Where have all the Goodfellas gone?
The voice of treason
BENJAMIN Franklin once quipped that he read the obituary page every morning to check his name wasn’t there in black and white.
In a similar vein, I regularly look up Wikipedia’s deaths in 2022 webpage hoping another one of my childhood heroes hasn’t shuffled off this mortal coil.
Each time the bell tolls for one of them I get teary-eyed thinking about the wonderful memories linked to their movies and songs.
They are linked to so many milestones, like my first smooch at the cinema and school disco.
It seems like yesterday when I went on one of my first dates to see Goodfellas, yet here we are talking about Ray Liotta dying at the relatively young age of 67.
The Grim Reaper must have been working overtime this week, because he also snatched two more of my teen idols. I was gutted to hear Depeche Mode’s keyboard player Andy Fletcher passed away at the age of 60.
But it always hits home even harder when the deceased was from your own neck of the woods.
Irish music fans were left reeling when Cork-born singer-songwriter Cathal Coughlan of Microdisney/ The Fatima Mansions fame died from cancer at 61 on May 18.
I was walking around in a daze for several days after hearing the shock news, because Cathal had been in great spirits when I interviewed him only last year.
I feel fortunate to have grown up during Cathal’s most creative period in the 1980s and 90s, at a time when U2 put Irish music on the world map.
There were a dozen-plus other great local acts at the time, but I’d need a page to rattle them all off.
We were really punching above our weight back then, channelling the same fighting Irish spirit that helped make Katie Taylor the best female boxer on the planet.
At the time Ireland seemed to get the most “douze points” at Eurovision which seemed much more impartial 20 years ago.
I still find it hard to believe we won it a half dozen times between 1980 and 1996.
That thought crossed my mind when the endearing Shay Healy, who composed Johnny Logan’s 1980 winning ballad What’s Another Year, slipped away in April 2021 age 78.
The scary thing is, the majority of Irish icons have already reached middle age or qualify for their free
Always hits harder when deceased is from your neck of woods
It makes me even more determined to live my life to the full
OAP bus pass. The clock is ticking, and we need to start singing their praises while they are still alive and kicking.
Sadly, some such as Dolores O’riordan, 46, and Stephen Gately, 33, left the party way too soon.
It is always a big blow when we lose a national treasure like Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains, who died at the grand old age of 83 last October.
Saying that, it is easier to accept when the star was blessed to live such a long life.
Your heart bleeds much more for someone cut down in their prime, like Irish soccer star Alan Mcloughlin.
He famously scored the goal against Northern Ireland that helped book our ticket to USA ’94.
It was the first anniversary of his death, at the young age of 54, on
May 21. How time flies.
As I edge closer to 50 myself, it is a terrifying wake-up call to see so many childhood heroes dropping like flies. It makes me even more determined to enjoy life to the full.
Thanks for the memories, Ray Liotta, Andy Fletcher and Cathal Coughlan. RIP.