As part of their on-stage banter, The Dubliners used to quip that “All the books that are banned in Ireland should be published in Irish, to encourage more people to learn their native tongue.”
There was no shortage of banned books back in the day. I’m reading one of them now. The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien.
About halfway through the book, I read this passage:
The parcels for the Halloween party were coming every day. I couldn’t ask my father for one because a man is not able to do these things, so I wrote to him for money instead and a day girl brought me a barmbrack, apples, and monkey-nuts.
Emphasis mine, because that little list sounded so familiar to me.
Back in 2011, I wrote a candygram for Jason. It was called Monkey nuts, barmbrack and apples.
It’s not exactly Edna O’Brien, but looking back at it fifteen years on, I think it turned out okay.