From Bray to Eternity Read online

  We made our way from the beach towards Bray Head, with our “tail” behind us all the way. As we started the ascent of the Head I noticed two attractive young ladies sitting on the grass to our left looking in our direction. That was all the encouragement I needed, as I had, as the song goes: “saw what I liked and I liked what I saw, and I said to myself, that’s for me.”

  I immediately made some comment, probably something silly and embarrassing, to the two girls, but as they did not shoo us away we sat down beside them. As we sat talking to Annette and Mary we were glad to notice the other two girls making their way back towards the beach, probably thinking: ‘we can do better than them two anyway.’

  Thus came about the meeting of Annette Kennedy and Andy Halpin.

  We sat talking for a while on the grass and somehow the conversation got around to golf. As there was then a pitch and putt course close by we invited the girls for a game.

  When Annette stood up I was hooked. She was wearing dark slacks and a blue blouse-type top. They showed off her slim figure to perfection and it was far from obvious that she was only recently out of hospital having been treated for Anaemia. From there on I stuck to her like glue. I didn’t know which one Dennis fancied, but I was not going to let him get anywhere near Annette. I made it quite clear by my attention to Annette who I fancied and that I was staying with her.

  After the game of pitch and putt, which I discovered Annette was not exactly an expert at, we went to the nearby cafe for coffee and ice cream, again I probably monopolised Annette and was not too concerned about how Dennis and Mary were getting on. It was evening by then and we decided to head back to the city before the trains got too packed. We made our way to the station and managed to get a train back to Dublin easily enough.

  I did not want the day to end so I suggested we have something to eat and then maybe go to a film. I’m not too sure that Dennis was keen on this, but as I had gone to Bray with him I felt it only fair that he should fall in with my suggestion. We went to the Wimpy Bar on the quays for coffee and chips – class or what!

  After more conversation in the café the girls agreed to go to the pictures with us. Von Ryan’s Express had just opened in the Capitol Cinema and I was a big fan of Frank Sinatra so I said I’d run over and see if I could get some seats for that night’s show, I got them, two at either side of the auditorium.

  We parted at the entrance saying we would meet again when the show was over. Frank Sinatra was, and still is a firm favourite of mine so I was very glad to see Annette enjoying the film so much. I was a perfect gentleman during the film and did not make any attempt to get over familiar with her. I was just happy to be sitting with such a beautiful girl.

  After the show we met up with Dennis and Mary, but before we did I had asked Annette out on another date the following Wednesday which she agreed to. As it was now late we said our goodnight’s outside the Capitol. Annette and Mary had to catch a bus to Ballyfermot and Dennis likewise to Finglas. I lived in the city and could walk home.

  When the girls left us I told Dennis that I had asked Annette out again, but he said he had not asked Mary on another date. With that knowledge I was now not so sure that Annette would turn up on Wednesday. You know how it is with girls, they like to hunt in packs, even packs of two.

  Wednesday came around and off I went in my silver-grey mohair suit and ‘Beatles’ boots to meet Annette at the 78 bus stop on Aston Quay, facing what was then McBirneys. I had tickets for a Jack Cruise show at the Olympia Theatre. The show started at 8 o clock and Annette was due at 7.30 p.m. so we had plenty of time, or so I thought. The evening turned out to be my introduction to Annette’s concept of time, or rather her lack of concept of time. I was there by 7.20 p.m. I did not want to leave her standing around should she be early. I need not have worried, 8 o’clock came and went with no sign of Annette.

  I was mortified, I had told my friends that I had a date with this great looking girl, but now it looked like she was going to stand me up. I looked at my watch, 8.10 p.m., what should I do? Keep waiting or accept she was not going to show up and go home and lick my wounds? Five more minutes I decided and that was it, smashing looking bird or not I was not waiting any longer. Just as I was accepting she was not coming, a 78 pulled in and off stepped Annette, all smiles and looking great. What could I say?

  She asked me where we were going and I told her I had tickets for a show on the Olympia which started at 8 o’clock and it was now almost 8:15 p.m. She looked at me and said something I was to hear many times in the future: “that’s alright; sure it might not start on time.”

  Naturally the show had started by the time we reached the Olympia, but not to worry at least she had turned up. During the show I was afraid that this might be my first and last date with Annette. Like Fawlty Towers in years to come, I had only to see Jack Cruise do his John Joe Mahockey character and I went into kinks of uncontrolled laughter. I’m afraid Cruise was on top form that night with the result that I sat beside Annette with tears of laughter running down my cheeks. Every now and then I could see Annette giving me one of the sideways’ looks that I would get to know so well in later life. But back then I was sure she was thinking I was stone mad.

  The show ran late and we did not have much time together after it ended. Annette had to catch her bus so I walked her to the bus stop on the quays and asked her for another date. This time I said I would go out to Ballyer so she would not have to rush for a bus, though rush for a bus I learned over the years is the last thing Annette would ever do. I think we made the date for Saturday night. She told me to get off the bus at the Gala Cinema and she would meet me there.

  Over the next few weeks, we spent our first few dates going to the cinema. Back then young people did not frequent the pubs as much as now and anyway Annette did not drink and I hardly drank at all then either.

  Our first kiss happened on our third time together. I had not dared touch Annette when we went to the Capitol and there was no time after the Olympia. But on our third date in the Gala in Ballyfermot I took my courage into my hands. I slipped my arm around Annette’s shoulder in the darkness of the cinema, she did not shy away from my touch so I relaxed a bit and gently caressed her shoulder and the soft flesh on the top of her exposed arm. That’s as far as it went.

  After the film, we walked up Le Fanu Road to Annette’s house. We stopped at the corner and talked for a while. Most of what we said I forget now, but I do know that I asked Annette if she would like to come to a dress dance with me a few weeks later. Years afterwards, Annette told me she was surprised I had asked her to commit to something so far ahead as she was not sure at that point whether she wanted to continue the relationship. After asking me about the dance Annette eventually agreed to go with me. By then it was time for me to run to catch the last bus back to town. I knew by this time where Annette worked so I said I would meet her at the gate of O’Dea’s in Wolfe Tone Street on Wednesday for our next date. I then held tight to her shoulders and planted a quick, a very quick, kiss onto her surprised lips.Then I ran for my bus.

  As I ran down Le Fanu Road I was wondering should I have kissed Annette quite so casually, would she think I was not attracted to her by my manner, was I too casual or should I have been more demonstrative? As I thought about it on the way home I decided that on our next date I would take my time and get closer to her when I kissed her goodnight. When our relationship developed and we spoke about its beginnings Annette told me she was pleasantly surprised by that first kiss. And it seems it was not quite as quick as I had thought.

  CHAPTER TWO

  In the weeks coming up to the dress dance, which was being run by the Karate or Tae Kwando club my friend Dennis and his brother were members of I introduced Annette to my other good friend, Jimmy Morley who was also going to the dress dance with the girl he had recently started going out with Gretta Russell, the girl who was to become his future wife and who would die very young. I did not know it then, but Jimmy and Annette had met before,
though neither of them recognised each other. Before coming to Dublin when she was 15, Annette used to work in an ice cream parlour in Newbridge County Kildare. She worked there after school and during her school holidays. Her father worked in Newbridge Cutlery as a saw doctor at that time. Jimmy and myself were members of St. Saviours Football Club, which was run by the Dominican priests from Dominick Street. They used to take some of the boys from the club to the Dominican College in Newbridge for a few days holiday in the summer. I never went on any of these trips, though I remembered the lads talking about an ice cream parlour they used to frequent in the town. They got ice cream highballs which were served by a good looking young girl. The young girl was Annette. It was much later in our relationship I learned about the Newbridge connection.

  Before the dance, Dennis had resumed his relationship with his future wife, Rosaleen Prunty, so the three of us were going with our future life partners, though we did not know that at the time.

  In the run up to the dress dance, which at that time was quite a big social occasion and none of us had ever been to one before, I met Annette’s parents and family and likewise she met mine. Annette met my parents first. On our fourth date together, the night I met Annette at O’Dea’s, I had told my mother I would be bringing her up for tea. I did not tell Annette until I met her that evening. Naturally she did not want to come. I was such a “thick” back then, arranging a big event like that without consulting Annette first. I’m very lucky she stayed with me. Back then I was gormless and naive and not aware of the right thing to do. Anyway Annette did come up to Dominick Street Flats where I lived and I introduced her to my mother and father, my brother Joe came in later and also met Annette.

  That first meeting between Annette and my mother turned out to be one of the most embarrassing things that ever happened to me. After we had had our tea my mother took Annette upstairs, on the pretext of showing her the rest of the flat. From what Annette told me later my mother quizzed her extensively on all aspects of her life while I waited and waited and waited downstairs wondering just what was going on. Eventually they came down and we got to leave. Annette let me know she was not too pleased with her first encounter with her future mother-in-law. All I can say is that Annette was the first and only girl I had ever brought to meet my parents, that’s not to say I had been with many girls before Annette; I hadn’t. I had had a “girlfriend” when I was 15, when we lived in Wellington Street but Annette was the first girl I had ever gone out with more than once. She was the first girl I had ever wanted to go out with more than once, so my mother must have thought I had serious intentions but she did not trust my ability to make the right choice in choosing a ‘nice’ girlfriend. Even today, all these years later, I cringe when I think of that evening. Incidentally my father was much taken by Annette and never stopped admiring and talking about her “lovely long, dark hair.” In years to come, when Annette did cut her hair he was very disappointed, and he never stopped telling her she should not have done it.

  My meeting with Annette’s parents was more casual than her introduction to mine. It was a Sunday night and we had been out for a walk in Chapelizod. We had gone into a pub for an orange drink and Annette also had a cigarette, she smoked then but not very much. I may have had a glass of Smithwicks, they were simple times then and we were easily pleased. Anyway we made our way back to Annette’s house and by this stage I had summoned up the courage to have a “court”.

  We were “courting” on Annette’s doorstep when who should come upon us but her parents, Mary and Bill. They were coming home from their night out in Young’s bar down the road. Embarrassment all round. But they made little of it and Bill says to Annette, “Why don’t you invite your young man in?”

  Annette remained silent so I said something about having to go, as I had a bus to catch. Whereupon Bill says, “sure you have time for a cup of tea.” He stepped into the house, leaving a silent Annette and me on the doorstep.

  I stood still, not making a move and looked at Annette who I thought, rather reluctantly said, “come on in.”

  In we went and I was told to sit on the couch, which I did, while Annette went into the kitchen. As I sat down I heard footsteps on the stairs. The door burst open as Annette’s two younger sisters, Louise and Caroline, ran into the room. They stopped in their tracks at the sight of a stranger sitting on the couch. Bill came out of the kitchen with a packet of King Crisps for each of them. He told them that I was Annette’s “new” boyfriend. After formal introductions, a cup of tea and some toast, I made ready to leave, but just before I could go Annette’s brother Liam arrived home. There were more introductions and final goodbyes.

  The courting mood of earlier had been broken so our farewell kiss was a tame affair. I said I’d see Annette on Wednesday and ran down the road for the last bus. It took me as far as Conynghan Road and then I had a walk down the quays and home through an almost deserted O’Connell Street. Incidentally, a year or so later I was probably one of the last people apart from the bombers, to see Nelson’s Pillar in all its glory. I walked up O’Connell Street and passed the famous landmark on my way home from a date with Annette. It was at about 1.30 a.m. on the night it was blown up.

  We had a few more dates before the dress dance. Our dating had now developed a pattern. Annette went to the Miraculous medal devotions on Monday nights as she was a member of the Legion of Mary in Ballyfermot. As a member of the Legion of Mary she visited the sick and old on a Tuesday night and she had a presidium meeting of her guild on Thursday night. A few weeks into our relationship Annette told me she was also studying to go to Brazil as a member of a Legion of Mary offshoot, Viatorus Christi, for which she had to attend meetings on some Friday nights. That only left Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday when we could meet. In order to see more of Annette I used to go to the Miraculous medal devotions with her on Monday night – what a fella will do for love!

  After the devotions, if the weather was fine, we sometimes went for a walk and we would maybe stop into Young’s pub for an orange and Annette would have a smoke. If the weather was bad we usually went back to Annette’s house or occasionally to the Gala. It was during this time that I got an insight into how special a person Annette was and how unselfish she was with her time. I learnt about her concern for people and her desire to help, especially those whom she felt to be marginalised or excluded, where and whenever she could. I did not relish the idea of her going to Brazil, especially as she often spoke about a fellow who was also going and of whom she seemed to be very fond. After a very short time I realized that I was in love with Annette. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, but I was not ready to tell her that just yet as I was pretty sure she did not feel the same way about me if she was still talking about going to Brazil.

  After a few weeks dating, Annette also informed me that every few Saturday nights she babysat for friends of hers, Frank Lynch, with whom she worked and his wife, Marie. Rather than not see Annette on those Saturday nights I went babysitting with her too. And I must say here and now that I got to enjoy those babysitting sessions very much. When the children went to bed, and I recollect them going early, we had the house to ourselves and we used that time to perfect our kissing and courting technique. So may I say to Frank and Marie all these years later, thanks for the use of your house, it was much appreciated at the time.

  I remember on one particular night Frank and Marie were very late coming home which caused me to miss the last bus. Frank gave me a loan of his bike so I could get home. After seeing Annette home, I proceeded to cycle back to town on a bike with no light. It was about 2 o clock in the morning. I got as far as Capel Street when I was stopped by a Garda van containing a couple of gardaí. In my opinion they were anxious to get back to the station for a cup of tea and I became their ticket. I was quizzed about the ownership of the bike and the fact that it had no light. My explanation was not accepted, in spite of the fact that I was willing to bring them to where I lived. It was only up the road in Dominic
k Street. They could verify my address and issue a summons for no light on the bike. All my pleading was in vain and me and the bike were bundled into the van and brought to the Bridewell. I was locked into a cell for about three or four hours. At 6.00 a.m. or there about the cell was opened and I was told to get my bike and go home. I had survived my one and only night behind bars, all for the sake of love.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Time moved on and soon it was the day of the dress dance. In the days leading up to it there was great excitement in Annette’s house. She was trying on dresses and different hairstyles which caused great excitement with her young sisters and her mother. She told me later it was like preparing for a wedding, with clothes and make-up everywhere. Things were easier for me, all I had to do was hire a dress suit and dickie bow and show up on time.

  The night of the dance finally arrived. It was held in the now long gone Metropole Ballroom on O’Connell Street. Dennis and Rosaleen, if I remember correctly, made their own way there, but Jimmy had recently bought a car and after picking up Gretta from Cabra, he picked me up and we all went to Ballyfermot and collected Annette. It was the custom that when a fellow asked a girl to a dress dance and he called to collect her, that he presented her with a large box of chocolates. That’s exactly what I did, a large box of Black Magic. She tucked the chocolates under her arm as her young sisters looked on enviously. But Annette promised to keep some for them when she came home. She looked regal as I took her hand and led her to the waiting car.

  Back then parking was allowed in the middle of O’Connell Street, which we did and walked over to the Metropole and joined the throngs of other young couples as they made their way into the lush foyer, through crowds of onlookers. Annette looked amazing that night, it was the first of the many times over our years together that I saw how fabulous Annette could look when she dressed for formal occasions. She had a sense of style that was all her own, no one could come near her. She had the ability to make the cheapest dress look like a priceless designer creation and that was before the term “designer dress” had been coined. Although all the girls were wearing long white dresses that night, to my eyes Annette outshone them all in her figure-hugging silk dress with her hair in a beehive style, high on her head. It made her look so tall, slim and elegant. If I had not loved her before, I could not but have fallen in love with her that night. She was like a film star on Oscar night.