CHRIS GRACE AND BID FLANAGAN, DROMINEER

While collecting oral history on the shores of Lough Derg, I met two great characters from the village of Dromineer. The interview took place in Chris Grace’s house, which overlooks Lough Derg. Chris married in 1949 into the family who owned the popular local pub “The Whiskey Still”. She had 11 children, 9 of whom survived, and she recalled many hard times. Good stories about the pub business were related, and Bid Flanagan joined the conversation by telling me that her mother’s name was Hogan, and that she was born in and brought up in a local thatched cottage. The recording continued with stories about the travelling people, and the visitors who would return every year for the dapping season.