 To keep the momentum going, I would suggest it is a small side-step
for marching feet from historical commemoration to cultural preservation. A
wonderful opportunity presents itself next year for Co. Wexford to show pride in its old
customs and pastimes by taking up the more user-friendly mumming stick and sash and
dance our way into immortality by staging a massed and mixed mumming exhibition in
Enniscorthy in August 2000 at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.
There are a number of teachers willing to give
their time and expertise to pass on this grand old community pastime. A number of groups
have already begun and I know there are many willing to give whatever assistance they can
help. Mumming was a way of life in the Winter months for thousands of people
in both country and town up to the Second World War. To this day, the Drinagh
Mummers carry on the old custom, with generous community interest and support. Other
groups in Ballymurn, Blackwater and Rathfylane (Courtnacuddty) are now emerging.
The pikers of Wexford in 1998 have made
communities more closely knit and identifiable, which makes life more colourful and richer
for all. Two feet were cut off a pike handle it would make it more manageable for
'de-commissioning' or left to rust in the thatch, and it could be fashioned into a mumming
stick with little effort.
The heroic feats of our forefathers would be
equally well commemorated by sword dancing with the mummers in 2000 as by the sound of
marching feet with the pikemen of 1998.
by Paddy Berry |
