Before writing my novels I always set aside two or three weeks of dedicated research. I visit museums and libraries, archives and records offices and most importantly of all, I walk around Ryhope with my ‘writing head on’. I try to look at the buildings and roads and imagine them as they might have been a hundred years ago. I peer over doorways, walk down cobbled lanes and breathe in the sea air. I imagine alighting from a train at what is left of one of the two train stations and try to catch a glimpse of old Ryhope through a fresh pair of eyes.
It was while researching for
The Tuppenny Child, that I learned of something new and unusual. But it wasn’t something I discovered in a museum or old book, it was something I read, of all places, on Twitter!
My friend Emma lives in Dublin and on January 6 2018 she tweeted this. I am copying it below with Emma’s permission:
We’re celebrating #NollaignamBan (Women's Christmas) today
in Ireland. Traditionally a day when men would take over the
housework, we now celebrate it in this and other ways.
So, to all the women in my life, in Ireland and abroad, today is for you.
I had never heard of the Women’s Christmas before and when I asked Emma about it, she told me about the wonderful Irish tradition. It’s sometimes called the Little Christmas too.
Traditionally in Ireland on January 6, the women who have worked so hard over Christmas, are celebrated on “Nollaig na mBan” – which roughly translates as Women’s Christmas. It’s a day when women come together to celebrate with food and drink, with gifts, singing and joy as they take a break from looking after their families over the festive season.
I was intrigued by what Emma had told me and wanted to know more. I immediately went online and what I found was so magical that I knew I had to include a Women’s Christmas in the book I was about to start writing. To do so however, meant that at least one of my characters neeed to be Irish and so I created the character of pub landlady Bessie Brogan so that I could include this wonderful Irish tradition in my book.
The Women’s Christmas in my book is done in a typical Ryhope way. Bessie Brogan locks the pub door when the women are seated with drinks in their hands and food that she and Sadie have cooked is waiting at the bar. The men knock at the pub door, demanding to come in.
‘Bessie? You open? I’m dying of thirst here!’
‘We’re shut!’ she yells back.
‘Shut? But you’re never shut!’
‘We are tonight!’
Not only did I manage to include The Women’s Christmas in The Tuppenny Child, but it has a whole chapter dedicated to it where secrets are revealed, songs are sung, and a glass is raised to those lost in the war.
Thank you, Emma in Dublin!
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Glenda Young
Author of historical novels with Headline
Twitter:
@Flaming_Nora
Facebook:
GlendaYoungAuthor
