I worked with Father Lavin at St. Mary’s
College when he was Principal there from 1980 to 1989. Canon Peadar had been a teacher in Summerhill
for a number of decades. He had gone there for his secondary education in the
40s’. His core subject was Irish and he became an ardent Gaelgoir refreshing
his core knowledge by visiting Inishmaan, one of the Aran islands, for many summers.
In the late seventies he was a curate in Ballymoe for a short period. When
Father Dodd left St. Mary’s College to become parish priest of Boyle, after the
fire that destroyed the church, Father Tonra - a brilliant academic man - took
charge there for two or so years. Father Lavin came to St. Mary’s in 1980 and
made his mark there with ‘smacht’ or discipline on students and staff(!) alike with
an emphasis on results.
In that period the College had two major
re-unions, one in 1985 in the College gym and the second in Highgate London
with both Fathers Lavin and Dodd present.
Canon Lavin was a rock in whatever
enterprise he engaged with. After the death of Canon Dodd in 1986 Canon Peadar
became Parish Priest of Boyle. He was later to become a parish priest in
Knockcroghery. He was held in high regard there also and he really embraced the
village and parish. It being the heartbeat of GAA in county Roscommon would
have significance in that regard.
He met his brother priests regularly in the
Abbey Hotel for lunch and I feel they shared the issues of the day as it
concerned them. There was collective support there.
In 1983 RTE brought Community Radio to
Boyle for a week and Father Lavin presented a series of local history
programmes.
His heart though was always with his home
village Ballyfarnon and its football team St. Ronan’s. Significant wins by the
team made him happy while underperformance got little sympathy. ‘Blame not
where you want to blame but rather lay the blame where it rightly lies’.
Canon Peadar had a deep interest in and had
amassed a deep record of his own area. Hopefully some of that knowledge is on
record. It reminds me of an occasion once when I sympathised with a lady whose
husband had died and she replied ‘Yes and all that history knowledge gone’.
I visited the Canon a few times in recent
years in Roscommon. With Gerry Emmett and Gaye Sheeran we visited him in The
Sacred Heart Hospital recently enough. It was a great visit that went on for a
considerable time. The three Ballyfarnon men covered, in-depth, a whole range
of topics and people of their parish. I was a lesser contributor but very much
engaged with it all. It is the kind of visit that you reflect on afterwards and
say to yourself “I’m glad I did that”.
Canon Peadar was a considerable force for
good and lived a long life which enabled him to disperse the elements of that
life experience. These included his county, his schools and the parishes he
served so well. In parallel to these were his priestly calling, his extended family
and the Ballyfarnon community. May he rest in peace.
New
Government???
I referenced this in my post two weeks ago.
Keep in mind that the election took place on Saturday February 8th …76 days
ago. I wrote then;
“I can only call the efforts to form a
Government in this country as PATHETIC. There have been talks about talks,
preliminary talks, kind of meaningful talks, meaningful talks, documents being
drawn up, talk of a ‘government formation document’ but yet no real progress.
It is a disgrace especially for the parties who are not part of the ‘Interim
-Government’ as of now”.
P.S. There seems to be a little movement
this Friday evening. Hurrah …after 76 days. Now there are three variable groups
…. with little or no cohesion. Look through the lists below if you can cope
with getting more depressed. At least one substantial group from these is
necessary to the formation of a cohesive and lasting government with F.F/F.G./
and the Green Party!
Regional Group
Party Name Constituency
Independent
(8)
Cathal Berry Kildare South (Never heard of him….NH
from here)
Seán Canney Galway East
Peter Fitzpatrick Louth (nh politically)
Noel Grealish Galway West
***Michael Lowry Tipperary (I HAVE heard about him)
Verona Murphy Wexford ( Maybe)
Denis Naughten Roscommon–Galway
Matt Shanahan Waterford (nh)
Aontú (1)
Peadar Tóibín
Meath West
Rural
Group!
Party Name Constituency
Independent (6) Michael Collins Cork
South-West
Danny Healy-Rae Kerry
Michael Healy-Rae Kerry
Mattie McGrath Tipperary
Carol Nolan Laois–Offaly (nh)
Richard
O'Donoghue Limerick County (nh)
Independent
Group
Party Name Constituency
Independent (5)
Catherine Connolly Galway West
Michael Fitzmaurice Roscommon–Galway
Marian Harkin Sligo–Leitrim
Michael McNamara Clare (nh)
Thomas Pringle
Donegal
Independents 4
Change (1) Joan Collins Dublin South-Central
The
World According to Dr. Trump
President Donald Trump has said some crazy
things since we became aware of him but the ‘advice’ he dispensed last night
has reached new …heights/lows… His references to the use of Dettol and
‘infra-red lights or some configuration of same to ‘kill’ the Covid 19 virus trumps
all he has said before. It could have prompted some sane person to arrange some
men in white coats to be waiting off stage or maybe even going on stage since
it was so toxic. The danger is that some people might follow the dear leader
and take his advice! While that seems absurd…these are different times and the
Trump personality is something we haven’t seen before either. Something he has
suggested recently had ‘a run’ on it subsequently. As Trump dug the hole deeper
with these pronouncements the actual medical lady consultant doctor present sat
in shock at what she was hearing. Why it did not suggest to her to just get up
and walk away and thus disassociate herself from it all, she may look back on
as a big mistake. That would have been a real statement and reality- check for
Trump and his ‘advisors’.
The terrible reality for this great country
and for our world is that this man looks like he will be re-elected come next
November.
A British expert, on television, this
evening commented that “It was one of the most dangerous and idiotic
suggestions that I’ve ever heard”.
The producers of Dettol quickly and
strongly advised people not to follow these bizarre suggestions.
And this circus continues…
Two
Fine Singers Pass Away
It’s a couple of weeks now since John Prine and Mary McPartlan passed
away. It seems a long time ago but that is the atmosphere of these times. Sean
and others have spoken generously about John Prine. I just have a wee story
which involves another kinda local musical hero Peter Horan from Killavil
beyond Gurteen. Both John and Peter –a renowned flute player- were in Molloy’s
bar in Westport. Peter was not really aware of John Prine and may have heard
him singing that night. John Prine had heard that Peter was not just a musician
but also a singer so he cajoled Peter into singing a song. He thought he was
going to hear a classic Irish ballad or some such. But when Peter returned to
sing he launched into…’Carry Me Back to Old Virginia’ which was kinda home for
John. At the conclusion of Peter’s song John praised him as he would but Peter
responded -not being too impressed by Prine’s earlier singing- ‘Not at all…
sure there are none of us singers!’
The second singer I am referencing is Mary
McPartlan from Drumkeeran in Leitrim. Leitrim for such a small county in terms
of population has contributed many people to the arts and culture across
various genres. I have a good friend from Drumkeeran and he is a sage in many
respects but very passionate about his native county where he seems to know
much of the population. I digress.
Mary’s mother came from Tyrone and passed
on a store of songs. Mary McPartlan was creative director of NUI Galway’s Arts
in Action programme and a Fulbright scholar. She researched American folk music
from the Appalachian region and students come to NUIG from there on scholarship
for further research. Amongst her CD collections of songs are ‘The Holland
handkerchief’ in 2003 and ‘Mountain to Mountain’ in 2016. In these collection
she is accompanied by many fine musicians from North Connacht with Seamie
O’Dowd from Sligo being prominent.
I really like (I won’t say …love) her
rendition of Shane McGowan’s classic ‘Rainy Night in Soho’ a location in London
that I was aware of in my time there.
Leonard
Cohen Remembered
I might mention here two concerts one of
which I thought I had missed BUT it is being repeated on RTE 1 tomorrow
Saturday at 10.30. That is ‘The Songs of Leonard Cohen’ with the RTE Orchestra
and guests. While Leonard Cohen has his critics like everybody I find his tones
and lyrics powerful. I will not forget his concert in the lawn of Lisadell
House in Sligo in 2010 which I attended with my son Cianan. Cohen singing in
the shadows of Ben Bulben, Yeats country, was a fitting coalescing of kindred
genres of poetic magic.
A Woman’s
Heart
One of the great Irish CD’s –a trilogy
actually- has been ‘A Woman’s Heart’ starting in 1992 and then ’94 and then
again 10 years later. They tried –unsuccessfully- to transmit the quality of
that group of songs in an another RTE orchestra collaboration last week.
Missing was a lady who I would submit as my favourite singer, over say five
songs, and that is Dolores Keane.
Zoom
Quizzes
In these troubled times online quizzes have
been popping up or mushrooming at a pace. I am very much a retired quiz aficionado
but it is hard to be fully retired. (Sometimes I am asked about what I am doing
now GAA wise and have developed a standard answer that being, ‘I am doing a bit
of consultancy. That is better paid’).
I started with quizzes, maybe in Boyle Golf
Club, with Father Tonra a very bright and lovely man. I then started to set and
act as question-master for a number of seasons of quizzes in The Ceile House
Bar through the 80s’. They were very enjoyable and successful for the bar as a
business. We had our own travelling team then drawn from a broad panel of John
Casey, Eamon Perry, Tom Mullaney, Gerry Whelehan, Liam Coyle, Bill Mannion,
Sheila Tighe, Liam O’Callaghan bolstered by young gun Enda O’Boyle and much
later by Cillian Doyle, Jarlath Tivnan and Lochlainn Conboy.
No I have not forgotten …our anchor quiz-man
was my dear friend John Mac Nama. I used to say that when we went to a quiz
with John present we were contenders but otherwise not so much. John loved the
classic quiz material Greek and Roman Gods, History, Geography and Politics. He
would snap out the answer or mull over it and then issue ‘I think it was x….’ I
was already writing his answer down. Later he would dismiss some quizzes as
trivial
There were RTE television quizzes like ‘Rapid
Roulette’ and ‘Where in the World’ and on radio a decent one called ‘Top Score’.
‘Where in the World’ in its early run was a family quiz and I enlisted three
Kilkenny nephews to join me on that occasion which we won. The Kilkenny boys
were not really ‘into’ quizzes but got a number of calls subsequently to join
teams but they respectfully declined getting out as it were ‘at the top’.
Having been on a widely known television quiz was a very good reference item on
their C.V.s’ on some occasions later.
Once Eamon Perry and I went as far as
Belfast for a BBC Radio quiz the name of which is consigned to the vaults of
forgotten facts.
Like all things if you do not practise you
can embarrass yourself in making cameo appearances in quizzes in later times.
So I generally avoid that.
I might mention also the schools quiz
‘Blackboard Jungle’. We had a very good team for a couple of years at St.
Mary’s College and got to the All-Ireland Semi-Finals and might have been…..Oh
what might have been. We could have won a bus! The members of those teams were;
Enda O’Boyle, Dara Callaghan, Ciaran Beggan, Shane McGettrick. There was an
earlier team with Enda, Conor McLoughlin and Michael Mullaney.
I could write a long essay on that subject
but my shoulder aches right now.
Two
Names in the News
I listen to Sean O’Rourke consistently on RTE Radio each morning. On listening
to him during the week he announced that his time was running out being a
presenter with RTE as he was fast approaching retiring age. This is in May when
he is obliged to retire. He has been a real stalwart with his morning -10am to
12 noon- programme covering as it does the broad range of subjects. Apart from
a fairly recent (to me) o.t.t. interrogation of Minster for Heath Simon Harris
the quality of his work has been pretty outstanding. He was able to dismiss Joe
Brolly who was on a roll with cementing the call for solidarity with best
practise with the requirement; ‘That’s enough Joe. We’ve heard enough from
you’.
RTE indeed has had a number of top class
presenters down the years with ‘Morning Ireland’ with two of the greatest ever
Morning Ireland interrogators - Cathal MacCoille and David Hanley.
My favourite in that genre is on T.V., Tommy
Gorman. He has worked for RTÉ News and Current Affairs since 1980. He is currently
the Northern Ireland correspondent for RTÉ since 2001. He is known for his
personal interviews with figures such as Seán Quinn, Gerry Adams and Roy Keane,
the latter following the 2002 Saipan incident. He was a speaker at Boyle Arts
last year.
I have a slight connection with Brian
O’Rourke as I did my teacher practise in Claddagh National School when his
father was Principal there.
While there are a range of reasons for
people to be retired by a certain age there is surely a great loss of people
with experience and talent also. Perhaps this will be adapted in the future. It
is a major discussion subject which I am not too qualified to contribute to.
Starring
on University Challenge
Another person, Conor McMeel, made a splash by being a member of the Imperial College
London who swept to victory in the University Challenge Quiz final on Monday
night with 275 points, defeating rivals Corpus Christi, Cambridge, who finished
with 105 points. This is one of the most prestigious quizzes on television and
has been running for around sixty years. Master McMeel was a significant
contributor to this outstanding team’s performance in the final.
I’ll adjourn at that.
Final Words…Take Care
**Take care and do not let the guard down
now. I hope everyone does. It would be a real disaster if by our own impatience
we undid the good that we have done in the last month and more. We owe it to
ourselves but more importantly to those who have enabled us to avoid a real
disaster with their commitment in such dangerous circumstances.
So
stick with it……please…for your own and your family’s sake.
May your Gods go with you...