Finally ‘letting the fire go out’

If I asked you to paint a picture in your head of an ‘open fire’, you would probably see an image which evokes warmth, comfort, hospitality and romanticism. Such a picture represents a connection to the past, where its charm continues to endure. Most Irish people, of a certain age fondly remember gathering around the kitchen fire as children, with nostalgic recall of listening to music, telling stories and perhaps even reciting the family Rosary. Like so many other things in life, the open fire has more or less been ‘raked’ for good, but its legacy lives on in the hearts of the people.

The open fire of my boyhood – or for thousands of years B>C (before Comaskey) – was much more than a focal point of pleasure. No, the large open fireplace was the heart of the home. Not only was the solid fuel fire the only heating for the entire house, but all the cooking, baking, clothes-drying and water heating originated just above those hearthstones.

Everything centred from or around the fire, overseen by Bean an Tidgh. A soot encrusted ‘crane’ could be swivelled back and forth, carrying its varied energy-giving load along the heating assembly line. The one constant was the black kettle, ever humming a tune as it waited to serve the next pot of tea. A black pot would be hanging there as well. It might be boiling potatoes for the dinner, heating water, or even boiling towels or sheets to ‘bring back the whiteness’. And that wasn’t all; at the far end of the crane you might observe a large skillet, filled with potatoes (the poreens or ‘rubbish’) turnips and so on; otherwise known as ‘the pig’s pot’.

A three-legged oven sat on a bed of coals close to the big fire, fresh coals spread on the oven lid. That was the ‘bakery’ from which emanated that glorious smell of freshly baked home-made bread. I can also see the ‘griddle’ bread and potato bread my Granny down in Ballinock made. That fireplace was so large that I could sit on a forum inside the hob at the edge of the fire. I just loved that spot.

At night you could hear the crickets chirping up in the chimney. I wondered why we had no crickets in my own house; but anyway, at home we got a Stanley #9 range when I was aged nine or 10.

Over every fireplace was a mantle-piece where anything you didn’t want to get damp was stored, along with a clock and a few favourite photos. Above the hob, a line stretched the width of the fire and that line served to dry or air clothes.

Here is a ceist for the Gorls. Have you ever had ‘brackets’ on your shins? Do you even know what shin brackets are? Brackets were an occupational and inescapable hazard for women back in the day. They were caused by the heat of the fire and looked like red triangular images painted up and down the front of a woman’s leg. Women of course tried to hide the blemish on their beauty, but not even a darker shade of nylon stocking could do the job. This was strictly a woman’s affliction on account of the man wearing long trousers… and besides, he never did a tap inside the house anyway!

This was where we all came to warm our frozen hands (setting off an attack of ‘pins and needles’!) This is where the neighbours gathered round when they came in to ceili – and especially when kith and kin arrived on visits from England and America. This is where our grandparents took a nap in the chair or where we tried to toast chunks of bread held on the end of a long fork. My Granny would sometimes bake a ‘currant cake’ in the oven. She would ensure there was mix left over to make buns and funnily enough, my only memory of the buns is how easily they got burned!

We didn’t know it then, but despite all the romanticism of the olden fire, all was not well. As well as the slavish work for housewives the open fire was not healthy – especially as we liked to be ‘on top of the fire’. Old people suffered more from respiratory problems, so its demise is better for that reason at least.

It is estimated that three billion people in today’s world still cook and heat their dwellings with open fires. Here in Ireland, EU energy directives and regulations have rendered the open fire as being an inefficient enemy of the environment. Newly built houses don’t have fireplaces.

One of the greatest crimes that we boys could commit if our parents were away was to ‘let the fire go out’! The fire was raked with ashes overnight and rarely was extinguished. We have to move with the times and now, after thousands of years, we have irreversibly ‘let the fire go out’.

Don’t Forget

The warmth of a home is not necessarily determined by its heating system.