A Dublin folk song
When I was a kid
I had heroes
Dee was called the Monk, and the Viper and the General…and the Westies
They were heroes
Heroes of renown
Gangland
I’m makin’ this me home ground
You were wrong in saying a few years ago that that gangland killing was the last sting of a dying wasp
Little generals spoilin’ for a fight
Little generals, in their hand is a knife
Anto, Deco, Micko and Wayne
Redser and Tony are the boys who make ya feel the pain
Jump in, joyridin’ is me favourite pastime
A few hours of fun
Then we set it on fire
Gangland, do you fear to tread
Gangland, two shots in your head
Gangland, do you fear to tread
Gangland, two shots bang bang you’re dead
I wish I had some money to put it in me pocket
Watch me empire takin’ off like a rocket
I’m on a runaway train but I don’t know how to stop it
I wish I had a key to open up me mind
To understand me thoughts
When I’m lyin’ there at night
So I hide away and I follow the crowd
Gangland, two shots and your dead
Gangland, two shots in your head
Gangland, do you fear to tread
Gangland, dee run up to ya, two shots bang bang in your head
Sometimes I don’t know what to think
I’m on the edge I’m on the brink
Sometimes I don’t know
Just what to do
Sometimes I just lie back
And I think of you
Gangland, do you fear to tread
Gangland, two shots and you’re dead
Gangland, do you fear to tread
Cop car comes up two shots and you’re dead
Gangland, whatcha think deese guns are for
Gangland well it’s the long war!
Gangland, guns in me hand
Gangland, I’m doin’ fuckin grand
Deco and Wayne, Anto
In Cushlawn Park
The boys in Cushlawn Park
West Tallaght
Jobstown too
The heart ‘a tallaght
It’s what we do
Jobstown, Killinarden, Springfield
Get the pints in tonight
We’re goin’ up da Belgard
We’re goin up da Belgard!
Two shots and yer dead
Gangland, do you fear to tread
Gangland, two shots and you’re dead
Gangland, whatcha think deese guns in me hand are for
Gangland, we’re fightin’ in the long war
Gangland whatcha think deese guns in me hand are for
Do ya think they’re just here ta look nice?
Sittin’ on me mantelpiece
Ahh bud have ya got a bit a change there for the bus…..
Gangland eeehhh two shots two shots and yer dead
Gangland do you fear to tread two shots bang bang and yer dead
You’ll get a screwdriver in yer BRAIN
And your parents standin there cryin’ in the RAIN
Gangland, I’m livin in a hole
Gangland, I can’t wait ‘til I get me dole
Gangland, I’ll do it if I can
Gangland, I killed fifty man
I’m on a runaway train but I just can’t stop it
I wish I had a key, to open up me mind, to understand me thoughts
Gangland
I wish I had some money, to put it in me pocket
Bet on the horses and get a winnin’ docket
I’ll be first past the post
When it comes teh…admittance to hell
Gangland
I’m dealin’ drugs here
And I’m doin’ quite well
And I’m not afraid ah dyin’
And when I do, me parents they won’t be cryin’
Cos dee know it’s comin…quite soon
This song is dedicated…to the boys of West Tallaght
All the boys there
Fettercairn, Killinarden, Jobstown, Springfield
And now we’re goin’ down to the fuckin’ Belgard Inn
Champions league night on a Tuesday
You-neye-rah versus…Sparta Prague
Then on to the playhouse...for a birra action
Sunday, November 9, 2008
A salute to schools rugby
March 2007
All that kicking practice outside Anabel's paid off
If you thought the scenes and the outpouring of joy for Clare in 1995 or Armagh in 2002 were something else, it paled in comparison to those in Donnybrook on Sunday as St Michael’s won their first Leinster Schools Cup. A great day for the close-knit community of Ailesbury Road. To steal that great Marty Morrissey quote 'there won't be a cow milked in Ailesbury Road for a week'.
Bravo St Michaels! Bravo for the Holy Ghost Fathers, who've every right to consider this one in the eye of the Jesuits. The hard work put in on the training field by the future politicians and captains of industry of tomorrow in the Michaelmas Term has paid off in the Hillary term. They'll now be able to spend the Trinity Term basking in the glory of their success in one of the most prestigious competitions on the international sporting calendar.
Jeroboams of Heino and blow-jobs from the rugger huggers of Mount Anville and Muckross all round!
Crushing blow for the Clongowes lads though. Apparently you never really recover from the scars of missing out on that hallowed piece of silverware, and they will no doubt be feeling a bit down facing back into school today. But they should get down to the books now and think of the academic and sporting inspiration that was the Belvedere 1954 Schools Cup losing captain, the young AJF O'Reilly. No matter how well he does with baked beans or selling newspapers, Sir Anthony is reputedly haunted by the memory of Belvedere's loss in '54. Ditto with Tony Ward, who ranks St Mary's shock defeat in the Cup Final as the biggest disappointment of his life. And I can't help feeling that despite all he's achieved, Brian O'Driscoll must still be haunted by those drop goal misses in the ‘97 semi final against Clongowes. There can be no greater achievement in a man’s life than winning the Rugby Schools Senior Cup. Winning the Nobel peace prize, said David Trimble in no way makes up for the disappointment of losing that Ulster Schools Cup Fnal with Coleraine Grammar School.
But in the hallowed halls of Ailesbury Road, this result, well in future it will be up there with the second coming of Christ.
As somebody with a meagre Christian Brothers education, I'm appreciative of my lowly rank in the grander scheme of things. I'm humble enough to realise the importance that the Holy Ghost Fathers and Jesuit establishments have in continuing to churn out such fine young men with officer class credentials, and therefore I salute these youthful paragons of excellence, safe in the knowledge that that this great competition has provided them with the character, the moral courage, and the fortitude to lead this country to new heights of prosperity!
All that kicking practice outside Anabel's paid off
If you thought the scenes and the outpouring of joy for Clare in 1995 or Armagh in 2002 were something else, it paled in comparison to those in Donnybrook on Sunday as St Michael’s won their first Leinster Schools Cup. A great day for the close-knit community of Ailesbury Road. To steal that great Marty Morrissey quote 'there won't be a cow milked in Ailesbury Road for a week'.
Bravo St Michaels! Bravo for the Holy Ghost Fathers, who've every right to consider this one in the eye of the Jesuits. The hard work put in on the training field by the future politicians and captains of industry of tomorrow in the Michaelmas Term has paid off in the Hillary term. They'll now be able to spend the Trinity Term basking in the glory of their success in one of the most prestigious competitions on the international sporting calendar.
Jeroboams of Heino and blow-jobs from the rugger huggers of Mount Anville and Muckross all round!
Crushing blow for the Clongowes lads though. Apparently you never really recover from the scars of missing out on that hallowed piece of silverware, and they will no doubt be feeling a bit down facing back into school today. But they should get down to the books now and think of the academic and sporting inspiration that was the Belvedere 1954 Schools Cup losing captain, the young AJF O'Reilly. No matter how well he does with baked beans or selling newspapers, Sir Anthony is reputedly haunted by the memory of Belvedere's loss in '54. Ditto with Tony Ward, who ranks St Mary's shock defeat in the Cup Final as the biggest disappointment of his life. And I can't help feeling that despite all he's achieved, Brian O'Driscoll must still be haunted by those drop goal misses in the ‘97 semi final against Clongowes. There can be no greater achievement in a man’s life than winning the Rugby Schools Senior Cup. Winning the Nobel peace prize, said David Trimble in no way makes up for the disappointment of losing that Ulster Schools Cup Fnal with Coleraine Grammar School.
But in the hallowed halls of Ailesbury Road, this result, well in future it will be up there with the second coming of Christ.
As somebody with a meagre Christian Brothers education, I'm appreciative of my lowly rank in the grander scheme of things. I'm humble enough to realise the importance that the Holy Ghost Fathers and Jesuit establishments have in continuing to churn out such fine young men with officer class credentials, and therefore I salute these youthful paragons of excellence, safe in the knowledge that that this great competition has provided them with the character, the moral courage, and the fortitude to lead this country to new heights of prosperity!
Articles like this only serve to tarnish Katy's memory. Why can't people just let her rest in peace and let us have the memories. The memories of the good times. I've nothing but the highest respect for the journalistic skills of Barry Egan (he should have a Pulitzer prize by now) but this article is beneath his usual high standards. He's re-opening the wounds and rubbing salt into them. The pain is still there. It's still raw. The only thing we can do is let time heal them.
Battle for Katy's memory begins as first anniversary approaches
SECTION: NATIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 1012 words
Memorial clouded by betrayal from 'friend', by Barry Egan and Maeve Sheehan
Last week, the grieving mother of the model, Katy French, issued an invitation to honour her daughter's memory. A note to close friends and family invited them to remember the beauty at a memorial service on December 6, a year to the day she died. Janet French invited friends to pay tribute to her daughter, either in a special message, a memory they wished to share, or a song. "It would be a great comfort to us and the rest of Katy's family if you were there with us to remember the wonderful, though short, times that Katy spent with us here on earth."
Plans for this modest and intimate memorial have been overshadowed by the man who claimed to be her friend, who was with her when she collapsed and who said he did all he could to save her. In the same week that the invitations to her memorial were issued, Kieron Ducie released a catalogue of text messages he exchanged with Katy in the days before she died. And what should be a private anniversary of Katy's death has become a battle for her memory.
The macabre messages were leaked to a tabloid newspaper in the past week. They cast Katie as troubled and insecure, worried by her characterisation in the press. Ducie comes off as the man she turned to for reassurance in her hour of need. Instead, he has betrayed her memory.
This time last year, Katy French was riding high on a wave of celebrity. A work-a-day model, she made her name after her infamous split with her then boyfriend Marcus Sweeney. She had a publicity-filled year, in which she freely admitted courting the press in order to promote the "Katie" brand. She was nothing if not pragmatic.
She starred in the reality television show, Celebrities go Wild, appeared on Tubridy Tonight and was the subject of a documentary on her model life, that was all the more haunting because it was broadcast after her death.
Kieron Ducie stepped into Katie's life as a friend, someone on the fringes of the society circles she moved in. Two days after her 24th birthday party in Krystle nightclub, Katy French drove to her friend Kieron Ducie's house in Kilmessan, Co Meath.
She passed the night chatting to Kieron's girlfriend, Ann Corcoran. Kieron Ducie returned home at around 5am on Sunday morning. They chatted some more, he later told gardai, and then Katie went to bed. At around 9am, he heard a crash and found Katie on the floor of her bedroom.
He drove her to hospital shortly before 10am, laying her along the back seat.
The nearest hospital -- Our Lady's in Navan -- was 13km away. According to garda sources, she suffered a number of seizures during the 25-minute journey. Katie never recovered from her coma. She died days later, in her sister's arms. Traces of cocaine were later found in her body.
Ducie and his girlfriend were questioned about what happened that night.
Last week, it emerged that nobody will face any charges in relation to her collapse. Kieron Ducie has now turned his role in Katie's last hours to his advantage by publicising how the dead model turned to him in her last hour of need.
Four weeks ago, Ducie did an interview with Paul Martin in The Mirror around the same time as doing one with The Star and The Star On Sunday.
The newspapers could only print their interviews after Ducie gave them the green light.
The first of there series of texts between Katyand Ducie began on Saturday, December 1, the day before she collapsed. "Where are you' I need to talk to you."
"For her to drive 40 miles that night for someone to talk to gives you some sign of how she felt. She rang a lot of other people first but nobody answered her calls. That's how she ended up in my house talking to Ann," he told one newspaper.
The Mirror's headline last week read "final text messages that reveal torment before her death". These included Katy's text to Ducie "God, I'm fed up with this. Why do people have it in for me' Everyone is turning on me."
On Monday morning after The Mirror ran the front page of the Katy French texts, Ducie sent a text to the journalist in question: "U have put the shits up a lot of models 2day. They are all running scared. They think u have their numbers and texts to Katy." The text ends, sickeningly: "Let the mind games begin."
In another text, he declares himself to be "very good. Journalists outside my house at 7.30 this morning in force." About the picture used to illustrate the article, he adds: "Jesus, no more of that horrible pic of me again. Text me your email address so I'll mail pics now."
On Thursday, the Herald had Ducie "breaking his silence". He said "the strain" of the publicity surrounding Katy's tragic passing cost him his relationship with his then girlfriend, Ann Corcoran. He gave the Herald pictures of his new girlfriend, a Czech lingerie model named Zuzana Hurajtova.
Later that day, he texted another journalist: "I'm ringing and texting u all week. No return calls. I gave them a quote on Monday and they built a story around it with all my previous interviews with Sun.
"We've a signed agreement on an agreed date by me to give you the green light to go to print on my interview. Same applies to the Star Sunday. Eoin asked the same just there. If you don't answer my calls what can I do' Ring me 4 a chat. I have a brill story. If you don't want it, I'll give to star for Saturday. Ring me!"
The Star, the day after the Herald published Ducie's comments on Thursday, pubklished the allegedly 'embargoed' interview with Ducie on the front page.
The Herald ran part two of theirs the same day. Ducie was annoyed: "I'm f**king furious. I've just heard about the Star. They're after running the story without permission. I have the same agreement in writing. I'm going to sue the f**k out of them. I can't believe all this bullshit."
Neither, probably, can Katy's grieving family.
The service for Katy French will take place at the Church of Ireland, Enniskerry. Kieron Ducie is unlikely to be amongst the "close friends" who will be invited to share his memories of her.
Battle for Katy's memory begins as first anniversary approaches
SECTION: NATIONAL NEWS
LENGTH: 1012 words
Memorial clouded by betrayal from 'friend', by Barry Egan and Maeve Sheehan
Last week, the grieving mother of the model, Katy French, issued an invitation to honour her daughter's memory. A note to close friends and family invited them to remember the beauty at a memorial service on December 6, a year to the day she died. Janet French invited friends to pay tribute to her daughter, either in a special message, a memory they wished to share, or a song. "It would be a great comfort to us and the rest of Katy's family if you were there with us to remember the wonderful, though short, times that Katy spent with us here on earth."
Plans for this modest and intimate memorial have been overshadowed by the man who claimed to be her friend, who was with her when she collapsed and who said he did all he could to save her. In the same week that the invitations to her memorial were issued, Kieron Ducie released a catalogue of text messages he exchanged with Katy in the days before she died. And what should be a private anniversary of Katy's death has become a battle for her memory.
The macabre messages were leaked to a tabloid newspaper in the past week. They cast Katie as troubled and insecure, worried by her characterisation in the press. Ducie comes off as the man she turned to for reassurance in her hour of need. Instead, he has betrayed her memory.
This time last year, Katy French was riding high on a wave of celebrity. A work-a-day model, she made her name after her infamous split with her then boyfriend Marcus Sweeney. She had a publicity-filled year, in which she freely admitted courting the press in order to promote the "Katie" brand. She was nothing if not pragmatic.
She starred in the reality television show, Celebrities go Wild, appeared on Tubridy Tonight and was the subject of a documentary on her model life, that was all the more haunting because it was broadcast after her death.
Kieron Ducie stepped into Katie's life as a friend, someone on the fringes of the society circles she moved in. Two days after her 24th birthday party in Krystle nightclub, Katy French drove to her friend Kieron Ducie's house in Kilmessan, Co Meath.
She passed the night chatting to Kieron's girlfriend, Ann Corcoran. Kieron Ducie returned home at around 5am on Sunday morning. They chatted some more, he later told gardai, and then Katie went to bed. At around 9am, he heard a crash and found Katie on the floor of her bedroom.
He drove her to hospital shortly before 10am, laying her along the back seat.
The nearest hospital -- Our Lady's in Navan -- was 13km away. According to garda sources, she suffered a number of seizures during the 25-minute journey. Katie never recovered from her coma. She died days later, in her sister's arms. Traces of cocaine were later found in her body.
Ducie and his girlfriend were questioned about what happened that night.
Last week, it emerged that nobody will face any charges in relation to her collapse. Kieron Ducie has now turned his role in Katie's last hours to his advantage by publicising how the dead model turned to him in her last hour of need.
Four weeks ago, Ducie did an interview with Paul Martin in The Mirror around the same time as doing one with The Star and The Star On Sunday.
The newspapers could only print their interviews after Ducie gave them the green light.
The first of there series of texts between Katyand Ducie began on Saturday, December 1, the day before she collapsed. "Where are you' I need to talk to you."
"For her to drive 40 miles that night for someone to talk to gives you some sign of how she felt. She rang a lot of other people first but nobody answered her calls. That's how she ended up in my house talking to Ann," he told one newspaper.
The Mirror's headline last week read "final text messages that reveal torment before her death". These included Katy's text to Ducie "God, I'm fed up with this. Why do people have it in for me' Everyone is turning on me."
On Monday morning after The Mirror ran the front page of the Katy French texts, Ducie sent a text to the journalist in question: "U have put the shits up a lot of models 2day. They are all running scared. They think u have their numbers and texts to Katy." The text ends, sickeningly: "Let the mind games begin."
In another text, he declares himself to be "very good. Journalists outside my house at 7.30 this morning in force." About the picture used to illustrate the article, he adds: "Jesus, no more of that horrible pic of me again. Text me your email address so I'll mail pics now."
On Thursday, the Herald had Ducie "breaking his silence". He said "the strain" of the publicity surrounding Katy's tragic passing cost him his relationship with his then girlfriend, Ann Corcoran. He gave the Herald pictures of his new girlfriend, a Czech lingerie model named Zuzana Hurajtova.
Later that day, he texted another journalist: "I'm ringing and texting u all week. No return calls. I gave them a quote on Monday and they built a story around it with all my previous interviews with Sun.
"We've a signed agreement on an agreed date by me to give you the green light to go to print on my interview. Same applies to the Star Sunday. Eoin asked the same just there. If you don't answer my calls what can I do' Ring me 4 a chat. I have a brill story. If you don't want it, I'll give to star for Saturday. Ring me!"
The Star, the day after the Herald published Ducie's comments on Thursday, pubklished the allegedly 'embargoed' interview with Ducie on the front page.
The Herald ran part two of theirs the same day. Ducie was annoyed: "I'm f**king furious. I've just heard about the Star. They're after running the story without permission. I have the same agreement in writing. I'm going to sue the f**k out of them. I can't believe all this bullshit."
Neither, probably, can Katy's grieving family.
The service for Katy French will take place at the Church of Ireland, Enniskerry. Kieron Ducie is unlikely to be amongst the "close friends" who will be invited to share his memories of her.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
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