Hi All
I have been relatively quiet for the last week or so as I have been busy
doing nothing.
But today I was summoned to the RODERICK residence in North Cardiff by her
who must be obeyed (my Mother)
Over the last few weeks there have been a lot of funerals of family members
and a few of her old scholl friends. So at these funerals Mother did quite a
bit of talikng (or in todays terms networking)
After a funeral of a girl who was in school with her she returned home to
find her cousins at the house talking to the old man.
They had brought up some old photos that hadn't seen the light of day since
the last SULLIVAN left number 5. Number 5 being -- 5 Milton Street.
Whilst talking her cousin said oh I have uncle Johniie SULLIVAN'S merchant
Navy discharge book at home somewhere. "Oh my God" says mother "my Phillip
would
love to see it" (only mother calls me Phillip or sometimes my Mrs when I have
been naughty)
You betcha Phil would love to see it as I need the names of the ships he was
on during the war, cos if I can find them and find the ones that did the
Russian convoys I then have to try and get the Russians to grant him his medal
posthumously. Johnnie got torpedoed three times in the Murmansk convoys.
Now back to the photos --
You don't get given photos by my mother without a story attatched and can she
tell em.
Ok photo number one -- my Great Grandfather Denis SULLIVAN taken before he
lost his right eye. Mother says this one had to have been taken in 1916 as he is
dressed for a funeral and looks so sad. She thinks it was when Catherine
SULLIVAN nee MANLEY Denis' wife died.
Photo number two -- a very large photo of Philomena REGAN nee SULLIVAN (my
grandfather's sister with baby John REGAN (she thinks) Philomena died around
1937 when John was a baby. This photo hung on the wall of number 5 for many many
years it was there in the 1960s that I know of. The photo has splashes on it
(looks like beer possibly a stout or Brains dark)-- mother reckons no doubt
there was a fight in the house and one of the brothers threw a bottle of beer at
the other, he ducked and the bottle smashed against the wall. Knowing uncles
Johnnie and Batty as they were when I was a kid I reckon my mother is spot on.
They were as mad as hatters when the wrong side of a drink or ten.
Oh and she knows John REGAN emigrated so I get lumbered with the task of
finding John REGAN born about 1935 in Cardiff who had a mad SULLIVAN family from
Milton Street -- John -- if your out there my mother reckons you should have
this photo.
Photo number three -- a group photo of Bernard SULLIVAN (my Grandfather's
youngest brother) with Danny BARRY, David LEWIS, Jimmy O' BRIEN and Billy NIBBLET
with two unknowns at present.
Just when I thought I was going to get away with just the photo I got --
Did I tell you the story about Billy NIBBLET,
"OH NO HERE WE GO AGAIN"
Billy had a wooden leg, one of the old fashioned ones which was basically a
stick. When he visited he would take it off and leave it in the corner. Well
one day when visiting Philomena (not the previously mentioned one this one is my
mother's sister) decided it was just an old stick and took it out to play. It
took ages for them to find Billy's leg. Poor sod nearly had to hop home -- I
can almost hear my grandfather saying ok Billy you've been here long enough
"hop it."
Then the old man got started -- next funeral just go along and take a tape
recorder you will be surprised just what turns up out of your mother's memory.
His view on the SULLIVANS is don't dig too deep they are better off left in the
ground. -- Well dad "I am going to dig and dig as they are a large part of my
make up"
Regards Phil T.C.M.