The Day we Stood Up the Lord Mayor by Paul Gibbons – 2022
It was the 6th of March 2020, just days before everything fell apart. Darndale was celebrating. It was the day the Astro Park was opening. It turned out to be the last event before the lockdown. The whole community turned out for it.
Politicians, local businesses, the FAI and Niall Quinn are coming. There were journalists from all the papers and local radio stations too.
Most importantly to me is that my nephew was coming. His name is Shane, and at that time he was 7 and a half years old. He needed to get there on time as he had an important job to do that day. However, it seemed that everyone was having trouble with time that day. Niall Quinn was already 2 minutes late and the worry increased when the Lord Mayor was even later still.
Then Shane turned up and it all started to go right again. But there was still no sign of the Lord Mayor. Shane says, “I’ll have to have a talk with him about being on time.” Shane is autistic, so time is very very serious to him.
Anyway, the Lord Mayor turned up – 16 minutes late. Shane was supposed to give him an award. But there was no way that was going to happen until he’d had a chat to him about his punctuality!
And even then, there was no way the award was getting handed over until Shane, Uncle Paul (that’s me!) and Niall Quinn had got a selfie together.
When that was all over, Shane was finally ready to give the Lord Mayor his award. Shane turned to the Dublin Live camera crew and said, “roll the camera there boys, the show is ready to begin!”
