a cara.......in a couple of weeks we will celebrate halloween.....in canada and the homes are decorated with all kinds of spookie ghosts and eerie webs.....grave stones and other stuff ....jack - o'lanterns etc. etc......hay bales and pumpkins are laid out in front of houses... chidren dress up in costumes and make up....and go door to door seeking treats......the trick part was a fun thing to scare the door opener into giving a treat.......but in my day halloween was much more fun...candles were lit.......we played snap apple.....a big cooking apple hangig from the kitchen ceiling....parents hid a copper in the apple....and then we took turns in taking a bite.....the apple was usually one taken from an orchard ....maybe bourkes in maryland....or mcnicholas.....or perhaps some farmer coming into town with canvass bags filled with apples......as these apple sellers moved down the road we usually had a northlight blade that made a convenient incision in one of the bags.....so we all had apples.....back to halloween......parents would have us sit in a room until they hid a copper or two then called us out to search for and find the booty.....hazelnuts were plenty....and until after the war that was it....after the war came walnuts ....peanuts....brazilian nuts.....for tea we'd have a slice or two of barn brack....thomsons of cork.........when the wrapper was removed we could get that great spicy smell......we looked for the pea....the thimble.... or the ring as we ate our slice...perhaps i wound up getting too many rings.....later we 'd sit around the range and listen to stories......or maybe sing a song.....later as i got a little older i used to take the gates off the railings on mchale road....or run up and knock on a door .....or tap a window ...then run like hell and hide.....i remember walking from school and as we approached jbs.....peter devers window would be a cornicopius delight of all the seasons foods.....peter dever ....usually in his heavily starched collar and tie ......and martin dever served all the upper class who seemed to have no problem in buying all the luxuries .....at the same time keeping an eye on us lest we snatched a nut from one of the boxes.....as we went down castle lane the same delicious wafts caught our nostrils as we approached christy hobans.....but we were happy with our lot.....some of the things on the windows we didnt know what they were anyway ...and although we might have been curious ...we didnt give a damn.....my memory tells me as we walked home from school the evening shades were already dimming the daylight...it was exciting.....the next day was a day off school all souls day....the traditions were carried by irish immigrants to the "new world" where after years the americans modified the tradition into the present day trick or treat.....today the event is so commercialised.....scary movies....clubs with cotume parties....hauted attractions...etc.....how things have changed over the years.....i was never scared of ghosts or goblins.....but one halloween night i was on my way out to the moneen cottages ....pitch dark....nothing but the stone walls and a dark road.....the last light visible was at the corner of the old cannery....as i walked out the road powie roach in his mack and hat jumped out from behind the wall where roudstone is now....i coulndt make him out .....and i ran to the kilkenny crossroads and in the the breaffy road.....later i was telling the tale to someone and they told me it was powie.....give me a snap apple anytime.....

we saw the ghost of captain webb.....webb in a water sheeting....come dripping along in a bathing dress.....to a saturday evening meeting.....dripping along.....dripping along to the congrgational hall.....dripping and still he rose over the sill and faded......away in a wall......

....anyone for a slice of bairin breac....

............tog go bog e .....