WHEN Mr Justice Thomas Smith sent Liam Lawlor to Mountjoy jail for one month or to be more precise 28 days, I wonder if the months in Dublin are shorter than the months here in Kerry.

While walking in the yard one day this individual approached me to enquire, “How come you are wearing your own clothes?” Having told him I was a political prisoner he informed me  he was a Fianna Fáil councillor from Galway who refused to pay his road tax because of the potholes in Conamara.

An admirable stance, I said to him but his reply of “sure, we’re all Republicans aren’t we” caught me off guard. Well, I said to him, there is a slight difference between Fianna Fáil and Republicans, the length of a rope.

He seemed puzzled and asked me for an explanation. “Did you ever hear of Pierpoint,” I said, no was the answer. “Well you would want to check out your history, as it was your party that ‘imported’ Pierpoint, the hangman from England to execute Charlie Kerins from Tralee in the 1940s,” I said to him.

“That is all past and gone,” he said, “the trouble with ye Republicans is ye have very long memories.”

“We may have,” I replied, “but sure most of the Fianna Fáil party have very short memories.”

Anyway, as the late Éamonn Kelly used to say, “to make a long story short”, the councillor was released after a few days, while my month finished at 8pm on the 31 st day, showing that a Kerry month is three days longer than a Dublin month.

— Matt Leen, Tralee, Co Kerry
 
 

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