Chapters 17 and 18

Let me just shortly get back to the last post I published. There stood black in white that Monagan found the old Irish ways all but gone.

In order to save what still can be saved about the past and create a bridge to the present and the future, the idea occured to him that he might start a magazine about everything that went on in Cork. The only "tinny" problem was the extortionate price of putting a business like that on its feet. Actually, it was a colossal problem he had to deal with immediately.

So, he went on to collect potential helpers who would make his dream come true. On his quest Monagan met with the editor of The Dubliner and the former editor of The Irish Tatler, which are both glossy magazines with a huge readership.What he heard from both wasn't in the least encouraging. To put it in a nutshell, running a magazine is all about the advertising. The higher the quality and quantity of it, the better for you. What's more, in that brutal business there is no space for personal sympathy or antipathy. It is all about one's force of will.

By the way, if you happen to wish to read more about The Dubliner and The Irish Tatler, check out: http://www.thedubliner.ie/
http://www.harmonia.ie/ratecard/it/index.html

Monagan did seem to have the force of will necessary to make it, though.

Anyway, there is one culturally specifical entry in this chapter that is worthwhile mentioning- the Orange Day Parade (picture on the right.) BBC features on this URL
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/1430423.stm
an exhaustive portrayal of such a day in the Republic together with the profiles of the Orange Order and its key figures. If you happen not to understand what Drumcree has to do with the parade, look at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2115451.stm

Chapter 18 was special to me because I could relate it to my own life experience. It features a description of some of the little adventures the family undertook each weekend in north, west, south or east Cork. The underlying issue is that the parents wanted to show the children as much as possible of the Irish jaw-dropping panoramas and rural life. Exactly the same did my mother use to do when I was little despite many people thinking that she was over the top.

Today I say who cares what other hold as those trips we used to take have not only been burnt in my memory forever, but they have also made me who I am today- a citizen of the world.

Anyway, Monagan makes the reader aware once more of the incogruity visible everywhere around Ireland. Modern developments are maybe a few steps away of mystical monuments or a few miles from charming old villages like Cloyne:








The most important bit of the chapter is revealed in a succinct question at the end of it:
What if the Celtic Tiger comes to a halt?

Vocabulary quiz:

1. scant
a) little
b)meagre
c)old-fashioned

2.give somebody a wide berth
a) give somebody the benefit of the doubt
b)avoid somebody
c) help somebody

3. phoney
a) suspect
b) cheap
c) fake