On the 14th September 1966 Sheila and I married in Mullaghea Church outside Kells Co Meath. The church is a very small one outside Kells by about two and a half miles and the entrance is on a country lane much frequented by farmers herding their…
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…
In 1954 I was bundled off to boarding school in Castleknock in Dublin. The choice of school was determined by the fact that I failed the 11+ thereby disqualifying myself from secondary schooling in the North. My parents discussed in detail the…
School in Strabane was the Convent (5-6 years old) and Barrack Street Boys' Primary (7-14 years old). In Northern Ireland you had to pass the '11 plus' in order to access 2nd level (St Columb's in Derry). The standard of education in Barrack St…
