Happy Birthday pt 2

Today, I’m 42…I was 9 when Allende was overthrown by Pinochet in a coup in Chile on this very day. I wrote about that in an earlier post, access it here...
http://deadlydeshravenspoint.blogspot.com/2006/05/danzan-solas-they-dance-alone.html
You can read all about that day here...... http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/11/newsid_3199000/3199155.stm


Pinochet - an evil bastard

Even then I was curious about the world I lived in. 1973 was to say the least a bleak but yet an interesting year, the Arab-Israeli conflict where Israel fought a desperate rearguard action but survived. OPEC flexing their blackmailing muscle and sending the west into a nose dive economically.

Terrorism of the Arab kind was nothing new then; Munich was but a year in the past. I was very aware even then of the fact that we were not living in some idyllic Eden but a very, tough, uncompromising, unsentimental world.

I remember the interminable queues at the gas/petrol stations. I remember those days as very dark, bleak. I remember the union strikes, the power cuts. I remember my mother cooking food on the family fireplace, the stew (yes folks, bloody stew!) tasting like soot or rather having a sooty taste – is that the same thing?. (Oh! The deprivation!).

Northern Ireland was in turmoil, I remember the refugees though we did not call them that. People with even stranger accents than ours - coming to visit for a few weeks which turned into months until they were re-housed by the Government. That year saw a United Irish team, succumb to the mighty Brazil 3-2 at Lansdowne road. So in the midst of all the gloom, there were sparks of a hint at a better tomorrow.

1973 was also the year; Ireland joined the EEC which later on became the EU. It was a seismic event in our history. Britain & Denmark joined also. I remember a charity match in London’s Wembley which was called the 3 versus the 6. Irish, British & Danish footballers against the crème de la crème of the footballers of the other 6 countries. If I recall the “3” won the game too.

1973 a desolate year.....

I remember things getting better after that, optimism is the spark of life.

Others call it Faith!