16th and 23rd November 2005

These two documetaries tell the stories of migrant workers from North Mayo and their journeys to Scotland to pick potatoes in the last century.

The documetaries began as a project undertaken with Anne O'Dowd of the Museum of Country Life in Castlebar. They incorporate tapes she recorded as part of her thesis, published as Spalpeens and Tattie Hokers in 1991 - these recordings were made in the late 70s and early 80s and all the voices heard are of people now deceased.

In August 2005, Producer Peter Woods and researcher Alan Torney travelled to Achill and Belmullet to look for some of the families of these men.

The first documetary, Leaving Belmullet, tells of the first and last trains to Achill where, according to local folklore, it had been prophesised that both trains would carry the bodies of dead people.

The first train, in 1894 carried those of 32 tattie hokers who drowned in Clew Bay on their way to Scotland when the boat they were in capsized. In 1937 the railway, which had shut down, was reopened to carry the bodies of those burned in the Kirkintollach bothy fire, which focused attention on Peadar O'Donnell's campaign on behalf of the migrant workers and led to a government inquiry at the time.

On Achill we met 93 year old Anthony Kilbane, who went to Scotland when he was 13, for the first time. These stories are interwoven with Anne O'Dowd's original interviews with the men who left North May and began work in the west coast of Scotland picking early potatoes.

Often these men travelled on to England to pick beet. Sometimes their families travelled with them. In other cases their wives and children were left at home. The men returned for a month in the spring to sow what land they had. These journey were unique to Mayo and the West of Donegal and were also a unique form of migration.

The Second documetary, Return to Blacksod, tells the story of the Connor family of Belmullet, mainly through the words of a father and son - both John Connor. The elder John was interviewed by Anne O'Dowd, he was an inveterate story teller - a trait shared with his son John.

This is a documetary about memory and affection, a son's love for his father. The newer interviews were recorded in the highest house in Blacksod - all of the Connor family emigrated at some stage in their lives and their mother's wish was that that house remain as a place to go back too. The son, now 63, remembers looking at his father who was then in his 40s and regarding him as an old man.

Both these documetaries are about forgotten stories and about work.

They are about an experience that has a parallel in the Ireland of today, where people come from all over Europe in search of work, in many cases returning home for part of the year. Recorded during a few windblown days last August they tell also of how these experiences live in the memory and indeed in the landscapes of North Mayo.

Compiled by Peter Woods and Alan Torney.

Produced by Peter Woods.

An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries