Mary’s Musings

In her latest observations Mary O’Rourke reflects, amongst other subjects, on the return to school, the beauty of Co Mayo, Elizabeth Bowen, Enda Kenny..and King Lear

The work on the greenway was just beginning and Anita would take off every day on her hired bicycle, and Ann and I at our leisure would visit Mulranny beach or the lovely town of Newport and later on into Achill and down around the beaches, where Anita would join us having pedalled her way there.

Hello to all the readers of this lovely magazine, Senior Times.

I am so glad to have recently seen it around and about in shops in Athlone, and I am sure it is the same in Dublin and other regions. Looking back on when I last wrote in February, we were talking then about children going to school, but sadly at that time I think it was the removal of some young people from schools because of the spread of coronavirus.

And here we are on April 18: the sun is shining (in Athlone anyway) and all over the country a million young people are back at school. I always feel that figure is so staggering. We will not know for about two weeks or so, Dr Ronan Glynn tells us, if in fact the return to school of such huge numbers will have an effect on our climb out of the pandemic. But fingers crossed and a fervent prayer it will not, and we will continue what appear to be, as of now, decent figures with regard to the exit from lockdown.

But in the meantime, all is well. The sun is shining, the vaccine difficulty seems to have been ironed out satisfactorily, and we are looking forward to the month of May when, all things being well, there will be much more opening of facilities. My fervent hope is that the hairdressers and of course the barbers will open early in May. We all look so weird, not just with the colour misplacement but the length and general look of the head of hair we are wearing at the moment. So here’s hoping for May hairdos all round!

Back to education: as the readers of this magazine will know, I have a granddaughter in Dublin, just turned 18, and a grandson in Athlone, just turned 18, both of them doing their Leaving Certificate. I telephone each of them on a regular basis, so it seems like sometimes I have a front row seat for the Leaving Certificate.

Sometime recently the Department of Education and Norma Foley said that they were not making the Shakespeare questions obligatory for the Leaving Certificate, but that there would be a choice. When I telephoned each of my grandchildren, I said to them ‘Is that very good news?’ But both of them, individually and separately, said they were going to do the Shakespeare play King Lear. Now it happened that each of them had a separate word of praise for their English teacher, but they had enjoyed the whole drama of King Lear and were looking forward to doing an answer on him. I thought that was a very good outcome, that the Bard of Avon is still held in high regard in Ireland anyway, and certainly among young people. Of course, King Lear is a great drama. Each of them has taken the choice of doing

King Lear -- seen here played by Al Pacino -- is a great drama. Two of my grandchildren have taken the choice of doing four to five written examinations and three to four continuous assessment, so that should be a good mixture. I have just finished a most wonderful book which I want to tell the readers about. The title is The Shadowy Third by Julia Parry. It’s about love, letters, and Elizabeth Bowen, the great Anglo-Irish writer from County Cork who achieved great fame in the 1920s and 30s

four to five written examinations and three to four continuous assessment, so that should be a good mixture.

How is the book-reading going? I have just finished a most wonderful book which I want to tell the readers about. The title is The Shadowy Third by Julia Parry. It’s about love, letters, and Elizabeth Bowen, the great Anglo-Irish writer from County Cork who achieved great fame in the 1920s and 30s. The story is an out-and-out love story, beautifully written and with such a romantic background. I can confidently say that once readers take this book in their hands, they will find it very difficult to put down. I kept putting off all sorts of things I was to do, like telephone calls and writing letters, because I wanted to continue reading The Shadowy Third. I urge readers, if they can get it in their library by whatever method or in a bookshop online, it’s just a great read and a book that you feel good after reading, that you had shared in a really emotional experience all round.

I have another one lined up called The Partition by Charles Townshend, and that seems a wonderful, if very worthy, read. I’m finding it very difficult to start it because I am so full of the romance and intrigue of The Shadowy Third, and The Partition is an immensely serious book, but one well worth reading. So when the sun stops shining, I will buckle down and start my reading of it.

We are having such wonderful weather. I am aware that by the time these musings find themselves in print, the weather may well have turned awry again. But until then, right throughout April since Easter, we have had these lovely sunny days – very cold night but what harm, and then sunshine again in the morning. It makes for such a change and contributes, I think, so much to good feeling all round. I don’t know if many of the readers of this magazine are TV addicts? I am not what you would call an addict, but I peruse the TV columns every day in the newspaper to pick out what I might like. Of course, I always like Prime Time or any political programme, but of late there has been a new one on RTÉ One called Iarnród Enda. As you can imagine, Iarnród Enda is about Enda Kenny, our Taoiseach as was for a number of years, and each Sunday night he is getting on his bicycle and, so far in the series, riding on a greenway or what would have been a defunct railway line.

The first week he was on the greenway out of Dungarvan. He says he is 70, but he looks about 50 as he cycles away, covering a fair amount of ground, his hair suitably dishevelled like all of us. Along the way he meets, as arranged, various interesting people who talk about the history of the area or invoke some famous saint or scholar who was involved in the area. It makes for great viewing. It’s bilingual, so Enda can show off his Irish, for which we have good subtitles. The people he meets are often English-speaking or bilingual too, so it makes for a very good mix. Last weekend, he did the route from Westport to Mulranny to Newport and on into Achill. This, of course, was home territory for Enda, and for me viewing it, it was à la recherche du temps perdu. Why? Well, some nine years ago, Ann Lenihan and myself, both us widows, went for four or five days to the beautiful Mulranny Hotel. It was built as a railway hotel, way back in the middle of the 19th century, and it is such a beautiful building in a wonderful location. Ann’s daughter Anita came with us. The work on the greenway was just beginning and Anita would take off every day on her hired bicycle, and Ann and I at our leisure would visit Mulranny beach or the lovely town of Newport and later on into Achill and down around the beaches, where Anita would join us having pedalled her way there.

Iarnród Enda is about Enda Kenny, our Taoiseach as was for a number of years, and each Sunday night he is getting on his bicycle and, so far in the series, riding on a greenway or what would have been a defunct railway line.

That was the route that Enda did on last week’s episode of Iarnród Enda. He told us so much wonderful information. Arthur Balfour, Chief Secretary to Ireland from 1887 to 1891, was very much in favour of this railway line on into Achill, and was the person who gave the original money to build it all the way from Westport. It took a thousand men to toil and build what turned out to be a most beautiful route. Now Enda didn’t tell the story, but I remember when we stayed in Mulranny the manager in the hotel showed us around the back where the railway line had a stop for the hotel, and all the ‘posh’ people would alight with their luggage to spend a restful few days in the beautiful Mulranny Hotel.

My sister-in-law Ann sadly passed away, but Anita and I were discussing it recently and if the lockdown lifts, and if we are allowed to travel around Ireland, we are going to try to book and stay in Mulranny again. I will tell the readers all about it if that comes to pass, but in the meantime it has given me something to look forward to and hope for.

I am so interested in Iarnród Enda because the defunct railways have suddenly found a new life, and all the work that went into them is being realised in newfound enjoyment on the greenways. We have a greenway between Mullingar and Athlone. The main rail line of course is Athlone to Dublin, but at one time there was a Mullingar-Athlone line which is in the middle of being converted to what we hope will be a dramatic and lovely greenway and a new crossing over the River Shannon.

In the meantime, we have four more episodes with Enda and his bicycle and his hairdo to look forward to.

I hope many of the readers of Senior Times are getting their vaccines. I have had my two, and I’ve had my two weeks’ obligatory solitude which we are informed we must do before we can take to the road again.

I have now renewed my favourite trip, which is to the Hodson Bay Hotel 5-6 kilometres outside of Athlone. Oh, it was so good to be back and to look out at the lovely Lough Ree, to listen to the children playing, and to read my paper and think long thoughts. The Hodson Bay Hotel is where I was brought up from the age of 12, and from where I got married at the age of 22. So it always has happy memories of romance and of another Enda, my own Enda O’Rourke, whom I met in the Hodson Bay all those years ago. It is just great to be out and about, to be able to drive my car, to look out at people and to wave and drive on. I am not interacting as yet with anyone as I am taking Dr Ronan Glynn’s advice to stay safe and stay home as often as possible.

We will not know for about two weeks or so, Dr Ronan Glynn tells us, if in fact the return to school of such huge numbers will have an effect on our climb out of the pandemic