Automobiles

Motor vehicles around Iona in the 30s and 40s were scarce and because of that they were something to behold. Charlie McGuigan was the most frequent (2r buyer as he had a number of older models of which his Model T was the most memorable. Some wags around home used to tell us that this old timer was the second car ever made and I for one believed the yarn religiously. Mary McCabe and Jimmy Daly each had a Model A Ford. For a number of years Father McCarthy drove a 1937 Lafayette coupe, a wide rangy car with an enormous trunk and overall luxurious appearance. Aunt Josie Morrissey of Earns- cliffe had a 1929 Whippet in which that family visited us on numerous occasions. Our cousin Marty Griffin from Lower Newtown was regularly at our place with his 1928 Chevrolet, a car quite notorious for being in a state of disrepair. On one of its rear fenders a red triangle proudly advertised the vehicle’s Special feature of four-wheel brakes, a feature never much in evidence one could say. By the mid 30s Frank Connolly had an older truck with high racks which was quite visible around Iona for some years. Mary McCabe eventually switched to a 1937 Chevrolet coupe, a neat roomy car with large trunk in which many of us school kids used to ride when Joe Cairns was our teacher. Likewise in the mid 40s Jimmy Daly purchased a 1941 DOdge sedan, a beautiful car in appearance and ride, one that many a youth would dream of owning. But for twenty-five years the vehicle best known and somehow revered by the O’Sheas was our uncle Jimmy’s 1929 green Chevrolet sedan. This car, a