I rediscovered this brilliant photo of my brother Chris on the banks of Lough Gill in County Sligo, Ireland in 2019. Chris, my sister Michelle, Mark Grentell (Director) and Anne Robinson (Producer) were accompanying me on a film tour of ‘The Merger’ through Ireland as part of the Dublin International Film Festival. This was one of those rare moments in life when the image of a place lived up to the lofty expectation that I’d built up in my mind. Below is the post that I wrote the next day.
__________________________________________________________________________
When time allowed from his busy schedule as a High School Principal, Dad would come & prop himself on the side of my bed & read to me. He slowly took me through the prose & poetry that he’d fallen in love with at Melbourne University. The poetry stuck: Robbie Burns & WB Yeats in particular. My favourite Yeats poem that has stayed with me for life is ‘The Lake Isle Of Innisfree.’ Travelling to Sligo with my siblings Chris & Michelle, we detoured to Lough Gill & wound down a narrow road to a sloping jetty that seemed to suggest there was an under water path to the Isle itself. I read the poem by the lough & cried beautiful tears born of being nurtured by such kind & curious parents. I told the story at the Q&A screening of ‘The Merger’ in Sligo & the crowd applauded in delight that their landscape had captured the imagination of a young boy on the other side of the world. That day the child within had seen the world Yeats & his dear dad had brought to life.
(William Butler Yeats)
Love the poem Damian. Love the sentiment. 💕
Tears of love & pride every time I read or think of this treasured moment bro. Love you 🤗🥰