Impending closure of Daniel Doherty’s Bakery: All good things must come to an end

The impending closure of Daniel Doherty’s Bakery is an awful blow for Moville in the run-up to Christmas, with around thirty jobs at risk, and all the knock-on effects that will have for the local economy.

Daniel Doherty's, which opened just one generation after the Famine and survived two World Wars, has been a fixture in the town since 1880.

During that time – helped by hundreds upon hundreds of skilled and dedicated workers – it has produced bread of genuinely second-to-none quality.

Barrtalk salutes everyone [from delivery drivers to bakery operatives, admin, management and owners] who helped make it such a success over the years; and kept it going for so long.

It's hard to imagine a business ever being more synonymous with Moville again.

Since the unwelcome news broke last week, there has been an outpouring of love and support for the staff and the bakery, which has always seemed more than just another business in Moville. There has always been a fondness for and pride in Daniel Doherty’s, which carried the Moville name on all its baked goods.

The bread has been proudly eaten across the world for a century and a half; from Boston to Ballyharry, Dubai to Drumfries, and beyond.

Many people have pointed to the Sunrise plain loaf [especially when it’s toasted] as being the one they’ll miss the most once the sun sets on the bakery at the end of 2025 – and I have to agree.

Daniel Doherty’s has been the taste of all our lifetimes. And I hope that it can somehow yet be saved for future generations.

Perhaps a workers’ co-operative could come to the rescue? Stranger things have happened.

Ireland must continue to support President Zelenskyy and Ukraine

I see the racists and far-right conspiracy theorists were all over social media last week, moaning about Ireland’s continued support of Ukraine and specifically the visit to this country of President Zelenskyy.

Do they ever take a day off?

They appear to be particularly vexed by our renewed commitment to provide further financial aid for Ukraine, a country, it’s worth highlighting again, where innocent people are still being murdered in their beds by Putin’s drone bombs.

I, for one, am part of the silent and overwhelming Irish majority that is proud to support Zelenskyy and his people in the face of an ongoing illegal invasion by Russia. When it comes to a wannabe modern democracy versus an evil strongman dictator, there can only be one side to be on.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who has been brilliant in speaking out against Russia [and against the unjustified attacks by Israel on the Palestinian people], said: “President Zelenskyy and First Lady Zelenska are most welcome to Ireland. We will continue to do all we can to support a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.”

And I fully support that stance too, along with all right-minded people.

It’s worth remembering that the xenophobes shooting out about “refugees getting everything” today are the very same hate-mongers who would have strongly opposed any aid going to Ethiopia or elsewhere in famine-torn Africa in the mid-1980s.

In fact, they would have suggested that the starving black children and their parents were all actors, and that the leaders of the Live Aid concert – Bob Geldof, Freddie Mercury, Bono, et al – were mere puppets for the ‘New World Order’ here in the West. Yawn.

Thankfully, we didn’t have social media back then, so we didn’t have to hear or know anything about their ignorant, hate-filled views.

Today, they must be ignored at all costs.

Train Dreams: A magical reminder of the fleetingness of life

If you’re stuck for something to watch this week, consider yourself officially now unstuck.

Train Dreams on Netflix is absolutely superb. It’s one of those rare movies that you just know will stay with you for years after you’ve seen it.

It’s not an easy watch – and, without giving away any spoilers, has an awful tragedy at its core – but it’s hard to imagine a better study on the fleetingness of life.

Based on the beloved novella of the same name by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams asks us to consider what it means to be alive and what, if anything, we’ll leave behind when our time inevitably comes.

The older you get, the more the years seem to tumble into the rearview, just like film reels whizzing by in old cinema control rooms.

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Train Dreams is cinema at its very best [albeit on Netflix], from the American West at the end of the 19th century, stretching all the way from the back-breaking logging days to the advent of technology and space travel by the mid-20th century.

The movie looks and sounds stunning, while you just want to meet its main character [Robert Grainier, played perfectly by Joel Edgerton] to shake his hand, tell him that everything’s okay and that it’s not his fault.

Guaranteed to be up for a raft of Oscars next year, Train Dreams is the very story of life itself: You try your best, no matter what. If there is a meaning of life, then that's probably it.

It’s a work of art, worth the subscription to Netflix on its own. And, if you haven’t got Netflix yet; what are you waiting for? Life is short.