Page 13 - With Mungie MacNeil of Iona Rear

ISSUE : Issue 59

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1992/1/1

would come and then we'd have to watch and get the school back in shape before she'd arrive back. But she'd know. (Was the language in your home always Gaelic?) Not us. When we were kids, we had English. (But you knew Gaelic.) Not much, until we started to school. We could un? derstand it, you know. No, they didn't speak it to us. They spoke it to each oth? er, my father and mother. But when we were kids, they spoke English to us. (Was Gaelic the language of the school?) Oh, it was English. It was English. The older kids there would speak Gaelic, you know, but they were supposed to use Eng? lish. You know, they weren't supposed to-- it was bad for their English to be using Gaelic. That was the idea then. No, no, they were always taught English first. Oh, to each other (the kids) always spoke Gaelic. I don't remember ever hearing them speaking English to each other. They'd speak to us, but they spoke Gaelic to each other. (And) we picked it up very fast. (The majority of families at lona Rear were Catholics.) Oh, they were all Catho? lics. Everybody in this area here were Catholic. Very church minded. (Rosary be? fore you went to bed.) Oh, prayers, prayers, and more prayers. All during Lent my father used to say the extra rosary. And we couldn't get out of the house to go anywhere--a dance or anywhere else--the rosary was said first. During Lent, and during October, and during May. Oh, it was very strong, yes. Well, Sunday, you know, you had to go to church on Sun? day. Well, the older people, any that were old and, if they didn't have a way of go? ing there but walking, they were allowed to stay at home. I remember my mother's mother. Oh, she was quite old, but she'd be going to church. With a cape on her and a little bonnet on her head. But she stopped when she was about 70. (The priest used to come to visit them, too.) Come to visit them. During the East? er time he'd always come. I remember--we always called them "good father" and "good mother"--they were my father's uncle and his wife. And (the priest) used to go to that place for their Easter duty. (And there was no such a thing as a woman going to church then without having her head covered.) Oh, no! Going visiting-- even when I was with Fr. MacKinnon when he'd be around, you know. His younger sis? ter, she was 16. She'd be up with us dur? ing the summer. He took us around all of Inverness and everywhere. When we'd visit a church, we'd have to take his hat and put it on her--something else, even if it was only a handkerchief--to go inside a church. And that's not so very long ago. (There's quite a few changes today.) Much simpler. I think their religion is just as good. Sadie: They don't go to confession too often. Mungie: Well, that doesn't mat? ter. If they keep better, perhaps they don't have to go as often. But (the priests) were revered then. You'd always see the priest coming, you thought you had to have somebody there to guide them in the house, seat them on a chair-- best chair you had. Our End'Of'Season Sale Starts in January!

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