Writer ‘moved’ by hometown honour

A STORY of a Christmas turkey, a bank official and his curious son filled a sunlit square with golden memories in Mitchelstown yesterday.

The official had moved around the country to various branches of the Bank of Ireland but links with his time in the North Cork town remained. For every Christmas a Mitchelstown farmer called Ned Quinn sent the banker and his family a turkey.

It never failed to arrive in Youghal, Skibbereen, Tipperary, Enniscorthy, Portlaoise and finally Galway. For the official had lent the farmer money to buy a field and he never forgot it.