The bench outside Morrisey's shop.

That's the bench where all the great men sat, Fanning, The Saint, Bul Walsh, Paddy Kearney and Eddie Don. I met them all on that bench from time to time as a child. It was outside Lawlors but along Morrisey's wall. There was always someone sitting there having a bottle of stout and smoking Woodbines or Players Navy Cut. Only women smoked tipped cigarettes in those days, usually Carrolls. I used to sit there and count the crates of beer going into the pub for the man on the lorry. He always bought me an ice lolly when he was finished. I used to get free crisps and squash orange from Kevin Power when he worked there as a barman, for picking up the papers and the bottle caps. I always brought the bottle caps home to play with, at one time I had three hundred Guinness corks.

I remember watching an eclipse of the sun from that bench with Richie Fanning. Richie reckoned he'd seen loads of them in his lifetime and wasn't too excited by it. I got lots of free stuff on that bench, crisps, ice cream, coke and an education on the ways of the world from the great men of Dunmore . You couldn't sit there today unless you had a big plate of lettuce in front of you and a glass of wine in your hand and you wouldn't learn much now either.

Von Rutter