REALLY MAD, MY PHOTOS WON’T WORK – HOPEFULLY FIXED BY NEXT WEEK.
I’m sorry Elon Musk decided against pulling his rockets out of the space race to the moon and beyond. It’s a terrible thing that there is a move to colonise the moon by 2040 with up to 200 people taking up residence. Our poor innocent moon, it doesn’t deserve to be trashed this way. My Auntie Edna had a theory. Before she died some years ago she confided in me that when the Russians sent up their cosmonaut lady into space and pierced the ozone layer, global warming began. I believe she wasn’t far wrong.
HEALTH WARNING
Let’s hope doctor’s surgeries and pharmacies hurry and get supplies of the corona virus vaccine back in stock. I know vulnerable people who have tried to get this injection but are told there are no supplies available. It’s a matter of phoning round and if you’re lucky you might find a chemist with supplies and then it’s a matter of making an appointment, travelling often some distance to get seen to. I hope it’s not a future of masks and social distancing all over again hence the importance of protection.
HISTORY OF A POPULAR BEVERAGE
Next time you sip an Irish Coffee dwell on the origins of this delightful heart warming drink. ‘The cream as thick as an Irish brogue, The coffee is as strong as a friendly hand, The sugar is as sweet as the tongue of a rogue, with whiskey as smooth as the wit of the land.’
Misguided Americans claim this drink is part of their culture, well it’s not. His grave stone in California might say ‘Here lies Joe Sheridan the inventor of the world’s most famous drink, Irish Coffee,’ in fact Joe was born in Castlederg Co. Tyrone. In 1943 he was cheffing in Foynes Airport restaurant near Limerick when, in dangerous flying weather plus the constant fear of German attacks, the captain of a flight to Newfoundland decided to turn back. Joe wanted to warm and comfort the frightened passengers so he poured some whiskey into the coffee, then he added a spoonful of sugar and floated some cream on top. What is it they asked and Joe replied “It’s Irish coffee.” When the restaurant owner tasted it he exclaimed “Chef, that’s sheer genius, sheer genius!”
And what of poteen also known as Mountain Dew, criminalised in 1661 but, I read, it’s likely that Fermanagh is the ‘capital’ of poteen making. ‘There are so many islands in Fermanagh’s lakes the likelihood of the revenue men guessing where you are is remote.’
Fascinating Exposé
These are not my musings but those of storyteller and author Doreen McBride and come from her latest book published last month, The A-Z of Curious Northern Ireland. She’s like her book, full of craic. After many years we meet again over lunch in her friends home in Carrickfergus. We talk of the two years it took to research and write her latest publication.
“I search books, I travel and wander to get a feel for the subject. I’m fond of going into cafes and pubs to chat with the people, usually older people on their own willing to enjoy a bit of company. George used to tail me at 200 yards in case I would get accused of soliciting!” Sadly her husband George died earlier this year but is still close, he often comes into the conversation over lunch. We are four, Doreen and her friends, sisters Joy and Valerie and the stories compliment the meal,
Apart from the ghosts, the fairies and the Hellfire club, there is history to read. Doreen relates the contribution Northern Ireland has made to America with a synopsis on the men who ended up President of the USA. She charts the Armada of 1588 and the Spanish ships that were defeated by the English navy, especially the treasures of the ship Girona lying on the seabed off the coast of County Antrim. Chapters on local people and the legendary Daphne Bell, cape flowing, hat perched precariously on her head, the woman who founded the Ulster College of Music. Even Errol Flynn gets a look in.
World Of Fascination
Doreen takes us on a journey pausing in Lower Lough Erne where the ancient Celtic Christian movement, the Culdees, would strip naked and be baptised in the River Erne. ‘Unfortunately the custom degenerated over time,’ she reports, ‘and became more of an orgy than a Christian service! Tents were erected and the indulgence of all sorts of sexual practices became commonplace.’
We then stop off at The Old Inn Crawfordsburn to learn that it was once used by smugglers with secret hiding places for contraband being found well into the twentieth century. The Emperor of Russia, Peter the Great, stayed there when he toured Ulster studying developments in the manufacture of damask linen. Famous writers, Trollope, Swift, Dickens and Makepeace Thackeray as well as Alfred Lord Tennyson have also been residents as was Dick Turpin, CS Lewis honeymooned there!
The chapter on language is a laugh out loud. Malapropisms are common, Doreen writes. ‘She was turrible bad, she had to have a sectarian operation,’ meaning she had such a difficult labour she had to have a Caesarian. Another had a hysterical rectum rather than a hysterectomy!
There’s a couple of paragraphs about the word craic pronounced crack. I appreciate the confusion as once I invited a visiting English TV producer to come to the house for supper and some craic. Poor man, he was so disappointed!
Doreen is a much appreciated author, storyteller and broadcaster who has she reckons written eight or nine books some for adults and some for children. However, she isn’t resting on her laurels. Currently she’s three quarters through studying the Ulster Scots and what brought them to Ireland, a mix she says of fact and fiction. “Like Morecambe and Wise, I have all the notes but not necessarily in the right order!”
Available on Amazon.