Monthly Archives: October 2011

October 30, 2011 · 9:11 pm

17 songs

The following are links to the 17 songs I have written so far. Two (‘Sean and Clio in the Snow’ and ‘Come Back and See Me’) have been recorded to a good standard and are on YouTube. The rest were recorded roughly on a device the size of a mobile phone.

We plan to have others on YouTube soon. We have already done some work on recording ‘Nothing But Love’ and ‘Devil’s Bit’. PapaGuinea, very kindly, did a beautiful arrangement/augmentation of ‘All We Had’, which will be recorded properly. I had no idea of the song’s potential till he showed it to me, and I regard him as its co-writer.

We will be getting together with some friends regularly throughout the winter, I hope, and practising some more of these songs – ‘One Way’, ‘Bridges’ and ‘The Heat of Love’, for example – with a view to recording them as well. It’s an interesting project – creative and sociable – and one that helps us to deal positively with the loss of Sean.

All Because of You
All We Had
Bridges
Come Back and See Me
Devil’s Bit
Gone Away
Hey Sean
July to September
Lament for Sean O’Brien
Losing You
Love Remains
No Way of Knowing
Nothing But Love
One Way
Sean and Clio in the Snow
The Heat of Love
7021 Days

16 Comments

Filed under Ireland, Memories, Music

Tagged as bereavement, loss, love, Sean O'Brien, songs

October 25, 2011 · 10:55 pm

Some diary entries … March to May 1999

1/3/99 – Sean played Hercules – he loves it and is progressing through the various levels.

4/3/99 – Pauline took the kids to an Irish dancing lesson in Maghera (their first) – they both enjoyed it enormously … A tree fell across the road today just after Maire, Andy and Susanna passed on the way home from school, and just before Pauline drove to Erika’s – she had to turn and go another way.

5/3/99 – We watched The Simpsons and the final of Robot Wars; Sean rang Peter to tell him about the latter and we chatted to him.

6/3/99 – Pauline went out to look for Itsy, who hadn’t come home last night (not for the first time). She found poor little Itsy dead by the side of the road – she was still warm, her eyes were open and she wasn’t marked except for some blood by her nose. The children were very upset … She was a lovable cat. Continue reading →

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Filed under Death, Ireland, Memories, Stories

Tagged as bereavement, diary, loss, love, Sean O'Brien

October 22, 2011 · 2:52 pm

The Heat of Love

This is song number 17. To listen to it, please click here: Heat of Love

THE HEAT OF LOVE

Breaking boundaries
Running free
Loving friends
And company

Always pushing
From the start
To give expression to
Your beating heart Continue reading →

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Filed under Death, Ireland, Memories, Music

Tagged as life, love, Sean O'Brien, songs, the heat of love

October 20, 2011 · 9:39 pm

Sean’s music 31 … The Beatles

We buried Sean a year ago today, and sang ‘Redemption Song’ with Bob Marley as the coffin was going into the ground, and some of us were throwing red roses on it. In the days before that – the time of Sean’s wake – we played the same CDs over and over in the room where his body lay, as hundreds of visitors came to pay their respects.

One of these was a CD that Clio had hurriedly compiled, of songs that meant a lot to Sean and to her. I don’t know where it went – perhaps it’s around the house somewhere, or Clio has it. There was a lot of Marley on it, but some other stuff as well, including two Beatles tracks – ‘Something’ and ‘Come Together’. I can well imagine Sean belting out ‘Come Together’ at the top of his voice while having a drink with his friends. It’s a track that suited his exuberance. Continue reading →

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Filed under Memories, Music, Uncategorized

Tagged as Bob Marley, loss, love, Sean O'Brien, The Beatles

October 15, 2011 · 4:10 pm

One year on

The leaves on the Norway maple are yellow once more. My dry stone wall is again in partial collapse from all the footballs we kicked against it … this time on the other side of where the goal posts used to be. The weather is wet and dreary now; it was fine and warm then. There aren’t so many pheasants about this year.

Sean’s anniversary mass was held in the local church last night. The congregation was large – the local community, family, our friends and Sean’s. Our Dublin next-door neighbour, Aileen, whom we hadn’t seen in 13 years, and her daughter, Olivia. Some people had travelled a long way to be there. Continue reading →

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Filed under Death, Ireland, Memories

Tagged as Cavan, loss, love, rural life, Sean O'Brien

October 11, 2011 · 10:14 pm

Some diary entries … June to August 1999

Sean and Tiger

1/6/99 – We got the kids out to school – Sean made a big fuss because he didn’t want to wear his uniform – apparently lots of kids don’t wear them these days. Susanna didn’t have to wear hers because it’s her PE day.

2/6/99 – I played pool with Sean.

4/6/99 – Sean had been complaining of various ailments over the past few days, so we let him stay off school.

5/6/99 – Pauline took Sean to Virginia, and he had a haircut according to his instructions, which looks very good. He was absolutely thrilled with it; he thinks it looks really cool. Continue reading →

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Filed under Death, Ireland, Memories, Pets

Tagged as Cavan, diary, Sean O'Brien

October 9, 2011 · 11:03 pm

Sean’s music 30 … Eagle-Eye Cherry

We found an old compilation CD Sean made … this is on it. It is one of the songs I recall very well from a kind of ‘golden era’ of listening to music with Sean in this room (which Pauline painted this weekend … it’s now white and bright instead of blue), when I heard a lot of artists I’d never listened to before, such as Against Me!, Kings of Leon and Damien Rice. The photo shows him here, on the chair where I’m now sitting, and was taken around the time in question.

I don’t know where Sean first heard this song. I see from Wikipedia that it reached no. 3 in the Irish charts – higher than anywhere else except Cherry’s native Sweden – but that was back in 1997. I think it’s really good, and it reminds me so much of Sean (but then we think of Sean all the time anyway). If I’m not mistaken, he used to play one other song by Cherry, but I can’t remember what it was. He would often play a track and get me to try to guess the artist. Continue reading →

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Filed under Death, Ireland, Memories, Music

Tagged as love, rugby, Sean O'Brien

October 2, 2011 · 3:02 pm