‘The silence just went through everyone that was outside. The whole place just went deadly quiet because the hands disappeared and the shouting stopped, and we knew what was basically happening inside.” (Paula Toner, speaking to the Stardust Inquiry in 2023.)
Ten days ago, republicans buried garda killer and ex-wife stabber Pearse McAuley in a flag-cloaked coffin, flanked by a male colour party clumping along the concrete in their boots.
Doochary is a small village with a shop, a pub, a school and a holy well. Nestled in Donegal’s Rosses, it has no filling station so most pass through. On a good day its gold sand bank glistens while the Gweebarra river snakes through its middle, trees like broken limbs, crooked in its rippling reflection.
Wigmore was amused to see Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe declare last week that the lobbying of government played an important role in policy formation and was, he said “an essential part of the democratic process”.