The Sneaky Pint: Boys

Posted on March 25, 2021 / by The Drunken Poet

We were 10 years old. That magic age where you’re still innocent, but smart enough to run rings around your parents….almost. There were 3 of us. As tight as can be. The three amigos; a band of wee blood brothers; the Magheralin Musketeers. Right terrors we were, or so we thought. In reality we were good boys. Wide-eyed, easily excited, and totally unaware of the big…bad…world. Gerry, the sports hero/fearless lion. Sean, the sensitive/creative one. And me, Barry, the problem solver/joker. That was us. We lived in a couple of the streets and cul-de-sacs behind Byrne’s Bar and St. Patrick’s Church. That was our domain, our entire universe.

Old Mrs. Sweeney (who was as mad as a box of frogs) used to give us cake for doing her odd jobs. Go to the shops and buy us some a that butter now and she’d slip us a pound, knowin’ full well we’d spend the change on sweets. Heart of gold that woman. Nursed a lame starling almost back to health and then cried her heart out when it died. Always gave more than she could afford in the plate at mass. Always made a stew for a family when someone was unwell. A big and loving heart, but she was cray cray. Spoke to the angels she did. Knew all of them and the saints too. And looking back, and knowing what I know now, maybe she could talk to the angels and saints.

One afternoon after school, we was playing football in the street outside Mrs. Sweeney’s. Gerry versus me and Sean (he was handing our arses to us.) Now I’m in goal and getting a bit frustrated at the the whipping Gerry’s giving us. I decide to make him fetch it after making one of my only saves for the afternoon. I tried to boot the leather off the ball, but my skill level wasn’t quite equal to my enthusiasm and the ball sailed over Mrs. Sweeney’s house and into her backyard. It wasn’t the first time one us had booted a ball into her backyard and the rules were, you kicked it- you fetched it. I jumped the fence and ran down the side of the house.

TO BE CONTINUED….