The memories live on…

At the turn of the year a friend sent me an ‘In Memoriam’ with images of stars of film, sport and entertainment who shuffled off this mortal coil in 2022.

Accompanied by the sacred song ‘You Raise Me Up’, it was more a celebration of their contribution while they were here and brought back many memories: ‘You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains, You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas…’

The old adage suggests we are allocated 70 years on this earth, according to Psalm 90:10 (King James Version): ‘The days of our years are three-score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four-score years.’

However, passing at 70 is considered ‘young’ these days.

If, by any chance you have hit 90, you are going well! Drink it in man!

Stars of the 1960s, ‘70s… they discreetly go off our screens for decades until the newsman tells us they have passed away, and the memories flood back.

Val Doonigan used entertain us on on BBC 1 on Saturday evenings, sitting in his chair wearing those pullovers, singing ‘Delaney’s Donkey’ and ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’. He died in 2015 in a nursing home at the grand age of 88. His family revealed he had not been ill but his daughter said his “batteries had just run out.”

I had a friend in the priesthood who was asked by a woman of 76 to pray for the healing of her mother in her late 90s, who was in the departure lounge.

He was sympathetic but thought, “There’s nowt as quare as folk” and that it would be better to pray for acceptance that it was her time to move to the next dimension.

I digress!

Meanwhile, the ‘In Memoriam’ send me by my buddy whisked me back to watching the 1970 World Cup final with my father and brother in my granny’s house on Main Street, Gortin.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Péle, passed away in the last days of 2022,

We’ll not discuss who was the GOAT (a dreadful pointless acronym) but it was Péle and that magical Brazilian team which popularised the expression ‘the beautiful game’ (jogo bonito). Celebrated just as much for his near misses as more than 1,000 goals, ‘The Black Pearl’ oozed charisma on and off the field.

It was just one goal on Match of the Day that made Ronnie Radford famous.

In 1972, non-league Hereford sensationally did a giant-killing act on top tier side Newcastle, winning 2-1. Radford hit a thunderbolt equaliser in the dying minutes that sparked an incredible field invasion while spectators watched from every vantage point of their humble ground, including from up a tree. It’s a goal shown every year when the FA Cup comes around.

Ronnie also passed away last year. Thanks for the memory.

Closer to home, Brian Mullins was a 1970s and 80’s colossus at midfield for the Dubs. We skulled pints as we watched the great Dublin-Kerry All Ireland semi-final from the Grand Central Hotel in Bundoran in August 1977, the week Elvis died.

Commentator, Micheal O’Hehir exclaimed, “Twenty minutes of this game to go! Hallelujah!”

Mullins died last year having contributed to a glorious era of Gaelic football.

Pete St John also left us. Among the songs he penned, were ‘The Rare Oul Times’ and ‘The Fields of Athenry’ that rise to the heavens from Dublin supporters on Hill 16 and the rugby faithful in the Aviva Stadium. His passing brought back the only interview I ever did, when I was star-struck. It was in a dressing room in the Craic Theatre, Coalisland with the legendary Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners who gave a haunting rendition of ‘The Rare Oul Times’.

‘… the hallowed halls and houses, the haunting children’s rhymes, that once was Dublin city, in the Rare Oul Times’.

Perhaps it was to be that he died on the day the Dubs played Tyrone on a wet afternoon in Croke Park in August 2008. His wife Deirdre was the daughter of Dr Patrick McCartan from Carrickmore.

To borrow a lyric from Paul Brady, ‘This wasn’t meant to be no sad song’.

These people left a treasure-trove of memories and warm feelings and oft-times inspired us on our personal journeys in life.

Ray Liotta also passed on in 2022.

But his frightening, yet highly amusing scene as Henry Hill with psychopath Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) in ‘Goodfellas’ (1990), will live on…

‘…but I’m funny how, I mean funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? What do you mean funny? What the **** is so funny about me?!’

Meat Loaf also went to the other side having gifted us with great sounds on our cassette tapes as we headed to the dance halls, free like a ‘Bat out of Hell’.

Olivia Newton John also said a gentle ‘goodbye’, her gyrations and pop songs with John Travolta in Grease (1978) seared in our memories.

They were lives that added to our lives. ‘All of God’s creature have a place in the choir…’

May they Rest In Peace.