"Never...

" ....have anything to do with someone from Cavan, Mayo or Sligo because they will be the cause of your ruin since they don't join trade unions. If they do,they don't remain in one for long and try to drag everyone else down to their level of perpetual misery,crass ignorance and mental ineptitude ..."

What,in bright-spark terms,was my father referring to other than causal neutrality or the Christian existentialism of a lazy, useless, nonogenarian Pope.

At Becton building site in March 1987,I got the true representation of the "rarum-scarum, divil-may-carum,decent Irish boy" and his approach to labour organisation and warfare in the voice of a Mayo small farmer's son,"Volunteer for nothing and join nothing!". When I heard this remarkable ministration,I realised the deep wounds inflicted on Mayo by the Great Hunger and its resonance throughout all of the West of Ireland apart from in any part of Galway where people are known to be serious, dedicated and the most truly resilient people who I have ever had the joy to invite into my house.

Cavan,Mayo or Sligo people?

"If they move in beside you,don't talk to them".

"Leitrim people are the best people in this country and because of that fact are never out of trouble with the Guards but they don't have much money. However,they'd do you a good turn before they'd do you a bad turn but not the Mc Cartans of Newtowngore. They're Fine Gael,Joseph,your grandfather always said they should have been drowned in a bog-hole the day they were born.... " (My father,1983).

7.2.2021

" There is no worse strike-breaker than a Mayo Catholic or a Cork Protestant or Catholic Dutchman,the latter is notorious for breaking his own strike. Taken with the Liverpool poor they represent the offal of society.. This evil brood is even worse than a Belfast Orangeman who at least knows when  to strike work after being told by his union official. Unlike Paisley,he has at least some stopping place on a Sunday but none of the above or Belfast Catholics or Donegal or Cavan Protestants have any..."

The living word of an experienced man who asked me plainly,"What have you got against the police. They're outside your door to protect you from the British Army because a woman your mother will tell you about ("a call-girl") wants you to die a violent and unnecessary death. Manus Maguire and your cousin Ann told her where you live by mistake. One of her friends,a little Jewish fellow,approached them in the off-chance that your real friends who are your family ,not strangers such as other students,would pass on the piece of information. Don't profess love to a prostitute or she'll turn on yo or send one of her clients to get you killed. For all your birdie-talk,they knew that you had been treated for a tumour and,in Manus Maguire's case,Black as you call him had seen you with him. His real name isn't Jonnie Black, it's David Abramowitz. Like all Jews and Communists, he's no use to either man or beast. That's what you get for telling your business to a woman and a loose woman at that. The Jews are worse than the Presbyterians for carrying stories back to the police and all police witnesses such as lecturers do too. If they don't they lose their job or don't get one in the first place."

Stand up and take a bow "Jonathan Bloch" LL.B (Hons.) (Q. U. B.).

Joseph Paul Mc Carroll