89-year-old’s first book
HIS MANY MEMORIES FORM ‘GROWING UP IN WEXFORD’
AT THE AGE of 89, Wexford man Jim Billington has just published his first book. He says it will also be his last. ‘We’re happy and contented here now, me and my wife.
‘ The book was my first and my last, I dont think there will be another one,’ Jim told this newspaper following the launch of ‘Growing Up in Wexford’ at the Book Centre.
Jim, who will turn 90 next January, was born in The Faythe in a house a couple of doors down from what was the Geraldine’s Club.
He is the son of John Billington and Margaret (nee Boyle) from John’s Gate Street.
Jim’s family originally came from England and were clog makers in Wexford.
Billington's leather and clog-making shop was on South Main Street next to Bugler Doyle's pub many years ago.
Like many of his peers, Jim left Wexford and Ireland during the 1940s to seek employment in the UK.
But unlike many, instead of just talking about his Wexford roots, he wrote his memories down on bits of paper over the years he was living in England, the sum of all these culminating in his newly-published book.
Within its pages are stories that many of an older generation will connect with and those that our ‘electronic’ generation would benefit from reading.
‘I started it off when I was in England. I always used to think about Wexford, my own youth and would write down my memories.
‘When I got a computer (at the age of 70) I started putting it into it.. it was one-fingered typing but every time I thought about something I put it in,’ said Jim, who now lives in Hayestown.
‘ To begin with it was a bit of a conglomerated mess and had to be sorted out, but that’s how it started off,’ he said, praising Wexford Historical Society’s Liam Gaul for his encouraging him to publish his book.
Jim, who went to the UK on the 26th of November, 1943, worked in the plastics industry in England and lived in Manchester with his wife Peggy until he retired. The couple returned to Wexford 18 years ago.
Jim and Peggy’s son and daughter, Michael, who is a teacher, and civil servant Kathryn still live in the UK.
While his memories of Wexford as a young man are fond, he recalls how tough a time the country was going through when he was growing up.
‘It was a difficult time then , a few years after inependence the country was in a right mess politically and economically. There were no jobs for the people,’ he said.
Jim has fonder memories if being in the boy scouts, the route marches and camping and going with other young lads to the quays or the Rocks and ‘almost getting in trouble’.
‘It was nothing serious though, just young lads together.’
School holidays were invariably spent in Rosslare where his father, a joiner, had built a hut, he thinks is still standing, and learning to swim.
‘When we got bikes we would cycle there, otherwise we used to go on the train,’ he said.
Asked about how he viewed Wexford now, compared to when he was growing up, he said high commercial rents were stifling business opportunities in the town.
‘You no sooner see some place opening than it’s closed because of the rent,’ he said.
‘Growing Up in Wexford’ is a walk down memory lane and well worth its €20, with every cent going to the Friends of Wexford General Hospital.