-
Dev, the Queen and St. Patrick Himself
Hail Glorious St. Patrick! For many of us, St. Patrick’s Day is the day we wrap up in green and flock to local parades to watch blue-kneed, curly-wigged Irish dancers display their talents in front of the judges’ podium (the back of a container lorry). And marching bands bring colour and a sense of occasion…
-
Tying It Up in a Bow
Rich Pickings There are rich pickings indeed in the Belfast Telegraph column that Gerry wrote over the years – Life According to Gerry. I delight in browsing through the articles and losing myself in the reveries that they offer. In each one, he leads me down various meandering paths that somehow get tied together at…
-
Who Are Your People, Son?
It’s important to know who you are… who your people are, and where you come from to give you context, grounding and identity. For Gerry, it was Derry. But for his mother’s people, the McLaughlins, that was deepest Donegal. A wee homestead called Shandrum – a two-bedroomed, whitewashed cottage with a series of sheds, a…
-
Gerry’s in the Dictionary!
According to The Dictionary of Irish Biography introduction: The Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB) is a project of the Royal Irish Academy. It tells the island’s life story through the biographies, at home and overseas, of prominent men and women born in Ireland, north and south, and the noteworthy Irish careers of those born outside Ireland.…
-
Gerry’s Belfast Telegraph Columns
Gerry was nothing if not a keen observer of life and the people in it, and his take on their antics was often wry, regularly witty, but always wise. He was an enthusiastic student of human behavior and was driven by an innate curiosity, as he peered at the world through the informed lens of…
-
Tall Tales and Short Songs – a Long Story!
A four-year-long story, as it turned out… A part-time musician and folk singer at the time, Seán Donnelly was a busy man running his shoe shop in Newcastle, Co. Down when his recording of The Homes of Donegal was played in 2010 by BBC Foyle’s Éamon Friel – a man who likes a good song.…
-
Interview with Mark McCauley, Director, A City Dreaming
Having moved in similar circles in the 1970’s, Mark and Gerry’s paths would once again cross in later life. The result is ‘A City Dreaming’. The film, written and narrated by Gerry and directed by Mark McCauley, is often termed “a love letter to Derry” and rightly so – see it here. How the film…
-
So did you know that Gerry Anderson sang? The Toejam Years
Gerry Anderson and Colum Arbuckle go back all the way. Friends since they were young lads in Derry, picking out sounds on the guitar, sharing a flat in Manchester where they both played in bands and learned life, and eventually getting thrown out of a flat in Manchester. After a spell in Gay McIntyre’s band,…