Cabra History.Com

Congratulations to Cabra Australian Liam O’Kelly on reaching his 70th birthday this week.

Liam has been living in Australia now for forty five years. He was originally born in the Rotunda Hospital on Dublins Parnell Square. His family lived in 551 North Circular Road next to Russell Street where Brendan Behan once lived. ‘I was four and a half years old when we made the move to Cabra West. I remember Air Raid shelters outside our door on the North Circular Road and a big vat made of concrete. The firemen filled it up with water in case any bombs were dropped on us. We often used it to urinate in. We used the Air Raid shelter as a cowboy hut. On moving to Cabra West we hired a horse and cart to transport all of our belongings on. We walked all the way to Cabra and it was a great adventure. We were allocated a house on Bannow Road right beside the railway line and the Royal Canal. When we arrived my mother got talking to the woman who lived next door. She was Mrs Judge and her husband was a Postman. Straightaway Mrs Judge offered my mother a cup of tea. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship between the two of them. But then again that’s Cabra people for you. I originally moved to England and then to Australia but my heart was always back in Dublin. Little did my parents know all those years ago when they brought me home from the Rotunda Hospital that I’d end up living with my family on the other side of the world. In recent years of course the world has become smaller in regards to communicating with people. The Cabra History.Com website has opened up a whole new world for me. It’s almost like I’m back in Cabra and in touch with all our old neighbours. I’ve had a great seventy years of adventure, love and loss and I plan on being around for another seventy at least’…Liam O’Kelly.