It Occurs To Me:  Follow me up to ‘Carla’!

Back in 2007, I loved the story about Brian Cowen’s meeting with Nicola Sarkozy, during which time, the French President’s beautiful wife, the much heralded Ms Carla Bruni, was stealing the glamour headlines. 

During dinner, Sarkozy leans over to the Taoiseach and asks: “Brian, what do you think of Carla?”, to which the Offaly man responds: “Jays I thought they were pheckin’ great against Wickla in the O’Byrne Cup!” 

Frank Galligan with Italian Bluegrass band The Truffle Valley Boys

I was reminded of that recently when I made a trip to ‘Wickla’, Baltinglass to be precise. The accompanying photo shows me with some old Bluegrass friends from Italy, The Truffle Valley Boys. I had missed them in the Balor Theatre in Ballybofey but was honoured to subsequently introduce them in the Wicklow town. What a gig! They not only look the part…their gear transporting you back to the 1940s/50s, but their musicianship and harmony singing is second to none. 

In any event, it was my first visit to Baltinglass and in a chat with a local, I mentioned that one of the first books I remember reading as a youngster was The Battle of Baltinglass. 

I don’t know how it ended up in our house in Carrigart, or whether my father or mother had come across it, but the title wrongfooted me. I thought it was about an ancient battle, perhaps featuring the legendary Fiach McHugh O’Byrne. 

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I had thought for years that my mother’s Byrnes had stemmed from that neck of the woods, to discover that the O’Beirnes of Glencolmcille were originally a displaced tribe from the Roscommon area. 

Historically, the O’Beirnes were based in a small area, “Tir Briuin,” in the north east of County Roscommon. The name, according to one source, means “descended from Bjorn,” Bjorn being Norse. In any event, I still sang the song which featured Fiach… Follow Me Up To Carlow, one of the most famous Irish folk songs and celebrates the defeat of the English army at the Battle of Glenmalure in 1580.

“Lift MacCahir Óg your face brooding o’er the old disgrace

That black Fitzwilliam stormed your place, drove you to the Fern

Grey said victory was sure soon the firebrand he’d secure;

Until he met at Glenmalure with Fiach Mac Hugh O’Byrne.

Chorus:

Curse and swear Lord Kildare

Fiach will do what Fiach will dare

Now Fitzwilliam, have a care

Fallen is your star, low

Up with halberd out with sword

On we’ll go for by the Lord

Fiach MacHugh has given the word,

Follow me up to Carlow. 

“The local man to whom I mentioned my reading The Battle of Baltinglass all those years ago, whispered into his pint: “Say nothin’ round here…it still stings!”

                                Helen takes out her pike!

The real battle took place in 1950. In November that year, a letter was received by the 55 year-old sub postmistress Helen Cooke in Baltinglass. She was to be sacked and replaced by a government appointee - but as it turned out, she wouldn't go down without a fight. 

The then minister for Posts and Telegraphs, Mr James Everett, decided to award the post office job to the son of a political supporter. Mick Farrell was the new appointee. He was a 27-year-old publican and draper and was well-liked in Baltinglass. 

But Miss Cooke was a single woman caring for her 80-year-old bedridden aunt and relied entirely on her salary as sub-postmistress to make ends meet.

The battle lines were soon drawn and the town torn apart with divided loyalties. The Battle of Baltinglass was ugly and divisive. The townsfolk faced off the might of the government. There were torch-lit black flag marches through the town reminiscent of wartime Germany. 

Protestors stormed the visitor’s gallery during a session of the Dáil. They marched on the GPO in Dublin and established a Baltinglass air force to bomb the capitol… with leaflets that is! Telegraph poles were chopped and sawn down. All telephonic communication to the town was severed and there were pitched battles on the streets as the gardaí tried to restore civil order.

As RTÉ reported in 2018 when a fabulous podcast of the row was broadcast: “The spinster at the centre of the dispute became an anti-corruption symbol. Her name was on the lips of a nation and her image graced the pages of international newsprint. In the town, she was beyond reproach even given the unbending catholic morays of the time. She would cut a caller off if they used profanities and refused to connect people during the Angelus.” 

Die-hard Fianna Fáilers happily shared the picket line with one of General Bernard Montgomery's generals and a second cousin of the Queen of England; and reporters from around the world who camped out in the town speculated as to whether a communist conspiracy was orchestrating events.

As writer Dermot Bolger recalled:  “Baltinglass split 80/20 in her favour, with Mr Farrell drawing his support mainly from the poor. One reason for this (and possibly the fervour of the whole affair) was that, back then before widespread banking, the town's shopkeepers kept their savings in the post office. As a business rival, Mr Farrell would have knowledge of their affairs, whereas Miss Cooke was neutral in such matters.

“The scars of the split (and the wounds to some who stayed in the middle, but were boycotted as well) didn't heal for decades. The major "battle" occurred when post office engineers, backed by police, tried to move the post office lines to Mr Farrell's shop. On the second occasion they succeeded, but the business was boycotted and eventually Michael Farrell resigned with the lines having to be moved back to Miss Cooke. The Farrell family business never recovered and they had to leave the town.

“A year or two later Miss Cooke herself resigned and the lines were transferred to one of her main supporters who became postmaster but was soon dismissed, with once again the road being dug up and the post office farcically returned to the, by then, former Cooke residence, where it still operates today.”

It is said that Noel Browne’s Mother and Child Scheme brought down the interparty government, but  it was another minister – Wicklow's Jim Everett – who fatally weakened it. Not that Everett tackled thorny issues like family health. He interfered in something more precious in the Irish psyche – the rural post office.

No wonder “...it still stings!” Of the 19 post offices that closed in Donegal since 2015, 

16 were located in rural areas and 3 in urban areas.With the decimation of rural Ireland, we could do with a few more Helen Cookes. 

                           Joe and Pat: D’Unbelievables return!

There are 30 counties in Ireland who would dearly love to get to an All-Ireland Final. 

Just to put things in perspective! 

In 2014, Joe Brolly inspired Kieran Donaghy's iconic, "What do you think of that? !" in an interview after their All-Ireland  final victory against us. It was no surprise to hear some Kerry supporters outside Croke Park last Sunday week  shouting "What do you think of that, Brolly?” Earlier in the competition, Brolly claimed that David Clifford was "the only Kerry footballer worthy of the name," before suggesting that the "current crop (of Kerry players) is useless altogether." How wrong he was and his response was childish:

"I don't give a f*** about that. You have to understand... it's entertainment value, it's the conversation.” 

When I read his comments in the Indo prior to the final, I shivered…no, no, no Joe, this is OTT!...he wrote: “Playing against Donegal is like playing against the sea. It pours through and over you, never stopping. Come this evening, the divers will be looking for Kerry.” 

My Dingle friend celebrated in Paul Geaney’s pub last week…the only divers were to be found in countless frothy pints of Guinness!

As for Spillane, he has never got over Tyrone beating his beloved Kingdom. He wrote:

“I hear the Ulster GAA gurus, from the time of Joe Lennon in the 1960s, they have been telling us once they're winning games they're preaching to us that they're miles ahead, that Kerry is traditional, backwards, and not evolving. Guess what, we're still at the top.” Wise up Pat! My old departed friend, the great Down fullback Leo Murphy - winner of two All-Ireland medals, idolised Kerry football. He was not alone. Whereas Brolly claims he ‘entertains’ (mar dhea), Spillane is morphing into a ‘puke’...now where have I heard that word before?

 (I see Colm O’Rourke is on the same bandwagon too…ironic that Meath became a good team in his absence!)