by Cathal Liam
There you are now. Summertime… St. John’s Day, and sure you’d be right thinking of warm weather and long days. You have the long days right… eighteen hours from sunrise to set, but it’s no kind of weather for being out and about. Mother Nature is chucking it down outside, but thanks be to God it’s not blustery. If anyone is planning a bonfire tonight, they’ll have a tough go of it all right.
I’m sitting in Tom ‘The Publican’ Richardson and his mother’s fine home in Galway, looking out over their back garden and the long, slender finger of Lough Atalia, stretching away from Galway Bay to the west and the sea beyond. Today, fog shrouds the opposite shore. You’d never know there were houses across the way unless someone said.
This morning I took the train from Dublin to spend the weekend with my friends, to enjoy their fine company and to listen to some music. A long-time comrade, Gabriel ‘Gay’ Cooley, is coming around to Richardson’s pub this evening to entertain the crowd with his music and songs. Tom organised everything and Gay is obliging. Sure, the number of times I’ve sat inside that place, drinking pints and revelling in a rousing song or twenty must number in the hundreds.
As a bonus, a group of students from Cincinnati’s Xavier University, under the summer-school tutelage of Dr. Tim White and his wife Mary, might drop by the pub for a bit of the craic. I’d met the group in Dublin earlier in the week. Tim invited me to spend an hour or so with his charges, talking about Irish identity and the island’s centuries-old thirst for independence.
In my talk, I noted during the last fifty years, Ireland has undergone many profound changes. Its distinctiveness has experienced dramatic restructuring. From a rural, Catholic, family-centred way-of-life with Gaelic leanings, Ireland has increasingly embraced an urbanized, secular, materialistic, cosmopolitan lifestyle strongly influenced by Euro-American socio-economic mores. As my friend Tom aptly says, “Everything changes yet all remains the same.”
Speaking of transformations, the last time I took the train across country, maybe in 2007 or 2008, I remember passing through Athlone. At the time, a dozen or more huge building cranes dotted the horizon, dwarfing the twin spires of St. Peter and Paul’s church. Back then, the Celtic Tiger was alive and well.
Today, not a single crane is visible. Taking their place on the skyline is a massive communication tower with a multitude of metallic dishes affixed to its imposing frame. Its presence testifies to our ‘modern’ world’s love for communication. Sure, the building phenomenon is over today. It’s been replaced by a fascination for the Bluetooth, BlackBerry, iPad and mobile telephone.
With the winds of change blowing and the country in flux, Ireland’s political fortunes are relaxing a bit. An opinion poll published this week indicates the Irish are happy with their new government. Passing the one-hundred-day-in-office mark, the Enda Kenny-Eamon Gilmore collation received high marks. Headlines in the Irish Independent report, “Honeymoon goes on as FG [Fine Gael], Kenny soar in poll.”
Public support for Kenny, a Mayo man, has increased by 26%, with 65% of those queried stating they’re satisfied with the new Taoiseach’s efforts. The paper called the surprisingly positive evaluation “stunning.” The Independent further said, “Fine Gael’s rating has risen sharply despite a majority of voters believing no progress has been made on key economic promises made by the Coalition [FG & Labour parties] in the [February, 2011] election campaign.”
Two days ago, new Finance Minister Michael Noonan urged consumers to, “…go shopping to boost the economic recovery.” Referring to those holding a total of €134bn in Irish savings accounts, he said, “It was time [for people] to return to normal shopping habits.” He further emphasised, “What we really need is for people to go into the shops and start buying again.”
As the Government’s top monetary man, Noonan made the point that consumer and tourist spending was a way to, “help escape the current [economic] crisis.” He further noted, “The economy is now showing the strongest growth since the end of 2007, as tentative signs of a recovery emerge on the back of exports.” [New figures show that the Irish economy actually expanded ‘a little’ in 2010, contrary to earlier projections of a decline.]
Ah sure, enough about our economic plight. We’ve been through worse and come out of it. We will again. In the words of that great sage, Tom, the Publican, “History is only the past repeating itself again and again and again…”
Back in Dublin last week, my friend Ronnie Daly, who’s served in the Defence Forces for thirty-eight years, and I rambled around town. We visited the freshly spruced up National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge. The grounds are magnificent with its 8,000 rose bushes in full bloom.
Craig, an Office of Public Works horticulturalist, gave us a ‘royal’ [pun intended] tour. The sunken gardens with their marble/limestone tributes to the 49,400 Irishmen killed in the First War are striking. Surrounded by groves of trees and a muted silence, you’d never know you were just a short drive from the city centre. It’s a brilliant way to spend a peaceful hour strolling through a part of Dublin most never visit.
That evening, I spent a wonderful time enjoying wine and a meal with Sean O’Mahony and Tim Pat Coogan in Sean’s comfortable home south of town. Surrounded by books, paintings and in the presence of two great historians, I felt honoured to be in such exceptional company.
For a nightcap, I took Kilmainham Gaol supervisor Niall Bergin’s suggestion and popped into a wee pub just a short distance from the jail. If you chose to visit, the Old Royal Oak pub is only 250 yards down Kilmainham Lane. Padraig, the owner, will greet you and sure he serves a great pint amid a 1940’s atmosphere.
On that happy note, I bid you all the best from Dublin, Cathal
*Cathal is a freelance writer and the author of Consumed in Freedom’s Flame, Forever Green, and Blood on the Shamrock. His new book, Fear Not the Storm, was just released in March. www.cathalliam.com.
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