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More midsummer meanderings from the west of Ireland
Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2011 at 09:37 AM
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| Illustration by Caty Bartholomew |
The best of them represent whatever it is that makes the Irish different to all other Europeans. The best of them, in full flight, catch the mystery and somehow the magicality of us crazy Celts.
They are getting scarcer, these lone ones. They are dying out by the generation.
I remember a time they were as common as cabbage butterflies in rural Ireland. No longer the case.
Nowadays we have all mutated into bland Europeans of the mainstream. We are colorless, odorless, tasteless. We wear the same clothes, affect the European styles, try to be just as the mainland millions of others.
We strive to be model Europeans, and fundamentally we are far too pagan to make a good fist of that. But as a race we are good enough actors to fool many of our visitors.
And so we are becoming to our tourists just another forgettable tiny segment of the people of the continent. And we don't have the easy compensation of lots of sunshine.
Against that background, the flamboyant Bard of Mologga and his dwindling band of brothers and sisters are worth their weight in gold to the tourism industry.
We have more than enough sharp-selling Suits armed with laptops. The government should instantly begin to pay a significant weekly stipend or gratuity to this merry band.
It would not cost too much. There are only a few thousand of them left.
They will be as dead as Dodos unless they are deliberately preserved. We will miss them when they are gone.
The Bard of Mologga is a fine example of the species. No longer in the full flush of youth either, he cuts the kind of figure you notice at once as a "character" when he enters a room.
Maybe he resembles a younger Lee Marvin with silvered hair and a rascally pair of eyes. And he has a flow of language and yarns to beat the band.
It is in keeping with the image that he drives a jeep which, he says, is of the type "that won the last war,” and when I met him, was wearing a black leather jacket with some style.
And inside minutes, at the recent Trevor/Bowen Summer School in Mitchelstown, every overseas visitor in the hotel was being cupped in the palm of his hand. They were enjoying every word of every yarn.
You and I might know that most of the stories were to be taken with a pinch of salt. What does that matter?
It was great Irish craic. They won't forget the Bard of Mologga too soon.
As a matter of fact the man's name is Mike Cullen Aherne from the nearby parish of Kildorrery. He is a member of the organizing group of the stimulating and enjoyable event.
I would know well from experience that he does not put in anything like the volume of organizing work of, say, the genial secretary Liam Cusack, but he surely compensates for that by what he brings to the crucial social side of things.
And, genuinely, the man is a real poet of some sensitivity and power. I read a poem he wrote about his father.
The first verse goes, "I have a memory of the man/all six feet tall of him/bent over the reaping/from the headlands/I saw him finding work/ for scrap iron and wood/the use of a craftsman/out of big calloused hands."
The powers that be in our tourism industry, I say, should start skimping on expensive consultants and Suits and concentrate instead on sending a few spirits like the Bard of Mologga into the foreign markets to spread the Irish message. It would work a treat.
…And I'm at a matterless enough midweek hurling match between neighboring parishes back home in Clare. I stop merely because I saw the cluster of cars and heard the crowd noise as I passed through East Clare.
I will not name the teams for fear of libel or slander actions because GAA truths can be extremely flexible following publicity. But this is what I saw with my own two eyes.
A burly player who was clearly very fired up was strongly warned by the referee to cool down but continued to play foully before getting a yellow card before halftime.
The second half was only minutes old before he again flattened an opponent, received a well-deserved red card and was ordered off the pitch by the referee. He refused to leave the field.
When his own colleagues prevailed upon him to follow the order he struck out at them and decked two of them. When finally leaving the field he ripped off his helmet and struck one of his own club officials with it when he reached the sideline. He then ripped off his jersey and danced upon it with considerable fury.
And finally, before disappearing, he appeared to "moon" all present at the game!
I wonder what punishment will that player get from the GAA? I will inquire and let ye know the result later. It should be interesting.
See more: Illustration by Caty Bartholomew…And I meet the Bard of Mologga in Mitchelstown, the genuine 100 carat Gas Character running on a full cylinder of laughing gas, and I think, watching him effortlessly capture the attention of a room full of visitors, just how important it is to us as a tourism economy that we still breed Irishmen (and women) like thisThe best of them represent whatever it is that makes the Irish different to all other Europeans The best of them, in full flight, catch the mystery and somehow the magicality of us crazy Celts
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themurphia | Aug 13, 2011, 04:20 PM EDT
Monty Hall's 'Great Irish Escape'..Thursdays 8.00pm BBC2...if you google title there is quite a lot of programme inf...Injoy!
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themurphia | Aug 13, 2011, 04:13 PM EDT
Since you ask so nicely...It is a natural history series Monty Hall a marine biologist has set up shop in Inisheen opposite Roundstone...and is studying the cetaceous...oooh get me..! marine life of said coast...it would be an impertincence to praise the scenery as you know who said...Monday nights 7.00ish have a look on BBC iplayer might be able to catch up on 1st episode...not a leprechaun more deus ex machina saying what are you doing sitting there get over here you gobshite...!
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johnshiel | Aug 12, 2011, 07:07 PM EDT
so, themurphia, what's the deal on said series? title? where to see? or did a leprechaun whisper into your ear as you slept? and as bob dylan famously wrote while on his connemara retreat in the late sixties, "time passes slowly up here in the mountains. we sit beside bridges and walk beside fountains. catch the wild fishes that float through the stream. time passes slowly when you're lost in a dream." so he did.
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themurphia | Aug 12, 2011, 05:03 AM EDT
I got a little closer to my dream yesterday...not only does Cormac provide the stories but the BBC have very obligingly provided the backdrop...a whole series set in Connemara...even on the small screen the place is jawdroppingly gorgeous...!
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themurphia | Aug 03, 2011, 08:47 AM EDT
GRMA for that story Cormac...the description of the GAA 'match' brought a number of similar'spectacles' back to me...to be included in my sequel to the family memoir...Brilliant...Also for another stop on my western itinerary...I'm keeping a note...!
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blackthorn | Jul 31, 2011, 10:22 PM EDT
Tis Cormac himself who "catch[es]the mystery and somehow the magicality of us crazy Celts."
Fair play to ye, Cormac.
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casualMBA | Jul 29, 2011, 09:21 PM EDT
Keep wandering, Cormac. Your travelogues of the West help us quixotic types to retain our inner (western) compass.
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johnshiel | Jul 28, 2011, 08:21 PM EDT
don'tmean to hog here, but the illust of talking bard with this post is a great additive that fits with a string of recent drawings that are the same: solidly additive. (like the one with musicians shadowed by missile hurlers...) nice work, Caty.
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johnshiel | Jul 28, 2011, 08:16 PM EDT
cool post, and on a Thursday no less. whoa. Hey Ed, no excuses, just book it and be sure to waltz in to Eddie Doherty's establishment in Ardara for a pint and an excellent piece of woven magic color. If unfamiliar, google himself...
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themurphia | Jul 28, 2011, 04:12 PM EDT
Don't think about it Ed just do it...go...there's a couple of good months left and wven if the weather is not clement there's bound to be a seisun...I was the same as a kid as soon a sthe boat docked and I heard the Irish accents I felt I was 'home'...What's stopping you...go on book your ticket...!
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EdShevlin | Jul 28, 2011, 03:37 PM EDT
That's why I yearn to visit Ardara - Killybegs and vicinity at least once more while I'm still able. I am three generations removed, but when there I feel a sense of home.
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themurphia | Jul 28, 2011, 02:59 PM EDT
Depends where you go Ed...The Gaeltacht in the West is the place where culture tradition and heritage is valued...unlike the litter of the celtic Cat who mock those who value these things...you only have to read some of the posts on these message boards and the mocking sneering tone of those who have sold out towards the Diaspora...reference to Irish music as Diddley-Eye disparaging comments about Irish History etc etc
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jamieLM | Jul 28, 2011, 01:40 PM EDT
I totally agree with harryfee on his comment. Maybe the Irish people still retain more of their "Irishness" for tourists than you think, Mr. MacConnell. In talking with Irish people, no matter how they were dressed, I've never found them to be just like other Europeans, and especially not like the English. For me, they've always retained those special qualities that define them as "Irish" - that Irish mindset about themselves, their history and culture, and the world around them and their place in it. I'll agree, though, that we all change, to some degree, and are shaped by the times we live in. Just my opinion.
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EdShevlin | Jul 28, 2011, 12:54 PM EDT
Wonderful commentary worth of a bard! Why is tradition seeming to disapear in the tide of modernism? It is said that in the old days one could meet a man by the sea in the West of Ireland who could recite the Iliad in the Greek as well as the Irish, although perhaps never formallly schooled in the classics. Is our love of history and tradition being buried as well as our gift of eloquence? Thankfully a bit of it is still preserved in this column.
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