Hallowe’en was a magical time for us. When we were little, we would dress up. Dressing up would be a black plastic bin bag, a cheap plastic mask – no resemblance to anybody! Not like the masks you see today, they look so real. We looked like nobody and everybody looked the same. Sometimes we would put some soot from the fire on our faces. We’d go around the neighbourhood getting loads of fruit and nuts. You wouldn’t get sweets like nowadays!
My mother would go to town bringing back the fruit and nuts and wine apples. Dad would get some bangers and starlights off the dealers in Moore Street. The dealers would hide them from the gardaí. Then mam would bring us around to see the bonfire. When my brother was a little older he had his own bonfire- him and his friends would collect the wood early and hide it in the fields for later. He’d come home filthy from the fire and all the smoke. My mam would put him straight in to the bath and then we’d have our own little party with some friends- ducking our heads in a basin of water to get the apples and standing on a chair with a string hanging off the ceiling to try and bite the apple.
