I moved house and parish in September 2022 and the process of moving gets difficult as one gets older — in part because I’m a hoarder, of sorts! But why would one destroy something like this?

It’s a photo I took, probably in the late 1970s, at the site of Kilmichael Ambush. Iy must have been just a Sunday drive — or spin as we used to call it — which Dad used to take off on!

The photo shows: my sister Margaret (now Collins), Dad (Sean Hayes), Mum (Lena), my brother John and my sister Eileen (O’Donovan.)

The monument hasn’t changed!

This is one of the few photos we have of my paternal grandfather John (Jacky) Hayes. To give him his full title and lineage he was Jacky Long Tom! (His father Tom was obviously taller than the other Tom Hayes in Clashduve!)

Granddad took great pride in his Irish Draught horses – especially his grey mare on the left.