Irish Eyes

By Mattie Lennon

Wicklow played an active role in the 1798 Insurrection. The Irish Rebellion of 1798 which was an insurrection against the British Crown. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen. First formed in Belfast by Presbyterians. One day at a funeral in Templeboden a historian, looking at the weathered tombstones said, “ I’d say there are 98 men buried here.” My old neighbour Jimmy added, “Begob there is, or there could be more than a hundred in it.”

I always liked living in the past, it’s cheaper. Consequently I love museums. I was in a sex museum in Amsterdam and I had just left Prague when I discovered that there is a Museum of Instruments of torture there. (A musician friend of mine claims that the Bodhrán should be in it.)

Imagine my delight when I found that there is a coffin museum on the edge of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. It’s owned and run by Newman Brothers Coffin Works and is situated at 13-15 Fleet Street, Birmingham B3.

The Coffin Works is an award winning museum. The shelves and workbenches at Newman Brothers are full of original stock and tools of the trade. A very nice young lady there called Emma told me, “The Coffin Works is an award winning museum in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. The shelves and workbenches at Newman Brothers are full of original stock and tools of the trade. With the original machinery working again, you can truly experience how this old Jewellery Quarter firm once operated on a day to day basis, producing some of the world’s finest coffin furniture, including the fittings for the funerals of Winston Churchill, Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.”

The Newman family have been making coffins since 1882 so if you are in Birmingham be sure to call in.

The annual Sean McCarthy Memorial Weekend was the usual get-together of writers, poets, singers/songwriters and storytellers.

Caroline O Callaghan took first place with her ballad "My Maryann" in second place was Pete Gilroy with his ballad "Claddagh" and in third place was Pat McCarthy with his ballad, "Tell me what happened to yesterday".

And for the Mick McCarthy Story Telling competition the winner was Tom Moore from Moyvane, with "Left it too Late for a Wife" second place was Maria Gillen with "Wolf Eyes" and in third place was John Carew with "Geroid Laria."

One commentator had this to say about Tom Moore, “Moyvane is very proud to have a talented seanchai such as Tom Moore living in our midst. His storytelling is a blend of Eamonn Kelly and Eddie Lenehan washed down with a healthy North Kerry accent.”

Tom told me, “I have been storytelling since 1982. My stories, which I write myself, are all based on the past in rural Ireland. I remember the past fondly and it is easy to build stories around such amazing times. Some of my favourite stories to tell are Mickeen and Paudeen, The Common Market, The Carnival and A servant boy going to confession on holy week. I've always loved stories that are humorous with a good punch line as I believe these best engage the audience. I'm also a country singer and enjoy singing a mix of old and modern country songs. I've taken part in many concerts, fundraisers and storytelling competitions over the years.”

Still in Kerry the Dan Paddy Andy Festival.

"Who was Dan Paddy Andy ? In the days before Tinder or match.com, legendary matchmaker Dan Paddy Andy O’ Sullivan of Renagown had perfected the job of bringing people together in rural areas. The late and great Listowel writer, John B Keane, whose book, Man of the Triple Name is a tribute to Dan Paddy Andy, suggested that Dan did more for his own people during the 1930s and 1940s than any other man of his time.

Keane described how there was more to the gentle art of matchmaking than land and stock and condition of the dwelling house. Dan Paddy Andy wanted to know the parties involved like the back of his hand, to have intimate knowledge of them down to the number of teeth or sets of false teeth (upper and lower); their ancestors, history of sickness, life spans.

Tadhg Coakley is the author of six books, Before He Kills Again,The First Sunday in September, Whatever It Takes. His, The Game: A Journey into the Heart of Sport (2023) was shortlisted as Sports Book of The Year. (You can see his photo at his web page, "Tadhg Coakley.webp")

He is a prolific writer of short stories, articles, and essays which have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Winter Papers, The Irish Examiner, The Irish Times, The42.ie, Aethlon, The Holly Bough, The Honest Ulsterman, Quarryman, Silver Apples and elsewhere.

Tadhg is a writer from Mallow, he lives in Cork city. A former librarian and researcher, he worked in MTU for 30 years before he retired in 2015.

After that he became a writer and he signed up for a Masters in Creative Writing in UCC. That course was crucial for him. This Dissertation became his first book, The First Sunday in September, which is published by Mercier Press in 2018.

His second novel was published in 2020, Whatever it Takes, and the first thriller featured Tim Collins, a Detective based in Cork city. His third book was the Autobiography of Denis Coughlan, which he ghost-wrote. It was published by Hero Books in 2020. It got rave reviews and was selected as one of the sports books of the year by the Irish Examiner, the Irish Times and the Sunday Times.

His fourth book is The Game: A Journey into the Heart of Sport published by Merrion Press in 2022. It was a bestseller and was shortlisted for Irish Book of the Year.

His 5th is a follow-up to Whatever It Takes, in the Tim Collins series of crime thrillers, published by the Mercier Press in 2023. It’s called Before He Kills Again. His crime novel Whatever It Takes (Part 1 of the Tim Collins Series) was chosen as the 2020 Cork, One City One Book. Fresh from solving a harrowing abduction case linked to drug gangs in Kerry In the latest Dark Streets Detective Tim Collins returns to Cork City, only to discover lurking in the lanes is a world he's unprepared for.

The reader is brought through the life of Detective Tim Collins, the Na Piarsaigh and Cork hurler, from 1990 to 2015. Coakley, who I would describe as a mixture of Agatha Christie and Richard Osmon, skilfully takes the reader on this journey, over a quarter century. There are many twists, turns, cul-de-sacs and atrocities. The author, a Corkman himself , is very familiar with all of the locations mentioned in the text including the streets, restaurants, cafes, pubs etc. He says, “That helps me in no small way to visualise with great clarity and appreciate more the various aspects of this thriller as it evolves. I am there with Tim Collins in the Oval, in the Long Valley with Peadar, in the Roundy”

His word pictures are equally vivid when describing Collins’s experiences in the beautiful area around Dingle in County Kerry and the love that the author has for this part of “the Kingdom” with its contrast to the “Dark Streets” of Cork city is evident.

While still a student in UCC in 1990 his girlfriend, Jessie, was murdered. He was accused and several stunts were pulled to frame him. Despite his parents misgiving, Tim Collins joined the Garda Síochána in 1991. In later life he often wondered if his parents were right; that maybe he wasn’t cut out to be a policeman. He learned fairly quickly that An Garda Síochána is not one big happy family; that all human life is there. His colleagues and superiors include at least one sadist, a rugby fan, several who would stop at nothing to achieve their own ends and a few decent officers.

It is very obvious that Coakley also has a fierce grá for Kerry and once again while these Kerry locations are quite central to the plot, they are also areas of breathtaking natural beauty in their own right.

Coakley builds his thriller at a gradual and entertaining pace. The stories central to the book, both present and past, are seamlessly stitched together. The storyline also gives the reader quite a detailed appreciation of how the Garda Síochána conduct their business internally and how they might actually approach the stories as contained in the book. I’m certain the reader will find them very informative and interesting.

A series of terrible crimes have been committed in Cork. Collins has been framed by a colleague who claimed that he assaulted them causing grievous bodily harm. If he agreed to a suspension for a year and then resigned no charges would be brought. He agreed but decided to embark on a one-man mission to solve the brutal crimes in his native city which his colleagues and superiors had ignored. Yes, they had opened files on them but didn’t do any follow ups.

He asks himself, "Can one man make a difference?” and appears to answer in the affirmative. He goes undercover posing as a homeless person and sleeping rough in Cork in his effort to find justice for victims.

As Collins digs deeper, the line between justice and revenge blurs. Trust becomes a luxury he can't afford as allies become adversaries and the truth slips further away. The streets he once knew now hold secrets that challenge everything he knows, forcing him to confront the demons of his haunted past?a past rooted in his formative years at University College Cork making him question the nature of justice and the path he has chosen in its pursuit.

As the story unfolds, Tim must decide how far he will go to uncover the truth and whether redemption lies at the end of the road. The question remains: Can one man make a difference?

Experience the brutal and blood-soaked world of Detective Tim Collins in the third instalment of this riveting series. Filled with unforeseen twists, this book promises a visceral journey that will hold you in suspense from beginning to end.

The minute I finished it I found myself looking forward to the fourth instalment which no doubt will bring the reader through another riveting journey with Tim Collins.

See you in October.