THE STORY OF BABY JOHN

I loved listening to Mum telling us stories of her life time and some of them stick in my mind.Iike the time she was expecting one of my older siblings and was living with my Granny and Grandad in Shankill in County Dublin. My Dad, at the time, was a long distance lorry driver and Mum said that Dad would leave licorice sweets under the pillow, that way my sisters and brothers knew that Dad was going to be home at some stage anyway.

Mum went on to say that she went into labour on Sunday morning. You didn't have to go to hospital then unless you had to - it was the midwife that delivered your baby. Granny made the dinner and in the meantime had sent Dad down to get the midwife. Half way down the road, Dad stopped to watch a match in the field and forgot all about Mum. Instead there he was shouting "Come on! Come on!" to the team.

After a while my Granny went to see where he was and lo and behold, there he was shouting. Well, Gran took off her shoe and began to beat Dad around the field. "I'll give you come on!" she said. Dad had forgotten and got side-tracked. My brother was born a few hours later and Mum and baby were fine. My Mum laughed at the idea of Gran running after Dad and belting him with her shoe.