Do we really need another Dawn French saccharine M&S Christmas advert… no, give us a simple Irish message from festive Fermanagh.
Enniskillen, in the north of Ireland, is seared into the international consciousness for an atrocity which befell the town.
On Remembrance Day 36 years go.
Which is marked now with a lasting memorial.
So it is reviving to see the market town now celebrated for its message of peace and brotherhood rather than decried for its darkest hour.
The unlikely heroes of this story are an old man who seeks companionship and shelter from the cold.
Charlie Bravo
Having placed flowers on a grave and having been ignored on the street he pops into Charlie’s Bar.
Where a dog sits himself opposite the old man and a couple at the bar follow their mutt to sit and sup with him.
And not a mince pie, turkey, stuffing, cracker or anything else that M&S are selling this Christmas, in sight.
Of course, the message that manageress Una Burns is sharing in the £700 video.
Which has garnered millions of views on X and 60,000 likes on TikTok is hospitality and companionship.
Which is, of course, the essence of Irishness.
Now, being a son of Irish hotel and bar people, with a sprinkling of weaver and shop people from this part of the world, I can vouch for that.
The bar is the ideal starting and finishing point on your tour of the Fermanagh Lakelands.
Where you can explore the waterways, caves and historic sites and go walking, kayaking and hydrobiking.
Of course, all of that will put a thirst on you and that is best slaked with a pint of plain as they say in these parts… the magical Guinness.
But Fermanagh also boasts a thriving gin industry too in a setting unmatched anywhere we’d wager.
Joe McGirr’s pride and joy Boatyard Distillery is on the banks of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland and can accessed by both boat and road.
And we know which one would be more fun.
Enniskillen native Joe learned his trade well in Edinburgh and in ten years at the Glenmorangie distillery in Tain in the Highlands.
Before adapting his new-found knowledge back home in Ireland.
Which we, of course, road tested instead pf working one autumn day in Dublin’s Temple Bar.
Of course our Christmas old man and his pals prefer a Guinness around the table.
And the doggie a bowl of water at Charlie’s.
But whatever your tipple the simple Irish message from festive Fermanagh is the Gaelic watchword Fáilte.
