Almost at the end of my stay here I am going back to Ballybofey for an evening meal at one of the local hotels to meet with a group of women who like me had gone to St Mary’s National School in Stranorlar in the 1950’s.In the photo there are two of my childhood playmates during my growing up years in Ballybofey(Eleanor, 2 nd on right), and Lelia (2 nd on left beside me) - we had stories to tell and memories to share. Mary McNulty (1st on left) lived across the street from me. Her family owned McNulty's "Chipper" - where we would go to get bags of hot chips (french fries). This was before the days of Ronald McDonald. At back is seated Philomena Brady and to the right Siobhan - both a few years older than me. Lelia, Eleanor, Martina and I were the little ones who watched what the older ones did! Martina, the young one of the group actually did teacher training at the same college I did in England. We missed each other by a few years - what a small world.
Before dinner there was a treat in store for me. Mary McNulty had a school picture of Finn College students taken while I was there(about 1958). She had received it from Chick Logue who owned the school. Chick’s father had founded the Finn College in 1929, he and his wife ran it until their deaths, making it a viable enterprise by providing lodging for the teachers as part of their compensation. After their deaths, Chick ran the school until changes in the Irish education system occurred during 1960’s when for financial reasons she felt she was forced to close it . To my delight the next day, Siobhan Brady took me to visit Chick Logue.
Gathering at Villa Rosa, Ballybofey
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