Cabra History.Com

My brother Noel Coffey was born on Christmas morning in 1945. He wasn’t due to be born until early January the next year. On Christmas Eve night my mother was was standing at the top of the stairs in our house on Killala Road with my other brother Bernard who tripped and fell. My mother thought that he was about to fall down the stairs and reached out to grab him. He fell on the floor and my mother fell down the stairs. My father came rushing out of the kitchen and along the hallway followed by my two eldest sister and another brother. My mother lay on the bottom step of the stairs in a lot of pain. My father got his bicycle out of the shed in our back garden and put my mother on the cross-bar. Off they headed into the Rotunda Hospital. The Matron turned to my mother and said ‘You’re only coming in here for a Christmas dinner’. My father looked at her with his fists clenched but my mother gave him a look that said ‘Leave this one to me’. So early Christmas morning my brother Noel was born. Happy Birthday Noel.