In 1972 no one of my age had a car, and very few had access to one. The days of the two car family were still far off and even if not, the chance of your mother letting you have her car to go to camp would have been very slim. After a few years though we began to have access to our own transport and life became much freer.
I will motor through a few stories after the break.
The armoured car
John Curtis came to camp one year in a Fiat 500. Judging by the amount of people we crammed into it for trips to Tramore, it must have been designed by the same guy who did the Tardis for Dr Who. John had also managed to find a way to keep the accelerator down and steer while sitting up on the back of the driver’s seat. This meant he could stick his head out of the sunroof while he drove. The Fiat was therefore christened “The Armoured Car” and many a strange look we got driving along the Tramore Road. The battery posts were also much corroded and at times the armoured car would not start until after the bonnet had been raised and a hammer had been used to reset the connections. Again by-passers who may have known a little about cars would have been shocked to see a man emerge from beneath the bonnet with a hammer in his hand after giving the engine a damn good thrashing. The car would then start up immediately – well it knew what was good for it!
The Great Escape
One year on camp, and as luck would have it, when I was orderly sergeant, a guy who was confined to barracks because he was on sick parade, climbed over the wall. He was spotted dropping off the top of the ball alley by Brendan Flynn and even though a snatch squad rushed out of the front gate, our dare devil was gone by the time they arrived. Of course this individual had not thought about how he might get back INTO the barracks and so was out in Tramore pondering how this might be achieved. He met up with Dickie Haughton and asked him “How do you get back into the barracks?”. “The only way I know”, says Dickie, “is through the front gate”. Papillon then asked Dickie for a lift back, and could he hide in the boot. “In you go says Dickie” and the criminal mastermind gets into the boot in Tramore, instead of just around the corner from the barracks. A few other guys get a lift with Dickie and up they pull to the gate, guard commander comes out – “Who goes there?”, “Sergeant Haughton”, “Who have you with you?”, “Just these guys here, and the fellow in the boot!”. Dickie had only agreed to let the guy ride in the boot, he said nothing about lying to the guard commander.
Reclining seats
Once I started working I was lucky to get a good job and also to have bosses who liked cars and let me have their previous models. I was very fond of my Opel Manta SR, 2.0L, with anti-dazzle panel and vinyl roof (did I mention the alloy wheels?), which Ciaran Giles kept humming for me. It did lead to some good natured banter with one of the more senior members of the unit who had a 1.8 Vauxhall Cavalier!
When going to camp in later years I would leave the “good” car with my wife Mairin, and drive down in her car. One year in the Glen of Imaal, I was driving Mairin’s red Fiat Panda and we squeezed a large group into it to go out one night. The following morning we found Kevin Browne asleep in it with the passenger seat in the fully reclined position. It was when Kevin was apologising for falling asleep that Ciaran Giles informed him that Pandas did not have reclining seats!
The Morgan
No discussion of cars in the 21 Bn would be complete without mentioning Richie Conroy’s Morgan. As a young man, I watched in envy and awe as the 2+2 headed off from Waterford to Dunmore. Sleek and red, exuding a sense of suave sophistication – Richie sure did look the part of an international playboy jetsetter!