Has anyone ever composed a musical eulogy, country or otherwise, to Ireland’s electrical repair crews?
Austrian volunteers work to reconnect ESB lines in Carcagh, Co Cavan, that were damaged by Storm Éowyn. Photograph Enda O'Dowd
Webb was driving through the Oklahoma panhandle at the time the song was conceived, mesmerised by a line of poles stretching through the vast, empty landscape to the horizon:A Tale of Two Richards – Marc McMenamin on two oft-confused Limerick menHit parade – Frank McNally on the mixed fortunes of a who’s who list from 40 years ago
He later relocated the incident across the Kansas border to Wichita, with its crucial three syllables – and the result was acclaimed a masterpiece. Just like Oklahoma, Cavan too has a panhandle, stretching northwestwards from the county town towards the great wilderness of Leitrim. Telecom responded that this was a “bit of an exaggeration” but nevertheless promised to get their poles off the drink eventually: a goal with which the National Broadband Plan has since helped.
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