population was decimated and those who stayed had a savage struggle.
What has changed in 50 years is that holiday makers choose the pretty bits and that has brought some money into the west.
It’s changed a lot, and with all the issues going on in the U.K., many many many people are returning.
The lady in the thumbnail, holding the child, is absolutely beautiful, and she doesn't seem to be wearing makeup, it's all natural. She has such a gorgeous complexion, lovely eyes and hair.
Yes the Irish are naturally beautiful ❤
@@Roscoe.P.Coldchain Thank you very much. I'm Irish.
I am Spaniard. My daughter spent 2 years working in Ireland, and I often travelled over there to spend time with her. The Irish are the best looking people in Europe.
I was 3 in 75, there was 4 of us born between 72 and 76, 1 in 80, 1 in 87. My dad was a Congo veteran, worked in England in the 60s, came home, met my mother, he worked in the Silvermines near Nenagh, 80s we've had tough times financially, my mother died in 2000 age 55, my dad kept us together, still alive at 83, I remember the yellow freezer buses, nk heat on them, the cars, ford anglia, cortinas, hillman hunter, avenger, Morris minors, vauxhall vivas, datsun bluebird, remember my dad having all these cars back in the day.
Love to see the old cars, I had a Mk 3 Cortina and it was one of the best cars I've ever had.
I was 3 in 75 too. We had electricity in our house. Shocking to think others didn't!!!
@@bathtownship F*ck off with your religious crap! 😛
Joining the EU back then made a huge difference, value of produce went up 10 fold.
I am at home in any Tipperary town☘️☘️☘️
This a long gone time Mayo has become modern and the hard time is beyond us we have a highly educated population,and even a regional airport the young still leave but this time to earn high wages and see the world,I am delighted to live in are beautiful country
A lot of my friend left to study, travel and work but came back to raise their families. Working remotely has removed the limitations of available work and means even places like Clare Island are seeing an increase in their populations.
Lack of hospitals and infrastructure still make it hard to love here
This "uneducated" man @3:37, speak more intelligently, and critically, than most college grads in California in 2022.... here in USA only money matters...by god, what a handsome couple...
Beautiful family. I hope the years ahead of this video became a bit easier for them.
Oh they are a beautiful family 💚
I hope they moved to Dublin and got the fuck out of that backwards kip.
I hope the children grew up to have happy and healthy lives. It is amazing the way school buses are still a problem for certain areas in Ireland.
Irish buses have free WiFi and charging sockets. More advanced than London. This video is from 1975.
all areas no where in ireland has school buses
@@silverkitty2503 bcjgggbcdvjjvcxvb
@@Google_Does_Evil_Now A lot of buses are cancelled at a whim, and are packed. In Dublin city, there aren't designated school buses for children. On a rural level, I often hear parents complain about transport. So it does depend on where you live. Having wifi is less important than an actual reliable transport service.
Rural people have smooth complexions and angelic faces. City people look like monsters in comparison!!
My dad was a kid from this time and I love story’s he tell’s me he doesn’t call them hard times but lovely times to day we have it so handy
My mum was a flight attendant and stopped in Shannon in the 1960s and the poverty in rural Ireland was a shock to her - she was from London. Some kids had rags for clothes and no shoes.
My mum grew up in rural Mayo in the 40s/50s and nobody was dressed like that. Not sure why she saw that at Shannon.
@@jonathandowling7311 yeah, my Grandad said after ww2 peope cared less & less about their outward appeared
Ask your mum was she aware her country was responsible in the main for leaving Ireland in that state?
@@thekravika5258 Forty years after independence?
@@xpat73 Yes of course forty years after independence how long do you think it takes to recover from 800 of brutal oppression? It takes generations.....
Wow that poor family at the end. I hope it all worked out for them
All jokes aside, our forest family at the end at least appear fit and healthy and the wee girl seems to be a happy child (I'm sure they sorted a way for her to get to school in the end). Fresh and air and natural food is a powerful thing. Food additives and sustained staring at screens consuming mindless garbage is what can prematurely age us and makes us depressed now imho. Are we the Irish who are a predominantly rural, island, homeloving and family orientated people (as this clip proves) truly that much better off now?
I realise i am romanticising what was a difficult time period and location. But you can see why people nowadays can pine for the whole cottagecore/off-grid way of living.
Enjoy the weekend everyone! 💚🤠🇮🇪✌️
Let's see you out cutting the turf, footing it, turning it, carrying back?
Then going out and sewing your spuds, cabbages, carrots, onions. Then after harvest you'll be digging the pit?
And don't forget cutting the fields of hay, raking it, tramming it, bringing it back to the barn and stacking it.
And going out and fixing the fences.
Up at 5am before school or work to put your sheep up the hill, or milk your cows, every day, 7 days.
And clean the chicken coop.
And clean out the cows.
Thankfully for those people still living there they have cars, electricity, shops, and they can choose which parts they want to continue and which parts they want to live in a modern way.
The houses in those areas are beautiful and warm. The scenery is amazing. And still wild. And peaceful. And there's a wonderful feeling you get from the land back there. You must feel it inside you. It just feels right.
I spent summers not far from there.
If you're a tourist I highly recommend it. You can rent fabulous houses, fly in to Knock Ireland West airport, hire a car. The West coast is phenomenal. They call it The Wild Atlantic Way.
There are 3 places in the world where they have the wind kite surfing World Championships - Brazil, Hawaii and Achill island, Mayo, just down the road from where this is filmed.
Rugged, rural, friendly. You can camp out if you like. Or stay in modern homes.
The food is so good. Natural. Great mix of rain and sunshine for growing food and cattle.
Im born n reared in rural Donegal 80s and 90s my friend so am well aware. Not just here for summer holidays! G'luck to ya.
i really enjoy listening to their stories and to the different accents/dialects from each area of ireland, i love your archives, regards
My ancestors came from County Mayo to New York state in the 1850's. CAn't imagine what it must have been like during and after the potato famine
We panic if our smartphone goes dead. We have no idea how easy we have it .
But unlike in those days there's no pay phones left.
who's ''we''?
My grandmother Catherine Forken and grandfather Patrick Carey came from Mayo to America in The early 1900s . I would love to hear from anyone that might be related . My grandfather had to brothers and a sister that stayed In Ireland
It was not considered poverty because everything is relative I was born in 62 the era of coal fires, paraffin heaters, hot water bottles, and rented TVs with one then 2 channels but we felt well taken care of my father said all you need in life is food in your stomach, a roof over your head clothes on your back and someone to love and we had that nobody in school was barefoot like generations before us.
I'm from Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvanian DANIEL BOONE always said a man needed just a "good rifle, a good horse, and a good wife" to be content.
@@aaronrider4051 In that order? ;-)
Look at any large road map of Ireland today and north and northwest Mayo still has large areas without a single village listed, similar to parts of central Donegal and north Conamara - some of my favourite places in the country.
-- Sounds idyllic to me!
It’s becoming depopulated, sad to say. Areas which at one point had strong GAA teams can barely field a junior side.
@@rerite2 visit. You'll be very welcome. You can have friendly craic in the pub or cafe, or have a quiet week in wonderful solitude.
@@rerite2 Try making a living farming there I'm from a poor farm workers family if I had a pound for everytime I heard that!
My maternal grandmother was from Donegal.
Give me that life style over this modern world any day
Beautiful. We haven't forgotten you.
Lovely family.
Sure this is how it was, my dad grew up in a nice enough house but some of his sisters along with his father and mother lived in a one room house no bigger than a shed until my grandad could build a proper house. Much of the west of ireland has an issue of people moving away as there are not an aweful lot of job opportunities.
That's exactly as it was.
Mayo and indeed all of Ireland is unrecognisable from those days. Despite current problems, Ireland is very modern and very safe compared to the UK or US which seem to be self imploding.
Anyone know where these children are now?How did they get on in life and are the parents still alive.Tough area but yet so so beautiful. These videos are priceless.
As they used to say, you can't eat landscape.
@@Mostrichkugel lol or a nice view never put the grub on the table
pretty views don't fill bellies
They all got on very happy in life. Grandad passed away in 2011. The girl in the video is my mother.
@@darraghmcnulty3432 ah thanks for the reply.The wee girl (your mother)is probably around my age.well I wish ye all health and happiness. Sorry for the loss of your grandfather in 2011.
Good lord, the yellow bus… I went to secondary school in the late 80s - early 90s and our bus was like that, it wasn’t uncommon for our driver to be half full and the bus to over heat and just die… depending on where the bus died would mean whether we walked the rest of the way or waited 30 mins for another bus. Fun times lol
They look quite happy. Electricity is great if it were used and not misused like all things useful a hugh money maker for some. I went to school in that time and had to walk to catch the school bus I loved every minute of it. Not many mod cons back then but what you never had you didn't miss. We had a simple upbringing in touch with nature and our neighbours wish I could go back from this crazy world we live in now.
I always had a love for Mayo Achill sound West Port camping and cycling 🚲 and shifting the local girls sucking Guinness up a straw and licking the Stamps of joy deep into the nigh at the little disco in Achill sound in the renovated cottages
I’m second generation Dublin. Mum’s side are all from Mayo. We go back most years together, but I can see why ppl left unfortunately. I’d love to see something for young people to stay and put down roots there again.
I am happy to know that Ireland is one of the most prosperous and modern countries in Europe. , greetings from Chile
The intro panorama is Lough Tay in Wicklow. Weird, maybe this section follows a section about Wicklow?
Kids look happy. Isolation in that type of community is so much preferable to the population dense cities that produce so much suffering from being disconnected from nature. At least for me, I am not just talking I lived on the Navajo reservation and nearest store was 60 miles of 2 lane treacherous driving. The main draw back was lack of medical care and water which was destroyed by uranium mining so they made the bountiful wells undrinkable.
That is very sad and depressing: concerning the water.
Living off-Grid has become a desirable way of life in some western countries like North America..
Ironically, the remote working arrangements facilitated by big tech are allowing some people to return to places like Co.Mayo, having spent time away working in cities like London, Dublin etc.
I am born in England but my fathers grandmother ( Helen Hussey) left County Mayo to come to England, I suppose I can see why, but I always feel a pull to Mayo and have never been there
I am not quite sure what the problem was walking 2 miles to the bus stop. I walked a lot more than that to get to school from a Scottish farm in all weathers in the 1970'. Sometimes the postie would give me a lift in the back of the van or a neighbour on the tractor. My father had to walk much further in shorts all year round even when it was well below zero.
Long time since I was in Ireland. It was the late 60:s. And i Loved it. I travelled round the republic as well at The Aran islands and i Loved it. I happened to know someone who lived in Dublin and that was an important point. A remenber more or less empty villages in county Clare. Many had moved to England for work and left where older bachelors that i met att the lokal pub. Sometimes there were music and singing there and i remember i sung a swedish song . Dogs barking and young men shouting political words on the local street. It was the time of what come to be called the trouble up in northern ireland: Sinn Fein and IRA and protestantical groups where active even in Dublin
I was told by a tradesman back in ,2005 during the so called Celtic tiger, thar ordinary Irish people in pearse street were living in very basic conditions. While the gimmegrants were demanding more and more
He sounds like as big a prick as you.
My great grandad fled county Mayo after being accused of killing the landowners dog - caught a boat over to Scotland and settled in Fife
The Irish are a beautiful race of people
From a north mayo family on both sides and my aunt is from Ballycroy
Really hope it turned out okay for them all
Place probably has a spatter of 3000 sqfoot pads with electric gates now
I’ve moved over to Castlebar Mayo last October from Manchester as my wife wanted to move home.I’m of Irish decent my dad was from Meath and left Ireland at 15.Love Ireland but by christ would love to be back in Manchester more work and opportunities than Ireland and the west of Ireland in particular
I had a similar experience in Galway city in the 1970's jobwise. I was very lucky to get a job in a local factory at relatively good pay and conditions. I had to move East to Dublin when that job closed in 1994. Now Galway city is a jobs magnet with plenty of high skilled jobs available but a very high level of education required to make that vital first entry into a good job. The big drawback with the West is the almost constant rain, I do not miss that.
It's a shame in a way that you couldn't have made the move back in the 2000s, Castlebar was buzzing back then, there was a lot of growth and opportunities around. Unfortunately, the recession back in 2008/9 coincided with the death of one of the major investors in the town, and the going into administration of a few of the others, so it has never really recovered. Hence there being no nightclub in the town now. Of course, it would help if the local youngsters didn't spend their money in Westport every weekend.
I grew up there, and it was a great place to spend one's childhood/teenage years- very little crime, everyone knew each other, lots of fresh air around, massive games of football involving young and old!
At least the housing is cheap, I suppose. Can't say that of Dublin, the commuter belt or the other Irish cities now.
Was in Manchester many times to watch football, always liked the place.
Run off back to Manchester and stop whining and putting the Irish down.
Nearby is Achill island, also in County Mayo. There a modern video here ua-cam.com/video/20UmUtyYfZg/v-deo.html Some people still line the old way, but there are also modern homes in the villages. On the island is a supermarket, and there are a few shops in a few of the villages.
You can rent a holiday home, or stay in the hotel.
You can hire a car and see a lot, or a bicycle.
It's a wonderful place to visit.
The people are friendly, the pubs are a bit of craic in the holiday seasons.
I spent a summer on Achill Island in the 90s and it felt like the ends of the earth
@@silliaek what did you do there? Would you go back, have you been back?
Can you relate to it in these videos?
Very attractive family, people had good looks then, not so much now.
There aren’t many areas of Ireland left now that are white like these pictures. Replacement of the native population well under way.
The little girl has a proper mother and father, a family, a home, and a culture. I find the lifestyle of modern Western children far more pitiable, even if they have all the junkfood and electronic devices that they could possibly want and then some.
Fine handsome Western European people, self reliant and stoic
Walking half a mile in normal weather is no problem..
My family comes from NW Mayo. Left during famine and it apparently didn’t get much better a hundred and twenty years later!
Mine are still there and it is better
@@kazzi7887 good!
It is definitely better than it was in 1840. We are not being starved to death for a start! 🙄
Apologies, I meant no disrespect
How dare you all my family are university education and everyone has got computers and internet and my 95 year old mum can tex on her mobile.Shit like you want to keek us inferior and in the gutter.I find your comment disgusting.
Curious -1975 ,no electric light .I was not aware of that.parts of Kerry yes
Children walking miles to school a hundred years ago is all very well when there is a big clan of them going not one on her own
I know those people from furnace... Amazed to see them way back them.. kilroys.. without shcool ect.. id tell yu they have more uncommon sense than most the city slickers and happyer too.. dont mind the lights of the night.. go to bed.. read the paul chapter of blow out the lamp.
What a handsome fella he is!!!
Both are beautiful. That family look like angels. Their complexions are heavenly
Hi what screen recorder are you using pls thanks because its very good quality
This is what Green Ryan has in store for you....
The first shot in this video isn't Mayo. Its Lough Tay, in Co. Wicklow.
love it
At 3.00 he said his child would have to walk half a mile to the main road to meet the school bus. Sure children living in towns all over Ireland have to do likewise.
Aye but because there wasnt enough pupils the bus wouldnt stop there
At least then Mayo wasn't crammed with holiday homes for rich Dubs and 'Wild Atlantic Way' signs.
People were happier than now ???
What do you think @CR's??
And the "bungalow blight," in Achill. Holiday homes, rarely occupied! Blight on tje landscape.
I hope things are better now for the African Ukranians living in the area.
Brian Lacken is actually a mayo native
is that inter mitten farming going on still...
County Mayo, God help us!
Almost positive the first shot here is of Lough Tay in the Wicklow Mountains.
that boy will be my age now if still alive i am from liverpool my junior school was opposite my house i am lucky
Cool
Yeah with no grid you don’t have a shit load of bills, not a slave to money.
Still have to eat though, pay for fuel for a vehicle, buy clothes/other necessities. The man in the video was talking about having to hold on to his job like...
@@RobinKoenig1917 yeah, they used to fish and farm/ ride a horse, bike, walk, or take horse and cart. Still had to work to live but less middle men taking their shekels.
@@21stcenturymuse27 you ever Work substance agriculture? You think that was a fun time? When a bad harvest ment starvation? Back giving out at the age of 50? Plough feild for 12 hours a day and see how wonderful it is you fucking moron
It isn't bleak,and it certainly isn't barren.People don't know how to use their eyes or ears.
It's official: life in Ireland is too cheerful. Now please excuse me while I climb on my horse, tilt my hat and ride off into the sunset.
Home education (Éiducáisiún Baile) would have been an alternative option for these more remote communities.
how ? everybody works tbe land my mammy wouldn't of had the time
Parents more than likely did not Finish primary. ..Dad out all day mom has other kids and work on the land..They had no electricity,no fridge, washing machine, TV, etc. So don't think that would have worked so how or other.
Poor Mayo
Bad interviewer.
Him: Mary do mind not going to school?
Mary: Yes
Him: So you don’t care.
English is almost definitely the second language of that father.
Very definitely. Irish would come much easier.
Did you ever listen to U.K. accents? Many of them have trouble speaking their native language at least the Irish have an excuse that it wasn’t our native language.
I doubt it. He has a strong accent that's all. Only small pockets of south west Mayo and the islands (Gaeltacht areas) had Irish as their first language. Back then it wouldn't have been much different.
North Mayo despite being more rural was more anglicized due to a stronger British presence (Foxford etc)
There’s a small Gaeltacht in NW Mayo, An Eachcléim.
@@TheLastAngryMan01 - There's also a Gaeltacht in Carrowteige and surrounding villages.
That's a handsome man at 3.20. Brando-esque even
Was that you 😂
@@Drumm3rB0y If it is I'm over 90 and commenting on UA-cam videos 😂
He's gorgeous!
If the Irish Government could subsidise water tanks for rainwater, solar panels and batteries, and composting toilets it would be a big help to rural people. Perhaps there could be roving school teachers who supervise a correspondence school program. If this was too expensive then a mini van to transport children twice a day would be useful.
Why is there no picture in the video?
Back in the 70's, Mayo TV companies were often so poor they often couldn't afford to use film.
That's quite an idyllic life that family had, they wouldn't have known it though
That was 30 years ago I can't believe it camping on Achill island 😳 I offer wonder what happened to the beautiful young ladies we met ❤ I hope they all found happiness and security they were lovely and kind ❤ we didn't have mobile phones or social media back then but they did come and see the band I was playing in but we all lost touch,
47 years ago.
No maybe 35
@@jamesfagan7823 2022 minus 1975 equals 47.
The birds stopped singing the dogs stopped barking the people stopped talking the lough calm and still
Nay worries. The plethora of Dublin sponsored 'new arrivals' that you're having to accommodate will never put up with the basic lifestyles and struggles that your forefathers had to endure. Are you seeing it yet?
Tbh I want to go back to Ireland and help some of these people out
That video was 50 years ago, those people have probably passed on by now.
The lady at the beginning of the video looked like the last Taoiseach
I mean…this is exactly the same accent as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Maybe just a bit stronger.
Loads of irish settled there years ago. I follow a guy called justin barbour (adventurer/camping stuff) from newfie i think, and he sounds more irish than canadian
@@kierandoherty1600 my friend from back home who’s last name was hanrahan; apparently the name means chicken thief lol! His ancestor’s s punishment was to be sentenced to be placed in a Nova Scotian colony by the English.
It’s just the other side of the pond, you actually fly over it to Dublin or London. And it has very similar issues, economic dislocation, youth emigration, a lack of industry locally etc.
Where would you get the like of it happy days No covid or rising prices not much in the pocket but we were happy
Now people are leaving the rat race and retuning to rural Ireland.
The lake at the start, that's Kattagat from the Vikings, right?
That’s what I thought. That lake in Wicklow...
Mayo - God help us.
The state of the wheels on the bus,how the hell did it pass the MOT?
@MultiSamson1 Cos the bus driver ran the local garage and MOT testing station. (2 May 2024)
Much different to the USA in the 70s lol.
So there were tree schools and now there is only one tree school.
Where is mick dunne the famous commentator.
That two miles to the pick up point is probably littered with bungalows now. But could she not have attended school remotely and logged into a Zoom class? Mayo had Wi-Fi as early as 1973.
🤣. I recall an American penpal of mine in the early '90s writing to me about his VCR. "We have VCRs here in America. It's like having the movies at home." I realised he was under the impression we were still going about with horse n cart here😁.
I lived in Ireland at that time, in Cork city, a generally advanced part of the country. We didn/t even have a phone; None of my friends families had phones. Where exactly was the WiFi you're referencing?
@@seancourtney9021 🤣 Sean, I believe he's being humorous/ sarcastic
@@seancourtney9021 Wi-fi in 1973? Get real.
Donegal actually had 5G as early as the 1960s but the locals protested against it after a while..too handy for things like online poker i believe it was putting local pool halls etc out of business among other things.. Looking back you know i think we should have given it more of a chance, ach well.
Ar'a sure we're spoiled.
it still absolutely boggles my mind just how poor the country was before the celtic tiger. Granted I was born in 2003 so my earliest memories are the 08 crash and the half decade of recession that followed it but still
We were used to doing without things so it wasn't that bad plus life was much simpler.
@@Scotia6261 I didn't say it was bad, I said it boggles my mind how poor people were. There's a difference
Went to Ireland for the first time in 1981 and the last time in 2014. Unimaginable how the country changed during that time and to be honest, not for the best. Especially the west coast between Galway and Clifden got completely destroyed in the 90s. I really love you irish people, but you defiled your once beautiful country.
Sophia. Even worse now! Mass immigration of the worst kind. Ireland is a woke dictatorship now. Expensive and poor service. I am Irish btw
Keenagh is still fairly bleak
Why can’t they just pick up students not matter how few there are?
Could be 1875!
"Could be 1875!" Yes. The cars, buses and cameras could have come straight out of the 1870's.
We grew up in North Armagh in a poverty hell hole. Ireland 🇮🇪 no more for me.
"We grew up in North Armagh in a poverty hell hole. Ireland 🇮🇪 no more for me." Er, isn't North Armagh in the United Kingdom?
@@Earhairy Are you Irish?
@@Keviin1977 I'm English.