'A Limerick Dish'

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Packet and HONEYCOMB Tripe

Dawn and Sharon (who you might know from Teaspach Theatre Company) ordering the Packet and Tripe off Paul O' Connell of O' Connell’s Butchers who generously donated the material for Saturday. We have worked out the amount to serve based on the Kitchen space and time available in French’s Café on the Day. The quantity is therefore dictated by this situation i.e. the Street dictates.

On the recommendation of many people who told us during our research over the past few weeks that we should use the 'Honeycomb' tripe rather than the other, we have followed the advice!
See the images below - two types of Tripe

Packet and Tripe is found in butchers all over Limerick city. This was photographed in Corcoran’s Butchers in St Johns Square (Est. 1922) with the kind permission of the proprietor George Russell, seen here. George has sold Packet and Tripe for many decades and has all the stories of Pigtown. He told us that lime was used to bleach the Packet in those days.

Recipe Book in Corcoran’s.
George compared his oral history of the dish with Delia Smiths Recipe of English Tripe from a well-used copy of her book that is kept in the Shop.

Getting the word out

These are the Flyers for The May Week end with the information Flyers for The Packet and Tripe event that will be handed out by the Catherine St location scout team. Brid and Amy will be visiting the street this week.

The mobile phone is the office! There are quite a lot of last minute changes at the moment requiring many phone calls. Every contact has a back up and its best to move on as quickly as possible.

Planning happens wherever is most convenient to the people involved, here Sharon and Stephanie (Teaspach Theatre Company) with Marilyn at Dawns house on a Thursday evening.

So far we've held two public meetings with traders on Catherine street. The Street print information for meetings was a temporary run of posters that were placed and removed. The Black board outside French’s will be operational this week.
Once our Packet and Tripe, ev+a opening event is completed this weekend, we're calling an artist's meeting... keep your eye's out for the call if you're interested.

SpiritStore Website

http://www.spiritstorelimerick.weebly.com/

Management meeting

A management meeting was held last night at Flannerys on Catherine street. Roles were handed out, thanks to everyone who came and volunteered, we're really happy with the turn out. Here are a number of the posts...

Secretary - Muireann
Tech organisation - Eilish
Health and Safety - Geoff
PR - Paul
Volunteer coordinator - Orla
Documentation and Forms - Sarah
Signage - Geoff and Sorcha
Master plan and Programming - Dawn and Marilyn
Location scouts - Brid and Amy
Artist manager - Marilyn
Project Leaders - Marilyn and Paul

Any comments or suggestions regarding material from last nights meeting please contact the relevant people.

Image on this post is taken outside Frenchs cafe at the first CATDIG public meeting.

Making Packet and Tripe

Kay Davis of St Marys community group

Excerpt from longer film, which will be screened at the Packet and Tripe ev+a event on March 13th at 6pm.

(Click to enlarge)

Researching 'Packet and Tripe'

Anita interviews Mrs Mullanne. Her Husband worked in Tracys Butchers and was one of the biggest suppliers of Packet and Tripe in the city. Because of her association she is fondly known to the group of women we interviewed as ‘The Packet and Tripe Lady’

The location of Tracys Butchers across from St Marys Church

Eilish (SpiritStore) has been working with a Knitting Circle in St Marys community centre, she has her own art project running, but was happy to introduce us for a couple of afternoons. We are researching the 'Packet and Tripe' history in Limerick.
The women were knitting patches for Elishes' knitting project and laughed when we told them ‘shes in our gang too’.
So knitting and talking we found the phrase ‘ Mock Tripe’. The poorest of the poor in food terms. It was packet and tripe without the meat, mainly milk, breadcrumbs and onions.

Bean an Ti Bakers, is a Limerick institution for cakes and bread and our supplier of the bread that will be served with the packet and Tripe in Catherine on March 13th.

O' Connells Butchers in Little Catherine Street, suppliers of the Packet and Tripe.

Discussing logistics in Frenchs Café. whose kitchen we will be using to cook the meat. Duncan, seen here, has given us tremendous support so far. He previously ran Javas Limericks notable art café on the site of where we will now be serving the Packet and Tripe. Coincidently, the site where Frenches currently stands used to be a butchers shop.

Planning, Dialogue, Ideas

Gerry Flannery, of the streets famous bar, offered to host the second street meeting. The traders talked about ideas they had since last week and people were delegated jobs.

Ray Conlons Butcher Shop on Catherine Street with a sign for Packet and Tripe on the window.

Pat Fitzgeralds Key Cutting Shop - The message (walk it like you talk it) on the Shoe above Pat and his crew is not just for show. Pat has already discussed several ideas about his part in the project. Chance encounters become planning moments...Marilyn and the artist John Galvin discussing Johns insallation which will be across from the Old TSB Bank in May. John will be using data from old Limerick film footage and was one of the first artists to participate in the dig, searching for material from the old bank . He found old ledgers turning to dust in the basement of a local library.

Site the 'Packet and Tripe' and Getting to know the Street

The SpiritStore crew introduced ourselves at a public meeting on Catherine Street, attended by managers and owners of business on the street. A look at our previous project at the Sarsfield bar helped to give a flavour of how we work. This is a collaborative project, so while we talked about the types of events SpiritStore could broker/offer/support, at this meeting the street traders and Spiritstore started to get to know each other and to explore the potential of a weekend cultural festival together.

Residents of Catherine Street at the first SpiritStore meeting in Frenchs Café . The Space was generously given to us by Duncan O' Toole the owner. We gave a presentation on our last project and introduced the concept of filling the streets places and spaces with cultural events for one weekend. We intend to have a blackboard on the side of Frenchs to give details on meetings etc.

Marilyn, Clive and Sarah in Faber Studios looking out on the Site of the 'Packet and Tripe' event. This building will partially host the ev+a 2010 exhibition.

Research with old friends - Frank Glynn Butchers

Frank Glynn is right back at the front line after our Sarsfield Bar adventure.
If you've been following our blog you'll know that Frank Glynn is the owner of the Sarsfield Bar/ Spirit Store and was the patron of our SpiritStore Art Cafe project.
Actually, more than a sponsor, Frank was involved throughout as an advisor and developer. Talking to him over the months of the project, about all sorts, we inevitably talked about the butcher business because he owns Frank Glynn's Butchers.

It's amazing how much we've learned about the meat industry in limerick because of conversations at his shop, in the Sarsfield Bar, or on the road. His knowledge of butchers craft, it's Limerick history, his love of the business, discernment and insistence on quality was an inspiration.

We've come to believe that Butchers are at the very heart of Limerick's food culture. The cuts and choices of meat are central to the culinary and social experience of many of Limerick city's people.

No wonder Limerick was called 'Pigtown'. A number of these conversations gave us the inspiration to serve Packet and Tripe at ev+a's opening day.

Marilyn with butcher, Ciaran in Frank Glynns Butchers near the milk market pricing an amount of meat for the 'Packet and Tripe' ev+a event. Ciaran gave his expert opinion on the weights and measures needed for the event.
Franks Butcher's shop is on Cornmarket row, call in and say hello!

Two events from SpiritStore at ev+a 2010

Marking the opening of ev+a 2010 - SpiritStore's, 'Packet and Tripe'
&
SpiritStore's, 'Catherine Street Culture Dig (CAT DIG)'

This year as part of SpiritStore's participation in ev+a 2010, the SpiritStore working art group are offering the Catherine Street Culture Dig (CAT DIG). Residents and traders of the street are participating with SpiritStore as hosts and instigators of a series of cultural events. To realise this weekly meetings are being held in various street venues to broker links between creative practitioners and the spaces and places offered by Catherine Street.The result will be a weekend of events - CAT DIG. The programme will include elements of experimental music, dance, theatre, workshops, performance, archeology, film projections, writing, puppetry, drawing clubs, twitter treasure hunts, digital installations, sound curiosities on the street all weekend, as well as many other events to be announced.The CAT DIG weekend will begin on Friday May 7th at 5.30 and finish at 5.30 on Sunday May 9th. Ongoing details of the project can be found on the SpiritStore Facebook and BLOG, as well as on a noticeboard outside Frenches Cafe. (www.spiritstorelimerick.blogspot.com)

To introduce SpiritStores’ ‘Catherine Street Cultural Dig’ and to mark the opening of ev+a 2010, we will be serving the traditional Limerick dish, ‘Packet and Tripe’.
We will serve the dish at the corner of Thomas St and Catherine Street, on Saturday March 13th at 6pm.It will be served free and accompanied by excerpts read from Mike Finn’s limerick play, ‘Pigtown’. At the same time a film of tales and times associated with the dish from a generation of Limerick women who continue to prepare and serve the meal for themselves and their families, will be screened in the space during the event.
The inspiration to present this unique Limerick recipe in this manner was in reference to the continuous presence in the city centre of family butchers, the social history of Limerick as a 'Pigtown' and of course the ever present meat processing tales of Catherine Street.

SpiritStore - Cat Dig

SpiritStore - Cat Dig (Catherine Street Culture Dig)

SpiritStore a working art group, as part of ev+a 2010, propose to run a weekend cultural festival in a similar mode to our project in the Sarsfield Bar. We’ll transfer the ethos, the activities and the fun that we enjoyed last summer onto the street.
SpiritStore will facilitate a weekend programme of diverse cultural activities on Catherine street, Limerick City in early/mid May.

This SpiritStore project, as part of ev+a 2010, seeks to infuse Catherine Street with a busy collection of free talks, performances, debates / discussions, screenings, readings, meetings and encounters with musicians, performers, writers, visual artists, dancers, film makers, collectives, as well as varied clubs, societies and professions.
This is an open invitation for all to experience, absorb and to creatively stimulate the heart of the city.
We are calling for volunteers, are you interested?
We’re putting a management team together and we need people for all types of roles. If you’re interested and available for a couple of hours a week for the next ten weeks please email us and let us know if you’d like to help! spiritstorelimerick@gmail.com
Thanks a million,
SpiritStore

Visit the emerging SpiritStore website...

SpiritStore for Cork ArtTrail

We'll Keep You Posted!

Thanks to the ILOVE LIMERICK gang for posting this interview on their blog.

For the moment our main plan is to tie up all the loose ends of this phase of the project, we are hoping to publish a book on the whole process and are considering the options for another run. First we're giving a little time for evaluation and reflection. And a little rest!! We'll keep you posted..!

The Project Celebration

The Cuckobox Bar hosted SpiritStore's project celebration night. Thanks to the Cuckobox, to all the people who came to chat, to support, to congratulate the SpiritStore gang, and to drink to the success of the project. It was a great party, and yes the guys were a bit camera shy!

Last Day at the SpiritStore / Sarsfield Bar

A Fantastic day, bookclub meeting, Stitch&Bitch.

In the evening we invited the 'regulars' who drank in the bar when it was under the care of Sean Hickey, the original owner of the bar, to come visit on the last night. Mary (Meme) La Touche, regular at the Sarsfield bar for seventeen years, had very fond memories of Sean Hickey , 'Sean loved us and we loved him' the respect people had for his opinion, his bar and his character was enormous. Sadly quiet a few of the original 'regulars' have passed on and Mary spoke of them and the warm community of people that had known each other because of that place.

Later, John Hickey (son of Sean Hickey) brought photo albums and stories of his father were told and memories celebrated. Coincidently, we discovered from John's old photos that we have returned the Sarsfield Bar / SpiritStore to the colour it had been before it was painted green.

...it was a lovely last day.

John Hickey (son of the original owner) locked the door on the last night.

Images by Neville Gawley (watermarked)

From digging Peotry to digging Bones

Tues 29th Sept Stuart Nealon, Poetry workshop, followed later by Brendan Wilkins, Archeology Talk -

'Recently Reported Road Deaths on the N6: 3500BC - 1500AD'

The talk gave an insight into some of the questions Archeologists are asking in current research, in Brendan's case, what were the ceremonies attached to the deaths that occurred in a particular region of Ireland (area defined by the archeology that took place alongside the development of the N6 roadway) over the period of time 3500BC-1500AD.

This talk is to be presented at the British Museum shortly, we were delighted to have a preview.