Derry win this time

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 WikipediaAfter Derry's first Ulster Senior Championship in 1958 they advanced to the final to meet Dublin. They were defeated but happy just to be there. This may have been the main reason for failing to win who knows.
The next time they were to appear in the All Ireland Final was 1993. This was a different team in many ways. They were better prepared. They wanted to win. They knew that they could win.
I had watched the semi final against Dublin in St Finbarr's club in Coventry as they exacted revenge for the defeat of '58. Now they were to meet Cork in the final at Croke Park and I'd managed to get a ticket( not easy to get hold of)
The Castledawson Gaa club had organised a coach for the trip to the final for those lucky enough to have tickets. I travelled on this coach along with some family and local neighbours. We arrived in Dublin well before the 3o'clock kick off and watched the preceding minor final like it was the first course of a great feast. Derry played Cork in the final and were deserving winners. I can remember seeing famous past Derry players before and after the game, players like Henry Diamond (a classmate at the Rainey school), Roddy and Owen Gribbin, John Murphy, Harry Cassidy and Pat Keenan(captain when Derry won the league title in 1947).
 On the return journey I travelled back with my brother Seamus, himself a Derry player in the late 60's and early 70's, and his wife Jane and son Michael(who won an all Ireland medal for the Derry under 21 team soon after). It was an unprecedented day for supporters of Gaa in Derry and a privilege to have attended at such an historic occasion. My father spent years following Derry around the fields of Ireland with little success but much frustration. He would have enjoyed 1993. 

Tyrone miss out

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaDuring the summer of 1957 while I was staying in cregnadovesky for the school break there was an air of excitement about the performance of the Tyrone Gaa team. Having reached the All Ireland semi-finalthe previous year and losing to Galway(a top team in the fifties) they had reached the semi again after beating Derry in the Ulster final. There was great expectations on the team as they went to Croke Park to play Louth and hopes were high that they could reach their first All Ireland final.
There was no TV in those days and everyone not at the match crowded around radios on the Sunday of the game. As my uncles radio was not working I went to hear the game with my uncle Jim who was home on holiday from England to the neighbouring farm of Paddy Kelly. Paddy's wife was sister of Frankie Donnelly, the legendary Tyrone record breaking forward from the local team Carrickmore.

 
At a crucial part of the game Tyrone were awarded a free kick and Frankie Donnelly unluckily sent it wide. I made what I thought an apt remark about his kicking ability and immediately was confronted with the sight of Mrs Kelly brandishing the poker taken from the fireplace. There was a prolonged silence for the rest of the game and I never knew if she was joking or serious. Tyrone never posed a serious threat again to win the All Ireland for almost forty years.

Is cycling safe?

Image via WikipediaMy first experience on a bicycle was best forgotten and by some subterfuge of the brain/memory it has been. The only reason that I know about it was when I asked about the scar on my ankle when I was about 12. I was told that when I was about 6/7 my father put me on the bar of his bicycle to take me back home after a visit to Anahorish to my grandparents home. The lane in front of the house was uneven to say the least and somehow my leg got entangled in the chain of the cycle. This must have been painful at the time but I have no memory of the event.
It was several years later when I was about 16 that I eventually got possession of my own cycle, a blue racing bike, and was to use this to go to school at the Rainey in Magherafelt for about 2 years.

Most days I would meet a classmate Bartley Stewart, a farmers son from across the main Castledawson to Magherafelt road where we lived in aughagaskin, for the journey to school. There was one morning during the fifties as I was on the way to school there was a commotion near the courthouse. There had been a bomb attack during the previous night and the roof had been burnt down.

There was one occasion I think it was 1958 when I cycled to cregnadovesky near Carrickmore to my maternal grandparents where I spent most summers of my teenage years. This was a journey undertaken with much trepidation, it was the furthest I had been away from home on the bike and was at that time quite a physical challenge. There was also the dangers from dogs appearing out of farm gates . This was greatest where I had to dismount from the bike because of the steep hills encountered on the way. However I arrived safely but exhausted about 2 hours later.

What next

Image via WikipediaThe aftermath of redundancy from Massey Ferguson was neither predictable nor planned. 1992 was an unforgettable year in many ways. My wife and I had befriended an elderly widow a few years previously (or rather she had befriended us). She had come to Coventry from South Wales after the first world war and married a local man. He died during the sixties and she had spent thirty years alone but was very active and spent a big part of her time socialising and visiting friends. She had been living in Baginton just outside Coventry but moved after her husbands death into the city because the poor bus service restricted her movements.
One of the properties she lived in happened to be near to where Sonia Rosenbaum lived. She was our landlady when we first married and rented a room in her house in King Edward road. This is where we met up with Olwyn. One of her friends was Sir Edmund Liggins(deceased) a former president of the Law Society, who advised her on all matters legal and property wise. When he advised her to make a will I was appointed joint executor along with another Mr Liggins (no relation) from Baginton.
During 1992 I started on an honours degree course at Coventry University. Near the end of this year Olwyn who by now was suffering from dementia(she was 92) accidentally had a fall at home which meant her being admitted to Coventry & Wawickshire Hospital. She never recovered from this and passed away as a result of contacting pneumonia. This was a particularly stressful period. A year difficult to forget but one which made the following years seem better.

Massey Ferguson

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

I was employed at Massey Ferguson for just over 22 years. It was only a mild surprise when the company decided to make me redundant in 1992. They had been having annual culls for more than 10 years, aided by the Union bashing regime of a certain M. Thatcher. It was ironic that the year previous to 1992 I was, along with many other clerical staff taken out of the union membership and given 'professional staff' status. (This was as the company explained to create greater job security). The years spent there were mostly enjoyable apart from the posturing of a few individuals, who will be nameless for now, in positions of authority who were trying to control people who in many respects were their superiors.
Massey Ferguson made tractors mostly for export(they priced themselves out of the UK market) but the larger and more advanced models were manufactured in France. The Unions in France were a lot stronger so it was inevitable that when the market shrunk and decisions about closures were to be made the company chose the easy option and closed the manufacturing plant at Banner Lane. This is now being turned into a housing estate. The company have retained a token 'European headquarters' office at Stoneleigh outside Coventry. There are other tales to tell about MF at a later date.