Many right-wing Catholics support anti-vaxxers

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

We have been bombarded with Covid-19 information for 20 months. We have seen the damage the pandemic has caused. 

Once the vaccination arrived many of us believed that the worst was over. And now we see what is happening right in front of our eyes. It is frightening.

When I heard Leo Varadkar on a CNN interview say that 94 per cent of our population is vaccinated and that 52 per cent of people in hospitals and ICUs are unvaccinated it dawned on me in stark terms what that actually meant. 

I found myself getting quite angry at all the spiel I have been hearing from the anti-vaxxers. And indeed it’s important to note that the majority of the 48 per cent of Covid patients in hospitals, who are vaccinated have underlying medical issues.

There are many ultra right-wing groups who are opposed to the vaccination and the wearing of masks.

There seems to be a link between anti-vaxxers and right-wing Christian groups. I don’t know what the common thread is but I have recognised a nexus.

In the ‘Sunday Independent’ of November 21 journalist Rodney Edwards wrote a column on how anti-vaxxers are hitching a ride on religious radio shows. 

He also cited how the executive director of Catholic missionary organisation Net Ministries Ireland, Tony Foy was hesitant to get vaccinated. He ended up in hospital in Donegal with Covid. And it so happens that when he was in hospital only a quarter of the 47 missionaries were vaccinated.

Some months back ‘The Irish Catholic’ carried a photograph of a priest giving Holy Communion on the tongue to someone while Covid was raging. It was most inappropriate and it is also worrying why ‘The Irish Catholic’ printed the photograph.

In recent days I have seen a meme where a man goes on with a long diatribe criticising medical experts and governments for the actions they are taking to fight Covid-19.

The meme suggests the behaviour of medics and governments is similar to those tactics used by the Nazis.

The meme was forwarded by a group of so-called ‘pious Catholics’. I found it objectionable and indeed worrying. It’s difficult to understand how a Christian could propagate such opinion.

And then there is Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler in Texas in the US, who has written on his twitter account: ‘I have spoken out against these mandates and will continue to do so. To encourage these vaccinations is a personal choice but to force them violates basic human rights and moral standards.’

In a letter to his diocese, he wrote: ‘I urge you to reject any vaccine that uses the remains of aborted children. The fact remains that any vaccine available today involves using murdered children before they could even be born. I renew my pledge — I will not extend my life by using murdered children. This is evil wake up.’

For many years now I have been greatly concerned about the influence a right-wing Trump-like US Catholic Church is having on our church in Ireland.

Covid gives us just a clue of what is happening in the Irish Catholic Church.

One way to let a publican know his premises is cold

Micheál was in a pub in West Kerry one cold December night. It was cold and draughty in the licensed premises.

He asked the pub owner if would be kind enough to open the door. The owner and others in the pub were surprised that Micheál would want the door open when it was so cold in the pub and also outside.

The owner picked up courage and asked him why he was making such a request.

Micheál replied: “To let the cold out." 

Nothing relative about €13 million. Maybe there is?

The sum of €13 million was paid at an auction in Paris for Albert Einstein’s hand-written notes on his theory of relativity.

The great appear great because we are on our knees

On the plinth of the Jim Larkin

statue in Dublin’s O’Connell Street. 

'The great appear great because we are on our knees.'

- Camille Desmoulins

‘He talked to the workers, spoke as only Jim Larkin could speak, not for an assignation with peace, dark obedience, or placid resignation, but trumpet-tongued of resistance to wrong, discontent with leering poverty, and defiance of any power strutting out to stand in the way of their march onward.’

- Sean O'Casey

Is your mind open enough to contemplate belief in God?

This is an interesting and thought-provoking article. It appeared in 'The Irish Times' yesterday.

Below is a link to a book published yesterday. It shares some of the topics in Joe Humphreys' piece. Author is Vivian Boland. 

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/spirit-of-catholicism-9781441178022/ 

‘Christian metaphysics has a story to tell which offers both a vision of how and why things hold together,’ says academic Philip Gonzales. PHOTOGRAPH: ISTOCK

It’s not clear that we have either the language or the patience in Ireland for metaphysics

Joe Humphreys

There once was a time when only the most open-minded people considered atheism as an intellectual goal. Today, across swathes of the population, it requires significant independence of mind to contemplate belief in God.

Mainstream political debate is entirely secular and, while there are reminiscences of religious life in public institutions, the expression of personal opinion wrapped up in faith has become highly unfashionable. When Joe Biden says he is “praying” for an end to the coronavirus pandemic, it seems not just folksy but antediluvian. I mean, praying won’t make pub owners check their customers’ Covid certs!

While many of us welcome this transition to secularism, especially in Ireland, where the Catholic Church grievously abused its position for decades, there is a nagging sense that our connection to fundamental questions about human existence is being severed.

These questions predate Christianity. They fall into an area of study that philosophers call metaphysics but were, in fact, asked by humans long before anyone thought to write them down.

What is the meaning life? Does the world really exist? Is there an ultimate reality – an Absolute, within metaphysics – and if so where is it located: in our minds, in a cloud in the sky or somewhere else?

Ireland may once have been known as the land of saints and scholars but it’s not clear whether we have the vocabulary, let alone the patience, to even broach these subjects today. As Trinity College Dublin philosopher Paul O’Grady once remarked, “we’ve gone from John Charles McQuaid to Father Ted without anything in between”.

One brave soul trying to reintroduce metaphysical concepts to modern Ireland is Philip Gonzales at St Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth. He has just begun a two-year study on, wait for it, “analogical metaphysics in relation to incarnate mimetic desire”. Gonzales is one of 12 academics taking part in a major international research project, Widening the Horizons in Philosophical Theology, funded by Templeton Religion Trust. He is also organising a conference next year, with some heavy-hitting thinkers, on The Future of Christian Thinking to take place at the Maynooth campus (home to metaphysical discussion since 1795).

“Faith and reason must always work together,” says Gonzales who attempts to demystify a much-misunderstood discipline as this week’s Unthinkable guest.

Why is metaphysics important? Is it anything more than word-play, or mere speculation about questions that science has yet to get around to answering?

Philip Gonzales: “I think it is important to understand that metaphysics is not a homogenous discipline. There are many styles of metaphysics, some may no doubt be word-play and thus need to be left behind. For me it is important to understand metaphysics as a spiritual practice where what one thinks affects how one sees and participates in the world.“I would add that metaphysics is astonishment before existence itself. It is the question of why there is something rather than nothing as Leibnitz and Heidegger saw. In other words, I would describe metaphysics as the question of origin and the whence and whither of human life.

“Metaphysics is human mindfulness that is concerned with the mysteries of birth and death and if there is meaning between in our sojourn through this life. Metaphysics is a thinking of liminal questions of the before and beyond, and thus it cannot help but raise the question of the possibility of an Absolute.

“If human beings are more than mere biological or economic beings, and if we are not mere automatons, then science cannot answer, or is not meant to answer, the most fundamental human questions such as the meaning of life, happiness, freedom, desire, love, the whence and whither of human life, along with that ever-recurring question of the Absolute which always dovetails with a more religious horizon.

“To be human is to ask and be concerned with these kinds of questions even if we often suppress and mute these questions. Metaphysics thus deals with ultimate human concerns.”

Tell me about your own research and

what you hope it will achieve.“My research is grounded in the conviction that Christianity offers a distinctive vision of being and reality that is able to address the deepest metaphysical questions of human life.“Christian metaphysics has a story to tell which offers both a vision of how and why things hold together which in turn inaugurates a new manner of seeing and participating in the world. If I am given to be by a God who is love this implies that a radical demand is placed upon my life to respond to this love through loving and serving my neighbour in imitation of this love.

“Christian metaphysics then offers reasons of love which shows that we do not belong to ourselves but to God and to others. We are relational beings, beings of response. But this reality is no sappy story. This love is situated within the flesh and blood horizon of tangled human desire, suffering, and the violence and atrocities of history.

“If Christianity is to be viable today it must address the themes of violence, suffering and the complex web of human desire as René Girard prophetically understood...

“This kind of metaphysics is, in the words of Wittgenstein, a ‘form of life’ which must struggle to perform the vision it claims to see and believe. To paraphrase John, he who says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar.

“In sum, my research wants to show that Christian metaphysics is a new manner of seeing and participating in the world which demands to be made flesh in a practice of non-violence, a struggle to love amidst the harsh realities of history’s violence and the tangled mesh of human desire.”

For centuries, Christian philosophers have produced ever-more inventive ways of defending religious belief. Is that still the primary goal of Christian theology –

to marry faith and reason?“I do not think that there is a thing called reason that exists in some pure, floating, universal state. Reason is concrete. It is always saturated by our desires, our history, our traditions and so on. My intuition is that if Christianity is to move into the future, in these unprecedented times, that its reasons must be reasons of desire and love.“The Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar says that love alone is credible. I concur. If Christianity has failed it is because Christians have failed in love, failed in imitation of Christ. Nietzsche partly knew this in his heart of hearts, I think.

“If we cannot incarnate a different desire and a different kind of love from the world, we have nothing to offer and the salt has lost is flavour. At this point mere intellectual defences and logical proofs of the faith will be but clanging cymbals to those that are not Christian, as Paul would say.”

What’s the priority for Christian thinking in Ireland? Or, put another way, what key question should Ireland’s churches be asking?

“Well, I am new to Ireland. I am American by birth, but my family and I have lived 12 of the last 14 years in Europe. I am hesitant to speak directly of the Irish situation as I am still learning. I would prefer to ask a question which I think has a more universal Christian scope.“The question I would ask genuinely is: how can Christianity truly reach the world of the 21st century without watering down and compromising the mystery of its message which is rooted in Christ as he has been handed down in the polyphonic tradition?

“How do we non-identically repeat and retrieve the Christian tradition in a dynamic and real way within the current world without losing what is worth repeating and without which nothing new can come to pass for the sake of the future?”

A new set of traffic lights in the German capital

Social Democrat Olaf Scholz is to be the new German Chancellor.

The government will be made up of three parties, the SPD, The Greens and the Free Democrats.

The government will be known as the traffic light coalition owing to the colours of the three parties; red for the Social Democrats, green for the greens and yellow is the colour of the Free Democrats.

The soon-to-be-elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the “traffic light” name given to the coalition would stand it in good stead. 

“In 1924 the world’s first traffic light was erected on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. It was considered an unusual bit of technology, and people asked: ‘can it work?’ But now we cannot imagine life without it: it helps us to get to where we want to go in a fast and safe manner.” He said his goal was “that this coalition is similarly pioneering for Germany”.

Feeling the Suez Canal flowing through her drawing room

Anne Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon, who died on November 15, was descended from the Churchill dynasty and wife of British prime minister, Anthony Eden.

A clever woman, she spent some of the war years decoding telegrams in the British Foreign Office.

During the 1956 Suez crisis she famously said she “ felt sometimes that the Suez Canal was flowing  through my drawing room.' 

Laughing at something that’s not funny

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

In recent days on two occasions I have heard people tell stories about being at funerals where so many funny stories were told and how people were laughing and joking.

It sounds like some sort of indecent oxymoron but it has often struck me how we can laugh in the midst of really sad and upsetting circumstances. It seems to be part of the human condition, something to do with our resilience. We have extraordinary powers of coping with adverse conditions.

Last week I was told a story and instead of expressing concern and upset I found myself laughing all during the telling.

I was warned by the person, who told it, that I was never again to mention it and certainly not to write about it. But she changed her mind and gave me permission to let the cat out of the bag.

Although it was an annoying experience it’s important to say I did spot a glint of humour in the person telling the story.

Anne, (names are changed) decided she and her husband James, would take a night off and travel to Valentia Island. Neither of them had ever been there before.

They booked in at their nice hotel. Everything was running to plan and most smoothly until they discovered the next morning that they had locked the car leaving not just one key in the car but the spare one as well. It was Anne’s fault. May I assure you had it been her husband’s doing it would have been a different story. James is relaxed and laidback.

The car, the key, are all modern technology. There was no question of using coat hanger technology to retrieve the key. And not even breaking a window would help. Seemingly that would send out all sorts of signals that would alert emergency services, gardaí, army commanders, everyone.

And it was Sunday, the local garage was closed, and even if it were open they would have to put up their hands in defeat and admit they could not help.

Eventually and after much panic, stern words, phone calls, a few swear words too, experts in Killarney were contacted. A tow truck would have to come to pick up the car and bring it to the technologically endowed locksmith expert in Killarney, who would have all the skill and competency to gain entry to the car.

But there was a problem; would there be enough room for the driver of the tow truck to manoeuvre  her or his vehicle so that the locked car could be loaded on to the low loader. Measurements were taken. Yes, that could be accomplished.

Eureka. The car was taken to Killarney. But in the meantime the couple had to get back home to their children and then report for work on Monday morning. It meant long taxi drives in all directions.

The couple eventually arrived home and reported for work on Monday morning.  The hotel where they stayed in Valentia Island went that extra proverbial mile for them.

All during the telling of the story I found myself enthralled in laughter.

 

There I was, laughing at the expense of the woes of two people. But it was so funny. Or was it?

Bus Éireann boss sees more to business than profit

An interesting quote from Bus Éireann chief executive officer Stephen Kent:

I think if we only have a commercial perspective, you end up in trouble. The game is not always about profit maximisation. You’ve got to find profit for reinvestment- and obviously, you’ve got to build for the rainy day.

But if you’re just into profit maximisation, I am absolutely certain that society won’t be better for it.

Bus Éireann plans to have 30 per cent of its fleet running on low to zero emissions by 2025, with that figure moving to 100 per cent during the following decade.

Small number of people causing much trouble for many

Approximately six per cent of the Irish population have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Approximately fifty per cent of Covid patients in hospital and ICUs are not fully vaccinated.

That’s a disproportionate number of people causing a lot of trouble for the majority.

Mix of religious practice and disturbing views

A person who has a passionate devotion to the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament distributed just two weeks ago a meme which strongly criticises medical experts and governments for the actions they are taking to fight Covid-19.

The meme suggests the behaviour of  medics and governments is similar to those tactics used by Adolf Hitler.

Worrying and frightening, disturbing too. It’s difficult to understand how a Christian could propagate such opinion.

Remembering the day Mother Russia said stop, no further

Today is a special date in Russian history also a day to remember in the history of World War II.

On November 19, 1942 the Soviet Union put into play Operation Uranus. Under the leadership of  Marshal Georgy Zhukov the Red Army encircled Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus’ Sixth Army on the outskirts of Stalingrad.

It was the beginning of the end for Germany. Operation Uranus proved successful, it split up the German forces. The outcome ended with the surrender of Paulus’ Sixth Army on February 12 1943. The first ever German field marshal to surrender.

It was the first major defeat for Germany. It was the turning of the tide. It stopped the Germans gaining access to the oil in the Caucasus. 

Once the victory at Stalingrad was accomplished the Soviet Union turned its sights on Berlin. Its army literally raced to the German capital, where it arrived in April 1945. En route they liberated the German death camp at Auschwitz.

Stalingrad can be considered the turning point in the war. Up to the time of the battle  the Red Army had kept retreating. The Volga was their final stop.

Has the West ever properly accepted the role and indeed the sacrifice the Russian people made in stopping the barbarism of Germany?

Approximately two million troops were killed at Stalingrad.

Irish people can’t imagine life without the internet

Eighty-one per cent of Irish people admit that they cannot imagine life without the internet. 16 per cent say they can.

And 89 per cent of people between 35 and 44 could not imagine a life without internet connectivity.

Papal Nunico tells US bishops to listen and work together

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, told the bishops gathered in Baltimore that the church needs "attentive listening more than ever if she is to overcome the polarisation facing this country.”

From The National Catholic Reporter

https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/opening-bishops-meeting-vatican-ambassador-urges-prelates-tamp-down-divisions 

West Kerry character who made people laugh

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

While in West Kerry for a break in early November I met Billy, who was home on a short holiday.

I had not seen him in many years. He’s been living in London for most of his working life. He’s a few years older than I and looking great. I’m still laughing at our ten minute conversation but it was a brilliant experience and brought back such memories and moments of genius too.

The topic of our conversation was my next door neighbour and cousin Micheál, who died 15 years ago.

He was the most special of people. He was the quintessential character, who had the ability to bring fun and laughter into any group he sat among.

Within seconds of talking to Billy our conversation turned to Micheál and the yarns he could spin.

Billy was head porter at a prestigious London hotel but Micheál had him down as the CEO of the hotel. All Micheál’s characters were the top people.

On one occasion I visited the Irish Dominican priory in Iran. On my return I told Micheál where I had been and somewhere in our conversation I must have said that Farsi is spoken in Iran, parts of Afghanistan and in Tajikistan. 

Some days later it came back to me that someone was criticising me in Micheál’s company. He was having none of it. In his defence he explained to them that I was just back from Iran and spoke 26 languages. Of course I have not a word of Farsi and just about speak a few words in English and German.

Micheál had that brilliant talent of engaging with people, telling stories, making people laugh and it was always done in the best of spirits and the best of humour. He never told his stories to denigrate or humiliate people. It was always in good fun.

Micheál’s family and mine were neighbours for well over 100 years and now both houses are part-time occupied.

Of course we all have the temptation to look back in the past with nostalgia and see it all with rose-tinted glasses. But I have no doubt what Micheál brought to so many people was a once-off and yes, most likely never to be repeated.

Before leaving West Kerry on the following Sunday I was chatting at the filling station. Again once Micheál’s name was mentioned a broad smile came over Liam’s face as he filled the car with petrol and within seconds we were both regaling ourselves with stories and yarns that we had heard Micheál tell over the years. 

I’m wondering is there anyone out there who has written it all down? I doubt it and what a loss it is. He was a storyteller par excellence. 

And it’s also worth noting that I never heard anyone ever say a bad word about him. He was universally liked. Yes, he might on occasion annoy people but his retort would always bring more laughter to the occasion. We often hear people say, especially in the country that all the characters are gone. 

No doubt there are always characters about, but any and every time I think of Micheál I’m definitely reminded of that Irish phrase ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís.

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s fear of Saint Petersburg

“I admit that Petersburg, I don’t know why, always seemed like a kind of mystery to me.

“Right from childhood, when almost lost and abandoned in Petersburg, I was somehow always afraid of it.” 

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

Born in Moscow on November 11, 1821, died Saint Petersburg, February 9, 1881.

€240 milion on a pipe dream, €0.5 million to fight drugs

So far over €240 million has been spent on the Dublin Metro project. Not a sleeper, not a fishplate, not a metre of track has been laid.

The Tallaght Drug and Alcohol Task Force urgently needs €1 million to help address the drug crisis in the area.

Half a million euro was set aside in this year’s budget to tackle crack cocaine addiction nationwide.

Something wrong here.

The name and the year on the AK-47 assault rifle

On this day, November 13, 1947 the Soviet Union launched the AK-47 assault rifle.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, who gave his name to the rifle and its variants, is the most popular used rifle in the world today.

The number '47' refers to the year the rifle was launched. Design work on the AK-47 began in 1945.

As the Red Army approached Berlin in 1945 they used the Katyusha rocket launcher, which the Germans nicknamed 'Stalin’s Organs'. The distinctive howling sound of the Katyuhsa terrified the German troops.

Five questions philosophers ask about climate change

From The Irish Times of Thursday.

Greta Thunberg delivers her ‘blah, blah, blah’ speech at the Youth4 Climate pre-COP26 event in Milan in September. PHOTOGRAPH: MIGUEL MEDINA/ AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Is democracy an obstacle? Does nature have rights? And other dilemmas

Joe Humphreys

The Cop26 climate conference may be reaching its climax this weekend but there will be no conclusion to the debate. Questions will linger long after the delegates depart Glasgow as to whether the pledges are enough to avert climate catastrophe, and whether the commitments can be believed.

Underlying these considerations is a sense that human thought – whatever is going on in our brains – has yet to properly adjust to the challenge. We are working with political institutions and moral concepts that might have served our civilisation well to this point but are no longer fit for purpose.

Philosophers have been grappling with this problem for decades through environmental ethics and related disciplines, and this week they were in evidence again on the fringes of Cop26, exploring themes which formed no part of official discussions.

Now, you might think philosophy is just more “blah, blah, blah” – to borrow Greta Thunberg’s phrase – but ethicists would argue that effective climate action starts with asking the right questions.

Like what exactly? Here are five key questions that philosophers would have us consider:

1. Does nature have rights?

One of the earliest and most famous thought experiments in environmental ethics is Richard Routley’s “last man argument” put forward in 1973. He imagined a situation where just one human survived a major environmental event. Would that “last man” be entitled to go around destroying every other life form on the basis that homo sapiens were going extinct?

Routley (who later changed his surname to Sylvan) said most people would intuitively say that it’s wrong to include the natural world in some kind of death pact, and that even if human beings were to disappear other life should be allowed to remain.

The argument underpins the claim that nature has moral standing. But how strongly can this standing be expressed?

New Zealand grabbed headlines in 2012 when it recognised the Whanganui River as a legal entity, and similar claims have followed. Philosophers of “deep ecology” are now trying to figure out how to convincingly balance the rights of nature against human rights.

2. What moral standing have future generations?

Dominant theories of justice in western society depend on a social contract. Citizens theoretically sign up to a legal framework that is fair to everyone. But what about citizens who have yet to be born? Do they have a say in what is considered fair?Giving moral weight to non-existent beings requires some imagination, as American philosopher Stephen Gardiner acknowledges in his influential book A Perfect Moral Storm. We typically resolve disagreements by waiting for the victims to speak out and to apply pressure for change. This assumption acts as a kind of “moral corruption”, he argues, as the main victims of climate catastrophe are generations of people who cannot be heard today.

There is a whole plethora of side debates on this topic. One issue raised by the late Derek Parfit is whether you can have duties to people who have no actual identity. Another issue is whether you need to consider prospective people who will not be born exactly because of climate action, given any change in policy will generate different future humans.

Such relatively abstruse inquiries, however, don’t detract from the overriding question: Are we entitled to act as though only those present matter?

3. What should any one individual be expected to do?

The scale of the climate crisis can be overwhelming and it creates new ethical dilemmas for individuals. Is it morally wrong to own a petrol car? Should you never again go on a foreign holiday? Is it okay to have children? There is no consensus on any of these issues – and many would argue against putting an onus on individuals, given the relatively small impact on global emissions any one person can have. Ultimately, however, there is a middle course between cynicism and despair, and one of those mapping it out is Dale Jamieson who urges us to cultivate “green virtues”.

So much about climate change is uncertain. We don’t know exactly how much time we have to act. We don’t know exactly what the fairest means of adjustment is. But Jamieson argues that virtues such as humility, co-operation and temperance are good in their own right, and if we can develop good habits we’re more likely to act in a correct fashion in future.

4. Is ‘male thinking’ part of the problem?

There are many hypotheses as to why climate action has been sluggish. One theory is that western philosophy is to blame. Robin Attfield, the author of several books on environmental ethics, notes that Aristotle “depicted nature as permanent and fundamentally unchanging”, and this misapprehension has been slow to shake off.

Judeo-Christian religion, with its focus on “saving mankind”, has also been put in the dock, albeit Pope Francis has recently improved its green credentials.

Growth-oriented capitalism is elsewhere identified as the real problem. The Belgian philosopher Ingrid Robeyns advocates limitarianism, which states that it is morally impermissible to be excessively rich. Her arguments have implications not just for climate justice but economic equality.

But there is another suspect that is convincingly linked to our current predicament: the patriarchy. Gender imbalance was on show at the Cop26 leaders’ meeting last week, and it is estimated that just 12 per cent of heads of national environment ministries at agencies are women.

Pioneering ecofeminist Karen Warren highlighted parallels between the exploitation of women and of the environment. Mary Midgley exposed the weakness of moral philosophies based on instrumental thinking, or valuing everything as a means to an end – a bedrock of male-dominated institutions. And today a suspicion lingers that one of the main reasons we are so slow to act is because we think some kind of handyman will eventually show up with the right set of tools to repair the planet.

Yes, it’s a stereotype but there is a certain kind of bloke who believes every problem has a technological fix.

5. Is democracy an impediment?

“Even if everyone trusted science completely, climate action would still be hard,” Philip Kitcher told an online event part organised by University College Dublin last week. The British-American philosopher noted that we have to decide what to do “under radical uncertainty” and with no clear goal, given we may already have left it too late to avoid an extinction event.How do you unite people in action in those circumstances? Like many political scientists, Kitcher argues that traditional democratic structures are defective. A citizens’ assembly could help but, he points out, some participants will feel like they’re being asked to barter away their own livelihoods.

It’s one thing to be a young person who hasn’t yet “committed themselves to a definite place in society”. It’s another if you’re “just hanging on to your job” and the reforms being sought would “blight the future of those you care most about”.

Meaningful dialogue will require “a new kind of citizenship”, says Kitcher, and that’s before you create potential seats around the table for representatives of future citizens and Earth itself. Such a forum would be messy, with no guarantee of success, but who said tackling climate change was ever going to be easy?

Poet and Irish diplomat Máire Mhac an tSaoi

Below is an interview in Listowel with Máire Mhac an tSaoi, who died last month.

The young Máire Mhac an tSaoi was an Irish diplomat in Spain, where she was considered almost as a non-person by the Franco government.

Immediately after the war she studied in Paris, where it was a moment of excitement in her hostel when the first eggs arrived.

She had three uncles priests, including the Dominican Michael Cardinal Browne, who was Master of the Order between 1955 and 1962,

Her husband, Conor Cruise O’Brien predeceased her. The two met when they were both working as Irish diplomats.

Her father was Seán MacEntee, a Fianna Fáil government minister. 

https://youtu.be/1EarGo2X4zQ

The singing, wakening and drowning

Lines from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock         

I grow old ... I grow old ...

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind?   Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

- TS Eliot

Travelling in the dark and not a word from anyone

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

October was a mild month, indeed there were days when I was out and about without a coat. I even spotted a number of people wearing shorts. But there have also been days where there were heavy bouts of rain. And I should know, as I’m out and about on my bicycle most days.

One day two weeks ago I got a serious wetting while cycling. Over the years I have learned, no matter how good the rain-gear is, it’s impossible to keep the rain out when cycling. 

After 67 years of cycling I have decided the best way to cycle in the rain is in shorts and a vest. Mind you I haven’t made a practice of it, though I did see a cyclist last week doing just that.

The day after getting drenched I was leaving my house at the usual time of 7am, heading down to celebrate 7.30am Mass. The heavens had opened, yet again. My rain-gear was still wet from the previous day so I decided to abandon the bicycle and take the bus. It all worked out fine. 

It was still not bright on the way home at 8am. Standing at the bus stop I was delighted I had not cycled, as the rain was still pouring down. A short wait of less than two or three minutes and the bus arrived. 

I had a short journey ahead of me, just two kilometres. I decided to go upstairs. To my disbelief, upstairs was in pitch darkness, yes not a light on. A good few passengers scattered over the seats and not a word from anyone. It was my first time ever to travel in a darkened bus. And no one seemed to be bothered. Most of the passengers were glued to their smart phones.

 

I moved downstairs two stops early, sidled up to the driver’s cab and told the driver in as polite a manner as possible that there were no lights on upstairs. 

He looked at me in amazement, then at the control panel and turned on the lights: ‘yes you are right, I must be asleep but why did no one tell me’, he smiled. I presumed he was from North Africa and I replied that it was in many ways typically Irish for no-one to say a word. We both had a good laugh. He thanked me. 

Next stop was mine. I got off the bus and we both waved to each other. He was a lovely man. 

And then as I walked the few short steps to my house it dawned on me, that would all have been impossible 20 or 30 years. 

Back then, fadó fadó, passengers would have been reading their newspapers or books in hard copy format and the driver would have been told quickly enough that upstairs was in darkness. 

And something else, 20 or 30 years ago I doubt if the driver would have been from North Africa. Nor were there any hybrid electric diesel buses on the streets of Dublin.

Dublin Bus was established 34 years ago when Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Irish Rail were set up as three separate companies, with CIÉ remaining as the holding company.

 

If my memory serves me right, anytime I was ever in the city I would see a broken down bus or a rescue truck towing one back to the garage. It’s many years since I have spotted such a spectacle. 

Of course there is no paradise on earth but do we ever realise how good we have it.

We are all conditioned by how others think

Pamela Rose, who died on October  17 at the noble age of 104, was an actor and linguist, who worked at the famous Bletchley Park during World War II.

After the war she did not go back to the stage because she wanted to spend her life with her husband Jim and thought one can’t have everything. "I doubt I would’ve thought like that now but one is conditioned by the way others think and I was a product of my time.”

The people of Ireland elect their first woman president

On this day, November 7, 1990 Mary Robinson was elected the first woman President of Ireland.

Questioning the status quo

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane 

Anyone with a heart or soul must be enthused by tomorrow’s Gospel reading (Mark 12: 38 - 41). It’s a story that should be front and centre of every mission statement the Christian churches release. It’s a story that has the perfect resonance for our times, indeed, it is a universal story that makes sense in all generations.

It’s a Gospel passage of two parts. In the first part Jesus tells his listeners: “Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted obsequiously in the market squares, to take the front seat in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets; these are the men who swallow the properties of widows, while making a show of lengthy prayers”. And then in the second part of the Gospel Jesus tells the story of the poor woman who puts her two coins into the treasury.

I’ve often been surprised that communist governments in their first years of zeal and enthusiasm did not use this Gospel story to win over the minds and hearts of Christians. It has all the rallying ingredients of their famous cry ‘Workers of the world unite’, indeed, it has far more substance and inspiration to it than any slogan that ever appeared on a communist banner.

Today, just as in the time of Jesus, the so-called holy men and women can so easily speak a language of pomp and nonsense, while the real presence of the word of God is enacted  by the poor and marginalised and those who serve them. It’s so easy for all of us to accept the rules and regulations of the status quo, never questioning what actually is happening right in front of our eyes.

Last week on RTE’s Prime Time the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue, while answering a question put to him by Sarah McInerney, mentioned the fact that that night 700 million people would be going to bed hungry. Sarah did not blink an eye at such a horrific reality, nor did I. But stand back and think about it. 

In a world just short of eight billion people, almost one billion have not enough to eat. And what really are we doing about it? What am I doing about it?

The late Archbishop of San Salvador Oscar Romero, who was murdered celebrating Mass in 1980, spoke out forthrightly about social injustice and violence in his country, indeed, that’s why he was murdered. On one occasion he said: “When we defend the poor, Rome accuses us of meddling in politics - but never when we side with the rich.” 

While Rome may have refused to listen to him when he was alive, at least Pope Benedict declared him a martyr and Pope Francis canonised him in October 2018. They say the church does not work in years or decades, but rather in centuries and millennia. 

Not trying to be flippant, but that might give us all some perspective on matters.

We need to be constantly reminded that the Christian message is always centred around the dignity of every person and until we all play our part in placing that concept centre stage we are playing games with God’s word and the story of the life and times of the historical person of Jesus Christ.

None of us is perfect and nor does the perfect politician exist. But I was struck last week with the praise that German Chancellor Angela Merkel received on her retirement. The praise came from a large cross section of society. 

Former US president Barack Obama said of her. “So many people, girls and boys, men and women, have had a role model who they could look up to through challenging times. I know because I am one of them.” 

Many will say that the highlight of her chancellorship was accepting close to 1.5 million asylum seekers into Germany in 2015.

Of course it was a political action but it was also a genuine attempt at coming to the rescue of the weak and marginalised. The word humility has often been associated with Merkel’s years as chancellor.

Tomorrow’s liturgy should tempt us all to put centre stage the conditions of the poorest and weakest in our society, in our world. 

The Responsorial Psalm includes these words (Psalm 145): “It is the Lord who keeps faith for ever,/who is just to those who are oppressed./It is he who gives bread to the hungry,/the Lord, who sets prisoners free.”

Mark’s account of the behaviour and words of Jesus is a great read. It is a remarkable story. And it’s so relevant right now. 

Car rental group Hertz buys 100,000 Teslas

Car rental company Hertz has ordered 100,000 Tesla cars. The Tesla is the premium all electric car.

Tesla is the first car maker to be valued at $1tn. 

The new Hertz deal pushed Tesla shares up 12. 6 per cent and makes Tesla CEO Elon Musk worth $172bn.

Dublin parishes get first glimpses of church synod

In preparation for the upcoming synod in the Catholic Church the Archdiocese of Dublin kicked off on Tuesday evening with a meeting of a number of Dublin deaneries. Deaneries are groupings of parishes.

The meeting was conducted over zoom. 

Approximately 56 people participated, including Archbishop Dermot Farrell.

The archbishop spoke for 10 minutes. He said that the synod was a gathering. It was not a forum like an opinion poll or a referendum. Archbishop Farrell said it was a church event, and like every church gathering it has to be prayerful.

He pointed out that it was the first synod in Ireland since Thurles in 1850.

The archbishop said that it would be an occasion where people could listen and it was not a platform for confrontation.

The synod was not in a position to change church doctrine. Later in a chat room, Augustinian priest Kieran O’Mahony made the point that while doctrine does not change it can be developed. Another participant felt that the word doctrine could alienate the very people with whom the church needs to communicate.

There was a consensus that it was important that we listen and listen especially to those on the periphery. 

Archbishop Farrell commenting on the importance of listening to those on the margins and periphery quipped that there were one million people in Dublin on the periphery.

The meeting was chaired by Fr Kieran McDermott, a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin.

The meeting conveyed a sense of reality with participants aware of where the Irish church might be at present.

Elon Musk could feed world’s poor many times over

According to the director the United Nations’ food safety organisation just two per cent of Elon Musk’s wealth could solve the problem of world hunger. 

Approximately 700 million people have not enough to eat. The world population stands at just under eight billion people.

Too many trains miss the bus every day

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

A letter in The Irish Times of October 22 caught my attention.

It’s worth quoting the letter in full.

Sir, - Last week I had a most enjoyable hotel break in Mulranny. I took the train to Westport but then had a very long walk (in the rain) to meet the bus bound for Achill soon after.

Why doesn’t the bus meet the train?

A cost-free initiative in one of the finest tourist areas in the country. 

Am I missing something? - Yours, etc, Dominic Gallagher.

No, Dominic you’re not missing anything.

Did you know that Bus Éireann has discontinued its Dublin Limerick service? I find it incredible that our State bus company does not operate buses between Dublin and a major city. It means that if you want to travel from Tralee to Dublin using Bus Éireann you have to go via Cork. I am aware there is a private company that operates between Tralee, Limerick and Dublin. If they can make it work why can’t Bus Éireann?

The letter writer prompted me to do some timetabling investigations.

During the summer a new service was introduced between Dingle and Tralee. There are nine buses every weekday between Dingle and Tralee and 10 between Tralee and Dingle.  

Any time I have been on the new frequent service there have been fewer than 10 passengers on board. I’m wondering why so many buses on the service. I’ve been told that Bus Éireann no longer draws up the timetabling and that now is done by TFI - Transport For Ireland.

 

There are eight trains a day serving Tralee/Cork and Dublin and seven in the opposite direction.

If a passenger wants to travel from Dublin/Cork or any of the intermediate stations to West Kerry then there is only one Tralee Dingle bus that meets the train. It’s the same story in the opposite direction.

Just one simple example a bus arrives in Tralee from Dingle  at 15.03, the Dublin/Cork train departs Tralee at 15.05. I doubt two minutes gives a passenger time to get from the bus to the train, even at a sprint. 

The majority of arrivals and departures mean that passengers have to wait an hour for connecting between train and bus.

Ticketing too is not fit for purpose.

It is absurd that there is not a ticketing system in place that allows a passenger to buy a through ticket that covers bus and rail outside the Dublin commuter belt. And tickets should be interchangeable between different transport companies.

This sort of nonsense is happening at a time when we are all being told to get out of our cars and use public transport as much as possible.

Bus Éireann CEO Stephen Kent highlighted last week the role the company plays in cutting carbon emissions. May I humbly suggest that he and the TFI team try to design timetables that are more passenger friendly. 

And I’d much prefer to be called a passenger than a customer.