Come on Irene
Irene is derived from εἰρήνη,the Greek word for "peace". Come on Eileen is a song by Dexy's Midnight Runners, released in 1982. There's a smell of succession in the air. Our cool young uncle died last weekend. He played with Dexy's Midnight Runners in the 80s and taught us things like the twelve bar blues in the front bedroom of my grandparent's bungalow. When Andy's album was produced by George Martin , we had to wait, late for school, to catch a glimpse of him on the telly. Now his older brother, that dad of mine, who has been labouring through the slow decline of Alzheimer's, appears to be pondering whether it's nearly time. People have started to talk gently to us about end of life care. And Marina O'Connell, the pioneering permaculturist to whose farm I moved in 2017, left us in September as well. There seems to be a turning of the sod. It is heavy going but I'm comforting myself, knowing that there are dormant seeds at the ready, wai...