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Showing posts with label Paul McCartney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul McCartney. Show all posts
Dixie Elliot ✒ We gathered at the home of Paul McGlinchey Saturday morning with his family to carry him on his final journey to his resting place in the graveyard of Saint Joseph's Church, Ballyscullion.


The Tricolour and the Green Flag were placed on Paul's coffin in the garden of his home, the silence only broken by birdsong. His friend and comrade Padraig Mac Coitir then delivered a heartfelt oration and Pol MacAdaim sang Farewell to Bellaghy before Paul's coffin was carried round his house twice.
A lone piper led the way as he left his home for the final time and we walked in sombre silence along the Ballyscullion Road, which is no wider than the coffin and those of us who were on the guard of honour.
 
As we walked that winding road, I couldn't help but think that these were the bóithrín and the fields that volunteers like Paul McGlinchey and his brother Dominic, Francis Hughes and Tom McElwee struck fear into the hearts of the enemy.


Soon we caught sight of Saint Joseph's church and the little graveyard on a hill across from it, on the main Loughbeg Road. We could see the crowds of people who lined that road from the junction of the Ballyscullion Road to the church. They had come to say welfare to one of their own and were joined by former blanket men.

After the requiem mass Paul was laid to rest in the graveyard at the gable of the ancient church, which is no longer in use. The national flag which had been erected earlier by former blanket men John Hunter and Dan Daly flew above his grave.

I must give a special mention to Paul's friends Gary Adams and Kevin Lynch who visited him many times in the final years of his life. They told us tales of Paul's humour even during the worst of his illness.
 
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal.

Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.
Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie

The Funeral Of Óglach Paul McGlinchey

Thomas Dixie Elliot wonders:

Did a Paul McCartney song inspire Bobby Sands' famous story Jet?

I'm now absolutely convinced that it did...

Earlier today I decided to search the internet, yet again, and see that if such a book had existed a copy might be on sale somewhere, even though it could well be out of print. I tried all sorts of keywords like, 'Jet novel 1970s' etc but to no avail.

So I typed in 'Jet Bobby Sands' and three down I came across an article with 'Paul McCartney, Bobby Sands, Jet' included in the description. I then knew what an archaeologist felt like when, having spent hours scraping away at the earth with his trowel, he sees something shining.

I clicked on the link and found that it was a review of a book about murals by the Belfast mural artist Danny Devenny. Danny wrote about the time he shared a hut with Bobby in the cages back in 1975.

Danny wrote:

... Among the LPs sent in was a replacement copy of Wings’ Band on the Run. Next door to mine and Dee’s ‘cell’ was that of Tomboy (Loudon), Roon (Gerard Rooney) and Bobby’s. And it was there, guitar in hand, that Bobby proceeded to play in a loop the entire album, determined as he was to learn every track off by heart!...

The Band on the Run LP included the song 'Jet'.

Danny continued:

… That was Bobby – a perfectionist. Mike was intrigued by this story. He said it was his favourite track too, and said he wanted to learn more about Bobby and the hunger strike. Interestingly, for all you McCartney fans – what was the name of one of the best-loved night time stories among the blanket men that Bobby would tell, out through the narrow crack in his H-Block cell door, and which features in the film 66 Days?
You got it – Jet! from Band on the Run … 

I searched for the lyrics of Jet by Paul McCartney and Wings... that was it!

'Jet, Jet, Jet, was your father as bold as the sergeant major?'

Bobby's Jet was a conscientious objector who had faked his own death in Vietnam. His father was a general in the American army.

Then this line absolutely nailed it for me …

'Jet. 
With the wind in your hair of a thousand laces, climb on the back and we'll go for a ride in the sky'

Jet took to the freeways of America on his motorbike after escaping from the horrors of the Vietnam War. 

What else could have possibly inspired Bobby's much loved story than a song he had been determined to learn to play off by heart on his guitar back in the cages?





Thomas Dixie Elliot is a Derry artist and a former H Block Blanketman.

Follow Dixie Elliot on Twitter @IsMise_Dixie    

Jet

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