 |
| Click on photo to view a larger version |
Picture Names
The 1975 Boyle U16 County finalists with Seamus Sweeney
current Chairman of Roscommon County Board GAA.
Back Row: A. Morris/T. Regan/ SEAMUS SWEENEY/ P.
Connaughton/ C. McMurrough/ D. Harrington/ J. Cox/R. McLoughlin/ J. Gallagher/
P. Butler/ M. Candon/ A. O’Dowd/ K. Lavin/ F. Harrington/ M. Quinn/ T. Conboy
Coach with James Dodd, missing from pic.
Front: G. Murray/ G. Hannon/ J. McDermott/ D. O’Connor/ D.
Dodd/ P. Daly/ S. Brennan/ B. Shannon/ B. Gaffney/ M.Martin/ G.Wynne/ S. Daly/
Players missing from this pic. Joe Warde/ Ml. Jordan/ R. Mullarkey.
Pleasure Ground The Play
A fine crowd attended the Fregoli production of Jarlath
Tivnan’s play ‘Pleasure Grounds’ directed by Jarlath’s cousin Maria Tivnan on
Saturday night last in St. Joseph’s Hall. The play dealt with the hugely
serious issue of suicide. The reaction has been very positive. Understandably
Jarlath and Maria were a little wary of how the play would be received in their
home town. But the people came and saw an excellent production and performances
and left with a good deal to reflect on. It is a huge achievement for Jarlath
to write such an accomplished work at first asking. The nuanced script, swaying
as it does from light humour to deep despair has been much commented on and the
play’s quality is attracting broad attention in a variety of areas.
‘Pleasure Ground’ will tour again in May next year to
Letterkenny, Tralee, Longford and return for further performances in Galway
Town Hall where it was first staged some months ago. From the reaction it has
been getting in Dublin and elsewhere the possibilities for the play should not
end there. This cast has been together for a number of years now graduating
from NUIG Drama Soc. so there is a great bond between them and this is evident
in their empathy on stage. So many congratulations to Jarlath, Maria and to the
other cast members and we will watch with interest to see the future course of
this fine work.
Brooklyn the Movie
A number of people will have seen the film Brooklyn by now
and have been mesmerised by the performance of Saoirse Ronan in the lead role.
However there is a strong Boyle/Ballinameen (being fair!) connection to
the film which some Boyle viewers might miss. That connection is musician John
Carty who provides much of the traditional musical background to the film. John
has a huge national and international reputation as one the top Irish
traditional musicians of today. He was delighted to get the call to be part of
the film of Colm Tóibín’s novel. Saoirse Ronan has been nominated in the best
actress category at the London Film Awards and the possibility is that she will
be nominated for an Oscar as ‘Leading Actress’. That would elevate the film and
all associated with it, including John, to another level.
So Boyle can add another person to the growing list of
people who have been involved in movies from Maureen O’Sullivan, Chris O’Dowd,
Paul Young. There are others too such as Paraic Callaghan who, if I remember
correctly, featured in a film called Vikings starring Kirk Douglas in the late
sixties. ‘Vikings’ was shot in South Galway and along the Shannon river. Many
UCG students of the time took part and were bused out from the city to the
filming locations. It was a pretty hectic and memorable summer in the City of
the Tribes. I may be clutching at straws here but there was at least one local
person who participated in the excellent film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ with Tom
Hanks in the lead. I seem to remember Ian Cooney arriving in the Abbey Park a
little late for a St. Michael’s game. He was part of the FCA units who took
part in the film. If I am missing out on anyone please let me know. Of course a
lot of Boyle people can put their participation in the Moone Boy series on
their cvs’ now.
Mentioning films one has to feel to feel for the owners and
all associated with the Cineplex in Carrick –on-Shannon which has had to close
for nearly two weeks now at the height of their busy season due to the
floodwaters. It is said that the resultant costs will be in the region of
€50,000 to the company. The cinema in Carrick is a state of the art one and
within twenty minutes of us in Boyle. It provides a fine choice of the best of
the current movies on show as well as beaming high class musical events from
live shows in New York to the cinema screen. An example of this was when Chris
O‘Dowd and James Franco stared in the play adaption of John Steinbeck’s
‘Of Mice and Men’ on New York’s Broadway and it was beamed to Carrick Cinema
which a lot of Boyle people attended.
The most recent film I saw there was ‘Black Mass’ about the
notorious Boston Irish-American criminal Whitey Bolger. And this week they were
to screen a real blockbuster in ‘Star Wars’. I really hope that the Cineplex
gets back to business again and that it gets the support it deserves.
Congratulations to Seamus Sweeney
I wish to heartily congratulate Seamus Sweeney from Brislagh
now resident in Croghan on his elevation to the position of Chairman of
Roscommon County Board of the GAA. Seamus was student in St. Mary’s College in
the seventies and was on a fine Boyle U 16 team which lost in the County Final
of 1976 to Western Gaels. The star player then for Western Gaels then was
Michael Finneran from Balinagare. Michael was probably the most gifted natural
footballer, as a teenager, that I have seen. He played minor and senior
Connacht Championship games on the same day.
Anyway Seamus has done great work with the county
development squads and the fruits of this work is evident in the number of fine
young players in the county at this time. Seamus has been Vice-Chairman of the
County Board for the last five years with Micheal Fahey as Chairman. Seamus
showed that he reflected the majority view of the supporters when he, as
incoming Chairman, suggested to the then county senior coach, John Evans, that
it was time for a change.
The last Chairman from the Boyle Club was Micheal
O’Callaghan. Previous Chairmen have been: Micheal Fahey/ Michael McGuire/ Tommy
Kenoy/ Stephen Banahan/ Phonsie Tully/ Michael O’Callaghan/ Dr. Donal Keenan/
Dan O’Rourke/ Dr. Hugh Gibbons/ Dan O’Rourke. Taken all in all Seamus joins a pretty
formidable and distinguished grouping which includes two GAA Presidents in
O’Rourke and Keenan and a possible third in Micheal O’Callaghan but for
his early demise.
So congratulations to Seamus and we wish him the very best
in his endeavours. I know he will give it his best shot.
The Writer William Trevor
I mentioned recently the deaths of a number of Ireland’s
great writers McGahern, Heaney and Friel suggesting that while their loss would
be incalculable there were still many highly regarded living and active Irish
writers. Amongst them is William Trevor and the reason I refer to him here is
to mention his connections to this region. William Trevor’s father, grandfather
and great-grandfathers were all natives of Croghan. William Trevor is the ‘nom
de plume’ for William Trevor Cox, who was born in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork in
1928. His great grandfather was Mark Cox and he lived at Knockroe later moving
to the adjacent townland of Killappoge and a house called ‘Millbrook’.
The landlord family in the area then were the Lloyds. The fortunes of this
family in the C19 and C20th century are recalled in many of Trevor’s ‘big
house’ stories such as ‘The News from Ireland’. In early days many of the Cox
family went to school in Bishop Hodson Grammar School in Elphin. Bill, Trevor’s
father went to a business school in Dublin and started work with The Bank of
Ireland in 1913. The job meant numerous relocations and William Trevor Cox was
born in Mitchelstown in 1928. He attended boarding school in Dublin and graduat4ed
from Trinity College in 1950. He emigrated to England in 1954 and settled in
Devon. He made a reputation as a novelist, playwright and particularly as a
short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he
is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories
in the English language.
He has won the Whitbread Prize three times and has been
nominated five times for the Booker Prize, most recently for his novel ‘Love
and Summer’ (2009), which was also shortlisted for the International IMPAC
Dublin Literary Award in 2011. His name has also been mentioned in relation to
the Nobel Prize in Literature.
One of his early stories was ‘The Ballroom of Romance’ which
became a well- known Irish film starring Brenda Fricker, Mick Lally and John
Kavanagh. I became aware of William Trevor Cox’s link to the area around six
years ago and wrote to him and sent him a collections of items publicising the
area and he kindly responded with thanks. He was a friend of Kenneth Stewart of
Carrick Road, Boyle from his early days and maintained contact with Kenneth and
his wife Ingrid down the years.
Errata
Wren Boys Day Came Early
I felt it was a bit a time warp when I heard some singing at
the door a few nights ago. When I opened the door, there were three boys
singing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’. They were certainly getting off the
mark early. Maybe they are set to extend the St. Stephen’s Day franchise or
perhaps it was just a rehearsal!
‘Documentary on One’ at 2 on Saturdays
I meant to mention this last week. I tuned into the
‘Documentary on One’ on Saturday December 5th and listened to
an intriguing story with the title ‘The Case That never Was’. It involved the
story of a Polish labourer Bogdan who was supposedly the litigant in a European
Court case against the Cypriot Government by an international recruitment
company headed by an Irishman. It was dealing with levels of social insurance
payment or some such. It was pretty complicated but intriguing stuff. Referred
to the European Court of Justice, the outcome could change EU labour law for
millions of people. The only problem? The worker 'taking' the case knew nothing
about it.
Connacht Rugby Woes
The game of rugby continues in the spotlight regarding its
physicality and rate of attrition. Last week-end 18 Connacht players were
reported as being unavailable because of injury. Also I saw a reference to the
number of Kerry GAA players who were injured requiring serious medical
intervention. It is a long way from John Joe Nerney’s time. He said to me once
”All we ever got was a sore knee. We didn’t know anything about all those
hamstrings and things.”
Sport’s Withdrawal Symptoms
It is rarely ever mentioned but it many sports people,
especially those who have played at a high level, have issues when the time
comes for them to quit. I have been told of a Leitrim legend, in his senior
years, having tears in his eyes as he left the field of play after his last
club game. As I said I do not hear much if any discussion about this. Recently
I was in the company of the famous Galway hurling captain from their
All-Ireland win in 1980 when the topic did actually come up. He said that they
have formed an Association in Galway for former county players from all grades
and codes to act as a resource of camaraderie for such players. I thought it an
interesting topic and an interesting initiative.
No comments:
Post a Comment