School: Cnoc na Groighe (B.), Ráth Mhór (roll number 1685)
- Location:
- Cnoc na Graí, Co. Chorcaí
- Teacher: Diarmuid Ó Muimhneacháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0357, Page 337
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- The fight ended when eighteen men from each side were sent to the Cork County jail on Hard Labour for four months
The last big faction fight was in October 1860. For days before the fair the opposing factions prepared their three-quarter ash sticks and after the business of the fair was completed each faction would assemble in the fair field. A bugle was sounded as a signal to tent owners etc. to pack up their wares and move to safer quarters. Prior to the bugle-call each faction filled the "sheebeens" in the village - at the houses now owned by David Murphy, Denis D. Sheehan and Denis O'Keeffe. They often drank as much as four gallons of whiskey before the fight. At the bugle-call they lined up and one would take off his coat and drag it after him across the fair-field towards the opposing faction shouting, "Who dares to tread on the tail of my coat". An opponent would do so and then melee started. The onlookers would line the fences - only a very few houses were in the village in those days. The fight finished when one faction retreated before the other. Often men from opposing sides drank together when(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Diarmuid Ó Muinmheacháin
- Gender
- Male
- Occupation
- Múinteoir
- Informant
- Patrick T. O' Connor
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 78
- Address
- An Fearann Caol, Co. Chorcaí
