Frank Carson plays a cracker for charity

It’s a cracker! Or is it a bunker? Whatever way you look at it, this quirky shot of the late Frank Carson retrieving his ball from a practice green before taking part in the Terry Wogan Golf Classic at Dún Laoghaire Golf Club in the summer of 1990 is a bit of a hole in one.

The comedian was well known for his charity work, which led to him being make a Knight of St Gregory by Pope John Paul II. He helped raise money for the children’s cancer ward at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, and left a substantial bequest to an integrated education fund in the North.

During his lifetime Carson was, of course, even better known for cheesy jokes. (Samples: “There was a man sitting in the dining room of the Titanic. He said: ‘I know I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous’.” Or: “An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar. The barman looks at them and says: ‘Is this some kind of a joke?’”)

Our photo boasts the same sort of unabashed – and slightly sinister – wackiness, with Carson’s trademark outsized glasses being dwarfed by the golf ball, the whole thing framed by blades of grass which look as sharp as shark’s teeth.

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How was it done? Remotely, for sure. We’d love to crack a joke about the photographer using a deep-faced driver, or some such, but we can’t think of one.

Anyhow this is golf, for goodness’ sake. It’s never funny. Except when it involves the actor Bill Murray – of Caddyshack fame – who, along with his five brothers, runs an annual charity golf tournament in St Augustine, Florida. And steals the show every year at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament in California, wearing outrageous outfits and spinning yarns such as the one about the composer who wrote all his music while he was young . . . so he could spend the rest of his life decomposing.

Yeah, I know. It’s not all that funny. Then again: you guessed it. It’s the way he tells them.

These and other Irish Times images can be purchased from irishtimes.com/photosales. A book, The Times We Lived In, with more than 100 photographs and commentary by Arminta Wallace, published by Irish Times Books, is available from irishtimes.com/irishtimesbooks and from bookshops, €19.99