Memories of the moon mission... 50 years on
FIFTY years ago, as most people in Ireland watched the events relating to the Apollo 11 mission on TV – from the ‘lift-off’ at Cape Canaveral, to the ‘Eagle’ landing on the Earth’s main satellite and the actual moon-walk – I must have been one of the few people who saw little of the live TV coverage and the related images of such a momentous occasion, back in that special July week of 1969.
The reason was because this then 20-year-old had been working a shift week of seven days on and two days off, in a power station, in the summer of ’69.
One aspect of project Apollo – which culminated with the landing of two men on the moon – that comes to my mind on this 50th anniversary of a quite momentous mission is of a personal nature.
My father was a fisherman on the River Suir back in 1969.
There was an unusually good run of wild Atlantic salmon taking place into the estuary during that particular July – in tandem with the worldwide televising of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission.
The very day that the lunar module carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin was planned to touch down on the moon for the first time, seafarer John Baldwin, in his small craft, was to experience quite a large catch of fish. John and his crewman had already caught 32 salmon, in a couple of hours, when he told his colleague that they were about to haul in their nets and head back to port, in order to be at home in time to watch the moon landing on TV. The crewman was somewhat taken aback, at leaving all the fish behind when the salmon run was so good.
However, my dad said to him: ‘There will be plenty more salmon in the sea tomorrow, but it’s not every day that a man gets to land on the moon, and when people can watch that landing on TV.’
TOM BALDWIN, Midleton, Co. Cork.
Yellow out!
FROM the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks and Killarney to Dingle and Valentia, every young Kerry boy probably dreamed of putting on the green and gold jersey.
Nowhere in Ireland had the same fanatical approach to Gaelic football, and success for the green and gold was the result with umpteen All-Irelands. The new dirty mustard-coloured Kerry jersey has no semblance of green, no interest in tradition – and possibly the Kerry County Board did not seek advice from the Healy-Rae dynasty, who are marketing experts on a Richter Scale of ten.
Perhaps this octogenarian Dub, used to decades of ‘cute hoor’ Kerry tactics and ruthless pragmatism on the football field, is missing something. Maybe Kerry folk are now colour-blind. Maybe the colour makes the opposition want to puke; maybe the jersey texture attracts the passing ball like a magnet. Perhaps Kerry youngsters will flock to shops to buy a winning jersey and perhaps the tradition of green and gold is just a memory... perhaps. JOHN P KELLY, Clontarf, Dublin.
Misleading EU message
URSULA von der Leyen, the new EU head, has said the UK Brexit Withdrawal Agreement guarantees peace and certainty on the island of Ireland.
Where is the EU coming from with alarmist nonsense like this?
This is rubbish talk among mischievous Remain supporters who are stirring the pot in desperation at this hoped-for narrative to suddenly become the only issue in our country. The EU and a tiny Irish cohort are using a dangerous nonissue as a pretext to putting one over on Britain/Ireland with mythical talk of impending war.
It makes us sick that so-called EU democracy has stooped so low to declare a non-issue an imperative. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.
Brexit drama
BORIS Johnson will easily win the Conservative leadership race, but I have zero confidence that he will deliver Brexit.
I predict he will just get a few cosmetic changes to Mrs May’s surrender deal, which he will wrongly call Brexit and try to get through the UK parliament.
If he does, then the UK will have left the EU in name only, and the 17.4million people who voted Leave would be betrayed. If that happens, it will be an open goal for the Brexit Party. BRIAN SILVESTER, by email.
... ANDREW Neil struggled to land one sucker punch in his Boris Johnson/Jeremy Hunt TV interviews. He was reduced to trying to belittle Hunt and personally abuse Johnson.
Neil was rattled. You could see he had to abandon his running order of questions, as he floundered in his attempts to open a trap door for either or both to fall through. The loser was Neil.
ROB SHARP, by email.
... AFTER witnessing the pitiful performances of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt during the Andrew Neil interviews, it’s a case of, ‘Come back, Theresa May, all is forgiven’. KEN HOBBINS, by email.
... I WAS appalled at the standard of interviewing to which the two Conservative leadership hopefuls were subjected. Their attempts to answer the questions were repeatedly hijacked by Andrew Neil.
RJ ADAMS, by email.