by Paddy Walsh
Saturday mid-day finds Pat McArt seated at a table at the Bookmark outlet at Letterkenny Shopping Centre .
“Brian McDaid tells me I’m at the exact spot where the railway line once ran through,” he declares.
There were, perhaps, many a line he ran through reporters’ copy in the twenty-five years he served as editor of the ‘Derry Journal’ but as anyone who worked under him will testify he trained them well and was to prove an inspiration to so many.
He’s here signing copies of his new book ‘War, Peace and the Derry Journal’ accompanied by his wife, Rosie, the woman not just behind the man but beside him all the way.
And in close attendance, too, publisher Garbhan Downey, who in a foreword to the memoir describes it as “insightful, serious and meaningful but also funny and irreverent.”
Donnan Harvey, the man behind the restoration of the Church Lane and the creation of the Cathedral Quarter, is among the first to engage with Pat.
And by the end of a conversation with him and with Garbhan, he has persuaded both to participate in next year’s Literary Festival as interviewee and interviewer! “He’s a famous former resident of the Church Lane,” Donnan boasts a local link.
“Ah, here’s Letterkenny royalty”, Pat proclaims as a familiar figure approaches. ”Haven’t seen you in a while, Nora.”
It’s Nora Curran wife of the late Sean Curran who gave Pat his first job in the ‘Derry People’ and, as he points out in the book, was his own inspiration from day one.
“You never come near us now. And there was a time when you were never out of our front room,” laughs Nora.
For that front room at Lower Main Street served as the hub of the newspaper back in the day.
Nora is accompanied by her grand-daughter, Katie, and by the end of the chat, the latter is armed with no less than six copies of Pat’s memoir.
And then another link with the past. Maggie Breslin worked in the ‘Derry People’ when the newspaper was based in its offices at the top of Rosemount.
“Great days,” she recalls. “Hard to believe it’s forty-two years ago when I finished up there. But Pat was great to work with.” And she and husband, Jimmy, who was employed as a sound engineer, add to the purchases of the book.
“We’re neighbours from way back,” Hylda Flood proudly refers to her connections with the McArts.
And those McArts are not long looming into view to offer sibling support to their brother’s literary achievement – Hughie, Brian and Adie, soon to be joined by Pat and Rosie’s son, Paddy.
There’s a trail of local reporters and broadcasters arriving to add their well wishes to the former ‘Journal’ editor – and, of course, make that all important purchase.
And a very busy, Garbhan Downey, persuades them to line up for a photograph of ‘bluffers parade’!
“Here’s my successor,” Pat announces as Columba Gill approaches.
Not, of course, his successor in the editor’s chair at the ‘Derry Journal’ but rather the man who stepped into his large sized shoes at the ‘Donegal News’. And now retired. “Happy days”, Columba confirms his current status.
Among the broadcasting fraternity, Mary Harte, former B.B.C. journalist. Has she any plans for writing her memoir? “No, I’m more vocal and visual,” she responds.
The music world, too, is present to sing Pat’s praises. Martin Orr, Hugo Blake and Billy Patterson – himself an author of note – taking their turn at the table where McArt is seated and exchanging memories.
“Can it be a read in a week?, enquires Martin. “I’m going to Morocco at Christmas, my first time in Africa. And I’ll take the book with me.”
But if it’s his first time there, it may be he’ll find plenty of distractions to keep him from delving through the pages of ‘War, Peace and the Derry Journal’!
Donal ‘Mandy’ Kelly and his spouse Aislinn also add the book to their shopping list. “That’s my Christmas reading taken care of,” she maintains.
John Blake is another local to have his book signed while Aidan Storey from Derry is also eagerly looking forward to reading the memoir. “I happened to hear that Pat was doing a signing here and thought I’d come along.”
Close by, as Bookmark manager, David Gamble, continues to stack up the books on the table, the shop’s newspaper rack holds the titles of the daily and weekly publications.
In his book, Pat bemoans the dwindling sales of such papers.
“The newspaper industry, if not in terminal decline, is on the critical list,” he writes.
And recalls the story told by his mother, Cassie, of his grandfather, Hugh McGhee who would sit for hours on end reading court and council reports from the local papers in his home in Drumkeen by the light of a Tilley lamp.
And Pat’s father, also Pat, purchasing two papers a day for the best part of forty years, the ‘Irish Press’ and ‘Evening Press’, and subsequently at weekends without fail buying the ‘Sunday Press’ and ‘Sunday Independent’ to read in the family home. A true newspaper man just like his son.
Meanwhile, the two hours signing schedule stretches beyond the deadline but who’s counting?
Well, Pat and Garbhan for a start. “If it keeps going like this we’ll be going to New York on a holiday,” laughs the author.
And his book could travel equally well.
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