Country Living: A last column and final farewell to one and all

Back in the early 1980s, I started to write a weekly column in the Tuam Herald called Country Scene, under the pen name of Pierce Ploughman, a variation of the name from the 14th century poem title 'Piers Plowman'.

It wasn't a name that I came up with myself - the father and son combination of Jarlath and David Burke were responsible - but after a few weeks of the column, everyone had pretty much guessed who the writer was.

Here and there, the late Jarlath Burke, aka JPB or 'The Boss', would use a phrase which summed up the plight of those trying to fill white space with 'something different' when he spoke of 'the tyranny of the weekly column'. He had a point though.

In the run-of-the-mill of writing stories or reporting on council meetings or courts, one of the essential skills, is to be able to absorb, summarise and write clearly plus accurately. Every reporter has to be his own editor too - often, a lot of information has to be condensed into maybe three of four hundred words.

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The weekly column is a different animal though. It always starts out with a blank screen [once it used to be a virgin sheet of paper on a manual typewriter], and yes, there is always a tenseness and even a fear, as you ask yourself the usual weekly question: "What the hell am I going to write about this week?"

Sometimes it comes quite easily, a little nugget of an idea, notion or opinion that you can gradually expand on and hopefully embellish with a few words of humour, provocation or colour.

While a weekly column is only one segment of the weekly workload of a provincial journalist, it is still the most one, that I get a reaction to most weeks of the year, mostly - but not always - complimentary. Either positive or negative, it always has been great to get a reaction.

From a sporting perspective in provincial journalism encompassing my Tuam Herald and Connacht Tribune days, the All-Ireland successes of our footballers and hurlers will always be stand-out moments.

I was only a freelance/rookie in 1980 when Cyril Farrell led to Galway to an historic triumph bridging a 57-year gap. It took me the best part of a day to make the return trip from Dublin and I remember on a Tuesday evening, David Burke from The Herald calling out to my house to pick up my handwritten 'ramblings' on the match for 'hot lead setting' by the typesetters.

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There was too an early week in September, 1986, when I moved from The Herald to the Connacht Tribune, and I had the 'unusual distinction' of writing pieces for both papers on Galway's final defeat to Cork. At the time, my 'intro' for the Tribune piece kind of unnerved the sports editor when reviving the old rhyme about Christy Ring: "The hay is saved and Cork is bet, the thousands wildly sing, you speak too soon my sweet gossoon, for here comes Christy Ring". [Cork's 'Christy Ring' that day was Tomás Mulcahy who scored one of the goals of the decade at a vital juncture in Cork's 4-13 to 2-15 success.]

Better times followed for Galway and Cyril Farrell, with the back-to-back All-Ireland successes of '87 and '88 and I have special memories of doing a number of interviews with the late Tony Keady around that time, who was always great 'craic' to talk to.

Emotions ran high too in Croke Park a decade later in 1998 when Galway footballers bridged a 32-year gap to bring Sam Maguire west of the Shannon again for the first time since 1966 with the late John O'Mahony guiding them to a second success three years later against Meath in 2001, while Micheál Donoghue's hurling charges also tasted glory in 2017.

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There was great joy too in writing about the local successes of Abbeyknockmoy hurlers in 1988 [JPB wrote a memorable piece in The Herald about one Paddy Whack making trips onto the pitch in the drawn tie ostrensibly with a towel to dry the hurley when Abbey were awarded frees, but concealed in the towel each time, was a 'crisp bone-dry sliotar']; and Monivea-Abbey footballers in 1992, both of them taking their first and only county senior titles, with wins over the traditional hurling stronghold of Athenry and the footballing fortress of Tuam Stars.

Back in the early 1980s, the future of the Tuam Sugar Factory was more often than not, the usual main lead in that paper before its eventual demise . . . I remember doing a story for The Herald about a closed-down hotel in Tuam in the early '90s being used for 'immoral purposes', a tale that travelled the world . . . there was the closure of Digital in 1994 . . . Bishop Eamonn Casey's resignation in 1992 . . . and nearly three decades have passed since I first wrote about plans to construct the Galway City Bypass and make life just a little easier for those living in Conamara and west of the Corrib . . . while like most Irish people I know, I've had a fascination about all things weather related in my writings.

Covid struck us like a runaway train in the hours before St. Patrick's Day in 2020, now leaving mostly bizarre memories in by brain storage chambers, of people buying up trolley loads of toilet paper; restrictions on not being allowed to cycle more than five kilometres from your home; and having to order a €9 meal before you could drink a pint of plain - all pretty bizarre.

I remember too reading a 'final column' by Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian newspaper quite a few years back in which he dispensed eight pieces of advice to help us get through life a bit more smoothly - I'm afraid though, I'm not really wise enough to match those! The obvious ones for me, as the years roll on with Formula One pace, are to value good health more than anything else in this world; not to look too far ahead by adopting the 'One Day at a Time' philosophy; in terms of mental health never be afraid to acknowledge that it's okay not to feel okay; and just try and have a little more tolerance towards people who feel marginalised because of colour, race or culture. So its "Adieu, adieu, adieu, remember me" [robbed from Hamlet] and time to end on a line from John Milton and Lycidas: "At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue: tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new."