Tag Archives: Billy King

Billy King: Rites Again 326

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts –

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standard’ or its use in dentistry (gold mining is a different kind of extraction but can be very painful) have been superseded by economic and technological advances.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 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, 322

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.

Billy King: Rites Again, 321

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

I get to read Nonviolent News before publication so I can make comments on contents in the same issue [What a privilege! – Ed]. The comment in the editorial about mediation and conciliation seeming to be forgotten in the international arena made me think that they are, collectively, one of the Secrets of the Universe. And that made me think about the cartoon of the guru on the mountain top, looking glum. One acolyte below the guru says to another “He has forgotten the secret of the universe again”. There seem to be a lot of Secrets of the Universe forgotten at the moment….

Elect shun

Well, the nativist far right did make a very few gains of local council seats (from zero) in Ireland in the local elections but nothing compared to what they were hoping, and nowhere near a seat in the EU elections. Now there are some people who claim true Irishness but who don’t remember anything about one of the most essential parts of Irish history in the last number of centuries, emigration.

However I was sad in particular to see Clare Daly voted out from MEP-dom. She has been a fearless advocate of peace and against EU military aggrandizement, as well as being a sensible voice on many other issues. There was a vindictive piece in the Irish Times following her defeat https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024/06/21/justine-mccarthy-clare-dalys-dog-whistle-to-haters-of-the-media-wasnt-just-hypocritical-it-was-reckless/ She was continually mocked and abused by the conservative media in Ireland (I would feel the above piece after her defeat was confirmation of this) so it is not surprising that said media can be judged to have had a significant hand in her defeat, or that she reacted as she did.

Meanwhile in de Nort we await the results for 18 seats at Westminster in the British general election on 4th July, using the primeval first-past-the-post voting system. This system does encourage tactical voting – voting for someone you don’t fully support but who has a chance of getting elected in order to deprive someone you definitely do not support winning. Sinn Féin did atrociously – compared to expectations – in both elections (local and EU) south and west of the border but are likely to hold most of their ground in Northern Ireland. How the DUP will fare after a) ‘Sir’ Jeffrey Donaldson’s departure in less than auspicious circumstances, and b) the admission by new DUP leader Gavin Robinson that they overstated their case on the trade barriers or checks Britain/Norn Iron having been removed. But all in all there is plenty for psephologists to get their teeth and calculators into (psephologists study voting and voting patterns, pepsiologists study teeth rot and obesity), North and South, not forgetting east and west.

While there may be one or two surprises in the British general election in the North, there will be no such surprise in Britain itself on the overall result where the Conservative party are on track for one of their worst defeats ever. In the North in general however most people will vote as they usually do, and change comes slowly; the 40-40-20 pattern of the last number of years is likely to be maintained (40% unionist, 40% nationalist/republican, and 20% for the others or less constitutionally-aligned parties).

I had hoped that the Sinners would be the lead party in the next coal-ition (it may not be very green…) government in the Re:Public. This desire on my part wasn’t for their policies on the North – which I thought would be tempered by their partners – but because they might actually stand up for a positive Irish neutrality. However on the recent showing it will be another conservative-conservative deal with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and the vestiges of neutrality will continue to be sold down the river while FG and FF proclaim no change on it….

Haven’t we heard that before?

Speaking of neutrality, the Oireachtas, well the Seanad, missed the opportunity https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/2024-05-29/11/ to prevent arms coming from or passing through Ireland to Israel – this was thanks to a rearguard action by the powers that be not to do anything (full stop). Recognition of Palestine, how are ye. Suspending a decision for 6 months on the matter, and on adequate inspections of planes at Shannon, was a death knell for any measure being of relevance – and maybe a literal death knell for some people in Gaza too.

I just happened to come across a cutting I had taken from the Irish Times of 14/6/06….which mathematicians among you will realise is 18 years ago, i.e. almost two decades: “US military-linked flights may face inspections in Shannon” was the heading which began that “The Government is to reconsider introducing inspections on US military-related flights landing in Shannon after a US marine being held prisoner was transported through the airport without the necessary permission being obtained from the Irish authorities.” The then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, said he was going to engage with the US Embassy “with a view to strengthening the verification procedures and if that entails inspection so be it.” So, that was then, and nothing happened. Don’t be surprised when nothing happens now or in the future either. Heaven forbid that little Ireland should even look at what the the most powerful military in the world is shipping through Irish territory and skies…..or that it should actually consider what it is using it for, or the fact that simply permitting troops to pass through is directly assisting US hegemony and warmaking.

Mapping it

The randomness of the effects of war and violence never ceases to amaze me. I mean of course the randomness of the victims in the sense that they could be anyone, anywhere, you, me, your granny. There is nothing random however in the planning of the violence, it is often meticulously planned even if who actually dies may be subject to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being in Gaza at the current time is being in the wrong place at the wrong time for everyone; even if you are not injured, killed or dying from lack of medication or food, you face constant fear from there being no safe place available anywhere.

I was drawn back to Tom Weld’s artwork by these thoughts, particularly https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/48861290991/in/album-72157711237159086/ with parallels between the terrors of the Second World War and today. For me the power of his imagery is in people – living, breathing human beings – being reduced to lines or areas on a map. For me this illustrates the worst aspects of the militarist mindset. However in the current situation in Gaza it seems everywhere is marked for obliteration, not just the carefully marked areas in Tom Weld’s artwork.

Transcending war and violent conflict

Nonviolent News often uses pieces from Transcend Media Service (‘Solutions-oriented Peace Journalism’ is their strapline), indeed there is one in the Readings in Nonviolence slot in this issue. Some of the pieces are very much written from a US point of view, but there is no harm in that, especially given that they come from the belly of the beast, the world’s number one military superpower. If we wanted we could use lots more from that source. If you are interested in the origins of US imperialism, apart of course from the initial colonialism of taking the land in north America, you can read about the 1823 Monroe Doctrine which proclaimed the US hegemonic interest, and intent to control, the northern and southern American continents, in the issue of 24-30 June 2024 https://www.transcend.org/tms/weekly-archive/

The issue of 17-23 June (available at the same link) had a piece about a survey showing “94% of people in the US and 88% in Western Europe want a negotiated settlement to end the war in Ukraine, but NATO opposes a peace proposal made by China and Brazil, and refuses to invite Russia to talks in Switzerland.” And also in that issue Mairead Maguire writes “A mother’s plea for peace” to the people of Gaza. And that is only touching on a tiny amount of their coverage. It is worth keeping in touch with what is online at https://www.transcend.org/tms/

Ancient caring in situations of disaster and disability

In common with doubtless the rest of yez, I receive dozens of items of spam and unsolicited ‘news’ daily to my phone or email. Most are relegated to the netherworld without being seen by my eyes. One piece that did get my attention, being interested in history and archaeology (primarily what it says about humankind) was about the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. https://www.yahoo.com/news/records-pompeii-survivors-found-archaeologists-124107499.html

But this study by Steven Tuck was not about those incinerated or overcome by the tidal wave of heat, or fumes and ash, but rather the survivors. There were many people who survived, perhaps a majority of people he concludes, some of whom prospered and others didn’t when they moved, mainly nearby. But some of the conclusions of the piece are worth quoting: “While the survivors resettled and built lives in their new communities, government played a role as well. The emperors in Rome invested heavily in the region, rebuilding properties damaged by the eruption and building new infrastructure for displaced populations, including roads, water systems, amphitheaters and temples. This model for post-disaster recovery can be a lesson for today. The costs of funding the recovery never seems to have been debated. Survivors were not isolated into camps, nor were they forced to live indefinitely in tent cities. There’s no evidence that they encountered discrimination in their new communities.”

How’s about that then. Another very different piece I will refer to here indicates that our cousins the Neanderthals were caring and compassionate to those who could not reciprocate. https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jun/26/fossil-of-neanderthal-child-with-downs-syndrome-hints-at-early-humans-compassion A severely disabled child with Down’s Syndrome (possibly from a couple of hundred thousand years ago!) survived to the age of six which implies that their mother received lots of help from others. There is no mention of possible support from the Da but that could have been an important part of it too, I don’t know and no one will ever know except those people aeons ago. Caring and sharing is in our DNA – and except for those from Africa we do all literally have Neanderthal DNA in us.

It is my wont at this time of year to quote Christy Moore’s definition of holidays, in his old song Lisdoonvarna, when he says “When summer comes around each year / They come here and we go there’”. I wish you time and space to get your head showered (with Irish rainfall rates that is likely to be literal) but a good break anyway. Summer goes by in a flash [of lightning? – Ed], be good to yourself and each other until I see you again in September, Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again, 320

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts –

A round robin

Well, robins are relatively round, at least their front is, compared to some other birds. But a ‘round robin’ is something else with variable meanings, look it up, relating to something done ‘in the round’ or as a round. But I am going to talk about robins being around, specifically nesting robins. In our suburban garden we get many avian visitors, mainly of common garden species. As organic gardeners with many insects to be eaten we provide food for the birds and they in turn keep the slug and insect population under control. This makes me think of the total stupidity of Mao Zedong in China in 1958 trying to obliterate sparrows (along with other ‘pests’) for eating crops as with greatly decreased numbers of birds the damage by insects escalated astronomically; locust populations boomed and were one cause of subsequent famine. Mao certainly didn’t know how to cooperate with nature.

We have also had a resident or semi-resident frog in our garden which was great for slug control. Achieving an ecological balance is something which we all need.

We have a variety of ivy in our garden growing up a neighbour’s garden wall. I try to keep it in order so it doesn’t extend its tentacles too much, either along or out from the wall. Ivy can easily take over and then it is much more work to deal with, unless you have the space to let it grow wild. Not very long after I had pruned our ivy this spring I noticed robins going in and out. Garden birds do visit it anyway perhaps because it can be a haven for snails. But this was different; robins going in and out regularly at the same spot or certainly two spots less than half a metre apart. Yes, we had robins nesting. It took only 10 – 15 seconds for a parent robin to enter the ivy, feed its offspring in the nest, and exit again.

We were away for a couple of periods and don’t know if the baby robins successfully fledged and fled, or whether the brood failed for some reason. But it was certainly a nice little nature tale or tail for some of the grandchildren and they were appraised of some of the facts of robin breeding. Mind you, robins are reputedly very territorial and aggressive towards interloper robins. But being relatively unafraid of humans, coming within a very short distance of us in the garden, they are a human favourite.

Trump, trump, trump

Nellie the elephant went trump, trump, trump and said goodbye to the circus (to trunk-ate the story in that song a bit) but there is no sign that we will be saying goodbye to the Donald Trump circus anytime soon. His story in recent years is an illustration that if you repeat a lie or lies long enough then some people, perhaps many people, will believe it, as in “It’s a witch hunt” and even that Trump is the most persecuted politician (arguably the most prosecuted but that is another matter). It is, literally, criminal.

This isn’t just a feature of life in the good (?) ol’ USA. Here in Ireland politicians from some of the major parties in the Re:Public have been saying for decades that “neutrality is not under threat” and that a particular measure of change “doesn’t affect neutrality”. All lies of course. And a new more recent lie from the far right is that “Ireland is full” for asylum seekers – what nonsense. Of course housing is an issue, particularly in Dublin and to some extent elsewhere in the Republic, but the idea that “Ireland is full” shows a myopic understanding of Irish history – if Irish population numbers at home kept growing at the same rate as Britain from the time of the famine (An Gorta Mór) the island would have 30 million people now.

The arsonist tactics of far right anti-immigrant activists in Ireland is a violent and highly xenophobic response to a small result of what is happening in the world today. They are also going for soft targets (potential or actual sites for housing refugees and asylum seekers). Ireland has taken in a considerable number of Ukrainian refugees, as it should, but overall refugee numbers are small compared to the neighbouring countries of conflict and disaster areas. Irish history of course points in the direction of a warm welcome for refugees and economic migrants, based on the Irish experience of being an emigrant country for literally centuries due to necessity. The slogan “Ireland is full” is missing further text as in “Ireland is full – of people exploiting others’ suffering to try to gain political traction”.

We will see in the European and local elections in June in the Republic, and in the UK general election in the North in early July, the extent to which ‘the right’ have benefited from such lies recently though in the case of Norn Iron there is sectarianism in inglorious technicolour (with the colours orange and green being dominant) to be concerned about too.

Pick and mix

There is a long history of people reclaiming derogatory terms as a badge of honour; a relatively recent one over the last number of decades has been non-cis people (the term ‘cis’ itself can be controversial) claiming the label ‘queer’ as a badge of pride and honour. I would say Catholics in the North could likewise claim the label ‘Taig’, used as a nasty and derogatory term of abuse by some loyalists/Protestants for Catholics; reclaiming could be especially positive as it comes from the Irish personal name ‘Tadhg’ which indicates ‘Poet’, now that certainly is a badge of honour.

I am not sure where the term ‘pick and mix’ came from, in relation to sweets and confectionery, but I presume it was around from the time Woolworths department stores hit our shores. Some small sweet shops would have had the same practice. Psychologically and commercially it was a success; allow people more choice and they are likely to buy more.

It may seem strange to jump from that to the year 697 CE and the Law of the Innocents (see elsewhere this issue) then, but my mind works in mysterious ways [That’s very true – Ed]

The term ‘Micks’ for Irish people in Britain comes it having been common for Irish people being called Mick, short for Michael or Micheál, in the same way that Irish people were also called ‘Paddies’; ‘Micks’ has been particularly applied with the British army for people of Irish origin, either ‘Irish’ regiments or people from Ireland. It is generally understood these days as an offensive and derogatory term, not quite on a par with some offensive words for black people but objectionable nonetheless. However if it was to be reclaimed, and as Adomnán’s 697 ‘Law of the Innocents’ included (Scottish) Picts as well as Gaelic Irish perhaps therefore we could call the Law of the Innocents ‘Pict and Micks’. [Groan…..a mighty groan – Ed] Given that the powers that be in the current era choose which ‘laws of war’ they will obey and which they want, their own violent pick and mix, it is perhaps not that inappropriate a term. We also note that the new Lex Innocentium has been translated into Latin, the language of the original law – so perhaps this is a packed pax pact.

Casting and costing a united Ireland

This publication has consistently said that we need much greater detailed analysis of the possibilities in relation to a united Ireland. Yes, a group like Ireland’s Future is coming at it from a broadly nationalist angle but where is the detailed and structured analysis by the Irish state? And why is there not also thinking going on by the British state? While it might be unreasonable to expect the British state to initiate such thinking, it is not unreasonable to expect it to respond to possible situations and models, or indeed to point out pluses for people in the North to continue as part of the UK (despite any commitments to act impartially in the Good Friday Agreement). If it believes in democracy and democratic decision making then it seems rational it should do so, particularly as recompense for the British state’s role in mishandling the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and even its attempts, as in its ‘Troubles Act’, to airbrush its negative role. Please note I am not saying other entities, including the Irish state, are not also guilty of mishandling the Troubles; they are, but the powers that be, and were, in the North is the British state.

Analysing possibilities for the future does not mean you are necessarily going to jump that way. But the public deserve to be treated as adults. At the moment confusion rains. What would happen regarding contributory and non-contributory pensions? What would happen about national debt? What would be the tax burden? These financial questions are aside from questions about the nature of any new united Ireland state. No, there cannot be firm answers on anything at this stage but the public, North and ‘South’, deserve detailed and clear analysis so they can make rational decisions rather than purely emotional ones based on nationalist or unionist sentiment, or self interest. There needs to be detailed and systematic analysis which includes thinking from all possible ‘sides’.

John Fitzgerald and Edgar Morgenroth kicked off the recent discussion of financial aspects of the issue which seemed to show higher costs than generally thought of; this was followed by John Doyle and others questioning their thinking and suggesting there would be much less in terms of costs, and more recently, for example, Newton Emerson has also come back with suggestion of higher costs. As stated, there can be no definitive answers on anything at this stage but we need clear thinking about what are possibilities and likelihoods. While there has been some limited discussion in the Oireachtas and elsewhere what we need is a planned and systematic analysis of an ongoing nature, pulling in research and analysis from all over. And that should come primarily from an initiative of the Irish state.

It might seem to some people that the Irish state engaging in such an exercise could have destabilising effect in the North (and this may be a reason why nothing has been done). But the numbers in the North favouring a united Ireland are slowly creeping up. A warts and all picture of what possibilities exist or might exist would not be a nationalist propaganda weapon since, as Fitzgerald and Morgenrath argued, there may be massive costs without immediate massive benefits in bringing about a united Ireland. The truth may not set anyone free, whatever you consider freedom to be, or indeed truth, but searching for the truth could at least allow people on both sides of the border to think with their head and not just their heart.

Well, meteorologically we are now into summer, I hope it lives up to the name but maybe living in Hibernia we don’t have a chance of escaping winter-type weather. Mind you the courgettes came on in leaps and bounds (they were initially under a cloche when planted out) when there was a blast of heat for a couple of days. If the oul ‘Gulf Stream’ gives up the ghost however with melting Arctic ice and climate heating, well, Newfoundland here we come, weather wise – and wise is certainly not what we humans are when it comes to greenhouse gases. Anyway, I hope that things are gearing up well for you and I’ll be back in July before the summer break, so see you soon, Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again, 319

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Hello again – I am a simple soul, believing in long-term simple solutions. What if, instead of providing food aid to Gaza now to perhaps keep starving and desperate people alive, countries such as the USA (especially) and Britain had not supplied Israel with arms or the money to buy arms so that it would not now be totally destroying Gaza, and might have negotiated a reasonable deal with Palestine? The US has given Israel $220 billion in military aid over the years. https://www.warresisters.org/resources/pie-chart-flyers-where-your-income-tax-money-really-goes Maybe if the USA had chosen a different path then Palestine would be properly established as a state and self sufficient, and Israel and Palestine be at peace today. Just thinking.

Protecting the innocent in war

Great to see a project, covered in the news section of this issue, taking the 697 CE Law of the Innocents, associated with Adomnán, abbot of Iona, into the 21st century. The original is very much of its time and the new one will be too, including an emphasis on protecting the earth. Those familiar with INNATE’s quiz on nonviolence in Irish history will be familiar with the bones of the story (see “Nonviolence: The Irish Experience! Quiz” at https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/resources/ ) Adomnán was travelling with his mother, Ronnat, when they stumbled across the bloody and terrible aftermath of a battle – you can imagine the scene, dead and mutilated bodies and people in agony. Anyway, Ronnat made Adomnán promise he would do something about this kind of thing if he ever could, and so he tried later when he was in a position to act, when abbot of Iona.

What is interesting too is that there were lots of attempts, in different world cultures in antiquity, to put limits on the violence and destruction inflicted by war. Of course there can be arguments about the inherent violence or nonviolence of the human being. Some people, once humanity got into arms races, sought to benefit themselves though violence – often under the guise of bring civilisation and modernity. But some others, without necessarily having the resources of the rich and powerful, have sought to restrict warfare and build peace.

Talking about the innocent can be powerful because we have a tendency to think in terms of the innocent and the guilty. But it isn’t always helpful and in Northern Ireland the term ‘innocent victims of violence’ was often used as a way of targetting other people dragged into the conflict by the circumstances of the time (I am not implying that they made the right choice) and contrasting people not involved in the conflict in any way. And ordinary soldiers, while they can commit atrocities and be brutal in warfare, are usually also victims of war through PTSD, injuries or death. Think of those fighting on either side of the Russia-Ukraine war; presumably 99% of them would rather be home and out of harm’s way. While many soldiers may have entered that occupation because it seemed to offer personal opportunities (in the case of Russia possibly a way out of a long prison sentence), many have been cajoled or conscripted, and none deserve to be mutilated or die in battle.

Sometimes even generals can be a restraining force because some of them know the personal cost of war. So we should not scapegoat soldiers. What we as nonviolent activists need to do, however, is both rejecting the whole panoply of war, in all its aspects, while showing the effectiveness of nonviolence – and that means building a movement and alliances which can take on the powerholders and warmongers to remove the reasons and basis for war and violence. And building on what has been done in the past, such as by Adomnán in 697 CE, can be an important part of establishing the cultural/political support required.

Oh, and you do know, or if you don’t you ought to (important historical fact? – Ed) that Adomnán in his life of Colmcille/Columba (like ‘his’ Derry he has a stroke name!) was the first person to write about the Loch Ness monster. How deep is that? [Up to 230 metres – Ed]

Rhubarb, rhubarb

I’m not sure how, in European English, ‘rhubarb’ came to mean nonsense or drivel, as in saying “rhubarb, rhubarb”. The online suggestion is it has a theatrical origin (actors saying ‘rhubarb’ continuously when expected to make indistinct word sounds) but the theatre could have taken it from somewhere else. Rhubarb the plant is of course a vegetable used as a fruit when lots of sugar is added so although we grow it in our garden we don’t use it much since a spoonful of sugar helps the dentist go down on dental caries (it is also high in oxalic acid later in the summer). However I did want to tell you the story of the organic gardener, not me, and the story may be apocryphal, who was asked what they put on their rhubarb. They answered that it was manure or compost. “That’s interesting”, said their questioner, “I use custard”…….. Rhubarb, rhubarb! [That story doesn’t, to alter the words of Ian Paisley Jnr, cut the custard – Ed].

We need to talk about Kevin

No, I am not referring to Lionel (she) Shriver’s well written but grim novel with the fictional, eponymous Kevin (use of the word ‘eponymous’ always allows me to feel intellectual). [That will be the day – Ed] What I am referring to is Kevin McAleer, the Northern comedian introduced to a new and wider audience in his role as Uncle Colm in Derry Girls (and if you don’t know that role which took a toll on Liam Neeson’s PSNI officer, look it up). Anyway, Kevin McAleer has been doing a farewell tour, “One for the road”, though of course the hope might be for successive farewell tours and not a cul de sac.

It is a difficult act, deadpan humour. I certainly find it extremely hard to keep a straight face when telling an amusing story or engaged in a humorous escapade of some sort, particularly when others are laughing. McAleer has it down to a fine art, the faux naif guy telling some incredibly ridiculous story with a manner that can 99.9% convince you he really is a straightforward amadán or eejit. Stories that he told included the one about being in a hotel where he thought various strange things were happening – then when going to the fancy hotel restaurant he was asked at the entrance if he had a reservation, and he said he had several. And someone who could get a good laugh out of a riff on the difference between internment and the internet, and that they weren’t the same thing at all, has to be a bit of a genius.

I was pleased to see a bit of recycling going on with his (ancient) story about being a contemplative young man in the Co Tyrone countryside in The Troubles…. The version he told in this tour was of being a young man in the Norn Iron countryside at nighttime, gazing at the stars and wondering about the meaning of the universe. Then along came a British army patrol; he was thrilled when they asked him “Who are you?” and “Where are you going?” because these were exactly the deep philosophical questions he was dealing with. More soldiers joined the conversation and they invited him to go with them. He was reluctant and they practically had to drag him away. They stayed up talking that night, the next night and the night after that. “They practically had me tortured” he concluded.

There is of course a serious side to comedy, satire and so on (touched on by the story immediately above) which we in political and social change movements don’t take seriously enough. It is however true that humour can be a little bit dangerous since knowing when to use what can be a delicate balancing act (yes, I have got it wrong often enough…). But it can also be incredibly effective not only in drawing attention to an issue but in making an strong political point – or even in lightening the mood in a meeting which is dragging on or risking being boring.

Majken Sørensen’s book “Humorous political stunts – nonviolent public challenges to power” (Irene Publishing) looks at humour in relation to nonviolence (and activists’ imagination and creativity). What goes on in the war and arms industries is absurd. The refusal, particularly among rich countries, to adequately deal with global heating is absurd. The current Irish government’s protestations of commitment to neutrality internationally are absurd. There are still many absurd elements to the nature of sectarian divisions in the North. All of these things are ripe for humorous ridicule. Make no funny bones about it, humour can be important so let’s get serious about it. Doing illegal, nonviolent actions can be a necessary part of being a peace and political activist, but so can more zany legal (or borderline illegal) manifestations and acting the maggot. [There are no flies on you – Ed]

Snails and horses

I am a glutton for useless trivia particularly where it is relevant to wider concerns. Take the fact that one of the British Army’s Household Cavalry horses injured in a riderless four horse stampede through the streets of London in late April had the name Quaker. Were they going about trying to be gratuitously insensitive to Quakers who are generally pacifist? Speaking as someone who had a great-great-great-grandmother [looks like she was pretty great – Ed] who was a Quaker I am, of course, an expert on such matters [! – Ed] [I was being facetious – Billy] [I would say not for the first time, I think for you ‘face time’ is short for ‘facetious time’ – Ed]. Or they were probably just insensitive full stop. Or maybe it was because that horse was keen on oats (because of the ‘Quaker’ Oats brand) but it is still oatrocious.

Mind you religion can be, and usually is, in cahoots with the the military big time; you just have to look at the British Army 1970s chapel at the west side of St Anne’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Belfast which has a massive Celtic cross on the outside, which to me is cultural appropriation (a British establishment institution purloining a venerable Irish religious symbol) as well as hideously inappropriate for any Christian building and inimical for anything to do with the founder of said religion.

And then there are the snails holding up developments at the Doonald’s Doonbeg golf course. Clare County Council has requested more information on how proposed developments at the site will affect the protected Vertigo Angustior (tiny) snail. Good to see that development does not trump nature in this case – and what have snails ever done to undermine democracy? Anyway, the development there hasn’t been all plain snailing. You could say it is going as a snail’s pace. However you might also conclude that the owner of said golf course, while never one to retreat into his shell, leaves trail that could be described as slimy anywhere he goes, even if there are issues about the provision of employment locally. My final point on this is that if accommodation pods were developed there at Doonbeg perhaps they could be called gastropods.

There’s gold in them there hills

Yes, there is. Gold in the Sperrins. But should it be mined by Dalradian? Gold has value mainly because it is considered valuable. It is a vanity metal. In the modern era it is basically not needed for promoting the wellbeing of people/humanity. It is a kind of currency that we can do without.

In the case of Dalradian, because of local opposition they introduced the narrative that they would not be using cyanide in extracting the gold locally. But my understanding is that they will simply use cyanide elsewhere – overseas, so it is just exporting the problem to some other place and community which may be much less able to ensure safety and accountability. And it is pathetic to allow mining on this basis, inflicting a terrible problem on people elsewhere.

The public enquiry on Dalradian’s mining will be in the autumn and is expected to run for a month or two and the North’s Department for Infrastructure will then receive a recommendation. As usual ‘the company’ promises lots of jobs – usually a lot more than materialise – during a twenty year existence. Local opposition focuses on slag heaps and pollution of air and water, as well as all the increased lorry traffic and general environmental issues including possible effects on farming and the possibilities for developing tourism. Save Our Sperrins group and others have been beavering away on the issue for years, see e.g. https://www.facebook.com/SaveOurSperrins and http://dontmineus.com/public-inquiry/ and you can also do a word search.

The language is not quite what I would use but the Saw Doctors put it pithily in talking about the possibility of gold mining in Co Mayo near Croagh Patrick:

Do they think our greatest asset

Can be mined, dug up and sold?”

But to put my ore in I have come up with a few slogans. Spare the Sperrins! Gold diggers out! All that’s gold does not glitter! Our goal is no gold mining! A pox on toxic gold mining! Dalradian gulders about gold! Green meaning not mining! Head for the hills to head off gold mining! Dalradian mining would be all downhill! It’s ‘our’ countryside resource not ‘mine’! Gold mining makes you gilty! Insert your slogan here……

Well, that’s me for now. Summer is (meant to be) coming in which means in our neck of the woods that the rain is getting warmer, if April is usually the driest month in Ireland I hope the rain then is not a portent for the rest of the year. See you soon, Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again, 318

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

As I have proclaimed oft times before, April is on average the driest month in Ireland so, after some wet weather recently – including some wetting through on our bi-cyles – perhaps we can hope that the month lives up to its norm. But four seasons in a day is also an Irish reality. Anyway, that is the weather dealt with (obligatory in discussion in this land of ours) and so on with My Thoughts for the Month [I hope they are not wet through too – Ed].

Not out of arms’ way

The people of Gaza are, tragically, the recipients of the products of the arms trade. And profits for the arms companies are BOOMING, literally and figuratively, due to the war in Ukraine and uncertainty in the Middle East with the Israeli war on Gaza. The arms trade is many things including astronomically expensive, corrupt (news was coming in during the last month on British bribes for arms sales to Saudi Arabia, something which is not even the tip of the iceberg) and wasteful – money spent on arms is money that cannot go on human security and wellbeing.

Congratulations to the activists on Gaza and Palestine who have joined up the dots and organised protests at Thales in Castlereagh, Belfast, https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/53546068897/in/dateposted/ and Spirit AeroSystems in the docks area of Belfast. https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/53602899095/in/dateposted/ There has also been an Irish Anti-War Movement meeting in Dublin on “The Gaza genocide and the arms trade”. The west has its bloody hands involved in the war in Gaza in a variety of ways.

In 2023 Irish ‘dual use’ exports (which can be used for military or civilian purposes) to Israel were worth €70 million, an exponential increase – how much of this was due to the Irish government’s promotion of dual use production is unclear – and, ahem, severely conflicts with Ireland standing up (or at least crouching up) for Palestine and against the obliteration of Gaza. The arms trade has consequences, something which Simon Coveney and company seem to have blatantly ignored.

Thales seems to have been going on a charm offensive, e.g. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/uk-world/production-at-weapons-plant-doubles-amid-war-in-ukraine/a933017996.html and

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/26/im-not-profiting-from-misery-im-averting-more-thaless-uk-boss-on-making-missiles-for-ukraine?CMP=share_btn_url Of course what Thales is not so keen to state is that they were supplying parts for Russian tanks and planes until a western embargo in 2014 so they are probably still helping the Russian war effort, and they have worked closely with major Israeli arms company Elbit on drones, a key weapon used by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza. The bottom line for arms companies is profit.

We would of course dispute most of what Thales’ personnel have to say. Thales UK CEO proclaiming how good a deterrent ‘his’ weapons are is nonsense, we don’t know whether they have had any deterrent effect whatsoever, they certainly didn’t stop war in Ukraine. Thales’ Belfast weaponry includes Starstreak, Lightweight Multi-role Missile (LMM) systems as well as assembly of NLAWs (a kind of bazooka if you want to know). The Guardian reports that “Since the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022, the group’s shares have gained more than 80%, its value has swelled to €33bn and its order book has reached a record high, at €45bn.” It’s definitely an ill wind.

The Thales CEO is also quoted as saying “It’s a peculiarly British thing that we uphold our armed forces, but simultaneously despise the industry that produces things that will protect them or make them more effective.” No it’s not and that is a militarist assumption. But in any case challenging militarism means challenging all aspects of it.

Thales Belfast production has doubled since before the 2022 Ukraine and yer man says it will double again (the UK sent lots of weaponry to Ukraine and are also restocking themselves). He also said that the Belfast plant was “its best kept secret” during the Troubles in the North; no it wasn’t, not to peace activists anyway, it was always the biggest bomb factory in Belfast. Why kill a few people in Northern Ireland when you can kill far more abroad?

Wheely good, a spokesperson said……

A survey of five metropolitan areas in the Republic https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/climate-crisis/2024/03/05/walking-and-cycling-take-680000-cars-off-road-daily-in-states-five-largest-cities/ could be considered relatively optimistic for self-propelled travel, cycling, walking and so on. This study estimates a saving of some 160,00 tonnes of greenhouse gases. For more info see also https://www.nationaltransport.ie/planning-and-investment/transport-investment/active-travel-investment-programme/walking-and-cycling-index/

This survey showed walking, cycling and wheeling (using wheeled mobility aids such as wheelchairs or strollers) took 680k cars off the road in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Shannon-Limerick and Waterford. While a modest 15% of people cycle weekly, one in two residents want to do more cycling or walking. More than half of people in these areas walk five days a week or more. And there is a high level of support for increased government funding on cycling and walking – much higher than support for increased spending on motoring.

The fact that more men cycle than women probably has a number of reasons, one perhaps being being the higher involvement of women in childcare (though modern cycle options can include a variety of child seats and attachments) but also gender-based safety issues. The way to get more people cycling is of course to provide more dedicated and safe cycling routes – and the more people out and about on bikes, the more others will want to do it too. Dividing cycling lanes from pedestrians is also essential, not least to avoid recrimination between those who are self-propelled and should be allies.

While some Irish cities are hilly in places – Cork and Derry come to mind – the advent of ebikes can also help to make for a more level playing field, so to speak, though I much prefer the plain old push bike for normal usage.

Ireland, North and Republic, has a long road to travel to make cycling the default option for short distance travel, and much more of an option for medium or longer distances. But this has to be achievable both for ecological and health reasons, and through providing safe spaces to cycle. It has recently come to light that serious accidents to cyclists are far higher than Garda figures indicate, particularly for children (by a factor of six). Scary.

Nevertheless two wheels good….. https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/posters/ and go to “Cycling……[CW]”

Not a wind up

It is amazing how we can set challenges to ourselves to do this or that, achieve that or this, fulfil some sort of bucket or non-bucket list. I was engaging in the unfashionable task of looking through the CDs in my favourite Oxfam shop when I stumbled across an audio box set of Haruki Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles”, still unused and sealed, for £2. CDs are, if course, not zeitgeisty now, call me old fashioned [Yes….. – Ed] but I like them and, as with vinyl, they will return to be fashionable at some stage (unspecified).

26 hours of audio, the box proclaimed, in 21 CDs. I’m not sure where it came from within me but I immediately pronounced to the the person on the till right beside the CDs, and the shop manager who was nearby, that I accepted the challenge (….actually set by me) to listen to the whole thing. 26 miles is the length of a marathon. There are 26 counties in the Republic. There are only 24 hours in a whole day. But 26 hours of listening? What was I thinking, and I knew nothing about the book.

Well, well, well, I won’t divulge the most dramatic happenings to the main protagonist Toru Okada in the book and this is not a review as such. Spoiler alert, early on in the book my companion in listening thought it was unsurprising that Toru’s wife left him, so passive was he to things that happened to him (at that stage). But things change and get more mystical and fantastical.

It is not a humorous book as such, and there are passages depicting extreme violence, but I did laugh out loud at some of Murakami’s descriptions (the English translation is excellent, done by the author himself, and the reading by Rupert Degas likewise). The situations described range from the mundane to the truly bizarre and mystical. I don’t think “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles” is intended as a wind up, to use an English language idiom (and different sense of the term), but it can certainly feel like that at times.

But to return to challenges. We all benefit from setting challenges, whether it is some kind of bucket list or one off tasks or goals which we set ourselves to achieve. This applies in the socio-political realm as much as in our ordinary lives. If we don’t continually push ourselves to try and do new things and explore new horizons (by horizons I mean ‘at home’ and not as a tourist where, as the saying goes, it is possible that ‘travel broadens the arse’) then we can stultify in our routines. I am a creature of routine, I enjoy the routine, so I am talking primarily to myself here.

However next time I see a 26 hour audio book for sale in a charity shop I might just leave it on the shelf. I have done that particular challenge.

That’s me for now. May Day, May Day or thereabouts will see the next instalment in my perverse [oh, are you going to take to poetry? – Ed] take on the universe [more poetry? – Ed], until then, Billy.

PS in reply to the Ed, above, it may not be known that I am an accomplished poet, in fact I wrote an epic poem years ago having seen the poet Padraic Fiacc (he died in 2019) in my local supermarket. My poem includes the memorable lines:

I saw a poet shopping in Dunnes

I presume for bread, and not for puns.

Meanwhile I await my No Bells Prize for Litterature (sic).

However, I admit I cannot write as profound and sublime poetry as deceased Irish citizen Spike Milligan who penned the immortal lines:

Said the general of the army

I think that war is barmy’,

So he threw away his gun,

Now he’s having much more fun.

Billy King: Rites Again, 317

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Hello again – I have a funny-strange attachment to flowers. I look forward to the arrival of certain flowers, daffodils being a particular example partly because they are so significant in spring, and in a very definite kind of way mourn their passing, sad to see them go when they stop flowering. This makes perfect sense in one way and in another, if I am always looking forward to ‘the next’ flowering, this does not make sense because tempus fugit, fecit. Scientists still don’t understand the nature of time and getting our heads around it for ordinary people is a full time occupation, ho ho. Anyway, here are my musings for this point in time –

Anon

I received an anonymous letter there some time back. Enclosed in an A4 sized envelope, the contents were photocopied materials with parts marked, seemingly randomly. The address was computer printed, cut out and adhered with clear sticky tape. There was no name or address of the sender. It was also sent to me at at the address of an organisation I am associated with but not the one I am most identified with; no one else at that organisation received a similar letter.

The contents were not the objectionable political views they first seemed to be at a glance – as the letter was passed to me just before the start of a meeting, I didn’t have a chance to study the material in detail there and then though I did remark on its anonymity and my first impression (stated as such) of the contents. In fact the material, while close to conspiracy theory, were not objectionable to me. What was somewhat objectionable was the manner in which I received this missive as an anonymous letter.

There are reasons some things are anonymous, such as candidate identities in exams. This is to create a level playing field and promote fairness so there is less possibility of bias by the person doing the judging, the examiner or marker in the case of an exam. But there is a clear reason for such a process to be anonymous and it is expected to be such. In this case someone was trying to inform me about certain information, and affect my political views, without identifying themselves, or so it would seem. However the haphazard or even random marking of some points in the photocopied documents makes me wonder about the sender’s logicality. I am deliberately not sharing the content of the letter.

This incident is relatively benign, though strange. It did make me wonder though about more aggressive anonymous communications, of whatever sort, which ‘ordinary’ citizens might receive, or media personalities and politicians, particularly through social media. You would have to adopt a thick skin and an effective psychological coping technique. I am fortunately not in that position – it was not a ‘nasty’ letter. Nevertheless I am left wondering as to why I was singled out and what the sender’s intentions were; while I was the only person to receive such a letter at the organisation concerned, the fact that the address was cut out of a computer printed sheet was presumably not only to avoid giving telltale handwriting but it could have been from a sheet full of other addresses elsewhere, people who also received such anonymous material. And some things never get explained.

The strangest thing is if someone had sent me the material with a covering, signed, note I feel I would actually have taken the matters concerned more seriously, and certainly I would have been much less suspicious of the sender’s motivation.

Buy your winter woollies while stocks last

Atlantic currents are what make this neck of the world woods quite temperate (it is other things that can make us intemperate….), what is often referred to as the Gulf Stream – this is part of it but the more comprehensive name is Amoc (Atlantic meridional overturning circulation), a sophisticated interaction going on in the Atlantic. This is what means we don’t have the freezing winter weather of Newfoundland at the same latitude (the system may be running out of latitude…), see e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/09/atlantic-ocean-circulation-nearing-devastating-tipping-point-study-finds?CMP=share_btn_link Amoc is the weakest it has been in a millennium. It is not going to run amock – it is potentially going to shut up shop.

Amoc, which encompasses part of the Gulf Stream and other powerful currents, is a marine conveyer belt that carries heat, carbon and nutrients from the tropics towards the Arctic Circle, where it cools and sinks into the deep ocean. This churning helps to distribute energy around the Earth and modulates the impact of human-caused global heating.”

Arctic and Greenland melt water is seriously affecting Amoc and recent scientific analysis indicates it could collapse in a short period of time and “changes are irreversible on human timescales”. It would have negative effects worldwide and Europe would be colder and less wet. In some parts of the Atlantic the sea level would rise by a metre, flooding many cities.

Like I say, maybe you should stock up on your winter woollies while stocks last. All this is of course brought to you by human action (incompetence?) and the resultant global heating. Oh the irony of that human stupidity, global warming could make us colder in our neck of the freezing woods…..and another thing to worry about as our heating up goes globe-trotting.

Not a Troubles-era loyalist group – but harmful nevertheless

No, it is not a positive entity, a French peace group, the Union Pacifiste de France, or even a Northern loyalist group, the Ulster Protestant Force. ‘UPF’ in this context stands for something dangerous in a different way; Ultra Processed Foods. These are industrially produced fast foods containing lots of additives, emulsifiers, flavourings, saturated fat, sugar and salt.

Research has shown that they are dangerous for human health (if tested on mice, not that I am advocating that, I am sure it would do them harm as well) with 32 negative health effects. See e.g. https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2024/02/29/ultra-processed-food-linked-to-32-harmful-effects-to-health-review-finds/ The findings have been published in the British Medical Journal and are based on pooling research from studies of a massive number of people. One conclusion is that “Greater exposure to ultra-processed food was associated with a higher risk of adverse health outcomes, especially cardiometabolic, common mental disorders and mortality outcomes.”

Still you get totally fatuous and self-interested comments like the CEO of Kellogg’s in the States (earning upwards of $5 million a year) saying poor people could eat packet cereal for their dinner; he certainly isn’t, and analysis showed it wasn’t necessarily a cheap option and certainly not a healthy one.

Removing the health dangers here requires a multi-faceted approach. Indirect state control of what the food industry can produce is only one approach. Education is another necessity including about speedy, healthy and economical food options and food preparation where one prepared ingredient can quickly be turned into another meal, or one dish be used (including being frozen) for several meals. But this is certainly not all. People may choose ultra processed foods for a variety of reasons but poverty and work pressures are certainly a major part of the issue. Dealing with the last requires societal change and greater financial equity. So things are as not simple as telling people their dietary habits are unhealthy.

Down in arms

In these straitened (crooked?) times it is good to see some companies thriving, particularly in a recession-hit country like Britain where Brexit has put a hex on business. Indeed one company has near record profits and its shares have doubled in the last couple of years, since February 2022……..oh wait, what happened then? Oh, yes, the full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And what is the company? BAE. Yes, it’s an arms company and international uncertainty after the wars in Ukraine and Gaza is leading to boom times (literally and metaphorically) for such companies – I am not being serious above in welcoming BAE’s thriving. The arms industry projects itself as productive employers but in fact they soak up massive amounts of government money and produce less employment per unit of money than virtually anything else.

Meanwhile, and shamefully, the Irish arms industry is actively encouraged by the Irish government to develop, and said industry are also adept at lobbying https://www.ontheditch.com/pro-militarisation-group/ And moving a bit north, British Ministry of Defence spending in Northern Ireland increased by 20% in 2023 to £190m, most of that being for the NLAW missile system which is manufactured by Thales in Belfast. INNATE has a new poster available on the arms race https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Arms-are-for-hugging.pdf

That’s your just desserts for now (just deserts are what we get with global heating), and I will see you again in another month, at Easter time, Billy. l

Billy King: Rites Again, 314

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

A tale of two reports

OK, we were involved with the Swords to Ploughshares/StoP report on the Consultative Forum on International Security Policy which took place in June so are somewhat biased in its favour [Biased? Never! – Ed] – but we think it demolishes the premises of the official report from Dame Louise Richardson. In this case, unfortunately, there was nothing like a Dame for doing the Irish Government’s bidding. The StoP report is methodical, even forensic at times, much more comprehensive, and better presented to boot. Louise Richardson’s is poorly argued – see e.g. Dominic Carroll’s letter demolishing her argument against sense being spoken by the common people of Ireland compared to the ‘ex-perts’ invited by the Government. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2023/10/20/forum-on-neutrality-report/

It has to be said that in her report Louise Richardson does what she was hired/expected to do, and what she might have been expected to do. Given public opprobrium for moving away from neutrality there were limits on how far she could push the EU-NATO boat out but the minimum expected of her by the powers that be was that she justified a move away from the ‘triple lock’ on the deployment of Irish troops overseas – and, surprise, surprise, that is just what she does. It is as if Micheál Martin told her exactly what he wanted and she went away and did it. There is nothing original or innovative in her report. Nul points to Richardson for imagination.

As for her assertion that sustaining neutrality in the future would be difficult, she would say that, wouldn’t she, as she tries to lay out a path for further diminution ( = demolition) of neutrality. Does she imagine that Ireland aligning fully with EU militarism and NATO will be easy in terms of the consequences? Oh, of course, it would mean Ireland fits right in with the prevailing militarist model in north America and western Europe and that would make it ‘easy’ because they wouldn’t be asking awkward questions. But is Ireland a country with a proud international record of standing up for peace and justice (well, some of the time) or is it merely a support player to the Big Powers? The latter is where the Irish elite, political and otherwise, want to take the country.

In the official report there is not one shred of an idea as to how neutrality could be developed as a force for peace in the world, and of security for Ireland; the only show in town, so far as she is concerned, is how to get rid of this damn spot on Ireland’s (well the political and other elites’) attempt to blend with the EU-NATO military industrial complex. She does acknowledge that there is no desire to get rid of ‘neutrality’ but as government policy is to neutralise neutrality what it might mean would be meaningless. Whatever she believes, this report seems to support the idea that preparation for war war is better than preparation for jaw jaw.

Your homework for the month: compare the two reports – you can, if you like, write an essay to Compare and Contrast the two but I won’t insist on it. The StoP one is at https://www.swordstoploughshares-ireland.com/report and the official report at https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/36bd1-consultative-forum-chairs-report/

One overall sadness though in this whole matter is how a prominent person such as Louise Richardson, who sometimes talks a substantial amount of sense https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/?s=louise+richardson+what+terrorists+think and is obviously a public figure on both sides of the (Atlantic) pond, could be used as such a tool of the Government and of said military-industrial complex. It makes me sad. However it also makes me mad (angry).

That autumnal feeling

Many natural systems slow down or stop as winter approaches – it can be a pleasant excuse for us humans to take some things a bit easier too. While Ireland can have four seasons in a day, and seasons are more mixed up than they were due to climate change and global heating, there still are seasons. We usually divide the year into four seasons but I prefer to think in terms of micro-seasons, a period of similar weather at a particular time of year which can last for a few days or a few weeks – and weather forecasts not withstanding, we generally don’t know what we are going to get more than a few days in advance.

But there is joy to be found in nature at all seasons, however you think of them. Many people enjoy autumn colours, and I do too, but there is something amazing about walking through or past trees as the shed their leaves and these drop down to the ground. Their first and primary job is done. Next, hopefully, they will become – or be allowed to become – an addition of humus (not hummus/houmous don’t get humus spread on your bread!) to the soil and the earth. Death and life are together although the tree will have its hibernation and be ready for new growth in the spring.

If I am warm and active, or about to be active, I enjoy the feeling of chill air on leaving home, It is fresh and invigorating. That is not to say I don’t enjoy warm days in summer (or any other season). Every season has its joys. Autumn is now later than it was, I don’t think it is exaggerating to say that some decades ago trees were bare or virtually bare by the end of October – well, not any more. Anyway, ‘Happy autumn’. Hereby ends my paean of praise to autumn [or is ‘paean’ a misspelling of ‘pain’? – Ed].

Souper

Speaking of autumnal feelings, we are in our neck of the northern hemisphere now well into the season for taking soup. Taking the soup is however another matter – and my ancestors had no need or temptation in that direction as they were already well ensconced on what was then the winning side. My grandparents’ ethnic origin included Ulster Scots (probably through natural migration rather than plantation due to their geographical location in north Antrim), Huguenot, and two of English plantation origin – though again not Ulster Plantation. I am sure I have told you before that the French chef in England who devised a soup recipe for the giant cauldrons (‘famine pots’) for public distribution during An Gorta Mór – take a dozen turnips….kind of thing – was thanked by the establishment in Dublin….with a sumptuous banquet….

But back to getting souped up today. It can be the heart of a lunch, a snack, or even a dinner if you have a hearty thick soup with croutons or savoury dumplings. Making soup from scratch is of course possible but most of the time we would make it with leftovers, especially around leftover lentil dhal with other leftover veg plus perhaps additional onions, chilli or garlic, possibly vegetable water/stock, and flavourings or herbs. Most of the time we wouldn’t liquidise the soup although other times we would, partially or wholly. You can also add leftover noodles or pasta, chopped up if needed and you have it. Finely liquidised lentils can make for a really creamy soup.

However you may not have the leftovers or the time to make soup and fancy something warming. We had been able to buy some non-supermarket organic instant soups without emulsifiers before Covid but those have disappeared. We can still buy instant (dried) miso soup which is fine but a bit thin and boring if you have it too frequently.

However I was mulling [I thought that was for wine, not soup – Ed] over the theme of miso quite recently which I would have used as an ingredient in soups and stews. I realised that I could make a great instant soup – apart from the stirring! with just three ingredients – miso paste, bouillon or vegetable cubes, and nutritional yeast (e.g. Engevita, this is yeast flakes not ‘yeast extract’ Marmite-type product though you could try that too – I haven’t). The miso adds depth and nutrition, the bouillon or veggie cube gives taste, and the nutritional yeast tops it off with richness or umami. There is a bit of stirring to do with the miso paste but it is still pretty instant and no preparation is needed.

Miso and nutritional yeast may seem on the expensive side but they go a long way, and miso paste will keep a long time in the fridge. Take a dessert spoon of miso, a teaspoon of bouillon powder or a half soup cube, plus a teaspoon of the nutritional yeast and put them into your favourite mug. You can use heaped spoons or less depending on your taste. You can fill it with boiling water straight away or, it may be easier, a little boiling water until you get the miso mixed and then top it up. It may take a minute or two to get it all mixed or you will be left, as you drain the last drop of liquid into your mouth, with half solid miso at the bottom. This is a rich and satisfying ‘instant’ soup. And I have no extra charge for culinary advice. © Billy King Cuisine 2023

A Hugh presence

The death of the former Olympic medal boxer and Irish News photographer Hugh Russell has featured in a number of media and I am not going to go much into his life here, that is available elsewhere and online. Though small of stature he had a huge presence and a great smile. His best known scoop was the iconic photo of Gerry Conlon as he was just being released from his wrongful imprisonment.

Why I am mentioning his death is mainly because as a ‘demonstrator in the street’ I wanted to pay tribute to him as a friendly media presence in different situations in Belfast when we would have been wondering whether any media would turn up, and if so whether they would be interested in the cause concerned. He was always willing to chat and make suggestions for the best photographic shot, and you knew if he was there then it was likely a photo of something to do with the event would be in the paper the next day . He was only approaching retirement age when he died. I will miss his friendly presence and infectious smile on the street.

Gazing at Gaza

It is hard to wrench your gaze from Gaza and if you do look then it is heart breaking, if you don’t you feel you are ignoring terrible suffering. Some of the people of southern Israel knew terror when attacked by Hamas. The revengeful attack on Gaza by Israel is relentless and impossible to escape, creating terror on a daily basis. Those moving south in Gaza, as ordered by Israel, are still not safe. There is nowhere to go. What people can do in the West is limited but their plea publicly for a ceasefire and cessation of hostilities is important. Israel’s avowed aim to destroy Hamas is destroying Gaza and its people – half of whose population are children. Many governments in the West, including those in the USA and UK, are complicit in the destruction and death in Gaza by not pushing Israel to cease fire.

If you are looking for some facts about Gaza, at least in terms of recent history, you can do worse than see/listen to an interview with Prof Norman Finkelstein on the USA Jimmy Dore Show at https://rumble.com/v3okvw3-gaza-israel-and-the-hamas-attacks-w-prof.-norman-finkelstein.html It is long but informative – I wasn’t able to fast forward at any point, you probably need to let it run. Finkelstein’s spoken manner is a bit shouty but much of his analysis is first class – there is also some US politics at points.

I don’t apologise for ending on a ‘down’ note again. The Irish born comedian Dave Allan (born O’Mahony) had a farewell greeting of “May your God go with you”. In that vein I and we might offer ‘a prayer’ or a determined wish, secular or religious according to your orientation, “May God help us all and particularly the people of Gaza and all those affected by the curse of war.” – Billy.

Billy King: Rites Again, 313

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

Not coining it

I confess. I am a lapsed numismatist. That doesn’t make me particularly dangerous to know, just that I used to collect coins, tokens (non-official monetary items), and medallions (non-monetary commemorative items in round form). A comparison can be drawn with philately – which may or may not get you everywhere; while the bottom has fallen out of some of the stamp collecting market now that people have other things to do with their time through gaming, streaming, TikToking and so on, there are some indications it is considered by some as retro chic and may be making a come back (I think rare stamps retained their value, others did not). Coin collecting was never as popular as stamp collecting anyway, except in Ireland and Britain around the time of currency decimalisation in 1971, so while it also may have declined it had less far to fall.

I still have retained a very modest number of coins, tokens and medallions in the form of a small exhibition on Irish history comprising a couple of dozen items and the rest I disposed off – some politically marked or ‘defaced’ coins were given to the Ulster Museum, e.g. an Irish coin stamped ‘UVF’. But I fell greatly in luck to begin with when I was a young teenager; family friends had a box full of old coins, tokens etc which had been in their possession for years and which I was given gratis, and got me well started. I never learnt their origin beyond that but I suspect they may have been rejects/throw outs from a guy living locally who did have a very valuable and world class collection of classical coins.

There was nothing particularly valuable in my collection, most were not silver or in great condition (an important point in their value) but there was lots of interest. I wasn’t trying to build up a valuable collection and in any case didn’t have the money to do so. But to hold in my hand an historical monetary token from my home town, or a political ‘Buy Irish’ medallion from the Repeal Movement in 1841 https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/50632724311/in/photolist-2k9eWVn I just find absolutely amazing. Likewise to hold a coin from the Williamite war of 1688-90, Cogadh an Dá Rí (The war of the two kings), is to hold history in your hand and wonder about the fate of those who possessed such an object long ago, and, literally, whose hands it passed through.

A fascinating detail of the ‘Gunmoney’ coinage produced on James’ side in Ireland (so called because some was made from melted down old guns) is that it was minted in base metal but includes the month as well as the year in the design. The intention was that when James won (!) the coinage would be gradually redeemed in silver coinage in monthly order; instead, when William’s side was victorious the value of this ‘Gunmoney’ was devalued – a Gunmoney shilling became worth a penny, one twelfth of its face value. But turning guns into money to help finance a war is not turning swords into ploughshares.

Coins and banknotes, physical money, are endangered species because of Covid and card/phone payments and many locations refusing to take cash. However I think physical ‘money’ will stagger on for some time to come, albeit in much reduced prominence and use. There are also many social reasons why cash should continue, not least for the cash strapped who may not have access to bank cards. And there is a fascination with something which has been in endless people’s purses and pockets.

But what nonviolent or political activist could not be fascinated by the early 18th century Irish boycott of Wood’s Halfpence? https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/50632799571/in/dateposted/see also https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/wood-s-halfpence-1724-1.1063593 To have one of those is to have an object of controversy from three hundred years ago in your hand, and the subject of a successful boycott a century and a half before the term ‘boycott’ was coined in Ireland (to coin a phrase…..) and entered the English language – and other languages as well, including Dutch.

Gunmen or Queen?

Loyalist loyalty in the North is a rather variable concept. It’s not that most people on the Protestant side of the house in Northern Ireland don’t identify as British – obviously they do – but there is a huge variation in what feeling or being British means to them. In his heyday Rev Ian Paisley could tell a British prime minister to stop interfering in Northern Ireland, for example, which is a rather strange image for someone identifying as strongly as he did in being British.

So it was intriguing to find an item about a mural in north Belfast where a picture of Queen Elizabeth replaced one of loyalist gunmen, and some people weren’t pleased. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/hardliners-anger-as-queen-replaces-mural-of-uda-gunmen/a1342196603.html (paywall after title, photo and first sentence). “Loyalist hardliners have accused the South East Antrim (SEA) UDA of “going soft” after one of its most famous murals was replaced with an image of Queen Elizabeth II.” You can’t get more loyal to the Crown than portraying the monarch, or former monarch, and so far as I know it is not the custom for people on the island of Britain to decorate gable walls with murals of illegal gunmen. And a picture of the Queen on a gable wall in Norn Iron still strongly identifies the area as Prod and loyalist.

While disputed by some unionist commentators, I found, and find, the analysis in David Millar’s “Queen’s Rebels – Ulster Loyalism in Historical Perspective” helpful. This was published many moons ago (first edition 1978). As I remember it he portrayed unionists and loyalists as seeing themselves as having a covenant with the British Crown dating back to the Plantation of Ulster; hold ‘Ulster’ for the Crown and after that do what they like. Of course with the passage of time, and the advent of parliamentary democracy, the power of the Crown waned but loyalist allegiance was still to, their concept of, the Crown – and thus they could see themselves as loyal British subjects, and loyal to the Crown, while being intensely disloyal to the British government – and, I would say, to some of the values that British people on the island of Britain would mainly hold or (say they) subscribe to. Loyalists can try to portray themselves as misunderstood or even forgotten by inhabitants of Britain but what does that say about the reciprocity of the relationship?

I am not saying on the other side of the house that nationalist/Catholic political views are straightforward either because do they identify with a concept or a state? How are Nordies seen in De Sout? And what are the practical and financial implications of a united Ireland? How does acceptance today by many of armed struggle by the IRA in the past fit with other values they hold?

Moving forward for the North also needs people to look back, not to justify or glory in what has been done by any side but to understand the complexity and the reality of very different views. Some people have done that while others are still stuck in silos. Getting out of those silos, of all kinds, is not an easy task for any of us.

From pretty to petty – and back

Living in Norn Iron, as I do, I follow the slings and arrows of the outrageous British policies on asylum seekers and migrants. The Republic’s ‘direct provision’ system for asylum seekers is appalling too and counter-productive in helping people (who become entitled to do so) to settle. But for sheer vindictiveness the British system takes some beating.

Take the decision earlier this year, made by a British government immigration minister, to remove cartoons from the walls of of a reception centre for migrants for fear that children would feel welcomed – the walls were considered too welcoming. Repainting the walls to drab nothingness actually cost an appreciable amount of money – to make the place less welcoming to children who have probably been through quite traumatic experiences to end up there; “It later emerged that a child-friendly mural at a separate detention camp had also been painted over at a cost of £1,549.52.” This is simply inhumane and vindictive.

However many professional cartoonists weren’t taking this removal of visual signs of life and welcome lying down: “leading cartoonists have created an uplifting Welcome to Britain colouring book to be given to children arriving in the UK. The drawings reflect quintessential aspects of British culture, including the Loch Ness monster, London buses, seaside donkeys, the royal family, cake and lots of animals, including some playing football. The 62-page book has been created by the Professional Cartoonists Organisation (PCO) and will be distributed to children newly arrived in the UK via refugee charities and support groups.” Some of the most prominent British cartoonists have been involved. A second book may go on sale. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/22/cartoonists-colouring-book-refugees-welcome-to-britain?CMP=share_btn_link

This is simple and simply brilliant, and a great example of building a positive alternative to inhumanity. Perhaps we can say that in drawing attention to a petty injustice they were illustrating just how possible it is to picture a brighter future through action, they didn’t mickey mouse around but were able to show that the writing was on the wall for inhumane approaches.

Saints alive

I am not sure how I end up on e-mail lists that I haven’t signed up to, at least deliberately. Is it accidental, is it someone trying to increase the size of their mailing list, have I been deliberately targetted, is it that I have inadvertently ticked something or failed to cancel an automatic inclusion on a website? I don’t know how I ended up on the mailing list for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference. Sometimes when this happens I hit the ‘stop sending’ button but often I let them come and ignore 95% but pick up the odd thing.

And one odd thing from the past, which I have told you about before, from the same source was a press release which obviously hadn’t been checked after the spell check – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin had become Dairymaid Martin and Bishop Colm O’Reilly was now Calm O’Reilly. However a recent press release spoke about a Catholic diocesan stand at the National Ploughing Championships – an important event in the Irish rural and farming calendar, and this caught my attention.

Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin in whose diocese the Ploughing Championships was held (Co Laois this year) announced a quest (a competition?) to find Ireland’s favourite saint. Nominations could be made at the diocesan stall. Now I know there are plenty of saints to choose from, and all churches are struggling for relevance in today’s world, but I must say I found this a bit strange – a popularity contest for saints. They were, after all, living breathing humans who are remembered and venerated by some people. What could come next, Top of the Popes?

There were other religious offerings at the stall concerned, including the opportunity for meditation and reflection, and that I find appropriate. But sometimes in trying to appeal to people and find relevance we can take things too far and this particular quest I find fits into that category. And no, I don’t know who ‘won’ as the most popular saint, we will have to plough on without knowing.

Nation shall wage war against nation….

…..and they shall study war evermore…. The possibility of AI (i.e. Artificial Intelligence, not Artificial Insemination as someone like myself living in an agricultural country might think or have thought going back a few years) being used for weapons production is a scary prospect. Even the British government is worried. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/25/ai-bioweapons-rishi-sunak-safety?CMP=share_btn_link Deputy UK prime minister Oliver Dowden said “Only nation states can provide reassurance that the most significant national security concerns have been allayed.” This made me think – there is possibly only one thing worse than non-state actors developing weapons through AI, and that is states, with all the resources they have at their disposal, using the results for nefarious ends. Being on the peace spectrum we don’t trust nation states with their weaponry. And the Irish government, for all its blather about commitment to disarmament, backs Irish involvement in the arms trade and cosies up to nuclear-armed NATO.

Sorry folks, that is not a very upbeat note to end on. But that’s me for now, it may be meteorological autumn but I think temperature winter arrives in October, so I wish you warmth of all kinds, Billy.