The shocking behaviour of Cardinal Vincent Nichols

The text below is an excerpt from an article in 'The Tablet' ofAugust 17/24 (p 10) on the beahiour of Cardinal Vincent Nichols with the BBC.

It is about a BBC documentary, 'Kenyon Confronts', which investigated allegations of abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

Outrageous behaviour.

All true therefore nothing defamatory.

"Speaking of his experience with the Catholic Church during the production of the programme, Paul Kenyon, the programme’s presenter, whom I [Liz Dodd] spoke to a few days later, told me: 

“In my entire career as an investigative journalist, I have never experienced an onslaught of that kind of intense lying and deceit and manipulation.” He said: “I’ve investigated the Gadaffis. I’ve investigated corrupt regimes, revolutions and war zones”, but never experienced “such persistent and dogged liars as the Catholic Church on that occasion."

Remembering Fr Tony Coote RIP

Fr Tony Coote died on Wednesday.

This column appeared in June in Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers.

Tony's death received Irish media attention.

In his RTE Radio 1  show yesterday morning Ryan Turbridy paid tribute to Tony but did make some unusual/odd/inappropriate comments on priests. Can one make comments on plumbers, doctors, pilots, psychologists?

Michael Commane

Dublin diocesan priest Tony Coote’s book ‘Live While You Can’ is a gem.

For over a year or so I have heard his name being mentioned. I knew he was parish priest in Mount Merrion and Kilmacud.

Tony is in his 50s and in 2018 he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease(MND).

Last month I was in a bookshop buying a book for a young boy making his first Holy Communion. 

While paying for the book I spotted ‘Live While You Can’ and bought it.

A few days later while travelling by rail to Galway I began to read the book. I’m a slow reader and easily distracted. By the time I was back in Dublin later that day I had 150 of the 184 pages read.

It is a captivating read.

In some ways I am ashamed I had not twigged to the man and his greatness before now.

Motor Neurone Disease attacks the nervous system and it is a cruel affliction. In 2013 the well-known RTE sports presenter Colm Murray died from MND.

‘Live While You Can’ is a book about hope, it is a book about faith, the genuine faith of a Dublin priest, who paints a lovely image of God and the life he looks forward to in communion with God and humanity after he succumbs to MND.

It’s a simple book and easy to read but does it tell a story about a man in his 50s, who has lived life to the full. That does not mean that it has been all plain-sailing. He writes about his abusive alcoholic father, about the time as a little boy that he was sexually abused in a school classroom. But he also recalls how he and his siblings were reconciled with their father. And all the time there are references to his loving relationship with his mother, who is alive and well.

After ordination to priesthood he was appointed to a parish in Ballymun. He found himself working as a school chaplain, a job he thoroughly enjoyed and it’s clear to see that he built up a great relationship with staff and students. From there he went to work as chaplain in UCD. Next he’s in Haiti, India and Nicaragua organising summer work for UCD students to help the poorest of the poor.

Again, he builds up life-long friendships with the students and the people with whom they work in the developing world.

While he is never pushing himself, it clearly comes across that this man is at his best when he is giving of himself to other people.

Close to the end of the book, on page 158 he writes: ‘If we in the church are truly Christian, followers of Jesus Christ, then we must make sure that we do not close doors to others through words of condemnation or harsh judgement. Once we close doors in such a way, those we have excluded will never open them again.’ Wise and prophetic words.

Such a simple read with an extraordinary message.

This sentence jumped off the page for me: ‘By being compassionate to others, we literally give them life and receive life ourselves.’

It is a perfect read for fifth and sixth year religious education classes.

Claire Byrne, who interviewed Tony on RTE’s ‘Claire Byrne Live’ writes in the foreword of this book: ‘I know that my life is richer as a result and I’m sure, when you turn the last page of this book, yours will be too. 

It is.

A story that makes an archbishop look arrogant

This is the editorial in the current issue of 'The Tablet'.

It tells a terrible story.

And what's most worrying is that the church is still not learning.

Should Nichols be archbishop in Westminster?

The gross evil of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy would have gone unexposed had it not been for three principal agencies, all secular. In the lead were the media, both electronic and print. They were followed by the police and other statutory agencies; and then came the courts. By contrast, the Church’s own investigations have made comparatively little impact.

This should have induced the Church to show profound gratitude and humility towards the media. Countless lives of innocent children would have been blighted by continuing sexual abuse by priests, had the media not listened to the stories of courageous survivors and exposed the perpetrators and those who tried to cover up their crimes. Pope Francis has acknowledged this debt to journalists, but elsewhere in the Church the response has been more grudging. It is also true that investigative journalists do sometimes go after their targets too hard, and have published stories that lack balance or have been later found to be false. The issue of paedophilia is highly emotional. Judgements are easily swayed by bias. 

The latest in the long line of such scandals has unfolded on the Pacific island of Guam. And it was an investigation by a US news agency – Associated Press – that has exposed a disgraceful culture of clerical abuse. Not long before that, a documentary made by Polish film-makers and shown on YouTube suggested that at least 300 priests had been guilty of child abuse, while the church authorities either ignored the complaints or moved paedophile priests from parish to parish. 

The classic case, made into the film Spotlight, was the investigation by the Boston Globe into child abuse in the Boston, Massachusetts, archdiocese, which led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, who had fought tooth and nail to put the journalists off the scent and derail the inquiry.

Against this background it is all the more troubling to find parallels with what happened in Birmingham archdiocese around 2003, when a BBC documentary team started to investigate a cluster of clerical abuse cases in the Midlands. 

During the time of Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville, who retired in 1999, individual paedophile priests had already come to notice, but no one had looked to see if there was a pattern. 

The new archbishop, Vincent Nichols, seems to have taken the view that because he was effectively clearing up the mess left by his predecessor, and fully implementing the reforms to safeguarding procedures indicated by the 2001 

Nolan report, such a BBC inquiry was unwelcome and unnecessary and therefore should be thwarted.

He wrote to his priests telling them not to cooperate.

Nevertheless individual priests were approached by BBC journalists, and enough material was collected to fill an edition of the investigative series, Kenyon Confronts. The high point was the discovery of an ex-Birmingham priest – James Robinson, later extradited to the UK and found guilty of grave offences against children – living in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles, where he had been supported by regular payments out of archdiocesan funds. 

Before the documentary was broadcast, Archbishop Nichols gave a press conference in which he alleged BBC journalists had been guilty of grossly unprofessional conduct, and later issued a press release to the same effect; after the broadcast he formally complained to the BBC. 

Archbishop Nichols’ detailed allegations were all successfully rebutted. Archbishop Nichols appealed against this finding, and his appeal was rejected by the BBC Governors after a further hearing. He has since declined to acknowledge that his complaints were unfounded, or to apologise to the journalists he had attacked, and whose careers were put at risk. In December last year, he told the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that he now regretted the terms of his press release, and should have welcomed both the programme’s unearthing of Robinson, and the fact that the programme gave a voice to victims. The inquiry, in its report, said his press release seemed to show him to be more interested in protecting the Church’s reputation than in the protection of children.

It would have been gracious of Archbishop Nichols – now Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster – to accept the findings of the BBC inquiry into his complaints, and to apologise to the journalists who worked on the programme. This is not quite the whole matter, however. Two issues remain. First, is the state of affairs in Birmingham archdiocese now satisfactory? It cannot be ignored that two successive heads of child protection services in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Eileen Shearer and Adrian Child, said to IICSA through their counsel: “In the Archdiocese of Birmingham, there were systemic and personal failures. There was a lack of leadership from the archbishop and failures by the Safeguarding Commission and the safeguarding coordinator to perform their duties. These failures were deliberate. They were persistent. They were prolonged. And they were serious. And they have continued over a number of years.” 


It would not be inappropriate for the Holy See to express its alarm that Cardinal Nichols allowed such a situation to develop. Birmingham archdiocese seemed to regard itself as “a law unto itself” where child protection was concerned. It resented the BBC’s inquiries and rebuffed the efforts of the Catholic Church’s own national safeguarding team. What was going on?

The deeper issue is the underlying assumption that the Catholic Church in general, and each diocese in particular, is a self-sufficient entity totally capable of looking after itself – in ecclesiology, a societas perfecta or “perfect society”. This ideology still shapes the structures of the Church and haunts the Catholic imagination, though it was replaced by the “People of God” theology of Vatican II. It lies at the root of the culture of clericalism, which for decades helped to shape the sense of immunity felt by child-abusing priests and the mistaken loyalty towards them of their colleagues and superiors. Clearly the Archdiocese of Birmingham was, and maybe still is, a far from perfect society. And Westminster? The People of God have a right to know.

Ranato Poblete SJ born 1924

It is often reported that Emeritus Pope Benedict XVl/Joseph Ratzinger was inclined to blame the events of the 1960s/70s for much of the sexual abuse that has spilled out on to our pages over the last two/three decades.

It's not the case.

The late Chilean Jesuit priest Renato Poblete was a notorious sexual abuser. He died in 2010, aged 86. He was born in 1924.

He was a high-profile, 'much-respected' Jesuit priest. But there was always a suspicion about him, rumours. And that's such a familiar story.

And all the men who never made it to the pages of the newspapers.

Civilisation

"The veneer of civilsation is very thin"

Matt Harrison served with the United States Army in Vietnam.

From motorbike to hard shoulder to truck

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

Michael Commane
On Thursday August 15, I set off on my motorbike from Dublin, destination West Kerry.

I’m excited. Weather forecast is not bad, and no rain due.

It’s my first time on the three-lane Kildare motorway and it makes a big difference.

Before Portlaoise I leave the motorway as I want to amble along quiet roads and also plan to call to the Cistercian Abbey in Roscrea.

I’m shocked at the death of rural Ireland, empty villages and towns. Why are we allowing this to happen?

As a child I had often been at the Cistercian Abbey outside Roscrea. It’s a stunning setting, large parklands, a church, monastery and school. My maternal grandparents married in the abbey church and my father was at school there.

Today there are nine Cistercians in the abbey, ranging in age from 52 to 92. A notice in the church saying there is Mass on Sundays and Holy Days at 12.30. Alas no 12.30 Mass today, the feast of the Assumption.

What at all can its future be? A million dollar question.

Off and away on the bike, taking quiet roads to Dunkerrin and then back on to the motorway.

I relax on the seat, give the bike throttle and slowly but surely I notice the bike is not responding. No matter how high the revs go the bike is slowing down. I’m now down to 40 km/h. Nothing else to do than to pull over on to the hard shoulder and turn on the flashers. I crawl on at less than 25 km/h and then decide to stop.

It’s not a pleasant experience to be stopped on the side of a motorway nursing a clapped-out motorbike.

I’m in the AA, which is a source of relief. I’m anxioius, standing on the side of the motorway. Just as I’m wondering what to do a lorry pulls up. I go up to the cab. The driver asks me if I’m in trouble and I explain my plight. 

He drives a motorbike and knows about bikes. He gives the bike a quick check and thinks I have a clutch problem. I explain to him that I can phone the AA. While still checking out the bike he says that his truck is loaded with pallets of cardboard but that he might be able to load the bike. I’m gobsmacked by his offer. He opens the back of the truck, spends appoximately 10 to 15 minutes rearranging the pallets. 

He lowers the ramp. We wheel the bike onto the ramp. It’s my first time on such a ramp. I’m scared of falling off. He presses the button to lift the ramp. He closes the truck doors, raises the ramp and off we drive.

I introduce myself and he does likewise.

We spend the next hour in conversation. He tells me that he lost a young child to meningitis. As a result of his experience he set up an organisation which facilitates the speedy transfer of blood to hospitals using motorbikes.

Later telling my story to a Bus Éireann driver in Limerick he remarks that truck drivers are renowned for their kindness to fellow-drivers in trouble on the road.

It was worth the motorbike breakdown to meet this man.

It’s at our peril that we understimate the goodness of people.

It’s so easy to complain and criticise. It can be lazy too, especially when we so often are surrounded by goodness and kindness.

It’s been a great lesson for me.

Krakow archbishop speaks unhelpful words

The Archbishop of Krakow Marek Jedraszewski said at a Mass to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising that while Poland is no longer tormented by the 'red plague' of Soviet Communism it has instead been infected by a 'rainbow' plague of homosexuality, which denies human dignity and seeks to control "our souls, hearts and minds".

Not a way to win friends.

Also, think of the number of priests and Communists/former Communsits Jedraszewski has insulted.

And then the church wonders why people are speaking with their feet.

The wealthy crew

Ten per cent of the world’s listed firms generate 80 per cent of all global profits.

Firms with at least one billion dollars in revenue account for 60 per cent of total global revenue.

According to some estimates Google and Facebook account for 60 per cent of all digital advertising revenue.

Vasily Grossman

Many people say that Vasily Grossman is the Leo Tolstoy of the 20th century

Grossman was a journailst reporting on the Great Patriotic War for Soviet newspapers.

His book ‘Stalingrad’ was published in English this year.

At th beginning of August 1942 Colonel General Yeromenko arrived in Stalingrad.

He said: “Stalingrad is no ordinary line of defence. What we are defending here is Russia itself!”

The mood of the people was as if to say: “Here we are - the Volga! Can we really retreat any further?”

Grossman writes:

“The boundless river of the Soviet people’s anger and grief had not been left to drain into sand. The will of the people, the will of the Party and state had transformed it into a river of iron and steel and it was now flowing back, from east to west. Its immense weight would soon tilt the scales.”

Gorbachev on Trump’s move

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev considers Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty as the start of a new arms race.

Napoleon on the ‘honest man’

An interesting quote from Napoleon Bonaparte:

“The honest man never doubts the existence of God’.

A blow of a garda baton 50 yars ago

It’s 50 years since the British embassy in Dublin was set alight by an angry crowd demonstrating against the carnage in Northern Ireland.

That night Dominican priest Paul Hynes had been visiting his mother at the family pub in Mount Street.

On his way home he found himself in the middle of the demonstration and received a blow from a garda baton.

Paul died at 52 in the mid-1980s. He had a form of cancer that damaged part of the brain that sends signals from the brain to other parts of the body.

Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the burning of the embassy and the subsequent garda charge.

Was Paul’s death linked to the blow he received from the garda baton that evening?

Words and their pronunciations

This week’s Independent News an Media Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

So is the camán a hurley or a hurl? I always thought the stick was called a hurley, the game is hurling and hurlers hurl.

Sort of summer season silly stuff but a letter-writer to a national newspaper started the debate and it has taken on a head of steam and all sorts of experts and non-experts have been giving their penny’s worth on the topic. Should that be cent’s worth?

A linguistic’s expert was on radio and his view was that the stick is called a hurley in Munster and a hurl in Leinster.

It set me thinking about words and their pronunciations.

I can still remember in primary school a substitute teacher coming in to our class and asking us what was the correct pronunciation of ‘often’. Was it pronounced with or without the ‘t’. I have no idea on which side he came down but I well remember that he belittled those who got it wrong, or at least got it wrong according to his ‘wisdom’. Maybe it was an important lesson; does it really matter how we pronounce words? And certainly we should never sneer at those who mispronounce words or vere from the accepted norms and rules of pronunciation.

Probably best to say it’s funny how language and words change with time. When I was a young ‘fella’ the sophisticates would sneer at people who pronounced advertisement placing the stress on the ‘ise’. These days the ‘coolest dudes’ are placing the stress of the ‘ise’.

Out of the blue the word ‘contribute’ has appeared with the stress going on the ‘bute’ whereas I have always pronounced it with the stress going on the ‘trib’.

Then there are the regular old chestnuts: Tipperary people often omit the ‘e’ and call it ‘Tipprary’. Have you ever noticed people often say sarcrifice rather than sacrifice? And that’s interesting because the posh English are inclined to add the letter ‘r’ to certain words, they talk about the ‘lawr’.

As to the word ‘posh’, whether true or not, I was told it’s an acronym for Port-Out-Starboard-Home. When the British were visiting the far-flung dominions of their Empire they travelled out on the port side and returned on the starboard side of the ship. Something to do with the sun.

And did it ever dawn on you why they spell it ‘Comptroller General’? It looks and sounds wrong, at least according to any rules of English. It seems the first man in that job was not a good speller and he wrote it so. His underlings were afraid to bring it to his attention and correct him. 

The moral of that story is how important it is to stand up to so much of the nonsense and incompetence of our superiors.

I’m back thinking whether or not the ‘t’ is silent or not in ‘often’, but it certainly is in ‘castle’ and ‘apostle’.

But who knows when we’ll be pronouncing the ‘t’ in castle?

Who is it that decides we’ll change the pronunciation of a word?

I’m sticking with ‘hurley’. But that maybe because my late mother was from Tipperary.

Albert Einstein and the atomic bomb

After the US dropped atomic bombs on Japan Albert Einstein said: “I made one great mistake in my life - when I signed a letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atomic bombs be made.

“If only I had known, I would have become a watchmaker.”

Dublin Airport

In July 3.5 million passengers arrived and departed at Dublin Airport.

Nineteen thousand people are employed at the airport and on its busiest days 120,000 people pass through it.

And only one person lives at the airport and that is the chaplain, Fr Des Doyle, who has been in the job since 1964.

The wisdom of people

The ‘Thinking Anew’ column in ‘The Irish Times’ today.

 Michael Commane
 Have you noticed how politicians come to power promising to clean up society? The more right-wing they are, the louder they are in making it known how they are going to stamp out every type of evil and wrong-doing.

Dominican priest Donagh O’Shea, in one of his Gospel commentaries on Goodnews.ie,  makes the point and adds that it is noticeable that Jesus never promises to clean up society, but he certainly has the welfare of people at heart. 

In the letter to the Hebrews (12: 1 - 4) in tomorrow’s liturgy we are told not to lose sight of Jesus. He leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. 

What are the qualities of good leadership? If a politician attends a family funeral should we look favourably towards her or him when elections come around. Is that the way it works, is that the way it should work?

Somewhere at home I have a charming letter a senior politician wrote to me on the occasion of my father’s death. 

Listening to the roar of approval US President Donald Trump received at a rally in Orlando I sat and wondered why people supported the man. They must genuinely believe that he is doing a good job for them and the United States. 

What should we ask of our leaders? Surely it’s the job of politicians to enhance the common good and improving the lives of all the citizens but especially those who are weakest and most in need of help and support?  

Leadership today has much to do with “sound bites” and appearance. It seems so superficial but maybe we have given too much importance to temporal leaders and placed too much trust in them.   

Vasily Grossman’s novel ‘Stalingrad’ was first published as a book in Russian in 1952. It has been translated into English this year. Grossman was a war correspondent looking on events as they unfolded from a Soviet perspective. ‘Stalingrad’ paints a detailed picture of what life was like for the people after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. And then the terrible battle and ultimate Red Army victory at Stalingrad, after five months of what must be the bloodiest warfare mankind has known.  

Novikov is a Soviet colonel, who witnessed the German breakthrough at Brest. He is a thinking man. Grossman expresses brilliantly Novikov’s thoughts on his fellow officers immediately after the German invasion: “Many of those who were usually most timid and silent, seemingly untalented men whom nobody noticed, revealed a wonderful strength. And sometimes he glimpsed an unexpected void in the eyes of commanders who only the day before had seemed the loudest, most energetic and self-confident; now they seemed lost, crushed and pathetic.” 

In so many ways our lives are lotteries. We are far more fragile and vulnerable than we ever imagine. We can be easily manipulated. Often, we find people in positions of leadership who are simply not able for the job. It happens all the time right across society. 

It can be so easy to get angry and frustrated with our leaders. And then that reading in the letter to the Hebrews pops up and we are told that Jesus leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection. 

It is never a good idea to place too much trust in human leadership. I’m thinking of that now-famous comment of Enoch Powell that “all political lives end in failure”, because that can be the nature of politics and of human affairs. 

Notice how so-called strong politicians, especially the dictator-style ones always find so much to clean up and clear out. They always find scapegoats and blame most of the woes of the world on them. The same too in the churches. It’s so easy to focus on some terrible evil, whip up the crowd and get a good fight going. 

I’m back thinking of Novikov’s description of those soldiers who were at one time considered untalented and then those “important ones” who were tested and found to be pathetic. 

It’s never a good idea to underestimate the wisdom and strength, indeed, the faith of the people of God.  

The style and method of Francis’s papacy places great emphasis on the community. This pope issues no big edicts, makes no dramatic hardline utterances. Pope Francis does not need to raise his voice when he stresses the importance of listening.

None of us is so important to know the full story. Surely leadership is about inspiring and encouraging people, especially offering the hand of friendship and a smile to the poor? And then meaning it.

A talent for losing things

This week’s INM Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Have you a propensity to lose things? I’m thinking of items such as keys, bags, books, anything really. Losing things is obviously a long-practised habit of mine. I remember on one occasion coming home from a working holiday in Germany and my mother commenting how surprised she was that my head was still on my shoulders.

I recall a balmy summer day cycling from Dublin city centre to Cappagh Hospital to visit my father, who had had hip replacement surgery. I arrived home to discover I had lost my keys. I retraced my journey, eventually finding the keys at a roundabout near Cappagh Hospital. And retracing my journey meant cycling the entire way from Dorset Street to Cappagh on the wrong side of the road. Mea culpa.

Fast forward approximately 30 years. Earlier this summer I visited two people in St James’s Hospital. My mode of transport this time had been upgraded to a motorbike.

If you have ever been to St James’s you will be aware that there is always a large number of people near the main entrance to the hospital. A month ago while on another visit to the hospital I spotted two men chained to each other, presumably a patient prisoner chained to a prison officer.

I visited the two patients I planned to call on. We chatted, laughed and listened to one another. Two lovely people and for me a privilege to know them.

It was time to leave. Went looking for the key of my motorbike. There are many pockets in the jacket and trousers of motorbike gear. Couldn’t find the key. Kept searching, no sign of the key. But I knew it had to be somewhere. It wasn’t.

I went down to the shop in the main concourse where I had earlier bought a newspaper. No key had been handed in. Then off to the main reception. 

Another blank, no key. I retraced my steps back up to the patients, searched the two rooms, crawled around the floor, looked under the beds. No keys. Walking those long corridors in motorbike gear and boots plus helmet is no fun.

I panic easily but for some odd reason on this occasion I was staying calm.

There was one last possibility: had I by any chance left the key in the motorbike?

Out the main entrance. The bike is parked close by and what do I see? The key is in the lock of the pannier at the side of the bike. And so visible for all to see.

I returned to the informaiton desk and told them that I found the key. When they heard my good news they smiled and assured me that somebody was looking affter me. The two receptionists were so kind. I asked them if they would phone one of the patients to let her know that I had found the key. 

Guess what, they did. I always find hospital receptionists friendly and helpful.

Phew. Lucky man. Or is it that most people are honest?

Of course I am back thinking of my mother and how accurate she was about my ability in losing items.

Casement's Costa Cat

This poster is on the door of the main entrance to Casement Station Tralee.

And Costa the Cat is in residence at the station.

He is keeping an eye on passengers and staff. He takes time out sitting in the waiting room and at other comfortable spots at the station.

He also keeps a check on the comings and goings of trains.

Costa is a great addition to Casement Station. Well done Irish Rail and thank you. 

 And he's a  clever cat too.

Being open and honest with one another

“More than anything, he remembered the sense of togetherness that came into being between his men.

“Everyone had spoken openly about their whole lives, from their earliest childhood, and everyone’s path through life had seemed clearly marked out; people’s characters, their strengths and weaknesses - everything about them became manifest, in word and deed.”

Words spoken in 1942 by Nikolay Grigorievich Krymov, a Red Army Commissar in ‘Stalingrad’ by Vasily Grossman.

The words were spoken as his group of 200 solders found themselves behind German lines near Bryansk. The Germans were heading for Moscow.

They were hungry, hiding in woods, constantly avoiding German capture and trying to join up with their own regiments.

They all believed in ther cause.

The Berlin Wall

On August 13, 1961 Berliners woke up to witness troops of the GDR/East Germnay build a wall dividing their city in two.

The GDR in the days leading up to August 13 had denied all rumours that a wall was to be built.

Between 1961 and 1989 East German authorities successfully managed to build a fortification between the Federal Republic of German and the German Democratic Republic that was impenetrable.

And then one November night in confusion and error the Wall came tumbling down.

In the summer of 1985 had anyone foretold what was to happen a short four years later they would have been considered to be delusional, though a Protestant priest working in Goerlitz, a city on the GDR Polish border, told a group of students from a West Berlin university that East Germany was bankrupt in every respect and its days were numbered.

As the Germans invaded Russia in 1941, Stalin made a radio broadcast to the nation in which he said: “History shows us that there never have been invincible armies.”

Wise words indeed. And a sense of irony too.

Changing hearts

“The church’s role is to change hearts, not governments.”

Pope Benedict XVl to the late Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, who was archbishop  of Havana for 35 years.

Phones in cars

Ninety motorists are stopped every day by gardaí for using phones while driving.and that probably is the tip of the iceberg.

’Deathbed etiquette’

St Mary’s University in Twickenham has launched a new guide on deathbed etiquette.

It is aimed at helping people suppoprt a loved one as they die.

The guide is available online at www.artofdyingwell.org

The day the US destroyed Nagasaki

On August 9, 1945 Nagasaki  was destroyed when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city.

Thirty-five thousand people were immediately killed. 

The dead included 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.

Communicating is a great help

The English translation of Vasily Grossman’s Stalingrad is a sensational read.

Novikov, an important character in the novel and a senior officer, commented after the German breakthrough at Brest that the “greatest misfortune of the first few hours had been the breakdown in communications. With proper communications everything would have been different.”

Not for a moment to compare senior Soviet battle commanders with church ‘leaders’, but how different our church could be if there were a modicum of real or serious communication.

Might the new Master General of the Dominican Order make it a goal or project of his that people begin to communicate openly and honestly.

Lord Lamont and Mr Donohoe

Last evening on BBC 2’s ‘Newsnight’ Emily Maitlis interviewed finance minister Paschal Donohoe in the Irish Embassy followed by an interview with former chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lamont.

Donohoe spoke with confidence and every word he said was easily understandable.

It was difficult to know what Lord Lamont was saying and he made reference to the Irish EU Commissioner ‘Mr Foley’.

The topic was Brexit.

The Tipp Wexford game

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

Michael Commane

The Tipperary Wexford All-Ireland semi-final was an exciting game. I know little or nothing about hurling but that game was spectacular. The excitement right to the final whistle kept me on the edge of my seat.

And that’s all quite amazing as it’s one of the few hurling games I have watched on television from start to finish.

That semi-final brought so many memories and emotions running through my head.

Over the years I have been following Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald, who enthrals me. Any time I hear him on the radio or television he immediately catches my attention and I’m listening to every word he says. The man has something; it might be genius, then again it might be roguery, whatever it is he has charisma and personality in abundance.

My mother was from Tipperary, so ‘loyalty’, whatever that is, should have had me supporting Tipp. No self-respecting hurling enthusiast will like my saying that I was changing side from each puck of the ball. When Wexford was a point down I was on their side and when the Premier County were trailing I was counting on Bubbles O’Dwyer to score or Jason Forde to point a free.  Whatever happened I was winning and losing.

And then all the memories of fadó fadó. I spent my summer holidays on a grand-uncle’s farm in Kilkenny but it straddled Tipperary and to this day I’m not sure where’s Tipperary and where’s Kilkenny, though I do remember the address included lines: ‘Via Thurles, Co Tipperary’.

Come August it was time to leave and head back home. 

En route we would call to a nearby family, a sister and two brothers, to say goodbye. It seems always to have been the Sunday of the All-Ireland final that we called. 

In the early years the three of them were glued to the radio listening to Micheál Ó Héir’s commentary on the game and then later watching every stroke of the ball on television. I have this memory of their jubilation when Kilkenny won, and I, out of ‘devilment’ would be shouting for Tipperary.

My family had no interest in GAA games whereas our nearby cousins were players and supporters of ‘the code’. That was a word I often heard used for GAA games. Indeed, they would often call to our house asking my brother and me if we would go with them to Croke Park. Their father was John D Hickey, who was GAA correspondent for the ‘Irish Independent’. On a few occasions I must have gone as a small boy as I can still remember playing in the press box with not the slightest interest in the game below.

On another occasion in Thurles I recall trying to operate a handle on one of those now-obsolete Bakelite telephones so that my uncle could file his match report after a Munster Final at the ‘Sportsfield’, which has now morphed into Semple Stadium. Those black telephones with no dials have long ago disappeared.

Interesting what a game of hurling can do. Watching that game, my mind kept wandering back to my childhood.

As to the final: up Tipp, up Kilkenny.