a cara......the past....the beautiful past.....striped with sunshine....grey with mist....childish....blooming with hidden joy.....then ...bruised with sweet sorrow......ah!...if only i could resurrect one hour of that time......one alone....but....which one.....?growing up on mchale road and castlebar in the '30s ...40's ...and fifties....was a magical time....sprinkled with....joy....drama....and concerns.....it aws indeed the land of mystery....and tir na n'og.....it was indeed the time of ....follow the rainbow......which indeed was what we youngsters did...way back then....and in that time.....there lived a family....who were as much castlebar ...as the bacon factory......their house.....was a humble cottage ....opposite the bacon factory shop.....it stood in from the road a little ...by the sheds that stored the trucks that hauled livestock to the factory.....nylands farm sat back below it.....that home and house was the home of the denning family.....jack denning and his wife and family....lived in that house....jack....was a driver for the factory....but more than that he also bought pigs and other livestock for the factory.....and he and his cribbed truck were seen daily making their way down mchale road...often with a load of squealing pigs......jack was a very jovial...jolly man ....and was quite the joker.....and he and his side kick boston bennett....tremorred the town with their laughter and wit......i often met jack....at fairs...in places such as headford....ballinasloe...etc ....mrs denning was a very beautiful ....lady.....i can still her with her wire rimmed glasses......but my memories of their family are much more.....there was andy.....angela....and of course nan.....andy and i were boyhood friends....and i remember andy honing his driving expertise....as he drove his dads trucjk around the bacon factory compound.....usually in the company of his two closest friends.....john{doc}....and tommy doherty....i became quite friendly with ...andy.....back then....but at times our frienship had to be put on the back burner.....as the gang wars of the road....flared up.....andy was in the the opposite camp...along with the dhertys ....ruannes...redmonds....norman and brian wilson...and.. bowie bennett.....i got to know nan...and angela quite well....and often ....they came to our oasis...saleen lake in the summer...but alas ....we grew up to fast....and i left ...the comfort....and community warmth of mchale road for the big smoke of willesden and harlesden in london in the early '50s.....on times of my returns to home ...i would re forge my frienships.....on many occassions i met nan...as i bar hopped from spencer street to rockys.....but our lives had taken on different directions....nan....by now had established herself...as an entertainer extroadenaire....her pantomine charecterisations ...and performances .....were relived and echoed at many firesides....nan was an natural talent.....and combined with her remarkable disposition she embodied a mandella type human being.....and she was bigger than life....the last time i met nan.....was during my time in massbrook.....during ....my lost weekend....i in my fogged state....launched in some entrprenurial....adventures....much to chagrin if i may say....of the local ....siocholonie.....i went into the turf...and vegetable business.....i hawked my wares around the town.....and nan would often by the odd bag of turf....and stone of potatoes from me......we would joke about the old times.....and no doubt by the time i left her house.....i was pissing my pants...in laughter....

...What a shock hit me this week as i read of the death of nan.....i felt the lights of my heart were dimmed and darkened .....and certainly the lights of the castlebar....have gone out.....nan....was magic.....she lived the world of hope ....myrth and music.....she was an icon....statuesque.....a very glimpse of nan...would make my heart light up....she is ....the only queen of pantomine......she was a stalwart in getting the radio station in castlebar to the the place it is today......her costumes ...greasepaint....her characters....have been permanently locked away.....for there is none that can walk the boards as she.....she was a star....and on the stage and under the spotlights....she lit up the performance.....she indeed ....reinforced...the jolsonite...saying...."you ain't heard nothin' yet..."...that was nan....

now as i write in toronto......the town and the stage in castlebar has been darkened....and the town is diminished by her loss......the air waves of ccr fm will never be the same.....

....ah! happy years.....once more who would not be a boy....

.....the good old times ....all times...when old are good.....are gone.....

....your light from the heavens ...nan.....i know will ensure ....that you are giving a performance ......rest in peace my old friend...

....

....as the winter's sun's rays filter through my window.....i know at one time ....once upon a good time ....i lived in...tir na n'og....

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