We were absolutely certain that all 'non Catholics' were damned, that Jews were thugs and that atheists were the scum of all the scums. We said prayers in the way a machine gun dispenses rounds of ammunition and as altar boys we gave out the Latin…
The biggest item on the agenda for us growing up in the 1940s and 1950s was religion, not so much the love of God and certainly not the love of our neighbour but the avoidance of Hell. In first class (8 year olds) Fr Hearn came in one day to enquire…
The children had been going to a small private school, Avoca and Kingstown preparatory school. The teachers were quaint old ladies who spoke both nicely and kindly. I was paying by post-dated cheques to Eithne's great embarrassment but all the…
I fancied a bird in Macroom (Cork) just after this, not the most convenient place as I was working in Donegal. She was eldest of a large family (7), both parents dead, the family being looked after by 'Aunt Agnes' from Cork. Aunt Agnes was from…
Finding a wife was a difficult business for me. I was super-sensitive and a denial hurt greatly. So pre-occupied were we all between the Boys' Club and the flat where we lived, talked, and partied, however innocently. I couldn't be frivolous,…
Holiday times were greatly looked forward to but strangely little remains in my memory other than the tennis club, cycling around the place for no apparent reason and cricket on the lawn. Memory suggests a time of indolence. Cricket on the lawn was…
Religion was a major factor and we were 100% diligent participants. I don't remember understanding much about it but back then you participated because hell was a looming certainty if you didn't. In my memory we were living more in fear of hell…
