Dip in salary for new Kerry Group supremo

Kerry Group chief executive officer Edmond Scanlon received close to €2.6 million salary for his first year in the job.

His predecessor Stan McCarthy earned €5.285 from the group in 2017.

Kerry shares edge towards €100. They were quoted on Friday's Iseq at €99.5 a share.

In the late 1980s Kerry Group shares were approximately IR£1.

Many stories and aspects to the Prodigal Son

The 'Thinking Anew' column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

Tomorrow’s Gospel, the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 1 - 3, 11 - 32) has an extraordinary amount of wisdom and good advice packed into it. Indeed, the more you read the Bible, both Old and New Testament, the more you realise how relevant its words are for contemporary times.

When we first read the story of the Prodigal Son we are charmed by how the wayward young man, after his years of wine, women and song, is welcomed back into his father’s arms. The story is so well told you can actually see his father’s jubilant excitement greeting his son as he makes his way home.

Instinctively we admire his dad. Our hearts go out to him for his spontaneous generosity in forgiving his errant son. If only more of us could find the heart and the courage to behave in such a manner.

In many ways it’s the perfect fairy tale to read to children.

But then you realise that the parable has deeper layers of meaning. 

Did the prodigal son only return home because he had nowhere else to go? Did he cynically decide it was time to go home and enjoy his father’s wealth once more?  Perhaps he had no alternative but to come home, that is, if he wanted to save his own skin. Now the viewpoint changes and we see a clever opportunist and manipulative young man. Maybe not a nice person, after all.

And then there’s the dutiful stick-in-the-mud older son, who has spent his life doing all that has been asked of him. Doesn’t he have a right to be annoyed when he sees his father giving all his attention to his younger brother and forgetting about his years of loyal service.

Worse still, the fatted calf, which the older brother had reared, is now to be hijacked and used for the feast to celebrate the homecoming of his wayward brother.

Do we react like this in the 21st century? For example, we say we “allow” foreigners into our country, and no sooner have they landed at the airport, they are off to the nearest social welfare office to draw the dole. We have been working hard all our lives, paying our taxes and these foreigners arrive and the fatted calf is wheeled out for them.

And on and on it goes. Tomorrow’s Gospel provides a multi-layered insight into the lives we live in the developed world today.

Of course, we can get sentimental and talk about how wonderful the father is to forgive his son. But shouldn’t we also ask ourselves how can we go on living in a world that allows one seventh of the population to starve, where the few have vast resources.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a clarion call to all of us to realise that we have cliched the message of Jesus out of existence, that we run a real risk of turning it into a cosy fireside tale, keeping us all content and smug in our ways.

It suits us all, church and state, me too, to praise the wonderful and forgiving father. But there is so much more to it, indeed, so much that it hurts.

Reading tomorrow’s Gospel it's difficult to understand how some adherents to the Christian faith can be so smug. How can Christianity appeal in any way to people with far-right leanings? And yet the church attracts many such adherents, some of whom have yet to accept the true meaning of love, respect and humility. 

When critics presume to ‘correct’ Pope Francis and accuse him of contradicting himself and preaching ‘heresy’, are they really trying to make our faith, our religion into a “comfort blanket” of simple pious answers?

It's always dangerous to hijack one specific element of God’s message at the expense of the overall picture. God's love, kindness and mercy is infinite. Once we try to find comfort in any one aspect of God’s message at the expense of another, we risk losing the very meaning of God's perfect goodness.

This parable puts paid to the mushy sentimental ideas we have about forgiveness. Forgiveness makes demands of us which we – the faithful – may not ignore.

Yes, the parable of the Prodigal Son is a delightful story but it is also a challenging reminder to us of the importance of embracing all the many aspects of our relationship with God.

Referendums

On this day, March 29, 1936 Germany held a referendum on militarisation and return of the Rhineland.

Ninety nine per cent voted in favour of the proposals. 

Today Germany avoids referendums like the plague.

Referendums can do great damage.

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Chasing rainbows

Chasing what can't be done is a madness. But the base person is unable to do anything else.

- Marcus Aurelius 

A community and not a corridor

This poster is appearing on properties all along Rathgar Road.

It's a clever headline.

There is growing opposition to the building of a bus corridor along the road that links Rathgar to Rathmines.

The far-right whip up a nasty style of nationalism

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

It was good for our souls to hear the kind and empathetic words from New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern after the brutal murder of 50 people praying in two mosques in Christchurch.

She is a beacon in the midst of so much darkness and evil. It’s worth comparing her gentle and kind words with the bombast we hear and see every day on radio and television.

Last week I tuned into the Nigel Farage Show on LBC, which is a London-based national phone-in and talk radio station.

His modus operandi is anything but mannerly and respectful. He sneers at those who think differently than he. It’s non-stop denigration of everything to do with the European Union. 

He manages to whip up a nasty style of nationalism that is very worrying. He harps on on every occasion he gets to tell his listeners that Angela Merkel is the ruler of Europe. 

All the time the innuendo is that mighty Britain twice defeated the Germans and under no circumstances are they now going to surrender to Germany.

It is all shocking and nasty, worrying too.

He also has a trick of calling his opponents by their family names. It’s always Juncker and Tusk. 

Although he is no friend of the prime minister of the UK, nevertheless he refers to her as Mrs Theresa May.

In the United States Patriot Radio, based in Phoenix Arizona, blares out nastiness on a daily basis. 

Presenter Mark Levin has a listenership running into the millions. Every day he hurls abuse at those with whom he disagrees. He is an avid Trump supporter.

He calls people by the nastiest names and comments on the physical appearance of those who have different political views than he.

In mid-March after Democrat Beto O’Rourke announced his candidacy for the Democrat ticket for the 2020 US presidential race, Levin called him Beto O’Dork.

Over St Patrick’s weekend I watched ‘Get me Roger Stone’ on Netflix. The documentary tells the story of Roger Stone and his role in the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

Roger Stone is a household name in the US. As a young man he worked on Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign.

In January this year he was arrested at his home in Florida by the FBI in connection with the Robert Mueller investigation and charged in an indictment with witness tampering.

The film footage includes clips of Stone speaking foul language and using obscene gestures.

Stone’s mantra is: ‘Attack, attack, attack, never defend’, and: ‘Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack’.

Maybe it is because I am opposed to the right-wing philosophy of the Nigel Farages and Roger Stones of this world that I find their tone and manner most unbecoming. But surely it is abundantly clear that they and their followers are becoming exceedingly vulgar and nasty.

Last week a Conservative Brexiter, who came across to me as arrogant and so full of his own imperial importance, was talking to the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg. He referred to what Conservative Remainers were doing as ‘political idiocy’. When Kuenssberg challenged him and asked him if he was saying that his fellow Conservatives were idiots he immediately toned down his imperial manner, realising his mask had slipped.

Jacinda Ardern’s decision never to utter the name of the alleged Christchurch murderer is a fine and noble way to treat such barbarity.

It is regularly bandied about that politics is a dirty game but can or should it really be as ‘dirty’ as it has become?

The first day of the European Economic Council

On this day, March 25, 1957 the European Economic Council was formed, now called the European Union (EU).

The then EEC was brought about to heal the wounds of war and foster a relationship of friendship and cooperation between the participating countries.

The founding countries were Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands.

Britain, Denmark and Ireland joined on January 1, 1973.

And now the United Kingdom is in the throes of confusion as it prepares to leave the EU.

Has imperial England ever left a country without leaving it impoverished and badly damaged?

Another Pell letter

A reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, asked that this letter be published. It appeaerd in The Tablet in the same issue as the previous letter on the Pell case.

Anniversary of murder of Óscar Romero

Today is the anniversary of the murder of Archbishop Óscar Romero.

The Archbishop of San Salvador was shot dead while celebrating Mass in the cathedral in San Salvador on March 24, 1980.

'What abusers are like'

Interesting letter in The Tablet of last week.

Ken Clarke blames the far-right and far-left for the mess

Tory MP Ken Clarke in a BBC interview on Thursday evening said that his country is in the mess it is in because of both the far-right and the far-left.

Ken Clarke served as a government minister during all 18 years of the Thatcher anf Major governments.

He is currently the Father of the House of Commons.

His comment about the damage caused by both far-right and far-left is interesting.

There is little or no far-left influence within the churches. But there is a strong far-right cohort, which is causing great damage and harm across the Christian churches. 

It would seem that a US-style hard conservatism is currently influencing the Irish Catholic Church.

The story in The Irish Times yesterday of New York priest Fr George Rutler makes for interesting reading.

And then the RTE documentary on Thursday claiming that Fr Patrick Peyton was in the pay of the CIA.

Best retreat is in here not out there

An intersting quote from Marcus Aurelius.

What does it say about all our modern jumping on and off planes, visiting this and looking at that?

“People seek retreats for themselves in the country, by the sea, or in the mountains. You are very much in the habit of yearning for those same things. But this is entirely the trait of a base person, when you can at any moment find such a retreat in yourself. For nowhere can you find a more peaceful and less busy place than in your own soul - especially if on close inspection it is filled with ease, which I say is nothing more than being well-ordered. Treat yourself often to this retreat and be renewed."

Where the State's children go to school

There are almost 560,000 pupils enrolled in primary schools in the State.

Some 90 per cent or approximately 505,00 pupils are enrolled in Catholic schools and enrollment in these schools is continuing to grow.

Church of Ireland schools had enrollments of 16,514, representing three per cent of all pupils.

Enrollment in multidenomintional schools was 32,000, accounting for six per cent of the pupil population.

What's heard and seen in public places

Overheard - an elderly man saying this. He first heard it from a teacher in school fadó fadó.

Fools' names and fools' faces are always found in public places.

Today is International Day of Happiness.

Happy day to all readers.

Dublin City Council's bad manners

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional  newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Social commentators argue that people who feel alienated or forgotten are the voters who support Trump, Brexit, Orban of Hungary, et al.

When individuals believe they are surplus to requirement, when they are considered unimportant, it is inevitable they will lash out and vote for those who promise to ‘drain the swamp’.

Hillary Clinton scored an own-goal when she called half of Donald Trump’s supporters ‘a basket of deplorables’ in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election.

If you’re unemployed, never feel listened to, you will be delighted to hear the Orbans and Brexiters of this world tell you they are going to keep the migrants out, so that you can get back to work.

But it is not that simple.

We live in a time when communication can be instantaneous and yet people feel so aggrieved due to a lack of information, whether it be political or in the place we work. In the churches too there is a chronic information deficit. Far too often the ‘foot soldiers’ are kept in the dark or drip-fed information that is unbecoming to their human dignity.

Last summer Herzog Bring Centre in Dublin’s Rathgar closed for renovations. The facility is called after Chaim Herzog, who grew up in Dublin. He was President of Israel between 1983 and 1993.

A notice appeared at the site telling customers that it was closing on Monday August 13 and reopening in October 2018. It was interesting that while the English version said it was reopening in October 2018, the Irish translation was more specific and said the Bring Centre would reopen on Monday, October 2, 2018. But believe it or not, October 2 was a Tuesday in 2018.

October has come and gone and the Bring Centre has not reopened.

Before it closed in August, I innocently said to staff, who work at the centre, that I’d miss the facility and was looking forward to its reopening in October. They looked at me and laughed, assuring me that it would not be opening in October.

They were correct. In late October I contacted the City Council and was assured it would be reopening but they were unable to tell me when.

On March 11, I phoned the relevant Dublin City Council department, hoping to learn when it would be reopening. I left a voice message but so far I have not received a reply.

Since its closure there have been media reports about illegal dumping, which is a scourge and a crime. I read somewhere that council staff would be calling on households to check how they dispose of their waste. 

Modern data information means that waste disposal companies can supply councils with information as to who uses their services.

I don’t have any problem with that. But I certainly do have issues with such behaviour when a public body keeps its citizens in the dark, as has Dublin City Council done regards the opening of Herzog Bring Centre.

Can you imagine how I would respond if someone from the council called to my hall door, asking me to show evidence as to how I dispose of my recyclable waste?

On the one hand we live in times of instant communication and information and on the other we are left in the dark far too often by those who are entrusted to serve us.

It’s that high-handed behaviour that has given so much oxygen to an environment that allows the Trumps, the Brexiters and Orbans of this world to flourish.

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Rosa Luxemburg on freedom

A quote on freedom from Polish born German socialist Rosa Luxemburg:

Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of a party – however numerous they may be – is no freedom at all. 

Freedom is always the freedom of the one who thinks differently. Not because of the fanaticism of "justice", but rather because all that is instructive, wholesome, and purifying in political freedom depends on this essential characteristic, and its effects cease to work when "freedom" becomes a privilege.

Rosa Luxemburg was murderd in Berlin in January 1919 and her body thrown into the Landwehr Canal.

She wrote these words on the evening before her death:

"Order prevails in Berlin!" You foolish lackeys! Your "order" is built on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will "rise up again, clashing its weapons," and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!

St Patrick's Breastplate

I bind to myself to-day,

The strong power of an invocation of the Trinity,
The faith of the Trinity in Unity,
The Creator of the Elements.

I bind to myself to-day
the power of the Incarnation of Christ, with that of His Baptism,
The power of the Crucifixion, with that of His Burial,
The power of the Resurrection, with the Ascension,
The power of the coming to the Sentence of Judgment.

I bind to myself to-day,
The power of the love of Seraphim,
In the obedience of Angels,
In the hope of Resurrection unto reward,
In the prayers of the noble Fathers,
In the predictions of the Prophets,
In the preaching of Apostles,
In the faith of Confessors,
In the purity of Holy Virgins,
In the acts of Righteous Men.

I bind to myself to-day,
The power of Heaven,
The light of the Sun,
The whiteness of Snow,
The force of Fire,
The flashing of Lightning,
The velocity of Wind,
The depth of the Sea,
The stability of the Earth,
The hardness of Rocks.

I bind to myself to-day,
The Power of God to guide me,

The Might of God to uphold me,
The Wisdom of God to teach me,
The Eye of God to watch over me,
The Ear of God to hear me,
The Word of God to give me speech,
The Hand of God to protect me,
The Way of God to prevent me,
The Shield of God to shelter me,
The Host of God to defend me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the temptations of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against every man who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
With few or with many.

I have set around me all these powers,
Against every hostile savage power,
Directed against my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women and smiths and Druids,
Against all knowledge which blinds the soul of man.

Christ protect me to-day,
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot-seat,
Christ in the poop.

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself to-day,
The strong power of an invocation of the Trinity,

The faith of the Trinity in Unity,
The Creator of the Elements.
Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of the Lord,
Salvation is of Christ,
May Thy salvation, O Lord, be with as evermore.

Clerical closet homosexuality

There is no link between homosexuality and paedophilia. That is a medical/scientific fact. For anyone to say otherwise is simply a nonsense.

It is also generally accepted that homosexual men have a normal relationship with women in their day-to-day dealings.

In the past, maybe it is still the case, British Airways were delighted to employ gay men as cabin crew as they were considered to be especially kind and gracious to women passengers.

But it seems that many closet homosexual clerics are misogynostic.

Some right wing clerics try to make a link between homosexuality and paedophilia. Among those who have done so is the former papal nuncio to the United States and critic of Pope Francis, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vignano. 

They are wrong.

But it would seem that closet gay clerics don't fit the category of gay men who are not in the clerical state.

There is a dishonesty, a secrecy, a right-wing ideology that seems to be prevalent among closet gay clerics, that leads to an uneasy environment.

It would seem that Pope Francis knows the reality and is attempting to study the phenomenon.

Is he the first pope in many years who is competent and eligible to delve into the depths of an issue that has many and complicated layers to it?

It is a tragedy that there is so little open and honest discussion/study of this issue within clerical circles. 

There is no conversation whatsoever on the topic.

Bye bye to the ruling class

On this date, March 15, 1917 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated, ending 304 years of Romanov power.

For people who are downtrodden, distressed and weary of those in charge, it must be a significant moment when their leaders go or have to go.

Especially so, when they are crass and inefficient.

The terrible Pell story

"Pell earned his stripes in the war on sex", so wrote Australian journalist David Marr in late February.

Irish priest Brendan Purcell, now working in Australia, appeared on Irish radio criticising the Australian justice system.

The Dominican archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher was quoted in ‘The Tablet’ as saying that Gerorge Pell is now offering his time in prison for innocent people who are incarcerated.

Was it wise for Purcell and Fisher to condemn the Australian justice system?

Below is David Marr's article on George Pell.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/26/brutal-and-dogmatic-george-pell-waged-war-on-sex-even-as-he-abused-children?CMP=share_btn_link

The EU is a champion of peace and prosperity

This is a powerful Guardian article by a German who grew up in postwar Germany.

His grandfather was an unrepentant nazi.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/20/grandfather-nazi-eu-world-war-two-germans-peace?CMP=share_btn_link

Eir don't seem to care

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Telecommunications provider Eir has been in the news of late.

Journalist Conor Pope dedicated a full page in ‘The Irish Times’ to complaints he had received from Eir customers.

Last week on RTE Radio 1’s Ray D’Arcy Show more Eir customers aired their complaints about the difficulties they were having with the telecommunications provider.

Eir is at pains to apologise for its current poor customer services, explaining that the company is now nearing completion of the process of bringing its customer service back in-house. It will have new regional hubs in Sligo, Cork and Limerick.

Chief Executive Carolan Lennon last week said that the changes the company is making will result in a better experience for Eir customers in the long term. She also said that results for the first half of the year are in line with expectations as it reduces costs by €32 million.

The company has reported hefty pre-tax profits and a solid start to this year.

I have heard many of the complaints and I have also read newspaper reports on the current finances of the company.

But I also have my own ‘real-time’ story, my personal up-to-date experience with Eir.

In 1988 or 1989 I had a landline installed in my home in West Kerry. That means the phone is in place for 30 years. The same phone line but alas a phone line that has changed ownership many times in that 30 years, with the present owners being Eir.

My current job means that I am not living full-time in West Kerry. In late February I spent some days in the house. On my arrival I discovered the landline was not working. I called Eir, gave details to an automatic voice service. I was subsequently told the fault was not an Eir fault. From my limited experience of wiring phones, I felt reasonably certain that the problem was with Eir.

Five days later I phoned Eir with the intention of closing down the line. I had been the perfect customer, had never once defaulted on a payment, always paid on time.

After approximately one hour and 15 minutes on the phone I had managed to speak to a real person and began the process of closing down my Eir phone line. Later that day the company sent me a cancellation reference code, which I then had to email with other details to the company. Even that was made difficult with trying to distinguish between the letter o and the number zero.

I phoned Eir on a Tuesday to cancel my landline. The following Friday I received a call from an Eir technician. He had arrived in my village. He told me that the fault was an Eir fault and that he was in the local exchange and needed to gain access to my house to fix the phone. When I told him that I had cancelled the line he expressed great surprise as no-one had told him about my closing the account.

In all my dealings with Eir, the people I have spoken to on the phone, the technician who travelled 30 kilometres to fix the phone, I have received nothing but politeness and kindness. They must have great patience.

It’s has been a nightmare. Is this how a large modern company should treat a loyal customer?

Shall I be reimbursed for the time the line was down? How long was it not working? Does Eir know? Does Eir care?

A story of how not to treat a customer.  

Flight ET 302 crashes

Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi yesterday morning.

The palne was a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 and is the second of these aircraft to crash in four months.

On board the plane were many aid workers, including an Irish engineer from Co. Clare, on their way to a conference which begins in Nairobi today.

All 157 passengers and crew were lost.

Would there be more news about the crash if it happened in the developed world or had it been a plane owned and operated by a carrier from the developed world?

The Channel 4 'Trump' film now on Netflix

The Channel 4 four-part TV series Trump is now available on Netflix.

It's fascinating. It chronicles Donald Trump's life from the young business man who inherits his father's real estate empire until he becomes the 45th president of the United States of America.

According to the film he is a man who is insecure, a businessman who builds up extraordinary debts, causing great hardship to those who never get paid for work they do for him.

He is also portrayed as a man who believes in nothing.

A con-artist who craves for publicity.

Throughout the series many people close to Trump are interviewed, including Roger Stone.

It's well worth watching and throws an interesting light on President Donald Trump.

Timothy Radcliffe on rearranging the furniture

Below is a quote from Timothy Radcliffe talking about the present crisis in the Catholic Church.

Timothy Radcliffe is an English Dominican, who was master of the Order from 1992 to 2002

One  fruit of the present crisis may be that we are being propelled unavoidably into imagining a new way of being Church.

Anything less is just rearranging the furniture.

The Dominican community in St Saviour's, Upper Dorset Street in Dublin 1 is about to install secondhand choir stalls from the Cistercian Abbey in Mount Mellerary, Co. Waterford.

It will mean there will be two sets of choir stalls in the church on Dublin's Dominick Street.

Timothy Radcliffe argues against simply rearranging the furniture.

Moving the deckchairs on the Titanic?

Karen Bradley has a new name for Northern Ireland

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley, talking on Morning Ireland today about her ill-advised words in the London parliament earlier in the week, referred to Nothern Ireland as a 'nation'.

Northern Ireland, its towns and cities have been called different names by different people at different times but is this the first time it has been called a 'nation'?

Ms Bradley has misspoken many times since her appointment as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

The missing plane

Five years ago today Malaysian Airways MH370 disappeared and has never been found.

This article gives all the theories as to why the aircraft has never been found.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/07/mh370-five-years-of-theories-about-one-of-aviations-greatest-mysteries?CMP=share_btn_link

‘Foot soldiers’ and their managers

According to an IMI report only 12 per cent of employees leave an organisation for more money, whereas 75 per cent do so because of their managers.

Has there ever been any sort of serious audit done on manaegment within the Catholic Church, the Irish Catholic Church, religious congregations?

Material for a comic tragedy.

Landlord exploitation

Yesterday evening I was in an apartment on Rathgar Road. It was so small that it was difficult for three people to fit in the room.

A colleague and I were calling to the tenant, who pays €900 per month to live in this room

Surely there is a law against such exploitation?

A scandal under our noses. And replicated all over the city.

The emptying of Irish towns and villages

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

I presided at a memorial service in the Anglican church in Kenmare at the end of February. The service was for the wife of a friend of mine, who died in January.

The music was provided by Kenmare community orchestra and members of a local choir. 

We had music from Mozart, Vivaldi and Karl Jenkins’ Benedictus.

Mozart’s Laudate Dominum had been requested by my friend’s wife before she died. Those lines of Psalm 117 are always magic but when put to music it is impossible not to be moved by them.

The Anglican priest in Kenmare, Michael Cavanagh was most hospitable and my visit was a lovely experience. It means so much when you feel welcomed in a place.

Kenmare is a fine town. It must have been two years since I was there visiting my friends and before that it was on the Ring of Kerry cycle.

In Irish it’s called An Neidín, meaning little nest. Originally in Irish it was called Ceann Mara, head of the sea. An Neidín conveys the idea of a little town nesting in the crook of the harbour.

I reported in this column back in October that I had decided to get rid of my car on December 1. I am now three months into being carless and I have certainly become aware of the seduction of the motorcar. 

While having done less than 700 kilometres the previous 12 months when I had a car, now without a car there are occasions when I panic and desperately feel I need one. But that’s exactly what seduction is. That urge that we need something when in fact with a little bit of thought we might well be able to manage without.

Travelling from West Kerry to Kenmare forced home on me that it is well-nigh impossible for people outside cities to survive without a car. How often in my few days in Kerry did I hear people say that the politicians in Dublin have no idea what life is like outside the Pale. And they have a point.

Towns and villages are emptying and parts of rural Ireland are in real crisis. A wise man suggested to me that might it not be an idea for government to introduce new tax laws whereby people living in sparsely populated areas be exempt from paying tax on their earnings. It’s not at all as mad an idea as it may first sound.

To get from West Kerry to Kenmare means taking three buses there and another three back. In my case a kind neighbour drove me to the nearest stop, which is a drive of eight kilometres.

The buses on the main routes seem to be relatively busy but the bus from Killarney to Kenmare, at least any time I have travelled on it, carries a handful of passengers. A large 50-seater bus with five or six passengers can’t be viable, especially when a proportion of the passengers have Travel Passes. 

Why not use smaller vehicles on quiet routes?

It can’t make economic sense when the main employers in our towns are hospitals and Institutes of Technology.

Ireland is more than Dublin and the other smaller cities in the country. There is desperate need for serious thinking about bringing life back to rural Ireland. For example why can’t we have more state of the art fish processing factories close to fishing harbours?

It’s simply not good enough for someone in Dubin to decide to close post offices.

We need more imaginative thinking.

The Sripal poisoning

It is a year today since former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a novichok nerve agent in Sailsbury in England.

The event has caused great tension between UK and Russia.

Since their discharge from hospital the Skripals have been in hiding.

How the US loves sending its citizens to prison

Californian Craig Coley spent 37 years in prison for two murders he never committed.

Last week the 71-year-old Simi Valley resident was awarded a $21 million settlement.

At the end of 2016 approximately 2.2 million people were held in federal, state and correctional facilities in the United States.

According to experts, one in three African-American men will spend time in prison if current trends continue.

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Never clever for the blind to lead the blind

The 'Thinking Anew' column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane
In tomorrow’s Gospel from St Luke Jesus says to his disciples: “Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit.” (Lk 6:39)

“The blind leading the blind” is an everyday expression we use when something is seriously amiss and it’s not just a matter of one person getting something wrong. Someone is on the wrong road because of getting bad advice from someone else.  Perhaps the person concerned has learned to do something the wrong way, someone may have given the wrong information, or it may be that a previous encounter has left a wound which gets in the way of clear thinking. 

Good example is hard to beat. Just last week I was chatting to a jeweller. Our conversation started out on watch fixing and like any two people, who know one another we wandered off on to other subjects. Brexit and politics are in in the air. He recalled how as a young man he had great respect for authority, for the government of the day, irrespective of who was in power. But today he has lost that enthusiasm and feels many in authority simply do not deserve his respect. 

As soon as he said that to me, I quoted the first sentence in tomorrow’s Gospel to him. Maybe it has something to do with growing older and maybe wiser that makes us less inclined to show respect, especially to institutions. Many years ago the philosopher  Plato was saddened by observing how little respect the generation coming up after him had for people and organisations.

Maybe it is, that in a world of instant information, we all know too much about one another. A world that on the one hand, gives us laws on freedom of information, and on the other, is watching how we “dot our Is and cross our Ts” when it comes to General Data Protection Regulations, must surely offer the comedian a fount of material for her or his repertoire.

It’s difficult to put shape on the times in which we are living. The world of politics has been turned upside down. Two words Brexit and Trump encapsulate it all.  The British Labour Party is well used to internal turmoil but when sitting MPs leave the normally disciplined Conservative Party, when rumours abound that the president of the USA is indebted to the president of the Russian Federation in some way, then surely, we know we are passing through uncharted waters.

Is it really the era of the blind leading the blind?

Last week Catholic Church leaders from around the world met with Pope Francis to discuss matters arising from clerical child sex abuse and the abuse of vulnerable adults.

In many ways it matches the current world order, or for that matter, disorder, but in another respect, it is all one horrible debacle. Here we have a situation where an institution, whose leaders see themselves as a link between God and mankind find themselves in the court of public opinion. They have been forced by that public opinion to take account of their behaviour.

This is a shocking situation and for me personally it  poses great difficulties. The church in which I serve claims to know exactly what God is thinking on all matters sexual. This institution tells young candidates for priesthood that celibacy is a special calling to a higher form of life and hides in semantics when inevitable difficulties arise. And this institution has been devious and dishonest in how it has covered up so much perversion and evil among its own priests and bishops.

And to make matters worse, if that were possible,  the church uses a disjointed and unfeeling vocabulary that so often amounts to long words and pious humbug cloaking an attempt at saying ‘we know best and you, the common people do not and could not understand’.

If four out of every five priests working in the Vatican are homosexual as French journalist Frédéric Martel in his book 'Inside the Closet', published last week, claims, might it be time for the church to speak more honestly and openly? To be more real too? Even if Martel is only halfright? Doesn’t this possibility have implications to be faced? The last line in tomorrow’s Gospel reads: “For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.”

I am saddened by so much that I see and hear and feel about the Catholic Church right now. Indeed, 30 years ago at a meeting of the religious order to which I belong I suggested that in areas of sexuality we were sweeping too much under the carpet. The response I received then is more or less the same as those I’m hearing and seeing today.

A blind man can’t and should never be allowed guide another.

Pope Francis seems to be a wise and good man who is anything but blind. Pray God that he can lead so that we will all have the trust and confidence to believe that the Holy Spirit is being allowed to flourish in the leadership of our church.

We must never underestimate the power of God. I hope and pray that each one of us acts in a way that reflects our duty to love God and love our neighbour, and that we place our trust in God to guide our steps away from these shameful errors which trouble us so much now.