Jan 16, 2023
“The heavens scowled, the huskies howled and an ice wind began to blow” – The Cremation of Sam McGee, Robert Service. I had never heard of the poet of the Yukon, Robert Service, until New Year’s Day in 1963. The narrator was my neighbour, Jim, and his muse...
Nov 29, 2022
Mike toured the USA seven times as fiddler with the Tulla Ceil Band. Chicago was his kind of town. Toronto impressed him too. He was not trained in music. Few of his contemporaries were. He would listen to his father play and then, at the age of eight, he picked up a...
Nov 5, 2022
‘They’d all meet after mass and stand around chatting for hours. That’s gone now. Then everyone got motor cars and they drove away afters. Back then it was all walking. There was maybe the odd bicycle or a few asses and carts. But everyone else walked.’ Become a...
Nov 4, 2022
Written following an encounter in circa 2005 with thresher John Flynn (born 1943), store manager Pat Flynn (born 1939) and the late postmaster, Eamon Bolger (1931-2009). Become a member of Turtle’s History Library to access all areas, €12/year...
Oct 12, 2022
‘We used to go out on the long winters nights for five or six pints. We’d drink them slow, then drive home after. Now the pubs are all empty and people stay at home with a take out. If you’re not within walking distance of the pubs, you may forget it.’...
