He spent a lot of time as a kid with Gran and old Tom.  They called him 'wee Tommy'.  Whenever he got into trouble he ran over to Grans.  Gran used to say 'don't touch little Tommy'.

Some of his school friends were Kieran Mahoney brother of Clem Mahoney, Frank McDonnell and Mervyn Humphries.  Tommy would bring them out to the farm

Being the only boy Tommy did all the farm jobs but especially the milking.  This is why he didn't spend much time playing sport or having too much time for school

Tommy also had pigs for years and they were fed on delicious cows milk

He liked the wide open spaces and cattle - cows were his whole life.

As a kid he always played with Sheila who was two years younger.  Tommy put binder twine in his pants for a tail and pretended to be a cow - Sheila was always the horse and had to chase him.

He spent a lot of time as a youngster playing with the Kane boys.  They all swam in the creek during the summer without bathers and this was always very 'disgusting' to Sheila.

Once when Tommy and Maureen were milking they put a bucket of water into the vat to make it appear that they had done more than they had.

Tommy liked to play practical jokes - the most common one was: Have you ever seen the hole in a cows tit.  "No!"  As we leaned forward we received a squirt but were never caught like that again of course.

He loved to say "how's your belly where the pig bit ya?"  We used to reply "Good Tommy".  It wasn't till I was quite a bit older that I realised he was referring to my belly button.

He used to big note himself when we played backyard cricket with his 'flipper'.  This was his unplayable ball which he bowled without his thumb around the seam making it skid low.  We played on the area outside the side gate with the picket fence as the wicket.  It was surprising how many times he got us out with his 'flipper'.

He took great pride in his first blue FJ Holden, his diesel tractor, his old Ford hay truck and his Nissan car with all the latest gadgets including a retractable aerial which really impressed me in the sixties.

He loved footy, cricket and racing.  He spoke for years about how Coleraine won the Premiership in 1967 over Portland under coach Col Saddington and the whole street was blocked off in celebration.  He loved to watch the Test cricket but complained often about commentators such as Tony Greig who irritated him.  He was a Committee member of the Coleraine Racing Club and was part of a syndicate to own a racehorse.  A picture of the  horse was proudly displayed in his lounge room.

Tommy was loyal to the Catholic Church and was very generous.  When he said the Hail Mary it used to amuse us no end when he came to 'thy womb Jesus' - to us it sounded like 'spinem Minoses'

Tommy always had a nap after lunch and even if you slept in another room you could hear Tommy snoring through the wall.

He loved Irish music especially played by Jack Speering - he had a heap of LP's.

In his prime Tommy was as strong as an ox and could easily work all day throwing bales of hay onto a truck.  He boasted that he never needed to drink water while he worked.  He had huge muscles and was tanned as brown as a berry.  He never took his shirt off outside and when you did get a glimpse of skin above the shirt line it was lily white.

He went through a stage of stockpiling insulage for cattle feed under plastic.  He used to say how sweet smelling it was as we gazed through the steam rising from the heap.  To us - I don't think we'd ever smelt anything so vile.

Tommy had a great fear of fires.  The first sign of smoke was sure to bring him out into a sweat.  He had good reason to fear fires when you consider the devastation of 1954 and 1966.  He was a member of the Tarranlea fire brigade and had a large tank on his Ford truck during summer.

Tommy was very careful driving in Coleraine.  To make a 'U' turn in the street, he usually went to the end of the town.

Whenever you went to stay at the farm with Tommy and Grandma it wasn't long before you were taken down to Buedens flat to inspect his 'strawberry clover' which grew from water runoff at the windmill.

Tommy loved playing Euchre and this is where he met Peg.

Tommy made a huge step in marrying Peg but it made him extremely happy.  They were married for about 10 years before Tommy died of cancer.

Tommy liked to see the light side of life.  He was generous to a fault, kind hearted, very good with kids and wore his heart on his sleeve.  He worked hard all his life and had a great love for his family, Coleraine and his farm.

Grandma

Wedding, two

Peg