Memories

Memories of Killyleagh and the men of Killyleagh Quay

By Jim Hunsdale

Here she comes, yes, I see her now, and she's coming up the river
Sure the excitement it was great and up your back it sent a shiver
Was it maybe the Cumbria with Captain Bennett at the wheel
Or was it one of the Isle o'Man boats that maybe came from Peel

To me it did not matter, as my job was still just quite so very plain
Run and tell my granda, John Anderson, or "Cords" as was his name
He never got excited and to me he always seemed to take his time
And I thought that his pipe and the "Condor" were all that he did mind

In she came and we were ready, the toggles they were my job, yippee
I was the proudest little guy that ever stood on Killyleagh's old quay
We caught her lines as they threw them and hauled them safe ashore
Put the big eye through the rings and the toggle through the eye, secure

Twas not very long thereafter, down the quay there came the working crew
Big Jim Young, Slim Beers and some men from Shrigley, just to name a few
But my hero was my granda "Old Towny", who had sailed before the mast
He was the "winch man" and only he did know how to give the steam a blast

He showed me how to run the ropes and how many turns on the drum were safe
He then told me how to let out slowly so the ropes on each other won't chafe
We had tea from his little canister as Jim Young threw coal and had some fun
Those were the days when life was good and gold was no better than a bun

The merchants waiting on the coal were always close at hand and taking hire
There were the Morrow brothers, Mrs Palmer and the men from Downshire
The horses and the carts the farmers from around the town they did muster
And good men they worked from dawn to dusk as the coal it did them duster

Then as all cleared and the trimmers cheered as the last horse and cart did go
The dock fell quiet as all was left were those stacks of coal there all in a row
All of the crew were up the town now in "The Dufferin" and "Morrows Pub"
And some of them who started far too early were already in need of a "sub".

Those days were long ago now but in my memory they will always linger so
And it is happy I am to remember those people in my life so very long ago
They are the makings of this world we know and their labors I hold dear
Life's foundations is what they created, for our future that is so very clear.

Killyleagh has many fond memories and the people, there, who made it, for sure
They should always be in our memories kept, as each day they get fewer and fewer
People like Cookie Keenan, Norman Dougan, Cork Moore and Toosh White
Boby Scott, Ernie Bridges and Mr. Greer the schoolmaster taught us to write

Mrs. Lennon's shop was the hub of the wheel and in there I went quite a deal
Bessie Foley, Big Alice Walkingshaw and Mabel Beers would be in for a meal
Two soda farls and six slim was an order I well knew and add to that some spuds
We went up to the Picture House when some money fell into our favorite duds

Ah the memories they go on and on and if there was only lots of time to write
And if I did not need to go to sleep and could work right on through the night
Then I could tell you tales of Killyleagh and those friends of mine now away
So I leave you with this thought my friends, listen to what those people say.

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