Oct 24 2010
This is my older brother Noel Coffey and his wife Sally Parnell. They live in Essex, England. Noel left Finbars School at 13 yrs of age to work as a messenger boy for the Monument Creamery in Grafton Street. He cycled his messenger bike all over Dublin delivering cream cakes and current buns. He remembers a time when my mother got her first washing machine that ran on gas. There was a handle on the outside of the lid that had to be moved back and forwards to help wash the clothes inside. The Gas Company had to put in a special fitting beside the gas stove that allowed the washing machine to be connected. Noel is 65 years old this coming Christmas Day. A month before he was due to be born my mother tripped and fell down the stairs of our house on Killala Road. My Da’ brought her to the Rotunda Hospital on the crossbar of his bicycle. The matron said to my mother ‘You’re only coming in here for your Christmas Dinner’. So that’s how our Noel came into the world.