Crossmaglen

To know know who you truly are, you must know your history. You must also ponder your influences from as early on as you can recall. Only after I realised this and began to recall places, people and events did I then understand that I could not be anyone else, no matter how hard I tried.
I was born in the county hospital in Croom, Limerick in the republic of Ireland on the 14th. of November 1949. For the first ten months of my life, I lived in Kilmallock, with my mother and grandmother. My father was in his hometown of Crossmaglen, county Armagh to look for accomodation for us. My father and mother met in London in 1947. He was working for a construction company and she worked in the company canteen. Love at first sight? I don't know about that, but they got married and when I was due they departed London and went back to Ireland.
Having no luck regarding acommodation, my father decided that we would move in with my grandparents.
We duly moved onto the Carran road and so began my life in Crossmaglen. They say that you should never live with your parents after you get married as it can cause all sorts of trouble, but by all accounts we all got on well for the length of time that we were there. We moved twice after that. My father rented a small room on the Cullaville road owned by Tom Morris and we lived there for a short time. The next move was to Annaghmar, a townland about 3 miles out of the town. We lived in a small cottage not far from the Horned cairn. The Annaghmare horned cairn is an ancient burial ground dating back to Celtic Ireland. I believe that that is where the first major influence in my life too place.