Saturday 5 May 2012

Lads of Summer

As Summer approaches, I am reminded of the Summers of the 70s, which I always spent bored out of my head as a kid at my Gran's house.

My Dad would pile all the kids into the back seat of a Ford Cortina and drive for a solid six hours from Dublin to County Mayo.

He would stop for nothing - toilet breaks, small animals in the middle of the road, or sometimes even traffic lights. Even in Ireland, the Summer would get hot and the plastic seats of the car would scald your skin as we sat there in short trousers, eating Macaroon bars and squabbling with the siblings.

We would then be deposited at my Gran's house, with its two TV channels, no town nearby, or anything. As a child, I was incredibly bored. I never appreciated the beauty, simplicity and the solace of the place being only a few minutes from the Atlantic coast on one side and from the majesty of Croagh Patrick on the other.



The problem with small places like that, is that the local towns and villages develop a sub-culture of their own with their native tough guys who would never leave the area.

This is their untold story...

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.