ON THIS DAY
OCTOBER 15, 2021
FROM THE ARCHIVE OCTOBER 15, 1999
JOSEF LOCKE, the Derry-born tenor, has died in Co. Kildare. Born Joseph McLaughlin in 1917, he will be remembered as much for his big personality as for his voice.
The Creggan man was dubbed ‘The Singing Bobby’ after he served in the RUC prior to entering showbusiness. He became one of the highest-paid entertainers in Britain – earning up to £2,000 a week during the 1940s-50s – although his finances were marred by tax issues.
Speaking from the EU summit in Finland, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed sadness at his death. He had been approached by the Spanish delegation as Mr Locke’s son, Carl, is an interpreter for Spain’s prime minister. They asked Mr Ahern if he could help him get back in time for the funeral. It has been reported that plans are being made to fly Mr Locke’s son home on the Government jet. OCTOBER 15, 2001 THE State funerals of the ‘Forgotten Ten’ have taken place in Dublin. Kevin Barry, and nine other IRA volunteers who were executed by the British, have now been laid to rest in Glasnevin. Patriots Barry, Patrick Moran, Frank Flood, Thomas Whelan, Thomas Traynor, Patrick Doyle, Edmond Foley, Thomas Bryan, Bernard Ryan, and Patrick Maher had been buried in unmarked graves in Mountjoy for the past 80 years.
The funeral procession, led by the Army No1 band, made its way down O’Connell Street to the Pro-Cathedral where President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern joined relatives for the Requiem Mass. The ten coffins were then escorted to the Garden of Remembrance where they stood for a minute’s silence.
In his oration, Mr Ahern said of the heroic freedom fighters: ‘Before their deaths, the ten had seen the light of freedom. They understood that Ireland would be free and independent.’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DOMINIC WEST, 52. The Etoneducated actor, right, starred in The Wire and the BBC’s Les Misérables. The father-of-five, who runs Glin Castle with his wife Catherine FitzGerald, said that while filming sex scenes for The Affair, he and co-star Ruth Wilson would burst out laughing: ‘The editors manage brilliantly to cut around our laughter and make us look intense.’
BORN ON THIS DAY
PENNY MARSHALL (19432018). The actress, right, found fame as Laverne DeFazio in sitcom Laverne & Shirley before going behind the camera. With Big (starring Tom Hanks), she became the first woman to direct a film that made more than $100million at the US box office.
ON OCTOBER 15 . . .
In 1995, Seamus Heaney wins the Nobel Prize. In 2001, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat asks Ireland to use its influence on the UN Security Council to help peace talks in the Middle East.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Pusillanimous (coined 1580s) A) Tiny, minute. B) Flowing out. C) Timid; lacking in courage.
Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED Banjaxed:
To be worn out or broken. Some believe the phrase was invented in a well-known Dublin pub during the folk boom of the 1960s. After one of the bar’s habitués was struck on the head with a banjo, someone declared he had been ‘banjo-axed’, i.e. ‘poleaxed with a banjo’.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHY should you never date a tennis player? Love means nothing to them. Guess The Definition answer: C