Maura Corr

I would have stayed on at school, but I had to leave even with a scholarship.  As one of ten children we had to work to get money.

But the memories of childhood are good.  We lived in an area surrounded by fields as far as the eye could see.  We played in the local woods alongside the gypsies who camped there.  Their horses standing idly swishing their tails at the busy flies.

We collected milk from the local farm.  We visited the cows and jumped from the hay stacks in the barn.  One of our companions often scaled the wall of the farm orchard.  We would appear furtively, applies up her drawers, down her jumper with hip movements which would have assured her a role in any film.  Nervously, we waited outside the farm gate, where she generously distributed the fruit.  Ambling home, we’d polish off the apples, drink some of the milk and then we’d top up the can with water from the local pump.