By John Fitzgerald
A book that thinks it’s a newspaper. That’s how veteran journalist Jimmy Rhatigan describes his long-awaited new tome
The aptly titled Rhatigan’s Rag will make its debut on October 22nd at Paris Texas. It promises to be a night to remember, with the city’s literati and glitterati expected to throng the High Street venue and rub shoulders with Jimmy’s legion of friends and acquaintances.
The 475 -page volume is a helter-skelter of “ripping yarns” celebrating scores of the rare characters, and outstanding city and county folk that Jimmy says he had the “privilege” of meeting and writing about in the course of his 60 years in journalism. “The rag” was an age-old scathing nickname for a newspaper.
I met Jimmy at the Costa café in Loughboy last weekend where he discussed the book, after chatting for ages about a wide range of world, national and local issues, ranging from politics, demographics, the economy, and medical malfeasance, to the cost of living and the Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
The wizened scribe has a little, and sometimes a lot, to say about any subject under the sun.
Throughout his career, he has been what the fictional Sherlock Homes said of Dr Watson: “a fixed star in an ever-changing firmament.”
He has weathered all the changes in journalism, including computerization and the social media revolution, and writes as lucidly and enchantingly now as he did when he kicked off his career back in 1967. If anything, his loyal fans will tell you, he has improved with age and experience, as I suppose we all like to think we do.
Way back then, two years before a man landed on the moon, Jimmy went straight from a Christian Brothers School in Kilkenny (where pupils learned the hard way) into the office of the local newspaper.
Following an interview process that would be unthinkable today, he was accepted as a trainee journalist on the strength of a school essay he’d written.
The newspaper editor read the essay, was impressed with the gifted teenager’s command of English, and said, in effect, “You’re in!”
That said, the decision to take Jimmy on board was one the newspaper never regretted. It proved an inspired move as Jimmy quickly showed his extraordinary skills as a reporter and sub-editor. His eloquence, his knack for making a story out of even the most trivial event or grapevine chatter, and his uncommon literary prowess left other scribes scratching their heads or hoping to learn from Jimmy’s own style and modus operandi.
He excelled at sports reporting, his personal interest in football a blessing in that respect, but he could write about anything that came his way, and he was always the one in the office who shone like a ray of sunlight when it came to comedy writing.
For years, his Right on Rhatigan column held readers in thrall, with queues forming outside shops on Wednesday mornings, even in small towns and villages, for that eagerly-awaited helping of wry humour and knockabout farce.
In those quiet days before social media, people talked about little else in some Kilkenny households, at the street corners, and over their pints or glasses of wine in the pubs
When the time came to formally retire from mainstream journalism, Jimmy didn’t put away the red pen or sell his laptop. He embarked on a new phase of his writing journey. He set up his popular Kilkenny Press online news portal and went on to publish two highly acclaimed books.
In his memoir, Treasure Lost, Treasure Found (2023) he told how his mother overcame daunting economic challenges following her husband’s death in 1953. Jimmy recalled the ups and downs of family life and the memorable neighbourhood spirit that got people through the dark days.
Last year saw the publication of Love Is, in which Jimmy wrote about 66 outstanding people in the county.
That was book number three because in 1999 he won praise for Mud Sweat and Tears, an entertaining look at Kilkenny’s soccer culture and the fortune of local clubs Emfa and Kilkenny City Football Club, detailing the community effort that kept local soccer afloat.
Rhatigan’s Rag promises, if anything, to have an even broader appeal than the previous three books. The cover design has the appearance of an old style newspaper, and with this book there’s no let-up in the recitations and look-backs recalling a host of achievers, characters, makers and shakers, and fondly remembered pillars of communities, small and large, around the county.
At the Costa Café, Jimmy cited some of the “wacky and wonderful” stories in the book and the dizzying assortment of people it encompasses.
There’s a local hero who risked his life to save others, a brave mother who saved three lives, a woman he describes as a “sensational character” called Fanny Tracey, who, with her husband, “teased and tortured” local politicians to hold them to account in the robust politically incorrect old-fashioned way. There’s the story of a Kilkenny man who spent the first 15 years of his life in an orphanage.
Then, on a humorous note, you can read about the man whose dog liked to smoke, another animal that went to Mass on a Sunday, and a stranger than fiction tale recounting how a female garment made in Kilkenny ended up as a major exhibit in a riveting and meticulously-reported court case in the city.
He recalls a dedicated fiery cleric of the old school who fulminated against families that, he fumed, failed to take part in the life of Holy Mother Church in Kilkenny. People feared the pulpit in that radically different era and faith in the Men of God was stronger than it is today
Aptly enough, given Jimmy’s life-long love of soccer and sport in general the book will be officially launched by no less a personality than the former Kilkenny City Manager Alfie Hale, who led the heroic Buckley Park players to League of Ireland success, among his other sterling achievements.
Jimmy has dedicated the book to three special friends, his cousin Johnny Rhatigan, the late great actor Mary Craddock, and the legendary Paddy Phelan, who passed away recently. The launch will incorporate a musical tribute to the three of them.
Fans are counting the hours and the minutes. It’ll be a wonderful night of craic, remembrance, and celebration as Rhatigan’s Rag is launched onto a sea of expectancy!
· The launch is at 8 pm, on October 22nd at Paris Texas. All are welcome.
