There is something quietly lovely about this week’s episode of Voices of Boyle. Two people sitting across from Carlo and Florence with very different routes to the same place, and both of them meaning it when they say they love the town.

Colin grew up on Termon Road and has essentially never wanted to live anywhere else. Aethel grew up on a farm in Galway, spent a decade living across four American states, and ended up in Boyle almost by accident. Between them they cover enough ground to fill several episodes, and do it with great warmth and a good bit of craic.

Termon Road in the 1990s

Colin’s memories of growing up in Boyle are the kind that feel familiar to anyone who was a child here before screens took over. He was outside in all weathers, so often and so long that he always had chapped lips. The Round Balls at the back of the NCF, concrete silo bases shaped like bowls that kids had named individually, took up entire summers. The floodgates at Assylinn were the fishing and swimming spots. Hares and Hounds was played across every street, lane and nook of Termon and Plunkett Avenue.

“We used everything to entertain ourselves,” he said. “The outdoors, the wilds, the trees, the bushes. It was a great youth.”

He played Gaelic and soccer from under-12 up through senior level, took a particular interest in fishing, and attended the rural discos at Bellanagare, Kiltimagh and Mohill, finding out they were on by checking the back page of the Roscommon Herald every week. He laughs now at how much that ritual meant at the time.

Bob Fairs penny sweet shop, Christy Wynne’s, the street leagues where teams from Termon, Marion Road, Church View and Forest View competed and occasionally traded players for a few pounds, the Assylinn swimming spot with its firsts, seconds and the baby pool nobody ever used. These are the texture of a Boyle childhood in that era, and Colin describes them with real affection.

“We used every street and every nook and cranny. It was just a lot of running about, a lot of hiding, and a lot of fun. Simple as that.”

Galway, America, and the Long Way Round

Aethel’s route to Boyle was considerably less direct. She grew up on a farm near Tuam in Galway with sheep, cows, a donkey named Jackie and a tradition of naming every lamb Bob regardless of how many there were. The family moved to Galway City when she was eight or nine, which she describes as a hard transition: new school, some bullying, and the adjustment of being the country girl in the city.

In 2006 she left for America with a partner and stayed for ten years, living in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Alaska and finally San Diego. Four very different places: Vegas and California for four years each, Salt Lake for a year of four seasons and Mormon history, and Alaska, where she went from being able to fry an egg on the ground to throwing a glass of water in the air and watching it come back as snow.

She flew home from Las Vegas, with a stop at Caesar’s Palace for a pair of Louboutins she bought as a farewell to that chapter of her life, wore them once back in Ireland, and sold them because they were the most uncomfortable shoes she had ever owned.

She spent a year back in Galway, then ended up in Boyle because her then-partner’s mother had a building on Patrick Street and offered them the downstairs for a tattoo shop. She had expected to find the sticks. Something about the town surprised her.

“There was no intention of anything happening in Boyle other than visiting,” she said. “But just something about Boyle. I just felt welcome here.”

The Bodybuilding Competition

Around 2007 or 2008, Colin fell into gym work while away in the country for a period. He came back to Boyle with a serious interest in training and spent years in the gyms of the town, from the original prefab on Boyle Road through to Darren O’Flaherty’s setup at the complex and then Results Gym.

In 2012 he competed in a bodybuilding competition in Waterford under the Republic of Ireland Bodybuilding Federation. He had given himself about a year to prepare. His diet for the ten to twelve weeks before the event was five meals a day of grilled chicken breast and vegetables. Nothing else. Every day.

The week before the competition he restricted his water intake and used wine and black coffee as natural diuretics, stripping subcutaneous water to define the muscle underneath. The day before, in the spray tan and posing trunks he had ordered from the UK, he looked in the mirror and thought he might actually be able to do this.

On stage he performed his mandatory poses and then a one-minute freestyle routine to a Creed song. He says he still remembers every second of it.

“It was a brilliant experience, one that I have memories of engraved in my mind forever,” he said. “I can always say that I did it.”

He competed once and was content with that. A goal set, achieved, and left there.

“You don’t want to get up on stage and not be in shape. You have to flick the switch fully. Otherwise what is the point?”

Lulu: From the Streets of Thailand to a Couch in Boyle

Last April, Colin and Aethel lost Hank, their American dog who had traveled across the States with Aethel and come home to Ireland, after sixteen years together. The loss was hard, coming just before their wedding. They gave themselves time to heal.

Then Lulu appeared on the Leitrim Animal Welfare Facebook page. She was the last of nine Thai dogs in the charity’s second group to be rehomed. She had spent a year and a half on the streets of Thailand before being taken in by the Soi Dog Foundation, where she had surgery for hip dysplasia and spent two years in their facility before being flown to Ireland.

Aethel saw her photo before she knew any of this and fell in love immediately. She rang Leitrim Animal Welfare, went out on a weekday to meet her because she was afraid she would be gone by Saturday, and video-called Colin from the car. A week later Lulu came home.

“We didn’t know how she would be with the stairs, with the hair dryer, with the Hoover,” Aethel said. “We thought we’d need to give her a week to settle. She just walked in the door. That was her house. Not a bother.”

The camera at home now shows her barely moving from the same spot on the couch all day. A street dog from Thailand, perfectly at home in Roscommon.

The Balloons Come Back

The hot air balloons returned to Lough Key this year after a 31-year absence, and both Colin and Aethel were out for them. Colin has memories of them from childhood, including the time he won a writing competition in national school whose prize was a trip in a balloon at Lough Key that ascended approximately ten feet before coming back down.

This year he and Aethel went out on several mornings and evenings to watch the flights. Tuesday morning, misty and calm, was the one that stood out. Six or seven balloons visible at once over the lake, the burners firing, the whole place alive in a way it has not been in years.

One of the balloonists told Carlo and Florence that the Tuesday morning flight at Lough Key was comfortably in their top ten flights in twenty years of ballooning. Colin and Aethel were not surprised to hear it.

“It gets you excited,” Aethel said. “You are just sitting there watching them. It is just lovely.”

The Time Capsule

The episode ends with a question Carlo and Florence ask their guests: if you could put one thing from Boyle into a time capsule that would not be opened for fifty years, what would it be?

Aethel went for the mom and pop shops, the small family-owned businesses that are quietly disappearing from every town. There is something irreplaceable about a shop that has been owned by the same family for decades, that you can walk into and be recognised, that exists for reasons other than margin and footfall.

Colin’s answer was more specific. He chose Boyle Bridge.

He has a particular attachment to the bridge’s design and architecture, and spent a long time trying to imagine what the previous bridge looked like before the current three-arch structure was built. He eventually found a sketch from 1810 of the old five-arch bridge and described it as a revelation. He loves the bridge as a central meeting point, a focal spot that every person who has ever been to Boyle has crossed.

“Who is to say will it be there in fifty or a hundred years?” he said. “It is iconic. I would love to put it in a time capsule and revisit it again.”

Listen to the Full Episode

This conversation runs to just over an hour and covers more ground than most. It is funny, warm and full of the kind of specific local detail that Voices of Boyle is built on.

If you are interested in adopting a rescue dog through Leitrim Animal Welfare, search for them on Facebook or contact your local rescue centre for more details.

Key Timestamps

00:00 — Welcome from Florence and Carlo

00:24 — Aethel’s story: growing up on a farm near Tuam, Galway

01:16 — Jackie the donkey and all the lambs called Bob

01:29 — Moving to Galway City at eight, a tough transition

02:09 — America in 2006: Las Vegas, Utah, Alaska, California

03:08 — Coming home from San Diego, the Louboutins from Caesar’s Palace

04:43 — Back to Galway, then Boyle almost by accident

05:55 — First impressions of Boyle, something about it stuck

08:22 — All roads led to Colin

09:20 — Colin’s story: growing up on Termon Road

10:14 — Always outside, chapped lips and the wild outdoors

11:36 — Soccer, Gaelic football, fishing

12:19 — Fishing as a way to switch off

13:00 — Bob Fairs, Christy Wynne’s and the iconic shops of youth

14:05 — Bellanagare, Kiltimagh, Mohill and checking the Roscommon Herald

17:04 — The Round Balls at the back of the NCF

18:54 — Assylinn swimming spot, the floodgates, summers in Boyle

22:56 — A dead cow coming down the river and other health and safety memories

24:51 — Hares and Hounds across Termon and Plunkett Avenue

25:34 — Halloween memories: bin bags, chalk, monkey nuts and switching costumes

30:00 — Football on Termon Road, the street leagues, buying Damien Dooley

31:33 — Colin’s bodybuilding competition in Waterford, 2012

35:37 — Diet prep: five meals of chicken and veg for ten weeks

36:52 — The wine and black coffee the day before, the spray tan and posing trunks

39:08 — The posing routine to a Creed song

40:47 — The gym as a community, training without phones

43:50 — Lulu: losing Hank, finding a Thai rescue dog through Leitrim Animal Welfare

46:44 — Lulu walks in and acts like she has always owned the place

49:37 — The return of the hot air balloons to Lough Key

50:27 — Colin’s writing competition prize: a balloon ride that went ten feet up

54:32 — St. Mary’s memories, the old green uniform, slide tackling on concrete

56:44 — Favorite teacher: Tony Conboy, history

57:45 — Community in Boyle, raising a baby girl here

01:00:44 — What would you put in a time capsule? Aethel: the mom and pop shops. Colin: Boyle Bridge

Guest Bios

Colin is a Boyle native who grew up on Termon Road and has lived in the town all his life. He played Gaelic and soccer at every level from underage to senior, fished every river and lake in the area, and competed in bodybuilding at the RIBBF competition in Waterford in 2012. He attended St. Mary’s College and is now preparing for the arrival of his first child with his partner Aethel.

Aethel grew up on a farm near Tuam in Co. Galway before moving to Galway City. In 2006 she headed to America and spent ten years living in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Alaska and San Diego. She returned to Ireland and landed in Boyle almost by chance, where she set up a business on Patrick Street, met Colin, and has firmly settled. She and Colin are expecting their first baby, a girl, and are the proud owners of Lulu, a Thai rescue dog rehomed through Leitrim Animal Welfare.

Links and References

Leitrim Animal Welfare (LAW) — local rescue charity that rehomed Lulu

Soi Dog Foundation, Thailand — where Lulu was cared for before coming to Ireland

Niall Harbison — Irish man running a dog rescue facility in Thailand

Lough Key Forest Park, Co. Roscommon — venue for the hot air balloon championships

Boyle Celtic FC and Boyle GAA Club — both praised for recent facility developments

Republic of Ireland Bodybuilding Federation (RIBBF) — Colin’s competition body

Results Gym, Boyle — where much of the training took place