Mary’s Musings In her latest observations Mary O’Rourke reflects on cocooning, the mountain of books she has read, Boris and Brexit, not to mention the US election and the Joe Biden/ Kamala Harris challenge to Donald Trump...
I decided that my favourite poem of all I had read and re-read was W.B. Yeats’ The Lake Isle of Innisfree.
Hello to all the readers of Senior Times. It is good to be writing again for this fine magazine. I haven’t spoken with any of you since the lockdown in March/April and all that has happened since. I hate bringing up past things if they were not happy ones, but really the lockdown was particularly severe for people of my generation. First of all, let me say, we were told we were being ‘cocooned’. I have an aversion to that word being used in this context; we were not being cocooned, we were being locked down. ‘Cocooned’ evokes a feeling of comfort, being cared for, wonderfully intimate, etc – all beautiful, caring words. That is not how we were feeling when we were told we couldn’t go outside our front door and we couldn’t have anyone call on us, or call on anyone else. It was quite horrible in every respect. Yet, despite it all, there were times when I enjoyed myself in my own back garden. Firstly, we had terrific weather. If you remember back, there was day-long sunshine, morning to night, and lovely warmth right throughout April-May. I have a decent back garden, not lavish in any way but a good size, and I was able to pull out my chair every day and sit outside to revel in the sunshine and put all unwelcome thoughts away.
The overriding impression I have of that time is of the birds. They were so busy, wheeling around in the sky above me, forever going somewhere, usually with a bevy of wings whirring and song bursting out of them. Oh, it was so good, and it was so loud and so enjoyable. I had never heard birdsong quite like it, and I guess it is because I was alone and able to absorb it. For the birds, they were full of ‘This is spring and we are here’. I fancifully thought that yes, COVID was nasty and a part of all our lives, but somehow the Lord above gave us good weather to combat it. So, what did I do sitting out in my back garden? Well, I took to reading poetry – out loud. I sourced old poetry books I had, including my Soundings compendium from long ago when I taught English. I revelled again in the beautiful words written by so many wonderful poets. After many weeks of so doing, I decided that my favourite poem of all I had read and re-read was W.B. Yeats’ ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’. So every day when I sat out, I would recite that in a good loud voice. I didn’t seem to disturb the birds; they kept carolling and wheeling around, and I had the satisfaction of hearing my own voice saying those lovely words. My son came every evening, bringing me food for the day and the morrow, and I had a few
22 Senior Times l September - October 2020 l www.seniortimes.ie
In the meantime, despite all of the carry-on, we have had the return of over a million children to school. There is no doubt that going to school is an essential part of every young person’s life. I have no doubt whatsoever that the children and students of Ireland are better off in school where life can continue as near normal as possible.
words with him. He has four lovely children. I couldn’t talk with any of them, but one or two of them would come with him each evening and they would stay outside the window and wave in at me and blow kisses. It was the best we could do, but it was so paltry compared to the usual chat we made and the hugs we had together. Now, that was a very difficult time of lockdown. Apart from indulging in and reading poetry, I also read a few very good books which I hope you might enjoy sharing with me now. That was one good thing that I could do during lockdown, both reading and writing. So what books did I read? Well, the first one was Michael Heney’s fine book The Arms Crisis of 1970: The Plot That Never Was. This was enthralling, forensic and detailed, and demanded my full attention while I was reading it. I was fascinated, of course, even though I was not in national public life at the time, but I did know many of the dramatis personae and was able to place the events as they happened. It’s a really good read, and later I did a written review of the book for the Sunday Independent. I believe it is getting good sales. The next big book I embarked on was 1691: A Novel by Joe Joyce. This is a book about the Williamite and Jacobite war in Ireland, but we learn much of what went on behind the scenes.
