Riobárd Ó Dwyer's Beara wit — 'An Irish Prayer' (from his Butte 'From Beara to Butte' visit), 'Dan and the Pope,' 'Every old stocking finds an old shoe'

Riobárd Ó Dwyer Papers, NEHGS (Mss 1097) — "Stories from Beara"; received as an email from Riobárd Ó Dwyer · private email correspondence; also deposited at NEHGS (American Ancestors) · 2012-01-31

oral historysecondary focus

Summary

Three pieces of Beara wit relayed by Riobárd Ó Dwyer (verbatim in notes.md per NEHGS rights): - **An Irish Prayer** — Ó Dwyer recounts that **while in Butte, Montana helping film the documentary "From Beara to Butte," he and Joan were invited to tea by Butte's Chief Executive**, whose wall bore the comic "Irish Prayer" ("...may He turn their ankles, so we'll know them by their limping!!"). They brought it home to Beara. This is a **direct, first-person link between Ó Dwyer's Beara→Butte documentary work and the family's own Beara→Butte migration** — and ties the archive to the inbox reference book "From Beara To Butte." - **Dan and the Pope** — a centenarian Beara man, asked by the priest after last rites to "pray for the Pope," retorts that he'll pray for himself, and the Pope can sort out his own problems. - **Every old stocking finds an old shoe** — a matchmaker's droll reassurance to an ageing woman seeking a husband.

Also mentioned

Riobárd Ó Dwyer
Beara genealogist/folklorist; co-creator/participant in the "From Beara to Butte" documentary. Travelled to Butte, Montana for the filming — the same Beara→Butte route as the family.
Joan · companion
Ó Dwyer's companion on the Butte visit (likely his wife). Not family.
Butte's Chief Executive (unnamed) · butte_host
Mayor / chief executive of Butte at the time of the "From Beara to Butte" filming, who hosted the Ó Dwyers to tea. Unnamed; a lead worth chasing for the date of the documentary.

Places

Beara Peninsula (primary)
Butte, Montana (secondary)
West Cork (context)

Themes

Story threads

Related sources

Transcription

transcription: complete · confidence high

# An Irish Prayer / Dan and the Pope / Every old stocking finds an old shoe *Beara wit relayed by Riobárd Ó Dwyer (email, 31 Jan 2012); also NEHGS Mss 1097.* > **Rights note.** NEHGS copy © NEHGS, CC BY-NC-ND, member-restricted. > Verbatim text is held in `notes.md` (private). Summary below is the > editor's own words. Three comic Beara pieces. The first frames the whole archive: Ó Dwyer tells how, **while in Butte, Montana to film the documentary "From Beara to Butte," he and Joan were hosted to tea by Butte's chief executive**, on whose wall hung the joke "Irish Prayer" (the one that ends "...may He turn their ankles, so we'll know them by their limping"). The other two — "Dan and the Pope" and the matchmaker's "every old stocking finds an old shoe" — are Beara humour. (Full verbatim in notes.md.)

Open questions

Date and details of the "From Beara to Butte" documentary, and the name of the Butte mayor/chief executive who hosted Ó Dwyer. Resolve when the "From Beara To Butte" book is ingested.