Our columnist Frank Brandon recounts an eye-opening trip to the optician that left him firmly in the passenger seat, laments the Three Amigos’ fallout, and reflects on a week of contrasting emotions, from uplifting Irish performances on the European sporting stage to heartbreak at home following a number of tragic road accidents.
Keeping an eye on the road
I’m writing this a bit later than usual on Monday morning, as I have had a 10.30am appointment with the Diabetic Retina clinic down in Castlerea – and as they tell me my eyesight is slowly getting worse, I felt I really needed to go.
For those of you lucky enough to have good sight, and so don’t know what happens at these clinics, the procedure is very simple. The eye person examines your eyes, puts drops in, and twenty minutes later examines you again. I have no idea what the drops do other than make your eyes all foggy and blurry, and the upshot is that you cannot drive the car until your eyes are back to normal; it seems that if you drove and were involved in an accident, you would not be covered by insurance!
And so, my son Paul was my chauffeur, and the truth is that as we made our way home, I was glad he was! Although I had considered driving myself down and back, it would certainly have been dangerous, and I found I reacted badly to the brightness and the daylight when I came back out.
Anyway the girl told me that I will have the results in a week or two, and I’ll know then if my sight has stabilised. I think I can see as well as ever, and I am optimistic that I might even have improved… I wonder should I eat more carrots!
“Frightening to be told such tragedies are inevitable”
Besides my own concerns about keeping safe on the roads, on this Monday morning, the subject of dangerous driving is very much on all of our minds, following the horrific crash on the M9 motorway which occurred early on Sunday morning. The devastating incident occurred when five teenagers, who were travelling the wrong way in a stolen BMW, smashed head-on into a family car, killing all five teenagers and critically injuring two of the four
people on the other car, as well as seriously injuring the other two.
Since news of this appalling tragedy broke, we have found out that the five teenagers had already driven the wrong way down the same motorway earlier that evening, before doing a U-turn and coming back the right way – all in a bid to avoid the Gardaí. Sadly, when they saw a Garda car another time (which wasn’t chasing them or even involved at all with them), they did the same thing again… but this time with devastating consequences.
It also seems that Gardaí feel powerless to stop this new craze, as they literally can’t try to intercept these thugs for fear of putting more innocent lives at risk – and of course the criminals know this and will continue to play this most dangerous type of Russian Roulette.
Apparently social media is playing a big part in this type of outrageous behaviour, as the gangs involved put videos online showing them doing these desperately dangerous stunts, and they are constantly trying to outdo one another! All with no consideration for their own lives or the lives of those unfortunate enough to cross their paths.
And so the Gardaí are looking for more powers to chase and stop these motorway madmen, but until things change, we are all in mortal danger every time we go on a motorway; we never know at what moment we will meet a powerful stolen vehicle hurtling towards us at enormous speed, and we could be wiped out in the blink of an eye!
I know we are supposed to be kind and forgiving, and I am truly sorry for the families of the kids that were killed, but I cannot get the thought out of my head of the other family, heading happily off to a family wedding abroad, and the sheer horror and terror they must have felt as they saw that stolen BMW flying towards them.
It’s a frightening thought that on Morning Ireland this morning, we were told that other such tragedies are inevitable, and that at the moment, there is no way that the Gardaí can stop it.
In the meantime, I hope the innocent surviving victims of this horrific tragedy get better, but no matter what happens, their lives will never be the same; they will always be blighted by the events of last Sunday morning.
Ireland on the right track
I have said many times before that it’s very hard to make sense of life. While, as a nation, we were all heartbroken and horrified at the M9 accident and also the crash that claimed the lives of Donegal football legend James McHugh and his wife Noreen, nonetheless, any of us that are interested in sport were all enthralled by the wonderful European Athletics chamionships that took place in Birmingham last week.
It has always been said that sport can lift a nation’s spirits – as shown, among many other examples, by Jack Charlton’s warriors in the late eighties and early nineties – and last week’s performances by our swimmers and our athletes on the European stage were truly heartwarming and uplifting.
On the athletic front, Mark English and Kate O’Connor were outstanding in claiming gold medals, while Rhasidat Adileke and Andrew Coscoran put in terrific runs to claim silver and bronze medals respectively.
However, of even greater significance was the fact that fifteen of our athletes, some of whom I have to admit I’d never heard of, finished in the top ten of
their various competitions. It means that we now have a large body of athletes, all of whom can compete at the highest level.
Then in the swimming, where the action took place in Paris, and where once upon a time we were classed as no-hopers, we had Ellen Walsh with two golds and Mona McSharry with a silver and two bronze medals, showing that we can hold our own with anyone on the big stages!
As well as that, our relay teams, in both mens’ and womens’, qualified for the finals. And as with the athletics, we now have any number of competitors who could go on to win major championships.
I have to admit that I really love the athletics, and to see Amy Hunt (the English girl who became the first athlete to ever win four golds at a European championship) and Mondo Duplantis (the incredible Swedish pole-vaulter), among many others, perform to the best of their huge abilities is something that I will never forget.
Roll on Los Angeles 2028, when the Olympics are back! I hope I’m still around to see our Irish team go for the medals that I’m sure they are going to win!
And finally…
it’s been a bad week for some of our best-known and best-loved entertainers, with the news that the Three Amigos – Jimmy Buckley, Robert Mizzell and Patrick Feeney – have cancelled their upcoming December and January tour, amid rumours of an acrimonious fallout.
It’s safe to say that they were hugely popular with country music fans, and I now regret that I didn’t go their show earlier this year in the TF in Castlebar, even though I actually had a ticket! For some reason I just couldn’t make it, and now I wish I had.
I’m sure they will all continue with their respective careers, and continue to be successful, but it’s a pity the Amigos don’t seem to be amigos any more – though I suppose that happens to a lot of bands.
Also, the spat between Tommy Fleming and his ex-wife Tina Mitchell seems to be getting more and more bitter… maybe they should both keep quiet and say nothing further. It is said that all publicity, no matter how bad, is good publicity, but possibly not in this case!
Anyway, his encore tour is coming up fairly soon, and I have no doubt his loyal fans will come out in their droves to see him perform!
Seeing that I missed out on the Amigos, maybe I’ll go to see Tommy when he’s in the Landmark, Carrick on Shannon, on October 3rd!
‘Till next week, bye for now!
