Boom! Boom! Shake The Room!

The scene of the boom!

ou know how it is, another lazy afternoon, looking after your teenage grandson, listening to Pat Kenny on de radio…

It’s what Irish grandmothers up and down the country did in the late 1990s. And it’s certainly something Mrs Keelty of Four Winds on Bellevue Hill, Delgany did on a very regular basis.

Little Brian was having a ball, playing soldiers, just as his father and his uncle had done years before, kicking an antique bomb around the living room. He’s Rambo! He’s Arnie! He’s Michael Collins, taking back the GPO!

A business gift from an old and plainly eccentric Swedish friend, over the years, the bomb has been decorated in navy blue, red and white. And it looks pretty damn fine, a real talking point when it comes to those dinner dates and summer barbecues.

There’s just something about this bomb that really holds a room together.

It’s hardly surprising then that when Pat and his expert guest start discussing bombs, Mrs Keelty is inspired to call in and describe the little family heirloom that’s been bounced around her family home right now, from room to room, from left foot to right foot.

And that’s when the sirens went off.

Before Pat has time to say “Here’s Mary with the traffic and weather”, the bomb squad have closed off the entire village. From every which way – from Killincarrig to the N11, and even up Struan Hill – no one or nothing is getting into Delgany right now.

Not until this red, white and blue bomb has been deactivated.

Luckily, Shay Clear and his sister, Elizabeth, were on hand, to advise the bomb squad on which wire to cut. As for the 15-year-old Brian, he lived to tell the tale to The Bray People, and pretty much every single person he has ever met for the last 17 years.

To think that Delgany could today be home to Wicklow’s biggest lake. Damn, we were that close… 

More tales from Delgany’s shady, hazy past right here.