Hello and welcome
to this week’s issue of Ireland’s Own. 

This week’s cover story features the popular singer, Dermot Hegarty. At 85, he’s still singing and touring – despite surviving a near-fatal car crash and a life-threatening battle with sepsis. Tom Gilmore speaks with the man behind the hit song ’21 Years’.

In his ‘Supernatural Writers of Ireland’ series, Cornelius Clarke presents a profile of Dorothy Macardle, while in her ‘Literary Trail Through Ireland’ series, Mary Angland profiles the writer of ‘Normal People’, Sally Rooney. In ‘The Blow-In’, Therese Burke recalls her decision to ‘up sticks’ and move from Dublin to rural Wexford.

The Ballad Sheet returns and this week Eugene Dunphy connects a prolific poet to a song of rebellion in ‘Kelly, The Boy From Killanne’. In his ‘Role of the Irish in WW2’ series Con McGrath features Capt. Dick Cooper, who won the first ever Croix de Guerre while serving in the French Foreign Legion in WW1, and then went on to serve as a secret agent in WW2.

In our ‘Ireland’s Darkest Days’ series Pat Poland recounts the Ballybricken Gaol Wall Tragedy, 4 March, 1943. Harry Warren traces the history of the O’Moore stronghold.
Nicky Rossiter examines the origin of the April Fools’ Day, recalling some famous pranks. Gladys Sheehan, the actress and drama teacher is remembered by Sheila O’Kelly.

This week’s original short story is ‘The Walker’ by Annette Reddy, while in the ‘Poems We Learned At School’, Paddy Ryan analyses I See His Blood Upon The Rose by Joseph Mary Plunkett. Eamonn Duggan continues his analysis of Michael Brennan’s statement to the Bureau of Military History.

We have all this for you to enjoy alongside regular favourites Cassidy Says, Stranger Than Fiction, What’s In A Name? Dan Conway, Pete’s Pets, Marjorie’s Kitchen, Songwords, Classic Films – Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Reflective Perspective, Irish Folklore with Eugene Daly, Morning by the River by Patrick O’Sullivan, Readers’ Memories, Classic US TV Favourites – Superboy, A Little Bit of Ireland Elsewhere – Glendalough, Various Locations, Lilt of Irish Laughter, Pen Friends, Irish Wildlife – Common Mussel and much more. 

I hope that you enjoy reading this week’s issue and I will look forward to talking to you again next week, all being well. 

Best regards, Seán Nolan, Editor, Ireland’s Own