Cabra History.Com

Here is a painting I did recently. The original is by an Irish artist Paul Henry. I made a few slight varitaions to it and came up with this version. It reminds me of Cabra years ago when the men with the horse/ass and carts were always going around. Some were selling milk and others were collecting rags, bottles and jam jars. And then there was Whacker the Slop Man who almost smelled as good as the slop he collected. Everything back then was recycled, even most of the clothes we wore were hand-me downs either from a relation or a neighbour. When you wore some of the clothes the neighbours gave in your pals were confused when they saw you. They couldn’t decide at first who you were. Some kids would fight over who got the horse manure for their Ma’s garden. And not forgetting of course Peter the milkman from the Merville Dairy and his horse who delivered milk all over Cabra West. When Cabra opened up first there were horses everywhere. My Da’ told me one time that it wasn’t unusual to have a horse stick his head in through the open parlour window. Because there was no railings or walls in the early days of Cabra horses would roam from garden to garden chewing up the grass. No it’s considered a novel thing to see a horse in Dublin. It was just a normal everyday occurence for us years ago.