January 2025 Round Up

I begin this months round up with one of the most significant events to hit Irelands shores in 185 years - Storm Éowyn. I write this ten days after the storm, and there are around 50,000 people in Ireland still without power, giving you some idea of the damage to electricity lines. Hurricane strength winds of 114mph were reported, the strongest ever recorded.

I make reference above to 185 years because that’s the last time we had a storm of this significance - Oiche Na Gaoithe Moire, or the night of the big wind. I’ve started attending Gaelige classes again, so was talking with one of my fellow students about it, then was reading about it the next day as the storm hit.

It’s also known as the night the fishes flew and the forests walked - people were finding fish miles inland, and it’s estimated a million trees were lost. Between 300 and 800 poor souls lost their lives, not just to the storm but to disease afterwards. Ireland then had a population of eight million (it has never recovered - these days it’s up to around seven million) pre- genocide and famine (thanks to England). The majority of people lived in poorly constructed dwellings dotted around the countryside rather than in towns and cities - with no warning, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Warnings

We can’t see we weren’t warned - everyone received an alarm on their phone the day before, a piercing shrill of a thing that nearly made me drop the pasta I was draining. We now know the sound we’ll hear as putins nuclear missiles sail towards us - It certainly gets your attention. Work and schools were all closed, so there was nobody out (unless you were forced to be).

Personally, I got away lucky. My current abode is made of stone and built in 1874, so fairly sturdy. We lost a few slates, smashed into smithereens on the wall opposite. My inside apartment door rattled like a madman was trying to gain access, and when I ventured downstairs for a look, just about holding the door open, the sound was similar to the roar of a jet engine. With no sign of Dorothy or toto, I retreated inside.

Miraculously, only one poor soul lost his life, and this was down to the warnings. Damage to property and to the landscape was widespread. I didn’t venture out to my usual walking spots for a few days after, as there were a lot of trees still precariously placed and many roads were closed off. I’ve included a few pics below, from a few days later. Seeing some of the majestic trees down was particualry distresssing, and I wonder how many of them were planted in the aftermath of 1839.

Spaceman tree - This branch hung precariously above this astronaut for a number of days. The strategically placed cone thankfully prevented further damage. Joking aside, people continued to walk under badly damaged trees and ignore warnings, because it was never going to interfere with their walk.

Difficult to scale this - the roots were about six feet in height. I lost count of the number of trees down in this area, one of my favourite walks in Armagh, but there were quite a few still like the tree below, so there’ll be a few more that will have to come down.

Film

I did brave a trip to Belfast a few days later, as the roads were largely cleared by then. Myself and a friend (Hi J) had tickets for a film I had been awaiting for a while - A complete unknown.

A Complete Unknown

I purposely avoided reviews of this, because as a Bob Dylan fan, I didn’t want my expectations coloured. Honestly, I was preparared to be critical of this before I set foot in the QFT (still one of the most comfortable cinemas around in Belfast) as I’ve a shelf of books on Bob Dylan, but I really wanted to give it a go, and give myself over to it, park my criticisms to one side for a couple of hours.

Gotta say, this completely won me over. First and foremost, the songs were front and centre - even if it’s just one verse ( I think blowing in the wind is the only song played in its entirety) you really get a sense of the mans genius. He was twenty when he wrote ‘Blowing’ and 21 for ‘The times they are a changing’ - just startling, and the film really captured his peers stunned reactions (perhaps too obviously) to this constant wellspring of creativity.

The performances - still hard to believe Chalamet was actually singing these songs. You know it’s not Dylan, but he’s also not doing a bob impression - he does a great job of his interpretation of the song. ( A recent Saturday night live performance confirmed the excellant job he done with this). Super performance, and as my friend J said, there was maybe only one or two momments when you thought, oh; that’s Timmy Chalamet acting.

Ed Norton is also excellant as Pete Seeger, a man with his heart in the right place, but wanting Bob to take another direction. Monica Barbaro is also great as Joan Baez - beautiful, talented, and still with something of the head girl about her, a certain primness (and such singing). Elle Fanning also delivers a strong performance with her depiction of Suze Rotola, a huge influence on the young Dylan and I thought the film did her some justice. And a reminder for me to get reading her book - A freewheelin time.

I’m not going to nitpick and pull the film apart for its errors - ‘Judas’ obviously didn’t happen at Newport, nor did Johnny Cash appear, ‘the times they are a changin’ wasn’t even performed there.

I found the film a completely immersive piece of work about an artist at a certain period in history, the power of the songs, and the impact of Dylan on his audience and the culture of that time. At over two hours long, I couldn’t believe how quick this went in - I was totally swept away by it.