
This is Ciaran Gallagher’s (ig) take on McBride’s pub in Cushendun. Around the outside are a verse from Moira O’Neill’s ‘To W.C.S.’ in More Songs Of The Glens Of Antrim (pdf at Google Books): “I dreamt of gentle Ireland beneath the northern light/The waves that broke on Ireland were callin’ me at night/Till back across the salt sea, back against the sun/I took the way the birds know, and woke in Cushendun.”
For the exterior of the pub, surrounded by famous individuals, see Kathryn Bannister’s painting from the Dark Horse pub, Belfast.
Below the painting (and shown below) is Derek Mahon’s poem ‘Everything Is Going To Be All Right’: “How should I not be glad to contemplate/The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window/And a high tide reflected on the ceiling?/There will be dying, there will be dying/But there is no need to go into that./The poems flow from the hand unbidden/And the hidden source is the watchful heart/The sun rises in spite of everything/And the far cities are beautiful and bright/I lie here in a riot of sunlight/Watching the day break and the clouds flying/Everything is going to be all right.”
Main Street, Cushendun

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Copyright © 2023 Paddy Duffy
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