One of my dad's stories

My dad is fond of talking and is a mine of anecdotes - not a huge surprise seeing that he is an Irish octogenarian! In the almost 44 years I have been on this planet I have heard them all many times over. Even sol, quite a few of them are entertaining stories and some are very funny.

Dad was born and raised on the north side of Cork, near the Four Faced Liar (St Ann, Shandon). Basically his neighbours were divided into two types - the have-nots and those that aspired to be have-nots. Unsurprisingly the pawn shop was a regular feature of people’s lives, especially on Monday (when things went in) and Friday (when they came out again). The local pawnbroker was Twomey’s and Dad swears blind that he was there when a Mrs Welch came in to pawn some clothing. The clerk took a look at the clothes, looked her in the eye and said

“Jaysus Mrs Welch, is it the shit or the shirt you want the shilling on?”

Add a Cork accent that is still very strong even though he left in 1941 and a couple of drinks and I assure you it’s hilarious! It really doesn’t matter if it is a crock or not. A good story is a good story