Search Results for 'Ernie'

This week’s title borrows from John Kells Ingram’s famous 1843 political ballad, "The Memory of the Dead". In his poem, Ingram posits that later generations turned their fattened backs on the memory of the rebels of 1798, "Who Fears to Speak of '98?" Ingram was not a republican, but he penned his piece for the nationalist paper The Nation because he sympathised with what the United Irishmen had attempted to do and he had always pledged to defend brave men who opposed tyranny.

Growing up in Castlebar in the 1950s and the 1960s Ernie Sweeney encountered a number of health problems which meant he missed periods of school over the years. This resulted in him falling behind and he had great difficulties with reading and writing. Being a member of a large class as was fairly normal in those days, he had little chance of getting any extra attention for his difficulties. Those were the days also prior to the presence of special needs teachers in schools. People like Ernie were often treated as being stupid and as result there was a huge stigma attached to the inability to be able to read.