It Occurs to Me: ​Memories of an old friend

​I follow Karl Harold’s wonderful Facebook page, “For the love of Donegal”.

His photographs are evocative, nostalgic and increasingly popular. Recently, he published the attached photo taken on Errigal in the 1950’s.

Someone out there may know who took the original, but it’s certainly a fantastic one with the pipe smoke seeming to mingle with the clouds above, and the capped man content and reflective alongside his dog. It’s certainly a wonderful example of the adage: “A picture paints a thousand words". I was reminded of the first time I climbed Errigal, and as someone with a lingering fear of heights, I would not have made it without the help and encouragement of my fellow climber, Eugene Gallagher, who then ran the Gartan Leisure Centre. My most vivid memory is literally crawling at the end, and when we both stood up, all we could see were each other’s heads, because of the clouds. Less than a year later, my old friend was dead.

IN MEMORY OF EUGENE GALLAGHER (Who died in the Andes, Ecuador, January 1990)

I'm writing this the following day, old friend,

Struggling for words, knowing their futility,

But remembering, how you would have said:

"If it's a struggle, it's all the more worthwhile"

Only last April, on the slopes of Mount Errigal,

My vertigo played up again, and you laughed me

To the summit on my hands and knees.

I remember that laugh, back then

It echoed in the hush of the Study Hall,

And I marvelled how

Another twelve-year old

Could ever laugh at all.

It echoed in the kitchen

Of the basement flat in Upper Rathmines,

As we tossed for the solitary breakfast egg,

Heads I win and tails you lose.

It echoes forever in the Poisoned Glen,

In the hills above Glenveagh,

And by the lakes of Min an Labain,

I see you laugh above your pint in Hughies,

Above your cup in the Dining Hall,

On a peak above your beloved Gartan,

Your hand reaches out.....

"One step, that's all."

EASY ON THE MAYO?

Now that there are no longer any living players from the Mayo panel that won the 1951 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, it appears the old curse has been lifted.

The last surviving player who actually played in the final, Paddy Prendergast, passed away in September 2021 at the age of 95. The absolute last surviving member of the extended 1951 panel was Dr. Mick Loftus (an unused substitute and former GAA President), who passed away in April 2023 at the age of 93. I for one will be rooting for them this time, and Joe Brolly’s over-the-top rant against them has made me even more ‘thran’!

I’m no fan of VAR in soccer and would shudder at the thought of it being introduced into GAA sport. However, after watching the dreadful decisions in the Dublin V Kerry match, something drastic needs to be done, and surely the little used Hawkeye should be modernised and used to monitor the square and the line. Kerry are blessed to have made the final, and as Donegal, Tyrone and the Dubs have shown, they have their vulnerabilities.

So…will we be hearing a raucous rendering of ‘The West’s Awake’ on the 26th? I hope so.

THE KAISER IN THE WHITE HOUSE

It’s not unusual to see the current political situation in the US compared to Germany in the 1930’s…and sadly, there are parallels.

However, the extraordinary and dangerous vanity of Donald Trump has just as many echoes in 1914 pre-war Germany, in particular, Kaiser Wilhelm II. Germany then was a militarised autocracy rather than a democracy. Its most powerful institution was the army, and its crowned head loved to surround himself with soldiers. On 18 October 1913, Kaiser Wilhelm II decreed large-scale celebrations for the centenary of the victory at Leipzig, the ‘Battle of the Nations’ against Bonaparte.

Following royal example, German department stores surrendered generous floorspace to commemorative displays. Wilhelm II presided over an empire unified only in his lifetime, which had achieved immense economic strength, but remained prey to insecurities which its ruler personified. As Sir Max Hastings, historian supreme, said: “He had no real thirst for blood, but a taste for panoply and posturing, a craving for martial success; he displayed many of the characteristics of a uniformed version of Kenneth Grahame’s Mr Toad.” Remind you of anybody?

And while Wilhelm’s intimate circle displayed a taste for the grotesque, he himself pursued enthusiasms with tireless lack of judgement; most of his contemporaries, including the statesmen of Europe, thought him mildly unhinged, and this was probably clinically the case. Historian Sir Christopher Clark observed: “He was an extreme exemplar of that Edwardian social category, the club bore who is forever explaining some pet project to the man in the next chair. Small wonder that the prospect of being buttonholed by the Kaiser over lunch or dinner, when escape was impossible, struck fear into the hearts of so many European royals.’” Rear-Admiral Albert Hopman of the German Imperial navy, said: “He is vanity itself, sacrificing everything to his own moods and childish amusements, and nobody checks him in doing so. I ask myself how people with blood rather than water in their veins can bear to be around him.”

History repeating itself?

GRAHAM: NO FRIEND OF IRELAND

I’m afraid I can’t find any saving graces in the life of the late Senator Lindsay Graham.

Last year, he accused Ireland of leading an effort to “punish the Jewish people” by seeking to ban Israel from European football tournaments. Graham also warned that Ireland would pay a “heavy price” after the FAI voted to submit a motion to UEFA to ban Israel from its European club and international competitions.

He wrote on social media at the time: “It is my understanding Ireland is about to make a motion to the European body governing football to ban Israel from playing in European competitions.

“Ireland and others would be punishing the Jewish people 80 years after the Holocaust because they choose to fight back against terrorist groups who wish to kill all the Jews. Hamas started this war. Hamas has put civilians at risk to continue this war. And Hamas is a radical Islamic terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel. They must be defeated militarily and politically. If these attacks against Israel continue, I will do everything in my power to make those who participate in this effort to marginalise Israel in sports, and elsewhere, pay a heavy price when it comes to access to the American economy.”

Back in 2016 when he made a stab at the Republican presidential nomination, he seemed a sharp critic of Trump, then the obvious frontrunner. He condemned Trump as a “jackass”, “a race-baiting bigot” and “the most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican party”, memorably warning on Twitter: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.” Trump, in turn, dismissed Graham as an “idiot” and a “lightweight”. After Trump’s supporters staged an insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, Graham opined: “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey – I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it.

From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president but today, first thing you’ll see. All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.” But he stuck with him!

What hypocrisy! Talking out of two sides of his mouth. We’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but I’ll make an exception for him.