Tinsel, turkey pluckers and jolly faces, it’s Christmas!

SUDDENLY, it is Christmas Day and throughout Cavan, there are happy, smiling faces brimming with jolly anticipation in wonderment of what surprises Santa may have unloaded in houses from Cavan to Killarney and way beyond. The clock strikes 7 am, decorations are glistening, and Santa’s wrapping paper is being shredded furiously from the presents when tinsel falls from a door frame getting stuck to someone’s clothes. Next, the Christmas tree lights are blinking annoyingly, since someone thought this would look good in a few snaps of the children to send to the extended family, many of whom are still in bed as they anticipate rolling over for their second sleep. Raw excitement is one of the joys of the day for many families and if it could be bottled, we might easily power an electrical grid of happiness for the coming year.

The next scene of the day is the oven and when final preparations to the turkey are made it will face its impending roast. I once mused what Christmas might be like without a turkey on the dinner table? Now, it must be said, that I have not the slightest inclination to discover the apparent delights of veganism this Christmas, nor any other, and I am afraid that unless there were an apocalyptic end to all ovens and turkeys, then the flightless bird will continue to land alongside the cranberry sauce on my dinner plate.

But the poor old turkey was not always the centre dish on the block. Back in the day, it was either goose or beef that a family consumed, and the Goose Club was a ‘popular’ means for the less well-off to save towards the Christmas dinner. But by the 1850s, geese were soon to be set loose from the menu in favour of turkey and over in England, Queen Victoria’s traditional swan was no longer flavour of the month and she opted for turkey like everyone else.

Turkey sales in Cavan for 1893 noted that Ballyhaise turkeys cocks were priced at seven shillings and hens at two shillings nine pence each; in Arva, turkeys were three shillings and six shillings; in Bailieborough turkey cocks were three shillings to six shillings each; and in Cavan, turkey cocks attained seven shillings and six pence while hens were making three shillings and sixpence.

The Christmas turkey also became an important export for Irish farmers and on 22nd December 1900, this newspaper reported that Thomas Brady of the Hotel Killeshandra had shipped 2,000 turkeys to different towns in England and that he had been paid anything from five shillings to thirteen shillings per bird.

Right up the 1980s, as Christmas approached, turkeys could be bought along the streets in towns from Cavan, to Cootehill, Bailieborough, Shercock, Kingscourt, Blacklion, Swanlinbar and elsewhere. Turkeys were produced for the local market in the quaintly named turkey stations up and down the country. The turkey chicks were usually bought during the summer and after time spent under the heat of a red lamp in a penned section of an out-house they became stronger until the lamp was removed. Then, the daily ritual of re-stocking the feeder with turkey pellets and re-filling the drinker with water continued as the turkeys grew by the pound each week. In my hometown of Cootehill, farmers usually made a trip to Thompson Brothers to restock on bags of Patton’s Turkey Pellets. The most commonly produced turkey today, is the ‘large white’ which has the ‘highest feed to meat conversion ratio’.

When December arrived, turkeys were at their full weight and ready for slaughter, after which the birds were hung for plucking. This is a unique art in itself and demands that the erstwhile feather puller does not tear the skin. Since 1980, the Guinness World Record holder, the late Mr Vincent Pilkington of Cootehill has remained the unbeaten world turkey plucking champion even though he was challenged for the title on numerous occasions.

In times gone by, it was the women who mainly performed the final cleaning of the birds, clearing out the entrails and preparing the stuffing and basting before cooking. Some hours later the turkey emerged and was ready to slice; usually the carving was a job given to the man in the home. By the time the he was done, there would be very little left-over which reminds me of a story about a young lady, presumably a princess who desired that she should become a bird, until she changed her mind after eating dinner on Christmas Day and seeing how little was left of the turkey.

Now should you be asked about turkeys in a quiz during the festive season, the following information may be of help. A female turkey hen can be referred to as a ‘Jenny’ and its male counterpart as a ‘Stag.’ In America, the male is also known as a ‘Tom’ or a ’Gobbler’ and as a yearling it is called a ‘Jake’. The first turkeys to be domesticated were believed to have been those belonging to the Indians of Mexico, prior to Columbus voyage to America.

Finally, I would like to wish you the reader, a happy Christmas and ‘with ivy, shamrock and bright holly berry, be Christmas to you both blessed and merry’

POEM

This Christmas may you have…

“Walls for the wind

And a roof for the rain,

And drinks beside the fire,

Laughter to cheer you,

And those you love near you,

And all that your heart may desire.”