1990s- Condoms, Gay Rights, Big Bands & the Guildford Four.

 

This RTE video clip from 1992 has been doing the rounds over the last few weeks. I have been contacted innumerable times about it due to the fact that I am interviewed in it (wow- I was kinda handsome once!) So I think it is well past time that I made a reference to the film and to what I was doing in Galway at the time.

Ireland in the early 1990s was a different country from today. No divorce, same-sex sexual activity was a criminal offence, condoms were banned, censorship in media existed, and the Troubles in the North continued unabated with state shoot-to-kill operations taking place.

 

But Galway in this era was full of energetic people who wanted to change the world and the country for the better. Local politicians such as Michael D. were supporting nationwide campaigns for justice

In September 1990, I left a successful career in the computer industry to take a co-lease on a quiet pub (Monroes) in a relatively quiet part of Galway and transformed it with great support into the city's first 7 day live music venue ('Club Rapparees' was the music side of the pub). Each night had a different genre- Mondays (Irish Trad), Tuesdays (Irish Set Dancing) Wednesdays (World/ethnic Music), Thursdays (Rock & providing opportunities for young bands such as the Real Men to play in front of a live audience in a popular venue), Fridays (evenings- trad sessions with Mary Shannon & friends; nights-alternating between Blues -Blues Connection & Appalachian- Higglers Jug Band), Saturdays (visiting groups incl Mamín Cajun Band, Miss Brown to You etc), and Sundays (mornings- Ephraim Reid's Big music Breakfast; early evenings- Sean Tyrrell & guests; nights- singer songwriters.

We made it into a very progressive venue- the first to install baby changing facilities in both toilets; the first to employ openly gay staff; the first to employ lots of non-Irish staff; the first hospitality employer to be committed towards employing single unmarried parents; the first to regularly host world/ethnic music (Russian, Middle Eastern, Arabian, West African etc).... We also ensured to have multiple Irish speaking staff for the Tuesday set dancing nights with a series of big signs over the counter translating appropriate English sentences into Irish e.g. "How Much?", "Where are the toilets?" "Can I have two pints of Guinness please."

I was fortunate that before I took the lease two legendary pubs were already developing great reputations in the locality - Waterfront (due to brilliant work by Jimmy Brick & Liam Stenson) and Taylors (so many awesome management & staff there).

Over a year later I was convinced against my better judgement by some others to take a lease on a club in Salthill and made it into a late night music venue (I called it 'Setantas') with bands such as Something Happens, Emotional Fish, Frank & Walters, Forget Me Nots, Wolfe Tones, Toasted Heretic and so many other great musicians performing there. We also hosted thematic disco nights such as Ruby Tuesdays (1960s-1970s Revisited)

On St Valentine's Day 1992, I happily took an active part in the 'CondomSense' campaign led in Galway by the fantastic Pete Smyth and Angela Savage to legalise the sale of condoms in pubs, the only Galway city publican do so. As a result I was harangued, threatened, received lots of hate mail, was condemned by the Bishop of Galway through a episcopal letter read out at Sunday masses in all diocesan churches and was regularly raided by the Garda with the condoms on sale being confiscated. I refused to stop selling condoms (recognising it as a human particularly women's right to have them), was prosecuted, appeared in court in March and was getting a jail sentence. We appealed and my case was to come before the courts in June with my imprisonment in jail being the likely outcome. But in May, the Irish media reported that Galway Bishop Eamon Casey had a teenage son from an affair in the 1970s with an young American Annie Murphy. The government reacted almost immediately to the backlash over the Church's stance on contraceptives now exposed as hypocritical and within weeks legalised the sale of condoms in pubs. The Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charges against me.

I was interviewed on BBC Newsnight on the issue but refused to condemn Bishop Casey as I admired him for his previous work with the homeless Irish in Britain, his defense of the popular struggles against the right wing regimes in Central America and for supporting us in 1984 when we activists (including Michael D Higgins) protested against US President Ronald Reagan getting an honourary law degree from UCG (now NUIG) at a time when he was breaking international law in Nicaragua. Like me, he was I think an advocate of Christian Liberation Theology.

(ps we also protested against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan and eastern Europe).

I was also involved at the time in many human rights/community campaigns such as Free the Guildford Four/Birmingham Six/Maguire Seven/Winchester Three, the Spirit of 1916 (1991 was the 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising), Women's Rights, Establishing a Register of Absentee Landlords, Constructing Parks and Leisure Facilities in all neighbourhoods(up until then local sports areas comprised football pitches for young males and green areas either side of roads), and zoning an area for an ambitious Terryland River Valley (later Forest) Park. For the only time in my life I ran for political office, as an independent community activist (Community Action) to the local council (Galway Corporation now known as Galway City Council) but lost out for the last two seats to two national politicians (one was a TD- at that time TDs and Senators could also serve as local councillors)

I made lots of friends and worked with lots of inspiring people both in community/environmental/social campaigns and in the cultural/nightclub/pub/technology sectors during this period of my life. The early 1990s and indeed the 1980s in Galway were interesting times when change on so many fronts was happening due to so many idealistic people in the arts, communities, business, technology, educational, political, sexual and social spheres. However challenging a conservative system was tough and oftentimes came at a severe cost to the people involved.

But it makes me feel good to know and see so many people from that era still doing great and wonderful things today in Galway and beyond- I meet them so often and their enthusiasm has never waned. 

 

This article is but a short summary and only gives a taste of that time. I have so much more to tell!

 

Beir bua!

Racism, Sectarianism, Hatred, Imperial Triumpalism & Misogyny are Alive & Well in Northern Ireland

Unionists in the North have every right to express their cultural identity every year on July 12 with marching bands, bonfires and child friendly parties. 

 

But whilst sectarian triumphalist marches through Catholic neighbourhoods are mostly banned these last few years, sadly too many Loyalist bonfires in Northern Ireland are opportunities for open celebrations of an apartheid colonial past where Irish Catholics and nationalists were treated as a despised indigenous people with a low intelligence practicing a primitive form of religion led by an anti-Christ.

 

I thought that, as the years passed, such beliefs and expressions of pure evil would be consigned to the history books. 

 

Unionist Sectarian mural in Northern Ireland

 

Sadly this is not the case. There are still those people of all ages across the Six Counties who sing songs and scream words of racial and religious bigotry around neighbourhood bonfires where they openly burn effigies of their political opponents (Sinn Féin, SDLP & Alliance) and jerseys of Glasgow Celtic, call Irish republican female leaders 'sluts' and have signs emblazoned with the word 'KAT' ("Kill All Taigs"). 'Taig' is a derogatory term for Catholics and Irish nationalists.

The hatred with which they burn the flag of the Irish republic blinds them to the reality of what this historical tricolour represents, namely the hope for a peaceful inclusive future Ireland where Catholics (green) and Protestants (orange) live in peace and harmony(white). They forget too that Irish republicanism was founded by Irish Protestants such as Wolfe Tone who were inspired by the French Revolution's motto of 'Liberty, Equality and Fraternity', slogans which are as important today as they were in the days of revolutionary France.

Community, Health & Environmental Success at 'Pride of Place' Awards.

 

 

The win by the Tuatha of Terryland Forest Park in the all-Ireland 'Pride of Place' awards in Killarney this week is dedicated to the tens of thousands of volunteers in Galway City of all ages and backgrounds who have over many many decades understood the critical importance of Nature for the health of the planet and the health of people, and that the battle to save the rainforests of Amazonia, the Congo and Indonesia will be fought and won in the cities of the world.

These great people planted trees and flowers, cleaned up rivers, streets and parks, organised nature studies and nature walks/cycles, implemented the green prescription, nurtured and restored species in an sometimes hostile unsympathetic built urban environment. 

 

Our cities need homes, schools, sports/community centres and workplaces but they also need an infrastructure of safe pedestrian/cycling/public transport networks, inter-connected parks, greenways, and wildlife sanctuaries. In the case of the latter, we have to realise that we share our urban habitat with other species and that we need to provide space for the rest of Nature to thrive and by doing so it will provide us with oxygen, lower greenhouse gas emissions, filter out toxic gases, provide flood defenses, give us food, beautify our city and be a tonic to our minds, bodies and souls.

 

We started the idea of a people's and wildlife park along the Terryland River in my house at Christmas in the year of COP 1 (1995) and it became a reality in 2000.

 

Over the last 27 years, we have achieved a lot but we have so much more to do. Our green spaces need significantly more investment and they should be clean and safe for all. Boosted by a new generation of young enthusiastic volunteers (supported of course by many older enthusiastic veterans who have not gone away!), I am optimistic that the next few years will see progress in integrating the rest of Nature into our beloved city through the 'Galway National Park City' designation which is about making our city Greener, Bluer, Wilder, Healthier, Smarter, Sustainable and more Beautiful.

 

Finally, a big Bualadh Bos to Claddagh Watch who do so well at the Awards final in recognition in their great efforts to make our waterways safe and in protecting people's lives as well as to our county friends in the Headford Lace Project and Killannin Development Committee.

Community resiliance is alive and well in Galway!

 

 

Little Schools are the Heartbeat of Rural Ireland & the Foundations for its Revitalisation

 

COVID cut me off from what is one of the most enjoyable blessful elements of my work at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics NUI Galway, namely the opportunity to travel to every corner of Galway county and city in order to teach different aspects of technology in the schools that function as the heartbeat of their local communities.

This is particularly true of the little schools of rural Galway, which serve as the vibrant hub of their villages and parishes. The photo shows Creggs, one of these great primary schools located in the idyllic village that gives it its name and in which I spent a most enjoyable day last week teaching coding to the senior classes (being teaching there since 2006!).

In this period of rural decline it has been these learning institutions that have kept alive local traditions, such as making St. Bridget Crosses on February 1st; decorations and floats for St. Patrick’s Day; planting trees for Tree Week; painting festive eggs at Easter; and playing the songs and reciting the myths and legends of the locality in times past. As Irish people have abandoned farming (for work in the big city) and the great social gatherings that was the weekly Sunday only a few decades ago, it is the school that maintains a sense of ‘community spirit’ by bringing together the grannies, parents, cousins and neighbours of the pupils to enjoy concerts at Christmas, fancy dress parties at Samhain/Halloween, heritage nights, charity fundraising and group cycles. It is also the children of the school that are the life blood of the parish sports and youth clubs.

But these schools have been suffering for many decades due to creeping urbanisation. Fifty years ago Ireland's social and economic life revolved around an agricultural system based on the small family farm and rural towns were vibrant places serving their farming hinterland. Today too many of these country towns look like ghost towns with lines of abandoned and boarded up premises; the small family farm has lost its national economic centrality and the mosaic of fields of colourful wildflower meadows, barley, rye, oats, potatoes, cabbages and apple/damson/pear/orchards have all but disappeared from the landscape.

Depopulation in rural Ireland has led to many school closures including some that I worked in such as Corgary, Carnageehy and Woodlawn in east Galway. The car-based transport infrastructure assists this trend as it encourages some parents living in an increasingly suburban-orientated Irish countryside to understandably take children to schools near where they work in the big towns and cities.

But I now see the seeds for a resurgence in rural Ireland based on the principles of the Circular Economy characterised by mixed organic farming; the return of grain, vegetable and fruit growing in fields surrounded by hedgerows or drystone walls; a revitalisation of indigenous crafts and arts, the establishment of wildlife sanctuaries which includes deciduous forests, a network of interlinked greenways, an increased state committment towards public transport, an increased emphasis on renewable energies (wind, water, biomass), and a hospitality trade focused on sourcing locally grown foodstuffs.

The COVID lockdown has opened our eyes to the endless opportunities available with a proper broadband infrastructure allowing many to work long distance be if from homes or from the shared space of small town innovative digital hubs (some are set up already in what was until recently boarded up shops and pubs). Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss as well as the consequences of the destructive Russian invasion of Ukraine have shown us the crucial need to use local solutions to solve global crises. Sustainable jobs exist in nature guardianship, Outdoor Learning, Outdoor leisure (hiking, rowing, cycling etc), energy production, farming at so many levels, electronic repair/recycling/upcycling, biomedical manufacturing, education, crafts, arts, culture, scientific/technology research and green tourism. 3D printing, using safe recyclable materials, will mean the return of the 'cottage industry' to rural Ireland.

So it is crucial that the little country schools are now nurtured and kept open during this period of transition.

I have happily worked in these schools (and their second level ‘big brothers’) since 2002 teaching a range of science and technology courses (coding, film production, photo editing/enhancing, heritage, environmental science, data science, Citizen Science and Internet Safety) as well as offering teachers and children the opportunity to attend sessions at my university workplace to learn from my younger research colleagues, to visit my beloved computer museum as well as to exhibit at the annual Galway Science and Technology Festival Fair.

Hopefully soon I will have re-established the school circuit that I had in the years before COVID not only in the city but in so many villages and parishes in the county stretching from Inishbofin off the coast of Connemara to Tiernascragh near the River Shanno

Planting a Ukrainian woods with an African connection and roots back to ancient Ireland within Terryland Forest Park.

 The Tuatha volunteers have since mid March quietly planted a small woodland in Terryland Forest Park dedicated to the brave people of Ukraine who are suffering so much as they bravely resist Putin's brutal invasion.Only trees native to both countries were planted, namely oak, birch and alder.

The first trees were planted by our good friend Duncan Stewart from Eco-Eye.

We will this week write to Gerasko Larysa, the Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland, requesting her to visit Galway late this year to plant a tree in a woods that symbolizes the strong support that Ukraine has amongst the Irish people.

The Tuatha volunteers involved though came not just from Ireland but also from many other countries including Sweden, Vietnam and USA.

Today's Tuatha volunteers continue an inclusivity and diversity tradition that has been part of the ethos of Terryland Forest Park since its foundation. For instance in 2006, under the banner of 'Putting Roots in Irish Soil' asylum seekers from Iraq, Russia, Belarus, Nigeria, Kenya and many other countries took part in the planting of a Celtic-themed 3 ring maze near Terryland Castle, initiated by the fantastic Stephen Walsh, the first and present Superintendent of Parks at City Hall.

Many of the trees for the Ukrainian woods were provided by the inspirational EasyTreesie who are doing so much to help local communities in reforesting Ireland. we thanked them for that.

 

The African Connection
We also had trees donated from the wonderful Self-Help Africa programme thanks to the generousity of Ronan Scully--, one of the great heroes of modern Ireland, whose work spanning two continents is based on implementing sustainability, environmental protection and community empowerment, combatting social exclusion and overcoming systemic poverty. The Self-Help Africa programme connects the planting of trees by schools in Ireland with reforestation in Africa. Ronan is also a worthy champion of the Galway National Park initiative. Thank you Ronan for all that you have been doing over many decades.

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Oak Trees from the primeval forests of ancient Ireland.

But of special heritage value are the oak tree saplings donated by Denise Garvey. These native Irish oaks come from Coollattin Woods in Wicklow, one of the final remnants of the great primeval forests that covered Ireland until the great clearances of the plantation period from the early 17th century onwards.

Much of the woods in Coollattin were actually though cleared during the 1970s and 1980s with its trees exported as high quality vineer. It took the first large scale eco campaign in Ireland of the modern era lasting nearly 20 year to save the last of its ancient trees in the locality of Tomnafinnogue following the direct intervention by the then Taoiseach Charles Haughey

UK businessman and Wicklow resident Brian Kingham took over Coollattin in 2016 and has undertaken an ambitious reforestation of the estate.

So we are so proud that the community-council driven Terryland Forest Park now has a direct connection not only in symbolism with Ukraine and Africa but also with the birth of the Irish environmental movement and the great forests of ancient Ireland. Thank you Denise Garvey.

A Cycling & Walking Journey across the rural landscapes of Galway city & environs

 

Thank you to all those who joined us last Sunday for the 7 Galway Castles Heritage Cycle Trip held as part of Bike Week 2022.

The event was fully booked out days in advance.

In spite of the heavy rainfall for the first few hours, we got to see and experience a breathtakingly beautiful countryside of boreens (country lanes), ancient woods, abandoned villages, bogs, wetlands, pasture, burren-type rockscapes, castles, rivers and so much more.

We are eternally grateful to Galway City Council for providing Bike Week grant funding and to Cunningham Marine & Civil for sponsoring the lunch at McHughs Bar and Restaurant.

Our next cycle will be the 3 Athenry-Monivea Castles Heritage tour in late June and another 7 Galway Castles Heritage Cycle in July.

A patriotic Green Irishman wears Blue & Yellow on St. Patrick's Day!

I was proud to dress up in the colours of Ukraine and hold the country's flag high yesterday as I took part on my bike in the Connemara Greenway presence in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Moycullen.

It was so lovely to be joined by so many good friends demanding the completion of an access-for-all Connemara Greenway including John Power (CEO for Aerogen & the campaign's No 1 supporter), Claire Lillis (what a fantastic job she did with the promotional signage!), Micheal Ó Cinneide (the great co-leader of the Corrib BEO initiative - the Corrib blueways & greenways are so interlinked!), Helen Caird (eco artist extraordinaire), Ronald van Dijk,  Gabe Bourke (who travelled from Donegal to join us!) Thomas Flanagan (who cycled from Barna) Kevin Jennings (chair of Galway Cycle Campaign & who cycled with friends from Galway city), Dick Delaney (who begins today a cycle with family from Galway to Dublin!), Thomas Ó Cadhain (who, in spite of being in pain with a severe injury, walked with his crutch), councillor Alastair McKinistry (who has been a staunch and strong political advocate for it) Pat Collins, Kyran O'Gorman (a great Blue advocate of Lough Corrib)....

All along the route of the parade, the watching crowd cheered and clapped their support for the Greenway. The enthusiasm was palpable! 

 

But I felt, as so many others across our country did yesterday, that it was important too that there should be a tribute and a remainder of the brave men, women and children fighting a people's war against Putin's brutal invasion of their country and his attempts to wipe an independent sovereign country of the map of Europe and assimilate into an anti-democratic new Tsarist Empire. So I dressed up head to toe in the colours of Ukraine carrying my home-made Ukrainian flag and tunic

 

I feel too that Irish people, because of our history, have a special affinity with small countries that suffer oppression and occupation from aggressive rulers of larger more powerful neighbours. Hence the popular support in Ireland too for Palestine.

I hope someday to visit a free Kyiv, Lvev, Kharkiv and Mariupol in a free Ukraine.

 

The Non-Irish Origins of St. Patrick's Day & 'All Things Irish'!

St. Patrick’s Day is Ireland’s national holiday and understandably St. Patrick himself is looked on as the personification of all that is Irish.

Yet he and so much of the traditions associated with the Festival have their origins far beyond our green shamrock shores.

So for instance:
1. St. Patrick- British & Roman!
St. Patrick himself was actually Romano-British, the son of a Roman official that was taken as a slave by Irish sea raiders probably from near Carlisle (at Hadrian’s Wall) in northern Britain in the early 5th century. Even his adopted name is not Gaelic, coming from the Latin term ‘Patricius' (noble).
Yet, as we say in Ireland, the invader/foreigner oftentimes becomes 'more Irish than the Irish themselves' (except for a few Northern Unionists!). Though sent as a prisoner to Ireland & forced to work as a slave looking after sheep in the mountains, Patrick decided to return to Ireland as a Christian missionary years after his escape.

2. Guinness- Invented by Londoners & with some later support from the British Army!
'Guinness' was copied by Arthur Guinness from an 18th century London drink made out of roasted barley. The beer was known as ‘porter’ because it was originally popular with the porters (carriers) in Covent Garden. Arthur Guinness switched from producing the more common ale at his Dublin brewery. However Guinness was initially not well received with Dubliners because of the owner’s support for the British colonial regime and his opposition to the republican United Irishman during the rebellions of the late 1790s.
Guinness’ international reputation had also a lot to do with the British Army! In WW1, the high-energy consumption ‘porter’ breweries in mainland Britain were closed down by the government to concentrate the national energy resources on the armament production factories. However Guinness and the porter breweries in Ireland were allowed to stay open thus giving them a virtual trade monopoly in the then British Empire that stretched across five continents.

3. Irish Pub- Viking roots!
The 'Irish pub' was actually created by Viking invaders in the 9th century in their new slave-trading settlements of Dublin, Cork, Limerick etc. Common to all these Viking cities was the presence of a 'tavern' where Vikings, after grueling days or months spent fighting, raiding, pillaging or trading could come to enjoy the delights of beer, music and food served by gorgeous-looking Celtic wenches.
Over a thousand years later (in 1996), I returned the favour to our Viking brethren by managing the first Irish pub in Iceland- ‘The Dubliner’ in Reykjavik! (pubs were only legalized in that country in 1989)

4. 'St. Patrick's Day Festival Parade’ -an American invention!
It originated in the mid-18th century American cities of Boston and New York where it was created by Irish Americans longing for their homeland and an opportunity to promote their heritage. The first parade took place in New York on March 17th in 1762 when it was led by Irish soldiers serving in the British Army! By the 19th century, it had became a powerful expression of Irish nationalism and the struggle against British colonial rule in Ireland.


5. Irish Whiskey -the essence of the Middle East!
The process of creating whiskey(from the Gaelic 'uisce beatha' = 'water of life') - 'distillation' was learnt from Coptic or Arab alchemists by studious Celtic monks. The former used it for medicinal purposes. However, we Irish soon saw its greater significance in the hospitality and entertainment sectors!

6. Sexy Irish Traditional Dancing- another American invention!
Traditional Irish step dancing only gained an international appeal in the 1990s thanks primarily to the efforts of an American, Michael Flatley.
This Irish-American from Chicago created the choreography for the 'Riverdance' show and, with fellow lead dancer Jean Butler, led the show to amazing success as the intermission act in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994. Irish step dancing has never looked back since and Riverdance has generated a myriad of successful offshoots. Not only that, but the dour unsmiling
Irish dancers of previous eras were transformed into vivacious high-kicking Irish cailíní and buachaillí in figure-hugging attire. Furthermore, modern Irish dance now unashamedly embraces elements from other cultures (Russia, Arabian) increasing its international appeal even further.
Michael Flatley portrayed all that was good and important about Irish-Americans. When Irish traditions were dying out in the Emerald Isle, it was they that for centuries nurtured and kept alive the flame of Celtic culture.

7. There is no such thing as Irish 'Craic'!
'Craic' is looked on today as an Irish word denoting a quintessentially Irish form of fun (drink, music, amusing & friendly conversation).
In fact there was no such word in the Gaelic Language until the 1970s. It is actually an old English(!) word spelt 'crack' that meant in Elizabethan times 'to boast', 'to banter' or 'to tell a joke' as in the term 'to crack a joke'.

8. 'Irish Coffee'- invented for the benefit of American tourists suffering from the Irish weather!
On one cold evening in 1942 at a small windswept airport terminal on the west coast of Ireland, the local chef felt pity for the tired and freezing passengers who had just embarked from a seaplane that had to turn back from its trans Atlantic journey due to atrocious weather conditions.
Being Americans, he knew that they would enjoy a cup of hot coffee (not then much consumed by Irish people) topped with fresh cream. But because of the freezing conditions, he decided to spice it up with a shot of Irish whiskey. Legend has it that one of the passengers, remarking on the unusual taste of this drink asked, "Hey Buddy, is this Brazilian coffee?", to which the chef Joe Sheridan replied, 'No, that's Irish coffee'. And so, history was made!

9. Irish Songs-written by English, Americans, Scots & Australians!
Many of those great 'traditional Irish' ballad songs that are sung with such gusto every night by broken-hearted inebriated Galwegians or Dubliners in some Irish pub across the world were in fact written by English, Scotch, Australian or American!

(Click on song title below to hear the song)

For instance Dirty Old Town (that many mistakenly believe refers to Dublin) was written by the (Scottish-) English socialist folk singer Ewan MacColl; From Clare to Here by English singer songwriter Ralph McTell; Willie McBride/Green Fields of France by Scottish Australian Eric Bogle; Danny Boy by English lawyer Fred Weatherly; My Wild Irish Rose and When Irish Eyes are Smiling by New York Broadway star Chauncey Olcott; and the late great American country music star Johnny Cash wrote Forty Shades of Green

10. Irish Traditional Music- reinvented by British Punks
It was a London-based Punk group of mixed English & Irish background that shook Irish music to its foundations and re-invented it for a modern Western youth audience. The anti-establishment Pogues, led by their brilliant lead singer and lyricist Shane MacGowan, that revitalised Irish music and brought vibrancy, youthfulness, relevancy and radical politics back into a staid Irish music scene.
Formed in 1982, the inventors of Celtic Punk fused traditional Irish folk with contemporary English punk and rock.
The name 'Pogues' comes from Pogue Mahone, the anglicisation of the Irish 'póg mo thóin,' meaning "kiss my ass".
As with Riverdance, their music was oftentimes condemned by the native Irish purists who preferred to keep Celtic culture in a sealed box untainted by outside forces.
Silly people! Like all cultures, Irish traditions are ever-changing, are constantly borrowing and being re-shaped by external influences.

A traditional Irish (honest!) Toast
In honour of the day itself, may I send you all an old and heartfelt Irish blessing:
"May your glass be ever full,
May the roof over your head be always strong,
And may you be in heaven
half an hour before the devil knows you're dead!"

 

Marina Ovsyannikova: The Bravest Russian in the World

Marina Ovsyannikova is a true Russian patriot.

Say her name with pride.

 

An editor of the state-controlled flagship Channel 1 television station, she ran onto the set of its live evening news programme yesterday (Monday) shouting: “Stop the war. No to war" and holding a handwritten sign with the script "No war, stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here."

Sadly she could have paid the ultimate price for speaking out against Putin's war machine and invasion of Ukraine as possibly torture and a harsh imprisonment sentence could have awaited her under recent draconian legislation enacted by the Duma. But the reality of what she could have suffered did not deter her.

Marina's bravery should never be forgotten and her message against the destruction of Ukraine by the neo-Nazi Putin regime should be spread far and wide.

She also released a pre-recorded video on the OVD human rights group in which she spoke of her shame at working for Channel One and facilitating the propaganda of the Putin regime in brainwashing the Russian people.

“Regrettably, for a number of years, I worked on Channel One and worked on Kremlin propaganda, I am very ashamed of this right now. Ashamed that I was allowed to tell lies from the television screen. Ashamed that I allowed the zombification of the Russian people. We were silent in 2014 when this was just beginning. We did not go out to protest when the Kremlin poisoned Navalny”

“We are just silently watching this anti-human regime. And now the whole world has turned away from us and the next 10 generations won’t be able to clean themselves from the shame of this fratricidal war.”

“What is happening in Ukraine is a crime and Russia is the aggressor”

“The responsibility of this aggression lies on the shoulders of only one person: Vladimir Putin.”

Marina pleaded with her fellow Russians to join the anti-war protests so that the brutal invasion and destruction Ukrainian;s peoples and their cities would end. “Only we Russians have the power to stop all this madness. Go to the protests. Don’t be afraid of anything. They can’t imprison us all.”

Thousands of Russians & Belorussians arrested in protests against Putin's war.

According to the United Nations, 12,700 people were arrested up until Sunday for taking part in anti-war street demonstrations across Russia as Putin's regime introduces emergency legislation to criminalise peaceful protests against his invasion of Ukraine in order to stifle the country's growing anti-war movement.

A similar situation is happening in Minsk and other Belorussian cities as many young Belorussians protest against the dictator Lukashenko' participation in Putin's war.

These people are the bravest of the brave, facing the threat of years in prison and deserve our respect and admiration.

So too do the populations of Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities who are regularly protesting against Putin's soldiers, telling them to leave their country and go back to Russia.

Like Bush and Blair who organised an illegal invasion of Iraq based on lies about weapons of mass destruction, Putin is a war criminal who fabricated a litany of lies to justify an illegal war. The results are the same- militarisation, destruction, economic collapse, civil conflict and population collapse.

The result of this ultra nationalist dictator who wants to recreate the Tsarist Empire is that thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have already being killed, cities destroyed by land and air bombing and circa 2 million people have had to flee their homelands. So many of these refugees fleeing west to Poland and other European countries are Russian speakers hence belittling Putin's propaganda that he came to Ukraine as their liberator to save them from genocide.

 

We will not be assimiliated

 

Message to Putin from the people of Ukraine: "WE ARE UKRAINIANS, WE WILL NOT BE ASSIMILIATED, RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE!"

Solidarity with the brave men and women of Ukraine in their fight against the huge invading army, air and naval forces of the anti-democratic tyrant who wants to wipe their country off the face of the Earth and absorb it into a 'Greater Russia'.

Civilians stand unarmed in front of Russian tanks and soldiers. Women and children make Molotov cocktails to defend their homes and neighbourhoods against one of the world's largest military.

Solidarity too with the brave ordinary men and women of Russia who have protested on the streets of Moscow, St Petersburg and dozens of other Russian cities against the invasion and 4000+ of whom were arrested and face punishment from a brutal regime.

 

Solidarity with the brave journalists, artists and politicians in Russia such as Katerina Kotrikadze, Tikhon Dzyadko, Dmitry Muratov, Yelena Kovalskaya, Elena Chernenko, Alexey Navalny, Lisa Peskova, Tatyana Yumasheva, Valery Meladze, Oxxxymiron and Ivan Urgant who spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine.

 

Solidarity with the sports players and fans from all across the world who at tournaments and matches over the weekend proudly held and applauded flags and banners in support of the Ukrainian resistance and against the imperialist Putin.

 

Freedom to all nations. No to dictatorships

This is a dark day for Europe and the world

The invasion of Ukraine shows clearly that the anti democratic Putin, who suppresses human rights and assassinates opponents in Russia, to be an imperialist. The excuses given and lies told by this dictator, supported by his fellow dictator in Belarus, have so many similarities to those of the Hitlerite regime for justifying the Nazi invasions of Czechoslovakia and Poland which involved portraying a brutal invasion as a war of ‘self defence’ but with the clear intention of wiping a nation or nations off the face of the Earth.

 

90% of the people of Ukraine voted in 1991 for full independence. Their wishes should be respected. Now sadly thousands of these freedom-loving peoples could die and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians will become refugees far from their homeland. 

 

My thoughts and prayers are with my Ukrainian friends and their families at this dangerous time.

I was against the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan (both Soviet & US), Cyprus and Yemen, the decades long sanctions against Cuba as well as the ongoing occupation and colonisation of Palestine.

I have been to Russia, have great respect for the Russian peoples, their struggles against Nazi tyranny and a deep love of Russian culture particularly its traditional music. But I have no time for Putin or any autocrat. Nor do many ordinary and prominent Russians who are bravely protesting against Putin's invasion of a fellow Slavic neighbouring country even when it means arrest and probably worse.

Whilst democratic Ukraine should have every right to be part of EU if that is what its peoples want, in my humble opinion it should nevertheless have declared itself neutral as Austria did in the 1950s and remain outside both NATO and Russian military blocs.

 

There is no justification whatsoever for the brutal invasion, occupation and suppression of any independent nation. Putin is trying to roll back history and reestablish the colonial Tsarist Empire.

Noel Treacy TD, a personal tribute to a Hero of Science & of Education

Noel Treacy TD, Brendan Smith, Tom Hyland, Galway Science & Technology Festival 2012

 

For twenty years I have been an educational science and technology officer working with third level colleges, schools, businesses, NGOs and local communities in Galway, Ireland, the Middle East and Africa. I consider myself extremely fortunate and blessed to have served in this fascinating role. During that period, I have worked with, learnt from and being inspired by so many fantastic transformational men and women. Thanks to them and to the people that I serve, nearly every day at work is a joyful experience and a challenge to do better. But the origins of my involvement in science education is due to three great individuals that I will be eternally grateful to.

I was not too long back from Iceland where I was involved in the hospitality sector for a number of years and continued to do so for a while after my return to Ireland.

But I had a yearning for a move back to my former professions of teaching and information technology. In their respective roles as chairperson, secretary and patron of the Galway Science and Technology Festival, Dr Jimmy Browne (then Deputy President NUI Galway), Bernard Kirk (Director, Galway Education Centre), and Minister Noel Treacy TD gave me in late 2001 an unbelievably exciting opportunity to manage a pilot scheme that we later named ‘Fionn’ which was about utilising digital technologies to support the introduction from 2004 of science as a new subject into Ireland’s Primary School curriculum.

‘Fionn’ is an amazing story that needs to be told and will be in the not-too-distant future. Suffice to say for the moment that it was Noel Tracey, who as Minister of State for Science, secured funding from Minister of Finance Charlie McCreevy within the 2001 government budget to support this pioneering initiative.

Sadly Noel died a few weeks ago. I have read the many warm and heartfelt tributes from journalists and politicians that have been written about him. What they all said about Noel is so true. He was kind, charming, honest, hardworking, family orientated, ever loyal to his party of Fianna Fáil, possessing a deep affinity of the Irish language, of Irish heritage and of the GAA. He was the consummate grassroots politician who cared deeply about his constituents, the people that he served from morning to night, seven days a week. He entered politics not for personal gain but for a greater societal good. On the many occasions I saw him at local events, I never witnessed a politician to ‘work a room’ as well as he did. He would go from person to person giving each and every one a strong firm handshake and an intense warm look, remind them of previous times when they met and often astonish as well as delight them with stories of their family members going back generations. As my wife Cepta is from east Galway, I would attend family funerals with her over the years where I would often meet Noel at these communal gatherings which are so deeply ingrained into the fabric of Irish farming and village life. One can be cynical about politicians attending funerals in their constituents. But for Noel his presence was sincere and all those present knew and respected that.

Whenever I heard him speak at a event in his role as a government minister, I was always so impressed in how he started his speeches with a great flourish in the Irish (and not just a token cúpla focail) language that he so loved, and admired how he always went out of his way to individually name and thank everyone in the audience that contributed to the success of proceedings.

Yet there is a side of him that has been rarely mentioned in the glowing references. Though he was renowned as the archetypal rural grassroots politician, Noel had an impact on Irish educational and business development that has been long lasting but is rarely mentioned and maybe not fully appreciated.

Ever the networking diplomat, in his capacity as Minister of State for Science, Noel in 1998 brought together in a small hotel room, an influential but disparate group of individuals drawn from third level colleges, schools, health, development agencies, state organisations, local government, media and business. Noel told them that he wanted to make Galway a science and technology hub second to none and this meant encouraging young people to value it as a worthy career choice. He told the audience that in a recent trip to the Hebrides he encountered a very successful festival of Science and Technology aimed at the islands’ school-going population. He saw no reason why Galway could not replicate this Scottish model and he formed there and then a multisectoral committee to organise Ireland’s first Science and Technology Festival with the dynamic Bernard Kirk as its secretary. Twenty four years later under its wonderful manager Anne Murray, chairperson Paul Mee and their brilliant team of movers and shakers, the festival is as vibrant as ever and has in the intervening period spawned a myriad of similar festivals nationwide.

For a man that did not go to third level college for a degree, Noel was passionate about encouraging children to consider further education and employment in science. As aforementioned he acted as a catalyst in the introduction of science into the primary school curriculum. The subject was actually taken out of the curriculum during the early 1920s by the Free State government to make way for the Irish language. With state funding secured by Noel, I was hired by the Galway Education Centre in late 2001 to prepare a pilot programme that would help schools transition over a four year period into the teaching of science in the classroom and in their hinterland. Our mantra was “All Science is Local”.

Later Noel became Minister of State for European Affairs and continued to do so much good, encouraging the fostering of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) with creativity, arts, innovation and enterprise, as well as in developing educational connections between Ireland and the rest of Europe.

For a number of years after his retirement from government ministry, I continued to meet Noel, along with Marie Mannion of the Galway county council Heritage Office, in his role as Cathaoirleach (Chair) of the Galway GAA via the schools/communities BEO online local heritage archives project that he also supported due to his love of preserving using digital technologies the stories of the past.

Like so many members of the original festival team that he established which included Bernard Kirk(Galway Education Centre), Tom Hyland(IDA), Jimmy Browne(NUIG), Sean O’Muircheartaigh(GMIT), Pat Morgan(NUIG), Simon Lenihan and John Cunningham(Connacht Tribune), Noel was a visionary that facilitated the building of a resilient modern, outward-looking, collegiate, educated, sustainable Galway and Ireland that was at the vanguard of meeting the global challenges that we faced. More than ever before we need that “we are all in this together” spirit and scientific/community ethos to tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Crises which requires a sustained united active approach.

Finally the photo shows me in 2012 at the Galway Science Fair standing between two legends of our times, namely Noel and his good friend Tom Hyland (RIP) with whom he worked closely alongside over many years in encouraging industrial and educational development. Tom was at the helm of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Ireland Western Region for much of the period from the 1970s to the early 2000s, helping attract high profile global investment and corporations to the city and county, ensuring that it became one of the country's key hubs of and business.

Let’s not forget the accomplishments and impact of Noel as a politician. We need such ‘role models’ today. His legacy should be preserved, possibly through the establishment of an annual educational or enterprise award for young people.

"When We Were Young": Student Days & Nights at UCG’s Rag Week

 

I feel really sorry for the present generation of students at GMIT & NUIG including my son Dáire.

For this is the week, when in my student days (& nights!) at UCG we hosted College Week (aka Rag Week), a wonderful fun 7 days events programme before most (well some!) of us began the serious stuff of study and exam preparations.

And what an action packed week it was!

There was the Mr & Ms College Week auditions in the Skeff; live music from the best local/national/international bands every night in Leisureland; the clubs in Salthill bursting at the seams dancing to the disco sounds of DJs Gerry Sexton, the K-Tel kids..; Kissing Competitions in the Concourse (Mike Jennings - didn't you win it one year?), the Crazy Boat Race; the Greasy Pole competition over the Eglinton Canal; the male & female Pub Crawl (on stretchers!) Races, the Tug-of-War & other field sports; the kidnappings of bishops and college lecturers held until a ransom (for charity- all good fun though!) was paid over; the streakers running through crowded lecture halls; the myriad of 'social action' activities provided by SAM (Social Action Movement); the crazy ‘pogo’ lunchitime dancing in the (canteen) basement; and the grand finale- the 'Fancy Dress Ball' on the Saturday Night with musical acts such as Bob Geldof & the Boomtown Rats, U2.....

All coordinated by a College Week Director- Ollie Jennings was director one year and Patrick Gillespie another year(I was lucky to be Pat's assistant!) with Padraic Boran, UCG SU Ents Officer securing the big music acts.

The city was rocking!! In spite of the craziness though, there was very little alcohol consumed per student. Unless we won a beer keg in a competition we did not have the money then to afford more than a few beers per night. Outside Rag Week, for most of us it was alcohol, the pub & the dance club only on Thursday nights. Overall the week was all good (largely clean!) fun with no violence and, except for small amounts of cannabis, no drugs. There were great prizes for the winners of the competitions. In 1981, our house in Hazel Park enjoyed a party night when 2 kegs (prizes!) of beer were enjoyed by residents and guests! I never got a drop though- I was dancing the night away in the 'Beach' nightclub!

In 1978 one of my house mates won Mr College Week- it meant free tickets to all of the main gigs!

The photo shows the cover of the independent student Unity magazine in the year that I was editor. The brilliant artwork was done by my good friend of the time Marie Drumgoole, a Medical student with an extraordinary artistic touch.