Cabra History.Com

Now I don’t actually remember what happened but I ended up in Temple Street Hospital when I was four years old. Every now and then my Da’ would take out his little brown diary and show me a note he had in it saying ‘Martin to see John F Murtagh, solicitor on his 21st birthday’.  Then he’d tell me the story of when I was knocked down by a van when I was four years old. You see, he remembered it so well because that was the day he crashed his motorbike and ended up in the Mater Hospital. So we both had hospitals in common for that date. I have no recollection of actually being  in hospital. I do remember sitting on a chair at home and my left leg in plaster.

You see my older brother Noel and his pal were heading off to rob an orchard in Barney’s Field at Cabra Cross and he had to take me with them because my mother told him to keep an eye on me because she had to go to the hospital to see my Da’. Now you have to keep in mind that Noel was only ten years old at the time and was more focused on robbing than on baby sitting. And of course me being me paid no attention to any traffic or anything else outside of my own little world.

So that’s how I ended up in hospital.