Pictured: Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh at the Yacht.
It’s not every day that Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh pops into the Yacht Tavern in Ringsend for a chat, but then again this particular Sunday night in October wasn’t any normal day.
It marked the last in a series of events organised by the Young Hearts Run Free organisation to raise money for the Simon Community.
Young Hearts Run Free was set up in 2008 to help promote the creative community in Ireland and since then they’ve held various events around the country with such esteemed guests as President Michael D. Higgins, Mike Scott, Andy Irvine and Dónal Lunny.
In 2014 they began a special festival entitled “No Idle Day” combining many different cultural happenings over a three-day period. This year saw the festival return with a community games day in Ringsend Park, a vintage magical mystery tour and various musical performances.
The highlight of the Sunday Game-themed evening in the Yacht Tavern was a special interview conducted by Jim Carroll of the Irish Times. This particular part of the proceedings was the one hundred and fiftieth edition of “Banter”, a series of interviews conducted by Carroll, with previous occasions featuring such varied personalities as snooker ace Steve Davis, and pop icon Neneh Cherry. The subject of this talk was legendary gaelic games commentator, Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, who hung up his boots in 2010 after sixty two years behind the microphone.
Ó Muircheartaigh regaled the packed pub with absorbing accounts of his sporting memories and riveting recollections. One in particular told of the time he was on a visit to New York and called in on a local newsagent owned by a man of Egyptian origin. Ó Muircheartaigh asked sheepishly and somewhat jokingly if the proprietor had a copy of the Kerryman, to which the man replied with lightening speed, “the North or South edition?”
Congratulations to Siobhan Kane and the team for putting together such an eclectic mix of events and we know that the Simon Community will put the money raised to good use.
By Paul O’Rourke
