As far as I know, my old friend Eoghan Harris never wrote for Mills and
Boon, but judging by his column in today’s Sindo, the Dublin organ’s gain is Mills and Boon’s loss. The
editor of the Indo, Aengus Fanning, died recently. Some years back he married
Anne Harris, who had been Eoghan’s wife. So Eoghan has written an appreciation
of the man who edited the Indo and
won his wife, and his bodice-ripper writing potential shows immediately.
Check this for a final sentence: “So I will always cherish a memory of them
sailing past me one Sunday morning, waving from a convertible with the hood
slightly stuck, the left wheel wandering towards an empty bus lane, their
blonde manes blowing in the breeze, heading for the distant dark blue of the
Kerry Mountains”.
Woo-hoo, as they say. Give the man credit: he doesn’t hold a grudge in
the ex-wife category.Or, I might add, in the lost-bet category.
But I did a small cheaty-thing back there – I left out the last part of
the last sentence. Which was? After “the Kerry Mountains” Eoghan put the cherry so to say on his
Mills and Boon cake with a final sixteen star-dusted words: “their labour of love selling well on the streets,
spreading sweetness and light across the land”.
No, you haven’t gone mad and I didn’t make that up and yes, he is
talking about the Indo. Sweetness and light. Across the land. In fact, earlier in the piece he explains
what in part made the Indo a sweetness-and-light spreader: it was Fanning’s “unbending,
unflinching, unwavering opposition to the IRA, which he sustained without stint
for nearly 30 years, and which played a crucial part in ensuring they did not
enter Irish democracy without giving up their guns”.
Didn’t make that bit up either. Swear I didn’t. Bet you were as
surprised as me that it was the
Indo Wot Won It, the ‘it’ in this case being decommissioning. Astonishing. Kind
of astonishing as well that Eoghan didn’t add something about the Indo being anti-nationalist as well
as anti-IRA. Remember the
unbending, unflinching, unwavering attacks, wave after wave, that paper
launched against John Hume for daring to have talks with Gerry Adams in the
1980s? Talks which led eventually to the Good Friday Agreement. But I suppose there
isn’t room for everything in a column.
Besides, note how Eoghan
forgot one final tribute that Fanning and the Indo might have claimed. Working with its fine journalists,
Fanning’s newspaper was in no small measure responsible for convincing the south’s populace that the north was a nasty,
vicious place which they should see as ‘up there’ and essentially foreign. Now
there’s an achievement. But I suppose if Eoghan had included that, he might have had
to scrap the blonde manes bit at the end. Which I for one wouldn’t have missed
for anything. In fact, even as I type, I can feel my manly bosom start to
heave. At least I think it’s my bosom. Could be my stomach.
Great points, well made, sir.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing I don't buy the Sunday Independent...
For once Jude,you have hit the nail on the head.It is certainly clear that nepotism was/is rife in the Sindo.One has only to look at the various members of the Harris& Fanning families employed there.From all the fawning tributes,the late Aengus must have been the nearest thing to a saint!Perhaps the most sickening article in last Sundays paper was the piece by John Paul Mc Carthy whose main claim to fame seems to be that he has a Doctorate from Oxford.Despite not being around for most of the Troubles,he sees fit to traduce the reputation of John Hume.I trust there will be a few angry letters to the new editor whoever he/she is.
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