Colm O'Regan: My old copybook — a hymn to a misspent youth

I rapped. The world’s whitest boy rapped. Saying words phonetically. Gibberish

A 'vintage' Capital Exercise Book — celebrated on a Hairy Baby t-shirt. Picture: Hairy Baby hairybaby.com/capital-exercise-book

“Made by Capital Spicers Limited Walkinstown, Dublin 12 Ireland”

I probably stared at hundreds of times without asking. I asked less questions then. There was no point. No internet to tell me where Walkinstown was. Dublin was mythical enough in 1990. But Walkinstown? What kind of a place was that? I didn’t realise at the time it was the scene of the Walkinstown Roundabout, the massive intergalactic portal that destroys all who get sucked into it.