A Ricochet from Daisy Days
I’m trying to identify a date for when my grandfather returned to Ireland. I think it would have been the early thirties, possibly even as early as 1929. Anyway, when he brought back the Buick he was in the unusual position at the time of having two cars. His sister took the opportunity this presented and claimed the second car for herself.
It was unusual enough at the time for a woman to drive but what was even more unusual was that she became an excellent mechanic who knew engines inside-out. Later on she would put her driving skills to good use, driving voters to the polling stations at election time. A staunch Fianna Fáiler, she would only carry those voters loyal to the party, making sure to ignore those of the other persuasion. I suppose this would have been in the forties and fifties. Elections were a lot more emotive at that time. There would be arguments and fights outside the polling stations. Friends and neighbours would fall out and not talk to each other until the dust had settled some weeks later. Often as the cars drove the voters to the polling stations on the narrow dirt tracks and boreens of Connemara there would be a stand-off when a Fianna Fáil car met a Fine Gael car with no room to pass. It was a sign of weakness if one driver reversed back to give way to the other. According to herself my grand aunt never gave way. So the story goes.
She told me a story once of how she was driving to some do or other all dressed to the nines when the car broke down. As she was on her own she had no choice but to hop down under the car and fix it herself. And her in all her finery.
She set about fixing the engine and as she was doing so along came a couple of locals, one of whom happened to be a photographer who happened to have his camera with him. How could be resist the photo opportunity? He couldn’t. So he took the picture of her under the car in her best clothes. And what’s more he left little to the imagination with the view of her legs in this compromising position. She was mortified.
This story rang a bell with me. I knew I had seen something similar before. And sure enough I had. I am ninety percent sure that this is the photo although I have no confirmation that it is. It fits the bill.
I think she would be mortified all over again if she knew where I found it. It’s on the cover of the Paradise in the Picturehouse album by The Stunning which was number one for five weeks in the Irish charts in 1990.
My grand aunt passed away a few years back but I still have strong memories of her. She was a great character. I would be interested in any information about the photo.
Mark Waters marked time at 8:09 pm on November 19th, 2006 .
