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
