Them were different times. Blaguards in the streets called after mad Jimmy hoping for a folley. Me mammy caught me taunting him on sexton street when I should have been at school.
She was one of his regulars. People that he called to or knew when they met on account of the shilling or the penny that passed hand to unwashed hand in recognition of our obligation.
He deposited the coins in the pocket of the wool coat he wore winter and summer. His uniform along with blackthorn swagger stick and broken briar pipe perpetually smoking. And the badges people wore badges those days.
A bus-mans badge a policemans badge a trade Union badge, a fainne ore for Gaelic speakers each a sign of identity and importance along with the proper salutation for the fourth order or the Masons.
And to not be left out Mad Jimmy wore at least one of each badge on his large lapels and had a royal salute for each of his regulars.
My mother normally a woman of whom it was said would not say boo to a goose read me the riot act when she got me cornered in the kitchen. She went on to explain that too much brains was next to insanity and that I was the biggest disgrace to humanity on sexton street that day,
After about an hour when she had softened, she signalled her softening by asking you to bring in a bucket of coal or thread a needle or feed the dog or some other task that allowed you to demonstrate your humanity. Having completed the assigned job without complaint you could test the ground with a question.
Not like can I go to the pictures on saturday or the match on sunday, you would save that type of question till the air cleared.
An appropriate question was, Mammy why does Jimmy wear all those badges.
She answered, you know at Christmas we put a candle in the window at night,
yes I said .
Well that light is a signal to anyone going the road of a house open at the darkest coldest time of year, and that no one will be turned away. The more people forget that, the more lights they need at Christmas.
It was reported that when jimmy's body was found in a derelict building there was a large sum of money sewn into the lining of his coat.
He was well known it seems in the William street branch of the Munster and Leinster Bank where he exchanged his coins for notes of large denomination
She was one of his regulars. People that he called to or knew when they met on account of the shilling or the penny that passed hand to unwashed hand in recognition of our obligation.
He deposited the coins in the pocket of the wool coat he wore winter and summer. His uniform along with blackthorn swagger stick and broken briar pipe perpetually smoking. And the badges people wore badges those days.
A bus-mans badge a policemans badge a trade Union badge, a fainne ore for Gaelic speakers each a sign of identity and importance along with the proper salutation for the fourth order or the Masons.
And to not be left out Mad Jimmy wore at least one of each badge on his large lapels and had a royal salute for each of his regulars.
My mother normally a woman of whom it was said would not say boo to a goose read me the riot act when she got me cornered in the kitchen. She went on to explain that too much brains was next to insanity and that I was the biggest disgrace to humanity on sexton street that day,
After about an hour when she had softened, she signalled her softening by asking you to bring in a bucket of coal or thread a needle or feed the dog or some other task that allowed you to demonstrate your humanity. Having completed the assigned job without complaint you could test the ground with a question.
Not like can I go to the pictures on saturday or the match on sunday, you would save that type of question till the air cleared.
An appropriate question was, Mammy why does Jimmy wear all those badges.
She answered, you know at Christmas we put a candle in the window at night,
yes I said .
Well that light is a signal to anyone going the road of a house open at the darkest coldest time of year, and that no one will be turned away. The more people forget that, the more lights they need at Christmas.
It was reported that when jimmy's body was found in a derelict building there was a large sum of money sewn into the lining of his coat.
He was well known it seems in the William street branch of the Munster and Leinster Bank where he exchanged his coins for notes of large denomination
