The Mangan ancestral home is reached by a meandering bohereen, over a river, and then uphill. William Mangan (86) and Kathleen Mangan (74) of Tooracladane, Mastergeehy, were indeed the final link in this collection of recordings, in that William provided an overall view of how life was lived by the hill-farmer down through the centuries in the area, encapsulating the traditions, the customs, the beliefs and the unity of the local community. This was quite evident in the story that I recorded about an event which took place in the valley in 1928, when the sheriff from Cahirsiveen visited a local farmer to take his herd of cattle from him for not paying his rent to the Irish Land Commission. The people from the valley all came out in his support. I drove from the Mangan’s farm which has been farmed by the family for six generations, knowing that the recordings made from the area would be a valuable resource for Irish folk history.
Keywords:hill farming, Irish Land Commission, confiscation, valley, community, isolated, customs, beliefs, traditions
