Siobhan's Memories of Paddy

Written by Siobhan Walls, Paddy's younger sister by 16 months.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    .    .

• Fighting over opening the blue foil paper on the chocolate fingers Daddy used to bring home to us from work.
• Opening the cardboard box Daddy brought home with two kittens inside
• The two of us squished in the boot of the VW Beetle with a single of chips on the way home from the baths on Friday night in Cork.
• Going for a picnic in Corry’s field.
• Hitting my head on the wall when he was teaching me how to flick my fringe.
• Looking at each other as we crouched together by Mother’s armchair in the sitting room in Glounthaune in the late afternoon of Sunday March 24^th, 1968 and deciding that as everyone else was crying we probably should too.         

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• Swanning around the Phoenix Park in Uncle George’s chauffeur driven car when me and Paddy were staying with them, but all their kids were at school.
• Arriving at Carrickbrack in the chauffeur driven car.
• Playing out the back garden in Carrickbrack.
• Leapfrogging over the trees Grandad had just planted in the front garden of Carrickbrack.
• Meeting Paddy at the top of the stairs on my way to bed where he’d be waiting to make me talk. I had a self-imposed rule that stated I could talk to no-one once I’d kissed Mother goodnight. Paddy would wait for me, somehow make me talk and I’d have to go all the way back down to say good night again.
• Him telling John to dance on my head while he held me down.
• Playing spin the bottle with Scorie, Brenda McLoughlin and Gerry and Brendan Hannon (Paddy had that sussed in that I was his sister and Scorie was his cousin, so no matter where the bottle stopped he got to kiss Brenda).
• Going to Fintan’s disco on Friday nights (I had such freedom being accompanied by my big brother).
• Him and Claire and Eamonn swigging a drinks mixture behind the bushes at Sutton Cross before going to Fintan’s disco (I’m not called Miss Mustard for nothing.).
• Going to the disco in Howth Community Centre and head-shaking to Black Betty till our heads hurt.
• Waiting for the bus at the top of the Baldoyle Road in the freezing cold to go visit Claire and Eamonn.
• Walking home from the bus stop at the top of the Baldoyle Road in the freezing cold after visiting Claire and Eamonn .
• Covering for him for some misdemeanour that Grandad was on to (having friends in the bedroom if memory serves).
• Seething with him for inviting the whole of Sutton and Howth back to Carrickbrack one Easter Saturday night when Ma was away.
• Going around the next morning with a nail scissors and glue to repair the cigarette burns in the sitting room carpet.
• Making him a birthday cake that consisted of 20 pancakes stacked high.
• Dancing with him to Earth, Wind and Fire on the chairs in the kitchen.
• Walking home from the Summit at 2am.
• Buying my first car which he drove to the petrol station in Portmarnock for me before I dared get behind the wheel myself.
• Being collected by him from Heathrow when I moved to London in ‘88.
• Being dropped by him to Luton when I moved home from London in ‘89.
• Going to his and Shelagh’s wedding in Kingston.
• Asking him for advice on a boy thing when Michael was a baby.
• Listening to Michael ask 30 times “What doin’ Paddy?” as Paddy re-tiled the bathroom here when Mother had split the house into two flats.
• Listening to Paddy answer 30 times “Sticking those tiles on the sticky stuff Michael”.
• Listening to Michael telling Paddy (after due consideration and reflection) to “Dick dose diles on de dicky duff Paddy”.
• Ringing Paddy for advice some years later on how to “dick diles on dicky duff”.
• Eating his savoury mince dinner in the upstairs flat at 38 Bayside Walk.
• Eating dinner with himself, Shelagh, Stevie and Savanagh in Baldoyle.
• Going to the Hillybilly in Dingle with him and Muiris on my 30^th birthday.
• Watching him and Mother argue with and against each other in Kerry.
• Playing cards with him and Mother terrified I’d make a mistake.
• Getting to Kerry with a 3 week old Rachel to find no floor in the sitting room.
• Running out to Paddy with a 3 week old Rachel in my arms screaming at him to chase down the hill after Robert who was chasing Nick who was chasing Michael who was chasing Mister the dog who was chasing a sheep over a cliff edge.         

          

• Watching him watching Sam on Coomeenole as we all played in the waves.
• Putting my head in the kitchen door in Kerry to tell himself and Robert to drink less gin, carve more meat and make more gravy.
• Getting a lesson in how to wear a peaked cap at just the correct Dingle angle.
• Accompanying him on the train as far as Mallow when Rachel and I were going to Tralee to visit Mother in hospital in September 2005 and watching him get off to meet Dessy to go to re-hab.
• Refusing to give him money the night before that and buying him phone credit online instead.
• Watching him take photos all night at Robert’s 50^th birthday about a month later – he wasn’t drinking.
• Feeling so relieved when he got to Beaumont before Mother died.
• Going on a wonderful winelands tour with himself and Claire in South Africa.
• Being so touched the week the house in Slea Head was being cleared out when he gave me and Rachel a 50 euro note cos I was so broke.

          

          Pic courtesy of Deirdre Kearns' facebook page (Dee Keating I think .)

• Meeting him in Banna in June of last year.
• Meeting him in Dingle a couple of times in July of last year.
• Meeting him and Maura, her daughter and Peadar in Dingle last June.
• Meeting him in Peter’s house in August.
• Talking to him for the last time a few Sundays ago while I was walking the dog up in Howth.
• Seeing his bloodied, bloodless nose when I walked into the ICU in Tralee on Sept 4^th
• Wanting to hold my nose for the smell of decay coming from him.
• Kissing his face and holding his hand and telling him that I loved him.