It Occurs To Me:  The Valley of the Squinting Windows

I was around ten years old in Carrigart when I chanced upon a copy of Brinsley McNamara’s classic The Valley of the Squinting Windows.

I was mesmerised…this was an Ireland I didn’t recognise…yet! I’ve reread it a few times since and Michael Scott’s acclaimed theatre production of the book returned to the Gaiety Theatre last month by popular demand, after a sell-out run. 

As Scott told the Westmeath Examiner: “There’s the story of the book itself, and then there’s the story of Brinsley McNamara writing the book when he was a young man in Delvin. When the book was published in 1918, the village basically sat on the steps and decided to read the book, and they learned by page 20 that the book was based on them, they were all characters in it. A group of vigilantes chased Brinsley through three towns with petrol, guns, clubs and any sharp instruments they could lay their hands on. He escaped with his life that night.

“Then the local priest and the rest of the village took revenge on his remaining family. The father was the local school teacher, and at that time the teachers were paid by the number of pupils, and the priest dictated that no one was to send their children to school, and the shops were told not to serve the family. So the family was left destitute and starving, and were hunted out of the village. It paints a vicious picture of what rural Ireland was like at the time, but Brinsley was in good company.

Brinsley McNamara’s classic The Valley of the Squinting Windows

“If you look at Synge – the Playboy [of the Western World] riots had just happened. O’Casey does The Plough and the Stars, and there’s riots, Beckett leaves the country, Joyce has to publish his work elsewhere to get acknowledged. Anybody who wanted to talk about real Ireland was persona non grata. The Irish, while creating a new state, wanted to dance at the crossroads and not actually face who they really were. I think that’s one of the prime reasons the book was such a controversial thing, Ireland didn’t want to see the warts, it only wanted to see the roses.”

Brinsley’s book was burned publicly in Delvin and his father James Weldon (real family name) had to emigrate. In 1990, Padraic O’Farrell published a fascinating book entitled The Burning of Brinsley McNamara. I thought of James Weldon last weekend when I saw the audio/video of Michael O’Leary grandstanding in Clarke’s pub in Mullingar, some 12 miles from Delvin. James was a teacher and O’Leary doesn’t rate teachers. 

                                 Bellowing Blueshirts and hot air!

Why, oh why did Fine Gael Minister Peter Burke need Michael O’Leary to launch his election campaign. Burke is (was?) a rising star who needed him like a hole in the head, and O’Leary’s contribution was - as usual - about himself. He sneered: “I think in Peter [Burke] we have a candidate who comes from the private sector which is absolutely vital. The Dáil is full of teachers, nothing wrong with teachers. I love teachers, I have four children. But I wouldn’t generally employ a lot of teachers to go out and get things done. I think it’s important that we have people who come from the private sector, like Peter. I think we need more accountants – we may lack personality, but we make up for in action and energy what we lack in personality.”

Bad enough that a privileged Clongowes educated multi-millionaire insults the teaching profession but the guffaws and chortles from the Hooray Henrys and sleveens present was nauseating in the extreme. As Fionnan Sheehan put it in an article in the Indo entitled Fine Gael scrambles to limit damage after Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary uses party election event to mock teachers… “with all the Blueshirts bellowing away in the background”. 

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You see, Michael O’Leary’s problem is that the majority of teachers that I know are empathetic and compassionate…they would be perfect front-of-house staff to cope with long airport queues and bureaucratic airline cock-ups. But we don’t want that, do we? No…to quote the Ryanair CEO again: “We make up for in action and energy what we lack in personality.” Action and energy? Our educators are under-resourced and unappreciated by far too many, but they soldier on, inside and outside school…extra curricular activities, GAA, Tidy Towns…it’s a long list. 

Look at the scandalous state of Scoil Mhuire in Milford. The staff had to write to Minister for Education Norma Foley about their situation. They told her that pupils are taught in the corridor outside of classrooms when they receive support from special education teachers or when they undertake group work because of a lack of available space elsewhere.

They added that children have no running warm water in the toilets to wash their hands. The demands on the school’s water supply has often resulted in low water pressure meaning that children cannot correctly wash their hands. 

Also, there is no safe space inside the building for children who require occupational therapy or movement breaks. The school hall is being used by four teachers in a school of 220 students and the hall also contains the photocopier and sensory room. And Michael O’Leary mocks that profession. 

 I contacted Sorca Clarke, a Mullingar native and Sinn Féin spokesperson on Education. She said: “To hear teachers being spoken of with such disregard and contempt at Peter Burke’s election campaign launch is unacceptable. No workers should be demeaned in this way. It is staggering, but very telling, that not only were these remarks allowed to go unchecked, but they were actually applauded, lapped up and cheered on by Fine Gaelers in attendance. This was Peter Burke’s event. He needs to apologise to teachers and workers and, as party leader, Simon Harris needs to clarify whether he stands over Fine Gael members jeering teachers. The tone, the words and the attitude contained in the leaked video show very clearly to the electorate where Fine Gael’s priorities lie. They should be ashamed of themselves.” 

Here’s a bold ‘action and energy’ suggestion…Michael O’Leary should change the name of his airline from Ryanair to Hotair! 

                                      The schools ‘pouch’ controversy

Norma Foley said: “I listened to Michael O’Leary’s comments and I was disheartened and disappointed at such a narrow view of the sterling contributions of teachers in so many areas of life and society. I have found my own experience of being a community activist, a county councillor and of course a teacher invaluable in my role at cabinet as Minister for Education and equally as a TD for Kerry.”

Last week, Pearse Doherty said that Norma misled the Dáil over her engagement with a company which sells mobile phone pouches. I’ve often been critical of her in this column but I have to applaud her on her latest initiative, organised in conjunction with the Australian government. There are approximately 45 million kangaroos Down Under, and every so often, it is necessary to cull numbers, but Ireland will shortly play a very humane role in keeping those numbers down.

There are 3,300 primary and 700 secondary schools in Ireland and the Minister is determined to source pouches for the epidemic of student mobile phones. Initially, the Department was to allocate some €9 million to provide said pouches but the subsequent controversy has forced it to come up with a cheap alternative.

When the powers-that-be in Canberra heard about it…hey presto!...they offered to send us 4,000 kangaroos free of charge, and no shipping fees! Well, as you might imagine, never one to look a gift kangaroo in the mouth, Norma said ‘Yes!’ 

A female can hold up to two wee ‘Joeys’, as they are called, so their pouches should accommodate a decent ‘lock’ of smart phones. Crucially, any student who tries to take a phone out during the day will get a good box from the animal…so everybody’s happy. When asked about accommodation and grub, the Department replied:  “As kangaroos are herbivores, the Greens will look after their feeding and they will be housed in Direct Provision Camps.” Also, special Department ‘Wallaby Inspectors’ will be ruthless in ensuring that each school is on board. The only dissenting voice is fellow Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae:  “No marsupial will darken a school door in the Kingdom…they can hop it!”