Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year

Tripping Along The Ledge


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Published: Irish Times, February 27 2012

‘Eoin Butler has been driving for as long as he can remember, but has failed the test more times than he can count.’

provisional licence
GROWING UP IN rural Ireland, I don’t recall a time when I didn’t know how to drive. As a child, I would race my father’s car up and down the driveway, sneak it over the cattle grid, and peek out on to the road beyond. In my mid-teens, I traversed the back roads of east Mayo to collect my grandmother for her dinner every Sunday.

At 17, I applied for my first provisional driver’s licence. To put that event in an historic context, on one of my earliest (official) jaunts, my friends and I were questioned by gardaí hunting for the IRA killers of Jerry McCabe. We’d just been swimming in Errit Lake, near Gorthaganny. The lads were wearing wet Bermuda shorts. I was driving in my bare feet. Read the rest of this article here.

February 28th, 2012.

4 Responses to “‘Eoin Butler has been driving for as long as he can remember, but has failed the test more times than he can count.’”

  1. sharon Says:

    You made my day. Please keep writing. I learned to drive in a shift volkswagon in Adak Alaska. I got the license but drove only two times. One learning and one taking the test. Pure fright. Did not drive again regularly for nine years. I was a great passenger tho. S. Regards to Una and Lola

  2. Tom Slazenger Says:

    Jesus that Tom Slazenger is a bit of a nut.Cool name though parents must be lovely people-tom slazenger-nice.nice line about the dangling line.can’t say i’m in as high spirits as old tom there.look at this maudlin prose.
    Nice one on the car.
    But yeah so hard these days.bed is the nicest place to be these times-if i go out ill probably blank the wrong person all the rest of it,or smiling uncontrolably due to all the fresh air.
    All the other people wallowing-meditation as well they don’t even think its just clearing the mind of all thought-wankers.someone should feed the birds too-i might feed the birds.i might rephrase that altogether.
    Was in tescos tonight-twenty cent cakes and peppers and all the rest place went mad we were like crows-someone should feed the birds.
    Remember the good times-the laughs,sex as david hume used say
    do you dream alone of one another still-i nearly wrote a bit of romantic poetry there-seems you have to shit them out they arent like a slow log.its an avenue of possible pleasure but a lonely one.all lonely if only i could start to remember my life i wouldnt look so lonely.it’s peer pressure of course-you’re told you can’t be single-the dick no woman wants the woman no man has fucked in years together at last.
    I had a madeline i like those madelines they are more frequent-the tasts of guinness on borrowed money in galway-that could be misinterpreted so if you are a luvvie know you have fgotten that one all wrong.that whole bit is antagonism for the sake of it because i was thinking of an actual madeline.that was yellow through the window once if only i could have been a little wiser as a seven year old all the things i might have seen.
    Life
    Try to suck your belly in as you walk-at the very least its good for your back.
    If you have a hp laptop you might have turned off wireless-its in the top right hand corner flick the light from orange to blue
    no more the thirsty entrance of this soil should daub her lips with her own childrens blood.
    bad line shakespeare bad insensitive line you elitist dick

  3. Kat Flood Says:

    Heard you on tubridy,nice voice?where are you from?

  4. TAD Says:

    Hilarious! My God, they’ll give a license to anybody, won’t they…?

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