Pope Francis on bullies

Deep down bullies are afraid, and they cover their fear by a show of strength.

- Pope Francis in Tokyo

Launch of world-renowned theologian's book on the Mass

Spiritan priest and academic Tom Whelan launched Liam G Walsh's 'The Mass' with the subtitle, 'Yesterday, Today.... & Forever' at the Dominican Priory in Tallaght on Monday evening.

The evening was hosted by John Littleton, director at The Priory Institute.

Tom Whelan  sees the book as the result of prayer and rich scholarship and that one does not have to be versed in theology to read the book.

The blurb on the back of the book says that the purpose of the book is to help readers to a mindfulness about the Mass that takes them beyond seeing it as a holy ceremonial to be regulated by rubrics, beyond seeing it only in aesthetic terms, beyond making it a way of aligning themselves to 'progressive' or 'traditionalist' camps.

Liturgy, for all its humanity, is primarily God's doing. Thinking rightly about it requires thinking about what God is doing in it, the kind of thinking done in this book.

Fr Whelan noted how the author, Fr Liam Walsh brings us somewhere he has been himself.

The book is published by Dominican Publications.

Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was born on this day, November 28 1820  in Barmen, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, today in Wuppertal in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in the Federal Republic of Germany.

His father had large factories in Salford in England and in Barmen.

Engels died from cancer of the larynx in England in 1895.

Fiona Hill on English social class

A quote from Fiona Hill while giving evidence at the Impeachment hearings in the US last week.

"I can say with confidence that this country [US] has offered for me opportunities I never would have had in England.

"I grew up poor, with a very distinctive working-class accent. In England in the nineteen-eighties and nineteen-nineties, this would have impeded my professional advancement. This background has never set me back in America.”

The future of the church is in our hands

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

Michael Commane

I had the privilege of attending an academic conferring ceremony in Dublin last Saturday week. It had a sense of history to it as it was one of the first conferring ceremonies of the new Technological University of Dublin. 

The Dublin Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown and the Institute of Technology Tallaght have been amalgamated into the new university with a current student population of 28,500. 

The origins of the new university go back to 1887 when the Technical College in Dublin’s Kevin Street was set up by novelist and songwriter Arnold Graves.

The conferring ceremony that I attended was at the Priory Institute Tallaght. The degrees offered by The Priory Institute are accredited by TU Dublin.

Its deputy president, Dr Mary Meany presented the parchments. Twelve students were awarded MAs in Biblical Studies, 14 received BAs in theology and a further six students obtained certificates and diplomas in scripture and theology.

What they all had in common was that they are mature students. They are all out working in their own particular jobs. Indeed, some maybe retired.

Theology concerns itself with the study of the divine. It deals with revelation, teases out issues about God. Christian theology attempts at exploring what we mean when we say that Jesus Christ is God.

Scripture is the study of the Bible, both Old and New Testament. It means looking at the different books of the Bible in as forensic a way as possible. People of faith believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.

The study of Canon Law gives the student a picture of the laws, legal principles and regulations of the church. Canon Law was the first modern western legal system.

The Priory Institute was set up in 2001 and it provides degrees, diplomas and certificates in theology and philosophy.

The Priory Institute offers a mix of onsite and online learning. Attendance at semester launch-days is required. Each module has two study days and two tutorial days, which students must attend either in person at St Mary’s Priory in Tallaght, or online. Ongoing support is available from coordinators. 

Also, in-depth help and advice is on-hand from specialist academic tutors.

The Priory Institute is an ideal road for anyone to take who wants to upgrade their skills and knowledge when it comes to an understanding of faith, church, scripture, history of religion.

It gives people an opportunity to learn something about their faith, their religion.

It is often striking how little we actually know about our faith and the two millennium-long Christian tradition.

Only recently when former president Mary McAleese was in the news, the media referred to her as a theologian. Ms McAleese is not a theologian; she is a canon lawyer.

In my job as a hospital chaplain I regularly read/pray the Psalms with patients and visitors and for so many of them it is their first time to appreciate these wonderful prayers.

Is there ever a discussion or study about what it means to say that Christ is present in the Eucharist? What does presence in this context mean?

It was lovely to see former government minister and MEP Gay Mitchell being awarded a Master of Arts in Biblical Studies. I also spotted at the conferring former secretary general to the government Dermot McCarthy, who is now a deacon, ministering in Westland Row church.

The future of the church is in the hands of the people, where it belongs. It makes sense. The church is the people of God.

Violence against women

Today is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Tóg go bog é ar an mbóthar

Last Sunday, November 17 was World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims.

In many churches there were prayers for those who have lost their lives or been injured in road accidents. We also prayed for their families and friends.

Since records began in 1959, 24 390 people have been killed on Irish roads.

According to Road Safety Authority figures over 80,000 people have been seriously injured on Irish roads since the recording of serious injuries began in 1977. And so far this year 125 people have been killed on our roads.

Maybe accident is not the correct word to use for the killings and maiming on our roads. Much of it is willful bad behaviour.

Last Thursday week I was cycling along Orwell Park in Dublin heading for the rear entrance to St Luke’s Hospital. It was before 9am and the traffic was bumper-to-bumper. I was cycling between the footpath and the slowly-moving traffic. It was raining. I suddenly noticed a car veering towards me. It meant I had to jump up on the footpath. I looked in the window of the car to see the driver using a mobile phone.

My subsequent reaction was immediate and stern, indeed, so stern that the driver threw the phone on the seat of the car. May they have learned a profound lesson never to use a hand-held phone while driving.

Last Tuesday I was cycling through the junction of Rathgar Road and Highfield Road. I was on the main road but a car, coming from Terenure, simply sailed across the junction on to Highfield Road and came close to knocking me off the bicycle. Not even an apology.

At this stage we have all seen the RSA television ad about giving cyclists plenty of space when cars and trucks are overtaking.

But never a word of how important it is for cyclists to give plenty of room to their fellow ‘pedalers’ when they are overtaking them.

Yes, we are all sadly aware of the car and truck speedsters. But what about the cyclists, who treat the roads like racing tracks? They really are annoying and boring too.

Our road manners leave much to be desired. And the bad manners are not the prerogative of the men.

Is there any point in praying for those who have died on our roads if we constantly and flagrantly misbehave when driving and cycling?

And pedestrians too need to stop walking out in front of vehicles.

Be kind and gentle on the road.

Criminals and Gunnes

Retired Detective Garda Henry Ainsworth, son of the late deputy commissioner, Joe Ainsworth was guest on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday.

He spoke about his years working with the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) and his interaction with the criminal community.

Those who work for CAB, whatever their level or rank, are called Bureau Officers.

One of the criminals he encountered was 'The General'  Martin Cahill.

CAB sell the houses of former criminals. One of the auctioneering companies who does the conveyancing is Gunnes.

An example of being economical with the truth

On RTE's Morning Ireland yesterday the editor of The Irish Catholic referred to a professor in Rome  who commented that the Holy See has an obligation to block plans by the Irish Sisters of  Charity to transfer lands for the building of a new maternity hospital.

It would have helped had the editor, Michael Kelly explained that the 'professor' in question is not a professor as understood in Irish or most European civil universities.

The man, who was called a professor, Fr Kevin O'Reilly, lectures at the Pontifical University of St Thomas, also known as the Angelicum. He is not a professor as the term is generally understood in Ireland.

Someone somewhere should have clarified this, especially since the motto of the Dominican Order is Veritas or Truth.

The Irish Catholic is being economical with the truth.

Unfortunate and regrettable words of Irish Dominican

The  front page of the current issue of The Irish Catholic carries a story about the transfer of land from a religious order to the State.

In the article Irish Dominican priest Kevin O'Reilly is quoted.

His comments are unfortunate and regrettable and I as an Irish Dominican wish to disassociate myself from his views and opinions.

The Irish Sisters of Charity have given great service to Irish people and indeed continue to do so.

Women have suffered much at the hands of men. Indeed, most times priests are not fit to tie the shoes of religious sisters.

Count the number of maginalised and less well-off Irish people the Sisters have supported over generations.

Also, the headline on the story sounds slightly dramatic. A recently ordained priest 'threatening' the Vatican...

A lesson in arrogance and pomposity.

The Irish Catholic has been most unkind to the Irish Sisters of Charity. And the Irish Sisters of Charity would question the accuracy of some of the comments in the newspaper.

A sick sum

In the first nine months of this year €265 million has been paid out to cover the cost of medical neglicence cases.

Most of it at the expense of the taxpayer.

And the sum gets larger by the day.

In order of appearance: Andrew, Boris, Donald

Saturday evening it was Prince Andrew talking about Jeffrey Epstein.

Sunday it was Jennifer Arcuri talking about Boris Johnson.

On Tuesday Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman spoke about President Donal Trump.

And all of it nasty sleazy material.

Andrew, Johnson, Trump all privileged people.

The far-right AfD cannot bring Germany to a good place

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

Michael Commane

Watching German television during the weekend of November 9/10, which gave much air time to the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was tempted to retire from my job, pack my bags and head back to Germany and gallivant around the country, moving from place to place but all the time having a bed in Berlin.

There was euphoria in Germany, indeed around the world when the Berlin Wall fell. I cycled through the Brandenburg Gate in East Berlin within weeks of that historic night. I remember chatting with East German police, who were reticent to talk about their politics, their State and their capital city.

Back then it was my non-expert opinion that the German Democratic Republic or East Germany, as we called it, should remain a separate State or country from the Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany as we knew it.

Bonn, the capital of West Germany since 1949, was always considered a temporary capital, waiting for unification to happen.

However, unification was more a far-off dream than any sort of real political aspiration.

But in August 1990 the Parliament of East Germany passed a resolution declaring the accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, effective from October 3, 1990. So within 12 months of the fall of the Wall the two separate countries suddenly found themselves merged.

The Bonn Parliament moved to a refurbished Reichstag in Berlin in 1999. Berlin was back as the powerhouse of Germany.

Good or bad? The jury might still be out on that. Over the last 100 years the history of Germans with their capital in Berlin is not the most impressive.

There was World War I, the weak Weimar Republic, then came the Hitler terror, followed by East Berlin as the capital of Communist East Germany. The Berlin Wall and the mines and barbed wire that stretched for 1,400 kilometres dividing the two German States gave some insight into what life was like behind the ‘Iron Curtain’. The Communist Party, known as the SED controlled all aspects of life in the country, allowing for no opposition or contrary opinions.

What united Germany has done in 30 years is remarkable. But the big question is, has East Germany been subjugated by West Germany? Very little remains of the old GDR. Somewhat frivolous, but worth noting, one of the few aspects of East German life that has percolated into the West is the little green man with his hat, on traffic lights. That can now be seen across all of Germany.

Germany is politically divided into 16 States or Länder. There were elections last month in the eastern State of Thuringen where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a whopping 26 per cent of the vote making it the second largest political force in the State’s parliament in Erfurt. The AfD is a far-right party, many of whose members have Nazi views.

The party objects to the Holocaust memorial in Berlin and is critical of those who continue to condemn the Nazis.

There is a frightening and worrying move to the right in the world and across Europe but to think that it should be growing at such a rate in Germany is extremely worrying.

A Germany without a wall and barbed-wire is of course a better place but a far-right political party in the country must never be given the oxygen to breathe a single breath. 

The AfD cannot bring Germany to a good place.

Remembering Operation Uranus

On this date, November 18, 1942, the High Command of the Red Army must have been on absolute tenter hooks. This was the final day before the activation of Operation Uranus.

Operation Uranus changed the history of the world.

Punctiliously planned and designed by Soviet Marshal Georgii Zhukov, on November 19, 1942 the Red Army began its tactic of surrounding Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus' Sixth Army.

It was only in the previous few short weeks that the Red Army stopped retreating at the advance of the Germans.

A decision was made that no Soviet soldier would retreat one step east of the Volga. Not one step backwards.

The fighting through the Spring, Summer and Autumn was relentless and cruel. The savagery meted out to the people of Stalingrad was barbaric. And yet the Russian people held out until November 19.

On that date the full force of the Red Army was unleashed on the Germans.

The fight went on until February when Paulus capitulated.

It was a brilliant victory. It changed the face of the war and from that date onwards the Red Army raced west, arriving in Berlin, in agreement with US forces, in Spring 1945.

It is a pity that we in the west have never fully recognised the importance of the battle at Stalingrad.

While Stalin, like all dictators, perpetrated unspeakable deeds, the city on the Volga will be forever remembered for the Battle of Stalingrad.  

Paulus later worked for the army of the German Democratic Republic. He is the only marshal in German military history to have surrendered. That is why Hitler wanted him to take his own life rather than capitulate.

Highly recommended reads: Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor and Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman. The Grossman book is a historical novel and was translated into English this year.

Grossman was a Ukrainian journalist of the Jewish faith who worked as a journalist with the Red Army.

John Lennon on death

I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it

It's just getting out of one car and into another.

- John Lennon

President Donald Trump and spelling

This is a tweet yesterday from US President Donald Trump. It was sent during the Impeachment Hearing.

Has anyone picked up on the spelling?

Does Trump do this intentionally?
.
....They call it “serving at the pleasure of the President.” The U.S. now has a very strong and powerful foreign policy, much different than proceeding administrations. It is called, quite simply, America First! With all of that, however, I have done FAR more for Ukraine than O.

Address matters for Dublin prisoners

Former govenor of Mountjoy Prison John Lonergan said on radio yesterday that 75 per cent of Dublin prisoners come from six tiny areas in Dublin's inner city.

A good description of Boris Johnson

It’s not that Boris Johnson can’t sense the mood when he enters a room, it seems he just doesn’t possess the skills necessary to have a conversation with someone from a different background, especially in crisis situations. 

When he speaks to people from the north, he resembles a schoolboy on a foreign exchange programme having a go at interacting with the locals. 

If Johnson feels genuine empathy for people who have lost their homes to flooding, he’s entirely unable to articulate it.

- From the Guardian

'TheTablet' has been annoying for a long time

In 1849, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Clarendon, later foreign secretary under four prime ministers, denounced The Tablet as "one of the most offensive and virulent newspapers in Europe".

The Tablet had been annoying British politicians since its launch nine years earlier.

Frederick Lucas wrote in his first editorial: "Ireland is governed with fatal disregard of all the plainest rules of justice and prudence"

A priest always on the side of the marginalised

From The Irish Times.

Belfast priest Fr Des Wilson, who acted as a mediator between rival Republican factions as well as between republicans and loyalists during the Troubles, died aged 94 last Tuesday.

Fr Wilson is credited with having played a key role in Northern Ireland and the west Belfast community for decades.

Relatives for Justice, a support group for relatives of people bereaved, injured or affected by the Troubles, said it was “bereft” following his death.

“He was always on the side of the marginalised, the silenced and the oppressed,” it said. “His support for the families we work with was unwavering. We are diminished without him but remain all the better for having had him.”

Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said there “would be no peace process” without the work of Fr Wilson and Fr Alex Reid, who was also involved in reaching out to unionists.

“The two priests also embarked on an outreach programme,” he said. “They spoke to unionist paramilitaries and facilitated meetings between republicans and loyalists.

“They met officials from the British and Irish governments, and indeed anyone who would listen to them, in the hope that through dialogue they could assist the work of peace building. They pioneered this work.

“They never gave up despite setbacks and serial refusals to talk by the great and the good. Without Fr Des and Fr Alex there would be no peace process.”

The fall of the Berlin Wall

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

Michael Commane

 Much has been written and spoken about the fall of the Berlin Wall which happened 30 years ago last Saturday.

It’s important at the outset to understand that Berlin, the whole of Berlin, East and West was an island enclave inside the territory of the German Democratic Republic, or as we called it, East Germany. All Berlin had a special status. But the Communists made East Berlin its capital city.

On November 9, 1989 as a result of a misspeak by politburo member Günter Schabowski, at an otherwise boring press conference, said that visits to the west would be possible for every citizen of the GDR, starting ‘right away and immediately’. On hearing the news, East Berliners rushed out to border posts across the city dividing East and West Berlin. 

At the Bornholmer Street East-West crossing crowds of East Germans suddenly arrived. The man in charge on the night, GDR Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jäger, was confronted with a problem. Opening fire was not on. He quickly and unofficially opened the barrier. And as they say, the rest is history.

In the mid-1980s I was a university chaplain in West Berlin.

Today Berlin is a major European capital, in many ways the centre of Europe. Thirty years ago West Berlin was a different place. It attracted West German dissidents and people who wanted to avoid compulsory military service. It was home to artists and musicians, including the Philharmonic Orchestra’s Herbert von Karajan.

It was not an easy place to get to. If you wanted to fly to West Berlin, say from London or Paris, you had to get there via a city in West Germany. Rail traffic to and from West Berlin was an adventure. The trains were old and at the inner German border there were long delays as a West German locomotive would be changed for a Soviet-built diesel electric unit.

But it was always exciting. Once the train entered East Germany, border guards arrived at your seat, impeccably dressed. They asked you for your passport, not another word would be said but they would give you a glaring look, methodically check your passport, stamp it with a transit visa and hand it back to you. They had that perfect ability to frighten you out of your life. On some occasions they came escorted by dogs. And just before the train arrived in West Berlin they would do a thorough search of the train, often removing ceiling panels searching for stowaways.

And then arriving at the run-down, depressing-looking rail station at Berlin Zoolologischer Garten.

Today Berlin is served by a spectacular glass-cladded rail station on the site of the old Lehrter Station right in the heart of Berlin. InterCity Express trains travel in and out of the city at speeds of 300km/h en route.

Ironically, the city is still without its new airport. Aer Lingus flies to the old West Berlin Airport at Tegel and Ryanair’s Berlin destination is the former East Berlin Airport at Schönefeld.

The new Berlin Brandenburg Airport has experienced years of mismanagement and corruption. It was originally due to open in 2011 but it’s still not open. Latest news is that it should be operational in 2021. So much for German efficiency. And guess what, some years ago glass tiles came flying off the new rail station.

Berlin, the German capital city is a great place but I miss West Berlin. And East Berlin too had its own special character. It offered the best of value in books and wine. 

Married priests? Women priests?

Theologian Gerard Mannion, who died suddenly in September, thought that abuse of children by clergy has a lot to do with the fact that priests are not marrying.

The General Synod of the Church of England voted on this day, November 11, 1992 to allow women to become priests.

President Steinmeier at the Berlin Wall

Yesterday, on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke of the importance of people listening to one another, respecting one another and taking one another seriously.

The Wall opened at approximately 11.30pm at Bornholmer Straße 30 years ago yesterday. 

On another November 9, a black night in German history, this time 1938, the Naxis carried out a pogrom on Jews and their properties across Germany.

Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke about the joy of 1989 and the horror of 1938. She referred in stark terms to the dangers of racism and fascism.

Christ's message of eternal life

The 'Thinking Anew' column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane

In mid-October I attended the funeral Mass of a 93-year-old man in West Kerry. I managed to visit him in hospital in Tralee a few days before he died. It was an honour and privilege for me that he recognised me and indeed held my hand.

Returning to Dublin after the funeral Mass it was inevitable that I was thinking of life and death and the mystery of our lives. I find that cycling and walking is a great time to let the imagination run riot, it’s a great place to argue and counter argue, agree and disagree and always with yourself.

And just as I was lifting my bicycle on to the train in Tralee Railway Station I was thinking of the absurdity of death.

Some days earlier I had been talking to a friend. He believes that any thoughts of an afterlife are absurd as is the idea of God. But then, isn’t death absurd but that certainly does not make it unreal?

In tomorrow’s Gospel (Luke 20: 27 - 38) some Sadducees –they were the leaders and wealthy people in society, and they did not believe in the resurrection –  asked Jesus who would be teamed up with whom in the afterlife. And they got into all sorts of permutations and combinations. 

What happens if a man dies childless, and his brothers marry his wife, and on it goes? If she marries all seven brothers whose wife will she be at the resurrection? Of course, it was all nonsense. 

Isn’t it a great example of how unwise it ever is to try to categorise or to define God and the afterlife in human terms?

The Sadducees were trying to trick Jesus. An early example of ‘fake new’ perhaps? 

Jesus does not walk into the trap. “Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive”, he replies. (Luke 20: 38)

There are those who believe in God and the afterlife. There are atheists and agnostics. And there are those who don’t ask the question.

The Christian faith takes its cue from the life of Christ and his message of eternal life. It is an extraordinary mystery. But our lives too are an extraordinary mystery. It’s when we experience and are confronted with our fragility, when we see first-hand the suffering of people that we are prompted to ask and wonder what life is all about. Surely, there is more to us, more to our lives than the fragility, pain, the randomness of our daily experiences?

 My job as a hospital chaplain gives me daily tiny insights into the mystery of living, suffering and dying. In mysterious ways the kindness, love and goodness that we see glimpses of here are surely made perfect in the time of resurrection?

The hint of a God, the thought of an afterlife might to many be absurd, but to those who believe and those who see more to it all than this, surely life takes on a new dimension?

Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, and an author and a psychiatrist by profession, wrote that without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete. Is it possible to go on and say that human life cannot be complete without belief in God and an afterlife? It is something that many people say. It is an intrinsic aspect to the Christian faith.

On the day that I wrote this column I asked an elderly priest if he believed in God and an afterlife. He replied: “I believe Jesus Christ is God. He promised us eternal life. It would be absurd for God to deceive us; it is against his nature. But to describe eternal life, what it’s like, is beyond us.”

Death, like life, is a mystery. And in tomorrow’s Gospel we are told that God is the God of the living.

It is interesting to note that in a time of so much unbelief, it is now customary for people to avoid using the ‘death' word and replace it with ‘passing’. Is it an anomaly, fashion or a statement of subliminal belief?

Last Saturday we celebrated All Souls Day. We recalled and prayed for those who have gone before us. We prayed in thanksgiving for their lives. 

But we also prayed to them to help us on our journey to God.

Dee Forbes' salary and soundbites

RTE director general Dee Forbes spoke on Morning Ireland yesterday about the planned cuts at the national broadcaster.

These were some of the soundbites:

"Downsizing our footprint",  "Migrate to a place", "RTE 2 a window to the Player".

Dee Forbes' RTE salary is approximately €340,000.

The salary is easily understood but what of the soundbites?

Border guard with a thesis to keep the Wall standing

• The man in charge on the night of November 9, 1989, the night the Wall came down, at the East West Berlin crossing at Bornholmer Straße was Harald Jäger. 
• He had studied at the University of the Ministry of State Security in Potsdam.
• The title of his thesis - 'The Education of specialists forces, security and counter-terrorism in the border customs offices of the Customs Administration of the GDR as a prerequisite for targeted and differentiated inclusion of the members of the customs administration of the GDR in the system of counter-terrorism at the border crossing points of the GDR.'
• Brilliant GDR-speak

Difficult to understand how anyone could take seriously such nonsense. And that's what happens so easily so often. Leaders, management have all the tools on their side to play games with our minds and wills. And then those who carry out their instructions.

Just some days earlier, on November 7, GDR prime minster, Willi Stoph with his entire cabinet was forced to reresign because of large anti- government protests.

A priest's views of 'The Late Late Show' in 1968

There has been much written and spoken in the last days on Gay Byrne.

He was a giant in his profession. Radio and television were made for him.

In 1968 in the  Dominican church in Pope's Quay, Cork, a priest preaching at a Sunday Mass referred to an item on 'The Late Late Show' the previous night. In doing so he called the programme 'The Hate Hate Show'.

A group of young Dominican students were present at the Mass. They spontaneously laughed and were all in agreement that the priest was talking nonsense and was gratuitously insulting  Gay Byrne, the audiene and the programme.

One of the young men said: "He can't have spent much time or thought preparing his sermon. The Late Late Show' was just that, on late last night."

The priest was out of order, all he was doing was alienating people with ill-prepared words.

The seeds we sow......... And that was 1968.

Fair Deal reaches €1 billion this year

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

Michael Commane

My father spent his last 15 months in a nursing home in Tralee. At the time I was working in the town, which meant I was able to call on him on a daily basis. Dad was fortunate in that it was a great place. We also knew some of the staff, which of course made a difference.

It was a great experience. My father was 95 when he died in 2004 and neither he nor I ever found fault with the nursing home. On the very few occasions I made enquiries or had questions they were dealt with immediately and always to our satisfaction.

It goes without saying that people should never be 'dumped' in nursing homes. It's part of our nature to care and love those close to us and the majority of residents in nursing homes are visited by those who love them. But it's sad to see people who are forgotten about and never receive visitors. It also means that those who are forgotten have nobody to keep an eye on how well they are being cared for. 

Regular visits to those in nursing homes bring love and kindness but they also keep everyone on their toes. It's like everything in life, when we look after the small matters, it's most likely everything will run smoothly and properly. It keeps the disasters and crises at bay.

The Fair Deal scheme was introduced in 2009. It is operated by the HSE. It provides financial support to those who need long-term nursing home care. The HSE carries out a financial assessment of a person’s income and assets to work out what a person’s contribution will be and then the HSE pays the balance. Included in the contributions the person pays are 80 per cent of her/his State Pension.

This year it is expected the scheme will support an average of 23,042 people. The HSE budget for the Fair Deal scheme this year is €985.8 million.

I recently called to a nursing home elsewhere in the country and was somewhat surprised with what I saw. I called to visit an elderly person. She is not in the nursing home itself, but has her own independent living and joins other residents for her main meal. 

I knocked at her door in the early afternoon but there was no answer. I checked if the door was open and to my surprise I discovered it was. I gently pushed it, called the person’s name, no reply. I stuck my head around the door. There was no one there.

On leaving the nursing home I checked in at reception and told them my story. I was told that the person I was visiting was living in one of the independent units and that the nursing home was not responsible for whether the door was open or not.  I appreciate that everyone has a right to be unwise but in my opinion  elderly people need extra care, even if living independently.

I have had great experiences in nursing homes but surely that does not prevent me from raising a yellow or red flag when I see or experience a practice or custom that would cause me concern.

Had that been my father I was visiting I would not have been happy. And certainly would have expressed my views to the management.

Is it an Irish trait to say nothing until it's too late?

A wise word from Thomas Jefferson: ‘Let the eye of vigilance never be closed’.

Daily Telegraph corrects Boris Johnson's lies/errors

Three times this year the UK's Daily Telegraph has had to apologise to readers and correct material written by Boris Johnson in the newspaper.

Johnson is on leave from his job at the Daily Telegraph while he serves as prime minister.

His Daily Telegraph column earns him a cool £275,000 annually.

Heiko Maas writes on the values of a united Europe

German foreign minister Heiko Maas wrote an opinion piece in The Irish Times yesterday.

The column marks the memorable evening of November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down.

He writes: "This world needs Europe's courage to embrace freedom, the courage of 1989.

"Let us dare at long last to be Europen, to act as Europeans, without any ifs or buts."

There is a gentle tone to the opinion peace. Maas recognises the unimaginable suffering that Germany brought to Europe 80 years ago. He thanks those who helped make the reunification of Germany possible, including the then first secretary of the Communinist Party of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev.

At a time when we are constantly bombarded with intemperate language from political leaders it is heartening to read the words of Heiko Maas.

Ken Loach denies Labour Party is anti-Jewish

Film maker Ken Loach said in an interview on Channel 4 yesterday that a study shows that 0.1 per cent of Labour Party members are anti-Semitic.

"There are anti-Semites in all political parties. And there are far more people with anti-Semitic views in the Conservative Party but why would the Tory press publicise that," he said.

Trump the darling boy of free-sheet 'Alive'

The current issue of the free-sheet 'Alive' carries two pictures of US President Donald Trump. One of the Trump headlines runs 'President Trump slams abortion at UN'.

It seems the other picture is related to 'climate change'

This week President Trump referred to a living person, a US politician, as 'scum'.

It is unfortunate that 'Alive' is in anyway associated with the Dominican Order.

Vietnman war, the cruel deaths, the lies

On this day, November 1, 1955 the Vietnam war began.

It ended on April 30, 1975 when Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, was liberated by the Viet Cong and the Americans were defeatd.

It is estimated that 1,353,000 died in the war.

The Americans knew in the 1960s that the war was unwinnable for them.

Many US administrations lied to the Americans throughout the war.