Cormac MacConnell: Where the Irish once had no value at all

A groundhog on the lawn was a nightmarish early morning eye-opener for Cormac last Friday, high up in the airy Catskills, above New York. He christened him John Thomas.

I had a genuine Groundhog Day last Friday, high up in the airy Catskills, above New York.

I looked out the window behind which I had been sleeping, in the village of East Durham, and there was the bold John Thomas, happily grazing the lawn a few yards away.