So
Jimmy McLaughlin (who was the driver) Jacky Chambers and myself sat inside the cab
and the other three lads, who if my memory serves me well were Denis Hagan,
Eddy McLoughlin and Joe Murphy, sat on the back of the lorry along with the
load. I seem to remember some wit saying
all the damaged goods was placed on
the back.
This
placement of personnel was not ideal or comfortable and furthermore quite
illegal, but suspiciously enough the three lads who were to sit outside on the
back of the truck didn’t seem to mind.
As
we continued on our way along the road towards Keady, I could ascertain a lot
of movement from some or all our three passengers on the rear of the truck, and
also the noise level from them had increased somewhat. A sneaking suspicion of
what they were up to began to form in my mind. This was confirmed a few moments later when I
detected the sound of breaking glass.
What
the three of them were up to soon became clear as crystal! They were drinking the beer and then smashing
the empty bottles into the boxes containing the swept-up broken glass from the
earlier road accident. As far as they
were concerned it was a great idea. It
entailed free drink for them, as no one would be any the wiser as to what was
genuine breakage and what was deliberate.
........ penultimate "Truck" is next [i.e 6th of 7]..............