Joe Gough born 1906 gave an interview to a local paper in 1972, the following is that same interview which i think you will find amusing, i know i did.
The Remarkable Obsession Of Swinging Joe
Years of hard work gave him a remarkably strong pair of arms. Some unexplained force gave him an urge to swing.His strenght and this odd fixation made him the most remarkable swinger in Ireland. Here is an account of the extraordinary career of a man who has spent more on swinging boats than any person in the country.
Joe Gough was only six. And it was with understandable reluctance that he set off for his first apprehensive day at school just over sixty years ago. But his hesitancy lessened with the sight of a childrens swinging boat in the playground. it fascinated him. Later it was to become an obsession.
The tiny swinging boat in the playground of the Presentation Convent Bagenalstown was to have the most extraordinary influence on his life. For in the years to follow, Joe developed the most remarkable and oddest fixation a truly pathological obsession with swinging boats.
In this unique profile Joe who is now 67 and lives at Philip st, Bagenalstown, tells the extraordinary story of how swinging boats dominated his life, a story which sounds almost unbelievable. But the details have been verified.
I don't know what it was about swinging boats that so fascinated me , says Joe. If a carnival, or a bazaar as they called them years ago, came to town i could hardly wait until the swinging boats were erected. They were like a drug. I couldn't resist them. From the very first day i got into the swinging boat at the school i was well and truly hooked.
He used every excuse possible for permission to leave the classroom. And the nuns invariably found him swinging away contentedly in the playground. But slipping out of school for a spin was only kids stuff as the following years were to prove. At first, Joe did nothing more adventurous than popping out the back window of his home to attend a local carnival when his parents would not allow him out. But carnivals did not come often enough for Joe's liking.And he had not yet reached his teens when he began running away from home for weeks on end so that he could follow the carnival from town to town.
I was only twelve when i ran away for six months, says Joe. I would stay around the town as long as the bazaar. Then I'd find out where it was going to next and set off after it on foot. I've seen a lot of Ireland the hard way.
The obvious questions are, how did a young boy of twelve possibly survive the hardships of living rough, and, anyhow, where did he get the money to satisfy his craze for the swings?
Well i slept in haybarns, old out houses and even ditches, he says. I picked up food wherever i could. One thing that was a godsend was that farmers wives then used to leave the big cakes of brown bread on the window sills to cool. They often provided me with my breakfast dinner and tea. But sometimes i had some duck or Chicken cooked up in any old pot i could find.
Joe admits it wasn't excatly regal living, but he never even caught a cold. And it all helped him to satisfy his mania for the boats. Getting the money for the swings was a different matter entirely and at this Joe was quiet adept. All he needed was a few pence for the first swing or two and after that the swings came buck shee.
For Joe must have been just about the most spectacular swinger ever to grace a carnival boat. No sooner would he have stepped into the swaying little craft and sent it skywards than the crowds began to gather, and they normally paid his fares afterwards just to see what he could do,and how high he could go. There are still many people in Bagenalstown who can remember going along to a carnival almost specially to see Joe performing.
I had a very strong pair of arms he says and i could really drive the boat up. Then when she was up I could hold her there for a few seconds before letting her go. It took a bit of a knack to do that but the people loved it.
Unfortunately, the carnival owners didn't and fearing for the well being of their boats, several carnival owners banned Joe completly.
This he considered somewhat unfair for, apart from tearing the bottoms out of a few boats when overprotective barkers tried to stop him before his time was up, he broke only one boat in his entire swinging career. This happened in Bagenalstown and Joe recalls I was really sending the boat up high as usual when one of the bars broke. My partner took off over a fence into the nearby church grounds and i flew over a wall in the opposite direction and landed in an apple tree in Dowling's garden. However, apart from a few scratches, i wasnt hurt.
As Joe's reputation as a swinger spread around through the various carnivals, his fun in the boats became increasingly restricted and he had to adopt devious methods to get his swings.
One was a little disguise. But as soon as one of the boats began to behave as if it were power driven, everyone would know it was Joe and the barkers would be out to stop him.
This however was neither easy or safe, as several barkers found to their cost. Feeling aggrieved at attempts to stop him after paying his good money, Joe would pull all the harder on the ropes, making it an unhappy job for whoever was holding the device for slowing the boats down.
And for two barkers in Bagenalstown on successive nights this was a particularly unhappy job. For both of them broke their arms while trying to stop Joe.
They didn't half curse, Joe recalls. I suppose they would have killed me if they had the use of themselves. A poor woman in Leighlinbridge had her arm broken too. That was unfortunate. She had a special lever to stop the boats and i didn't think anything would happen to her when i pulled on the rope. But her arm went. Her language wasn't the nicest either.
Needles to mention Joe was an authority on swinging boats. First thing he would do when he arrived at the carnival was test them all out. Then when he had got a good one he would stick with it for the rest of the night. Although the boats cost just a few pence then I sometimes spent up to a pound in a night, he recalls. I must have spent hundreds of pounds on swinging boats in my life. In fact there mustn't be a man living in Ireland who has spent as much.
Very essential when swinging was a good partner and there was none better Joe says than Mrs Bridget kelly of Oldtown. She was really great says Joe. Although I dont think her mother liked to see her in the boats flying high. I often remember her shouting come down Joe before you kill my daughter
Apart from the boats, Joe got a kick too from the chairoplanes, but swinging was always his first love. He admits that he was quite adept at pitch and toss and he often used this to win money for the boats. He was also handy he says at football and handball.
But the swinging boats were my life, he says and even when i was pushing on in years i never missed an opportunity of getting a swing.
When i was in Tramore in July on an old folks outing, the first place i headed for was the carnival and the boats. And i'll tell you another thing. If a carnival came to Bagenalstown tomorrow I'd hardly give them time to get the boats up.
Joe passed away just five years after giving this interview, but i'd like to think that before he went he did indeed get to fly high in his beloved swinging boats just once more. Knowing Joe im sure he did.