Burlington Bertie...

...if you were a regular visitor to the Olympia Theatre in Dublin in the 1930's, you might have seen my mam perform this song;

Blessed Eileen of Mucklagh...

Fact stranger than fiction.

My mother, who always said that I'd be late for my own funeral is probably laughing at the irony. Her remains have apparently disappeared. This morning, the undertaker was bringing her from Galway mortuary to Birr Funeral Parlour - less than 100 miles - for a 4 pm showing.

Last reports from my brothers and sisters was that she hadn't turned up yet. That was 7.40. I suspect a second Assumption.

She's due in Dublin for 10.00am Mass and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Me, my mother and Leonard Cohen

Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye Ma

At 6.45 this morning there was a loud knock on my door. I woke instantly. ‘Yes’ I called. The door was unlocked and so the nurse outside opened it and asked me if I knew where I was. Of course I did – it was my mother was on the drugs.

I was in room 24 in St. Monica’s ward in Galway hospital and my Mam was just down the corridor. I’d said goodnight to her at about 12.55 the previous evening and told her where I’d be if she needed me.

We’d been listening to Leonard Cohen – Live in London and humming along.

My mother was doing an increasing amount of morphine and hadn’t been saying anything for some days as the tube that entered her nose went down somewhere inside her and she was supposed to excrete through this tube. That’s the sort of thing my mother wouldn’t be caught dead doing and so this tube was only for show.

Contrary to the expectations of the extraordinary nursing staff, she didn’t struggle for life for the last 10 minutes and give me a chance to hold her for her last breath. Instead, she breathed in, breathed out and left it at that. I don’t think she could have been dead for more than 3 minutes when I got to her and suspect that my mother wouldn’t be caught dead dying in front of anybody.

I’ve just arrived back in Dublin and can’t remember being so glad to be going to my own bed and it’s been a long, spinning sort of day. It has been an honour to have spent a big chunk of my mother’s last five days at her side.

Eileen O’Neill Born 10^th November 1920. Died 16^th September 2009

Rest in Peace