There's Life Before Us......

The daily update from Stair na hÉirinn arrived when I was travelling to Dublin this morning.

It prompted me to take time out at the Royal Canal in Drumcondra to appreciate the sculpture of Brendan Behan who was born today in 1923.

I think that Niall Toibin in the Borstal Boy must have been one of the very first plays, as opposed to pantomimes, that I saw in Cork Opera House. The quote from Gearóid Cheast’s book will long live on tap in my memory. Two more reasons for the time-out.

I very much like the sculpture – the facial features and the bird. I really liked the engraving of quotes into the seat – but I am a sucker for a sculpted seat.

Thank you, John Coll.

“Whether you be cook’s son

Earl’s son or duke’s son

Not one penny goes past the tombstone’s brink

So join the chorus

There’s life before us

When you put your true trust in drink.”

“Loneliness

 The tang of blackberries

wet with rain

on the hilltop.

In the silence of the prison

the clear whistle of the train

The happy whisperings of lovers

to the lonely one.”

“The bells of hell go ting-a-lingaling

For you but not for me

Oh death where is thy sting-a-ling-aling

Or grave thy victory”

“A hungry feeling came o’er me stealing

And the mice were squealing in my prison cell

And that old triangle

Went jingle jangle,

All along the banks of the Royal Canal.”

“Blais sméara dubh tréis baisteach

Ar bharr an tsleibhe

I dtost an phriosúin feadaíl fhuar

an traenach.

 Cogar gáire beirt leannán don aonarán.”

“Some day I'll go back again to Kimmage

 Be it only at the closing of my mind

 To see the little  children beat their grannies

 Or tripping up the crippled and the blind”