BRAVE PEOPLE OF OMAGH DESERVE A BRIGHT FUTURE
Brave people of Omagh deserve a bright future
Radio by Nuala McCann
Broken Hearts Radio Ulster
A Hard Act to Follow R4
Inside the Wardrobe R3
I can never bear to tune into those first anniversary programmes which follow up on all the world's major tragedies. Raking over the ashes of other people's experience is perhaps cathartic for some, but at times it seems just too painful.
However, Broken Hearts which is on Radio Ulster this morning at 11.30am promises a fresh approach. Broadcaster Paul Moore, an Omagh resident, talks to the people left behind a year after the bomb. These are individual portraits, dealing with the reality of the past 12 months and people's memories.
Mr Moore says major life events can change your whole outlook.
A local bank manager said that applications for loans for dream holidays, speedboats and home improvements had rocketed since the bombing. There is a feeling that the residents have opted for living life to the full - a sort of live today for tomorrow we may be bombed attitude rather than looking backwards at the past.
In her lifetime Catherine Cookson had her fair share of suffering. She was born illegitimate and had a harsh early life.
Writer Ruth Hamilton remembers her in a much more human way as the writer who inspired her in the school of clogs and shawl fiction. Hamilton was the guest on A Hard Act to Follow on Radio 4. She had to give up teaching because of disability and she decided to write a novel dealing with poverty and hardship and romance. Cookson belonged to the same publishing house and they became friendly.
Hamilton is firmly devoted to her mentor, Cookson: "In 50 years time she'll be on your grandchildren's syllabus," she said firmly. Perhaps she's right. Dickens was the popular writer of his time... they queued up to buy the next installment of his books.
What came across was Hamilton's gritty realism - she was abused as a child but said rather wryly; "A messed up childhood is a marvellous start for a writer." She recalled once not completing homework and her mother dragging her down to the local mill and shoving her in the door; to watch people sweating over the huge looms: "I never want to see you in here again," cried her mother. And! she didn't.
Hamilton was quite happy to talk about how she spent her money... as Cookson before her, she gives to charity, but for every book published, she buys herself a new ring just because she's fond of them and she is, she admits, awfully taken with QVC, the shopping channel.
There is something wonderfully; attractive about a writer who declares that she wouldn't write if the money wasn't there and who retaliates to snobbish condescension of romantic novels; with cries of: "I don't care... I can pay the gas bill."
CS Lewis who lived his life in a world far removed from that of Cookson and Hamilton, might not, have had to worry much about gas; bills. Inside the Wardrobe explored his early years and his love of Ireland.
This programme was about Lewis, the child. For all his wealth and education, there was great sadness. His mother's death when he was 10, changed everything utterly. His father's pain was so intense that in ways, he was lost to the boy Lewis also.
This was a moving tribute to Lewis which left the listener haunted by images of a child lying in bed crying for his mother, as she lay dying in a nearby room. She was lost to him gradually in a wave of delirium and; morphine, strange smells and whispered conversations. Her death cast a dark shadow over all of his life.
Radio by Nuala McCann
Broken Hearts Radio Ulster
A Hard Act to Follow R4
Inside the Wardrobe R3
I can never bear to tune into those first anniversary programmes which follow up on all the world's major tragedies. Raking over the ashes of other people's experience is perhaps cathartic for some, but at times it seems just too painful.
However, Broken Hearts which is on Radio Ulster this morning at 11.30am promises a fresh approach. Broadcaster Paul Moore, an Omagh resident, talks to the people left behind a year after the bomb. These are individual portraits, dealing with the reality of the past 12 months and people's memories.
Mr Moore says major life events can change your whole outlook.
A local bank manager said that applications for loans for dream holidays, speedboats and home improvements had rocketed since the bombing. There is a feeling that the residents have opted for living life to the full - a sort of live today for tomorrow we may be bombed attitude rather than looking backwards at the past.
In her lifetime Catherine Cookson had her fair share of suffering. She was born illegitimate and had a harsh early life.
Writer Ruth Hamilton remembers her in a much more human way as the writer who inspired her in the school of clogs and shawl fiction. Hamilton was the guest on A Hard Act to Follow on Radio 4. She had to give up teaching because of disability and she decided to write a novel dealing with poverty and hardship and romance. Cookson belonged to the same publishing house and they became friendly.
Hamilton is firmly devoted to her mentor, Cookson: "In 50 years time she'll be on your grandchildren's syllabus," she said firmly. Perhaps she's right. Dickens was the popular writer of his time... they queued up to buy the next installment of his books.
What came across was Hamilton's gritty realism - she was abused as a child but said rather wryly; "A messed up childhood is a marvellous start for a writer." She recalled once not completing homework and her mother dragging her down to the local mill and shoving her in the door; to watch people sweating over the huge looms: "I never want to see you in here again," cried her mother. And! she didn't.
Hamilton was quite happy to talk about how she spent her money... as Cookson before her, she gives to charity, but for every book published, she buys herself a new ring just because she's fond of them and she is, she admits, awfully taken with QVC, the shopping channel.
There is something wonderfully; attractive about a writer who declares that she wouldn't write if the money wasn't there and who retaliates to snobbish condescension of romantic novels; with cries of: "I don't care... I can pay the gas bill."
CS Lewis who lived his life in a world far removed from that of Cookson and Hamilton, might not, have had to worry much about gas; bills. Inside the Wardrobe explored his early years and his love of Ireland.
This programme was about Lewis, the child. For all his wealth and education, there was great sadness. His mother's death when he was 10, changed everything utterly. His father's pain was so intense that in ways, he was lost to the boy Lewis also.
This was a moving tribute to Lewis which left the listener haunted by images of a child lying in bed crying for his mother, as she lay dying in a nearby room. She was lost to him gradually in a wave of delirium and; morphine, strange smells and whispered conversations. Her death cast a dark shadow over all of his life.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0318
Published Date: 14-Aug-99
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