Galway Businesses Glorify Terrorist Bombers

99 Red Balloons Over Galway BayForsaking morality & in order to make a 'fast buck', certain prominent Salthill businesses once again decided to promote the only air force in the world that is killing civilians on a weekly basis. Amazingly these people see no conflict in attending Church services on Sunday morning-to honour a peace-preaching Christ that abhored violence- and then a few hours later officiating at a military dominated air show extravaganza in the skies over Galway Bay where the top act is the US Air Force's latest state-of-the-art killing machinesThe media said over 80,000 (exaggerated) watched the military airplanes in action while only a few hundred took part in the anti-war demonstration at the famous Spanish Arch. The latter event though had some prominent speakers including the new Galway City Mayor (Councillor Tom Costello) and an ex-commandant of the Irish Army (Ed Horgan). But though small in number, the anti-war participants proudly stood up for the principles of neutrality and anti-imperialism that inspired the founders of our state to take up arms against our British occupiers who were then engaged in a world power struggle where millions of ordinary people needlessly died serving in a war that was portrayed as a gallant war for peace and democracy against tyranny ("...a war to end all wars..."). Shades of today's 'Global War Against Terrorism'.

Anyway, I was proud to attend the demo with my young son Dáire. I also had the following letter published in the weekly 'Galway Independent' in the days before the air-show:

End the Support of Terrorist Bombers

Dear Editor,

Over the last few years, American airplanes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia have killed thousands of civilians including children and old people in their homes, at weddings, in hospitals, in market places, in vehicles and at places of worship. Whole villages have been flattened as a result of carpet-bombing. Yet while this barbarity continues, certain Salthill business people have deemed it suitable ‘family entertainment’ for the US Air Force to show off their weapons of mass destruction in the skies above Galway. They are calling on us all to adulate a killing machine that has even been condemned by the present US-supported Afghani government for its indiscriminate air bombing of civilian areas that has only led to an upsurge in recruitment to those forces fighting the Americans. Tactics such as ‘Shock and Awe’ with their accompanying obliteration of residential neighbourhoods and infrastructure has resulted in the victims undertaking armed retribution against the perpetrators of this madness. To compound the misery of those that survive the initial onslaughts, the US Air Force has no hesitation in dropping anti-personnel cluster bombs containing hundreds of bomblets that transform the targetted farms and villages into massive mine-fields thereby increasing the death toll for years to come. The US regime believes that their aerial strategy will force the acquiescence of the populations being bombed. Yet they have learnt nothing from their own recent history. The 9/11 bombings caused the majority of Americans to support a ‘revenge’ war on Afghanistan. The US Air force’s blanket-bombing of North Vietnam, though it led to the killing of over 200,000 people and the virtual wipe-out of urban life south of Hanoi, only stiffened the resolve of the survivors to fight on and to ultimately win their war against the USA. The ‘gung-ho’ attitude and incompetence of many American pilots has been widely condemned recently as a result of the large number of incidents where Allied soldiers were killed by ‘friendly-fire’. It is reprehensible that the Salthill Air Show organisers glorify these evil terrorist bombers who commit such atrocities against innocent people. As someone that enjoys with my family the many delights of our local seaside resort most weekends, I fail to understand why their business leaders promote weaponry that continues to kill and to maim so many families.Check out an article that I wrote regarding last year's Salthill Airshow, the content of which formed the basis for a letter to the 'Galway Independent' newspaper.
Sights & Sounds of US Warplanes Reawakens Fear in Galway

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 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!"

German Bishops Compare Palestine to Jewish Ghettos of Nazi Europe

Well Done to the German Bishops who had the courage this week to publicly declare the obvious truth- that Israel's brutal racist militaristic actions and policies were deliberately converting Palestine into a series of walled-off over-crowded poverty stricken Ghettos that were reminiscent of the Jewish ghettos of Nazi-occupied Europe.
It is a courage that Western and other political world leaders lack.
The bishops were on a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Bishop Hanke of Eichstatt was quoted in the Irish Times as stating that, "This morning we saw pictures of the Warsaw ghetto at Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem) and this evening we are going to the Ramallah ghetto"
Cardinal Meisner of Cologne said, in referring to the heavy Israeli military presence, their checkpoints and their 26ft security wall being built through Arab lands, that it was "something done to animals not people".
Bishop Mixa of Augsburg pointed out that Israeli policies towards Palestinians bordered on racism.

It is despicable that the world's nations allow Israel to continue with this barbarism.
Today, film evidence was broadcast on BBC television showing that Israeli troops continue to use children and young people as human shields as they rampage through Palestinian homes and streets.

See my previous article on Israeli aggression entitled 'Time for the Israeli Myth to be Shattered'

Iceland's Barbaric Decision to Resume Slaughter of Whales

My 7 year old son Daire's drawing of whales that he undertook when he heard on television last November that Iceland was to resume the killing of fin & minke whales.
"Why do they want to kill these beautiful creatures Dad?", he asked of me at the time. I still do not know the answer to this question

Iceland, a country without an army and a shining role model of modern liberal democracy in action, is today threatening to drag the whole world back to an Age of Bloody Barbarism.
Its decision to resume commercial whale hunting goes against world public opinion and against a growing awareness of the threat to global biodiversity caused by mankind's destructive tendencies to treat the planet as something that exists purely for his own selfish pleasures is actually now threatening our species very existence.
Having lived there for almost three years, I fell in love with the Iceland's breathtaking natural beauty & greatly admired its people for their resilience and fortitude. But in my time there I was not blind to the fact that whale meat (beached!) was available on many restaurant menus, though most people had an aversion to it.
But this country's decision today to resume commercial hunting and slaughter of these beautiful intelligent creatures is pure madness and will open the floodgates for other countries to follow suit.
What a stupid and silly government the country has. It has caved in to the pressures mounted by a few businessmen who have used the country's proud nationalism for their own self-glorification agenda.
Hopefully there are though local environmental campaigners in Reykjavik and elsewhere that can rescue the country's reputation from the pit that it is has now found itself thrown into and reverse this mindless murderous decision.

See my previous articles on this issue:
Iceland Plans Murder of World's Most Beautiful Creatures

Icelandic Ambassador replies to our letter condemning resumption of whale hunting

Reply to Icelandic Ambassador's Letter

Famous Irish Quotes & Sayings - 7

The great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad
-G.K, Chesterton, famous English writer

St. Patrick's Day in Galway 2007- Official! Spirituality & Patriotism to be replaced by Worship of Money

The greatest day in the Irish calendar - St. Patrick's Day - is now to go the way of other important religious, celebratory and national days.
For the Galway City Business Association has decided to break with tradition established in 1903 when the local Parade was initiated by announcing that retail outlets will open for business. In so doing, they are helping to undermine family and spiritual life in Ireland.

Over the last few decades, the insatiable appetite to make money has taken precedence over all other human needs. Led by the big supermarket chains such as Dunnes Stores, Sundays are no longer a shop-free day, nor Thursdays & Fridays in Race Week, nor Easter Sunday.
Under financial pressure, small businesses have gradually found that they had to follow suit.

Even for the non-religious, these days once had a uniqueness and sparkle that gave them a special magical ambiance. Except for the hospitality sector, retail outlets and businesses closed their doors allowing workers and their families to enjoy the nice things in life together free from the stresses of work or the hassle of shopping: they could go for a picnic, take a stroll up a mountain, a cycle or a drive in the countryside, pray at church and meet friends and neighbours, visit a carnival or go to the cinema. Devoid of frantic shoppers or people rushing to the office, town centres looked and felt more peaceful as smiley happy people sauntered around at a leisurely pace as if they had not a care in the world.
Sadly, successive governments are caving into the business sector and curtailing family life and the rights of workers.
I do not want to be over sentimental- there was a lot wrong with the old Ireland- its poverty, its domination by an arch-conservative Catholic Church, its intolerance...However are we not now 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater?'
As WB Yeats said, they have their hand in the "...greasy till..." and in the process "...Romantic Ireland is Dead and Gone, it is with O'Leary in the grave...".

On second thoughts, maybe there is one symbol of old Ireland that the Big Retail Chains are consciously promoting- the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow?!!!

Famous Irish Quotes & Sayings - 6

"Being Born in a Stable does not make you a Horse"
-Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, referring to his Irish birth. Wellington's comment, with its allusions to Christ's birth in a stable, obviously portray's his resentment that he was born in a country inhabited by a people that his imperialist aristocratic pedigree felt was an inferior breed

Today (Feb 1st) is St. Brigit's Day- a sign of the remarkable status of early Irish Celtic Women

Today is the first day of Spring, the season of birth and re-birth that follows the harsh cold barren months of Winter. In Ireland, it is dedicated to a female, St. Brigit (or Bridget, Brigid, Bride), the country's most famous native born saint. Her name also has a strong affinity with a Celtic deity associated with fertility and symbolised by 'fire', the element that offered humankind protection from the natural deadly forces of winter.
Brigit is second only in the Irish saints' calendar to St. Patrick who was born in Roman Britain.
The fact that Brigit was female is quite significant as the early Celtic Church in Ireland was unique in contemporary Christian Europe in giving considerable recognition to the role of women. Irish society was not as patriarchal as their Roman, Greek or Germanic neighbours.
According to the historian Dáibhí Ó Cróinín in his book 'Early Medieval Ireland', a woman could divorce her husband for a variety of reasons (including if he failed to satisfy her sexual needs!), could own and inherit property and was treated as an individual in her own right with inherent protections under Celtic law. Women fought on the battlefield as warriors until this was banned by the church.

Celtic female influence extended as far as Iceland....
Even outside Ireland, the influence of Irish women at this time (5-7th century) was felt- St. Ives in Cornwall is called after an Irish female saint (a.k.a. Eva or Aoife), St. Grimonia & St. Proba lived in France (Gaul) in the 4th century, St. Dardaloch in Pavia, Itay (c.300ad) and the nunnery in Austria made famous in the film and musical 'The Sound of Music' was probably founded by an Irish female missionary (Erintrude).
In Iceland the hero of one of the great Icelandic Sagas is the Irish female slave Melkorka, a stong willed woman who refused to be coerced by humiliation, rape and brutality. In fact it has been noted by some that the status of women in Iceland (where I lived for a number of years), which was higher than in Scandinavian societies, possibly owed its origins to the impact exerted by the high number of Irish women living amongst the country's early Viking settlements- they were brought to the country as slaves and wives from the Viking towns of Ireland. It has been said that it was their influence that persuaded many of their pagan husbands to vote in favour of the country's adoption of Christianity at the famous 'Althingi' (parliament) of 1000AD.
This independent-minded spirit must have left a lasting legacy as Icelandic women were amongst the most successful in securing equal rights for women's during the course of the 20th century.

Female Celtic Warriors
Celtic mythology provides ample evidence of the power of women in pre-Christian Ireland. The country itself -Éire ('Ire(land)' in English)- is named after a goddess; the names of most of the great rivers with their life-giving waters are associated with nymphs, goddesses and female animals; the Celtic God of War (Morrigan)- the most masculine of activities- is female. Some of the most powerful Celtic rulers were women such as Queen Maeve and Queen Boadicea. (Bó = Cow in Irish)
The fiercest and most macho hero in Celtic mythology is 'Cuchulainn'. Yet he was actually totally female-dominated(!):

• trained in martial arts and weaponry by Scathach
• first defeated in battle by Aoife
• protected by the War Goddess Morrigan
• kept on the 'straight and narrow' (most of the time!) by his strong-willed wife Emer
• nursed back to health from near fatal battle wounds by his mistress Niamh
• and killed by the army of Queen Maeve

High Status of Brigit in Celtic Church & pagan associations
Brigit was also a powerful Celtic goddess of fertility associated with the birth of animals and symbolised by fire. Hence her links with one of the four great pagan festivals of the seasons- the Spring Festival of 'Imbolc' which occurs in February and the time of 'lambing'.
It is therefore quite possible that St. Brigit was originally a high priestess of the pagan goddess Brigit who converted along with her female followers to Christianity during the time of St. Patrick.
According to legend St. Brigit was the daughter of Dubhthach, an Irish chief, and one of his 'Picttish' (from modern Scotland) slaves. She was made a bishop by St. Mel (whom the actor Mel Gibson was named after) and founded one of the most famous Irish monasteries beside an Oak tree on the plains of Magh Liffe thereafter known as 'Cill Dara' or Kildare- 'the Church of the Oak Tree'.
In the Celtic pagan religion, trees were considered sacred, none more so than oak trees which were prime locations for spiritual worship.
The monastery also was the repository of a 'holy flame', another clue to its possible pagan origins as a temple of Druid priestesses in a sacred woodland. It also has striking similarities to the story of the 'Vestal Virgins' of Ancient Rome whose primary task was to maintain the sacred fire of Vesta, the goddess of the 'hearth'.
Under Bridget's leadership as Abbess and bishop, Cill Dara became a great place of spiritual learning and of the arts/crafts particularly metal work and illumination. For centuries thereafter, each succeeding Abbess of Kildare took the name of 'Brigit' and was regarded as a person of immense stature thoughout Ireland with the monastery being second only to Armagh in its ecclesiastical importance.

Rape of Brigit & decline in the status of Women in Irish society
But over time, the importance of women in society was reduced as Viking raids, wars and the growing influence of the patrician 'male only' Vatican took its toll. The death knell came in 1132 when it seems troops of the King of Leinster Dermot MacMurrough sacked the monastery, raped the abbess Brigit, carried her off and forcibly had her married to one of his followers. As is the case throughout the history of humanity, 'rape' is used as the ultimate weapon against female independence and the physical symbol of man's power over womankind.
McMurrough is the same man who invited the British Normans to Ireland to aid him in his wars; they of course soon decided to conquer the country for themselves staying in the process for over 800years.

Global Warming: 'Playing the Fiddle While the World Burns'

I mentioned last week that I wrote a letter to our local newspaper -The Galway City Tribune- in response to one of their columnists (Dick Byrne) rubbishing the claims of environmentalists and others over the melting of the Polar Ice Caps.
Amazingly I had to write another letter which was again published as a reply to another article (from an anonymous writer) that also took issue with the opinion that man's activities are contributing to 'Global Warming'.
So see what you think..........!

Letters to the Editor
'Playing the Fiddle While the World Burns'
The content and tone of letter in last week’s Tribune from an anonymous (why?) a.k.a. Homo Vexus reader reminds me of someone at the bar of a sinking ship wondering why other once sane passengers and crew are getting so upset and why the hell he cannot get a damn drink! The reason, my dear Homo Vexus, that so many of your fellow homo sapiens are jumping on the Greenhouse Effect Bandwagon is that, thanks to scientific analysis and first-hand observations, we getting a clearer picture of the dramatic changes the world is rapidly going through. Modern microchip technology can now help us to record and analyse past and present rates of climatic change, extrapolate the causes and estimate the effects on the world of the future. To paraphrase the writer’s words, these conclusions are based on measured scientific “study, research, causation association and discipline”. But we don’t need this scientific know-how alone to realise that big weather changes are occurring at an accelerating rate; for we can see it with our own eyes and from our own experiences in our short life-times. In some areas of the world, it is more obvious than others. Compare photographs of tropical glaciers taken over a 40 year period and view the massive decrease in size. I lived in the northern climes of Iceland for a number of years and listened to older people talk of their fears as they told of temperatures that have suddenly warmed in recent decades. That is why an increasing amount of people from all walks of life (tour operators, insurance companies, manufacturers, multi-national retail outlets, conscientious urban planners, farmers, governments, economists, environmentalists, scientists, churches, grassroots communities, and of course Arnold Schwarzeneger...) are seeing the writing in the sky, are getting fearful and promoting individual, local and coordinated global action on the critical issue of increasing atmospheric warming. Only this week six major US energy companies demanded that President Bush introduce mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions. The recent British government-commissioned ‘Stern’ report makes abundantly clear what the consequences are if action is not taken. But while these concerned people cannot be dismissed as caricature Doomsday ‘sackcloth/ashes’ religious-type zealots, their message to mankind has similar overtones, “Repent from your sinful path of selfishness or suffer the apocalyptic consequences of your collective greed.” Of course there were global changes well before man ever came into existence as natural and cosmic forces shaped and reshaped the planet. Earth is in a constant state of alteration; deserts were once jungles, mountains were once sea-beds. Volcanoes have in the past, and will in the future, effect global temperatures. But present global change is different to all others: this one is man-induced. Therein lies the central message. We caused it: we should try to change it before it is too late. No other living species has managed to impact so quickly on the plant as much as mankind. We flatten mountains, drain lakes, obliterate forests, create deserts, wipe out thousands of other species…and change weather patterns by our activities. According to NASA, the majority of climatologists recognise human activities as the main contributor to this alarming new pace of change. The large individual chunks of Antarctic ice shelves falling off into the sea are the size of Luxembourg and can be 12,000 years old. Of course there are those such as the Bush Administration who, dancing to the tune of their oil producing carbon-belching paymasters, blindly ignore the reality of what is happening in the world today and imitate Nero as he played the fiddle while Rome burns. But thankfully there is a growing consensus worldwide that something drastic needs to be done if we are to provide a future for our children’s children. Yet we as individuals can all do our personal bit by living by the green motto of ‘Think Global, Act Local’.
Yours sincerely,

Brendan Smith

Hollywood Ignores the Brilliant 'Wind that Shakes the Barley'

It was a travesty of Justice that the winner of the 2006 Golden Global at the Cannes Film Festival was not nominated for an Oscar this week. 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley' was one of the best films that I have ever watched. Of course being Irish and being republican means that I am bias in its favour anyway! But not for nothing did it receive top honours at Cannes.
Directed by the left-wing British director Ken Loach, it brillantly encapsulated the harsh realities of the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War as experienced by rural Cork.
Nor surprisingly, considering Ken's politics, it made strong associations with present day Iraq and showed vividly the similarities of terror tactics and racism that all armies of occupation employ in order to subjugate native populations. It also portrayed the contradictions and incompatiblity of the final war aims of different factions within liberation movements that often come to the surface in open warfare once the common enemy has been defeated.
See my previous article on the Wind that Shakes the Barley for a more in-depth analysis.

Famous Irish Quotations & Sayings- Part 5

"May You be in Heaven One Hour before the Devil Knows You're Dead!" -Traditional Irish drinking toast

Ignoring the Reality of the Polar Ice Meltdown

Ireland is being battered by storms, December snow is but a dim & distant memory, flowers are blooming in winter, the average yearly tempartures are rising...
Yet it is hard to believe that some people still cannot accept the reality of Global Warming even when it is staring them in their faces and when they are provided with increasing amounts of hard scientific evidence. Recently a columnist in a local Galway newspaper (Connacht Tribune) Dick Byrne condemned those warning of rising greenhouse gas emissions as scare-mongering. It is not only President Bush, the darling of the oil corporations, that ignores the obvious!
Below is my reply to him that was published in this week's edition of the newspaper:

Last week’s ‘Under my Hat’ column by Dick Byrne was full of factual inaccuracies on the issue of global warming. He belittles the idea that melting ice in the Arctic region will lead to raising sea levels on the basis that the polar ice cap already floats on water. But the fact is that glacial ice in the Arctic region also covers an enormous landmass that includes Greenland and parts of North America and northern Russia whose disintegration will definitely impact on sea levels. NASA’s photographs show conclusively that the Greenland ice sheet is retreating in some parts at the rate of one metre per month. It is estimated that its disappearance could lead to global sea levels rising by 23 feet. The satellite images also dramatically portray the massive retreat of the seaborne perennial ice caps since 1979.
Polar ice reflects back 90% of the sun’s light; its disappearance allows the oceans to heat up, thereby increasing each time the rate of melting and further accentuating global warming. Furthermore, the release of these northern freshwaters into the salty oceans is already slowing down the Gulf Stream which will have a serious impact on the climate and therefore human habitation of Britain and Ireland.
Mr Byrne then comes out with the astonishing statement that “…the Antarctic appears not to be melting, so there is no real problem from that area…” This comment flies against the majority of scientific evidence available today. The US based National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC) estimates that 13,500 sq km of ice shelves in one area alone (Antarctic Peninsula) has broken off from the continent since 1974. The largest breakage was a 3,250km section of the Larsen B ice shelf which dropped off into the sea in 2002.
Rather than berate those politicians who have awakened from their slumber to discover that global warming is a terrifying reality, he should encourage them to do more in sharply curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and using the technological creativity of humankind to save rather than destroy life as we know it on Planet Earth.

Journalist Integrity and Independence undermined by the Sunday Times & the letter that it never published

The Sunday Times can be one of the best newspapers around. It comes nowwhere close to the British daily 'Independent' in terms of political and environmental commentary . But the paper is a fascinating library of specialised magazines and supplements on travel, technology, world affairs, music... Of course, there are some right-wing columnists which one would expect from a Rupert Murdoch paper. But these writers are more than offset by the often excellent perceptive articles produced by reporters such as Christina Lamb and Marie Colvin.
So I was shocked to see that the Sunday Times of two weeks past devoted most of its front page to a totally false account of the hanging of Saddam.
Of course, the former Iraqi ruler was a tyrant that orchestrated many bloody campaigns against his people and his neighbours who deserved to face justice for his crimes. Just as Blair and Bush deserve to be charged for their war crimes against the same people.
But the Sunday Times article was propaganda of a form more symptomatic of a Stalinist or Nazi regime. For the article with its blaring headline (something along the lines of 'I was there at Saddam's Hanging!') was based around the account of an Iraqi government official.
It seems now that the Sunday Times has reduced itself to the level of another Murdoch organ - the pathetic voice channel of the Bush administration, namely 'Fox News'.
So I wrote a letter to the editor condemning this undermining of an independent critical media.
The newspaper never published my letter. Considering though the subsequent publicity generated worldwide about the happenings that accompanied Saddam's execution, the editor had no choice but to print some letters that condemned the insults and chants thrown at Saddam as he went to his death. But was the Sunday Times going to publish a letter that condemned the lies its front page and its failure to uphold the standards of 'free world' journalism? Was it going to apologise for this mistake?
Sadly, the editor failed the litmus test and proved his lack of journalist integrity.

So here is my letter that was never published by the Sunday Times
"Dear Editor,
You owe a big apology to your readership for the content of the front page of last week's Sunday Times regarding Saddam Hussein's hanging.
The article was full of lies and inaccuracies regarding the manner of his execution. Your main source, Iraqi government spokesperson Mowaffak al-Rubaie, was quoted as saying, "He was respected throughout before and after the execution. We followed rigorously international and Islamic standards". No mention of the vicious verbal abuse that took place. Thank God for mobile phones and the Internet as another official line about the Iraqi war was exposed as pure propaganda. The integrity and truthfulness of media journalism was sadly once again called into question."

'Famous Irish Quotations & Sayings- Part 4' & the Catholic Church's rehabilitation of Oscar Wilde

There is a very interesting article in today's British Independent regarding the rehabilitation of Oscar Wilde by the Catholic Church.
For someone that was jailed for homosexual activities and led a bacchanalian lifestyle, this is extraordinary.
Oscar's well-publicised witticisms sometimes displayed a carefree slovenly attitude that would have greatly upset society's religious and moral guardians. For example,

"I can resist everything except temptation"
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes"
"Morality is simply an attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike"
"Some people say there is a God: others say there is no God. The truth probably lies somewhere in between."

Yet I believe that these sayings were said 'tongue in cheek' and represented a witty send up of the stated values of Victorian Britain.
For there is a intrinsic sense of goodness and an inherent moral message in many of his most important writings that I have enjoyed and have even inspired me. This is particularly true of Oscar's wonderful children's stories such as 'The Nightingale & the Rose'. But it is there also in his adult writings such as 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'.

Oscar was one of the greatest writers ever to come out of Ireland, who oftentimes portrayed a perceptive and critical attitude towards the Imperial establishment of Victorian Britain that would have warmed the heart of many an Irish republican. Yes, he enjoyed the luxuries and follies of the London rich elite. But his stories and sayings more often than not portrayed a man with a strong humanitarian streak and an awareness of the injustices permeating society.
He also had a fascination with the Catholic Church which would have been judged reprenhensible by the 19th century British elite.

Christmas 2006 in Galway- Salthill under Water

December 31st 2006
Violent storms sweep Ireland.
The coastal seaside resort of Salthill in Galway City experiences severe flooding.

Isn't time that the Irish and Galway authorities wake up to the reality of climate change and place a moratorium on all building and associated development along our floodplains and seashores?
What is going on in Oranmore and is planned for Roscam sadly says otherwise.

Christmas 2006 in Galway-Mayor Brings Seasonal Goodwill to Asylum Seekers Community

Christmas is not a good time to be separated from family and loved ones. Especially if that separation is due to war, famine or poverty.
So as someone involved in working with asylum seekers on a weekly basis (through my computer Internet Outreach classes) Christmas, I and other support agencies personnel decided to help organise something really special for the residents of the Eglinton Hotel Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centre.
Through the in-house residents' support committee, we planned an exciting fun-packed party that took place the week before Christmas.
It went like clockwork thanks particularly to the hardwork of Karen Winner (a professional clown!), Maeve & Adrienne from the Health Board, my two ever-reliable Iraqi friends Adil & Huda and to the Mayor of Galway City.
There were hundreds of gift- wrapped presents for all the young people (from the newly born to the older teenagers); lashings of food and drink; colourful wall/ceiling decorations; seasonal music playing in all the public rooms; a films show; face -paintinf for the children, the performing antics of the Snow Queen (Karen Winner) and her troupe of gorgeous female fairies; a Christmas Tree at reception decorated by the younger residents; a children's choir; and a foot-stomping discotheque for all ages. Dozens of residents dressed up in exotic native costume or appeared brilliantly disguised as fairies, elves and clowns (including myself!).
But the occasion was really topped off by the arrival of the Mayor of Galway City in the guise of Santa Claus!! Mayor Niall O Brolchain arrived in his chauffeur-drive limousine in the red clothes and white beard looking every inch 'Father Christmas'. (He agreed to my request to take on the role!). He was formally received in the foyer by the Children's Choir and up to 200 happy hand-clapping residents.
He was then escorted to the playroom to take his position in a specially constructed huge grotto where he stayed for 2 hours giving out advice and toys to each and everyone of the 80 or so young residents of the Eglinton.
The event was photographed by Eglinton employee Lubomir Hrivnik for the benefit of all the families who experienced this wonderful occasion.

Christmas Day 2006 in Galway- Homelife!

One of the great things about Irish primary schools today is that teachers encourage pupils to create their own greetings cards for each of the traditional annual religious or national festivals such as Easter, St. Patrick's Day and of course Christmas.

The two samples shown were part of the wonderful Christmas card specially made by my son Daire in class for the benefit of Cepta and yours truely which he gave us in the lead up to Christmas.

I love artistic hand-made cards rather than the impersonal mass-produced or computer-designed ones. For they can oftentimes capture the personality and spiritual essence of the sender.



December 22, 2006- Last Day In School!!

Last day in school before the Christmas vacation
My young son Dáire with Helen, the school 'lollipop lady' beside the traffic lights on the Headford Road/Tirellan intersection.

The lights were only just installed as a result of a 5 year long campaign that I had initiated as part of an attempt to return the streets of the Galway to pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchair and buggy users.



Christmas Eve: Preparing Santa's Food & Drink Dáire preparing the food and drink for Santa's visit.
He leaves milk for Santa and a carrot for each of his accompanying reindeers. To avoid confusion, Dáire placed the name of each individual reindeer ('Donner', 'Blitzen', 'Comet'...)above the appropiate piece of carrot!

The FireplaceProbably a bit over-decorated!

Christmas Morning- Dáire's Christmas Presents
Placed at the base of the Christmas Tree, by Santa of course!!

Christmas time in Galway- Santa Claus & Christians in Iraq

A snapshot of Galway during Christmas time would not be complete without making reference to the oldest church in the city which is dedicated to St. Nicholas or 'Santa Claus' as he is affectionally known today.
It is an imposing medieval structure that dates from 1320. Like many churches located the seaports of medieval Europe it was named after St. Nicholas, the patron saints of sailors.
According to legend, Christopher Columbus visited the church in 1477. This is not as far-fetched as it might seem as the city had a long maritime trade link with Spain.
Walking around the church, I came across this Celtic Cross memorial dedicated to Galwegians killed fighting in the British military during 1916. A wreath had recently been laid at its base.
This is not unusual as St. Nicholas was a Protestant Church of the ruling establishment and served as a garrison church of the local British Army regiment- the Connaught Rangers. Hence its interior is festooned with battle banners and memorials from the colonial wars of the British Empire.
On closer inspection, I noticed that one name in the roll of honour was that of an Edward Berry son of the local parish rector who was killed in a place called 'Bait Aiesa' in Mesopotamia. The latter is known now as Iraq with the Arabic placename of 'Bait Aiesa' meaning the 'town of Jesus' in English .
At that very moment, I conjurred up in my mind the image of St. Nicholas and the colour 'red' . But not the red of Santa's clothing; rather the colour of blood and associations with enslaved women, religious wars, intolerant fundamentalism and today's conflict in the Middle East.
Why?

Shock!-Santa was born in the hot climate of Turkey, not the frozen Arctic!
The original St. Nicholas was a Christian living in the Greco-Roman city of Myra in what is now Turkey which was, until the 12th century, the heartland of world Christianity. The Muslim Turks only settled in these lands that now bear their name after 1071 when they defeated the Eastern Roman Greek-speaking Empire known as Byzantium.
Nicholas was a kindly man who carried out many charitable acts. According to one famous story, he secretively delivered 3 bags of coin to a poor father that allowed him to provide marriage dowries for his three daughters thus saving them from a life of as prostitution in the city's brothels. Shades of today's enforced slavery of poverty-stricken women primarily from Eastern Europe in the brothels of France, Italy, Germany, Britain etc which to me is one of the greatest crimes of the 21st century and a stain on the hearts of the continent's political leaders.

St. Nicholas' Body Stolen by Christian Pirates
After his death, he was honoured as a saint and his tomb became a famous shrine with a repuation for miraculous cures. But as the Byzantine lands fell to the Turkish invaders in the late 11th century, Italian piractical sailors attacked Myra and stole the saint's bones. They brought the relics to the church in their home port of Norman-controlled Bari allowing the latter to reap the economic benefits of being an imporant centre of Christian pilgrimage. These were the same Normans whose invasion of Celtic Ireland a hundred years later was sanctioned by the Pope and who later founded the city of Galway.

The Death of Christian Communities in Iraq & in the Middle East
Interestingly it was the Turkish invasion of Byzantium that led to the birth of the Crusades when Christians from Western Europe set out on their blood-drench march to liberate Jerusalem from the 'infidel'. As with Israel and Iraq today, there was a temporary Western victory and occupation. But the arrogant Westerners never won the hearts and minds of the local inhabitatants and, within a few years, they were on the defensive. Their greatest protagonist was 'Saledin' born in what is now present-day Iraq and a historical hero of Saddam Hussein.
Unfortunately, the long term legacy from the Crusades was a dramatic reduction in the native Christians populations of the Middle and Near East who suffered increased persecutions from Muslims that associated them with the European invaders purely because of their religion. Sadly this mirrors what is happening today in Palestine and Iraq thanks to the disasterous belligerent policies of Bush and Blair. There is now, particularly in the case of Iraq, a mass exodus of Christian communities that have existed since the dawn of Christianity as they become the targets of Islamic fundamentalists. It is hard to believe that Iraq was once a vibrant centre of Christian religion from where missionaries ventured further east to spead the gospel. Today all this heritage is under threat. Bush talks much of changing the face of the Middle East. His madcap imperialist adventure may indeed do so for we are now witnessing the disappearance from the region of a religion that survived persecution for nearly two thousand years.

Christmas 2006 in Galway, - A Walk along the Monivea Bog

Cepta, my wife, surveying her bog lands which as you can see from the photographs in this article, have an intrensic natural beauty.
Our family own some small agricultural lands near the village of Monivea in east Galway as a result of an inheritance that my wife Cepta received in 2006.
Like much of rural Ireland, agriculture here is in serious decline with the small family homestead nearly a thing of the past. Young farmers are a rare phenomena. Most of the people still farming today are of the older generation. Farmers such as our neighbour Jimmy Flaherty photographed here with Cepta.
Jimmy still retains a vibrant active farm which can boast of a bull, a big herd of cows, a fine flock of sheep... (see my previous articles on this subject indluding 'Down on Jimmy's Farm' at http://brenspeedie.blogspot.com/2006/03/down-on-jimmys-farm-co.html)

But Jimmy is very much the exception. For the biggest cash crop today is the selling of land for the construction of houses. Hence, there is a danger that the countryside will soon be urbanised by networks of unsustainable housing development.

It is now critical therefore that governments encourage rural Ireland to undergo a massive transformation and switch to the production of bio-fuel crops, forestry and organic foods. While fossil fuels are the main culprit in world climate change, oil anyway will soon reach its peak due to growing demands from China and India. Bio-fuels such as ethanol could provide one sustainable energy alternative. Likewise there will, over the next few decades, probably be a shift towards sourcing food locally as the cost of transport will rise significantly. With the cost of chemical fertilisers and the damage they cause to the environment also becoming unacceptable, organic foodstuffs will become more economically attractive.

Protecting Our Natural Heritage
Likewise the importance of designating large chunks of the countryside as protected natural habitats is vital. Too much of our natural forests, rivers, bogs and wetlands have been destroyed by mankind's selfish actions. Now this greed is coming back to haunt us as a result of warming temperatures, rising sea levels and deforestation.
Photo of a bog pond


Badger Sett
Photo: Entrances to a Badger sett, Monivea Bog
There should be future now for paying some farmers to metamorphise into 'guardians of the natural countryside'. Not only in order to regenerate habitats and bring back the wildlife, but to allow urban dwellers to enjoy the beauty of Nature.
The Bog at Currantarmuid (Irish = lands of the church or monastery) contains an abundance of wildlife including the fox, the pine marten and the badger, Ireland's largest wild carnivore.
Unlike some farmers, Jimmy Flaherty doesn't view the badgers as a major source of bovine TB.

Flowers in Full Bloom at Christmas time!
But the signs of warming temperatures are becoming more and more apparent.
This year once again, we had no snow but weeks of storms and constant rainfall.
The weather is now so mild that plants are budding early as the photo of this Fuchsia taken during Christmas week amply illustrates.