George Harrison Part 02 · p.95

. other martyrs, if you weren?t
willing to follow them, Flar.
nery-believed. You had to be
lke that ofa fairground in ru
. ready to take your place, and.
ral Ireland. Rickety plank
if you' weren't, then what
stands ring a vast grassy ex.
good were you at all? The:
panse where hurling and
way he saw 'it, he had been
: Gaelic football are played on
.born into certain circum-
'Sunday. afternoons. 'The:
stances that: had to be.right-
whole place has:a makeshift.,..
ed: There was one ideal to*
sad. and ramshackle quality
which-his whole life had been:
：about itLikethe centuries
directed: an undivided Irish
old:experience of these peo- :
Republic, 32 counties, north
ple, if thereis to be any.
and south.
dignity or.cheer to this day, it
Well, they'd all hang to-
wil.be left to the people and
gether, then.And wasn't that
*their trade in talk and song to
"the way it had always-been?':
provide it...
***
On.'the playing field, the
.Through the shadows that
County KerryAssociation's
the “el"casts across the Qcto-
Gaelic football team is repeat-
ber Sunday afternoon, the old
Sedly.stampeding toward the
YCounty Cavan Association
rishmenwaikup'fron
'team's-goal.. The. crowd of
Broadway. They gather at
about 2,500 people gives only.
Gaelic Park, -in the.west"
halfits attentionto thegame.
Bronx, from all the ·places
. Just above the park, to the
they have scattered, trick-
north,the" Broadway train
ling, along with the younger
yards loom, with lines of gro?
generations of immigrant -
tesquely graffiti-covered sub-
Irish, through the small door-
way cars set to idle on the
way ofthe·park's-main en-
massive elevated platform..
-trance, to become, once
Flannery moves. through
-again, briefly, a people..
the crowds, on.this, his day,.
Today is Michael Fannery
like a shy child at hisbirthday
Day: Posters with Flannery's
party He is slightly stooped,
photograph_ are displayed in-
but he is so tall, over six feet,
side and outside the park, as
that. he'towers over most of-
if perhaps he were ·standing
the:older men, He.is skinny,
for office rather than on trial
but-more in an.adolescent
in Brooklyn Federal Court,
than inr an.old man's way. He
To the right of the photo is a
hasa long,'thin, handsome
long list of the organizatiors
face.that-in photographs al-
to. which he has offered mot
ways seems. solemn and
perhaps'because of the orga-
Bf his ife. Incuded are hs
nizationwith whichheis most
membership in the'North.
often associated, the IRA' --
Tipperary Brigade.IRA/ Ir--
murderous. But the camera
ish Northern Aid; and in the'
misses:atcapturing the liveli-
Tipperary Men's Association,
ne'ss of his small, brown eyes;
which he.co-founded 'and*
they'are as lively and playful
served as U. S.: representa
as. a',young, girl's eyes, and
tive. It's aiso noted that. he's
they light up his. face and
a past president of the Gaelic
make/it seem.mischievous.
Athletic Association"and·of
:The:men close in on' him
. the Ancient Order of-Hiberni-
with.gruff, comradely
ans, that he was the.division
phrases. “Good man, Mike,”"
historian of:Clan Na Gael.
they half-whisper. The wom--
. and on.and. on. -
en greet him with more dra-.
A battered, rusting, corru-
maticexclamations and
gated tin wail topped by
turns. “"Oh, Michael Flan
whorls of barbed wire---like
hery," one woman half sings,
thebarrierofanintermment
('there never was a better
camp —— runs along the park'
man' for, Ireland!
southern side. Inside thd
park, the atmosphere is more