Billy King shares his monthly thoughts
Well, isn’t it a strange world when some TDs and parties in the Dáil believe you can be in government and opposition at the same time, to their advantage, and is an abuse even of a majoritarian system that believes it can ride roughshod over minorities. Whether you believe in inclusive voting methodologies for everything or not, it is certainly an argument for the kind of voting systems promoted by the de Borda Institute www.deborda.org which could help arrive at a fair consensus relatively effortlessly and avoid months of messing around. It doesn’t have to be like this debacle over speaking rights for government-supporting ‘independents’. And in fact (with the same voting methodologies) it doesn’t have to be back room deals in forming a government either when there is no clear overall arithmetic majority for any party or couple of parties – it was these back room deals which led to this mess in the first place.
The unstrangeness of the kindness of strangers
It is probably entering Rutger Bregman ‘Humankind’ territory https://www.innatenonviolence.org/readings/2020_07.shtml and the nature of human nature but there was a great little experiment conducted in Belfast recently, a game of “Where’s wallet?” rather than “Where’s Wally?”. Apparently it is a recognised international methodology to deliberately ‘drop’ wallets in public places and see how many are returned; research shows that more wallets are returned than people think, in other words, people are kinder than other people estimate. In this case the wallets had £10, some personal mementos, and a note saying if found to please contact a particular phone number. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cewkqjlpg0vo
Ten wallets were placed or ‘dropped’ around Belfast city centre in different locations. And do you know what – all ten were returned, some via a police station. How is that for the kindness of strangers and the kindness of the people of Belfast. Mind you, if it was £100 or £1,000 in the wallet there might have been more gone astray and more conscience-searching (though the prospect of a reward if sums were larger might also have figured in finders’ thoughts) but as it was the finders of all of the ten wallets took the effort to get in touch and reunite the supposed loser with the wallet. And – in a Belfast accent – “ ’Wallet’ be enough to persuade you of the goodness of ordinary Belfast people?”
Routine harassment of politicians
During the Troubles in Norn Iron, sticking your head above the political parapet – of any kind, not just party politics – was dangerous. As well as vilification from ‘the other side’ there could be vilification from ‘your own side’ because you were seen to be selling out the cause, plus threats of violence, actual violence and occasionally assassination. Have those days gone? Yes in a very limited kind of a way in that causes have changed slightly but North and South of the border, emboldened by the social media era, serious threats continue and are particularly prevalent and unpleasant for women through misogynistic social media attacks which are totally reprehensible and these include threats of rape and murder.
We all have our least favourite politicians and political groupings. That is natural. But however much we may disagree with a political viewpoint the question is whether the exponents of it have the right to express their point of view – they do, subject to human rights and the laws of the land (as a nonviolent activist I am not always opposed to defying the existing laws, depending on circumstances and preparedness to take the consequences but am very aware of not causing violence, or threats of violence, against people). Some politicians may indeed be there because they are on the make, or subsequently see their prominence as an opportunity to do so, but most are there wanting to serve their community however widely or narrowly they define ‘their community’.
Disagreement is fine, and there is lots to disagree about, but there is a fine line between tackling the ball in play and tackling the man or woman with it because feeling threatened is not good for the individuals concerned but neither is it good for politics as it can make people reject getting involved. It is also symptomatic of a wider malaise where threats and violence, e.g. against migrants and migrant facilities, are seen as an effective way of getting an issue dealt with to your satisfaction. But then systems need also to listen to people’s needs and deal with them and some reactions against migrants are because the needs of longer term residents are unaddressed.
Human nature hasn’t changed. What has changed in the culture of the times – worse than some times, better than others – and currently unregulated technological advances which permit harassment without consequences.
Quare times
Times are always a bit quare but you might say they are particularly quare at the moment. In the USA the presidential apparatus is gunning (sic) to take over all aspects of governance and banning free speech all over the place while letting on they are protecting it (that is how it’s done); 21st century McCarthyism may well far outpace 1940s/1950s McCarthyism. Political analysts had warned that during the Biden presidency the Trumpian right was getting really organised to come back with a bang but its has proved to be quite a BANG. Whether the US constitution in terms of the separation of powers can withstand the shock remains to be seen…but then the system is also archaic in a variety of ways. Elon Musk is obviously prominent in the auto industry but who would have guessed even a year ago that he’d be prominent in the autocracy industry as well.
In Germany for the first time in the modern era a far right party is the main opposition, and obviously Hungary has been straining at the leash for some time in a far right direction. But then we look at something like a social democratic type government in Britain, with Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, and we see them cutting disability benefits – with general social security benefits already some of the poorest in Europe – pushing hundreds of thousands more into dire poverty. Norn Iron First Monister Michelle O’Neill hit the nail on the head when she called Starmer’s £2.2 billion increase in the military budget part of a “macho agenda of militarisation”. Also in Britain recently we had police breaking in (literally) to a Quaker Meeting House and arresting those at a peaceful meeting https://www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-events/news/quakers-condemn-police-raid-on-westminster-meeting-house and you know democracy is in trouble.
Both parts of Ireland seem to be almost bastions of normality in contrast, something I never thought I might just about say concerning Norn Iron. However we cannot congratulate ourselves. Threats against and destruction of migrant facilities in the Republic are the total opposite of not only Ireland of a bit of welcome but also a denial of the Irish history of emigration. As mentioned above, threats against politicians are two a penny/cent (choose your local currency). The move to remove the Triple Lock in the Republic is being foisted on the citizenry by duplicitous means. The very recent forcible removal of members of Mothers Against Genocide from in front of the Dáil after an all night vigil for Palestine and Palestinian children, when they were going to move soon anyway, is not a great ad for the Gardaí or Irish law ‘n disorder. And while divisions in the North might be relatively quiescent they haven’t gone away, you know (and neither have some paramilitaries).
Quare times indeed. But we must believe our time will come or we will quare the pitch for progress.
Burke-ing up the wrong tree
Enoch Burke and family are excellent at getting publicity for their cause, most recently trying to disrupt an Ireland Funds dinner in Washington DC in mid-March. For those who aren’t familiar with the case or issue, it stems from Enoch Burke’s refusal to use the desired pronouns for a transgender young person in a school in Co Westmeath where he has been a teacher; as a particular variety of conservative evangelical Christian he sees that as an attack on his faith. Refusing to be bound over to not come to the school, he has spent a considerable amount of time in prison.
Undoubtedly he and his family consider him to be a Christian martyr and their lives seem to be consumed with the issue. Perhaps the USA trip was an effort to get right wing support there, though if so it does not seem to have been particularly successful. The Irish Times (18/3/25) reported that ‘ “We live in fear in Ireland”, Martina Burke’ [[Enoch’s mammy]] ‘said outside the venue. “My son has spent over 500 days in Mountjoy Prison simply because he will not affirm a 15-year-old boy in transgender ideology and use the they pronoun. “ ‘ But it is not as simple as that. Disruption to the school is a principal issue.
However three areas of consideration come to mind. When it comes to the Christian faith, which is what this is meant to be about for the Burkes, I am not sure where its teachings say you should not use the desired pronouns for any individual. And if the greatest value of the Christian faith is meant to be love, where is the love shown to the young person concerned? In fact it seems to be the opposite of love. Coming out as transgender is a very difficult path to take and those involved deserve all the love and support they can get, not least for their bravery. I could also point out that the founder of the Christian religion, if I can call Jesus that, mixed with everyone and anyone and didn’t set preconditions for interacting with people. And can everyone expect society at large to adhere to what they see as the requirements of their own religious beliefs? No is the short answer to that.
The second consideration is pragmatism. We can all be martyrs for our cause if we want to be, and it is certainly brave of Enoch Burke to spend so long in prison for his beliefs. Perhaps he and his family see progress for their cause through such martyrdom. He can continue to protest as long as he wants but suffer the legal consequences. But there is such a thing as pragmatism. Perhaps he could find a way around the issue if he desired, e.g. only using the young person’s name and not a pronoun. Or he could seek a job where he would not be confronted with such an issue. Proportionality is also an issue in relation to pragmatism here. And he can publicise the issue by his course of action but the chances of getting change are extremely slim; some things you have to live with or be in for a long haul.
Finally, the Burkes are also a family extremely well versed in the law, some of them being lawyers or legally trained. They should know that there can be clashes between different human rights which set up tricky interactions and decisions. The young person concerned has the right to be treated with respect and dignity. Enoch Burke has the right to his own religious and social beliefs – but he does not have the right to be disrespectful and abusive of a young person, particularly in a school setting and when he is ignoring school policy.
Of course nonviolent or other protest is a possibility when you see an issue which you feel needs corrected. However I would suggest to the Burke family that there are other issues of greater importance and it is the Burke family themselves who are the cause of an injustice in opposing a caring response to a young person in need of support at this stage in their life.
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Well, sin é, spring is sprung and I hope you are thinking of planting something somewhere is terms of seeds or plants, be it in a window box or a plot of ground – it’s a plot! Green fingers are made from experience, not born, so if at first you don’t succeed it can be very trying, but give it another go. And as April and May are the driest months in Ireland, it’s time to be out and about if you can. See you soon, Billy.