'SPOONS' MCKENNA

TP with neice Fiona at Wilfield Park

This is an immensely special snapshot, for a number of reasons.  Firstly, TP is hugging his neice Fiona whom he clearly thought was beguiling.  Secondly it recalls a curious time in TP's career when having moved his family to London in 1972,   suddenly, and perversely, film and stage offers started cropping up in Ireland and he needed a regular place to stay. 

Quite how it came about and what pre-discussion there might have been is really not clear (probably none), but for a period of at least a decade, TP was always welcome to stay with his younger brother, Peter,  and his wondrously hospitable wife, Martina, in Wilfield Park, Sandymount.

Naturally,  this made TP's life more than straightforward.  He was able to work away from home while enjoying the comfort and stiumulation of his brother's family  life as it would expand to include sons Peter and Nicholas.  

TP always liked to think that he was the most perfect of guests and he was proud to boast that his good friend, Norman Rodway, with whom he had stayed in London would refer to him as 'Slippers McKenna', so quiet were his comings and goings.

Well, that was TP's version of events. In Dublin, meantime ,  apparently exasperated one day at the lack of a teaspoon in his brother's house,   he took himself to the picturesque hardware store on the corner of Sandymount Green and purchased a dozen teaspoons.  

More than smugly satisfied with himself,  he made his way back to Wilfield Park and proceeded to the master bedroom where Peter was aspiring towards a weekend lie-in.

Unannounced, he entered the room and threw the spoons at his brother.

That he was not shown the door,  that he was ever spoken to again,  was a measure of the condition of T.P. McKennna.  He was impossible not to like.