Live from Listowel Writers' Week (part 1)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the podcast version of Sunday Masalini, which differs from the radio version for rights reasons. We hope you enjoy the programme.
My mother always maintained you could never train a man fully. She did her best with my father and my three brothers, Billy, Connor, and John, in fairness. She also had superhuman powers when required to clear our family bar, John B's, of raucous revelers in the early hours of the morning. When she was 85, an American who owned a series of nightclubs in New York was mesmerized when he witnessed this formidable force of nature fearlessly giving the road to an inebriated youngster. He was so impressed that he immediately offered her a job as a bouncer in his Manhattan nightclub. When she was sick of us all, she would augustly declare, I'm going home to my own people. Home was a hand by, where 60 years earlier, she helped run the family shop with her brother, Jim.
A hand-by is six miles outside Castle Island and it was in this close-knit community she earned the fond title Mary the Shop. She was an instant hit when she moved to La Stole in 1955 to open a grocery shop and bar in 37 William Street with her new husband John B. She was thereafter known as Mary John B. Theirs was a glorious romance which spanned over 50 years.
What personal anecdotes does Joanna Keane O'Flynn share about her mother?
As a young Irish immigrant in London, he had pined for her and wrote her achingly beautiful love poems. Throughout their courtship and marriage, they had their own love language, which they also lavished affectionately on us. Eilidh Vim was in our hellos and goodbyes. Eilidh Vim was code for I love you very much. Fast forward to the 1970s when Mam and I would go on an occasional shopping expedition to Limerick on a Monday afternoon which was Lestol's traditional half day so Mam had a break from the bar. Dad would walk three miles out the Tarbert Road to meet and greet us on our return declaring that he was in total despair without his girls. He loved us fiercely, generously, and unconditionally, and was somewhat overprotective.
When I wanted to go on a J1 to America, he ruled it out, saying that I was a sure candidate for abduction or kidnapping. After my first disco in the Lestore Alarms Hotel, my brother Connor was paid and dispatched to be my personal bodyguard as I walked home with a boy mortified, with Connor walking three steps behind. When my husband held my hand and we started dating, Dad asked, what is wrong with her hand? My mother was the makings of my father. Dad was not to be disturbed when he was writing and no more about it. The Pope himself would get the door while the clamorous sound of typewriter keys could be heard rat-tat-tatting upstairs. With military precision and total selflessness, she gave him the space and freedom to write.
In the early 90s, a couple introducing themselves as Gabriel and Ellen casually called the bar asking to meet with John B. Gabriel explained that as a schoolboy, he had exchanged letters with my father and that he would love to meet his hero in person. My mother told him that he was not in. Dad could have been working upstairs, walking in the bog, or ambling by the field for all she knew. She proceeded to have a nammicable chat with her new friends, Gabriel and Ellen, and even asked them to watch the bar while she slipped down to Pat Whelan's shop to buy onions for a stew she was making. A week later, she, and I quote, nearly died when she was seated with my father beside guests of honour, film stars Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin, at the premiere of The Man from Clare in the Gatey Theatre.
My father was very insistent that I should learn to drive at the age of 16. Little did I know that there was method in his madness. Once he had me on the road, I drove him to several football matches and many, many pubs. We were reared on Nash's red lemonade, the cure for all ailments. As I was a bit puny, my mother gave me a pony of stout to build me up until Dr. Johnny put a stop to her antics, saying it could give me a tooth for the drink. Later, my brothers and I became dangerously addicted to what we lovingly called the golden drink, Leukacid.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–1:42
2
What personal anecdotes does Joanna Keane O'Flynn share about her mother?
1:42–16:12
3
How did Joanna's family dynamics influence her upbringing?
16:12–25:00
4
What unique experiences did Joanna have growing up in a family bar?
25:00–39:00