Van’s own Goon show
QUESTION
Was the famously shy singer Van Morrison once interviewed by Spike Milligan?
IT MAY seem unlikely, but this interview actually did take place.
Van Morrison is an enigma: the gnomic presence, sunglasses and spiky, stand-offish persona conceal a soaring talent belting out transcendental songs.
He is known for his dislike of interviews and interviewers: ‘It’s very hard for me to relate to people asking questions that are not only boring, but don’t have anything to do with my life... It’s a waste of time on my part as it drains me from doing what I really want to do, which is play music.’
In 1989, Van released his album Avalon Sunset, featuring the hit Have I Told You Lately (That I Love You). To promote it, he was booked to play at Ronnie Scott’s, the famous jazz club in London’s Soho, with a nine-piece backing group including Georgie Fame. Van didn’t play a single song from his new album.
He was equally reluctant to be interviewed to promote the album, but said he’d talk with a fellow artist and that he admired Spike Milligan: ‘The Goons were huge in Ireland; kids I grew up with talked like that all the time.’
A meeting was set at Spike’s home in East Sussex.
Spike broke the ice by wearing a very rude false nose. A photographer caught the normally surly singer in hysterics.
Spike was able to expose Van’s inner workings: ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing interviews. My profession is music and writing songs. I like to do it, but I hate to talk about it. You’re more interesting to me than I am talking about my music.’
Spike made some sharp observations, in particular by confronting Van with the statement: ‘You have a strange charisma. I don’t feel quite comfortable in your presence. A sense of menace.
‘There’s a sense of abandonment in your singing.’
This fascinating encounter was recorded by journalist Paul du Noyer and appeared in Q magazine.
Anthony Kenny, Downham Market, Norfolk.
QUESTION
What TD was the youngest ever to enter the Dáil, and who was the oldest?
THE youngest ever Dáil deputy was William J. Murphy, who won the by-election for Cork West in 1949, when he was just over 21 years old. The oldest was Harry Blaney, who was 69 when he was elected to the Donegal North East constituency in 1997.
William J. Murphy’s father had been the TD for Cork West, but after he died on April 29, 1949, a by-election had to be called and his son contested the seat as a Labour Party candidate, winning many votes in honour of his father, and he duly won the seat.
When he was elected, he was 21 years and 29 days old, making him the youngest ever TD to enter the Dáil. However, his tenure was short, as he didn’t contest the 1951 general election.
Born in 1928, he is still alive today, the only member of the
Oireachtas still living from its two chambers in the 1940s.
As for the oldest ever TD to enter the Dáil, that honour fell to Harry Blaney, who was almost 70 years old when he was elected to the Donegal North East constituency for the first time, and stayed four years. He was a member of the Blaney family, who were long involved in politics in. Donegal.
Harry Blaney’s father Neal was a TD from 1927 until 1948 and he was succeeded by one of his sons, Neil Blaney, who held the seat until his death in 1995. Another son of Neal Blaney, Harry, succeeded him in June, 1997, as an independent Fianna Fáil TD. He stayed in the Dáil until 2002, when he retired at the age of 74.
Harry Blaney died in 2013, but after he retired from national politics, his son, Niall Blaney, continued the long Blaney tradition in the Dáil.
The longest-serving TD was Paddy Smith (Fianna Fáil) from Cavan. He was first elected to the Dáil in 1923 at the age of just 22.
He retired in 1977 after almost 54 years of service, including as a government minister. All kinds of records are recorded for the Dáil but those outlined here are among the most remarkable.
Myles O’Flynn, Limerick city.
QUESTION
We know the Vikings visited America centuries before Columbus, but did the Chinese beat him to it?
GAVIN Menzies, a retired British navy submarine commander with an interest in ancient maps, is author of 1421: The Year China Discovered The World, which challenges our western-orientated view of history.
He explores the reason why so many old maps depict areas of the world that had not been reached by European explorers at the time they were drawn. In fact, European exploration exploded after the acquisition of maps that showed new territories that might be claimed.
Menzies contends that in those early days, the only nation that had the wealth, ability and impetus to build the number of oceangoing ships that would be required for exploration was China.
While England’s Henry V was celebrating his marriage to the French Princess Catherine with a meal of salted cod served on rounds of bread for plates, the Chinese Emperor Zhu Di had been entertaining 26,000 guests, including potentates and envoys from East Africa, Arabia, the Indies, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and Korea at the inauguration of his newly built Forbidden City Palace in what is now Beijing.
Three gigantic fleets, each consisting of hundreds of ships, were tasked with returning these guests to their home ports. They then assembled at Zanzibar with a new task: to map their route.
Their square-rigged sails and hull shape meant they could only sail with the wind and current. But they sailed south and were swept around the Cape, up the west coast of Africa and finally to the Cape Verde Islands.
From here the fleets split up. One caught a current that took it westward into the Caribbean. It sailed past Florida to Rhode Island, where many crew members rescued from damaged ships set up a colony at the same latitude as Beijing.
What remained of the fleet went on to circumnavigate Greenland and across the top of Russia to get back to Beijing.
Some Europeans had travelled as guests with the fleet and so they could bring their knowledge to European map makers.
The other two fleets caught a current that took them down the eastern coast of South America and through the Strait of Magellan, where they split.
One swept up the west coast of South America to the Equator, across the Pacific to the Philippines and down to eastern Australia. It then sailed north past Japan and swept up to Alaska and San Francisco Bay, thence to Mexico, across to the Philippines, then home.
The other fleet went south, past Tierra del Fuego to the southern ice sheet, the Falklands, South Shetland, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands to the south and west coasts of Australia, then home via India.
All these places appeared on various maps before the Portuguese and Spanish set sail — to places they had seen on the maps. There is evidence that the Portuguese were making trips to the Caribbean long before Columbus got there, but told no one.
Gerald R. Kimber, Lymington, Hampshire.
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