A Different View with Dave O’Connell

I’ts definitely twenty years ago since the eldest son – now well into his twenties – was celebrating a birthday with a party for all of his little friends and cousins.

We were living in Dublin at the time and what appeared to be half the city was packed into the front room.

I think we might have even had a children’s entertainer – but I’m married into a family who never know when enough entertainment is enough, which was why my sister-in-law was inspired to dress up as their favourite television character of the time.

Barney the dinosaur.

Barney was the songbook to our children’s pre-school days; hours and hours and hours of the big furry creature with his scientifically-assembled group of little friends, each one representing a different ethnic and socio-economic background, but all beautifully photogenic and acting like the Billy Barry kids on acid.

For those who missed this television era, each Barney & Friends show had a moral message about being good to your friends or your parents, or looking after pets, or helping a school pal to read a book – all wrapped up in song and story, and finished off with a rousing version of ‘I love you, you love me’.

Nothing wrong with that as a concept, but when your little treasures want to see it over and over again on the video – and your exertions the previous night means you’re seeing little green monsters all of your own behind your bloodshot eyes – it was get to a point where you’d willingly do time to rid the world of its final dinosaur.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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