EPISODE 82 BUNMAHON 1960 … A STARTLING LETTER RECIEVED JULY 16, 2020

EPISODE 82    BUNMAHON 2960…A STARTLING LETTER RECEIVED JULY 16, 2020



NOTE:  OUT OF THE BLUE…out of the internet I mean,..I just received a letter from Dan Dwan, a relative of my right hand man  Barney Dwan in Ireland in 1960. He
found the Bunmahon stories on the Internet.   Amazing.  wonderful.   Sixty years ago. So  I am sending him a bunch of pictures.  IN addition  one of the stories  I never sent to others…i.e.
my Irish date with Rena Casey.   

There are periods  in our lives that are frozen in our memories…and  once warmed up those memories return ins such graphic  detail
that they must seem to others as fabricated.   That is why the pictures are so important…they establish that my memory has recorded
that summer of  1960 quite accurately.

DAN  DWAN.

HI Dan…here  is a  pile of pics…most of which  I  used.

Maybe you can with help of Barney identify some of the characters in Kirwin’s pub.

Send  pic of yourself  and  Barney…I  will tie them into the final entires

(I called him Bandy for weeks which
made the crew laugh…and then they started to call him Bandy…followed by hoops of
laughter that confused me for a while.  Barney just grinned.  His  Irish accent had confused me.)

One story I have not told  and will do  so now…i.e.  the date I had with Rena Casey…entirely platonic as
she was just a nice person who walked on the cliffs  and  seemed  interested in me.   A replica  of Maureen O’Hara.  I Rented
an old van from Mr.s Kennedy…wreck…drove to Tramore to see a movie and then home. The
car stopped suddenly part way home which i think alarmed Rena…certainly alarmed  me…got the
crank and got it started again.  We were both nervous.  I still remember the spot on the Tramore road
where the breakdown occurred…a dark place in the shadow of the Copper Cliffs of Tankardstown
I think.  What must have been going through her mind?  The car was at fault …not me.

Then a day or so later Mrs. Kennedy said

 “Master Skeoch, the Casey’s bought a new studio couch”
“So?”
“Just informing you there may be expectations.”  (Mrs. Kennedy did not approve)

I never spoke with Rena  again as I feared hurting her feelings…I liked her as a person
not as  a conquest.   And  I was  certainly influenced by the Quiet Man…John Wayne and Maureen
O’Hara romance.  A romantic at heart.  I was more frightened by the ‘studio couch’ than 
crawling through the abandoned mine adits and shafts.  Years later, in 1965, Mrs. Kennedy told
me Rean had moved  to London, married  with three kids.  Good for her.

 My girlfriend in Canada at the time, Marjorie Hughes, later became my wife and  we returned to
Bonmahon with my brother in 1965…and also  later in the century.  Both of our sons and both
of our daughters  in law have been to bunmahon…passing through.  The place lives in many
memories.

 I found the people of Bunmahon fascinating
and loved  our regular pints at Kirwin’s…loved the banter…the stories…the sprays of
Holy Water thrown at me on Sundays.  No  Irish hostility…no nastiness…just good  times.

Hunting Technical and Exploration Services trusted me to do  the job.  That was flattering 
and I worked  hard lest I let them down.  I hoped the project wold help  Bunmahon.  It did
not but the later publicity pushed  by historian Des Cowman certainly did…now called the CopperTrail.

My  company in Canada wondered why I hired  so many people.  They were paid so  little
that I tried my best to get a little money in their hands.   And the Irish cattle herds justified
the extra expense.  So many  cattle chewed  up our lines that I thought the local milk
would be copper coloured.    We needed men to patrol our base line.  Even  then the
cattle got the wire and  regurgitated  it in the fields in balls the size of baseballs.   Many farmers
hated me I think…demanded  compensation.  I do not know if they were ever paid although
they should have been.

 For the life of me I could not
understand how they could afford those pints of  Guinness….dinner in a glass as they say…
We dared not start to buy rounds fearing our employees  at Kirwin’s would feel duty bound
to reciprocate.

As a stupid gesture, I gave each man a pack of cigarettes on paydays…I did  not know that
Wild Woodbine cigarettes… were the cheapest of cheap tobacco.  I think I even gave out chocolate 
bars just for fun.   My company never complained.   My boss will get this letter as well as you.
He once described me as  precocious which I have found  amusing.



alan skeoch
July  2020

P.S.  Send  a couple of pics.











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