May had little pitfalls but also many saving graces

Country Living with Francis Farragher

WHILE we all have to be sensible and careful these days, we shouldn’t forget either to enjoy the arrival of the Summer season which based on my early school tutoring always began on May 1.

The meteorological nerds may not agree, citing the warmer average temperatures of June, July and August as being our real Summer months, but May is a wonderful month in terms of ever longer days and a sun of rising height in the sky.

For those of us of a certain generation, who have one of those landmark days in the month of May (okay I’ll concede to call it a birthday), we were always reminded as children how lucky we were to be born in the month of devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

That however wasn’t to be without its complications for any male child growing up in the 1960s when the discovery was made that there was a third Christian name added onto John Francis . . . yes, you’ve guessed it Mary.

On top of all that the news was also broken to me after about seven Summers on this planet that my mother had expected me to be of a different gender and that instead of being a Francis, she had instead anticipated a Frances. Oh, God a gender crisis at six or seven years of age . . . but it passed.

As I may have recalled before, one of my little consolations back in the 1960s, was in seeing the name of a Galway three-in-row star – I’m also certain it was the late Enda Colleran – who had the name Mary attached to his name.

Back then, the practice was to have the names of all those who had graduated from UCG (now NUIG) published in the local papers with their full Christian names attached. So, there was just a little consolation to be gleaned from the fact that one of my great childhood heroes had no problem with having Mary attached to his name.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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