May Day Greetings – what James Larkin Jones and Martin McGuiness have in common
The respected English trade union leader James Larkin Jones (or more popularly Jack Jones) died last week at a nursing home in London - síocháin ar a anam agus imeasc laochra an lucht oibre go raibh sé anois - may his soul now rest in peace amongst the other departed heroes of the labour movement. This is my prayer on this special day for workers all over the world. There have been some excellent obituaries about James Larkin Jones and his remarkable life. See for example the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/23/jack-jones-obituary
Jack Jones at a workers rally in London
In England in the late 1970s, along with a number of other socialist youths of the far left, I ran after Jack Jones as he walked into the annual Congress of Trade Unions shouting “Jack The Rat, Jack The Rat!”.
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The match, the plaster and the immortal. Good Friday 09
Comhrá le mo athair mór síoraigh Tomás Ó Lorcáin, an Aoine a chéasadh Críost - 09
A conversation with my immortal grandfather Thomas Larkin on the day of Christ’s passion - 09
The match, the plaster and the immortal.
The ritual never deviates.
Thomas Larkin sits and contemplates
Before making his point.
Leaning back with an easy sigh
The wide wings of the sagging armchair
Still alive, embracing him.
My grandfather bathed in beatific light
Beneath the living room window
An aura of all that we were, are and will be.
For this is not science,
The meeting of emotions
Being far too exact for that.
Love’s dialectic soars and swoops
Between our dreams and existential fact.
The frame of his wise spectacles
Is held together by airfix glue
And scrupulous first aid plasters.
He lifts the side of his glasses
The better to light his cigarette.
Players Full Strength.
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