-
A Moment of Silence
The day before our 22nd wedding anniversary was the day my husband died, and I was on the other side of the world in Barney Devlin’s Forge – in the heart of Heaney country. I walked there again this past Father’s Day morning, in the rain and under a grey sky with my oldest, dearest friend. By the time we reached the Hillhead, there was no rain and the sky bright and blue. As if someone had ordered it, the cars stopped whizzing by. Save for the birds, all fell silent. Inexplicably, at first, I was compelled to reach for my phone to begin recording the silence. I even told my friend to be…
-
belated . . . but thank you, jj cale
Remembering JJ Cale
-
Antrim, Belfast, Belfast Peace Lines, bombing, British Army, Bruce Springsteen, Castledawson, Good Vibrations, IRA, Joe Strummer, La Mon House Hotel Bombing, Memoir, Mix tapes, Movies, Music, Northern Ireland, Omagh, Pop-in Records, Record Shops, Regrets, Sectarianism, Sherman Alexie, Terri Hooley, The Clash, The Miami Showband, The Troubles, The Undertones, Themes of childhood, UVF, Vinyl Records
for the record . . . a reprise
Terri Hooley has decided to close down the Good Vibrations record shop on June 13th. This one’s for him – again. I rarely watch movies when I’m flying, but on the plane from Chicago to Dublin two Novembers ago, perusing my options for in-flight entertainment, I paused when I heard the unmistakable hiss that comes after a stylus is dropped right in the groove, and a Northern Ireland accent infused with Woodbine cigarettes: “Once upon a time in the city of Belfast, there lived a boy named Terri . . .” Terri Hooley. Where do I begin, and what can I say that hasn’t already been said about him? In 1977, he opened his own record shop, “Good Vibrations”…
-
Belfast Peace Lines, Borders, Dr. Martin Luther King, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights Movement, Human Rights, Ireland, Justice, Marriage Equality Referendum, Memoir, Northern Ireland, Politics, Seamus Heaney, Themes of Childhood
On Domestic Affairs in Northern Ireland
In April 2015, when the Northern Ireland Assembly voted – again – against same-sex marriage, I was disappointed, but I was not without hope that change is coming. If a month later, the Irish Republic could become the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular, national vote, then surely the tide must turn in the North? What happened in Ireland last month is momentous, a seminal moment for a tiny country of less than 5 million people, a place where homosexuality was still a crime just 22 years ago, where divorce did not become legal until 1997, and where a woman still must travel to another country to have a legal abortion. Ireland…
