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The West's Awake


The West's Awake

by Cormac MacConnell
Cormac is a novelist, journalist and columnist. "The West's Awake" is a big hit with Irish Voice readers.

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Posted on Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 09:41 AM


Islandmcgrath - Paradise for McGraths and more



Posted on Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 09:29 AM


Little De Valera, Eamon O Cuiv, takes a new stance



Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 09:34 AM


Attacking Irish turfcutters is bad policy



Posted on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 08:28 AM


In rural Ireland we love too see our Irish Yanks coming -- Admiration and respect for Irish Americans is total


We love our Irish Yanks - admiration and respect for emigrants

There has been a lot of discussion around the place recently on the subject of what the Irish in Ireland think about Irish Americans, and I've read some strong views being expressed on both flanks of the debate and on both shores of the Atlantic. 



Posted on Thursday, April 05, 2012 at 08:37 AM


Safe and sound after email spamming



Posted on Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 10:14 AM


Return home to Ireland for a death in the family



Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 09:00 AM


Spring in our step - Irish travel continues as the world gets ever smaller


It is so balmy and soothing in Clare today that I am not going to allow even a single negative thought or word into this ramble around the events the last 10 days.

The facts are that the gentlest winter season of my entire life is now mingling and melding into a spring of compelling beauty and hope.  Even the barometer that is represented by the hourly news bulletins is rising.

For the past month, as the sun shines away in the mornings and the daffodils dance, there have been far more announcements of incoming jobs and positive developments than job losses or other indices of economic gloom.



Posted on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 09:15 AM


It’s best for Pope Benedict to stay away form Ireland, for now

 

At the time of writing on a bright spring morning, the word on the wires is that the Pope is considering coming to Ireland later this year for an upcoming Eucharistic Congress. He has been invited by the Irish hierarchy.

 



Posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 08:36 AM


The Yankee whiskey genius - Saint Alex Chasko



Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 09:54 AM


The one that got away - loving and losing the neighbor’s daughter


I'm telling this yarn exactly the way it was told to me a week ago by a wise man whose name I will hold back out of respect for his honesty and privacy.

I recorded it in his farmhouse home in sight of the thunderingly beautiful Cliffs of Moher on a surprisingly bright and mild January afternoon. We had the front door open all the time we were talking before his hearth fire.



Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 08:34 AM


2012 - a years to look forward to



Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 07:50 AM


Will 2012 roar or whimper?



I hope ye are all having a serene season to date as we venture into that surreal limboland between the dying of an old year and the incoming of its  successor.



Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 09:05 AM


Gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh - Jesus was a wealthy child at Christmas

Image by Caty Bartholomew 

These are beautifully gentle days and nights. This is the season, whatever the weather, which brings out the best of us, which gentles us, which writes smiles on our faces far more often than normal, which warms our handshakes and greetings.

I love these days leading into Christmas even more than I savor Christmas itself.  Are you like that?



Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2011 at 08:46 AM


Silent Night (Christmas 1915) - my song is a gift from above - VIDEO

It is a fact, however, that in a Christmas season about 20 years ago I got a rush of creative blood to the head above in Connemara and wrote one of the most popular Irish Christmas songs in less than an hour.

It came to me, air and all, after I'd watched a poignant TV documentary about the spontaneous soldiers' truce in the trenches during World War I. Deeply moved and somehow inspired, I was walking through the living room singing it, tears streaming down into my beard, before that strange hour was over.



Posted on Thursday, December 01, 2011 at 08:27 AM


Santa Claus’ double is still raring to go this Christmas

It was cold last weekend in rural Holland. I was visiting the warm-hearted family of the Dutch Nation in the eastern Gelderland region up against the German border.

There are dozens of picturesque little villages here. They are all crowned by a windmill which does not work any more but hallmarks the geography.



Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 09:10 AM


Thanksgiving should be cancelled - the GOPs will turkeys

 



Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 11:33 AM


Fiery end to an old romance



Posted on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 09:55 AM


My choice for president of Ireland is...



Posted on Friday, October 07, 2011 at 10:48 AM


Old friend and beloved blacksmith passes away



Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 09:40 AM


A self-inflicted writing ban on feathers and fur



Posted on Thursday, September 01, 2011 at 09:06 AM


'Warm and still above ground' or 'Livin' to die and dyin' to live'

I have an evening at home for a change and the apples on Maisie's two trees have red cheeks now, and some are falling rustlingly when the winds blow.

The blackbirds and thrushes and starlings accordingly are on their annual cider binge, pecking at the windfalls. By the late evening some of them are flying unsteadily on one wing. If they were mortal motorists the police would stop them for drunk driving and put them in jail.

I have some fun with my neighbor Jimmy White across the road, a man I mentioned to ye recently. He is now hale and hearty again and restructuring his fine garden by having a boundary wall constructed.



Posted on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 09:03 AM


Family, funerals and a witch

Illustration by Caty Bartholomew  Meandering merrily away this week, I find myself in Listowel trying to meet brother Mickie and, as always, discovering that he, like myself, is rarely at home in the summer.

Maura tells me he is down in John B. Keane's pub for one of the pub theater nights there, feeds me with a mighty fry and all the Kerry news, and releases me into the evening again.

The aura and spirit of John B. still strongly inhabits Kerry's most famous pub. It hits between the eyes as you enter, and the entertainment is as varied and rich as Keane's own work.



Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 09:34 AM


The summer’s getting shorter

Illustration by Caty Bartholomew Meanderng away, though the days are shortening now and the apples on Maisie's old apple trees in the garden are becoming red-cheeked with the rapid approach of autumn, I am drawn again to Murrisk at the base of Croagh Patrick for the enduring fairytale that is Reek Sunday and the pilgrimage to the summit and Mass in the wee oratory up there that is the closest Mass to paradise in Ireland.

I've been up there more than 20 times, maybe 30, always in the line of reporting duties for newspapers and magazines now long gone, and it is my firm intent to climb the holy mountain again.

I put on my boots and take my pilgrim's staff and put Ciara's leather hat on my head and start off through the afternoon crowds with a light heart and step. There are thousands gathering and climbing, just like always. Nothing has changed at all.



Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 09:44 AM


All kinds of things to do in the west of Ireland



Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 09:18 AM


Making money from Ireland's bog



Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2011 at 08:57 AM


Lots of summer living ahead in Ireland this year



Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 09:22 AM


Driven to distraction by cats and dogs and sadness



Posted on Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 09:28 AM


What's in a name?- Calling all Cormacs!

What's in a name?

There was a debate here recently about all the implications of being a Paddy or a Mick on either side of the Atlantic. It was interesting.

For what it is, worth I made certain that none of my three sons would bear that burden. Accordingly they are called Cuan and Cormac Og and Dara.



Posted on Friday, June 17, 2011 at 09:19 AM


Looking on the bright side - reflecting on the hell of post-Famine evictions and workhouses

Roses flaunted themselves and quiet little edelweiss blooms were heading towards their pure white flowerings in the Kilrush garden I sat in the other afternoon amid scenes of unbelievable summer beauty on the Clare coast.

I sipped an espresso from the small cafe behind me and looked down the floral path leading into the center of a walled garden that has become a major tourist attraction in the West Clare town. It was a long time before the reality of where I was, in historic terms, struck me like a bucket of cold water.

Down that very path, into the very same garden, the cruel Lord Hector Vandeleur walked with his agents away back in the post-Famine era, when his family owned the town, and planned the mass evictions of sick and starving tenants from his estates in an episode which is indelibly marked not just into Kilrush history, but nationally too.



Posted on Friday, June 10, 2011 at 11:32 AM


Why Sarah Palin is disliked in Ireland

I know from experience that I'm going to get into hot water over this, but I don't give a tinker's curse whether I do or not.

There are times to keep your mouth tightly closed and there are times to yell. This is one of these occasions.

In the name of the sweet and suffering Christ Almighty what is wrong with ye over there?  How is it even remotely possible that a significant number of the citizens of your mighty and well-educated nation have created a political climate which sees Sarah Palin emerging as the most likely Republican choice to contest the upcoming presidential election?



Posted on Friday, June 03, 2011 at 10:58 AM


A history of Ireland's stone walls

There is a young, lean man with a centuries-old face building a stone wall in front of a new house these days near Carrygerry Chapel. I pass him almost every day and admire the work.

There is something quite exquisite and even exciting about stone walls and the men that build them. I've always thought that.

These craftsmen are working with grey chunks and flags of eternity building boundaries which will be still young when they are dead and gone. Stone walls last forever. And men don't.



Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 10:37 AM


My tears at the Queen Elizabeth's speech at Dublin Castle

I wept as I remembered small things and watched the Queen of England lay a wreath in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin last week, and make a powerful speech of regret for the big harsh things which England impacted on our history. I wept, though I am not a man who weeps too often.

I wept because of the damage that history did to my brain, because of the way it damaged the heads and perceptions of the good people, both Protestant and Catholic, among whom I spent my childhood in Ulster, because of the tortured and bloodstained impacts it had on all the people of this island, north and south, because of all the horrifics of all the Troubles between the two Bloody Sundays, because of all the tears and fears and heartbreaks.

And I remembered small things. My shopkeeper father Sandy was known for the high quality of the tea he sold in our country shop. When this old Queen was young and her coronation was being celebrated, the tea company in Dungannon sent out a gift hamper to their customers.



Posted on Friday, May 20, 2011 at 11:13 AM


In praise of our leprechauns



Posted on Friday, May 06, 2011 at 10:42 AM


The man still on the moon - Solly Maguire


Driving back home from the village of Labasheeda on a crystal bright spring night garnished with stars, I saw Solly Maguire for the first time in close on 20 years. He had not changed one bit from the time I last saw him even though he is a big age now.

He still had the same ruddy cheeks, the huge wide smile, the head on one side. And he still has the double chins and the dimple in the center of the original one.
A remarkable man, Solly, and the father of a daughter with beautiful wisdoms about her.

I said, "Hello there Solly. It's great to see you looking so well." I saluted him with my right arm.





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