Conference tallis::celt

    I was born in 1957 so my recollections of the late 50's is almost
    nil.
    
    I remember the 60's, I was starting to understand things. I started
    to go to school, Holy Faith, Dominic Street in Dublin. There I made
    my first holy communion. We were only 8 boys in a school of girls,
    it was rare at the time in Ireland to have boys in convent schools.
    In national school, there was a mix.
    
    We all came from similar backrounds, and half of us went to the
    same secondary school, the best and most famous in Ireland, Scoil
    Ui Conaill or O'Connells School, as Daniel O' Connell laid the
    foundation stone. There was about 1500 pupils, combining the primary
    and secondary schools. It still to this day has one of the best
    private museums in Ireland, I believe. It used to be run by a Christian
    Brother who was nicknamed "The Nipper". It contained the hurling
    stick of Michael Collins.
    
    We had the usual breakfast after first holy communion, at the time,
    maybe this practise is gone now. Off to the photo studios for the
    family photo and then to Bray, where they had a sort of all year
    round fairground.
    
    I remember the house my parents used to live in at the time, it
    was on the suburbs of Dublin, only 5 miles or so from the city centre,
    a little village it was at the time, called Raheny on the road to
    Howth.
    
    On the edge of the estate we lived there was just fields for miles
    and miles and a fantastic estate that had fallen into ruin. This
    estate was developed into another housing estate, I saw this all
    happen and was amazed, I had been used to being able to walk for
    miles in the fields and ruins and all of a sudden they started building
    what for me at the time was a massive estate, with hindsight it
    was tiny.
    
    In the estate I lived in, called Avondale Park, I suppose it was
    called after the house owned by Charles Stewart Parnell, there was
    about 120 houses. Everybody knew almost everybody in those days,
    Raheny was still a village, there was 2 little shops, like any country
    village in Ireland, so this was the meeting place of the house wives,
    the children etc. I cannot remember if there was only one pub or
    two in the village at the time, the Manhattan and possibly the Raheny
    Inn. Then there came the Fish/Chip shop, the dry cleaners, the betting
    shop all in the late 60's, if I remember correctly.
    
    I liked the old house in Avondale Park, I often passed it in later
    years after my parants had sold it and moved only a half a mile
    away or so, and felt like knocking on the door, and asking the people
    could I walk around the house, I was 12 when we moved. I always
    remember we had a lane at the back of the house and quite a large
    garden, with a little shed where we used to play cowboys and indians.
    
    Around the back of the estate, there was a little park, where every
    oppurtunity we got we played football. We were really kids then
    and enjoyed the simplist of things, football, sport of all kinds,
    I see the kids now a days, and they get bored in the summer during
    the holiday time, when we got bored we walked, we played football,
    we played near the river, we pretended we were going on picnics,
    even thoug the picnic area was the hockey field of the girls school
    in Raheny, where in the summer time the grass was never cut and
    we would create, something like a little nest in it.
    
    There was the mornings when we got the train to school and in the
    evening we got it back. These were adventures for us at the time.
    There was the first time I flew on my own to Switzerland to my aunt
    and uncle, and I paid for it myself out of money I made during a
    few jobs on Saturdays and during the Christmas and Easter holidays.
    
    There was the time I remember the most, the visit of John F. Kennedy
    to Ireland. I remember the whole country was happy. My parents and
    many other boys and girls parents were all talking about the first
    Catholic president of the U.S.A., the youngest, and the most inportant
    for all of us, from Irish origin. We were all proud, even though
    we were only kids. The adults were the people who made us feel
    something that we could not really understand, that the president
    of the U.S.A parents went to the U.S.A. with nothing only a generation
    before that and produced a president. I remember being on the cornder
    of O'Connell Street and Abbey Street with I think it was an Irish
    flag, it could have been an American flag and waiting for this car
    to pass, to get a look at the man I had heard so much about. For
    me it was amazing to see the crowds waiting for hours and my mother
    trying to get me to the best vantage point to see him. I did see
    him from about 5 yards away, and it has always left a impression
    on me.
    
    I remember the day he was assasinated, people on the streets were
    crying, I was crying even though at the time, I did not realise
    what a great loss, the death of this man, meant to the Irish people
    and to his own people. Even now when I write this it does bring
    tears to my eyes, I cannot explain why. 
    
    I remember Robert Kennedy being assasinated and then I remember
    every home in Ireland had a picture of the pope of the time in the
    centre with the picture of John F. Kennedy on the right and Robert
    Kennedy on the left. I believe to this day many homes have this
    same picture.
    
    Then there was the record of John F. Kennedy's speeches which I
    used to listen to for hours and hours. Martin Luther King then was
    assasinated, and for me it seemed as all the good men has been killed.
    
    I went for the first time to the Irish College in good old "Kevin
    Burns" country, a place called Carrigaholt, tiny out of the way
    palce, where we watch porpoises jump, and enjoyed the wildness of
    the countryside. All the stories about ghosts etc. 
    

    Well, I will write another reply later or maybe tomorrow.

    Ren�   
    
    
    

    Please avoid comments about the characters I mention in my ramblings,
    after all there are as I saw them at the time and not what people
    have said of them since.
    
    Ren�

    Rene:
    With respect to your comment that O'Connell Street Christian Bros.
    school is the best-known school in Ireland, I would venture that
    the Christian Bros. School North Monastery, Cork is, at least, as
    well known. The "Mon" is world-famous!!!! I once had a teacher from
    O'Connell Street at the "Mon," named Bro. Harris. He had a hard
    time adjusting to the "rough" Cork boys at the Mon!!!! 
    
    I am enjoying your reminiscenses of your growing up in Dublin in
    the 60s - perhaps I will add mine of Cork in the 40s!!!!

    
    Rene,
    
    	Your "ramblings" are indeed most interesting.  They would make
    a good foundation for a book about contemporary Ireland.  
    
	One of the things that I thought about when I was reading it
    was how the house looked.  I've been to Ireland several times and
    found the way the houses are built is quite different from those
    in the US.  Perhaps the audience (especially in the US) might find
    it interesting, how big the yard and house are.  How the house is
    heated.  (I was in a home that was heated partially by the 'cooker')
    No gory details but just in general.
    
    	As for John Kennedy, yes even us 2nd generation were proud.
    
    	Great stuff!  Keep it up!
    
    
    						KO

    
    
    
    	RE: 4
    
    
    
    	KEVIN:
    
    In the "WHEST"  the "STOVE" is actually known as a "Kook-er"  8-)

                                                                
    	I hope it was "Turf Fired" ....
    
                                                                   
    To me... The smell of Turf = "Memories forever of Ireland"
                                                           
    
    
    
    keVin

    
    
    
    	re. 3
    
    
    	Pat: I think I may have met some recent "Mon" graduates. :-)
    
    
    	They were all saying: "Hey Mon"..come back ..come back to Jamica.
    
    
    
    	keVin
                                                   
    
    
    

    Well, here I am on a Friday night as usual on Fridays working late
    to get the systems ready for Monday and then I will go off for a
    few pints. Thinking of pints brings me back to the rest of my
    ramblings, as only Irish people talk of "pints" after a hard day.

    Well, I used to play in the road leagues ate the time. This used
    to be very popular in my area. Each street or area had a football
    team and in the summer, we had a championship between the various
    streets. It was like a miniture world cup to us. I was the goalkeeper
    for the Avondale Park team, I remember I always wanted to play outfield
    so I could score goals and not stop them, well unfortunately I was
    the only reasonable goalkeeper so I accepted my lot.
    
    We moved from Avondale Park to a place not so far away called Foxfield.
    The house was almost twice the size of the old one, and there was
    a back garden, a front garden, and a side garden. We moved in before
    the decorators had finished and for about a week, we slept on a
    matress on the bare floor boards. I remember going to my first football
    match around this same tim, it was in Dalymount Park, and it was
    Ireland playing against Australia, I was telling people about it
    for weeks afterwords.
    
    While in O'Connels School, I went to another Irish College in "Mike
    Hughes" country, out in Connemara, a little village call Kill Kieran,
    not too far from Ard Moir and I stayed in a house there with a local
    family, the house overlooked the 12 Pins. I can even see it now,
    with the sun shining in the evening over the Pins. This village
    is not so far from Rosc Muc, where Padraig Pearse, used to spend
    his holidays. We had our bicycles with us, mine was new when I got
    there, I even remember the make, it was an ESCA, made in Czechoslovia.
    Well, the roads were no better then than now, and the bike having
    being made in a country not famous for the quality of its exports.
    
    The bike looked like it has been throug the wars after 4 weeks in
    the Irish College.
    
    It was the best Irish College, I ever went to. At night we would
    go to the old school in the village, and play all sorts of different
    games. I was a pretty good athlete ate the time and one night we
    had some sort of a game, the name escapes me, where if you lost,
    the others could ask you to do something, I lost and they asked
    me to go back to the house we stayed in and come back with my pyjamas,
    I was a carefree lad so I said, OK. It was 3 miles there and 3 miles
    back. I got back to everybodies amazement and was toasted by all.
    
    The village of Kill Kieran at the time had a sea-weed manufacturing
    plant, and you could smell it for miles. In the evening the peopla
    would gather the sea-weed on the beaches and leave it at the side
    of the road to dry, to be eventually used as fertiliser. The was
    a little shop on the way to Kill Kieran from the house we stayed
    in, well it was not a real shop, they sold 6 or 10 items, and of
    course sweets, we always dropped in on our way to the village for
    a candy bar. The village of Kill Kieran had a little proper shop
    on the bend, just going out of the village, and it might even have
    had a pub, I didn't drink at the time, so I would not have noticed.

    We went everyday to a wild field just beside the sea to swim, I
    lost my towel one day in a breeze, it blew into the sea, so if you
    have come across a towel anywhere, with my name on it, send it back.
    
    We enjoyed the wildness and we had great fun. As the last week drew
    near, we had the sports day. Well it was help on the beach at Ard
    Moir, a lovely place, almost deserted. We started with the obstacle
    race, and I mentioned before, I was not shy at the time, and was
    pretty athletic. The race comprised running 100 yards and changing
    from your trousers into your swimming togs, then running another
    100 yards and changing from your swimming togs into you trousers
    and then running the 200 yards back to the starting line, well I
    won it by almost 200 yards, Ah, you are saying, this must be another
    Eamonn Coughlan, well not really. What happened was that the 100
    yards mark to change into your togs, I was ther 1st anyway but all
    the rest of the boys were putting towels around them to change,
    I didn't, I had a long vest, so I just dropped the trousers and
    on with the togs, and I was at the next 100 yard mark before the
    first boy moved, the same thing at the 200 yard mark and was back
    to the finish, everybody laughed, at the cheekyness of me or some
    such thing. I am having a laugh to myself now and I can almost see
    it in action replay.
    
    Then there was the 800 yards race around a track made on the beach,
    I came second in that, another 50 yards and I was home. One of the
    Christain Brothers who was there at the time, I will always remember
    with fondness, was a Brother Mcgee, a tall, well built young man from
    the North of Ireland who had a scooter, and who made us all have
    a great time. I met him a few times afterwards but then lost touch.
    He would sometimes have 4 of us on the scooter, what a laugh we
    had.
    
    The last competition of the day was of course the Gaelic football
    final, between the boys staying in Ard Moir and the boys from Kill
    Kieran. I only had a pair of sandles on, the pitch was the beach
    and the goalposts were homw made, luck to withstand a good wind.
    We played our hearts out and in the final minutes we were behind
    by a point, when youn Rene gets the ball and from the left of the
    post shoots for goal, when off comes the sandle and the ball went
    wide of the post, and we tragically lost. It was great fun. I will
    never forget it as long as I live.
    
    I went back some years afterwards to all the places, and I was with
    a girlfriend, but in my mind I was on my own, thinking back those
    few years to when there was the noise and fun. It was with some
    sadness but also joy. I could almost see the faces od the people
    and I remembered I smiled and my girlfriend asked my why, I just
    said, Oh nothing really. Great, you cannot beat the times that were
    simple, good and bring a bit of the old memories flooding back.
    
    I better go and have a beer now before the "Bistros", they call
    them in France close as I am getting very thirsty.
    
    Well I have a few more to share with you another day.
    
    Sl�n go feol.
    
    �iche maith agus codlagh (?spelling) s�mh
    
    Ren�
    
       
    
    
    
    

    < Note 403.3 by SALES::MANNING >
                                  -< MON BOY >-
    
    I forgot the North Mon. Well I had never heard of the Mon, way back
    then, it was a few years that I heard about it.
    
    Ren�

    In my note on the school, O'Connells School, I forgot a few little
    memories. We always had the annual school sports at the end of the
    school term and they were fun.
    
    I learned I had the ability to run and fast when every year they
    had short distance races in the school yard, to get onto the school
    team for the 100 yards, I never managed, and I to this day don't
    remember how it happened, but I heard that they want to get people
    for the 800 yards and the mile for the school team, so off I go
    with onlt my school bag to Fairview Park, a 10 minute walk from
    the school, and they are holding the qualifiers for the school team.
    
    I decided on the spot I would give it a try, everybody had there
    running vests, shorts and running shoes and in some cases spikes.
    I had the clothes on my back and a pair of shoes. Off came the shirt,
    off came the schoes and I was in the line up. I was about 9 at the
    time, the rest of them were 12 to 14 years old. The race starts
    and before they know it, I am away like a rabbit out of a trap.
    I won by at least 30 yards. Then they could not believe this, I
    was also a pretty small fellow. They decided that they should hold
    the heats again the next day, partly because on of the Christain
    Brothers thought that they had let me get away too far and left
    it too late to catch me. Next day the same thing but with shorts
    and a top but again in bare feet. Again I won by the same margin.
    After this race I got the name in school "The Barefoot Boy". If
    there are any O'Connels School boys out there that remember me,
    I was also called "Frenchie" due to my French name.
    
    After having beaten the others 5 times, they were still not satisified
    so we went to the school ground in Clontarf. This heat was staggered
    and I was in the last lane at least 30 to 50 yards behind the 1st
    lane. I managed to get up on everybody quickly in the first few
    hundred yards and then went out for the 1st lane man, he won by
    a yard, I was not selected for the school team because of this one
    loss. I never forget it or the Christain Brother, Br Murray, who
    used to play hurling for Westmeath, and was a good athlete. My father
    came to the school to find out how this was possible, it shattered
    my little dream to run for the school, but one good thing came out
    of it, I knew I had the ability to run and run fast. This was a
    pure accident.
    
    I started to join a club, I still ran in bare feet, spikes were
    expensive and I was used to walking in bare feet in the summer,
    never really liked shoes in hot weather. As I got better, my father
    said it was time to get spikes, as the cross country season was
    coming up and I could not really run without spikes.
    
    I will continue some other time. These are definetely ramblings,
    it would come so easily if I had to do it cronologically, I am trying
    to keep it that way when possible. I am still talking about the
    60's.
    
    Ren�
    
    

    re .5
    
    Kevin, it would take a BURNS to reminisce about the ol' turf
    burning. Maybe you should change your node name to STOVE or
    KOOKER :-)
    
    - Dave K.

    Dublin was a great place as a kid. I used to go to the city as a
    child, especially at Christmas to see the decorations. People,
    including my mother used to say,  we are going to the city, as if
    it were hundreds of miles away.
    
    We were so close to the centre and yet we went very seldom. My mother
    to this day very seldom goes to the city centre, it amazes me, but
    then I grew up in a different age.
    
    I have to rush now, but I would like to continue later.
    
    Ren�

    
    
    
    re: .10
    
    Dave: I'd rather Burn(s) Irish Turf than English Coal ...  :-)

                     
    Like they say in the movies ......
    
    Ah, there's nothing like the smell of turf in the morning ....
             
    
    
    keVin

    > < Note 403.5 by STEREO::BURNS "1989 WILL be a BANNER year" >
    >                 -< The Whest awake, The Whest awake ..... >-


    
    >    In the "WHEST"  the "STOVE" is actually known as a "Kook-er"  8-)
                                                             ------
    >    keVin
         -----
    
    How long have you had this spelling problem	8^)
    
    Since this was where the meals were cooked, I sure hope it wasn't
    'turf fired'.  I wounder how the lamb would taste?
    
    
    					KO
    
        

    
>>  How long have you had this spelling problem	8^)
    
>>  Since this was where the meals were cooked, I sure hope it wasn't
>>  'turf fired'.  I wounder how the lamb would taste?
	             ^^^^^^^
		     |||||||
		     |||||||    			
		    
    					KO
    

    
    And YOU want to make fun of my spelling ..... :-)
    
    
    I knever are-gue with a persons whoz initals r KO	....        
    
    
    keVin
    

    
    RE:      -< I'm dwiven in car.. I turn on the wadio ... >-
    
    I washed my hands before I tried to type that and I just can't do
    a thing with them! 8^)

    It's now over a year later since I wrote the original note but as
    the result of a mail I received, I remembered I never finiched my
    note on the 60's.
    
    As the end of the sixties came I was finishing up in primary school.
    The BIG exam for entry into the secondary school came in mid summer.
    
    I remember that day, I had never really known what pressure was
    until I heard people talkink about what might happen if you failed
    this exam. It was not my parents that put the pressure on me, but
    the other students talking about it.
    
    I passed the exam and got into secondary school. I went off to
    Switzerland that year for my holidays. I will never forget it. I
    was doing well in athletica at the time. I heard through a neighbour
    of my aunt's that there was a race, the 100KM "Lauf Von Biel",
    translated was a 100 kms race. I was a brave and carefree young
    boy and felt I was a fit athlete at the time so I entered it, part
    of the reason was to impress a young Swiss girl, Gisella Ramser,
    I still remember her name, to my abilities. The race started at
    10 on a Friday night and ended the next day. I started off like
    a hare but within a few kilometers I was down to a slow, steady
    pace. The night passed and I was tired and my body ached, I can
    seee it clearly now as if it was only yesterday. I stopped every
    place there was refreshment stations and had something. The next
    day around 10 o'clock in the morning I was sitting on a few stones
    outside a farm house, I was giving up and going to wait for the
    army ambulance or anything to pick me up, I was a broken boy. Then
    these German women started messaging my legs and telling me that
    I had only 10 kms to go, that was like telling me that tomorrow
    I would be a woman or some such outlandish thing. Then 2 Swiss girls,
    about 18 or 19 came up to me and started talking to me. I said I
    would try to make it to the finish line. To cut a long story short,
    I limped in at 12 o'clock, blistered, tired but happy to be the
    first Irish boy or man ever to have competed in this race, it must
    be the fighting spirit. Well I impressed the girl, her parents,
    my uncle who at first thought I was mad and my aunt. I got invited
    back twice afterwards, but needless to say I never took up the
    invitation.
    
    School started in September in the secondary school of O'Connells
    where I was to have my first taste of Latin, Commerce, Science and
    other funny animals.
    
    I remeber most that when I travelled abroad, I was always very proud
    of being Irish. I would never let anybody say a bad thing about
    the Irish or I was up and ready to defend it. I think it was a love
    of the country side, and the friendliness of the people and the
    joy and happiness I had.
    
    In May of this year I was back for the first time in 6 years and
    I see so much the changes, I look back in my minds eyes at the village
    of Raheny and remember what it was like with sadness, there is times
    I would like to turn back the clock and stop progress. Most of the
    people I knew as a boy are still around and we have a good laugh
    together, talking abot the old times. It is not really the old,
    old times but for us it is.
    
    The words unemployment were not heard in those days, emigration
    was low, I never heard of so and so's son going to America or
    Australia. People grew up and stayed together, and are still friends
    to this day.
    
    I used to have a gang at the time and we used to fight with another
    gang from the estate, nothing violent. I remember the names, Brian
    Finnegan (R.I.P.), Brian Dalton, Kenneth Kirwan, Edward Leonard,
    and my brother Adrian, this was the gang. The other kids of the
    neighbourhood used to sing a little song as follows "Aungier is
    a danger to the Avondale Rangers". I met the father of one of the
    guys I used to fight against a few years ago in a pub in Raheny
    and we were talking about this. He said that even the cats and dogs
    would scurry to safety when I would come down the road. He said
    that it was lucky now a days that none of them were looking for
    vengence, as most of them grew into six footers and as I just a
    little over the 5'7", that would give them a slight advantage. We
    laughed about it.
    
    The sixties hold special and fond memories for me. It was the first
    years that I learned I was growing up and could feel it. Now I look
    back on it, I would gladly turn back the clock to have a few days
    back in those times. We did not have drugs to worry about. Our only
    worries were where we could get a football for a game. Television
    was not watched much by us. In the early sixties my parents had
    a television but sold it a few months afterwards because they were
    afraid that it would stop us studying.
    
    We spent many a holiday in Wexford at the time. I loved it. I always
    hated coming back to Dublin after a month there. Dublin looked so
    depressing and dirty. Even way back then I felt this. I used to
    go to the cubs/scouts in Baldoyle. Raheny might have seemed like
    a village but Baldoyle at the time was a real village, only a few
    buses a day to the city. My grandmother lived here in a little cottage
    and after the cus I would go down to visit her and my granda, mainly
    for the 3 pence (OLD) or the 6 pence (OLD) that they would give
    me. Their neighbours had a television and one of their daughters
    worked in Cadburys factory so he had broked Crunchies that could
    not be packed and sold which she freely distributed to me.
    
    I can still see Baldoyle as it was then. My grandparents have since
    passed on but my uncle still lives in the cottage.
    
    Well, If I remember some of the other wild things we did or if I
    remember any old characters of those days, I will enter another
    reply.
    
    
    y
    be my teacher

    
    
    Rene,
    
                       Thank You!!!!!
    
      More, More, More....
    
    paddy