Wednesday, 9 September 2026

On Maeve Binchey's commemorative coin




 I wonder who collects collector coins?

And the unveiling of them seems to me 

to be a risky business altogether

for said coin could easily slip between the folds

of said veil and miss the show altogether

or be swept away by the flamboyant 

performance of the Central Bank unveiler

right into the pit of the auditorium,

maybe even reaching the gods,

like those tennis balls at Wimbledon

only returned at the behest of the umpire

threatening to suspend the match.


Anyway our very own Maeve Binchey

is to be honoured by the minting and unveiling

of a 15 euro silver proof coin,

more than seven times the value of the U2 coup.

A surprise ending. She would have loved that.


But given that she polled ahead of Jane Austen

and Charles Dickens and even Stephen King

in a millennial survey

and given her appearance on Oprah, The Late Late,

and even Fair City,

I say fair enough, especially for a woman 

who once described Beckett's spikey hair

as the probable result of a poor Brylcreem job.


Copyright 2026 Cathy Leonard


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