Guide to Social Climbing: Reggie from the Blackrock Road shares his wisdom

Reggie may be from old-money stock, but his new book reveals some of his secrets to getting ahead in Cork society. People from Kanturk might even benefit 

Reggie chats to Pat Fitzpatrick about his new book. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Pat Fitzpatrick: What inspired you to write a book about social climbing?

Reggie: I was down in Ballymaloe House recently (you couldn’t afford it) with a very open-minded woman from Copenhagen. A family of four were seated at the table next to us - he’s a property developer from East Cork, a price-of-everything value-of-nothing kind of gowl, you know the type. The waiter came down and he ordered turbot, pronouncing it turbitt. Sorry now, but that’s straight out of the Ronan O’Gara school of French. The correct pronunciation is tur-bow, it came as a shock to my lady friend. There is no avoiding these new money types, so I decided to write a book to show them how to behave in polite society. (FYI, the open-minded woman stayed the night, but it was touch and go there for a while).