Schools and their ethos

From The Irish Independent.

Four men were arrested over a fracas following a Leinster Schools rugby match yesterday.

The incident occurred following a schools rugby match between Newbridge College and Presentation College Bray in south Dublin this afternoon.

The men were brought to Irishtown garda station in relation to public order offences.

Three received adult cautions while a fourth man, who failed to follow a garda directive, was charged in relation to public order offences.

All four men detained by gardai have addresses in Co Kildare.

The incident comes a day after gardai were called to a mass brawl between two schools.

A number of punches and kicks were thrown during the nasty melee, which took place on the street outside Kiely’s of Donnybrook, with some supporters donning jerseys of the two schools.

The incident, following the Leinster Schools Senior Cup clash between Terenure College and St Michael’s College, happened shortly after 5pm on Monday.

Kiely’s bar manager John O’Brien branded the incident a "disgrace". Mr O’Brien insisted that he had never seen such violence after any other rugby matches held in the area in his 30 years at the bar.

Dublin London is the world's second busiest air corridor

Simon Coveney writes on Brexit in today's guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/brexit-good-friday-agreement-britain-eu-ireland?CMP=share_btn_link

75 years ago on the Volga

Today is the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. On this date, January 31, 1943 Paulus surrendered to the Red Army at Stalingrad.

Two days later the entire Sixth Army laid down their arms.

Earlier Hitler had suggested to Paulus he might take his life. Before Paulus, no German field marshal had surrendered.

The battle at Stalingrad was the decisive moment in the defeat of Germany in World War lI.

In a speech in Berlin in September 1942 Hitler said that the German Army would never leave the city.

It was the genius of Red Army Marshal Georgii Zhukov who helped route the Germans on the Volga.

Easy for the ego to run riot

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

Michael Commane
Some weeks ago a young man won €50,000 on a Lotto scratch-card. As soon as he discovered he had won the money he phoned his friend and told him he was giving him half the winnings. The two young men have been friends since childhood.

The story received national media prominence. Ryan Tubridy mentioned it on his RTE Radio 1 programme, commenting on how it was such a lovely thing to do.

Indeed, over the years the Ryan Tubridy Show often carries stories of altruism and Ryan makes a point in highlighting the event and complimenting the person or persons who do kind deeds or say kind words about other people.

In my job as a hospital chaplain every day I see great acts of kindness in word and deed. I’m in the job now 15 months and to date I don’t think I have seen the slightest hint of selfishness from patients, visitors or staff. It seems to me they don’t do selfishness in hospital.

There is an awareness of the common good and the importance of people working together as a team.

And yet we live in a world where so much emphasis is placed on competition, being the best, no matter what the cost. Many of our television programmes, while being good fun and entertainment, place significant emphasis in winning. Celebrity shows, endurance competitions, weight losing extravaganzas make winners into heroes and the losers are just that - losers.

You might say it’s the way of the world. But if you think about it, is it the way the world should be?

But the programmes are greatly enhanced when people work in teams and cooperate with one another.

Is there not a need right now for a greater sense of community, a better understanding of the common good?

Last week on a Sky News talk show someone made reference to a BBC staff member earning €400,000 annually.

Of course it’s magic to the few. But what about the poor and those who have difficulty making ends meet? It certainly breeds an atmosphere of greed and selfishness.

Dermot McCarthy, a former secretary general to the government, is a contributor to a recently published compilation of essays titled ‘A Dialogue of Hope’.

In his piece called ‘The signs of our times’ he writes: ‘A fundamental feature of a successful democratic society is the requirement for empathy.

‘One of the duties of a citizen in a democracy is to learn what it is to be someone not like oneself. And to be aware of the impact of choices that one makes on the lives of others.’

I think most of us would say that we favour an egalitarian system in which it is wise and healthy to avoid creating extremes of wealth and poverty. 

If we continue to place an exaggerated importance on being the best, the richest, the fastest, the most powerful, then surely it is impossible even to think of having empathy for the weak and the fragile.

It’s easy for the ego to run riot. Indeed, we live in times when it is fashionable to place so much emphasis on ‘me’. Pride and self-centeredness have almost been raised to the status of virtues. The complementary side of that leads to jealousy.

Last week a wise man drew my attention to the word ‘ego’ and asked me to think of the first letters of the three words in the phrase ‘Edging God out’.

Human beings are at their best when they are giving and not taking. If we are honest, and open our eyes, it’s a self-evident truth.

'I'm for everyone'

An excerpt of yesterday's Trump interview with Piers Morgan on ITV.

Is it possible to read anything more inane and silly as this?

Trump was asked in the interview to speak out in defence of women and clarify previous remarks that have provoked a backlash against the president. 

“Well, I think we have to evolve,” he said. “If we don’t evolve, there’s something missing. But I have tremendous respect for women.”

Asked if he was a feminist, Trump said: “I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist. I think that would be maybe going too far. I’m for women, I’m for men, I’m for everyone. 

"I think people have to go out, they have to go out and really do it, and they have to win. Women are doing great, and I’m happy about that.”

Trump told Morgan that he wrote his own tweets, sometimes when lying in bed. “Well, perhaps sometimes in bed, and perhaps sometimes at breakfast, or lunch, or whatever.

"But generally speaking, during the early morning or during the evening, I can do that. But if I’m very busy during the day … and I’ll sometimes just dictate out something really quickly, and I’ll give it to one of my people to put it on.”

Trump sticks to teleprompter

Great piece in The New Yorker yesterday.

Speakers at the World Economic Forum looked toward visible risks of the future, but America is trapped in the now. 

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/at-davosand-alwaysdonald-trump-can-only-think-in-the-present-tense

The floating ampersand

Below is the most recent posting on the official website of the Irish Dominican province.

Catena Aurea, Mk 1:21-28, Sunday 4B

The Venerable Bede (672/3-735), in Marc., 1, 7: Since by the envy of the devil death first entered into the world, it was right that the medicine of healing should first work against the author of death; and therefore it is said, “And there was in their synagogue a man, &c.”

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407): Or else the devil so speaks, as if he said, ‘by taking away uncleanness, and giving to the souls of men divine knowledge, you allow us no place in men.’

St. Augustine (354-430), Moreover, how great is the power which the lowliness of God, appearing in the form of a servant, has over the pride of devils, the devils themselves know so well, that they express it to the same Lord clothed in the weakness of flesh.

For there follows, “And he cried out, saying, ‘What have we to do we you, Jesus of Nazareth, &c.’” For it is evident in these words that there was in them knowledge, but there was not charity; and the reason was, that they feared their punishment from Him, and loved not the righteousness in Him.

For He was known to them in that degree in which He wished to be known; and He wished as much as was fitting. He was not known to them as to the holy Angels, who enjoy Him by partaking of His eternity according as He is the Word of God; but as He was to be made known in terror, to those beings from whose tyrannical power He was about to free those he had predestined. He was known therefore to the devils, not in that He is eternal Life, (see 1 John 5:20, John 17:3) but by some temporal effects of His Power

Picture: Jesus expels the demon in the Synagogue in Capernaum, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

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A drug addict speaks out

The Irish Times this weekend carries the personal story of former drug addict Anne Buckley, who spent 17 years on heroin and methadone.

Her story will feature on My War on Drugs: True Lives, TV3, next Wednesday at 21.00.

The piece, written by Patrick Freyne, tells a real but sad story, an indictment on our society.

"She wants to see a 'sensible' drug policy that focuses on addiction as a health issue and that acknowledges how drug epidemics are exacerbated by environmental factors."

Liberation at Auschwitz

Today is National Holocaust Day.

It is the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of the German concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army.

The camp was situated in southern Poland, 65 kilometres west of Krakow. Its Polish name is Oswiecem.

Unlike death camps in the former West Germany, Auschwitz was never sanitised. It was, more or less, left in its original state of terror and horror.

'An ecumenical primate'

The pastor of the Lutheran community in Rome Jens-Martin Kruse is about to retire from his job.

He has referred to Pope Francis as an 'Ecumenical Primate'.

He said that Rome today under Pope Francis is an ecumenical laboratory "with all the traffic lights set at green.

Meanwhile in Ireland, the week of prayer for Christian unity just completed, has been a much muted experience with many parishes staying silent. A pity.

A former prisoner speaks out

Former prisoner Jack Hill was interviewed on Channel 4 news last evening.

He spoke of the dreadful conditions of prison life in the UK. 

‘Prisoners are sent to prison as punishment, not to be punished,' he said.

He described in graphic terms the filth of his prison, regularly seeing rats.

Sanitary conditions were appalling and at times insects in the food.

Life in the United Kingdom in 2018.

German tanks in Syria

The Turkish army in its offensive against Syrian Kurds is using Leopard tanks designed and built in Germany.

Dogs never bit Marilyn Monroe but humans did

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

Michael Commane

On Saturday evening, January 13 I noticed that my dog Tess, who is probably between 10 and 12-years-old, was a little slower than usual but I didn’t really give it a second thought.

All that changed early on Sunday morning when I went to take her for her walk. She had peed, poohed and vomited during the night and she had no intentions of heading out for a walk. Usually she is waiting to bound out and head for her morning walk.

Okay, she has slowed up over the last year but up to Sunday she was a strong tough dog, who enjoyed her walks, indeed, I got the impression she often forgot about her age when she was chasing a fox or a cat.

When I returned home on Sunday at lunchtime she was lying on her duvet, those sad eyes looking up at me but not a budge from her. Tess was a food opportunist, anywhere she thought she could get food she would pounce. Many is the embarrassment she caused me when she was stealing food from picnickers in parks on summer days. 

But on this Sunday food was the furthest thing from her mind. A work colleague suggested I buy her chicken slices. A solitary sliver of a chicken slice remained close to her mouth all day Sunday. 

A neighbour called on Monday evening, Tess gave her a tail-wag and to my delight ate the chicken slice. But she still lay there lifeless, all the time staring at me.

I checked her a few times during Monday night, she was  just lying there, motionless.

My daily routine was gone, all my attention and worry was focused on Tess.

On Tuesday morning she was still lying on the same spot. I phoned work excusing myself for the morning and took Tess to my vet.

We had a chat and he gently mentioned the idea of doing the best thing for Tess. I knew what he was saying. But there was a glimmer of hope. We agreed he would keep her overnight and do a blood test on her.

She has been to the top of the highest mountains in Ireland, walked along canals and rivers. On one occasion we chanced a ride on the Luas, alas, we were thrown off but we sneaked on to the next one and got away with it.

I phoned the vet on Wednesday morning. He told me that Tess had bounced back.

It turns out she had eaten a load of chocolate, bad news for a dog.

Also, she has arthritis, and it is affecting her movement. It means another few metres off her daily walks.

But Labradors are prone to arthritis and it’s sort of inevitable at her age. I’m beginning to notice twinges of it myself.

Tess and I are the best of friends. Sometimes I feel she knows what I’m thinking.

It is amazing how humans and animals connect. We have a lot to learn from them.

My late father strongly believed that people who are kind to animals will also be kind to humans.

I came upon an interesting line about dogs from American poet Emily Dickinson, who lived the life of a recluse. She wrote: ‘Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell.’ And Marilyn Monroe claimed that dogs never bit her, just humans.

It always strikes me, out walking, how people praise Tess and never have a word or smile for me.

Tess has copped on to me. But that might not be too difficult.

Great to have her home.