Cork | X | Seamus Heaney

The Road To Cork. In 1986 I gave a talk at a Sinn Féin conference which became known by activists of my vintage as The Road to Cork or The Bus to Cork. More of that at another time. Suffice for now to say that I made  the journey to Cork  a metaphor for the journey to the new republic. I am minded of that now as our car speeds south and I sit in the back penning these words. The road to Cork is indeed a very long road. So too the road to the new republic. But barring accidents we will get there.  The Power Of X.Before X there was Twitter. Apart from the ill mannered, ill informed and abusive, nasty and vulgar tirades that are the mark of some contributors I like these forms of communication. I joined Twitter in January 2011 on the direction of Shaun Tracy who was then one of our leading shadowy figures in Leinster House. He continues to lead but in other shadowy sites of struggle. It is Shaun who is to blame for my twitterings over the years. He made the mistake of letting me put up whatever came into my head. Once  I even published My Little Book Of Tweets. In part of course I was having the craic. But I was also countering the demonizing propaganda of the establishment media, particularly the Dublin media. But that’s another story.Seamus Heaney.August 30 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Seamus Heaney. I knew of Seamus before I knew him. He was a teacher in Saint Thomas’ School on the Whiterock Road along with another fine scribe Michael McLaverty. Some of my brothers were pupils there. I know Seamus’s poetry since Death of A Naturalist. His poems, and Patrick Kavanagh’s verses, have always moved me. My thoughts are with Seamus’s wife and family and with his friends at this anniversary time. A life of changeBernadette O’Hagan from Lurgan died last week. She was a strong republican woman. An activist. She was 95. For 52 years she was married to Joe B who was himself a  hugely respected activist. Joe B is especially remembered for his part in the helicopter escape from Mountjoy prison in October 1973.