My Country Living: 'they realised it wasn’t a gun I had and they left me be'

I’m from Bawnboy, Co Cavan which is just six miles up the road from where I live now. When we were kids we lived in the village and we used to come home from school for our lunch. We would run down and we would run back up again.

We didn’t have a farm at home. My father was a builder but he bought a farm, thinking that if the construction business went bust he would have the farm, but he never farmed the land. He was no good with the farm at all. My mother got a cow and she used to milk the cow.

As children, we used to go to Enniskillen on the bus and the first thing my mother would buy would be a card of safety pins. We would then buy our summer dresses and whatever else was needed. In the Melvin Country House restaurant, she would put the dresses around us with the safety pins and then we would get the bus back.

The dresses were pinned because if the customs inspectors found them they could have been confiscated or a fee would have had to have been paid. Technically we were bringing goods in from another country. The customs inspectors would be getting back on the bus but they never knew that you had extra clothes on. It was so funny at the time.

Drapery

Years later I was working in Ballyconnell in a drapery shop. I loved it; I cycled in with a neighbour every morning and back in the evening for two years but then I moved.

My father was working for Hugh Cullen in Swanlinbar, they had a drapery shop there. Hugh was looking for a girl to work in the shop and of course, dad thought he might get me back home again so I went back to Swanlinbar.

I like style, I would have had plenty of hats because when you bought a coat, you bought a hat and shoes and everything to match

Stocktaking was the big job. In January, you would have to roll out yards of material, measure them and also count buttons. We did not like that job, you would be almost losing sleep over it.

I like style, I would have had plenty of hats because when you bought a coat, you bought a hat and shoes and everything to match. It’s not like that nowadays. Nobody wears a hat now, except at a wedding, it might be a fascinator even.

Family life

I got married in 1959 to Sean Gilheany. I had my eye on him for a long time. That’s why I was anxious to get back to Swanlinbar. Sean played the saxophone in the showband, Red Sunbeam. They travelled all over. During Lent there were no dances here in the diocese of Kilmore, so they went to England to Leeds in Yorkshire and around and then down to Coventry and Birmingham. I didn’t go with them, I stayed at home and kept everything going.

He gave it up in 1965 and took up farming then. He had a small farm and then bought more farms from around when they went up for sale. We got a milking machine and I had never milked in my life, nor did I know anything about cows so I learned.

For two weeks before the school was closed for summer holidays, I had to take the boys to school with the tractor but we had no link box so Sean put a piece of timber at the back.

While I’m not very involved in the farm now, I still help out. I always get a job moving cattle and horses or told to stand in a gap

One morning, I took off and I looked back and of course their was poor Padraig and John sitting on the road. I took off too fast, they always remind me of that one. That would never happen nowadays. I never drove a tractor before then, and I haven’t driven one since then actually.

While I’m not very involved in the farm now, I still help out. I always get a job moving cattle and horses or told to stand in a gap. I don’t know if I have a secret to being healthy but I do have a good appetite. I eat well and I’m fond of my food. According to my grandchildren I never stop.

Bringing in the cows

I loved bringing in the cows in the morning or putting them out in the evening.

Sean’s brother Joe brought the milk to the creamery but we had to bring it down to the road for it to be collected.

On a Sunday morning, he went very early and I remember one Sunday morning during the Troubles, I went out to bring in the cows.

I had a flash lamp with me and a little can because we always kept some milk back for the house. The next thing, this beam of light came down on top of me; it was a search light from a patrol helicopter. It was frightening at the time. I suppose they realised it wasn’t a gun I had and they left me be.

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