Nov 04 2010
The Wireless in our house
We had an old wireless like this one in our house in Cabra West. Before we got a television it provided all the inhouse entertainment anyone could ask for. The Ma’ and me sisters loved ‘The Kennedy’s of Castle Ross’. The Da’ and the brothers got up out of bed in the early hours of the morning to listen to a boxing match all the way from America. The Ma’ always gave out to them because they wouldn’t get up at that hour to wallpaper her kitchen for her. After school of a winters afternoon we’d all sit around the fire in the dark listening to stories or a drama on our wireless. Sometimes when we’d be left on our own at home one of the brothers would put on the wireless and turn the tuning knob backwards and forwards and we’d all go into giggles of laughter at all the strange voices and languages that came out. Our wireless had a little glitch to it, one of the valves inside was loose and had to be tightened to make it work. One morning the Da’ got up early for work and stuck his hand in the back of the wireless to tighten the valve. Being bleary eyed and still half asleep at that hour of the morning he grabbed the wrong thing and got an electrical shock. After much cursing and swearing he managed to survive but learned a lesson about putting your hand into a wireless that’s plugged in and turned on. At twelve noon each day the Angelus Bells rang out over the radio. As my mother stood by the kitchen sink peeling potatoes for our dinner she would take a few minutes out of her busy schedule to say a prayer that my sister in England would do well at her nursing exams. The programme I loved most was ‘The Walton’s Programe’. ‘If you want to sing a song, sing an Irish song’ was their slogan. Then we had ‘Dear Frankie’ the agony aunt programme. ‘Dear Frankie, my boyfriend kissed me, is it a sin and will I have to tell it in confession.’? What a wonderful world of entertainment came out of that little box. I don’t know if too many people nowadays listens to the radio as people did years ago. We always called it the wireless because that’s what all the grown-ups called it.