It Occurs To Me: The West’s awake thanks to incredible Mayo

Thomas Davis published The West’s Asleep on July 22, 1843, in the nationalist newspaper The Nation.

I hope he forgives my paraphrasing of his classic song but little did I think I’d ever watch anyone other than my beloved Donegal the following day on RTÉ Player!

“But, hark! a voice like thunder spake

The West’s awake! the West’s awake!

Sing, Oh! Hurrah! let Kerry quake

We’ll watch again for football’s sake!”

Unbelievably emotional day. One to relish and remember.

The Letterkenny traffic debacle

Here we go again! In the late ‘60s and ‘70s, I was a big fan of Traffic, the legendary rock band which included Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi.

One of their hits came to mind last week, as I imagined a poor frustrated commuter reacting in writing to a few Letterkenny elected representatives about the worsening traffic in the town.

The track was called Dear Mr Fantasy and you may as well address your letter to him. Fair play to Pat McArt who was the catalyst for a lively discussion on Greg Hughes’s Highland Radio show about the daily ‘grind’ from the Dry Arch to the town centre.

Here’s his Facebook piece which kicked everything off: “Letterkenny has got to be way worse than Galway now for traffic gridlock.It's Insane with a capital I. Over the July '12th' weekend, when half of the North descended on Donegal, the tailbacks into town and getting out of it went back, literally, for miles.

“But what's truly insane is the road 'planners' - planning is about the last word anyone with a brain would use about Letterkenny's road network- have made what was an already chaotic system way, way worse. Introducing bicycle lanes in recent months...which no one uses...and narrowing the already massively congested traffic lanes is about the most moronic decision it is possible to make.

“So, let me give a few predictions...almost certainly guaranteed: Letterkenny town centre as a commercial area is going to die a slow death. Who the hell would want to spend 45/60 minutes getting into Letterkenny, the same getting out, to buy a pair of trousers or get a pizza? And the air quality of 15,000 or so stalled vehicles spewing out fumes for at least eight/ten hours per day has got to be an environmental disaster of epic proportions.”

The following day, Pat added: “So, it has been confirmed the final cost of the 1.4km stretch of road from the Dry Arch in Letterkenny to the Polestar Roundabout has reached €16 million.

To say this is an outrage is not even close to what most people are probably thinking.

€16m for nothing....other than to make an already chaotic traffic situation even more chaotic. Unbelievable!!” Well said Pat!

And who or what’s to blame? Councillor Brogan blames ‘active travel’. I blame inactive management! You can’t keep kicking this can down the road, as soon, there won’t be a road to kick it down!

Frustration and hydration breaks

After the many controversies in the World Cup, this headline in the Indo made depressing reading: “Gianni Infantino’s reputation may be at an all-time low after crisis-hit World Cup but he is more powerful than ever.”

An antidote to this story however was LaLiga president Javier Tebas accusing FIFA of “destroying the football industry” and calling for Gianni Infantino to quit.

“There is no opposition candidate; no one wants to present themselves to lose. This is the system, and it is a system that is sick at the source. In these days here in America, I have heard many people against Infantino, who do not agree with what he does. They say it, but then they do nothing. I don’t know if silence or complicity is worse, because those who are silent are perfectly aware of the damage that football is suffering.”

“The suspension of the American player’s disqualification is something of absolute gravity.

They were lucky because Belgium eliminated the USA, because otherwise a case could have been created that could have cost Infantino his job. Since Belgium won, they managed to bury the thing. But these things are only the tip of the iceberg.

FIFA fixes things as it wants, for what it wants, for its interests, certainly not for football. And so if they need 27 minutes of interval, they do it. Hydration breaks are a lie. We have them in LaLiga, but when it’s really hot. Here, the stadiums of Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta had air conditioning; I had to put on a sweater in the stands. It was a lie, a break for advertising.”

Mind you, RTÉ 2 used the same hydration breaks for advertising too. Follow my leader?

Ah well, I suppose it was better than having Kenny Cunningham droning on about everything bar the game itself.

What lies beneath

Last Saturday we were delighted to welcome a delegation of our Ballyshannon friends to the Ulster American Folk Park for the final leg of the Workhouse History Project.

They all thoroughly enjoyed the day along with their new found Omagh friends, and overall, the project has been fascinating.

As regards the workhouses however, one sad aspect of my research into a number of them has been the thought of countless unmarked graves throughout the country, many of which have invariably been built over.

Admittedly, Bessborough in Cork was not a workhouse, but a mother and baby home, one of Ireland’s largest, which recorded unbelievably high infant mortality rates (up to 82% in the 1940s) due to severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and poor infection control. Investigations have confirmed 923 infant deaths there, yet only 64 burial sites are known, leaving many hundreds of children missing.

Now, planning permission has been granted for 106 apartments at the site, and there has been a torrent of objections. I think it's an abominable decision and Michéal ‘in terms of’ Martin does not emerge from the controversy with any glory thus far. As Cork TD Ken O’Flynn said bluntly:

“The Taoiseach's intervention on Bessborough is not leadership. It is Pontius Pilate politics, washing his hands of a decision and passing it down to Cork City Council, knowing full well the council does not have the money to act. This is his own city. He knows exactly what Bessborough means to survivors, to families, and to Cork. That is precisely why this issue is too important for political choreography. What is needed now is honesty and transparency: a clear statement of whether the Government intends to acquire this site, what it is prepared to pay, and why it waited until now. The survivors of Bessborough have been failed by the State for decades. They should not have to watch the buck being passed one more time.”

And so say all of us!

A Donegal journalist at war

I’ve just finished Anthony Begley’s fascinating book, Two Ballyshannon Pioneers in American History, the launch of which was covered by the Democrat in March, coupled with an extensive review.

Just to remind readers, Finley and Jane Anderson grew up in West Port, in Ballyshannon, and emigrated to America with their family in 1852, following the Great Famine.

Anthony’s book records their early years in the town, their father’s roots in Alla near Rossnowlagh , and their huge contribution to American society.

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Finley Anderson became a journalist with The New York Herald and was a war correspondent in The American Civil War.

He spent a year in jail after being captured by the Confederate side during the Civil War. After his release, he published this account in the New York Herald on March 6, 1864:

“In the morning the jailor told me that if I chose I could be confined alone. I was pleased with the opportunity. I did not like the idea of being longer confined in the same room with a man they were going to hang. So I said I would prefer to be alone.

“Accordingly Mr Smith was moved to another room…after lingering a few days, he died; so that when the jailor unlocked the doors that morning all he found of Mr Smith were his remains. The prisoner was not there.

“The body was lying in the dungeon; but the spirit had departed; for the soul cannot be confined by solid walls and iron doors. I was deeply impressed with this touching incident.

“Being suspected of nothing but loyalty to the government under whose protection he was born, this poor man was thrust into prison by inhuman men; the apprehensions of what they said would be his doom and the recollections of his helpless family at home preyed upon his mind until at last death unlocked the dungeon doors, and his spirit was released from suffering.”

Harrowing stuff indeed, and Finley was what is currently known as an ‘embedded’ war journalist. I’ve read his whole article and his recall and eye for detail was amazing. Well done to Anthony Begley once again…he too has a similar eye for detail and Ballyshannon has benefited greatly from his meticulous research for over five decades.