Religious zealotry is never a long term solution to anything

Maybe I'm the odd man out, maybe

Goatstown Educate Together School

it's the story of my life.

When I moved to the Dominican Priory in Tallaght in 1969 as a young student, Paul Hynes was prior; he was a dynamic man, who inspired me. And there were many with similar views.

He was among a number of young Dominicans, who were intent on bringing the

Goatstown Educate
Together School

Gospel message to the people, and to do it in a language, understandable and available to their listeners/hearers.

They were exciting times; the ideas of Vatican Council were reverberating around the world and it was part of the vocabulary of most Dominican priories.

The military dress of clericalism was being replaced with a pleasant, friendly apparel that toppled priests off their ivory towers. During this time some of the finest clerical students and priests left their priories and seminaries, much to the detriment of dioceses and religious congregations. It was a great time of questioning, a time of wonder, and also a time for laughing and good humour.

Until the early 1990s it was custom and practice in Ireland that Dominicans did not wear the habit in public.

Everything has changed; rubrics and weird liturgies are back in prominence, so much of it meaningless to most of us.

Most times when I see or hear Dominican news it is sad, turgid, boring material that honestly wants me to cry, maybe even laugh at the absurdity of it. So often pomposity written all across it; the majority of it cliched clericalism, not a word of creativity of honest inspiration about it.

When I see men and women walking about in public wearing religious garb I ask myself what are they about. It comes across to me as a type of fashion accessory. They stand out; St Dominick designed and wore the habit to do the opposite. Maybe one can exclude the Franciscans, who have, from their foundation, worn the habit on the public street.

Over 300,000 public service workers were on strike across the State yesterday. I took part in the strike as a school teacher. I was there to support my working colleagues, members of the ASTI, TUI and Fórsa. But I was also there as a protest at what I see is happening across the Irish Catholic Church. The world of Trump and all it stands for is spreading its tentacles in the church. And it seems right wing US Catholicism is gaining ground on this, the island of saints and scholars.  What a pity; it has no future, none at all.

Zealotry is never a longterm solution to anything. Isn't it St Thomas who says prudence is the most important of all the virtues.

Pope Leo and US bishops have cried stop to State killings

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

Last week I wrote in this column about the attempted killing of Christa Pike; the great news is that she is still alive. But since then a lot has happened in the world of US killings and how they are talking about the subject. 

Secretary of Defence, now called Secretary of War last week made some of the most disgusting statements I’ve ever heard. He told the world that former army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan would be killed by firing squad, that it was going to be live streamed so that everyone would be able to watch it. Hasan shot dead 13 unarmed soldiers and wounded another 32 at the Fort Hood military base in 2009.

Just stop and think about it for a moment; in Tennessee a woman, whom US authorities attempted to kill, not once, but twice, is now back in prison waiting to hear when the authorities will attempt to kill her again. 

In Texas a former soldier is to be shot by firing squad and the US authorities hope to live stream his killing.

Honestly you could not make this up.

It is beyond annoying to see US world leaders being feted and treated reverentially and to think these same men are responsible for the attempted killing of Christa Pike and the planned television spectacle of the killing by firing squad of Nidal Hasan.

The stupidity of it. All they are doing is creating a martyr, who will go down forever in history for fighting the infidel. His name and photo will be a symbol of struggle across the Muslim and Arab world for generations to come.

And then to hear teddy-boy-in-chief, aka US Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, though he and his boss now use the title Secretary of War, say: ‘We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.’

On Saturday Pope Leo wrote on X: ‘The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. 

Justice and the common good can be secured through effective systems of detention that do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption.’ 

And it’s not Leo’s first time to speak out on the subject, only in April he upheld efforts to abolish the death penalty in a video message to a US university.

In 2018 Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to state that the church officially opposes the death penalty.  

On October 2 the Tennessee Catholic Conference  of Bishops said: ‘Accountability for grave wrongdoing is necessary, but it does not require the taking of another life.’

We all know how the world worships the Dollar Bill but surely the world must now know what a cruel place this ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ can be.

Do we realise how privileged we are to live within the European Union, where the death penalty is proscribed.

All my life I’ve wondered why the US flag is atop so many flagpoles across our land. Why do we do that?

Last week I bet Pope Leo would speak, and so he has.

Will TDs lose a day's pay on Wednesday?

 A letter in The Irish Times yesterday:

No Dáil sitting on Wednesday?

Sir, – There will be no Dáil sitting on Wednesday as more than 100,000 public sector workers prepare to take part in a nationwide strike over pay (“Dáil sitting next Wednesday cancelled due public sector workers’ strike”, News, October 10th). Let me get this one right: the Government has decided they won’t turn up for work on Wednesday because of the strikes? I find it difficult to comprehend that our politicians have made such a decision.

Our TDs should display leadership by turning up for work, especially when a lot of this imbroglio is of their own making. – Yours, etc,

John O'Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.

But a question; if there be a picket on Dáil Éireann on Wednesday and TDs  Senators don't pass it will they lose a day's pay, like the rest of us who will be on strike or refuse to pass a picket?

Bishop Robert Barron stays mum on US killings

It seems US bishop, Robert Barron has not issued a direct public statement regarding the announcement of the upcoming December 3, 2026, execution and planned live streaming of Nidal Hasan. 

Many US Catholic leaders and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops have strongly condemned the decision. 

And on Saturday Pope Leo condemned

Bishop Barron sits on some commission set up by President Donald Trump.

A red letter day in the history of the Catholic Church

On this day, Thursday, October 11, 1962 The Second Vatican Council began. It was the first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church in c does to 100 years.

Pope John XXIII, set the ball rolling. It concluded on December 8, 1965 under Pope Paul VI.

If all the ifs and ands made pots and pans.....

Where would the church be today if Saint Pope John had not set the ball rolling?

We'll never know.

It's interesting how a new generation who knows little or nothing about Catholic Ireland before Vatican II are now yearning to return to so much of bygone days.

The church right now is fortunate to have Pope Leo at the helm continue the work of John XXIII and Francis Number One.

Former German chancellor snuggles up to Putin in Moscow

Since the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine Russia has bombed over 4,700 educational institutions in the country according to Ukrainian

Schröder and Putin

Ministry of Education.

How strange the world has become. On Wednesday Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated his 74th birthday, and guess who was present at the binge? None other than former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder attended the birthday bash. 

Unsurprisingly, current German Chancellor commented on how inappropriate it was for Schröder to attend as did German Finance Minister, Lars Klingbeil.

Two in five can travel free in Ireland and to off-shore islands

Over 1.18 million people qualify for the Free Travel Pass, with the total number of beneficiaries increasing to over 2.06 million when spouses and companions are included.

If a person qualifies for the Free Travel Pass they are also entitled to travel free in Northern Ireland.  To avail of the concession they are obliged to apply to Translink in Northern Ireland.

But that is not to be confused with travel between Dublin and Belfast, which is covered by the Republic of Ireland Free Travel Pass.

Priests demonstrate in Rome

 An interesting story from Global Catholic and worth a read

https://www.globalcatholic.com/whose-nostra-aetate-the-church-judaism-israel-and-leos-pontificate/

Dominican priest Finian Lynch celebrates his 100th birthday

In recent years this blog publishes obits on the deaths of Dominicans and former Dominicans, if their death  is brought to the attention of the

Finian Denis Lynch OP

blog writer.

But today is a special day in the Irish Dominican Province as a member of the province reaches the noble age of 100.

On Thursday, October 7, 1926 Denis Lynch was born on Valentia Island in Co Kerry. 

Up until approximately two years ago Finian was living in the Dominican Priory on Pope's Quay in Cork; he is currently in a nursing home in the city.

He made his first profession in the Dominicans in 1947, when he was given the name Finian, and was ordained a priest on July 13, 1952.

He was a much sought after man in the province, was prior in many communities, assistant to Flannan Hynes during his time as provincial, provincial bursar. 

In middle age he went to South America and worked in Argentina, where he worked for a number of years.

He is a man who  often comes up in conversation over the years; I've often heard wonderful funny stories about him. Obviously he has a great sense of humour. There's a famous story about black paint, unfortunately I do not have all the details. He has a lovely gentle smile. But that does not mean that people always agree with him.

He lived through significant changes in the church and had little or no difficulty moving with the times.

Surely the province must raise a toast today to our centenarian from Valentia Island in Co. Kerry.

Congratulations Finian, well done and thank you.

Botched killing of a woman in a Nashville jail is an obscenity

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper

Michael Commane

It’s worth noting how we remember many of the specific things our parents say to us. Anytime my mother heard of some bad human behaviour she would say to all of us: ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. 

I didn’t know then she was quoting a line from the Scottish poet Robert Burns in which the last stanza finishes with: ‘Man’s inhumanity to man/Makes countless thousands mourn!’

My mother’s words jumped out at me last week when I heard of the gruesome story of the botched attempt of killing Christa Pike in the execution chamber in a Nashville prison in the United States. Christa Pike was sentenced to death in 1996 for taking part in the killing of fellow Jobs Corps worker, Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 at the time of the murder. 

From my reading around the case it would seem that Pike had a troubled background and said herself at some stage that she was mentally ill when she took part in the killing of Colleen Slemmer. 

Christa Pike was born with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder FASD as a result of her mother’s heavy drinking during the pregnancy. She was raped by a neighbour when she was an 11-year-old child and attempted suicide the following year. 

She was physically and sexually abused by many of her mother’s boyfriends. At 15 she was sent to a detention centre for stealing sweets. It was a tough place. After her release she enrolled in a Jobs Corps programme and it was while there she took part in the murder of Colleen Slemmer; she thought Slemmer was stealing her boyfriend. 

A profoundly sad story from beginning to end.

This is the woman whom the United States wants to kill

Every aspect of the horrific story is appalling. I heard a journalist, who was present at the attempted killing, say that it really had no effect on him as he was just there doing his job. Where did I hear that before, the guards at Auschwitz?

Forty minutes after officials had administered two doses of the lethal drug pentobarbital, she was still alive. It seems officials were about to call back in the chaplains. When I saw that I wanted to scream. How could any sane chaplain witness this sort of torture? But didn’t the women stay at the foot of the Cross despite the insanity of it?

Eventually when the officials realised their handiwork had not succeeded she was moved to a hospital to be resuscitated. The entire story, from beginning to end, is obscene and a nation that allows this sort of brutality has not much to offer the world. People do terrible things but do states have to follow suit? Yes, prison is a place of punishment; it is not a place for revenge. What sort of rehabilitation has she been offered over her three decades in prison?

It’s so easy to call someone a monster. Over the years I’ve spoken to many so-called monsters. I keep saying if all our ‘monsters’ were ever shown a scintilla of love and respect, would the world not be a better place.

What happened last week in Tennessee is outrageous.

I hope Pope Leo will have a word to say about it. Bet he will.

Christa Pike is alive, Alleluia

 Great news this evening, Christa Pike is alive. That she is shackled and handcuffed tells the world all we need to know about US justice.

Please, Pope Leo, speak to your fellow countrypeople.

Former Dominican Michael McCarthy (1941 - 2026) RIP

Former Dominican priest Michael

Michael McCarthy

McCarthy died today in Cork.

Michael was born on February 17, 1941 in Galway, joined the Dominican Order in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1966.

On completion of his philosophy and theology studies he obtained a BA from the University of Galway.

On retiring from priesthood in the mid-1970s he spent his working life with the Construction Industry Federation, where he was an industrial relations executive. Micheal was responsible for the pension fund for builders in Munster.

He was married to Matina, who died four years ago. They had two children Nicola and Garret.

Michael had been in poor health for the last three years. At the weekend he suffered a fall and was in a coma before dying.

A close friend remarked: "Michael was a devoted  family man and a very fine person".

I vaguely knew Michael, but on the few occasions we met I always felt he had time for me. He was genuinely interested in my views and opinions. He also had a good sense of humour and a reassuring laugh. He was interested in listening to people and understanding their situation. He was a most charitable person with a stamp of authenticity written all over him.

I remember Michael as 'one of the good guys'. He certainly was a terrible loss to the Irish Dominicans but a great treasure to his late wife, two wonderful children and two grandchildren.

May he rest in peace.

The Irish word Shleeveen perfectly hits the spot, brilliant

Every language has its special words, every language has gems that are almost impossible to translate.

And Irish is no exception, indeed, maybe Irish is top of the class when it comes to such words.

One word comes to mind and it is shleeveen, it can also be spelt sleeveen, but the added h gives it even more meaning.

The Google dictionary  says it is an Irish-English slang word for a sly, cunning, a smooth-tongued, or untrustworthy person.

That is not too bad a definition, but the word says so much more; there is a wonderful nuance to it and it captures exactly a certain type of person. 

You could add to the Google definition, a nasty chancer, a person who pretends to be something else. Shleeveens are nasty people, people who never serve the common good but are experts at pretending they do; maybe self-appointed experts. It's a great word, it even has a touch of onomatopoeia about it. Once you recognise it, it sits so easy with the person.

There are different types of shleeveens, there's the quiet one, who pretends he knows nothing and the pompous one, who pretends he's an expert in everything.

Can a woman be a shleeveen? Probably not.

Oil companies profiting from a sick planet is obscene

Mark O'Connell at his very best in the weekend edition of The Irish Times.

No one should miss this article. How long more will the people of the world allow this to go on? Only one word to explain the profits they are making, obscene.

The calculus could not be more simple: if it’s bad for humanity, it’s good for the oil industry. This year, after the US and Israel started a war with Iran and caused one of the most serious supply disruptions in the history of the oil market, many of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies recorded massive increases in profits.

In August, the Guardian published a report detailing the huge windfalls enjoyed by major oil companies as a result of the conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. In the spring quarter of this year, the first full financial quarter after the war began, eight of the largest companies in the sector – among them BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and the state-owned Saudi energy giant Aramco – almost doubled their combined profits compared with the same period last year. Throughout that quarter, these companies made some $93 billion in profit, or almost $700,000 (€620,000) every single minute.

Aramco recorded the largest increase in profits, a 34 per cent leap above the same period last year, despite the damage caused to its infrastructure by Iranian and Houthi missile strikes. According to the group Carbon Majors, which traces emissions to the organisations and states that produced the fuels, Aramco is allegedly responsible for more carbon emissions than any company in history.

Gigantic war profits

It’s worth recalling what else was happening in the world while such gigantic war profits were being raked in by these companies and their shareholders. There were successive extreme heatwaves across Europe, with temperature records broken in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom, and some 36,000 excess deaths during the heatwaves.

Here in Ireland, it was the hottest summer in history; according to Met Éireann, July was the driest month ever recorded in the country. Meanwhile, continental Europe experienced a season of catastrophic wildfires. Across France and Spain, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes – the largest such mass evacuations in peacetime since the second World War. And last month’s catastrophic flash flood in Nepal, which killed at least 1,400 people, was triggered by the collapse of a glacier – precisely the kind of extreme event we know to be increasingly common as a result of human-caused climate change.

That these oil companies and their shareholders are recording such healthy profits at a time when their product is so visibly sickening the planet is a moral obscenity. And as with many moral obscenities, it is the result of a business model proceeding precisely as intended by those who designed it. All of these companies have invested massive amounts of money over many decades in preventing the application of the kind of policies – at the level of individual governments and at the level of collective international action – that might have stopped or mitigated the consequences we are now forced to live with.

The Saudi government in particular, as one of the world’s top exporters of oil, has been relentless in undermining international efforts to transition to renewable energy. Here’s how Al Gore put it after last year’s UN Cop30 Climate Summit in Brazil: “Saudi Arabia appears to be determined to veto the effort to solve the climate crisis, only to protect their lavish income from selling the fossil fuels that are the principal cause of the climate crisis.”

According to a recent report by climate-focused investigative organisation DeSmog, the UK’s Reform Party has received £24 million (€28.15 million), about two thirds of its total funding, from donors with financial interests in the fossil fuel industry. The party, which essentially acts as the political wing of the oil industry in the UK, has committed to scrapping the government’s net zero policies. Its manifesto talks about this in terms of cutting the cost of living for consumers (“British households and business are being crushed by among the highest energy costs in the world – driven by bad ideological policy”), but the real aim seems to be to keep profits flowing into the coffers of the fossil fuel industry.

There is, surely, a gap in the electoral market here in Ireland. If I were an oil industry representative thinking about making a long-term play in Irish politics, I would be taking a good look at the meeting held in Westmeath last weekend by some of the organisers of the fuel protests that brought the country to a standstill earlier this year. The meeting was led by Christopher Duffy – a prominent figure in April’s fuel protests – who announced that the group would block roads again if their demands to abolish carbon tax and reduce excise and VAT on fuel were not granted. The abolition of carbon tax would certainly reduce the cost of doing business for hauliers and agricultural contractors like Duffy; it would also be of huge benefit to oil companies.

Environmental devastation

These business owners’ aims are entirely in sympathy with those of the fossil fuel industry. (Despite the populist framing of their outrage at the Government and the costs it is forcing ordinary Irish people to bear for transport, the protesters seem to have nothing to say about the recent announcement that public transport fares will be increased by an average of 15 per cent from next January.)

It is ultimately depressing that the protest movement currently threatening to bring the capital city to a standstill once more is not one demanding that the Government does more to reduce emissions, or to mitigate the effects of climate change – but one demanding that it does less.

The companies now raking in huge profits, after decades of preventing any attempt to move away from a fossil fuel-driven global economy, are directly responsible for incalculably vast environmental and economic devastation.

Just as consumers – and, yes, business owners such as the fuel protesters – are being forced to absorb the cost of fuel hikes resulting from the war with Iran, humanity as a whole is being forced to pay for those profits with its future.

In his final address to the recent UN General Assembly, the outgoing secretary general António Guterres reiterated a call he has been consistently making since the start of his tenure in 2017: that the oil companies must be made to pay – in the form of compensatory payments and windfall taxes – for the damage they have inflicted on this planet, its ecosystems and its inhabitants. “Those who polluted the most, and profited the most,” he said, “must do far more to repair the damage they caused. Polluters must pay.”

The US president, though he famously believes climate change to be “the greatest con-job ever perpetrated on the world”, takes, in his own way, no less dim a view of the massive profits the oil companies have been making as a result of the global chaos he himself unleashed this year. “They’re making too much money based on a shortage,” as he put it. “I don’t like it.”

Staring at men in white habits pass by on a sunny day

Someone sent the following text message to this blog yesterday: 'At Heuston Station waiting to collect someone. One of your men is walking around in robes. Security are watching him.'

Last Monday, September 28 there was a photo on page five of The Irish Times of three Dominicans.

The caption read: 'Members of the clergy walk past Kehoe's pub on South Anne Street in Dublin City centre as patrons enjoy the fine weather outside.'

Until approximately the early 1990s it was custom and practice that Dominicans did not wear their habits in public.

Why the change now?

In the picture in The Irish Times the people sitting down seem to be looking/staring at the young men passing, dressed in their perfectly ironed and spotless white habits.

Why wear them? It might well appear habit wearing in public is some sort of showcase with the habits as a type of fashion accessory.

Who would want people gawking at them as they walk about the streets of the capital, or indeed, anywhere?

St Dominic and his community wore clothes that were in fitting with those worn by the poor people of the day, so as to blend in with them.

Wearing the Dominican habit in public today creates a completely opposite approach or desire than that intended by the founder of the Dominican Order.

Celebrating the day of German Unity, but what if?

On this day, October 3, 1990 The German Democratic Republic was abolished, and incorporated into The Federal Republic of Germany.

The event is marked as a national holiday every year.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall there was discussion which anthem would be adopted to represent the new Germany. Would it be the anthem of the former GDR or that of the Federal Republic? There was also the possibility of a new anthem, but in the end the Wessies won out and the anthem of the Federal Republic is the anthem of the united Germany. Only the third verse of the old Deutschlandlied is sung. Modern Germany could never tolerate the other two verses.

What if Germany had not been united? What after the fall of the Wall two separate German states had been established. What if Nato had not moved eastward?

The hope that was imagined when the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbatchev came to Berlin in October 1989 to celebrate 40 years of the GDR. He threw his arms around the First Secretary of the SED, Erich Honecker and told him in no uncertain terms that life punishes those who come too late. 

Anthem of the former German Democratic Republic -  https://youtu.be/9YEtRZ18_H8

Anthem of the Federal Republic of Germany - 

https://youtu.be/Xsu9cwwIiuw?si=ckzZ1I3F0vv0i4o9

'Creepy billionaires who can't count their wealth'

 US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse speaking about how corrupts the US system is. This speech was delivered last year; it shows there are some good US politicians still not afraid to speak their minds in the Trump era.

The section on electricity pricing is extremely interesting, so make sure to stay with it.

Sheldon tells his fellow senators that one per cent of the US population own 30 per cent of the wealth and the poorest half own three per cent.

Elsewhere in his speech he has a great line: 'Creepy billionaires who can't count their wealth'.

https://youtu.be/sIcHLLrpGYA?si=hDptC7K7Iz-i3udL

Michael O'Leary shows how we all live in our own bubble

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said investors who objected to his €150mm share rewards scheme need to 'grow up'.

He made the comment after 40 per cent of investors voted against his next contract from 2028.

It's interesting how we all live in our own bubble; we all do it.

Why won’t people speak to me when I call the number?

This week's column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

Conor, who is now in his 50s, told me a funny story about how one day sometime around 4pm he received a cold call from a bank. On introducing herself and explaining why she was calling, Conor explained he was busy at the time and asked for her home number,

so he would call her back later that evening. 

Fadó fadó I taught Conor. In all the years since, he has not lost his sense of humour and ability at being funny, indeed, to the extent of annoying people. No doubt he annoyed the woman from the bank that day. 

Well-done Conor; we are all sick and tired with receiving unwanted calls at all hours of the day and night. 

The corollary of that is how difficult it can be to make a simple phone call to an organisation when looking for information. Have you noticed how difficult it has become to discover the phone number of a company or organisation; how often have I scrolled down a website looking for a phone number, never to have any success. 

In a 10-day period this month I have had two infuriating and frustrating experiences trying to get through to a number. On one occasion, attempting  to phone a newspaper, not this one, I was left over 12 minutes before the line went dead. I tried again in the afternoon to be told the phone was currently unattended. 

During my time working at The Kerryman I found it simple and easy to get through to government departments. And the people at the other end were always helpful and polite. I left The Kerryman in 2005 and it seems the world has greatly changed since then. 

I have on several occasions in recent days attempted to call the Department of Education concerning a matter dealing with my current salary and pension. 

It has been a nightmare. After being flipped through a number of hoops I was given a specific number to call. I called the number to be told it is open between the hours of 2.30pm and 5.30pm. I had called outside those hours, fair enough, I’ll try the next day. 

There have been many ‘next days’ I call the number between 2.30pm and 5.30pm, listen to a robot explaining to me in Irish and English the hoops I need to get though in order to speak to a human voice. 

Eventually after long rigmaroles I am offered the possibility of leaving a message. I have now done that on at least four occasions and of course I have received no reply or been given any information. 

Only last week BBC Radio 4 carried a story about how people are becoming more and more annoyed and frustrated by being unable to speak to a human voice at the other end of the phone. 

Every day we are being inundated by stories about AI and the positive and negative aspects it can and will have on our lives. 

I’m no Luddite or conspiracy theorist but I’m beginning to ask is there someone out there, who is attempting to avoid us humans? 

Before it all comes crashing down, please would the Department of Education speak to me.