Ballyhea
Co Cork
September 5th 2014
On Monday evening last The Bridge Bar – an
institution in Ballyhea for over a century – closed its doors. The shock as
word spread – this isn't like a death in the parish, this is death
in the parish, death even of the parish, of one of its vital organs. To my shame,
I contributed to its closure.
I was never much of a drinker but for decades, in
the company of my own family, of good friends, good neighbours and very often,
our extended families visiting from various places, in The Bridge (as it was
universally known) I enjoyed a few weekends pints of the best Guinness to be
served anywhere.
Over the last few years the tightening of the
drink-drive allowance has put the death-squeeze on rural pubs such as The
Bridge.
A taxi – out from Charleville, to The Bridge, then
the roundabout back-roads to my hut in the hills, then back to town for the
driver – was €15 one way, not much of an option when all you're having is a few
pints.
Making a taxi-driver of my wife – no, not my way.
And so, like many another I stopped going to The Bridge, stopped going
anywhere. I'm the poorer for it, losing touch, peripheral where once I was
among those at the core of this fine community.
You see the Bridge Bar wasn't just about alcohol; it
was the beating heart, the ethereal soul of a parish, a place of
inter-generational sharing and bonding where mortality and immortality met on a
regular basis, the mighty deeds of the never-dead recalled to further enliven the
living in an atmosphere of conviviality,
of shared laughter and song. Hosted by the genial Kennedy clan – Donie, his son
and daughter Trevor and Yvonne – it was there we celebrated great parish hurling
victories, there we waked our dead, there we toasted our new-born, there we
witnessed the coming-of-age of our youth.
Today it's closed, as are The Harp and Herlihy's,
the three rural pubs that served this parish when I was a youngster. Tonight we
can all sleep safer in our beds, can't we, knowing all those drink-drivers are
now confined to their rural homes.
2014, another notch in Gay Byrne's belt in his great
vision for Ireland, another great victory for those oblivious to the
destruction of the people of rural Ireland. Welcome to it.
Regards,
Diarmuid O'Flynn
