Country Living with Francis Farragher

Expectations, are I suppose, determined to a large extent by the times we live in. Growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s, the job priorities could range from aspiring to being a lorry driver or the more grandiose life of a teacher that is if the door to third level education could be prised open.

Then, of course, there were always those practical guys who were good at putting pieces of timber together; or at laying blocks in perfect alignment; or at being able to join copper pipes with just a couple of spanners and a few shiny nuts.

They turned out to be the tradesmen (oops, in the world of political correctness should that be tradespeople) who for the rest of their days were never to be short of work or a few bob in their pockets. A combination of good hands and a good head was really a pretty unbeatable combination to ensure that the dole queue would never be part of their lot in life.

Some of us along the way got sucked into a ‘bit of writing’ and in our own tinpot way managed to make a living for us, but of late I’ve managed to note a couple of occupation titles that would have been unimaginable a few decades back.

First off, all there were the ‘socialites’ a great term of the Sunday Independent newspaper at the height of the Celtic Tiger when glamourous men and women – rich on style but poor on substance – could always make their way into the gossip pages of that weekly organ.

I often wondered what did these people do for real jobs as they jollied their way around such night spots as Copper Face Jacks, Renards and the Voodoo Lounge at all hours of the day and night before taking the best part of a week to recover until the next round of socialising.

Now, move it all forward a couple of decades and into the peak of the social media age when the ‘big number’ across the world is the position of ‘influencer’.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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