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Paddy Finnegan in 2013

Poet and Big Issues seller Paddy Finnegan, a familiar sight on Grafton Street, Dublin has died.

Stephen James Smith writes:

“Paddy was a wonderful man who inspired me with his poetry and acted as a great supporter of other young poets too. He fought the good fight and was seen most days outside Belwey’s selling the Big Issue. I’d often stop and have a chat and buy him a cup of tea, he’d offer up a smile and a few words in Irish.
“I’m sitting here now listening to his CD ‘Fion Ceol agus Filioct’, only a couple of months back he’d asked me to help him make more, I was awaiting his call to help make this happen, and as he speaks to me beyond the grave his verse is still unnerving me with his gravely pitted voice holding my ears and I can’t help but think he got that tone from much harshness, perhaps self inflicted but also perhaps because society looked past him.
“Paddy you’ll always live on in my memory, you’ll always be one of the first people who made poetry sing to me, you’ll always be a writers’ writer, a warrior with words. The Fionn mac Cumhaill of verse. This is a video of Paddy reciting his poen Poet From Parnassus…”

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Margaretta D’Arcy on TV3′sTonight With Vincent Browne Show last night

Journalist Dearbhail McDonald hosted the Tonight With Vincent Browne Show last night and spoke with Margaretta D’Arcy at the beginning.

Margaretta, 80, was released from Limerick Prison last week after she was jailed for refusing to sign a bond stating she would not enter restricted areas of Shannon Airport, following her arrest for protesting at the airport.

Dearbhail McDonald: “Can you rule out going and doing that again?”

Margaretta D’Arcy: “So long as the escalation of war, and we certainly now know what’s happening in Gaza. And I heard this morning that, actually, the military planes coming in from the US are carrying weapons and hardware to help Israel.”

McDonald: “And can you say that definitively? That Shannon Airport…You can’t.”

D’Arcy: “Well, neither can you say it’s not happening. Exactly, so therefore, why doesn’t the Irish Government…if there is nothing going on in the planes wouldn’t it be the simplest thing for them to examine the planes and be able to tell us there’s nothing on there or tell the world there’s nothing on there. Why are they so silent about it? That’s what I want to know. And we cannot find out.”

Later in the show, United Left Alliance TD Clare Daly – who, along with fellow TD Mick Wallace, was arrested during the week when they approached two US military planes in Shannon Airport with the intent to inspect them – told the show that, in the last 12 months, more than 630 US military aircraft stopped off in Shannon Airport.

Watch back here in full here

Previously: Margaretta D’Arcy on Broadsheet

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Cathal Brennan writes:

“Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the Howth Gun Running [top] and the Bachelor’s Walk Massacre. We [The Irish History Show on near FM] recorded a podcast with historian Pádraig Yeates about the events of that day should your readers be interested.”

The irish History Show (Facebook)

Howth Gun Running?

Bachelor’s Walk Massacre?

Pic: National Library