Railway Bar Characters
Christmas Eve 2003 in the Railway Bar saw the unravelling of a story which had puzzled Wilbur Lundy from the Meadow from many a year earlier.
Myself and Liam Boyle were lucky enough to be present and witnessed the whole turning of events. Wilbur’s eldest son Billy was a keen dog lover and hunter [very much still is]. However the story dated back to the time when Bill was 11 years old – and was pieced together by the other two offspring of the Lundy household – Gerard and Robert plus information that Wilbur had unknowingly volunteered – what you are about to read, took years to unravel.
Cormac Keenan/Johnson of The Fews
‘Cormac Keenan was heads’ man for Johnston of the Fews [that Priest, Tory and Raparee hunter, of whom the famous couplet was written,
A Country Lane Walk
We have basked in summer temperatures for weeks, strolled the canal banks admiring…
Housing in Newry
The social and housing conditions of Newry two generations ago could scarcely stand in greater contrast with those conditions of today.
The Clink of Rhyme
A student here, from Ballintoy
A laughing fair-haired country boy
Felt now and then fit to employ
His Sunday leisure
In turning verses to enjoy
Poetic pleasure.
I showed him how with little cost
His thoughts were better far engrossed
In the blank verse of Robert Frost
And as a duck
Takes to the burn in which it’s tossed
He tried his luck.
The lines came supple, steady, clear
True to the country atmosphere.
There was no flowery discourse here
But honest phrasing;
And half a dozen times that year
He sought my praising.
But once he read his verses o’er
To some oul’ caillaigh at her door
Who had a name in three or four
Townlands for rhyming
That he might hear how much he’d score
By her skilled timing.
Awhile she listened to him, dumb
With not so much as haw or hum
Then, sucking at her toothless gum
She said, ‘I think
I’d rather hae the thochts that come
In lines that clink’.
By John Hewitt from ‘Loose Ends’ Blackstaff 1983.
I just LOVE this! The wonderful Brother Barney Liston taught us a love of poetry some 57 years ago at the Abbey Grammar (long before Hewitt wrote this!).
The young are reared on simple rhymes (nursery, to begin with) and doggerel – or trite pop lyrics. It takes time, tuition, practice and loving guidance to progress – in any enterprise.
I was initially dumb-founded that ‘prose’ – to me, i.e. non-rhyming poetry – could be counted in that exclusive company.
Hewitt, I suspect, is nodding in the direction of blank verse, but subliminally showing a personal preference for rhyme. He is also extolling his own roots (in the Ulster-Scots tradition) and his admiration for those who champion that – and local poetry – doggerel, if you like.
The cailliagh here (I think of our own Alice Kelly of Rostrevor – apologies Alice – I know you have your own teeth, and physically do not fit the bill – but you are an inspiration for the youthful budding poets amidst us!) ) is counter-arguing with the tutor, Hewitt. Like her, I prefer ‘lines that clink!’
I also like a laugh! This poem never fails to bring a smile to my wrinkled old face!
Structure of the Universe
Imagine standing on Warrenpoint beach looking towards Greenore. You may dip your toe in the water but from this experience alone you must deduce – without travelling on or over the sea – the nature of water, and of sea-water, of seas and oceans and currents, their total volume and extent, their composition, what plants, animals and inanimate objects are found in the sea, and the nature of the sea-bed.
Chew the Fat
Thatched roofs were certainly warm in winter and cool in summer. These advantages were welcome to other creatures than man. The canopied bed came into existence to protect the sleeper from bugs and insects dropping from the thatch.
Francis Sheey-Skeffington
In 1913 there was a major strike in Dublin as James Larkin (whose…
Gravity Hills
Mountains present a different profile to the observer from each separate location. It is useful therefore if the tourist provider at popular Viewpoints gives such information in graphic form on an accessible plinth.
The 20 Houses: Dromalane
The dreadful overcrowded town house conditions immediately after the war [mostly ‘entries’ with many families sharing a single tiny house] is clearly testified to by the list of tenants allocated the first twenty houses of Dromalane Park in 1950.
To this day these are known as ‘The Twenty Houses’ and the family heads, with the number of people in each family were:
Phrases and Explanations
The origin of a few common expressions explained: ‘Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water!’
