"Parish's Food"

[Geoffrey S Sewell]

This is probably the best place to find some answers. My father was born
and raised in Dunmurry, NI. Reading through his account of what he can
remember growing up he recounts that he was 'delicate' as a child which
necessitated frequent doses of "Parish's food". Can anyone tell me what it
was? I have many other questions that i will post over time. His memoirs
make for interesting reading.

Geoffrey Sewell
Johannesburg
South Africa

[nifty]

Parishes Food was an tonic based on iron -tasted AWFUL !

[Ray Dobson]

Parish's Chemical Food was a red coloured compound syrup of iron
phosphate (Syr Ferri Phos Co). When I started in pharmacy in 1943 we
dispensed gallons of this stuff, on its own or mixed with something
else, liquid malt for instance. Has not been prescribed for years.
WRD

[JPM...@aol.com]

Might this just be what was depicted in the Novel and Movie "Angela's Ashes",
where the poor, really, really poor would wait outside the parish rectory
after dinner. The priests would wrap up their leftovers in newspaper and
give what they could to as many as possible. Usually, not the prime part of
the meal, more like the undigestable fat, the fish heads, etc...

Jim

In a message dated 10/29/01 11:39:20 PM Pacific Standard Time,
ge...@slagment.co.za writes:

> This is probably the best place to find some answers. My father was born
> and raised in Dunmurry, NI. Reading through his account of what he can
> remember growing up he recounts that he was 'delicate' as a child which
> necessitated frequent doses of "Parish's food". Can anyone tell me what it
> was? I have many other questions that i will post over time. His memoirs
> make for interesting reading.
>
> Geoffrey Sewell

> Johannesburg
> South Africa
>

[bmul]

delicate children were given cod liver oil and parishes food,,,they went
together,,a vbig spoonful of each ,every morning,,parishes food was i
think a iron supplement\\and had a nice \ taste unlike cod liver
oil,,\\most kids were given it every morning

Geoffrey S Sewell <ge...@slagment.co.za> wrote in message
news:3bde5...@news1.mweb.co.za...

> This is probably the best place to find some answers. My father was born

> and raised in Dunmurry, NI. Reading through his account of what he st
people had one]can

[Micheál Ó Caináin]

Wasn't just for delicate children!

When I was growing up my 5 brothers and sisters and I were lined up in
front of the kitchen larder and given a spoonful of cod-liver oil by our
mother. This was during the early to mid 1970's. It was horrible! Can't
remember if we were allowed sugar or honey afterwards.

Of course, my mother would say this routine was one of the reasons we all
grew up to be so healthy. LOL

Rgds

--
Micheál Ó Caináin
Do not reply to this address. Post to group.
"bmul" <bm...@eircom.net> wrote in message
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[Micheál Ó Caináin]

Cathy - what you are describing sounds more like Alms. How useful it was for
the recipients I have no idea, but I am sure it made the priests feel
better.

Rgds

--
Micheál Ó Caináin
Do not reply to this address. Post to group.

<JPM...@aol.com> wrote in message news:c3.1860b59...@aol.com...

[Barbara Czerny]

I can certainly remember "Parishs Food" and Cod Liver Oil in my childhood, our
family was also subjected to the weekly dose of Castor Oil and Orange Juice on
Saturday mornings. The Orange juice was supposed to hide the taste of the oil,
but the oil would float to the top instead, it was horrible..
Barbara

[McGuinn]

Yes, - this was a compound syrup of iron phosphate (Syr Ferri Phos Co) and
it had the horrible problem of discolouring the teeth, which often became
black. Fruit juices were regarded as the remedy for this. Your orange juice
may therefore have been part of the remedy for this. Pharmacists also used
to make up the Parrish's Food themselves starting with iron filings and
phosphoric acid. I am sure that it contributed significantly in those days
when diets were poor and food was often scarce and over cooked.
Regards to all.
Tom

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Barbara Czerny" <cze...@ycs.com.au> wrote in message
news:3BE1B67C...@ycs.com.au...

[nifty]

Sorry Tom .cooking would not affect the iron content of food -the vitamins
certainly esp the heat labile ones like C .People just didnt have sufficient
red meat and green vegs in those days .Were you ever in Shrewsbury Road ?

[McGuinn]

You are very right, Ann, but it certainly did not do a lot for the rest.

Regards to all in Tramore

Tom
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"nifty" <phel...@indigo.ie> wrote in message
news:6QHE7.5224$8s4....@news.indigo.ie...

[murphy...@gmail.com]

I was given Parish's food between 1948 and early 1960s. I absolutely loved it and would drink it out of the bottle. We were also given malt and senna. I have 8 siblings and we were very poor. Dad poached Salmon, trout, rabbits and hares. The local farmer had an excellent vegetable field and we would also help ourselves to his veg. In fact we had an outhouse where we would store the vegetables. We did not get electricity until 1950 and an outside tap for water in 1964. I lived one mile from a very busy town in Co. Cork so not exactly rural. At school we queued up each lunch time for a slice of fresh bread, no butter which was provided by the local mill. The nuns who taught me kept the poor children at the back of the class and were not very interested in their academic ability. The parents of townies would come in each day with lunches for their children which was extremely cruel to children who did not have any lunch, with the exception of the slice of bread. Piano lessons were provided for 2/6d. I so wanted to learn, but no money no lessons. The piano pupils were allowed to get dressed in their finery. For exams and then paraded in front of the class, again very cruel.

[Michael Danahy via]

And what, pray tell,is Parish's Food?  Angela's Ashes all over again and did you see Philomena?

On Monday, August 25, 2014 3:01 PM, murphyellen20 via <gen...@rootsweb.com> wrote:

>
>
>I was given Parish's food between 1948 and early 1960s.  I absolutely loved it and would drink it out of the bottle.  We were also given malt and senna.  I have 8 siblings and we were very poor.  Dad poached Salmon, trout, rabbits and hares.  The local farmer had an excellent vegetable field and we would also help ourselves to his veg.  In fact we had an outhouse where we would store the vegetables.  We did not get electricity until 1950 and an outside tap for water in 1964.  I lived one mile from a very busy town in Co. Cork so not exactly rural.  At school we queued up each lunch time for a slice of fresh bread, no butter which was provided by the local mill.  The nuns who taught me kept the poor children at the back of the class and were not very interested in their academic ability. The parents of townies would come in each day with lunches for their children which was extremely cruel to children who did not have any lunch, with the

exception of the slice of bread.  Pi!

>ano lessons were provided for 2/6d.  I so wanted to learn, but no money no lessons.  The piano pupils were allowed to get dressed in their finery. For exams and then paraded in front of the class, again very cruel.
>

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>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GENIRE-...@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
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>
>

[Michael Danahy via]

And what, pray tell,is Parish's Food?  Angela's Ashes all over again and did you see Philomena?

On Monday, August 25, 2014 3:01 PM, murphyellen20 via <gen...@rootsweb.com> wrote:

>
>
>I was given Parish's food between 1948 and early 1960s.  I absolutely loved it and would drink it out of the bottle.  We were also given malt and senna.  I have 8 siblings and we were very poor.  Dad poached Salmon, trout, rabbits and hares.  The local farmer had an excellent vegetable field and we would also help ourselves to his veg.  In fact we had an outhouse where we would store the vegetables.  We did not get electricity until 1950 and an outside tap for water in 1964.  I lived one mile from a very busy town in Co. Cork so not exactly rural.  At school we queued up each lunch time for a slice of fresh bread, no butter which was provided by the local mill.  The nuns who taught me kept the poor children at the back of the class and were not very interested in their academic ability. The parents of townies would come in each day with lunches for their children which was extremely cruel to children who did not have any lunch, with the

exception of the slice of bread.  Pi!

>ano lessons were provided for 2/6d.  I so wanted to learn, but no money no lessons.  The piano pupils were allowed to get dressed in their finery. For exams and then paraded in front of the class, again very cruel.
>

[RoddyMcCorley]

On 8/25/2014 12:45 PM, murphy...@gmail.com wrote:
> I was given Parish's food between 1948 and early 1960s. I absolutely loved it and would drink it out of the bottle. We were also given malt and senna. I have 8 siblings and we were very poor. Dad poached Salmon, trout, rabbits and hares. The local farmer had an excellent vegetable field and we would also help ourselves to his veg. In fact we had an outhouse where we would store the vegetables. We did not get electricity until 1950 and an outside tap for water in 1964. I lived one mile from a very busy town in Co. Cork so not exactly rural. At school we queued up each lunch time for a slice of fresh bread, no butter which was provided by the local mill. The nuns who taught me kept the poor children at the back of the class and were not very interested in their academic ability. The parents of townies would come in each day with lunches for their children which was extremely cruel to children who did not have any lunch, with the exception of the slice of bread. Piano le
ssons were provided for 2/6d. I so wanted to learn, but no money no lessons. The piano pupils were allowed to get dressed in their finery. For exams and then paraded in front of the class, again very cruel.
>

Sounds like right out of Angela's Ashes.

My mom was raised in Kilkee, County Clare and the story sounds pretty
similar.

--
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul
with evil.

Pennsylvania - T� s� difri�il anseo.

[Charles O'Neill via]

On 8/26/14 3:00 AM, genire-...@rootsweb.com wrote:

Ellen - what a great story. You need to write down all your
recollections of your early life in Co. Cork. Priceless.

Pat O'Neill
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:45:12 -0700 (PDT)
> From: murphy...@gmail.com
> Subject: "Parish's Food"
> To: gen...@rootsweb.com
> Message-ID: <8455f14b-a17f-4704...@googlegroups.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I was given Parish's food between 1948 and early 1960s. I absolutely loved it and would drink it out of the bottle. We were also given malt and senna. I have 8 siblings and we were very poor. Dad poached Salmon, trout, rabbits and hares. The local farmer had an excellent vegetable field and we would also help ourselves to his veg. In fact we had an outhouse where we would store the vegetables. We did not get electricity until 1950 and an outside tap for water in 1964. I lived one mile from a very busy town in Co. Cork so not exactly rural. At school we queued up each lunch time for a slice of fresh bread, no butter which was provided by the local mill. The nuns who taught me kept the poor children at the back of the class and were not very interested in their academic ability. The parents of townies would come in each day with lunches for their children which was extremely cruel to children who did not have any lunch, with the exception of the slice of bread. Pi!
> ano lessons were provided for 2/6d. I so wanted to learn, but no money no lessons. The piano pupils were allowed to get dressed in their finery. For exams and then paraded in front of the class, again very cruel.
>
>
> End of GENIRE Digest, Vol 9, Issue 38
> *************************************

[RoddyMcCorley]

I did see Philomena - absolutely wonderful movie.

I have a cousin that was raised in a convent (laundry?) and she has
always refused to discuss her childhood in Ireland.

[maltl...@gmail.com]

Hi......parish's food was used as a tonic. It had the effect of making you want to eat.
That along with cod liver oil & malt were always at the ready if my appetite started to dwindle.
My mom always had a good supply. I gave both to my son in the 1970's.
Wish I could still buy Parish's food today.
Jo.

[annems...@gmail.com]

Parishes food was given to me as a child to give me an appetite...or so they said...always ate well so don't understand the rationale. When drinking red wine I am sometimes reminded of this concoction.

[cecilia]

>On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 02:20:39 -0700 (PDT), annems...@gmail.com wrote:

>Parishes food was given to me as a child to give me an appetite...or so they said...
> always ate well so don't understand the rationale.
> When drinking red wine I am sometimes reminded of this concoction.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1113565/ gives
ingredients.

[pinks...@gmail.com]

I was given Parish's food by my GP I in about 1983. Nuts eh but it certainly gave me back my appetite for food! I'm looking at this site now as I know a young woman who is suffering similarly to me at the age I was then and would do love to give her a bottle of this magic tonic. .. It seems it is no longer available. That is so sad as it worked wonders for so many including myself. I'm just grateful that they still made it when I needed it. One bottle was enough! Anyone out there who may read this, please say a prayer for Naomi, l'm now on the hunt for Santon Tonic Wine with iron. .. second best but with a bag of crystallised ginger I'm hoping it will do the trick. She's a beautiful young dancer who lives and works in Manchester UK for a Christian charity. I'm not a Christian myself but I believe in the power of prayer and of healing by the strength of the Human spirit. A few good old fashioned remedies help! I was a robust child and according to my Mum it was due to a spoonful of malt extract every day in my infancy. It tasted lovely! I know you can still buy it. Beware though, my son who is now 30 had a bad reaction to malt. It made him very violent and hyper as a child and add a young man he got violent on beer and ended up in prison twice. He's okay now, he doesn't drink but he's still sensitive to malt which is an ingredient in many processed foods and drinks, even as malt extract.

[shan...@gmail.com]

Compound syrup of ferrous phosphate (parrish's food) composition

Iron 4.3 g
Phosphoric acid 48ml
calcium carbonate 13.6
pottasium bicarbonate 1g
sodium phospahte 1g
Cochineal 3.5g
sucrose 700g
orange flavour 50ml
purified water sufficient tyo produce 1000ml

[valery...@gmail.com]

I have been suffering from multiple Bowen's cease for 36yrs. Removed by surgery, laser and infrared anti coagulation. Still the lesions keep retuning on different parts of my body.The Times medical team investigated , because I had taken Parishes chemical food over the course of 4/5years.Their findings , and that of a dermatologist was Arsenic poisoning. From Parishes. I was told by them that it Had contained Arsenic , but was removed in 1948, because of skin complaints. So what is the truth. At this moment I am waiting for further surgery.

[peternight...@gmail.com]

Where can I buy Parishs food for human consumption?

[jenny...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, 7 August 2016 19:08:55 UTC+1, peternight...@gmail.com wrote:
> Where can I buy Parishs food for human consumption?

Don't think they make it any more

[jenny...@gmail.com]

My mother would give me an my sibling 1 teaspoon of Parishes food and 1 teaspoon of malt every night. We lived in Australia were very healthy so no idea why we did this.

[joyces...@gmail.com]

[joyces...@gmail.com]

I have come across this in my search to find Parishs food, which I had as a child but no ones seems to have heard of it. None of my four sisters had it but I had been sent from the east end of london in 1953 to a school in sussex for "delicate" children, I was unusually small for my years and very thin and pale. Every day I had parishs foodat the school, I gained weight and it saved my life. when I left school and had no more parishs food, I gadually got very ill again and was diagnosed with Coeliac disease as the cause of my problems, I was given a blood transfusion put on a gluten free diet and flourished. I am now 78 years of age, still on the diet, feeling very well and no disabilities. But it did ruin my teeth!!!

[joyces...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, 30 October 2001 13:36:58 UTC, nifty wrote:
> Parishes Food was an tonic based on iron -tasted AWFUL !

[RoddyMcCorley]

This is from a post from 2015:

shan...@gmail.com 12/20/15

Compound syrup of ferrous phosphate (parrish's food) composition

Iron 4.3 g
Phosphoric acid 48ml
calcium carbonate 13.6

potassium bicarbonate 1g
sodium phosphate 1g

Cochineal 3.5g
sucrose 700g
orange flavour 50ml

purified water sufficient to produce 1000ml

One of the posts I saw stated that it may have contained arsenic. That
is possible that arsenic was inadvertently added simply due to the fact
that it often accompanies other sulfide minerals in nature.

--
False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul
with evil.

Pennsylvania - Tá sé difriúil anseo.

[karenin...@gmail.com]

My chemist made it up for me.

[sari....@gmail.com]

[Doug Laidlaw]

It seems to have been a tonic:

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1954799/medicines-you-remember-from-childhood/p4

Another link suggested that it was bright red.

HTH,

Doug.
--
www.ryersonindex.org/ indexing Australian death notices.
6.8 million entries to date.

[Doug Laidlaw]

On 19/11/18 22:32, Doug Laidlaw wrote:
> On 16/09/18 20:31, sari....@gmail.com wrote:
>> On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 7:29:08 AM UTC, Geoffrey S Sewell wrote:
>>> This is probably the best place to find some answers.  My father was
>>> born
>>> and raised in Dunmurry, NI.  Reading through his account of what he can
>>> remember growing up he recounts that he was 'delicate' as a child which
>>> necessitated frequent doses of "Parish's food".  Can anyone tell me
>>> what it
>>> was?  I have many other questions that i will post over time.  His
>>> memoirs
>>> make for interesting reading.
>>>
>>> Geoffrey Sewell
>>> Johannesburg
>>> South Africa
>>
> It seems to have been a tonic:
>
> https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/1954799/medicines-you-remember-from-childhood/p4
>
>
> Another link suggested that it was bright red.
>
> HTH,
>
> Doug.

I mentioned this thread to my wife, who is a qualified pharmacist. She
believes that the tonic was originally "Parrish food," and the name was
corrupted. "Parish food" suggested to me the food given in workhouses,
but that would NOT be given to delicate babies.

Doug.

[marg...@gmail.com]

I'm 76 and as a child in London, loved parishes food. It was for anaemia and I thought it delicious! It was red and came in a medicine bottle.

[RoddyMcCorley]

On 6/13/2020 4:13 AM, marg...@gmail.com wrote:
> I'm 76 and as a child in London, loved parishes food. It was for anaemia and I thought it delicious! It was red and came in a medicine bottle.
>

Are you sure it was not "Geritol" or the GB equivalent?

--
Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish
childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

[BRIANA MASON]

Is this Jamaica y'all talking about?

[Jan Gray]

On Tuesday, 30 October 2001 at 22:17:29 UTC+10, bmul wrote:
> delicate children were given cod liver oil and parishes food,,,they went
> together,,a vbig spoonful of each ,every morning,,parishes food was i
> think a iron supplement\\and had a nice \ taste unlike cod liver
> oil,,\\most kids were given it every morning
> Geoffrey S Sewell <ge...@slagment.co.za> wrote in message
> news:3bde5...@news1.mweb.co.za...

> > This is probably the best place to find some answers. My father was born

> > and raised in Dunmurry, NI. Reading through his account of what he st
> people had one]can