Boston Rose lights up Ardara

It’s appropriate that the accompanying photograph was taken at the Johnny Doherty commemorative plinth in Ardara. Johnny’s grandnephew Paddy O’Rourke maintains the great fiddling tradition and last weekend was a very special family occasion when Paddy’s niece Tanya, the current Boston and New England Rose, visited with her family. Her mother Teresa (O’Rourke) and husband Paddy Stanley, along with brother Michael and sister Anna are also pictured above. I hope Daithi O’Se asks her to sing in Tralee because her rendition of ‘Home to Donegal’ was a great highlight in the Corner House, as was her mother’s singing and Paddy’s fiddling. As we say in Donegal, she’s a ‘wee cracker’...warm, friendly, engaging and very talented. We wish her and the Donegal Rose, Chloe Kennedy, all the very best. Her dad, Pauric Kennedy, is the Lord Mayor of Donegal Town, so I imagine the Donegal connection will ensure the families meet up in the Kingdom this week. Paddy was also one of many fine musicians who participated in the annual Charity BBQ commemorating the late Gerard and Margaret Slowey. It had the biggest turnout in its history and there was great delight when special guest and former Eurovision winner Niamh Kavangh took to the stage. As ever, John Joe McBrearty held it all together. As they say...some man for 'wan' man!

OPENING ‘WEANS WORLD’ IN GLENTIES
I was delighted to be asked to officially open the new ‘Baby Room’ at the Glenties Community Playgroup and Afterschool . I was taken on a tour by Manager Bridie McCahill and the facilities are absolutely amazing. The Baby Room, which I renamed ‘Weans World’, is really state of the art and I was particularly taken by The Sensory Room, which lays emphasis on the use of touch, taste, sound etc... and it’s not much wonder the centre is so much in demand and praised so fulsomely by many of the mothers who attended. Bridie is a real gem...her love of children shines through in huge measure...and her commitment and organisation have ensured that after 20 years of hard work in Glenties,the facility measures up to any throughout Ireland.
On the subject of Sensory...my olfactory senses were assailed immediately on landing, such was the array of incredible baking from the parents. The cake sale raised over 300 euro and Meganne and Andrea were flat out behind the sales counter. It was appropriate that Mark and Sophie provided the music as they once upon a time had been ‘weans’ in the playgroup.
We also had Irish dancing and Mary Anne Molloy made an emotional speech before making a special presentation to Bridie. Fr. Gerard Cunningham did the blessing and prayers and I loved his quotation from Patrick Kavanagh’s poem, ‘Advent’…”Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.”
It’s one of my favourite poems…
“And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.”
For the fortunate children in Glenties, ‘the newness’ begins in Bridie and her management’s loving care. ‘Time begins’ indeed.

PEACE FROM THE GROUND UP
Throughout the ‘Troubles’, community groups quietly and unobtrusively got on with their ‘groundwork’. Politicians basked in the occasional glory while ordinary men and women doggedly went about their business, ensuring that ‘their side’ learned to see ‘the other side’ in a different light. It wasn’t perfect, but by God, it made a difference. Peace can never be achieved from the top down, and invariably the Peace dividend meant that certain cultural groups received funding to continue what had been a long voluntary struggle. That too was imperfect, but there were many worthwhile achievements. I am proud as a Donegal man to have been involved in a number of these ‘cultural’ groups, and particularly proud as a Catholic to have worked, and still work with’, the Protestant people of Derry who wanted to celebrate their own culture through music and song.
A letter in the Democrat last week read: “Funding for so-called cultural organisations or groups that are nothing more than a front for this type of nefarious activity should be cut off thereby cutting the financial lifeline that encourages this behaviour”. The so-called ‘nefarious activity’ has absolutely nothing to do with cultural groups and his suggestion that there should be no funding “until they are forced to sit down” together is ludicrous. Believe me, there was very little sitting down until the aforementioned funded groups teased each other out and found some common ground to initiate a meeting or two. Juxtaposing phrases such as “hardline dissidents”, “orchestrating these confrontations”, “nefarious activity” etc,. before suggesting that funding should be cut off to cultural organisations is dangerous cut-and-paste populism.
Lou Reed once suggested that we “Take a walk on the Wild Side”. I suggest that anyone who wants to search for the uncomfortable truths in which real solutions incubate, should “Take a walk through The Bogside...or The Waterside.”

SCHOOL’S OUT...NOT THE HOTELS!
I thought I was hearing things when a hotel manager suggested on Highland and Newstalk that flexible school dates are damaging the hotel industry! That children should return uniformly on September 1st? So, in order to facilitate an extra week or weekend’s profit for hotels, to hell with facilitating the needs and wishes of parents, pupils and teachers? I’m sure Joe McHugh has an interesting view on this...I know what many school principals think...and they don’t agree with Noel. This is the time of year when hotels bombard us with deals...when the children are on the verge of going back to school. Why not bombard the mammies and daddies during the summer when the families can all have a break?
Two weeks with half board in Lanzarote, including flights, is still cheaper than one week in many corners of Mother Ireland. Sort that out and maybe...just maybe...parents and teachers may have a change of heart!
Mmmm? Ain’t going to happen.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
If you boil a funny bone, does it become a laughing stock? You could say that’s ‘humerus’, I suppose. Also, I see where scientists have grown human vocal chords in a Petri dish. The results should speak for themselves. And finally...can you call an argument between two vegans a Beef?