*
O’Connelly was not an amateur of fancy cuisine, he put it down to his Irish mother whose cooking he adored. It was why, when not having to pamper his agent, publisher and the like, he preferred the typical French bistro style restaurants, of which there were many in the Marais. Amongst these were L’Épicerie or Au Bourgogne du Marais, both of which were just one hundred yards from his place on the corner of rue François Miron and rue Jouy. That evening, however, he had chosen a Colombian restaurant for Liam and Gisele, a reminder of their short but exuberant sojourn in Cartagena.
It was a pity that Pat Kennedy and Tom Barton were not there to join them and an even greater pity Michael Fitzwilliams could never again join in the fun, something he had never frowned upon. A lot of changes had taken place in the course of 2015, a year O’Connelly would not easily forget.
France was changing, or was it? Out of work artists, actors, musicians, jugglers and magicians had always been part of the scene. The difference today was they were joined by an army of frauds and hangers-on. Why? Because they paid and could enjoy their marginal lives, smoking cannabis, drinking and passing their lives in cafés talking about the roles they would never play or the books they would never write. They had an audience of willing listeners including life long students, mystics, therapists and all the rest, denigrating those who worked and paid taxes to support their indolent lives.
O’Connelly was a journalist become writer. He was from an Anglo-Saxon world where journalists were not indebted to the state for the regal subsidies paid to the press or the pension privileges and tax breaks accorded to journalists in France. Not only did his work ethic and independence drive him, he also refused to see himself himself as part of the establishment with its politically correct luvvies and its self satisfied ways. He was apolitical, his choices were based on a rational consideration of events and a strong empathy for victims, whatever the cause: war, poverty, discrimination, politics, disease and simple bad luck, however, that did not make him an unconditional bobo.
Cornucopia Page 113
