The Great Outdoors 26dec2024

The program is sponsored by Forum Connemara's Social Inclusion Programme, SCICAP. It's a slightly different program tonight because they can't contact their normal guests. They'll be playing music and chatting with Maurice, who is in the studio. St. Stephen's Day is known as Laus Diffan and Laus Andronine, and is associated with the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. The Western Christian church celebrates on December 26th, while the Eastern Christian church celebrates on December 27th. The tradition of the Wren, where people go around collecting money, is mentioned. The Wren is referred to as the king of birds and has a legend associated with it. The Wren is also connected to St. Stephen and is said to have revealed where he was hiding. The tradition of the Wren has fallen out of fashion, but some groups of musicians still go out and perform in the evening. The Chieftains' song "The Wren This program is sponsored by Forum Connemara's Social Inclusion Programme, SCICAP, which supports individuals, community groups and social enterprises across Connemara. Contact us today to see how we can help you on 095 4116 or see forumconnemara.ie. Fáilte Róbh go léir agatí, The Great Outdoors and Sean Retty of Forum Connemara. Es bísseach beannachtas agus go raibh maith agatí deair an chláir. Agus go raibh maith agatí an siadh domic, an an chláir ian teochair fáilte. You're very welcome to The Great Outdoors here this evening on St Stephen's Day, 26th of December. I hope you all had a really good Christmas and that everything was very happy and peaceful with you. It's a slightly different program tonight because we don't obviously be able to get in contact with all of our normal people. They're all on holiday so we won't be talking to them but I'm going to be playing lots of different bits of music and there's a chat with my brother Maurice who's here with us in the studio. We'll be talking to him in a couple of minutes' time. But of course today St Stephen's Day, a big day for people throughout the world in different ways and it's known of course as Laus Diffan and also Laus Andronine and so very much associated with the saint, St Stephen who was the first Christian martyr. Now he was stoned to death in Jerusalem in 36 AD and interestingly enough with the two different parts of the Christian church the Western Christian church celebrates on the 26th of December but in the Eastern Christian church they celebrate on the 27th of December. I think it's something to do with the Julian calendar and all of that kind of stuff that changed things around. But it's very much associated with a lot of the middle part of Europe, very much Eastern Europe and all of that area has a lot of connection to St Stephen. He seems to be a fairly major person there. But interestingly enough, as well as in Ireland with our kind of traditions to do with this and it also happens in the Isle of Man and Wales etc. There's very much of course the English aspect which is Boxing Day, more about that later on. But it is a very interesting and important part of our traditions and we will be talking a bit about that in a little while. But we're going to start off with a little piece here. We're going to go to the Chieftains from their album The Bells of Dublin. We're going to listen to a track here which is called The Wren. Well it's Christmas time that's why we're here Please be good enough to give us an ear For we'll sing and we'll dance if you'll give us a chance And we won't be coming back for another whole year Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum We'll take Harry Potter, they're a real hot stuff We'll play the Maidens' Chaperone and the Pink Joke John Moroney's gig and the Tony Garreal Music may put a spring in your heel Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum If there's a drink in the house would it make itself known Before I sing a song called the Thanks of the Loan A drink with lube and vacation in it for me For a dry throat and I sing like a linnet Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Oh please give us something for the little bird's wake A big lump of wooden or some Christmas cake A sip full of juice and a hot cup of tea And then we'll all be going on our way Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Oh the Wren, oh the Wren, he's the king of all birds And since even today he's got claws in the fur So it's up with the cattle and it's down with the fan Won't you give us a penny for to bury the rant Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Hump lump diddly dum Well the Chiefs was there with that great track The Wren and of course it's very much as I say tradition for people to do as they were saying there going round with The Wren and I'm delighted to welcome Maurice O'Skell My brother to the program, how are you Maurice, how are you? Fine, thank you Ben Well fed after being fed your turkey and ham yesterday There won't be nothing left for The Wren at this stage I suppose that whole tradition of The Wren it's very much, well still some people do it but it's a little bit gone out of date now or out of fashion Do you remember much about us growing up? No, I think I remember once seeing a Wren being caught and put in a jam jar or something, a large jam jar but that would have been when I was three or four which is not yet today or yesterday and I can only remember it once. I remember the Wren boys used to go around collecting, trying to collect money as the song said to bury the Wren, I don't know what they called it, the Wren, I suppose anyway, but as I say I live in Malta now and it's nearly all English people and everything, Boxing Day, Boxing Day, Boxing Day they don't even know us call it the same, even say some of them. In fact there was a quiz the other night and it was the other word for Boxing Day and only about three or four of the players got it correct, they didn't know. So it's a particular tradition for us here I think, it's always called St Stephen's Day here or The Wren Day but more St Stephen's Day now I imagine. I know of course that people, I remember a few years ago I see people come into the studio all dressed up and playing music and singing and all of that, but you were supposed to be doing something rather than just collecting money. Yeah, but wasn't that a tradition of the Mummers down in Wexford and that, was it on this time of the day? Yeah, the Mummers, they have a lot of different Mummers and they're beginning to come back in Forster, Wexford and all that area, but also Kerry and different areas have it and I suppose it would have been here as well but it maybe has fallen out of fashion here but I know more and more people are starting to get back into doing that idea without the Wren obviously. Definitely non-politically correct not to be involved because there are very few Wrens around. You used to see them all over the place, we had nests in the garden as you remember, even the Goldcrested Wren, but I think there are very few of them left now. Yeah, I see the Wren from time to time there in the garden, it's good to see it. It's interesting that you go from this enormous turkey to this tiny tiny bird within one vale of another and that's it. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff on Drolyne but it's traditional and I suppose like a lot of these kind of country traditions like fox hunting and badger baiting and hunting in general is kind of frowned upon now by the conservationists and things, so no I wouldn't be for bringing back four little Wrens, how the hell you capture them I don't know because they're so tiny and it's hard enough to, you couldn't net them or find them they wouldn't be in their nest this time of year or anything. Yeah, I suppose there's two things, I mean the Wren of course has the thing of being as they mention they're the king of the birds because there's the old legend of him climbing up onto the back of the eagle and see who could fly the highest and the eagle said I'm the highest and the Wren just took off for a few inches above it and said no I'm the king and that's why the Wren, the tiny little bird is the king of the birds which is interesting I suppose in a lot of ways but they're beautiful little brown fellows with the tail as you say almost moving, that's the way you'd recognise them from that. Well they're tiny for a start, their hair plays more of it and their tails are always sticking up at the back and they're busy little fellas flipping around. Yeah, absolutely and then I think the other thing they mentioned there as well the Wren was caught in the forest and that's the tradition that the Wren, not celebrated, the Wren was actually probably persecuted it's supposed to have revealed where St Stephen was hiding and he was hiding in the forest, well apparently the forest over there in Jerusalem but whatever for the bushes he was hiding in and the Wren kind of screeched out when he was hiding and the soldiers found him there. I didn't realise there was that connection. Yeah, so that's why they have to stuck in the forest and that kind of thing, so it's that idea and I think that's where probably that tradition came from of killing the poor fella because he gave him away. Yeah, it's always interesting I think a lot more of the groups of musicians now are beginning to get a tradition of going out and performing in the evening time and that's lovely to see that people are making, even if they're not dressing up fully or anything like that. Yeah, that was a really interesting track you played there from the Chieftains because I hadn't heard that before and it's a nice rendition I must say, I must listen to it again. Well the song itself are the pieces, a traditional song that people would sing, so it's just a different version of that I presume. But anyway, that's the Wren boys all of that would have been all going out and collecting the money on this particular one, but as I say I'm not sure there's anybody out there doing it at the moment, if anybody wants to let us know that they are out around Bannock and Eadermunstown, Teagan, wherever it might be they can get in contact with us and we'll try our best to let people know that you're out and about, but it's a good tradition. I'm sure like any traditional tradition, it's been clobbered by social media and the kids are on there instead of out hunting for wrens in bushes and trying to go round, they're all playing Xboxes and Christmas watches. Yeah, but still the traditional music has had such a revival and a lot of the little groups now will be playing, you'll find them out busking on the streets, young kids that are just out wanting to practice their music. So it's good, it's good. As I say, we're going to kind of be looking at traditions and talking about various bits of music and things, we'll be doing more of that throughout the evening as well. We're going to take our break and we will be back after that with some more music and some chat, so don't go away. John Doe, from John Doe's Fish Van, would like to wish all his customers a very happy and holy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. We would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your business throughout the year, especially the regulars. The directors and staff of Connemara West would like to thank you most sincerely for your help and support for our work this year. And we wish you a safe and peaceful Christmas and good health and happiness for the New Year. From all at the Diamond Hair Studio, we would like to thank our clients for their support this year and hope you have a happy Christmas and looking forward to seeing you in the New Year. From Rose, Caroline and Stephanie at the Diamond Hair Studio. Wishing all our members and visitors a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you all in 2025. From all the team at Connemara Corporate. Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! Don't miss out on our biggest sale ever at Clifton Station House Leisure Centre. 15% off 6 and 12 month memberships, swimming lessons and fitness classes. Let's sweat, smile and succeed this New Year in the Clifton Station House. Call 095 30433 to avail of this fantastic sale or pop into us. We are happy to help. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. Call into one of our shops today, Brodericks Electrical Castle Bar and Westport or go online at BrodericksElectrical.ie. From TVs to tablets, air fryers to hair dryers, Bluetooth speakers to robot vacuum cleaners all at the lowest prices in store at Brodericks Electrical Castle Bar and Westport. Clifton Supply Centre Galway Road, Clifton. Provide building supplies, plumbing and heating supplies, fuel merchants, DIY and general hardware. Contact the Clifton Supply Centre on 095 21476. Right, welcome back here and we're going to have a piece of music. During September, during the Arts Festival, one of the great concerts that was on in the Sports and Leisure Centre were Heritage Green a terrific group from Limerick. I've heard them a few times before they were here about maybe 6 years ago and it's like they made a big comment about saying it's been 6 years since we've heard them. I think they'd like to be back again but they were an amazing group. Very very lively, wonderful musicians, wonderful singers and also the impressive line-up of different pieces that they had. They had at one stage two didgeridoos on stage and there was a cellist playing all sorts of weird looking instruments. It was just an amazing group and they had bongos and congos and every sort of drum kits but they also had regular drum kits. But they were a really lovely group and lovely guys to talk to as well, they were extremely nice. So we are going to listen to a track from them just to remind ourselves of what they were like during the festival in September. 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sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep Go back to sleep My father was a sailor Sold my duty My father was a gambling man Down in New Orleans Now the only thing a gambler needs Is a suitcase and a truck And the only time to be satisfied Is when he's on a truck And the only time to be satisfied Is when he's on a truck And the only time to be satisfied Is when he's on a truck And the only time to be satisfied Is when he's on a truck And the only time to be satisfied Is when he's on a truck Not to do what I have done Spend your life in misery In the house of the rising sun When the world is but a platform The earth but a frame I'm down in my head in New Orleans Nowhere that my heart is ready When I'm in the house in New Orleans In the house of the rising sun In the house of the rising sun In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one 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one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one In God I know I'm one Good night my angel now it's time to dream And dream how wonderful your life will be Someday your child may cry and if you sing this lullaby Then in your heart there will always be a part of me Someday we'll all be gone, but lullabies go on and on They never die, that's how you and I will be A beautiful piece there, as I say, from Billy Joel, that particular one. Very different, but you can hear his voice extremely clearly and you can hear the wonderful piano playing. So many of those musicians, maristers, you know, people that have been there for quite a long time and they're just amazing. Their power is one of keeping going, but a lot of them, they wouldn't have to have started in the 60s, but there's a lot of groups that were in the 60s that are still kind of almost going around, I mean, you know, the Stones are still producing music. Yeah, the 80s, whatever, Mick Jagger is flashing around the stage like a two-year-old and all this kind of stuff, you know. I mean, as I said, I'm not sure why, but that was the magic time for me, and I think so much of the stuff persists now. I mean, a lot of the stuff you hear now, they're so fleeting, they're gone, you know. There were some of the stuff that survives, I imagine, into the, you know, here we're talking about Mozart, you know, and how he's persisted over 200 and whatever years, but I think, you know, people like Lennon and McCartney and some of that stuff, Billy Joel, some of his, not everything they write, but I think that some of that stuff is great endurance, you know. Yeah. I mean, the Beatles, what we were talking about, as we were talking there, I mean, they were a phenomenal group for so long. They had literally hit after hit after hit, but they did some amazing stuff that was really different as well. Really different, yeah, and I mean, they were just pioneers, that's why, you know, they were geniuses. And, you know, even, you know, the quieter one, George Harrison, the quiet Beatle, who was supposed to be, you know, not the genius of Lennon and McCartney, but he had some fantastic stuff as well. So it's just, these four guys came together at a certain time, and they had this, you know, that was it. They were great. And I think some of them will go on and on and on, you know, and they'll be like any of the classical composers that they've played in a hundred years' time, you know. Yeah. I suppose they were also a very big influence on so many other people. I mean, even up to present day, a lot of people can reference back to that particular time. Oh, they set the standards, they were the yardstick, really, you know. And, you know, then there were all the other groups which came along. And then you have some of the quieter stuff, like, again, the eagles, you know, desperado, beautiful melody, beautiful, you know, ballad stuff, you know. And, yeah, it's great that aspect, I suppose, of music that transcends so many generations and stuff like that. Now, I know, of course, as you say, you know, there you were talking about, you know, the dances and all that, but the youth club thing was very interesting, because at the time there were kind of youth clubs in almost every town and village around the area. I think they've clearly all disappeared at this stage. But that was a really lovely time, again, for young people to get involved and to be doing stuff like that. Well, for me it was, yeah, and I remember there used to be, I can remember the people at the youth club and the hops. And I can remember some of the music we used to play on the old record players up there, and I can still feel it, you know, going back to, you know, people in the youth club, and it was great. All the kids would get together and have hops and dances around, and some of the stuff would still be early Rolling Stones and all that, you know. But I know a lot of that stuff was kind of maybe more city orientated, you know, the country and western stuff still went on more or less, you know. So there was a kind of a slight clash of cultures at that time, maybe, but I know which one I like best, and I know, like, one of my very good friends, Eamon McLaughlin, who's into the country and western in a big way, Eamon, and I won't say we have an argument, but we have different ideas of what constitutes good music and that, you know. Yeah, well, of course, Eamon there featured on that little promo we did, but he does a Sunday morning here, he does a sports show from time to time as well, and, you know, he still has a great love of all sorts of music. Well, just think of another person in town who was very similar, Joe Coyne. Joe was into music all the time and singing, and he knew every song off by heart. You could hardly, if you slung two words together and it was a chord in some song somewhere, Joe would start singing it. And Joe had a great voice and a huge knowledge of music, and his brother Phil, who's, you know, now living in Donegal, and Phil had a beautiful voice as well and sang, you know, so however. Yeah. But anyway. Yeah, well, of course, Joe, we hear Joe quite regularly because he sings with the church choir, not sure that he's doing too much singing anywhere else at the moment, but he was very, always very involved in musical stuff. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, very much part of that whole scene. Yeah. Sometimes, I mean, we're talking about the kind of difference now, you don't seem to hear people singing as much, I mean, I know they listen to music and all that, but you very seldom find people just having a sing song like it would have happened in the old days. That's my impression of it anyway. Well, you know, you'll hear, they'll be singing the same stuff in pubs because, I mean, that's what people want, live music, and they'll sing, a lot of them will be the same, Rocky Road to Dublin and, you know, the usual stuff. But, yeah, and some of the stuff is kind of not, some of the stuff is more suited to sing songs than others, I would have thought, you know. Yeah. Like in the old days, it was just, well, the old Bull and Bush, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah Hello, good evening, and you're very welcome to Lyrical Allsorts on this Friday evening here on Connemara Community Radio. My name is Linda O'Malley, and we'll see you for the next hour, so I hope you get there with me. Paul Brady and the makes of Pontchartrain. And Conor Keane, that piece is called The Renvile Walls and the Dolphin Sleep. Tune in every Friday evening from 6pm to 7pm with Linda O'Malley and Lyrical Allsorts. Just wish you all a lovely evening, and have a wonderful week. Right, of course you heard Linda talking about her Lyrical Allsorts. That's tomorrow evening at 6 o'clock. But we will be back here tomorrow morning at 11 as usual with Musical Memories with Kathy Laspell, and that's always full of interesting pieces as well. Kathy is a great woman for giving us local information and playing requests for all the people that she's very familiar with. We have Maureen Haney with her music program going out in the afternoons at 4 o'clock. And then we have Michael Gannon giving us the Dock on 1. This is a fascinating piece. He's been looking over different documentaries from different places around Ireland and the world and picking different interesting topics and putting them out. It's quite interesting. That's followed, as I say, at 6 o'clock by Lyrical Allsorts with Linda O'Malley. Paul Gannon is in with Injury Time tomorrow night from 7 o'clock. And then the last part of the program is American Country with Thomas Little. And that's after your Fridays listening. And it continues on, of course, on Saturday with the Music in the Morning show with Abigail Morhan at 11 o'clock. In the afternoon, we have Mike Mack's show. And we also then have a pretty good day so far with Sean D. Halperny. And Ute Schmidt will be back with her. All sorts of things at 6 o'clock. And then at 7 o'clock, Shelter from the Storm with Dave Holleran. And that, as I say, is for that particular Saturday. So plenty to keep us going over the next two days and, of course, Sunday. And, of course, it keeps going on. And we want people to keep listening to us here on Canamara Community Radio. It's very important we keep our studio and our station going. As I keep saying to people, it's your radio station. It's a community station. And we have lots of voices from all over the world and from all over Canamara taking part, which is really important that we're all part of one community. We're going to go back to Morris just to talk a little bit. Morris, I suppose Christmas, you know, in Ireland has one thing. And you, of course, have that experience of Christmas in at least two other countries, if not more. Although that didn't have much of a Christmas to it, but Morris has a bit. Well, the expat community used to get together and all that. Christmas, beautiful weathers are held around the swimming pools. Normally, you'd be in and out of the pool, but you would have the Christmas fair. Turkeys and hams, that whole thing. But everybody's sitting around in bathing suits and that was it, you know, in and out of the pool. And Christmas in Malta, it's obviously a Christian country, like Ireland's a Catholic country. But there, you know, it's like everything is open today. It's Christmas Day as Christmas Day. Okay, everybody puts up their decorations and they're too early, as I say, usually. But anyway, their lights are all over the place. But once it's closed for Christmas Eve, it's closed mainly for Christmas Day. And the next day it's open. So there's no Stephen's Day or anything. It's just back to business again, which is great in a way. Because at one stage you were trying to, when it was running a magazine here, they were waiting for a magazine and you're trying to get people, they're trying to sell advertising. I mean, there'd be nobody in any offices from half, two weeks before Christmas to two weeks after Christmas. The whole place was shut down, you know. But in Malta, it's just, that's it. You know, big day, Christmas Day. And they'll go in, in the big way, for cribs. And people have cribs in their houses and they're called the Presepio. And people come in to visit them and they have the special characters in the cribs. Like there's one guy who's kind of looking over the roof at what's going on. And he's a kind of important character. He's in every crib. And they call him a special name. I can't bring it to mind now. But he's the kind of overseer or the overlooker. And that's, but as I say, it's not a kind of a three week, you know, cessation of activity. It's one day only and that's it. Back again. And yeah, so that's Christmas in Malta. And as I say, everybody will be back on full speed. Decorations will stay open until the 6th of January like everywhere else. But it's only one day where everybody's closed and then everything's open again and running full speed from once it's over. Yeah. I know when I was there recently I was looking at all the cribs in all the windows. Nearly everybody has, which is, you know, unfortunately not the tradition in Ireland anymore. I know one or two people do have cribs in their windows. I like that even though I won't say I'm a religious person. But I like the idea that it's supposed to be a religious festival and which has become totally commercialized, you know. And in fact, I think it was probably the last time I was here for Christmas. I was delighted to see that the post office, the old post office, had at least a silhouette crib in it. And that was the only place around town that had actually any semblance of a religious festival to it or religious bent to it. It's just commercially taken over everything now and bits and pieces of that. Yeah. It's lovely to be home and hoping to meet up with Aunty Renie and all my poor cousins who've had operations like Arla and Ronan. Half the family seems to be crippled, post-op crippled. And Darius and Donal, my brother, with his operations and his eyes and whatnot. So, yeah, it's good to see everybody. But we're all getting cropped at this stage and a little bit older, you know. Well, as I say, we will hopefully meet up with all the cousins at some stage as well and catch up with them there. But it's, you know, when you mentioned the cribs and I was again in Waltham looking at the one out in front of the Prime Minister's office. It's a huge one, which is life-size. Yeah, yeah. It's not a live crib as we often have in Dublin. But I mean, they've all these different characters, including that guy over the roof. But they're dressed in kind of ordinary clothes. I suppose the idea is that it's, you know, the crib is for every day. It's not just for thousands of years ago. Yeah. Kind of, that would be it. Well, it would be various sizes, but they really go to town. And people open their, they have special cribs in their houses and they kind of give over to full room. And they advertise Presepio is the word for a crib. And you can go in and visit the crib and whatever. And they seem to, which makes it sound like they're doing really a big Christmas. But there's much more of a religious element than there is in the commercial, you know, raw commercialism of Northern Europe. So at least they have the semblance of keeping the religious aspect of it going in Malta and probably in Sicily and basically Spain as well, you know. And I suppose, like, we're all fascinated by the different foods and stuff. I presume the fact that, you know, England had such an influence on Malta. But do they do different foods or anything? Or do people do a different? It would be basically, I mean, most of the people I'd be, it would be turkey and ham again or goose or duck or something. And some people do. But the, you can't imagine, you can't imagine Christmas here without turkey. You know, Thanksgiving in America, you know, there's turkey, that's it. But in Malta, some people wouldn't be having turkey. They'd be having a different meats and that. Yeah. But it is a big family occasion. Yeah. And do they do kind of a pasta thing or something? They're kind of like one of these, you know, the chewy pastas that they would fill up with meats and things. They do a lot of lasagnas. But they'd be doing lots of different courses, whereas we would have a starter, the main course and, you know, then the plum pudding or the trifle or whatever. But they would be doing them to be different types of lasagnas and pastas. Obviously, pasta is the big thing there. Yeah. Fascinating. Now, we were mentioning there, I just mentioned, you know, the English aspect to that. And, of course, for a lot of people, Boxing Day is the big day today. And that's how they look at it. And, of course, even though it is worldwide, it tends to be where the English had settled and had, you know, cut the Commonwealth and all that kind of stuff. And I suppose it kind of goes back to the very old days where people would give Christmas boxes. So the masters would give them to their staff or they'd give them to the different workmen that were there. Yeah. And very often, I think, it would just be kind of the leftovers from the dinner. So this is quite an interesting way of doing it. Well, it's funny. What I used to do in Malta was we had friends, Canadian friends, who were part of the Scottish church. And the Scottish church used to have this dinner, Christmas dinner, and it was free for anybody who needed it, you know. And the whole turkey and ham and the whole thing. And if you could afford it, you gave a, you know, you gave a donation. And I remember Alex and I would go down and I'd always make up a quiz for it. But it used to be full of mainly a lot of Filipino housemates because they'd be given the day off big deal. This is like, you know, they just get out of the house, you know, send them away. But we'd have great fun. And there'd be maybe 40, 50 people. Yeah. And everybody was given the full things. We'd always pop in 50 euros or something like that as a donation. But a lot of people who had nowhere else to go would come down to the Scottish church thing. And then afterwards, we'd have things on and we'd have quiz. I'd make up a quiz and that. And it'd be a bit of good fun. Yeah. And they were people. Our Canadian friends left and we kind of, the minister changed this. And she wasn't as nice as the new minister. And we kind of fell by the wayside slightly. Slightly, yeah. Yeah. I was intrigued. I mean, that idea, of course, of giving the leftover food to be the same is kind of a bit of an insult in some ways. I'm sure the people that were getting were quite happy. But I noticed that one of the traditions, I think it was in Wales, actually, connected with either the Boxing Day or the whole idea of the Red. But people would actually, you know, kind of use a stick to beat their slovenly staff with. And it was supposed to be very good for your morals or something. It wasn't probably very good for the poor unfortunate staff. But it was some sort of tradition that people used to actually kind of, you know, beat out at anyone that they thought wasn't very good over the year. So it kind of was a way of venting your anger, maybe. Did you say that they had the wren boy tradition in Wales as well? Yeah, Wales and I suppose most of the Celtic places probably had it. You know, the Isle of Man and all that. So probably Scotland as well. I'm not quite sure. Yeah, I haven't heard. But I know that in the Boxing Day, if you talk to people in, you know, Canada or Australia or New Zealand or South Africa, it's an obvious Boxing Day rather than anything else. Oh, yeah. Boxing Day is what is going everywhere. Yeah. So and even I'll have to say a special hello or thanks to Anne, my technician, who spent a lot of time in England. And she keeps talking about Boxing Day. I keep going, no, no, it's in fact since Steven's Day. But anyway, Anne, I hope yourself and John are having a very nice few days over this time. And we'll see you back with us again shortly to the technician to look after me, to keep me on the straight and narrow, which is very hard when I'm trying to do it myself. But that's OK. So we've got, as I say, just a few more minutes to go here on the programme before we go over to the classroom slot, which is going to be the last half hour or so of our programme. And we will be next week, I think, looking back over the year and talking to some of our regulars about how the year went for them. So we will have, I think, you know, people like David Moore and Elder Mannion and, you know, I'm not quite sure who else, but different people who are regular on our programme. And of course, I can't forget all the great support from the studio here. All of the great people, Grainne and Linda and William and everybody who's here all the time and helping out and Tommy. And of course, Karen, who looks after this show on a regular basis and keeps everything under control as well. Thank you, Karen, for all of that work, because it's very important, as I say, that when I come in, everything is ready for me, because I say I would be slightly disorganised without having somebody tell me what I should be doing. I also want to play a request here for Richard and Diana in England. They listen very regularly as well. So I hope they're listening in tonight and that they're enjoying their Christmas, etc. Richard is down in south of England and Diana is up in somewhere up near the east coast of England. But they come over regularly. Richard is my part time neighbour. So hopefully that's easy for them to listen in and Diana comes over very regularly as well. We're going to take another piece of music. I decided to go to one of my favourite singers for over many, many years. James Taylor, who has just an amazing voice, was an amazing singer, songwriter. And of course, so many songs that people will be familiar with other people singing are written by James Taylor. And it's lovely to hear this one. But I'm going to go with Fire and Rain, which is an absolutely beautiful song from James Taylor. So we'll go with that one. Just yesterday morning, they let me know you were gone. Susanna plans they may put an end to you. I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song. I just can't remember who to send it to. I've seen fire, I've not seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. But I always thought that I'd see you again. Look down upon me, Jesus. You gotta help me make a stand. You just got to see me through another day. My body's aching and my time is at hand. I won't make it any other way. Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. But I always thought that I'd see you again. I've been walking my mind to an easy time. My back turned towards the sun. But oh no, when the cold wind blows, it'll turn your head around. Well, there's hours of time on the telephone line. The talk about things to come. Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground. Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend. But I always thought that I'd see you, baby, one more time again. Lord, I'd see you one more time again. There's just a few things coming my way this time around now. Lord, I'd see you, Lord, I'd see you one more time again now.