For centuries, no historical event in this country has gone uncommented, whether orally or in the written form. While the story of Father Murphy setting the heather blazing was never going to make Boolavogue into a light-hearted ditty, there's surely got to be someone out there now, penning a Tour de France ballad with a catchy chorus that will make us simultaneously groan and giggle.
David Wheatley (27) is certainly making mileage out of the Tour. A Wicklow man, he was recently awarded the £5,000 Rooney Prize for his first collection of poems, Thirst (Gallery Press), and stretching the usual county boundaries of this column a bit we talked to him about his latest poem, The Bicycle Pump, an ode written to mark the passing of the Tour de France through his home county.
Perhaps surprisingly, he doesn't think it will make it into his second book. "It's an occasional piece," he says, tongue placed firmly in cheek. "I try to make my work open to social commentary and contemporary reality."
Poetry in motion, you could say.
On July 12th, the Tour de France will be tracking through Bray, Kilmacanoge, Ashford, Rathnew, Wicklow town, Arklow, Woodenbridge, Rathdrum, Laragh, the Wicklow Gap and Blessington. The sheep will be in trauma for generations. David plans on watching the Tour in Bray where he lives.
Is he a cyclist himself? "I used to cycle around the Wicklow Gap but I wouldn't be so active now," he admits. Then adds: "It took me so long to get from Bray to Rathdrum by public transport today that I'd have been quicker on a bike."
At the end of April, David was appointed Wicklow's first writer-in-residence, covering the county, but based in Wicklow town, where the arts officer also works.
Since taking up the position, he has given a number of readings in local schools and is in the process of setting up a series of workshops in fiction, poetry and drama based in Wicklow town.
He is also visiting established writers' groups and workshops around Wicklow. "They all seem to be on the east coast," he confides. "I think it must be something to do with the DART line. I'd love to hear from groups that are based in the west of the county."
The end of his six-month residency in October will coincide with a weekend literary event in the west Wicklow village of Tinahealy. "The courthouse at Tinahealy has recently been converted and the festival will be based in there."
David is also involved in an anthology of writers "from and about Wicklow" which will be launched that weekend to mark the festival.
Meanwhile, with the subject of the Tour de France safely in the saddlebag, the Bard of Wicklow is "available for weddings, funerals, baptisms and any other family events".
The Bicycle Pump Coming over the Wicklow Gap on my bike, Or should that be my bicyclette or velo, I notice a cyclist lying flat on his back In a ditch, and shout over a worried "Hello - Bonjour - Tout va bien? - are you all right?"
"Oui oui, yes yes," he said and straightened up.
"I heard the Tour de France was passing through These parts in '98 and stole a ride On General Humbert's ship;
I've been stuck here waiting ever since.
A hundred years I wouldn't mind, but two . . .
You wouldn't have a bicycle pump by any chance?"
