Surely the same rules should apply to all of us

Yesterday’s blogpost criticised the grammatical error made by England’s Prince of Wales. The previous day’s post was equating the wearing of all forms of clerical gear with virtue signalling.

Might it be fair to say that correcting the Prince of Wales for his poor grammar was virtue signalling?

It was not the intention.

There seems to be something in the ether, which allows certain grammar errors to be acceptable by the middle classes and other grammar errors that are taboo and completely ‘out of  order’.

The Prince of Wales would never say ‘I done the school run today’. If per chance he did, not even he would avoid criticism. But  saying: ‘My father visited John and I’ has been given an imprimatur by the middle classes so that makes it okay.

Both are incorrect. Why should one be acceptable to so-called cognoscenti and the other not acceptable? Has it a something to do with social class, accent, address, occupation?

It would seem to be the case.

England’s Prince William not too strong on King’s English

Below is an extract from a report in yesterday’s UK Independent. 

“Meanwhile, Prince William publicly mentioned his brother, Prince Harry, for the first time in in eight years.

"He shared a poignant childhood memory of their mother, Princess Diana, taking them to visit a homeless shelter, marking a rare moment of reflection on their relationship.

“ She took Harry and I both there. I must have been about 11, I think probably at the time, maybe 10,” he said.

"Surely it should read: 'She took Harry and me..'

So much for the King’s English. I doubt the prince would have said ‘She took I....’

Why did the newspaper not include (sic) in the story? Not possible with a future monarch?

The prince is confusing nominative and accusative cases. It’ll be ‘I done it my way’ next. Why not?

Clerical gear could easily be seen as virtue signalling

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

When I joined the Dominican Order in 1967 we were given a list of items we were to buy, including a black suit and a black hat. On completion of our initial retreat we were vested in the Dominican habit in a ceremony attended by our families. A lot of water has flown under many bridges in the intervening years.

After just one year in the Order we wore the roman collar, we were still almost children. But change was beginning in Ireland and in the church. I think we shedded wearing clerical gear long before priestly ordination.

 

People can wear what they like. Groups within society have uniforms, the Garda, the Army, nurses, pilots, ambulance drivers. And then there are groups, where some do and some don’t, bus and train drivers, bank staff, shop assistants. Some schools have uniforms, others don’t. Nurses do and doctors don’t. 

People in favour of wearing clerical gear point out that gardaí do, so why shouldn’t clerics. Another reason given is that clerics are different. I’m not too sure what that means. 

More say that by wearing clerical garb one gives witness. I’m not too sure about that either. I would never want to set myself apart from the rest of humanity. I know one thing for sure, I’m not fit to tie the shoelaces of my mother or father.

It seems wearing clerical gear is becoming the in-thing these days with some younger priests, nuns and sisters. Maybe cynical I, see it as a new-style fashion accessory. One certainly does stand out wearing clerical clothing these days. Is it a statement, saying I’m different, I’m better?

Last week I saw a young woman wearing a white habit. I presume she was a religious sister. She stood out in the crowd. 

The habit was immaculate, the woman was perfectly groomed and probably was the most elegant and stylish person in the crowd. In a nearby cafe a woman collapsed, falling over the table where she was sitting. The religious sister was right beside what happened. What did she do? Nothing, walked on.

Maybe when she saw someone else attend to the woman she felt there was no need for her to stop. But wouldn’t a kind, supportive word in her ear have helped?

I can hear you ask what about Muslim women. They don’t stand out as being different in their own communities. And there are issues with that too.

When I see priests meticulously turned out and discussing what style liturgical vestments to wear I just think it’s all a far cry from the ’60s and ’70s when the church was alive with ideas and new ways. 

I’m reminded of Pope Francis telling us that the church should resemble a field hospital and encouraging priests to be ‘shepherds, living with the smell of the sheep… as shepherds among your flock.’ 

Shakespeare again: ‘the apparel oft proclaims the man’. 

US Politicians abuse elderly and dementia sufferers.

Last evening CNN threw light on how political fundraising is exploiting the elderly, misleading them into unwittingly giving away millions of dollars.

While both parties are doing it, CNN points out that the Republicans are by far the bigger culprits.

People suffering from dementia are being specifically targeted by the parties before the November elections.

‘Assisted dying versus assisted living'

Whatever one’s views are on the

current debate on euthanasia or 'assisted dying', this letter surely is worth reading.

It’s also worth noting how glowingly we speak of the dead. Do we praise the living with the respect they deserve? Another aspect to the mystery of our lives. And doesn’t the term ‘assisted dying’ remove all aspects of the cruelty of killing someone?

Why no hospitality for the people of Gaza and Lebanon?

The moment the Russian Army invaded Ukraine, the European Union rightly opened its doors to the beleaguered  Ukrainian people.

Why are we not offering similar hospitality to the people of Gaza and Lebanon right now?

'Sinn Féin leaders like puppets for unseen controllers'

Michael McDowell’s column in The Irish Times on Wednesday.

In the last few weeks, there has been much publicity concerning internal disputes and disciplinary processes in Sinn Féin. Now that we are in an election run-up, some consider that these controversies are sure to damage the party’s prospects on election day. But the cause of a major decline in support for the party is longer and deeper than these recent problems. After the 2020 election, Sinn Féin was preparing for the role of leading party in the next government. Buoyed up by the results of that election, it began a campaign that took its voter-share dominance for granted.

It began to interact with financial, commercial and professional business organisations. Meetings were sought with the major legal and accountancy practices. TDs were directed to wear jackets, collars and ties. The aura of a government-in-waiting was assiduously cultivated, with opinion poll ratings consistently hovering around 30 per cent.

But suddenly the bubble burst. In the European Parliament elections this June, Sinn Féin secured 11 per cent of the first-preference vote compared with 20 per cent each for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. In the local elections held the same day, it again secured only 11 per cent of the first-preference vote, with FF and FG each getting 23 per cent.

Something deeper happened

What had happened? Not the recent scandals. Something deeper happened to the party’s public perception and support base. The departure of Leo Varadkar may have been one factor. Likewise, the party’s wobbly and ineffectual support for the ill-fated Yes side in the family and care referendums in March, despite its difficulties with the wording and its promise (or threat?) to rerun the vote, damaged its credibility.

Add to these factors the failure of the party to capitalise on the Government’s mishandling at Irish and Europe level of the refugee/immigration issue (which is a matter of real concern to the Sinn Féin voting base, as distinct from party ideologues). Now you have some insight into the possible factors in the slump in Sinn Féin support.

On the issues of housing and health, where the current Coalition is vulnerable, Sinn Féin just isn’t scoring points – let alone knock-out blows. Its housing policy proposals, which end with the State owning an ever-increasing proportion of Irish houses as ground landlords, with diminished rights of home occupiers to dispose of their homes, smacks of thinly disguised far-left socialism. These proposals reflect the ideology of the leftists in Belfast rather than addressing the actual aspirations of Irish people to own outright their own homes.

There is still an open political battleground on matters such as childcare services, disability services, GP services and hospital services. No party has as yet managed to stake out the high ground on such matters in the minds of the public. And all of these issues could be game- changers between now and polling day in late November.

My own take on Sinn Féin’s apparent blowout is that the public are increasingly sceptical of the party’s core agenda. It aspires to establish a 32-county socialist republic. And when it says socialist, it means far-left socialist. Its connections and sympathies with Farc, the Colombian Marxists, the Cuban government, ETA, the Basque Marxists, and other world revolutionary movements as well as its far-left fellow Left group members in the European Parliament, all speak of a movement out of tune with the centre ground of Irish politics and thinking.

Post-Brexit, most voters in the Republic want Northern institutions to bed down rather than polarise the North with a Border poll for which there still is no likelihood of a majority for a decade at least. Rekindling smouldering constitutional and sectarian questions in Northern Ireland at this point is counterproductive; slow and steady reconciliation and positive mutual engagement in the North is what is needed by both parts of the island.

It is now four years since Colm Keena’s admirable exposition in these pages of the true nature of Sinn Féin. That fine piece of journalism needs constant rereading. The facts have not changed. The Army Council still exists. Sadly, none of our broadcast media has the courage to deal with the realities uncovered by Keena. Sinn Féin is not a conventional political party; it is a tightly controlled revolutionary movement still in the grip of a very small group, many of whom were active in the IRA’s campaign of violence.

It brooks no open dissent. It controls its TDs, Senators, councillors, MLAs and abstentionist MPs with a vice-like grip. Its elected public representatives take policy and instruction unquestioningly from its Coiste Seasta and ardchomhairle. They are all liable to arbitrary deselection by the unelected party centre. TDs and councillors are notified of their political fates by back-room messages – not by voters. Their leaders are not really leaders but more like glove puppets for unseen controllers.

Sinn Féin’s recent controversies and cover-ups are but the symptoms of its underlying reality – not the cause of their decline. Nor the real reasons to be wary.

Debating euthanasia or ‘assisted dying' in parliament

"If you don’t stand for anything, you’ll fall for everything."

-Michael Healy-Rae talking on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday about euthanasia or ‘assisted dying’, which sounds much more polite and easier on the ears.

'SF reacts to child abuse scandals as the church used to'

Fintan O’Toole in The Irish Times yesterday. Worth a read but it’s a pity he did not refer to the ‘heart reasons’ excuse, which the church tends to use on many occasions.

---

Child abuse scandals are submersibles that plumb the murky depths of an institution’s mentality. They take us fathoms down into its otherwise unfathomable instincts. So it was with the Catholic church – so it is now with Sinn Féin. And where these probes land is in the same place: the mental abyss in which it is impossible to think of cruel acts from the point of view of the victim.

Tempting though it is, this is not a moment for smug satisfaction at the travails of a party whose default mode is moral superiority. Like it or not, everyone on the island has an interest in Sinn Féin becoming a better, healthier, more open and democratic organisation.

It is likely to be the largest party in Northern Ireland for a long time to come and, even if its (always presumptuous) expectations of forming the Republic’s next government are now effectively dashed, it will remain a formidable presence in the political life of the State.

For the good of our democracy, we need a lot more than trite “learnings”. We need Sinn Féin to engage with its own collective ID. It must investigate the impulses and assumptions that made it possible for two party officials to write job references for Michael McMonagle, who had been questioned about (and later admitted to) sex offences against children, and for Mary Lou McDonald (in effect) to cover up the reasons for the resignation of the party’s leader in the Seanad, Niall Ó Donnghaile.

I fully accept that most members of Sinn Féin are genuinely repelled by the revelation of this continuing pattern of behaviour. But if they are, they must ask themselves the most searching and uncomfortable question: what is it about our organisation that perpetuates those patterns?

The answer cannot be delivered in bureaucracy-speak. Responding to the revelation of the McMonagle affair, McDonald resorted to the language of management consultancy. She has asked the party’s incoming general secretary to “immediately initiate a complete overhaul of governance procedures”.

We’ve been here before. Six years ago, in August 2018, after several of the party’s local councillors had quit over what they alleged to be a culture of bullying in which unelected officials sought to impose their will on elected representatives, The Irish Times reported that “party leader Mary Lou McDonald has now assigned a senior figure in her team to carry out an examination of the party’s structures and to report back to the ard comhairle”.

Remind me what Albert Einstein (and Roy Keane) said about doing the same thing while expecting different results.

Structures and procedures matter, but not nearly as much as mentalities and cultures. Governance in Sinn Féin is hierarchical and driven by obedience. Which is why it responds to child abuse within its ranks more or less as the Catholic hierarchy did.

The offending party official, like the abusive priest, is one of us and therefore to be treated with compassion and understanding. The victim is a problem to be managed with the least possible damage to the trust of the believers whose simple faith must not be eroded by scandal.

What McDonald should be instigating is not just a review of the party’s governance. It’s a complete and honest overhaul of the habit of mind in which every act of abuse by an insider must be seen first and foremost from the perspective of the perpetrator. That habit is not casual, and it is not unconnected to Sinn Féin’s past as the political wing of the IRA.

Deep in its DNA, and still implicit in the way it thinks about the Troubles, is a reflexive minimisation of the suffering of victims. Victims, in its grand narrative, are an unfortunate inconvenience.

What we see with both McMonagle and Ó Donnghaile are kindness, care, consideration – for them. The instinct with McMonagle was to ensure that his life was not going to be ruined by the mere fact that he was being investigated for attempting to lure a child into having sex with him. The party helped him to get a good job with the British Heart Foundation.

In the case of Ó Donnghaile, he was allowed to resign with no reference to the reason – his sending of inappropriate text messages to a 16 year-old member of Ógra Shinn Féin. McDonald praised his political contributions and expressed the hope that he could “overcome the health challenges that he has had to deal with over the past number of months”.

In her responses to the revelations last week, McDonald continued to express her concerns about Ó Donnghaile’s mental health – while saying nothing at all about the “health challenges” of the boy he subjected to unwanted attention. She declined to enter what the boy called, in a statement to the Sunday Independent, the “dark spaces” of a teenager struggling to deal with a deeply unsettling situation.

The sense of deja vu is dizzying. McDonald spoke on Morning Ireland of her job in all of this as “managing human behaviour, failures, mistakes” – rather than crimes against or damage to children. Ó Donnghaile’s target wrote on Sunday of his feeling, when he tried to get the party to act in early 2023, of being left to confront “a titanic power dynamic that made me feel as if I had no chance of having my voice heard”. Dress Cardinal McDonald and her bishops in episcopal robes and it’s a movie we’ve all seen before.

McDonald isn’t stupid – she’s extremely smart. So how do she and her senior colleagues end up reinforcing a “power dynamic” that is Titanic as well as “titanic”: crushing for the victim but also a metaphor for the party’s self-destructive hubris? Because of a habit of celebrating perpetrators as heroes while keeping their casualties as far from the surface of collective consciousness as possible.

If you teach yourself not to think too much about those your movement killed and maimed, you have also learned not to see things as they look and feel for the victims of your comrades’ unfortunate “mistakes” and “errors”.

Eating in public and on the go seems to be de rigueur today

This week’s Mediahuis regional weekly newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

Since Monday, October 7 it is forbidden to carry an electric scooter on any public transport in the State. Transport for Ireland (TFI) made the decision on safety grounds, saying that there is a concern about the batteries on the scooters. 

A similar rule applies in a number of other European cities. There has been considerable discussion about the electric scooter prohibition, the usual hullabaloo and outrage.

I am ‘outraged’ about something else. Alas, not a word about it, not a whisper. I was on a crowded Luas last Sunday, sitting down minding my own business when this ever-so-polite young woman sat beside me. She was well turned out, dare I say sophisticated, maybe refined too, whatever exactly those words mean.  

Within two or three minutes of sitting down she produced a sandwich, a bap, a roll. These days there are a zillion names for such products. It certainly wasn’t a sandwich-style item that we took in our packed lunches fadó fadó. But no matter, leaving that aside, a person can eat whatever they like, whenever they like but must they to do it on a crowded Luas, especially when the sight of this food item and the smell from it was disgusting, at least to my nose and eyes. 

There is a sign on the Luas explaining that it is forbidden to eat or drink on the tram. Had she any idea of the smell that was emanating from the food she was eating? I covertly looked at it a few times to see greasy particles, crumbs and assorted food-stuffs falling down on to the greaseproof paper in which it was wrapped. 

Am I intolerant? I was surprised no one else on the crowded tram was expressing any annoyance whatsoever. She was obviously oblivious to the smell and sight of what she was eating. I decided to say nothing. I can imagine all I would have done was to upset the young woman. She looked delicate and fragile. When it was all consumed, she neatly wrapped the greaseproof paper and put it in her bag. The hell was over. 

Two days later I am on an early morning bus, in front of me a passenger is eating what looks like a simple old-fashioned roll. This time no smell, nothing. And now I’m wondering is one allowed eat food on a bus. I’ve never seen a sign on a bus saying you can’t.

I’ve discussed the issue with a friend, who immediately snapped at me, saying he has seen me eating on a train. Does the fact that there are tables on trains make a difference, longer journeys too?

Have we all forgotten about good old table manners? It’s something no-one ever talks about these days. 

I’ve asked around and the general consensus is that fadó fadó parents would never have allowed their children eat in public. These days everything seems to be ‘on the go’ on the street. Does how we eat say something about us?

One thing is certain, the times we are living , they sure are a-changing.

More similarities between Sinn Féin and the churches

This is an extract from the lead

story on page one of yesterday’s Sunday Independent.

It reads: "He also criticised the party for citing 'health reasons' for Mr Ó Donnghaile’s resignation, rather than saying it was about sending inappropriate text messages to a teenager."

The young person who received the inappropriate text messages from Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile is upset with the reason given by Sinn Fein for the Senator’s resignation from Seanad Éireann. The party said it was on grounds of ill health.

He says he was 16 and not 17 as party Leader Mary Lou McDonald said in Dáil Éireann.

How often have church organisations given health reasons for people retiring from positions? Too many times. And, indeed, the strategy is not exclusive to the churches. But it’s an excuse/reason the churches giver far too often.

'John McCain had character. That’s what I think’ - Obama

This is worth a watch. A reminder of better times

BarackObama (@Barack Obama) posted: John McCain and I didn’t always agree, but he understood that some values transcended parties. He knew that if we got in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency or party orthodoxy, our democracy will not work. 

 https://x.com/barackobama/status/1847457386681810944?s=51&t=UgcVh3PPqPDgrCZ5Ux8O1Q

Sinn Fein off air and Guilford Four freed

On this day, October 19, 1988 the British government imposed a broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin, 11 republican organisations and Ulster loyalist paramilitaries.

And on the same day the following year, October 19, 1989 the convictions of the Guilford Four were quashed. They had spent 15 years behind bars.

Brand’s embrace of religion is a real cross to bear

Finn McRedmond’s opinion piece in The Irish Times yesterday

Baptised in April, Russell Brand is now selling £180 amulets to ward off wifi

The one thing going for Russell Brand and his strange Christian conversion is that, despite his evident distance from the Kingdom of God and his weak grasp on serious theology, he does at the very least look a bit like Jesus. (At least in the caricature of our imaginations.)

The substance, if we can call it that, seems to stop here. Brand’s version of Christianity – its closest denominational analogue seems to be evangelism – has little basis in the modern practices of the mainstream church.

Brand has been on quite the journey. He was an MTV presenter, then a small- screen comedian known for his brashness. Later, he had a turn as a film star while also trying on the guise of a political activist (he endorsed Ed Miliband in 2015, and led some anti-austerity protests).

Cranking up his messianic aspirations, Brand launched a YouTube channel and began to anxiously rant to millions of followers about a shadowy elite pulling the strings of the world, offering vague and rapturous warnings about Covid-19 and vaccines. The downward spiral set in motion by the YouTube conspiracism was turbocharged. Last year, a joint investigation by The Times and Channel 4 revealed several women had accused Brand of sexual misconduct or assault – charges he denies. Since then, he has found God.

Just last week, during Hurricane Milton, Brand gave us an inside look into his faith: “In the middle of this crazy story in Florida ...” (Brand was in Miami, hundreds of miles away from the eye of the storm) “[it is] worth thinking how the metaphor of the storm affects us all ... a demonstration of the almighty power that is beyond our control ... it helps me to understand that I must listen and watch for Christ.”

Deep state

Since 2023, Brand has been tracing his journey into Christianity. He was baptised in the Thames in April. Since then, he has been seen performing a Baptism himself in a river and his underwear. And more recently he has taken to his knees to pray on stage with fellow members of the new American right, first Tucker Carlson and then Jordan Peterson, in front of packed out arenas. The Brand of 2015 is a long way away – this year, he asked God to shine a light on the “dark forces” operating the “deep state”. His latest act of piety is selling “amulets” for £180 to ward off nasty things like wifi and ill-defined bad vibes. (I’m listening!)

Brand has company. Peterson – a professor who became the first public intellectual to sell out the O2 – is an agnostic who happily had Brand pray onstage with him. Carlson has long been associated with the Christian right. Both men are kingpins of a new version of American conservatism, and use the language and guise of religion to spread their word. Joe Rogan – a podcaster who averages more than 10 million listens per episode – has increasingly leant in to conversations about faith. These men do not share a homogeneous ideology, but emerge from a similar place. And religion has become shorthand for belonging to their group. A cynic might say Brand was looking for an in.

Catholic revival

But there are plenty of strands to the new religious revival. The aesthetics of Catholicism – rosary beads, ermine, images of the Virgin Mary – have been wielded as fashion statements since the late 2010s. What was once intended to be transgressive has fully made its home in the mainstream: the Met Gala theme in 2018 was Fashion and the Catholic Imagination; Fleabag’s “hot priest” will be among the 2010s’ most memorable characters.

Now Sally Rooney’s best- selling new novel Intermezzo finds religion as its central theme. And the current Pope adopts a liberal bent (defended as a survival mechanism for the declining church). Given all of this we might expect some shift in the data, some proof that all of this religiosity means something. But there has been no accompanying flurry of young people re-embracing the church. This version of the Catholic revival – a distant land from Carlson, Brand and Rogan – is clearly skin deep.

Still, there is something that links them both. Without the architecture provided by a culturally religious society, the Christian God quickly becomes a cipher for a political identity. In Brand’s case, that’s membership to the American right-wing guru class. In the mainstream adoption of Catholicism, it’s something different: proof of membership to a liberal class that no longer fears God but can instead mock his pieties. Faith takes a back seat to the political signalling.

This might not matter much at all: Christianity has been around for some time, and I suspect it will weather this particular trend cycle, no matter Russell Brand’s risible public display. And these Christian gurus will find a new cause celebre in no time at all.

Meanwhile, there are wifi-warding amulets to be sold and American megachurches to be attended. God may or may not be there.

End

EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo interviewed Donald Trump on 'The World Over’ yesterday.

Crass waste of money on the banks of the Dodder

Great improvements have been made to Lower Dodder Road , especially between Rathfarnham Bridge and Ely’s Arch in Churchtown.

Fabulous path and a two-way cycle lane and all along the side of the River Dodder.

The cement is hardly dry when contractors have arrived to dig up the ramps. The ramps, put down some months ago, are being replaced with differently designed ones.

What an extraordinary waste of money.

Will anyone be held to account for this crass waste of taxpayers money? Is there anyone who cares?

Basil Hume tells Damian Byrne to tidy up Timothy Radcliffe

Readers may have missed this comment.

Your piece about Timothy Radcliffe is excellent.
When Damian Byrne was Master of the Order, on a visitation here in England he went to see Basil Hume in Archbishop's House in Westminster. Hume enquired of Damian: "is Timothy episcopal material” , "of course”, responded Damian and then the cardinal added: "but do please tidy him up a bit."
Slán agus beannacht

Edward Walsh 

Is SF's media approach similar to that of the churches?

The current controversy and scandals surrounding Sinn Féin has seen many commentators write on the behaviour of the party and why there is such secrecy about how it is governed.

The Sunday Times columnist Brenda Power has suggested that Sinn Féin feels the world is out to get it and as a result of that it is defensive in how it behaves and reacts to criticism. The party has also been likened to a cult. The main political parties constantly questioning how it is governed.

In the current furore over the party’s three running scandals, one might be forgiven for seeing similarities in how Sinn Féin handles the media and how the churches deal with the press.

Just a thought and an observation.

Iranian jail sullies the charm and beauty of its people

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

Bernard Phelan is an Irish man, born in Dublin, has Irish and French citizenship and is married to a French man.

His book ‘You will die in Prison - My time as a state hostage in Iran’ was launched by Tánaiste, and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheál Martin in Dubray Books on Dublin’s Grafton Street on Thursday, October 3.

Some days earlier Bernard appeared on RTÉ’s Oliver Callan Show, where he spoke about his 222 days in an Iranian jail.

I was quickly drawn into his story. I have been to Iran and the Irish Dominicans have a priory in the capital city, Tehran. The house was founded in 1962 and there has always been a respectful relationship between the Dominicans and state authorities. At a local level the Dominicans cherished their contact with the people they encountered.

Bernard spoke about his horrific time in prison. He saw people shackled and a father handcuffed to his child.

He referred to his accommodation in his prison in Mashad as ‘Satan's Block’,which he shared with political prisoners, drug traffickers and condemned inmates awaiting execution. He stressed the importance of the need for a good sense of humour in prison.

While he had harsh words to say about life in prison he spoke in glowing terms of the Iranian people. And I was immediately able to identify with that. During my short stay in Iran I visited a number of cities, including the capital, Shiraz and Isfahan, everywhere the people could not have been more friendly and helpful. 

On one occasion I asked a policeman for directions to the railway station, he hailed a car and I was brought straight there. Every step I took I was aware that I was walking over centuries of sophisticated culture and learning.

That dichotomy between governments and people is always an extremely interesting if not complicated and subtle topic.

Micheál Martin referred to Bernard’s case as ‘complex’ and that it required great skill to get his release, which involved the help of other EU states, including of course France. He spoke about Bernard’s arbitrary arrest. His words were carefully chosen and couched in diplomatic language.

And just as Bernard in his book is critical of the Iranian authorities, he writes and speaks with passion about the kindness and charm of the Iranian people.

That is always something that intrigues me. I have met people from countries all over the world. I’ve met Israelis, Palestinians, Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, Taiwanese, people of all different types and styles. 

Is it a silly question to ask, what is it about human nature that we are on occasions hardwired to see another people, another nation as our enemy and then head out and kill and maim them?  Why do we keep doing it?