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Touching Memories
of Old
I have in my possession an ancient Vere Foster school exercise book
with a faded pink cover and brown rusty marks around the steel staples
which bind that back to the lined pages within. It is in good condition.
It is over 80 years old.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 13 December
2006
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Life as a Castaway
The first Sunday of December announces itself with a Gaelic gale.
The Dutch Nation’s sister Thea and her husband Tony are over for
a long weekend. more...
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(Irish Voice) 06 December
2006
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The Chill of a
Sad Memory
The big storm in March cleanly snapped the old ash tree at the end
of the lane. It snapped just above the point where the red iron
roadside gate had been attached to it by McGourty’s father when
he was about three.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 29 November
2006
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Holiday in a Hospital
The wet wind from the west blew my umbrella inside out, snapping
several ribs, just as I reached the outpatient entrance to Ennis
General Hospital. I was assaulted by large and very cold raindrops
for the last couple of yards.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 22 November
2006
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Our Sweet Donny Tree
“DONNY” is a great Ulster word. It means delicate to the point of
always being close to death’s front door, and is applied equally
to men and women, newborn infants, calves and bonhams, kittens and,
basically, anything that grows.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 15 November
2006
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Rules Made to be
Broken
SEAN Boylan spluttered and turned as red as a turkeycock. He’s the
Meath herbalist, father of eight or nine children, sporting father
figure to decades of teak-tough Meath football teams who won numerous
All-Ireland titles.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 8 November
2006
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Saints, Patriots
and Sports
I’VE just come back from Shannon Town five minutes ago. It’s Sunday
evening and we needed milk so I went to the late opening filling
station. more...
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(Irish Voice) 25 October
2006
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Irish Politics
Is So Hot!
IT’S a great week. Just as the weather goes wicked and we need really
good TV with a bite, doesn’t our Teflon Taoiseach (Prime Minister)
Bertie Ahern put his foot in it and the screen lights up. Great
stuff! more...
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(Irish Voice) 11 October
2006
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A Golfer Shows
His Class
I’M not a golfing addict, far from it, but the recent Ryder Cup
contest at the upmarket K Club in Co. Kildare was such a huge and
hugely hyped event that it was impossible not to be aware of it.
more...
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(Irish Voice) 4 October 2006
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Depression
After the Defeat
I SAW that dreadful All Ireland football final between Kerry and
Mayo in a small pub at the bottom of the holy Mayo mountain of Croagh
Patrick. Outside the day was beautiful, with Clew Bay glittering
in the September sunshine...
more... |
(Irish Voice) 27 September
2006
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The End of a Good
Pioneer
ANDY is a Pioneer and there are not too many of them in the country
now. Being a Pioneer means that you wear a special lapel pin which
indicates that you do not touch strong drink at all in reparation
for the many sins of intemperance committed by others.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 20 September
2006
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A Picture’s
Poignant Words
YOU see, all the days of my childhood in Belnaleck there was this
painting of the great Ulster chieftain Owen Roe O’Neill hanging
high on the wall facing the fireplace.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 13 September
2006
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Thanks a Lot, Dubya!
HONESTLY, I become quite fed up with your esteemed President George
W. Bush. Forgive me please for stating this apparently anti-American
sentiment, and allow me to explain before judging me.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 06 September
2006
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The Wild Week That
Was
WHAT a week!I begin it by attempting to eat my kangaroo Australian
hat, and the words that came from the mouth under it, after a truly
epic performance by the Mayo footballers in Croke Park.
more...
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(Irish Voice) 30 August 2006
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Joy Before the
Ember Days
THE golden summer peaks, turns subtly, the sweetest of the two apple
trees in my garden suddenly spills down the red-cheeked apples of
the sun that is suddenly not so hot.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 23 August 2006
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Back Where it
All Started
I’m writing this within a few yards of where I sat as a schoolboy
decades ago writing essays for a teacher called Colm Gillespie on
the staff of St. Michael’s Secondary School in Enniskillen.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 16 August 2006
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Doggone Dog
Driving Me Nuts!
THE Dutch Nation expressed a desire for a pup of a large breed a
while back. She still misses her big gentle Labrador called Bo who
died two years ago, and since my old Penny passed away last year
we have had only one dog, the former stray terrier we call Friday.
more...
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(Irish Voice) 09 August 2006
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The Myth of
King Gog
IT’S been a while since I paid my respects to the great dolmen at
Poulnabrone on the dome of the Burren. I was passing today and I
didn’t pass. more...
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(Irish Voice) 26 July 2006
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Handy Tips for
Tourists
IT is again the time of year when so many of you are coming to Ireland
for the first time and when I get a volume of requests for information
about places to see and things to do in this Emerald Isle. And especially
on the western flank of it, the area that I am prone to calling
God’s Country. more...
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(Irish Voice) 19 July 2006
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Old Ireland
Alive and Well
COMING home from Connemara on a glorious evening, on a whim, I swing
right at Kilcolgan in Oyster Country and slide down along the North
Clare coast around Black Head down as far as the Willie Clancy Week
in Miltownmalbay.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 12 July 2006
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All in a Day’s Work
I GOT up relatively early today to comfort the Dutch Nation with
a boiled egg, toast and coffee after her great disappointment on
Sunday evening. more...
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(Irish Voice) 05 July 2006
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The Exciting
Summer of 2006
SUMMER rushes headlong towards its peak in the West, this pell mellery
of a period where long days and short nights create a surreality
of sunshine and showers and stars, a suspension of the harder edges
of living. more...
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(Irish Voice) 27 June 2006
|
What the Rain Can
Bring
I’M in Cuan and Niamh’s garden in Spiddal, overlooking Galway Bay,
the Aran Islands, the bulk of the Burren across the water. It’s
a wet afternoon with that special sultry humidity.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 21 june 2006
|
Summertime
Treats in Clare
SHE’LL be green and she will be back in Clare, huffing and puffing,
in about 11 or 12 weeks. That was the good news I heard in Ennis
over a recent wet and windy May weekend.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 7 June 2006
|
Here
We Go Round the Maypole
THERE was a strange great brute of a stone in the farmyards of many
of the houses of my childhood. A depression had been chiseled into
the tops of the stones.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 31 May 2006
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A Wife’s Worst
Nightmare
MARY Kate Spellman went to the Golden Pages telephone directory
where you can find every possible trade and service and found the
Private Investigators grouped together on Page 246. She called the
first name on the list.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 24 May 2006
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Grandfather’s
April Traditions
THERE has been a Sean Mulhern living in the farmhouse on the edge
of the lake for more than a hundred Aprils. The first son of every
generation is always a Sean. It is traditional since almost always.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 17 May 2006
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‘Tis the Season for
Politics
THE fields of this dear land are greening, the waters of the loughs
are bluing and glittering, the blossoms are blossoming, the skies
dazzling, the seas long serene swells of contentment, the football
and hurling championships are beginning, birds are building nests,
frogs are spawning, young foals and lambs are decorating every second
hill, beautiful to see. more...
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(Irish Post) 10 May 2006
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‘Tis
the Season for Politics
THE fields of this dear land are greening, the waters of the loughs
are bluing and glittering, the blossoms are blossoming, the skies
dazzling, the seas long serene swells of contentment, the football
and hurling championships are beginning, birds are building nests,
frogs are spawning, young foals and lambs are decorating every second
hill, beautiful to see.
more... |
(Irish Post) 10 May 2006
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My
Holy Mountain Adventure
FEELING frisky and being in the area anyway, I decided that I’d
climb Croagh Patrick a few Sundays ago. I got early out of my Westport
bed and had a good breakfast, and I had a pair of boots and a walking
stick in the car.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 3 May 2006
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Wanted: Yank Stone Throwers
I, CORMAC MacConnell, lifetime president of the Stone Throwing Association
of Ireland, whose headquarters is in the village of Corofin, County
Clare, Ireland, specifically in the licensed premises of John and
Anne Campbell, Main Street, Corofin, do hereby officially offer
any and all of you the opportunity to become the World Stone Throwing
Champion! more...
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(Irish Voice) 19 April 2006
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Proud
to Stand Against Vulgarity
THIS column is a fanfare of praise and support for one of our readers.
His name is Kieran Steele, he lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and
he writes as well as reads because I spotted his letter in the Irish
Voice issue dated March 22-28 in relation to the screening of the
dreadful Father Ted series on public service TV in New Jersey.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 19 April 2006
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Power of the ‘Scallupers’
IT rained. The clock changed to summer time. The whole island
moved its timepieces one hour forward last thing before
bedtime on the Saturday night.
more...
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(Irish Voice) 12
April 2006
|
|
A Bygone Era Thrives
in Cork
WHEN there were great tracts of the world yet undiscovered, and
when Russia was very far away altogether, the editor of the Skibbereen
Eagle in far-off West Cork sternly warned the Czar of Russia that
the Skibbereen Eagle had its wary eye on him.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 5 April 2006
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Pub Talk About This and
That
I WENT into the Honk late in the evening for a pint. It was quiet
after the hectic previous week.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 29 March 2006
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We’re Evil . . . But Funny!
WE MacConnells are indeed a strange and possibly even evil clan.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 22 March 2006
|
Boycott
the Cliffs of Moher
I’M telling everybody I write for these days about a proposed rip-off
by the Clare County Council and those related authorities in charge
of the Cliffs of Moher.
more... |
Irish Voice 15 March 2006
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Where
Are the Irish Pigs?
IT is the chilly cusp of the Ides of March. If there were cressets
outside the cottage they would be guttering on the sharp edge of
the yellow fangs of a wind straight from Scandinavia. There are
no cressets but the 60 watt bulbs in the outside lights at the front
of the cottage look as chilly as Clint Eastwood’s eyes close-up
in one of those spaghetti westerns.
more... |
Irish Voice 08 March 2006
|
Special Delivery
Gone Wrong
THE big truck from Dublin was exactly on time despite the frosty
morning. When it stopped at the base office in Athlone it was exactly
6:30 a.m. more...
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(Irish Voice) 1 March 2006
|
What the Bold Crow Saw
I LAUGHED out loud an hour ago because I was outside the cottage
bringing in an armload of peat briquettes for the first fire of
the February day and a crow flew above me, in a clear sky, a hardy
young male crow, cawing with glee, and bombed me with pinpoint accuracy
with the contents of everything he had in his flying alimentary
canal. more...
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(Irish Voice) 22 February
2006
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Spring Is in,
Walty’s Is Out
GLORIOUS spring weather, new St. Bridget’s rush crosses appearing
in homes in town and country both.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 15 February
2006
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Soap Opera Comes to Life
DEVEREAUX ordered a fresh orange juice and a pot of coffee. McNamee
ordered a gin and tonic with ice and lemon.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 8 February
2006
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A Magical Reunion in
Galway
DOES anyone away down yonder in New Orleans want to know what happened
to Frankie Lee the magician after Katrina tore the town apart all
those dire months ago now?
more... |
(Irish Voice) 1 February
2006
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Profitable Reminders
of Home
THERE’S a logical explanation for most of the unusual sights you
encounter in the west of Ireland. That’s a fact.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 25 January
2006
|
Where There’s Smoke, There’s
Police
THE bloody Smoke Police are at it again, through all this land.
It’s enough to break a smoker’s nicotined heart! I’ll hang for one
of them yet more...
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(Irish Voice) 18 January
2006
|
Visitors Galore Make the
Season
MY Small Warrior of a grandson, my first, properly called Aidan,
was lying on a blanket in front of the fire during the festive season.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 11 January
2006
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Santa Claus Finally Returned!
ALL the young Egans went to England in the late 1970s and early
1980s, all six of them, because there were no prospects around home.
All the young Sullivans, three girls and two boys, scattered too,
for the same reason... more... |
(Irish Voice) 5 January 2006
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