My childhood was rural Ireland in the fifties. Life was lacking in excitement. A yank visiting the village was as good as it got. 1957 was our year. My uncle Eddie came for five weeks, and best of all, he stayed with us. Even though it meant a few of us sleeping on the floor, that only added to the excitement. He talked, drank, talked and drank, hardly went to bed at all. The house was full of visitors at all times. A few years later I came to Dublin. I was staying in a hostel in Lower Mount Street. I discovered the Queens theatre was near me and best of all it had a “gods”, we had so little money. I went there often . We only had radio growing up so never missed the Sunday night play and of course ‘The Kennedys of Castlerosse‘. So I knew of all the actors. ‘The Country Boy’ by John Murphy comes to mind. I saw it in The Queens. The yank in it was my Uncle Eddie, even the way he walked and talked. Best of all I knew the names of all the actors! , a lot from the Kennedys like Angela Newman. I couldn’t wait to write to my mother , she loved the Kennedys. We saw everything for 2/6 (2 and 6), and our young eyes and ears we were ok in the gods. Happy days.