Ruth's book captures age of innocence

Book to be launched at Mullingar Arts Centre on Wednesday September 5 at 7.30pm

“Ah, they were simpler times.” Ask anyone over the age of 60 what their childhood was like, and that line will be the theme running through their answer.

Any of us who lived in a time before smartphones and social media could say the same; but there was a different kind of innocence about the 1950s – one brilliantly captured by Mullingar historian Ruth Illingworth in her new book, ‘A 1950s Irish childhood: from catapults to Communion medals’.

The generation born in the 1950s were among the first to be born citizens of the Republic of Ireland, which had been proclaimed in 1949. This latest evolution in Irish nationhood carried much promise.

But, as Ruth explains in the preface to this pocket (yet 208-page) history, the Ireland of 1950 was little different from that of Victorian times. The country was poor, austere and deeply religious, and childhoods were set against the backdrop of emigration, economic stagnation and political turmoil at home and abroad. This was the time of the IRA’s Border Campaign, the Suez Crisis, and the threat of nuclear annihilation.

All of this, however, was a world away from the mind of an Irish child. Poverty was felt, as were the raps across the back of the legs by a tyrannical teacher. But from these concrete realities, fun was plucked liberally from the cracks.

One chapter of this book, entitled ‘Toys and Games’, chronicles the ingenuity and innovation of Irish children and their families in deriving joy from limited resources. “Wooden spools with a piece of twine through them... made simple toys,” Ruth writes. “A small box could be transformed into a doll’s bed and furniture for the dolls’ house could be crafted by a parent or neighbour.

“One doting grandfather made a beautiful dolls’ house – a mini version of his own house – for his 5-year-old granddaughter. She still has it sixty years later.”

This was the age before TV, electricity and accessible transport. Few cars were on the roads, and crime was at an historic low, making it safe for children to play on country roads or town streets. Ruth writes: “The singer Joe Dolan remembered the excitement on the rare occasions that a car appeared on the road outside his home. Someone would shout ‘ACC!’ (‘A car coming’) and the vehicle would be watched with interest.”

In the first three chapters, the experience of 1950s Irish children is traced through infancy, primary school and secondary school/adolescence.

The remaining five chapters deal with childhood thematically, focusing on the aforementioned toys and games; comics, cinemas and circuses; religion; the world of work, and a final chapter dealing with those cast on the fringes of 1950s society. The fifth chapter (‘Comics, Cinemas and Circuses’) will be of particular interest to those who ever lined up for a seat in the big top, or owned a copy of ‘Bunty’ or ‘Our Boys’.

To the young people of today, the 1950s seem like another age. But for those who played, learned and worked at the time, it feels like yesterday.

Ruth Illingworth, who works as a tour guide in Westmeath, is the author of ‘Mullingar: History and Guide’, ‘The Little Book of Westmeath’ and ‘Images of Mullingar’. She is president of Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society, and a member of the Women’s Historical Association of Ireland (WHAI).

‘A 1950s Irish childhood’, The History Press Ireland; in bookshops at €11.70.