Articles

It has been a merry season. Never mind, for a moment, that we live under a tomb-like pall of grey, or that the misery of unemployment is all around us, small groups of people have got together to see that our world is not entirely without cheer. I shall call it the Yvonne effect, after our local mayor.
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Sister number one has caused unpardonable offence to sister number two by referring to her work chairing an arts organisation as a 'piddling little job'. This is a slight that will resurface over the years and none of its sting will lessen. The contemptuous dismissal of another's modus vivendi is an affront on so many levels; one’s years of toil, experience, reputation all erased in a few words. The pain will linger.
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Like many of us in Ireland today, Lucy Madden is asking, What Went Wrong? Some 20 years ago my daughter was the first generation of Trinity graduates who did not, as she said at the time, “get straight on the plane”. For the first time in decades young, educated Irish people had the possibility of making their lives on this island and many of them did...
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A friend has presented me with a packet of recycled plastic clothes-pegs. Not a gift to set the pulses racing, you will agree, but one for which I am very grateful. These pegs, unlike their competitors that snap in the first breeze and gather on the floor of the yard, are capable of keeping a wet carpet on the washing line while the weather does its worst.
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Lucy Madden reflects on the life enhancing power of festivals – even when it rains. “We’re not coming to stay” said the woman at the front door. “But the parrot is.” So began the 2011 Flat Lake Arts and Literary Festival here in Co. Monaghan. What is it that makes festivals, events that expose one over a number of days to the vagaries of the weather, a monotonous diet and the stern gaze of Security, so utterly compelling?
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Despite everything that has happened here recently, Lucy Madden finds many reasons for optimism in Ireland today. A friend of mine views the world through a prism of joy and optimism; how I wish I was more like her. My inclinations are closer to Nancy Astor’s dictum “If you can’t think of anything good to say about anyone, come and sit next to me.”
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Lucy Madden ponders, in her inimitable way, on the inexact science of appropriateness - and its importance in the hospitality business. Photographed outside the High Court at the end of last year, having just lost a much publicised case involving rights of way, the litigant was displaying a daring amount of cleavage...
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Lucy Madden ponders the benefits of Self Improvement – and the dangers of Self Promotion....Travelling home by plane to Ireland the other day I noticed that all three passengers in our row, myself included, were reading Self-Help books.
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"People abroad no longer think Ireland possesses a naturally unspoiled environment, because the truth is out there."
“Authentic: not imaginary, false fake or imitation: genuine, OED." Ah. So that's what it means, says himself, closing the dictionary. One might be forgiven for believing that it means just the opposite; we are told that the diktat currently regimenting bed and breakfast establishments will provide visitors with an "authentic" experience of Irish life. The 40 page document, mentioned on these pages before, which insists even for its basic level of approval, that the premises conform to a rigid set of rules will have the effect of littering the country with identical, unauthentic clones.
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In her article this month Lucy Madden laments increased bureaucracy and the apparent desire of the tourism authorities in Ireland to make all accommodation uniform - quashing any charm & character that individuality brings along the way. Picture this. Somewhere in a condominium in Florida, Duane and Barbra, third generation Americans, are planning their first trip to Ireland to seek out their roots. Before them is spread out the ample literature provided by the Irish Tourist Board. They have saved for this journey for years and have decided to opt for bed and breakfast accommodation. They are a little nervous about their forthcoming adventure and want to pre-book, so are discussing their requirements. “We’ve got to find some place where the tables are laid correctly, with cutlery of uniform design. And I’d like a choice of two fishes for breakfast,” says Barbra. “I’ll need an all-night floodlit parking lot,” says Duane. “We don’t want anywhere where the telephone rings more than 5 times,” Barbra insists “And if the walls in the rooms are plain I must insist on some homey prints...
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