Books tell tales

The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

Michael Commane

At work last week someone said ‘good morning’ to me. Smart aleck that I am, I quipped that it was no longer morning. 

He assured me that somewhere in the world it was morning. We had a laugh about it and I went on to tell him that when I was a child I spent the summer months on my granduncle’s farm where they kept to ‘old time’.

It was in the 1950s and the farm, Rathpatrick, was on the Tipperary Kilkenny border. In the summer months the time on the farm was 'old time' but in the next village, just four or five kilometres away the people went by ‘new time’. In some rural/farming areas people did not put their clocks forward in summer.

We both decided it could be a great subject for a book.

Only the previous day I had suggested to a friend that we should think of jointly writing a book. 

Between the two of us we certainly have loads of yarns to tell and also, it could be extremely funny. even came up with a title for the project.

When working as a sub editor at the Kerryman I visited the villages of the county, chatting with people and then writing up an account of my wanderings. I’d simply go into a village and knock at someone’s hall door, get chatting with them and it developed from there. Often they would direct me to great characters in the village. 

It might well have made a good project and these days I regret that I did not put it together in book form. Kerryman photographers took pictures for the stories each week. That would have been a great addition for the book that never was.

I’ve been invited to a number of book launches in recent days.

This Thursday Diaspora Minister Jimmy Deenihan is launching in Dublin Breda Joy's ‘Hidden Kerry’. Breda is a former colleague of mine at The Kerryman. The book has been most favourably reviewed in The Irish Mail on Sunday and The Irish Examiner. It takes the reader from the banks of the Shannon at Tarbert right to the sacred site The City under the shadow of the Paps. 

Last Thursday John Treacy, Chief Executive of the Irish Sports Council, launched a book in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny written by the late Margaret Hayes. The book is called ‘Halfway between Dublin and Cork’. It's a history of Margaret’s home place, Urlingford and its people. It so happens that Urlingford is only a stone’s throw from that farm where I spent my summers and where they kept their clocks on ‘old time’. Rathpatrick is just a few fields away.

Margaret, who died at 59 last February, was the youngest woman to become a secretary general of a government department.  Her first posting as a secretary general was at what was then called Department of Tourism and Trade. 

Anyone who takes time out to read the book will be mesmerised by the work done by Margaret in telling the story of her home place and its people. It’s clear to see that Margaret was a historian by training. She was working on the book right up to the diagnosis of her illness in late July 2013. No small effort has been made by her sister Dympna in completing the book. The water colour illustrations in the book are the work of Dympna.

Every time a colleague or friend publishes a book I’m tempted to make a start on my own.

Between teaching, priesthood and journalism, I’ve had my fair share of experiences. A new year's resolution?

Frank McNally and his job as a wildlife executive

If you still have Saturday's Irish Times then make sure to read Frank McNally's Irishman's Diary.

It's a lovely piece about family cats and feline psychology. Did you know cats, at least Frank McNally's Pete, can spot the difference between rain and tap water. He's obviously nervous about the flouride.

And then there are the magpies in the garden and never forget the little robin. Slugs too.

And Frank gets a byline.

JB Malone remembered close to White Hill

Tess en route today to the top of Djouce, which is 725 metres, via White Hill in Wicklow.

Overlooking Lough Tay at a spot, which has a plaque to honour journalist and author JB Malone, who wrote many walking guides while working at The Herald.

Malone's walking guides are considered classic works.

Mixed signals

This evening in St Magdalen's Dominican church in Drogheda there is a Mass to thank all those who have been involved in the campaign to keep the church open.

Some months ago a decision was made by the Irish Province of the Dominican Order to discontinue the Dominican presence in Drogheda.

Odd ad sequence on RTE

Before this evening's RTE news there was an ad for road safety. It was immediately followed by an ad for Carlsberg where the predominant word was 'observe'.

Is that not strange?

What's happened consensus?

The Thinking Anew column in today's Irish Times.

Michael Commane

A theme running through tomorrow’s liturgy is one of a kind God, offering comfort and forgiveness to the people of the world.

If such a concept or picture could be “branded”  in the world of Twitter and Facebook it could well prove an extraordinary success.

The world in which we live seems so fractured and on the brink of breaking in so many places right now. On all continents people are holding their breath in anticipation of what’s going to happen next.

There is the worrying standoff between the European Union and Russia. 

There is major conflagration right across the Middle East. There is the never-ending cycle of violence between Israel and Palestine. Christian Muslim tensions, which were spoken about during Pope Francis’ visit to Turkey last weekend, continue. Racial tensions rage in the United States. Within the European Union there is great mistrust and discord.

The growing popularity of a brand of fanaticism in the world of politics and religion is surely a cause for concern.

The philosophy of ‘them versus us’ seems to be in the ascendancy at present and far too many people and societies seem self-righteous in their belief and in their anger too.

In an excellent article in this newspaper last Saturday former Moscow correspondent Conor O'Clery point out how leaving Russia out in the cold was never a good idea. The hope the world had at the time of the fall of the Iron Curtain quickly evaporated as we returned to our default mode.

What has  happened to  consensus? What had  happened to tolerance? But maybe we can go a step further and ask; where are we with our forgiveness, our kindness to one another?

One of the most important tenets of Christianity is the belief that we are all made in the image and likeness of God.

There is an urgent need at present that we the people, the citizens of the world, take a moment out from our current race towards aggression and intolerance and make a conscious decision to spend more time and energy looking for what unites us rather than for what divides us. Above all we should make it part of our life ambition to search for peace, to be people of kindness and forgiveness. Of course the world is made up of many different cultures, traditions and religions but we all share a common humanity and we believe we are all children of God.

​In Strasbourg last Tuesday week Pope Francis in his speech to the European Parliament said: “In addressing you today, I would like, as a pastor, to offer a message of hope and encouragement to all the citizens of Europe.

“It is a message of hope, based on the confidence that our problems can become powerful forces for unity in working to overcome all those fears which Europe – together with the entire world – is currently experiencing. It is a message of hope in the Lord, who turns evil into good and death into life.

  

"​This  is a message of encouragement to return to the firm conviction of the founders of the European Union, who envisioned a future based on the capacity to work together in bridging divisions and in fostering peace and fellowship between all the peoples of this continent. At the heart of this ambitious political project was confidence in man, not so much as a citizen or an economic agent, but in man, in men and women as persons endowed with transcendent dignity.”

​

Every time we are tempted to belittle and demonise another person, instead of seeing her or him as a threat or someone who is in grave error, if we see them as a person with a “transcendent dignity”  surely our attitude and behaviour will be softened. We will see them in a different light. As Christians we believe that is in light of a forgiving God.

​The God of Isaiah speaks to the heart of Jerusalem, talks of comfort and strength and that the time of bondage is over (Is 40: 9)

What have the US bishops said about the killings?

Michael Brown (18) from Ferguson, Tamir E Rice (12) from Chicago and Eric Garner (43) from Staten Island, two black men and one black child, ciizens of the United States of America,

All three people died at the hands of the police.

What has the US Catholic Episcopal Conference said about this?

If the conference has spoken on the subject, who has seen or heard what was said.

The dignity of a human life?

Calling on An Garda Siochána to take a stand

Cycling in Dublin has become extremely dangerous and a major serious accident cannot be far away.

The city was never intended as a high speed cycling track. It seems large numbers of cyclists think that cycling lanes are urban racing tracks. And then the lycra brigade followed quickly by that arrogant species, who have changed their four by fours for bicycles are simply pests on the roads of Dublin.

Red means stop, green means go. A police presence at the junction of Camden Street and South Circular Road any morning between 7.30 and 10.00 could help fill the coffers of the State.

Any chance An Garda Siochána might do something to change what's happening

Rail passengers walk away

As a rseult of the introduction of bus routes between major German cities, Deutsche Bahn, German Rail, is reported to have lost an estimated €120 million this year.

The rail company is believed to be planning a complete new fare structure.

Falling oil prices has also meant more people are using their cars.

Gordon Brown speaks of the political vision of his father

On Monday at the Old Kirk in Kircaldy Gordon Brown announced his retirement from the House of Commons.

As and from May he will no longer be MP for the constituency of Kircaldy and Cowdenbeath.

"I still hold the belief in something bigger than ourselves. I still hold to a belief in the moral purpose of public service, something I learned from my father and which I hope to inspire in my children.

"Sometimes politics is seen at best as a branch of the entertainment industry. There are times when political parties seem not to be agents of change but brands to be marketed to people, who are seen as consumers, when they are really citizens with responsibilities.

"Politics, my father believed, was about public service. It was a vocation founded on a great sense of duty, it was built on a commitment to justice, it was driven forward by a missionary zeal for progress and change. This is politics at its best and when it works people are better off.

"Today I will have my say, tomorrow the newspapers will have their say, and then history will have its say.

Gordon Brown refuses to take his prime ministerial pension.

Swans at Latouche Bridge

On the Grand Canal at Latouche Bridge circa 16.30, better known as Portobello Bridge.

Not completely sure but probably correct; the bridges on the Grand and Royal canals are named after the wives of the engineers who built them.

The Royal Canal featured on RTE on Monday evening in the excellent programme on Brendan Behan.

RTE's education correspondent messes up

RTE's education correspondent, Emma O'Kelly on Morning Ireland today:

" .... it is an absolutely unique situation." And then later, "... the criteria was ......"

Priest and people

At a funeral Mass in a Dublin church today it seemed there was no connect whatsoever between the bereaved and the priest.

It was difficult to hear the words of the officiating priest, who was wearing a maniple. He instructed those present where to go to receive Communion.

The aloofness of it all.

And the see-through lace alb. Is it all a monstrous game?

Giving people responsibility empowers and liberates them

Reading the Gospels it's so easy to miss things. Often right in front of our eyes there are gems and we seem to ignore them.

In yesterday's Gospel Mark tells the reader how the landowner gives repsonsibility to all his workers.

Responsibility is a liberating idea, giving someone responsibility empowers them.

And so often it's the last thing in the minds of the ruling elites.

Leaving Russia out in the cold was never a good idea

Yesterday's Irish Times carried an excellent opinion piece by Conor O'Clery, who is a former Irish Times Moscow correspondent.

Below is a quote from the article.

"Taking advantage of a defeated foe's weakness has unfortunate historic outcomes. After the first World War, the Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany of territory and people. National resentment eventually translated into aggression and militarism and the second World War.

"The 'defeat' of the Soviet Union in the cold war stripped Russia of territory and people. The perceived rebuffs, loss of face and indignities that followed led to the emergence of a combative nationalism, personified by Vladimir Putin."

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said at a conference in Berlin two weeks ago that euphoria and triumphalism went to the heads of western leaders and what was once a blister has now turned into a bloody festering wound.

Turkish president Erdogan expresses views on outsiders

"Those who come from outside only like the oil, gold daimonds, cheap workforce, conflicts and disputes of the lands of Islam. Believe me, they do not like us ... They like seeing us, our children die. How long will we continue to tolerate this."

Turkish president Recep Erdogan on the eve of the pope's visit to Turkey.

Verb or adjective?

A number of Dublin Bus vehicles are carrying a Pepsi ad.

The ad's main line runs: 'Live for now'?

Is 'Live' meant as a verb or an adjective in the ad.

A Grand Canal bridge

At Dublin's Latouche bridge at lunchtime.

The lads need advice

A protester outside the Criminal Courts of Justice before the hearing involving water protesters on Wednesday.

And on BBC Radio 4 this morning the British Home Secretary, Theresa May said; "..... he suggested we went along."

An appeal

A personal appeal. In recent days a B Hickey in the UK.contacted this blog. I don't have a contact so could you please forward  telephone number or email address. Of course not for publication. Thank you.

Pope Francis visits Turkey

From today's Guardian.

Pope Francis embarks on one of the most delicate missions of his 18-month-old papacy on Friday, when he is expected to wrestle with the problems of Christian persecution in the Muslim world and tackle relations with Islam in a time of spreading jihadism during his visit to Turkey.

As if that were not enough, he is also expected to deal with the millenium-old schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy that centred on the city that is now Istanbul.

The fourth pope to visit Turkey, Francis will seek to emphasise his commitment to dialogue with Muslims and other Christians at a time of increased violence against Christian minorities in the region.

He is to make what his spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, described as a very important speech on Muslim-Christian relations on Friday.

While in Ankara, the 77-year-old Argentinian pontiff is also due to visit Turkey’s directorate for religious affairs, or Diyanet, and meet Mehmet Görmez, the country’s most senior cleric. Görmez said he wanted to raise the problem of Islamophobia in his talks with the pope.

“Horrible things are happening everywhere in the Islamic world,” he told Deutsche Welle radio.

“These incidents have negatively affected Muslims not only [in the region], but also in Europe. While all these painful events are unfolding, there are those that argue that the source of these problems is Islam, which leads to injustices being committed against Islam

“We will have to work closely together with the pope on this,” he said.

Francis will also walk straight into another controversy when he visits the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s new palace built on once-protected farm and and forest in Ankara. He will the first foreign dignitary to be hosted at the lavish, 1,000-room complex.

The palace, which dwarfs the White House and other European government palaces, cost of £394m. It has drawn the ire of opposition parties, environmentalists, human rights activists and architects who say it is too extravagant, has damaged the environment and was built despite a court injunction against it.

Erdoğan brazenly dismissed the court ruling. “Let them knock it down if they have the power,” he said.

The Ankara branch of the Turkish Chamber of Architects sent a letter to the pope this month, urging him not to attend his welcoming ceremony on Friday at the “illegal” palace.

A spokesman for the pope brushed off the request. The Turkish government had invited Francis to visit and he would go where the Turkish government wished to receive him, he said.

Among the questions hanging over the trip is whether Francis will pray alongside his Muslim hosts when he visits Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmet mosque in Istanbul also known as the Blue Mosque on Saturday.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict, appalled many traditional Catholics when he appeared to do so on his visit to Turkey eight years ago. The Vatican put out a statement saying Benedict had merely been in meditation, though he conceded that he “certainly turned his thoughts to God”.

Francis will be the fourth reigning pope to visit Turkey, and his comes at an intensely sensitive moment for the dwindling Christian communities of the Middle East. Many of the Iraqi and Syrian Christians who have fled their homes to escape the spread of Islamic State (Isis)are currently living as refugees in Turkey.

On Tuesday, Francis appeared to reach out for dialogue with Isis. “I never count anything as lost. Never. Never close the door. It’s difficult, you could say almost impossible, but the door is always open,” he said.

From the Vatican’s standpoint, another important aspect of the visit will be the opportunity to consolidate the papacy’s good relations with the ecumenical patriarch, Bartholomew I, the pre-eminent spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians. Francis’s stay in Turkey will coincide with the feast of St Andrew, whose significance for the Orthodox church is similar to that of St Peter for Catholics.

More than five centuries after Greek Christian Constantinople fell to Muslim Turks, the ecumenical patriarch and his aides still live in the city that is now Istanbul. Bartholomew attended Francis’s investiture last year, the first ecumenical patriarch to attend such a ceremony in Rome since the two churches split almost 1,000 years ago.

The pope shares close personal ties with Bartholomew I, who is to receive him at the patriarchate, also known as the Phanar, on Saturday. The following day, which is the feast of St Andrew, the pope is due to attend an Orthodox liturgy before the two men have lunch together.

“We are eagerly awaiting the visit of our brother, Pope Francis,” Bartholomew I said in a press release. “It will be yet another significant step in our positive relations as sister churches.”

Bartholomew I may generally be seen as conciliatory towards the Vatican, but the de facto leaders of the Orthodox church in Moscow are much warier and more hostile.

Interfaith dialogue has not always been easy in Turkey, a country with a 99% Muslim population, but many Christians say things have improved under the government of the Islamic Justice and Development party (AKP).

Erdoğan’s administration has shown partial support for the country’s Christian minorities. A law was passed last year to return property confiscated by the Turkish state to its owners and allow Christian religious classes in schools.

Dr Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, the metropolitan of Bursa and abbot of the Holy Trinity monastery on Halki, the second largest of the nine Princes’ Islands off the coast of Istanbul, is the former main secretary of the patriarchate. He said the last papal visit was overshadowed by the reluctance of his Turkish hosts.

“The Turks tried to put obstacles in our way wherever they could,” he said. “The AKP government still had to face the power of the secularists and the military then, and they were not pleased with the visit of the pope. This time there are no problems at all.”

His main grievance, and that of Orthodox Christians everywhere, is that the theological seminary housed in the monastery grounds since 1844 remains closed after the Turkish government banned all private higher education institutions in 1971. Erdoğan has previously said that no legal obstacles remain to the reopening of the school.

“Can there be a better place to educate true ecumenical staff open to interfaith dialogue than this school?” asked Lambriniadis, who is the first head of the school unable to graduate from it. “This is a theological school in a Muslim country from where high church officials graduate to be sent everywhere in the world. We can educate the kind of religious scholars that we so desperately need today.”

A 21st century bicycle and 17th century vestments

This week's Irish Catholic carries a picture of Archbishop Eamon Martin (page 3).

The archbishop is reported to have tweeted the picture, which shows him dressed in 17th century liturgical vestments, holding a 21st century bicycle.

Would many not say that this picture is at least strange, laughable too?

Swiss vote in referendums

Next Sunday the people of Switzerland will vote on three referendums.

1. Swiss gold reserves: The proposal would require the Swiss National Bank to have gold reserves of at least 20 per cent of the value of the assets of the Swiss National Bank, and see all Swiss gold currently held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York returned to Switzerland. The popular initiative was started by Swiss People's Party MP Luzi Stammand two other MPs, with the 100,000 signatures required for a referendum obtained by early 2013.  The proposal is opposed by the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss government, as it would limit the SNB's ability to print money. 
2. The second referendum is the on the abolition of the flat tax system and calls for resident, non-working foreigners to be taxed based only on their income and their assets.
3. The third referendum is on the Immigration cap: the Ecopop referendum calls for preserving the natural resources by limiting immigration to Switzerland to 0.2per cent per year.

A Europe which contemplates the heavens and pursues lofty ideals

The final paragraph from Pope Francis' address to the European Parliament today.

"Dear Members of the European Parliament, the time has come to work together in building a Europe which revolves not around the economy, but around the sacredness of the human person, around inalienable values. In building a Europe which courageously embraces its past and confidently looks to its future in order fully to experience the hope of its present. The time has come for us to abandon the idea of a Europe which is fearful and self-absorbed, in order to revive and encourage a Europe of leadership, a repository of science, art, music, human values and faith as well. A Europe which contemplates the heavens and pursues lofty ideals. A Europe which cares for, defends and protects man, every man and woman. A Europe which bestrides the earth surely and securely, a precious point of reference for all humanity!

Thank you"

FAI's John Delaney's singing and his use of English

Whatever about the state of Irish football or whether or not FAI CEO John Delaney has a view on rebel songs, his English seems not to be up to speed.

Below is a reported quote from Mr Delaney.

“Joe McDonnell is a song that has been sang in my presence and I have chipped in and sang on a number of occasions in the past."

Might Assistant Irish Manager Roy Keane join in the controversy?

On the topic of the misuse of words, in a current Dominican publication the word 'dependant' is used, when in fact it should be 'dependent'.

Good news for the day

Anyone who is looking for wise words on the Gospel of the day should check out www.goodnews.ie.

Ireland's Tea Party and Trotskyist political coalition

Stephen Collins writing in Saturday's Irish Times argues that so much of what passes for Opposition in the Dáil simply amounts to rejection of necessary taxation measures coupled with demands for unlimited extra spending on socially desirable objectives.

"It is also no accident that the variety of parties and individuals from far left to far right who, at the height of the crisis, advocated policies such as defaulting on debt and allowing banks collapse are to the forefront in opposing everything designed to get the economy back on an even keel..

"The people who would have suffered most if there had been a financial collapse are those who depend on the State for welfare payments pensions or salaries..."

There must be something wrong when the far right and the far left can join in a common cause. The Taoiseach  refers to it as an alliance of the Tea Party and Trotskyist.

The Saturday article makes for interesting reading.

US police shooting

A 12-year-old boy was shot dead by police in Cleveland Ohio yesterday. He was brandishing a fake pistol.

The little boy, Tamir E Rice was an African American.

From mountains to sea

From the West Wicklow mountatins to the Atlantic waters in West Kerry.

Another great place.

Using computers

The late Dominican John O'Gorman, who died on November 3, feast of St Martin de Porres, 12 years ago, often commented that his fellow Dominicans had more computer power then the US space agency. He was of the opinion people were buying highly sophisticated computers to write letters.

John taught computer science at the University of Limerick.

Since he made his comment no doubt the purchase of computer hard and software has at least quadrupled.

Today at the touch of a button information can be disseminated with complete ease to almost any corner of the earth.

And yet with all this computer technology so many people are left in the dark and hear nothing about what is going on in the organisation.

John was a highly intelligent man, who usually got things right. Alas, he was wrong on this occasion. It seems the computers are not even being used to write letters.

Killarney and Kilkenny

Ever wonder whether it is Killarnery or Kilarney, Kilkenny or Killkenny?

There's a rule. If the prefix is followed by a consonant there is only one 'l', if it is followed by a vowel there are two 'ls'.

There is one exception and that is Killygordon.