I was browsing through Prime Video looking for a film to watch this holiday weekend when I saw that The Shawshank Redemption is coming again soon.  This film comes from 1994 but is always worth a re-watch.  In some ways it’s hard to believe it’s 30 years old!!

If for some mad reason you’ve never seen it, it’s based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in 1947 in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman). Red procures a rock

The Field is a 1990 Irish drama film written and directed by Jim Sheridan and starring Richard Harris, John Hurt, Sean Bean, Brenda Fricker and Tom Berenger. It is one of my favourite films as I believe the acting of Richard Harris and the others was brilliant and absorbing. It was adapted from John B. Keane's 1965 play of the same name. The film is set in the early 1930s and was shot almost entirely in the Connemara village of Leenaun, a beautiful part of Ireland.

​One of the things I remember well from my childhood was the excitement of getting a new comic.  My mother Peggy sometimes shopped at the newsagents “down at the Bridge”, O’Donnell’s, and If I had been extra “good”, or there was money to spare, I would be treated to a comic.  It wasn’t every week mind you.  Those weeks when I wasn’t getting one, I could only look wistfully at that week’s new comic sitting on the shelf in O’Donnell’s and imagine what the stories would be.

When I was doing my recent blog on moving to Hill View 50 years ago, it got me thinking of the things that have changed for children in that time.  Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, one of the biggest things is the amount of time that we spent outdoors playing.  Hopscotch, betchels, tip (tag/ chasing), red rover, taws (marbles), elastics, skipping, juggling two-balls or three-balls against a wall and playing with a tennis ball in nylon stockings tied to your ankle and jumped over…. or hit side to side against a wall under and over your leg!  No wonder we were all so skinny.
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Television
To be fair, one of the reasons I played outdoors was that, for most of my childhood, I lived in a one-station television zone in Ireland.  We only had RTE 1 ….. in black and white! I envied those in Dublin and others on the east coast that could get the UK stations by aerial.   

​The performance of the Irish Olympics team in Paris was incredible and really lifted the mood of the whole country in this damp and miserable summer.  An unprecedented number of medals were won and national records broken.  They did us proud, every one of them.  One of the most memorable moments wasn’t even a sports performance for me.  It was seeing Irish boxer Kellie Harrington belt out Grace (her party-piece) in Stade Roland Garros after her stunning gold medal victory in the women's lightweight final.  

​In re-reading my last blog post (B133: Cobh & Emigration), I was thinking again how my great grandparents John and Alice had the chance to return to Ireland.  Sadly, for some who would love to, this never comes to pass. 

When I first started travelling away from home and telling people I was from Carrick-on-Suir, it was often confused in people’s minds with Carrick-on-Shannon or Carrickmacross.  But as soon as I mentioned “my” Carrick’s famous sons, the Clancy Brothers and Sean Kelly no further explanation was needed!  

​So, as many of you know, Charlie has a cute little doggie called Benji.  And we are all mad about him.  What you might not know is that before Benji, there was another dog….. called Fido.  And before Elf on The Shelf was a thing, there were the Fido Fotos!  

​For the weekend that was in it, St. Patrick’s weekend, it got me thinking of the Irish diaspora away from home.  I was thinking in particular of my contemporaries who left school in 1983 and emerged into the world looking for jobs at the height of a recession.  Many of my classmates went to the UK, US or Australia and found work in offices, hotels and factories.  Many of the fellas went onto building sites.  In the intervening years many have returned to Ireland but not all.

​My father Mickey left school at the age of 12 but yet was one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met.  During his working life he worked as a general labourer for Sisk (Construction Company), Unicast (Modular Homes) and Ferrersflex (Leather Shoe Insoles) where he was well-known for coming up with clever solutions to complex problems.  But he started his working life as a farm labourer, working for a number of Co. Waterford farming families.

​In 1978, as we were leaving 6th class in the Presentation Convent, our teacher Sr. Pius allowed us to have a class party in school.  We were heading off to secondary school (high school), some to Greenhill and some to the Tech; so, we didn’t know if we’d be seeing each other ever again.  Twelve-year-old girls being twelve-year-old girls, I remember there being a lot of dramatic good-byes and heartfelt promises to always stay in touch. Forever. (For the most part we have!)

​One of the best things about the Christmas holidays is that you have time to revisit some of your favourite movies.  This year I got to watch the almost 30-year-old film “Forrest Gump” again – one of my all-time favourites.  Yep…it really did come out in 1994!!  When Forrest says that line “My momma always said ‘life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get’, no one ever spoke a truer word. The film superbly plays on emotion throughout, finely balancing comedy and tragedy and to me that’s a good description of life in general….comedy and tragedy.  

One of my favourite songs is by the late Sandy Denny, “Who Knows Where The Time Goes”.  I find that I’m asking myself that very question a lot lately ……. a real sign that “I’m shoving on”.  But I was really thinking of this song a lot leading up to last month’s Greenhill Class of ’83 40th Reunion.

Written when the singer was just 19, just a couple of years older than most of us leaving Greenhill, this plaintive song has been covered extensively down through the years.  But I love the version here released in 1973.  It really pulls at the heartstrings and some regard it as “one of the saddest songs ever written”.

For us leaving school in 1983 it was indeed a sad time on the jobs front. John F. Kennedy on his presidential visit to Ireland in June 1963 twenty years earlier had remarked ‘Most countries send 

One of my mam Peggy’s favourite songs was “Danny Boy”.  I remember it was one of her party pieces and can still hear her soft voice singing it.   I think that it reminded her of her time as an emigrant in Leeds and Cardiff in the late 1940s.  It also reminded her of her younger brother, Danny, who worked laying gas-pipes in the UK.   I too love “Danny Boy”.  Nowadays.  But there was a time in the 1980s when I dreaded it. 

You see, I got a Stylophone as a gift one Christmas.  For those too young to remember, the iconic gadget Stylophone was a pocket-sized battery-operated synthesiser used by everyone from David Bowie to The White Stripes.  You played it by tapping and sliding the connected stylus along the touch-sensitive metal surface. Each segment on the surface played a different note, the same as different keys on a piano. But unlike the piano, it was so simple to play that anyone could have a go - perfect for beginners!  Like me! 

Now, I’m no David Bowie, but to please Peggy, one of the first tunes I learned on it was “Danny Boy”.  To my teenage mortification, she insisted I play it for any visitors to the house. With lots of requests for “one more time”!!   I even remember the late Paddy Farrell being obliged to listen as he was delivering our weekly box of messages (groceries) one Saturday morning.
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Anyway, in this week’s blog, I delve into the origins of “Danny Boy”.  I also have a link to the late Eva Cassidy’s beautiful rendition of it. I think Peggy would be delighted.  If there are harps in heaven, I’ve no doubt she has some poor angel pestered to play “Danny Boy” … one more time!  Enjoy!

​I was looking with envy at all of the great photos shared on Facebook recently of the Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society’s run of The Phantom of the Opera.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it down to experience it in person.  Knowing the amazing musical talent that exists in my little hometown, I wasn’t at all surprised to hear the rave reviews and that there were standing ovations every night.  I would expect nothing less knowing the wonderful people involved.  “Phantom” is one of my favourite shows ever.  I was lucky enough to see the Broadway production in April 2006 at the Majestic Theatre on West 44th Street in New York.  It was truly spectacular.  That whole trip with Charlie, being his first time in New York and my second, was so memorable.  In this week’s blog post I share a little of what we did and saw.  Enjoy!