Do you use your imagination to help you play fun and exciting games? Children in the past were no different.
Here, Bernadette Marks describes some of the games she and her friends played in the 1940's and 1950's while growing up in the Malahide and Mountgorry parts of Swords. She also describes how the children used the local landscape to help spark their imagination:
"During the 1940's and 1950's children growing up in the Malahide/Mountgorry areas of Swords had many exciting places to play. There was the wood on the Malahide Road, which at that time belonged to the Feenans who lived at Swords House.
Mountgorry Children, 1950s
© Swords Historical Society.
© Swords Historical Society.
Although scared to be caught trespassing, all the children played in the wood, which some days was the "wild west" or others "the jungle" with Tarzan swinging from the trees. This depended on the latest film being shown at Swords cinema. The wood also played the part of a skating rink when a pond was frozen in winter and at the bottom of the hill, depending on the season, was a football pitch.
Hop Scotch and Skipping were played on the road, at the time almost devoid of traffic except for Mr Daly's car or Mr McQuillan's lorry with the funny-sounding horn. Mr Daly was the local vet and had to have a car to get about. "The Ranch" was in Troy's garden beside a beautiful pond with sally trees. It served as the in the make believe world of the 1950's."