A year's mind for John McGahern and Cootehall marches forward (supposedly)

One month after a death, there is the "month's mind" Mass. Here, that is. Well, this week it is a year's mind for John McGahern. The first winter with him not among us was very, very wet. But the spring arrives even more welcome. Yesterday was a cracker. After four dry days, only one corner of Regan's field required wellies to venture into to retrieve the ball.

As I write this, the thundering booms from the diggers resound all around me. In Cootehall, 100 plus new homes are being constructed. All in the name of rural renewal, but for that you should read "whopping tax break". The village could have done with a bit more life. A few more dwellings and shops. But, oy vey. You wouldn't recognize it. The spring weather brought all the Cootehall denizens out of hibernation. And we just stood around on the road and gave out about all the building and our dirty windows and about how we should have done something about it before it was too late. Well, it's too late.

The photo here was taken while I was standing on the riverbank beside the Barracks in Cootehall, looking across to the Oakport side. Can you believe how close these houses were allowed to be built to each other?? Asking price: €650,000 yo yos. And The Barracks appears on the publicity brochures created by the property developers. Come summer, imagine the 42 new speed boats (some of the houses come with one "free") roaring by in the foreground.