Few characters of note can boast a monument, Con already has two

“It made me feel like a pioneer who was spreading a new gospel. At the end there was an ovation that couldn’t have been greater if I had scored a goal for Kerry to win an All-Ireland.”

The words of the late journalist Con Houlihan, recalling the moment of his first TV broadcast during the early days of Irish television and the reaction of the audience who watched the spectacle in Tom McCarthy’s pub in Castleisland, Co Kerry.

He was a pioneer in one sense only — he enjoyed his drink and the craic — but he also loved to behold the unexpected and to think beyond the confines of his homeland and his upbringing.

The TV show, An Gearrsceal, was a salute to short story writing, a genre considered to be peculiarly suited to the Irish.

Tom McCarthy’s clientele loved the TV programme which was broadcast as Gaeilge. That is not surprising because all his life Con had a way with words and could be very persuasive, both in print and in person.

He was a well-known figure, not just in his native county, but nationwide. There are few Irish characters of note that can boast a monument. Con already has two, one in his home town of Castleisland and the other outside the Palace Bar on Fleet St in Dublin.

His eccentricities were well-known in many Dublin hostelries but none more so than Mulligan’s pub on Poolbeg St.

He had his little ways, which were well known to the barmen. He enjoyed a glass of wine but liked to drink it from a mug and, in his later years, his favourite tipple was brandy and milk, washed down with copious amounts of laughter and chat and banter and storytelling. His muffled diction failed to obscure a sharp wit and was always worth tuning into.

A photographic tribute to Con was unveiled last night in Mulligan’s by Jimmy Deenihan, the minister for the arts, heritage, and the Gaeltacht.

The pity of it was that he was not there himself to make an impression.