Happy Bonfire Night!

Conor Bourke

http://www.thejournal.ie/bonfire-night-ireland-2175389-Jun2015/

I've great memories of having bonfires in the field behind our house every year growing up in Sligo. My parents would always tell us that we wouldn't be allowed to have one as the last one was too big, too busy but inevitably they'd relent and we'd start going door to door in the evenings after school for about a week beforehand, collecting anything we could to build it up. On the night, all our neighbours would arrive, all my classmates and there would be loads of food, someone would bring a bbq, there would be a smaller fire for toasting marshmallows and as the night got darker we'd sit around singing songs and telling ghost stories. It was one of the highlights of the year.

Any other AHers remember this tradition?

Your Face

I think it was dying out in my area when I was young. It's non-existent now.

CelticRambler

Never had it in my day ... but do now, now that I've changed country. :pac:

smash

Bit early for Halloween...

kneemos

Never in me life heard of it.

MayoForSam

Absolutely, we still enjoy our local bonfire on St. Johns Eve every year, great for the kids and all the neighbours. Halloween no bonfire.

thegreatgonzo

Yes it still happens here in Galway. I've a bad cold though so I don't think I'll go.

Conor Bourke

Your Face wrote: »

I think it was dying out in my area when I was young. It's non-existent now.

I suppose between health and safety being the order of the day and the threat of prosecution for burning without a permit, people just don't want to take the risk

I remember lads coming over with bags full of old aerosol cans and lampung them into the fire to create a bit of excitement!

thegreatgonzo

And tyres. Lots and lots of tyres.

Buona Fortuna

Your Face wrote: »

I think it was dying out in my area when I was young. It's non-existent now.

Wait till the bin charges kick in.

donegal.

its very big up this way.

driving home from one last year i couldn'd believe the amount of fires we could see.
i'd guess its a way for farmers to get rid of ****e.

Vojera

I've very fond memories of it too (and I'm early 30s so not that old).

For the weeks in the run up to Bonfire Night all the kids would go around the shops asking for cardboard boxes and pallets and stockpile it and there was a bonfire in each of the estates in the village (4 in total). We'd visit them all and get really competitive about which was the biggest and most flamey

People would have individual fires too.

No fires left now, though. Not allowed by the council.

donegal.

smash wrote: »

Bit early for Halloween...

what are ye on about? bonfire night has nothing to do with halloween

Your Face

Cornelius Crow wrote: »

I suppose between health and safety being the order of the day and the threat of prosecution for burning without a permit, people just don't want to take the risk

I remember lads coming over with bags full of old aerosol cans and lampung them into the fire to create a bit of excitement!

True.
Also, just the way communities were back then to, more sedentary.

Dixon of Kuala Lumpur

Could have sworn this would be something to do with the fleggers, thought it seemed a bit early

The Backwards Man

Can see a few big ones from the house here alright. Always a great evening for saving on the bin charges.

kneemos

Must be a northern thing.

smash

donegal. wrote: »

what are ye on about? bonfire night has nothing to do with halloween

I see you sarcasm detector is well and truly fcuked.

LeinsterDub

Next year when pay by weight comes in it will have a massive resurgence

Just found out lately that Meitheamh means midsummer, which ties in perfectly with Bealtaine/May being the first month of summer in the Irish tradition.(Etymology)

The Backwards Man

kneemos wrote: »

Must be a northern thing.

Everywhere from Cork to Donegal thing.

Conor Bourke

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Everywhere from Cork to Donegal thing.

Conspicuously absent when I lived in Limerick. Going to the Gaeltacht in my teens we could see the fires burning on the Aran Islands, it was lovely

red bellied

It used to be very popular in Sligo town mainly in the Corporation estates but they have now being banned. I see smoke in the air tonight so there is still the odd estate not heeding the ban.

lertsnim

I've never heard of it here but have heard the Danish people doing the thing with the witch.

smash

lertsnim wrote: »

I've never heard of it here but have heard the Danish people doing the thing with the witch.

Like, burning them?

Boom_Bap

It's bonfire night every night here in Finglas.

ToddyDoody

I have an old mattress I want to get rid of.

The Backwards Man

Think there might be a tyre or two in that one

smash

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Think there might be a tyre or two in that one

That's just the felt spec tdi meet up.

muddypaws

No kids at home anymore, so I'm not out at one, but can see a few from the windows

Stigura

Was watching a pall of smoke as I ate my dinner there. Thought about going out and lighting my own rubbish heap Bonfire. But, there could still be young birds in all that close by vegetation.

I'll leave it all to spontaneously combust, later in the year.

AnonoBoy

I remember growing up down the country some Dublin young lads were visiting their relatives on the estate. They hadn't heard of bonfire night and we took great delight in not telling them either. They were f*ckers, we didn't want them ruining our craic with their jackeen sh*te talk.

RDM_83 again

kneemos wrote: »

Must be a northern thing.

9th of August is the other Bonfire Night up North, it marks Internment, I wouldn't like to see the Journal Comments section if they did a folksy article on that one though!

mansize

Its the midsummer, that the Christians re-invented as St John's Eve

a western coastal thing

petrolcan

A week of collecting? How did you manage to get enough to burn?

We always planned it for at least a month. Tyres and wood mainly, all stashed at individual houses. Always well hidden too in case someone from another locality got wind and tried to pinch any.

The year we got a telegraph pole and some 20 tractor tyres was a vintage one.

Conor Bourke

petrolcan wrote: »

A week of collecting? How did you manage to get enough to burn?

We always planned it for at least a month. Tyres and wood mainly, all stashed at individual houses. Always well hidden too in case someone from another locality got wind and tried to pinch any.

The year we got a telegraph pole and some 20 tractor tyres was a vintage one.

Loads of houses on our road would be stockpiling for us. A few families had businesses, vans would arrive full of pallets, boxes etc. We weren't allowed burn tyres because of the wires, too much clean up and risk of the cows eating anything that was missed. A telegraph pole would've been gold.

Lia_lia

Google maps perfectly captured "Bonna night" in the northside of Cork city a few years ago: https://www.google.ie/maps/@51.9088538,-8.5000893,3a,75y,85.33h,77.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9YRtGtujAA_LS-rpJ8Cxzg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

getzls

Like a good Bonfire up here in the Black North we do.

Maybe that's why it's called that because of all that smoke.

XR3i

had a big blaze yesterday

have a kinda modern outdoor aluminium-bodied incinerator

6 weeks recycling burnt in an hour

Ruu

Is this a nudey thing, Father?

XR3i

Ruu wrote: »

Is this a nudey thing, Father?

how's your wife?

she's dead

IvyTheTerrible

Oh I loved bonfire night! I'm from Sligo too, it was a big thing there when I was a kid.
Travelling from south Mayo up to Sligo, you'd see fires the whole way, lovely.

Incidentally, there are celebrations of bonfire night in villages in the south of France too

DEFTLEFTHAND

This kind of thing was considered as a bit common by my parents. I remember on Halloween night they'd drive us up around some of the council housing estates in our town and we'd look at their bonfires from the safety of the car.