WHEN Kevin O’Brien lights the bonfire at McNamara’s Bridge on the Tulla Road outside Crusheen on Saturday evening, it’ll signal another chapter in a tradition that goes back over a century.
On June 23 each year, people congregate there and play music and dance, while the St John’s Eve bonfire burns. It’s something Kevin looks forward to and a tradition of which he is proud.
“The bonfire was there in my father’s time. He would have gone out to it at the age of eight in 1900 with his parents and it goes back further than that.
“The tradition of it spread down from the Scandinavian countries, the celebration of the St John’s Eve bonfire and it has spread as far as Southern Europe. At the bridge, it coincided with the fair of Spancilhill [which takes place a few short miles away] and the celebrations that went with that.”
He has fond childhood memories of the bonfires and the preparations that preceded them. “People would prepare for the bonfire and gather the firewood, which was bog deal and bog oak, harvested from the bogs when the turf was cut and it was the most beautiful timber to burn. There was no rubbish, no nothing, just a beautiful fire. Everybody that had it would give a log of timber and when that era passed, it depended on the local wood and there was a lot of it around.”
Aged 86 now, he has been going to the St John’s Eve bonfire at the bridge since he was a boy and says music and song have always been part of the occasion, except if there had been a local tragedy.
“Down through the years, on the day of the bonfire, people would take the latter half of the day off to prepare. It was a time that visitors would always come and everybody was in a celebratory mood. The fire would be lit about 8.30pm in the evening and after that, musicians would arrive. McNamara’s Bridge out there was a hub of music and dance and song and storytelling. The only thing, in my young days, if anything sad happened around those things might be given a miss but still the bonfire was always lit.”
While the bonfire was lit in 1951, it was a more sombre occasion than usual. “The Lord have mercy on our first cousin, Pauline Meehan, she died at the age of 21 in November. The following summer when the bonfire came, it was lit, people sat around and talked and traced about things that happened but there was no tune played or song sung or no dance. That wouldn’t be the way nowadays but the old people were very much to the point on that.”
Kevin says people have come from far and wide to the event and have been made welcome. “They have come from far and near; that’s a fact. People might come along and pull up to see what was the reason for the celebration. You’d always meet somebody and getting talking to somebody.”
He feels the bonfire is more popular in the area than ever before and is delighted the tradition has endured.
“The highlight after all these years is to see children still enjoying it and to have a tradition like it carried all the way through, through their parents and aunts and uncles and from elder brothers and sisters to the smaller ones down through the years. It’s stronger now than ever.
“When we were children, you’d look forward to the bonfire and your parents would bring you. When we got strong enough and bould enough to go gathering wood, we did it and it carried on from there. With an occasion like that, where you have young children, you’ll do everything to make the occasion good for them and keep the tradition going. If people like us or younger than us took it light-heartedly or coldly, it could fade out but it’s going better than ever.”