Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
"We Were Happy With What We Had" - Sean Kane, Killenagh, Gorey, Co. Wexford
I called to see this man at 3.30pm today in Killenagh, Gorey, Co. Wexford. His name is Sean Kane and is 88 years old and emigrated to England in 1961 and is only home now for a few weeks.
As you can hear, he never lost his Irish accent and his daughter Mary, asked me to come out and record him as he grew up in the same area where I was born. I’ll be honest, I get at least 4 - 5 messages like this every day to record so and so, however I just can’t get the time. I wish I had the time but when you are self-employed you have to keep the ship afloat and I was in Clonmel in Tipperary this morning working before I called to see Sean.
Anyway - this is not about me - this is about Sean. I made the effort to meet and record him as he was local to where I grew up and its really important for me to collect these stories, as they involved my neighbours and things that were done before me.
I don’t have time now to do a detailed List of Contents with timings so I’ll share the solid 62 minute chat. There is personal stuff here about his poor mother dying young and then his father drowning in Courtown and how himself and the brother sold up and emigated to England in the early 1960s like many local lads like him.
Here he lived (and still does) however I find men like him have the best memories of life before they left, as the area becomes frozen in time. I saw the same with my own uncle and aunts and they remembered the neighbours and old houses and old practices, often much more than the locals that lived there all their life.
Some of the things that cropped up in the chat were how himself and his brother came across an American plane that crashed in Killenagh during WW2 to accounts of the local May Bush dances and also 'bottle blowers' at weddings. He also remembers older local musicians and singers and local men who lived and farmed the area. He recalls the old thatched houses and how some neighbours would keep a setting hen in the dresser while also talked about how his poor mother reared turkeys, geese and hens and used the money to pay the rates and keep the house afloat.
He talks about when he first went to England and at the start talks about how they discovered how his father had drowned. There is so much here, some pure local content for people around Ballygarrett, Killenagh and Ballycanew and then more just recollections that anyone would find of interest.
Listen away and thanks Sean for the chat.
Text: Michael Fortune
"We Were Happy With What We Had" - Sean Kane, Killenagh, Gorey, Co. Wexford
I called to see this man at 3.30pm today in Killenagh, Gorey, Co. Wexford. His name is Sean Kane and is 88 years old and emigrated to England in 1961 and is only home now for a few weeks.
As you can hear, he never lost his Irish accent and his daughter Mary, asked me to come out and record him as he grew up in the same area where I was born. I’ll be honest, I get at least 4 - 5 messages like this every day to record so and so, however I just can’t get the time. I wish I had the time but when you are self-employed you have to keep the ship afloat and I was in Clonmel in Tipperary this morning working before I called to see Sean.
Anyway - this is not about me - this is about Sean. I made the effort to meet and record him as he was local to where I grew up and its really important for me to collect these stories, as they involved my neighbours and things that were done before me.
I don’t have time now to do a detailed List of Contents with timings so I’ll share the solid 62 minute chat. There is personal stuff here about his poor mother dying young and then his father drowning in Courtown and how himself and the brother sold up and emigated to England in the early 1960s like many local lads like him.
Here he lived (and still does) however I find men like him have the best memories of life before they left, as the area becomes frozen in time. I saw the same with my own uncle and aunts and they remembered the neighbours and old houses and old practices, often much more than the locals that lived there all their life.
Some of the things that cropped up in the chat were how himself and his brother came across an American plane that crashed in Killenagh during WW2 to accounts of the local May Bush dances and also 'bottle blowers' at weddings. He also remembers older local musicians and singers and local men who lived and farmed the area. He recalls the old thatched houses and how some neighbours would keep a setting hen in the dresser while also talked about how his poor mother reared turkeys, geese and hens and used the money to pay the rates and keep the house afloat.
He talks about when he first went to England and at the start talks about how they discovered how his father had drowned. There is so much here, some pure local content for people around Ballygarrett, Killenagh and Ballycanew and then more just recollections that anyone would find of interest.
Listen away and thanks Sean for the chat.
Text: Michael Fortune
