Cabra History.Com

This is a gas story I heard one time and it came straight from the Ma’s mouth. When she was thirteen her and her friend got a job in Mitchell’s Rosary Bead Factory in Waterford Street, behind the old Dandy Garage. Now that street is not there anymore, it went from Marlborough Street to Gardiner Street. Now you remember your man off the news on RTE, Charles Mitchell? well his family owned it. And there he was in our house every day at six o’clock and we sitting down to have our tea. ‘Turn up the sound…’ the Ma’ used to say ‘…I want to hear if he talks like his father’. Well anyway, when she was working at counting the beads and that her pal met a fella from Ringsend and asked the Ma’ to go with her when they were meeting up at Butt Bridge. ‘You see…’ says the Ma’ ‘…that was the boundary between us and them and we weren’t supposed to go anywhere near Ringsend or Raytown as we used to call it’. Her mother told her that she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere near Ringsend because ‘They’re not the same as us, they’re different’ said the Granny. The Ma’ said that there was always a great dance on in Ringsend and her and her pal used to go to it. Another place they used to go to in Ringsend was called ‘The Shelly Bank’ so they could watch the boys swimming. So one evening after the dance two of the lads insisted that they leave the Ma’ and her pal home. The two girls were in a panic in case anyone from town saw them with the boys and knew they were from Ringsend. So they agreed to let the lads walk them home, only this time the girls decided to play a great trick on them. When they crossed onto the northside of Butt Bridge they headed up to North Great George’s Street and well away from where they lived in Railway Street. The Ma’ said that they came to a house that had the hall door opened and her and the pal said goodbye to the lads and ducked inside the door real quick. They stayed inside behind the door for about twenty minutes before getting the courage up to have a look out. The two lads of course were well gone by this time and the girls were so relieved at not getting caught. So off they rambled home, arm in arm and chuffed with themselves. I have a picture of the Ma’ with the two lads out near Clontarf on another occasion. The four of them went on a date to Howth Head. Weren’t they gas all the same…well that’s the Ma’ for yeah…