Soon we were ready to continue on our way. But there was one problem; including me there was now six of us, too many to fit in the cab. The D Series Ford Custom Cab had a large passenger seat that was meant to seat two.
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 d
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.