Cabra History.Com

This photo recently arrived in my ‘In Box’ and I gazed at it for quite some time before realising it’s significance. This is the kitchen of a parlour house in Cabra West, the same as the one I grew up in. So many memories were ressurected by this shot because the old Back Door is still in it’s original place. And it was this thought that opened the flood-gates of memories for me. If you can see where the microwave is, well in our house that’s where the little Back Porch once stood where my mother would hang her Christmas Puddings alongside the turkey every year. The back Porch was also were our family dog ‘Darkie’ slept.

To the extreme left is where the door of the old ‘Coal Hole’ once was. There was a small door on it where we hung our coats and things and the Gas Meter was also in there under the stairs. And the kitchen sink in this photo is probably where the original ‘Belfast Sink’ was situated, the one that we were all washed in every Saturday night.

The other thing is that at one time the Ma’ wanted my father to change the kitchen for her. He thought about it for a while and then hit on a great plan. He put up a small pelmet stretching across the ceiling from the back door to the coal-hole door and hung a curtain out of it, thus dividing the room in two. Well the Ma’ was right made-up when it was finished and so much so that she had to bring in every Oul One that passed by our front gate to see it.

Now our old kitchen wasn’t as fancy looking as this one and we certainly didn’t have a nice armchair or any of the modern gadgets this kitchen has. But none the less the Ma’ did her best to feed her whole gang of fifteen kids. The kitchen was always the heart of our house. It’s where the Ma’ and Da’ sat us around a winters fire and told us ghost stories from their days of living in the tenements. And it was in our kitchen that my older sister had her Hen Party.

So thank you to whoever sent me this lovely photograph…