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Post by Frank OConnor on Jun 7, 2011 5:28:52 GMT
Johnny. I don’t know who that was you met... but it wasn’t me. Maybe it was my ghost. I have to say this whole website is like a ghost world to me. I can scarcely believe that you’re all still here...kids I ran wild with so many years ago and I ain’t seen none of you for so long.
I’ve been popping in and out of here for a couple of years at least.... just remembering and reminiscing. I posted a message once but no–one noticed it so I never tried again.
Then earlier tonight I stumbled on the 'nicknames' thread and people were talking about me. Even my brother Billy was there. But the meassages were a year old so I had to keep digging to find something more recent to reply to.
Billy, if you hear me post me a message. It’s long past time we got in touch. The Kelly’s and the Kearneys too… I’d love to make contact with you.
I’’ll keep coming back to this thread until someone answers. I ‘ve been a long time gone…like the lost boys in Peter Pan who fell out of their prams when the nanny wasn’t looking…Any way if anyone can help by letting the Brother know I’ve been here and asked for him…that would be much appreciated.
As Arnie once said "I'll be back"
Francis
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Post by liamkearney on Jun 7, 2011 11:44:23 GMT
Hi Frank, (pudge) Great to know you are still alive and kicking, where are you hiding these days? I have often enquired as to your whereabouts but nobody seemed to know, the last time I spoke to you would have been about 35+ yrs ago, anyway great to hear from you after all this time. Myself Carmel,Maura and Kit are all living in Newbridge, keep in touch now that you have made contact. Liam Kearney.
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Post by maryfarrell6 on Jun 7, 2011 13:06:44 GMT
Hi Frank, Welcome! its Great to see you posting on site Billy as you can gather posts regularly himself so if he doesn't see it you can be sure one of the gang will get your message to him. He'll be delighted because he put on much the same message looking for you about a year ago. Keep in touch, theres quite a crowd of us Pearse lot here as you've probably already gathered. Bye for now MaryF
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Post by Frank OConnor on Jun 7, 2011 13:56:20 GMT
Hello Liam (AckAck). I hoped you would respond but I just didn't expect it to be so soon.
Last time I saw you you were training at Baldonnel. You were always talking about air frames...and I never had the foggiest what an air frame could possibly be.
I've been following the adventures of your two beautiful sisters on here for years, but just couldn't bring myself to join in the discussions....been gone too long I suppose and feltt like a stranger. I'm living in West London and haven't been home for many years
Mary Farrell......Hello to you too.
You're another one I've been following for a while. Of course I recognised your name immediately among so many of the old familiar. I discovered the site years ago the same way so many have done, just by googling 'Curragh Camp'
I have to go and sleep now. I know it's the midddle of the day but my body clock is all topsy turvy. I'll check back later.
Francis
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Post by liamkearney on Jun 7, 2011 14:23:09 GMT
Hi Frank, I did 30yrs in Baldonnel in total, I am retired out of it 12yrs this month, never thought I would see the day I would be a pensioner. Talk to you again soon. By the way you are gone very posh, where did this ( Francis) come from? Liam.
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Post by Frank OConnor on Jun 7, 2011 14:52:17 GMT
AckAck,
There's nothing Posh about it...in fact I'm about as far from Posh as you can get.
The 'Francis' thing goes back to my teenage rebellion. I was very taken with the Hippy thing and I thought 'Francis' was a bit more hip than 'Frank' But I was also very angry and alienated from my family so changing my name, or actually reclaiming my 'real' name, made a lot of sense to me at the time. Also I was moving in new circles and meeting new friends who didn't keep cslling me by the old name...So 'Francis ' stuck and that's the name I've used ever since.
Anyway, don't you remember Francis Kelly, brother of Joey and Sharkey and Farts? No-one ever called him 'Posh'.
Also you lot all called me 'Pudge' How horrible was that?
(Cruel things these nicknames)
Francis
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Post by maurakearney on Jun 7, 2011 14:53:41 GMT
Well Frank O Connor what a blast from the past to see your name Iam so delighted to know you are on this site it will be great to keep in touch .Ihave asked over the years about you after all you were the first Boy to buy me a ring we were about 12 do you remember. Keep in touch. Maura Kearney.
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Post by liamkearney on Jun 7, 2011 15:05:36 GMT
Hi Frank,I remember your rebellion days they started with your Bob Dillon records and a bit of Mellow Yellow if I am not mistaken, a long way from the schoolboy who stood on the podium in front of the national school in 1966 and read the Proclamation at the 50th Anniversary celebrations, memories? Liam
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Post by billy o connor on Jun 7, 2011 15:07:04 GMT
frank have just logged in for the first time in a week and my heart leaped with joy not going to arrange anything just now because my emotions are a bit raw......... will explain when this works out for us at a later stage keep safe your older brother boc
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Post by Frank OConnor on Jun 7, 2011 15:27:13 GMT
Billy,
Great to hear from you.
When you're ready you can email me at;
zerofrancis@hotmail.com
We can talk more privately that way and start to catch up.
Francis
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Post by liamkearney on Jun 7, 2011 15:43:05 GMT
Hi Frank, Great to see yourself and Billy back in contact after all these years. Billy I did not get to see you in person over the last few days but you have my deepest sympathies, I will talk to you soon. Liam
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Post by Frank OConnor on Jun 7, 2011 15:49:52 GMT
Hi Maura,
I don't remember the ring but I remember the passion behind it.
I was mad in love with you at the time...not that I had any idea what to do about it.
I think we were younger than twelve, more like ten I reckon.
I remember one time riding down to O'Donnels or McAteers on bicycles together. You had Jackie on the carrier with you and she was about two years old. Does that help pinpoint the age?
I'm amazed you even remember that ring. At the time I thought my love was completely unrequited. But maybe you were just being coy.
I must have been a big embarrassment to you 'cos Liam and me were best friends so I was always hanging round your house (and making moon eyes every time you appeared).
Your mother used to give me this funny quizzical look and shake her head a little as if to say "well, you're a funny one allright"
Francis
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Post by carmelkearney on Jun 7, 2011 19:08:22 GMT
Hi Frank O Connor great to see your name come up again, i replied to a post of yours a long time ago, you signed off with Francis and i asked if you were the Frank that i knew, catch up soon.
Carmel Kearney
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Post by maurakearney on Jun 7, 2011 19:22:30 GMT
Hi Frank I was only 12 if Jackie was 2 cant believe you remembered her name. Ido remember you and Liam been best friends and you are right about Mother the way she would shake her head. I hope you will have lots of stories to tell of your time living on the curragh keep in touch. Maura Kearney.
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Post by Frank O'Connor on Jun 8, 2011 16:25:21 GMT
Hello again the Kearneys.
Hi Carmel. Well that must be about two years ago that I first posted on the site. I was reading a thread about Pearse and recognised Joey Kelly’s name so I introduced myself. As far as I can remember I came back looking for a response, probably for weeks afterwards, and then gave up. I never saw your message, I suppose it just came to late to catch me..
After that I started having second thoughts about the wisdom of trying to ressurect the past etc. Anyway I kept checking back looking for old friends and reminiscing (as you do). I loved reading all the stuff about games we used to play, Kick-the-can and Jack Jack and Death Defying Stunts downTrolley Hill etc, but I just couldn’t convince myself to take the plunge and stick my hand up and say “Hello, remember me, I’m still here too”
Liam, I remember that day reading the proclamation, but I’m surprised that you remember it too. Actually I remember it taking place on the square at McDonagh Barracks (please correct me if I’m wrong). I think there must have been a mass or service of remembrance at the Church, after which the troops paraded down to the square for the other festivities. I can remember massed ranks of soldiers drawn up in front of the dais from which we read the proclamation. There were three of us from my class at school. Apart from me there was Jim Sullivan, from Clark married qtrs, and Jim Stapleton who was a commandants son and lived in one of those officer houses behind O’Donnell’s shop right at the end of the South Road. (They were big lads and I was the little guy in the middle).
I remember also that RTE ran a serialised dramatic reconstruction of the events of Easter week on the telly, which I watched spellbound. I had a great passion, as we all did, for that period of our history. I had a particular passion about Padraig Pearse, for obvious reasons I suppose. There was a poem he wrote in Kilmainham on the eve of his execution, called ‘The Mother’, in which he imagined what his mother might be feeling for her two condemned sons. I can still remember it word-for-word to this day. Some things you never forget.
Enuff. More later.
Frank
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