The real-life Mrs Brown
QUESTION Did the idea for Mrs Brown come from Old Mother Riley?
Old Mother Riley was a music hall act by Arthur lucan before featuring in a series of popular comedy films between 1936 and 1952.
The gangly Old Mother Riley dame character was a charwoman or laundress. With the aid of her headstrong daughter, Kitty ( lucan’s real- life wife, Kitty McShane), the comedy came from Mother Riley’s absurd predicaments, eccentric ways, facial and bodily contortions and malapropism-filled tirades, seasoned with knockabout slapstick.
Mrs Brown, aka Brendan O’Carroll, has been asked this question on many occasions and has conceded ‘she’s a little bit Old Mother Riley. Or perhaps she was inspired by the tough, feisty women I helped out as a kid in the fruit-and-veg market in dublin’s Moore Street’.
However, the chief inspiration was closer to home — his mother Maureen O’Carroll (1913-1984). She had been a novice nun who renounced her vows and went on to teach. She was fired from her job in 1936 after she married Gerry O’Carroll, a cabinet maker, under an arcane law that said no woman civil servant could be married. The couple went on to have 11 children, the last of whom was Brendan.
Mrs O’Carroll discovered a taste for politics. She joined a union, campaigned against the law and founded the lower Prices Council, which campaigned against high prices, scarcity and black marketeering after World War II.
In 1954, she was elected to the dail, Ireland’s parliament, where she served as labour’s chief whip from 1954 to 1957. She campaigned for the introduction of female police and on social issues.
She lost her seat in 1957 and her husband to cancer the following year. According to O’Carroll: ‘When she retired from politics she had a few bob and we were convinced we were in the lolly, but she bought a couple of houses and turned them into homes for battered wives and homeless children, in which we all volunteered.’
She died in 1984, eight years before Brendan wrote a radio sitcom called Mrs Browne’s Boys (the ‘e’ was later dropped), which was broadcast daily on the Irish station 2FM. He also featured his ferocious matriarch in the best- selling novels The Mammy, The Granny, The Chisellers and The Scrapper. The Mammy was turned into the 1999 film Agnes Browne starring Anjelica Huston.
The novels were adapted into a touring stage version and Brendan became Mrs Browne when the actress due to play her called in sick. He sat at a dressing-room mirror, put on a wig, pencilled a mole on his chin and said: ‘It’s me mammy!’
Jim Rogers, Cardiff.
QUESTION What was the shortest missed putt when trying to win a tournament?
In 2012, South Korean female golfer InKyung ‘I. K.’ Kim had a 1ft putt on the 72nd hole to win the Kraft nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California.
The putt was worth $300,000. It rolled around the rim of hole and Kim looked to the sky in disbelief. She subsequently lost in a play-off to Sun Young Yoo (ladies’ golf is dominated by South Korea).
Kim has since won nine lPGA tour events. She said: ‘It was tough to handle, but I learned from it. I can be an example to show young kids it’s not always going to be glorious in victory out here.’
At the 1989 Masters, on the first hole of a play-off with nick Faldo, Scott Hoch missed a 2ft par putt for the win. On the second play-off hole, Faldo drained a 25ft birdie putt for the title. Hoch never won a major championship.
At the 1970 Open at St Andrews, doug Sanders missed a 3ft putt on the 72nd hole that would have won the tournament. He lost in a play- off to Jack nicklaus. Sanders had four runner-up finishes at major championships, but never won one; nicklaus won 18.
At the 2001 U.S. Open at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. golfer Stuart Cink thought he needed to make a 15ft par putt to have a chance. He missed and hurried the bogey try from 18in, missing it and making a double. It turned out that two putts would have been good enough to make the play-off.
Cink made amends by winning the 2009 Open at Turnberry, though this didn’t win him any popularity awards as he beat the crowd favourite, Tom Watson.
At Augusta in 1946, Ben Hogan needed a par on the final hole to get into a playoff with Herman Keiser. After a missed birdie attempt, Hogan lined up a twofooter to tie — and missed the hole. Hogan went on to win nine majors.
Jake Crofts, Cockermouth, Cumberland.
QUESTION How powerful was the first atomic bomb?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, there is evidence that Japan and Germany were testing atomic weaponry. Japan is said to have tested a nuclear device in north Korea which they occupied during the war. nazi Germany is said to have tested at least two nuclear devices.
Eyewitnesses report seeing mushroom clouds, which are considered to be a characteristic of an atomic bomb; also areas have been reported with unusually high levels of radioactivity.
However, neither is conclusive proof. A mushroom cloud can be produced by any large conventional explosion that takes place above ground level.
Similarly, high radioactivity is not evidence of an atomic explosion. The nazis contemplated packing radioactive material around conventional explosives to produce a ‘dirty bomb’ that contaminates the surrounding area.
The production of a uranium bomb of the type dropped on Hiroshima requires the separation of the rare uranium isotope 235 from the more common 238. This is extremely difficult and slow and I don’t think Japan or Germany had the materials, resources or time to do this.
Denis Sharp, Hailsham, E. Sussex.
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