A Catholic prime minister in Downing Street

Is Boris Johnson the first Catholic British prime minister since the Reformation?

Surely irony of ironies.

He is the first British prime minister, since Lord Liverpool married Mary Chester in 1822, to marry in office.

New authoritarianism is a real threat to the EU

Ruadhán Mac Cormaic wrote an interesting piece in The Irish Times on Saturday where he argues how a new authoritarianism is proving a real threat to the EU.

In the last paragraph he writes: "The most dangerous assumption for the EU is to make is that modern democracies are self-renewing.

"They have always demanded things of citizens: participation, argument, struggle.

"And when the space in which those things occur shrinks beyond a certain point, as Europeans know well, the entire political order is in peril.”

They are powerful words.

Evolution suggests our natural instinct is to be kind

 Joe Humphreys wrote an interesting piece in The Irish Times on Thursday. The title was ‘If people are naturally kind, why is there so much cruelty?

He extensively quotes from Dubliner Éamonn Toland’s book ‘The Pursuit of Kindness’.

Toland agrees with Dutch historian Rutger Bergman whose thesis is that humans were by default co-operative and friendly until nomadic hunter-gatherers settled down, inventing among other things private property.

Barney Curley’s greatest legacy is off the race track

A lovely letter from a religious sister in The Irish Times yesterday.

Well known horseman and betting supremo Barney Curley died on Sunday, May 23 at the age of 81.

Barney’s son Charlie was killed in a road accident near his stables in 1995. His son’s tragic death left a deep impression on Barney.

A year after the accident he visited a friend from his days while studying for the priesthood, who was working with children in Zambia, who had been orphaned but the unfolding catastrophe of Aids.

Curley founded Direct Aid of Africa(Dafa) soon afterwards and spent the last 25 years raising millions to build houses, schools and hospitals, which transformed the lives of thousands of Zambians.

Greg Ward in the Guardian wrote: “He was lionised by  punters for striking fear into the hearts of bookmakers, but the man himself would have wanted the hope and opportunity he brought to one of the world’s poorest countries to be his life’s greatest legacy.
 

When thieves fall out nasty words are sure to follow

British prime minister Boris Johnson's former top adviser, Dominic Cummings gave evidence for seven hours on Wednesday before MPs from the Commons science and health committees.

On the secretary of state for health, Matt Hancock he said: "I think the secretary of state for health should’ve been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the cabinet room and publicly.

On prime minister Boris Johnson: "The heart of the problem was fundamentally I regarded him as unfit for the job."

Chinese ambassador is a graduate of Wuhan University

The Chinese ambassador to Ireland, Mr He Xiangdong was born in February 1964. He is a graduate from Wuhan University with a bachelor's degree in economics.

He is ambassador in Ireland since May 2019.

Note the university where he studied.

Parish consultation can be a frustrating disappointment

Two interesting letters in The Irish Times of yesterday.

Sheila Deegan’s experience of parish consultation being a frustrating disappointing is worthy of serious discussion for the task force that has been set up in the Dublin Archdiocese by new Archbishop Dermot Farrell.

Jon Snow enjoys chatting with Marcus Rashford

Manchester United and England player Marcus Rashford was interviewed by Channel 4’s Jon Snow on its Monday’s 7pm News.

Rashford spoke about his poverty-stricken childhood and the wonder of his mother. It was brilliant television.

He played a major role in making sure school-going children in England would receive lunches every day.

It was clear Jon Snow was enjoying every moment of talking with this wonderful young man. Snow pointed out that there was 50 years between them, Rashford is 23 and Snow 73.

Snow asked him what he planned to do after football. He gave that lovely and truthful answer that he simply did not know but he insisted that he would not become a politician, clearly saying that was not where his talents lay.

He said that he managed to get out of poverty through football and then getting to see places and meet people that changed his life.

Rashford has set a record in last Sunday Times Giving List, becoming the youngest person to come   out on top.

The interview is available on the All 4 app.

Great television and Rashford comes across as a genuine lovely young man, an inspiring human being.

BBC drama highlights the evils of war on combatants

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

I happen to know Tom Lawlor, the father of Irish actor Tom Vaughan Lawlor, aka Nidge. Earlier this month he brought it to my attention that his son was playing a part in a BBC 2 drama called Danny Boy.

Only for Tom I would never have seen the drama and I certainly would have missed a great programme.

I am sure it will be repeated, so if you get a chance, make sure to watch it. It is also on the BBC iPlayer. It was premiered on BBC 2 on May 11.

The 90-minute drama tells the true story of soldier Brian Wood, who served with the British Army in Iraq during the 2003 war.

The BBC drama is based on the Al-Sweady Inquiry. 

The inquiry lasted five years and cost approximately £25 million. It investigated  accusations of  mistreatment of prisoners by the British Army following the Battle of Danny Boy.

This was the war that happened as a result of the world being told that Saddam Hussein had manufactured chemical weapons. It turned out no chemical weapons were ever discovered.

On his return from Iraq Brian is awarded the Military Cross for bravery at the battle of Danny Boy but the story unravels into accusing him of being an alleged murderer.

Brian is a young married man, with a wife and new-born baby.

Like his father before him he joins the British Army.

His father’s best friend, also a soldier, is killed in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

 

Eventually Brian is not found guilty of any crimes or wrong-doing. But everything about being a soldier and the subsequent inquiry brought Brian down a road of terrible turmoil.

His wife, who is played by Irish actor Leah McNamara, quickly realises on Brian’s return from Iraq that he is a changed man. His sleep patterns have turned into disturbing nightmares, where he recalls the terror of war. But Brian, like his father, tries to pretend he is a ‘real man’ and refuses to talk about what he really is thinking and how upset he is about all that had happened in Iraq.

Brian’s wife confronts his father and tells him that he and his son have spent their lives fooling themselves about pretending to be hard men. Initially he refuses to accept what she is saying. Slowly but surely he realises how right she is and eventually breaks down in front of his son.

In another scene Brain’s young son hears in school that his father is a murderer and subsequently asks his father if he is a murderer.

The story focuses on the damage that war causes on ordinary men and women. It is a shocking story.

Political leaders, the people who pull the strings behind the scenes send young men and women out to war. Politicians, the media and the arms industry might well shout the justice of their cause but this BBC programme tells the real damage that war causes.

So often we think of the casualties of war, the people killed and maimed on all sides, the buildings and infrastructure that is bombed into oblivion but how often do we think about the mental turmoil war causes on the combatants?

Ryanair on the runway at Minsk

A screen shot of the first item on Germany’s ARD 20.00 news this evening.

It’s a picture of the Ryanair plane that was forced to land on Sunday in Minsk in Belarus.

On RTE’s Morning Ireland Michael O’Leary referred to the Russians as forcing the aircraft to land. Confusing, to say the least.

Is Michael O’Leary considering this good or bad advertising for Ryanair?

 

US politician and Irish newspaper express worrying ideas

US House of Representative Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has compared the mandate to wear masks in the House with German Jews being required to wear the Star of David during the Hitler era.

Taylor is a newly elected congresswoman and is a member of the Republican Party.

An outrageous comment from the US Congresswoman.

In an article in The Irish Catholic of May 13 Dr Philip Gonzales writes: “.... the response of the Irish Government to the Covid-19 crisis, although the most extreme in the EU, is part and parcel of a larger political shift in Western liberal democracies and their drift towards a new form of totalitarianism”.

The article quotes extensively from Carl Schmitt, a member of the Nazi Party. The article carries a picture of Schmitt at a microphone.

The article carries the headline ‘The Mass ban and the drift towards a new form of totalitarianism'.

Elsewhere in the article Gonzales, who lectures in philosophy in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, writes: “Who of us would have ever thought that in the 21st Century (sic) that we would be living in a country where it can be made a criminal offence at the stroke of a pen to receive the Eucharist, where to confess one’s sins out of sorrow and love is a crime, where it is forbidden to bury the dead, where a father is not allowed to be present at the birth of his child.”

An outrageous piece of writing.

Remote working is proving winner alright

According to a study carried at NUI Galway more than 95 per cent of working people in Ireland wish to continue with some form of remote employment after Covid-19 has been defeated.

One in 10 people has relocated because working from home gives them more options.

Ninety one per cent say that remote working gives them more flexibility, 86 per cent agree that remote working makes life easier and 68 per cent have seen their productivity increase.

The Holy Spirit is central to our faith

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

Nowadays people often say that they are not religious, but they are spiritual.  What do those words mean? What does it mean to be religious, what does it mean to be spiritual?

Have we attached some sort of silly piety to them that has really taken away all meaning from both words? The term ‘Holy Joe’ is often used in a derogatory sense, implying a fake practice of religion. 

And these days we are constantly confronted with fake news. It’s important that we can distinguish between what’s genuine and what’s fake. Long before we ever heard of fake news,  we had our ‘Holy Joes’.

When I hear  someone being described as  ‘a holy person’, too often the phrase conjures up some sort of atrophied creature, one  who fawns and plays games with genuine holiness. Unfortunately these  are the first thoughts that come to my mind when I am told someone is ‘holy’, whereas the real and inspiring meaning of holiness is to imitate God, or to be God-like. 

Tomorrow is the feast of Pentecost. We celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world. There’s that word again, holy, and tied along with it, is spirit, obviously clearly linked with spiritual. 

What or who is the Holy Spirit? What does it mean to say that the Holy Spirit comes among us? Too easy to say that it is a mystery and then run away from the idea. But everything to do with God is a mystery and I’m always wary of anyone who tells me that they have a handle on God. 

That there are three persons in the one God is central to our Christian faith. It brings home the idea that Christianity is fundamentally about people living in union and harmony with each other and with God. That idea of harmony and unity exists in a perfect state in God. 

One of the persons of that Trinity is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Christians believe that this Spirit is present in the world. The Holy Spirit is central to our faith, and  fake news or ‘Holy Joes’ do not come into it.

 

It is always dangerous to put individuals  up on pedestals but sometimes people have an aura about them, the sort of person who walks into a room and automatically gets the attention of the assembled gathering. 

Great statesmen or women sometimes can have  an aura that seems to give them, dare I call it, some God-like charisma. For many Irish people JFK had it, Nelson Mandela grabbed the attention of the world through his humility, words and deeds. People such as Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi inspired people, friends and foes, to look for better ways of living out their lives.

It seems we must  have our heroes, whether in sport, entertainment, politics, whatever. We like to be inspired. We often read about football managers speaking such inspiring words to the team that they go back out on to the park invigorated and with a new determination to win. 

However,  our relationship with God is above and beyond all that. Words spoken about or of God come close to being beyond our comprehension. The Holy Spirit is with us  in all of that. It is the presence of God in the world.

My mother died in 1988 and my father in 2004. A day never passes when I don’t think of them. Their spirit lives on in me. I am profoundly conscious of their presence, their guiding hand in my life. 

Everything we say about God is said in terms of analogy. But if the spirit of my parents plays a role for me in my daily life, what must be the guiding power of the Holy Spirit in all our lives?

 

The promptings of the Holy Spirit give witness to the words and actions of the historical Jesus. In tomorrow’s Gospel St John (15: 26 - 27; 16: 12 - 15) writes: ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who issues from the Father, he will be my witness.’

The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in our world. 

And just as we so often miss the wonder of the little things in our lives, it is easy to miss the Holy Spirit. 

But that does not at all mean that the Holy Spirit is not ever-present, guiding us on our journey in this fragile confusing world of ours. We need to open our hearts, that’s all. 

And may I stress again, I’m nervous of the ‘Holy Joes’.

Wise words of Alexander Pope

Be not the first by whom the new is tried, 

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Lines from Alexander Pope, who was born in London on this day, May 21, 1688.

He was born to Catholic parents.

Pope's education was affected by laws enacted against Catholics. Catholics were not allowed teach, attend university or hold public office at the time.

They were barred from teaching, attending university and voting. They were also forbidden from holding public office on penalty of imprisonment.

Pope was taught to read by an aunt. He went to two Catholic schools in London. Such schools were illegal but were often tolerated in some places.

The taking of power to ourselves causes great harm

Retired Irish diplomat Philip McDonagh is the coauthor of  On the Significance of Religion for Global Diplomacy.

A quote from the book:

"The taking of power to ourselves, in one form or another, is the root of the suffering of hundreds of millions of people.

"Diplomats must take human and cultural values seriously in foreign policy planning and peacebuilding.

"Only ‘the culture of encounter’ - one of Pope Francis’ favourite phrases - founded on the humility to listen can restore the resonance of great fundamental words: mercy, discernment, justice, trust and hope."

Ransomware hackers are ‘earning' big money

The number of ransomware attacks worldwide last year rose by more than 60 per cent to 305 million.

Approximately 24 gangs control the market, earning $18 billion in ransom money last year.

The Colonial Pipeline hack earlier this month, carried out by a Russian-based gang called DarkSide, according to experts could have been far more severe had US authorities not targeted the infrastructure of the hackers.

With few options for prosecution, it is expected the US government would wait to go aggressively after the perpetrators of the Colorado hack.

Someone familiar with the US government’s approach said: “It’s 10 or 15 young guys or girls who party a lot and want loads of money.

“You don’t go after them in Russia, you go after them when they go on vacation in Greece."

Mother Russia and the West need to get talking

This week’s Mediahuis's Irish regional newspapers’ column. INM has been rebranded as Mediahuis.

Michael Commane

Russia is in the West’s bad books at present. In 2014 they annexed Crimea and they are playing a cat and mouse game with the territorial rights of Ukraine. In recent weeks they carried out large scale military manoeuvres on the Russia Ukraine border. The West saw the exercise as a serious provocation.

It is said they interfered in the US elections. They have been the number one suspect for cyber attacks on Western institutions.

And then there is Alexi Navalny, the Russian dissident and opposition leader. It is overwhelmingly accepted by experts in the West that it was Russian authorities who poisoned him with a Novichok nerve agent.

And he too has accused Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for attempting to poison him. Navalny was flown to Berlin’s Charité Hospital last August where he recovered from the attempt on his life. He returned to Russia in January. He is now serving a two and a half year sentence in a corrective labour colony on the outskirts of  Pokrov, which is approximately 100 kilometres east of Moscow.

The Russian authorities say he is a criminal and a terrorist. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Navalny’s human rights have been violated.

The West says one thing, the Russians another.

When the Iron Curtain fell and the Soviet Union collapsed there was great hope for detente between East and West.

What happened? Did we in the West patronise Mother Russia? Was it a good idea that Nato should expand so far east as Poland? How responsible is the West for creating an atmosphere that made it so easy for Vladimir Putin to become President of the Russian Federation? Did the West antagonise or belittle the Russian people?

 

Have we in the West ever appreciated what the Soviet Union did to save the world from the terror of Germany. We can easily use the term Nazis but that distracts us from the fact that it was the German State that caused 27 million Soviet citizens to lose their lives in World War II.

On Sunday, May 9 Russia celebrated its victory in what they call the Great Patriotic War.

But for what happened on the River Volga in 1942/’43 Americans might well have  been forced to nuke Germany into submission. The victory at Stalingrad, now called Volgograd,  was the significant turning point in the war.

When I was in school we heard little or nothing about the role Russia played in defeating Germany in the 1939 - 1945 war.

May is a hallowed month for Mother Russia. It was on May 8, 1945 that the Red Army’s Marshal Georgy Zhukov countersigned the unconditional surrender of Germany in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst.

It’s vital that people of good will from East and West will sit down, appreciate each other and work for peace. It is too simplistic to say all right resides with us in the West and Russia personifies evil. Mr Biden, Mr Putin, please sit down and talk to each other in trust and respect.

Across the European Union marriages down, divorces up

Across the European Union the number of marriages is decreasing, while numbers divorcing is increasing.

The marriage rate in the European Union has fallen from eight per 1,000 in 1964 to 4.3 in 2019, wheres the divorce rate over the same period has increased from 0.8 per 1,000 to 1.8 per 1,000.

In Ireland there were 4.1 marriages per 1,000 people in 2019, 3.5 in France, 5.0 in Germany, 7.0 in Lithuania.

In the same year in Ireland there were o.7 divorces per 1,000 people, in Latvia it was 3.1, Germany 1.8, France 1.9.

New Irish Independent publisher speaks inspiring words

Independent News & Media has rebranded, now calling itself Mediahuis.

Yesterday the company’s Irish publisher, Peter Vandermeersch was interviewed on RTE Radio 1’s Business programme.

He said that it was important for the company to be honest and fair with its employees.

“Let’s communicate in a way that is open, let’s do what we say and say what we do.”

He commented on how when they bought the paper the culture was sick.

“We are not working for a dinosaur that will die but for a future.

It made for great radio and well worth listening to the interview in full, which is available on the RTE website.

1940 McDonald success, 1988 Soviet failure

On this day, May 15, 1940 Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the first McDonald’s restaurant. 

Today there are over 39,000 McDonald restaurants in 119 markets.

On this day, May 8, 1988 the Soviet Army began to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. It meant 115,000 troops were on their way back to the Soviet Union.

It is said one of the reasons for their defeat in Afghanistan was because of the central command system within the army. All operational activities had to be sanctioned by remote commanders often far away from the theatre  of war. 

In the guerrilla warfare waged by the Afghans they would have attacked and caused damage and multiple casualties before the Soviet troops on the ground were given permission for a counter offensive.

Surely is has to be better to shop local

The next time you buy something from Amazon bear in mind that in 2020 their total sales income in Europe was €44 billion.

According to tax filing in Luxembourg the company paid nil corporation tax. 

How many Amazon parcels were delivered on your road yesterday.

Next time you are buying a book, why not check the website of a nearby bookshop and buy local.

Anonymity is corrosive of personal decency

In The Irish Times of Tuesday, columnist Finan  O’Toole challenged sacked Sunday Independent columnist Eoghan Harris on his anonymous social media account. The piece was titled ‘For newspaper columnists, anonymity is a betrayal'.

Indeed, anonymity is always a betrayal, a disservice to truth.

O’Toole finishes his piece writing:

"The resurgence, through social media, of anonymity as a primary mode of public discourse is corrosive of both personal decency and democratic debate. It breeds millions of Sneerwells and Snakes. [He refers earlier to the characters in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal].

"But it is also, paradoxically, a backhanded compliment to the power of one’s own name. Trolls don’t put their names to bad stuff because they want to keep them free of the taint of the gutless spite. They know anonymity is a form of shame. Journalists should be at least as careful of their own good names.

Suffering from Coronaangst and overzoomed

 This is a bit of fun.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/23/from-coronaangst-to-hamsteritis-the-new-german-words-inspired-by-covid

A Covid poetry book with a unique touch

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

Michael Commane

I am forever saying that it is the small things in life that so often work out to be the great and important moments. So often we miss a remark, a sentence a gesture and we end up being so much the poorer for it.

Last week I was chatting to a nurse in the hospital where I work. Noeleen McDaid is from Donegal, she’s an amateur actor and plays the guitar. 

In a passing remark she referred to a book that her guitar group had just published. Immediately I became curious and gave her no opportunity but to tell me the story.

It’s a Covid baby. One of the singers in the Nure group posted a poem called Caged Birds by Maya Angelou on their WhatsApp site. 

Most of the band members are from Dublin’s Terenure, hence the name Nure. From the WhatsApp postings emerged the idea of Nure Poets Corner WhatsApp group. Every Saturday morning a member of the group posted a poem they liked along with an accompanying introduction.

Forty-one poems were posted on the site. The majority of the poets were Irish but there were also poets from Nigeria, England, the US, Mexico, Chile and Japan.

From that simple beginning a beautiful book of poetry and commentaries has been published.  The book is called NurePoets Corner - Poems 2020 - 2021.

It consists of 24 poems and each of the contributors has commented on their poem of choice. 

In the second half of the book members of the group express their own personal comments on the poem and what it means to them. It’s a book that you can easily dip in and out of. Besides the poems, there are so many opinions and views that gives this book a unique touch. 

My nurse friend Noeleen chose Emily Dickinson’s ‘Hope’ is the Thing With Feathers. 

In her introduction to the poem she recalls how she loved Dickinson’s themes of death, immortality, faith and doubt when she was studying English for her Leaving Certificate. 

Justin Cunniffe in his comment on Noeleen’s poem alludes to the fact that hope is a quality that is especially needed right now in these times of Covid.

And like all good writing, he points out the Dickinson poem is as relevant today as it was when the American poet wrote it.  Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886 lived a reclusive life after an unhappy love affair. This poem was first published in 1891.

Alice Shaughnessy writes that on reading the Dickinson poem she is now going to go off and read more of the American’s poetry. It’s Alice’s wish that when we get back to the new normal, the little bird in the poem ‘perched in all our souls will sing to the heavens’.

In his introduction to the book Peter Coghlan refers to an Irish Times statistic that the late Eavan Boland often quoted; ‘while only 10 per cent of Irish people read poetry, 45 per cent of us write poetry.’ 

He hints that the time might well come when the group will publish a book of their own personal poetry. A great idea and I’ll be looking forward to perusing it. 

In the meantime, this book is a gem and congratulations to all involved.

Blessings ahead of International Day Against Homophobia

This was broadcast yesterday on WDR (West German Radio).

Westdeutscher Rundfunk or West German Broadcasting, is a public broadcasting organisation based in Cologne in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

"Blessings in spite of the Vatican's ban: At first it was just words, now action follows: 

Today and in the next few days, Catholic priests across Germany want to bless all loving couples - whether gay, lesbian or straight. And that, in spite of the fact that the Vatican only recently clearly banned any such blessings.

In the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, blessings are planned today in a number of places, including Aachen, Hattingen and Cologne. 

Under the motto #liebegewinnt, (lovewins) church services are registered all over Germany around the main day of action on May 10, which is one week before the International Day Against Homophobia. “

International Day Against Homophobia is Monday, May 17.

Germany has a new political rising star

According to the most recent polls German Green Party c0-leader Annalena Baerbock has overtaken Angela Merkel’s CDU Party ahead of Federal elections in Germany in September.

Baerbock was born in 1980 and grew up on a farm near Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony.

She speaks fluent English. She studied political science and law at Hamburg University and did a Masters in International Law at the London School of Economics.

Baerbock joined the Green Party in 2005. In 2013 she became a member of the Bundestag - German Parliament, representing Brandenburg.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/03/polls-put-german-green-party-in-lead-five-months-before-election

Surrender at Karlshorst

The German Instrument of Surrender, the definitive text ending World War II and the defeat of Germany was signed in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst on May 8, 1945 at 21.20 local Berlin time.

There were three language versions of the surrender document – Russian, English and German – with the Russian and English versions proclaimed, in the text itself, as the only authoritative ones.

ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER

1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.
2. The German High Command will at once issue orders to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 23.01 hours Central European time on 8 May 1945, to remain in all positions occupied at that time and to disarm completely, handing over their weapons and equipment to the local allied commanders or officers designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme Commands. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical means of prosecution of war in general.
3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Supreme Command of the Red Army.
4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.
5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Supreme High Command of the Red Army will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.
6. This Act is drawn up in the English, Russian and German languages. The English and Russian are the only authentic texts. Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed on behalf of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army. It was Zhukov who told Friedrich Paulus, commander of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad, that they would meet again in Berlin. Paulus never made it back to Berlin, though he did go on to advise the NVA, the army of East Germany. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel  as the Chief of the General Staff of the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) and as representative of the German Army  was one of three German signatories on the surrender document.

Michel Barnier’s tell-it-all diary on the Brexit negotiations

The Irish Times yesterday carried a report on Michel Barnier’s The Great Illusion: a secret Brexit diary (2016 - 2020).

The 500-page diary was published in French yesterday and an English version of the book will be available in October.

Throughout the book Barnier expressed his bewilderment with the British approach to the talks.

He talks about Dominic Raab as having ‘a messianic glint in his eye’.

He sees Theresa May as a courageous woman surrounded by men putting their own interests before those of their country.

Barnier did not trust David Frost, the British negotiator, nor did he admire his negotiating skills. 

Indeed, he told the British negotiators that their technique was a farce.

He admitted that Johnon’s indifference to the truth complicated the negotiations.

Barnier describes Leo Varadker as ‘courageous’ and praises him for the role he took in the abortion rights referendum.

The book is published by Gallimard.

Minister criticises selling of cheap alcohol

It is “not OK and not healthy” that some supermarkets are currently selling alcohol “cheaper than they are selling water”, according to the Minister for Health.

Stephen Donnelly insisted minimum unit pricing for alcohol is being introduced “because there is powerful evidence this works”.

Speaking at the official launch of the policy in Dublin on Tuesday, Mr Donnelly said there is alcohol-related mortality of more than 1,000 people a year, while international analysis estimated there were 2,700 deaths attributable to alcohol in Ireland in 2016.

He said the number of hospitalisations wholly attributable to alcohol doubled between 1995 and 2018.

Having fun reading a brain teaser

This has been doing the rounds as a meme on WhatsApp. It’s good fun, interesting too.

Note the words below. Initially, you will have difficulty reading them. However, gradually your brain will interpret the words correctly. Please give a chance for these words to speak to your brain. 

Here we go!

7H15                    M3554G3

 

53RV35          7O      PR0V3

 

H0W         0UR      M1ND5      C4N

 

D0         4M4Z1NG       7H1NG5!

 

1MPR3551V3            7H1NG5!

 

1N        7H3       B3G1NN1NG

 

17        WA5      H4RD      BU7

 

N0W,       0N    7H15       LIN3

 

Y0UR         M1ND      1S

 

R34D1NG 17         4U70M471C4LLY

 

W17H0U7            3V3N

 

7H1NK1NG      4B0U7     17,

 

B3      PROUD!        0NLY

 

C3R741N          P30PL3     C4N

 

R3AD           7H15!

 

PL3453         F0RW4RD     1F

 

U      C4N      R34D      7H15

This is a very good example of a brain study: If you can read this, your mind is still young and has no Parkinson, congrats!

Lovely brain teaser.

Try reading it over meaningfully. You will really enjoy...

A Christmas cake that arrives in Mid-April

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

Michael Commane

My Christmas cake arrived last Wednesday week. No, I have not lost my mind.

Indeed, it reminded me of fadó fadó when the family turkey would arrive by post in December. My granduncle never failed to send us a turkey for our Christmas dinner.

Back to the story of the April delivery of a Christmas cake. When I first went working at The Kerryman newspaper I became friendly with the mother of a Dominican colleague. Paul Lawlor is a Dominican, now working in Newbridge but spent many years at the Irish Dominican Priory in Tehran. 

I had the great privilege on one occasion to visit Paul in the Islamic Republic of Iran. I visited the holy city of Qom and was also in Isfahan and Shiraz, what a beautiful country and what amazing people.

On my return from Iran I was able to tell Paul’s mother, Lally, all about Paul, the great work he was doing and how he so loved the people and the country. It meant we became great friends and then when she moved to a nursing home I’d regularly call to see her and subsequently met other members of her family. 

I struck up a friendship with her daughter, two other sons and a daughter-in-law. It might have been my charm, but I doubt it, Lally’s daughter-in-law, Marianne at one Christmas went to the great trouble of making me a Christmas cake. 

And ever since it has become ‘custom and practice’ that I have a Christmas cake delivered to my door either immediately before or after Christmas. It’s a treat I have now become accustomed to and indeed, I’d be quite annoyed, I would even take umbrage if Marianne’s cake was not delivered to my door.

It was a given every year before Covid struck. Inter-county travel was prohibited. I couldn’t get to Kerry and Marianne or members of her family could not get to Dublin. During one of the breaks when restrictions were lifted Marianne’s son Cormac went down to Kerry.

He brought the cake back to Dublin just before Christmas. What happens? The five kilometre rule comes into play. We live more than five kilometres apart, so no cake delivery.

Within days of the five kilometre restriction being lifted last month Cormac arrives at my door with his mother’s Christmas Cake. At last I have it. It’s wrapped in many layers of greaseproof paper and tinfoil. Cormac has checked it and assures me it is in perfect condition. And so it is. 

That same evening I do an official cake-cutting ceremony. It’s the usual high standard and now I’m looking forward to Christmas cake-eating in May.

Having taken off the layers of protective covering I go looking for a suitable tin in which to place the cake. I eventually find the very same tin in which my mother kept her Christmas Cake. Older people may remember those green and white round tins with Marsh Mallow written on them.

I’m thinking of my mother, I’m thinking of my granduncle. So much of our lives revolve around our memories and what we did and didn’t do. And then that extraordinary bond with our parents and family. 

A day never passes when I don’t think of my parents.

Not a passport in the house and nowhere to go

There has been a significant backlog in issuing passports.

In mid-April there was a backlog of 92,000 but by Thursday of last week that number had been reduced to 89,000.

According to media reports 44,000 of the applications in the backlog were from people living in the Republic of Ireland.

Covid is a significant contributing factor to the backlog. Brexit too is not helping.

But why right now would anyone want a passport?

Today is World Press Freedom Day.

The future for children expelled from school

Two thirds of prisoners in English jails were expelled from school.

According to an 1997 study 77 per cent of prisoners  never sat a public examination, 80 per cent left school before the age of 16, 71 per cent were users of hard drugs, 81 per cent never married and 72 per cent had fathered children.

The Red flag flies high over Berlin on May Day 1945

On this day, May 1, 1945 a

German newsreader officially announced that Adolf Hitler had "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery  fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany”. 

That same day a soldier of the victorious Red Army raises the Soviet flag over that same Reich Chancellery.

The world could breathe again. The job was done.