My late father won a medal for hurling in 1929. The Galligans come from the Loch Gur area of Limerick. Patsy Fehin and I caught many rabbits in years gone by. Heafy’s Ditch was a great place for catching them. I remember Tom Fitz – he was a bedside ganger. You would have to go into the room to get your orders for the day. He was in charge of cleaning the river. He would tell the men go out and throw out a few weeds. It was done in a manual way then.
I worked with Dr Twomey looking after the dogs for four years. I remember one night above at the dog track in Cork. He met an engineer called Petit. He said I wouldn’t be a priest here for the world. I had two towns- Kanturk and Newmarket. How could you ex-pect a man reared in the wilds of Ballyvourney with the fox and hare to live in a town. I like all the old songs.
There was a story about Tom Fitz which goes as follows: A car came into Churchtown enquiring about where Tom Costello lived. Tom Fitz said “You are on the right track, go into the village and look to your left. You will see a white horse over the door and when you enter and you will see a Rosary beads, spread legs in a black pudding, that’s Costello’s”.
I have another story from years ago: Maurice Sheehan, Jimmy Sullivan of the Windmi-land and Denny ‘Boonie’ were coming home from Buttevant. Denny had a lot of drink taken and when he came into Churchtown he went in for more. Denny wasn’t long inside when Hannie came to the door and said ‘Come home, Denny’. He grumbled and said, “Any man may have one woman to contend with but I have three.”
