AUGUST is a Wicked Month wrote the gorgeously and wonderfully courageous Co Clare writer Edna O’Brien in 1965.
A bleak tale punctuated by moments of fleeting happiness, joy, excitement and danger, in which a 27-year-old Irishwoman separated from her husband goes on a solo holiday to the French Riviera.
Like The Country Girls trilogy, it was burned and banned and denounced from the pulpit by Catholic clergy.
This month of August, Edna sadly left us, laid to rest on Inis Cealtra (Holy Island) in her beloved (if a very complicated love) Co Clare. I have been thinking a lot about Edna O’Brien over the past month.
Cast as an outcast, her work was rich and daring, haunting and fearless. As a country boy growing up in rural County Clare her Country Girls was instantly recognisable. For young girls and boys growing up in the 1960s in Cork too, I guess. Recognisable, too, in her adopted London home and other cities across the world. Testament to her enormous gifts as a writer and storyteller.
This past month of August, though, just might have been an exception to Edna’s Wicked August. Leaving aside, insofar as one can leave aside the ongoing carnage that continues to grip the world, this past month has felt different. And feeling different is okay. We all need joy in our lives and at the risk of reductionism, I think that’s something that people caught up in the many sites of conflict around the world understand and want for themselves, and for their families and communities. Joy.
So here are four reasons for joy this past August.
1. The Olympics
A wonderful month for athletes. And for us too. We’re all swimmers, boxers, rowers, divers, runners, pommel horse experts now. We can distinguish between aerobic and anaerobic swimmers. Well, sort of. Acronyms like WR, OR, PB, SB, ER now trip lightly off our tongues – the latter, nothing to do with a once famous TV series that launched the career of George Clooney and a bizarre line in coffee advertisements.
But what on earth is repechage?
2. Teachers
Arguably, August is a wicked month for teachers. From my time in that trade an air of gloom descends on teachers at the start of August. ‘It’s all over, now’, a colleague once told me at the start of the month. Worse, another former colleague once remarked to me at the end of May: ‘This is the best of it, once June comes you’re dreading September’. Life, with two-to-three months holidays.
But this past month of August has seen teachers’ favour soar in none other than the United States of America. All due to former second level teacher and now Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz. Finally, teachers given due recognition across the United States and to public service education. An English, geography and social studies teacher, the school’s football coach and the supervisor of the school’s gay-straight alliance. That will keep the Maga crowd happy or outraged between now and November. Strike happy. Maga doesn’t do happy. Why be happy when you can be angry?
3. Cork’s Pride
Ireland used to be a black and white country. Just ask Edna O’Brien. Sadly, no more. Quite apart from the freedoms that LGBTQI+ rights have brought to the LGBTQI+ community, it has brought colour to all of our lives. Red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet. The Rainbow flag making its presence felt across the county.
One day in August on Cork City’s Oliver Plunket St was testimony to that. The music was buzzing and so were those gathered to celebrate. Music in a kaleidoscope of glorious colours. What’s not to like? That, and more Tim Walz’s in our schools?
4. Those All-Ireland Finals
Okay the hurling was on in July but hey, it was, for Clare, a glorious victory.
While not the result that Cork wanted, almost everyone agreed that it was a match for the ages. (Editor’s Note: You’re writing for a Cork readership!
And what about the winning Cork senior and intermediate camogie players?) Fair point! Wonderful achievements too. Sheer skill and athleticism.
All round Olympic standard athleticism from the women and men of Cork on summer Sundays in Croke Park. These are, after all, ‘the beautiful games’.
And then there’s Patrick Horgan. I mean, seriously. 700+ points. Joy.
Rest well, Edna, and thanks for your courage and the gifts you have given us.
• Colm Tobin is on holidays.
