My name is Patrick Norris. I left Bunclody in 1968

First and foremost there is a large possibility that in my letter or essay I will make referral to some people who are sadly no longer with us. I hope that this does not offend or make it difficult for the still living relatives and loved ones. It is not intended to do so. This is basically a trip down memory lane from someone who long ago enjoyed growing up in one of the nicest little towns and countryside in Ireland and as I think back, some of my happiest memories are from those days.

Pat Norris

Part 2            Part 1

The last time I wrote I promised to tell you about some of the roads I took since I departed from Bunclody.

In my last letter I said that I left in ’68, but checking up I found out that it was 1969. Let’s put that down to a typo error. I left for London to join the London police force for where I had already passed the first entrance exams. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I failed the final exams thus that plan came to a sudden halt. I hung around London for a period working part time at anything I could find. At that particular time my girl friend was Patricia O Connor. Patricia came from Ballypreacus and her mother lived in London. Patricia was also a good friend of Toni Steamers whom I believe is now back in Bunclody and owns the newsagents that’s used to be O Leary’s. (Please correct me if I am wrong). Patricia and I broke up and the following year I returned to Dublin.

My main reason on moving back to Dublin was a girl there called Anne Roberts, I knew Anne from my earlier Bunclody days, as she was also a good friend of Patricia. Anne’s mother was a sister to Eileen and Margaret Brennan from the square. She was born and lived in Dublin but in the summer holidays she used to come to Bunclody for the fun and nice weather (not) and her summer boyfriend called Shem Murphy who was coincidentally my best friend. Shem and I worked at Colliers together (which later changed to Mahon & McPhillips) for a few years and he lived up Church Road. Then Shem switched to Patricia and that summer I went with Anne. However when Anne went back to Dublin I was left alone. Then later on Shem had to go on some tractor course in Kilkenny for three months. While he was gone I sort of moved in on Patricia. I have always felt guilty about that. Sorry old friend. All great fun and they sure were very happy times.

Thus Anne and I got together again in 1971 and I stayed in Dublin till 1975. Then the itchy feet began again so I packed my backpack and hitched hiked my way from Le Havre to Macon in the south of France and worked on a wine farm making wine and getting regularly drunk. After the season was over I headed for Paris and in a few weeks I blew every cent I had earned from my wine making work. Paris is a beautiful city. Its only downfall is that it’s full of French. Down south the French people are rally nice and friendly. It’s like another country down there.

After I returned back to Dublin. Anne and I had parted company but we remained great friends and still are to this day. She currently lives with her family about 40 kilometres from where I live now and we still see one another from time to time. I think it was 1976 that Anne went to live in Amsterdam. I hung around Dublin but was looking for new horizons. In 1977 I jumped a plane and off I went to Amsterdam and started work in a hotel washing dishes. Not really a great career move but boy did I have fun. I worked my contract off and then I went to work for various Employment Agencies. That was real fun. Every week I was doing something else and I made some great friends. Amsterdam was a fantastic city those days. It’s not like that anymore.

Late 1978 I went to work for Time Magazine and I met a Dutch girl called Ans. We got married in 1981 and lived in the city centre until 1986 where we then moved outside Amsterdam to live. Anne Roberts got married in Amsterdam to a guy called Myles (who has Enniscorthy connections. Small world) and in 1986 they had a little girl called Alanna for whom I was the godfather. A few years later Tara was born to Anne and Myles and in 1987 Ans and I had a daughter called Meagan and in 1989 our son Shane was born. In the years that followed I sort of got ambitious and career minded and I worked my way up in Time Magazine where in 1992 I became Director of the Time-Warner Publishing International Operations. I had never though in my life that I would fit into that world but I did and I loved it. Thus failing those exams for the police force in London way back in 1969 maybe wasn’t a bad thing after all. It’s funny how sometimes plans that go haywire force you to take another direction. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that you can plan all you want but life has it’s own little way of creating a path for you.

To be honest I never did plan that much. Most of the things I have done in my life just sort of happened or lay before me. I just sort of just drifted into it, and it all went from there. Maybe that is not a great trait to have in one’s character if you are trying to keep a job and raise a family but that’s the way I was and I have always been lucky and landed on my feet.

In 1994 Time Warner done a huge re organization (which was almost a yearly thing with Time) and they split up my department where parts of it relocated to New York and the rest to London. They paid me off thus I was out of a job. I immediately set myself up as a Financial Consultant and crazy as it may seem I was hired back as a freelance consultant by Time-Warner for another two years. I then consulted to a polish TV station called Wijza TV out of Warsaw and later on to the Dutch cable company called UPC.

In the years I worked for Time I travelled the world and spent a lot of time in Chicago, New York and Tampa as well as many cities throughout Europe. I had some memorable times at Time Magazine As they were also head sponsors of the Olympic games I also had the pleasure of attending the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. Other memorable trips were Budapest in the early ‘90s and for a week in Monte Carlo. Some of my other favourite trips were to Switzerland. The Swiss are weird people who go to bed very early every night but what a beautiful country. Sometimes on those trips or when I was on a helicopter flying from JFK airport to Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, New York I often thought about Kilbranish and Bunclody. Little did I know then when I was walking up and down the road on a cold and wet wintry night to Bunclody as a boy that this all lay ahead of me?

In 2000 Ans and I were divorced and I went to live in an apartment on the other side of Amsterdam. In 2002 I finished up my contract with UPC and moved to Belgium and started up a little Quarter Horse Ranch buying, breeding and training American Quarter Horses for the Western sport of Reining. I was always mad about things Western and horses. I purchased well bred foals in America and had them transported to Belgium where I would train them and later sell off when they were two or three years old. Now I was doing something I really loved and not just for the money. In 2003 I got remarried to Mieke who was also from Amsterdam. Mieke was en ex Cosmopolitan photo model who had travelled the world and was also mad about western riding and horses. We got married on a ranch from a good friend of ours in Lander, Wyoming on the 14th February 2003 where we try to go as much as possible. The horse ranch went well in the beginning and we had two really good stallions that won several prizes throughout Europe. In my spare time I also transported horses all across Europe. In 2005 the horse market and sport sort of collapsed plus it also became a rich mans game and we couldn’t compete. We suffered financially and in December 2006 we closed down the horse business and moved back to a little village called Westzaan just outside Amsterdam where we currently live. We are still involved in the western horse sport with writing articles and reports for various magazines but don’t own any horses anymore (a least for the moment).

One of the nice things about moving back here is that I now see my kids a lot more. I really missed them after the divorce but fortunately I have two great kids and I have Ans to thank for that. Meagan has moved out and is now living with her boyfriend Tim not far away from here and Shane is still living at home with his mother. All in all a pretty hectic life with all it up’s and downs. I have travelled and seen many things and places but I have often wondered what life would have been if I had never left Kilbranish. I guess I’ll never know.

Next time around I hope to write about my school days in Kilbranish.

Take care
Pat

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