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ATTACH YOURSELF TOSTRINGS IN CORK

Some of our finest youngmusicians will be at theOrtús Chamber MusicFestival, starting on Friday.The three-day event kicksoff at the Mall Arts Centre inYoughal, where composerSam Perkin will debut Pause,commemorating the 1916Rising. Saturday’s concert atUniversity College Corkfeatures Bach and Mozartwhile Sunday’s at the SiriusArts Centre in Cobh includesTchaikovsky and Beethoven.ortusfestival.ie

Cable guy dramasmade me a livewirebefore college years

TH IS WEEKWHY NOT

I N A N O T H E R L I F E

When I left school, I wentto work as a trainee with [the hotelchain] Jurys in Sligo. My father had agrocery store in Stepaside, but he took illand couldn’t work, so I had to give up mytraining, come back to Dublin and workin the shop.I was there for two years. We sold the

store in February 1974 and I wanted to goback to the hotel business, so I got aplace in Cathal Brugha Street. It meantI would go back to college in theSeptember but I had nothing to do fromFebruary until then.I saw an ad and went for an interview

at a company called Marlin CommunalAerials. I got the job. In those days therewas no cable television in Dublin;everyone had their own aerial. ThisCanadian company arrived and decided itwould put cable along everyone’s house,supplying the English channels everyonewanted. They would put up a huge aerial— don’t ask me where — and the feedwould be put out through the wire.

The job was calling at houses whoseresidents had refused to let the wire goon their property. If the No 2 house of600 on an estate said no, you couldn’t getto the other 599, and that was where themoney was. The person would be sent tonegotiate with house No 2 to see ifthe resident would let us put the cablethrough their property.I trained with a lad in Malahide. He

was terrified of people, so we would go tothe Grand hotel and have two pints, andthen go to Gibney’s pub and have twomore, before he would even go talking toanybody. He was so bad at talking topeople, and I thought: “Oh, there’s amuch better way to do this.”The company policy was to get your

wire on as many houses as possible.It was unregulated at that time, soyou could go anywhere. The company

knew that it was going to be regulated bylaw, which did come in later, butwherever your cable was on the day itbecame regulated, you could leave itthere. So the plan was “get the wireseverywhere, quickly”.I ended up in Deansgrange and

Stradbrook Road — that was my area.On the Monday morning the companywould give me 12 or 14 cases to dealwith. I was well able to chat, and when Ilooked at a garden I would knowhydrangeas, roses and ivy — all thedifferent plants. I was only 19.I would arrive at your house, sit down

and say: “We need to get this wire byyour house because the lady up the roadin No 11 is housebound and she loves thetelevision, and if we don’t get it by yourhouse she’ll never get the television.” SoI put guilt on the people to make surethey allowed it.The 12 or so cases would be my week’s

work, but I would finish them by noonon the Tuesday, no trouble. I’d just get onwith it — I wasn’t going to the pub forfour pints.There were cases that were severe,

when the fella would nearly take ashotgun to you to get out of the way. Iwould be sent on those “special cases”,

Hotelier and At Your Service star Francis Brennan thrived in his role selling televisionconnections in Dublin during the 1970s — and even found the time to work as a waiter

There were cases that weresevere, when the fella wouldnearly take a shotgun to youto get out of the way

CONTENTSL I F EM A K I N G I T I NT I N S E L T O W NVicki Notaro meets the Irish peopleforging a career in the LA film industryP6

F O O DL O V E S H A C KMeet Cedric Bottarlini, a half-Spanishhalf-Italian chef who takes Valentine’sDay very seriously indeedP12

E R N I EW H A L L E YThis week he reviews Vietnameserestaurant Hanoi Hanoi on Dublin’strendy Capel StreetP14

T R A V E LB E S T O FG R E E C E

Beautiful beaches, traditional tavernasand the best island escapesP17

T H E B I GW E E K E N D :B R U S S E L SRebecca Myers discovers the Belgiancapital is more party than politicsP23

I N G E A RU L T I M A T ER O A D T R I PGraeme Lennox meets the Irishteam taking part in the Mongolrally, a charity race that startshere and endsin Ulan UdeP31

CoverphotographbyDeclan

Doherty

14 .02 . 2016 / 3

All in a day’s workBrennan had a job atDublin’s Step inn,below, while at Marlin

RTÉ

which could be anywhere in Dublin, andI had difficult ones. But I would explainthat the wire would go underneath yourhedge, over your pergola and around theback of your extension, and I could giveyou free service for a year — I could giveit to you for life, actually, but I wouldnever say that at the start.We had to negotiate getting the wire

across all these gardens and around thebushes. I did well and never had a failure.The Marlin job was full-time but I got

a second job, at the Step inn. It wasDublin’s first pub with food, I wouldsay, and I worked there as a waiter.I loved it. I ran two jobs because I had thetime to. However, I left Marlin eventuallybecause I just wasn’t comfortable doingthe work anymore.To this day, at the back entrance to

University College Dublin, off theClonskeagh Road, there are five houses ina circle without piped television, and Itold them they would get it 42 years ago.To bring a wire to an island of five houseswould require digging roads, and theywere never going to do that. They wouldsay to me: “Tell those people they willhave it on Tuesday,” but they still haven’tgot it today. I hated that.I did fine out of it, though, and

interrailed in Europe for the whole ofAugust on the money I had earned. Iwent to college in the September, and therest is history. I still keep my head downin Clonskeagh as I pass those five houses.

Francis Brennan presents At Your Serviceon RTE 1 on Sundays, 8.30pm

Interview by Yvonne Gordon

BECOME PART OF THE BEATGENERATION IN KILLARNEY

Learn to play the bodhran likea pro or make a song anddance of things at theGathering traditional festival inKillarney. The event, startingon Wednesday, has five daysof concerts, culture and craic.A céilí takes place each nightand instrument masterclasseswill be at the Gleneagle hotelon Saturday. INEC concertsfeature We Banjo 3, DeirdreGranville and BrendanMcCreanor. Passes cost €50and individual tickets are€10-€30. thegathering.ie

BLIND YOURSELF WITHSCIENCE IN BELFAST

Get to work in the NerveCentre, left, or take a celestialvoyage among the stars atthe NI Science Festival inBelfast, starting on Thursday.Visitors can see the latesttechnology and find out whatthe future holds through talksand lectures. Einstein’s theoryof relativity will be debated,while children’s events includediscovering the science behindStar Wars and Doctor Who.The festival has more than100 events and runs for 11days. nisciencefestival.com

LET THE CREDITS ROLLAMONG STARS IN DUBLIN

The Audi Dublin InternationalFilm Festival opens onThursday with theEuropean premiere ofJohn Carney’s SingStreet, left. MichaelCollins will be screenedat the Savoy cinema onSaturday to mark thefilm’s 20th anniversary.About 400 of the cast are

invited, and director NeilJordan hosts a Q&A. On

Sunday Angela Lansburydiscuss her career, at the BordGais Energy Theatre. diff.ie