THE KILKENNY OBSERVER CHRISTMAS SHORT STORY SERIES
CELEBRATING WRITERS IN OUR COMMUNITY ’23
In this our final week of Christmas short stories, we welcome Kilkenny Theatre company Lake Productions. Founding member of the company Emily Kelly told the Observer newspaper that their contribution was looking at the festive season from the point of view of those who could not (for one reason or another) come home. They present their work in poetry format.
Poem by Ger Cody. Photos Aoife O’Neill ‘Aidona Photography’
“For him and all those other men, disappearing was easier and the constant work and drinking helped take their mind off things.” This quote, taken from writer Jimmy Murphy, perfectly sums up his play, “The Kings of the Kilburn High Road.” This was the harsh reality for many of the Irishmen who moved over to England in search of work in the 1970’s.
The men had moved over to England, dreaming of making their fortunes as young men. Now as older men, they rethink their decisions that brought them to England as they think of home especially at Christmas .
In an Irish times review on the play, Peter Crawley wrote: “It is hard to think of a more persuasive image of hell than this: a back room in an Irish bar in Kilburn. The year is 2000, but nobody told the bar, which settled snugly into the mid-1970s and refused to budge. That was also when the characters of Jimmy Murphy’s lugubrious play first came to London, seeking work on its building sites with the intention of returning home successful, something else that has been endlessly delayed.
Lake Productions include a poem about Christmas away from home and photos from their previous production of The Kings of the ‘Killburn High Road’ in The Community Hall in Thomastown.
Missing Christmas
By Ger Cody
Christmas morning 1982
Phone ringing,
Same time every year -10.30 am
Her eighty year old frame makes its way nervously
And picks up the receiver
Hello? Hello is that you Tommy? Tommy?
Happy Christmas Tom.
Tommy hangs up.
Tears well up as he strolls down Shepherds Bush
Content in the knowledge that his mother is still alive.
He has made that same silent call every year now since 1974.
That was the year of the Birmingham bombings
The year Paddy was no longer welcome in town.
Go back to the bog Paddy
Irish pig, shag off back to your sty.
Hard to blame them. 21 dead and 182 injured
The Mulberry Bush was where I supped porter
Now a scene of destruction
The IRA cost me my life too.
Make it 22
I gathered what I had and moved to the ‘Bush’
From the frying pan into the fire
No Irish need apply
Fell in with a few decent skins and settled
Still kept the head down
Minded me own business
Worked with big Ivan from Tyrone and Charlie Chaplin from Dundalk
A few Welsh and Scots in the crew
Shovelled clay and mixed cement eight hours a day
Six o’ clock every evening and we ended up in the Crown and Sceptre
Eleven o clock and enough drunk to help him sleep,
I often think back to Brother Doyle in the home
You’ll get nowhere Grace. The only thing ahead of you is a wheel barrow.
Sent to reform school in Longford the first time for robbing apples.
Six apples in me geansai when I was caught
A month for each apple.
Twelve years of age and locked up
Sweeping horse manure and hosing down a yard
Later, sentenced to six years for robbing a car.
Next time I robbed something it was my brother’s birth cert
Headed for Birmingham to work in the Dunlop factory.
New name, new start
1974 was the explosion.
The beating in the toilets of the Crown was brutal
White tiles turned red
How do ye like that Paddy.
The second beating left me in hospital with a wired mouth
And a damaged eye that would never see the light again
A serious break at the thoracolumbar junction
was how the coloured Doctor described it
I said something stupid like was there at tube station at that junction
He didn’t laugh
This is serious he said
It was
Thirty eight years of age now
And a cane to help my limp where a size twelve boot left me paralyzed
Drink has been my friend for years
Couldn’t go back home now
Never made it
Shame covers my life
Over here they don’t judge or comment
Or care
I remember a few lines big Ivan recited
About a navvy going up to the pearly gates
“What did you do on Earth enquires Peter,
I worked a shovel and mixer for McAlpine
I did another ten years for Murphy on the Kango as well
Come in said St. Peter, you’ve served your time in Hell”
A one room filthy flat to call home
Habit makes me shave every morning
Face lathered with soap
Eyes staring into the mirror.
Hello. Hello. Anyone there?
Body on the cold damp tiles in a foetal position.
Ma. Ma. Are you there?
Lake Productions was founded in 2018 and since then has produced over thirty shows which includes theatre, radio plays and documentaries and the publication of three poetry books. In 2024 Lake will present Da by Hugh Leonard, and Shirley Valentine by Willy Russel. They will also launch their third collection of poetry in conjunction with The Recovery College and The Involvement Centre, and will broadcast four radio documentaries in association with Community Radio Kilkenny City and The Involvement Centre Kilkenny.
