TONY BURKE at 70
 
Congratulations you made it, you jammy-git! Big shit!
I don’t know how, or why, but you did it, to the average life
expectancy for a man born to Belfast in 1947.
 
According to Darwin (and your daughter) you have won at life,
beat gun-points, jungles, wars, sickness, strife; a family; a wife;
 
Beat the wolf, who sat patiently trying to drag the life out of you; sticky blood, the aches, the pains, the depression; how did he do it? Perhaps it was the self-medication? Or just that sheer bloody-mindedness.
 
What of Tony Burke, how did the jammy-git, big shit make it so far? He loves people, he loves life, he loves me, he loves my brother, he loves my mother, he loves his brother’s and sister’s families and his mother; he loves life, he wants to listen, he wants to learn.
 
Tony Burke be proud of yourself, you made it. Be 70. Stand tall, look forwards and know that life has no further expectations of you; you have love for life, life has love for you. We’re only human after all.
 
Love you always (even when you are a pain in the arse!)
Proud of ya, your daughter
 
Isabella Burke – 17 February 2017