Video transcript
And the last speaker, I knew nothing about that when I had my kids. You know what I mean? We just brought them off to the sea, got them ready in the morning, all excited about going, and fabulous!
And then we’d have to get the bus, go into town to get the bus to the train, and get the train out to the sea. And the places I loved, and my kids loved, was Portmarnock, especially because there was dunes, and you’d tumble up and down the dunes and they loved it.
And other places we went to as well was where we picked winkles and cockles and all that kind of thing. And we knew nothing about danger. My kids would charge off out into the sea, and thanks be to God, nothing ever happened.
And I wasn’t the kind of a mother that’d be keeping a good check on them. I’d be too busy getting all the food on the sand and eating the sand sandwiches and all!
My kids still talk about that today. There’s great times they had with all the things, your mother packing all the bags, getting them all ready, packing all the food… You brought the kitchen sink nearly with you out to the sea! You brought bread and butter, the cooked chicken, everything—well, that’s what I remember.
And I wasn’t the person that was brought to the sea by my parents, but my husband had to work on a Sunday, and I packed all of my kids—and I had a lot of kids—I packed a whole lot of them off out on my own. And I enjoyed every single bit of it.
And to look back on it, I don’t regret one thing. I didn’t know about the sea, I felt that God is looking after us, and I trusted in him, because I couldn’t manage all the kids I had at the time! I wasn’t capable! I was a bit of a wild herring myself, you know what I mean?
So I’ll leave it at that. Thank you all for this.
Hilda O'Grady
