Reminiscence

Kilmorey St People’s Story

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Would our readers abroad please comment on the latest street lists? 
 
The even numbers began at the north end beside the William Street junction.  Bridie McClelland, a lovely friendly lady, had a fruit and vegetable store on the corner.  Francis and she lived three doors up, after Vincie and Pauline Gorman.

  Walter and Margaret Murphy (16; where Gateway is now) had just been allocated the Loughview Park home they still live in today.
 
Referring to the photo that accompanies the previous Kilmorey Street lists, the first house there on the left was the home of Sally Campbell.  Gregory Hollywood’s father Austin was just before that.  Gregory too moved to the new houses on Barley Lane. 
 
After Sally’s was the home of builder Joe Donnelly.  Joe moved to Derrybeg some time after.
 
The shop on the Quay Street corner belonged to Tommy Byrne.  Tommy lived next door to Tommy Rocks.  Both (separately) once owned The Satellite restaurant also on Kilmorey Street. 
 
Many’s the match was made in the Satellite.  I used to meet two old girlfriends there, Imelda Morgan of Cornmarket being one.  The other will remain unnamed (since she’s just appeared on Guestbook!). 
 
It was where we heard the latest records for they had the first jukebox in the town.  This is how and where we learned the exciting new music of the Beatles.  And when we first discovered that the ‘flip side’ was as good as, sometimes better than the A side.  I remember thinking that the Satellite above the shop was real, and wondered how Tommy had got his hands on it!
 
Tommy Byrne, remembered amongst other things for his training of the Irish Dancers, was an uncle of the McGraths from Cronin Park.  Assumpta and her husband Bill Hyland still live in the family home there.
 
Tommy and Bridget Fearon lived in one of the small houses pictured above, at the spot where the memorial anchor now rests in a tiny park. (Yon’s no anchor! says P J Cunningham.  That’s the pick I used to dig England’s motorways!).
 
We hand further comment on the densely populated Kilmorey Street to our readership!

Personal tragedy : Canal/towpath

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One cold frosty morning in the mid nineteen sixties, just a few hundred yards further on along the towpath from Riley’s Lock there occurred an extremely sad incident. 

Read morePersonal tragedy : Canal/towpath

Gerry Monaghan Part 5

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5. Thirsty Work

Joe had served as a soldier in the Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War (First World War). He had been wounded at the Dardanelles. He was struck during the battle for Gallipoli and at the height of that ferocious, hopeless attack. He was towed on a raft across the waters to the beach. This raft had a stout, wooden partition behind which the crouching soldiers could hide, crouching behind this, taking the safe side, shooting up at the Turks who were pouring fire down upon them from the high, rocky cliffs. The bullet that struck Joe penetrated and lodged in his helmet and partially entered his skull. Seriously injured, he was invalided out of the army. He recovered, only to suffer the effects of the chronic unemployment, encountered by so many of his kind. He hated Churchill whom he blamed for this debacle.

Still as a wounded ex-serviceman, Joe was entitled to a government gratuity to assist in his rehabilitation in those immediate post-war years. The money would be paid only if the appellant could prove that the money would be spent in some wise and worthwhile venture. The amount of this gratuity was