Mick Shannon (Part 1)

Mick Shannon owns a workshop where he makes fiddles. His father was a blacksmith who owned two forges, when there was plenty of work to be had. He discusses the differences between the turf spade and the breast spade and he remembers first becoming involved in his father’s work when he was young, making little fittings for horse carts. He describes grinding sandstone and putting it into the fire to clean a piece of metal. Mick recalls the country house dances long ago and he remembers beginning to play the fiddle at nine years of age. All the chat and gossip was in the forges on rainy days he remembers. He discusses the hardening and cooling of the steel at the forge and says gates made long ago last much longer than those of today, because of the quality of the steel. Mick has memories of his father’s work and describes how it was done and he discusses old cures for warts and shingles in bygone days.