Writer ‘moved’ by hometown honour

A STORY of a Christmas turkey, a bank official and his curious son filled a sunlit square with golden memories in Mitchelstown yesterday.

The official had moved around the country to various branches of the Bank of Ireland but links with his time in the North Cork town remained. For every Christmas a Mitchelstown farmer called Ned Quinn sent the banker and his family a turkey.

It never failed to arrive in Youghal, Skibbereen, Tipperary, Enniscorthy, Portlaoise and finally Galway. For the official had lent the farmer money to buy a field and he never forgot it.

The banker’s son said to his father once that it was kind of Ned Quinn to send the family a turkey every Christmas and he said it was, before adding, “Ah, that’s Mitchelstown for you.”

Celebrated short story writer and novelist, William Trevor, the official’s son who was intrigued by the kindness of the local farmer, recalled that memory yesterday when he returned to his native Mitchelstown for a ceremony honouring his life and works.

He was welcomed by Bill Power and heard Heritage Society chairperson Mary Healy describe him as a short story writer of world renown who had always acknowledged his roots in Mitchelstown.

The poet Tom McCarthy unveiled a bronze sculpture by Liam Lavery and Eithne Ring in the form of a lectern, with an open book incorporating an image of the writer and a quotation, as well as the titles of his three Whitbread Prize winning works, and two others of significance.

William Trevor said he was overwhelmed and very moved by the impressive honour that Mitchelstown had bestowed upon him.

He said he did not really remember Mitchelstown as he was only three years of age when the family moved to Youghal, but he did recall the day that they left and the big yellow Nat Ross vans that came to cart their furniture. Yet, Mitchelstown persisted all through his childhood.

Looking at the bronze sculpture unveiled in his honour, the 76-year-old writer said someone driving through the town might see it and mention what the people had done for him. And he’d be able to say for himself - “Ah, that’s Mitchelstown for you.”