The Sodality Film


The great reward of joining the children’s sodality, (St Patrick’s Temperance Sodality), was the annual free film.

To other children, who went to the cinema frequently, it may not have been so great a thing, but we seldom went, so it was a wonderful experience.

Every year, the owners of the Bohemian Cinema hosted a free show for Sodality members.

To join the Sodality, you had to be seven and to have made your First Holy Communion. I was six; but sodality members were allowed to bring along a younger sibling, so long as they were old enough to behave in the cinema.

This year, I was allowed go with Roger and Jerry.

However, Roger got the date wrong.

First, we went to the school, where Roger said the film-goers were to assemble. There was no one there. We waited for a good while, but no one showed up.

Roger said that maybe he got it wrong, that they would assemble outside the cinema.

We went down to the cinema; there was no one there. We waited.

We waited and we waited and we waited.

We played hop-scotch on the steps, and we waited.

Eventually, people started queuing for the evening show. A man came out of the cinema and told us to go home.

We wouldn’t go. Roger and Jerry explained to him that we were there for the free film. They said we were entitled to the free film as members of the Sodality. The man went in and came out with another man.

They brought us into the cinema and put us in the front row, the four-penny seats.

We waited for the films to start. We waited and we waited.

Eventually the films started. Then there was a furore in the cinema. A man, accompanied by a woman, came down, flashing his torch-light at everyone.

Finally, they came to our row, and the woman said, “Yes, that’s them.” It was our mother.
We were taken out by the ear and brought home.


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