Everyone loves a good yarn!
And anyone grabbing a copy of Willie Nugent’s new book will have plenty of them to choose from.
For Armagh’s charity champion – having clocked up 50 years of fundraising efforts – is at it once again.
Each year the Armagh man releases a children’s book at Christmas to raise money for some great causes.
This time round he is taking stories told to him when he was but a boy to bring about his latest publication.
In his book, he shares with readers stories which his late father Patrick told him when growing up in Gas Lane in Armagh.
The Nugent family grew up on the old city street, while his father was employed at the local gasworks.
The book’s title really is self-explanatory – ‘Yarns My Father Told Me Back in Old Gas Lane’.
“The book contains eight yarns which my father told to me,” explained William.
“And the entire proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Friends of the Cancer Centre at Belfast City Hospital.”
To give a bit of a taster as to what to expect, the titles given to the individual recollections of ‘back in the day’ are thus: The Envelope, the Nun and the Gas Lamplighter; The Ghost of Irish Street Corner; Tea break in the Gasworks; Happy Birthday George; The Day Paddy met Randolph Scott in Armagh;Is He Dead?; The Pub with Free Beer; and The Day a UFO Landed in Armagh.
It really is an eye-opening and enjoyable read of times long gone but fondly remembered, preserving for posterity tales passed via word of mouth from a father to his son.
The books are priced at £5 each and are available in Trimprint, Dessies and Raffles on English Street, the Gazette Shop on Scotch Street, and at Curran’s Spar at Cathedral Road.
So what are you waiting for? Another thoughtful enterprise from Armagh’s own Willie Nugent and charity, as always, is the winner every time!
For those of you who do buy a copy, here’s a few chosen words from Willie: “Thank-you for your support and I do hope you enjoy my new book.”
