how many remember what we used to refer to as the cattle drive.....after the war the bacon factory opened a cannery....they made "barcastle stew" barcastle was the brand name....well... long and big droves of cattle would arrive from all over at the station and under the control of martin dolan these cattle would be driven down mchale road ....some of these cows could hardly walk their bones were barely covered in their hides ...skelital almost...we as youngsters became part of the driving force until they arrived at their holding stalls at the bacon factory...where ultimately they met their fate and became stew....barcastle became a big factor in those days ....in fact the factory launched their own soccer team....barcastle ...and in their day were a force to be reckoned with....do es anyone remember the trailers at the side of the cannery filled with bones....stench...and seagulls.....which reminds me of another stench we were afflicted with ....the smell of trucks hauling shark flesh through the town....but the bacon factory brings back many memories.....one stands out very clearly.....st. stephens evening 1953.....tim mcdonagh[mons terrace] was having trouble starting his car....mick ganin , mick lacy , harry farrell, noel mc ginn and myself happened to be up near mons terrace not by mere accident but one of need....i developed a toothache extreme pain and i was ordered to have the tooth removed by one of castlebars most distinquished characters....none other than henry taphouse....i arrived at the dentist taphouse .....sat on his rather scary chair....often filled with books and instruments....he looked at my tooth and said yes it had to come out but he had no anaestetic...he gave me a large pain killer told me take that and come back in a couple of days for the extraction....i left delighted that i did not have to suffer his rather unique way of pulling teeth....outside the boys were waiting for me ....and as fate would have it so was tim mcdonagh and his ford anglia....this car was pristine....as good as when he bought it from josie bourke[main ford dealer]...tim was having troble starting the car .....so the boys , i, and mike gannon pushed the car up the hill, then when we arrived at the top of the hill he told me....why me...because my father had cars he assumed i knew how to gear start the car from a push off the hill...which i did....in i get behind the wheel the last person to ever drive this car again....i got my push and i began to roll i released the clutch and off i went ....first into second as i turned down mchale road and then into top.....at the sports field i was flat out....can you imagine my thrill behind this wheel....those that remember the bacon factory.....the shop....and the sheds beside dennings....the road took a small twist as it approached the factory shop....i mounted the side wak on front of the shop the car flipped on its side and in a blaze of sparks skid along the road in a spin until it crashed through the shed gates......half the road came down to see the commotion....but dan carroll who lived over the shop and his daughter were first on the scene......his daughter was a nurse...she looked into the wreck...and asked if anyone was alive in there i crawled up fro under the dash ...shaken but with not as much as a scratch....the car was a melodie....the shed doors wer match sticks....the spectators gathered ....including tim mc donagh.....asking had anyone seen what happened dan carroll warmed him by saying ...dan dare would not take the turn at the speed i was going.....the excitement was interupted by the arrival of tommy haugh and jack the bladder...another part of town the wall oposite duxie mitchells bears another one of my trade mark crashes....this mark was there for years and years and on my visits to the town it brought back its memory each time i got to mitchells corner on castle lane.....thats the way it was back then....but life is a book of memories... aris...tog go bog e