Humming The Auld Triangle as sun shines on Dublin's hosts

There had been much talk over the last few days about Ireland hosting EU and European leaders in Dublin on Thursday and Friday. Every day we were told it was the biggest security operation in the state. Fortunately all went to plan.

The Irish Times journalist Frank McNally wrote an engaging piece in yesterday's paper; a lovely read; it puts the reader in touch with the capital city with a touch of humour and he doesn't forget that Ireland was once the land of saints and scholars.

Not only was it the biggest security operation in the history of the State: for Micheál Martin, just welcoming so many foreign politicians to Dublin may also have been the greatest diplomatic challenge of the Taoiseach’s career.

Even before the work began, he had to greet 50 world leaders individually, exuding warmth while also respecting cultural and personal differences, and above all bearing in mind that – as a now infamous video told us – not everyone wants a hug.

Luckily, his repertoire of welcomes was extensive. In the case of the Icelandic prime minister, for example, and despite her chilly-sounding name – Kristún Frostadóttir – he opted for the continental-style kiss on both cheeks.

But a minute later, when Liechtenstein’s PM Brigitte Hass arrived, there were no kisses – just a double hand clasp and lean-in, no less warm.

With Mark Carney, it was a businesslike, single handshake. And manual contact apart, perhaps surprisingly with a man who came to Dublin bearing the message that Canada was “moving closer to Europe”, there was clear daylight between the Canadian prime minister and Martin at all times.

Then there was Emmanuel Macron, who obviously hadn’t seen the online video campaign. He initiated a robust, two-arm hug with full chest contact, warmly reciprocated, and added an Irish-style slap on the back for the man he would later refer to as “Le Taoiseach”.

The French president had breezed into the Convention Centre Dublin like he owned the place, pausing to point photogenically at the Triskel logo of the latest European Political Community gathering and say “C’est ca!” (“That’s it!”)

This was a way of reminding us that the EPC was his initiative, established in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and now nine meetings old.

By contrast with Macron, the day’s guest of honour, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, looked a little tense on arrival, as well the Ukrainian president might. But Martin greeted him with a warm double-handshake, and supportive pats on the arm.

In his opening remarks to the world’s media, the Taoiseach spoke softly. But whether he also a carried a big stick was the subtext of several subsequent questions.

One reporter wanted to know whether 50 leaders could realistically speak with one voice to Russia. Another asked whether the event was not just a very expensive “talking shop”. There were quite a few big sticks on show, as it happened, but of the kind held by broadcast journalists, and all had microphones attached to them.

Lock-in

For the hundreds of media, Irish and foreign, the day began in Croke Park, where via a tunnel under the Hogan Stand they underwent airport-type security, and then boarded special buses to the Convention Centre, in which they would remain for the duration of the event.

It wasn’t quite a case of tunnelling into prison. But as it dawned on some of the day visitors that they might not see Dublin before flying out again last night, they were not all happy.

The bus route took us past the birthplace of Brendan Behan who, before he became a famous writer, was a famous security threat, serving prison terms on both sides of the Irish Sea for militant activities.

In passing, some of his rebellious spirit seemed to have infected the bus. “I’m not accepting that,” a Canadian journalist told his companion, after learning of the lock-in. “We’ve gotta break out at some point.”

In fact, journalists could leave the Convention Centre at any point, although a garda had to escort you out of the “sterile zone” (where the only life forms without security clearance were a few worried-looking seagulls, wondering where all the chip-eating tourists had gone).

But once out, the only way back in was via another trip to Croke Park. So most of the media opted to remain inside – even if, by mid-afternoon, some of us were mentally joining Behan on a chorus of The Auld Triangle.

The event’s multilingualism caused some problems too – and not over the Irish that the Taoiseach broke into at one point in answer to one of the local reporters. That was respectfully heard out by the visitors.

When Carney addressed his fellow Canadians in English and French, however, and didn’t always cover the same points in both, it led to tensions – at least when he spoke about Ukraine in French, then moved onto another subject, and didn’t backtrack.

Soundbite

“Ukraine in English!” an anglophone Canadian pleaded in vain repeatedly at the end as the prime minister, who hadn’t heard him, strode off. Bereft of the soundbite he needed on the story of the day, the reporter muttered to a colleague: “We’re f***ed.”

Even those who were reliving The Auld Triangle, meanwhile, could not complain about a hungry feelin’, thanks to the all-day catering operation. As well as the usual 100,000 welcomes being afforded to visitors, the organisers say they will serve “35,000 hot, sit-down meals” during the summit to political staff, press, police, and others.

The best food, however, was being reserved for such events as last night’s leaders’ dinner in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Gallery tour

Guests there were first promised a tour of the gallery by director Caroline Campbell, before sitting down in the Shaw Room to a banquet of wild Cork salmon, dry-aged Wicklow beef, and other delights. Liquid refreshment included a Réserve de Léoville Barton 2019: one of the labels famously founded by Ireland’s “Wine Geese” in France.

The biggest painting looking down on them throughout was Daniel Maclise’s huge allegorical canvas, The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife, depicting a high-security summit of 1170 that also involved overseas visitors.

That one didn’t end so well, as the slain Gaelic chieftains and broken-stringed harp at the bottom of the picture hint.

Omens for the latest summit are more positive, so far anyway.

Among the other landmarks passed on the route between Croke Park and the convention centre was the church and national school of St Laurence O’Toole in Sheriff Street.

The former Archbishop of Dublin (1128-1180) is known in France as “Laurent d’Eu” – not because he’s the patron saint of the European Union, but because he died at a place called Eu in Normandy.

He was said to have been associated with so many miracles soon afterwards that he was fast-tracked to canonisation only 45 years later.

But Laurent d’Eu seems doubly apt this week. His feast-day falls tomorrow, and a continuing association with apparently miraculous events may by then include having ensured unbroken sunshine for a two-day summit Dublin in mid-November.

Yesterday’s events took place under a sky of unbroken European blue. Today’s forecast is for the same.

The price of oil and the profits the oil companies are making

In a 12-month period the price of heating oil has increased by over 70 per cent in Ireland.

In the past quarter BP's adjusted profit nearly quadrupled year on year to $8.5bn.

It looks simple.

Shame on Irish media's coverage of Leo in South America

The link below is to an article in the Guardian on his stinging delivery to Milei’s austerity measures during Argentina visit.

Where has the Irish media been on the pope's visit to South America? It's the perfect example of how they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater.

The Irish Times can write out-of-date reports about non-newsworthy stories and goes mum on reporting the words of one of the world's great leaders during his visit to South America. 

Pope Leo had no problem speaking his mind in supporting the people of Argentina when speaking to President Javier Milei.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/nov/09/pope-leo-argentina-visit-speech-javier-milei-austerity?CMP=share_btn_url

With winter here be safe, kind and respectful on our roads

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michale Commane

Is there a violence/toxicity out there that is new or has there always been anger on the streets?

Anyone who drives car, truck, motorbike, cycles a bicycle or an e-scooter must be aware of a frightening anger in most people’s heads and hearts; but there is also a wonderful goodness and kindness out there too.

Last Wednesday I was cycling along a road with cars parked on both sides. The road is too narrow to have parking on both sides. There are apartment blocks along the road; obviously poor planning that necessitates too much parking on the public road.

When cycling I stay a good metre away from the footpath, I’ve been advised to do that by safety experts. It makes complete sense. And it is something all cyclists should do. 

Last week schools were back open, it was 8am, rush hour, traffic was heavy. I could hear a car behind me; I knew from the sound of it that it wanted me to get off the road. I also knew that I was cycling my bicycle in a correct and safe manner. 

It was clear from the sound of the car that the driver expected me to move in. When the opportunity arose for the car to pass, all I could see and hear was the window of a big car open and a man shout obscene expletives at me. And did he scream at me. Fortunately I kept my cool, continued to cycle and said nothing. But I can tell you I was shaken. What must that man’s behaviour be at home or at work? 

Two days later, on the same road at the same time, I sense there is a car behind me, but on this occasion I didn’t feel threatened. I can see it in my mirror. We get to the traffic lights. A woman is driving, I knock at the window, she looks concerned, opens the window with a quizzical look on her face. I thank her for her careful driving; immediately her face lights up and what a smile I get. 

Before the light changes to green I get a chance to tell her what happened me earlier in the week. The empathy and joy we shared with each other at that moment was better than winning the Lotto. I cycled off with a smile on my face and since then have told many people about the two incidents. Maybe the woman too mentioned it to her family or friends. 

Somehow or other I can imagine the man in the big car stayed mum about it. He probably has no problem criticising cyclists for their bad behaviour on the roads. Perhaps I should not say that as I know nothing about him, maybe he was simply having a bad moment when that happened and he vented his anger on me. 

We never know what’s going in the head of another person. That’s why it’s so important always to try to treat the other person with kindness and respect. I find myself something of a hypocrite in saying that as I don’t always behave in such a manner.

Please, with winter here, don’t just be safe on our roads, be kind and respectful too.

Being glum does not make you morally superior

Below is Joe Humphreys column in The Irish Times yesterday; it makes for an interesting read.  It is parallel suggesting people can look holy. How often have we heard people say 'he/she is a holy person' because of the way they look. Looking holy doesn't make you holy, Indeed, what does it mean to say someone looks 'holy'? It's a nonsense.

There’s probably nothing more valuable to a human life than being joyful

When I was young and pretentious (or more pretentious than now), I used to think glumness was a mark of virtue. If friends were guffawing at a boorish joke I’d affect a cool stance of moral superiority. If people were getting carried away over a match I’d mutter something supercilious about sport being opium for the masses.

Chin-stroking, humourless detachment was the right sort of posture to adopt when faced with popular entertainment. So I had been taught by fashionable intellectuals like Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and above all Noam Chomsky, that high priest of anti-establishmentarianism who would have us believe that shows like The Great British Bake Off are designed to distract us from the evils of the military-industrial complex.

Happiness, I’d been conditioned to accept, was a hallmark of selfish, shallow, capitalistic individuals. It took me a while to realise I’d got it all wrong. There’s probably nothing more important, or more valuable, to a human life than being joyful. But I’ll come to that in a minute. First, I must ask: why are moral philosophers overwhelmingly snooty about happiness?

The ancient Stoics told us to greet pleasure with a shrug and a casual “meh!” For misery guts John Stuart Mill, it was “better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied”. As for Nietzsche, he proclaimed (in the worst put-down he could imagine): “Man does not aspire to happiness; only the Englishman does that.”

More recently, American philosopher Robert Nozick designed a thought-experiment pooh-poohing happiness. Imagine, he said, you could be in a constant state of bliss for the rest of your life but it would mean plugging yourself into a machine from which you couldn’t then escape. Would you opt in?

Most people instinctively say “No”, and this is cited as proof that there are better things in life than happiness – like freedom, authenticity and good works.

Crucially

What Nozick and these other philosophers are really talking about, however, is physical pleasure – and that’s only one type of happiness. Crucially, Aristotle spoke of another type of happiness called eudaimonia. This is something like wellbeing or flourishing but with a moral dimension.

Eudaimonia comes from living a good life – a life of truthfulness, courage and humility. It’s a higher form of happiness – one associated with Socrates during his last hours as he waited to succumb to poison after being sentenced to death. Scolding his friends for weeping over his condition, Socrates used his last breath to make a joke about a sacrifice to the gods.

It’s this sort of happiness Albert Camus had in mind when he spoke in defence of joy in the wake of the second World War. “Today happiness is like a crime – never admit it. Don’t say ‘I’m happy’ otherwise you will hear condemnation all around,” the French-Algerian philosopher said.

He was troubled by political actors who “prefer their principles over their happiness” – here he was thinking of left-wing intellectuals drawn to Soviet authoritarianism. Far from being a sin, happiness was something like a moral duty, according to Camus. Why fight for freedom – like he did in the French resistance against Nazi Germany – unless you were going to take your happiness seriously?

His message resonates today at a time of doomscrolling and disillusionment with politics. A burst of merriment can shake us out of political apathy. Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina made the point in an interview with Lara Marlowe earlier this year, proclaiming that protest must be “desperate, sudden and joyous ” (my emphasis). Despots like Russia’s Vladimir Putin know how to deal with fear, but they have no answer to happiness.

The political power of “defiant joy” has also been highlighted by U2’s Bono. Speaking to The New York Times last month, he described how the band’s latest album was inspired by something the American gay rights activist Dan Savage said about campaigning in the 1980s: “During the darkest days of the Aids crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night . . . because it was the dance we were fighting for.” We need that spirit today, said Bono, a spirit of “not surrendering to the melancholy”.

So don’t be afraid of happiness, I say. It doesn’t make you a better person to be glum.

Imagine a god who would wish you to be miserable just so you could be good. What kind of monster would that be? Imagine a life of rigid adherence to moral law at the expense of personal satisfaction? It is unconscionable.

Returning to the question of where happiness stands in the hierarchy of values, could it be that the very point of our existence is eudaimonia? Aristotle believed so, and Camus edged towards the same conclusion.

In his most famous essay, he presents the human condition as that of Sisyphus – a king from Greek mythology who was punished for trying to outsmart the gods. Day after day, Sisyphus pushes a boulder up a hill which rolls back down again, forcing him to continue the struggle indefinitely.

Sisyphus is you. The toil is life. What’s the point in living?

In the Myth of Sisyphus, Camus is tempted to answer: there is no point; there is no reason for us to be here. But he corrects himself. The life of Sisyphus has meaning. And, crucially, that meaning becomes apparent not by imagining Sisyphus to be good. Rather, “one must imagine Sisyphus happy”.

'It's always the small people who change things'

On this day, November 9, 1989 the people of East Berlin crossed into West Berlin at the Bornholmer Straße border crossing and so ended the wall that had  divided Berlin since August 13, 1961.

In January 1989 the GDR's boss, Erich Honecker said: "The Wall will still exist in fifty and even one hundred years, if the reasons for its existence have not been removed." 

Wise words from French film director, Luc Besson:

It's always the small people who change things. It's never the politicians or the big guys. I mean, who pulled down the Berlin wall? It was all the people in the streets. The specialists didn't have a clue the day before.

November is when the poppy is standard dress accessory

Last evening a post for today was written. Was it hacked? It was a lengthy piece about the history of the wearing of the poppy.

Apologies for this today.

It did conclude pointing out that former RTÉ journalist Caitríona Perry, who now works for BBC News, does not seem to be wearing the poppy these days when it would appear everyone on all UK television stations is wearing one.

November days 7 and 9 either days of hope or disaster

On this date in 1918 Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm  abdicated after the German revolution and Germany was proclaimed a republic.

Five years later on the same date police and government troops in Munich broke up the Nazi Beer Hall putsch.

And then on November 7, 1938 the Nazis unleashed the violence of Kristallnacht across Germany.

Four years later to the day the German Sixth Army under the leadership of Friedrich Paulus reached the River Volga at Stalingrad, capturing 90 per cent of the city they had pummelled since August.

The Germans had expected to take the city in two weeks. And even in spite of their splitting the demoralised and broken Soviet Army, that same army routed the invader from their city three months later; the beginning of the end for the Germans.

Not quite November 7 but two days later, November 9, 1989 it looked as if we were about to enter a new world oder; the barrier between East and West Berlin was raised at the Bornholmer Straße as crowds stormed the crossing after Günter Schabowski announced that GDR citizens could cross to West Berlin and this with immediate effect.

The fall of the Wall gave the world new hope, a hope that's now a pip dream.

What next? Are we racing towards war?

Oliver Callan tells the world sleep is overrated

The quality of RTÉ Radio seems to deteriorate every day. Some nonsense, silly talk, poor grammar, tedious material; one might ask who the target audience is.

Yesterday Oliver Callan made a profound comment that even RTÉ is surely going to wonder what the man meant.

Callan glibly  said: 'Sleep is overrated'.  Is life, air, birth, death overrated? What exactly did the man mean?

Medical science clearly states that sleep is a fundamental biological necessity.

What would Callan have to say to people who have suffered sleep deprivation across the world's cruel jails?

It's a regular method used in dictatorships; the Nazis used it, as did their successors in the former GDR.

Callan should someday, maybe on a weekend trip to Berlin, visit Hohenschönhausen, the former Stasi prison and expound his views to the tour guides on how sleep is overrated. Their faces will drop.

Will anyone in RTÉ announce that Callan was inaccurate in his comment, will his line manager correct him? He was also being cruel and insulting to those who suffer and have suffered sleep deprivation.

 

US Senator singing from the same hymn sheet as St Luke

Quote below from Democrat James Talarico having been elected to represent Texas in the US Senate:

'This win is for every underdog who's been counted out and left behind.'

Might he have been aware of the Gospel reading for today, which includes this sentiment: 'What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it?' (Luke 15:4)

Halloween is another example in how we waste our money

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Apologies for the late publication today.

Michael Commane

You would want to be living on another planet not to know prices are rising by the day across all sectors of society.

With the advent of winter the price of oil, gas and electricity is the hottest of topics. 

Today a kWh of electricity costs approximately 36 cent, a short five years ago a unit of electricity cost 24 cent . Has your wage/salary risen by 64 per cent over the last five years? I doubt it, that is, unless you belong to the mega rich.

What’s to be done? Protest, revolt, change government? For me it’s democracy.

I’ve touched on this subject before but the more I see and experience waste in our society, the more I want to scream, STOP.

We live in a throw-away society there are no words accurate enough to explain what is going on. And it is everywhere; it’s in hospitals, the churches, across the civil service, in the legal profession, everywhere, and each one of us, individually, is also responsible for shocking waste.

In the last 12 months I have taken a flatscreen television and a reading lamp from a recycling facility; both in perfect working order. There is seldom a day I call there that I don’t pick up something of worth.

In my 59 years in the Dominican Order I have seen across the churches unbelievable waste of resources, indeed, unimaginable. At a whim, a priest decides to make changes to a church, priory or presbytery. I have seen bad shoddy jobs done, costing a fortune. 

We have all heard of the €50 million Irish Rail has wasted on a failed signalling project.

The food that’s wasted in hospitals, schools, everywhere.

And each one of us can make a difference and see to it that we help stop this madness.

The Halloween binge is over. It is simply a terrible excuse for profligate waste. How can we complain about the price of everything and then spend hard-earned money on buying utter rubbish, indeed, some of it dangerous?

On Halloween night Dublin Fire Brigade dealt with 1,620 calls. What a waste of money.

I well know a child cannot feel the odd person out but it is our responsibility that money is not wasted on plastic rubbish that will take thousands of years to breakdown. It’s driven by parents and business who want to outdo their neighbour with even more bizarre and idiotic junk, and make money too. 

Last week I saw a plastic headstone with RIP written on it outside a home, what does that mean to a six-year-old child? And it’s a nonsense that straddles all classes.

Think of our food waste, the time we spend under the shower. Do you really need to drive your car everywhere you go? Think of the clothes we waste.

Check your electricity smart meter, make it your business to reduce the number of units you use.

We have got far too accustomed to waste, it’s a mindset with us now and we need to change it, not tomorrow, but today.

Wise words from Pope Francis: ‘Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry’.

Guess what, approximately 2.3 billion people lack regular access to adequate food.

Cut down on waste, start today.