Léargas

ONLY A GAME? ‘What brilliant seats!’ Your man was estatic. I have never seen him so delighted with himself. The green sward of Croke Park stretched out before us. We were in the Hogan Stand. Plumb centre. Just above the level of the pitch. ‘Any closer and we wud have to tog out’. ‘Indeed’ I said. All around was there was noise. Happy noise. Excitement. Expectation. Colour. Whoops. Hollers. Hill 16 was a stormy sea of blue. The stadium was filling up rapidly. Hector was out cajoling and winding up the crowd. ‘An bhfuil aon daoine anseo ó Thir Conall?’ he yelled. Tens of thousands yelled back at him. ‘Are the Leinster champions here?’ he countered. The Dubs answered him in one huge gurrier roar. ‘This is the biggest sporting event in Europe this weekend’, Hector told us. Then the entire stadium roared and yelled and screamed and applauded as the Donegal and Dublin teams tore on to the field to begin warming up. Your man and I yelled along with all the r...

OLD CROCS. ‘I really love good black and white pudding.’ ‘Clonakilty is your only man’ ‘Clonakilty is Michael Collins homeplace’. ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yup. And Clonakilty black and white pudding is the best in the world.’ ‘What do you think of Collins?’ ‘He shudda had more sense. He shud never let the Brits divide and conquer’. ‘Dev had a lot to do with that’. ‘There is a place in Fermanagh sells black bacon. O Dohertys. Its in Eniskillen. It is traditionally cured. None of the stuff that comes out like when you fry other bacon.’ ‘Aye I ate that black bacon. It comes from pigs who roam wild on the islands on Lough Erne’. ‘It’s hard to get’. ‘But it’s worth it. Clonakilty black and white pudding, O Doherty’s black bacon and duck eggs fried with home made potato farls and soda bread.’ ‘I’m starving’. ‘I’m a vegetarian.’ ‘But you eat eggs. And fish’. ‘So what? At least I don’t eat dead animals’ ‘Fish is animal.’ ‘Michael Collins shudda came home and called Llyod Geor...

Mickey Devine was the last of the hunger strikers to die. His 30th anniversary was on Saturday. He left us after sixty-six days on hunger strike. I remember meeting Mickey three weeks before he died when I visited the H-Block prison hospital on Wednesday July 29th along with Owen Carron, Bobby’s election agent and now Fermanagh South Tyrone candidate, and Seamus Ruddy of the IRSP. A week later – August 8th - An Phoblacht carried an article by me in which I reflected on that visit. In the intervening days Kevin Lynch and Kieran Doherty died, and on the day the article was published Tom McElwee died. In memory of those inside and outside the prison who died during that tragic summer I am posting that article. H-Block Visit Brendan McFarlane, Tom McElwee, Laurence McKeown, Matt Devlin, Pat McGeown, Paddy Quinn and Mickey Devine were assembled in the canteen of the prison hospital when Owen Carron, Séamus Ruddy and I arrived. Paddy Quinn was in a wheelchair and sat wi...

Jimmy hit the stone chisel with the lump hammer. The house vibrated with the dull thumping thud of his exertions. Your man was nursing his morning after the night before hangover. He had his own personal dull thumping thud to contend with. He didn’t need any competition. Not at half eight in the morning. He was putting on a brave face but I knew he wasn’t pleased. Who would be? I wasn’t too pleased myself. And I couldn’t find an egg cup. We had no electricity. Jimmy was punching a hole in the wall to let the spark run a new length of wire from the fuse box to replace the bit that was causing the trouble. Jimmy was a handy workman. But even a handy workman had to resort to brute strength and ignorance when it came to making holes in walls. When there was no electricity to run a drill. Boiling eggs was easy. Even without electricity. But I like an egg cup. It’s more civilised. In fact it’s the only civilised way to eat a boiled egg. ‘Did you get those eggs of Eilis? Jimmy aske...

A few weeks ago a good friend and sound man with whom I spent time in Long Kesh in the early 70s visited me in Leinster House. It was his 70th birthday and he and my brother Paddy and wee Harry came along to look around the place. He brought with him some poems he has written over the years. One in particular, ‘The Long Road’ was about the 1981 hunger strike and I immediately set it aside knowing that I would use it as part of remarks I was to make at the national hunger strike commemoration in Camlough. And I did. The march was yesterday and I used the poem to open my speech. The Long Road The Hard Road The Brutal Road The Torture Road The Naked Road The Blanket Road The Hunger Road The Martyr Road The road through the long Bog ... Ten men walked them all. The crowd at yesterday’s march and commemoration was among the biggest I have seen in many a long time. It took almost one hour to pass any given point. The weather was generally good and with the hills o...

PÓC OFF! The second annual Póc ar an Cnoic for the Edward Carson Memorial Trophy was an outstanding success again this year and I will post some photos over the next few days. As regular readers of this blog, historians and hurling aficionados will know Unionist leader Carson was a hurler. He played for Trinity College away back in the day. And so, as part of Féile an Phobal, this blog and other atheletes gathered in the Stormont estate in the shadow of his famous statue Saturday. It was a mighty day of craic and sport. First off our young folks, camógs and hurlers battled in a series of very exciting games on the lawns in front of Parliament Buildings. Then a best out of two for the póc fada. Mark Sidebottom was defending his title from last year. Big Rogey – Martin Rogan heavy weight boxer – was obviously in training. Barry McIlduff obviously wasn’t. Neither was Mickey Brady. Or Lucilita Breatnach, Cathy Power or Madge McEldoone. Peter Bunting did well. And Dominic...

The Dáil closed two weeks ago for its six week summer break. Fine Gael and Labour will be glad of the opportunity to catch their breath after weeks of intense grilling by opposition TDs over a wide range of government policies. Fine Gael and Labour won power promising not to raise income tax or cut social welfare and to defend public services, including health. Last December’s budget by the Fianna Fáil led government was supported by Fine Gael and facilitated by Labour. It proposed major cuts to public spending and services, and a four year austerity programme. Among the measures introduced was the universal social charge. This is basically a flat tax which requires that everyone with an income above €16,000 pays it at the same rate of 7%. It also brings people who earn as little as €77 a week into the tax net. It breaches the fundamental principal of progressive taxation – that those who have more, should pay more. In opposition Labour opposed it. One of its TD’s Róisín Shortall, who ...