Swinford, Co. Mayo.
Historical image: The Ball Court, postcard in Milton Series, possibly 1920s. see: https://library.mayo.ie/media/postcards/swinford/detail.np/detail-01.html
This alley way added to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage in 2010
Top three photographs by Neil Mc Dermot
Remainder of photographs provided by T. O'Malley in May 2020
Handball Legend
Outside the church I heard bits and pieces.
Someone told the story of Jarlath’s last day,
how he’d left his sister’s house and walked
two miles to the golf course in his pyjamas.
He’d been in bed all the previous month,
her feeding him a bottle a day, no questions.
Someone on the fifth tee had seen Jarlath searching
for balls in the drain off the second fairway.
‘He would have done that a lot as a boy,’
someone else said respectfully. ‘A golf ball
is a great tool for a hard-as-nails handballer.
Toughens the hands.’ The coffin appeared then,
six massive grey brothers bearing it, all of them
weeping. We blessed ourselves, and someone said,
softly, ‘Makes shite of the hands, more like.’
by Martin Dyar
Source: Everything To Play For: Ninety Nine Poems About Sport. by Martin Dyar.
Thanks to Martin Dyar
Outside the church I heard bits and pieces.
Someone told the story of Jarlath’s last day,
how he’d left his sister’s house and walked
two miles to the golf course in his pyjamas.
He’d been in bed all the previous month,
her feeding him a bottle a day, no questions.
Someone on the fifth tee had seen Jarlath searching
for balls in the drain off the second fairway.
‘He would have done that a lot as a boy,’
someone else said respectfully. ‘A golf ball
is a great tool for a hard-as-nails handballer.
Toughens the hands.’ The coffin appeared then,
six massive grey brothers bearing it, all of them
weeping. We blessed ourselves, and someone said,
softly, ‘Makes shite of the hands, more like.’
by Martin Dyar
Source: Everything To Play For: Ninety Nine Poems About Sport. by Martin Dyar.
Thanks to Martin Dyar
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