A happy and blessed Easter to all readers.
This afternoon the State will celebrate the 1916 Rising.
At the ceremony at the GPO a commissioned officer will read aloud the Proclamation, something that is done every year.
Why not change the practice and have a soldier read the Proclamation?
This is a great story about the civil servant who was the instigator for the introduction of the smoking ban in Ireland.
Tipperary man, Tom Power did his homework and advised then minister for health, Micheál Martin how to handle the tobacco industry.
The world followed.
Has there been a word about him in the Irish media?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/29/ireland-smoking-ban-20-years-on-how-civil-servant-triumphed-against-big-tobacco?CMP=share_btn_urlBut with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship.
The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.
- Bono
Channel 4’s main evening news yesterday spent the first 20 minutes reporting on the UK Post Office scandal.
They played audio tapes from 2011 showing how the Post Office bosses knew about the problem with the Fujitsu Horizon programme.
Two years later Post Offices bosses were sending sub postmasters and postmistresses to prison, knowing full well that accusing staff of stealing money was not true.
It is a scandal beyond words.
The secrecy, obfuscation, lies perpetrated by the management class is shocking.
Where else does this go on?
One might be tempted to ask is it any wonder why so many people have turned their backs on the establishment. The outlandish sentiments, which appear on social media, might well have their genesis in the behaviour of the dark women and men at management level in State and church.
All Channel 4 programmes are available via internet. Last evening’s Channel 4 7pm news is highly recommended viewing.
German train drivers and DB German Rail have agreed to a new pay deal and working conditions. It means visitors to Germany can now be assured that the trains will be running.
The 35-hour week will gradually be introduced between now and 2029. The locomotive drivers (GDL) will receive a monthly pay increase of €420, which will be rolled out in two moieties by 2025. Drivers are also to receive an inflation compensation bonus of €2,850.
The average annual basic salary of a DB rail driver is €40k. Iarnród Éireann loco drivers have a basic annual salary of €48k.
High speed ICEs in Germany can travel at 363km/h. Ireland’s InterCity Express trains travel at 160km/h.
Other industrial news in Germany is the growing unease among the people of Brandenburg with working conditions at the new Tesla facility in the state.
This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.
Michael Commane
Former archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin introducing his music preferences on the Brendan O’Connor Show on St Patrick’s Day spoke about his early days in Clonliffe College in the 1960s.
He told the story about how when they headed out to study at UCD they were told by their dean that they were not to talk to their former schoolmates, whom they would meet at university.
He realised how mad that instruction was, and never kept the rule. Any time I have heard the former archbishop on radio or television I’ve been impressed with him. Diarmuid also spoke about the isolation of those seminary years and how the world had changed from 1962 to 1969 when he was ordained a priest. He realised full well men who were locked away for seven years were not capable of leading the people in their faith.
He set me thinking about priesthood.
Maybe there is no difference between how the machinery of priesthood works to that in any other profession, business or industry. There are careerists and sleeveens in every walk of life. Great people and crazy people too.
I wonder who that dean was, whom Diarmuid Martin mentioned? Where did he go after his job in Clonliffe? Did he end up a bishop?
It’s generally accepted that the papal nuncio, the Holy See’s ambassador to a country, has a large say in the appointment of bishops. And maybe particularly so in Ireland. In some countries governments play a role in the appointment of bishops, not so in Ireland. It is all done in great secrecy, which looks and sounds dangerous and unhealthy.
A former papal nuncio to Ireland, Gaetano Alibrandi was 20 years here in the job between 1969 and 1989. His tenure was exceptional and he left Ireland under some sort of financial cloud.
In his 20 years he had a major say in the appointment of bishops. In the world of diplomatic missions isn’t it odd that an ambassador has such a say in the internal workings of another state?
If a bishop decides to behave as a dictator he has a fair chance of getting away with it for long enough to do great damage to a diocese.
Diarmuid Martin said on the Brendan O’Connor Show, priests in the 1960s were hopelessly prepared for the world they were sent out to work in. Is the organisational church in any better state today in Ireland?
I can’t help believe that clericalism is intertwined with sycophancy and it weaves its way right down from the top to the local priest on the ground. And that’s never healthy.
Brendan O’Connor asked Diarmuid Martin was priestly training different now. Diarmuid replied: ‘yes and no’. They are not my words but the exact words of the former Catholic archbishop of Dublin.
Pope Francis is trying to change things. But what are his chances? How long more has he got?
It’s well there’s the Holy Spirit.
Any mention of this story in the Irish media?
An interesting story on aspects of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong. The report appears in the Financial Times Weekend of March 16.
Hong Kong’s Catholic Church has sought to reassure believers that confessions will remain confidential even after the Chinese territory approves a tough new security law.
Legislators are fast-tracking a broad national security law that is set to impose penalties of life imprisonment for treason and increase sentences for sedition. The bill has added to concerns that civil liberties are under threat as the territory increasingly aligns itself with Beijing.
Under the proposed law, people can face up to 14 years in prison if they breach the “requirement on disclosure of commission by others of offence of treason”.
The Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong said on Friday that the legislation would not “alter the confidential nature of Confession (Sacrament of Reconciliation) of the Church”. It acknowledged that “citizens have an obligation to ensure national security”.
The church’s statement comes after Ronny Tong, an adviser to city leader John Lee, said priests failing to report admissions of national security crimes during confession could face charges under the new law.
Paul Lam, the territory’s justice minister, told lawmakers last week: “If someone confesses that they are planning to assemble an army tomorrow and subvert the Hong Kong special administrative region or attack the country, these are very extreme scenarios . . . [but] it is difficult for us to make exceptions.”
Beijing introduced a wide-ranging national security law in 2020 in the wake of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong the year before.
The city is also required to introduce its own security legislation under the Basic Law, the mini-constitution introduced when the territory was handed to China from Britain in 1997.
Of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million population, approximately 392,000 are Catholic and 268 are priests, according to the diocese. While religion is not as strictly state-controlled as it is in mainland China, the church has trod a careful line since Beijing’s political crackdown on the city in the wake of the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
The diocese has not held commemorative masses for the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre for the past two years. Many of the city’s leading democrats are Catholic, including media mogul Jimmy Lai, who is on trial for alleged national security crimes, barrister Martin Lee and Joseph Zen, former bishop of Hong Kong. City leader John Lee, a former police officer and security minister who helped quash the 2019 protests, has also publicly said he is Catholic.
UK advocacy group Hong Kong Watch has warned that the law presents a “profound and grave” threat to religious confessions. A Hong Kong government spokesperson said the group was “anti-China” and deliberately misleading the public.
“The offences of treason and misprision of treason . . . do not target religious personnel or followers, and have nothing to do with freedom of religion,” the spokesperson said. “In any case, freedom of religion is not for protecting anyone who has committed serious offences from legal sanctions.”
Many of the territory’s Catholics are pro-democracy, said a Catholic researcher and longtime church-watcher in the city.
But given “they do not think they are wrong”, they will not necessarily bring up political matters in confession, the person noted.
The European Union has agreed on €7.4bn aid package to Egypt. It is part of a push to stem migrant flows to Europe.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi rules Egypt with an iron fist. There are those who say he is even a bigger dictator than former president Mubarak.
Maybe worth noting: since the visit to Ireland earlier this year of the Chinese premier this blog is now regularly read in China and every day over 1,300 people in Hong Kong read it.
Since the publication of the obituary of Fr Leo Donovan the blog is read daily in Trinidad by a number of people.
In the last 24 hours it was read in 75 countries around the world, with over 1,300 hits in Hong Kong. It is also read most days in Russia.
The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.
Michael Commane
Has it ever dawned on you how much we are the children of our parents and how as we get on in life, find ourselves doing so many of the things they did, even if we, in our younger years, dismissed as old-fashioned what they did?
On Palm or Passion Sunday I always bring home a sprig of palm and place it atop a mirror in my living room. Faith or tradition, maybe both? The palm from last year is still over the mirror and will be replaced tomorrow by a new piece.
Tomorrow is Palm or Passion Sunday. The first day of Holy Week in the Christian tradition. When I was a child, the only ‘theology' I can remember from the day was that it was the Sunday of the ‘Long Gospel’, then came the palm.
As an aside, I often wonder if we were any more Christian back then, than we are now? I doubt it, and I for one would not like to return to those days. It was a time when the priest who said the quickest Mass was the most popular in the parish. Wasn’t that weird?
I recall my mother, by accident, breaking the fast and asking the priest would it be ok to receive Communion at the Holy Thursday Mass. He said, no she couldn’t. Was it all to do with power and control? Most likely. If previous generations betrayed the Gospel, are we any better?
Does Palm Sunday have any relevance for you? What about Holy Week and the Easter ceremonies? Even if we are cultural Christians, the idea of selling Easter eggs during Lent, especially Holy Week, seems wrong. It is crass commercialism, and sadly we have become attuned to it.
Tomorrow is a powerful reminder of the lifelong story of our lives, from the remarkable joy of our birth to the devastating moment of our death. Jesus, the man we believe is God, triumphantly enters Jerusalem, later he is crucified. And here’s the turn in the story that makes it all so strange and wonderful, he rises from the dead. That’s the key to Christian belief and it’s not an easy thing to say.
As Fr Dougal might say: ‘Ted, it’s mad, isn’t it?’
Underneath the comedy there might well be much wisdom in what he says. Clichés can easily shield us from meaning and reality. They trip off our tongue, we forget or don’t really recognise what we are saying. Can the same go for religious practice? I think so.
No matter how much we try to airbrush them out of our lives, pain, suffering, death are intrinsic to what it means to be alive. We witness agony in the media on a daily basis. It’s so awful that we have to turn away from looking at it. We can do that at the press of a button.
Somehow or other we manage to keep the suffering and pain of others so far away that most of us get on with our daily lives oblivious to what is happening.
The starving child, the weeping mother, the pain beyond comprehension ... that’s life, but suffering is always lurking around the corner .We never know when it is going to strike.
Just as well. What meaningful words do we have to console one who has discovered, out of the blue, that they have a brain tumour?
Some say it’s part of life and it ends at the grave. I’m inclined to say, no, there’s more to us than this fragility and brokenness. Is that type of thinking a consolation prize that offers me security? I hope not.
I believe and am inclined to say life does not end at the grave. What lies beyond I have no idea. I hope and pray it is life everlasting.
Holy Week is a literal and metaphorical story about the journey of life. Easter Sunday is about hope and resurrection.
Dominican priest and author, Timothy Radcliffe, who recently spoke in Dublin, says that the death and resurrection of Jesus transforms humanity’s relationship with God.
While writing this column I received the following text message. Here it is, exactly as it was written: “Weather crap as usual - someday the sun will come out.” The story of our lives.
Last evening RTÉ’s main evening news did a vox pop in Greystones on what people thought of Simon Harris, who is a TD in the constituency.
Everyone who spoke was in praise of Simon Harris, there was not one negative voice.
Did it not sound somewhat similar to RT carrying out a vox pop in St Petersburg before the Russian election last weekend on what they thought of Vladimir Putin.
But the vox pop was carried out in Greystones.
Watching the news someone in Kerry asked if Simon Harris will ‘work' in rural Ir. eland.
Sinn Fein calling for an election sounds odd. The party argues the people have a right to an election. Confusing.
On this day in 2006 Twitter saw the light of day. It’s changed its name to X but it’s the same story and more or less, tells the same story.
Yesterday this blog featured an interview with X owner Elon Musk and it’s a fascinating to-and-fro between Don Lemon and Elon Musk.
Are there moments in the interview where it could be questioned if Musk is being illogical? Are there times when he is not being consistent?
But it makes for great television and both interviewer and interviewee make the viewer/listener think about X and the world of social media.
Retiring Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has called X a sewer pipe. Obviously Elon Musk would disagree.
The interview is well worth watching.
This is a fascinating interview with Elon Musk.
The interviewer is Don Lemon, who his hd his own wars with Musk. And this interview did not improve their relationship.
This is well worth watching.
This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.
Michael Commane
I want to explain to you something the Irish State is doing that is beyond ridiculous. I have written about it before but it urgently needs to be brought into the public forum and the exercise must be stopped immediately. It is the complete nonsense of the current system of Garda Vetting.
Let me explain my experience.
My job requires that I be Garda vetted every number of years to ensure that I have no criminal record. That makes perfect sense as my work can involve my interacting with children and vulnerable adults. I understand why I need Garda clearance for my job.
But the way the State is currently doing it is worse than preposterous. And what a waste of money and human resources.
On January 9 this year I received notification from the Dominican Order that having completed the Garda Vetting application form my records showed that I had no criminal record. In order for that Vetting Disclosure to be made I had to complete a form giving all my addresses from the day of my birth until then. Each address had to include full postal details and the length of time I spent at those addresses. In my case that is 14 addresses.
Earlier this month I received notification from my employer, this time not the Dominican Order, that to continue in my employment I had to be Garda vetted. Some days later I received the Garda Vetting application form. And guess what, I had once again to fill out all my addresses since my birth.
I have no idea how many times I’ve done this exercise since it was introduced on April 29, 2016. And each time the applicant’s application form has to be studied and examined by heaven knows how many people. What a complete waste of money. How many people are employed in this exercise?
I was told by the State only on January 9 I had no criminal record, which implied I could continue in ministry as a priest in the Dominican Order.
And now, just less than three months since I had been told I had a clear criminal record, I have been required to ask the State once again whether or not I have a criminal record.
I know someone who was required in a two-week period to complete three separate Garda Vetting application forms for three different employments.
Honestly, it is insane. Why not ask me only for my addresses since the last time I applied for Garda clearance? If Social Welfare can give me so much information about myself why can’t the Garda Vetting system have a similar system in place?
Why does the person who requires Garda Vetting have to be vetted for each different employment? Why does the Garda Vetting system not have a universal application?
Who thought up this system? Probably, whoever they are, has retired on a multi-thousand severance package.
Why are people not objecting to the current system? Has anyone ever phoned the Joe Duffy Show about it. It would make a great topic on which Joe could chew. Someone, please call Joe.
The link below is Donald Trump’s speech in Dayton Ohio on Saturday.
It is excruciatingly boring, a rant but a mix of so much. At times it is vile, other times ignorant and rude. The man uses extreme vulgar words and on one occasion sexual words that are not fit for the gutter.
But note the adoring crowds, watching and listening in adulation to every word he says.
Every time he denounces people the crowd screams. The young women and men, adoring every word he says. They are in their element.
Last evening RTÉ2 Television screened an hour-long documentary, titled ‘Hitler: A Life in Pictures’.
Hitler in Pictures complements Trump in Ohio. Frightening.
It’s has always been considered taboo and journalistically kitsch ever to compare anyone to Hitler. But the day is here and the reality is happening in front of our eyes.
On Saturday Trump uses the word ‘bloodbath’. Listen to him, watch him.
Yulia Navalnaya takes up her husband’s cause.
She has called on all Russians to protest today. She asks Russians to go the polls at midday. By doing so at that moment they will show Putin and the world how strong their protest is.
The three day ‘election' across 11 time zones ends tonight. The result is already known, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will be the next president of Mother Russia. Term of office is for six years, after which he is eligible to be ‘reelected’.
Happy St Patrick's Day to all readers.
A victim of rape whose case goes to court is considered by Irish law to be a witness and not a victim.
State authorities have access to the person’s therapist’s notes.
Strange law, strange rules.
Matt Fradd is a Catholic speaker, evangelical in style. He is creator and host of the 'Pints With Aquinas' podcast. He is the author and coauthor of several books including Does God Exist? A Socratic Dialogue on the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas.
On his website there is a picture of him smoking what seems to be a giant cigar.
Mr Fradd is a convert to Catholicism. Having attended a World Youth Day in Rome he became a Catholic.
He has many videos on YouTube, including one called Defending The Faith.
In this 34-minute talk he tells the story about chatting with Jehovah Witnesses who call to his home in San Diego. He refers to them as being 'beautiful Jehovahs Witness' and then says: "They weren't terribly attractive physically, but I am sure they had good hearts, I'm not actually terribly sure of that either, I'm just trying to be charitable, they were decent people probably, maybe not, I don't know, didn't have a long in-depth conversation, so the two men,[the crowd laugh, he says 'shut up'], showed up with Bibles and we started talking about the faith."
It's not impressive, indeed anything but. And right through his talk on several occasions he uses profanities and vulgar words.
It was a comment he made while explaining about logical fallacies.
Matt Fradd is currently giving talks in Ireland.
Channel 4 concludes its four-part series on the Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson this evening at 9pm.
The series clearly shows that Boris Johnson is a supreme chancer.
Jeremy Corbyn in the programme describes him as someone with a very intelligent mind inside a strange dishonest persona.
Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was judged illegal by the Courts.
It’s striking how quickly we can forget outrageous behaviour.
Tune in this evening at 9pm.
This is a lovely story. To recognise genius and then speak about it in these words is powerful, so clear, brilliant.
Thank you Emily Blunt.
This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column
Michael Commane
I never heard either of my parents say the f… word, indeed, my parents did not use bad language.
I watched a few minutes of RTÉ’s drama series Blackshore and in that short time I heard a number of fs… being said.
There are people who will say they are simply words. But have you ever noticed when you hear people raising their voices and fighting on the street when they use bad or obscene language how awful and vulgar it sounds?
And then there’s the daily use of obscene words, the f word is used in every second sentence, used as a noun, adjective, verb, every possible part of speech.
Comedians tend to use dodgy words and it seems to get them more laughs.
Is there anything wrong with vulgar or obscene language?
I’m sure I’m using more bad language today than I did 10, 20, 30 years ago. And that’s not a good idea. I certainly know my parents would not approve of some of the words I have said.
Come Ash Wednesday I often find myself scratching my head and wondering what I should or should not do for Lent. This year I made a timid decision to try to stop saying all bad words. We are now into the fourth week of Lent and guess what, I’m not doing too badly.
Any time I do say an expletive these days I’m reminded of my Lenten intention and reprimand myself for what I have said. Especially at home when I curse in my own space I’m simply not happy with my behaviour.
I was made aware of the horror of bad language last week. I was walking to work. Rain was forecast and just as I was leaving home I noticed a drop of rain, which meant I decided to take an umbrella with me. The rain stayed away so there was no need to use the umbrella, at least to protect me from he rain. It was morning rush hour, heavy commuter traffic.
I was on the footpath passing an entrance to a large apartment block when a black SUV came right out in front of me. I spontaneously and immediately lifted my umbrella in the direction of the car to tell the driver to stop and that I had right of way. Had we both kept going he would have knocked me down.
On seeing the raised umbrella he opened his window, and in a rage, screamed expletives at me. He was verbally abusive. I was shocked but not shocked enough to run away. Instead I simply said that his foul language was in keeping with his general bad behaviour and dangerous driving. That made him even more crazy, shouting more expletives at me as he drove off in a most aggressive fashion.
It all sounded so violent and angry. The moment he drove off I was saying to myself what must life be like inside his home. How must he treat his partner and other members of his family. Does he use that sort of language at work, every time things don’t go his way?
That driver in his SUV has been a great help to me to continue on my Lenten resolve, indeed, to give up all bad language for good.
Is Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) correct when he says death is the only thing we haven’t succeeded in completely vulgarising?
It is estimated that 29,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded in Ukraine in February, their heaviest loses since the invasion began two years ago.
What horror that is for the women and men and their extended families. It sure is some 'Special Military Operation'. It’s ‘special' to lose a limb.
It is said over 100,000 Russian lives have been lost in the battle to date.
A senior EU official was quoted last week as saying that it is no longer a case that there could be a full scale war in Europe but rather when.
Pope Francis’ comments as reported last evening of his calling for talks to begin has upset the Ukrainians and many of its allies.
Two referendums that should never have happened. Why The Citizens’ Assembly? Is the Oireachtas not the place to legislate?
These referendums will give impetus to the far-right.
How much did the entire operation cost?
US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
He seems fit and well. Compare his words with those of his predecessor.
https://youtu.be/cplSUhU2avc?si=giMDFkzWQclMIZE-
On this day, March 8, 1966
During the night Lord Nelson had been toppled. Dublin’s Nelson's Pillar had been blown up and all that was left was less than half the structure. It was purportedly blown up by the IRA.
The Irish Army, using explosives, removed the rest of the structure. It’s said that the army did not do as neat a job as the original bombers.
In its place today stands the Spire.
Supervalu sells a 500g pot of Glenilen Farm natural yoghurt for €1.75. Lidl sells the same product for €2.25.
A number of people were told the Supervalu price and then asked what it was selling for in Lidl. One hundred per cent of those asked guessed it was selling cheaper in Lidl.
That’s a large markup, close to 29 per cent. Is it fair?
Many shoppers are both money and time poor. They have not the time nor inclination to ‘shop around’. People go into a shop, get a trolley and fill up.
People with little resources need to be helped and supported and not exploited by the tricks of wealthy business.
Last evening Channel 4’s evening news carried a report on children dying in Gaza as a result of starvation. The pictures were horrific. One tiny child suffering from cerebral palsy, his desolate mother standing by his bed. At the end of the clip we were told the child had died. His eyes, his legs, no child should suffer this.
The programme went on to interview a Palestinian politician who had been released from prison. He spoke about how he had been stripped naked and humiliated while in an Israeli prison.
And then at the end of the programme a former member of the Knesset was interviewed. She spoke about the evil and horror that Hamas inflicts on the people of Israel and on its own people. She denied that prisoners are humiliated in Israeli prisons and blamed Hamas for the suffering of the Palestinians. She also said that the UN does not favour Israel.
This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ colum.
Michael Commane
It must have been in the
After the course I spent a few months working at The Irish News in Belfast and then got a job with the Newry Democrat. It was sometime around the time of the death of Princess Diana that I saw an ad in The Sunday Independent where The Kerryman newspaper was looking for journalists. I answered the ad, got the job and spent a number of extremely happy years working as a sub editor at the newspaper.
It was my job to edit texts, put stories and pictures on pages. It was a pressurised job and I by no means was the fastest sub editor in the world but I learned so much about words and how to string sentences together. The job gave me a great feel for words and how important they are.
Every Monday morning Michael O’Regan’s weekly column would land in my inbox. The sad death of the proud Kerryman on Sunday, February 18 has received wide coverage in the national media and in The Kerryman.
Michael was parliamentary correspondent for The Irish Times but took great pride writing his brilliant weekly political column in The Kerryman, where he started out on his journalistic career. It was my job to sub it and then place it on the page. In all the years I did that job I don’t think I ever had to change a word and if, on the odd occasion, I had a question for him he always dealt with it in such friendly way.
Michael O’Regan never for a moment thought his words or full stops were the most important in the world. As a result of working with him on that column we became friends over the years.
Any time I wanted advice about something I was writing I always knew Michael was at the end of the phone. In the close to 30 years I have known him he was always so kind and helpful to me.
And then in recent years when he fell ill with cancer we had some great chats.
Michael had that wonderful gift of making me feel important. He never stood on ceremony and always had time to listen and consider a different view than his own.
Only in January I called him to go over some legal issue pertaining to a piece I was writing. He was so helpful. He went through it with me, and by the time the call ended I found myself taking his advice and then editing the piece accordingly.
I attended Michael’s funeral Mass in Holy Cross Church, Dundrum. The Mass booklet was a fabulous production, which included John B Keane’s poem ‘My Father’. It was a true Christian goodbye to a man who had spent his life in courage and sensitivity, always trying to tell the story in as an objective and truthful a manner as possible. In doing so he could often be funny but never nasty.
He was a people’s person, who enjoyed observing them. I shall miss him. A gentleman and a great journalist.
