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The founder of the Grange athletic club.- Paul Barry.

“Of lads that wore their honours out,

Runners whom renown outran

And the name died before the Man.”-A.E.Houseman.

As written by my father Sean Buckley ,probably as a favour to Donie Turner ,an athlete who came under Paul’s benign influence . This article appeared in various papers in the south in Autumn of 1965. This article is the archetypal story of the charismatic founder who sets up an athletic movement amongst the young and then just as he has only started he dies suddenly . So great is he missed that his followers are imbued with the greatest of energy and the club that he has founded goes onto great success ,locally, provincially,nationally and eventually internationally. This arc of success rises in the a small country area in North Cork in the early 1960s ,surging to great national success in mid 1960s ,peaking into international successes in late 60s and early 70s with some brilliant individual athletes who competed at the Olympics and then the arc falls as quickly and now Grange A.C. has faded away and is only a memory amongst those competitors who are alive from those halcyon days . My father’s fulsome celebration of those days captures the optimism ,innocence of another generation setting out to conquer the world.Where once I would have cringed at the purple prose now I repeat it with all its naïve enthusiasm.

“It was the final of the Carnival football tournament played at Shanballymore on the evening of June 12^th 1962, and Grange and Kilshannig were battling out a hectic finish . There was fifteen minutes to go. A hurried consultation saw the veteran footballer ,Paul Barry, don his own Grange colours and go in as a sub.

Paul scored the required goal and was then seen to crumple to the ground .It was his last act .” My father moves into elegiac mode . “ A great and noble heart had given out at the early age of 40 years ,after a lifetime spent in the furthering of sports –football,hurling and athletics- his special love.

So great was the shock and grief that his funeral to Kilcrumper was the largest ever to that graveyard.

Who was Paul Barry?.Paul Barry was a countryman and a farmer with a great passion for sport.He was born in 1922 at Sheepwalk in the parish of Fermoy . He went to the local national school in Grange and completed his secondary education in Fermoy C.B.S..He became a farmer ,winning prizes and rosettes for his Shorthorn cattle.

In 1943 he won A Munster Senior football medal with Cork. So he was a keen footballer but by the 1960’s ,his football career nearly over,hisn thoughts turned toward building a new structure of sport in North –East Cork . At first he set up a new Football club -Grange football club in 1959 but he began to think of something else . Athletics began to attract his attention. There was no club in the rural areas of North Cork . With these thoughts in his mind he attended the Rome Olympics. He persuaded two friends to make the trip with him and they all invested in green blazers for the trip . Sitting there in the Olympic stadium amidst the magnificence of Rome his enthusiasm for athletics swelled. For some reason he focussed on a singlet for the club. The design ,not the colours were similar to those singlets worn by Belgium or Great Britain . There was the favourite for the 800m, Roger Moens of Belgium coming a strong second to the powerful Peter Snell of New Zealand or was he impressed by the amazing front running of Australian Herb Elliot in the 1500 metres .There he was in this Towering stadium and he is thinking of his own fields in Sheepwalk outside Fermoy and how he could realise his dream . He envisioned how the old ruined cottage across the road could become a clubhouse and the near flat field ,where once racehorses trained could become a running track. The athletes would have a white singlet with a light yellow and blue band and after every training session in the field they would file across to the restored clubhouse. He would concentrate on cross-country as a convenient conditioner for the running on the track in the summer .It was the simplest training for a place with little resources. He would repeat the theatricality of the prizes medals for first, second and third ,gold ,silver bronze ,a sense of the Olympic grandeur he was now looking at and which he wanted to keep in those simple green fields.

He returned to his farm and set about realising his dream . With all his GAA contacts he shared his ideas and dreams and within a year the little cottage was a rudimentary clubhouse where the club had its first AGM and there Paul is chairman of the club with a panoply of club officers, the local priest a Father Kelleher as President showing Paul to be an astute organiser and politician . There amongst the officials is Bob Burke and James Cummins two who would play a large part in the future of the club.

In the Spring of 1962 he keeps the P.R. onslaught up in the local papers and he shows off all his cross-country athletes with their medals and trophies and he is proudly in the midst of them.

“In the centre (front Row ) is Paul Barry ,chairman and trainer,” Luckily by this time he has inspired a great coterie of athletes ,who would become the cornerstone of all the club’s successes for the next five years.My father poses the question as to how he influenced so many young athletes.Briefed by an athlete Donie Turner and probably urged on by him this is his enthusiastic answer.Remember my father didn’t know him while he was alive.

“ What was the secret of his success with athletes?It has been truly said that he had a certain mystique about him ,and this medium-built ,quietly spoken man with the pale face and gentle eyes had an extraordinary influence for good with old and young alike.

It has been said that a smile from Paul was enough to set the youths of three parishes on a 3 mile cross-country run! Athletes who knew him admit that there was nothing like him as a friend,organiser and coach ,and that he was the kindest of men- always ready to help in their personal problems.” Fulsome praise indeed but it is the manner of his death ,his funeral and the success of the club which is the testament to his drive and inspiration.

I never knew him and yet I now ,fifty years later, am writing about him.Those whom he inspired would become runners that I could share my dreams with and be supported and encouraged by them. In those times it was the loneliness of the long distance runner and you learned to be independent and self reliant . In my own town my words about training often fell on deaf and unsympathetic ears and it was a consolation to me when runners once seen running for Mallow came from this club Grange and offered me a lift to a cross-country event. I stayed with Mallow for a year while Grange brought me to events . In the summer of 1963 I raced from Nadd to Flower lodge to Ballinspittle winning track Novice events everywhere. It was Donie Turner of Grange, formerly of Mallow A.C. who carried me everywhere .He was carrying on Paul Barry’s spirit and inspiration. So a man of vision made a place for me and many people like me in Ireland’s 1960’s.

The intensity of the shared moment .

Sport reveals the intensity of the dream.

To win and in the moment of success

Donie Turner from Carrig Mallow tells of how he fell under the influence of Paul Barry.

Donie Turner of Carrig tells of Paul Barry Grange the Early days. Memories. 1960-64.Paul Barry the Father figure and founder of Grange Athletic Club.

Donie Turner tells his story .24-10-09.

“I first saw Paul Barry on the Cork Examiner .He and seven others were in a photo at the Fermoy Show . They were holding cups . There was ,I remember a bag of Blue Cross animal feed in front of them . Paul had won what cups were there for cattle that day. This was sometime in the fifties and all his cattle were shorthorn . He had a house full of trophies ,all won by his shorthorn cattle and I believe they are still in his house in Sheepwalk.

Paul died after scoring a goal in the Shanballymore football tournament. He was put in as a sub and he was put in to mark the county senior footballer Jimmy Breen. After scoring the goal, he hit the ground, dead as a doornail.

Jimmy with the help of Bill Joe O Connell of Kilshannig lifted Paul to the sideline .

It was the 16^th of June 1962. He was 42 years of age. Sport and especially athletics had by this time taken over his life and his prowess with his Shorthorn herd had taken a severe knock. It happened in this way.

Paul was judging at a show back in West Cork when a man with a seemingly good looking shorthorn animal persuaded Paul to buy her. Unfortunately that animal brought brucellosis into his herd. His herd was ruined. By this time he was spending so much time with athletics and football that his farming deteriorated .He was barely making ends meet and he told me shortly before he passed away that it was only bandages and the grace of God that was holding him together . He had three women in the house for support, his mother ,his sister Rita and a servant Nellie who worked most of her life for the Barry family.

Athletics was his passion, something corroborated by Christy Roche who heard Paul say that he liked all sport bar “cricket”.

My next memory of Paul was again another picture in The Cork Examiner. There he was standing in front of a Volkswagen with Berney Dempsey and Willie Shanaghan all of them dressed in green blazers on their way to the 1960 Rome Olympics. It was at these games that Paul saw the colours white with a light yellow and blue band. These colours became the colours of the Grange athletic club and which I always felt was an honour to wear . To this day those colours have been carried on many of my wife Mary’s race horses.

My own career began with Grange one Sunday morning where at a club race in the field adjacent to the club they invited me to run even though I was a member of Mallow A.C.

By this time I had run for Cork county novice teams but I had little support from Mallow A.C. who had no interest in cross-country and road running. I felt so isolated in Mallow A.C. that when I experienced the sheer enthusiasm of the Grange club I was dying to join them . Grange had a simple clubhouse ,an old corrugated roofed done up cottage ,a farm building on the side of the road that you would hardly cast a second glance at .It was at the side of the Glanworth-Fermoy road .It was donated by Paul to the club. But this little building was the engine room of the club. It was there that the athletes congregated and their mentors met and planned for future races .Grange itself could not even be called a village .It is merely a crossroads ,the club house nearby ,the Grange national school, Pauls school a few minutes walk away . Paul’s farm house was only a stones throw across the fields. Every athlete aspired to have his photo, from the newspaper, up on the wall . The Grange club house walls were decorated with photos of past achievements, individual winners and team winners and the day that your picture was nailed to that wall you felt you had made it.

After that Sunday morning run I was down the next night to meet more of the lads, so great was my enthusiasm. I remember going on a drive in a car, dropping into Jas.Cummins place. Paul was at the wheel of the Volkswagen everyone piled in, Berney Dempsey, Jas, and probably Willie Hanrahan. There was great “crack” and I loved being with them. I suppose there was an innocence to it all. When we drove through Glanworth village I naively asked why there were so many cars parked along the streets.

“Drinking” was the blunt answer.

Glanworth had a name for drinking at that time. Later the drinking culture spread to other North Cork villages, sadly my own local village Killavullan coming near the top of the list.

This was the beginning of the 60’s in rural Ireland. Farmers were putting up silage pits, laying out yards, building milking parlours and with all the milk the construction of pig houses for the rearing weaning and fattening. The Beatles songs were the music score of our lives. I can remember John O Reilly singing “It’s Been a Hard Days Night” as we drove in the car to a cross country event.

As I have said already the club house was the focus of the club . It was there that the young and old congregated on summer evenings, winter nights and Sunday mornings . Mick Bermingham kept order in the club . A lovely man , he put down the fire ,swept the place clean and tidy . He lived nearby and worked all his life in the County Council as a road worker . I loved and respected that man and so did everyone else in the club . When the club won the Memorial 1916 Rosmuc relay race Mick was presented with a special medal in memory of that great achievement.

Other officials were Jack Foley, who looked after the financial side of things –mostly football. To generate funds he held whist drives and he ran a Silver Circle. Other helpers were the “Walty” brothers Seamie and Will Brown ,the Hanrahans ,Driscolls,Burkes, Roches,the football followers ,Paul’s first cousin Dave Barry , John Roche known as the “Tank” ,Francis Foley ,Berney Dempsey and …many more…..

Despite the lack of any village focus a great tradition of sport always seemed to enliven the whole area . The Grange Mocklers ,a great Gaelic team were there in years gone bye . The Grand National winner “Lovely Cottage” was trained in the area by Michael Hyde .The club cross country races were held on the same fields that the race horse was schooled on. The area had a wide tradition in all kind of Sports, greyhound coursing, showjumping, road bowling, cycling, athletics track and field and cross-country.

Paul Barry inherited all that tradition. He excelled as a great relay sprinter, long jumper and he was also on the panel of the Cork All –Ireland winning football team in 1945.

One of the races that Paul promoted at the time was an 8 mile race from the club house in Grange into Fermoy town via Castle Hyde and back to the club house again. Jas.Cummins and Pat Coleman of Youghal vied for victory. My personal memory of the race was finishing up the road to the club when Pat Shanaghan flew past me –unbelievably flying - . I was stunned that he was running so fast at the end. Later it was discovered that he got a spin for much of the race and was left off back the road close to the finish. Paul heard about this. He was not well pleased and warned Pat “never to do it again “Paul was always a consummate sportsman.

More on Skibereen Novice cross country in 1963.

I will always remember the day when I heard that Paul Barry had died. I had just finished thinning five acres of beet on my knees , my knees braced with rough sacking tied together with twine .With Paul dead it was like the end of the world . I can remember there listening to my mother reading Paul’s death notice from the paper . She wept. My sister Angela wept. Our companion and worker for thirty years Bridget Arundel wept. And they had only met him the odd time he dropped into the house. Paul was a devout Catholic and even as an adult he gave up sweets for Lent. Sweets were one of his weaknesses. He loved them so much that he had stored them under his pillow so that when The Easter midnight ceremonies were over he had them near at hand. It was instant gratification after the long Lenten fast.

Huge crowds filed past his coffin at the removal. The next day after the Funeral Mass we carried him from Fermoy Church to Kilcumper graveyard. There is a photo recorded in the Newspaper of the time of the funeral cortege of all the Grange footballers and Athletes marching in file beside the coffin down a Fermoy street on a warm June day. The late Tony Coughlan as he was in the army led the athletic guard of honour. There in Kilcumper graveyard we laid Paul Barry to rest. Our leader, mentor ,inspiration was gone . A week passed and we attended no sports events.

Two weeks, a Sunday, after Pauls’ death I ,Donie Turner , took the initiative and like Paul I loaded five or six into my parents car and headed off to a sports meeting somewhere ,probably somewhere in East Cork and John(T.J.)O Reilly,as a consolation became our first winner after Pauls passing away. The club Grange A.C. was in the Monday’s Cork Examiner.

From that first achievement we vowed to have the name Grange as represented by its athletes and Gaelic players on the sports pages every Monday morning.

That avowed ambition became a reality so much so that by the end of the season Grange A.C. were awarded “The Dagg Cup” for the most improved athletic club in County Cork.

The photos show Paul’s long-time disciple Berney Dempsey holding the cup aloft.

To return to my own running career ,yes I joined Grange A.C. and my first memory as a Grange runner was as a member of the winning relay team when we won the Lock relay ,a famous Cork city race ran around The Lough ,a kind of suburban lake in Cork City’s Southside . It was hosted by St.Finbarrs A.C. For the record let me call out the Grange member’s of that relay team of long ago . Jas.Cummins,Tom Herlihy,D.J.Buckley, Tim Buckley(brothers) ,Sean and Christy Roche ,and myself Donie Turner. We had great success with this relay winning it a few times. I remember winning the race on a St.Patrick’s Day and then travelled to rural Ballynoe where The priest Fr.Higgins promoted cross country races for youths under 14Yrs. And under 18Yrs. My neighbour 14year old Jimmy ORegan won the under 14 race and Grange made a clean sweep of al the under 18 medals . I can still remember how resentful Fr. Higgins was having to part with all the prizes to us . We laughed long and hard in the car home after all our victories on that St. Patrick ’s Day.

Another priest I remember, who was helpful and generous to us ,was Fr.John Kelleher . Born in our local parish Of Killavullan .he was our chairman in those early days . When he left the club and the area he gave us a new set of singlets . They proved to be lucky as when we donned them we felt a kind of invincibility, especially in track and relays.

Winners and losers.

Paul Barry held a cross country race one time down in Tabbycally . Mattie Murphy ,the great Rising Sun athlete had a tough tussle with our own Jas Cummins . I came 6^th after beating Bertie Murphy. Paul pointedly congratulated the losers especially on that day . Without losers you would have no winners . I was content with my sixth place and Paul there awarding the prizes.

I think the club won the Cork novice team championships in 1963. In 1963 two people joined the club Jack Buckley ,a keen administrator ,and his son the athlete Bobby Buckley.

In October 1964 Jack was very influential in the setting up and the running of The North Cork Leagues . These leagues became the cornerstone of future successes of Granges cross country seasons.

My memories of that Autumn in October 1964 is bathed in wonderful sunlight. I remember Bobby came out to our farm in Carrick and on the Saturday we made “winds” of straw in the cottage field . There was a wonderful sunset of pure red a sign of good times to come.

The next day we ran the first leg of The North Cork League ,a warm Sunday morning ,over Paul’s land in Sheepwalk . Sean Roche ,I think won the inaugural race and I may have been second.

The four races were held in the Autumn ,a kind of pre-season , before the main winter- spring cross country season . Each race to give a sense of variety of terrain and to also make them into a kind of promotion in each area were held in different parishes.

Typical venues were Doneraile golf course ,Lucy’s field in Killavullan ,Mallow race course and Paul Barry’s field.

One of my own very personal memories was the first race in Doneraile Golf course . Sean Roche won the race in a very tough race. I was second. I had chased him all the way around the course but I had one small personal disappointment . My sister Angela, who had a hairdressing salon in Doneraile and knew the local priest Fr. Barry , was influential in getting the permission for the running of the race ,but there she was standing there with her husband Con Cotter , both silent not shouting a word of support to me . I was so disappointed with them. Con in a kind of apology said to me

“ We were afraid to shout for you –it might have upset you.” Little did they know the mind of a competitor? Support is energy.

The League was a great success on a couple of fronts:

1. It promoted the club as a centre of excellence for running in the North Cork area .It even brought many athletes from urban areas like Mallow over to the club –Donie Turner, T.J. OReilly, Bobby Buckley, and John D.Murphy. Some athletes remained with their clubs but competed in the leagues.
2. It got many athletes to think of preparation as vital for a successful running season.
3. The league ran under age races and so there was a steady stream of new talent . From this would come world class talent, the late great Olympian Fanaghan Mac Sweeney from Castletownroche and John Hartnett, one time Irish mile record holder and World Cross country Junior champion (but this is running ahead of ourselves).

Fanahan was a gifted and renowned international athlete. He broke the European 400 metre indoor record at the Houston Astrodome, Texas in February 1970 clocking 46.3 seconds shattering the world mark set by great Olympic champion Tommy Smith. The McNeese University graduate won 48 consecutive international 400m races.

Of Fanahan’s four national records the 200 meters remained for 16 years and the 220 yards and 440 yards remain unsurpassed at the time of writing. In 1968 he beat the national 220 yard record with a scintillating 21.1 seconds on grass. What was even more remarkable was that he never used starting blocks, the universal aid to sprinting, because of fear that crouching might aggravate his back injury.

He was national champion over eleven years and in 1972 represented Ireland at the Munich Olympics.

Eamon Coughlan said that “Fanaghan was a born motivator with great attitude and a rare ability to think, analyze, construct and project in a positive way”. High jumper Brendan O’Reilly described him as “a genius in everything he did”. He was regarded by Dr Pat O’Callaghan as “one of the greatest natural talents this country has ever produced”.

He died at the young age of 44, but in that short time with us he epitomized remarkable courage and dedication shown .He is perceived as an excellent role model for aspiring athletes.

Other memories for further research.

In 1964 we won 18 team prizes ,all four county cross country championships-Novice,Junior,Intermediate and Senior.

The novice was held in Bandon. The junior in Ballymartle . The Intermediate in Carrignavar. The Senior in Millstreet.

Part of the tactical success in achieving this clean sweep was to keep our competitive cards to our sporting chests by competing in Limerick ,Clare and Tipperary and not in Cork. One foray was to Dublin where we won The Phoenix Park relays ,a race around the Polo grounds . We were up against 22 teams and Sean Roche was the fastest runner of all the runners. This was 1964.?

In 1965 we did win the Cork cross country league and the senior team event.

We many more races including the F.C.A cross country.

Two road races come to mind The Russell Cup round the houses in Limerick and the New year round the House race held on the streets of Youghal . This race started a few minutes before Midnight so that one ran into the New Year .

Besides the races it is the people who all supported the club the athletes who only ran one race compared with the Peerless Sean Roche who ran and won so many races for the club, the so many who helped in the running of the club in the smallest of ways and it is those little things that one remembers ,the petrol for the car that my sister Angela put in , the set of Jerseys that the local curate gave us , the loan of a field given by a farmer Like Rita Barry( Pauls sister). And the joy of battle and sense of tussle with the county board ,the Munster Council and the winning over other clubs especially the winning —

As written by Donie Turner and lightly edited by Bobby Buckley. Winter 0f 2009-10. Extract about Fanaghan Mac Sweeney from Athletics Ireland website.

CROSS COUNTRY NOVEMBER 1964-APRIL 1965.

It is October 21^st 2009. the dry autumnal weather has been blown away and the heavy showers have coalesced into a continuous downpour creating a mental world where out of the rain come rain drenched creatures running a muddy field ,some in groups ,others in single files mouths agape trying to catch a breath in the rain sodden gale. Near the start and finish long coated followers urge on each runner, who each rises and noticeably quickens and for a moment rushes on into another circuit of grass mud and rain. Within each competitors mind is the insistence of finishing. Every place counts in a race. When you pass an opponent your team gains two points your opponent lose two. So when you leave the little pocket of supporters and relax back into your normal gait another mentor ,counting the points on a quiet part of the course will appear and in an insistent shout tell you how many runners you have to pass to gain the victory for the team. It is this as yet unseen group that counts, the group that will have their photograph in the morning newspaper . “Grange reign supreme in Ballymartle” So even though you may be finishing down the field. Your place when added to your colleagues much lower but higher positions guarantees your team’s success. You must finish. Reliability and dependability counted.

In November 1964 the country club Grange, meeting in the old farmstead of the late Paul Barry, the

founder of the club envisioned a clean sweep of all the county grades in cross-country in Cork that season . The club had its established runners Jim Hogan,Jas.Cummins,Con O’Connell, all individual champions ,but the club was now bolstered by runners from the Mallow area –Donie Turner ,an inspired leader who was galvanised to lead the club to great things, and a group of emerging runners all drawn from all over North east Cork John Mehigan, Jonny Beechinor, T.J.OReilly, Sean Roche, Bobby Buckley ,John D.Murphy,Pat Shanahan,—–

The cross country season in Cork began in December. There were five grades of ability .Youths for the under 18s based on age. After that the successful young athlete could look forward to competing in the novice grade, a competition that attracted huge fields and was difficult to win, and then the junior grade followed by a new grade intermediate, the stepping stone to the ultimate the senior grade. The Novice the first grade was usually run in the depths of wet dark December on very hilly muddy courses and suited what was referred to as “real cross country runners” young men who were usually strong farmers who could literally plough their way across a mucky ploughed field. At 19 I was a total townie, had rarely lifted a shovel or tussled with a bale of hay but I loved running and strongly believed that training would bring me success. I was idealistic and serious about running. I had just had a successful season on the novice tracks the previous summer and if a course was dry my loping stride would pull me away from many an opponent.

For me that cross country season began with a false dawn. On November4th the last North Cork cross country league was run in Mallow racecourse. This league was set up to organise and train new runners for the cross-country season and here we all are smiling on a lovely sunny Sunday morning ready to run two laps of the very runnable free draining Mallow Race course. Was I the first to think of it as a great venue for running? In later years it became the venue for Irish cross country championships when the trend for cross country events moved to park like venues.

I won the race that morning very easily and also was declared the runner of the whole Club league series.

But much tougher challenges lay ahead and I was philosophical about it. I had accepted I would never be a great cross country runner but I saw it as useful conditioning for my track career. This less than full on approach would lead to a certain personal tension than with my running mates as form is something that is ephemeral especially at the beginning of an athlete’s career. It was an evident source of conflict with my father as he was a very keen mentor to my running career. He also had become the writer of the clubs deeds and he had an intense desire to see me help the Grange club to successes. I was primarily interested in my running career and if my schedule was a long run on the Saturday before an important Cross country race for the club, I ran the long run. Necessarily to say my run the next day in the race was a little lack lustre was not an understatement much to the chagrin of my father. He tended to only look at the local and the news paper headlines in the Cork Examiner. I always tried to look at the long view and the bigger picture to keep a sense of perspective on my career so that when I went for the big race I would be ready and prepared. Some of my own personal choices both in my running career and in my life later have turned to gold where if I was to choose my fathers preferences I would have remained in a very small world.

When I took the chance and won the big events, my father almost in a kind of relief would follow me and support me. Now when I think of him and how he supported me throughout my running career and when I feel emotionally vulnerable and weak his loving presence still comes to me and I feel reassured and comforted once more.

All those pictures I see of that bespectacled respectable creature standing in some team photo and I know I made him happy. Now that he is gone it is like a journey back to where his mind was and now all that he recorded has become important to me. By finding him I find myself.

November is a quiet month for running and it was so in November 1964. Training dominated in a runners mind and so it was with me. The Bible of training for me then was Arthur Lydiard’s book “Run To the Top”. His schedules and philosophy I had adapted to my life, routines and local terrain.

The first phase of Lydiard’s conditioning was the long runs with a fast runs every two days. I lived in Mallow with my parents as I once tried to run out of a boarding house in Cork city where I worked in the ESB offices as a clerical officer. A training athlete needs a lot of support so unfortunately I ended up getting a serious attack of pleurisy which did affect my lungs in a serious way .I returned to my parents care and both my parents devoted a lot of time to my running needs.

1. My schedule for the day was rise at 7 have breakfast and pack my gear and lunch.
2. Cycle to the Mallow train station to get the 8a.m. train to Cork.
3. Walk to Patrick Street to where the ESB offices were.
4. Work for the morning in the Wages office.
5. Under arrangement with my superiors I stopped work at 12.45 ,togged off in the toilets and in my running gear took off up the Quays and out toward the Mardyke ,continued on to the Lee road ,crossed the bridge before Ballincollig and run in the Carrigrohane straight where once land speed records were set and it was always a fast run here as the prevailing wind swept you back to the Mardyke and down the Quays and in the back door up the stairs ,a towel down a quick bite usually a banana and some nuts – a Percy Cerutty idea and back into the office desk. Percy Cerutty was Olympic champion Herb Elliot’s rather eccentric coach.
6. Work ceased at 5.30 but I worked on for another 15 minutes to make up for my long lunch hour and a quarter. Then a quick dash for the 6.30 train to Mallow. Once in Mallow grab the bike and down home. Dinner would be put on the table by my mother as I came in the door. It was usually steak, potatoes in their jackets and a vegetable, followed by a desert typically fruit and custard. An hour later I was lacing my running shoes and out plunging into the dark out the Spa road . This could be a brisk run of 5miles an out and back session . This obviously became an inconvenience as it was difficult to run on a full stomach. I switched the fast run to the middle of the day and made the evening run an easy ten mile at 6minute miling pace. On many a winters night my father would cycle the 10 miles with me. Roads were quieter in those days With the Lydiard method all this would be changed in the spring when the Hill training sessions would be started. The hill sessions were to bring some speed and tone after all the long distance runs of the winter. I was aiming for the track season in the summer.
7. This is phase 2 of the preparation.
8. I lived in a glen, the Spa Glen, where out my front window the horizon was filled with a side profile of Saint Joseph’s road, previously called Gallows Lane.

The hill started in the town with High houses around ,then one strode up by the little houses on St.Joseph’s road. 150metres later you were by the high walls of the Castle demesne and the n a sharp steep bend with the grove of trees of beech reaching to the stars and the smoking chimneyed town below us and now out to the dark of the countryside as the hill levelled out ,the trees rising like spectres all around us ,another bend and the final little hill at the Mallow Castle formal demesne gates ,turn sharply around and down down through the narrowing walls ,the trees ,our feet pounding, the lights and smoke of the town ahead of us , sweeping around the steep bend and into the lights striding huge along the little doors of the little houses and then we are small amidst the great 19^th century shambling houses ,turn right and we turn into sprinters for 50meters and relax and slow for twenty seconds jogging and shambling along and then take off again for 50 meters and slow once more out to the First bridge its stonework lit up in a pool of light and turn and back again toward the hill repeating the whole phase another 3 times.

I use the plural as the most exhilarating sessions were with my running mates John D Murphy and T.J. OReilly.

This was the usual week training regime during the winter. If there was a race on the Sunday the Saturday session could be an easy relaxed run or a long run if the race was not important.

This was my inner world, a kind of spiritual world of the body where hopes, dreams disappointments are measured in times and exhilarated or despondent runs.

This will always be there for every performer or runner but in the world outside we are measured and sadly the superficial comment of a stranger can define us but we always can return to the source of our joy – a run through a dappled grove on a May morning or a sprint along the inch fields of the Castle grounds.

But to the Winter of 64-65 when we were young and we had our dreams to become the best cross country runners in Cork.

As we ran, struggled up hills that November 64 the world moved in its mysterious way .

Lyndon Baines Johnson became President of the USA on November 4^th almost a year since his predecessor John F.Keneddy was assassinated.

On the sports pages Olympic champions Doctor Pat O’Callaghan and Ronnie Delaney would attend the new publication of Guinness book of records . The Muskerry Hunt would meet at Vicars town. It is announced that Arkle will run in the Hennessy Gold Cup. There are articles on pneumonia in calves .Peter Snell in distant warmer New Zealand has broken the world record for the mile 3mins54.1secs. That weekend the showbands, Irelands answer to the Pop world, will entertain in the music halls –Fiesta, Maurice Mulcahy, Santa Fe sounds -like a garage today.

On December 3^rd a dredger is blessed. At the Munster convention of the NACAI there is much discussion on the “Burning question of Unity”. Sean O Sullivan, Irelands greatest distance runner appeared on December 14^th at the Tulla Co Clare road races and won them. Dick Hodgins was 4^th.

On the same day Grange won the Cork Novice cross country champion ship team event in Bandon. It was a promising start for the club’s season.

The report had a little drama to report on the individual victory. “Sean Brosnan wins Novice” ran the headline but the sub headline runs that” he lost his way but found finish”

Sean Brosnan was well in the lead but there was a sharp bend near the finish and Brosnan went straight. Now with the crowd realising his mistake they shouted out to him and he turned and headed to the finish. Meanwhile the second runner, our Donie Turner of Grange, also confused but managed to be in the lead going into the finish. Brosnan however raced after Turner and in the words of the reporter “Brosnan lunged forward to win by inches”. Dramatic stuff. The Grange team won by 34 points to a Rising Sun second with 49 points.

The Grange victory was built on the placing of Donie Turner 2^nd Sean Roche 3rd where I was 9^th and John Mehigan was a distant 20^th . Rising Sun packed very well with three runners coming 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th but their 4^th runner was even much more distant 28^th so as you see it shows the need to persist. Very Olympian. In those generous days the farmer a Mr. Jeremiah O’Brien over whose land the race was held was also mentioned and thanked. Our season had begun. The following Sunday found us running around the Limerick Houses – a road race. The race was won by the experienced runner Jackie O Callaghan , who unbelievably was given 40 seconds lead by two of our runners Sean Roche and John O’Reilly . I never understood those handicaps. Sean finished 3^rd TJ 4^th Donie was 6^th and I was 8^th. We won the team prize. A week later we were back on another road circuit in Limerick, Herbertstown a village in the heartland of the Golden vale. . It was a struggle up a hill , a race through the streets of the village and then taking flight down the other side into the flat countryside amidst the stone walls and then up the hill again .For some reason we were beaten in that race by UCC . Disappointing –they were better? Post Christmas? They had three superb runners Brosnan, Hodgins, Pat ORiordan who would all go onto to help Cork win the all Ireland cross country title in April.

1965 came and in that first week of the New year the poet TS ELIOT and writer Daniel Corkery both died . On the international scene Mel Batty the world cross country champion was beaten by Mahomet Gamoudi on the continent.Gamoudi would become the Olympic 10000 metre champion in 1968.

The first Sunday in January 1965 was Donie Turners greatest day in athletics in his own words. The photographs show it. At the finish he lines up with me second and Sean Murphy of the Rising Sun club 3^rd his face creased in smiles.

The report gives a long analysis of the race but it was simple. Both Donie and I raced away from the start and found ourselves so far ahead at the end of the first lap that we had to keep going. Sean Brosnan, the favourite was caught unawares and finished a distant 6^th.

The reporter was generous to the victor.

“It was Turners first major success and no other runner in a big field of 70 deserved it more. Beaten by inches by Sean Brosnan of UCC in the Novice championship at Bandon, the Grange farmer has been dogged by ill luck as far as winning prizes is concerned in his five years of athletic activity.”

Grange now won another grade in cross country running. This was a race with 6 to score, a greater challenge to the strength of a team. But this turned out to be an easy victory with, TJ OReilly 5^th Sean Roche in 8th, John Mehigan13th, Jonny Beechinor18th added to the minimum points of the first two made only 44 points. Rising Sun were second.

I was happy for Donie. For me it was an indication that my conditioning and strength was improving when on the odd day I could defeat dedicated cross country runners.

The Cork Examiner continued on the report “This young club have had great success in the past month with the winning of the Cork novice cross country champion ship at Bandon, two road wins in Limerick and the club is only 5 years in existence .Turner and Buckley set a scorching pace for the first lap which only Sean Murphy of the Rising Sun could match. Buckley and Turner pulled away with the latter getting away by 40yards in the last lap.” The weather became cold and frosty by mid week and on Wednesday The Cork Examiner graced its pages with the smiling faces of Ballymartle Junior Cross country. Amongst the myriad of wedding photographs beckoning eternity we represented an innocent short term dedicated joy. A band of brothers.

Success at club level led onto County representation and four of us were chosen to run for the Cork novice cross country team at the Munster championships. Turner, Buckley, Roche and OReilly . The smiling photographs of Ballymartle is replaced by a photograph of kneeling largely dour semi naked barefoot runners ,obviously suffering with rain and wind blowing their hair and faces . Around this obviously shivering group the fully clothed supporters stand, some smiling

Stand and peer at the photographer. While Sean Roche grins in a grimace I kneel with eyes half closed obviously shivering. Donie Turner stands sadly behind.

The report begins “at rain swept Kilbrossera Cork win the Munster Novice cross country championships narrowly from Tipperary. 54 points to 59 points. Close. How much two weeks can change. Now Sean Brosnan has swept back to his winning ways by out sprinting Sean Roche. The report states that Cork were very much to the fore but faded badly. In that wind and rain I wouldn’t have been happy. John OReilly finished 6^th but Donie and I easy winners two weeks previously did not even score on the team. Was it just the conditions or was I ill?

On January 25^th Ireland drew with France in Rugby in Lansdowne.

Meanwhile ST. Finbarrs were assuming their usual dominance over the senior ranks by winning the Cork senior League final. The strength of their cross country team centred around my namesakes the Buckley brothers John and Denis. John the younger of the two was a peerless natural cross country runner, a driving slim figure who could cope with the grimmest conditions and always make it look easy. In that final league race he battled it out with another emerging talent Pat Coleman from Youghal. Coleman possessed great finishing speed and in that final race outsprinted Buckley making himself favourite to be the best cross country runner in Cork.

Grange did not appear at this race except for Sean Roche who was a distant 9^th. The top in Cork would seem to be well ahead of us.

But a new grade had been introduced, almost fortuitously for an emerging club like Grange. This was the intermediate grade which was to cater for the novice, junior and many other athletes who have not won senior medals. Form is everything however and the younger emerging talent coming from the lower ranks could on one day compete and maybe defeat the more senior teams.

Pat Coleman ,not quite a senior yet , fresh from his recent Senior league success was installed as favourite for this first Cork Intermediate championship . His shorthand report was the “Youghal insurance official will start as favourite.” Grange will start as team favourites but the writer wondered if their form shown in the winning Of the Novice and Junior Cross country titles will be sufficient to defeat U.C.C. the university team which had the three powerful running figures of Sean Brosnan, county and Munster novice champion, Pat Riordan current All Ireland youths champion and Dick Hodgins all Ireland track champion. But now I write today. It takes 6 to make up a cross country team and there is a big gap from three great runners to 6. We had our strong 4 and now we could add two strong runners from previous years- Jas.Cummins and Con O’Connell.

And so it proved .On a bright winter’s day in Carrignavar January 30th the smiles were restored to Grange faces once more. On Monday there was no report of the race but there was a picture of the start. The fast starting Con O Connell leads out the sprint across a well drained field. Behind most of the runners have all adapted the head down striding out pose an inner world hoping for success. Usually by the end of the first lap you knew what your form was to be that day. If you were easily up with the leaders and aware and able to look around it was to be a good day. You would be involved in the struggle for individual victory. Not being experienced or strong enough yet, those days in cross country were far away.

We were here to win the Title and the News paper report when it came announced “Grange have easy win in Cross Country.”

“At Carrignavar Grange showed brilliant form to easily win the Inaugural County Intermediate Cross country title. It was evident they would win from the beginning. As expected Pat Coleman, the Youghal Insurance official won easily. In the first lap he was challenged by Grange’s P.J.Cummins but he faded to 4^th with Brosnan U.C.C. coming in 2^nd, Donie Turner Grange 3^rd, Cummins (Grange)4^th,Pat ORiordan U.C.C. 6^th, R.Buckley (me)Grange 7^th, Dick Hodgins8th . The final Grange three the fast starting O’Connell finished in 9^th position, Sean Roche 10^th and T.J.OReilly 11^th, what’s known as wonderful packing in cross country, where runners in a team keep together and support one another. As lap succeeded lap the excited supporters would urge and help to bind the runners together giving reports on the fading opposition.

, Reported success galvanised further effort hammering home success to the very finish line and beyond.

As we kneel smiling for the photographer in the sunshine the shadows fall across a motley crew of success Donie Turner and I legs outstretched proudly with our senior supporters almost cavalier like in contrast ,a kneeling Ray O Sullivan kneeling with us with trendy trilby flanked on the other side by a Bare Headed Bob Burke. The tall figure

On the back left my father, capable of elegance and style in dark crombie overcoat perfectly made tie and hat properly tilted over his bespectacled face – a grandee amidst the country lads.

Having now won all the County titles in Cross country except the Senior title there was a kind of pressure to complete the clean sweep a kind of predetermined inevitability. Amongst ourselves there was a confidence that it could be done.

Life goes on and officials of the Munster NACAI meet and the politics of the unity movement continues on apace . The unity motion sponsored by Ballymore A.C. is not to go to Congress.

On February 14^th Sean Brosnan won the Munster Junior by 200 yards from me in a distance second place. Cork wins the team title easily with Sean Roche in 7th position and Donie Turner 9^{th. . .} Tipperary are second. Two runners from Limerick P.J.(Dasher) Cronin and John Cregan finish 3^rd and 4^th respectively. For me the excitement only began when the race ended. The Limerick county board urged by John Cregan lodged an objection to my second place on the grounds of interference with the same Limerick runner John Cregan. He accused me of slamming a loose gate that was on the course against him in the first lap. I was stunned by his brazen effrontery as when I was vying with him in the first lap it was he slightly ahead who swung the gate against me as I came through the gap. During that second lap I put a great distance between us so that in the next lap he was not going to have the opportunity of such roguery.

Now here he was with a barefaced smiling grin unsportingly accusing me of his own crime.

We were called in and interrogated by Munster athletics officials. I related with some astonishment of his interference in the race. A half an hour passed and the result was allowed to stand ,vindicating my statement. Limerick didn’t appear in the results. I can’t remember but were they disqualified? Or is that my own wish for revenge. But the smile always remained on John Cregan’s face for ever after that and he was always delighted to see me. Many years later in August 1979, he won the Mallow metric Marathon (26.5kilometres). I was by now semiretired from running , finished 4^th and now many years later here he rushes up to me smiling to greet me when I came to collect my prize. The band of brothers. Running. Friendship that spans the years.

The Cork Senior Cross country Championships Sunday February 21^st.

Here I am like a reader waiting for the denouement in a Thriller and as I turn the microfilm pages in the National library there are no newspapers for Monday 22^nd and 23^rd

And in the very events that I once was involved in I am a stranger. I have forgotten what happened.

Here is what the Cork Examiner said on the previous Friday that ST. Finbarrs were favourites since their Cork senior League victory but towards the end the report covered all bases by saying not to forget Grange the team from North Cork who had made a clean sweep of all the other grades . “Their young runners were capable with their senior runners of winning the Senior cross country title”. Pat Coleman was installed as favourite for the individual title.

Media coverage is the oxygen of any sport and with the print media the only realistic way of attaining coverage of sports events it was disappointing to see little coverage of our greatest achievement, the clean sweep of all the Cross country titles in Cork and the first club to do so. I have the photographs with Grange and the cups. On March 4^th A published photograph shows the first three in the race. John Buckley 1^st, John O Brien (Ballymore) 2^nd, and the favourite Pat Coleman 3^rd.

Grange won the team prize but how. Here is my fathers report in his diary .

“The day was dry ,clear and bitterly cold. I was at 11a.m.Mass.I was collected by John D.Murphy to go to the race. Robert was driven by Jonnie Beechinor to Cork Senior Cross Country in Millstreet.Great Day. Mr. Turner(Donie Turner’s father) travelled. Grange’s scoring 6 won the Gold medals .Robert got his Munster junior cross-country medals.

These are results as reported by Sean Buckley.

Cork Senior C.C. Championship at Millstreet(7and a half miles).

1.John Buckley(St. Finbarrs)2.JOBrien(Ballymore)3.Pat Coleman(Youghal)4.Joe Murphy(St.Finbarrs),5 S.Brosnan(U.C.C.),6W.J.Shine(Milstreet)7 Sean Roche(Grange),8 Denis Buckley(St.Finbarrs),9 Pat ORiordan(U.C.C.),10 R.Buckley(Grange),W.Webb(Rising Sun),12 D Mc Carthy(Rising Sun),13 Donie Turner(Grange),14 T.J.OReilly(Grange),-18 Jas.CUMMINS(Grange)-21 Con O Connell(Grange).

58 ran.

Team results:

1.Grange(S.Roche5,R.Buckley8,D.Turner11,T.J.OReilly12,P.J.Cummins16,COConnell19)-71pts.

2.St. Finbarrs(J.Buckley 1,J.Murphy 2,D.Buckley6, T.McCarthy14,M.Murphy 25,F.OLeary 26)-74 pts.”

So a bare victory by three points for Grange and eventually by the proverbial whisker. St.Finbarr’s last two runners lost it for them . We became the first team in Cork Cross-country history to make a clean sweep of all county cross country grades in the one season.It was a dream come through .All that planning from the previous September had come to fruition and the older members ,who knew Paul Barry felt a great sense of deep achievement.

The reporting on cross country as it moved into the intercounty season throughout the country ,even though Cork was the foremost county in Cross country in the NACAI region,

was patchy and weak . Again the rule of the local predominated, the further away from Cork the less interest in reporting the event despite any achievement assuming greater importance when Cork athletes pitted themselves against the best in the country. The National Intermediate Cross country Championships were held in Thomastown County Kilkenny in around February 28^th. Frank Browne of Louth won from Sean Brosnan, Cork, and I had a good run in finishing 9^th(second Corkman) . Cork won the team title from Louth Cork 67points(2,9,12,13,14,17. Donie Turner was a disappointing 49^th.

UCC powered by Hodgins, Brosnan and Pat O Riordan won the intervarsity cross country title .March 6^th.

On March 7^th Dick Hodgins won the Blarney Road race, the day after helping UCC win the Intervarsity cross country. I was only 8^th . Donie was 11^th . Grange were a tired third.

In Kenmare on March 14th a tiny report factually stated that Cork had won both the Senior and youths Munster cross country titles . In the youths the two very promising youngsters Donie Walsh (Fr.Matthews) and Stephen Hennessy (Youghal) were first and second . The Cork team won with John and Denis Buckley, Sean Brosnan Pat Coleman and Dick Hodgins, a late entry on the Cork team. I have no memory of being on the team or being there. But I was .In what must have been a tough course Sean Roche and John Obrien(2^nd in Cork) failed to finish while I finished 16^th.

On March 22^nd Pat. Coleman won a Round the houses in Waterford. Tulla a strong team from Clare won the team prize. We were 2^nd team, looking now like a tired team after a long Cross country season running for club and county. On the same day there was road relays around the Lough a 1 mile circuit around an urban lake .

A review of the national Cross country to be held in Navan Racecourse County Meath has me on the Team, a surprise to me now. Sean Roche was also on the team.

Again the same peremptory results in The Cork Examiner with Cork winning both grades . The great champion SeanOSullivan of Limerick and Tournafulla retains his title, with Tipp man Mick Hickey 2^nd . Sean Brosnan (5^th) caps off a great cross country season by leading the Cork team to victory . Dick Hodgins finishes 6^th and I was beating him earlier in the year.I finish a distant 32^nd in the event 9^th Corkman but it is a much longer distance over heavy terrain . Obviously Hodgins strength and peaking at the right time came to the fore . Donie Walsh wins and leads Cork to an easy victory in the Youths.His perennial rival Stephen Hennessy from Youghal was a close 2^nd.

Belatedly Granges record season was reported on the Cork Examiner on Thursday April 15^th. On the Sunday before11^{th April} 1965 we all had stood smiling in the spring sunshine on the training pitch opposite Paul Barry’s cottage with our trophies . Now in 2009 it is on the Internet, a hopeful kind of immortality, even though two of that group are gone Con O Connell and Jonny Beechinor. They are remembered in that photograph.

Front: Sean Roche,P.J.Cummins,Donie Turner, Jonnie Beechinor.

Rear: T.J.OReily,ConOConnell,JohnMehigan,Bobby Buckley.

Paul Barry’s vision and field of dreams was being realised on this Spring morning ,five years after he sat in the Olympic stadium in Rome.

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ARTICLE 2 FOR IRISH GARDEN PLANT SOCIETY.

Maria and I arrived in Melbourne on October 12^th after a fascinating flower adventure in WESTERN AUSTRALIA ( see July’s article). Western Australia is one of the most remote biospheres on the planet and its plants have largely remained in a kind of time warp . Eastern Australia with its two competing urban centres Sydney and Melbourne is much closer in feel to Europe than W.A. Our base was in the suburbs of CLIFTON HILL, a northern suburb close to the city centre, an area of early 20^th century houses and gardens crisscrossed by motorways and railways. Within this once industrialised region parks and walking paths have been carved out often following the routes of rivers , such as the Merri , a tributary of the Yarrow , Melbourne’s’ main. River

From this very contained and urbanised vantage point we made our observations of the garden plants around us. The areas of observations were what people grow in their in suburban gardens, what was growing in the wild places adjacent to those gardens, what was being promoted in the public spaces such as new gardens in botanic gardens and who are the movers and shakers in the Australian gardening world. Beside these observations we managed to visit some famous private gardens.

1.Melbournes suburban gardens

The ordinary private gardens of Melbourne come straight out of European tradition . the picture of the formal chic garden in the picture is common in the wealthy suburbs of Toorak. The only native thing here is the bluestone rock of Melbourne. The box hedges , tumbling iceberg roses, privet balls, spiralling conifers are all part of the international formal garden palate. I have no criticism of this style . Here it is beautifully executed but it is not an Australian garden. It is a French garden.

Over a period of three weeks I saw no unique Australian suburban garden. They are there but largely to be found within the pages of Australian garden design magazines.

.

Figure 1 Melbourne chic front garden.

While the suburban gardens of Melbourne cling to their European parents the surrounding wastelands amongst these suburbs are welcoming with open arms any plant that wishes to escape from the confines of the picket fence or railing. A cycle up the narrow gorge of the River Merri and one finds oneself in familiar company. This cycle could be like a trip down the Dodder in Rathgar or Terenure on a spring morning . Both rivers flow through an urban landscape, are somewhat polluted and are dominated by willow . The willows proliferate rapidly along the banks of both rivers but in Ireland they are loved “ Down by the Sally Gardens “ and all that Yeatsian romanticism. In Melbourne they are an intruder, a destroyer of native habitats. On weekends” barbies” are organized for the many volunteer groups that try to eliminate this weed. To my mind it is all a little late . It is good to save native habitats but where they are gone it is futile to try and reestablish them . Nature is far too powerful. The Merri creek has changed utterly from the time that it was the meeting place of the Aborigine people .Crisscrossed by

Figure 2 fennel and friends

roads and bridges the resultant concrete debris now cascades down its steeps embankments and nature in a sense of decorum has rushed to cover the littering offense . It is ironical that it is the alien species from Europe that are to the forefront in doing such a wonderful cover-up; vincas, vetch, the perennial pea ,ivies and fennel in great swathes sprout in massive bunches sufficient for thousands of fish restaurants. The native species is represented in a token way by the zamnia. These plants are there to stay and the native species will be pushed further and further into the bush where many Australians in their gardening minds think they truly belong. This is maybe an extreme view but one founded on conversations with many Australians.

It is in the garden centers and nurseries that the public show their gardening tastes . Many garden centres carry a small section of native plants but they would not be amongst the best sellers . I asked in one garden centre about this . The expert in the garden centre felt that native species were “too bushy” Also he felt that Australians were a little unsure about how to garden properly with them . They are plants that need to contained by cutting them back , but most people don’t and they become far too dominant in the garden, like setting a wild thing free amongst the better garden worthy plants. One could appreciate this when one experienced the spread of tea trees in the National Park in Wilson’s

Figure 3Pimelea ferrugenea.

promontory

Figure 4Teatrees prime material for bush fire.

.

There are native nurseries in the Melbourne region . There were two last October but now there is only one. We visited the Kuranga NATIVE NURSEY just prior to its closing down . The nursery was choc a bloc with native species and here with a few photographs, and since this is a plant magazine, let me show a few of the botanical jewels that make up the Australian flora.

Figure 5Kurranga native nursery a verysmall selection of native plants calllistemon on the left amidst the blues of lechenaultia and the pale blues of the trigger plants ,three very popular plants in Australia.

The owner , a friendly talkative woman in her thirties , looked sadly out at the passing traffic and reflected that the Australia public was committed to consumerism and was not interested in buying and celebrating native species in their gardens even though they were much more suited to the soil and the environment . They preferred the high consumption of scarce water resources in maintaining the traditional garden. That was why she was forced to sell up and embrace the hippy dream in the outback.

Further out from Melbourne was another more commercial successful native plant nursery, complete with coffee shop and all the ethnic paraphernalia that goes with the local . It was well supported and had only native plants so there is seemingly a future for the native species as garden plants.

I’ll end with a brief comparison of two contrasting gardens . One is the Robinsonian garden of Nooroo ,high in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney . Even though it is hidden away amongst the eucalyptus forests it is garden that could be an Australian Fernhill or Mount Usher .The roads and Gardens are filled with exotics from all parts of the world , all possible because of the cool climate and the high rainfall. Here glades and pathways are ablaze with the garlands of wisteria, the cherry pinks, the delicate leaves of acers and the voluptuous blooms of rhododendrons and azaleas. The woodland floors are carpeted with bluebells, bugle and spring irises. For us it was like home an irish garden but reproduced in an Australian way. Then we were biased

Figure 6 NOOROO GARDENS ” a shady place” . This woodland gazebo view was made into an Australian stamp.

biased.

Figure 7Kuranga

Figure 8 The commercially successful native plant nursery.

The second garden is the Karawarra Australian plant garden found in the MT. Dandenong Range north of Melbourne. It is a woodland garden . Soil is clay ,an exception in this largely ericaceous area. To contrast with the rather smoky impression of the shrubs much use is made of the white bark of eucalyptus, and the use of rocks and seats and sheds and cut logs to create focus and context.

Only disappointment was the lack of plant identification as the tags were not replaced when the shrubs had outgrown them.

Australian gardens have yet to achieve their own unique identity but there is a sign that Australian art is ponting the way to a new Australian garden consciousness. In my next article I will explore the influence of Australian art on the new exciting project in the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens.

Figure 9 These are all native plant species in the Australian plant garden . It has the same relaxed feel as the Nooroo garden but with native species, It shows the way to go for Australian gardens.

Snow in Dublin

A sudden fall of snow
the garden is strangely anew
bare branches traced by white shadows
pale gold skies luminous
behind chimney pots.
Purple Leaves lean down and nod under a great weight.

It is reported that the once common starling is reducing in numbers,so it is nice to see the starlings below voraciously “pigging” out on butter.In cold weather creatures have a great need to consume fat to keep warm.The butter  found itself ,after lying unused in the fridge for weeks,out in the cold roof of the green house . Besides the pleasure of watching the birds happily feeding I smile ironically that what could be coursing unwelcomed  and unhealthily through my arteries is obviously keeping flocks of starlings sustained.

The butter is the clarion cry for the starlings . They call and gesture to their friends and they gather on the Bay  tree and file down in their preordained pecking order wings flailing rather flapping more like squabbling bootboys than fluttering songbirds.Only the odd blackbird soprano dares to interrupt their feeding .Meanwhile the finches and tits can feed undisturbed on the grain and nuts further down the garden.

When I was a child in the Fifties the skys were full of starlings and house sparrows. The cheep cheep of the sparrows has disappeared from our everyday soundtrack and I miss it so .So I celebrate the excited voraciousness of the starlings. Maybe as they use my garden as a fat food deli I hope that they eat healthily of my tiny slugs and bugs.Whats good for the starling is good for the garden .

The Wild Swans At Coole by William Butler Yeats: “Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake’s edge or pool
Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?”