WHAT is wrong with not a lot happening?

In a world of rolling news and social media and instant responses, it seems as if the entire rhythm of life is on fast forward. But what is wrong with not a lot and nothing much and this and that?

I was in a pub recently. It was in a working-class area of the city and I recognised a lot of those streets and I listened to the Cork voices and I knew where I was and I thought to myself that I come from a place just like this. Over the other side of the sea but just like this.

Tight inner-city streets, most people knowing each other, people coming in straight from work for a pint, the barmaid laughing with some old fella in a way that suggests she does that most days, a child sipping a glass of orange.

I recognised it even though I’d never been in there before. Just an ordinary pub in an ordinary place. A backstreet pub in a backstreet place.

Standing at the bar, though, I looked up and around, and it wasn’t a particularly big place, and I counted eleven........

© The Irish Post