The long walk

Well, they made it. The Senior Six completed the promised walk of the two river banks south of the bridge, recalling old memories.



"It was a great tour altogether," said organiser Jim Collins this evening as they regrouped on the bridge before retiring to Fallons for some much-needed sustenance. "We discovered things that we hadn't seen since the sixties, like my name on a tree in the old sewerage farm."

Nicky Myers also found his brother Benny's name written on a tree in Blacker's Wood. "But there was no sign of Mrs Blacker," Jim Collins quipped.

(For the benefit of our younger readers, the Castlemartin estate now owned by Sir Anthony O'Reilly was previously owned by the Blacker family, and the woods were a favourite play area for youngsters in the fifties and sixties, including your Editor.)

Although on the manifest for the expedition, Tony Sullivan didn't make it this afternoon and his place as scout was taken by Brendan O'Connell. The other members of the group were Ray Donoghue and Donal St Leger.

Although he claimed that he wasn't able to get a word in edgewise, Nicky Myers was still pulling out the yarns as they made their way across the bridge to Fallons.



"D'ye remember the raft?" he laughed. "It was just an old door, but The Gilly charged us a penny a time to cross the river on it!"

Unfortunately, though invited, your Editor wasn't able to make the walk itself due to pressure of business. But there's little doubt that some of the stories of the afternoon will surface, somewhere, sometime.

Brian Byrne.