THURSDAY
Say it ain’t so, Joe…
It’s past midnight, and I’m drifting towards sleep, the TV still on in our bedroom, the blah blah from one of those late-night news programmes becoming more muffled…
But I hang on to the newsreader’s words when he begins an update on the marathon US election run-in.
“President Biden performed better than expected at tonight’s press conference…” he begins.
“Ah, that’s good, all is well with the world” I began to think, hopeful – as sleep came closer – that equilibrium is returning stateside.
But the newsreader, speaking with no intended sense of irony, wasn’t quite finished.
“… although President Biden did refer to his vice-president (Kamala Harris) as Donald Trump. This came a few hours after Mr Biden introduced Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy as President Putin”.
Eh… sweet dreams.
FRIDAY
Chasing Stars
Yes, I enjoyed strutting across a multitude of blades of grass in the hallowed Thomond Park, all in front of thousands of adoring fans in the stands… rather like Peter O’Mahony does.
Fair enough, he outclasses (or equals) world class opponents as a dynamic rugby flanker, while I was merely attending a concert in the famous Limerick stadium.
We arrived in the ‘Treaty County’ early on Friday, looking forward to a family break that had been planned for months, and which would take in two of three big concerts being hosted in the city over the weekend.
We stayed in two different hotels over the two nights, the first at a fairly exorbitant price, the second considerably better value (but a few miles from the city centre).
In hotel number one, we witnessed a lady enquire about booking a room on the Saturday night.
“We are full” the young man at reception announced. “You could try some other hotels, but they will be charging three or four hundred euro” he said, adding with a not remotely embarrassed flourish, “it’s concert weekend!”
(This may well be the new tactic of the hotel industry against accusations of hiking prices when big events are being staged; don’t bashfully deny there’s any greed involved, instead ‘own it’ and exclaim: ‘but it’s concert weekend!’).
The lady left with a glum face.
There was a great atmosphere at Katie Dalys pub (they don’t use an apostrophe) before the Snow Patrol concert tonight. Our fellow concert-goers were in great form and big burgers were sizzling on an enticing barbeque.
We took our place on the Thomond Stadium pitch shortly after 7 pm, close to the stage, thousands more seated in the stands.
We’ve seen Snow Patrol in concert a few times, and once again tonight, they were fantastic. It was an electrifying concert, led by charismatic lead singer Gary Lightbody, Thomond Park rocking to the Snow Patrol classics (Take Back the City, Chasing Cars, Just Say Yes, etc) and their new material too. The 30,000-odd crowd loved it, lights glowing at every turn, fans singing in unison with the band.
SATURDAY
The people you see…
O’Connell Street in Limerick was buzzing today, nice sunshine occasionally joined by light intermittent rain, as per this summer’s ‘contract’.
We hadn’t been on this High Street for many years. It was a pleasant experience, with a touch of eccentricity thrown in (probably true of every city’s main thoroughfare).
At one point a huge man appeared from around a corner and began shouting – quite aggressively – that “Jesus saves”. We are “all metaphysical” he repeated, giving every indication that he was unimpressed at being largely ignored (stares aside).
Bounding up and down on the pavement, animatedly waving his arms, the man drove home his message time and time again, as shoppers stood and looked on.
“Jesus saves! Jesus saves! We are all metaphysical! Don’t you understand?” he bellowed, at which point a man came up to the angry orator and began impersonating him.
As ‘Angry Orator man’ got even angrier, a woman in a wheelchair threw a plastic bottle of water in his direction. The booming man didn’t seem to notice, but by now he was making an awful racket, and at least one toddler was beginning to cry.
As the din continued, the woman in the wheelchair suddenly sped off in pursuit of the man, who was several feet away from her. On being challenged, he changed his demeanour, smiled and bowed for forgiveness. A few feet further on, a busker sang ‘You Are My Sunshine’.
SATURDAY NIGHT
More from ‘Thomond’
Tonight, it was back to Thomond Park, six of us this time, with Scottish star Paolo Nutini (a family favourite) on stage.
Introducing a lot of new material, he still played several of his best-known songs. After a notably low-key start, Nutini and his band produced a memorable last 45 minutes or so, showcasing his unique voice and leaving the thousands of fans present very happy by the end of another enjoyable concert.
A word too for brilliant support act ‘CMAT’ (Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson). This very talented and unique artist (from Dublin) had the audience in the palm of her hands with a high-energy, quirky and entertaining set, her version of Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights just one of many stand-out performances.
*Liam Gallagher was the big attraction in Limerick on Sunday night (“it’s concert weekend!”) but by then we were back in Roscommon. Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.
SUNDAY
Weekend sport
A great sporting weekend (early highlights included Ireland’s dramatic win over South Africa, and Armagh’s victory over Kerry) culminated in Galway footballers reaching the All-Ireland final and Spain winning the Euros (see my Sports Desk column on page 38).
MONDAY
Trump latest
There were emotion-charged scenes at the Republican Party Convention tonight as Donald Trump – hit by a would-be assassin’s bullet in Pennsylvania on Saturday night – was greeted by supporters.
While his injuries were relatively minor, the former US President was incredibly fortunate to survive the attack… a distance of an inch or so essentially being the likely difference between life and death.
Little wonder than the normally phenomenally bullish Trump had tears in his eyes tonight.
Suffice to say that questions are being asked about the astonishingly incompetent security provided by the Secret Service.
