MICHAEL TOBIN, OLDCASTLE, BORN 1918

Michael Tobin has lived an interesting life. In his early youth he thinned turnips for local farmers for 6d a day. In 1924 his father was allocated land on the Loughcrew Estate by the Land Commission, in the same year which saw the building of Summerbank Road. He describes the prehistoric sites at Loughcrew and recalls the local people in earlier days, their customs and beliefs. He recalls the gypsies with their tents as they travelled around the locality. In the year Matt Talbot died in 1924, he remembers the snow reaching the height of the telegraph poles. He clearly recalls the animosity felt locally at the arrival of the migrants to take over the land at the behest of the Land Commission. The Economic War and the very low prices which prevailed for farm animals and land are recalled, and also his days in England in the 1950s.