Throwback Thursday: A call out for pupils to attend 50th anniversary reunion at Cork school

ALL our chat about fruit picking and farm work in the past few weeks of Throwback Thursday prompted Tim Morley to write in with a few memories of his own:

“I thought I would just send my recollections from Glasheen around the 1950s, when there were a number of market gardens operating there,” he said.

“At the top of Glasheen Hill (which led down to Glasheen village) was Bolloway Lane, which went down southwards for nearly a mile. At the bottom of this began ‘De Ramp’, essentially a wild adventure play area, no longer in agricultural use at that time, or perhaps a disused sand quarry? Our imagination was unbridled there!”

Oh gosh, yes, the wild adventure play areas of childhood, when the thought of covering every spare inch of ground with more and more new houses was unthought of.

We all had our special places to explore and make up games, didn’t we? Not always a huge area like The Dump out on the southside, or the revered Goulding’s Glen on the northside, both highlighted on recent Throwback Thursdays, but sometimes just an abandoned garden, or a deserted field.

Doubtless they would be considered far too dangerous nowadays, and closed off with all possible speed, but it has to be said that modern play areas, fitted as they are with every safety and every convenience, definitely do not develop the inventive and adventurous mind of a child as those places did.

“Beyond Bolloway Lane,” continues Tim, “on the left was Neville’s field, where our local butcher kept his cows until he could sell them on at cattle fairs. On the right was Eilee Murph’s field where we all learned to play our soccer (Jim Olney and Sean O’Leary among others), and also some hurling. There was no ban on mixing the two cultures back then!

“Then came Ahearn’s market garden on the right, mainly apples and turnips I think, followed by Jerry Spillane’s where, for those so minded, one could help harvest the ‘goosahs’, but no big money could be earned! Opposite was Murphy-Black’s market-garden, turnips and cabbage.”

All the market gardeners would have a horse and cart to deliver their produce, adds Tim, who includes a rather tragic story about one of these.

“Some rowdies turned Jerry Spillane’s pony loose, and it then got killed on the road, and that was basically the end of Jerry’s labours and his garden. He was about 70 then, but that market garden was his life.”

Glasheen Hill on the southside was essentially suburban Cork, continues Tim. 

“Mary O’Leary lived there, and she would know the place and its history better than I. But I do remember that on the northside was a row of poor small houses, which were flattened by 1960 at the latest.

In one house on this row lived a family with lots of children. They had two or three rooms, and got their water from a public supply on the other side of the road.

Moving on, and Denis Lucey has written to say that he and his friends are trying to track and trace lads that left Coláiste Chríost Rí in 1973, so that they can organise a reunion to mark the 50th anniversary of that event this coming October.

“I’m attaching photos taken of classes in 1971 and 1973, and wonder if any readers might recognise themselves or someone they know,” says Denis.

Well, have a good look everybody, and see if you can find a brother, a relative, a friend, or even yourself in one of those pics. Who knows, you might have the self-same photograph framed and sitting on your own mantelpiece! If so, then do let us know, and we can forward your details on to Denis.

These reunions can be great fun, as we saw with the pictures of Mike English and Richard Goodison last week, both in carefree teenage days and as mature men attending just such a school reunion.

And we have heard again from the redoubtable Rose in Ballyvolane, she who takes the pains to find paper and envelope and write a genuine letter to Throwback Thursday. Not for Rose the temptation of modern technology. She does it the old way, and good for her! Here is what she says: “Hi all at Throwback Thursday. Yes, it’s Rose again, with more to say!

“I can’t believe Elvery’s are taking over Roches Stores, that’s a big shop. I loved Roches, it had everything you could possibly want back in the day. My late husband, Eddie, worked there, but sadly he died at the young age of 36.

“Anyway, I saw the bit about Rory Gallagher. I and a lot of my friends used to be very fond of him when he was in The Fontana Showband. That was the start of his band days.”

Indeed, Rose, there were plenty of us who would wait eagerly to see if The Fontana was billed as the warm-up act at the Arcadia before one of the big-name showbands, and hurry into our glad rags to get down there in plenty of time to hear Rory belting out You Never Can Tell or Johnny B. Goode!

“As for Elvery’s,” continues Rose, “the factory I worked in was a sports one which made every kind of shorts for all games. In fact, we were part of Elvery’s, and our boss was manager there.

There is lots more I could talk about but I will stop now and see what’s in the next issue. I can’t wait - keep it coming, it’s great! Sorry I’m not into the modern stuff, can only just text on my mobile! Rose.

Well, you just keep it coming too, Rose. We love getting your letters and can’t wait to hear about some of your working experiences, or indeed the escapades you got up to as a youngster. Given your energy now, you must have been a live wire in childhood!

We have heard also from the indomitable Pat Kelly, always a treasure-house of memories, and none the worse after a bout with a brain tumour from which he is now triumphantly recovering.

“You recently spoke about Mr Higgins and his scrap yard of old cars,” said Pat. “Many years ago I worked in Pepsi, not far from Mr Higgins’ place down at Little Island. I was asked by a workmate to go to the yard, for a specific car part, and when I knocked at his door, he came out and said very abruptly that he did not have the part.

“I found out much later why my workmate did not go himself. He had gone looking for a part, and Mr Higgins had it, but quoted a price. My workmate tried to haggle for a reduction, whereupon Mr Higgins just threw it out of sight.

“I think that Higgins’ first name was Johnno. When he died, an attempt was made to clear the yard of scrapped cars and ironwork.

In the hedge behind his house covered in brambles and ivy, they found a very, very rare motor bike, and those who found it, said that it could be restored and sold due to its rarity.

Rare motorbike, you say? A cue to ring my brother, Tommy, who of course was able to fill in all the details. Anything on old bikes, ask him.

“Oh, Johnno was very well known all over Cork,” said Tommy “You didn’t even need to mention his surname, he was known everywhere as Johnno.

“I used to go down there and talk to him a lot. Sometimes I’d go down at night and we would sit by the open fire in his living room and chat. He was great to talk to. And a good golfer too, and an excellent shot.

“But he got so he would go out and couldn’t remember the way home, and so they put him into hospital. I went there to visit him and they had him in a chair with a strap round him so he couldn’t wander off.

“When I came in, he saw me and said, ‘Tommeen’ (he always called me that), ‘Tommeen, I’ve got me cards!’ And he died not long after that.”

And, naturally, Tommy knew all about those motorbikes.

“A few might have been in the hedge, but mostly he kept them in a shed. He had got into the way of collecting them - mostly BSAs and a Rudge or two, and others.

“They must have unearthed 60 or more, and the most valuable or rare among them went off to Bonham’s in the UK to be auctioned.

“I remember he had a craze for collecting NSU Prinz cars at one time too - tiny little things - but then he got on to the bikes. So many of them, but none in actual working order. He was always going to fix this one or that one, but time ran out in the end.”

As a footnote to that wealth of information, the little Prinz cars were first introduced at the 1957 Frankfurt Motor Show, under the tagline: ‘Fahre Prinz und Du bist König’, i.e. Drive a Prince and You’re a King!]

Did you ever drive a Prinz? Or visit Johnno’s treasure house of car parts for that vital bit? Or, indeed, play on Glasheen Hill? Or maybe you have an opinion on modern playgrounds as opposed to those you knew as a child?

Send us your memories. Email jokerrigan1@gmail.com. Or leave a comment on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/echolivecork.