You can’t keep a Cork woman down – especially on Nollaig na mBan

Welcome to the day formerly known as Women’s Christmas, or Nollaig na mBan, back when men had their place and women knew better. According to the website Discovering Ireland website, aimed at visitors to our dear isle, “on this day it is the tradition in Ireland for the women to get together and enjoy their own Christmas, while the men folk stay at home and handle all the chores.”

Who knew? Bless my privileged gender, but I never had to stay at home on January 6th and attend to the domestics. (Shhh!)

It then tells us that “it is also common for children to buy their mothers and grandmothers presents on this day, though this custom is gradually being overtaken by Mothers’ Day.” Such a pity? Bring it back, I say.

While the Nollaig na mBan tradition may be dying out in Ireland, it remains strong in Cork, the website says. It then tells us that “many bars and restaurants in Cork city report a near 100 per cent female clientele on this day, as the Corkonian women meet up with girl friends, sisters, aunts and mothers to celebrate their own little Christmas with Nollaig na mBan.”

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It wouldn’t surprise me one little bit. Cork women are fit for anything, unlike the rest of us at this time of year when there is so much more night than day, the weather is foul, funds are low, and January – the worst month – stretches way, way beyond the horizon.

It’s enough to make you wonder whether it might not be such a bad idea to head for one of those pubs in Cork where the clientele is 100 per cent female on this day and the drink is flowing freely. Admittedly, being of the always-wrong gender might be a problem. Then, one could do a Barry Humphries/Dame Edna Everage on it and dress accordingly.

Women, adult human females, from Old English wimmen.

inaword@irishtimes.com