THE last day of 2023 started quietly enough. A cold and misty morning it was as I did a few jobs around the yard before mass. We had put in plenty silage for the cows the previous evening so there wasn’t much to be done.
While we were at half-nine Mass the heavens opened and we could hear the lashing on the church roof as torrents cascaded down. It eased a little as we got home.
Now, they say that there seven different types of madness and maybe sometimes I suffer from all seven! That thought certainly occurred to me about half an hour later!
The rain had resumed coming down in buckets, buffeted by a cold wind. By now I was on the way to Rathcormac and exposed to the full force of nature’s elements.
You see, the Rathcormac Vintage Club had organised a Vintage Vehicle Gathering starting at 11am and I was on my way in my 1964 David Brown tractor. Lads, I can tell ye alright that a ‘voice’ somewhere in the deepest recesses of my brain was shouting ‘Are you mad or what?’
True enough, I had no shelter in my cab-less tractor and, despite wearing rain gear and several layers of clothing underneath, I was drenched to the skin before I reached Ballinwilling Bridge!
Back in 1960, the local Macra na Feirme branch here held a Ploughing Match at O’Sullivan’s farm in Rathaneague. It was a brutal day with cold wind and train - just like last Sunday! The Amplification that day in 1960 was provided by a famous man, Pat Barrett of Midleton.
Speaking of the weather conditions later, Pat said it was so bad he got ‘seven different types of flu out of it’! I’m not counting but I’ve not stopped coughing and spluttering since - but sure ‘twas for a good cause!
All the funds collected went to the Critical Rapid Response Unit, a most worthy cause.
After getting off from my 880 at the Community Field, I emptied the water from my wellingtons! Amazingly, after a short while the sky turned blue and the sun shone -just briefly! There was a nice gathering on an awful morning and the donation bucket was well filled.
It would have been much easier for everyone to heed the weather forecasters’ dire warnings and stay at home. The Vintage Club could just have cancelled the whole show, but no, it went ahead. That’s determination and resilience - OK, there’s a modicum of madness thrown in too, but life is for living and doing things, taking chances and helping others.
You know, in this day and age we hear so much bad news, so much negativity, and no doubt much of it is deserved, but truly we have a lot to be proud of.
Over the last month or so, Vincent de Paul, SHARE, the Cork Penny Dinners, and Cork Simon were all flat out. Many other groups, big and small, local and national, do unseen trojan work, week in, week out, to help others.
Sometimes, I think we underestimate the goodness of Irish people and their willingness to give to others -not just money or food or presents -all these are important, but giving one’s time and talents is a great gift to bestow.
In many other European countries - many more ‘wealthy’ than Ireland - that sense of community and helping hands has long since disappeared. It’s not just in the concrete jungles of anonymous, huge cities but in rural areas too.
Back in 1918, when Brinsley Mac Namara wrote his Valley Of The Squinting Windows, the book proved very controversial. Set in a tiny village where everyone is interested in everyone else’s business and wishes them to fail, the book was widely condemned and copies burnt.
Maybe Sheridan took the old Irish sean-fhocail ‘Ar scath a cheile mhaireann na daoine’ (People live in each other’s shadow) a bit too far. Nevertheless, isn’t it better to live in a society where we all know our neighbours than living in splendid isolation?
Of course, we must respect privacy, and with modern GDPR laws, sure it’s nearly a crime to give someone’s phone number to someone else! Despite all this, we should never fail to recognise and value the hundreds, nay, thousands of people who don’t count the cost or time lost in lending a hand.
Maybe a handful, a very small minority, do it for personal glorification or out of a sense of ego satisfaction, but for the majority it’s just the right thing to do. There’s absolutely no better reason than that for getting involved.
I suppose the basis of Christianity is to ‘love God and love thy neighbour’ and whilst religious practise, as in actually going to church, chapel or meeting-house, has declined, I think the Christian ethos still pervades in Irelandm and that’s something we should be rightly proud of.
I’d love to go back to Ethiopia some time. In October, 2008, I was privileged to be part of a group that journeyed to that vast, beautiful but poverty-stricken African country. As part of a Self Help team we spent a week there.
We all know the maxim, ‘Give a fish and feed someone for a day, teach a person how to fish, feed them for life’ - that was and still is the basic ethos of so many groups who work all over the world.
Of course, in times of natural disasters or in war situations, immediate and urgent food aid and medical help is needed, and the solution for long-term poverty and hunger has to include ground-up projects.
Looking back now, 16 years on, am I more confident than then about solving all the world’s many problems? I’m not sure, but no matter what happens, ’tis better to light even a small candle than just simply curse the darkness.
In 2008, I saw ‘green shoots’ of local development with co-operatives funded by Irish cash. A tiny amount can have a massive long -term effect in a country where resources are scarce.
Just before we began the Christmas season, I heard Paddy O’Brien interviewed on the wireless. A tireless worker for over 50 years for the marginalised and underprivileged, Paddy was discussing one of the greatest afflictions now afflicting Irish society - loneliness.
I mentioned the concrete jungles across the world, but a person living on their own can be lonely in the countryside, in a little village, a town or city like Cork.
Paddy was asking people not for cash or cheques or standing orders, but simply time. We are all busy but, in terms of time and talk, a little means a lot.
If every single person who reads these words makes a decision to simply ‘call in’ to someone they have been meaning to visit - even for quarter of an hour - the effect would be massive. Don’t do it for the ‘thank- you’ you’ll get, but for the smile on the face of someone who mightn’t have met anyone for a week. That’s something worth achieving.
Don’t ‘beat yourself up’ for not calling or making that phone call before now - just do it.
Last Sunday, as I drove home in my wet clothes, the weather was a bit brighter. I smiled thinking of the hardy lads who had made the fund-raiser a success. I actually met one local man who is off with two friends to travel the length of England and Scotland - on his tractor. They’ll be away for the month of May, fundraising again for last Sunday’s great cause. We’ve a lot to be proud of.
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Sure, I complain, and I am an eccentric, but here’s to 2024! More in this section
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