Athlone, right in the very heart of Ireland, midway between Dublin and Galway. Mind you, there’s one similarity with France; while I was in Athlone the other day, the rain just bucketed down, as it has been doing and continues to
do, right across France.
Athlone is a very old established town, absolutely steeped in historical resonances; the castle, which in many ways
is the focal point, dates back to the 13th century. In 1690 and 1691, Athlone was under siege during the Williamite wars, but it managed to survive all that while the castle itself survived a plan by the local council to demolish it. Local councils have the happy knack of coming up with ideas like that, but people in
Athlone mobilised in such strength that this kooky plan was soon thrown out the window.
Of the galaxy of personalities that the town has produced over the years, none was more famous or widely regarded than Count John McCormack, born in a humble household in the centre of Athlone in 1884. He had an incredible tenor voice and was arguably the most famous and memorable
international singing star ever produced by Ireland. A special section of the museum is devoted to this most famous son of Athlone.
With such a wealth of history, it’s hardly surprising that the town has produced a delightful new museum, called The Little Museum of Memories, Athlone, with the aim of preserving recollections of bygone days in and around Athlone for present and future generations. There I met some of the people who are so dedicated to seeing the museum prosper, including Maria Gillen, who has a great interest in everything historical in both Athlone and Achill, Ireland’s largest island, and Carmel Feeney, a photographer by profession, who has produced lovely colour postcards of Athlone for the museum, Deirdre Brennan, Laurna Carey and Mairead Brannigan.
The museum started a couple of years ago and had temporary premises before finding its present permanent home, at 1 Lloyds Lane, which is right in the centre of Athlone. The building it’s in was
previously a medical centre named after Dr Steevens, whose family had strong connections with Athlone. The Rev John Steevens had been made rector of St Mary’s church in Athlone about 1660, when his son, Richard, was a young boy. The Steevens’ family lived in Lloyd’s Lane, two doors down from the present museum. Richard Steevens qualified in medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, and thereafter, practised medicine in Dublin. When he died, he left a substantial amount of money to his sister Griselda, who founded the renowned Dr Steevens’ Hospital in Dublin, nearly 300 years ago. Incidentally, the fine building of what was once the old hospital, which closed down almost 30 years
ago, is still in use by the Health Service Executive, and it’s right opposite Heuston station, from where trains depart to Athlone.
So the committee behind the new museum now have the premises and a wealth of material
to draw on. To date, they’ve put up countless photographs showing many aspects of life in Athlone over the years. There’s a photograph of the famous Athlone radio transmitter being built; it opened in 1932 so as the broadcast the proceedings of the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin that year. The word ‘Athlone’ soon became synonymous with Irish radio far beyond the shores of Ireland. For years, the old twin radio towers were a welcoming beacon for Athlone folk coming home; their red lights could be seen from miles distant.
There’s a whole host of other photos, showing old buildings in and around the town, while an
important part of the collection is devoted to the host of well-known personalities the town has produced over the years, starting with McCormack. Another character was John Broderick, who wrote some well-regarded novels in between running the family bakery business, known as Broderick’s Sunshine Bakery. A present day singer of renown from the town, Louis Brown, is
also featured, as is Brendan Shine, a big name on the 1960s showband circuit and still performing (Do You Want Your Oul Lobby Washed Down?). Athlone has also long been the hub of the amateur drama movement in Ireland, with its annual festival devoted to the subject.
Athlone, like everywhere else in Ireland, once had a profusion of local characters, and some of these can be seen in the photo collection. These days, it seems that everyone is too busy walking
round glued to their iPhones and iPads to notice the present day characters. But Ireland being Ireland, we’re still producing the characters, except that they don’t seem quite as prominent or memorable as in earlier days.
So much has happened over the years in Athlone and the town has produced so many great characters and personalities that the new museum has an incredible dazzle of riches from which to draw. Sport, too, plays a big part,and one photo that intrigued me dates back to 1975/76 and the UEFA cup
competition that saw Athlone Town FC compete against A C Milan. Jail history and Army history are also important facets of Athlone life that also feature in the museum. Railway history is also important in Athlone, since the first station opened in 1851 and this is another aspect of the town’s history that the museum wants to develop.
One corner of the museum is dedicated to the garden shed and a variety of old utensils, including an elegant looking watering can that was made years ago by tinkers. Before widespread mechanisation and the diy stores that sell everything you need for the garden, tinkers had a great reputation for making and repairing all kinds of utensils for the home and garden, a skill that has now vanished. Something else that attracted my attention in this part of the museum were the two old-fashioned hot water bottles, made from steel, and known informally as ‘pigs’, that had to be filled with boiling
water to heat the bed.
In between looking at all the old memorabilia on Athlone - and that includes a few mock skeletons, which the kids seem to find particularly fascinating - a young lady called Laurna Carey picked
up an old accordion and played some very tuneful melodies. We could so easily have had an impromptu ceili there and then; all the contents of the museum would put you in the humour for celebratory jigs and reels.
The house that now has the museum is quite spacious, with plenty of rooms on two floors. One of the aims is to set up facilities so that people, including schoolchildren, can research local history and family history. There are also plans to dedicate a room to the famine and the local workhouse. When this section was in the museum’s previous, temporary, home, children seemed to get a lot out of this subject, so there’s keen interest in developing this particular aspect.
It’s all very enterprising and I was interested to hear that since the museum receives no government funding, everything depends on their own fundraising efforts, donations from visitors and the entrance fees paid by visitors. But of course there’s an upside to not having any government
funding, which can disappear on a whim. There’s much to be said for self-sufficiency and this the new museum has it in spades.
Once visitors have spent time in this engrossing museum, they can then buy lightweight gifts, easy to transport, as a permanent reminder of Athlone’s heritage. And in case you need any more info about the museum, which is open every day, except Mondays, the phone number is 089 8040202.
The museum will also have a role in the upcoming Luanfest in Athlone, which runs from August 10 to 18, and which will feature many family events as well as heritage and cultural happenings that will also reflect the central role played in the life of the town by the River Shannon. The museum’s contribution will be an exhibition of Shannon photos.
Just in case you’re wondering about the name of the festival, it comes from the Irish name for
Athlone, Baile Átha Luain, the ford of the Luan on this strategic part of the Shannon. These days, visitors can take a Viking boat tour up the Shannon to Lough Ree or down to Clonmacnoise and it’s all a fascinating cruise experience.
Somewhere I went to during my recent visit to Athlone was Seán’s Bar, just in the shadow of Athlone Castle. It was founded in AD 900, a fact confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records, which makes it the oldest pub in either Ireland or Britain, Europe, too in all probability. A framed exhibit on the
wall of the pub contains some of the original wattle wall from the pub’s inception. John’s bookshop, right next door, has an intriguing mix of collectable books and all kinds of memorabilia, a perfect example of how Athlone folk are so proud of and determined to preserve, their amazing heritage.
In short, Athlone and district has a great variety of tourist attractions and plenty of good quality hotels and restaurants to keep visitors in comfort. The new museum is already becoming yet another very good reason to visit and explore this fascinating town, a great destination for tourists looking for
interesting things to do and see.
Meanwhile, in France, just as in Athlone, the rain keeps pouring down. Over the last 10 days or so, violent storms have struck right across France and a lot more rain is forecast for the end of this week. Near tornado conditions in Nice last week did a lot of damage, especially along the seafront, while last Friday, storm conditions that extended from the Dordogne right across to the Gironde estuary produced hail stones the size of ping pong balls. Over 4,000 hectares of vines in the Entre-deux-Mers region were wiped out, yet another natural catastrophe this year for French wine growers. This summer has been an unlovely mixture of rain, lightening, hailstones and heatwaves.
Another abnormality this year is the number of jewellery robberies on the Cote d’Azur. Cannes has seen some spectacular heists this year and one of the most recent, of €40,000’s worth of jewellery, took place at the Grand Hotel in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferret, just the other day.
All this bad weather coincided with all the traffic jams we expect in France at this time of year. Last Saturday, August 3, is the worst day of the year for traffic, called the annual chassé-croisé, or crossover day, when all the July holidaymakers return home and the August ones set out on their vacations. The end result was that by midday on Saturday, France had 828 km of traffic jams, the equivalent of virtually the whole length of road from Paris to Toulon on the south coast being one traffic jam!
Curiously enough, while the beginning of August has long seen Parisians abandon their city, it hasn’t happened nearly so much this year, because the economic situation is so bad. This year, about 40 per cent of people in France, and that includes Parisian city dwellers, just are not going anywhere on holiday but are having a stay at home holiday, literally in their homes. Even President Hollande isn’t
going any further than La Lanterne, an official residence of vast scale in the grounds of the palace of Versailles, and that’s only about 15 km from Paris.
Still, the bad economic situation in France is producing some quirky side benefits, as can only happen in France. The latest big hit on the fashion scene is a rather expensive cashmere pullover, which sells for €285; it has one word inscribed on it - chomeur, or “unemployed”.
An old tourist sight in Paris has just opened up to visitors. The Tour Saint Jacques dates from the early part of the 16th century, and it stands just at the back of the rue de Rivoli,right in the city centre. It’s an extraordinary tower, that has had all kinds of uses and which has inspired many literary connections. The tower has been extensively renovated over the last years, as has the surrounding park, which was opened to the public four years ago. But not until now has the tower itself been opened, but from now until mid-September, small groups of people can climb upwards to explore the insides of the tower.
Another brand new innovation in Paris that’s well worth exploring is the new 2.3 km walkway that runs beside the River Seine, close to the Eiffel tower.
Yet another really fascinating item about Paris has just been launched. J.H.Engstrom arrived in Paris from his native Sweden in the late 1980s and spent the next 20 years taking photographs of the seedy, down-at-heel parts of working class Paris that are far removed from all the tourist clichés we see so often, of the Eiffel tower, the enormous tourist boats on the Seine, and all the rest of the multimillion worldwide tourism industry - after all, France and especially Paris are still the number one destination worldwide for travellers. But Engstrom kept snapping away, right up to 2012 and he has produced an enormous variety of truly fascinating photos of the down-to-earth Paris that tourists rarely see. A selection are in a newly published book, A Sketch of Paris, published by Aperture. It’s pricey, at just
over €50, but for anyone who can afford such extravagance on a book, it’s well worth the expenditure.
As for August in Paris, we have many fond memories of holidays there at this special time of year. Our favourite hotel, the Quai Voltaire,in on the quays, facing the Louvre, one of only two riverfront
hotels in Paris. In years gone by the hotel attracted all kinds of artistic types, from Wagner to Oscar Wilde. These days, it’s all tourists, and despite having a makeover in recent years, it’s still very reasonably priced. For much of August, a room costs €82, but those room rates can go up to around €160 a night.
August is a great time to see this part of Paris, the 7th arrondissement. Nearly all the government ministeries are there and of course, during August, there’s a mass exodus of civil servants. Mind you, when they are in residence, it’s all very civilised and it’s amusing to find that in the restaurants that are popular with them,that often they manage to prolong some very vinous lunches until 3.30pm, which I reckon is a great way of ensuring that the French civil service comes up with some very well thought out and sensible solutions to problems. I hate to think what the reaction would be if the staff in the Department of the Taoiseach decided to follow the French way of doing lunch! We’d never hear the end of it!
The seventh is noted for its many museums, most especially the Musée d’Orsay, home to so many
Impressionist paintings. But there’s a lot more to the seventh, including Serge Gainsbourg’s place in the rue de Verneuil; the high water mark at the top of the rue de Bellechasse, which marks the great floods that swamped the centre of Paris in 1910; the Pagoda cinema, built in the 1920s like a pagoda and above all the church of St Clothilde. One of its organists was the great composer César Franck (1822-1890), while from 1945 until 1987, its organist was a blind maestro, Jean Langlois. Even today, to sit in the church while an organ recital is being played, or while a choir is singing, is a magical, enchanting experience.
The rue de Grenelle in the seventh, just beside St-Clothilde, is also home to our favourite restaurant in Paris, which isn’t French at all,the Grenelle de Pekin. It’s a wholly delightful Chinese restaurant
with a lovely, welcoming ambiance, almost next to the mairie of the seventh.
So even though the seventh at first glance seems to full of government ministeries, there’s much more to it. We’ve been going there for so long that all kinds of little rituals have built up. In our earlier days
in the seventh, we stayed in the Hotel de Bellechasse in the street of the same name. But it happened to be almost opposite the old railway station that was transformed into the Musée d’Orsay, so the hotel was given a big makeover and gentrified, with prices following suit. But when we used to stay in that particular hotel, when we were arriving from the airport, we’d get off the Métro at Solférino. Even now, the klaxon on the Métro trains has a resonance that so much symbolises Paris. We also used to go, on arrival, to a brasserie overlooking the great junction of the boulevard St Germain and the boulevard Raspail, where inevitably, a favourite was consumed, an oeuf dur or hard boiled egg. Even this tastes very different in Paris!
It’s hardly any wonder that some people in Ireland, through letters to a national newspaper, have been suggesting that the answer to Ireland’s woes is for the country to become an overseas département of France. We would benefit in all sorts of ways, not least that everyone in Ireland would enjoy more official holidays. We would also benefit greatly from the French cost of living, which is about 30 per cent cheaper than the Irish. Recently, friends of our took their estate car to France on the ferry
for a few days break. The weather in France was lousy but at least they were able to fill up their estate car with loads of French food, wine and other essential household items. They reckoned they saved so much that those savings paid for the entire cost of the fares over on the ferry! So roll on another
great idea for the constitutional convention!
To conclude for this week, I’ve been fascinated by the turmoil in the US newspaper industry, decimated by the Internet. Just 20 years ago, the New York Times bought the Boston Globe for $1.1 billion. I well remember the days when the Globe was such a huge newspaper, packed with ads, that it was almost impossible to hold it, the paper was so heavy. It’s just been sold to a local sports mogul, John Henry, for a mere $70 million. Now comes the news that the Washington Post, famed for its Watergate revelations 40 years ago, is being sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, for $250 million. The Graham family owned it for the past 80 years and the latest member of that family to run the paper, Katharine Weymouth, is to stay on as publisher and chief executive. Rather embarrassingly
for the New York Times, it ran a lengthy profile of Katharine Weymouth a couple of days before the Amazon announcement, with ne’er a hint that such jaw-dropping news was about to be unveiled.
Truly, we live in times that are built on shifting sands, but Athlone and Paris will always be
there to captivate people’s interest and create so much enjoyment of their surroundings.