Ring, County Waterford Eire: 2010-08-08

Don't forget to click on the images

The “Tea Flag” , Ardocheasty, Ardmore, Co.Waterford.Photo (c) Ivan Lennon... It was this Photo which Ivan sent to me that sent me on the trail of Tommy Mooney...
Tommy Mooney from Ardmore is a great man to chat with if you want to learn anything historical about the (his) village which he takes great pride in. 'Do you know anything about the 'Tea Flag' he inquired...'not a thing in the world' I replied...thinking perhaps that it was one of his little humorous efforts at word play...this however was not the case and I can tell you that my ears were cocked as he related the history of the Tea Flag at Ardmore. Obviously...

sample of inscription

I just had to go there and see for myself...One has to pass through private property in order to reach this fairy tale spot.So permission is required. The only way to reach the Tea Flag now is by way of water! The Black and white photo are (c) Tommy Mooney's private collection and clearly adds substance to Tommy's revelations... the colour shots are by myself...read on....the 'Tea Flag' by Tommy.

Tommy Mooney

Doing the 'Cliff Walk ' along the south and east of the village of Ardmore, people have so much beauty to see and remark upon that most will pass by, completely unaware of one of the most spectacular, hidden places in the entire County Waterford. The path to the 'Tea Flag' has been fenced off by the landowner for some years now , attributable no doubt to the modern “Compo” Culture that has caused similar barricades to be erected by fearful owners in so many , formerly readily accessible , beauty spots.

The way down was not at all difficult for anyone of moderate agility but, if one suffered from even the mildest form of vertigo it was wiser not to attempt a decent.. The sheerdrop to one’s right must be all of 150 ft before the grassy picnic area was reached.. There was always a danger that loose shale from the Old Red Sandstone of the surrounding rocks might have made it necessary to wear sturdy footwear , just because of that portion of the decent. The “ Tea Flag” itself is just a few yards further on ,to the left, and it too has a sheer but lesser drop on it’s southern edge. It is actually a smooth topped shelf in the cliff face, sloping ever so slightly towards the sea below and is probably the result of erosion by ice-filled fissures where the ice expanded and sliced off a large chunk of the cliff after freezing.

I knew of this corner of the county before I had ever seen it, because my Grandfather had often told me , as a child, about it, and about the names carved there over the centuries. He recalled how the “Gentry” of West Waterford favoured it as a picnic place in the 19^th century and , indeed, how it was a “place to visit “ recommended by them to many famous visitors to Ardmore. Grandad knew all this because he had come to Ardmore in 1893, just short of his 20^th birthday.

Drinking Tay at the Flag...don't be kidded, this is a SF gathering

He told me also about one summer morning , early in the last century, when he met, on the cliff path above , the then very famous author of “King Solomon’s Mines”; “She” and other adventure novels , who chatted with him so charmingly.

Well he might ; it has been disclosed lately that Sir Henry Ryder Haggard was engaged in some mild espionage on behalf of the British Government, while on a tour of Ireland.

[Haggard was visiting “Maycroft” , then the home of the Thurstons, also well known writers at that time.]

It is strange that Mr Haggard was probably also unaware of the place ,just below where he walked, where his name might have achieved an ongoing celebrity ,at least in Ardmore , that is now denied him. However there are some important old names of local Landowners, and Landlords , as well as more recent ones , carved here. Difficult, in many , many cases, to decipher now, they are there in the hundreds . Some have been inscribed with a flourish, as if cut by a professional . Others ,obviously , were hastily gouged out by someone using perhaps a knife, from the household cutlery, it having completed the work for which it had been brought.

The oldest date that can be discerned is, possibly , 1788 and one of the oldest entire inscriptions may be “Sarah Coughlan : Bristol -1^st Jan 1848” , clearly defined still.But this covetously guarded place was not a regular haunt of local people until the Sinn Féin Club was formed in Ardmore. , some of the local fishermen referred to it as the “Tay Flag” but knew it only from the sea as they pulled their boats along “ beneath” the cliffs. In the early, post 1916, days , Sunday gatherings were very popular , and all very innocent at first. Picnics at places like Glencorrin Wood, Goat Island and the “Tea Flag,” in summer time , were organised and the numbers grew and grew. No longer was it the exclusively secluded rendezvous of the “gintry” so that “Forelock Tuggers“ or “Cap Doffers“ were not welcome. Eventually, members of the Irish Volunteers ,who were also SF Club members ,infiltrated and at many of these social occasions drilling and military lectures were held in secret. The SF Club had , as it’s President, my grand Uncle and the local Company of Cumann na mBan,, organised by his sister , also became eager

followers.

The photograph shows some local people at a Sinn Féin gathering on the “Tea Flag” probably the summer of 1917 or 18 . The album from which it was copied states this fact.

It is unfortunate that so many of the inscriptions are undated and it is only by a knowledge of local history that such can be guessed at from reading the actual names.

The names of Chearnley, Odell, Bagge and Musgrave, represent some of the families who owned great tracts of the County in earlier times. Keating, Mockler, Mansfield, Foley and Fitzgerald , Prendergast and Coughlan are among those of a more local breed while Rooney, O’Brien, O’Connor, Mooney and Hassett are some that I recognise , having “hammered and chiselled “ beside them in our efforts to finish the job before dark .

So then, the “Tea Flag” isn’t just a place where tea was brewed and supped, girls courted , songs sung to the accompaniment of clinking porter bottles and political plots hatched. It is an “Archive” and a treasure that should be protected and recorded. It may be the only memorial that many of us will ever have.
T.Mooney

10/08/2010.

“Dancing one is of a pic-nic in Glencorrin . two more of this group can be found at www.waterfordcountyimages.org they show Republicans Mick Mansfield and Mick Shalloe in Football gear. They used to play football for an hour or so and end up being drilled by people like Paddy Leahy of Goulane, Old Parish, an ex-British Army man. I couldn’t really say where the other ones were taken , could easily be snuggled down on that “Grassy Knoll” that we landed on ourselves when we descended to the Tea Flag.

Some more Pictures of the 'Tea Flag' (c) Eddie Cantwell