The lease on Sean’s apartment in Cavan ran out at the end of May last year, and he moved back in with us. Around the same time he got a part-time job as a photographer with the Cavan Post, a weekly newspaper based in Cavan town. There were quite a few applicants for the job, but Sean did an interview with the editor and must have made an impression – he certainly had plenty of good work to show.
This weekend last year (a bank holiday weekend in Ireland) was Sean’s first in his new job. His brief was to attend the Killinkere Jamboree and various social events and Gaelic football matches, and take photographs suitable for use in the paper.
Pauline devoted much of her weekend to driving him hither and thither, and he took plenty of photos, including the ones above of the Saw Doctors – a well-known Irish rock band. The editor was pleased with them, and some were used in what proved to be the final edition of the Cavan Post.
While watching the television news a few days after Sean’s photographic bank-holiday splurge, we learned that the Cavan Post, along with several of its sister newspapers around the country, was to close immediately. This was very bad luck for Sean, who had planned to take driving lessons and make the most of the job. His social as well as his photographic skills made it a very suitable line of work for him.
As it turned out, he never even got paid for his one and only weekend as a professional photographer.
The road to God knows where ... Brendan O'Brien 
I used to do that a lot at the Mean Fiddler among other venues.
Many’s the time a manager of a band has pursued me through the smokey and dreamy crowd as I took shots of performers, just like Sean did, intent on getting his sticky fingers on the huge profits he believed I’d make.
Poor deluded fools.
Nice pics. Look forward to seeing more.
Thanks, Badger. Sean said it was crowded and he had to fight his way to the front (while his mother waited for him outside).
I was at a good few London music venues, but not the Mean Fiddler, I think. Big Irish connection there.
Oh, very much so.
Back in the day, before Vince Power sold out to big business and it became very plc, you would have felt very much at home. They even had free nights when you could just walk in off the (Harlesden High) street and listen to bands that mostly never made it but a very few did.
I recorded a part of a Mouth Music (quod vide, gig with my newly purchased and horrifically expensive Sony DAT Walkman (£500 25 years ago! – oh those were the days) under my jacket and leaning nonchalantly hand high above my head against a pillar, a mike up my sleeve. Got some good pics too.
I knew a girl who was trying to make it as a singer with a band who performed there a lot, she didn’t here, the last I heard she was in LA trying her luck.
When I’ve mastered the technical difficulties I might do a blog from that night, with pics if I can find them.
p.s. wanna buy a DAT Walkman, collector’s item, great sentimental value?
Nah, just kiddin’.
Nice one. The early, shambolic days are always the best.
I’ve just uploaded a new song, incidentally.