Category Archives: Billy King

Only the Billy King columns from 2021 onwards are accessible here. For older columns by Billy King please click on the “Go to our pre-2021 Archive Website’ tag on the right of this page.

Billy King: Rites Again, 331

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , , , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Hello again, unfortunately there is one installation just across the Irish Sea which keeps popping up, continuing to cause concern (and has done for many decades): Windscale/Sellafield. Clearing up the radioactive mess there is a nightmare https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/04/sellafield-nuclear-clean-up-mps-public-accounts-committee?CMP=share_btn_url The issue of what happens to nuclear waste – and the cost of dealing with it – which needs contained for 10,000 years or so – means nuclear power is neither cheap, green nor relatively carbon friendly. And it is highly dangerous at the best of times with additional dangers through rising sea levels and the odd natural disaster or tsunami (think Fukushima).

The luxury of pacifism

Ah, I am bathed in luxury. Not. Ruth Dudley Edwards writes a regular column in the Belfast News Letter which publication takes a very staunch unionist approach these days (it did have a more liberal phase a few decades ago) with the conservative politics which tends to go with that. She recently wrote that “I never had the luxury of being a pacifist.” I am afraid that old trope got my goat which is a bit strange as I don’t have a goat and if I did it would quickly decimate our average-sized suburban garden. There were other points I would dispute in the same article but I will stick to that sentence. It appeared in the News Letter of 19/6/25 but behind a paywall; it is however on Ruth Dudley Edwards’ website at https://www.ruthdudleyedwards.co.uk/2025/06/when-it-comes-to-war-i-never-had-the-luxury-of-being-a-pacifist/

The first thing I would say if that while I accept the label of being a pacifist it is not usually a term I use. I would call myself a believer in nonviolence or a nonviolent activist. ‘Pacifism’ has lots of negative connotations in popular usage and is too close sounding to ‘passivism’ to be comfortable. However for me being a nonviolent activist is the very opposite of ‘passivism’ and the idea that ‘pacifism’ is a luxury, presumably implying a failure to make hard decisions and acting on them, is totally false.

Meanwhile the Headitor responded to Ruth Dudley Edwards’ piece with a letter to the News Letter and it was published some days later. “Ruth Dudley Edwards (Opinion, 19th June) may consider it being a ‘luxury’ to be a pacifist but I can assure her it is anything but that.  Whether based on the teachings of Jesus, Buddhism, secular morality, pragmatism or whatever, taking a stand against all forms of violence is far from being a luxury and requires very considerable imaginative and creative thought and work  – and often putting up with simplistic rejection of nonviolent possibilities.

Those believing  in nonviolence reject sticking plaster approaches to violence and the causes of violence and work to deal with root causes while also seeking to ameliorate its effects. I am not a Quaker but just think of Quaker work during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Modern research (e.g. Chenoweth and Stephan) show nonviolent resistance to injustice to be more effective, in a variety of ways, than violence. I stand with Mohandas Gandhi when he said “We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence.” That Gandhi quote is available as a mini-poster on the INNATE website https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/posters/

Pacifism and nonviolence a luxury? If only. It is not an easy choice to make, I don’t mean ideologically, but because of the reaction from many people who feel it is simplistic. If that is the case then the probable majority of people on this island, still identifying as some form of Christian, are extremely simplistic too given what Jesus had to say about violence and peace. And seeking to remove the root causes of violence and injustice is hard work. Maybe I could do with a bit more luxury.

Capping Kneecap

It is blindingly obvious that the members of Kneecap haven’t done courses in nonviolent communication – or if they had (!) they were too busy preparing raps to pay attention. Pushing out fairly violent images or language and justifying it as a joke or irony is an old act – though it is one which they do in their own inimitable way. And obviously they do enjoy taking the piss out of a whole variety of people. That is their style and part of what makes them attractive as vibrant, alternative figures to many, especially young people.

They are not likely to go away anytime soon. Their Irish language use and rapping is said to have done wonders for the attractiveness of the language among young Irish people. To target one of them with a court case in England over displaying a Hezbollah flag – which he was handed by a fan at a gig – is pretty ridiculous. I am certainly not the first commentator to say that if people in the whole of the UK were all prosecuted for being in possession of the flag of an illegal organisation then the courts in Norn Iron would be overwhelmed for years to come. Partly it is different rules for different parts of the UK and presumably also that the police in England felt that the had to act when there was such a spotlight (by rightwingers primarily which looks like it includes Keir Starmer in relation to his complaint about the inappropriateness of them playing at Glastonbury).

Of course for some people Kneecap’s strident criticism of Israel, and support for Palestine, is enough to give them a bashing. Favourable mention of drug use is another. But with popular opinion in Ireland being way ahead of many people around Europe on Palestine and Israeli state genocide in Gaza – and also in the West Bank – they are being judged for loose and sometimes violent language when their hearts are in the right place and their general judgement on this also. Trying to cap or contain Kneecap seems a pretty stupid exercise. However maybe they could do a course in nonviolent communication and still be abrasive, anticolonial commentators on the world today; now that would be an interesting challenge for them.

The House of Orange

There is a Orangefield area in Belfast but it has nothing to do with either the Orange Order or the fruit – it seems it was thus named from Huguenots who settled there who were from Orange in France. I do think Orangefield does have some Orange (Order) lodges however and it is that time of year in the North when marching around the place marking or claiming territory is part of culture for some Northern Protestants. The Twelfth July is a great family day out for those of that cultural-political and perhaps (for most of them) vaguely religious persuasion.

However Orangeism is based on exclusivity insofar as it is seeking to celebrate Protestantism and Britishness. The attempt to turn the Twelfth into ‘Orangefest’ and thus be more inclusive is on a hiding to nothing. How can celebrating victory in a battle of one ‘side’ over another ‘side’ be celebrated by the latter? I do go to the trouble of pointing out that if James won the Battle of the Boyne and ‘the war of the two kings’ then the boot would have been on the other foot and Prods would have been severely discriminated against instead of Taigs* – but that wasn’t what happened.

If you have never seen a Twelfth July parade in Norn Iron and you have the opportunity to do so, I would encourage you to take a look. You may not agree with the politics, brand of religion or frequent militarism represented but it is quite a spectacle and occasion and should form part of your political education on the North….and in any agreed solution in Ireland in the future those of an Orange persuasion have to be included. Being inclusive of exclusivism is a difficult act.

* I do use the usually extremely derogatory term ‘Taigs’ for Catholics in the North so long as I have the opportunity to explain its origin. It comes from the personal name Tadhg which means ‘poet’ and, not being of Catholic background myself – in fact I had an Orange Order grandfather – it is my attempt through using it and explaining its origin to ridicule its use. Abusing or attempting to abuse people by calling them a poet is simply laughable and not even poetic licence. Its origin lies in the once commonality of the name at the time and was a label which originated in the same way ‘Paddy’ or ‘Mick’ became labels for the Irish in Britain, common Irish male given names.

Unification

Everyone in the North may be for ‘unification’ but of who and what? In Norn Iron is it a United Kingdom or a United Ireland we want, or something different or inbetween? Often times people – us all – interpret statistics in a way that favours our point of view. Unionists often point to the fact that the proportion of ‘nationalist’ voters has not been increasing in recent elections in the North, which is true. However the Life and Times survey shows on the question of The Border that things are changing, especially among young people, in favour of a united Ireland, and a small but increasing number of Prods are also thinking about all-island unification. You can check out the sadistics for yourself at https://www.ark.ac.uk/nilt/2024/Political_Attitudes/REFUNIFY.html though that is just one poll.

However I would reiterate the line taken in this publication that it is incumbent on the Irish government to do more work in exploring what Irish unity might entail. People know what Norn Iron as part of the UK is like. People do not know what the parameters could or would be in the run up to, or in, a united Ireland. Rational decision making may not be what the people of the North are primarily known for but there should be as much encouragement of that rational decision making as possible. And that includes close examination of what a united Ireland might look like so people can make as informed a choice on their future as is possible. Nothing is decided and winds can change direction quickly. But the people of the North deserve the seriousness of looking at possibilities in detail.

Leafing through the Golden/Yellow Pages

You probably need to be approaching forty years old for this title to mean anything. The Golden Pages (Republic) and Yellow Pages (Norn Iron) were the commercial internet of their day but tailed off into oblivion once the internet took off and commercial firms had their own websites or were listed online under the service they provided. These large yellow paged books had entries for most commercial activities and you leafed through them to find a firm or firms to contact for the service or provision you sought. The simplest listing was just the name and phone number of the provider under the subject title; for additional fees to the company producing the book you could have a display advertisement.

About two decades ago the Golden/Yellow Pages briefly got smaller and then disappeared, to be followed in extinction by ‘ordinary’ phone books listing “everyone’s” number – unless you were in the exclusive category of ‘ex-directory’.

You may be surprised to learn that I still leaf through my Yellow Pages, not looking for a dry cleaners or a provider of legal services from a couple of decades ago but in search of flowers. “Flowers?” you may well ask. Yes. The size of the old Yellow Pages and the absorbency of the paper make them ideal for pressing flowers which, when dry, I use for making pressed flower cards. And the flowers aren’t arranged alphabetically so small ones I am searching for can be hard to find.

Technology has changed so many things in my lifetime. A duplicator was the go to machine for a considerable number of multiple copies in my young(er) days; this had an ink drum onto which you put a cut stencil, usually cut by typewriter keys without any ribbon. The quality was middling to atrocious and your hands usually ended up rather inky. Again these disappeared around three decades ago. For just two or three copies you might use carbon paper which was placed between the multiple layers of paper and with a manual typewriter you had to be sure to strike the keys hard. Photocopying quality was poor and expensive as well. Today you can photocopy for very little cost and even print multiple copies, and photocopy, with your home printer – unimagined luxuries in ‘my’ earlier days.

With AI enormous further strides are possible but AI also uses – relatively – a ginormous of power, and those data centres eat up one hell of a lot of electricity (metaphor deliberately chosen). FOE reports (see news item this issue) that a 100-word email generated by AI uses the equivalent of a 500 ml water bottle. And governments should act that only data centres providing all their power from additional green sources and additional water supply would be permitted, and that only on land which is not required for housing or agriculture. But the Irish government looks afraid to say boo to an AI or data firm goose with the country liable to turn into a data centre slum.

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Before ending, I wanted to mention an article about the struggle for peace and rationality in Norway. While Norway has not been neutral and has been in NATO, it has been regarded as relatively peace loving and progressive on international issues. Not any more as Glenn Diesen reveals https://tinyurl.com/2mkhbbfd (from World Beyond War and previously Substack). This is all very relevant to other countries especially another relatively small country like Ireland where the warmongers are advancing. Compare and contrast.

Something more to mention, among all the actions for Gaza and Palestine taking place around the country, is one from Monkstown, Co Dublin where a woman involved spoke about their weekly vigil for Palestine. “We do poetry, song, and link up with  local Palestinians  with updated reports of the savage cruelty being inflicted upon them, and most of all we meet recently arrived  families, who are here  for medical treatment. Amazing that the military elites have stooped so low, that it is only after your family have physical scars to show that they are allowed to leave the burning chaos of genocidal action, approved by the EU etc. A young girl of 7 years  recently arrived. She has only one eye and walks on her damaged left leg, after sick military cowards targeted her and her families in their tent.” This is where words fail me/you.

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Well, summer is here, in fact the summer solstice has already passed so it is downhill all the way to shorter days. [Always looking on the bright side, aren’t you? – Ed] I hope you get the break you need and at this time of year I usually quote the immortal words of Christy Moore in ‘Lisdoonvarna’ where he gave the best ever definition of summer holidays – “When summer comes around each year / They come here and we go there”. There you have it. I will return here at the start of September since there is only a news supplement in August. Until then, be good to yourself and be good to others, and I hope you will need that sun cream, Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again, 330

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , , , , , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts –

Well, welcome again to my musings, not too many amusings this month but still. Not very entertaining perhaps, INNATE did receive an email advertising wholesale ‘shotguns’ (rifles, including semi-automatic ones) during the month, prices starting at $200. Just what we always wanted. We are neither for gunning nor gurning so we will bid them begone before we have begun.

Northern culture wars

When it comes to De Nort, a k a Norn Iron, one good cultural or even sectarian expression of identity seems to demand an equal and opposite response from The Other Side, even where the appropriate response is either appreciation of difference or simple silence. Unfortunately the numbers in the Jewish community in Belfast have been declining for a long time as those associated with it have moved away for work, marriage or simply a desire, in the context of declining numbers, for places of greater religious vitality.

Obviously Judaism is a rather different and more diverse religious and cultural phenomenon than political support for Israel. The current context of the Israeli onslaught however makes things difficult for Jews, whatever their political views – and some Jews in Ireland have put their heads above the parapet to oppose the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza which followed the Hamas massacre of Israelis on 7th October 2023. The recent arrest of a 72 year old Jewish woman, a member of Jews for Palestine, for supposedly putting stickers (!) on a Barclays ATM in Belfast is a case in point.

However some people never miss a trick to make a political point and, while disagreeing absolutely with their actions, you have to admire their ingenuity. With most Catholics and pretty much all republicans in Northern Ireland supporting Palestine, loyalists have for a long time taken to supporting Israel. This manifests itself most prominently in Belfast with respective displays of Palestinian and Israeli flags. Irish language place names being included with English on street signs is also a political football, notwithstanding the fact that the origin of most such names is in the Irish language.

However the move to have Irish language signs has brought forward the proposal to have Hebrew language signs near the, predominantly Protestant, Village area off the Lisburn Road in Belfast. This is the latest in proxy battles in Norn Iron. However the move for this in Ebor Street has been stymied because a request for Irish language signs was made first – and Belfast City Hall will only deal with one request at a time. Time for a bit of shalom / salaam / síocháin in the culture wars I think.

The Paisley pattern

I am usually, not always, reading books long after they are out and been a topic of conversation. I recently read David Gordon’s 2009 book “The fall of the house of Paisley”. While not necessarily part of that book, part of the fascination of the whole Paisley phenomenon, at least so far as IRKP (Paisley Senior) is concerned is the extent to which he was a prisoner of his followers. The Rev Ian prospered while he stoked up the prejudices of his followers. Until his final conversion to powersharing, any time he had a progressive, original idea he quickly withdrew it when his followers raised questions.

As many commentators have said, making a judgement on a man like Ian Paisley Senior is difficult. Does a few years of saying yes and cooperating with others across divides wipe out a bitter legacy of stoking up sectarian discontent for decades? I think the answer to that is in the way I have phrased the previous sentence. No is the answer. Yes, we should be grateful that he did See The Light. But he ensured the years of violence and bitterness in the Troubles were longer and more bitter than they could have been, indeed more than anyone he helped create them.

Only towards the end of his life, perhaps more aware of his mortality following illness, and wanting to leave ‘a legacy’, did he face down those who questioned his path – and get chucked out of his position in the church he founded as a result. That he did finally join the establishment who were busy praising him for a few years before his conversion (the plámás was painful to watch) was a fascinating and positive move. But it could have been so different if he had Seen The Light many years earlier (I am deliberately using the term ‘Seen The Light’ to imitate the conservative evangelical language Paisley would have used). And he only saw that light when he was already political top dog which is another relevant factor.

Of course Ian Paisley Junior has been a different kettle of fishiness, not afraid to jump in to the promotion of dubious business arrangements or take fabulous and expensive holidays from brutal regimes (which he then supported) and didn’t declare in his parliamentary returns. It was the latter which finally got him ousted from the Westminster seat which he had inherited from his Da; he was beaten by the intelligent but even more hardline Jim Allister at the British general election of July 2024. That perhaps was a further twist in the fall of the house of Paisley. ‘Junior’ hasn’t gone away but it proved further that the house of Paisley did not have solid foundations. Political edifices that seem to be securely built are shown to have feet of clay retrospectively when popular (and sometimes brutally engineered) support is withdrawn.

And that brings us on to one of the theoretical foundations of nonviolent action: regimes of any kind depend on the support of the people, voluntary and/or forced. The withdrawal of support can be fatal for protesters, given the nature of the regime and its reaction, but if enough people do it then the state is literally powerless. Or, in the words of the originally Chilean protest song, “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” that I know as a chant – or in the translation ‘the people united will never be defeated’.

But….in Belarus

While the last paragraph above is undoubtedly true, in the short to medium term repressive regimes can make the lives of activists – and ordinary non-political people – hell on earth. An account by Belarusian activist, Olga Karach, in exile in Lithuania, shows the extent of that repression. “……the Belarusian authorities have intensified their campaign of repression and censorship, culminating in a new wave of court rulings that declared over 23 social media accounts and digital resources associated with the Belarusian human rights organization Our House (Наш Дом) as “extremist materials.” These decisions are not symbolic — they are instruments of legal persecution & legal harassment with potentially devastating consequences. Individuals who are members of organizations labelled as “extremist,” or who subscribe to resources designated as such, can face up to 7 years in prison under Belarusian law.” And those 7 year prison sentences can be consecutive, so for a number of charges, all for nonviolent civic activism, people can face an extraordinarily long prison sentence.

“Belarusian courts are now criminalizing not only content, but entire platforms, logos, phrases — even letters of the Russian alphabet. The phrase “Наш Дом” (Our House), regardless of context, is now effectively banned in Belarus.” In 2020, Dmitry Dudoits, a 43-year-old father of two, posted a comment under a photo on Olga Karach’s Odnoklassniki profile, calling a police officer a “bald scum.” He was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment but died shortly afterwards by suicide under extreme torture and abuse; he was later recognised as a political prisoner.

Olga Karach states that “Several Our House activists currently face deportation from Lithuania, despite documented political persecution in Belarus. If deported, they face immediate arrest, torture, or indefinite imprisonment under Belarus’s extremism laws.

But she does go on to say “What You Can Do”: “We urge you — as defenders of democracy and human rights — to take action:

  1. Publicly condemn the persecution of human rights defenders of Our House and the criminalization of digital freedom in Belarus.

  2. Demand international protection and asylum guarantees for the whole team of Our House — especially those now under threat in Lithuania. [[Contacts for the Lithuanian embassy in Ireland can be found at https://ie.mfa.lt/en – Ed]]

  3. Support and amplify the work of Our House in exile: https://news.house/donate “

Repression and dictatorships do not go on for ever. It is the work of bodies like Our House which help to keep hope alive. Belarus is like the worst of old Soviet-era regimes and in 1989 most of those got swept aside – and the day of Belarus will come too, let’s hope sooner rather than later. The effect of one effective action of international solidarity in relation to Belarus can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/54519453518/in/dateposted/

Doolough Famine walk

The Doolough Famine walk is the highest profile event in Afri’s year www.afri.ie with around a couple of hundred people gathering in Louisburgh (the ‘meadow of the buttercups’ in the Irish name), Co Mayo for the walk from Delphi Lodge back to Louisburgh. It commemorates a real walk Louisburgh-Doolough-Louisburgh in 1849 when the starving people on it died like flies. Refused help by the Poor Law Commissioners having lunch at Delphi Lodge, many were effectively condemned to death; by this stage the ‘Great Famine’ was declared over and supports withdrawn – but people had nothing.

Afri’s walk is never just about commemorating those people and their 36 km futile trudge in poor weather, poor clothing and poor health over poor paths. It always links with what is happening in the world today. This year photojournalist Eman Mohammed left not a dry eye in the house with her factual but also very personal account of realities in Gaza. This is another situation, very different to An Gorta Mór, where people and their lives are considered expendable – by the Israeli state and by the West. Biblical quotes can come across as preachy but Paul Laverty quoting the prophet Ezekiel that “They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear” was never more appropriate.

Clare O’Grady Walshe who has done much work and writing on food and seed sovereignty shared some of her considerable insights on how the multinational seed companies – often one and the same as the pesticide companies – are stitching up the world and depriving the poor of economic advancement by trapping them in in monocultural food production and crops where they cannot save seeds. Avoiding such control is a key part of empowerment in poor rural areas of the world, and for us all in taking control of our destinies. There is very powerful analysis by Clare O’Grady Walshe and more on this can be found in her book “Globalisation and Seed Sovereignty in Sub-Saharan Africa” which is available in an affordable ebook option (or look for the printed version through your library or college); you can also find out more online if you search her name. And photos of this year’s event, along with many others, can be found in the Afri album on the INNATE photo/documentary site https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157623376298793/ and look out for video and maybe audio on the Afri website in due course.

Afri is involved in other, shorter, famine walks and commemorations elsewhere but the scenery and personal interactions as you walk make the Doolough walk special. There is a wild beauty to Doolough and passing Mweelrea (slightly higher than Croagh Patrick) that is really memorable. Not everyone is fit to walk 18 km but those who aren’t are well catered for. On occasions the event can be wet and wetting but determination sees people through. This year the problem with water was not getting wet but ensuring people had enough water to drink not to get dehydrated in the sunshine and heat.

Why riot? Why not?

The final report on an action-research project in relation to the ‘Why riot?” programme, covered at the start of the news section of this issue, is an important one not just for Norn Iron but more broadly. Why do young people, particularly young males, get involved in violent and anti-social behaviour? The importance of well supported and creative youth work shines through the report, about allowing young people to be fully who they can be despite all the negative influences and pressures around them.

Some people might say that the conclusions given are obvious (to those ‘in the know’) but this would be a very trite judgement on what was a very well grounded project. It is worth quoting the ‘key finding’ on what were the mechanisms that supported change: 1. Safe spaces (emotionally and physically) for learning. 2. A structured process for critical thinking. 3. Context specific tools e.g. Non-violence. 4. Dialogue and reflection. 5. Youth worker methods. 6. Led by and responsive to youth needs, issues and concerns.

One of the points in how it ‘works’ is “Using ‘safe dialogic space’ for young people to discuss difficult, contested topics of concern. By dialogic we mean non-judgmental spaces that foster questioning (‘the why’s beneath’), actively challenge biases and assumptions, and encourage young people to explore different perspectives and become self-reflective.” But there is much more which you can read in the report at https://societal-challenges.open.ac.uk/media/projects/145_learningfromwhyriot-report-final-28-05-2025.pdf

And while in Northern Ireland the problem of youth alienation and violence has very particular local aspects, and the report has very specific Northern Ireland recommendations, the methodology and learning involved have much wider implications.

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Well, we are officially into summer so we’ll see how that goes after a record-breaking or near record-breaking spring of much fine, warm weather. In terms of being dry, April and May are often/usually better in Ireland than July and August but let’s see how we get on this year……. Things are rarely simple and while global warming may bring greater heat it will also bring more wind and flood-causing rain to Ireland. The vagaries of the weather allow some climate change deniers to excuse their pathetic lack of any scientific understanding of what is happening – but, tragically, the direction is clear; downhill all the way to damaging higher temperatures globally – and other damaging weather in Ireland. Nevertheless, make hay while the sun shines (‘make silage while the sun shines’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it….), and see you at the start of July, Billy. l

Billy King: Rites Again 329

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Tittle title

Periodically someone in the Republic suggests in a letter to the papers, or such, that the state should have an honours system, and there is a debate on possible merits and demerits, including the view that any Republic worthy of the name doesn’t need such a system. I agree with the latter point.

But living in Norn Iron I can perhaps reflect my views on the matter from a territory which has such a system with UK honours bestowed on various people – including a few friends and acquaintances. The first problematic in a divided society like the North is that people of a unionist/British persuasion are more likely to accept the offer of an award from the UK state (or even be offered it) however much those making the decisions may try to make it all balanced. It thus tends to have what amounts to a sectarian dimension.

If an honours system exists then there are likely to be various gradations and various reasons why someone would accept. Some may believe they deserve the award because of their hard work, enterprise, and uprightness. In one case I know an award was accepted partly because what it would mean to their parents and be justification for choosing a career in the community and voluntary sector which might not have been what their parents wanted for them. Others certainly feel that it gives their work, and cause, recognition and a boost, and this may or may not be true. These are legitimate and valid reasons for accepting an award when such exists.

However I do have a number of negative points. The titles of the awards are not just anachronistic but imperialist – e.g. “Member of the British Empire”. And for every person who you might say deserves the award there are probably a couple of place servers who get a gong because of their position and sitting there for years. In general it creates a division between those recognised as ‘worthy’ in respectable causes and others [You’re not jealous, are you? – Ed] [Who, moi? I am not ‘worthy’. But ‘worthiness’ does come in to it, most awards are for what is considered ‘worthy’ work, and who is to say that ‘your’ mainstream activities are more worthy than ‘my’ fringe ones? There is an inherently conservative politic at work here – Billy].

The now dead brilliant black British poet Benjamin Zephaniah refused an OBE a couple of decades ago because of his opposition to empire and British involvement in slavery; his acceptance would also have indicated co-option by the system. While most awards are to the ‘worthy’, a few are offered to maverick choices to show the ‘openness’ of the system, and that would have been the case with Zephaniah.

I have a further objection which is not usually made. It is an old ‘law’ of physics that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Choosing worthy recipients, including occasionally people outside the usual box like Zephaniah, is not just an ‘honour’ for the individual but reflects back ‘worthiness’ on the system; ‘X’ is a person who deserves an honour for their work, the state has recognised ‘X’, so the state and its relevant apparatus must also be worthy to recognise such worthiness. This I find objectionable in a society as unequal and unjust as ours. The honours system thus helps maintain the status quo and division, not least with anachronistic and imperialist names for the awards given.

MAGAlomania – the game

I have written before [Well, it is quite a long time ago though maybe rather more than once – Ed] about the exceptionalism and/or imperialism in the USA referring to itself as ‘America’. OK, US Americans may be a majority in North America but they certainly are not in ‘the Americas’. There are nearly 350 million in the USA while Canada has 40 million, however Central America (including Mexico), South America and the Caribbean has an estimated population of nearly 670 million. Thus the USA has only a third of the population in the Americas. This blinkered nomenclature of using ‘America’ for one part of the Americas has perhaps reached its apotheosis – or perhaps nadir would be a better term – with President Trump’s childish relabelling of the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America’ – and penalising anyone who didn’t toe the line on his conjured up name. This is just one point where the 78 year old president of the USA seems to be not 78 but 7.8 years old (and that is perhaps being unfair to 7 year olds everywhere). He believes when it comes to the USA everyone is agin’ us [‘A Guinness’? But he doesn’t drink alcohol, maybe his confusion comes from all the Diet Coke he puts away – Ed].

I have also pointed out the irony that Amerigo Vespucci, after whom the Americas are incongruously named, never actually wandered anywhere near the territory of what is now the USA, since he only ventured rather further south.

You may already know the game of rejigging the acronym MAGA from its Trumpian meaning. The G can stand for lots of things: Gerontocratic (rule by the elderly – Biden and Trump have been the oldest elected presidents I believe), Gasp (you never know what idiotic or quixotic idea or policy Trump and his cohorts will come out with next), Grotesque (a self explanatory explanation I think). See what you can come up with by yourself or with friends. ‘G’ up then. GUBU.

Signs of the times

Placing Irish language signs at Belfast’s ‘Grand’ Central Station (henceforth GCS in this piece) is one of Norn Iron’s ongoing divisive shibboleths at the moment. It wasn’t included in the original plans and the new minister responsible, who happens to be from Sinn Féin, decided it should happen. Unionists state that as a controversial matter it should be subject to a cross-community vote at Stormont but most don’t want to rock the boat too hard for fear of the Stormont barque (its barque is worse than its bite) sinking again. Perhaps there should be a vote so we can see where people stand. But some people, right across the divides, are perpetually looking for ways to ‘get’ the other side. Of course symbols and symbolism matter.

There are a variety of factors at work here. Is Irish ‘weaponised’ by some republicans? Undoubtedly. Is resistance to anything Irish weaponised by some loyalists? Also undoubtedly. Is the Irish language a treasure of many kinds and also a resource in relation to placenames throughout the island of Ireland? Yes. Is knowledge of Irish, partly through Irish medium schools, increasing in the North? Yes. And is signage at GCS going to include placenames as a key element? Of course. Was the Irish language virtually stamped out by official British policy? Yes (though that is only part of the story). Will the cost of the signage changes be substantial? Yes, perhaps £150,000. Could the money be used for other purposes including social need? Yes. Would it be so used? No, highly unlikely.

I have previously written about the use of ‘Grand’ in the ‘GCS’ name. But I have also pointed out that if unionists want to persuade nationalists, Catholics, and indeed some Prods, to keep Norn Iron in the UK then they need to bend over backwards in allowing Catholic and nationalist concerns to be catered for. As reasonable and redoubtable a figure as SDLP MP Claire Hanna has pointed out the extent to which nationalists in Norn Iron are perpetually subjected to British state imagery which they don’t go for.

Having Irish language signs at GCS should not be an issue for a variety of reasons and Welsh language signs in Wales are considered necessary. Unionists who object to Irish language signs at GCS are helping to book a ticket south for the whole of the North; they should think about that train of thought while the unification train is still in the station without a departure time. Action on the issue is currently halted because of loyalist legal action. However the two main unionist parties have not gone with a TUV/Traditional Unionist Voice petition on the matter at Stormont, as stated above because they don’t want the whole Stormont edifice to come crashing down yet again, so maybe some credit is due there.

Herbivores

A herbivore is an animal that eats plants or only eats plants. However I am deliberately mis- or re-interpreting the word here to talk about the use of herbs in food. I have to admit that I would feel distinctly impoverished if I didn’t have access to certain fresh herbs; yes, certainly, I use dried herbs in cooking but for some things I feel fresh is much superior because of the added flavour. But herbs in your supermarket or greengrocer are expensive for what you get, and you never know what you will need and when you will need it, and most don’t last too long in the fridge. So GYO (grow your own). This can be easily be done successfully, as I do, in tubs and window boxes, without needing too much space – though a bit of sun in that space helps. You do need to feed and water them though, and tubs dry out faster than the soil.

For some herbs you can cut the bother and buy a plant in a garden centre, for others you may want to or need to sow from seed. What? Sage, thyme, tarragon, rosemary, fennel, mint and oregano are some of the basics and are relatively perennial. Parsley you need to sow at least annually and you may need to cover it with protective mesh or fleece to protect it from carrot fly (yes, parsley is the same family as carrots); it would appear some years we have carrot fly about, other years not, and I can’t say whether it will be in your vicinity or not – but your burgeoning parsley getting sick and dying because carrot fly larvae have eaten the roots is very disappointing so I tend to cover it in case in the relevant period (around April to September, certainly for newly sown parsley). I only grow basil indoors or in a protected space because it is a favourite with slugs and snails as well as us humans. Mint is best grown in a bounded space because the roots spread so easily.

For salad herbs you can use some of the above but I also grow chives, garlic chives, Welsh onions (like chives but larger and I cut the stems but leave the bulbs to grow on) and lovage (a celery flavoured plant which I presume is a close relation). Garlic chives don’t grow so much in the winter but are still standing and can be picked then unlike regular chives.

Thyme and tide wait for no one, and I love lovage, so now is the time to get your herb garden sorted. Most herbs aren’t a lot of work apart from parsley and basil – and I wouldn’t like to being without those. With your own herb garden you can develop your own favourite salad dressings and bask in flavour for very little cost, and never be without that herb ingredient when you need it. When it comes to gardening, take the herb side not the herbicide.

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Well, it has been a strange month in one way as I nearly went up in flames, and I am deliberately not going to go into details out of respect for someone we had just met who did get seriously injured in the accident concerned, this was out of the domestic environment is all I will say. It can be hard to take in when something like this happens and hard to appreciate how near I was/we were to either extinction or serious injury. But here I am and I shall return for June, come what May, Billy.

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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.

–

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.

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You couldn’t make it up, explosive munitions at Lidl

https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/54351562097/in/dateposted/ and an iPhone dictation bug that replaced ‘Trump’ with ‘Racist’ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/26/apple-to-fix-iphone-dictation-bug-trump?CMP=share_btn_url ……..manys a true word that was spoken in jest tech.

Fierce and farce in Dublin

OK, one was fierce but not a farce, the other was a fierce farce. My visits to Doubling tend to be either social or movement related so it was great to have a cultural visit recently. The first part of the visit was to the Hugh Lane Gallery in Parnell Square to see Brian Maguire’s “La grande illusion” exhibition there. The second was to see the stage production of Dr Strangelove. Both would get excellent marks from me.

We didn’t have enough time at the Hugh Lane because we hadn’t banked on spending three-quarters of an hour watching a video interview with Brian Maguire. It is at the entrance to his exhibition but once we started watching then we couldn’t pull ourselves away. Intelligent, humane, personable, concerned with justice, these are just a few of the terms that come to mind in describing the gentle but strong man in question from watching the interview. His work in prisons, at home and around the world, is remarkable.

In the video he quotes Lara Marlowe as saying he worked like a journalist and you can see that clearly in the video and his work (he can do much work to access photos of scenes of death or violence). But he gives more than that, he gives imagination, depth and humanity – where appropriate – to his subjects. The coverage in this exhibition includes Mexico and the devastation on lives by the drugs trade there, Syria, and migrants to the USA who did not make it. Regarding the first, one work looked like a stone or rock from a distance only on examination to reveal a severed head; shocking but a humane treatment of the topic. And regarding Syria his treatment of a damaged and abandoned street in Aleppo evokes the life which it once had and its emptiness now, it is an image that has stayed with me – I think you might have the same experience with any of his images. War and human rights are integral subjects to this work.

Brian Maguire’s exhibition at the Hugh Lane has had its run extended to 18th May (2025) and I certainly recommend it – but leave time for that video interview.

Doing Dr Strangelove as a stage production might seem a strange choice but it actually worked very well in the Iannucci/Foley/Coogan presentation of Stanley Kubrick’s original, and the stagecraft was good. Steve Coogan was to play 4 roles when we were attending at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre – this compares to 3 roles played by Peter Sellers in the 1964 film – and obviously doing it on stage requires nifty timing and a bit of ingenuity (which mainly but not always worked in my opinion). Not performing due to laryngitis meant Coogan’s understudy, Ben Deery, had that challenge and managed it very well when I attended.

It is of course a sign of the times that Dr Strangelove is – tragically – as relevant today as when it was filmed in terms of actual and possible mass annihilation. The violent crazies and smooth talkers are running the shows and any interventions by people with a titter of wit may be ineffective. If we even consider nuclear accidents and near misses of various kinds we can shiver in fear. Add in further human error and possible malice and we are on the edge of the precipice or indeed various precipices.

One of the stand out lines in the play is where the US President advises the Soviet ambassador and a belligerent senior air force officer that there should be no fighting as “This is the War Room”! Sadly the world is still going in the direction of gross violence and pulling back from this requires the imaginative goodwill which many of our leaders lack. So we have to provide some sanity in these troubled times.

It’s a Doge’s life

I do believe there is such a thing as ‘evil’, but as it is such an absolute term it is one I rarely use to describe people or situations. I am usually moderate enough in how I express myself [Really? – Ed] however when I saw Elon Musk gloating on television news about the apocalyptic cuts to the USAid budget, and his proud claim to have put it through the shredder, I really felt I was looking at the face of evil, undiluted evil.

The USA spends far more money on its military – and 800 military bases around the world – than any other country, by far; the budget for this is over $900 billion, say $1 trillion. You could attack USAid spending in some places for its political bias – Ukraine and Israel are the largest recipients – but the fact is it does make a difference to some of the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick. $40 billion is not a huge amount for a large, rich country like the USA to share though the total spent on aid by the USA is $72 billion (possibly 8% of the military budget). https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/20/how-will-trump-and-musk-freeze-on-usaid-affect-millions-around-world?CMP=share_btn_url The Trump/Musk justification for the attack was also false; three of the four projects named as wasting money by USAid were funded as cultural projects by the State Department, not USAid.

For the richest man in the world to be part of destroying help to the very poorest and sickest in the world is obscene and vengeful evil, full stop. Two thirds of soup kitchens in Khartoum, Sudan, closed as a result. Many essential health programmes in the poorest countries in the world have been decimated. And for a ‘Labour’ prime minister in the UK to subsequently cut their aid budget, already miserly as a percentage of GDP, to up military spending feels like another betrayal on the world stage. But then with Trump in the White House everyone seems to be getting in on dangerous and unjust behaviour.

Down North

What are you to make of the sadistic that while 81% of nationalist/republican voters in the North believe extreme weather events are at least partly caused by climate change, only 29% of unionist voters believe that. So 4 out of 5 nationalists/republicans are aware of the connection while more than 2 in 3 unionist voters have their heads in the shifting sand. Is this explicable by the Catholic/Nationalist/Republican ‘community’ being generally centre or left of centre and Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist politics tending to be centre or right of centre? You might expect some difference due to that but the void is staggering. I couldn’t look at the details more because the story was behind a paywall in the ‘Tele’ https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/just-29-of-unionist-voters-believe-climate-change-is-partly-responsible-for-extreme-weather-poll-reveals/a1145304503.html

Meanwhile it does seem the gap is closing between those who support staying in the UK and those who want a united Ireland. In an Irish Times/ARINS survey the figures were 48% to 34% respectively, and there were some changes in the non-headline figures https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/02/07/support-for-irish-unification-grows-but-unity-vote-would-be-soundly-defeated-in-north-poll-shows/ However a Lucid Talk/Belfast Telegraph poll showed figures of 48% and 41%, much closer, which begs questions about their repective methodologies. While the latter poll has consistently shown a high proportion opting for a united Ireland, both show the gap narrowing.

The conclusion is that there should be all sorts of explorations on what a united Ireland might look like and how it would initially fund, and economically develop, the poorer North, as well as guarantees on human rights and other issues. However there is a reasonable case that unionists can or could make for continuing in the UK and one start to doing that took place recently in Coleraine with a ‘Safeguarding the Union’ meeting. While demographics show the Catholic population increasingly outpacing the number of Protestants, certainly from middle age downwards, it can’t be assumed that the current direction of travel will automatically continue. What would happen if, as the Coleraine meeting heard, there was a big economic shock to the Republic? What indeed.

It is all to be played for. The hope is that the players won’t engage in fouls and that the respective supporters will temper their behaviour. Unlikely? Maybe, but not if there are processes which encourage intelligent and analytical thinking at all levels and in a variety of ways.

Global injustice: It’s rich

I didn’t read the Oxfam report concerned but Stephen McCloskey of the Centre for Global Education in Belfast did a very useful precis in the February issue of their e-Bulletin which I quote here in full:

“Oxfam have published their annual analysis of global economic inequality which this year is titled Takers not Makers: The Unjust Poverty and Unearned Wealth of Colonialism.  This annual report has become an indispensible tool for understanding the key economic forces driving poverty between and within the global North and South.  The report’s main headline is that billionaire wealth has risen three times faster in 2024 than 2023 with 204 new billionaires created.  Such is the global flow of wealth to the super-rich that Oxfam estimates that there will be five trillionaires within a decade.  Conversely, the number of people living below the World Bank poverty line of $6.85 is 3.6 billion people, the same total as 1990, which means poverty indicators are going in the wrong direction because of wealth accumulation by the one percent.  In explaining the concentration of billionaire wealth, Oxfam’s report cites two main factors: first, the rise of a new oligarchy that generates wealth through inheritance, cronyism (such as tax avoidance) and monopoly power (for example, Amazon controls 70% of online purchases in the UK); and second, both historic and ongoing colonialism of the global South through global institutions, financial markets and multinational corporations.  The report sets out the kind of systemic changes needed to address global inequities and they really should be seized by development educators as a platform for economic literacy, advocacy and activism.  The depth of the problems described in the report demand nothing less.” The report is at https://www.oxfam.org/en/takers-not-makers-unjust-poverty-and-unearned-wealth-colonialism and the Centre for Global Education is at https://www.centreforglobaleducation.com/

–

That’s me as we come up towards St Patrick’s Day, that national occasion when anyone or everyone can shiver in the open because wintry weather is still around. It’s a shame(rock) that the weather can be so poor…..the day marks the death date of St Patrick himself but whether 17th March is accurate or not I don’t know, perhaps it could be ‘discovered’ that it was really sometime in the period May to August that the man himself died….. Until we meet again next month, Billy.

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There’s gold in them thar hills…

…and that’s where it should stay… While gold does have some practical usages in fine tech and so on it mainly considered valuable for being valued, i.e. it is valuable as a store of wealth, a bit like crypto currency but in metallic form and less volatile in value – it is also comparable to celebrities being famous because they are famous. Humanity’s actual need for gold is relatively small today and could be met hundreds of times over by what is already extracted from the ground. Some of the uses of gold, such as the ‘gold standard’ or its use in dentistry (gold mining is a different kind of extraction but can be very painful) have been superseded by economic and technological advances.

So what is the point in ruining the Sperrins so Dalradian can make a profit? None. There are always less jobs than promised, they will disappear after a decade or two, while meanwhile farming and other developments, such as in tourism, are stymied or ruined. The recent public enquiry into the proposed goldmining there was quickly halted after a technical error by the relevant Northern Ireland government department not doing what they should have done. Two of the groups involved in struggling against an unwelcome extraction that you can look up are Save Our Sperrins (SOS) https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=save%20our%20sperrins (see the entry for 15th January 2025 on the collapse of the public enquiry) and Friends of the Earth in the North https://friendsoftheearth.uk/northern-ireland I have quoted before the Saw Doctors’ words (in ‘The green and gold of Mayo’) on prospective gold mining beside Croagh Patrick – “Do they think our greatest asset / Can be mined, dug up, and sold….” As with coal, oil and gas – ‘Keep it in the ground!’

Drill for the truth, baby, drill for the truth

‘There are none so blind as those who will not see’ is an aphorism about a disability, physical blindness, which does not insult those who have that condition. People who are physically unable to see usually develop other skills which compensate and many skills which sighted people are unlikely to have. The aphorism actually criticises sighted people who do not, because they refuse to, see what is in front of their eyes.

I do believe there is such a category as a ‘climate criminal’. Donald Trump, the most powerful elected leader in the world, fits that description with his denial of the human-based nature of climate change and his “We will drill, baby, drill” approach – which was even included in his inaugural address as president of the USA in January 2025, all happening at the time of the destruction by fire of significant bits of Los Angeles. The oil and gas industry bosses and owners are of course highly complicit in engineering cover ups and obfuscation of what is happening and why, and refusing to take the world and the vast majority of people into account due to their own selfish and destructive interests. Trump’s tech billionaire buddies are also climate criminals for permitting untruths to be told. Climate heating is, and will do, untold damage to our earth and its inhabitants with the poor, of course, suffering most.

It is difficult to come up with imagery about where we are. The best I can do is that the rich and powerful are driving a train with the rest of humanity on it. They come to a junction. One direction is clearly ‘Hell’ while the other is ‘Not hell but not quite heaven either’ (we are already far down the global heating track). The powerful are choosing to travel with the rest of the world to ‘Hell’ because they are, unlike everyone else, in Super First Class Climate Protected carriages which they believe are immune to the effects of Hell, and to travel the other direction they would have to transfer to slightly less comfortable carriages and they don’t want to do that because they know they are superior.

Getting the truth of climate heating across to those in denial is a subject much pondered in these pages by Larry Speight in his Eco-Awareness column. There are no easy answers. Telling the truth in different ways is of course part of it. But using personal relationships and getting people in the public eye to use their influence are important. And we, individual and ‘ordinary’ citizens, can show by our own example what to do in our travel and consumer habits. We ‘ordinary people’ in the rich world are highly complicit in global heating too.

Eventually, the truth of climate heating will trump denialism. But whether we arrive at the station marked ‘Hell’ before then is still a possibility.

Room for great improvement for Belfast Assembly Rooms

There is a wonderfully historic building in central Belfast which is in a woeful condition. It is historic for a number of reasons – the rejection of slavery, its connection with the 1798 rising, and with the preservation of Irish traditional melodies, and simply for being a prime meeting place when Belfast was ‘the Athens of the North’. In fact, in relation to the preservation of Irish traditional melodies, you could say it is perhaps the culturally most important building in Ireland. But it is currently, and very sadly, unused and near derelict. However one sign of the awareness of the risks to the building comes from its inclusion recently on the World Monuments Fund 2025 Watch List and it has been on the Ulster Architectural Heritage at risk list for a couple of decades.

It is where the 1792 harp festival took place, organised by the good Presbyterian citizens of Belfast, with Edward Bunting commissioned to record the music and thus preserve it for future generations – the old harping tradition was on its death bed after their prime sponsors, the Irish aristocracy, were long defeated and gone. It is where Henry Joy McCracken was court-martialled in ‘98 following the failure of the rising before being taken to be hung nearby. It is where Thomas McCabe intervened against a move to set up a slaving company (i.e. dealing in and transporting slaves) in 1786, a successful intervention in that Belfast continued to have no direct involvement in the slave trade though it did have trade involvement in selling salted beef and clogs to slave plantations as well as through individuals.

On a more prosaic and contemporary note the Assembly rooms are on INNATE’s Belfast peace trail where the INNATE coordinator loves to gently shock participants on the walk in telling of Thomas McCabe’s interjection by bellowing out his message “May God wither the hand of any man who will sign that document!”.

Used as a bank for a long time, the building then had intermittent cultural use – and it being a cultural centre is surely the appropriate course of action for the future. But it needs major work first. Belfast City Council has purchased a couple of iconic buildings, No.2 Royal Avenue and the wonderful art deco former Bank of Ireland on a corner of Royal Avenue for civic purposes. The Assembly Rooms building is currently privately owned but going to wrack and ruin. It needs urgent attention and deserves it. For more info see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87d8121lj3o and https://sluggerotoole.com/2025/01/17/the-inclusion-of-belfasts-historic-assembly-rooms-on-world-monuments-funds-2025-watch-list-is-a-game-changer/#respond

A migrant story

She came from a war torn country where she had been married young. We can call her Anna because that is certainly not her name. After her father and eldest child were killed in the strife in her home country, she sold everything she had and eventually ended up in Northern Ireland where she claimed asylum. One of her other children has a disabling medical condition. The first place she lived in the North she had to leave because it was attacked. Then in the racist riots of August 2024 she was personally assaulted and injured in the street with lasting effects, and she had to move again. During her time in the North her ex-husband, the father of her children, was killed in the strife in her home country. Thus she had the violent deaths in three generations of her immediate family.

She eventually received refugee status. Any one of the deaths mentioned above could break someone. While obviously deeply affected, she has been determined to keep moving forward and do the best possible for her children despite attacks in a place where she had escaped in order to be safe.

Not all migrants have as dramatic and traumatic stories and experiences as Anna. However we should of course be ashamed that in “Ireland of the welcomes” the welcome (hellcome?) she received included physical attacks on her and where she lived, inhumanity when extreme humanity was called for. Where some saw an unwelcome alien there was a resilient but hugely suffering human being who had been through tribulations which her attackers could probably not even imagine, and someone who has much to contribute if allowed to do so. Meanwhile some people reached out to try to help her.

May she now live in peace and be able to establish the life she wants for herself and her children.

Contrast

The names ‘Donald Trump’ and ‘Gustavo Gutiérrez’ are seldom uttered in the same sentence, I would imagine. Donald Trump is the president of the USA and aged 78. Gustavo Gutiérrez was a Dominican priest from Lima who died in October 2024, aged 96.

INNATE is a secular organisation which is happy to carry material or organise events in relation to connections between humanism and nonviolence or particular religions and nonviolence, and respect people of whatever secular or religious beliefs while being critical of the practices associated with any of these which are contrary to building peace and justice. In terms of parity of esteem I usually avoid sharing on my own religious beliefs and background which would be a variety of Christian. However, in moving some books recently I came across the Gutiérrez book, from the 1970s, “A Theology of Liberation” – he was one of the founders of the ‘theology of liberation’ movement in Latin America at that time, even called the “Father of Liberation Theology”, and I thought of the contrast with Trump.

Donald Trump has monetised the Christian bible, as well as made it nation-specific, in his Trump Bible; the bible is clearly a book he has little knowledge about, effectively thinking of it as a MAGA-manual. Monetising the Christian bible sounds rather like being moneychangers in the Temple, i.e. turning religion into a commercial enterprise. JC drove the moneychangers from the Temple in what to me seems like a good example of determined nonviolent action (though one conservative Christian once told me Jesus shouldn’t have done that as it gave Christians a bad name!). One joke about Trump and his desire to cut things (taxes, environmental regulations etc) is that he has already got the Ten Commandments down to six, and is working on the rest. He uses the bible and Christianity as a political prop and tool.

He also accused an Episcopalian bishop of being nasty in a presidential inaugural service when she called for him to exercise mercy in relation of migrants and people who are LGBT; mercy is usually considered a Christian virtue but Trump made it sound like a dirty word. Making the bible nation-specific, as the Trump bible seemingly does in relation to the USA, seems contrary to the ‘neither Jew nor Gentile’ part of the Christian New Testament. Trump was surrounded by billionaires at his January 2025 presidential inauguration whereas Jesus had plenty to say about those who loved riches. It was the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg who stated that the early Christian church was communist in consumption if not in production.

Gustavo Gutiérrez was an important and founding figure in liberation theology which opts for solidarity with the poor, something which seems totally in accord with Christianity and the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, while for Trump – where money is usually the bottom line – his beliefs seem to be more in relation to the ‘Sermon on the (Financial) Count’. Gutiérrez’ book, mentioned above, is overflowing with biblical references. He states clearly that “In the Bible poverty is a scandalous condition inimical to human dignity and therefore contrary to the will of God.” and that “Poverty is not caused by fate: it is caused by the actions of whose whom the prophet condemns….” (and then quotes Amos 2:6-7).

I stand with Gutiérrez.

Youphemisms

We all use euphemisms but sometimes there are ones we dislike or refuse to use, and what you use may not be something I would use. Language is always evolving so this is all a natural human process. The US English ‘restroom’ for what is commonly here called a toilet seems an unnecessary and inaccurate euphemism – and yet I might quite happily use ‘loo’ or even the southern terms ‘jacks’ (which may be medieval English in origin and also relate to the US English term ‘the john’, although the latter may also be connected with one of the inventors of the flushing toilet).

One US euphemism I refuse to use however is that someone has ‘passed’ when they have died. Passed what? Their final exams? To glory in heaven? From this earthly coil? No, not a term I find acceptable. And yet if referring to someone’s status in relation to being living or dead, e.g. on a letter coming for someone who is ‘no longer with us’ (another euphemism), i.e. dead, putting ‘Now dead’ seems too bald a statement and I might write ‘Deceased’ – which is simply another way of saying ‘no longer with us’. Death is kind of final and it is difficult not to be euphemistic. But, it is clear, I find some euphemisms a load of crap.

–

That’s me for now and the bold, bad January is over, I hope you weren’t badly affected by Storm Éowyn if you live in what was its path….unfortunately with global heating there is much more of that to come. But always look on the bright side, the snowdrops are well out, the daffodils are coming, some out, and we live in hope, so until next time, Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again 325

Billy King, Nonviolent News, , , , ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Hello again, I start off on a culinary note this month, the first item being particularly relevant to the season that’s in it. Whatever about cooking from books, I am not in favour of cooking the books though I was just thinking that if a carload of chefs got done for speeding it would be booking the cooks…..

However before that I will make a comment or two about the elect-shuns in the Re:Public. It looks like we are back to the previous status quo with FF + FG in the driving seat and with others in place of the disappearing Greens (who, incidentally, didn’t come out greenest in the FOE study of election manifestos). I note the quotes from FF + FG in the news item from PANA in the new section of this issue. FF states that it will “continue to protect and promote Ireland’s military neutrality including sensible reform of the ‘Triple Lock’ legislation.” I take it ‘sensible reform’ here is a euphemism for ‘total removal’ since if you remove the UN approval part of deploying Irish troops overseas, as Micheál Martin is gunning (sic) to do, it just leaves the government/cabinet and Dáil. Once more the establishment is lying to the Irish people about the diminunition and removal of Irish neutrality.

Quizine

Why, with a title like ‘Quizine’, is this not a quiz about cuisine and only a question about the title? Why indeed, that is the question. The answer is of course my addiction to puns. Anyway, I begin below with a seasonal drink and proceed to something for a light meal, and another dish which is a meal in itself. It may have been Prussian king Frederick the Great who was the first recorded person saying “An army marches on its stomach” – to which I can add that a member of a ‘shanti sena’, satyagrahi or peace activist goes to work on their stomach, and they have to have a stomach for many things. I haven’t shared anything culinary for a while so ……

Mulling it over

‘Tis the season to be merry (or the season to be Mary if you are a young child chosen to be Jesus’ mother in a nativity play). Less people are inclined to drink alcohol these days, or if they do then they tend to do so in more specific circumstances. Catering for everyone can a nightmare but there is an easy mulled fruit juice drink which you can enjoy yourself or serve to guests, and in my experience it goes down very well, a very pleasant alternative to mulled wine – which I personally don’t go for that much. And one of the handiest things about it is that it is non-alcoholic but you can add alcohol (I use gin) at point of serving so it caters both for those enjoying alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. I usually serve it hot but it is also a very pleasant drink served cold, you could even try it chilled for a summer party.

It needs to be boiled up once before you heat it to serve – this is to allow the flavours to properly penetrate the liquid and be absorbed. You don’t need a precise recipe (I don’t usually believe in them anyway) and can adjust as you go along. For ‘a crowd’ I use 2 litres of grape juice mixed with 2 litres of apple juice; you could experiment with a mixture of other juices but this works very well (grape juice by itself would probably be too sweet). Add a couple of mulled wine sachets (if you don’t have these simply add more of the other flavourings), a cinnamon stick or two (these vary greatly in size), 15 or so whole cloves, and a sliced lemon. I use an organic lemon if I can get one so you are not adding the chemicals which the skin of the usual ones are sprayed with. You can experiment with adding other spices.

Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer, lid closed, for 15-20 minutes. Leave it with the lid closed. Reheat when it is to be served. I serve it just below boiling point in wine glasses which seem to take the heat well – I wouldn’t use your most precious glasses though just in case the heat would crack them. You can use a small jug or ladle to put the mulled juice into the glass. I give guests a choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic punch as well as whatever other drinks you have on offer; a majority seem to go for the punch at Christmas time.

If serving this with alcohol you simply add the measure of alcohol you are using, and I use gin, before pouring in the punch. Last year, having received a bottle of non-alcoholic spirit/’gin’, having a measure of that in the drink was another choice for those having it as non-alcoholic. If it looks like you will need more punch then you can add more juice, and if necessary flavourings, as you go along, simmering it as you go – if serving over a period of time you need to heat it periodically anyway.

It will keep unrefrigerated for some time, certainly a number of days, and I tend to use the same batch for Christmas and the days after, even for new year depending on how much has been used, maybe with some more juice and flavouring added. I am sure you will be pleased as punch with the result. And if you keep it non-alcoholic you certainly won’t be punch drunk. And even the non-alcoholic version has a bit of a punch.

Vegan French toast

French toast, usually sweet, is made with egg and milk, but there is no reason it cannot be savoury too, or indeed vegan. And this is a vegan savoury recipe using gram flour, that old staple stand by for vegans wanting to go on a batter (or indeed for people who are coeliac and can’t take gluten). For this basically you are making the same kind of mixture as for pakoras or bhajis but with more water. With gram flour you always need to sieve it to start or you end up with lumps, so don’t take the shortcut of not sieving it.

80 grams of gram flour (how appropriate to weigh it in metric measure!) should be sufficient for a couple of good sized slices of bread. Add half a teaspoon of chilli powder, a teaspoon of cumin powder, a teaspoon of ajwain (I use seeds but you can also used ground), a small amount of asofoetida if you have it (look or ask in your Asian store for this and ajwain, a k a “bishop’s weed” – maybe with that title it is a ‘high’ church bishop!), and half a teaspoon of bread soda to help the mixture rise. If you don’t have these spices, improvise, even just use curry powder. Salt is up to yourself, you can do this without. Then add cold water to make it slightly thicker than a pancake batter mix. Soak your bread in the mix so it is completely covered and then fry in oil until golden brown, being careful to lift or move it frequently and gently with a slice/implement to stop it sticking to the pan. Serve as is or with some tomato and/or chutney, or whatever else takes your fancy.

If you wanted a sweet vegan French toast, you could use apple juice instead of water, and maybe add honey (which is not vegan), sugar, agave or whatever is your favourite sweetener or syrup is, to add to plain gram flour. And maybe a bit of cinnamon and or amchoor (dried green mango powder). And if you omit the bread then you can have savoury or sweet pancakes with similar mixtures. You can serve the sweet versions as is or with your favourite jam or fruit.

Potato and chick pea pot

This is a fast, easy, nutritious and tasty dish – what more could you ask for, and my take on a recipe received in a free magazine with another subscription, adapted a bit….. as usual I am, deliberately, lax on exact recipe directions.

Chop into medium pieces about 750g of potatoes and cook and drain them, their being cooked can coincide with the 20 – 25 minutes or so you need for doing the rest of the dish. Take a wok or heavy pot and add a couple of tablespoons of oil then for 30 seconds or so, when hot, cook 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds (if you don’t have cumin seeds you can omit this stage and add the same amount of cumin powder at any stage although the effect won’t quite be the same). Then add 1 or 2 chopped chillis, according to your taste, and 3 medium chopped onions and a couple of chopped garlic cloves, again according to taste.

When the onion is fairly well cooked and brown, add well chopped tomatoes, I would use 5 or 6 fresh but you can alternatively use tinned tomatoes, and possibly add some tomato puree. Reduce the heat under your pot and let this simmer until you have basically a tomato sauce. Add salt or soya sauce if you like. Then add a drained tin of chickpeas, or equivalent you have cooked yourself – not so difficult if you soak them and use a pressure cooker. Mix well. Finally, dump your drained cooked potato on top and half mash them into the mixture…..you want some of the potato to disappear into the mix and some to be still pieces of potato.

Serve and enjoy. This amount should serve 4 or 5 people by itself or possibly more if doing other things with it. But it is self sufficient as a meal, perhaps serving it with your favourite pickles or chutneys,

Talking about Frederick the Great as I was at the start of this piece, INNATE downloadable print-it-yourself posters https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/posters/ include another quote from said nongentleman – “If my soldiers began to think, not one would remain in the ranks.” Think about that. [The ‘Billy King Cookbook’ – it is not called that – can be found in the Pamphlets section of the INNATE website https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/pamphlets/ – Ed]

Dawn 50

Amazingly, some people still fondly remember ‘Dawn’ magazine though it is 50 years since it started (1974) and nearly 40 since the monthly publication ended. https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157609617432905/ Producing a publication then was an incredible amount of work in the pre-computer era and before desk top publishing (even that term seems dated or outdated because it is so much an assumed part of modern life and producing anything for others to read). One jokey slogan was that “Getting up for ‘Dawn’ leaves you exhausted by tea-time”!

The production quality of early “Dawns” was appalling by modern standards, sometimes only just legible. For the first nearly two years most of the magazine was duplicated, a cut-a-stencil system with the stencil being placed on an inked drum duplicator machine to run off the pages. As the attempt was to produce the magazine over a weekend, graphics were copied beforehand onto a stencil in a specialist shop, cut out and adhered to a cut hole in the typed stencil using correcting fluid as a glue. The hope then was that the stencil would hold together long enough to do the print run. Primitive or what? It sounds prehistoric now but it more or less worked.

With the magazine having found its feet, just about (at the end of its legs), it then moved to offset litho printing, see e.g. https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/3048496288/in/album-72157609617432905 This entailed even more work over a longer time frame since even if layout was completed in the production weekend, which usually didn’t happen, it still had to be printed, collated and distributed. A key point in the process was not to lose any of the many bits of paper with the typing which were then stuck on a larger sheet with headings and graphics. The personnel involved changed somewhat – including through the tragic early death of lovely gentle man and key member Dermot Hurley in Dublin – but the enterprise had run out of steam after just over a decade.

To some extent INNATE picked up where Dawn laid off but it wasn’t a simple process or transfer and INNATE didn’t produce a monthly publication until 1994 (Nonviolent News had begun as an occasional publication in 1990), some years after its ‘dawn’ in 1987. Like INNATE, the Dawn group wasn’t just about producing a publication but had a wider remit on nonviolence, peace, and progressive social change. But certainly modern technology makes life, and publication production, far simpler. The good old days? Good grief.

The ace of Trump’s

The Donald’s victory in the US presidential election has been pored (and poured?) over enough in the mainstream media that I won’t say too much about it here. Part of it is that some people prefer compelling lies to prosaic truth, or are partial to partial truths. Part of it is that in the presidential election the Democrats were poor on vision and vague on detail, and both Democrats and Republicans are in hock to big business and the military-industrial complex so a plague on both their houses on that – but Trump was seen to offer more hope on economic matters for many despite what economic analysts might say. The effects for Ireland of the Trumpian victory for Ireland, and the Irish multinational goldmine, remain to be seen.

There are of course a huge number of dangers in a Trump presidency, the worst probably being his refusal to acknowledge, and act on, global heating. With the USA just as vulnerable to climate change as anywhere else, and with the results already manifesting themselves, it requires very particular shortsightedness or stupidity to ignore it. [I think you can add greed to that – Ed]. While Trump may have a certain astuteness in relation to some things, the previous two qualities are undoubtedly his much of the time. Perhaps MAGA could be spelt out as Make America Great Amadáns. But of course there are also the people who do know the risks/results of global heating but still refuse to take action.

One point where President Trump may well be better than the Democrats is a possible reluctance to go to war or support wars abroad. This is from his isolationist, US-first, MAGA standpoint. If he had a greater reluctance to go to or support war but also a greater commitment to global justice and peace then he could have done great things – I write in the past tense because I am making judgements about his future behaviour based on his past performance. Perhaps, just perhaps, his reluctance to commit millions of $ to warmaking abroad could yield some peace dividends but that is not likely in relation to the Israeli genocide in Gaza since Trump is even more supportive of Israel than the ‘send arms first and ask occasional polite questions afterwards’ Biden. Donald Trump’s greatest commitment is of course to Donald Trump and he will continue to serve that cause fearlessly.

Traditional and modern mediation

We sometimes forget that most – if not all – traditional societies had or have their own conflict resolution techniques, and these usually involved sitting down and talking – and listening, often with particular ritual or formats attached. Even the Brehon laws had the aim of restitution rather than retribution. You may think of modern mediation methods as having particular ‘stages’ that need to be completed before moving on to the next one but this is no less ritualistic than traditional society methods, only different and having more of a theoretical base.

I was sad to learn of the death of an old colleague-of-a-kind, Ali Gohar, who died in Bradford (England) at the end of September. He visited and talked for INNATE https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/5044664047/in/photolist-7rJkCS-8FMdSk a decade and a half ago. Though living in Bradford for some years he was of Pashtun origin – the main ethnicity in Afghanistan – but from Pakistan. Part of what made Ali wax lyrical was the jirga, the traditional Pashtun elders council meeting to deal with conflict and work for restorative justice, and also for consultation – but updating it to the modern age by expanding it and including women was also part of it. A word search for Ali Gohar and ‘jirga’ will throw up material and a couple of books, one of them online.

Because of wars in Afghanistan and the current dire situation for women and human rights in general, Pashtun culture is sometimes considered intrinsically violent. Ali Gohar would refer to Abdul Ghaffar Khan, that great nonviolent leader who was sometimes referred to as ‘the frontier Gandhi’. Khan was a devout Muslim and a pacifist, and leader in his part of the world of a nonviolent movement for independence from Britain – but stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and against the partition of India. There is one remarkable quote from Abdul Ghaffar Khan, which Ali used to quote: “Is not the Pashtun amenable to love and reason? He will go with you to hell if you can win his heart, but you cannot force him even to go to heaven” – this definition of their strength and determination is one that that both the Russkies and the Yanquis would have been wise to heed, and might have led to much better outcomes for everyone in that part of the world.

There are many strands to mediation and in our complex world we should not rule out any method of mediation and dealing with conflict, including shuttle mediation which has at times been part of dealing with issues in Norn Iron. Nor should we abandon hope if mediation is impossible; longer term conciliation efforts (think Quaker House in Belfast) are possible as are approaches to conflict which don’t involve mediation, see e.g. https://innatenonviolence.org/workshops/anotherroad.shtml The only limitations are our imagination and our perseverance.

Bordering

Rowel Friers was a fairly gentle cartoonist but certainly the best or one of the very best in Norn Iron in the mid-20th century and through the Troubles (he died in 1998). One cartoon of his showed two decorators together, one of whom has just had a tin of paint poured over his head. This unfortunate house painter states – “All I said was I thought they would be better off without the border”!

But speaking of ‘borders’, and decisions about borders, there is also the de Borda institute on inclusive voting methodologies headed up by Peter Emerson. www.deborda.org The said gentleman is an inveterate overland traveller across borders, even over long distances, and having meaningful interactions as he goes. I am advised that his blog on his current travel to China can be found at https://deborda.substack.com/p/debordaabroad2 and you may be interested to Czech it out though Georgia is more on his mind, at least when I looked. Meanwhile his thoughts on democracy in Israel and the Middle East currently can be found at http://www.deborda.org/home/2024/10/17/2024-23-the-middle-east.html

–

Well, that’s me for now and I will be back with you at the start of February (in January there is just a short news supplement to Nonviolent News and no Billy King column, awwwww). In the mean time I wish you a peaceful Christmas period – something denied to a huge number of people around the world, not just through wars but economic injustice and the effects of global heating. And is my wont I also wish you a Preposterous New Year – Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again, 324

Billy King, Nonviolent News

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Well, the last cucumber of summer is faded and gone – but I remember the taste of it still. That isn’t too difficult as there are a few smaller ones left in the fridge though the, outdoor, plants have shrivelled up and snuffed off their mortal coil – which seems an appropriate phrase for outdoor climbing plants. Winter and winter time is here. So it is the period for kale time rather than killing time since winter gives different opportunities for doing things than summer – that is a summary of my views on the matter.

Oh, and before I get going, you may or may not have noticed the research which said the climate damaging effects of exported LNG/Liquefied Natural Gas can be worse than coal https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/04/exported-liquefied-natural-gas-coal-study?CMP=share_btn_url Talk about hot air concerning the benefits of LNG…… On Thursday 7th November a private members bill against LNG from Deputy Neasa Hourigan TD will be debated in the Dáil, a final opportunity for the Government and all parties to reject polluting gas infrastructure like Shannon LNG (last piece of info from FOE).

Bann the bomb

The premises of Mediation Northern Ireland in University Street, Belfast, a k a Mediation House, has four meeting rooms, all named after northern rivers; Bann, Erne, Foyle, and Lagan. Erne is a lough, or loughs, as well as a river but just as well they didn’t name the rooms after loughs – Neagh would be difficult to avoid using and those involved in mediation and conflict work, at least in the English language (as opposed to the Irish language origin of the names), want people to say ‘yay’ rather than ‘Neagh’ and not be ‘loughed’ in conflict.

Rivers give the feeling of movement, so that is definitely a positive in the context of a building where conflict is dealt with. Mind you, mediators have to Erne the trust of the parties involved through impartiality and friendliness. While they will have clear ground rules and try to Bann inappropriate behaviour, like talking over someone already talking, they also have to deal with the situation if someone is Lagan behind in making their contribution, to make sure the process is fully inclusive. If trust is built up then a positive result is likely and the process will not be Foyle-d at the last minute. So there you have it.

Continuing on to rivers in Donegal, once the mediation stream or process is Finn-ished the mediator should reflect on how it went but this does not necessitate Corabber-ation. [If there is one thing that should be binned and Bann-ed it’s your puns – Ed – though it does remind me of the old humorous saying “If you weren’t so Ballymena with your Ballymoney we’d have a Ballycastle to be our Ballyholme”].

It will be Grand

Belfast has a spanking new transport hub [Why ‘spanking’? – Ed] [I wouldn’t go there but actually I’ll be there frequently – Billy], Grand Central Station. This is certainly a bit more central than the ‘old’ (1970s) ‘Central Station’, now called Lanyon Place which was always to the east though it served as ‘central’. The new Grand Central Station is not too far from the older, Victorian, Great Victoria Street train station which fronted, colonnaded, onto Great Victoria Street but was sent on its way by both redevelopment and IRA bombs (and its Great Victoria Street successor from 1995 which closed this summer).

It is good that Translink, the Northern transport authority, has planned for the future of public transport, and upping its role in travel, with this integrated bus and train station though the work there in the shorter term affects traffic for the worse. Belfast has also had, for some years now, a Grand Central Hotel so if meeting someone at the ‘Grand Central’ you need to specify hotel or station (people also don’t expect a city the size of Belfast to have two airports so you need to be specific on that too or you may end up at the wrong one, ‘tis easy done).

While it is certainly ‘grand’ in term of size, Grand Central is not ‘grand’ in terms of architectural quality, it is modern-functional and cavernous. To put it prosaically it is what I would call a big bus station. As you approach it as a pedestrian the train platforms are on one side on entering and the bus bays on the other. It could do with lots of medium to large artworks like the John Kindness tiled ‘waterfall’ piece that stood for some time in Belfast’s Glengall Street/Great Victoria Street/Europa bus station composed of kitschy tourist items – a real artwork made up of of individual pieces of kitsch imagery. The Headitor of this publication prides himself on having introduced an old John Kindness cartoon on the (Northern) difference between Catholics and Protestants into ‘community/good relations’ circles, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/9024657125/in/photolist-HYigiP-eKtJ9D-eKF8ky and frame beside that [But pride comes before a waterfall – Headitor].

I wanted to explore for a minute the word ‘grand’, and I think in Hiberno-English one of its connotations may be different to other English-speaking countries. Words can be very precise or vague and depend entirely on the nuanced context. ‘Grand’ can simply mean very big. ‘Grand’, as in saying someone is ‘very grand’ can imply uppity, aloof, opinionated, classist, wallowing in their wealth and a few more things as well. Someone making a ‘grand entrance’ is implying an aspect of theatricality.

But – and international English-speaking readers correct me if I am wrong – uniquely in Ireland ‘grand’ can also mean just about adequate or minimally satisfactory. “It will be grand” about a situation or a repair, for example, means it will be OK, it will work or work out, it will do, don’t worry even if there is something to worry about. This meaning depends entirely on the context. If you broke your mother’s most loved vase and I was giving you a hand to superglue it back into shape then I might say “It’ll be grand” – well, it will and it won’t. If you were worried about an event you were participating in and I said “It’ll be grand” well, that is a supportive wish rather than an established fact given it is referring to the future, and it is a gesture of reassurance more than a judgement of what will come to pass, whatever I might think of how it will go for you.

Grand Central Station, Belfast – it will be grand.

Cáin Adomnáin

Cáin Adomnáin 21st Century is a fascinating venture in taking an initiative from 697 CE into the 21st century. It is amazing, surreal, to even state that and be inspired by something that took place more than thirteen centuries ago. You have, I hope, read about it in the news section of this publication and maybe even seen the pics at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72177720320507627/ I wanted to briefly explore some of the themes around it.

The original Law of the Innocents/Adomnán’s Law was very much of it time. It also didn’t challenge war as such, only the conduct of war by offering protection to women, children and non-combatants, and in this regard has been labelled the ‘Geneva Convention’ of that time. There was no impetus to stop war and fighting, only about how it should be conducted or at least who should not suffer because of it. And the penalties were very much of their time too. Mind you, yer man Adomnán must have been a quare class of organiser to get it all together at the time – OK, the church had its networks but you couldn’t just send out an email and ask people to be there and they book a flight on Ryanair, and people travelled to Birr from all over Ireland and from Scotland and the north of England.

So is it justified to take something from the best part of a millennium and a half ago and remodel it for the 21st century? Yes indeed. A new “people’s” law for today has to be of our time. The 21st century version has no state or ecclesiastical power behind it but it does have moral power in relation to the situation we find ourselves in with wars such as those in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza making life a death trip or at least a dive into hell.

As for extrapolating in the 21st century version into a condemnation of war as a crime against humanity is justified, it assuredly is. War may be taken for granted by some people but as a means of deciding things it is bottom of the pile, a negation of people’s right to life and any possibility of progress or happiness. The new law doesn’t proscribe who are innocent victims but personally I think the vast majority of people who suffer in war, including soldiers, are ‘innocent victims’ in that they didn’t deserve to die. After all, the death penalty is killing people to prove that killing people is wrong. And similarly in war. The people who are most guilty are those who ordered the war in the first place along with a probably relatively small number of soldiers who take pleasure in inflicting pain and death.

Including the earth as a victim in war is fully justified too. The kind of world we are bequeathing to our descendents, literal and metaphorical, is a disaster and becoming the source of great violence and conflict – over water, resources, and migration from areas becoming uninhabitable, as well as more general disruption. The military are a major contributor to pollution and global warming. It is right that the earth should be specified as an innocent victim of war.

War will not go away because of Lex Innocentium 21st Century or even a load of people signing it. But at a time when even in ‘neutral’ Ireland the powers that be are trying to sign the country up for participation in current and future wars, it is important that people stand up and say – No, there is another way, there are other ways, and war is an escalator to hell which it is difficult to get off. You can read all the information around Lex Innocentium 21st century, and sign up, at https://lexinnocentium21.ie/

Talking quietly

If you or your listeners in conversation are not being threatening or abusive, heaven forbid, then talking is likely to be A Good Thing. Obviously we can learn by example but talking to people who others think we shouldn’t talk to can be exemplary too, and we can learn a lot from rather different opinions to our own.

However there arises the issue of whether we should talk to The Enemy. In Norn Iron, especially during the Troubles, there was a long list of certain people that other certain people wouldn’t talk to. Except that they did. The British government definitely, definitively, wouldn’t speak to the IRA or their representatives…..except when they did. Ditto unionists. Lots of the great and the good got exercised angry when John Hume worked to involve Sinn Féin in talks. And as it turned out that was indeed A Good Thing. Edwin Markham’s words come to mind: “He drew a circle that shut me out – / Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout / But love and I had the wit to win: / We drew a circle and took him In!” (available as a print-it-yourself poster under ‘Inclusion’ at https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/posters/ ) An organisation like Quaker House in Belfast helped the peace process by enabling talking and contact ‘under the radar’ and participants knew that their discussions would be neither publicised nor abused.

Paramilitary disarmament observer Rev Harold Good’s new memoir, “In Good Time”, covers how the DUP were engaged in discreet talks, sanctioned from the top, with the Sinners at a time when they were vehemently denying any such contact and stating that they would not engage in same. Even today it looks like they are saying the sort of thing “well, odd members might have engaged in such informal talking but as a party we didn’t.” (cf Belfast Telegraph 24/10/24) Plausible deniability. Except it was sanctioned by ‘The Doc’ (Ian Paisley senior). So even today there is an untruth or stretched truth being told about it.

Talking to enemies is how, over time, they may become friends. Paisley and McGuinness became the Chuckle Brothers. Talking may be very difficult and involve stomaching some difficult emotions and lots of angst in dealing with thorny issues but it is the only way to go. International war participants and cheerleaders please copy.

Wallpaper

INNATE doesn’t make it a habit of promoting religious – or indeed secular – organisations except where there is a peace, human rights or environmental element, and there is that with the Quakers and their peace witness – so the Headitor felt justified in including the news piece about the ‘Quaker Hub’ at Frederick Street Friends Meeting House in Belfast in this issue. Whether there will be a hubbub at this hub remains to be seen, though not when worship is in session, given the Quaker use of silence.

This reminds me of an ancient ‘Punch’ (a British humorous magazine, long dead) cartoon on new religious sects; one showed a man rushing to a meeting of the ‘Quick Quakers’, with a sign saying “Sunday Worship, 11.00 – 11.03 am”! That is the antithesis of the Quaker style, that is the joke, but anyway, if you look at photos of INNATE’s old conferences (these days more happen online), a fairly constant theme is the then wallpaper in Frederick Street Friends Meeting House with its distinctive pattern! For the wallpaper – along with some people inconsiderately getting in the way of your view of the wallpaper – see https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157609198950838/

Poppying up again

There are credible reasons to wear a red poppy for remembrance at this time of year. Now I have said it. Remembering resistance to fascism and nazism is one. But the problem is both its limitations (only remembering British soldiers, not others, and no civilians) and the use to which it is put (glorifying the role of the British military today, promoting its role and recruitment, and ignoring past misdeeds). If you want to wear a poppy, wear a white one which remembers all the victims of all wars, and is also a commitment to peace for the future, a commitment against war as a method of politics and international policy. And war, and commitment to going to war, is very much back on most European governments’ agendas.

One controversy which arose some years ago was Irish footballer James McClean’s refusal to wear a poppy on his team shirt in England, in his case because of the role of the British Army in Northern Ireland. And the demand by the BBC, including totally inappropriately in Northern Ireland, for presenters to wear a red poppy is crazy. Ironically, and to their credit, the Royal British Legion (which sells and promotes the red poppy) defended McClean’s right not to wear one. Meanwhile Damien Dempsey has written a song about James McClean and the poppy issue. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/irish-folk-singer-releases-james-mcclean-tribute-song-defending-footballers-poppy-stance/a1133489759.html

Me? It is not as big an issue in the Republic for obvious reasons but in the Norn Iron context I just go for the quiet life and don’t wear anything and wait for the ‘Remembrance season’ to blow over. Cowardice? Maybe. I admire those who do wear a white poppy; the late SDLP councillor Dorita Field in Belfast wore two poppies, a red and a white one https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/51154967921/in/photolist-2csmVmA-2kWozKx – though maybe that was a Field of poppies…. But I choose to raise peace issues in other ways.

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That’s me for this month as we enter the darkest portion of the year….but there is always light at the end of the tunnel and spring at the end of winter, so far anyway. And meanwhile you can have cosy nights tucked up with your favourite book or film, and maybe you’d like to avoid endless discussion of the US presidential election and whether an orange skinned liar and demagogue might win and what will happen when he or his perhaps more rational but even more war-supporting alternative gets the nod. Let’s hope there is some light at the end of that tunnel. See you soon, Billy.

Bill King: Rites Again, 323

Billy King, Nonviolent News, ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Not so Lucky Dube hitting nails on the head

South African reggae singer Lucky Dube (pronounced ‘du-bay’) ended up not so lucky as he was shot dead in a carjacking in 2007. However he had been a prominent voice against apartheid and for racial harmony including before the end of apartheid. I returned to listening to a compilation album of his when racist riots took place in Dublin and Belfast. Some is culturally specific but change a word or two and some of the songs were made for such a time. Another song I admire not on the same album is ‘Respect’ which is certainly the best sung definition that I know of – “respect for who I am, not what I am”.

It’s not his own song but he has a great version of “Peace perfect peace” – “We cry for peace, perfect peace / Lord we cry for love in this neighbourhood / ……We cry for peace in South Africa” (and in Ireland I might add). “Together as one” is a great cry for racial harmony, singing from a black South African standpoint: “…Hey you rasta man / Hey European, Indian man / We’ve got to come together as one…” The alternative, of course, is some form of apartheid, formal or informal, and we know the dead end and violence that leads to.

Dalriada abu: We demand the return of western Scotland to Ireland

We must demand the return of western Scotland to Irish control and ownership. It was culturally Irish and part of the kingdom of Dalriada/Dál Riata on both sides of the Irish Sea only 1200 years ago. Why, if you arrive at the port of Cairnryan all the names around are Irish – and ‘Scot’land is named after the Irish. Western Scotland should immediately be returned to Irish ownership and control.

Eh, there are a few problems with this proposition. Things have changed somewhat over 1200 years. The people living in western Scotland don’t identify as Irish and it has been part of ‘Great Britain’ for centuries – and if it wasn’t then the next likely alternative is not joining Ireland but being part of an independent Scottish state.

However this preposterous demand is no different to the right-wing Israeli one to control ‘Judea and Samaria’ and all the lands Jews occupied or lived in a couple of millennia ago (even longer ago than when western Scotland was culturally and politically Irish). Yet this claim to others’ land largely goes unchallenged in the west. And Jews were not the only peoples around in those lands at that time and the Philistines and others get a bad write up in the Jewish and Christian Bibles and these versions are taken as ‘gospel’ by some Christians and Jews.

There are different definitions of Zionism but the denial of a viable Palestinian state means that Israel itself cannot live in peace. Justice is a major theme in the Hebrew (and indeed Christian) Bible and justice is being denied to Palestinians. The claim to land by the Israeli state and settlers because their distant ancestors lived on it – not necessarily without other people being around simultaneously – has to be called out for what it is, an imperialist land grab based on theocratic and archaic thinking; it is politically and ethically inexcusable. And it is very sad for various reasons, not least, as stated above, in denying a peaceful existence to the people of Israel.

Crews in

I watched the 2022 film ‘Triangle of sadness’ on a well-known streaming platform. It is a game of three halves which don’t necessarily fit too well together but it has some brilliant moments. A young couple (both models and she a supermodel and social influencer) and an older English couple (with the first names of a British prime minister and wife) are at the captain’s banquet on board a luxury cruise ship – the banquet is a disaster but that is another story. The young couple ask what business the older couple are in. “Producing product in precision engineering” comes the reply. And the older man further elucidates that their products have been deployed in upholding democracy all over the world.

Of course the younger couple ask what product it is. “Basically our best selling product in the hand grenade.” The older woman repeats the nature of the product, as if it was sprockets or tin cans, as it hasn’t sunk in with the younger couple. The older couple go on to say that their profits took a 25% hit because the UN banned landmines but “we pulled though” and they still have each other and loved each other….. I don’t think it requires a spoiler alert to say their product makes a brief cameo appearance later in the film.

The film is a satire on the rich to some extent but a drunken ‘dialogue’ between the alcoholic ‘Marxist’ captain and Russian capitalist oligarch passenger seems a bit weird (word of the moment after Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz used it about Trump) and doesn’t ring true; it would seem inserted (and perhaps the captain’s general behaviour) to say the makers of the film are not just critiquing capitalism but Marxism/Communism too. The tables do get turned in the film but maybe they keep on turning.

And I will add a final comment. As you may know, cruising (as in taking a luxury cruise) is about the most polluting R&R you can engage in; as Friends of the Earth say, “Cruise ships are a catastrophe for the environment — and that’s not an overstatement. They dump toxic waste into our waters, fill the planet with carbon dioxide, and kill marine wildlife.“ I am not suggesting you fly to your favourite resort however it is likely to be far less dangerous for our little planet than taking a cruise. But how do you persuade people that taking a cruise is anti-social and collectively suicidal? Are you going to tell your friends, neighbours or workmates that when they have proudly announced their latest trip on a ship? Doing so may ‘trip up’ your relationship, and they could flip out, but the learning has to happen somehow. Perhaps you could say, ship up or ship out.

Media not in the middle

Most of the Irish media, contrary to the the views of most people in the Republic but in accord with the establishment, takes a pro-NATO line. This is not usually actually advocating NATO membership, since that is a step too far and risking fully alienating citizens, but portraying NATO and cooperation with it as a Good Thing. In doing so their critical faculties go out the window.

The Phoenix magazine is an exception, consistently raising problems with NATO and often covering moves, sometimes covert, by the Irish establishment to be fully in accord with NATO thinking and practice, and detailing deviations from ostensible neutrality. Take the issue of 6/9/24 under the heading ‘NATO cods Ireland’. They rightly point out the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic sea in 2022 has been used by NATO and Irish figures to warn of the dangers to undersea infrastructure (energy and communications) and, directly or indirectly, to refer to the ‘Russian threat’.

There is only one problem with this. It wasn’t Russia that blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. It was seemingly done by Ukraine. The appropriate conclusion to make is that it is war itself which is the real danger and that Ireland should be fearlessly exercising its neutrality to work for peace and avoid armed conflict. Wake me up when the Irish establishment realises that.

And what is it with Irish media? They are afraid to report on protests about Irish neutrality and NATO and rock the establishment boat. The issue of Shannon Airport as a warport is of course currently combined with opposition to the Israeli onslaught on the people of Gaza. 400 or 500 people attended the national demonstration at Shannon on 8th September. Al Jazeera and The Guardian reported the protest. In Ireland it would appear the only pick up was two local radio stations. There is only one word to describe this and that is – pathetic.

P Snooze

Apologies for a humorous heading to something which is more a crying matter. The British peace publication Peace News, founded 1936, is no longer going strong. In fact it has ceased publication for the moment anyway over a major conflict between the staff and the board and holding company, and the resignation of the staff. I am certainly not going into the details which have in any case been aired in public and in the publication.

Peace News was important to me when I first became a peace activist as the nearest (geographical) peace publication which reflected something of what I was feeling and believing – there was nothing in Ireland at the time. Peace News has gone through a number of transmogrifications since then and while a lot of the news and some of the features didn’t reflect situations I was dealing with, its coverage of issues and kind of approach was something I could often identify with and learn from.

You expect cut-throat conflict in some aspects of business and politics – not that it should be like that – but peace and community groups and churches are arenas where, because there is an expectation of people being ‘nice’ to each other, conflict can develop, go horribly wrong, and not be dealt with because ‘that sort of thing doesn’t happen with us’. Unfortunately nothing can be further from the truth. Those familiar with mediation and conflict resolution of any kind will know how anyone can end up in deep conflict, how easy it is to fall into, and how, when you listen to one side, the right of the matter seems to lie with them…..until you listen to the other side and the pattern is reversed. Getting each side to listen to the other is at the core of mediation.

Mediation has, rightly, taken its place as a mainstream option regarding conflict in both jurisdictions in Ireland. But there are so many situations where mediation and conciliation processes are not considered, and it also takes two to tango, and one party in a conflict can reject a mediative process for a whole variety of reasons – being convinced they are right and/or feelings of superiority, unfamiliarity with mediation and what it does or does not entail, or anger and heightened emotion.

I am not trying to make any judgements on the Peace News situation here in saying we have a long way to go in making mediation and mediative processes part of what and who we are. In that regard the work of the late Jerry Tyrrell in developing peer mediation in schools pinpoints one area where dealing with conflict in a positive way should be introduced – though he was keen to point out it had to be a ‘whole school’ approach and not a tokenistic attempt to appear progressive or help keep order in the school. Get them young – introduce the basic methodology of mediation in school as a basic part of education and preparing young people for dealing positively with conflict. Being familiar with such processes is important so it becomes as natural as breathing – not just for those who engage as mediators but also for the parties in conflict so they know that there is another side and another story involved, and are prepared to engage.

–

Well, that is me for another while as winter arrives. Time goes by regardless, I hope the next month is a productive one for you in whatever positive doings you are involved in, see you soon, Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again, 322

Billy King, Nonviolent News, ,

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Well, it was one of those years when you might feel, as I did, that summer forgot to come and autumn came first. With climate change that may be increasingly our lot, not that Ireland was ever renowned for tropical summers. The rain in Spain Ireland stays mainly on and on. Oh well, I hope you got your head showered somewhere and you are fit and ready for autumn and winter. Of course it wasn’t a good summer for racism either but that is another, and unpleasant, story.

Marching orders

For imaginative audacity and brass neck over the summer though you have to admire Portadown Orangemen, still smarting after all these years on not being able to march down the Garvaghy Road and through a Catholic area where they are not welcome. They argued the toss with the Parades Commission that they should march through when Armagh (the county Portadown is in) were playing in – and in the event winning by a point – the All-Ireland Gaelic football final. The premise was that all the taigs* would be either in Croke Park or watching the match so it wouldn’t matter to them. Nice try lads [I thought a try was in rugby – Ed]. But you’ll have to do better than that next time, like actually talking to residents. *’Obviously not the term used by them in seeking permission, but Taig’ is used in a highly derogatory way by some Northern Prods about Catholics; as its origin is in the personal name ‘Tadhg’, coming from ‘poet’, I use it as a positive term but being careful to explain why.

Genius

It was a bit of a coincidence. Edna O’Brien’s impressionistic and excellent 1999 biography of James Joyce had sat on a bookshelf of ours for a long time but it caught my eye and, it being short, I thought I could read it in a couple of days and I had, it being summer, time to do so. That I did and finished it on the day that Edna O’Brien’s death was announced, before I heard she was dead or even at death’s door. illy King

Without going into details of the book, my chief thought following the reading was how Nora Barnacle stuck to her man through thick and thin (mainly thin), it is absolutely amazing. Lesser people would have headed for the hills, or in her case close to the sea, very early on. But it got me thinking. JJ is usually thought of as a bit of a genius, and he certainly proclaimed it himself, but are all ‘geniuses’ impossible (or at least improbable) to live with? O’Brien however talks about writers in the context of James Joyce (and I am not equating ‘writers’ with ‘geniuses’) – “Do writers have to be such monsters in order to create? I believe that they do. It is a paradox that while wrestling with language to capture the human condition they become more callous, and cut off from the very human traits which they so glisteningly depict” (in the “Fame” chapter of her book). I don’t necessarily agree.

Edna O’Brien herself chose to stay single most of her life though that did not preclude relationships. She was a determined and dedicated writer but I don’t think she would have been impossible to live with. Certainly some writers or geniuses would require a genius at putting up with them to sustain a relationship, and probably a certain amount goes with the territory. But so too in relation to political activists, peace or otherwise, given the commitment made to The Cause and how this relates to, or can tower over, family relationships and commitments.

Isn’t it a strange world.

Struth

The old adage that the first casualty of war is truth is one that isn’t much bandied about in relation to the war in Ukraine. The fact is that we usually in our neck of the woods only get one version of what is happening and that is taken as gospel truth; Russians bad, NATO good, Ukraine saintly. No, I am certainly not going to say the Russians are good, it was a brutal and opportunistic invasion that went badly wrong for Putin but he has used it for his own purposes (cf perpetual war in Orwell’s ‘1984’). But NATO had a part in setting up the scenario for the war by its expansionist aims and actions (cf perpetual war in Orwell’s ‘1984’, NATO was set up to counter the Russian communist bloc and should have got moth-balled when it fell, instead it came up with new enemies).

Occasionally we get a glimpse at greater truths. Take https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2024/08/13/we-killed-many-of-them-on-the-first-day-they-didnt-expect-us-how-ukraine-pulled-off-its-invasion-of-russia/ about the Ukrainian invasion of Russian territory in August 2024. A Ukrainian soldier says of this incursion into Russia that “We killed many of them on the first day……..Because they were unarmed and didn’t expect us.” Ahem, I know this is a war, but this sounds like the Ukrainians killing many unarmed soldiers, contrary to the ‘laws of war’ as I understand them as they were no threat to the Ukrainian army. He does say many surrendered too.

Reading

between the lines

is a necessary skill and never needed more than at the moment.

Picture it

INNATE’s photo and documentation site at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/ has plenty to choose from and in the last year has averaged over a thousand photos a week opened (you can look at photos in the photostream without opening them but then you can’t read any detailed descriptions etc). But I must admit I am often surprised about what gets hits and what doesn’t. You can browse from the latest entries but if you are looking for something in particular then using the albums tab makes things much easier; word searching can work well but not always.

One of the surprising ‘top hits’ is a photo of dumped rubbish on the seashore at Carnsore Point in a photo essay on the wind farm there – if you click on https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/2835010165/ you will see a fairly basic and unexciting picture of rubbish, rocks and sand; it is a commentary on Irish attitudes to getting ‘rid’ of ‘rubbish’ – one person’s ‘rid’ is another’s ‘rud’ (multilingual pun) [Or multilingual punishment? – Ed] – but it doesn’t feel earth shattering. Yet it is second in the photos having the most hits. Of course tastes and interests vary but often what I expect to be popular is not.

And other photos that do feel special get relatively little attention. I feel https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/53703463429/in/dateposted/ is an absolutely brilliant photo (by Larry Speight), coincidentally concerning rubbish, where the shape of human and animal at a landfill site in Kampala seem to mimic each other. And for me the most powerful photo of all on the site comes from Palestine (taken by Mairead Collins) of a young boy running with bottles of water to try to put out a fire in an olive grove started by Israeli settlers in the West Bank – the triumph of hope and dedication over the reality of what can be achieved.

If a photo or album is linked in someone’s blog, email or article it can suddenly receive lots of hits. Others get occasional visits but the point in documentation is something is there when someone really wants to find it. And if you find your group or field of endeavour in the peace and social change fields is missing, well, put yourself in the picture by sending in some pics. That is an invitation.

The growing year

If you have green fingers I hope it has been a good year (if you have orange fingers it is because you have likely been handling orange lily stamens). Overall it wasn’t a great growing season, not that it is over yet, and I recently sowed rocket and land cress which I hope will over-winter. In general it has been a very undistinguished gardening year (and I pity farmers); germination of the purple sprouting broccoli was very poor, I think I did three sowings under a tunnel cloche to get at least some seedlings and the plants are small. The Russian kale grew well however but caterpillars did a lot of mischief I didn’t notice partly because with the shape of the leaves it wasn’t seen. We have a now well-established fig tree but the figs have been quite small, not enough sun, and unfortunately our blackbirds have taken a liking to them so we need to pick them early and ripen indoors if they are not to be pecked and eaten to bits.

My new success of the year was undoubtedly delicious akito outdoor cucumbers which grow vertically though they need a bit of a hand with canes of some kind, and some string or twine to help secure them. Seeds bought in Lidl, they were started indoors and I put them in tubs and they have been well fed, and are currently performing excellently; we have had cucumber salads three days in a row…..day one was a recipe with a dressing and chilli flakes, day two a dressing with mint, and day three was tzatziki (store that one up for Scrabble though the game for some racists this year was Rabble……). Of course how long they will keep going into autumn I don’t know and when the cucumbers will take cucumberage at colder weather. Organically grown veg has a higher dry matter level than those using artificial fertilisers and I think this makes a big difference especially with a veg which has a high water content like cucumbers. With them performing well, though a bit slow to get into gear, maybe I can feel as cool as a cucumber. [I hope that is the end of cucumbersome puns – Ed] [Given that cue I think I’ll head off to Comber – Billy]

I nearly danced for joy outside a week ago – I did cry out aloud – when I saw a living creature hop away from me….it was a frog in our suburban garden. We have had one, or a succession of them (the Irish Common Frog can live for 5 – 10 years) for some considerable time but then I hadn’t come across any evidence for the last few years until one hopped very briefly into view away from me and the sage bush and into a clump of montbretia where it was well covered. Speaking of hopping, for a period a bit more than a decade ago Donegal town had a ‘Donegal hopping centre’ when a letter fell off a sign there….is that the triumph of hop over experience? Hop until you drop may leave you hopping mad tired but does not pander to consumerism so has that in its favour.

–

As the Triple Lock policy faces obliteration by the Irish government in furtherance of its unimaginative and little-minded pro-militarist agenda, I am reminded of a joke written on a lock securing a park gate in Belfast. Someone had taken the trouble to write on what was a reasonable sized lock, it looked like Tippex was used, “So is your Mammy”. Spoiler alert: ‘Locked’ is a euphemism for being drunk. The government has of course ruled out, without any exploration, positive and peaceful alternatives to its pro-NATO and pro-EU militarism policies. In fact I think they are triple faced or talking trip(l)e.

Finally, as regular readers [Plural? – Ed] will know, this is my least favourite time of year, not because I dislike autumn weather and nature – I like it – but because I dislike autumn schedules and busyness. But the wheel of the year keeps on turning (Happy Christmas anyone?). See you soon, Billy.