Sinead Kennedy, Eugene Daly and other well-known Cork faces share their Halloween memories

Mon, 24 Oct, 2022 - 15:21

Helen O’Callaghan

EIBHLÍS CARCIONE

Poet, teacher and children’s author Eibhlís Carcione once dressed up as a silver-haired witch in a black cloak and a bat necklace.

“Halloween was a spooky time of year. Any sound in the dark was enough to set us off. We believed the veil between the fairy and human worlds was at its thinnest at this time. We loved to tell ghost stories in the dark.

“My grandmother told a story about a family who built a house on a path to a fairy fort. She described how the fairies threw stones and rocks in the windows until the family left. On our walks she’d show me the deserted house. That story stayed with me.

“I like barmbrack on dark October evenings. I think trick-or-treating is wonderful. I’d have loved it as a child. I love seeing kids going to school dressed up for Halloween. I was in Florida one Halloween. It was such fun – houses decorated as haunted houses with Jack o’Lanterns and ghosts.

“I see more of this in Ireland now. It’s a great trend. But it’s been in our roots for thousands of years since the pagan festival of Samhain. Irish culture is full of superstition and lore.

“This year, we’ll be having Halloween food – roast pumpkin and spiced chickpea. We’ll watch a favourite horror movie: American Werewolf in London. I also like Interview with the Vampire, Beetlejuice, The Wolfman (1941).

“We’ll read ghost stories by the fire. A favourite is Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I love the creepiness of it. Also, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and any novels/stories of Daphne Du Maurier’s.

“There’s a thrill about being scared. Everyday life can be mundane, so we like creepy stories and mystery – it brings us out of the ordinary, into the unknown.”

Eibhlís Carcione’s children’s novel, Welcome to Deadtown Raven McKay, will be published by Everything With Words in 2023.

EUGENE DALY

“I remember the barmbrack, bought in Field’s in Skibbereen. Finding the ring was exciting – it meant you’d get married young. Aside from the pea and rag, which forecasted poverty, there was a bean for riches and a stick that meant your partner would beat you! There was also a button and thimble, which meant you’d be a bachelor or spinster.

“At home we played snap apple: an apple swinging from a cord on the ceiling and – hands behind your back – you had to put your mouth around it and take a bite. You rarely did! You might with a tiny apple, but that was cheating.

“I vaguely remember once at Halloween – the custom was probably dying out by then – the bigger boys going around the countryside, blowing horns or whistles, knocking on doors and running away, especially if the home-owner was considered cranky. They’d take a wheel off a horse cart or block a chimney – slight annoyances. We’re talking about an era when there wasn’t electricity.

“This year, my wife and I will visit our grandchildren in Skibbereen. Leap has a scarecrow festival with all sorts of ghosts, hobgoblins, púca and fairies. From East to West, a half-mile through the village, there’s plenty space for all sorts of constructions. You walk up and down, admiring them or being intrigued by them.

“The ancient Celts considered from November 1 to May 1 as the dark time of the year. Samhain was when the veil dividing the visible and invisible worlds disappeared – you were likely to meet spirits at this time. Back in history, these spirits were believed to be the Tuatha Dé Danann, children of the Goddess Danu, defeated by the Celts and sent to the underworld, below the earth to the caves.”

SINEAD KENNEDY

RTÉ star Sinead Kennedy says Halloween costumes “weren’t anything fancy” for a child growing up in 1980s Ireland.

“Costumes were never a thing then. Not like now where you’re very clearly a witch or Wonder Woman. Back then, it was always going to be whatever mask and a black bag. The mask was really sharp plastic that’d cut the face off you and you’d be sweating in it – condensation running down your face.

“I lived in a really big housing estate and it was all about the sweets, running around in the dark with your friends, all the kids around the same age. It was a really buzzy night. I was always disappointed when I got monkey nuts instead of chocolate.

“One year, in my early 20s, a friend had a house party and everybody dressed up. I’m sure I got something from my sister’s wardrobe and went as a Chiquita banana with a bunch of bananas on my head. It was neither really ridiculous nor really sexy but we had a great night.

“This year, I think my little girl, Indie, at 18 months is a bit young for trick-or-treating. I don’t want to scare the life out of her! My sister’s obsessed with Halloween and she’ll be disgusted if I don’t dress her up, but it’s not my thing to dress her like a pumpkin in a Babygro. I’m looking forward to when she knows what it’s all about and I can bring her trick-or-treating.

“When we were younger, Halloween was the sweets and the excitement of the night ahead, telling ghost stories, not being able to sleep because you believed the other world made its way into this one. Ghost stories get me because I do believe in something, I believe that energy goes somewhere.”

JOHN SPILLANE

Songwriter John Spillane grew up in the Cork suburb of Wilton and says the Halloween barmbrack was a big deal when he was a child.

“There was also a game of catching apples with our mouth. That never caught on in our house. We never really excelled at it.

“We got plastic masks from the shop, with elastic that went around your head. Or we put shoe polish on our face. We put on the masks and went around collecting sweets. We didn’t call it trick-or-treating or say any rhymes. People were expecting you, and you got sweets and chocolate – there were a lot of nuts around.

“In one-channel-land, we’d watch a scary movie on TV, something like Dracula.

“Halloween back then was just one day, before it became a huge commercialised industry. Another thing – there were Masses and Church for All Saints Day on November 1.

“Where I live now, there aren’t a lot of kids so we don’t get too many visitors, though we have stuff in just in case somebody calls.

“A story I like around Halloween is The Adventures Of Nera. It’s an old Irish story that turns into a big adventure, a kind of older version of Halloween. It’s quite a brilliant story that I only discovered in later years.”