Mar 22 2015
‘Broomer…’
The other week I was having a good oul gawk at the plaque on this wall when a thought came to my mind. You see, I think it might have been the actual bridge itself that put the idea into your man’s head when he worked out that equation all those years ago and not his brain as everyone thinks. Now this is what it is, I was thinking that maybe if I sat under the bridge for a while that I might be able to tune in if you like and see what kind of stories the bridge might want me to know about. Now wouldn’t that be a gas thing all the same?
Because I reckon that thousands of pairs of feet must have crossed over and back on that bridge over the years. And who was the first person to walk across it? What if it started rattling off the names of all the lads who dived off it into the water below or the names of all those who threw a dead dog over it’s wall or a couple of little kittens in a sack. Or maybe it would tell of all the Mammy’s and Daddy’s taking their families over it for a walk up along the canal to pick Blackberries in September.
And you know when it was first built in the 1700’s it was out in the middle of the country. There wasn’t too much traffic passing over it then. Little did it know what lay in store for it when the Corpo started building all the houses in Cabra. But I suppose like most things in life it got used to all the kids and families, cats and dogs and bicycles passed over it. Or men like the Da’ going up to the Dump to have a good pooch around for a bit of old tin to tie onto the railings at the front of the house.
Sure wouldn’t we have been lost without it all the same? And didn’t it make it nice and handy for us all going up to the Cabra Baths and all. I don’t know of anyone who grew up in Cabra or Cabra West that hasn’t crossed that bridge at one time or another. Old and all as it is I think it’s beginning to show it’s age now. Perhaps that’s why it was made one-way where the traffic is concerned. I think it was a little bit upset when they started building that knew bridge up the way at Reilly’s Bridge. It’s not inclined to want to retire just yet. So the next time you walk over it or under it tell it your name and then you’ll always be remembered. Well that’s it for now about Broombridge…