Guth & Tuairim, Nollaig 1980

This month we begin serialization of the terrible Ballymanus min!ng disa~ter of May 11th, 1943. 18 DEiill IN DONEGAL EXPWSION 14 - "Ballymanus, Co. Donegal, Tuesday. An evening crowd of men and youths idly watching a black bobbing object on the sea. The object cumes nearer. ~ coast watcher identifies it as a mine, A warning - ignored, Stones thrown. Curiosity? Ill-timed courag~? Fear for their people and homes? A rope - a haul - a spanner twisting a nut in the casing that encloses multiple- concentrated, swift, reverberating death •••" That is the story ••• A beach by a quiet, fisher village in Donegal, stre~ with corpses, loud with agony in the night ••• the water lapping over tortured bodies ••• voices crying wildly ••• Avove, the silence that follows crashing glass, splintered doors, terrific detonation. 10 o'clock last night ••• And Ballymanus rushes to reckon it's sorrow, to count its dead. Last night they counted eighteen, The story is one of cautiousness - and carelessness. Those who warned the youths drew away from the shore. The curiously daring stayed. The coas~ watch officer was on his way to call the military~ In the gloom of night untrained men tampered with an instrument of destruction with the temerity of a man who pauses to adjust a ploughshare, And tonight ,they lie in coffins in a hall in which they had planned to dance and sing and celebrate, They were aged sixteen to thirty. There were groups of brothers. There were married men. They were a 11 breadwinners. Crowds rushed across the sedge between the houses and the strand when the shock of the wxplosion haq spent itself. They stumbled over the rocks 1n the darkness, heard the groans of the \olounded, while those who had been slightly injured staggered against them shouting wildly for help. They called out the names of their relatives as they splashed in the shallow water, falling over bodies • Someone had the presence of mind to collect lanterns and in the flickering light the people saw still forms lying in the sand, others crawling about in agony, while some were splashing feebly around in the water, The villagers rushed to those who called and tried to tend to them. They brought the bodies out of the water, wading up to their shoulders. Each searched for a relative or friend, and thus in the dark of midnight the grim roll call was made, The ro~1 of corpses laid out on the upper dry sand lengthened, While moth<'rs, wives and sisters, ghostly in black shawl::l, hovered and caoined over their dead, the men hauled down carts, provided lorries. It was three o'clock when the weird processions to. the hall at Hullaghduff had ended, though many still searched the strand for pieces of clothing, found even more grim relics of their dead, passed over 1n the first probing. others rushed frantically against the doors of the hall where the gardai who had come from Annagry were superintending the laying out of the corpses and the Red Cross members were still tending to the injured. 11 DI1enie~ 11 11 Hughie~" 11 Donalr 1 11 Manus! 11 - the cries of the names evoked other cries of lamentation from relatives coming in from the townlands of Braade, Mullaghduff, Rannyhual. _ (To be continue:! next month). When you 1 ve read one dictionary you-'– ..them all. Tua1nm THE HOLE Since the dawn or time and down through the ages great m1steries have baffled man, Therp were the stories or Astronauts visiting ancient civilizations. The disappearance of ships at sea, like the "Marie Celeste", The Bermuda Triangle mysteries, But this was something different. Why? 'IJho? When? How? The phone rang in the local Garda Station, It was exactly 4 a.re. and the sleepy officer of the Law just could not believe it, "You mean to tell me that there is a -hW in the middle of the road outside Hudai Beag 1 s? Yes, Yes, we'll be there first thing in the morning - you know we don't work after midnight! What? Well, I can't help it if your wife fell into it, can I? 11 Early morning shoppers heading for ~latt 1 s to see if last month's Gudrim agus Tuairim had come out yet stopped and stared in amazement, One local woman wl}o had talked almost contimously since l97J (about her neighbours) just stood there speechless. Soon, a crowd hadgathered. But what was the meaning of this hole? Somebody digging for oil? Some alcoholic trying to dig his way into HUdai· Beag's? Someone trying to emigrate to Australia? Did the U.F,O.•s do it? Or the Russians? Why doesn't the Taoiseach get on T.V. and tell the nation the truth. We~ be told the facts. Finally, somebody shouted from the back, "The Council are coming, the Council are coming", A relieved public stood back to let them tackle this "deep" problem. But everybody- and everybody's brother as well were caught unawares. Because it was teatim€. The crowd stood there - embarrassed. Like a crowd standing for the National Anthem only to see the band doing an encore or a; crowd standing up at the wrong time ~ Chapel. Yes, t9e Council ~ to get the tea. Many hours later, the ~iesta was over and the Council re-appeared. Now, they would tackle the problem. But how? Fill in the hole with gravel? Sand? Tar? Stones? Cement? Dammit No! From the back of the Council tractor (vintage 1949) they produced their aaster-plan. The crowd stood back to admire the sheer genius of the Council. They had ~he hole covered before you could say John Jameson. Yes, they covered the mysterious hole outside Hcidar Beag 1 s with a BARREL. Written on the barrel were famous words. "Donegal County Council was here". Another job well done! Christmas greetings to all ~ t,cienda in Lenister House, Donegal Co. Council, Liberty Ball and the Red Semit Club. - 1 The Gr"n Fooln. United Dominion Trust 11 Upr. Main St .. Letterkenny (074) (21931 ) BEST INTEREST RATES PAID ON DEPOSITS Personal Loans Available For : Home Improvements Car Purchase Furniture Colour TV CONTACT US AT TEE ABOVE ADDRESS FOR CONFIDENTIAL :CNFOR11ATION. It definitely wasn't about you Cathal. 64,000 dollar (at least) question, Is there a scandal in the Port? Who gave Conall a special Xmas present - a black eye? A tuture President of the Irish Farmers Associ•tion? PUZZLE IT OUT A pensioner remembered that he was sent to school when he was four-and-a-half years of age, and that he stayed at that same school for one-sixth of·his life. Then he remained in the army for one-fifth of his life, and when he left the army he spent one-quarter of his life as a clerk. At present he had already spent one-third of his life in retirement. What was the pensioner's age? Freagra ar an llh! aeo chugairm.