The Hairy Cornflake

Barrack boys, Local radio, Opera & the unpublished sons of Wexford

I keep in touch with the ould Sod (the home-town not the father), occasionally by reading the local rags. The more successful one still is chock full of the Sharons, Sandras & Mikeys or the “lads” having a great time in whatever local hostelry while the other is more of a press release for the stalwarts of the local parishes, such as “Macra”, the “ICA” or the Church of the latter day blue shirts or Fine Gael as they are more popularly known in the Emerald Isle.

I see local pundit, intrepid journalist, promoter, producer & wag, Frank Sinnott has a tome out this weekend and to say I cannot wait to read it is an understatement. Frank is a literary genius, I kid you not. He truly is. A great wit considered by some to be over bearing but usually these “some” were the butt of Frank’s humour. Now as I recall when the humour was turned on Frank, he was not so receptive which is your death sentence for slagging in Wexford. If you can’t take it, you better not dish it out! A choleric Frank was not a happy sight!

I knew him first as the representative of WCLR or Wexford’s (first) Pirate radio. He was the morning Dee-Jay and because of the vast bush of hair that populated his head, neck & chin, he soon earned the eternal moniker - “the Hairy Cornflake”. His love of Meringues (pronounced by him famously one morning as “Merang-gwews”) is a well worn tale trotted out when nostalgic Wexford - radio listeners gather to remember the shows of yesteryear & their hosts. Hosts such as Frank Sinnott, Danno Murphy, Kitty Daly & Kevin Lewis.

Licensing killed the Radio Star;

Wexford has long been renowned for her pirates, buccaneers & privateers, back in the late 70's & 80's, a new constellation of stars were discovered in the environs of George Street who were dubbed pirates by the owners of the rags mentioned above. This factually wasn't true as there was no legislation in place to justify such a term.

Therefore it was felt around the country by hundreds of Community radio stations that they had a legitimate place in society and as a whole most communities took them & their DJ's to their hearts. Local voices, local news - the people loved it.

To mention Danno Murphy & Frank Sinnott in the same sentence may yet send Frank into a rage if he reads this but they were paradoxically pillars of the radio community back in the day.

Danno had a hugely popular lunch time show on the wireless which always started with George Jone’s “Don’t let the stars…”, that’s all I can remember as Country music & I simply don’t mix….I was sad to hear of his recent demise as I spent many a pleasant evening in his & his wife Josie’s company…Good decent people.

Ireland owes Danno a single debt of "in/gratitude" in that it was he who exploded Richie Kavanagh onto the scene or so it seemed to us bemused & bewildered townies whenever one would tune in after the dreaded theme song, as either Richie would be on plugging his latest opus or his latest opus would be bleating out of the speakers…and Bleating was the operative word as Richie hails from “sheep country”, nuff said! . Another Danno perennial was the Furey Brothers rendition of the ballad “When you were sweet sixteen”…God save us all!

Kitty Daly had a loyal following too. Her theme music played by “The Max Jaffa Orchestra” was so joyful that the Samaritans would have an extra 100 phone lines opened for the duration of the show. Offers of sponsorship from Funeral Directors all over Europe had to be turned down owing to the fact that the show was being done “for the love of it!” or amateurishly in another word. Kitty though was a great friend of my family and had a wonderful sense of humour, her late husband Willie was a great favourite of mine as a kid. A very kind, gentleman - what more can you say of a person.

For the Opera Lovers, Kevin Lewis was the epitome of “Local Boy makes good”. He grew up in the canyon of concrete that is High Street, home to the Theatre Royal – venue of one of the top ten Opera festivals on this endangered planet and considered by most experts as the “Opera lover’s opera festival”. Not only did this man have a wonderful singing voice, he was a member of the chorus, backstage worker, Flies man et al. Kevin has an encyclopedic knowledge of the world of opera…this was all long before the internet and googling. Here's a link to a nice article on WFO and her latest news, http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=26070

The tribe of the "yet to be published".

My hometown though is simply seething with literary talent, many have been published – many haven’t...as yet! Several of these writers, playwrights & balladeers (published & unpublished) are friends of mine, no boast just a simple fact. Most Wexford people can make that same statement too.

One in particular, Francis M. is a poet of incredible depth & sensitivity. I pray his work will soon see the light of day as it needs to be read & shared by the world.

Another pal of mine Jim B. is working on his life saga and again it will be a remarkable work as the man has the eye of a hawk & the ear of an owl when he is observing life. When it comes to him telling a story, there is none better and it is clear to see that the mantle of Sheanachie rests easily upon his shoulders.

His stories of the tinkers, the local characters & the days of carting are both hilarious & profound. Jim laments the loss of a way of life – the horse & cart, (his family were Carters). He being the last of his family to drive a cart and stalwartly refusing to go the way of the dodo. He maintains a stable and will ride out every day, sharing his good humour to all he meets. His dedication to that tradition is humbling. A decent, caring Christian man.

Back to Frank though!

Frank would often burst into my office on the Quayside to have a chat and a cup. Frank is a brilliant guitarist. His siblings were all genius in all their chosen fields. His brother Declan is a legend in Irish Music, both Rock & Folk – no mean achievement.

Anyway, Frank once told me this tale of Christy Moore being interviewed by Bernard Patrick Fallon on (the then) RTE’s fledgling radio two. Apparently, BP or “the Beep” says to Christy, “Christy, some people say that you are angst ridden, what do you say to that?” the Kildare-man retorted with the legendary “Jayze, I’ve never ridden an angst in me life!’ I still remember the pair of us howling at that one...

That is what I liked about Frank, we had a similar irreverent attitude to the pious & the pompous except Frank’s was of a more unrestrained variety and sometimes I envied him that. More power to him and I wish him great success with the book.