I was a ghost.

Micheal Boyle
Newfoundland

People around Drummuck near Maghera in South Derry still tell the story from from my youth back in the early sixties. I blame Ronnie Delaney as he had won a Gold medal in the Olympics.He inspired me to take up running. I was the lone runner in our local area. Neighbours would say that my father Paddy Joe was losing it by allowing that Mickey fellah to run up the moss road and jump over ditches. At that time I would run in football boots or gutty slippers. I would have white football shorts and a white undershirt as a running vest. I took part in many cross country running events. Folks would salute with one or two fingers and others would shout comments. So I would run in late evening. On one foggy damp Halloween evening in 1960 I did my usual course up Mayogall moss and over to the Curragh and the last part of the course was Drumghlessa and then the Rock of Drummuck. Here there were old wallsteads and ruins of houses belonging to families who emigated to America many years ago. In the darkness I noticed some orange crock drainge pipes and in the distant men were unloading a lorry. With head down and mouth shut I sprinted through the wall steads and down the mucky lane towards our back hill.

It was some weeks later that I found out those men saw me and were convinced I was a ghost. It appears that a drainage scheme was taking place. Mc Erlains from Portglenone were delivering the load of drainage pipes and when the workers saw the white clad figure jump over the wallstead they fled running in hobnailed boots to a nearby farm. Many people in the area still remember the Halloween Mickey Boyle ran through Drummuck as a ghost. So today look out again if you are out around the Drummuck area.

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