Country Living with Francis Farragher

It’s kind of amazing at times how something can just stop you in your tracks and make you realise that really one is quite fortunate in life. Okay, we can’t all be lucky all of the time, but barring serious health issues and maybe to a lesser extent as you grow older, financial worries, there can be quite a stable level of equilibrium to our lives. We mightn’t be setting the world on fire but we’re above ground and living. Not always embalmed with positivity . . . just kind of reasonably contented with your lot.

Anyway, there I was last Sunday morning after completing my normal weekly routine of a swim in the Tuam Pool and in the process of parking the car close to SuperValu, where the inevitable bits and pieces had to be picked up. There was the usual flick through the radio stations, and sometimes the tendency is go local with Galway Bay or Midwest for a bit of lighter entertainment but I happened to stumble onto RTE Radio 1, where Miriam O’Callaghan was speaking to a very articulate gentleman. Was it too serious for a Sunday morning? . . . well, maybe . . . but when I started to listen, there was just no turning back.

The annoying thing about tuning in late to a radio interview is that apart from the interviewer, you don’t know the person who is being interviewed, so as the chat progresses, it’s like having to piece the clues together and figure out who or what this is.

As it turned out, the man being interviewed was a voice and name, that many of us are familiar with; one Adrian Weckler, who is Technology Editor at Independent Newspapers, and who is very good at explaining new innovations in that ever sprawling world of IT, AI and all things high-tech. This, though, was no high-tech interview.

It emerged that this man’s mother was one of the well-known faces in RTE, as well as having a rich literary and drama background – the late Deirdre Purcell, who passed away a couple of years back – but this was to be no light reminiscense about growing up with a very famous, and a very loving ,mother too.

The story quickly moved on to Adrian’s brother, Simon, who by all accounts was a highly intelligent, happy and ‘extremely good looking’ young man who ‘flew through’ second-level schooling; had the lead role in various stage shows; and then graduated  at UCD, with top-of-the-class marks. The world seemed to be his oyster, as he moved into the next phase of academia –  completing a Master’s and PhD at the Dublin university.