Update 5th March

Blog March 5 2020.

Death of Notable Irish -American Writer with strong Corrigeenroe connections 

A lady by the name of Mary Higgins Clark passed away in New York at the end of January. I had been made aware of it by Hillary Beirne (formerly of Boyle) organiser of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York. The lady has significant connections with this area as her father Luke Higgins emigrated from Corrigeenroe circa 1915.He became the proprietor of some Bars/Taverns in New York through the twenties with his daughter being born on Christmas Eve 1927 in the Bronx, New York. That was the period of the Wall Street Crash and this caused challenging issues for him and his business interests. Her father was to die in ’37 when she was ten with two brothers. One of those died in the war and her second brother died a young man aged 42.    

On February 16 last The Sunday Independent paid Mary Higgins Clark a generous tribute which originated in the Telegraph newspaper. It opens with; ‘Mary Higgins Clark was America’s answer to Agatha Christie, a queen of suspense who wrote more than fifty bestselling mystery novels with some being adapted into films. One of those was “Where are the Children?” which won her a million -dollar contract and set her on the path that would end in her becoming the highest-paid female author in the world” She became the highest paid author in 2000 with a 59-million-dollar contract from publishers Simon and Schuster for a series of five books. Her last book was published just last year. Earlier in life she had a number of jobs and married Warren Clark in ’49. In ’96 she married for the 3rd time to John Conheeney.   

Her closest relation in Ireland is her first cousin Bill Corcoran formerly of Corrigeenroe but long-time resident in Dublin and great supporter of Roscommon and Boyle. Bill told me that Mary Higgins was a great friend of the Bush presidential family and was a regular visitor to the White House in their time there. She visited Ireland a number of times staying with Bill on occasion in Corrigeenroe. He remembers a particular visit when she showed her support for the Mayo Roscommon Hospice at a Gala function in Castlebar which had a notable U.S. support group. 

On another occasion they were hosted by Roscommon County Council in The Abbey Hotel with Liam Naughten as lead of the political reception party. Bill remembers this as Mary Higgins relayed to him something that Mister Naughten referred to as an upset in the Government of the day being in the offing. It was possibly the time, in Jan. 1992 of Sean Doherty’s revelations on the Nighthawks television programme of Shay Healy, in Browne’s Bar, in Castlerea, that Taoiseach Charlie Haughey knew and acquiesced with phone tapping of journalists by the state law agencies a decade or so earlier. This led to the fall from grace of Charlie Haughey.  Miss Higgins as a mystery writer of plots and counter plots would have been attuned to this type of drama and obviously identified this in Mister Naughten’s comments.      

On Corrigeenroe National School there is a plaque with the caption ‘Higgins Memorial School 1961’. Mary would have been but 34. How this Higgins endowment to the school happened is to be confirmed? 

Mary Higgins Clark was Grand Marshall of the St. Patricks Day in 2011. She would have been 83 then. Hillary Beirne Chair. Of the N.Y. City St. Patrick’s Day foundation and Chief Administrator of the parade, as I have noted already, said of her; “Mary Higgins Clarke was one of the most gracious ladies I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. We will miss her as she has been the staple in the Irish American community for the last eight decades. She has made a tremendous impact on the American and Irish culture. Like so many we will forever remember her literary contribution. She was proud of her roots in Ireland and North Roscommon”.  

So Mary Higgins Clarke, rooted as she was in Corrigeenroe, made a real name for herself In New York and in the United States and her readership must have been broad and with that her contribution to the Irish American diaspora in New York was very significant. 

Chris Patten also with Boyle roots.

I have been told by someone a while ago that Chris Patten has Boyle roots. The name of the person who relayed to this to me is close to the surface of my recall but just playing with my memory. Mister Patten returned to my memory file again very recently as he was in Dublin and also on radio with Sean O’Rourke. I just heard the end of that interview as I did not know who was being interviewed. He was interesting on a number of issues but he also enunciated one of the ‘spakes’ I like to collect. When Sean O’Rourke mentioned that he was a member of ‘The House of Lords’, Mister Patten replied “The House of Lords is there as evidence that there IS life after death”.    

Christopher Patten is a British politician who served as the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He officiated at the ‘hand over’ of Hong Kong to the Honk Kong Government/ China State. There is some label such as ‘One Government –two States’ (approx.) that covers that uneasy arrangement which is being tested by agitation all through last year. Patten was Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was involved in the establishment of the PSNI in Northern Ireland if my memory serves me well.  He was made a life peer in 2005 and has been Chancellor of the University of Oxford since 2003. It was in the latter role that he was in Dublin. He would certainly be a man of notable status who might be considered for an invite the Boyle of his ancestry (quite a long time ago I admit) by some agency or other perhaps The Arts Festival!

Christy Coghlan RIP

Christy Coghlan was buried on Tuesday in Aughanagh cemetery. He was 92 years of age. Many times I had it in my head to go out to Corrigeenroe to talk to him and of course I regret not doing that now. Christy was a member of the Boyle team in the early 50s’ and Michéal Shivnan, from St. Michaels, remembers him as a formidable midfielder with John Joe Nerney. His son John in his light- hearted funeral Mass eulogy referenced a number of elements of his dad’s life and especially his love of football. This spanned from travelling to nearby Nicolson’s to listen to games on the radio powered by the memorable wet and dry batteries. These were possibly during Roscommon’s great period in the 40s’. In recent times he embraced Sky coverage of games on weekends. He relayed Christy’s very early memory of playing for a Boyle juvenile team before the Roscommon v Sligo championship game in The Abbey Park which was in ‘44. The main treat that day is that the young teams could remain inside the crowd cordon for the main match where he was able to see All-Ireland winning legends like Murray, Boland, Gilmartin, Carlos and Kinlough. He spoke also of his dad’s first trip to Croke Park and Dublin in 1948 when Christy had other things competing for his attention.

John also referenced the other strands of his life which were so important to him such as farming, politics and family.    

I did have a chat with Christy once after I attended Mass in Corrigeenroe on a sunny Sunday 3/4 years or so ago. It may be a tradition there as there was a marque, with old time after -Mass conversation, tea and hospitality. I was there really to meet my friend Bill Corcoran who was also in attendance. 

So I missed a lengthy meeting with Christy through the lack of my own initiative but I did get a sense of a bright, sincere and much loved man in John’s short summary of a long and full life in Corrigeenroe.  

A Netflex Must See Classic for Sports Fans.

Maradona the documentary is the what I refer to above. I had missed it I the cinemas but caught up with it last week on Netflex and it is an outstanding documentary. The larger than life figure of Diego Maradona makes it magnetic viewing.  I will not in these short paragraphs do any justice to the programme of course but it has so many ingredients that make it compelling viewing. 

Maradona was born into poverty in Buenos Aires but it emerged when as a boy he had a gift. That gift was as a footballer. He played for a local club and progressed to the better club as is the way of football prodigious. Early he achieved one of his goals which was to provide a house for his family parents and sisters. Eventually he was seen for the great player he was and transferred to Barcelona. This was not a happy time for him and there is a short and violent on-field melee with an opposition team. Then the President of the Naples Club staked all he had on getting Maradona to Italy. Naples were not a strong club just surviving in Seria A. The mandate for Maradona was to ensure that Napoli remained in the top division. This he enabled them to do in years one and two. Gradually they climbed the table and became contenders. This was unheard of as Naples was seen as a pigsty club as were its people. The aristocrats were the northern Italy clubs like Inter Milan and 

AC Milan and Juventus. They dominated and looked with contempt on Napoli. It is a broad social distinction between the ‘haves’ of Northern Italy and the ‘have nots’ of Italy’s peninsula and the further south the worse that taboo got. 

Then the impossible happened and Napoli won the league and topped Seria ‘A’ in ’87 and again in ’90 with Maradona carrying the team on his back. In ’89 they won the UEFA Cup which was unthinkable to its supporters. Hardly ever, covering all sporting genres, could a team’s supporters have celebrated to the extent that the Napoli supporters did with the ’87 Seria ‘A’ win. This was replicated with the EUFA win and the second championship win in ’89. To Napoli supporters Maradona was regarded as a sporting GOD. 

There was a dark side in that Maradona was vulnerable to the outside world and was preyed on by the vultures who exist there. Naples is dominated by its Mafia equivalent, the Camorra and of course Maradona was a pretty vulnerable target for them. This led to dug issues and a wild lifestyle which was eventually his downfall. 

There was another great achievement though and that was enabling Argentina to win the World Cup in Mexico in 1986. Two notable incidents taken from the game against England where Maradona scored with his hand ‘the hand of God’ goal followed by one of the greatest individual goals seen at a World Cup.  

Argentina got to the 1990 World Cup Final to be beaten by Germany. However, a huge irony for Maradona was that in the semi-final, their opposition was…Italy… played in…Napoli!  (Italy had beaten Ireland in the quarter final Schillaci and all that). This heralded the end of Maradona’s love affair in Italy and the supporters love affair with their God.  

The documentary ends with Maradona, now a bloated huge man, in a park touching a ball around as he struggled and perhaps dreamed of past glories. 

The doc. is directed by Asif Kapadia who also produced an equivalent classic about Ayrton Senna the great Brazilian Grand Prix driver. 

Anyway I can only recommend this documentary as best I can. I would regard it as one of the best documentaries I may ever have watched. So you can take it from there.  

Roscommon Headstone Iconography by Mary Timoney.

You know this thing about passing something and paying little or no heed on it other than it’s a bit odd maybe. Well a place that has a wealth of material to ponder over are to be found in graveyards. I do not say that in a macabre or disrespectful sense but the opposite. It is best to visit them on a sunny day in case pessimism flows over the senses. Anyway in graveyards one can visit the resting places of relations, friends and non-friends. One headstone draws one on to the next. One can ponder on the exotic headstones which extoll the message; ‘We are X and we were something in the world, in our day.’ 

Last Monday night I attended a talk by Mary Timoney a resident of Keash. Mary and her husband Martin are both archaeologists. I know Martin from U.C.G. days and a bright student he was then. He was to spend some years teaching in Castlerea but local history was always his strong hobby. I remember a talk of his on Castlerea a long time ago titled ‘Castlerea the Moving Town’. Moving meant that the centre of importance within the town changed over decent segments of time as happens occasionally.   

On Monday night Mary talked of headstones and the decoration of those stones. The first slide illustration I saw was that of the fine Celtic cross in the priests’ graveyard beside Boyle church. If you look at it you will see all the elements of the Crucifixion, the spear, the ladder, nails, sponge and so on. The stone has of course the curved line art interlace and the cross with its lights. These are modern copies of the classic Celtic crosses of which Monasterboice in Louth is the king. 

These elements are repeated on many crosses. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was common to see representations of the trade of the family buried there. The most common one was that of a blacksmith with the bellows, anvil and of course a variety of hammers. 

There was also the shepherd with the crook, shears and sheep maybe. On the cover of the book is a lovely representation of a spinning wheel on an 1804 headstone in Ballintobber Graveyard. Free- Mason symbols too are there.

Mary has encompassed years of research work into a mighty tome titled “Ballintober (Roscommon) Old Graveyard & the Grave Memorials of Co. Roscommon”. Roscommon has a wealth of finely decorated headstones and most of them I imagine are recorded in Mary’s book. 

It was intriguing to listen as like a detective she matched headstones from one graveyard to a more distant one by the style of the lettering or even the posture of the figure 7. She followed the path of various carvers and was able to identify families of carvers by their work. An interesting comment was that a number of carvers were in fact present in that location because they were involved in building the great houses of the time there. 

Very intriguing in its own way.

   

I’ll adjourn without mentioning the great topic of the moment.

Slán for now.       

Update 27th February

Monday of next week – March 2nd- will be the first anniversary of the death of Liam Gilmartin at the age of 97. Liam captained the first Roscommon team ever to win an All-Ireland which was the minor team of 1939. I had hoped this would have been noted last September but that was not the case. Anyway I put together the following article on that campaign keeping in mind particularly the role of a great free-taker from Elphin named Joe Tiernan and also Liam Gilmartin 

Roscommon’s First All-Ireland Win … The Minors of Sept. ’39.

In Europe it was a time of War and tumult but in Roscommon it was a time of sporting excellence and triumph. First came the county minors of ’39. A number of the pieces were coming together then for Roscommon’s great era of success in Gaelic football. Two of them were the administration duo of Dan O’Rourke and John Joe Fahey as Chairman and Secretary of the County Board the second was the establishment of Roscommon Christian Brothers School (C.B.S.) in 1937. Roscommon were concentrating their efforts on their Junior team which got to the All-Ireland Final of ’39 where they were defeated by Dublin by 3 points before a large crowd in Croke Park for the replay of the Kerry v Mayo All-Ireland Semi-Final which Kerry won. 

The minors began their campaign in an unheralded first round v Leitrim at Elphin. It has to be borne in mind that collective training for early rounds did not exist and many of the players did not even know many of their playing colleagues apart from the C.B.S. cohort.  Leitrim were favourites as they had defeated reigning All-Ireland champions Galway. However Roscommon defeated Leitrim in a downpour on the score of Roscommon 1.8 Leitrim 1.6. The outstanding feature of the game and indeed of the teams campaign was the indispensable free-taking of Elphin’s Joe Tiernan. In this game he scored 5 points and maybe more as the other scorers are not nominated in the sparse newspaper mention.

In a double-header minor and junior contests at Castlerea on August 6th Roscommon had a good day with both teams winning. Roscommon (minors) 1.11 Mayo 1.3. A Cathal O’Beirne goal sealed the win. Tiernan scored 4 points, Winston & Kilduff 1 point each,  Bambrick 2, Beirne a point with his goal leaving 2 points uncredited. “Lavin and Lynch excelled at midfield, the defence of Carlos, Cummins, Gilmartin and Murray were sound with Donnelly a tower of strength and the forwards Beirne, Bambrick, Winston and Tiernan most effective. 

I have not resurrected a really informative account (yet) of the Semi-final which was v Cork. Roscommon won out with 10 points to Cork’s 1.4 in a ‘dour struggle’. Joe Tiernan’s contribution was again pivotal with 6 of the winning total of 10 points.  

So a Roscommon minor team had qualified for an All-Ireland final. They underwent a special period of training under former Galway footballer Tom Molloy. Molloy in this period trained senior, junior and minor Roscommon teams. The game took place in Croke Park on Sept. 29 before the senior final of Meath v Kerry. Their opponents in the final, Monaghan, were seen as favourites and they led by 5 points at the break. Monaghan 1.5 Roscommon 0.3. Both teams exchanged points early in the second half but a drought set in for 20 minutes before Roscommon came with a late surge. “Again Tiernan proved the winner”. Monaghan committed a number of fouls which was poor practise with an opposing fee-taker like Tiernan.               

With his 9 free kicks he converted 7 one was saved as he ‘went for a goal’ and 1 went narrowly wide. Tom Cox of Boyle had the 9th and insurance point after a strong run from half back. G. Kilduff had the team’s goal. 

The win made the front page of The Roscommon Herald of September the 30th with the headline; “Roscommon on the Roll of Honour”. 

There is a legend that Joe Tiernan converted all the free kicks he took in those four games. My assessment is that he scored 22 points from his 23 frees. He may have scored more as a number are uncredited. So there is very little wrong in continuing with the legend. He was the Dean Rock of that year. 

  

His total in the 4 games  are as follows; v Leitrim 5/ v Mayo 4/ v Cork 6/ v Monaghan 7…..so that is 22 points in 4 games i.e. 5.5 average. Near 60% of the 38 points scored.  

The final team was; S. Naughton/Larry Cummins/ Bill Carlos/ D. Boyd/ P. Sweeney/ Liam Gilmartin Capt./ A. Murray/ S. Lavin/ T. Lynch/ C. O’ Beirne/ J. Tiernan/ J. J. McDermott/ J. Bambrick/ G. Kilduff/ H. Winston. Subs. used to good effect  W. Penny for H. Winston injured and Tom Cox. 

Other substitutes as pictured on the day; P. Donnelly (inj.)/ T. J. Leonard/P. Murray while J. Manton/Ml. Bruen and J..J. Nerney are on the programme of the day. (John Joe never really confirmed that he was part of this team). There is a reference to a J. Connaughton in the note on the Connacht final and a slight reference to Eddie McDermott being linked to the panel. 

A note on those players;

*Sean Naughton, C.B.S. goalie Four Roads and Mt. Talbot./ *Larry ‘Pop’ Cummins, Curraghboy and Tarmon C’rea/ *‘Bill’ (W.) Carlos, C. B. S, Ballintubber, C’rea and New York/ *Des Boyd, Croghan/ Tom Cox, Boyle noted athlete died a very young man in August ‘44/ *Liam Gilmartin C.B.S., team Captain, Ballymurray/Knockcroghery. Liam died in March 2019 being the very last of those great players of the forties./ Tony Murray, C.B.S. Knockcroghery/ *Seamus Lavin, Frenchpark also played with Mantua/ Tim Lynch, Ballinaheglish, Oran, brother of Brendan & ‘Batt’/ *Cathal O’Beirne brother of Gerry, Strokestown/ Joe Tiernan, Elphin, indispensable match-winning free-taker. Gave up football early. Developed a successful business in Rathmines, Dublin/ *John Joe McDermott, Oran/ *Joe Bambrick, Kilmore and later N.C. F. Ballaghderreen/ Gerry Kilduff C.B.S. Roscommon Town; Garda.. He was just 16 in ’39 as was Bill Carlos and both won a second minor All-Ireland in ’41/ *Henry Winston, St. Jarlath’s, Ballinlough. A cousin of the legendry Kevin Winston’/ ‘Wilson’ Liam Penny, Roscommon town/ P. Sweeney, C’Rea/ *Paddy Donnelly, Rahara/ T. J. Leonard later a business man in Donamon/ Phelim Murray, C.B.S. Knockcroghery and engineer in Dublin/ John Joe Nerney, Croghan, Ballinameen and Boyle, Postman/ Michéal Bruen, Summerhill College, Knockvicar, St. Michael’s Club/ J. Menton from the St. Brigid’s area with a connection to Wicklow t.b.c.     

The team were guests of honour at the launch of the Roscommon County GAA History in April 1990 in the Abbey Hotel. *Those from the team who were present on that occasion. 

A number of that panel became an integral part of the great senior team of the forties with Cummins, Carlos, Gilmartin, Nerney, Phelim Murray, Des Boyd and Joe Bambrick amongst them. 

Roscommon went on to win 2 minor/1 junior/ and 2 All-Ireland senior titles in the 5 years from ’39 to ’43. Michéal O’Callaghan encapsulated all this in his lovely account of those football times for Roscommon titled ‘ 6 Glorious Years’ published in 1944. Had he waited he would have seen the Roscommon senior team contest the ’46 final and replay; and in the Polo Grounds final year the semi-final where they lost to the eventual finalists Cavan.

Anyway it was the Liam Gilmartin captained minors of ’39 ably assisted by the golden boot of Joe Tiernan that laid the foundation for that golden age of Roscommon football. 

Update 19th February

Oblique View - Wednesday, February 19th

Congratulations to; Louise Fitzpatrick, General Manager, and the staff of Lough Key Forest Park on their prestigious LAMA (Local Authorities Members Awards! As Michael Caine titled his biography …’Not a Lot of People Know That’)) Award for Best National Park. I visit the park regularly with often taking visitors and the sentiment regularly expressed is, ‘How lucky you are to have this on your doorstep’. I fully realise that and the incremental additions in recent years have enlarged its appeal. So well done to all and especially the energetic dynamo that is its general manager Louise.  

Laurel and Hardy

A standard line with the iconic comedy duo Laurel and Hardy was one of them issuing ‘Another fine mess you’ve got us into’ (approx.).

It seems as if we (the Irish Electorate ) have left a very complicated government-building site post-election. It looks as Mary Lou McDonald is finding it well-nigh impossible to coalesce the fragmented ‘Left’ and that shouldn’t be hard to grasp. Fianna Fáil might have seemed the closest to Sinn Féin ideologically but Michéal Martin has been strongly denying any possibility (until recently at least) in this happening. The ‘Grand Coalition’ between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is hardly a runner due to, history, tradition, arrogance, future possibilities, the danger of further decline. The reality is that there is very little between them really apart from the above! 

A big issue with the ‘Grand Coalition’ is that it would be a national alley wall for huge criticism starting with; ‘This is not what the country voted for’. Well if a coalition can put together a government then they become what the people voted for! This is an international thing and in many countries parties with lesser voting numbers become Government. We only have to look at the U.K. where the single vote system has enabled two major parties to dominate for aeons. Brexit is also happening despite 48% of the people having voted against it.

Congratulations Are Due to;

Here in Boyle the success of Frank Feighan in winning a seat in the Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon/Donegal Constituency. He certainly pulled out all the stops and by winning such votes in all areas such Leitrim, Donegal, North Roscommon and a load of transfer from Mister Walshe at the end demonstrated his credibility and popularity across the constituency. In this week’s The Roscommon Herald on pages 32/33 Darragh Kelly deals with a number of facets of Frank’s career, present and future. Under the headline ‘I closed down on myself. I was hurt’  he gives an insight into a traumatic time when the A & E. at Roscommon Hospital was closed. It showed how an important issue can become so difficult and corrosive and the toll a decision can have on a public representative from heavy-handed criticism.

Congratulations also to… 

Claire Kerrane on her great victory for Sinn Féin in Roscommon East Galway. She too got the double spread in The Roscommon Herald in one instance holding a famous historic campaign picture from the 1917 Count Plunkett Election declaring ‘The West’s Awake’.

Indeed, I was somewhat surprised that commentators made hardly any reference to the Sinn Féin victory of 1918 when they swept the old Home Rule Party out of existence. While Sinn Féin did not do that to the ‘Grand’ old parties of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil it was a major shock to their comfortable ‘entitlement’ duopoly system. 

Both were products of the War of Independence and are rooted in Arthur Griffith’s tree of Sinn Fein. The Free State government governed with the whip through the Civil War and the decade after. De Valera saw the futility of abstention and formed his own party Fianna Fáil in the late twenties and went into government in ’32 and was left there for 16 years using the whip also on dissidents during WW2. In ’48 a different ‘Grand Coalition’ was put in place with the basic mantra of ‘We have the shift de Valera’. This comprised of Fine Gael/the Labour Party/ the National Labour Party, Clann na Poblachta (Clann na Poblachtha was led by Sean McBride former IRA Chief, with Roscommon footballer and political radical Jack McQuillan as a T.D. /Clann na Talúin a farmers’ party plus independents. This was led by Taoiseach John Costello because the leader of Fine Gael, Richard (Dick) Mulcahy, was unacceptable to McBride and his party. That Government ironically declared the 26 counties a Republic having being a ‘Dominion’ and part of ‘The Commonwealth’.

It is now 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement and there is legitimacy in Sinn Féin being in government here and they should not be regarded as pariahs. There is a consensus that a single party will not dominate again and that even two parties will struggle to do so either. While the past should not be forgotten (and will not be) we no longer live there. (Even the colossal damage inflicted on the country by the BANKERS, so-called REGULATORS, and the Fianna Fáil Governments of the time are still there with Fine Gael coming on the inside with unsolved crises in Housing and Health plus etc.  It is however impossible to predict what will emerge.    

If there are political winners’ there are also losers of course and commiserations to Eugene Murphy in the Roscommon constituency. An affable individual as is Seamus Scanlon in our constituency.   

(and now for something very different)

The Death of Kirk Douglas

For an early part of my life –football and hurling apart- going to the cinema was a most regular treat. In Roscommon town, there were two cinemas, The Royal (still there, as of now a night club) and ‘The Blue Moon’ (a name used not long ago for a Boyle Bar). The Royal Cinema looked down somewhat on ‘The Blue Moon’. Anyway, on many Sunday nights, a carload of us would travel to Roscommon to the pictures. Amongst the stars of the screen then were John Wayne, James Stewart, Alan Ladd, Glenn Ford, Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy, Jack Palace and Kirk Douglas. As can be seen from that cast the films/pictures were mainly westerns. The legendary film director was John Ford –of Irish extraction-who made a series of Western –U.S. Cavalry v Indians- in which John Wayne and Victor McLaughlin stared ‘She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, ‘Rio Grande’ and ‘Fort Apache’ and so on. I suppose you could put ‘The Quiet Man’ in there also. The theme music for many of those had the lift of Irish music.    

Alan Ladd and Jack Palance matched up in one of my favourite films, Shane. 

Returning to Kirk Douglas who died on Feb. 5th aged 103 he was one the giants of the Hollywood screen. He starred in two of my favourite westerns ‘Last Train from Gunhill’ against Anthony Quinn in ’59 and accompanied Burt Lancaster in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ as Doc Holiday. He is probably best remembered as Spartacus in the ‘sword and sandals’ film of that name about the rebellion of Roman slaves and the cry is still heard occasionally on T.V. ads. etc. ‘I’m Spartacus’. His best film, for me though, was the classic anti-war WW1 film ‘Paths of Glory’ a masterpiece about a labelled ‘mutiny’ when a French division was ordered into an inevitable suicide attack across ‘No man’s Land’. A number of soldiers are brought up on trial for cowardice and Kirk’s character, Col Dax, is the defence lawyer with a bitter French general as opposition.  

It was a golden age of cinema and was a social outlet in which we could glimpse in awe at the great world beyond the oceans especially the United States   

A Shared Home Place…Seamus Mallon

I’m repeating myself here but if you can access a ‘podcast’ of the documentary shown on RTE of the life of the late great Seamus Mallon called ‘A shared Home Place’ I recommend you try to do so. The title covers the work in which he strived all his life. It is a telling record of the bigotry and discrimination in Northern Ireland which has coloured its history to date.  As an aside when watching it Seamus refers to his boyhood highlight of visiting Croke for an All-Ireland final between Kerry and Roscommon. From my viewing, it would be 1946 when Roscommon leading by 6 points with 6 or so minutes remaining let Kerry in to score two goals and draw the match. (Kind of familiar!). They lost the replay in a great game. It was nice to see the short ‘action film’ of them and their preparation for the team picture and a short piece of the game. 

My tribute reference to Seamus in my last blog or so prompted my friend and regular reader Boyle native John Austin Biesty to forward the following comment;

Hello Tony,

“Just to let you know how much I enjoyed reading this weeks 'View'.  I was delighted you mentioned Seamus Mallon (R.I.P.) Ireland could do with a few more politicians like him.  'A society grows great and strong when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit under.'  Spoken by Seamus in the House of Commons.  Powerful stuff”

John Austin keeps a very keen eye on the happenings in Boyle the town he left in the early sixties for the States. Not long after he arrived there he was ‘called up’ for service in the U.S. Army and on demobilisation he has spent his life in the New York area. He was Secretary of Boyle GAA before he left for New York and keeps another eye on the fortunes of the Boyle club and Roscommon. John Austin has visited his native town a number of times down the years a memorable one being for his 75th birthday if I am not mistaken. That could have been the ‘Year of the Gathering’ 2013 as I met him in the hall for that great party there. (I’m straying but it was when The Virginian Drury was also in town). 

While John Austin lives in America it safe to suggest that Boyle, Roscommon and Ireland are constants in his heart. I wish you all the very best and thank you for your support, interest and communications.

Padraig Daly’s Radio Contribution

Once to be on national radio was a noticeable event but now even being on T.V. isn’t even so. Still, I am someone who notices such things. A couple of weeks ago amid the maelstrom of the impending election, I tuned into an RTE Radio One programme basically dealing with elements of the national infrastructure. The person being interviewed was Padraig Daly from Boyle.  Padraig is Business Development Manager for well- known construction company JJ Rhatigan & Company. 

With over 30 years' experience in the Construction Industry in Ireland, UK and mainland Europe, his role in JJ Rhatigan & Company is as Head of Recruitment enabling the company to attract the right calibre of staff to satisfy their requirements. 

He was asked a number of questions regarding the challenges facing the construction companies in recruitment currently. While I do not remember the detail I do remember the forthright manner in answering the questions. The fact that there were difficulties in getting trained and experienced tradespeople. The graph in the training of those had dipped so much during the crash. The number of those tradespeople who emigrated and even if they wished to return -as many do- the cost of living in Dublin the hub of the current construction boom is prohibitive if it can be accessed at all. Then the rates of pay are marked against the expensive environment. Also the lack of accommodation for returning emigrants and migrants.  

A phrase that I had not heard for some time surfaced and that was ‘wet trades’ which I presume is that of block layers and plasterers and concrete gangs. That Ireland a country that provided post-war England with a multitude for the ‘wet trades’ cannot now service its own demands is an irony.

Anyway, Padraig well done on that. To hear clear, telling and articulate answers to particular issues during an election campaign was refreshing.  

Driving Issues

Recently I have been driving a good deal more in darkness than usual and have adopted the Knock Airport/Ballindine/Milltown route to Galway. I have to say that the standard of driving and courtesy is very good. There is an issue though that I see too often. That is defective lighting. The worst case scenario here is an advancing car with a top inside light and little on the outside. At odd times it might seem as if it was a motorbike. I know that it is a defect that a person might not see automatically but it is a serious defect. In last Sunday's paper I saw in a travel article reference to French regulations which are very strict. There a driver must carry a warning triangle, high-vis vests, and a full set of light bulbs for all the vehicles lighting system. There is a fine auto supply premises on Boyle’s Green Street which will service these requirements.  

I see that there are a large number of new speed checkpoints hot spots. The almost total road from Boyle to Carrick is a given.  There are two nearer the town, one from the golf club access into the town and one I am very aware of and that is from the church to where the road connects with the N4. I walk that road often and the speeds I regularly encounter bear no resemblance to the nominated speed limits.   

A Favourite Song;

I have heard the song the “Isle of Innisfree” a couple of times recently after funeral masses and it always resonates with me. I was just a very young boy when I first heard it, possibly on a radio programme called ‘The Ballad Makers on Saturday Night” which my father tuned into religiously. Today having heard it again I decided to investigate its origins and share them here. 

(The song has no connection with the poem of W.B. Yeats, ‘Lake Isle of Innisfree”)

   “The "Isle of Innisfree" is a song composed by Dick Farrelly (Irish songwriter and policeman) who wrote both the music and lyrics. Farrelly got the inspiration for "Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered, while on a bus journey from his native Kells, County Meath to Dublin. The song was published in 1950.

Farrelly’s "Isle of Innisfree" is a haunting melody with lyrics expressing the longing of an Irish emigrant for his native land. When film director John Ford heard the song, he loved it so much that he chose it as the principal theme of his film The Quiet Man. The composition received no mention in the screen credits. "The Isle of Innisfree" became a worldwide hit for Bing Crosby in 1952 and continues to feature in the repertoires of many artists”. 

It was a favoured song of a family friend, Tess Flaherty of Carrick Road 

"Isle of Innisfree"

I've met some folks who say that I'm a dreamer

And I've no doubt there's truth in what they say

But sure a body's bound to be a dreamer

When all the things he loves are far away

And precious things are dreams unto an exile

They take him o'er the land across the sea

Especially when it happens he's an exile

From that dear lovely Isle of Innisfree

And when the moonlight peeps across the rooftops

Of this great city, wondrous though it be,

I scarcely feel its wonder or its laughter

I'm once again back home in Innisfree

I wander o'er green hills through dreamy valleys

And find a peace no other land could know

I hear the birds make music fit for angels

And watch the rivers laughing as they flow

But dreams don't last

Though dreams are not forgotten

And soon I'm back to stern reality

But though they pave the footways here with gold dust

I still would choose the Isle of Innisfree.

   

Update 5th February

Request: If anyone has spare election canvassing leaflets they might keep them for me. I gather them for a collector friend of mine and he has been ‘gathering’ them for decades now. He refers to them as ‘Ephemera’. You could drop them into Dodd’s for me if you wished. Thanking you. 

THE ELECTION!!

We in Ireland are nearing the end game. But with the sad death of a Tipperary Independent candidate, Marese Skehan, of Thurles, there will be time added on. 

I have not heard much that would suggest that the landscape of the Sligo/Leitrim/Roscommon results will change radically. This gives Marian Harkins and Marc Mac Sharry a clear lead and if the Sinn Féin swing proves a real reality then Martin Kenny should be a winner of the third seat.

By me the final seat will rest between Frank Feighan and Eamon Scanlon unless my instinct is awry.

I would generally not disclose publically how I would vote but this time, with the changed unsatisfactory (to me) constituency alignment I have decided to ‘shop local’ for the Roscommon contender Frank Feighan, on a personal basis. There are quite a number of community initiatives coming down the line and it would seem logical to have someone in situ with local knowledge and awareness of those to ‘help them over the line. The Roscommon vote will be vital for him.

I have to keep the Green Party in mind also with Bláithin Gallagher the candidate here. The P.R. voting process can accommodate that. After the U.K. election I was very disappointed with the showing of the Green Party there so now that an opportunity to make a mark for them and what they stand for into the future it would be remiss of me not to put them in the frame.  

It promises to be an interesting weekend with so much sport and the drama of the Election and its Count taking centre stage.

Sport 

Roscommon’s GAA Senior team have left themselves a lot to do after their first two games in the League. The hope of returning quickly to the premier division is on a lifeline. To lose one game after being six points up is unfortunate but to lose two (nearly) is careless. Next Sunday the visitors to the Hyde are Clare and they will pose a substantial threat. One of Roscommon’s most depressing losses, in recent times, was v Clare in Pearse Stadium, Galway in July 2016. The remaining games are versus Kildare (a), Westmeath (h) Armagh (a), and Cavan also (a). There are no ‘gimmes’ there. The real threat is demotion which has championship implications that I am not totally clear on as of now.

While the result against Fermanagh last Sunday was very disappointing a very nice thing to see was Boyle Club’s four-man representation on the starting team which was historic. They were Enda and Donie Smith, Cian McKeon and Evan McGrath. So very well done to them and hopefully the results will turn. (I remember Boyle having 3 seniors on a League team v Antrim at the Hyde. They were Jonathan Conroy, Gerry Cregg and Tom Ryan.  On a Connacht minor championship team of 1972 (?) there is the possibility of another four representatives with Sean Daly, Gerry Carty, James Dodd and Freddie Daly). 

Congratulations 

Congratulations are merited also for the Abbey Community College girls team on reaching their final. I’m assuming that the team has big input from the local GAA club. A thing about that …. occasionally there are Abbey College games taking place that I might like to attend but I do not hear of them until it is too late. I imagine realboyle.com would readily publicise ‘headline’ games if the information was passed onto it. Boyle Celtic is also remiss in this. But c’est la vie.

  

Awards…The BAFTAS.

My Joker nominee is still going strong as Joachim Phoenix won here again after winning at the Golden Globes. The film 1917 was the big winner. But as at the Grammy Awards an Irish Lady singer, Kerry’s Jessie Buckley really wowed the crowd during one of the breaks with a song from her film ‘Wild Rose’. It was a stand-out act and certainly gave her career a major lift. Her song was titled ‘Glasgow (No Place Like Home). She appeared on the front of Monday’s Independent. Saoirse Ronan was again nominated but lost out to Renée Zellweger who won for her role portraying Judy Garland in the film ‘Judy’.  

  Performers from Cirque du Soleil were another mesmerising entertainment insert with its gymnastic act echoing the spirit of Judy Garland. 

Graham Norton was an amiable and entertaining host.  So the Irish were well represented at the Baftas. (Next week, of course, it is the top awards of the season with the Oscars. While the destination of the awards will be generally in line with what has happened in the two previous awards i.e. Golden Globes and BAFTAS. The Oscars is a circus in its own right but I hope to watch it).     

Daniel Sheeran … A Long Way from Ballyfarnon.

In The Roscommon Herald of January 14 (page 26) there was a significant article on the career of Daniel Sheeran from Ballyfarnon. Daniel is the son of well -known former Roscommon footballer Gay and Abbey Community College teacher Mary with his sister, Rena, being a Garda in Roscommon town currently. After St. Mary’s College Daniel joined the cadets and since then has been to an impressive number of troubled countries. First, he served with the Irish army as part of U. N. stabilisation forces in various countries. He is currently “Deputy Chief of the UN’s joint operations centre in the Congo in Central Africa”. This is one of the many dangerous hotspots in a troubled world. He has been involved in the ‘crisis management of the Ebola outbreak dealing with logistics and responses to outbreaks”.  He reports to the chain of ‘command and influence’ of the U.N. at its highest levels. He has had roles of security for Pope Francis visit in the Central African Republic and then switched to the World Health Organisation and then to Colombia as part of the U.N.’s peace initiatives there with FARC. During his sixteen-year stint with the Irish army he was involved in Liberia, Chad and also Lebanon. He acknowledges his training and experience with the Irish army being hugely beneficial. Dan is a committed Rossie supporter and keeps up with their fortunes always. He remembers his grandmother who passed away two years ago, herself a great Roscommon supporter and character in her own right. He commends the great work done by the Irish Defence Forces with the U.N. in so many places since that first began in the fifties. 

I’m sure that Daniel’s family is very proud of him and his achievements. As a former teacher of his, it is uplifting to see what some of those once innocent students and apprentice footballers can achieve in their lives. Daniel has certainly pushed the boundaries to their limits.   

Percy French the 100th Anniversary of his Death  

January 24 last was the 100th Anniversary of the death of one of Roscommon’s favourite sons Percy French who was born at Clooneyquinn near Tulsk in May 1854. He graduated as an engineer and travelled parts of the country as ‘an inspector of drains’. He was an entertainer and is remembered especially for a number of his many songs. Probably his most famous song is ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ a melancholy but sweeping lyric of emigration which is a cottage industry in Ireland. Another of these is ‘Come Back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff’. A number of his songs are wrapped in humour such as the parody of, ‘Are you right there Michael are You right’ about the travails of the Clare railway. 

In the 1950s there were a number of shows embracing the life and songs of Percy French. I remember being at one in The Harrison Hall (now the Bank of Ireland) in the middle of Roscommon town. The lead performers then were Milo O’Shea and Brendan O’Dowda who specialised in his songs. About 30 years ago a Father Beirne-originally from Elphin- established a festival and a Percy French Society. There is also a Society in County Down a county which he highlighted in his much-loved song. While his original house had been removed a commemorative arch was installed there. Percy’s daughters were present then.

In recent times Percy French is remembered in an annual ‘Summer School’ dealing with Percy French and associated issues. This takes place in Castlecoote House five miles west of Roscommon town each summer.

Percy French died at the age of 65 and is buried at Formby in the Merseyside area of England. His melodies, while victims of changing times, still resonate with a constituency and remain as the legacy of this Roscommon entertainer, song-writer and artist. 

Debates, Debates, and more Debates

Over my shoulders, one of the myriads of debates of the election cycle is in train. Tonight (Tuesday) it is the ‘Leaders Debate’ with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Michéal Martin and Mary Lou McDonald. It is not easy to get guidance as a result of these debates. A few years ago Vincent Browne and T.V. 3 did a gruelling circuit of most of the constituencies which I remember as impressive. Vincent Browne was the moderator and a very good one he was and he is missed during this election. Last week Ivan Yates adopted an aggressive approach which was o.t.t. in a bullying way with his ‘guests’. Miriam O’Callaghan moderated a harmless ‘debate’ in Castlerea. 

Still, we certainly get to hear the principals, so in that respect, it is up to us to learn from all the sound bites and do our best on Saturday. By and large we do reasonably well, historically.  

So I’ll leave it at that this week. The coming weekend should provide plenty of drama on numerous fronts especially in the political and sporting arenas. Fasten your seat belts.

(A CAUCUS is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The term originated in the United States and is very important in kick- starting the Presidential campaign of candidates. That is a big story and it is late so I’ll retire it for now).

‘May your Gods go with you’ Dave Allen.

t.c.

              

              

Update 30th January

The Election …Naturally

I remember a plasterer who had one person employed discouraging conversation on a Friday pay night for his employee with; ‘Don’t bother me now my head is full of figures’. Well after listening/viewing some of the ‘Debates’ my head is full of bumph whatever that is. The Monday night ‘Claire Byrne Live Leaders Debate’ was screened from U.C.G. and was two hours long with a further analysis in ‘The Spin Room’ for 50 minutes. Now that was five courses of spinage or whatever for insomniacs. I stayed with the Debate most of the time because I had seen a former student and footballer Kevin Tiernan in the front row of the audience. Although Kevin seemed primed to participate with a question he did not get the call. The spin analysis gave Mary Lou as the winner with Boy Barrett the clapometer winner. 

Last night, Tuesday, Miriam O’Call. hosted the ‘Prime Time’ debate from The Arts Centre in Castlerea. There was no candidate from the Roscommon /East Galway constituency which I thought ‘What’s the rationale behind that?’ or in more colloquial language ‘What was that about?’ There were some soundbites though, such as;

1.       a member of the audience stating that after paying €35 for a meal in a Dublin restaurant he told the proprietor that, ‘I paid €35 for 10 0unces of meat which is what I get for 10 Kilos when I sell my animal’. 

2.       The Green Party rep. being at odds with her party on Carbon Taxes and seemed iffy on others. You’ll have to get more economical with the truth Saoirse!

3.       A mister Kelly struck a logical note about decommissioning major structures in Dublin when he bemoaned the missed opportunity that not having considered ‘The National Children’s Hospital’ in, say, Athlone the centre of the country for instance. Apart from accessibility such a development would have huge positives for a whole region. But that would have been thinking outside the Pale of course.

Overall it was a harmless programme which even had Elphin mart doing a stand-in turn for Castlerea mart with manager Gerry Connellan giving his usual determined showing. 

A Brief Assessment of the Roscommon/ Donegal/ Leitrim/ Sligo/ Shepherd’s Bush constituency.

It will take me another election or more to get used to the idea of voting outside Roscommon. That is saying something. It looks like the ticket will run something like this;

Marian Harkin and Marc McSharry as certainties. Then there are three real contenders for two seats those being Martin Kenny Sinn Féin, Frankie Feighan Fine Gael and Eamon Scanlon Fianna Fáil. For Frankie Feighan to get over the line it obliges the county Roscommon section and Boyle loyalty to their native son to be considerate. I feel Frankie will have done a deal of work in Leitrim where he did well before but the first vote is very important as is local support for the ‘local’ man. It is common practise!

Martin Kenny will garner votes from all corners so that leaves Eamon Scanlon a nice man who I have met in Boyle a few times. The Green candidate is Blaithin Gallagher. While I think in kind of history terms there should be a Green tide I am not optimistic. It depends on whether the over 18s vote or have registered to vote. A radio piece interviewing 3^rd level students in Limerick and Kilkenny did not suggest a huge interest or connection to the game. Perhaps there should be a movement towards giving the over 16s’ the vote. There was a suggestion after the Brexit vote in England that the voting age should be reduced at both ends of the spectrum!

In the Roscommon/East Galway constituency Dennis Naughten and Ml. Fitzmaurice are the certs there. With a real battle between the emerging talent of Orla Leyden against the resilient Eugene Murphy. Fine Gael looks unlikely to get a seat here and will not look too kindly on Maura Hopkins for her late call to withdraw from the race leaving no time to realign its strategy here. (P.S. I seem to have heard Dennis Naughten say something along the lines of; ‘If lime is spread it will help address ….carbon emissions?’ What’s that about? In the 1950s’ there was a huge campaign of lime spreading on land with Boyle being a hub of distribution.)  

Overall it is going to be another hung Dáil with the Coalition makers already with the drawing boards. While Fianna Fail might resist the idea that they do not have the obvious talent to form a Government there is truth in it. Sinn Féin ironically have some top liners in Doherty et al and their standing seems to have gained momentum. There seems also to be a climate for ‘change’ and Fine Gael need to be careful as Simon Coveney’s personal remarks regarding Michéal Martin, who has supported the Government and–against F.F. natural instinct- has done the country some service and the voters might know it.  

Brexit Friday, Jan. 31^st.

And so it has come to pass. The U.K. has crossed the Rubicon. It is very sad and a regression and it certainly didn’t deserve the loutish valedictory comments of Nigel Farage in the chamber of the EU Parliament with the waving of the childish U.K. flags. This was after getting generous commentary from the hierarchy of the parliament. It was interesting that chairing the session was Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness who bade them goodbye (without the good riddance) with “and take your flags with you”. There would be a question of which bin to discard them in.

The reality is that a Churchillian classic WW2 spake, after the British and Australian victory in the North African desert in Nov. 1942 at El Alemaine is appropriate at this juncture;

  “This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.”   

A Speedy Decision

I possibly missed the lead-in but in the last week or so I’ve become aware from radio etc. of major extra taxes on second–hand cars being imported from Northern Ireland and the U.K. Obviously the car trade here would have been critical of this practice and probably ‘lobbied’ on it. It was/is, to a large degree, practiced by young men getting on the ‘car-owning ladder’. What puzzles me is the apparent speed with which it was introduced almost as if it was some health virus or such. This contrasts very much with many initiatives which might be more suitable to speedy initiatives.

Patsy Hanley Godfather of Roscommon Traditional Musicians

On Sunday night last TG4 transmitted a lovely programme on a Roscommon legend of traditional music, Patsy Hanley. Patsy comes from the townland of Killroosky near Ballyleague and was employed as a surveyor with Roscommon Co. Council for most of his working life. He was an All-Ireland champion flute player. Some years ago he was a regular visitor to North Roscommon, Boyle, Ballyfarnon and Keadue, He was known by traditional musicians all over the country and beyond. In the documentary he referenced Dominick Cosgrove’s pub in St. Patrick’s Street as an early venue. I will return to Patsy next time as I want to do it better than I feel I am going to do here at this hour. The notion of, ‘My imperfect self…’ comes into play.  

Patsy is a very humorous man an I’ll leave you with the following and I quote. “I was on the session etiquette committee and we decided the rules for a music session. These emphasised that there would be one guitar, one accordion, one bodhran and one spoon”.       

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanayhu

It is rarely that I now refer to the U.S. President Donald Trump. I have my reasons for that! One being that I am a poor typist….very slow. Anyway, the Trump Government has come up with a plan that they suggest will solve that most intractable of issues the Palestinian v Israel dilemma. The solution is vested in the U.S. putting in place a very major financial package to assuage the Palestinian people. I suppose in a sense buy them off. However, it discounts several fundamental elements of Palestinian rights and requirements and is basically a non-runner. The deal was negotiated by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner not an intellectual like Sammy Wilson.

At the announcement of this, beside President Trump, was a smiling Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanahu. He was very happy with the proposition which was a sure sign that the Palestinians were being dealt a bad hand. A President of the U.S. who is being impeached dealing with the first Israeli Premier to be ‘up on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust’. A likely couple.

If one were to do a survey of world leaders, I wonder what the balance would be between ‘the good the bad and the ugly’. 

With regard to the Pres. Trump impeachment … it is doomed of course as the Senate Republican majority will vote it down. The question really is; is it doing Trump’s re-election good or ill. I would say it is a plus for him with his constituency. Another four years, now that will be some penance for many of us. Still, how can it be that the Democrats cannot get a top candidate to challenge him and learn from the 2016 election with Hillary Clinton? While I have not studied or followed the Democratic possee much there is a definition of a junior team being made up of ‘the has-beens, the might-have -beens and they thought they should–have-beens’.  

Eco Eye in Boyle……

Duncan Stewart and his important television programme ‘Eco Eye’ was transmitted last Tuesday and ‘treated of Boyle for a time. There were contributions from locals including hairstylist Denise Sheridan, Barry and Finbar Feely, Sean and Catriona Purcell, Brian Nerney and County C.E.O. Eugene Cummins. All the speakers spoke optimistically of Boyle going forward and we all endorse that. Still, while not unique to Boyle, the derelict and empty houses and business premises were stark with the Royal Hotel frontage being a flag-bearer in that respect. The CEO spoke of the financial monies now available for regeneration and the hoped-for return of residents to the heart of the town. I often hear former residents talk of the numerous young people who resided along all the streets back the decades. I had some experience of that when I resided in my penthouse in Main Street where elements of Coronation Street were in the ether, in a communal way with Breda Dodd keeping an eye on things. Then new families were almost encouraged by the planners to seek the suburbs as we did. This created what is sometimes referred to as the ‘doughnut effect’ in medium to large scale towns. This is where commercial activity establishes itself on the outskirts and the centre declines certainly in terms of residential population.

Hopefully the initiatives that are spoken of now come to fruition and that the streets of Boyle resonate to the living of families again.

  

The Cycle Way from Lough Key to Boyle. 

Here is an impressive piece of infrastructure that has been talked of for some time but is now near complete. I have walked most of it and it should be a major asset to the town in terms of linkage to Lough Key. In summer the footfall on the streets of Boyle resonates especially around the Arts Festival period. This cycle way should encourage more people from Lough Key Park to the town. There are two impressive stretches of the Cycle Way. One is from the base of the dual carriageway in Lough Key entry through the forest (using old trails and service routes) to the Second Arch. There may be some tricky areas but the stretch along the canal bank is clear and inviting for cycle users, runners and walkers. I have mentioned a number of times the quality and diversity of the walkways around Boyle town. We are blessed with all that. So we look forward to the opening of the Greenway Cycle Route and will be observing with optimism its uptake. 

Cycling to School

For my five years attending Roscommon CBS in the sixties I cycled the six miles or so to secondary school. On that journey I joined lads from Creggs and places in between up to four and more miles. We were joined like a river from the tributary roads to Roscommon town. There are a number of stories of legendary distances travelled by students on their trusty Humber bikes to secondary schools the country over. Cycling has come back from the death of nearly twenty years ago or so. A few days ago I travelled through the town up Marian Road and past Abbey Community College. It was almost gridlocked with cars and buses between the hall and the college. There was no bicycle to be seen. Are there no students cycling to school anymore? Has the revival of cycle usage not spread to this basic and healthy way of doing business? Are there any initiatives within the schools-system encouraging this means of transport? Why is that? Apart from being a very good exercise it would be a training for college and city life later. It would also relieve some congestion in the large towns and cities.  

The Death of Seamus Mallon

It is odd really that a number of my heroes of recent decades happen to be from Northern Ireland. Maybe it is because I’ve been engrossed by the happenings there for nearly 50 years since I attended the funerals on Creggan Hill, Derry, after Bloody Sunday. A number of nationalist politicians emerged through those troubled times such as Bernadette Devlin, Austin Currie, Gerry Fitt and Ivan Cooper. The two giants of Nationalist history in Northern Ireland were John Hume and the understated personality that was Seamus Mallon.  

   Seamus Mallon was born in the largely Protestant village of Markethill, Armagh and was educated in Newry and Armagh schools. Like his father he became a teacher and became headmaster of the Primary School in Markethill.   Markethill being a largely a Protestant village made his and his family’s life all the more challenging during the Troubles. His father had been an active republican during the War of Independence.  While he inherited that he resisted violence totally despite the gross injustices which were the lot of Catholic Nationalists under the successive Unionist governments. He became a founder and prominent member of the SDLP and a Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland after the Good Friday Agreement and also an M.P.

There has been much written about Seamus in recent days so I do not desire to be repetitious. Some years ago there was a fine documentary about Seamus which I had taped and saved but it got scrubbed subsequently. I hope it turns up again. For the story of the life of Seamus his biography of 2019 ‘A shared Home Place’ is where you will find out about that life of Gaelic sport, politics and the huge courage that was shared with his wife and family.

On Saturday evening last in Croke Park the crowd there for the Dublin v Kerry game stood for a minute’s silence ending in applause as a mark of respect for Seamus the peacemaker and one of their own as a former Armagh footballer. This echoed the same tribute by the same teams on Sept. 1^st 2013 to the Derry poet Seamus Heaney on the weekend of his death at the end of August. Roscommon minors were also playing Tyrone on that day.

Ironically not long ago I was talking to Brendan McGee a member of the Boyle Arts Committee and suggested that Seamus would be an appropriate person to bring to Boyle to tell his remarkable and courageous story. 

Congratulations Cian

Congratulations to Boyle and Roscommon GAA player Cian McKeon who was a member of the DCU which won the Sigerson Cup on Wednesday evening over Carlow. Most people outside of the participants and their personal connections have no understanding of the significance of the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon (hurling) Cups. They form a lifetime bond for those involved especially on winning teams. 

Congrats also to the young Irish girl Billie Eilish who did so well at the Grammy awards and also Saoirse Ronan who has been nominated for a 5^th time for an Oscar. This is some achievement for someone so young.

A sad note; as the Grammy awards proceeded on Sunday night the mood was darkened by the death in an accident earlier that day of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, who spent much of his NBA career playing at the arena where the show was held. Most of us would not be aware of this sportsman but in the U.S. he was special.

‘And so to bed’ from S.P.

t.c.

       

             

Update 16th January

What …Another Year!

So… the race is on and the General Election will take place on Saturday, February 8^th. The first Saturday election they say since 1918.  An issue for us in Boyle is getting enthused by an election which, in the constituency boundary carve-up, has transposed us into the constituency of Sligo/Leitrim/ North Roscommon/ South Donegal. There is a bit of ‘sweepings of the floor’ about all that.

We now have to get to know most of the potential candidates. So here is my very rough thumbnail sketch-guide to it as of today Thursday January 16.

They are at the moment Marian Harkin former M.E.P. who topped the poll in the 2002 general election and three sitting T.D.s’ Marc Mc Sharry F.F., Eamon Scanlon F.F. and Martin Kenny S.F. With those is Frank Feighan F.G. who was impressively elected in 2007 and 2011 in Roscommon /South Leitrim. A Tony McLoughlin F.G. has stood down from contesting this time. For a time his daughter was seen as a strong candidate but also stood down. It is probable that F.G. will add another candidate while the Greens may do so as well. Other possibles are Ellis, Bree and some independents. There are some 6000 + votes in the Roscommon section of the constituency with some 4000 voting last time and the quota will come in around 12,000 with four seats.   

In Roscommon East Galway the sitting T.D.s’ are Dennis Naughton Ind.   …..but formerly F.G. / Ml. Fitzmaurice Ind. / Eugene Murphy F.F.

Both Maura Hopkins and Ivan Connaughton had close runs in recent times. The standing down of Maura Hopkins for family reasons this time is a big hit for F.G. and their chances of getting a candidate elected now are minimal.  Added to this is a strong second F.F. candidate in Orla Leyden. Orla, is the daughter of Terry, but is her own lady in politics and is an impressive presence as a County Councillor. While Sinn Fein with Claire Kerrane and a possible Green candidate will get decent votes the Sinn Fein transition from Gerry Adams to Mary Lou McDonald has flat-lined at best. The Greens will get seats nationally and deservedly so but in Roscommon… not this time. I was listening to Ml. Fitzmaurice on the ‘Tonight’ T.V. programme last night with Ivan Yates and he seemed almost bored and boring in answering the same questions!      

Nationally seeing F.G. have been there since 2011 it would be some coup to continue as the primary party. A certain arrogance can be seen from time to time with their party hierarchy. Paschal is seen as an able Minister but is inclined to be looking down his nose a lot of the time. The one thing that really hits parties who are in situ for a prolonged period is ARROGANCE and ENTITLEMENT. The Bard again ‘Pride comes before a fall’. While the country is said to be prospering that prosperity is very uneven. Rural Ireland is in a constant state of erosion while Dublin continues to be the magnet despite significant logistical issues there.

While Fine Gael will of course point to the country’s prosperity, its Brexit policies and dealings, and the Northern parties back on track with a devolved Government there are a number of Premier issues that will hurt them hard and often.

The two major issues are well flagged in Heath and Housing. The experience of many who visit hospitals is regularly one of shock. I have been in some accident and emergency and in simplistic terms I refer to them as like Beirut. It is impossible to get any understanding of how so much money can be spent but yet for the core elements within the health system to remain so log-jammed. It seems as if the crisis is just impossible to influence.      

The housing ‘crisis’ is just an ongoing saga too with huge amounts of blame to go around.  The issues include the impossibility of young couples to get on the property ladder in the cities where they work; the homeless who struggle even to get any kind of housing; the insane rent young workers in the cities are required to pay in rent; the transposing of families into temporary accommodation in hotels etc. Fine Gael made a mistake not to remove Eoghan Muphy as if that would help!

Last night on the ‘Tonight’ the farmers protest in Dublin which was criticised by some contributors. It is an odd thing that the mainstream representative organisations are side-lined by those organising these disruptive blockades. They could be counter-productive cheesing off the communities in the capital. Though one commentator made the interesting point that; “Dublin is our capital city it belongs to all of us. It is where power exists and where the message must be delivered to.” etc.   

Salute to Mary Clifford

Congratulations and best wishes to Mary on being awarded the Roscommon Herald GAA ‘Hall of Fame’ award on Friday night next in The Abbey Hotel in Roscommon. It is in recognition of Mary’s work and commitment to Boyle and Roscommon GAA allied to her continued support for her native county of Donegal.       

Sigerson Last Sunday

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” is the opening line in Daphne du Maurier’s  Gothic novel. Well last Sunday I returned to the Sigerson Gaelic football tournament in Galway after a long time. Four of us, former UCG GAA people, met in up in Salthill with the meeting being supplemented by attending a Sigerson Cup game between UCG and UCC. I’ve never adapted to the modern appendage of NUIG which stands for the National University of Ireland Galway. After meeting up we headed for UCG’s grounds at Dangan. It was a cold miserable day and the Fitzgibbon hurling game was in progress between the same two colleges. UCC in the familiar distinctive red jerseys with black band and skull and crossbones motif were winners in a game that UCG could have got a draw from. It was a difficult day for skilful hurling which happened in patches. The 30 man panel of UCG had only two from out of Galway.

There was a long break before the football game which was a do- or- die affair. UCG started brightly with a Robert Finnerty a lively player causing problems for Cork. However, when Cork settled they got two quick goals which of course were crucial to the result. Galway fought back and by half time the margin had narrowed to a couple of points. The introduction of Corofinn star Kieran Molloy promised good things for Galway but Kerry player Sean O’ Shea was a star turn. Galway had the chance to draw level and send the game into extra time but their free-taker missed from close in with the last kick of the game. It was the trauma that lands on a missed penalty taker in a shoot-out. There was no Roscommon player participating with just two substitutes Aaron Brady  and Padraic Halpin.

Through the decades Roscommon players have played an integral part of many Sigerson teams. From our own area, there is a number such as, in the 30s’,  Dr. Hugh Gibbons who was a star player with a UCG team that ruled the roost then as he won on 5 occasions. UCG won 8 in 10 Sigersons in the thirties. Bill McQuillan captained a College team to victory circa 1950. Paddy Nangle was also part of the winning UCG teams of the early 60s’.  John Kelly starred for UCD in the late sixties. Timmy O’ Dowd was a UCG player in the early 70s’ with Tom Ryan in the 90s’. Sean Daly and later Niall O’Donohoe featured with Sligo I.T. in their early days. Around four years ago the Smith brothers and Tadhg Lowe starred with DCU with a great win in Cork against Cork which a number of Boyle GAA supporters were happy to witness.  Evan McGrath was on the U.C.G. panel in 2019 when they lost a great game against UCC. UCC and UCG seem to have a real history which has tiltedin favour of Cork with 23 Sigersons wins, to UCG a creditable 22 wins bolstered by the golden era of the 30s’ with their 8 wins.  

‘It’s the little things that trip you up’

1. While it is not a little thing but the story on the radio as I write here is of a homeless man being seriously injured while some tents were being cleared from the banks of a Dublin’s Grand Canal. It emerged that underneath one of the tents that was being removed by a machine was a person. In the process, he was seriously injured and removed to hospital with life-changing injuries. It of course highlights again the plight of the homeless particularly in the cities and how the authorities find it impossible to redress those extreme issues. Numbers are being quoted as I speak and all that but there can be no confidence that the situation will get hugely better. An ‘incident’ that brought it into stark light was the death of a man in a doorway close to Leinster House around four years ago. There was an outcry then and things improved but they have regressed.

The argument from the Government is that; “There is no reason for anyone to sleep out on the streets as there is emergency accommodation available for everyone”. The issue- question there is…Why will people choose to sleep on the streets rather than access this supposed total accommodation? They are saying that it is safer to sleep in their tents than in the hostels! 

From a political/election point of view this ‘incident’ is a very unwelcome grenade.

2. While this has gone off the radar the stupidity of the printer for Leinster House and the remedial work needed to facilitate its location was mind-boggling.

3. The spiralling cost of the National Children’s Hospital which is being built in a very contentious restricted site will be a story for a number of years yet.

4. The decision that was short-circuited to commemorate the R.I.C. at Dublin Castle championed by the Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan. What a start to at least 3 years of very sensitive commemoration. Regularly on the high stool, a person will suggest; “I could have told them that…it wouldn’t fly.”  Regarding the assimilation of ‘Black and Tans’ into the R.I.C. in 1920 it really developed after a considerable number of RIC members left the organisation for a variety of reasons. A small number would have supported the emerging Irish Republic after the 1918 General Election. Others were frightened for their own safety and that of their families. A number would have emigrated to England and the U.S. The substantial reduction in numbers was filled by ‘recruits’ from England who were well remunerated. These were the ‘Black and Tan’ elements most with WW1 experience. So commemorating the RIC with its ‘Black and Tan’ connection at that particular period was an “I could have told them that …’ incident.      

5. School Secretaries were in the news last week as they picketed Leinster House too with issues of pay rate, no summer pay and no pension.  Their status when compared to internal Department of Education secretaries is stark. I know from my previous life that the work of school secretaries is immeasurable. They are the ‘first responders’ to so many issues in the school environment. They are the glue in the school framework. Without them, the running of schools would become a tangled web. So give them respect and their due.

(I’ll move on to a more positive zone).

56^th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

There was a great picture of the winners of the primary award at the above on Saturday’s Independent. They were Cormac Harris and Alan O’Sullivan from Cork. Their project looked at; “Stereotyping in young children and how to combat it.” The reaction of the boys was hugely positive almost expressing the feeling that they found it hard to believe. They now go forward to a European equivalent of the exhibition. This initiative has to be a big driver of secondary student initiatives and many winners have gone on to great success in their lives. I may be wrong but were the Collison brothers of Strype winners here a decade or so ago? Good luck to the winners and I imagine there are many fine ideas in the projects that did not get the primary accolade. One which I saw referred to a drone delivery of defibrillators!   The Roscommon Herald features the Roscommon entrants. I visited the Young Scientist expo once in the mid-nineties when my neighbour had a project there. It is such a great initiative.

James Dodd the Hurler

Michael Caine had a two-part biography decades ago maybe. The first book was titled ‘Not a Lot of People Know That’…the second being ‘Not a Lot of People Know this Either’. At the launch of hurling in Boyle, I came in contact with Roscommon hurling official Kieran Farrell from Tremane. We talked a bit about the hurling teams of the late sixties and told me that they were going to ‘honour’ two Roscommon teams that had won ‘Special All-Irelands’  fifty years ago in 1969. One was a minor team and the other was U16. He mentioned about a young Boyle man called James Dodd and asked if I knew him, which of course I did. ‘Well he was part of the Roscommon U 16 hurling team, especially in the early games and we’d like to invite him to the re-union Kieran replied. So I contacted James and got his take on it and he was pleased to be remembered. He was involved in the early games being ferried there by Mister Hurling of then, Offaly man Bob Carr. He missed out, somewhat, subsequently after accompanying his uncle, Father Kieran Dodd, on a holiday abroad. Holidays had also contributed to his hurling initiation as they were to relations in Tipperary.

So in mid-December, James returned to the re-union in Roscommon’s hurling heartland of Athleague fearing he would know ‘no one’. But no, as a familiar face of someone from his current native town of Nenagh emerged with ‘What are you doing here?’ he being a member of the minor team while James had been on the U 16 team.

So the night turned out to be a nice acknowledgement of a sporting highlight from 50 years ago. 

As a postscript it is well to acknowledge that James played Gaelic football with distinction for St. Mary’s College; Boyle teams in a series of county finals and Roscommon minors in the seventies and coached the game in Boyle and in his adopted town of Nenagh. 

Changing Lanes

I travel to Galway regularly. By tradition, my road was via Frenchpark, Castlerea, Williamstown and Dunmore and Tuam. That is a challenging route, especially in darkness. I knew a lady once who in her early driving initiation, on that road actually, told me that when she passed a cyclist she used to check her rear- view mirror to ensure that the cyclist was still intact! Why I say that is that there are times when meeting large vehicles on that the margin of error is negligible. So now I have changed to Frenchpark, past Ballagaderreen, Swinford, Knock, Claremorris via Ballindine and Milltown and linking into Tuam. Apart from a number of miles between Milltown and Ballindine it is a much better road.

So I have ‘made the change’ which is something akin to ‘shop around’. It may be costing me some five or so minutes but the steering wheel grip has relaxed a little! 

Watch what you say, politician!

This is a given but Heather Humphries a former minister (I presume now) referred to the Fianna Fáil front bench as a Junior ‘B’ team. I took immediate offence to that reference as I have a fond attachment to the ‘Jnr. ‘B’ teams for many years and especially after the Boyle team’s exploits this year. Indeed Kilteevan St. Joseph’s celebrated their win over Boyle in 2018 as if it meant the world to them.

Heather was using the analogy that the Fianna Fáil front bench has not got the wherewithal to govern. It is hard to be a star when you are consigned to the subs bench for nine years…something FF would not be used to.

*Michéal Martin deserves an awful lot of credit for supporting the F.G. Government for so long with ‘confidence and supply’. I imagine that there were many in F.F. who had reservations about that and especially its duration.

Anyway, Heather when this note is brought to your attention ‘Give Respect Get Respect’.   

Windows 7

While I am no techno person I have seen this week that Microsoft are ‘not supporting Windows 7’ henceforth and the general advice to people is to upgrade or investigate their security status generally. As I say I’m not qualified in the elements of all this but a thing I don’t want is infection issues with the laptop.

Epilogue

There were a few things I thought I might mention this turn such as some reflection on the happenings of Christmas, meeting people home for Christmas who I wish well on their return to x, y, z; the Golden Globes some T.V. programmes good and bad and so on… but we will adjourn.

Slán for now

t.c.