In the Seventies while I was working in Kent I used to play Terry Wogan on BBC’s Light Programme every morning on the radio before I went to work.
I will always remember one morning he introduced a song, without explanation, as a tune from the Camán Dearg – Camán is as all Irish people know the Irish for the hurley stick used in that game and Dearg is the Irish for the colour red.
He was therefore, I instantly knew playing a song from Irish singer Red Hurley.
I also knew that at least 99% of his audience had a no notion what he was saying.
This gave me a hell of a glow, and made me feel much less a stranger in a strange land.
I now see that he has this week resigned from his morning slot on what is now Radio Two.
His last words on air were to say “Thank you for being my friend “ to his listeners.
Thanks for being my friend Terry.
Comments
padraic
on December 23, 2009Martin, a chara, there’s no need to add the word “stick” after hurley as the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (>500,000 definitions) has hurley as an entry on its own – “an Irish form of hockey; a broad stick (of the type) used in this”. It even has the verb “hurl” = play hurley or hurling. Like your good self I never played this game although I rank it as one of the greatest.
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