28th March, 2002
In 1961 I was fifteen years old, and it was a
great time to be a teenager. Rock n’ roll had brought great
social changes and young people were beginning to think for
themselves. The lean and hungry fifties were being replaced with
the modernisation of Ireland. The School of Commerce was a great
school, it was there I learnt to type with the help of our
teacher, Gerry Dunne (one of life’s gentlemen). The school
was mixed, boys and girls, Catholics and Protestants. We’d
meet the girls for a coffee in the ‘Talk of the Town”
which was a coffee bar in the Old Savoy Cinema, buy the latest 45
single of Elvis in Hennessy’s record shop in Oliver Plunkett
St. and go home and listen to it at night, and then bring the
transistor radio to bed to listen to Radio Luxemburg.
At the time I lived in Blackrock Road and on the weekend my
friends and I would walk down the ‘Boggy’ road towards
the Marina. We’d stop at the Atlantic Pond and look over at
Bessboro with its high walls. We never saw anybody, but we knew
it was a home for girls who had babies outside marriage and it
was run by nuns. That was all we knew about the place.
On Saturday night my wife and I watched ‘Sinners’ on
RTE 1, and I still can’t get it out of my mind. we talk
about the Taliban’s treatment of women, they must have seen
the movie ‘Sinners’. Somebody else who watched the
programme said “What do you expect, it was made by the
British, it’s propaganda”. we’ve seen and heard
about Golden Bridge, and many more similar shows on T.V.; but
this was not a documentary. This had actors and actresses with a
story revolving around a young girl who becomes pregnant in the
west of Ireland in 1961. Will somebody please tell me that the
nuns in Bessboro were good and kind and that the babies and their
mothers stayed together. I want to know what happened inside
those high walls, when I was outside them enjoying life in
Blackrock road forty years ago.
It wasn’t just confined to Ireland. Last year I bought a CD
called “The Emigrant and The Exile” by Eric Bogle and
John Monro (Eric has written ‘The Green Fields of France.”,
“The band played Waltzing Matilda”, “Leaving Nancy”
and many more. There’s one track on the album called “The
Ballad of Charles Davenport”, written by John Monro. Charles
Davenport was a real person born to a single mother during world
War Two. He was placed in an orphanage against the wishes of his
mother. Like thousands of other children he was told that he was
an orphan, and like the others he was sent to parts of the
British Empire “for their own good”, when in fact they
became slaves. Charles was sent to Nova Scotia in Canada. Many
years later, when he was an adult, he discovered he had a mother
who lived in Derby, England, but by the time he made the trip,
she had died. He visited her grave, and on the gravestone he
found the inscription “Ellen Walsh - loving mother of
Charles”. What crimes were committed nobody will ever know.
Derry O’Regan of the East Village Bar & Restaurant told
me that they had a first in Douglas last week when they had a
live video link to a pub in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day.
Sorry I couldn’t make it but I was in Kerry for the long
weekend. Being creatures of habit my wife and I usually go
through Macroom, Killarney, Tralee, on to Castlegregory and into
Dingle. But we decided on a change. Glengarriff up over the
mountain into Kenmare, onto Sneem and eventually stopped in
Waterville late in the evening. Most of the hotels on the way
were closed as they were in Waterville. Even Charlie Chaplin
couldn’t find a room (there’s a statue of Charlie
standing on the footpath in the town).
There were several B&B’s open, but I like hotels, a
meal, a few drinks and sometimes a bit of live music constitutes
a good night. We asked around the town if there were any hotels
open, but no luck. Then my wife said “There’s a big
building down by the ocean with a lot of lights on.” I said
“That’s probably a luxury holiday home, it’s a
waste of time.” She insisted “I have a good feeling”.
and boy, was she right!! We found a jewel in Waterville. The
Smugglers Inn is situated across the road from Waterville Golf
Club. The bedroom windows have an ocean view. There’s a
beach outside the door and the owner/chef Harry Hunt and his wife
Lucille run one of the best restaurants I’ve ever sat in. if
you don’t see me in Douglas this weekend you know where I’ll
be. Harry, order the fillet steak now!!
A reader asked me to enquire if any of our readers have any old
remedies or cures, you know, things like vinegar to cure warts.
If you do, we’d love to hear about them.
Good luck to Tesco Douglas General Manager, Tom Singleton, who
has left us to take up another job. Tom made a lot of friends
here in Douglas and was very much involved in many community
functions, such as the Tesco Christmas party for the Senior
Citizens, Children’s art competitions. A shopper once
described Tom as a hands on person. We wish you well Tom, in your
new job.
We were all saddened to hear that one of the surviving founding
members of Douglas Credit Union, Jim Coughlan had passed away.
Thanks to people like Jim, who gave their time and energy, we all
have a decent standard of living today. So the next time you
stand in line in the Credit Union to change your car, book a
holiday in the sun or build that extension, don’t forget to
say a prayer of thanks to a man who helped to make it possible.
Jim Coughlan. R.I.P.
Friday April 5th is Douglas Rose Night. The venue is Rochestown
Park Hotel, music by Lightning Strikes, about twenty beautiful
young women are going to make this one of the best nights in
Douglas this year. Tickets are on sale at the ‘Weekly office
in St. Patrick's Mills, and at reception in Rochestown Park Hotel.
Prices are €15.
Finally, Happy Easter to you all, and if you’re going night
clubbing, visit Coco’s new night club managed by Douglas man
Niall Kearney.
Bye for now,
Michael O’Hanlon.
