Chapter Three - ‘Growing up within the Lanigan household’
The greatest of all Irish evils was to show its ugly head early in the marriage of Lizzy Lanigan. It wasn’t that of work shyness, wife beating, or even infidelity, but instead, the demon drink!
Soon into their marriage, Lizzy was to learn about the only Irish institution that is more powerful than the Catholic Church; the one establishment where attendance is usually addictive as opposed to mandatory; the public house!
Lizzy should never have been so unrealistic in her bridal expectations of change she held before she married Mick. The signs had been there during their time of courtship but being intoxicated by love for her man, Lizzy hadn’t placed much attention on such omens. She saw nothing strange for a young man to have a strong thirst occasionally and never gave the matter a second thought.
Within two months of having ‘tied the knot’ in Kilkenny, their glossy future in Portlaw started to lose some of its shine. Mick’s promise of a rosy future together that he made to Lizzy during their honeymoon period gradually faded, and a more realistic down-to-earth ‘This is how it is!’ phase was substituted instead!
Soon into their marriage, Lizzy Lanigan began to realise that she would never be able to keep her husband’s thirst for the drink under control. Even had her husband, Mick, come straight home from work on wage night after leaving the Tannery, Lizzy would still have had to struggle to provide enough food for the family table until her husband was next paid.
The reality, however, was to prove much worse than Lizzy could ever have known when she married her handsome husband.
Not once in their entire marriage did Mick Lanigan bring an unopened wage packet home. However much his wife reminded him of what little she had in her purse to buy provisions from week to week, it went in one ear and out of the other, as it was pissed up against Milligan’s pub wall! Mick Lanigan’s drinking merely worsened an already poor situation.
From the seven children that Lizzy Lanigan gave birth to, there were two lots of twins within them.
Next to Mary came brother Adam. He was followed by twin sisters who were named Brigit and Bernadette; and after them, came brother Dermot. Last in the family line were Mary’s younger brothers, the twins, Peter and Paul.
In fact, multiple births were to become a common feature in the Lanigan genes that were passed down over future generations.
Even after the successive births of an ever-increasing family of seven children during their first ten years of their marriage, Mick Lanigan’s thirst for the demon drink never lessened.
Even her oldest child, Mary, who was the apple of her father’s eye, couldn’t persuade him to come straight home from his work at the Tannery on wage night.
Lizzy Lanigan knew that the only chance she’d ever have of getting her hands on an unopened wage packet, would be to wait outside the Tannery gates when the hooter went at 5.30 pm on wage day and relieve her husband of it before he blew next week’s family rent and food allowance at Milligan’s pub.
But Lizzy Lanigan loved her husband too much to ever shame him in such a public manner. She knew Mick to be the proudest of men, and when all is said and done, Lizzy knew that the ability to retain pride among one’s fellow man and being able to hold true to one’s word once it had been given are the two most treasured possessions of a poor man. In times of austerity and great need, they are often the only thing a man can call his own! Lizzy knew that to take that away, and the man goes with it!
Soon into their marriage, Lizzy was to learn about the only Irish institution that is more powerful than the Catholic Church; the one establishment where attendance is usually addictive as opposed to mandatory; the public house!
Lizzy should never have been so unrealistic in her bridal expectations of change she held before she married Mick. The signs had been there during their time of courtship but being intoxicated by love for her man, Lizzy hadn’t placed much attention on such omens. She saw nothing strange for a young man to have a strong thirst occasionally and never gave the matter a second thought.
Within two months of having ‘tied the knot’ in Kilkenny, their glossy future in Portlaw started to lose some of its shine. Mick’s promise of a rosy future together that he made to Lizzy during their honeymoon period gradually faded, and a more realistic down-to-earth ‘This is how it is!’ phase was substituted instead!
Soon into their marriage, Lizzy Lanigan began to realise that she would never be able to keep her husband’s thirst for the drink under control. Even had her husband, Mick, come straight home from work on wage night after leaving the Tannery, Lizzy would still have had to struggle to provide enough food for the family table until her husband was next paid.
The reality, however, was to prove much worse than Lizzy could ever have known when she married her handsome husband.
Not once in their entire marriage did Mick Lanigan bring an unopened wage packet home. However much his wife reminded him of what little she had in her purse to buy provisions from week to week, it went in one ear and out of the other, as it was pissed up against Milligan’s pub wall! Mick Lanigan’s drinking merely worsened an already poor situation.
From the seven children that Lizzy Lanigan gave birth to, there were two lots of twins within them.
Next to Mary came brother Adam. He was followed by twin sisters who were named Brigit and Bernadette; and after them, came brother Dermot. Last in the family line were Mary’s younger brothers, the twins, Peter and Paul.
In fact, multiple births were to become a common feature in the Lanigan genes that were passed down over future generations.
Even after the successive births of an ever-increasing family of seven children during their first ten years of their marriage, Mick Lanigan’s thirst for the demon drink never lessened.
Even her oldest child, Mary, who was the apple of her father’s eye, couldn’t persuade him to come straight home from his work at the Tannery on wage night.
Lizzy Lanigan knew that the only chance she’d ever have of getting her hands on an unopened wage packet, would be to wait outside the Tannery gates when the hooter went at 5.30 pm on wage day and relieve her husband of it before he blew next week’s family rent and food allowance at Milligan’s pub.
But Lizzy Lanigan loved her husband too much to ever shame him in such a public manner. She knew Mick to be the proudest of men, and when all is said and done, Lizzy knew that the ability to retain pride among one’s fellow man and being able to hold true to one’s word once it had been given are the two most treasured possessions of a poor man. In times of austerity and great need, they are often the only thing a man can call his own! Lizzy knew that to take that away, and the man goes with it!
~~~~~
As the years progressed and Mick Lanigan’s drinking worsened, each new year brought with it the birth of another child. Lizzy Lanigan was eventually obliged to conclude that she’d unfortunately married a romantic drunk who seemed eager to father a soccer team, and who was never going to change his ways either inside or outside the bedroom.
If only Mick Lanigan hadn’t been a perfect husband and father between every Monday to Friday, Lizzy would have risked the eternal wrath of her parents, the Pope, and the Holy Roman Catholic Church by packing her case, gathering her seven children together and leaving him to fend for himself!
Sure enough, Mick liked to have the odd drink with the boys during his courtship days with Lizzy, but she simply put that down to wild spirits, and assumed that his behaviour would alter after the responsibilities of being a married man fell to him.
Even before their first child was born, Lizzy continued to convince herself that Mick would cut down on his drinking when he became a father. When their first child came along, Lizzy remained bitterly disappointed when the expected change in her husband’s drinking pattern didn’t happen.
Lizzy would have known what to do had her husband ever been more than ‘a weekend drunk’. It was as if he transformed from Dr Jekyll to Mr. Hyde and back between weekdays and weekends. Once he got that wage packet after getting paid, it would instantly start burning a hole in his pocket, and his thirst would rapidly grow without abatement until he had downed his first pint at Mulligan’s pub.
As soon as he walked through the Tannery gates on a Friday wage night, Mick Lanigan would go straight to the pub where he’d get drunk. He’d stay drunk until he started work again the following Monday morning; before reverting to the perfect husband and loving father-figure Lizzy and Mary loved dearly. Then, as sure as God made little green apples, when the following Friday came around, the drinking cycle would recommence. Between Friday evening and last orders on Sunday night, he would live in the pub and sleep in the home!
After leaving the Tannery on wage night, Mick Lanigan would visit the pub with half a dozen other drinkers, where he’d drink until closing time and arrive home drunk, yet never belligerent.
After putting him to bed, Lizzy would empty his pockets in a bid to salvage whatever part of his wages he had remaining.
However angry or frustrated Lizzy got with her husband’s inability to leave the beer alone on a weekend, throughout the remainder of the week she knew him to be the soberest, kindest, and gentlest of husbands a wife could hope to have; along with being a loving and attentive father. Lizzy loved him to bits and required very little coaxing to let him perform the husbandly duty he was always best at.
Whenever, anyone asked Lizzy how she managed to put up with her husband’s drinking at weekends, whilst she would never seek to excuse him, she never put Mick down in the eyes of others. If pushed to comment, Lizzy would simply remark, “Me and the children know we have 100% of him every weekday and having him home five out of seven days weekly is more than most families can honestly boast of!”
However hard Mick Lanigan’s inability to reduce his weekend drinking proved to be, Lizzy hoped in her heart of hearts that love does truly conquer all!
Even Mick’s work mates were jealous of his ability to father seven children in nine years of married life and gave him the nick name of ‘The Great Persuader’ for being able to coax his wife to his amorous ways with little effort ever needing to be spent.
If only Mick Lanigan hadn’t been a perfect husband and father between every Monday to Friday, Lizzy would have risked the eternal wrath of her parents, the Pope, and the Holy Roman Catholic Church by packing her case, gathering her seven children together and leaving him to fend for himself!
Sure enough, Mick liked to have the odd drink with the boys during his courtship days with Lizzy, but she simply put that down to wild spirits, and assumed that his behaviour would alter after the responsibilities of being a married man fell to him.
Even before their first child was born, Lizzy continued to convince herself that Mick would cut down on his drinking when he became a father. When their first child came along, Lizzy remained bitterly disappointed when the expected change in her husband’s drinking pattern didn’t happen.
Lizzy would have known what to do had her husband ever been more than ‘a weekend drunk’. It was as if he transformed from Dr Jekyll to Mr. Hyde and back between weekdays and weekends. Once he got that wage packet after getting paid, it would instantly start burning a hole in his pocket, and his thirst would rapidly grow without abatement until he had downed his first pint at Mulligan’s pub.
As soon as he walked through the Tannery gates on a Friday wage night, Mick Lanigan would go straight to the pub where he’d get drunk. He’d stay drunk until he started work again the following Monday morning; before reverting to the perfect husband and loving father-figure Lizzy and Mary loved dearly. Then, as sure as God made little green apples, when the following Friday came around, the drinking cycle would recommence. Between Friday evening and last orders on Sunday night, he would live in the pub and sleep in the home!
After leaving the Tannery on wage night, Mick Lanigan would visit the pub with half a dozen other drinkers, where he’d drink until closing time and arrive home drunk, yet never belligerent.
After putting him to bed, Lizzy would empty his pockets in a bid to salvage whatever part of his wages he had remaining.
However angry or frustrated Lizzy got with her husband’s inability to leave the beer alone on a weekend, throughout the remainder of the week she knew him to be the soberest, kindest, and gentlest of husbands a wife could hope to have; along with being a loving and attentive father. Lizzy loved him to bits and required very little coaxing to let him perform the husbandly duty he was always best at.
Whenever, anyone asked Lizzy how she managed to put up with her husband’s drinking at weekends, whilst she would never seek to excuse him, she never put Mick down in the eyes of others. If pushed to comment, Lizzy would simply remark, “Me and the children know we have 100% of him every weekday and having him home five out of seven days weekly is more than most families can honestly boast of!”
However hard Mick Lanigan’s inability to reduce his weekend drinking proved to be, Lizzy hoped in her heart of hearts that love does truly conquer all!
Even Mick’s work mates were jealous of his ability to father seven children in nine years of married life and gave him the nick name of ‘The Great Persuader’ for being able to coax his wife to his amorous ways with little effort ever needing to be spent.
