ZOZIMUS

CAN you judge a book by its cover? The vexed question arose at the launch of The Globalist: Peter Sutherland His Life and Legacy by John Walsh.

The cover is adorned by a striking if slightly malevolent image of the former barrister, attorney general, chairman of AIB and Goldman Sachs and the youngest-ever EU commissioner when he was appointed by Garret Fitz Gerald.

As the author John Walsh was signing our copy, Suds’s best friend, Garrett Sheehan, assailed him over the cover image, with the author defending it by saying it captured the many facets of this fascinating man.

“I fundamentally disagree,” said Sheehan, a former High Court judge, who added that he could find no fault with the biography itself.

The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, who read it on a plane to Washington to attend a meeting of the International Monitory Fund, said it was “a very important book, a proper biography”. Paschal loves bookshops. “It’s a place where I go to have brief solace,” added the minister, who revealed that he recently bought The Responsible Globalist for a bit of light reading.

Among the great and the good at the launch in Hodges Figgis were auctioneer Mark Fitz Gerald, PR guru Rory Godson, Richard O’Toole, the author’s wife Mary Minihan, Hugo MacNeill, Alan Dukes, John O’Hagan, Shane Sutherland, Ronan Sheehan and many others.

The author John Walsh admitted that it was “quite a struggle” to contain everything in Sutherland’s wide-ranging life, including his passion for rugby in one volume. “I would like to thank Rupert Murdoch, not only did he publish the book, but he closed down The Times (Ireland edition) so that I could hit my deadline,” he said.

One of Suds’s admirers admitted that he was a terrible name dropper. “The last time I met him, he opened the conversation, saying ‘As I was saying to the Pope last week….’”

At book launches, Zozimus always goes to the index first to see if he gets an “honourable mention” and in this case he has. So The Globalist is on the reading list.

As our boat, The Aurora, made its way from Cootehall towards Carrickon-Shannon, a fine fat curlew in full voice flew across the bow, its eerie call the perfect soundtrack to the ripple of the river in full flow and the reeds swaying on the shoreline, the town in the distance and Sliabh an Iarainn behind.

We thought of Curlew Moon, a beautiful elegy to this lost bird and its author Mary Colwell tramping through the bogs of the Irish midlands in a vain search for the once plentiful curlews.

In Carrick we wandered past the magnificent Hatley

Manor to The Dock and, uninvited, joined the throng for the launch of the beautifully produced photographic essay on Leitrim.

As it happened, our old photographer friend Brian Farrell was doing the honours with a passionate discourse on photographing what you see and not messing about with technology to improve what the book calls ‘Ireland’s unmissable masterpiece of nature’.

As it happens, two of the photographs were taken by Claire Collins, another old friend.

Amid the stag and hen parties that convulse Carrick, we found sanctuary and Irish music in Cryan’s. At some point in the night a couple of wonderful Italian singers got up to do a turn.

“Where are they from?” we inquired of Liam Cryan as he was collecting glasses.

“Arigna, I think,” he replied. Now that was quick!

The following night, Nessa and Mella invited us to join a fine session in The Anchorage and the proprietor Kevin McKenna even stood us a pint after we’d done our party piece. Now that’s something that doesn’t happen very often.

Hardly anyone talked about Brexit, life on the river is a real treat.

In 2012, the Government abolished the subsidy granted to all trainee teachers, who are required to undergo two two-week mandatory courses in the Gaeltacht. It costs them €1,500 a year, before any expenses are taken into account. Now the subsidy has been re-introduced for most trainee teachers, but still excludes Hibernia College and the Froebel Department in Maynooth. It’s time the Department of the Gaeltacht changed its tune and made the Gaeltacht grant available to all trainee teachers.