Follow-up

ERIC FIRTH’S anecdote about his wife’s Irish eyes ( Peterborough) brought back a fond memory from my childhood.

I was eight years old and my father would take me on the bar of his bicycle to Limavady, our county town, when he collected the monthly insurance premiums. He’d leave me in the care of the waitresses in the cafe while he cycled to various farms for his ‘lunar monthlies’, as he called them.

Once, on his return, the cafe owner — a big man wearing plus-fours — said: ‘Hugh, your child has the most Irish face I’ve ever seen. Jet black hair and dark blue eyes.’

I’ve never forgotten those words. Though at the age of 81, the hair is now white, the eyes are still dark blue. Frances Street, address supplied.