The last train from Limerick!

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The green land of Ireland was once described as one huge golf course criss crossed by railway lines. A bit of an exaggeration but it did once have a more extensive network of lines than it has now. Some of them served quite rural sparsely populated areas, often on lonely branch lines that saw, in a number of cases, only one train each way per day.

Stations could be some distance from the area they were meant to serve and their names quite unusual. There was Horse & Jockey in Co Tipperary, Meeting House Halt in Co Antrim, Narrow Water in Co Down, Oola in Co Limerick and Tubbercurry in Co Sligo to name a few.

By the late 1960’s nearly all the rural stations with their unusual names and their few or only one train a day had gone but there remained one route that still had its daily train in the timetable. Each weekday morning at 9.50 am an engine, two coaches and a guards van set out from Ballina in Co Mayo for Limerick, returning in the afternoon at 3.50 pm. I was able to make two journeys on the Limerick afternoon departure. The first being as one of a handful of passengers from Limerick who upon arriving at the Co Galway station of Gort found themselves invaded by secondary school children. They were polite, well behaved and in talking to them had a knowledge of Bible stories. Among the passengers were also two friendly ladies in their sixties who had disembarked from a transatlantic liner. at Cobh near Cork that morning. I was able to obtain an official pass to ride in the cab on my next journey on this daily train. A cab ride is a unique experience and gives one a completely different view of  travelling by rail as you know what lies ahead along the line. 

I don’t believe in barbers!

All photos either personal or courtesy of Unsplash 

A man went to a barber’s shop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists."

"Why do you say that?" asked the customer.

"Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things."

The customer thought for a moment, but did not respond because he did not want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? I don’t believe that barbers exist."

"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"

Finding direction in life

Photos courtesy of Unsplash 

The River Severn rises in the mountains of Wales, passing by the Powys towns of Newtown, Welshpool and over the border into England. Meandering through Shrewsbury and on to Stourport, Worcester and Gloucester. Here there are inland docks with the commencement of the canal to Sharpness, with its access to the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel. The river itself flows on to open out into its famous estuary. It has seen times of substantial waterborne cargoes.

Before the days of steam tugs, hundreds of vessels called trows, either propelled by sail or pulled by horses and men, carried cargoes up to Pool Quay near Welshpool. It was not easy as the river is notorious for being shallow. Crews had to rely upon spring tides  and flood water to keep going. 

Children in Need

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What has Solomon from the Old Testament, the prophet Joel, again from the Old Testament, the late Sir Terry Wogan and Pudsey Bear got in common? Care for children, for ‘Children in Need’ to use the phrase from the BBC’s annual appeal as it raises millions of pounds to fund services for children. 

 

In Psalm 127, which is a song by Solomon for worship, we read that “Children are a blessing and a gift from the Lord.” As a comprehensive school teacher, I have had the privilege of working with thousands of youngsters for over 25 years now and also had the privilege of helping out in Sunday school work and Youth work. Children have, and continue to be a very important part of my day-to-day life.