An Interview with TV Malone

TV was kind enough to take on the challenge of completing one of our interviews that we shared with people a few years ago. We have a number of them that we can’t wait to share.

Name: Terence V Malone 

Age: 91 going on 92 (when interview was taken)

Address: Burrane

What have you been told about your earliest exploits and personality?

I was a devil

What can you tell us about the rooms, furniture, crib/cot, wallpaper or other decorations in your childhood home? 

I was reared in Williams fort house in Burrane. It was a house with five rooms, downstairs a kitchen and a sitting room and three rooms upstairs. We, the boys, were in the small room. My father and mother lived there along with my older sister Mary, and my younger sisters, Nuala, Bernie and Breda and my younger brothers Seamus, John and Michael. I have another brother Gerard but he was born when we lived in Ballyerra and I don’t remember him ever living in Burrane. The kitchen had a big table and we had a few súgan chairs and a dresser. The sitting room was across the hall but we weren’t let in there. It had a great big table in it, I remember the custard for Sunday was left in there. I slept in a cot and it was used as a playpen too. 

What is your earliest memory? 

Willie O’Donnell sent me a pair of about size 8 football boots from England. Willie OiDonnell worked with my father. I thought I’d never grow up fast enough to get into them. 

Who baby-sat you? Looked after you as a child? 

Aunty Cissy and Bridie O’Dea. Aunty Cissy was my mothers sister, Cissy Maloney later in life. She lived with us for a while. Then Mams niece, Bridie O’Dea came to help Mam. She worked hard when she lived with us. I was reared in Aunty Margo’s for a few months. I don’t know why. That’s Margo Meehan, and Uncle James. I presume there was a birth due but I don’t know why.

What was your favourite food? What would typical week of dinners be?  

My favourite food was the top of an egg. Typical dinners were bacon and cabbage, white bread, cake bread on the griddle and currant bread, spotted dick. I remember killing and salting the pig in the hall in Burrane. It was a big deal. 

What were your favourite sweets/ treats/ drinks? 

Jelly and custard. It was made a few days beforehand and stored in the parlour. We couldn’t touch it. That was hard. We were never hungry, even during the war. We grew our own food. 

What songs, dances or rhymes do you recall? What was your favourite song?

My sister Nuala was a beautiful singer, she knew every song. She’d only hear it once. I remember her singing a song in Knockerra one time. The Killimer junior football team had won the county final and a song was written to honour the victory. Nuala was picked to be the singer to sing it on stage that night. It was a great honour. I remember in recent years at my daughters house she sang it again. Marie’s father in law was Amby’Connell. Amby was the youngest player on that victorious team. Amby had vivid recollections of Nuala singing the song at the victory celebrations. One summer Nuala was in Clare and we visited Marie. Amby asked Nuala if she could sing the song. Between the three of us, Nuala, Amby and I we remembered a lot of the words. Both times she sang it have lovely memories.

Do you remember your first days in school and where? Who were your pals? Have you any school memories that stand out? Primary v Secondary? 

I went to Killimer school first. I ran out of school on the first day, Mrs. Sheehan was very cross. She put me kneeling by the wall because I didn’t know my lessons. She caught up with me at the church. I remember Paddy O’Dea and James Lucas in Killimer school but they were older than me. We lived in Carrowotia that time. In Burrane school the teachers were Mrs. Culligan and Mr. Twomey. I remember Bella Houlihan from Knock, Maureen Torpey, they were the girls. John Sullivan from Burrane, he was very brainy, Paddy Morgan, Charlie Wolfe, Killeen’s and Pakie and Oliver Lynch from Knock, Brendan Twomey was a bit older than me and Michael Culligan was a bit younger. I went to the tech too. Mr Philips taught carpentry and Mr Cotter taught engineering. I remember playing in the furze in Burrane school with Murt Cunningham. 

What were you afraid of as a child? 

The only time I was afraid was once when I got pneumonia. I was 4 or 5. I was very sick. My father saved my life, his army background. He knew how to save me. He brought me to bed and stayed in the bed with me, the sweat pouring out of me and I burning up. He stayed with me till I got better. I was really frightened.

Did you work in the garden/ bog/ meadow/ kitchen? 

I remember being sent to the bog with a horse and car. I told my father I didn’t know where the bog was. He told me the horse knows where the bog is, and he did! The bog is somewhere past Matt Sheas in Tullycrine. I did a lot of hire work. I went to Bareeld doing hire work , cutting corn with the combine harvester. It was the time of compulsory tillage in the forties. My brother Michael used to come with me. Tom O’Dea, My first cousin, Bridie Collins brother did the threshing. I was living in Ballyerra at this time. I remember tilling plots for the people in the town. It was in the eld at the Kilkee Cross, everyone in the town had a plot. It was during the war.  I remember ailing corn in the house in Burrane, the corn and the chaff separated. The corn was sent to be milled into our at Blunnies or Glynns in Kilrush.  I remember the house was really clean. My mother was a great housekeeper and she kept everything really clean, sweeping the flagged floor in the kitchen was a big job. 

What fashion or style did you like to have?

There was a tailors in Kilkee called O’Connors where you got a good outfit. Nellie Daly was the dressmaker. She lived over the road.

Did you have a bike? Did you travel in a pony and trap? Who taught you to how to drive? When did you get a family car? 

We had a tricycle in Burrane. I had a bike. My first cycle was along the shore at Moyne. My father and John Thomas Culligan were there. I was shouting hold me. It was my fathers bike. We had a pony and trap too. It was for going to town or going to mass. I often took the trap off the pony when my father came back from town.  He was always on the road. He would do the shapping and all. We went down Charlys road when we came home. Grandad had a car very early. The car was left at Grandma Meehans. We didn’t drive it down to the house. I’m able to drive all my life. 

Describe your first real job? When did you leave your parental home?

I was always a farmer. I left home when I got married. 

How/ Where did you go about meeting friends?

We met at Devines cross. I lived in Ballyerra at this time. We would play pitching and tossing, football.

Who were your father and mother? Do you remember your maternal /paternal grandparents? What do you most remember about them? What traits/words of your parents do you appreciate most? 

John Malone from Labasheeda and Agnes Meehan from Burrane.  Jimmy Malone and Catherine Malone (nee Callinan) were my fathers parents. I remember them both. I remember visiting them which involved rowing across Clonderlaw Bay. My father and I did this a couple of times a year. John Meehan and Mary Meehan were my Mothers parents. I remember my Grandfather living in the thatched house in what is now Terry Donnellans farmyard. Remember very old man who had finches in cages under the thatched roof. He loved birds. He died in 1932 when I was 3 so my memories are vague.  Grandma lived to 99 years. She died in 1966. I have memories of her dressed in black sitting in the corner, a shawl over her head. I remember the day I heard she had died, I remember Mary Agnes coming to meet me at the gate of the farm to tell me the news. She was lovely. 

Did you have a pet? Have you stories of them?

We always had cats and dogs.

What was your favourite holiday as a child/ an adult? 

Sure you know I have travelled all over the world. They were all my favourites. We went on a cruise in America and we stayed in the Hilton Hotel. We went to Italy a couple of times and we went to France with the choir. I loved them all. 

What memories have you of Christmas/ Easter/ lent/ Halloween/ communion/confirmation? 

We always had a great Christmas in Burrane. All the toys would be under a big chair in the sitting room before Christmas so we had a sneak peak before Christmas morning. Santa came to the house with a sack. We loved it. I remember getting a wind up toy that I loved. Santa was always really good. I remember going on the Wren on Stephens day, with Willie Corry and Paddy Chambers. We’d go around all the neighbours singing for a few shillings. Everyone gave something.

Did you choose to marry? How did you meet? Where did you marry and what are your memories of that day? Did you have a honeymoon? 

Kathleen Jones from Arklow Co Wicklow. I met her in my sister Nuala’s house, in Dublin. Nuala had arranged for me to come to Dublin to meet Kathleen as she thought wed be a good match. I didn’t know about it. I liked her straight away. She agreed to go to the cinema with me. The rest is history. We married in Dublin, The church in Berkley Rd, Phibsborogh, on 31 July 1963. We went on honeymoon to Edinburgh in Scotland. 

Who were the neighbours you had?

Mary Agnes, JJ, Pat Madigan, Bob Nugent, Charly Wolfe, Eddie Browne, The Fitzpatricks and the McInerneys/ Coughlans.

Did you travel abroad for work? 

No, only all around West Clare. Cutting corn with a reaper and binder and later a combine harvester.

Did you have a hobby? Play sport? Did you play music? 

I loved boxing. I was in the boxing club in Kilrush. I loved to play football with my friends. I loved rowing from the fishing. Michael Meehan, John Thomas Meehan and I won a race in Cappa once. I loved darts too.

Did you ever witness a miracle? Hear a banshee? See a ghost? 

No but I loved playing tricks. One day Ned Chandler and I played a trick on some girls late one evening. I jumped up on Neds shoulders and draped a big coat over the two of us. The girls thought it was some sort of giant.

How do you feel about getting older? What was the best year of your life? What can you be happy about right now? 

Terrible, I’m stiff with rheumatism. The best year of my life was the year I got married. That I’m still alive and able to tend my garden and the animals.