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Funny Winter Happenings
THIS morning was so bright and warm, the sun flooding the
cottage, that all the tortoiseshell butterflies that have tucked
themselves away up in the high ceiling’s corners were confused and
baffled by it all.
more... |
Lovely Offerings from Kerry
I’M caught in the late hours of the night between two powerful
forces, one visual, one aural, and it is like being very hungry
and then having a platter of food which is too richly sauced placed
before you and not being able to do justice to it.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 26 Nov 2003
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Tears of a Soldier
I HAVE been reading the letters in the Irish Voice over
the last month or two. I have been reading them wryly and a little
sadly too.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 20 Nov 2003
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Powers of the Ghosts
IT was only because there was a power blackout in the parish
last Tuesday night that it happened.
Because of the blackout, which happened at five in the evening because
the big sycamore at the Hurlers’ Cross fell across the lines, Binto
MacLaughlin came into Donnellan’s house ...
more... |
(Irish Voice) 12 Nov 2003
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The Body Beautiful
MY daughter Ciara came back from the Holy Land, arriving
into Shannon full of tales about the peaceful beauty of Jordan and
the amazing redrock city of Petra and the strange feeling you get
when you stand on the banks of the Jordan where John the Baptist
baptized Jesus Christ and, just to keep the stories running...
more... |
(Irish Voice) 6 Nov 2003
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Troubled Times for Farmers
SO many of the stories I write here come from the lives
and mouths of the small farmers of the west of Ireland.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 30 Oct 2003
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Beware the Caribbean Curse
THE evening before he went to visit the Quare Fella up in
the mountains on the county border with Galway, it is fair to say
that Droogan made every effort to settle the dispute between himself
and the Tuohys.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 22 Oct 2003
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The Strength of the Women
Shannon Estuary and which is emptied out now except for tourists.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 16 Oct 2003
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Death in the Air
BY the time ye are reading this piece the swallows will have gone
again. I went for a brief walk with Friday the terrier this Sunday
evening between the showers. The swallows of our summer were doing
that excited massing thing around the telephone lines over our heads.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 10 Oct 2003
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An All-Ireland Sunday
CUAN my son is collecting me in an hour to bring me to Dublin for
the All-Ireland football final in Croke Park between Armagh and
Tyrone.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 1 Oct 2003
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The Black
Cliffs
AS soon as Daniel came in through the farmhouse door she knew from
the wide smile on his face that he had caught fish. He had been
away from the house and down by the riverbank for about two hours.
more... |
(Irish Voice)
24 Sep 2003
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The Bottom Brass Band
IT was McGarrigle, who is witty and sharp, who first christened
them as the Bottom Brass Band. That was after the Trombone was sent
up to Mountjoy Prison for stealing cars for the umpteenth time.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 10 Sep 2003
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Strange
Summer Happenings
THERE is a white blackbird in the village of Barefield. There is
a male Vietnamese potbellied pig, extremely aggressive and about
20 stone weight, on the loose in the environs of Ennis.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 10 Sep 2003
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Fun and Games
With a Priest
ONE of these New York evenings when you are down around West 37th
Street in Manhattan you are likely to see a smiling big rotundity
of a priest, clearly Irish, somewhere close to the famous Church
of the Holy Innocents. more...
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(Irish Voice) 04 Sep 2003
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Some Mother’s Son
COMING back from the town of Loughrea in the small hours of a recent
Sunday morning, heading towards Gort, I came around a bend over
which a chestnut tree stands sentinel and, in the very first omen
of autumn, the chestnut tree is attacked by an eddy of a freshening
wind and drops its first filagreed leaves into the spearing highlights.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 27 Aug 2003
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Sixthly, and
Finally, Revenge
WHAT happened first was that little Gerry Hamilton retired from
some top civil service job in Dublin and came back west to his home
town and bought Sinclair’s house on the Drum Road into town, then
a big battered two-story house with a neglected garden of about
three-quarters of an acre. That’s what happened first.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 21 Aug 2003
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Awed by a Falling
Star
FROM the top of Cassidy’s Hill he saw a star fall into Stragowna.
He had walked the bicycle up to the top of the hill for easier going.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 14 Aug 2003
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Leitrim – A Lovely Wild
Rose
AH, sometimes I do forget briefly just how beautiful the Cinderella
county of Leitrim is, and how warm at its heart, but I always manage
to get there for a few hours every summer.
more... |
(Irish Voice) 30 Jul 2003
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Willie Week Is a Wonder
I’VE heard it said that there are a few citizens of Miltownmalbay
in County Clare who would cross the street when the piper Willie
Clancy was living there to avoid talking to him. Somehow I know
that’s true. Sad but true. more...
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(Irish Voice) 23 Jul 2003
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A Night With
the Tourists
EARLY July on a Sunday evening and the Dutch Nation is on the night
shift in the hospital and, being restless, I went out about 11 p.m.
for a drink of beer, one pint, before going to bed after a long
and enjoyable weekend. more...
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(Irish Voice) 18 Jul 2003
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