It Occurs To Me: A Jig for Stephen McCahill at the Cup of Tae festival
‘It was one of a number of poignant moments in a concert that was hugely celebratory, and a fitting tribute to Stephen’
One of the many highlights at the Stephen McCahill tribute concert on Sunday night was a tune especially written by banjo prodigy, Caitríona Lagan, who hails from Seamus Heaney country in County Derry. She called it A Jig for Stephen and presented Stephen’s wife, Marietta, with the framed sheet music. It was one of a number of poignant moments in a concert that was hugely celebratory, and a fitting tribute to Stephen.
MCs Deirdre Bonner and Grainne Gavigan did a super job. The Corner House band and guests were magnificent, and if my old friend Patsy Cavanagh had witnessed his Home To Donegal raising the rafters at the end, he would have had a tear in his eye, as did the capacity crowd in the new Nesbitt Arms ballroom. A night to remember indeed.
Peter McCahill and Frank Galligan at the Cup of Tae Festival in Ardara Photo: Thomas Gallagher
Stephen also recalled John and his wife, the late Annie, were very much attached to each other. “They were part and parcel of Ardara. They lived in the centre of the town. They had hens and chickens which became a tourist attraction as children ran to their home to watch the hens at the back of the house,” he said.
On many occasions, the couple would often bestow people with a gift of free range eggs. In the initial years of the festival, unassuming John would take centre stage at the final concert. He and his wife were very proud of the festival and of what it represented. Stephen recollects John giving lessons to other local fiddle players over the years. “He was the master of great fiddle players that came to the fore in later years,” he said.
The opening of the new Nesbitt Arms hotel/McCafferty’s on Friday evening was another cause for much celebration in the town, but it all kicked off on Thursday night in the Corner House and The Beehive. It was great to see Pat McGill’s old haunt buzzing again…the wonderful Kan-Harleys provided the music - Kevin Dunleavy, Brian McGill, Seimí Gildea, Shaun McMonagle, James Keeney, Kevin Keeney, Bernie McHugh, and Noel Quinn, visiting from Scotland. In the Corner House, some ten musicians contributed to a superb night's entertainment, including Johnny Doherty's grandnephew, Paddy O’Rourke and the amazing 91 year-old Tony O’Donnell from Glenfin, who told me he was Johnny Doherty’s ‘final pupil’. As I wrote here last week, the festival’s guests of honour this year were Jim and Fiona Byrne, and there was also a capacity audience for their concert.
As I wrote in my final two lines in a poem remembering Stephen:
Ardara will soldier on…As you would wish,
“The King is dead…Long live the Kingdom!”
Badenoch or bad…enough
In 2010, then Conservative prime minister David Cameron apologised to the families of the civil rights marchers killed on Bloody Sunday after the Saville Inquiry found all were innocent
Last Friday the Conservative Party apologised for a social media video of Kemi Badenoch calling for support for Army veterans alongside footage from Bloody Sunday.
The video, criticising the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, was posted to Badenoch’s social media channels on Tuesday last week and removed on Friday. It featured footage of Kemi Badenoch condemning the Bill and was overlaid, in part, with archive clips of British soldiers. At least one of the shots was identified by Foyle MP Colum Eastwood as having been filmed on Bloody Sunday. He described its use as “disgusting” and “disgraceful”. He said it was a departure from previous Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron's apology for Bloody Sunday.
One of my favourite commentators, John Crace in The Guardian, eviscerates Badenoch day and daily, emphasising that even when Keir Starmer is on the ropes, Kemi manages to knock herself out. Liz Truss was appalling…but Kemi is fast emulating her!
Not spreading it around?
I haven’t written about rip-off Ireland for a while, but last week, Lidl in Germany was selling 250g of Kerrygold for €1.99 – a per-kilogram price of €7.96. By contrast, Irish supermarkets were selling 227g of the very same product for €2.99 – which works out at €13.17 per kilo, or 65 per cent dearer. Ah come on!
Just a thought
If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, then doesn’t it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, models deposed, and dry cleaners depressed?
Centre right or centre wrong?
I’ll be honest, Catherine Connolly wasn’t my first choice for president, but I’ve really warmed to her. Someone else who is becoming increasingly popular - except in the USA - is Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, who has refused to be bullied by Trump. Recently, he hosted a big conference in Barcelona which was attended by more than 20 political leaders from around the world including President Catherine Connolly. Other than this headline in the Irish Times, it didn’t get a lot of coverage here.The Times headline read: “Government and civil servants uneasy over President’s choice of first overseas trip” and … “multiple sources told The Irish Times that there is unease both among civil servants in the Department of Foreign Affairs and other departments, and at political level, over the choice for her first overseas trip.
One Government source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the preference of officials was that Connolly visit the UK for her first overseas trip – which would have been seen as an ‘appropriate’ choice.”
The conference was called In Defence of Democracy and the fourth in a series of an initiative Spain and Brazil launched jointly in 2024 to discuss the growth of authoritarianism, autocracy, imperialism and the consequences of all that for international law and multilateralism, especially the United Nations. Brian Feeney was also curious in a very fine piece in the Irish News: “Perhaps it’s because the leaders attending were predominantly left of centre or socialist, and speakers condemned Trump and the death and destruction he has wreaked alongside his partner-in-crime Netanyahu, that first world leaders ignore the conferences.
However, representatives from left-of-centre parties did attend. For example the British Labour Party sent delegates. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attended. Murphy gave a speech excoriating Trump. Government leaders included Cyril Ramaphosa from South Africa, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, Brazilian president Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, and the leaders of Colombia, Uruguay and Barbados.
The Irish government didn’t send anyone, perhaps because they’re centre-right, perhaps because they didn’t want to be seen in the company gathered in Barcelona. Perhaps they didn’t want to annoy Trump, which is what almost everyone there took the opportunity to do.
Clearly the government didn’t approve of President Connolly attending, but they stayed quiet about her going. However, they let their disapproval be known through anonymous briefings by officials (“multiple sources“ were quoted) which appeared in the press. RTÉ hadn’t much to say about the conference either.”
Interesting points indeed. So, here’s the question - is our government centre-right or centre-wrong? Is fear of Trump the bully paralysing their ability to tell it like it is? Is it a case of not rocking the boat for fear the laxatives fall overboard? They should take a leaf from someone who has three Irish grandparents and is head and shoulders, like Sanchez, above far too many so-called democratic leaders. That leader is Mark Carney. As Feeney acknowledged:
“In many ways what was being advocated at Barcelona was remarkably similar to the highly-praised speech Canada’s Mark Carney made at Davos, when he highlighted a new world order and recommended medium-sized countries organise to pivot away from economic ties to the US. Carney’s remarks were primarily about the economic havoc Trump had caused by his stupid obsession with tariffs as a trade weapon, and the requirement therefore to find ways to stand up to the 21st century version of imperialism.
Carney quoted Thucydides: “The strong do what they can; the weak suffer what they must.”
Essentially Carney was saying the same as Connolly. Organise multilaterally: economically, politically and legally to protect the weak. Does the Irish government really want to distance itself from that, or were the ‘wrong’ people saying it?”
Answers on a postcard please to Simon and Carbuncle!