SNIPPET: Professor Thomas HALTON, MA, PhD, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., shared some childhood memories in the 1996 yearly issue of the "Leitrim Guardian." Here are a few excerpts from his three-page article.... "My late mother's place was Dromahair, Co. Leitrim. As a son of Breifne you could say that I had the best of both worlds, a Cavan Breifne O'REILLY father, and a Leitrim Breifne O'ROURKE mother -- he from Mullahoran, home of the Mullahoran dreadnoughts, and she from outside Dromahair. Both, as luck would have it, from the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. As a very young woman she was a priest's housekeeper to the curate in Killenummery, who got changed to all kinds of places like Ballingar, Strokestown, Newtownforbes, and finally Loughduff, in Mullahoran parish, where she met and married my dad. After she left the National school she was a sort of an au pair girl to a very musical family in Sligo named FRANKLIN who were very big in the early years of the Sligo Feis Ceol. She kept in touch with them all her life and there was always much hilarity and much reminiscences when she visited. They were obviously very fond of her and she was particularly fond of their onlydaughter! , Kitsy, whose portrait I was delighted to have pointed out to me this summer in Sligo County Library and Museum by the Librarian. I vividly remember my first visit to Dromahair and Sligo, around 1936 when my mother took my youngest sister and myself on holidays, leaving my father and three other sisters to fend for themselves. Getting to Dromahair involved using public transportation - a bus journey to Cavan, and then the Great Northern train through stations like Ballyhaise and Clones to Enniskillen, which called for some rapid crossing of a bridge and, I think then on through Manorhamilton and eventually Dromahair. Her family home was a small farmhouse in Killeen which we reached by walking from the station and up a so-called short-cut through some fields. The second half of the holiday was more exciting. It involved visiting Aunt Brigid, who was housekeeper to a Mr. WALKER, in what my mother described to us as "a gentleman's place" in (I think) Rathcarrick, between Sligo and Strandhill. By my young standards it was an enormous house, which had its own gatehouse, or perhaps two, and a long avenue, and many steps up to the hall door, which had glass panels. We rang, and after what seemed forever we could see Aunt Brigid running along a long hallway. She was very petite, all dressed up in a black uniform and starched cap, white filly apron, bouncy, giggly, and very welcoming. Unmarried herself, she kept asking my mother all kinds of half whispered questions to which my mother would invariably reply: "That's beautiful talk in front of the children." The children were all ears - but were clearly out of their depth. Then we were brought down to the basement, two small rooms of which would be our home for several happy days.! Years later when I saw "Upstairs/Downstairs" on television I knew I had seen it all in my childhood. Even as a child Mr. WALKER seemed to me something of a recluse though he brought my sister and myself painfully slowly round his beautiful gardens and told us the names of strange flowers and the ones that would likely win prizes at the Sligo Show. He also had horses and animals but we weren't allowed into that part of the enclosed yard. A highlight of the visit was climbing Knocknarea, which was within walking distance, and a lot of panic because a fog came down suddenly when we were on the top and it took us hours to get back down. Aunt Brigid will remain for ever enshrined in my memory for sending me at Hallowe'en during my first year in St. Patrick's College, Cavan (1938-39) a box with a barm brack, sweets, KitKats, and an envelope inscribed, "with love from your Aunt Brigit," in which nested a ten shilling note, an absolute fortune for a County Council scholarship boy! l! ike myself, whose allowance at any single transaction rarely exceeded a two shilling bit, or, with luck, a half crown. At the time I was a member of Young Crusaders Corner in the "Messenger of the Sacred Heart" which used to run a monthly Essay competition... Mother insisted I write, "how I spent my Summer Holidays," and I got second prize...About the same time and in the same Corner I got a pen-pal and we kept in touch for a couple of years. I remember his name and address: James MENSAH, Box No. 40, Cape Coast, Gold Coast, West Africa, and he used to send me gifts like a copy of "King Solomon's Mines" which I thought was fantastic, and animal skins made into mats or purses."