Oliver: There was another item during the war, the 'plane crash
Benny : Ahh rioght
Oliver: accidently on port island, could you tell us about that?
Benny : Weeell, I remember that nioght well 18th March
Oliver: St Patrick's day night
Benny : Yea
Oliver: Uh 1942 or ....
Benny : ah '43 I remember there was a dance in Templeport hall an' everyone was at it o'course only me John hadn't gone to it or Terry.... they went to it later on to cope with it *
And then over this plane come .... you'd run out to see a plane at any time that time, they were new fangled and it went across the house an o'course they come runnin out when they heard it. It dissapeared up over that ol' back cage of a house an we're standin there an back it comes, an odious roar of it I said "Oh my God I there goin to bomb us out of it t'noight. An we stood down behind the one wall o' the house an it just tore across the house do ya know ! Headin for Corlough direction an BeJusus back it comes again an the roar of it. The pilot ya see had baled out whatever way he left the controls it was for to circle the plane anyway. It continued to circle and circle till it finally come down
Oliver: I suppose to give people enough time to get out of the way maybe?
Benny : Well P....
Oliver: You know!
Benny : Posssibly .... Them two men that baled out on Corlough mountain ... they were only lookin to themselves to get out o' it
Oliver: Yea
Benny : They didn't know, it took a fierce swing of a circle from Corlough way roun' this way and then every time it went the circle got smaller till finally it did come down at the island.
Oliver: A very unusual place, a little island off ....
Benny : St M ...
Oliver: with a couple o' reeds on it
Benny : Saint Mogue was born on it
Oliver: Yes
Benny : It come down on that island anyway
Oliver: Well it landed on the island? Or did it ...
Benny : It landed in the water Batches an ol' bushes. Now if you know that place well I used to see it , I wouldn't be able to study it up now. The big island was there ...
Oliver: And then there's the little island
Benny : Little green island, skawby type of an island with Sallys coverin it
Oliver: Aye, I know
Benny : It come down between the two o' them
Oliver: Aye
Benny : So I I got up on my bike that night I seen it . I seen it the night comin' down an' ah was sure to God it was here it'wd come down
Oliver: Yea .. Ah
Benny : About where yous are livin' and I sat down an' ***** they're bommin ... they're bombing the the Creamery. The night (**light) come down and seemingly as the plane was fallin' and then there was an explosion. ** the bomb had been dropped and then there was complete silence so I got on my bike an' John say to me "Terry wait 'till we're ready, don't go 'till we're ready" I couldn't wait. I tore out an' tore round the roads. I never seen a soul, there wasn't one to be seen. So I went on an' I went down the cutaway, around by Pa Largy's an' Port. And the gards was after comein' before that and meeting us at the Creamery and he told me if I found out to meet them up at Cafferty's Cross to tell them what I knew. So I tore on down to Smith's o' the cross. John got in with the Gards, he went in with Mullally's car an' I tore down by Smith's o' the cross on my bike an' then Terry comes down so I said to him "There mustn't a be a sign of a plane or a sinner here at all. You'd surly know it fell either here or Cor bog
Oliver: Yea
Benny : So. We went back an' we come to the rector's place. The Rector's commin' in the boat and he had Micheal McGovern with him, the Pimby
Oliver: That was Reverend Armstrong?
Benny : Aye ... Was it Armstrom or was it some other Rector?
Oliver: I think it was Armstrong
Benny : Aye. So, we asked him did they find out, they said "It fell out here beside the Island and then it come with (***petrol) and the water, so, I said" that was good enough, I'd go back to meet the Gards at Cafferty's an tell them". So, BeGorra anyway we went back an' met Tighe McTeigue and a crowd 'o them. T'was a dance in the hall, when they heard about it they all turned out ** toward the Laeger so anyway, *me that excited, an' me after being told where it fell that I couldn't tell any o' them where it fell, nor I' couldn't tell the Gards where it fell Ah was that excited and fearin' at the time, d'you know? Completely went out o' me head. So then ..... Mick come along an' Terry come along and went up to Patrick Donoghue's of Ray and we got th' oars an' the Cot and we went out to the island to see it. And Jusus I was that excited that I thought I'd seen some red letters on 'plane "Two hundred and fifty pound high explosives" Do ya' know
Oliver: Yea
Benny : But, Come back anyway an' the Gards out o' Ballyconnell *********** The place began gettin' fierce *throng* around these parts. To them one an who want to get out to see it or wondered about it an' all.
Oliver: Well you did eventually get out? Or did you get out as far as .... ?
Benny : We got out the next day to it I went out that night **and can't tell near Ballyconnell.-- With Wilcox Cot boat. Wilcox was told to give the oars out to nobody cause somebody could have been *interred in the **far deck or something.
Oliver: Yea
Benny : So I said to Gard Cassidy ***** "We should go out to see it" .. "So how'll we get out?" Says I " Wilcox has a Cot here boat" so I went up an' knocked on the window an' old Henry was in bed an' the woman there an' I asked him for the oars so he knew me voice, knew who I was an' he told me where they were. So we got them an' Gard Cassidy may..* . And someone else on the way out to the Island you see for himself. So then the next day then everyone was commin' down here, and Padrick Donoghue , he had a cot and some o' them went to him an' got the oars. I think he had the oars down in it an' soneone must have been out before. So we were mad to get out to it and Francie McKernian o' Killywilly, Killmorrity up here that got the oars I think an' Hugh Patrick Duffy
Oliver: Yea
Benny : So we were all anxious, Frank Findlay an' a crowd o' us to get out to ... "I'll bring you out when I get my time" he says. So, Move on as one would say, move on. "When I bring out anyone for a spin on *at " he say "I do the ordering" you know, if you knew he he's a horrid sarsacastic old frigger.
Oliver: Yea
Benny : So Terry came runnin' down then to get out, an' Francie told him he'll not get out with us. So Terry said after he was sorry he didn't let him go out in it and swim out an' take the oars o' the Cot from Ned McKernian from the island.
But our Sean kept **Phil from about it
Oliver: Was there much stuff taken off it? Like in the line of?
Benny : But damn all of any good. We got a site of them small little screws
Oliver: Yea
Benny : an' little nuts and let me tell you they were lovely made yokes
Oliver: Yea
Benny : Terry made a harness for the horse at the time, the straps o' the *bricks an'he bored them an' rivetted them on with...
Oliver: Yea
Benny : An' ... Then they went *biger, *bigger, *bigger Cannon something
Oliver: Ah
Benny : Ya know? John brought home a good lock o' them an' he had an old barrell of a .. and he used to put them in it. an old *kiddle barrel
Oliver: Yea, and fire them? ... try to fire them?
Benny : Aye, O' Jesus Christ
Oliver: Well I've seen bullets .... they'd be big machine gun bullets they'd be about .... from it , they were down at Dolan's here
Benny : Ah, well they were standard ones, there not ...
Oliver: Yea
Benny : But these was cannon
Oliver: Ah
Benny : that exploded when they hit the guy
Oliver: Oh yea
Benny : And they lit up the whole place so that the plane could see ..
Oliver: More like flares? Like phosphrus flares?
Benny : where the enemy was.
Oliver: Ah
Benny : I minded big bullets too, they were gone thriough the plane
Oliver: What about nine inches long?
Benny : Aye, they were fierce long,
Oliver: There was a big heavy cartidge case on them ? almost ...**
Benny : That's right, that's right.
Oliver: Well You'd have went down towards Enniskillen during the war?

NR:       This seems to be the end of the taped section about the 'plane crash.

NR - 01-05-04