It Occurs To Me: A tale of two Batts! (cloned) (cloned)
It Occurs To Me by Frank Galligan appears in the Donegal Democrat every Thursday
The neck! The absolute neck of Donegal to travel all the way to Killarney and ‘whup’ the Kingdom. Do you not realise that this is not the way things are supposed to happen…you should know your place, and keep sections of the bewildered media happy, particularly those who already have their scripts written, and whose first paragraph was supposed to read: “Brave Donegal come short in Killarney, but no doubt we’ll be hearing from them again. Kerry still the team to beat”... or bullshit to that effect. As for some of the television pundits…Joe Brolly captured it nicely:”
It is a strange phenomenon that Donegal have always been treated as though they were one of the six counties. By this, I mean that when they are winning big, it is virtually an affront to the sacred traditions of the game. The commentary team opened the box of excuses and ran through them. ‘Very hard to read anything into this Donegal win,’ said (Michael) Meehan. Then we had Paddy Andrews: ‘To be fair, when your free taker is missing it’s a hard blow to cope with.’” As Joe reminds us, Kerry only had three frees in the whole game.
But he really nails it when he writes: “Just imagine for a moment that the scoreline was reversed. They would have been gushing about a new golden era for Kerry football and all that sugary guff. The truth is that Donegal took the piss out of Kerry, again. Kerry quit, again.”
If you have ever been in John Joe Byrne’s pub in Kilcar on a Thursday night, you’ll be overwhelmed, not only by the 15 very fit fiddling team, but by a subs bench which could raise the rafters in Croke Park.
Music is in the ‘In Through’ DNA, and after Ciaran Moore scored the opening goal in Killarney, Ryan McHugh showed that it’s not only fiddling that sets us apart, but watching him made me recall my dear granny Bridget dancing the ‘Maggie Pickens’ in Bogagh long ago. He was celebrating with what I can only refer to as a Muckross jig. Now look at him in the attached photo…a picture paints a thousand words.
.jpeg?trim=13,0,0,0&crop=&width=640&quality=65)
It’s no wonder the Kerry bucks were out for him. Bad enough that we outplayed them at football, but the neck of Ryan to improvise a sean-nós dance after Moore scored. Sacrilege! I once heard Kerry’s Sliabh Luachra described, not so much as a place, but as ‘a state of mind’. It is indeed a sacred place for polkas and slides, and revered worldwide, but for a wee Kilcar man to celebrate like an Appalachian clog dancer, rather than the Holy Kingdom Luachra style, was a recipe for a good slap.
That, and the fact they couldn’t get at Murphy meant resorting to the old schoolyard bully alternative - pick on the wee man! With all the brouhaha in Killarney, one sad Kerry demise that almost slipped under the radar last weekend was the death of a wonderful storyteller in Sneem, Batt Burns. Batt was also immersed in the GAA, and his beloved Sneem International Storytelling & Folklore Festival, which he founded, was opened in 2012, by none other than the legendary footballer Jimmy Deenihan, then a Minister. Meanwhile in Killarney last Saturday, Michéal Burns, no relation, and who henceforth shall be known as ‘Batterer’ Burns, delivered a Sliabh Luachra slide into Ryan McHugh’s eye. Meanwhile, the Clifford brothers were re-enacting a scene from John B.Keane’s greatly underrated book, ‘The Bodhrán Makers’, which I first read in 1986. In it, Keane writes of a ruction on the night of the Wren Boys dance and a character called Bluenose:
“Bluenose’s approach to fistfighting was the very essence of deceit. Instead of advancing into the thick of the uneven contest as had his friends, he stood on the verge of the proceedings and quietly but astutely landed several telling blows…His aim was to attract one or more of his friends’ assailants so that they, against the decreased odds, might render a better account of themselves. When confronted with a foe, Bluenose had a habit of twirling his open palms aimlessly in short, varying arcs about each other…” Remind you of anybody? As for the booing throughout, I was reminded of another appropriate line by John B: “Bluenose had never seen a bishop before. ‘He looks like any other man,’ he remarked…upon being told who he was, ‘except maybe he’s in better condition and there’s more of a shine to him’.”
For bishop, substitute Big Mick! Also, although Kerry were well ahead in last year’s All-Ireland, I don’t recall hundreds of DL supporters streaming out of Croker fifteen minutes from the end.
Meanwhile, the Irish Times - one of a number of outlets determined to force the CCCC’s hand with Jim, informed us: “Donegal send Mark McHugh back on, with a huge bandage on his head. Bit of a flex by McGuinness there .” So, a week after his Westmeath demolishing the Dubs, the said Mark decides his wee brother has had enough abuse and comes on heavily disguised in a bandage to take his place? Lazy, sloppy journalism. Finally, well done to Shane McGrath in the Daily Mail on Sunday, who actually wrote about the football. As for the usual ‘kite flyers’ to paraphrase Jim, guess how long they’d last in a half decent wind in Towney?
Father John Joe hits the mark
The keyboard warriors, many of whom know as much about the law as Trump knows about common decency, were out in force after Father John Joe Duffy reflected on the ‘Holy’ Burke’s invasion of Milford. He didn’t pull his punches about Momma Bear and son Isaac, brother of Enoch, when they confronted Hildegard Naughtom outside Scoil Mhuire.
Fr John Joe was rightly livid at the "outrageous, deeply shocking, unacceptable and totally disturbing behaviour" of the Burkes.
“Children in one of these schools have been previously traumatised by events of a tragic incident in one of the communities that pupils schools come from,” he posted on social media.
“Today's outrageous, deeply shocking, unacceptable and totally disturbing behaviour may leave pupils traumatised and insecure in what ought to be a safe and protective environment. If I were staff, school management or one of the visitors, I would feel upset and threatened.”
Fr John Joe went on to say it is clear that those involved in this ‘scandalous and outrageous behaviour’ had no concern for the impact it may have upon all concerned, but most importantly how this may impact upon the children.”
Immediately, the keyboard warriors pounced and repeated the mantra that Enoch’s incarceration was all to do with the transgender issue. Nonsense! He’s in jail for contempt, which he refuses to purge, and Momma Bear and Amii have already done time too.
Both women served a two-week jail sentence in April after Judge Brian Cregan found them guilty of contempt over their behaviour at a court hearing in February. The women engaged in “roaring and shouting” and “intense and venomous” interruptions during the hearing in a “paradigmatic” case of contempt, the judge said.
The Burkes profess to be Christians…I suggest they take a leaf out of a proper Christian’s book, one Father John Joe Duffy.
Double standards: no uniformity
Former Garda Paul Moody, now a jailed abuser, was initially complained about in 2017 His first victim told the Circuit Criminal Court last week that had GSOC, which is now Fiosrú, acted when she made the complaint in 2017, then Moody could have been stopped from abusing a subsequent victim, Nicola Hanney. She said she faced "a wall of silence" from GSOC, which she claimed did nothing about her case. She called it "neglect" and "a betrayal of trust".
Contrast that with Detective Garda Eamonn Cunnane in Athlone. He was suspended for three years and criminally investigated for lending an unclaimed, abandoned bicycle to an elderly neighbor during Covid-19. Admittedly, the latter was investigated by the NCBI, not GSOC, but the blue optics are appalling.
A ‘lofty’ goal?
100 years ago, the Garda Review posted: “In future all Gardai serving in Waterford City are required to be 5’10’’ in height. As a result, we are about to lose some of the old-timers in the City Force. We believe that in a short space of time a number of Gardai from the city, who are under the required height, will be transferred to outlying stations and replaced by Gardai from these stations who possess the lofty qualifications.”
I was once asked by a retired senior officer why - considering the family tradition - I had never joined up. “I didn’t have the height!” I responded with a straight face. (I’m 6’3’’ and rising!).