Friends
Bunny, the great love of my life (well, one of them - above all, the first)
I met Bunny under circumstances somewhat akin to those shown in the movie The Graduate and, as a consequence, I have had a weakness for Anne Bancroft ever since. I was 20 at the time and Bunny was perhaps 12 years older. She was a friend of my mother and step-father - and they organized a graduation party for me. It was a substantial black-tie affair and it ended about as agreeably as I could have imagined. That encounter led to a much longer relationship. Bunny is dead now and I still miss her. She was beautiful, sensuous, intensely physical and had a lust for adventure that is a rare thing. This photograph was taken on Inishmaan while we were figuring how to get the aircraft off again. I had an image of unscrewing the thing and rowing it in small pieces to the mainland. At that time, the traditional canvas (or skin covered in days gone by) long slim fast rowing-boats - currachs - were in regular usage. They still are. It was a magic time.
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Close friend Jane Carrdus
I have known the very beautiful Jane for approaching 30 years. Fortunately for her, she had the good sense to marry Chris Carrdus and, amazingly, the pair of them are amongst my closest friends. They live in Seattle. Whenever a modicum of fame beckons, Jane cuts in with some comment to keep me honest and humble. Mind you, I think I am always honest and humble. I just wish it did not rain so much in Seattle. It is too like Ireland.
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Evelyn Haugh
Evelyn was a neighbor of ours on Ailesbury Road - a road of embassies and retired villains seeking social acceptance - and her father, an eminent judge, was on the censorship board that decided what was suitable for the Irish citizenry to read in those days. Just about everything worthwhile was banned and Irish literary figures seemed to be a prime target. James Joyce - who had sensibly left Ireland and eventually settled in Paris - was an absolute no-no. My books - I am making no literary claims - would certainly have been banned. Sexual repression was the order of the day though it seemed to bypass my family. I regarded the judge's library and his daughter with interest and Evelyn was one of the first girls I kissed. I seem to recall making an inadequate job of it though the experience motivated me to study harder. I guess I was about 13 at the time. Not too many years later, she went and married a university lecturer. An older man! We all went into shock. Still, she was and remains delightful. Her brother, Kevin, like her father, is now an eminent judge. Joyce is no longer banned but then he is also dead.
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Patricia McCormack
Patricia was neighbor of ours when we moved out to Bray, Co. Wicklow. Interestingly, she was the grand-daughter of John McCormac, a tenor of such renown that he was made a papal count. Popes can do this stuff, you know. That made his son a count too and when I met the family, Count Cyril McCormac - looking suitably count-like in Aran cardigan in front of a blazing fire - was host and manager of a very exclusive hotel, the Old Conna, located near the Ardmore Studios as well as near where we lived. Movie celebrities naturally stayed there and we gravitated there because it was different and fun. Sarah Miles (Ryan's Daughter) ended up coming to my sister Maxine's coming out ball which was held there. Other celebrities were Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Mitchum and so on. It was a long list. I was a kid. I took it for granted. Looking back, I am amused. It was fun. They had peacocks on the lawns of the Old Conna. They looked beautiful but they made an eerie sound when they screamed. I associate my adolescent explorations with the cries of peacocks. Is this material for shrinks or what!
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Ali
I was sleeping on the floor behind a sofa in a friend's house in Wales when Ali, who also lived there but did not know I was bunked down behind the sofa, came back with a boyfriend and caused me to open an eye or two. The question then was whether to discretely let the evening proceed as the boyfriend planned - though I was not so sure Ali agreed - or announce myself. Well, I'm no party-pooper but after a few minutes I could see the situation going from embarrassing to a whole lot worse so I popped up from behind the sofa and introduced myself politely. The boyfriend vanished in microseconds and I ended up falling love with Ali and, luckily enough, she with me. It was a great adventure and it lasted well enough through not long enough.
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Ruth
Ruth has been one of my closest and dearest friends for more than 40 years and personifies decency and the kind of person you want beside you when the going gets tough. I first met her when her sister, Liz, was my girlfriend. Then I became very close to her family and came to regard her parents almost as if they were mine. Tom and Mary Davis were just special people. Over the decades, Ruth and I have stayed in touch and have helped each other through some seriously difficult situations. These days, Ruth is a teacher of children with special needs and happily settled with John. A woman of true caliber. When she was younger, she kept tortoises. Personally, I prefer chimpanzees but each to his or her own. I lie peacocks and Siamese cats too.
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