BY JOHN FITZGERALD
Callan’s Moat Field Heritage Trail is a major attraction, a jewel of the South East. And the field once encompassed a magical castle on a hill!
Norman invaders built Callan Motte, known locally as the “Moat”, in about 1217. It was a wooden castle situated on top of an artificially created mound of earth. It had a wooden palisade and tower. Historical documents refer to it having wooden chambers, a state of the art kitchen (for those days) and a hall covered with wooden shingles.
The Moat field is located in the centre of Callan, west of Upper Bridge Street. The castle served the Normans well as a military post due to its strategic location on the North Bank of the King’s River.
In its heyday, the Castle on the Hill was home to royalty…powerful lords of the manor, their families, slaves, and knights-at-arms. It retained its lofty status until its abandonment as a lordly residence in the 14th century.
Townspeople looked with awe to the Moat Castle. It was a symbol of power and authority, and reminded them who was in charge. Any breaches of the law were dealt with ferociously by the conquerors, who also, to their credit encouraged free enterprise and helped to transform Callan into a thriving market town.
On a lighter note, tradition has it that three professional jesters were employed to keep the lords and ladies in the castle amused. Each jester entertained with his repertoire of gags, with one big one, the Joke of the Day. The jester who told the least funny joke was tossed off the hillside to tumble down into the briars and nettles beneath. Competition to find comedy material was fierce among the jesters and many a joke ended in tears.
Today, the castle is long gone but the hill upon which it proudly stood remains. It is a recognized national monument and a much-loved local landmark.
For centuries after the departure of its lordly residents from the hilltop, the Moat field functioned as just another stretch of land, with cattle and sheep grazing it. A little of its former glory returned when the field hosted the great carnivals of 1959, ’62, and ’63.
Carnival organizers decided the Moat hilltop would be ideal for a large marquee to host ballroom and jitterbug dancing. The field containing the relic of Norman Conquest hosted sporting activities and a funfair.
Each night, hundreds of dancers ascended the thirty-nine steps of a makeshift stairway to the summit and entered the huge marquee. They bought their tickets from a woman perched on a stool in a mobile wooden booth that stood close to the bottom step.
There was no alcohol on sale at the Moat. You had to “tank up” in the pubs before heading for the dance. There was, however, a shebeen on Moat Lane, reserved for a select few, mainly the carnival organizers and their friends inside the marquee. The best bands in Ireland played and sang the latest musical hits. The couples danced their way starry-eyed around the wooden platform. Love was in the air.
Feast for the eyes
Anyone walking or driving through Callan during a Moat carnival was treated to an unforgettable sight: From the Big Bridge, you could see the sparking fairy lights, spread like a carpet across the tops of the Seven Sisters, as the Scotch Pine trees on the Moat hill were called. The kaleidoscopic effect was magical.
As with every function of this kind, there was always a handful of troublemakers and a few highly inebriated dancers who drew the wrath of couples who were still sober or perhaps more conservative in their attitudes.
At the first sign of trouble, stewards would elbow through the throng of dancers, grab the offenders, and throw them out of the marquee. They’d be seen rolling down the hill after midnight, through bushes and briars, after being ejected, like the ill-fated jesters of old.
But the rough justice meted out to the “rowdies”, as they were called, failed to dampen the spirits of those men and women of all ages who jived, waltzed, shuffled, or quick-stepped in Callan’s hill-top Ballroom of Romance, among them the renowned dancing boxer Jimmy Walsh of Mill Street.
The daylight activities also drew crowds. The whole Moat field morphed into an amusement arcade and outdoor sporting arena. It resembled a little village, with its smattering of tents, stalls, jugglers, and three-card tricksters.
To be continued…
