A Walk To Remember

Maura, Margie & Mary en route 66 years later…

t was a balmy summer’s day in 1958 when sisters Margie and Mary plus their friend Maura were heading back from getting the messages from Brady’s shop.

Maura had a Vienna roll under her arm, Mary had the bag, and all three had been given some extra pennies to get a Choc Ice each for their troubles.

“It was the school holidays,” says Maura this afternoon as we meet up 66 years later at the fateful spot, “and we were just silently chomping on our Choc Ices when we were approached by a photographer. Said he was from The Irish Times and would it be okay to use our picture in the paper.”

“We were all delighted!” interjects Margie. “We ran home and told our parents, ‘We’re going to be famous! We’re going to be in the paper!’, but they didn’t believe us…”

It was a few days later when Mr White down Wallace’s Lane told Maura’s mum, Kathleen Byrne, that he had seen the girls in The Irish Times that they all jumped on a bus to Greystones to go and buy a copy.

“For about four or five days, we thought we were superstars,” says Mary. “It just killed us that the school holidays were happening. We couldn’t wait to tell every single person we knew that we were in the paper…”

As the trio sat down for lunch at The Pigeon House with their good buddy Rita Fitzpatrick, we talked to Mary, Margie and Maura about their week of living famously, and remembering the Delgany of their childhood years…

You can go take a walk through Delgany’s history with fellow Bellevue Hill resident John McDonald here.