From Bray to Eternity by Andy Halpin

Author:Andy Halpin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: EMU INK

CHAPTER NINETEEN

It was around this time that Annette started to learn to drive. She started with a car jointly owned by herself and Gina. Unfortunately Gina wrote that car off, by skidding on black ice on the Lucan Road one St. Stephan’s Day. She was very lucky and wasn’t injured and Annette then got herself a little red Citroën AX which she loved to drive. We made many a trip to Dingle in that car. In 2004, Annette drove that little Citroën in the country of its origin, France.

Dingle was still a firm favourite with us and now that Annette was driving it was that much easier to get there, with no more lugging heavy haversacks and bags on train and bus journeys. We just threw the bedding into the back of the car and headed off, footloose and fancy free. They were good times for us, and Annette loved the freedom of the mobile. As she used to say, it was clutter free, not like home.

By this time Annette had also started her own business as a community consultant. At last she was getting paid for a job she had been doing for years for nothing. But Annette being Annette, she felt odd charging groups for her services and advice because she had been giving it all for free for so long. She very often charged less than the rate she was entitled to charge if she felt the group did not have much money or was deserving of her time and experience. As a result of this habit she never made as much money as she could have made had she been less sensitive to the needs of others. In reality her business was little more than a hobby she enjoyed which earned her pocket money. She was happy with that, as money had never been a motivating factor for Annette, which was just as well for me as I never had very much money. She just wanted to help those she felt could benefit from her experience and improve their position in life. In this regard she felt very much for those she believed were marginalised or discriminated against in society and enjoyed working with groups such as the Traveller women’ s groups whom she had a great respect for. Indeed she composed a song, “Everyone” which, after it was performed by a Traveller choir at her memorial show after her passing became very popular with Travellers thanks to its promotion by Fr. Derek Farrell, who is the Parish Priest to the Traveller Parish and a good friend of Annette’s

Our trips to Dingle became very important to us as we could be truly ourselves down there. As Annette wrote in one of her songs: ‘it doesn’t matter if the Sun don’t shine, if it doesn’t shine most of the time, I’ll be happy just sitting, and singing with the one I love.’

That’s exactly the way it was for us in Dingle, rain or shine, it didn’t matter.

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