Catherdaniel and the Reasons

Summers belonged, for many years, to Catherdaniel.

There, my daughter learned about being one amongst many and about how to entertain herself when she wasn't the centre of attention. She discovered both 'Enid Blyton' and 'The Far Pavilions' - and the world of rural Ireland from centuries past. Our milk was still delivered in donkey-drawn churns at roadside and many times there would be power and water cuts which meant that we would haul water from a well or from a tap in the side of the street where others would also be queueing.

She learned to wander alone along sand-dunes and to scramble unaided over cliffs, to swim amongst crabs and to simply relax on the beach, to be scared by tides and the fact that the older children could battle waves and tides more than she could, that she had limits and that she needed to stretch them, that she could be content wandering down country lanes and that she wasn't brave enough to really venture too far alone down the lanes and across the peat bogs, that she would never be able to play pool with the boys because she was a girl and that brought restrictions, some of which would be worth fighting, but not all.

She learned, moreover, that friendships are mysterious things and can be broken more easily than expected.