The last issue of the Ballagh Advertiser before the Christmas break and one wonders where the last twelve months have gone. This time of year is of course a time for reflection. Christmas is a religious occasion but is also hugely associated with children and therefore it is only natural that one would reflect on one’s own childhood.

I had cause the other day in Ballagh, to reflect on an area of the town that I hadn't thought about for a long while: The Plots. It was while talking to Noel Drake and Gerry Waldron that the reminiscing about olden times started. Noel was observing how the town had changed so much since his arrival here in the early '70's, while Gerry remembered a guy who actually lived in the plots with no electricity and only water from the well. I personally don't remember anyone living there, although, all of us young bucks practically spent all of our free time there. How some of us didn't meet our death is beyond me. I remember climbing a tree with a bow saw to try and cut a particular branch, which I reckoned would be perfect for making a catapult. I always got the branch I wanted, always made it safely back down and no adult would even bat an eyelid at having their bow saw returned by a 7 year old saying, “thanks for the lend of that”!

Things were indeed very different years ago. I'm not saying they were better, just different. Some things were better, some weren't. For example, if I had fallen from a tree and just had minor injuries, I, more than likely wouldn't have told anyone and I certainly wouldn't have been wondering whom to sue! There was more wholesomeness around then. Any parent could discipline any kid or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought anything of it. Every one of us had a dog, which were the furthest things from pure-breds you'd ever find. Mind you, I'm trying to imagine what kind of reception a young fella would have got years ago walking down the plots with a pure-bred dog! The catapult would surely have been used and the bow saw mightn't have been handed back as quick either! (And as for what would have happened to the dog, lets not go there!!) Young people have way more choices nowadays and that is brilliant. No doubt, if all of us were kids nowadays, we'd have great craic and we wouldn't be lamenting the fact that we were born BC, before computers. When you don't know what you're missing, you just get on with life, as best you can. At Christmas time we always wished for snow and if my rose-tinted memory doesn't fail me, we nearly always got it. We appeared to get more normal seasons back then as well. We got the snow in the winter and the most beautiful of summers. You could nearly smell the sun and the seemingly constant odour of freshly cut grass and us walking across the road to the plots munchin’ a few buttered Marietta biscuits, with not a care in the world!

The Plots of course was also the venue for huge bonfires. We'd be collecting tyres for months. The Barrack Streets and the Pound Streets were together and the Plots the venue for their bonfire, the New Streets and Market Streets had their bonfire in the FairGreen. Both fires were massive, every year, with no formal supervision. At the end of the night then someone would double-dare you to cycle through the remnants of the fire from one side to the other. Of course, you didn't want to be called chicken so like eejits we'd cycle through the ashes completely ruining the tyres. The Mayo View's father and grandfather were always extra busy the day or two after a plots bonfire! We made plenty use of the back-ways in the town as well. Generally, for just roaming around and climbing walls or tryin' to take the head off a crow with the aforementioned catapult. Colleen Kelly would “hire” a few of us to help throw the hay into the shed at the back of McGovern’s. I'm sure we can't have been much help, but with enough money to go to Mahon's VG (it's a DVD shop now!) to buy a rake of muck, we felt we had made a great contribution. I met Colleen the other day in Ballagh and it was great to have the chat, as I hadn't met her in a long while. Happy Christmas Colleen.

Peter Hannon and myself used to race each other in two pedal cars. We'd start at Gannon’s house and pedal like hell all the way down the Boherbui Road. There was no traffic around at all then, only Pa Flannery's cattle. 'Twas nearly always a dead heat but neither of us would want to be the first to pull up, so we'd keep on pedalin' and more than once we'd land out on the main Sligo road! One particular time, we both landed in the middle of a funeral, the two of us, right in between the hearse and the first car! At that time, living right across from the Boherbui road was John Morley. He came straight out of the house, grabbed the two pedal cars by the steering wheels and us in the cars and carried us back up the road onto the back way! He started to give out to us for interrupting the funeral. Now those of you who knew Peter and myself when we were that age (even now, says you!), knew that both of us could use some choice language when we had to! Needless to say the verbal assault John took that day was intense. He even brought it up a few years later in 78 when my parents and myself were returning from my brother Liam's passin' out parade in Templemore. We bumped into John in Roscommon town and he reckoned he still hadn't got over that bollockin'!! We had a good chat with John that evening. It was the last time we ever met him. Two years later in 1980, John was shot dead after the bank in Ballagh was robbed. I had just started my first summer job, working for Harry Reid on Christy McCann's house in Banada. We were cycling into town on the Dublin road and who pulled up in the car only Martin Hannon and Peter. I can still see the look on their faces as they told us what had happened. Some things in life are more vividly etched than others.

Enough reflection, may I take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a happy Christmas and a pleasant New Year and take care of yourselves.

PS: We'll be on-line at Radio Ballagh between 2pm and 6pm on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day. It'll be music and requests plus the occasional interview. On Christmas Eve at 3pm it'll be the Gerry Clarke interview. At 3pm on Christmas Day it'll be Cardinal Sean Brady. At 4pm Christmas Day it's Mary Gallagher talking about mobile phone etiquette. At 3pm on St. Stephen's day it's Ballaghaderreen Vs Charlestown. Check elsewhere in this issue for the correct link, particularly the Bored Bard of Ballagh column. If you want requests or messages played on the day, you can e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at any time.

Noel D. Walsh.