GRANDMOTHER AND THE PIGS

     When I was a youngster, about age 16, my cousin Johnny Kenny told me that our grandmother (my paternal great-grandmother) used to herd pigs on the hills above Iskaheen. I imagined this somewhat to be somewhat like Heidi in the Alps, taking her goats up the mountain in the morning and returning home in the evening. And I had imaginative pictures in my mind of herds of pigs being followed around the hillsides all day by picturesque Irish maidens. But now I know the real story.

     Charles McGlinchey in his book of tales, "The Last of the Name" describes the practice: "In my grandfather's time, that would be about 1800 or thereabouts, people in the different parts of the parish used to take their cattle and pigs to the mountains for the summer months. It was only the women and children went, and Patrick's Day was the time for setting out. They built huts to live in called bothogs and the remains of these bothogs and some old pig houses can be seen about the hills yet [1940s]. There is a place in Clofin bog called the bothogs and it was there that the people from that part took their cattle. William Grant's grandmother [not our Grants] was born in one of these bothogs in Clofin."

     Above is a year 2000 view to the Northwest of Iskaheen, into the hills or "mountains" where my great grandmother may have summered her pigs.

     A short one half mile or so away from the first picture is St Patrick's Church and cemetery at Iskaheen. Here my great grandfather Frances is probably buried, as is Eugene, Son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. The plaque on the cemetery wall reads: "Eoghan, Prince of Iniseoghain, Son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Died 465 of grief for his brother Conall. Baptised by Patrick and buried in Uisce Chaoin."
                                                                                                                                       Roger Doherty