Do you see me ?

The names of most of these young boys have faded from my memory. This picture was taken in Scoil Fatima, Sligo when I was in First Class. There must have been two classes taken together that day at the back of the school....47....48 boys...I missed one.... seems too big a class even for back then.....and it might explain why so many of the faces are unfamiliar to me. No school uniform... Some of them I remember.. but I can’t think of their full names. Short trousers and long socks...... Sometimes we used elastic bands to keep our socks up. I see Sean Hughes in the front row has long trousers....how could I forget that we all wanted long trousers at that time. Eoin O’Sullivan... Tony Moony...who used to “gather” apples (cookers) in the Autumn and sell them to my mother who made apple tarts with them, Ronnie Dunne..deep voice, Sean Mc Gowan, Michael Moyles....his family owned The Imperial... Reggie Armstrong...good footballer, John O’ Connell, Martin Morrison...from 10 Doorly Park..a friend, Oisin Gilbride, Billy Adams...from Garavogue, Lily’s brother, Liam Mc Gettigan...his family owned the Cruiscin Lan in Old Market Street, Sean Hughes from Martin Savage Terrace, Martin Callaghan another good footballer...Nelius Flynn, sixth from left, second row from the back.....a shy, quiet seven year old. I loved a new, thick, colouring book and a packet of crayons. My sister Ann and myself coloured happily for hours.

I wonder who the boy on the right is who is cropped out of the picture......I missed him the first time I counted. He is number 48.

Clooties

Many of the sites, now associated with Christianity, can be traced back to a time when the influence of Celtic druids flourished throughout Ireland. One of the remnants of this era, the rag tree, can still be seen throughout Ireland, to this day.
Recently I visited St. Patrick's Chair and Well. St Patrick’s Chair and Well (also known as the Druids Chair and Well) lies within Altadeven Wood, not far from the Ulster Way footpath, in County Tyrone. The chair is a huge 2m high stone block, shaped like a throne. The well, which is said to never run dry, is set within another rock close by. It is a 25 cm bullaun, or depression filled with natural water. According to folklore, this water has the power to heal.
Between the chair and the well is a small tree. It is still common practice today for people to tie rags as votive offerings for ailments to this tree. Tradition dictates that the pieces of cloth are dipped in the water of the well and then tied to a branch on the rag tree while a prayer is said to the spirit of the well. As the rag disintegrates over time, the ailment is supposed to fade away also.
The rags, and other offerings tied to the tree, are known as clooties.

My clootie (curious trinket) is the green wool

This is one of the remarkable places in Ireland that bridges that dark mysterious otherworld of the Druids, to Christianity and the modern world.