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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The West's Awake for August 2011
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.



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.





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