The occasion of the 80th birthday of the former Taoiseach, Mr Jack Lynch, was marked yesterday by the erection of a plaque at the house where he lived as a young man. It stands in the shadow of the famous Shandon bells in Cork, and in the area where he honed his hurling skills as a boy.
Neither Mr Lynch nor his wife, Maureen, was present at the function, which brought together old sporting and political rivals. Mr Lynch remains a political icon in this part of Cork. The feeling is that neither before nor since has his political acumen been reflected in the city.
Mr Ted Crosbie, of the Examiner, put it best when he said the simple ceremony had been very moving and in its own way had summed up the life of Jack Lynch. The plaque on the wall of the house in which Mr Lynch lived together with his sisters, Ms Renee Dunne and Ms Eva Harvey, and his brother, Finbarr, after the death of his mother is a simple affair, and already there is talk of increasing the size.
The legend in brass relief says modestly that Mr Lynch was an illustrious sportsman and a former Taoiseach.
The brass band played The Boys of Fair Hill as the Shandon bells chimed the noon-day hour. The four clock faces on the Shandon steeple - known popularly as the four-faced liar because of its ability to contradict itself around each corner of the clock face - must have kept the aspiring hurler, footballer, lawyer and politician awake betimes. If anyone was born under the Shandon steeple, Jack Lynch was.
Back at the Shandon Court Hotel, where a luncheon was laid on, the moment of truth was the call by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Mr Dave McCarthy, to Mr Lynch's home in Dublin. The telephone rang twice. Engaged. It rang again. The assembled guests were hushed, and then Mr McCarthy asked: "Is that you, Jack?" But it wasn't Mr Lynch, it was Maureen. "I'll get him now," she said.
The Lord Mayor asked: "How's the form?" Jack said: "Very good" and added: "I'd like to thank you all very much. It's a great honour for me. I have great memories of the old days, playing football and hurling under Shandon".