Search Results for 'John Fitzgerald'

Abolish the Senate — YES — John Fitzgerald

Putting the clocks back or forward by an hour as required is something we take for granted nowadays. But this has not always been the case.

Tony O' Malley attributed to Callan a quality of inwardness. “It was a feudal town with a wall around it”, he noted, speculating that this helped create a sense of detachment.

Leaping to their feet, the LSF (Local Security Force) men slowly re-traced their steps but had to “hit the dirt” again a few minutes later when they noticed men picking wild mushrooms. They feared the mushroom pickers might start yapping to the enemy troops about their presence.

“Hold Steady, remain calm, men” the officer shouted, as the bull broke into a gallop towards them. It was no use. They bolted in all directions, leaving the officer standing.

Apart from the scare over phantom parachutists, the first large-scale military exercise involving Seamus O’ Brien’s LSF (Local Security Force) Group in the Callan district followed shortly after the uniforms arrived at the local courthouse. On a spring Sunday morning, the lads were lined up for a specially convened parade on Callan’s Fair Green.

Talk of cuts in the State pension must stop now according to Age Action which has described the weekly payment as a vital buffer protecting older people from poverty.

Most farmers in the Kyle district, Nell Leahy noted, had dairies. As a rule, a farmer with 60 acres kept up to 18 cows, while a farmer with 40 acres tended to confine his herd to about 14.

As the war progressed, rumours swept the country of foreign incursions and sinister hostile action. Seamus O’Brien was “off-duty” on a warm autumn evening in 1940 when a “Red Alert” invasion scare sent shock waves through Callan.

Nell Leahy, drawing on her natural wisdom, explained that boils could be difficult to cure. But if you pressed a hot bottle, heated with boiling water, against the boil it would extract the vile contents and then, hopefully, the boil would go down and disappear. This could be painful, but effective.