Every morning when mum arrived back from 6 O'Clock Mass at Domnic St Church she would find on opening the cupboards or going to the old kitchen dresser the rats had beaten her to it! Porridge oats, bread and most foodstuffs would contain rat droppings and everything would have to be thrown out, something we could ill afford to do. Rat traps were laid and while a few were caught and disposed of this army of vermin were no fools, they not only outnumbered us but out maneuvered us to boot! I was always reminded of a James Cagney picture I had seen at “The Plaza” where James, banging his chest shouted “Come on coppers, come and get me” I was convinced our very own supply of rats were squealing the same thing! I could just imagine them standing up on hind legs, banging their underbellies as they squealed “ Come on humans, come and get us, just try it” Da was not going to be beaten and came up with the bright idea of attaching a pulley to the ceiling, threading a rope through it and then a large basket to the other end. Every evening our foodstuffs would be placed in the basket whence it would be hauled up to the ceiling and thus, out of reach of our unwanted visitors. I should mention Da was certainly no D.I.Y expert! While we all agreed it was a fair idea and, probably the only solution we shuddered as he prepared to carry out the job himself! I even caught our younger siblings rolling their eyes to the heavens as if to say, “Oh! No, here we go again!” On went the overalls with an assortment of tools, (enough to build a house) stuck out of the back pocket. Under mum’s beady eye and strict instruction not to make a mess he stood on our best (now well covered) polished table, (courtesy of Nana after she passed away). In all fairness, he was dealing with plaster that had lain untouched for over a hundred years, (apart from the coats of wallop when we decorated) Needless to say, he almost brought the whole ceiling down but still managed to attach the pulley to the now exposed rafters! A handy man from the bottom of the street had to be called in to make good the damage. This then was the basket my sister and I gazed up at on that particular night. We both wanted a nice buttered slice of Boland’s turnover and while this was not forbidden we knew the dreadful creaking noise of the pulley being lowered would bring dad down the stairs thus finding out about our late arrival home. We looked at each other and shrugging our shoulders decided to forsake the longed for slice of turnover and make our way silently up the stairs. And then we saw IT, we both saw IT together, the biggest, fattest, rat hunched in the corner behind the door we had just entered. Its tail looked as long and thick as the leather whip we had used for our spinning tops. The name of a famous high jumper slips this old mind just now but I have no doubt our one great leap on to Nana’s polished table would have broken all records to date!! Naturally our screams brought dad flying down the stairs to find out what was wrong. All we could do was point as we clutched each other atop the table. Da grabbed the nearest thing to hand, the sweeping brush and went into battle raising and bringing down the brush as the rat jumped in all directions. It took time but, eventually he managed to kill it. That was the start of yet another problem. While the gory innards could be washed from the woodwork alas, the blood splattered wallpaper could not be saved. Yet, the services of the streets handyman were called on again; (when we got the money) The younger children were delighted. In those far off days wallpaper rolls came with a white strip on both sides. These sides had to be trimmed off before the paper could be pasted to the walls. The children were given a whole penny for each roll they trimmed, the decorator not wanting to carry out this laborious job himself! Of course I had seen rats at a distance (shudders) and even lay awake at night listening to the scratching and scurrying above and below the floorboards. I would pull the paper-thin blankets over my head terrified in case I would wake to find one entangled in my long hair.
