People of the Wild Atlantic Way – 

Dickie O’Sullivan ‘Poke’ – Bantry, West Cork.

‘I grew up in a house without any electricity and no running water, we had a well two hundred yards from the house and also collected water off the roof in a barrel from the gutters, all clothes were washed by hand.

My favourite memories from childhood were listening to the oul fella’s, they were brilliant, they had great advice and lovely stories, maybe they weren’t all true but they were good anyway.

They would always say that getting into a fight was not a good idea, except if it was absolutely necessary, they said the worst belt of a fist you ever gave anyone was to totally ignore them and they’ll soon forget their argument, and they were right.

Other advice they gave was to be strictly honest no matter what the circumstances, you may have to tell a white lie here and there but honesty always worked. Even if I had an argument with my wife, and she was a lovely woman to me in fairness. She might not talk to me for a week, and I’m sure I made more mistakes than she did, but it was better to be upfront and honest and it always worked out in the end and we would be the best of friends again, we got through life like that. ‘Twas worth it all.’