Looking back on summers past – Ed McGreal

The Breaffy Boys of Summer


Edwin McGreal

The nostalgic eye can be smeared with a rosy tint and life is often recalled as being better back in the day. But Breaffy was a great place to grow up in though for a young kid, with any amount of ways to pass the long, carefree summer days and evenings.
It was far enough from Castlebar to be full of all the magical spaces which a child thrives in - whilst still being near enough not to be isolated. The woods at Breaffy House, where the International Sports Hotel is now, was home to a web of old buildings very much overgrown and we felt like intrepid explorers adventuring through them.
A hilly forest just at the edge of my grandfather’s land was perfectly made for games of Tip The Can and Hide and Seek while the railway line up the Cottage Road was for the more extreme thrill-chasers. The closer you could be to the train as it passed under the bridge, the braver you were. I always cowed at the back while my cousins were at the front, only a couple of feet away. Placing coins on the tracks to be flattened by the train was a way of providing a souvenir of our escapades.
Sometimes a rail official would come along to ‘run’ us from under the bridge. The thrill of the chase was exhilarating. We once got chased from the playground at the national school by Gardaí too. We were guilty of being on the grounds after school hours and a board of management member called them to clear us.
We scarpered. I was eight at the time and the sight of a squad car was enough to send me into a tailspin. I was certain I was going to jail so I sprinted home in double quick time. My parents didn’t know what was up when they saw me run all the way up to the attic and wait there for hours, before I was coaxed down. I’m still at large 21 years later, the Ronnie Biggs of Breaffy.