Morrissey Central "THE LAST OF IRELAND" (MARCH 17, 2024)

St Patrick's Day, 2024

On Pembroke Road look out for my ghost,
Dishevelled with shoes untied,
Playing through the railings with little children
Whose children have long since died.

THE LAST OF IRELAND - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - THE LAST OF IRELAND

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

 

[goinghome]

Bit late for that GH. The "rest of you" clearly didn't.

Bit late for what? Who didn't do what?
I'm afraid I find this aggressive closed mode of expression grating.

 

[nicky wire's legs]

I prefer st davids day

 

[nicky wire's legs]

Wales > ireland

 

[The Irish Hare]

View attachment 102599

St Patrick's Day, 2024

On Pembroke Road look out for my ghost,
Dishevelled with shoes untied,
Playing through the railings with little children
Whose children have long since died.

THE LAST OF IRELAND - MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY - MORRISSEY CENTRAL - THE LAST OF IRELAND

MESSAGES FROM MORRISSEY on MORRISSEY CENTRAL

www.morrisseycentral.com

The Last of Ireland. No.
Some of us stand our ground.
Our Ground, unapologetic for our history.
Refusing to rewrite it to suit a narrative.
Some of us have not tested positive for climate change
Or myocarditis, or died suddenly.
Our small and medium businesses go to the wall
Planned by the unelected elect.
The seedy shady slibhins
No democracy here.
The Black and Tans are back, in another form
They turned my Grandmothers house over
Hit her with the butt of a rifle.
Her parents born during the famine
Starved while food was exported.
It's all been done before.
No Permission.

This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.

 

[The Alchemist]

Bit late for what? Who didn't do what?
I'm afraid I find this aggressive closed mode of expression grating.

I think they are saying that most on this thread (myself included), seem to be focusing more on potential negative connotations than anything potentially positive.

That's a fair comment, as the posts on Central lately have tended to veer towards the reflective/wistful/mournful/nostalgic/vengeful.

There is obviously danger in attempting to link everything, establish patterns and draw conclusions. On that, we are doomed to fail.

But I do believe that the breadcrumbs are being dropped intentionally by someone for a reason.

 

[The Alchemist]

The Last of Ireland. No.
Some of us stand our ground.
Our Ground, unapologetic for our history.
Refusing to rewrite it to suit a narrative.
Some of us have not tested positive for climate change
Or myocarditis, or died suddenly.
Our small and medium businesses go to the wall
Planned by the unelected elect.
The seedy shady slibhins
No democracy here.
The Black and Tans are back, in another form
They turned my Grandmothers house over
Hit her with the butt of a rifle.
Her parents born during the famine
Starved while food was exported.
It's all been done before.
No Permission.

This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.

Interesting to me that you quote Rumi. I happen to love that quote.

Where have you been hiding?

Where do you lurk?
I shall come down your burrow and
ch-chivvy you out like an old st-t-toat.

 

[ZOOM FROM GLOOM]

“Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.“

View attachment 102616

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

I believe St Patrick is known as ‘P-dogg’ to some.

 

[Lionel Cliffhanger]

I prefer st davids day

Not wrong

 

[ACTON]

So why these lines?

They are haunting in more than one sense.

It's the lines about the children that I've been ruminating on this evening. How could children have their own children, who have long since died?

Is one reading that we all would love to return to being little children? When we experienced innocence - before the world has us in its vice-like grip? Or that we leave parts of ourselves behind in certain places.

Is it perhaps that the other children he is playing with are also ghosts, frozen in time (at a time when they were most contented)

Some of those people would have had children who have long since died. I like the image of them all playing merrily for eternity.

Anyone have any other interpretations of this?

I think he died old and as a ghost rejoined his friends who also died old, and all are ghosts, returned to a happy time when they were carefree children.

 

[j*e*t]

So why these lines?

They are haunting in more than one sense.

It's the lines about the children that I've been ruminating on this evening. How could children have their own children, who have long since died?

Is one reading that we all would love to return to being little children? When we experienced innocence - before the world has us in its vice-like grip? Or that we leave parts of ourselves behind in certain places.

Is it perhaps that the other children he is playing with are also ghosts, frozen in time (at a time when they were most contented)

Some of those people would have had children who have long since died. I like the image of them all playing merrily for eternity.

Anyone have any other interpretations of this?

Not really sure what the lines mean but Morrissey quoted them in his autobiography too (page 93) after mentioning a Dublin aunt of his who asked him in 1973 if he'd considered becoming a butcher. I think he would have been familiar with Pembroke Road as he refers to garaging his car in nearby Lad Lane in the 1990s (page 286). Perhaps his family or property ties with Ireland are slipping away?

 

[Gregor Samsa]

I believe St Patrick is known as ‘P-dogg’ to some.

You rascal! You got me there!

 

[Ashley_TakeABow]

They can indeed time-travel!

Yes, he is leaving some breadcrumbs and it's one of the wonderful things I dearly love about Morrissey. He's opened up so many points of interest for me, whether it be literature, cinema, music or art.

YES! This is one reason why I like him too. Sometimes I feel as though he loves "toying" with us, maybe it's fun for him. I love it. His sassy nature makes me smile. His intelligence makes me swoon. Good 'ol Morrzy, I love reading his posts on Central (which I refuse to believe is anyone else but Morrissey posting on it, I need more proof than what's been trickled onto Solo to believe otherwise).

 

[Redacted]

Seems like some of you may have gotten a bit drunk, or not.

 

[j*e*t]

I suppose the message is an adaptation of the title of Derek Jarman's film The Last of England (1987) which was about the loss of traditional English culture in Thatcher's Britain, the title taken from Ford Maddox Brown's 1855 painting of an emigrant family sailing off to Australia. Central used the England version on 6th April 2022 for a message about the death of actress June Brown.

 

[The Irish Hare]

Interesting to me that you quote Rumi. I happen to love that quote.

Where have you been hiding?

Where do you lurk?
I shall come down your burrow and
ch-chivvy you out like an old st-t-toat.

Rather than lurking down a burrow, I have been sitting like a good hare.
Not hiding, just biding.
And dropping in here every now and then.
Thank You for asking.
And you?
Are you unfolding your own myth?

 

[The Alchemist]

Rather than lurking down a burrow, I have been sitting like a good hare.
Not hiding, just biding.
And dropping in here every now and then.
Thank You for asking.
And you?
Are you unfolding your own myth?

Nothing that could rival yours

Anyway, the back door was wide open. Anybody could have walked in instead of me. You might have got a sex maniac.

And when they've all said their piece
It's still you I love

 

[The Alchemist]

I suppose the message is an adaptation of the title of Derek Jarman's film The Last of England (1987) which was about the loss of traditional English culture in Thatcher's Britain, the title taken from Ford Maddox Brown's 1855 painting of an emigrant family sailing off to Australia. Central used the England version on 6th April 2022 for a message about the death of actress June Brown.

The last of Ireland being Morrissey then?

 

[Paul Andrews]

Not really sure what the lines mean but Morrissey quoted them in his autobiography too (page 93) after mentioning a Dublin aunt of his who asked him in 1973 if he'd considered becoming a butcher. I think he would have been familiar with Pembroke Road as he refers to garaging his car in nearby Lad Lane in the 1990s (page 286). Perhaps his family or property ties with Ireland are slipping away?

"Garaging his car in nearby Lad Lane" is this a euphemism?

 

[The Alchemist]

"Garaging his car in nearby Lad Lane" is this a euphemism?

 

[goinghome]

The post title, The Last of Ireland, echoes the sentiment stated by many down through the centuries, about this and probably every country. The leader of the 1916 Rising gave a famous eulogy the year before, which ended: "the fools, the fools, the fools! — they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace."

Not unlike W.B. Yeats poem, September 13, which repeats these lines:
"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave."

"If Ever You Go To Dublin Town"

He knew that posterity had no use
For anything but the soul,
The lines that speak the passionate heart,
The spirit that lives alone.

I think the poem revolves around these lines. Posterity being defined as all one's ancestors, and/or all future generations. So posterity only wants the soul? Who will riddle with me?

Here is a recitation by the poet, Patrick Kavanagh himself, from 1963


It is introduced with this words:
PATRICK KAVANAGH WAS a native of Monaghan but spent much of his adult life living in a house on Dublin’s Waterloo Road.

This week’s Dubliners features Kavanagh singing “If Ever You Go To Dublin Town”, from a recording made in 1963, four years before the death of the poet. Kavanagh’s words are tinged with irony and poignancy as he considers his own reputation and legacy.

The Last of Ireland. No.
Some of us stand our ground.
Our Ground, unapologetic for our history.
Refusing to rewrite it to suit a narrative.
Some of us have not tested positive for climate change
Or myocarditis, or died suddenly.
Our small and medium businesses go to the wall
Planned by the unelected elect.
The seedy shady slibhins
No democracy here.
The Black and Tans are back, in another form
They turned my Grandmothers house over
Hit her with the butt of a rifle.
Her parents born during the famine
Starved while food was exported.
It's all been done before.
No Permission.

This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.

Superb limning of lots there, that only a a cómhrá could honor. You'll be aware the Irish Hare is full of symbolism - https://westcorkpeople.ie/columnists/the-irish-hare/