In Reply to: re: histroy of McHale Park posted by Butch on September 18, 2009 at 03:02:29:

a cara............thank for your compliment butch ....but i cannot take the credit for the information.....i got the info on the web.....although i have great memories of the park......after all it was our playing field as youngsters....the old plantation ...with its big cast iron cylinder......always filled with rain water.....and the spawning ground for lots of frogs......i swung on those trees as a kid.....johnny weismuller style.....the old hut with its cold showerfixture......in those days it was only an embryo of its current stadium class....but us in the '40s and '50's....it was our field.....its old galvanize doors never kept us out.....we on the road remember well the redevelopment of the park in the early '50s.....the bulldozers.....and the shuttle tracks.....used for conveying stone and other materials.....johnny lawless drove one the big tip trucks...and his ever beaming smile was always a treat even to us kids.....during all this work one evening while we were playing around on the shuttle cars on the track ....kevin "bonestick"mcginty suffered a rather serios injury.....there were yank cousins living in flanagans and they introduced us to american football and baseball.....but we rather liked our version of rounders....the oboyle family lived in number 116 mchale road and were the"gatekeepers'....mickey flynn was a door ticket seller....and also a hiighlight of this opening day was ....none other than miceal ohehir....whio called the play by play... for us back the miceal ohehir was an icon of the waves....i remember very well when he called a play by play of mayo and cavan from the polo grounds in nyc..... i remember gerry mc donald orchestrating the re development and danny mcellin always so proper....as was tp flanagan......the opening game mentioned in my earlier piece i remember very well.....mayo and meath.....the opening fanfare... scals paddy moylette ...pat ludden and myself had ringside seats..... danny mcellin..paced up and down opposite us like nerve wrecked sailor....then he moved into the park edge.....began a mantra..... with his never ending cry.....please keep of the grass.....fr. kearney gave the park its official blessing....in his usual speed......every hustler and trick a the loop was there....unfortunately i was too young .....the grand parade of the two teams led by the local band......gerry ralph....willy keane..jimmy feeney....tommy devanney....sonny guthrie....on the base drum....and many others......then the teams....the thrill of watching paddy prendergast...seanflanagan.....sean wynne...john forde...henry dixon ..eamon mongey....paddy mcandrew....johnny mc andrew....mickey mulderrig...."the master" padraic carney....peter solan.....tom langan....joker gilvarrey....mick flanagan.....that rush of watching the mighty green and red....flanked by the meath team...names i used to know......but the wages of age has left a blank....the full back his name keeps dancing in the shadows of my mind...but his handle was the man in the cap....away from the park and the portal of the the road dick and donal dunne were busy parking bicycles at a tanner a time....sorry to ramble butch but at times the flood gates of memory burst....

the night has a thousand eyes ...and the day but one.....yey the light of the bright world dies with the dying sun.....the mind has a thousand eyes ...and the heart but one...yet the light of a whole life dies when life is done....

human memory is a marvellous ...but fallacious instrument....the memories within us are not carved in stone ...they tend to become erased as the years go by ....and sometimes ...often change....and even increase by incorporating extraneous features........

la eile sceil eile....
slan .....ma cara......
....agus ....le sin....
.....tog go bog e.........