Old Irish Recipes
A chara,
I hope you’re keeping wrapped up over there.
It’s all over the radio here that deep snow is due and the kids are so excited. Their only concern is if it will enough to play in. My only concern is if they will be wrapped up warmly. We have the fire burning here and the kettle on all the time. This week I have a very old Irish farmhouse Christmas cake for you made with wholemeal milled flour and a big freeze midwife story fit to be a movie.
I remember you were once asking how people back then managed in such cold weather without electricity and when I heard the snow forecast I knew I had to tell you about Mrs. Ryan’s Story, also known as “The Big Freeze”. The story was given to me by Ciara O’Connell who kindly remembered the incredible life of her Granny Ryan. The word that comes to mind when I hear this story and think of Mrs. Ryan’s legacy is resilience. The photograph included is the story owner Ciara O’Connell on her wedding day with her Granny Ryan.
Mrs. Ryan’s Story (The Big Freeze)
“My beautiful little grandmother, Mrs. Ryan died peacefully surrounded by her family just a week away from her 94th birthday. She was a champion Irish dancer in her day and she trained as a nurse in Dublin, working in London during the Blitz. She came home to Ireland where she won the gold medal for midwifery in Holle's Street Hospital. She delivered babies all over Dublin including the tenements which had entire families living in single rooms with no electricity, before taking up a position as district midwife in Carlow where she delivered 3,500 babies in their homes, including helping to deliver my mother in Goresbridge while she was 8 months pregnant herself carrying my dad.
On the 19th of January 1947 Ireland was hit with an anticyclone weather phenomenon that lasted two months, bringing chilling temperatures of -14 degrees centigrade. By the 19th of February, the death rate of Dublin had more than doubled. It became known as the Big Freeze.
My granny had just moved to a Blackstair’s mountain village called Borris as district midwife and was at a dance when the snow started to fall. A knock came on her door later that night by a man whose wife needed help delivering her baby in nearby village of Ballymurphy. It took them 4 hours to walk to the house through the snow.... baby arrived safely next morning by which time the house was completely snowed in and they needed to be rescued. Grandad was one of the few local farmers that had a tractor, so the doctor and the parish priest drafted him into the search party. She met my grandfather for the first time after their search party dug them out from that house in Ballymurphy....and the rest is history.
As well as working and rearing eight children, (dad came number 6 in the family) she did trojan work on the two farms as well and fundraised countless thousands of pounds for charity through her Irish nights in O'Connors of Borris among many other initiatives. 31 grandchildren and 27 great grandchildren followed, and she had so much time, pride and love for every one of us with every achievement celebrated and a love for life instilled in all of us. Her midwifery bag was out ready for all of us granddaughters when our due dates were near in case she was called on. We will never see the likes of her again.”
Old Irish Farmhouse Christmas Cake – Císte torthaí
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This is a very old Irish country Christmas wholemeal fruitcake recipe. Whole wheat which was cheaper and more readily available then refined white flour. Traditionally wholemeal was milled locally throughout Ireland and local wholemeal flour can still be purchased.
Ingredients:
· 175g (6oz) of soft butter
· 2 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar
· 350g (12oz) wholemeal flour
· 3 level teaspoons baking powder
· 2 level teaspoons mixed spice
· 2 large eggs, beaten
· 450 grams (1 lb.) mixed dried fruit, washed and patted dry
· 50g (2oz) of flaked almonds (optional)
Method:
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until light. In a separate bowl, combine the flour baking powder and mixed spice and mix well.
Add the beaten eggs a little at a time to the first mixing bowl and alternate it with the flour mixture from the second bow so everything is added evenly. Then gently fold in the remaining flour mixture gently.
Add the dried fruit and mix everything together well. If the mixture seems very stiff at this stage, add a little water but do not allow it to become sloppy. Using a wooden spoon, turn out the mixture into a greased and lined 20cm or 8-inch cake tin.
You can sprinkle the top with the almonds if using. Bake the cake in a preheated oven at 160 degrees, Celsius 320°F, gas mark 3 on the lower shelf, just below the middle shelf, for about two hours. Test it with a fine skewer before removing from the oven. Once done, allow to cool in the cake tin it baked in. Once cool remove it from the cake tin and place it on a wire rack and remove the paper lining.
I hope you loved this story and recipe like I do. If you would like to share a story, please write to me at info@oldirishrecipes.com with permission to share it.
Beir bua agus beannacht,
Róisín Hynes
P.S. You can see all previous letters at Old Irish Recipes below.
I hope my grandson remembers me with that much honor and love. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve just read this… so sorry for your loss.🙏🙏🙏