Some Week-End Events
- The Boyle
Angling Community will be busy with their annual Fishing Festival on Lough
Key. With the promise of fine weather it should be helpful whether it
applies to the fish being cooperative I do not know. I missed the Angling
Club from their regular participation of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Perhaps they passed on this year to give others a winning chance!
- Boyle Seniors
play Clann na nGael on Saturday away. The team have 4 points from
their first three games so something from this game would be very helpful
towards retention of O’Rourke Cup status.(The minors play Pearse's in the
Abbey Park on Thursday at 7).
- The Annual
Roscommon Fleadh Cheoil takes in Ballaghaderreen this Easter week-end. It
is quite some time since it has been there but being the home town of Matt
Molloy and with a top traditional pub called ‘Spells’ should help in
attracting the crowd. This is the first of the county fleadhs and I
remember fondly a number of them being in Boyle in the seventies.
- Boyle Tidy
Towns Committee continue their litter picking endeavours especially on the
roads into the town each Tuesday at 7. Hopefully the public will come out
in their own areas to help with the
effort.
The Burning of Notre Dame ... A Universal Cultural Tragedy.
"Notre Dame is our history, our imagination, where we've lived all
our great moments, and is the epicentre of our lives," said Emmanuel
Macron the President of France last evening, continuing
"It's the story of our books, our paintings. It's the cathedral for
all French people, even if they have never been. But it is burning and I know
this sadness will be felt by all of our citizens."
The sadness goes well beyond the state frontiers of France, it is felt
universally including of course in our own country. Regrettably I have never
been to Paris though I have had the thought with me from time to time. I would
certainly have visited Notre Dame had I done so. It is the major jewel in the
crown of European Cathedrals. It became famous in literature with Victor Hugo’s
‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ which was late adapted as a musical.
I have been to a good number of magnificent churches such as those in
Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Florence and so on. During the summer of 1968 I
‘worked’ in New York diocesan block in Manhattan including St. Patrick’s
Cathedral.
We in Boyle know only too well about the economic and emotional cost of
fires in our town with the fire in the fine Gothic Parish Church in 1977.
Before that there were the fires at Rockingham in the 50s’, The Roscommon
Herald in the ‘60s’ and a number of commercial buildings within the town.
It is just so sad. It will be rebuilt which will take a long time but
the provenance of the original building will be compromised for decades. Notre
Dame (which kind of translates as ‘Our Lady of Paris’) was obviously having
work being done to it with the scaffolding around it. The fire seems to have
been accidental and due to the wooden roof of centuries the fire spread
rapidly. However the wall structure is said to be still intact and
rebuilding will pursued. Perhaps this disaster will be a warning to similar
buildings.
For Parisians, irrespective of
religion, being a building of such beauty it is akin to a
bereavement.
The Affirmation of Sport
Tiger Back from the Death
For a certain constituency sport does not play a significant part in
their lives and that is their right. For those of us for whom sport plays a
significant role in their lives it colours our lives immeasurably. Since last
Thursday I’ve been able to watch portions of the U.S. Masters golf tournament
in Augusta, Georgia in the U.S. Like so many things there are deficits with The
Masters and the golf club there in terms of sexual discrimination and the
overplay of deference to its membership and traditions and the idea of ‘the
Green Jacket’ and so on. It is still a unique sporting event though. It has had
its heroes and high drama over the decades. It has broken hearts and elevated
some humble players. And in recent times the Irish players have played a small
part in this.
The headlines of today’s newspapers and all media platforms are elevated
by the victory of Tiger Woods. ‘ Back from the Death’, ‘Glory Day’ and so on.
This was his 5th Masters win and was probably the greatest sporting
comeback, for an individual, in sporting history. I used to play a little golf
some years ago but felt it was a ’luxury’ in terms of time allocation. The win
last night may rescue a declining game. It will certainly be welcomed by Golf
internationally and by Augusta in particular. The response of the crowd to his
win was evidence of something special happening. His own reaction was also
evidence of having overcome many demons in overcoming ‘the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune’.
One had to feel for the Italian golfer Molinari and the person I would
like to have won Ian Poulter but their diversion into water drowned their
chances of golf coronation. All in all, it was, with all its twists and
retrospective inevitability, like a Shakespearian drama.
Later this summer the British Open Golf Championship comes to Northern
Ireland and the Royal Portrush golf club from July 18th to 21st
with a prize fund of over 10 million dollars. This is just the second time for
the Open to visit Northern Ireland with the last being in 1951 at the same
course with the winner being Max Faulkner with Irishman Fred Daly coming
fourth. Fred Daly was the first Irish man to win the Open which he did in ’47
at Hoylake near Liverpool.
Another… Different Tiger
A couple of weeks ago being flued out I watched a deal of Cheltenham
racing and say a Willie Mullins trained horse, ‘Al Boum Photo’ finally win for
his trainer who had horses second for six times. While I am not a gambler
at all it too was a tapestry of drama in victory. There was tragedy also with a
number of horses dying through injury. Then came the English ‘Grand
National’ and another Tiger rolling home for the second year in succession. The
horse was a ‘guest’ on Friday night’s 'Late Late Show' illustrating its status.
Ireland or a certain part of it has a love affair with racing
horses.
Back to Basics … GAA
CBS Roscommon at Croke Park
At a more mundane level on Grand National Day, Saturday April 6th
, I was in Croke Park as the secondary school I attended, Roscommon C.B.S., won
the All-Ireland Senior ‘B’ football championship versus Rathmore of Kerry. It
too had its twists, seemed won, saw a generous lead seep away, was level going
towards extra time but saw a great winning point scored by my side over our
Kerry opponents. It was not overwhelming just a nice one.
Boyle Club Games
On a very local level I have been impressed with Boyle senior GAA team
in the last few weeks. They should have got a draw in their opening game
against St. Brigid’s, struggled too much to get scores in their win over St.
Croan’s and I am told (as I was otherwise engaged) Boyle were very impressive
on Sunday last in a high- scoring game against Roscommon Gaels. Boyle 3. 9
Roscommon Gaels 1.14. While Boyle have a number of county names now, an
emerging star is their goalkeeper Rob Kearney who has been excellent in the
games to date. This Saturday there is big challenge when the travel for the
first time to their fourth game v Clan na nGael on Saturday evening next.
On Tuesday evening I caught most of the second half of an under 16 game
v Roscommon Gaels again. It was a fine narrow win for Boyle and a great game of
football with skills a plenty and some stars for the future of both clubs.
I am aware that Boyle ladies at under-age and senior are also doing well
and also have members contributing to county teams. Alas I am not as tuned in
to the ladies game as I might be. That is the price the sports anorak pays
sometimes.
Hurling Vibes!
I heard a whisper that there were some gentlemen suggesting starting to
introduce ‘hurling’ again to Boyle. It is one of my regrets that I did not do
this or get engaged with those who did since I came to Boyle in ’72. I have
heard that there was tentative hurling in Boyle in the late forties. Then an
Offaly man, Bob Carr, who had a saw mill near Ardcarne Church, made some
effort with the schools in the mid-sixties. Bob became very involved with
hurling at County level during the sixties. In the early seventies Limerick
army man and former Limerick and Munster hurler P. J. Keane had another go at
it. He had some very good under –age players with two notable players in Martin
Candon and T.P. Toolan. Perhaps the last shot at it was a Galway gentleman who
had come back to Boyle from England. A Mister O’Dowd if I am not mistaken. He
had all the gear, helmets and hurleys of course but it too ran out of steam. It
would certainly be a challenge and a ten yea project as the camogie seems to be
taking hold with the young ladies right now.
The FAI & John Delaney Debacle
The John Delaney saga rolls on. The debate has mushroomed as the days
lengthen. Last week’s appearance of a group of FAI officials at an Oireachtas
Committee had large elements of farce attached to it. A number of the
Oireachtas members were compromised by being ‘friends’ of John Delaney. Then
there were the very uneven contributions of the personnel on both sides. John
Delaney’s contribution in just reading a short statement and then claiming
privilege in terms of avoiding further questions was surreal. While legally
entitled to that course it was like Hamlet being there but not
contributing…though he did make a few banal contributions. It took another
twist when Padraig O’ Ceidigh of the Committee understandably confused by the
personnel of the FAI delegation tried to get to grips with ‘who was who’ on the
opposing benches. Some were recent appointees and so many of their
contributions were; “Leave it with me. I’ll get back to you on that one”.
However he did come up with an interesting personage who turned out to be a
legal eagle covering John Delaney. So it was a little like Tony Soprano, all
lawyered up before (the very Irish version… Healy- Rae et al) of some
grand jury.
The Chairman, Fergus O’Dowd, bent over backwards to be ‘fair’ to both
sides constrained it seems by a previous court ruling involving Angela Kerins
of Rehab and her appearance before this committee some years ago.
While the only real contributor was the President of the FAI Donal
Conway as the other members present were pretty pathetic including the Honorary
Treasurer
It was odd that Ml. Healy Rae got to speak as he is not listed as being
on the Committee. Michael obviously ‘crashed’ the party to praise of Delaney
and of his contribution to Kerry soccer. I was down in Killarney when Boyle
Celtic played in a national competition there during their great season of
2016/2017 and the evidence of Killarney’s soccer was evidence of this..
They certainly had access to funding to put it all in place.
One of the most impressive interrogators on the committee was Jonathan
O’Brien a Sinn Fein T.D. He was not of on the official list either. He seemed
to be pursuing a particular line and it turned out that he was very involved
with soccer in Cork City.
T.D. Kevin O’Keefe from East Cork was just an embarrassment with his
tentative questioning obviously knowing the soccer people present especially
Delaney. However I see a colourful line quoted from him as follows; ”You
(Delaney) could be regarded as the Tump of the F.A.I.” (This could
be along the lines of a classic reference which suggested that; ’This young man
is capable of anything’!
So the blazers took a big hit. Perhaps the green revolution could spread
to places like the north west.
Three Different Anniversaries
The Limerick Soviet
There have been documentaries detailing three very different historic
events. The first was a short social experiment; the second a horrific Bloody
event and the third the declaration of Ireland as a Republic.
The social experiment took place in Limerick in April 1919. After the
shooting of a volunteer by the British Army there followed a number of protests
by the united people of Limerick city coordinated for the most part by the
Trade Union Movement. The committee involved set up a Free area within the city
of Limerick where they administered their rules and provided for the people.
The area was surrounded by the British Army and the stand- off lasted for a
number of weeks. The hammer and sickle symbols were used on the red flag and it
came to be known as ‘The Limerick Soviet’. One pretty unique facet of it was
that it actually printed its own money in that short time. This like the next
paragraph has a resonance in Derry.
The Amritsar Massacre
The Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919 in Northern India
when troops of the British Indian Army under the command of Acting Brig-Gen
Reginald Dyer fired rifles at a crowd of Indians, who had gathered in a
compound for a protest meeting in Amritsar, Punjab. Nearly 400 hundred people
were killed and some 1200 injured. It followed the death of a British soldier
and happened in the background of racial contempt for the Indian people by
section of their British colonists. I seem to remember that General Dyer had
some Irish connections!
Ireland Declares a Republic
This only happened in April 1949 as prior to that Ireland was a weak
member of the British commonwealth. The Irish Coalition Government of the time
was led by Fine Gael’s John A. Costello with the aid of Sean McBride’s Clann na
Poblachta party. Fianna Fail had been in government from ’32 to ’48 and Eamon
de Valera accepted the Commonwealth arrangement out of some deference for the
Northern unionist population in the hope of some future reconciliation of a
kind. It is kind of replicated today by Micheal Martin v the Taoiseach Leo
Varadkar.
While I had a couple of other ideas for paragraphs I’ll adjourn for now
and hopefully get to them next time.
Good night and may your Gods go with you.
Tony.
No comments:
Post a Comment