Sir, – Hugh Oram's Irishman's Diary (June 21st) brought back many memories. My father, Jack Cahill, was station master at Ballinamore ("the hub of the system") from 1939 to 1942.
Because of the war, rail traffic had enjoyed a brief revival, but there was still plenty of time to cultivate the station flower gardens, with stiff competition for the annual prize from the likes of Mohill, Bawnboy, Ballyconnell and Belturbet.
My mother, an assiduous gardener, won the prize annually while we were there, and the flower-decorated locomotive puffed its triumphant way up and down the line.
In 1942, we found ourselves transferred to Killarney. My mother, anxious as to the fate of her prize roses in Ballinamore, wrote to a friend, to receive a terse reply regarding our successors, “They have goats.” – Yours, etc,
FERGUS CAHILL,
Dunboyne,
Co Meath.