... who happened to sit down in the two vacant seats beside her, and the man deemed to mention to my Mother that he lived on the Derryleckagh Road.  After conversing for a short time my Mum discovered that she and her new found friend were actually related to each other; they were in fact distant cousins as they both shared the same Great Grandparents.

Years ago when my brothers and I were children my Mother always told us the story of when she was a child her Aunt Kate would walk her out to Kate’s Grandparents house at Mill Town on the Derryleckagh Road.  Mum said that,” on the night before their journey Kate would get out her best Sunday bonnet, and her comfortable walking shoes.  She would then lay all out in readiness for an early start that next morning”.  That next morning Kate, wearing her best bonnet and clutching her young niece tightly by the hand would set out on their six or seven mile walk from Linenhall Square out to Mill Town on the Derryleckagh Road.

That was quite a walk for a nine year old; there are not too many nine year old children nowadays would undertake that journey without complaining, especially as they would be expected also to walk that same route on their return journey later that evening.

Anyway it transpired that Mum’s new found bingo friends still lived at that same old family home in Mill Town, the very same house that she and her Aunt Kate walked to all those years ago.

My Mother accepted an invitation by the man and his wife to visit them sometime at their Derryleckagh home.  On this occasion mum had no intention of making the journey by walking as she had done so often before when she was young.  So I was therefore given the job of driving mum out to Mill Town.

It was interesting to see that cottage and its locality seeing as how that old place was the source of a lot of my Great Aunt Kate’s stories which she told to me and my brothers as we sat at the fireside when we were small. The gentleman who now lived in that house proceeded to tell me a story about his Great Grandfather who lived in that cottage many years ago.

As the man’s tale unfolded I began to think to myself it was déjà vu. This was the same story that my Great Aunt Kate told to my brother and me as we sat beside the fire in our old house at Linenhall Square all those years ago.

... more to follow ....