Ita McClelland

Road bowls or bullet throwing as it is also called is a game played mostly in Counties Armagh and Cork. It is a game where the “thrower” has to throw a heavy smooth round ball made of lead over the longest distance along a road without it touching the grass verge. It is better played on a road that is winding as opposed to a road that is really straight. The person who throws the longest distance is the winner.

As we lived on a road which was frequented by the ‘bullet throwers’ my mother took the opportunity each year when a big score was on to sell her fayre outside. I remember one occasion when the Armagh men were playing the Cork men and they were all gathered outside our house having a break and a bet on the scores, my bothers and sisters and myself and some friends helped to tidy up afterwards. One of our friends found a £10 note which my mother told him to keep because there had been so many people about there would be no way of telling who owned it.  He was over the moon with excitement.

There are still a lot of Road Bowl clubs around Armagh with girls playing now also and there is still an annual contest with the Cork throwers.

When I was about 10 years old, my cousin, Paddy Reilly who was just twenty two was drowned in a swimming accident. He and two good friends who worked in a sawmill in Armagh were coming back into the city after delivering a load of timber when they decided to go for a swim in the nearby river as it was a scorching June day. Unfortunately, Paddy got into difficulties and his friends could not save him.  I think that was the first time I was aware of death. I remember the day so well.  Someone came to the house to tell my mother (no phones in every house in those days) and she was crying and crying. My brother and a friend had dammed a river near our house on the same day to swim in and a neighbour shouted at them about what had happened to Paddy and told them to go home. There was a very long and sad wake as his body could not be found for several days and there was talk of perhaps he was not dead, perhaps he had been washed down river and was only injured, but that was not to be.