Feb 27 2018
‘Where we grew up…’
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‘Cabra West as seen by a flock of Seagulls heading to the Dump up by the Tolka. And there’s Lower Killala Road circled in red. I can see Mrs Norton and Lottie Farrell sitting on the wall of the compound with a cup of tea in the hand. And there’s Mrs Lally leaning over the garden railings talking to Mrs McGuirk while Mrs Keegan is sweeping down her path and there’s Mrs Fallon out cleaning her windows. Sure there’s Mrs O’Leary brushing that Young Ones hair again and it full of …knots. I can see Granny Groves pushing the pram full of newspapers, the Evening Herald and the Press as she heads off doing her deliveries with a gang of kids helping her. And there’s young Eugene Courtney kicking football up against the lamp-post that all the girls are using for a swing. I can see Tango Flood sitting on the gate chatting up some moth. I can see Danny Mitchell talking to Laughie Abbott and they saying “Hello” across the road to Mrs Marshall whose heading up to the shops for her messages. There’s my own two sisters, Mary and Anne holding the skipping rope for all the girls, Kathleen Cullivan, Phyllis Wyatt, Patty Lackin, Barbara Power, Marie Byrne, Valerie Douglas, Rose O’Leary, Marie Keegan and they all shouting and screaming, “I’m next”. I can see Ambrose and Noelie O’Shea playing a game of the Mowl outside their house. And there’s meself and Willier Kavanagh at the Ma’s gate and me playing the guitar. There’s Mister Hayes on his way home from the Labour. I can see Audrey Valentine and her husband heading down the road to the Cabra Grand, they look like Doris Day and Rock Hudson. And there’s Leslie Ashton and Frankie McCormick playing a game of marbles. There’s Mrs Nolan leaning across the hedging talking to Mrs Rogers and Marie Kelly and her brother Willie pushing a pram. I can see Veronica McGrath (Bonkers) swanking it up the road and all the Oul fellas gawking after her. There’s Sammy Kelly in the compound kicking a bursted plastic football over to Tony Norton. And there’s my own Ma’ and Da’ standing at our own hall-door and the Da’ with a fag in the corner of his mouth and they taking it all in, what a place to live…’