I made the following notes in an old factory that was built in 1906 at a cost of six hundred pounds. It was a draughty one story building which has stood for over a century on the eastern shore of Loch an Mhuilinn in Carraroe, Conamara. Jack B. Yeats and John Millington Synge referred to … Read more
Greater in combat Than a person who conquers A thousand times a thousand people Is the person who conquers himself Gautama Buddha, the Dhammapada, (third century B.C.E.) There is no opponent Who the fuck is Jose Aldo? There is no Jose Aldo, There is no no-one You’re against yourself, You’re against yourself. Conor McGregor, Interview, … Read more
‘God bless all here’ as our ancestors used to say upon arrival at the home of a friend, neighbour, or stranger. Not just a blessing on all within that home, it meant he who entered possessed not the evil eye. In my great-grandparents’ time, curses, spells, and witchcraft were common practise. It was the 1870’s … Read more
Overheard in the local last night D’ye go to mass at all? Ah, just the odd time, ye know, Christmas ‘n funerals. I see, I do go meself most weeks, don’t agree with it all but I like the words but I tell ye something ye get a very different class of a handshake down … Read more
In a press release, the ‘Dublin Commuter Coalition’ has described proposals for electric vehicles to be permitted to use bus lanes[i] as a ‘slap in the face to bus users.’ This demonstrates, they claim: ‘a stunning lack of respect for overstretched users of sustainable transport.’ The civil society organisation reject: [I]n the strongest possible terms, … Read more
That summer of 1974 for the first time in my young life I felt proud of myself. For after one very hard week of sweat work, I stood admiring my big bank of black Tore bog turf drying in the hot sun. It was a great feeling and no one was mocking me now. Little … Read more
I admire old people who live by their wits, like the ancient American, a real estate man, whom I met in Galway years. He wore a badge on his lapel with the slogan: OLD AGE AND CUNNING WILL ALWAYS DEFEAT YOUTH AND TALENT. He told me he was eighty. He looked sixty. We had some … Read more
In August of 1969 I was driving across Ireland with the late Bearnard Ó Riain, the older brother of a good friend of mine, the late Dinno Ryan. Most of my old friends are now ‘late’. We were going to join others in a mountain-walking weekend. Bearnard had participated in the nineteen-fifties IRA campaign in … Read more
‘I say the word ‘forever’ less and less, the more I understand it.’ It’s a good line. I might get it tattooed on my chest. Or carved on my tombstone. During the heatwaves and increased storm warnings of the summer, I felt my heartbeat for the first time in a while. The seasons change so … Read more
Sure, he was only a little lad of 4ft 10ins. Little Paddy, I called him. He was eighty-two-years-old when I was twelve-years-old, but he was great craic. Little Paddy was a bogman. He lived in the bog of Derrycoffey. Think he was the last to live in that bog. I used to meet him all … Read more