'Bigger and Better?'
Chapter One
'The Portlaw Runt'
Portlaw has always been a town populated with big boys and small ideas. That was why Tony Walsh never quite fitted in and stood out from the crowd. He quickly found his place in the overall scale of things while he was still a child. He was always at the bottom of the heap of Portlaw consideration, always pushed to the back of the queue and was never allowed his proper place in the running of things. Whenever Tony was around, the bullies of Portlaw were in their element. He was perhaps their easiest target for miles around; the natural-born 'victim' of his puny size and the butt of his Portlaw peers. His closest friend was his dog Scruff and a girl called Mary Foggerty who wanted to become a nun when she got older.
Tony Walsh was born the youngest son in a family of eighteen children. His parents loved each other greatly. Tony had been born during his mother's seventh month of pregnancy and wasn't expected to live many hours after his delivery into the world. His overall length of body was no longer than a good-sized jumbo sausage. He spent the first two weeks of his existence in an incubator in the Waterford Hospital and before he was three days old, he had received two of the seven sacraments; Baptism and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.
Tony was a fighter and one month after being delivered into this world he was allowed home with his parents. After he'd miraculously defied all the medics and pulled through against the odds, his parents knew that they had a born survivor on their hands. They also sensed that they had been blessed in the later years of their marriage with a 'special child'.
Tony was healthy in all respects, but in one area he was different to all other infants born at the Waterford Maternity Hospital that year. Having been born ten weeks premature, Tony was naturally smaller in body weight and size, but for some inexplicable reason his growth remained stunted and he was to remain small thereafter.
In their attempt to determine what was wrong with their son, and in particular, why he failed to grow as much as his peers, Tony's parents took the boy to see a number of eminent child specialists across Ireland and also one in Harley Street, London, England. None of these specialists could find anything wrong with Tony and all ailments, explanations and conditions such as lack of oxygen at birth or dwarfism were quickly ruled out. They simply declared Tony to be a perfectly healthy boy who would start growing like other boys and girls, if and when God decreed it.
Tony was healthy in all respects, but in one area he was different to all other infants born at the Waterford Maternity Hospital that year. Having been born ten weeks premature, Tony was naturally smaller in body weight and size, but for some inexplicable reason his growth remained stunted and he was to remain small thereafter.
In their attempt to determine what was wrong with their son, and in particular, why he failed to grow as much as his peers, Tony's parents took the boy to see a number of eminent child specialists across Ireland and also one in Harley Street, London, England. None of these specialists could find anything wrong with Tony and all ailments, explanations and conditions such as lack of oxygen at birth or dwarfism were quickly ruled out. They simply declared Tony to be a perfectly healthy boy who would start growing like other boys and girls, if and when God decreed it.
But God had seemingly decreed Tony to remain half the height and weight of his peers, and in order to be as tall as another boy of similar age when he was 7 years old, he would require a 'leg-up'. This state of affairs frequently got to Tony and occasionally he became unsettled enough to pack his bags on the spur of the moment and leave home. On one occasion he was found walking down the railway tracks with his packed suit case. When asked where he thought he was going, he simply replied, "America". When asked by his parents 'why'? he said," 'Cos everything's big there!"
Eventually, after being reassured that their son Tony was perfectly normal in every other way apart from his size, his parents reluctantly resigned themselves to the fact that he would always be a person of modest proportions; yet nevertheless a 'special child'. Consequently, they did the only things that they could to make his life more bearable, like siting coat hangers and wall switches at both higher and lower levels and dressing him in homemade garments, which both fitted his size and didn't make him look babyish in style. They also secured the purchase of a very small violin for their youngest member of the family.
The Walsh family were a highly musically-accomplished family. Tony was reared by a mother who used to play the fiddle every spare moment of the day; even during breastfeeding periods. With the exception of his oldest sister in the family (who played the harp, along with the oldest brother who played the piano), all other fifteen children played the violin under the tuition of their accomplished mother. The brother who played the piano had started learning the keys before he was 18 months old and he had another brother who was singing jazz before he was two years of age! Dad occasionally joined them on his piano accordion, but his taste in music and song didn't stretch to the more classical.
Tony's father couldn't play a note on the violin, but he had a marvellous tenor's voice and would often sing a sweet refrain or marching song in his local pub. He had however, been brought up able to play a concertina and a piano accordion and he rarely visited the 'Cotton Mill' pub without his 'squeeze box' as he used to call the instrument. Most of the Portlaw citizens couldn't fathom where he ever got the time to father eighteen bairns, as when he wasn't at home, he was either working in Waterford or drinking and having a merry old sing-along in the pub most nights until midnight. As for his wife, the Portlaw residents continued to wonder how any educated Catholic woman could still manage to put her faith in the 'Rhythm Method' after giving birth to eighteen children.
For the first six years of Tony's life at school, there were always a few of his large family of brothers and sisters to prevent any undue bullying by the other pupils. Their mother had ensured that the Walsh family were great musicians, but it had fallen to their father to make sure that they were also great fighters when it came to defending one of their own or the family name. If you messed with one of the Walsh family, you messed with all of them! Like all schools however, it was customary for the pupils to give the teachers and each other, 'nick-names'. Given Tony's puny size, the other boys and girls called him 'Big Mac'.
The time eventually came when Tony Walsh could no longer rely upon the school presence of an older brother or sister to protect him. By the time he was eleven years old, all of his siblings had left school to join the workforce. With very few jobs to be had in the whole of Ireland at the time, due to economic recession, when boys and girls reached fifteen years of age and left school, many also packed their suitcases and left home. Rather than become a financial drain upon their family, they would travel to Dublin to look for work or even sail across the Irish Sea to England.
If a girl could manage to get a job within home-travel distance and keep it for a couple of years to feed herself, she would consider herself lucky. If she were able to stay in her homeland as well as find her 'Mr Right', she would consider herself extremely fortunate. And, if she had the good fortune to become engaged and persuade the man to make her an honest woman before their bairn was born, then she would be sailing on cloud nine as she prepared to join the 'Irish Catholic Mother's Union'.
Once enrolled in this Portlaw Order of female respectability and Godly gossip, the new wife and mother would now consider herself justified to look down her nose at all women who went with a man prior to marriage and, particularly those unmarried females who were often left 'holding the baby'; those who had taken their knickers off before being sure that they had a second pair to wear!
Once enrolled in this Portlaw Order of female respectability and Godly gossip, the new wife and mother would now consider herself justified to look down her nose at all women who went with a man prior to marriage and, particularly those unmarried females who were often left 'holding the baby'; those who had taken their knickers off before being sure that they had a second pair to wear!
By Tony's 11th birthday, apart from his pregnant 16-year-old sister Molly who was due to marry soon, he found himself the only remaining child living in his parents' house in William Street. For the next year and a half, the Portlaw boys and girls taunted and teased the five stone boy at every opportunity. He was so easy to push around, given his featherweight proportions of body. Other boys of his age weighed almost twice as much. Even the family dog, Scruff stood taller than Tony Walsh at the age of 11 years! The other boys and even the girls would tease Tony and never let him play with them.
So Tony tended to withdraw into his own little world, which included daydreams of when he grew up into manhood. When he wasn't walking the family dog, he could usually be found practicing his violin. Although the youngest and the last member of the family to take up the violin, Tony had become the most accomplished in his family on the instrument. His mother recognised very early on in his life how talented Tony was on the violin and genuinely believed that this was the thing that her 'special' son had been born to do. By the time he had reached 11 years, she knew that there was not anything else that she could teach her son to advance his playing. However, as she could not afford to pay for the additional tuition he would need if he wanted to advance to that of professional status and, as she did not wish to approach her well-off sister for any more financial support, Tony's musical advancement naturally slowed down.
So Tony tended to withdraw into his own little world, which included daydreams of when he grew up into manhood. When he wasn't walking the family dog, he could usually be found practicing his violin. Although the youngest and the last member of the family to take up the violin, Tony had become the most accomplished in his family on the instrument. His mother recognised very early on in his life how talented Tony was on the violin and genuinely believed that this was the thing that her 'special' son had been born to do. By the time he had reached 11 years, she knew that there was not anything else that she could teach her son to advance his playing. However, as she could not afford to pay for the additional tuition he would need if he wanted to advance to that of professional status and, as she did not wish to approach her well-off sister for any more financial support, Tony's musical advancement naturally slowed down.
After all his other family members had left school in Portlaw, Tony grew to dislike his days at school intensely. Whenever anyone arrived late for school assembly, they would often sneak into class without the teachers spotting them, especially if their mates created a commotion as a decoy strategy to occupy their teacher's eyes elsewhere. However, if ever Tony was late, he would never be afforded such privileges by his classmates.
Instead, as he tried to quietly enter the class and take his seat before the teaching nun spotted him, almost all the other boys and girls would snigger and point at his entrance as they chanted in unison, "Runt! Runt! Runt!", ensuring that the latecomer would receive 'six of the best' on his backside from the Headmaster, Mr Buggins.
Mr Buggins was the only male teacher in the school, but he never did any teaching; all of which he left to the nuns. His special and only contribution to the school was to cane the boys as required. He was a strict disciplinarian and before he administered the punishment in full view of the rest of the class, he had this habit of first bending his cane in an arc, which seemingly kept it pliant, maintained its springiness and retained the sting in its tail when it made contact with a boy's rear end. As he caned an unlucky pupil, his face would smile wickedly. He believed that there could be no such thing as respect for life, unless it was beaten into a child. He also believed that a good thrashing never did a boy any harm and was an essential ingredient in character building.
Mr Buggins was the only male teacher in the school, but he never did any teaching; all of which he left to the nuns. His special and only contribution to the school was to cane the boys as required. He was a strict disciplinarian and before he administered the punishment in full view of the rest of the class, he had this habit of first bending his cane in an arc, which seemingly kept it pliant, maintained its springiness and retained the sting in its tail when it made contact with a boy's rear end. As he caned an unlucky pupil, his face would smile wickedly. He believed that there could be no such thing as respect for life, unless it was beaten into a child. He also believed that a good thrashing never did a boy any harm and was an essential ingredient in character building.
Other types of discrimination that Tony would be subjected to before his thirteenth year of life included constantly finding his school satchel removed from his cloak nail when he went to find it at the end of the day or having his soccer boots hidden. These items would always be found inside the Wendy House in the Infants' section of the Catholic school. There was little point in telling the teaching sisters, as there was simply no chance of identifying the culprits. As with most bullying practices, the bullying only worked because the entire school had seemingly entered into a conspiracy of silence where Tony was concerned. Feeling unloved and unwanted at school, Tony found it very difficult in his heart and mind to be charitable in thought to others.
That was of course with the exception of one other pupil, 12-year-old Mary Foggerty. Mary Foggerty was the only person in Tony's school who treated him with kindness and respect. She dressed like a tom-boy and had a face full of freckles that gave her a look of a thrush looking back at you whenever you spoke with her. Her hair was red in colour and long in length. She invariably had her hair plaited in three braided strands like a Challah loaf of bread that one might find on the baking tray of a Jew. Tony always found her manner towards him considerate, her speech to be respectful and her overall disposition to be one of kindness itself. It was generally accepted that as the eldest girl in a family with no brothers, Mary would enter the convent to become a nun when she was seventeen years old. Not surprisingly, she was never seen with a boyfriend as she considered herself bethrothed to Christ and as such she knew that she should not entertain any impurity of thought or action.
From all the pupils in the school, Mary was closer to Tony than anyone else. There were many occasions when Mary would intervene on Tony's behalf when the others may have been in the process of mocking and bullying him. On a few occasions, she had been known to comfort him when she found him in tears. The occasion that Tony would never forget, however, was when Mary told him that she had to go to Donegal to live with her poorly Aunt Claire. She told Tony that she didn't know how long she would be gone and would have to transfer schools meanwhile.
She then held Tony's small face tenderly and gave him a parting kiss of affection saying, "Take care, Boyo. I'll be back before you know it. God go with you!" As she spoke these words of tenderness to Tony, she was concerned that he would be bullied mercilessly in her absence. She opened the palm of Tony's hand and placed within it a photograph of her as a child, saying to Tony, "Always remember, Tony, that the best things come wrapped in small parcels......and sometimes they even come in small basins!"
She then held Tony's small face tenderly and gave him a parting kiss of affection saying, "Take care, Boyo. I'll be back before you know it. God go with you!" As she spoke these words of tenderness to Tony, she was concerned that he would be bullied mercilessly in her absence. She opened the palm of Tony's hand and placed within it a photograph of her as a child, saying to Tony, "Always remember, Tony, that the best things come wrapped in small parcels......and sometimes they even come in small basins!"
During the next three months the bullying of Tony worsened considerably. The other boys and girls perceived Tony as 'The Portlaw Runt' who should have been allowed to wither and die at birth. Eventually, the bullying got so bad that drastic action needed to be taken by his parents. It was decided that although he was just thirteen years of age and their last child born, Tony would be better off if he went to live in the USA with his Uncle Will and Aunt Nadine.
Will was his maternal uncle who had emigrated to America twenty years earlier, where he met and married Nadine. He now worked as a Group Counsellor and Relaxation Training Instructor in San Francisco and he was making a big name for himself there, having founded and spread the process of 'Anger Management'.
Will was his maternal uncle who had emigrated to America twenty years earlier, where he met and married Nadine. He now worked as a Group Counsellor and Relaxation Training Instructor in San Francisco and he was making a big name for himself there, having founded and spread the process of 'Anger Management'.
Uncle Will had always been very intelligent and what he lacked in his sister's musical skills, he more than made up for with his capacity to understand a person's behaviour pattern and to help change human response. Ten years earlier, he had founded 'Anger Management Courses' and had helped many desperate people find true happiness once more. His methods of work were very unorthodox, but one thing that could always be counted on was, 'his methods did work'!
For many years, Uncle Will had offered to accommodate any of his sister's family if ever they wished to emigrate to America, but so far none had taken him up on his generous offer. The vast majority of them had emigrated to England to pursue life and prosperity in Liverpool, London and Yorkshire. This offer was particularly extended to his nephew, Tony, especially after Uncle Will had learned through his sister's letters of the hard time that the boy's puny size was creating for him at school in Portlaw.
Having been told that there was no physical reason why Tony was small, Uncle Will truly believed that living the American way of life for the boy would be the best possible thing for him. Taking the words straight out of the Jesuit manual, Uncle Will had told his sister in Portlaw, "Have no fear. Give me the boy now before he gets any older and I'll give you back the man who will walk as tall as any Portlaw man ever walked!"
For many years, Uncle Will had offered to accommodate any of his sister's family if ever they wished to emigrate to America, but so far none had taken him up on his generous offer. The vast majority of them had emigrated to England to pursue life and prosperity in Liverpool, London and Yorkshire. This offer was particularly extended to his nephew, Tony, especially after Uncle Will had learned through his sister's letters of the hard time that the boy's puny size was creating for him at school in Portlaw.
Having been told that there was no physical reason why Tony was small, Uncle Will truly believed that living the American way of life for the boy would be the best possible thing for him. Taking the words straight out of the Jesuit manual, Uncle Will had told his sister in Portlaw, "Have no fear. Give me the boy now before he gets any older and I'll give you back the man who will walk as tall as any Portlaw man ever walked!"
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