This is Gavin Doorley, the manager at the Croi Oige Student Accommodation, and his was the first familiar face Mary Aldridge and I saw after arriving in Ireland. His face was not completely familiar – I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with a shiner before! He got it last week while rooting for his soccer team, Manchester United, as they scored a couple of dramatic goals to become the 2008 Champions of Europe. When I told him I was going to put this picture directly into the blog, he said to be sure to say that Gaelic Football is actually the best and his true love. He assured us, “I’m no plastic Irishman.” We had no doubts about that!
Gavin is one of the best things about being here. He didn’t actually know that we were scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, but he quickly found us a two bedroom apartment to squat in while ours is vacated and cleaned. We should be moving in today or tomorrow. I’m looking forward to having our normal apartment. This one is right on the car park and the kitchen is dark. On the other
hand, we see lots of Gavin, since his office is right next door. Today he stuck this little snake in the window as he walked by.
I think this must be “the wee Presbyterian snake” from Crawford Howard’s poem “St. Patrick and the Snakes” that Liz Weir recites with such verve. You can read the whole poem here but for now, here are a few stanzas:
Now there once was a guy called St. Patrick,
A preacher of fame and renown
An’ he hoisted his sails and came over from Wales
To convert all the heathens in Down.
And he hirpled about through the country
With a stick and a big pointy hat,
An’ he kept a few sheep that he sold on the cheap,
But sure, there’s no money in that!
He was preachin’ a sermon in Comber
An’ getting quite carried away
And he mentioned that Rome had once been his home
(But that was the wrong thing to say!)
For he felt a sharp pain in his cheek-bone
And he stuck up a hand ’till his beak
And the thing that had lit on his gob (an’ had bit)
Was a wee Presbyterian snake!
Now the snake slithererd down from the pulpit
(Expectin’ St. Patrick to die),
But yer man was no dozer – he lifted his crozier
An’ he belted the snake in the eye,
And he says to the snake, ‘Listen, legless!
You’d better just take yerself aff!
If you think that that trick will work with St. Patrick
You must be far worser nor daft!’
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