What a sad story we’ve all had to think about in the last few days, following the terrible murder of Detective Garda Colm Horkan of Charlestown whilst on duty in Castlerea.
I am sure the readers were as upset about that as I was. I couldn’t get it out of my mind, the random and totally unexpected way in which he was killed. Then on Sunday last, I followed the removal from his home in Charlestown to the church and the subsequent funeral Mass on RTÉ TV. It was so poignant and so disturbing. Before the Mass began, we saw President Higgins and his wife stood at the Peace Bell at Áras an Uachtaráin for a minute’s silence. I was on my own at home, but I stood up and decided I would make the gesture with them. It was such a small thing to do, but I felt it fitted into the overall mood of despondency which had affected the whole country. It was heart-breaking to listen to his brother Brendan when he spoke from the altar.
I felt deeply that Detective Garda Colm Horkan died for all of us. The Irish people have such a good relationship with An Garda Síochána and I am glad of that. Despite all the commissions and enquiries of recent years, we have retained our community faith and our respect for the members of An Garda Síochána, our Guardians of the Peace.
An incident which I read about in Monday’s newspaper really touched me. It appears he was in the company of some of his Garda colleagues one evening watching The Late Late Show when Hozier appeared on it and gave a wonderful rendition of the song ‘The Parting Glass’. Colm said to his friends, “I want that played at my funeral.”
This was months ago, and one of his colleagues who had been with him on that night when he said that, sang ‘The Parting Glass’ in the graveyard as the body was lowered into the grave. Garda Alan McGinty, a Mayo man based in Ballyfermot, sang that song and I can only imagine the utter poignancy of it.
God rest his soul. He appeared to be the very essence of what a garda should be – looking out for everyone, kind and thoughtful to all he dealt with, and in general such a fine person to be taken away in such a cruel fashion.
I feel his death, coming as it did as we are beginning to see the light of coming out of the lockdown, struck a very emotional note with people. Life is uncertain anyway, but when something like that crosses our path, it really stops us in our tracks.
Slowly, life is coming back to normality. Next Monday, June 29, will see the opening up of many outlets, in particular the hairdressers and barbers which I’m sure so many of the readers have been hoping for. Well, now we will have it, and we will all, I hope, look the better for our visits to them. We can also visit people around the country, and they can visit us. I am already looking forward to a visit from Feargal in Dublin with Lisa and their two children, and they have confirmed today to me that they are looking forward to an early visit.
I have a confession to make. I have no inclination to go shopping. I have got used to not being keen on that part of my life, but I expect, like a lot of other things, it will come back in time.
The ever-present fear, of course, is that we will get another blast of the coronavirus. Everyone who comes on radio or TV predicts that it will happen. But I truly hope we might be lucky and escape that particular renewed visitation.
The big worry now for many of the Advertiser readers is, of course, will the schools reopen in full at the end of August/beginning of September? The Department of Education should now be in the middle of intense negotiations with all of the people involved in those areas of education: teachers, parents and young people. There’s well over two months until the date, and I truly hope the Minister (whoever it is ) and the Department will not leave it as they did with the Leaving Certificate – as I understand it, the planning started far too late, when if it had been tackled earlier the written Leaving Certificate could well have been managed.
Anyway, that’s over with now and all the concentration must be on making the proper arrangements so that schools for the four-plus and twelve-plus age groups will reopen. That will surely signal a return to normal life.
I am reading a terrific book which a friend of mine who called to visit brought with him. It is called 1691 and it is by Joe Joyce, whose father was a teacher at Aughrim in County Galway and runs the historic centre there. It is a tremendous book on detail, and it goes into all of the battles between the Williamites and Jacobites which were fought during 1691, including Ballymore, Athlone (Second Siege ), Aughrim, and later on Limerick.
The characters on both sides are brought so vividly to light, and the conversations among them. We had Sarsfield and St Ruth on one side, and Ginkel and his various Dutch generals on the other. It is truly a fascinating book, and I can strongly recommend it to anyone.
I love to have a good book ‘on the go’ all the time. Books are such a refuge where you can lose yourself in their pages, no matter what difficulties are abounding.
Well done to the Advertiser and to the other local newspapers which kept going throughout all of the difficulties. It can’t have been easy, and yet they kept the flags flying.
I was sorry to read of the death of Jean Kennedy Smith, who died recently. She was the last remaining Kennedy. I have such great tales to tell of her. When she came to Ireland in 1993, I met her and we had great friendship during her years here. It coincided with the years we were in opposition in government, so I was quite free to meet her frequently in Dublin and to engage with her on many activities.
She came down to Athlone to meet with Enda and myself, and I took her up the river with a friend who had a lovely boat, and out in the middle of Lough Ree we swam in the lovely icy water. She was a great companion during those years, and I have so many happy memories of her. Of course, she did wonderful work on the peace process, and there is no doubt that she made her mark on Irish history through her determination to be of whatever help she could be during those vivid years. May she rest in peace.
That’s my lot for this week.
Stay home as much as you can, stay safe, and we’ll talk again next week.
Slán go fóill.
Mary O’Rourke
