Update 25th May

Boyle’s Mercy Nuns

 The locked small gate at Abbeytown Bridge which has now closed the ‘short cut’ access across the convent grounds to the Carrick Road and also the block wall closing access from the church car park is a loud statement as to the end of the era of the Mercy Nuns in the town. It seems unfair that the remaining four nuns, who were in Boyle at the time of the closure, and long associated with the community have been transferred to other towns. While it is understandable that they would vacate the large complex as it was in terms of upkeep and so on, one would have thought it would have been possible and fair to have accommodated them in a smaller residence and let them remain in Boyle, if they so wished. But then what do I know about the workings of such organisations. I doubt that I would be alone in that way of thinking. 

English Soccer Season Ends…..What will we do for two months?

Last week-end was the end of the English Premier League and the last ‘Match of the Day’ for a couple of months. English soccer has many vices such as the obscene wages and money in general swilling around due to television revenue, swollen egos, playing practises, players agents, feigned allegiance et al.

Still it is a roller coaster of a television series from August to May i.e. ten months for a lot of people. I know very well that it is to a certain group of people what EastEnders is to another group of people! The cast of characters is immense and as varied as you can get. There are three sets, players, managers and ‘supporters’. Of the three the managers are probably the most interesting. Think of the range of personalities here. Chelsea, Conte, Italian; Spurs, Roberto Pochettino, Argentine; Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, Spain; Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp, German; Mourinho, Manchester Utd. Portuguese; Arsene Wenger of Arsenal, French; Kooman, Everton, Dutch; Slaven Bilic, Croatia; Shakespeare, Leicester City at the top and Sam Allardyce who has been in charge of Crystal Palace (just resigned), Sunderland, West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League, briefly England and if my memory is right Limerick!

You may be aware of this type of question, which three of those would have to a social lunch in The Craoibhin? You would be spoiled for choice.

Now that it is over for this season the addicts will have to improvise with scraps from Gaelic hurling, rugby,  tennis, golf and so on for two full months since this year there is no European or World Cup. There is one feast left though and that is the European Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Juventus on Saturday, 3 June, 19:45 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Last night’s boring Europa Cup Final between Manchester Utd. and the youth team of Ajax which Utd. won hardly deserves mention though the over-celebrating of a few, in the circumstances of the tragedy in Manchester, like Podga was thoughtless. I was surprised that the celebrations were not more subdued.

Manchester Bomb

The horror of the bombing of innocent civilians going about their ordinary lives now seems as if it is to be part of our world. One could list quite a few cities in which this cruel and indiscriminate act has been perpetrated. Maybe the word ‘indiscriminate’ is used incorrectly as to the  perpetrators it is not so. New York, Oklahoma, London, Paris, Brussels, Dublin in the early 70s’ many places in Northern Ireland, Birmingham, Puckett and now Manchester. While we rightly are shocked by these atrocities we Irish have been responsible for more than our share of similar atrocities through the last 150 years. The Fenians in the 1860s’ had a bombing campaign in the U. K. then and replicated this with another during the Second world War. During the Northern Ireland Troubles this was brought to new levels with  bombs in London, Birmingham, Brighton, Warrington in ‘93 and Manchester in ’96. So while those bombings were certainly not done in our names, as a nationality we have them on our record. The supposed logic with these is that they are an answer or riposte for the actions of these powerful nations in the countries of origins of the bombers. A whole swathe of the Middle East lies mired in war and destruction such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and the legacy of all that seems as if it will be a universal multi-pronged problem for a long time to come.

The Sun Returns

The variations in weather recently has led to a burst in growth in nature. One of the very visible species of which there is a profusion of growth just now is the whitethorn tree/bush. This is referred to in the fine poetry of Eavan Boland

White Hawthorn in the West of Ireland by Eavan Boland

I drove West

in the season between seasons.

I left behind suburban gardens.

Lawnmowers.  Small talk.

Under low skies, past splashes of coltsfoot,

I assumed

the hard shyness of Atlantic light

and the superstitious aura of hawthorn.

All I wanted then was to fill my arms with

sharp flowers,

to seem from a distance, to be part of

that ivory, downhill rush.  But I knew,

I had always known,

the custom was

not to touch hawthorn.

Not to bring it indoors for the sake of

the luck

such constraint would forfeit–

a child might die, perhaps, or an unexplained

fever speckle heifers.  So I left it

stirring on those hills

with a fluency

only water has.  And, like water, able

to redefine land.  And free to seem to be–

for anglers,

and for travellers astray in

the unmarked lights of a May dusk–

the only language spoken in those parts

Eavan Boland is a primary Irish poet and a regular on Leaving Certificate courses. There is a good deal of old superstition associated with the Whitethorn and as I am not a propagator of superstition I will not go into it much here. Senior people will have heard a deal of that lore as youngsters when the lone, lonesome whitethorn bush in the middle of a field or ring fort was treated with caution. 

Speaking of the burst in growth in nature in the last few weeks and the whitethorn just reminds me of my own limitations in being able to name basic elements of nature apart from the obvious. This extends across the range of flowers, tree identification and wild birds though I am trying a little harder. Our green here in Forest View has now what is like a crop of ‘buttercups’ I hazard to guess. While along the roadsides there are those tall white flower plants akin to the whitethorn which may be called ‘cows parsley’.  I’ll use an old phrase I used use regularly in another life ‘could do better’! P.S. No corncrake this season. Sorry Sean, Vancouver. I’ll have to go to Boffin. 

A Small Coincidence

We all have encountered coincidences in our lives some significant others not so much. How often have you heard ‘now that’s a coincidence’? I looked up the definition which is hardly necessary but it went;  ‘an occasion when two or more similar things happen at the same time, especially in a way that is unlikely and surprising’.

Currently I am engaged in a Boyle GAA History project which entails the collection of collecting pictures of Boyle teams and having them framed for display in the Abbey Park GAA Complex. This is being done by Tony Murphy in Visionary on The Crescent Boyle. I had the first completed one at home last week.

A friend visited and started talking of a John B. Tivnan who had died last March in Birmingham and of the fact that a work colleague had his funeral mass booklet since it had a reference to the song ‘Boyle in the County Roscommon’ and that he was Gaelic footballer. This was sent home by a Birmingham neighbour of the Tivnan family. The friend wondered if I had ever heard of John B. I responded by picking up the frame of pictures and pointing to two of the ten team pictures in the frame from the late forties with John B. Tivnan very present.

(I am sure that many people have their coincidence stories. If some wish to forward them for publication consideration to here I’d be pleased to see them).

The Rebels Rising, Cork v Tipperary

What a cracking game of hurling was the Cork v Tipperary game last Sunday. Hurling is just a great game and it is possibly the game which will be the mainstay of the GAA decades hence as the game of Gaelic football declines. I mentioned here before that it is regret of mine, since I come from the suburbs of Athleague, that I did not try and promote hurling in Boyle/North Roscommon back in the day.

I tried to watch Monaghan v Fermanagh and Donegal v Antrim in football but they were non-events. I also attended a Boyle v Castlerea Intermediate League game on Sunday but didn’t do a lot for me either.

Anyway that was not the case of Cork v Tipperary. Plenty of great scores, top sportsmanship, a win for the big underdog, the awakening perhaps of an old giant of the game, the opening up of the possibilities for the hurling championship where there are now a number of real contenders and so on. It will be a hurling summer looks like.

This week-end Leitrim take on London in Ruislip and Boyle Juniors play Fuerty. I see that game as down for Oran for some reason.

Best Wishes To

Brendan McQuaid and Triona Mullaney Dignam who got married last week-end.

Brendan played on many under-age teams I was involved with and I know Triona from a work association. 

So every good wish to you both.      

Donald Trump Abroad

It is interesting, if one had the time on these sunny evenings- the bog and all that- to follow the itinerary of the President of the United States, Donald Trump in these days. In Saudi Arabia a country that raises mixed reactions he was on hand to sign a multi-billion arms deal. There are parts of the world, usually those regions riven with conflict, which are awash with arms as the capitalist west ‘trade’ with whoever irrespective of consequences. I presume it will ever be so.

I remember learning some history for the leaving certificate and dealing with Peter the Great and the rise of Prussia and its militaristic outlook being a bedrock of its society. The military ethos has been similarly a major part of the ethos of say the United States and the U.K.

In innocent days we listened to the songs of Dylan and one by his acolyte Donovan. 

"Universal Soldier" by Donovan.

He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,

He fights with missiles and with spears.

He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,

Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,

A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.

And he knows he shouldn't kill,

And he knows he always will,

Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

And he's fighting for Canada,

He's fighting for France,

He's fighting for the USA,

And he's fighting for the Russians,

And he's fighting for Japan,

And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

And he's fighting for Democracy,

He's fighting for the Reds,

He says it's for the peace of all.

He's the one who must decide,

Who's to live and who's to die,

And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,

How would Hitler have condemned them at Dachau?

Without him Caesar would have stood alone,

He's the one who gives his body

As a weapon of the war,

And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,

His orders come from far away no more,

They come from here and there and you and me,

And brothers can't you see,

This is not the way we put the end to war.    

Things I might have mentioned but did not get around to or have not the competence to review.

1.    The acquittal of Sean Fitzpatrick former Bank Tsar and his investigators (!)in The Office of the Director Corporate Enforcement (ODCE). 2. The remerging news about the collapse of Setanta Insurance in 2014. 3. The Coveney v Varadkar contest which will change all our lives! 3. Clare Daly’s emotive overview of the Manchester bombing in the Dail. 4. Homelessness,

aas always.Slán.     

   

  

        

Update 18th May

Boyle in Times Past a Bi-Weekly Feature.

In my last post here I began a survey of old Boyle from early to mid-decades of the 1900s’. This is for the most part with the help of Frank Tarpey and the initial work of Paraic Beisty now domiciled in the United States. I am, of course, very open to additional material or corrections. If it runs its course it will take quite a while to cover all the streets and residential areas! Then it is out into the adjacent townlands as used in station areas perhaps! Next time The Crescent.

Elphin Street East Side.

•• Pub. James Lindsay called Joss also grocer. James Keaney from Ballyfarnon. Paddy Hever a connection of Mr. Keaney. A venue for traditional music. Now the Craoibhin Bar and Restaurant owned by Gerry and Phil Emmett.

 •  Miss Neary then Leyland’s. John Cahill family grocer, wine, spirit, and provision merchant. John Cahill’s pub and grocery. Tarpey’s, Teresa Tarpey and then Frank until recent years where he also operated a Travel Agency. Now Toni’s Fast Food.

3• Mrs. Mac Namara and sister Martha Moran. Also a resident a man referred to as ‘flyer’ Convey. There was a Convey in Ballymore.

4• Edward C. McGee and family for a time before moving onto upper Bridge St. on The Crescent where Little Chick with Mary Cretaro is. Edward was father of Richard and  grandfather of Brendan McGee of Taylors jewellery. There was also a son Jim McGee who became well known as the Director of Music in the Army School of Music and with the No. 4 Army band based at Athlone. Edward and his wife were both music teachers and had small paper and confectionary shop. They were both church organists and got Papal honours for their contribution there.    

•• Jim Sheerin brother of Old I.R.A. man Pakie Sheerin. Jim had been in the U.S. and his wife was from the U.S. and they had two children Jack and Maureen.

Miss Conroy a room for book-keeping, typewriting and short-hand school. Winnie Gallagher married to Tommy Dodd. Also Cormac Gallagher a member of the fire brigade. Premises still connected to the Gallagher family.

Next Mrs. Nangle a widow later John William and Mrs. Sheeran and two daughters Margaret and Maura. A guest house.  

•• Miss McCormack a teacher, had been in France. A member of a well-known family. Charlie McCormack worked in the Roscommon Herald and two brothers worked in John Lowes. Charlie Jnr. Also worked in the Herald. Then Ryans. Afterwards the premises was with Gillespie’s, a lorry driver then John Leonard Accountancy.

•• Charlie Killalea from Corringeenoe married to Elizabeth Smith. Theresa Killalea married Owen Boylan. Owen, from Monaghan, came to Boyle as a lorry driver during the ‘Lime Campaign’ of the early fifties. Later Owen became a fuel merchant.

•• Miss Connaughton kept lodgers. Then Sgt. Lynagh on retirement father of Declan who was very involved with the tennis club.

•• John McKenna from Monaghan wife from Leitrim. John Joe McKenna a school and general passenger transport company and taxi service with Adrian currently.

10.                       Tim Brennan carpenter son Gerry.

11.                       John Callaghan and then Callaghan’s two sisters. Alice known as ‘the dazzler’ and Maud Tuite. In an Oblique View of November 2015 I wrote of them as follows:

Maud Tuite and Alice Callaghan had a bar on Elphin Street until 1978 when it was bought by Matt and Kay Smith and became the Hideaway. The Smiths gave it that name as Matt had worked in the Hideaway Bar in Rathmines, Dublin for a number of years before coming to Boyle.

Anyway Maud and Alice Callaghan ran a popular rendezvous there for decades. They were of old Boyle stock. Maud was married to a man called Tuite and they had a son Jack and a daughter known as Babs, perhaps an abbreviation of Barbara, who married a gentleman called Bill Carlos a vocational teacher who went to live in Dublin. The son Jack was involved in the racing business and there is a legend that Lester Piggott once visited the family home in Elphin Street though my ‘go-to-man’ on 'Old Boyle', Frank Tarpey, has not heard of that which puts it very much into question. Maybe I could print the legend.

The sisters ran the pub their way of course, as all publicans do, and it had a social division akin to Public Bar and Lounge Bar. The Lounge was the backroom kitchen where a particular ‘elite’ group would come together as in a club. In that back room was a fine table and a beautiful twin-oven range which was a memorable centre piece and is always referred to by those who called there. [As an aside I remember the ‘pot-bellied stove’ in the early seventies that was in Aggie Devine Conlon’s which is now ‘The Patrick’s Well’. Of course Kate Lavin’s has its lovely range and indeed is such a unique old-style bar that it is of particular significance generally]. 

Alice, the figure-head of the establishment- was referred to by those who remember her as ‘the dazzler’ perhaps because she herself would describe some special people as ‘mickey dazzlers’. Also a bit like Cockney rhyming slang she would refer to a person as a Basil Jarvis, Jarvis being a famous horse trainer in her time.

Alice is described as ‘humorous, thrifty and smart’. The area from what is now the entrance from Supervalu down to Londis was a market area and from time to time the people from the country would bring carts of turf for to sell there. Alice would query a seller about the quality of the turf suggesting that she had bought turf previously that turned out to be of very poor quality and so asked for a sample bag of the product. This she repeated apparently and thus reduced her fuel bill! She is remembered as wearing a black bib and as a smoker of Woodbine cigarettes, "without the sock" as she called it when removing the filter tip of the small cigarette.

Maud died in February 1978 and Alice then went to live with her niece Bab in Dublin.

*If anyone has a picture including these memorable Boyle ladies I would be interested in that.

12. The Railway Bar. Joe O’ Dowd ‘grocer, spirit dealer, and commercial traveller with a pony and trap as his mode of transport.  Frank and Beatrice Dowd, a nurse (?). Inherited by Tommy O’Dowd who worked in Lowes. Son Gerry a county goalkeeper in the seventies. Daughter Liz ran the business in the 90s’ where it was a fine traditional music venue.

13. ‘Beechlawn’ a house set back from main street. Owned by the Johnstones of The Irish House on Main St. They were in religion ‘Plymouth Brethern’ practitioners. Army officers there during ‘The Emergency’ of the 40s’. Then the Travers family. Mary was a prominent reporter with The Roscommon Herald and a community activist in politics and camogie.

14. Roes’ Garage. Purpose built as a garage and later extended. Willie Roe came from Mullingar prior to the 20s’ and started  with a bicycle shop in ‘The Shambles’ market yard. Moved to where Wynne’s Bar is now and had a repair facility opposite The Royal Hotel for a time and then to where Country Meats is now on Main Street and had petrol pumps and bicycle shop there. This premises was sold on to Fred Perry and became one of the earliest self-service supermarkets in the country. Later became the Main Ford dealers in the region signing up with Ford’s in 1919 based in Elphin St. Three sons, Alfie (father of Billy), Bobby (father of Clive) and Edsel (Henry Ford had a son called Edsel) and three daughters Muriel, Vivien and Doris. Edsel-Eddie as he was generally known-was a bank manager in Lismore, Co. Waterford. 

Amongst those who worked at Roes were Michael Sheerin, St. Patrick’s Street; Paddy Flannery, Brendan Coleman, John and Paddy Dwyer, Con Tansey, Liam McDermott with Jim Sheerin, Sales and Miss Campbell and Miss Lavin office.  In more recent times, October 31^st 1999, the premises was acquired by Dessie McLoughlin and is now home to Trojan Computer  Company and other educational initiatives. 

End of Boyle Celtic’s Roller Coaster Season

But… Looking Forward to the next One

Boyle Celtic went down to Carbury in a Sligo Leitrim League decider at Celtic Park on Sunday and though they drew the game 2 all it was not enough as they needed to win to continue into the last three games, which they also needed to win, to retain the title. So it was so close to a huge year for the side as they were defeated by Evergreen Utd. Kilkenny in the FAI Jnr. Cup semi-final in The Showgrounds on penalties after extra time. They then lost I to nil in Killarney in the Snr. Cup preliminary round. On Sunday May the 8^th the lost to West Utd. in the Connacht Cup semi-final by 3 to 2 in extra time after leading in normal time by 2 to 0 with less than ten minutes to go. While all this has been very, very, disappointing it was still a great season for a fine footballing side. Ironically, perhaps they played too much ‘good’ football. They were constant contenders in all the competitions and while a trip to Aviva would have been memorable the lead up to the semi-final in the Showgrounds and the atmosphere at that game was certainly memorable with the biggest Boyle sporting following ever.

Their year has been laced with great performances and especially great goals.

Perhaps they were caught out in the end by the number of games that they were required to play and the limitations of the panel’s strength in depth. Interestingly the captain of the winning Carbury team in his League Cup acceptance speech last Sunday was very generous in his assessment of the quality of the young Boyle team and their potential for the forthcoming years. Three members of the team Niall Brennan, Danny Browne and Michael Corrigan are trialling for a national team at this time. While there were a number of others such as Purcell, Connolly and Carlos right up there not forgetting the dead ball artistry of McDermotroe.

The challenge for the club now is to do a SWOT analysis with the team and management and seek to build on what was achieved this year to ensure them being contenders again next year. Sherriff of Dublin recently won their fourth title in six years so quality counts, it’s not always luck. And Boyle have a substantial quality base right now.  

When the disappointments of the last few weeks dissolve the onset of the new season, with all its possibilities, must inject a steely determination to do even better. This will require a discipline, dedication and determination from the pre-season even greater than in the season past. I imagine many of the loyal core supporters and the new supporters who came on board this season will be looking forward to next year. The hope is that the team panel shares that vision.

I conclude by saying that, while there were huge disappointments, there were several great moments and results in a sense all beginning in Ballina on January 15th and onto Carrick-on-Suir and Sligo. We will remember those and look forward to similar ones being repeated through next season. Who dares wins.

The Cuckoo

I know that a number of people ‘tune into’ the odd seasonal poem that I include here so on hearing the cuckoo over the last few days it brought back to mind the great long ago schoolboy poem by Wordsworth.

To the Cuckoo by William Wordsworth

O blithe newcomer! I have heard,

I hear thee and rejoice:

O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,

Or but a wandering Voice?

While I am lying on the grass

Thy twofold shout I hear;

From hill to hill it seems to pass,

At once far off and near.

Though babbling only to the vale

Of sunshine and of flowers,

Thou bringest unto me a tale

Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!

Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my schoolboy days

I listened to; that Cry

Which made me look a thousand ways

In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove

Through woods and on the green;

And thou wert still a hope, a love;

Still longed for, never seen!

And I can listen to thee yet;

Can lie upon the plain

And listen, till I do beget

That golden time again.

O blessed birth! the earth we pace

Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, fairy place,

That is fit home for Thee!

"The cuckoo comes in April. She sings her song in May. In the middle of June she changes her tune and in July she flies away,"!!  

The cuckoo or a breed of cuckoo barges into the nests of other birds and takes over

mimicking the eggs of the displaced bird or dumping the existing eggs. A naughty lazy bird! 

Update 5th May

Boyle GAA Picture Gallery. (Repeat)   

Since the opening of the new GAA complex at the Abbey Park in 2010 it has been anticipated that Boyle GAA Club would display its past long history with a permanent exhibition of pictures spanning the decades. Thankfully there is a good selection of pictures to choose from and it is proposed that groups of these will be framed covering various themes.

The complex is ideal for this display project with generous and accessible wall space, which I know was in the mind of architect Chris O’Dowd from his initial design planning.

We would appreciate expressions of interest in terms of people sponsoring an individual frame where the sponsor would be credited. It is expected that at least ten frames will form the initial exhibition with an incremental growth from there.

*Of course if the interest is not there and the fairly small finance is not forthcoming the project will not happen. You can contact me at 086 816 3399 for further information.  

GAA Senior Championship

Boyle begin their senior championship quest on Sunday next with a game against Western Gaels at Strokestown at 2. Boyle have been playing in the O’Gara Cup and apart from a hot up and down game against Michael Glavey’s in Ballinlough they have been pretty comfortable for the most part in the other games. Sunday next is a big step up however and Western Gaels have a number of established name players. They have been spoken of as possible contenders for the championship for a number of years now but time is running out with this present good squad. While Boyle have a number of top players their strength in depth may be more limited. Boyle will be relying on the usual suspects on Sunday and will need things to go well for them to emerge winners. They got to the semi-final last year, which was the best effort on record, so hope springs eternal.

Boyle Celtic

Boyle Celtic had a disappointing result in Killarney. Any time a team loses by 1 goal to nil usually means that the nil team could have at least drawn or perhaps won. Boyle did not play well in the first half and Killarney with a wind advantage pressed hard and got the goal which ultimately decided the fixture. Boyle upped their game in the second half and had a number of more than half chances but the Killarney keeper had to make just one top save. The very unlucky dismissal of the Boyle striker with 20 minutes remaining eliminated a main threat in that period with the wind and the possibility of the game being played more in the Killarney half and box.

So it was disappointing and now the side feature on Sunday in a competition they would really like to win, the Connacht Junior Cup away in Galway against West Utd. 

Champions League on the box. The majesty of Ronaldo.

The two semi-finals of the European Champions League did not present the hoped for fireworks. On Tuesday night Real Madrid disposed of city rivals Atletico by 3 to 0. It was more a case of Ronaldo v Atletico as the great Portuguese player once again demonstrated his genius with a sublime hat-trick just as he had done in the quarter final against Bayern Munich. As was commented by the analysts it is something to follow, if one does, the performances of Ronaldo and Messi week in week out. While there have been many great soccer players down the decades from Puskas and di Stephano through Best, Pele, Eusebio and Johann Cruff but it seems as if the present duo are in a league of their own and the pendulum swings from performance to performance as to who is the greater. It is just opinion of course but their consistency as a duo suggests that they are the greatest players who ever played the game.

Tattoos a life sentence!

Perhaps we all have our taboos, some of little consequence but a tad irritating and others which really get under our skins. Amongst my list are tattoos. It seems as if it is a plague with soccer players to a greater extent than most other groups of people. Once it was just Popeye the Sailor Man perhaps influencing sailors as a group. Then it was hardy Brits abroad in Spanish resorts. Then it took off in soccer endorsed by David Beckham perhaps but now it is almost the norm with soccer players. I would not know if these are reversible but if they are not I wonder how many of those players will feel decades hence. It is very rare to see tattoos in rugby, golf, racing or hurling. Beards are actually banned for jockeys which was traditionally a decent quiz question. The body art has made its way to the Gaelic football scene with Paul Galvin being the player I first saw indulging. In MMA (Mixed Martial Arts which I find objectionable) the poster boy is Conor McGregor.

While I imagine some ‘ladies’ also like tattoos the high profile lady who I am aware of with tattoos is Sinead O’Connor. A ‘fad’ can excite short term obsessive behaviour but tattoos could be an embarrassment for life.  

Sunny Bog Days

The sun comes out in early May and for a certain coterie of us it is off to the front that is ‘the bog’ or the costa del bog. If on hearing that the turf has been cut for a week or more one’s demeanour changes and bogitis (if you forgive the invention) infects the consciousness. One has to visit the scene to ascertain the status and precise location of the said turf. The bog road becomes a freeway with dust rising as in a desert convoy. Some footings begun by a nearby tenant raises questions as to one’s own status in the project.

I have been involved in this process for decades with significant intervals as the bog in London was an entirely different element.

Anyway it is just the beginning of the current bog campaign. In my native place, Fuerty, I was just on the edge of the ‘beet campaign’ catchment area. The beet was being grown for one of the four sugar beet factories then in Ireland i.e. Tuam. It used to be a school rhyme; “Master Conboy, name the four sugar beet towns of Ireland”. “Carlow, Mallow, Thurles and Tuam, sir”.

Later this process would expand and emigrate to the cotton towns of Lancashire; ‘Manchester, Oldham, Bolton, Bury, Burnley, Rochdale and ?’  or the woollen towns of Yorkshire ‘Leeds, Bradford, Halifax…’

In our area we cut the turf in our own bogs, barrow the sods out from the bank to the drying ground and after a certain time and with the weather being favourable we would turn or scatter the sods to enable further drying. This might extend to a second scatter. Then if the turf had reached a certain texture, I’ll call it, it would be collected into rough footings. In this part of the country scattering is often discarded and the savers go straight to the footings and very geometrical ones are favoured. After the footings process it was regularly clamped. This was a time-consuming procedure especially required if the turf was to be left for some time on the bog.

Then it was the drawing home time with crated carts if the run into the bog tolerated the weight or a half load out to the ditch by the roadside for topping up the next half load. The bog road was a busy place during this process but as the saying in Tipperary went the turf home the hay saved and Cork bet cleared the way for a satisfying Autumn.

So if the current heatwave continues for say another week that road into Tonroe will be a busy one indeed.

The deaths of two great GAA supporters, Donie Shine and Pat Dennehy

Two very different GAA people passed away over the weekend, Donie Shine of Clann na nGael and Pat Dennehy of St. Brigid’s. Both have been lifelong pillars of their respective clubs. Donie was a significant club player with Clann na Gael where he won 7 county senior championships and then managed his club to 5 All-Ireland Club finals which they lost. The club won 8 county titles in a row and 6 Connacht titles also in a row. This record is unlikely to be repeated. Donie went on to manage the county team from ’94 to ’97 and was replaced with the usual     

lack of tact. He later became an analyst on Shannonside Radio games with Willie Hegarty and is remembered for his regular referencing of referees. I knew Donie for decades through GAA activity but those who were close to him and joined him at social outings have been speaking of the great companion that he was with a huge knowledge of people, places and sport.

Pat Dennehy was more the old style club man. He was on the St. Brigid’s executive for over 50 years and was particularly associated with Scor. A brother of the former Secretary of the County Board Frank he was a highly respected quiet-spoken man. May they rest in peace.         

Realboyle T.V. Guide Tadgh

I tune into my friend Tadgh’s T.V. review last week and the following caught my eye;  

“Fair City

Paul asked Niamh to get Information about Marcus and work undercover

She obviously misheard him and worked under the covers”

Boyle Men on TV.

Two Boyle men were prominent on TV earlier this week.

Monday’s ‘Reeling in the Years’ dealt with 2006 which included the 90^th Anniversary of the 1916 Rising and the Irish Army parade and salute at The General Post office (GPO). Reading the Proclamation  loud and clear was army officer Tom Ryan from Main Street.

A half hour later on Channel 4 programme called Travel Man: 48 Hours in Vienna IT star Richard Ayoade was joined by his colleague from the IT Crowd Chris O’Dowd.

There were probably others but I just happened on Tom and Chris.

Joan Burton in the Dock

It is often the case that a person enters court as the litigant to quickly find out that they are being treated as the defendant. Such seems to be the situation in the current case of former minister Joan Burton and the Tallaght 7.

The detention of Joan Burton in her car at Tallaght for 3 hours and the current trial of 7 defendants, seeking their place in history as The Tallaght 7, is a peculiar show. Joan has now been in the witness box for 3 to 4 days to go with the original 3 hours. It was reported that she was cross-examined by 7 senior barristers one for each of the defendants. So Miss Burton was abused by a crowd including the 7 in this case but she did not run a tape -during the traumatic episode- as to how it would all play out in court. Not good forward planning there! There were plenty of police present in Tallaght but they did not want, I presume, to make real heroes/victims of the 7 by being overly aggressive. I wonder who is paying for all the lawyers and how it will all pan out.  

Saudi Arabia and Women

It would raise a few eyebrows or eye lashes to see that Saudi Arabia has become a member of a U.N. Committee to do with The Status of Women. Ireland are hiding behind a tradition that it does not disclose how it votes on those issues though Belgium admitted, with embarrassment, that it had voted for Saudi Arabia. The tone of the present debate suggests that Ireland did likewise. The Minister, Charlie Flanagan, an able person generally, is in a pickle here as to admit that Ireland too voted for Saudi (possibly in a trade, trade off) would  raise a wasps next nest of recrimination which might upset the Saudis’ whose ambassador issued a statement this evening of which I copy some of the opening line to here;

 “In a response issued this evening, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia here in Dublin said that their candidacy came from the Kingdom’s “leading role” in strengthening the role of women worldwide”.   

So what’s all the fuss about!