Lisburn Exiles Forum
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The Lisburn Exiles Forum is dedicated to the memory of James Goddard Collins (The Boss) who single-handedly built LISBURN.COM (with a lot of help from many contributors) from 1996 to 29th November 2012. This website was his passion and helping people with a common interest in the City of Lisburn around the world is his lasting legacy.
Vera, remember a while back I said your name was familiar to me. It still is. Don't know why.
However, you mention the Wiseman family who lived on the Belfast Road. Well, their mother was friendly with my next door neighbour, the late Lena Corkin. She used to visit every Monday morning. My children were only toddlers at the time. Mrs Wiseman is still alive and living in the family home. She's over 90. I was speaking to her daughter-in-law last week.
I worked with Jimmy Wiseman (the father) in the Research Dept, Barbour Threads. Jimmy was a dyer.
Maybe I heard the name "McClatchey" through Mrs Corkin.
Did you know the Corkin family at all?. The two girls and their late brother attended Wallace High. Both parents are now dead
Hi all, I am of no help at all regarding Billy Robinson's eyes. However, I was in his shop plenty of times and never noticed anything strange about his eyes. But, I was very young then.
I do remember the lovely ice-cream with red syrup topping.
There is a second-hand shop there now. It's quite good. I bought a nice tapestry pouffee in it for a fiver.
Hello all,
Re: Billy Robinson,
I can assure you that Billy was not blind, in fact he had eyes like a hawk.
The shop was primarily an ice - cream shop.
I was not allowed to buy his ice cream on pain of death from certain other ice cream makers.
He also sold home made ice lollies that left your mouth area looking like you wore lipstick.
Re Isaac Keery.
I think Beano may well be the best informant here.
I can tell you that Isaac trained for a long time at the club situated in a big black shed behind Billy Bell's house in Bap Row (KK and Limerick Lil will no doubt be able to fill in more details).
There is a photograph of the East Down club on the forum.
I remember Isaac and Billy Thomson as a very young boy (me that is, not Isaac and Billy) but have no knowledge that would be of any use to someone compiling a book.
BTW as this thread has already gone off track may I divert it even further by recounting a Christmas poem.
'Twas Christmas Day in the workhouse,
The snow was falling fast.
We don't want your Christmas pudding
...............
Take it to Belfast.
With apologies to wordsworth.
Hello all,
Just getting time to look in after a hectic time visiting & being visited by sons & grandchildren (well no longer children). Between cooking & shopping & wining & dining & late nights, I am tired out & looking forward to a day's rest on Christmas Eve & dinner in Sheena's on Christmas Day.
Joe caught a virus after coming from Lisburn (everyone there had it ) & spent the last few days in bed, coughing & sweating & drinking hot rum & blackcurrant. He is on the mend now after antibiotics & swears that's the last time he is travelling from the Cottage.
We had a great welcome everywhere & enjoyed the break so much, that we are off dinners for the next few days in preparation for Christmas. Too much rich food & good wine & spirits, we have had our Christmas already. Can't stick the pace now.
Glad to be back & see Jim Keery has come into focus. One of the famous Low Roaders. Funny, when in Lisburn reminiscing about old pals, B.B. & I were discussing Sammy Keery, who was a character & a little older than us, but always at the corner of Leamington acting the clown. Isaac was his brother & we heard of his boxing prowress often, but I did'nt know much about him.
We lived 2 doors up from Billy Bell in East Down View & knew of the boxing club at the bottom of the street, was it Rickard's old big black shed. I knew Annie Keery & her sister (Sarah?) by sight, their brother Issac was reported to have gone to America, late 40's . He was supposed to throw down his trowel on the scaffold one early Spring day on the job there & say "The bluebells are blooming down the 41's now."
The last we heard of Sammy was him & George Alister on the Channel boat with a crate of beer each, throwing the empty bottles over the side. We never heard of Sammy again. He was a real character. I think Sammy must have been the youngest.
I know Annie is dead this years, she married Ernie Graham , who used to hod to Joe. I think he moved from the Low Rd. to Jubilee Avenue , we met him years ago in Lisburn.
Pat 
Low Roader,
Glad to hear from you again BUT who is "Limerick Lil"??? Not me, I hope ,as I live in Clare, far removed from Limerick in every way. The last time the boundary was moted to be moved was the cause of another uprising here a couple of years ago.
Limerick is a city with all that entails wheras Clare is a county, the Banner County, to boot, never to be confused with Limerick. Like saying one came from Leamington instead of East Down View.!!"!"!
Pat
I couldn't think of anything to rhyme with Clare and it is such an isignificant county I really did not try very hard.
Probably should have stuck to The Bap Row Rascal - it is more apt methinks.
I will have to ask Kk her opinion.
Clare is the nicest county in Ireland & has no need to advertise itself, if you ever drove slowly down Corkscrew Hill or visited the Burren or Alwee Caves or the magnificient Cliffs of Moher, to name but a few, you would be a Clare visitor every year
Call me what you like, as we used to chant in E.D.View.... "Sticks & stones may break my bones
but names will never hurt me."OR
the old football slogan Arthur Sloan told me....
"The mice, the rats, the Longstone brats,
But the Low Road boys forever."
Pat ( Clare Colleen.)
p.s. As for asking K.K. "Birds of a feather.."
You may be surprised to know that I have indeed had the doubtful pleasure of visiting Clare.
It was some time ago and in addition to visiting the Caves (what a let down) I also walked the walk up to the edge of the Cliffs of Moher.
I have to honest and say that standing at the top of McConnell's Hill looking down on to the beautiful Lagan Canal and river was infinitely more exciting and certainly more picturesque.
As far as the Burren is concerned, I can only hope that they have used some of the rock, which was going to waste to make some roads which, I am afraid to say, were almost non-existent.
Now Lisdoonvarna is mind blowing.
And I may as well tell you the story behind my asking about one Billy Robinson. The fact is; and again, none of my siblings will ever remember hearing this; my mother teased my father about 'Blind Billy Robinson' having a fight with him, over her, when she and my dad were nineteen or so. She laughed and said that Billy 'bate' my da all the way round the block from Railway Street, Batchelors Walk, back to Bow Street. My indignant dad said that Billy was not blind, was a bloody good fighter, and that he had forced my dad to back pedal, but they had agreed to settle for a 'no verdict'. Sorry that I only have these fighting, drinking memories, but I don't make them up.
Dear Low Roader,
Beauty is indeed in the mind of the beholder. The roads now in most of Ireland are A1, thanks to the E.U. Our lane leaves a lot to be desired, as do other side roads & lanes but that again is their attraction. (Remember the lonies)?
Maybe your visit was a long time ago, at any rate I can find no fault with the tourist trails in Clare. My favourite spot though is Gougane Barra in Kerry, out of this world for peace & tranquillity.
Hope you go to Google for a look around our scenery.
By the way Mc Colin's Hill is almost non-existent now, the fields around it are incorporated into one big, big green space making the "hill" disappear. The overfalls are slower, hardly any noise or rushing over large boulders etc, not the same effect. The years have made changes, some good, some disappointing.
Leamington is all big windows now & upgraded houses, B.B. got the old front door of my Dad's childhood home, the last one in the row, he has it in his back garden - the rub is now, what to do with it...firewood.? All the old landmarks are being eroded.
Pat. (Cute Clare H..r) as the saying goes in Limerick.
Brendan
That boxing records site has improved enormously over the past few years. I often look up names. Rinty Monaghan, of course, and Bunty Doran, as well as Spider Kelly, John McManus, and all the old names from Ireland.
