Halloween Means The Dagda Rides Again

Client Piece – Selling Blog

It’s Halloween. Oiche Shamhna back home. A time of dirty dark deeds done dirt cheap. TwoTon Murphy has a tale that will chill your soul, fill you with dread and sour your stout. The Dagda. Like the badass penny he is, turning up when you least expect him. Scaring the shit out of Banshees, goblins and the Devil himself.

If you need an arse kicked, ball pucked, maul rolled, or problem solved. Dagda’s your man. Some man for one man the Dagda. You never know where he might turn up, just when you need him.

When the mood seized him and the music moved him he’d hammer out a deadly beat on the cheeks of his own Arse. BallyFuckinShannon Coothill, BallyBastardinPoreen – places he trucked into, fucked about and left. Destruction, craic, women swooning, men shaking. You name it.

Five string banjo slung across his back, sittin’ low on his bike, huge club in hand. This man wreaks havoc and devastation wherever he goes. Lover fighter, hurler, scrumhalf, flanker and hooker all in one man. He can shift. By God he can. Honey words. Tinder? More like Firestarter.

Himself and herself. A yoke from Ballyhea direction that was fond of puckin in a few balls herself got it on, on the width of the bike seat. Feel the power between your thighs, he roared as they bucked and wheelied, before falling off backwards as the accelerator got her out of hand. That’s why I wear the leathers and the TwoTonMurphy, he chuckled roarin’ off up the road.

Major craic dealer, every pub, club, bar and restaurant he turns into a cauldron of mayhem. A funnel for sinking stout hidden in the environs of a voluminous leather jacket. In a few seconds he’d whip it out and lower a pile of pints in record quick time. A French hottie tried it standing on a seat on the bar. Downed a pint in six seconds she did, broke hearts when she sang the Marseillaise by popular demand. Five score men fell in love with her petite petiteness and the women – the better halves – they called her a Wee Bitch. Sex on stout. Dagda? Who’s next he’d roar, and a lad in a wheelchair drove thru the crowd. By jaysus he wanted some of that. He was last seen with the French Petite on his pillion heading for the N17 and a tank of Gas.

The place was rockin, he’d fire off a flurry of tunes on the banjo a – sliver gleamin black dream machine that offered deliverance to all who heard it. Next he’d roar c’mon te fuk, before ripping a bodhran from a bearded ceolteori in the corner to drum out a few hornpipes before tossing it back. That’s how you rattle that goatskin, he roared.

Sometimes he slept on the bike, others in the warm embrace of whoever took him home for a mattress-buster of a session. Last Saturday he booked into a hostel near Eyre square after a charge of John Jameson’s liquid gold. The snores of him could be heard in Howth and Hackballscross. What a fuckin hallion, complained an enforced inflicted roommate. That’s a fuckin gobshite.

Three Germans packed their stuff and left, one in terror as the top bunk sagged dangerously close to his face after a spring broke and shattered into shite, The Dagda Arse a huge and imposing edifice of evil dangling too close for comfort. Now that’s Halloween.

He hurled with a hurl with a huge bas and I mean fuckin huge. The grain was worn black with all the sliotars pucced in anger over the years. Over the bar and still rising like injected with Viagra, but he needed none of that bat shit to get them up. Hit the ball to me he roars I’m marking a midget, before crashing another point over the ball stop.

In the rugby he was like O’Connell, Gaillimh and Claw rolled into one big muscle of badassery. Ripping ball out of rucks, body parts flying the ball gripped in one hand and some man’s head in the other, tossed to one side as he strode for the line. If we’d had him last week. . . but sure.

Halloween’s coming, and it’s near that time. From Derry, to Dingle and Cross to Cork you’ll hear the roar when the craic begins. The Dagda Rides. There’s one in all of us.

 

The Willing Suspension of Disbelief & Poetic Fate

I don’t know whether it’s the passing of Brian Friel a week ago, or the fact its National Poetry Day. I met a former colleague in Waterstones and we exchanged some warm friendly words, a guy whose valuable contribution to the University ended when his research funding was withdrawn ten years or more ago.

He remarked when I asked him that he was doing nothing like what he used to do. When I told him what I was up to he said he would rather split a seagull feather and write with it than try to understand the vagaries of social media. In many respects I agree. By way of mitigation I told him I still use a fountain pen.

So in etching out my notes and thoughts onto a Moleskine notebook, tapping work into the notes on my iPhone and even dictating some important point to myself I manage to develop a tapestry that constitutes work. Ideas, thoughts, notes. Writing almost full formed before it is committed onto the page or more correctly typed into the computer.

The latest period of introspection has me wondering what have I done with this life I was given. And the gradual realisation that whilst what I have done I have had some successes, what I do isn’t necessarily what I enjoy doing, what I enjoy doing I don’t get paid for, and really what I should be doing is something different entirely.

As a student I floated through my degree in English, drifted onwards to Scotland achieving a Masters in Publishing that has defined my working life since.

Small things make a difference. In my experience reading poetry keeps me sane, though by judgement of others I have proved without doubt I can’t write it very well. “It is hard thing to write a poem.” Perhaps. Is that sentence missing the word ‘good’?

Forward Play Session

8 May 2014

Session on forward play: delivery, movement, shooting. Varying defensive intensity.

1            Stretch

2            Rondos – 3 Sized circles                                    [1.30 per set x 2]

3v5/ 2v6 keep the ball off men in middle. 3 groups working three different sized circles. Rotate groups after 1min30s 

3            Attack defend drill: 1 v 1                                     [2 mins on x 4]

/            ß                        /

/            à                         /

Line of players at each gate, 1 v 1 in middle, as soon as you shoot you defend the next player running.

Note fatigue level, run drill in 2 min sets & reset if it falls apart. Quality the priority.

4            Delivery & Score [12 mins 2 mins on]

1 – Players operate simple relay delivering ball out to player in Deliver Zone

2 – Player in Deliver zone delivers ball to player in shoot zone who is moving laterally to receive ball

3 – On receiving ball, player in shoot zone shoots & immed. Resets to receive next ball.

Attacking drill. Start unopposed working on movement & scoring. Quickly move to insert defenders in key zones to press the delivery & the shooter.

Direct score                                    Set up Score

Diagonal Ball.

Into space

/                             \   Runner                         \ Delivery in pairs

/\/         X                 \                                       \

/ ————————-                                                                                            Feeders

\                   X                        \                                          \

\                                  \ Runner                     \ Delivery in pairs

5            3 v 6 in Defence/Attack                                    [3x5mins]

Overload attacking & defending. Alternative the overload.

Condition 1m30s on.

Quickfire delivery. Any defence intervention, hook, block, snig, nick counts. Defenders to learn to mark space/zonal and pick up where required.

6             Pitch Drill Match

Bring above together in ¾ length pitch drill. Condition to favour defenders/forwards as required.

Mourneing for Fish

Fresh Fish Delivery

My main concern with my fresh fish delivery from Mourne Seafood wasn’t what to do with the fish when it arrived, but the hope that that our tomcat Mugsy wouldn’t intercept the delivery before I got my hands on it. I was out, but the delivery man followed my instructions to the letter. The Cat couldn’t get his paws on it.

Filleted Place by Joe Passmore

Filleted Place

It all started with a passing comment to my son that Mourne Seafood were doing deliveries. A big fish fan despite his tender years – 13 years old, he has tucked into monkfish, salmon, squid and mackerel with relish. I think it started one day I caught him nicking a piece of lobster off my plate on holidays in Scotland. He pestered me for days and had been doing his own research online.

We carefully perused the fare on offer on the Mourne Seafood home delivery site. Free delivery over 40 quid, sounds good. A few things in and out of the basket, and a few tasty looking items didn’t make it into the shopping cart. This time. Missing out on selection were Monkfish. Seabass. Oysters. No, this time we went for a couple of plaice, two lemon sole, two tubs of crab claws, scallop meats and some fish pie/chowder mix.

When I arrived home the vacuum packed fish were already in the chilled part of the fridge. Angela a vegetarian had taken a look at the plaice and sole and asked, who’s going to gut them? Can they not send you the fish filleted. She went on to suggest a friend of ours, a retired butcher could do the job. I wasn’t so much insulted…. as challenged.

My reply was no, I’ll do them. A childhood expert at gutting out trout that I caught in rivers round Omagh meant I felt well equipped for the job. Of course trout aren’t flat fish, and I was in danger of destroying an unsuspecting and perfectly good fish if I launched myself unprepared.

Full Of It Filleting

Having checked out a few Youtube videos on how to fillet plaice it was straightforward, removed the head and the guts, trimmed off the tail and fins, filleted off the bone white side up. Then dark side. I was pleasantly surprised with my effort especially the way the leftover skeleton looked like something from a dustbin in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

The two plaice were for my mum, the heads and various off cuts were left for Mugsy so he didn’t take the hump. After dressing the plaice I repeated the same approach for the sole. I’m no expert but the flesh seemed slightly softer so it was marginally more difficult to get as precise a cut with the knife. Nevertheless the result was decent enough.

For supper that night, the fish were calling me from the fridge. I relented. The crab claws I ate with a chilled sauvignon blanc having made up a dipping sauce with a bit of ginger, chilli and garlic. Tasty indeed. Our lad was well impressed with that. The scallop meats I cooked in a very hot wok with oil and some ginger, and a few bits of pancetta. They were extremely good. Tender, tasty and juicy.

I pondered whether to attempt a fish pie or chowder with the fish pie mix. Memories of the West and pints of stout washed down with chowder and wheaten bread won the day. I’d never actually made chowder before. I have now; it’s a pleasure that I’ve missed all these years. I’ll be catching up for lost time I think.

I scoured in through the fridge. Some left over potatoes, great. Some more pancetta. A bit of vegetable stock gave the proceedings a liquid base, helped with a small splash of white wine. I added in the remaining crab claws when the mix was starting to brew and finished the job with a carton of cream. The result? Awesome. I had enough of the chowder for both of us with a couple of bowls left over for the next day’s lunch. So hearty, there was no need for dinner that evening.

When I checked in with my mum she’d fried up the place in butter and served it with peas and potatoes. She found them to be light, very tasty and very filling.

The lemon sole I left to the lad to eat. He did so with relish. And returned to the kitchen to deposit the plate scraped clean he asked me, are we getting more fish from Mourne next week.

A good night’s fishing online. Result.