When I was a child in primary school, there were two things that signalled the start of the summer holidays for me.

One was totting up the roll book with our teacher, Mr John Walsh, and the other was the school sports day.

Mr Walsh was a lovely, quietly- spoken man who seemed to be blessed with endless patience. I can’t remember him ever losing the cool, even though I’m pretty sure we gave him plenty of reason to from time to time.

For the last few days of the school year, he would sit at the top of the classroom and call out bunches of numbers to us and we would add them up. I’m sure that wasn’t really necessary, but for us it was something different to do. It meant we didn’t get any homework either and summer was coming.

The other sign that the good times were upon us was the school sports day. That was held in what was known as The College Field.

Owned by the Christian Brothers, it was mainly used for football and hurling. Kicking the ball along the ground would invite a rebuke for playing a foreign game.

But for one day of the year, this field was turned into an Olympic stadium for children. Back then, it sat on the edge of town, almost in the countryside, but now it is home to College Manor, a large housing estate surrounded by modernisation.

The school sports day was a special treat, even for the less athletic guys like me. It........

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