As
I was driving home from Armagh a few weeks ago
I had to halt for a short time at the traffic control lights where the new
motorway bypass is now under construction. I was halted at the spot where the new road
crosses the existing Newry to Armagh road.It was just at that point on the road where
the Good Shepherds Convent used to be.
Over
on my right hand side there used to be a field and further along a patch of
rough rocky ground where we used to play as children.Now it is just a wilderness - all totally
unrecognisable; a weird, alien world of excavated ground and chaos. To the
civil engineers and workers involved in the building project, there was
probably order and symmetry there but to me it was ground zero, a place of
destruction.
As
I sat there waiting for the green light I pondered upon what it used to look
like. I remember photographing a tree
growing in that same field, and that wasn’t all that long ago; it was 1974,
just thirty four years past. I reflected
about the impact that all this development is having, not just upon our
environment and the local wildlife but at a more personal level, on our
memories and I thought of how the planner’s big foot stamps down on our
childhood.
As
the light turned to green I resolved to go and check out another of my old
childhood haunts that appeared to be in a direct line with the direction in
which the new motorway was heading.
Reminiscence 
