The Kilmore Mummers of Co. Wexford, Ireland 1993

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

in our village there was a young boy who was a professional mummer, he was not like any of the mummers, most of the time he would go around mumbling and humming himself. On occasion he would break in to clear speech and would commentate on a Gaelic football or hurling match which were mostly captained by might Finn McCool and that great ancient Cú Chulainn, the games were long and thought to the bitter end, sometimes the scores would behind yet there would only be a few pounds between each team, this boy spoke with the voice of Michael O'Hare, he described the game with the greatest detail, he described the behavior of the crowds who attended matches, all the referee was controlling the game and if he was favoring one side over another some of those games when on for two or three hours, the younger children of the village was mesmerized listening to the performance of those games, they would cheer when their side scored, small bits of farthings, quarter penny bets were placed, some children had no money and if they lost a bit it would have to steel some tobacco cigarettes from their parents to pay off the debt owed to the winner. Young children followed this wonder boy as he went about his daily work on his parent's farm and on occasions when he hit would have to go to collect water from the local Springwell to large metal buckets the children would follow behind listening to every word, four days after the children with deep discussions about the game that they'd just listen to, there was no televisions in those days only the radio, listen to this mummer boy was the greatest thing for a young child to listen to, he brought it into marvelous world of imagination, I still recall some of the games that this invoice commentated on as if they were totally yesterday. It is a great pity that we had no means of recording this young mummer as he went about his daily work commentating on those very important football and hurling matches.

[@michaelstaunton1632]

👍👍

[@anniedavis4569]

The mummers were in Donegal too. They would always dress up and tell tales and beg for money