I was 10 years old. It was 1968 and I lived on the Ballymun/Santry border. The street I live on was called Old Town road. I went to Larkhill Primary School. At a very young age you learnt which families were the catholic and which were protestant. If your surname began with an ‘o’ i.e. O’Brien or O’Shaughnessy, you were Catholic; if you had a name like Brooks or Morgan, you were probably Protestant.
I ran home from school every Friday excited to have my favourite meal – fish and chips – from a nearby chipper, and to watch a programme on television, called The Monkees (they were an American band not unlike The Beatles). I often ended up staying up late watching programmes like The High Chaparral or The Virginian on Radio Telefis Eireann. I woke up on Saturday mornings to the sound of a rag-and-bone man exclaiming ‘Bring out your rags!’. If you brought them out, he would give you a thru’penny bit and you could go to the local shop and buy yourself a Golly Bar (an ice cream with a silver wrapper that had pictures of golliwogs on the wrapper). Then, after lunch, every Saturday, a van came up to the road with a sign on the side panel that read ‘Swastika Laundry’ and had a picture of a swastika on it. They were picking up and delivering the dry cleaning to the houses on the street, while all the young children played curb ball. You throw a ball at the curb, and if you catch it when it comes back, you score a point. The older boys all played pitch-and-toss. As the van came up the street, they would shout ‘L.O.B.’, which meant ‘Look out boys’. If you were lucky, you win a game and keep the coins on the pavement after playing curb ball. Afterwards, I would go home and have some dinner that my ma had made. After the Saturday night film, I would go to bed and in my room, get under the covers and listen to Kid Jenson on radio Luxenbourg and songs by bands like Slade or T. Rex.
I woke up on Sunday mornings early. I hated Sundays – as a Catholic you were expected to attend mass. I soon went off religion very quickly. It seemed to me the cause of all the troubles and struggles in Ireland. As Sunday night turned into Monday morning, I got ready to go to school again. A catholic primary school in a white hall, a bus journey away. All through the week I looked forward to the weekend ahead to hopefully do it all over again.
Take care, stay safe.
Slán agus beannacht saoirse éire
Paul Maddog
Maddogrising 