"The more disorder there is in Cork, the more Kilkenny is thought of fondly as the land of milk, honey and contentment.
The GAA's version of the Stepford Wives." Good man Donal Og, you hit the nail on the head. Kilkenny was the land of milk, honey and contentment last weekend and, hopefully it will continue to flow on the Stepford Wives for another few weeks.
The Arts Festival kicked off last Friday night in the gardens of the Pembroke Hotel. Maybe they should get Brian Cody to write the speeches next year, he could teach them a thing or two about keeping it short and sweet. Mary Hanafin, Minister for Arts and whole lot of other bits and pieces, waffled on without saying anything very memorable, so no surprise there. “Community” is the new buzz word. In other words don’t ask for money, just get your “community” to do it for free.
I had a chat with Paul Durcan at the opening and headed to his reading in the Watergate on Saturday. It was amazing to see a queue of over 300 people on the street on a Saturday afternoon and this seemed to be the scene at most shows over the weekend.
It was on then to St Canices Cathedral for the talk by Robert Fisk, introduced by Olivia O’Leary. He has covered all the major conflicts in the world, especially in the Middle East. Anyone hoping that he would have some simple solutions to the world’s problems would have been disappointed and his main message seemed to be not to believe what you read in the press and go and find out the real situation for yourself.
On to Croker
All thoughts of war, depressions and recessions were put to one side for the hurling semi-final on Sunday.
The sun shone as we walked over to the train station and the scene was set for a good day. We helped a woman who was having trouble with a parking meter outside MacDonagh Junction. It was charging €16 for the day, so we directed her to the free-on-Sunday car park over at John’s Green and headed on to the train with our good deed done.
I had booked tickets online with Iarnrod Eireann and even had seats allocated. I’d love to know how this works. As soon as the train pulls in there’s a rush for the doors and it’s first come, first served. I wouldn’t like to have to say to someone, “Excuse me, young man, I think you are occupying seat number C5, which, according to this document, is my preallocated seat.” I think I would be told fairly quickly where to stick my document.
We settled back with the papers to read the previews of the match. I had asked Enda McEvoy, Professor of Hurling at the Sunday Tribune, his views on the match the previous night. He told me to buy The Tribune if I wanted to read his opinion, which we did. I also had the Sunday Times at hand and first took a look at the Culture Magazine. Caitlin Rose was given a five star review and named ‘CD of the week.’ Caitlin plays in Cleeres on August 22, so things were looking even better.
Or so I thought. The good humour was diluted by the antics in the train carriage. We were surrounded by hormonal teenagers and I was regretting not taking the car up the new motorway. The racket was unbelievable and going to a match by train seems to be part of some new mating ritual. There were very few people over the age of 25 on the train, so, despite wishing to take the green option, public transport is not an option in the future, especially on match days.
What we witnessed in Croke Park was art of the highest order and is surely worthy of a grant of some sort from the Arts Council. How about it Ms Hanafin?
It’s coming close to the full time whistle in the year’s Kilkenny Arts Festival, but there’s still plenty to see and hear until Sunday. “Forty Years of Feminism” has been moved to the Ormond Hotel, due to popular demand, which goes to show what I know about women.
The theatre programme in unusual spaces has been a big success and by the time the Advertiser appears I’ll have caught a few more shows. ‘Susan and Darren’ at the Watergate looks interesting. The programme says “You are invited to help Susan and Darren prepare for one of their famous parties. Along the way there will be devastation, intimate conversation and a lovely buffet.” Sounds very like our carriage on the way to the match last Sunday. There’s some audience participation as well and you can attend a dance workshop beforehand to polish up your moves.
and finally...
A short poem from Paul Durcan last week that captures something of that Celtic Tiger mania.
Ireland 2002
Do you ever take a holiday abroad?
No, we always go to America.
