Love stories begin in Zhivago’s Part !
I have long felt that Cavan has been losing out as a tourism destination because of its reluctance to embrace Romantic tourism. This may be because many of those charged, either past or present, with marketing the county don’t know where it is. There are some romantic locations, not least the Dun A’ Ri forest park with its Lovers’ Walk. Well I’d like to suggest a couple of other locations with romantic connections, but to do so I have to tell a love story so bear with me please.
As a young teenager I recall spending quite a bit of time in the back rows of Cavan’s fleapit The Magnet Cinema. This was the location of some voyages of discovery by me when I wasn’t really looking at the screen that much. I recall an advertising campaign that ran in those days for a Dublin night spot which seemed to be the very epitome of sophistication: it was called Zhivago’s Nightclub and the tagline, spoken by a gent with a camp English accent, was “Love stories begin in Zhivago’s”. Well there is a location here in Cavan where love stories begin. One of the heroes was inspired not so much by Boris Pasternak’s novel but by the over-sentimentalised film adaptation starring Julie Christie and Omar Sharif. In fact he really identified with Sharif to the extent that he trimmed his moustache to look like him.
The location for my love story is a decommissioned convent which has been forced to close its doors because of the fall off in vocations and turn itself into a second-hand clothes emporium and vintage car repair shop, which is called (you’ve guessed it) – Zhivago’s. But I think I’ve whetted my readers appetites enough already and so I’ll continue this love story with its heart rending and bowel turning pathos in my next instalment.
