It Occurs To Me: An impressive Donegal performance and an inspiring story from Buncrana

Heavy weather?

I don’t know if Maurice Brosnan of the Irish Examiner was in Ballyshannon last Sunday, but reading his headline in his newspaper – ‘Donegal make heavy weather of shaking off shadow Kerry’ – didn’t convince me of his actual presence.

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but we did not make “heavy weather” of it.

Ok, Jim McGuinness was unhappy with some aspects of his team’s performance, but as a supporter, I was seriously impressed overall.

'Jim McGuinness was unhappy with some aspects of his team’s performance'

I don’t know if Maurice is a Kerry Brosnan, which might explain the above nonsense, but if he hails from Cork or elsewhere, an objective analysis of the game is the least we deserved.

Maurice also wrote: “This was a game Donegal couldn’t afford to lose. That was obvious at the finish.”
If I figure that out before next week, I’ll let you know!

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The mica scandal
Talking with someone recently whose house is riddled with mica, and whose frustration and anger is multiplied by the obfuscation and the ‘kicking the can down the road’ delays, I imagined the hundreds of other households going through the same angst and pain.

Charles Ward TD is doing his level best, but each time I see him addressing the Dáil, it seems to be bordering on empty.

Rest assured, if mica caused problems in the leafy suburbs of Dublin, it would have been sorted out ages ago. It’s not only a local disgrace, but a national one too!

Hooray to iCare!

I so enjoyed RTÉ’s Nationwide programme as they looked at the wonderful iCare facility in Buncrana.

Workers and volunteers alike have done Trojan work in the past 25 years, and I am privileged to know many of the youngsters and adults who have benefited from it.

The reaction to the broadcast has been hugely positive, and so it should be.

I interviewed founding member and then manager Angela Tourish in 2019: “The main issue was that the HSE were referring children to us and not giving us any funding. No money has been granted from the government health services on a regular basis, despite the number of people who benefit from it.

“We all have children ourselves with autism, the last thing we need to do is fundraise to keep it going. This is the only place they can play safely and make friends. There is just nowhere else for them to go.”

Mercifully, a one-off grant of €35,000 from the HSE a year previously kept the centre going until the end of November 2018, but summer courses were cut and as money was scarce their manager departed for fulltime secure employment. “We lost a great manager and were devastated.”

“Thank God for council,” she acknowledged. “Only for it, our fantastic donors who have been so good to us and fundraisers, the gates would indeed be locked.”

Thank God, they remain very much open!

Wile weather, hi!

Wile weather indeed, but when I hear politicians blaming the met office, my bullshitometer becomes particularly sensitive.

In Enniscorthy, Bantry, Bandon and other towns, they have had successive flooding just as we’ve had successive governments who promised to sort it.

Vague promises and ubiquitous consultations aside, I usually veer towards Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather when I look for a bit of accuracy.

His comments on the aftermath of Storm Chandra make for interesting reading: “I have been calling for flood warnings to be made public for several years now. The National Flood Forecast and Warnings Service (NFFWS) was announced in 2016, and in 2020, work began on a flood early warning system. Since July 2021, a flood forecasting system has been available to Met Éireann, with a team of flood forecasters using and developing the system.

“Since 2023, the Irish Flood Integrated Communication System (IFICS), developed by Met Éireann, has been used as an online platform to disseminate flood forecasts, weather and hydrological observations, and to issue daily flood guidance statements to local authorities and other state agencies.

“However, none of these flood forecasts are made available to the public, so we do not know what they showed for Tuesday, and we will not know what they show for the coming days. Is it the case that even after five years since the system was first developed, it is still not ready to be shared?”

To further add to the bureaucratic nonsense, Shane O’Connor, chairman of Slaney Search and Rescue that rescued more than a dozen families from the floodwaters in Enniscorthy, said the local council complained to gardaí about its activities – because it felt the organisation should not be there! I despair betimes!

Travellers tales and tunes

Well done to Martin McGinley and others for a fantastic day last Saturday celebrating Travellers Tales in the RCC in Letterkenny, launched by Senator Eileen Flynn.

Rab Cherry, who spent some 15 years working on the Doherty fiddling family genealogy, said the preamble to the tune was hugely important, and to that end, it was lovely to hear Martin, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Kevin Doherty and Seamus Gibson’s tales before their tunes and songs.

They were joined on stage by Roisín and Paul Harrigan, Conor Caldwell, as well as Simon Doherty’s granddaughter Bianca Rohleder.

I was delighted to meet Bianca for the first time, and she contributed greatly to a wonderful Travellers Tunes concert.
Martin asked me to read my poem commemorating the late Stephen McCahill, and it was poignant and moving to have all the musicians kick in with McCahill’s Reels after the reading.

An afternoon to savour, not only for the Doherty and Traveller musician clans but the response from the audience said it all.

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‘Melania’ sinks the Trump ship

It was ironic hearing US vice-president JD Vance comparing the US economy to the Titanic recently. Did he not watch the movie?

The fate of the Titanic would be a more apt description of the reaction to the $75 waste of money, the ‘Melania’ documentary. In the Irish Independent, reviewer Chris Wassler wrote: “Melania’s film is an insipid mess, with no soul, no heart – and a no-show from the public.” One of the best (or worst?) reviews, however, was in the UK Independent:

“First Lady is a preening, scowling void of pure nothingness in this ghastly bit of propaganda. To call Melania vapid would do a disservice to the plumes of florid vape smoke that linger around British teenagers. She calls herself a ‘mother, wife, daughter, friend,’ yet is only depicted preening and scowling.

“Figures like Brigitte Macron and Queen Rania of Jordan appear to bolster Melania’s geopolitical credentials, yet time and again she returns to banal aphorisms.

“‘Cherish your family and loved ones,’ she implores audiences, who were, up until then, neglecting their family and despising their loved ones. Trump himself is an instantly more charismatic presence on screen.

“His scenes offer a relief from Melania’s mask of pure nothingness. Hitting cinemas as the streets of America remain filled with the angry and grieving – with the country on the verge of an irreparable schism – the vulgar, gilded lifestyle of the Trumps makes them look like Marie Antoinette skulking in her cake-filled chateau, or Hermann Göring staring up at his looted Monet.”

Ouch!...and ouch again!

And on a lighter note…

A wealthy Arab sheikh visiting Cavan is suddenly taken to hospital after becoming seriously ill and needs an emergency blood transfusion!

Unfortunately the sheikh has a very rare type of blood and the hospital doesn’t have any in stock.

After some frantic calls, a local farmer is located who has the same blood type and he agrees to make his way to Cavan General Hospital to donate some blood.

The sheikh receives the blood and begins to get better. He tells his assistant that he should send the farmer many lavish gifts as a show of his appreciation.

A few days later the Cavan farmer answers the door to be greeted with a brand new tractor, €250,000 in cash, a pouch full of diamonds and a lifetime supply of Lyons tea.

A couple of days later, the sheikh begins to get ill again and the hospital have to phone the farmer, who is more than happy to donate some more blood.

After receiving the blood the sheikh gets better and once again tells his assistant to send the Cavan man some gifts as a show of his appreciation, but this time when the farmer opens his door all he receives is a thank you card and a €10 voucher for Dunnes Stores.

The farmer is very unhappy that the sheikh did not reciprocate his kind gesture as he had done before.

He phones him and asks: “Listen Abdullah, I thought you might be as generous this time again, more money and diamonds etc. … but only a thank you card and a 10 quid voucher, ya tight hoor ya!”

The sheikh replies: “Ah my friend, that was then, but now I have Cavan blood coursing through my veins! Insha Allah!”