The traffic was stopped in every direction, waiting for us .. or for the donkey. Everybody came up with ideas or gave a hand. Would that donkey put a foot on the wooden bridge? No. It was like Delaney’s donkey in that song.
Eventually this farmer boy came up: ‘Here. Let me!’
He backed the donkey over the bridge! Backed it! And it worked!
‘How am I going to get him across, on the return trip, with 4 bags of coal and 4 bags of slack?’ was all I could think.
We bate, prodded and kicked him. We offered him carrots. We blindfolded him. As soon as he felt that wood, he stuck the heels in!
It was dark before we eventually succeeded. Stubborn oul bas***d !
You’ll not believe it! On Monaghan Street on the return trip Sergeant Junk stopped us and charged us with driving without lights after dark!
When the case came before the Magistrate’s Court, Sergeant Junk got a sympathetic hearing at first.
‘The law’s the law!’ says yer man in the wig.
‘However I find that the wrong defendant is in the dock.
It should be the donkey!’
The case was dismissed.
… more from T’as later …