I suppose I should say Mr Bill Callaghan because that\u2019s how I addressed the man for years.<\/p>\n
Now, the Follower of Fashion in the song could be seen \u2018one week in polka dots, the next week in stripes\u2019 -admittedly, my East Cork friend never went to those extremes, but he always dressed well. Though he never said so himself, words \u2018a model of sartorial elegance\u2019 could describe him to a tee. I never saw him without a tie in the four decades I knew him.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure how I first came to be acquainted with the man who was the owner of Litho Press in Midleton, but it was probably to do with the printing of a GAA match programme back in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know what to make of this debonair, well-spoken individual initially, but soon I\u2019d say we recognised the quirky eccentricities in each other! After that, to say we got on like a house on fire would be putting it rather mildly.<\/p>\n
\n I loved the Irish language, he was a Master of English, and we both had a huge \u2018gra\u2019 for Latin! Described with centuries as a \u2018dead language – because it was no longer spoken by any tribe, nation or group of linguistic followers – Latin was and is the source or \u2018root\u2019 of so many words that we use every day.\n <\/p>\n
But all that realisation and common likes was away in the future – years down the printing and literary road.<\/p>\n
In my innocence and ignorance, I had thought the Mr Callaghan had come from a long line of printers, going back several generations to a time when every single letter for every single word had to be prepared and placed manually in an era when even electricity was unheard of. I soon learned that nothing could be further from the truth as regards Mr Callaghan\u2019s early working life.<\/p>\n
Born just outside Midleton in the 1930s, Bill qualified as a teacher and got a position in the Christian Brothers School in his native town.<\/p>\n
In the CBS, as in nearly all Irish secondary schools in the 1950s, Latin was an intrinsic part of the curriculum. The language was needed for anyone with inclinations \u2018for the Church\u2019 and Latin was then also the \u2019Language of Medicine\u2019 so doctors and chemists had to have it and it was regarded as a gateway subject for the arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a belligerent appearance, he associated the barbarian condition of the desperate and despairing gladiator as an incantation of the insidious serpent\u201d – well, there\u2019s a mouthful for ye now, and as Mr Callaghan explained meticulously, 11 of the words in that sentence \u2018come from\u2019 Latin!<\/p>\n
Getting text books in Latin proved difficult for many Irish schools so Mr Callaghan saw an opportunity in the problem and began writing, producing, editing and printing the Latin schoolbooks himself. One thing led to another, and soon the teacher bade farewell to the chalk and blackboard.<\/p>\n
He set up his own printing business, initially on Main Street, Midleton, and later at the gorgeous-sounding Roxborough Mews at the end of the town. That\u2019s where I met Mr Callaghan first, with his trusty \u2018General\u2019 Bill O\u2019Keeffe.<\/p>\n
Up and down those stairs many times daily he went – in fairness, he had wonderful, friendly and dedicated staff.<\/p>\n
Printing works back in the day were often stuffy and hot with that smell of… I think it was ink, but whatever \u2019twas, it was all over the shop. It wasn\u2019t exactly an unpleasant odour but it took getting used to.<\/p>\n
In the Fermoy\/Mitchelstown area, a local newspaper The Avondhu was started by Liam Howard in 1978 -thankfully, it\u2019s still going strong. Now and then I wrote bits and pieces for the paper and tried my hand at the odd \u2018poem\u2019 – well, that\u2019s what I called them anyway!<\/p>\n
Mr Callaghan told me \u201cpoetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth\u201d – borrowing the line, he said, from Samuel Johnson!<\/p>\n
Bill was the first man I knew who saw the poetic and literary value of taking time out for a cup of coffee. Luckily for him, and me also, there were three lovely cafes\/restaurants in close proximity to the Litho Press establishment.<\/p>\n
Over such an interlude one day, I showed Bill a few of my poems. He was most encouraging but warned that \u201cpoetry is not the opium of the people\u201d -in fairness, I didn\u2019t even know what opium was!<\/p>\n
Anyway, we agreed to go ahead and publish my little book. We called it Poems From The Priest\u2019s Garden \u2013 I live in Gairdin an Sagart, the Priest\u2019s Garden.<\/p>\n
Geraldine Dorgan did drawings for me and Bill and his staff did the rest. It turned out just grand.<\/p>\n
With Bill\u2019s advice, I think we printed 300 copies. Over that winter I was selling them away at \u00a35 each. I left a bundle in with Con Collins in his bookshop in Cork. Mr Callaghan was a great encourager and kept saying the book would do well.<\/p>\n
\n The following spring, I sent a copy \u2018on spec\u2019 into the Gay Byrne Radio Show – they liked it and I was asked to go on air live to recite a few poems. The reaction was amazing, with literally hundreds of fivers coming in the Post from all over the country.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cStrike while the iron is hot\u201d, was Bill\u2019s advice. He printed 1,000 copies and they sold out in a few months. Bill Callaghan was as pleased for me as if he had written the book himself.<\/p>\n
We had some lovely times in Midleton over long, drawn-out coffees and longer conversations.<\/p>\n
He printed a GAA club history for me in 1999 and another hurling book in 2003.<\/p>\n
Bill\u2019s business merged with Carrig Print and though he was getting on in years, he still kept his eye in. Another book, on Gortroe Cemetery, followed.<\/p>\n
I found Bill to be blunt, honest and he never called a spade a shovel! He gave me great encouragement in all my writing efforts with copious and helpful criticism where needed.<\/p>\n
In recent years, I\u2019d meet him occasionally in Midleton. As dapper and stylish as ever, I just loved his manner of speaking. \u201cA good speaker,\u201d he told me, \u201cmust be a good listener\u201d. Bill Callaghan was both.<\/p>\n
I never knew his wife or family but I knew they meant so much to him.<\/p>\n
Bill Callaghan died in December in his 90s. At his Month\u2019s Mind Mass last Saturday, I met his family for the very first time.<\/p>\n
Fittingly, his grandchildren enhanced the Mass with quotes about him and quotes he used and loved.<\/p>\n
They say \u2018If the cap fits, wear it\u2019, well, if ever lines were written to immortalise my friend Mr Bill Callaghan, here they are;<\/p>\n
\n The village master taught his little school;\n <\/p>\n
\n A man severe he was, and stern to view,\n <\/p>\n
\n I knew him well, and every truant knew;\n <\/p>\n
\n Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace\n <\/p>\n
\n The day\u2019s disasters in his morning face;\n <\/p>\n
\n Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee,\n <\/p>\n
\n At all his jokes, for many a joke had he:\n <\/p>\n
\n Full well the busy whisper circling round,\n <\/p>\n
\n Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned;\n <\/p>\n
\n Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught,\n <\/p>\n
\n The love he bore to learning was in fault;\n <\/p>\n
\n The village all declared how much he knew;\n <\/p>\n
\n \u2018Twas certain he could write, and cypher too;\n <\/p>\n
\n Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,\n <\/p>\n
\n And ev\u2019n the story ran that he could gauge.\n <\/p>\n
\n In arguing too, the parson owned his skill,\n <\/p>\n
\n For even tho\u2019 vanquished, he could argue still;\n <\/p>\n
\n While words of learned length and thundering sound,\n <\/p>\n
\n Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;\n <\/p>\n
\n And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,\n <\/p>\n
\n That one small head could carry all he knew.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 1965, The Kinks had a huge hit with their song Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, and over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-233988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}