Madeleine D'Arcy
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The Quiet Matchstick Man

6/8/2012

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Picture
On 12th May 2012 I met Jeremiah O’Hara in Daunt Square, Cork. It was an uncharacteristically sunny day and I was walking home from town. I had other things to do that day and I didn’t intend to stop. In fact, I walked past him at first but something odd had caught my eye so I felt impelled to retrace my steps.

Yes. The gentleman sitting quietly on the concrete bench in front of the O2 shop did have what looked like a miniature church by his side. He smiled at me and I smiled at him.

‘Excuse me,’ I said. ‘Is this yours?’

He told me it was. He had made it himself. When I looked closely I saw that his model of a church was made entirely out of matchsticks and was incredibly detailed.

‘How long did it take you?’ I asked.


‘Nineteen months,’ he said.

‘Gosh,’ I said. I was impressed. It wasn't even a church he knew, it was a church he'd imagined in his head. Now, I'm not keen on churches, but I liked his.

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Jeremiah took some photographs from his pocket and showed them to me. It became evident that he’s been working with matchsticks for years. These were very complex matchstick creations.

I thought they were wonderful and told him so. The idea of making any kind of art for very little reward or recognition, without much thought as to whether it’s in fashion or out, cool or uncool, delighted me. 

Jeremiah said he didn’t mind if I wrote about him on my newly-created blog and when I asked to take a few photos with my phone he said that was fine too. 

As we conversed further I found out that his name was Jeremiah O’Hara. 

‘No relation to Maureen O’Hara?’ I quipped, referring to the film star.

‘No,’ he grinned. ‘But they do call me “The Quiet Man”.’

(Maureen O’Hara starred with John Wayne in a 1952 John Ford film called ‘The Quiet Man’.)

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Jeremiah was collecting for charity but his method was so subtle that I doubted its efficacity. He had no sign saying what he was up to. He simply sat there with his model next to him. The small jamjar for donations wasn’t even visible – he kept it in another coat pocket.

Any donations went for the Children’s Ward of the Mercy Hospital, Cork, for children with leukaemia. Jeremiah showed me the thank you letter he’d received from the Mercy Hospital for his previous donation. 

He also showed me his licence to collect for charity that Saturday. He told me that the first time he did it he hadn’t realised he had to have a licence – so he made sure to be legal this time round.

I suggested that perhaps he needed a proper sign. He said he probably did. He seemed pretty relaxed about it all. I thought that being relaxed about stuff was probably a good thing.

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    Author

    Madeleine D’Arcy was born in Ireland and later spent thirteen years in the UK. She worked as a criminal legal aid solicitor and as a legal editor in London before returning to Cork City in 1999 with her husband and son. She began to write fiction in 2005.

     Madeleine’s début collection of short fiction, Waiting For The Bullet (Doire Press, 2014) won the Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Prize 2015 (UK).

     In 2010 she received a Hennessy X.O Literary Award for First Fiction as well as the overall Hennessy X.O Literary Award for New Irish Writer.

     Her work has been short-listed and commended in many other competitions.

     Publication credits include: Sunday Tribune; Made in Heaven and Other Short Stories; Sharp Sticks, Driven Nails (Stinging Fly Press); Irish Examiner; Necessary Fiction; Irish Independent; Irish Times; The Penny Dreadful; Long Story Short; Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Arts; Short Story (University of Texas, Brownsville, Vols 20.2, 21.2); Unbraiding the Short Story (Ed. Maurice A Lee); Surge: New Writing From Ireland (O’Brien Press, 2014) and Quarryman (UCC/Bradshaw Books, 2014), and Headstuff.org (10 July 2015).

     New stories are forthcoming in The Elysian Anthology and Edge Hill Press Anthology 2016.

    Her work has also featured on RTE Radio programmes Arena and Sunday Miscellany.

    Madeleine was a scholarship student on the inaugural MA in Creative Writing in UCC from 2013-2014 and obtained First Class Honours.

    A short film of her story ‘Dog Pound’, featuring the distinguished Irish actor Frank Kelly, was premièred at the Hennessy Literary Awards in April 2014 and can be viewed on Youtube: 
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSl3orufxqE


    She ran Probys Quay Writers’ Workshop from 2009-2011. She has facilitated workshops at West Cork Literary Festival 2014, Doolin Writers’ Weekend 2015 and in Cork City. She is currently writing a novel.

    You can contact Madeleine at madeleinedarcy@eircom.net or via Facebook, where her account is Madeleine D’Arcy Lane, and she will get back to you as soon as possible.




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