Country Living with Francis Farragher

IT’S happened . . . as, almost seamlessly, we’ve waltzed into the New Year, and in the blink of an eye, the talk will be about St. Patrick’s Day and the time changing. January though has to be endured first and it will be February before things start to brighten up again with our sunrises and sunsets – but at least we’re now going in the right direction.

Anyway, a time to complete Part Two of a miscellaneous ramble into the second half of the alphabet, and what might lie in store for 2026 . . . hopefully nothing too bad. So here goes:

M is for Magic that many of us were lucky enough to experience over the festive season with children whose encounters with Santa Claus, and their little squabble among themselves, helped to shine a light during our darkest days of winter.

N is for the No word when we’re asked to do things that are just beyond our reach. There’s only so much that any of us can achieve in a day, a week, a month, a year or in a lifetime. Knowing when to slow down a bit is the aspiration . . . but of course achieving that is a different matter altogether.

O is for Optimism and even in darker days – both literally and in a broader sense – to be able to see some silver linings even in the darkest of clouds. Maybe the trick is to neither look back nor forward too much – just stay in the present, and like the Gloria hit song to: ‘Take One Day at a Time.

P is for just a small Prayer that the world be a little more peaceful place than it has been in 2025. The barbarity of seeing women and children being killed and mutilated in Gaza can at times be just too shocking and cruel to observe. The people of Ukraine have also taken enough, and maybe just maybe, the seeds of peace can be sown in 2026.

Q is for all questions that we mean to ask our councillors, senators and TDs about housing, households, farming matters and the cost of living. Even if we do manage to ask them, we never seem to get the right answers, but that’s a quandary that’s pretty much unsolvable.

R is for the Ramblings of an ‘ould lad’ like myself, who thinks at times – with the aid of a few brews – that my utterances make the greatest of sense. For the world though, when the next morning comes, I cannot remember my little gems of wisdom or funny jokes that I dispensed to one and all.

S is for Slippages and falls which I’ve heard more of in the past month or so than ever in my life I think. Sometimes, we can be lucky and get away with a sprain or a few cracked ribs [my own fate during the Storm Éowyn blackout] but for others it can be potentially life threatening. S is for staying away from roofs too, unless of course you’re a ‘pro’.

T is for Tommy Tiernan, who I can’t make head nor tail of, but when I start watching the programme I can’t seem to leave it. I remember many moons ago Tommy stepping into the news/chat show slot on Galway Bay and he ruffled up more feathers in one hour, than were stirred in five years before that. Great craic though!

U is for Understanding that none of us are perfect mortals – in general most of us have our good points but we can all have undesirable moments too but hopefully not too many of them. U is also for the dreaded underground, the spot we want to avoid, for as long as possible.

V is for vaccines which I’m in a slight state of confusion about. I took all the early Covid ones and never got the virus but I’ve heard some disturbing tales of serious side effects after the C-jab. My own medicine man though advised me to ‘definitely take the influenza one’ and so far, touch wood, I’ve managed to avoid the bad strain of flu that’s doing the rounds.

W is for – well it has to be weather – a personal fascination for many decades since I did a little module as part of a geography degree course in the then UCG. Weather charts, summaries, polar fronts, jet streams, climate change or not, and spectacular wonders of nature like hurricanes and tsunamis, have turned into an addiction, and at this stage there’s no cure for that.

X is for all the X-rays that I’ve been exposed to during my life from trying to find the cause of chest wheezes to checking if there’s a rib or a thumb broken following some ridiculous piece of misadventure. Thankfully, so far, the main limbs have remained intact.

Y is for Yesterday and that iconic Paul McCartney song that I learned the words of a few times only to forget them again. Anyway, a classic song best left in the hands of Mr. McCartney, whose lyrics and music for that classic, reputedly came to him in a dream. Alas, I don’t have inspired dreams like that – just weird ones.

Z is for such things as zest, zeal, zoos, zippers, zebra crossings, zero and zappers. For a strange and often forgotten letter, it is the starting point for many unusual words. It also sums up the end of this particular column . . . well, with just zilch left to say!

Pictured: “I’m just so smart and funny”. See R below.