Last week I spent three days with Michael and Eilish Kennedy at their home in Wexford. Michael, Alicia, and I taught together in Manchester between 19 and 1971, and we’ve been friends ever since.
They have a lovely house near Kiltealy, and Michael is now the retired principal of Courtnacuddy National School. I had a really great time with them, with lots of laughter, chat, and 2 barbecues at which they made sterling efforts to put some weight onto my bones. That’s the ‘feast’ bit. So where does ‘famine’ come in?
Well on the second day of my visit Michael took me for a drive around Wexford which included a trip to meet his brother Martin on his boat moored on the River Barrow in New Ross. Moored quite near Martin’s boat if the replica ‘famine ship’ the Dunbrody which I’ve read a lot about but never visited. They’ve done a great job building the replica and because we had a little time to spare before meeting Martin we went on a guided tour around it. Michael had done the tour many times with his school,so was probably a little bored going around it again, but I found it fascinating. When you think what our ancestors had to endure just to survive in this world it makes you realise how lucky we are, and how relatively insignificant many of our current problems really are.
That was the ‘ famine’ bit!
The rest of the break was really good too…including our attempt to frighten Martin and his children that night by rising from behind some bush’s with heads covered with towels and a torch under the chin while howling like a pair of banshees. That’s the sort of thing ‘retired professionals’ do!!!
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