A Different View with Dave O’Connell

A cracking new book from our old Tribune colleague Harry McGee – currently prominent on the shelves in every good store – brought us back to the sweltering summer of 1982, a season overshadowed by a coldblooded killer called Malcolm Macarthur.

But while it reawakened memories for those of us of a certain vintage, the awful truth is that there is more than one generation of fully-fledged adult for whom 1982 is from an era before they were born.

Because today is as far from 1982 as 1982 was from World War II if you went 41 years in the other direction. And yet to us, the notion of the Second World War being anything other than ancient history is ridiculous.

That’s why, when you reference Malcolm Macarthur and Charlie Haughey and Bridie Gargan and Declan Dunne and Paddy Connolly and GUBU, you have to explain it in the same way as our elders had to explain rationing or compulsory tillage.

Because you know you’re pushing on when you’ve lived through actual history.

There are those of us for whom the summer of 1988 represents the first time we ever heard of Gelsenkirchen, which history tells you is the 25th most populous city of Germany – but more importantly it’s the place where Ray Houghton put the ball in the back of the English net.

And of course Razor did it all over again in Giant’s Stadium, New York, six years later when he stuck it to the Italians from outside the D. That happened the day before yesterday for some of us – or coming up on 30 years ago if you absolutely must.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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