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Outside the farmhouse of my grandaunt Bridget (née Donoghue) and granduncle Mike Byrne at Eagle Hill, Hacketstown, co Carlow. Left to right: myself, granduncle Mike and my sister. Their son Gerald, a handsome, elegant widower, had a shop in the town. Their other son, Din, was a lorry driver employed by the county council. (He as the person who was victimised in a previous employment for attempting to organise a trade union.) Their daughter May, was married to an insurance salesman, Jim Keenan, who worked in Dublin. My grandaunt and granduncle had a beautiful garden in front of their one-storied house, and they had several dogs. Crickets lived in the hearth of their big, open fireplace in the kitchen. Grandaunt Bridget was the first person I ever saw waked - laid out in her own bed for several days of mourning - following her death and before the impressive sung requiam mass and burial, for which I had a day off school. |
