My grandfathers on both sides were masons. Stonemasons, that is, with leather aprons but without the funny handshakes. Grand-uncles and uncles were also in the same craft.  Their work adorns walls and bridges all over County Carlow. I’m the first to break a century and more of tradition.

Then again, maybe it depends. Stonemasonry involves picking and then shaping the right stone for the right place in a greater structure. Done right the result is solid and sometimes even downright impressive, as much art as craft.

Picking and placing words in a sentence, and a sentence in a paragraph and paragraphs into a finished article or story follows the same process – only the materials differ.

So maybe the stonemason gives way to the wordmason? And something of the tradition’s essentials continues? It would be nice to think so, if only in some small way.