As we look to the end of December and of 2024, I can’t help looking back at the year that was and thinking about the people I met and the stories that have appeared in this newspaper.
Frank Galligan comes to mind, and the wet Sunday morning when the back door of the Corner House in Ardara was left open for us to sneak in and grab a coffee and a scone, thanks to Grainne. We had a great chat; he talked about bringing young people from Belfast to the grandeur of Baronscourt in Co Tyrone, the headquarters of the Pushkin Trust, where he is creative writing facilitator.
“One of the boys began chasing a sheep and his mate scolded him,” Frank told me.
“‘I only wanted to feel its fur,’ came the reply and I explained that it wasn’t fur but wool and told them about the benefits of wool.
“Jimmy had a better approach: ‘You leave them alone, don’t you know this is the time of year when they lay their eggs.’”
For many years Frank has charmed listeners to Highland Radio every Saturday with his show Unchained Melodies. Sadly he has announced that his programme will end this month - it’s a pity and I know his friends will miss his banter and choice of music.
Radio is a very special medium, somewhere you can be more intimate than on television. During my time on Radio Ulster I got a letter from an elderly lady: she was worried about how she could get a grave organised for herself and her husband.
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I phoned the council to be told she would have to come to the offices to complete the forms, that it would be simple and she would be welcomed. I explained that she was well on in years and that her husband was ill.
To my delight the woman at the other end of the phone asked for her address and promised she would go to the house with the papers and sort it out there and then. A few weeks later I got another letter from the listener simply saying, “Thank you Anne, all has been fixed up and now we can die happy.”
Memories
That was in the days of Walter Love and my heart was sore when he died. We had a dinner date arranged but it wasn’t to be.
I’d know Walter since I was 17 and our lives wove in and out of each others until we worked together and Ask Anne was born.
We did all sorts on his radio programme; on one occasion I went to a fancy cosmetic establishment to find out about some new procedure they were offering and they made my face up when I was there.
I didn’t like it and even less so when Walter announced to the world: “Anne has just walked into the studio looking like a Belisha beacon.”
When it comes to phoning a friend, only a few weeks ago I sat in Ray Wilson’s cosy home in north Belfast and heard her life story and how at the grand age of 90 she is working with the Volunteer Now befriending organisation.
On one occasion I went to a fancy cosmetic establishment to find out about some new procedure they were offering and they made my face up when I was there. I didn’t like it and even less so when Walter Love announced to the world: “Anne has just walked into the studio looking like a Belisha beacon.”
She has her friends at the end of the telephone, mostly housebound, some with depression or living in isolation, but all wanting to hear a friendly voice, someone with time to spare and an interest in what’s going on in the world - and that person is Ray.
The year was saddened by deaths. Candy Devine died in October. She was one special lady who touched many lives, again through radio, this time Downtown.
She was also a regular visitor to Ulster Television studios and I remember keeping a look out for her husband and manager Don McLeod who might take a walk into the make-up room where, totally against his rule, she enjoyed a couple of sneaky cigarettes.
She was naughty, funny, loyal, a true friend and, as someone said, simply divine.
Timely Warning
I’m also thinking today of Daniel Boomer, who I spoke to in July. To highlight the suicide rate amongst the farming community, this 6ft 8ins farming student put on a blindfold and stood in yellow wellingtons with yellow roses round his feet at the Royal Welsh Agricultural show, holding a sign which read: ‘95% of young farmers in the UK say metal health is the biggest hidden danger in the industry. If you agree give me a hug or take a flower.’
He had a queue of huggers. Because he experienced his own issues, young Daniel was determined to make the public aware. There is all the more stress since Labour came into power, so spare a thought.
Lastly, sadly after 176 years reflected in an article last February, the sign above the Londonderry Arms in Carnlough goes with the sale and this historic hotel will now be known as Harbourview.
