CITY TRIBUNE

Greatest gift is a lifetime of friendship

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Double Vision with Charlie Adley

I had bit of a moment back in 2012. Standing at the back of the little upstairs bar in the Róisín Dubh, I was listening to Tuam poet and songwriter Seamus Ruttledge explain that this charity gig had been organised by Conor ‘Monty’ Montague, his old friend from way back in the early nineties.

Way back? But I was there, then, meeting them both. Writing columns under noms de plumes Freebase Kevin, Swami ben Carpenter and Pink O’Bum, I was part of Seamus’s Galway Bugle, locked in a minor battle with another freebie paper.

Here were these local boys saying they had been friends forever and I, a mere blow-in, had been part of it too, 20 years before.

Truly, I am a man blessed by friendship. To my English heart, these good men were part of a group I considered to be new friends.

I had not grown up with them. I had not shared my life with them from the age of 13 onwards, as I have with my friends from London.

A few are now scattered around the globe, but the vast majority of these lifetime friends still live in England’s capital, at addresses that have not changed, with telephone numbers that I know off by heart, engraved on my cerebellum during crazier years, when all else was in flux.

A truly amazing bunch of people, now many parents and grandparents, we all have separate lives, but still keep in touch and meet up every now and then, for either gentle visits or lairy reunions.

Even better, when we see each other or even speak on the phone, there is no question of having to explain yourself in any way. We know each other far too well to need preambles.

Alongside our families we are the foundation stones that support each others’ lives, offering profound and unique comfort, love and joy, throughout the entirety of our collective lives.

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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