"A blessing: That the frost might never afflict your spuds: that your cabbages will always be free from worms: that the crows might never pick your stack: that your she-goat might never dread the puck - and should you by good fortune come into possession of a mare donkey, may she be in foal."
Who better to deliver this ancient Kerry blessing than John B. Keane. And could there be a better occasion on which to do so than his 70th birthday, which he celebrated recently with family and friends in his Listowel pub? It was an evening of fun and laughter, music, poetry and storytelling. Above all it was a tribute to a special person. John B. has not been in the best of health recently, but that didn't prevent him joining in. At 1.45 p.m. on Christmas Eve, John B. will read a new story, A Christmas Story, on RTE Radio 1. It was recorded by producer Seamus Hosey by the fireside on a Sunday afternoon in the author's pub. Then, on New Year's Day, at 2 p.m. on the same radio channel, there will another opportunity to meet John B. when the events of the gala evening in his pub will be broadcast.
John B. started the night with "that somewhat spurious Kerry blessing," says Seamus Hosey, and set the tone for the evening. "From all over north Kerry and from further afield, poets, singers, story-tellers, dancers and chancers had all gathered to record an RTE Radio 1 special programme."
The master of ceremonies was Billy Keane, son of the author, poet and publican, whose quick wit brought cheer to the assembly. The pub was overflowing as John B. offered not just blessings but benedictions. He told his guests: "To many of the sex-starved wretches here tonight, sleep in your own home like I do. You can't go wrong."
Mick MacConnell brought silence to the din of the evening when he gave, as Seamus Hosey says, "a heart-rending version of his own song, Silent Night No Cannon Roar, a ballad about the Christmas ceasefire in the trenches in 1915. Another ballad, Dublin in the Rare Auld Times, was given a hearing because, in Billy Keane's words, "it's a long time since they won an All-Ireland, and some cultural diversity must be allowed."
Before the end of the evening, Seamus Hosey presented John B. with a framed photograph of the Dar-es-Salaam production of Sive by the Irish Society Drama Group in Tanzania last year. John B., according to Seamus, has a particular gift "for turning the parochial and the particular into the universal work of art". John B., clearly moved by the outpouring of sentiment in his favour, gave thanks and exhorted all present "who have loved or been loved" to keep it up.
John B's wife, Mary, remained in the background throughout the evening. Mrs Keane, says Seamus Hosey, "is the hub of the expansive Listowel dynasty" who watched the celebratory proceedings quietly, albeit smiling.
"Yeats was right. To look on is enough in the business of love. The man in the tweed cap at the bar lifted his pint and to nobody in particular, proclaimed: `Thank God we lived so long and did so little harm.' "