In Dear Old Elphin – A Journey In Time, Noel Collins – who has been at the heart of community activism in Elphin all his adult life – outlines what motivated him to embark on this ‘labour of love’.

“Some years ago, I attended second Mass in my home church in Elphin. A priest from the parish home on holidays from the missions preached the homily. He went on to say ‘I am gone from this parish over 30 years and everything has changed yet nothing has changed’.

“It is something that has stayed with me over the years as to what it all meant. Nothing has changed, structurally: there has been very little change around Elphin – a few new housing estates here and there. The roads and the fields and the general landscape are more or less the same. Now everything has changed: the old generation has passed on and a new generation has been born. How quickly children grow up and move away from home to their new careers and destinations.

“The real change is with people as they move along in life – our parents, our siblings, our classmates… and we often wonder where has all the time gone by. There is, of course, no point in looking in the rear-view mirror of life as to what might or might not have been. You get one shot at it and that’s the way it is. All of this has given me this idea to pen this script”.

The result is a book that will strike a chord with the people of Elphin and indeed throughout County Roscommon. Noel reflects on a variety of topics, ranging from life on the farm to schooldays, sport, entertainment, societal changes, religion, old customs, the days of the fairs, etc.

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