Eoin's certain 'The Craic Will Come Again'

(Above) Eoin Manning from Rathowen.

A local teacher has written a song to lift people's spirits during the third and hopefully last lockdown of the Covid pandemic.

Rathowen native Eoin Manning's song, The Craic Will Come Again, urges people to “hold tight, hold steady, get yourself ready, cause the craic will come again”.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Eoin, who is an English teacher at Moate Community School, said that his aspiration when writing the song was to put a smile on people's faces. He says that while the past year has been hard on all ages, he believes it has been very tough for young people.

“It [writing the song] was off the back of a couple of conversations with friends and younger people, in particular. I think this thing is very hard on people who rely on socialising and the craic and very hard on young people.

“People who would go into Mullingar on a Friday and Saturday night, whose social life depended on that and it isn't there any more. That's who I think the song is speaking to or who I hope the song is speaking to.”

Like teachers all over the country, Eoin returned to the classroom on Monday and his song has gone down well with his Leaving Certificate students, he says. The video for it was put up on YouTube on Saturday last, February 27, and in the space of a few days has been viewed over 3,000 times.

“I was concerned before I put it up that it would land well my students. I didn't want them thinking 'God almighty, what is this fella doing?' They are all very supportive and thankful. They are also saying that it is great that I went and did it rather than just talking about it.”

While the song and video – much of which was shot in his local, the bar in Feerick's Hotel - were written and recorded in the space of a couple of weeks, creative Eoin has been playing guitar and writing poems, prose and lyrics for many years. A few years ago he also converted a dilapidated horsebox into a mobile coffee trailer, The Country Tea House.

He had intended to spend the summer months attending agricultural shows and other events around the country, but the pandemic put an end to those plans. Rather than put the trailer into storage, Eoin came up with a “creative response”.

“ We were building up to the Fleadh in Mullingar, which was going to be the mobile catering events to end catering events. Them 'boom' it's gone. There were no agricultural shows, there was nothing there.

“When the lockdown was on and the pubs were closed, I set up in the village of Rathowen and I was there for about six weeks when Feerick's was closed. When it reopened I moved it.”

To say that the past 12 months haven't turned out as planned is an understatement of epic proportions, but Eoin says that, for him, there have been a lot of positives.

“ It has actually provided a kind of creative space. I am a wood turner as well and it has given me a lot of time for that.”

As for what he is looking forward to doing when normal life resumes, he says that like the rest of us he is eager to catch up with family and friends, especially his grandmothers, Mary Tyrrell from Kilashee, across the border in Longford, and much closer to home Christina Manning in Rathowen, who at the age of 98 is still an avid reader of the Westmeath Examiner.

The past 12 months have certainly been eventful, but Eoin will look back on them fondly, he says.

“When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. It has turned out to be a time of creative response and for me I have found opportunities in it," he said.

Watch Eoin's video below.