National Limerick Day.

National Limerick Day.

Above the sadness and desperation, the dread and tear stained announcements we can at least reach out to think of the light hearted and absurd, the silly and the whimsical, something to make you giggle and chuckle, tickling your funny bone because it's something you haven't been able to do for quite a while. And besides, you've got to let yourself go occasionally because you'd go mad if you didn't. The problem is that however hard you try there doesn't seem a great deal to laugh about. Still, you've got to give it a go so here goes.

Ladies and Gentlemen today is National Limerick Day. You see, it's been said. Now this one is full of potential and you've already broken into a smile so that's half the battle done. Yes folks today is the day when both Ireland and presumably the rest of the world dream up some of the most imaginative rhyming jokes, play with vivacious verse and try to change the mood of the world. We all need a healthy dose of humour in our lives regardless of circumstances so what better time to dig out those wise words of wisdom, throw in a plentiful mixture of irony, root out all of those sugary lyrics and add another  a sweet coating of scintillating poetry just for good measure.

For decades and centuries we have all found comfort in words, the wonderful flexibility of the English language and always come up with some magical limerick which may have been considered cheesy or corny to those who dismiss such frothy frivolity. But when Edward Lear produced his repertoire of such simplicity and flowing rhyme you had to believe that everything was well in the world.

Of course we are still grieving over the innumerable fatalities in the light of Covid 19 but when could we fail to be amused by those ageless references to 'There was an old man or woman from Stoke who always found they were broke'? Limericks can be saucy, controversial, perhaps too vulgar for words but maybe we could find just an afternoon to dip into the works of somebody like Lear to lighten up our lives if only because there has to be something designed to make us look on the brighter side of life.

Undoubtedly we appreciate the benefits of good mental health but if somebody does come up to you with a freshly minted limerick be prepared to hold your sides together. It does seem a crying shame that the art of limerick telling would seem to have fallen out of fashion and favour. But you can be guaranteed that in the homes of Dublin, Cork and County Mayo, the wordsmiths and the street poets will be fashioning their pretty necklaces of quaint prose.

Sadly, the world of both poetry and limerick isn't quite the crowd puller it used to be in so much that none of us can really understand the finer intricacies of these lyrical genres. Words have always meant a great deal to some of us and there is a marvellous resonance and sentimentality about a limerick that can never be explained as such. Limericks take us back to our childhood, hit a very sensitive chord in some period of our lives. They may seem highly insignificant to the vast majority of those who love our literature but they do make you feel so much better about yourselves particularly if you've had a grotty day at the office.

Still, across a small cross section of the literary world, large groups will gather together on Zoom and compare notes on their own personal composition. So pick up your pen, pencil or move over to your laptop and think of anything that may just boost your sagging morale. Limericks may not be to everybody's fancy but at least they remove you from the mundane and perhaps convince you that not all in the world is beyond salvation.

It is hard to take limericks at all seriously because most of are caught up at the moment with far more urgent considerations and priorities. But if you do happen to find yourself with a spare moment it may be advisable to think of that childlike rhyme that quite suddenly shifted your pessimistic mind set.

Regrettably the pubs, clubs and literary societies who always attach an extraordinary amount of importance to the good, old fashioned limerick date back to a gentler time when literature was something to be cherished and admired. Limericks, to all intents and purposes, belong in the world of folk songs, lovely old myths, gripping stories about people and places of fascinating interest. So there you are. It's National Limerick Day and it's time to have some fun with words, literature and grammar. Edward Lear would certainly have recognised its traditional values. And there can be nothing wrong with that.