Great uncle Martin's watch.

When my dad was clearing out his aunt Cassie's house in Co.Mayo, very close to the shore of Blacksod Bay, he found this watch. It had a leather bootlace tied to it. It used to hang from my great uncle Martin Broderick's belt. He lived with his sister Cassie and used to get savagely shouted at by her for coming in late for his dinner(lunch) when he was working in the fields. She gave him this beautiful watch which must have belonged to my grandmother Helen, who was a sister to Cassie and Martin. It's hard to imagine a precious item like this belonging to a fairly ordinary peasant farming and fishing family. I like silver but I think this piece is continental. It has two lions rampant on it. My dad gave it to my wife as he said it was never meant to be a man's watch, and such a beautiful thing should be used by a beautiful woman . Smoothie! She was very proud of it and took it to work to show to her co-workers. When she came home from work, she put the washer on. Yep. You've guessed it. It had the 40 degree wash and didn't like it one bit. All that rough former existence, carried by my uncle from his belt. Ploughing, spreading manure, taking his boat out fishing digging turf and this is how it ends up. It now resides in my box of treasures. Including my one armed General Lee, from 1906, and my solid Irish silver dessert fork and all the bits and bobs that I have managed to hide. There was a marvelous T.V. play with Thora Hird and Pete Postlethwaite, God rest them. She called her treasures, her beauties. They consisted of several injured porcelain figures, patched with sellotape and glue. I know the feeling.
Adios.