Country Living with Francis Farragher

Money is a strange old business, and especially so for those who either have too little or too much of it, and for many of us who have worked all our lives, we’re somewhere in the middle . . . not on the poverty line but not likely to feature on any Forbes’ rich list.

It’s not a whinge or ‘a dreadful sorrow’ [to copy a line from a John Prine song] to admit that for those of us growing up in the late-60s and early-70s to note that money in general was quite scarce while pocket-money for children was almost unheard of.

Okay, here and there, the visit of aunties or uncles could be marked with the receiving of a two-shilling piece or a half-crown, although there was always a real danger of parental confiscation, on the basis that ‘they’d mind it for your again’. Alas, ‘again’ never seemed to arrive!

The major financial breakthrough in our young lives occurred with the arrival of the first real job, often preceded by holiday work-days with neighbours, maybe ‘putting out the turf’ or a day ‘pulling out the sheep’ at shearing time. [They always seemed to be powerful Galways, reluctant to have their legs pulled].

The first real job appeared for me with the Digital Equipment Corporation [DEC] and to this day I can remember opening the first weekly pay package with a gross figure of £26 and a take home return after tax of £19 and seven pence.

Relatively speaking it was wealth beyond belief leading to the purchase of such luxury items at the time of transistor radios, tape recorders, binoculars . . . with a healthy balance left over for socialising in such establishments as Twiggs, The  International, Trappers and the Oyster Bar. There was even the opulence of being able to stay in town – a rented house at 42 Pearse Avenue in Mervue, owned at the time by an auntie, whose rental charges were modest, to put it mildly.

My father used to philosophise about money when we listened to him as kids saying that while ‘money wasn’t everything, it could help you to enjoy your misery’, although to this day I still maintain that no matter what fortune you amass, it probably won’t keep you one day longer on this earth or make you one day younger.

Pictured: The world’s top sports earners: Lewis Hamilton, Lionel Messi, Patrick Mahomes, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Rory McIlroy, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Tyson Fury, Cristiano Ronaldo. ILLUSTRATION COMPLIMENTS OF FORBES.