Joe Hayes spoke inspiring words on radio yesterday

Joe Hayes was interviewed on RTÉ Radio 1’s Brendan O’Connor yesterday. A powerful and inspiring interview.  

Below is an address given by Joe Hayes.

Chairperson, Members;

Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to attend this meeting.

I should perhaps begin with a few brief words about myself which will put in context my personal connection with special education and the Minister’s nomination of me as Chair of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE).

I am from Thurles, Co Tipperary. I retired from the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2014 having served in the Irish foreign service for over 40 years.

I am married to Deirdre and we have four adult children the youngest of whom, Eavan Kate, has a range of special needs and is Intellectually Disabled as a consequence of a profound illness shortly after birth. She will be 30 this year and is a member of the Camphill Community in Dunshane, Co Kildare.

During my time in Foreign Affairs I served in a wide variety of overseas assignments.

I was Ambassador to China, to the Czech Republic, to Denmark and, most recently, to Singapore. I also covered a variety of secondary accreditations including The Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Timor Leste, Ukraine and Iceland. I served in Irish Embassies in Moscow, London and Bonn and for a brief period was based in Armagh as the Joint Secretary of the North South Ministerial Council.

Our children came with us on all my foreign postings.

Eavan was born in 1989 shortly before I was despatched to the Embassy in London on an assignment which, at the time, was a fairly politically sensitive post. As the extent of Eavan Kate’s impairment became clear, the issue for us, as a family, was whether we could provide all the necessary support and care for our beloved daughter and whether I could, at the same time, manage an assignment which, back then, required full time, hands on, commitment. There was never any doubt. Eavan came with us to London and prospered. At the height of the Thatcher Government and, despite its public emphasis on wealth creation and rampant individualism, during our four years in London our daughter nonetheless received an outstanding level of medical and educational care and support.

Several years later I was sent to China.

Again there was never any doubt but that we would go to Bejing as a family with Eavan Kate, despite the very obvious challenges of bringing an eight year old child with special needs to China. It would be socially and culturally challenging for us to adjust, not to mind for a western child with special needs. There would, we were warned, be no access to schooling, no support, no understanding of her disability. It also transpired when we arrived that the expatriate International school community did not recognise special needs.

We were thrown back on our own resources and on the support of the Chinese system.

In the event our most fulfilling posting was our four years in Beijing. Eavan went to school, was deeply loved and supported by a succession of Chinese carers and lived a happy, contented, colourful and fun filled life. Of course not everything was perfect and it would be entirely wrong to use our positive experience with Eavan as a benchmark for generalised judgement on Chinese attitudes to human rights and fundamental freedoms. During our time in China it helped that disability carried a particular badge of honour since the

son of Deng Xiaoping, Deng Pufang, had been a wheelchair user since 1968 when he had suffered a serious injury while trying to escape from a mob of Red Guards during the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Despite the singular political drawbacks of China’s single party authoritarian system, our vulnerable daughter was accepted, included and respected and along the way I learned an enduring lessson.

I came to realise that one singular mark of a civilised society is its ability to acknolwledge and care for the most vulnerable, for the voiceless, for the disabled. A society which ensures equality and respect for its children with special needs is, for sure, a worthwhile one whatever might be the deficiencies of its political system.

That, Chairperson, Members, in summary is the background to my readiness, on my retirement, to pursue a wish to become involved with the NCSE. There was never any doubt in my mind that this was the way to go, the best way of using whatever few talents I have to return something to the State that had employed me for four decades.

To my mind, the NCSE is symbolic of Ireland’s commitment to equality and fairness, a commitment endorsed by successive Governments and one which reflects the very best of our society.

I don’t have to tell this Committee about the practical achivements of the NCSE since its establishment as an independent statutory body in 2003. It might nonetheless be of intreset to the Committee to hear three headline figures:

•   In 2018 the number of students accesssing SNA support has increased from 27,000 in 2015 to over 34,000.

•   There are now 1,461 special classes in mainstream schools catering for just under 8,000 pupils.

 There are 120 special schools with an allocation of 1,224 class teacher posts.

Apart from the statistical headlines I want especially to direct attention to the NCSE’s remarkable research capacity. This highly regarded and independent research activity underpins the NCSE’s policy advice and recommendations to the Minister and the Department. This research is evidence-based, internationally regarded and independent. The NCSE hosts an annual research conference every November with world class international speakers and a full attendance of education providers, parents, civil servants and advocacy and disability groups. The NCSE’s research output has a strong international focus driven by a need to seek out best practice and innovative educational approaches. It would be my wish to encourage even greater levels of internatioanl research engagement.

In this connection perhaps Members of the Committee might consider attending this year’s research Conference. I’m sure you would be warmly welcome.

Looking ahead, I might mention one development of interest.

In June 2020 the NCSE will gain additional responsibilities in relation to educational provision for adults with disabilities under the 2005 Disability Act. The exact nature of these responsibilities is currently being developed, but we will have a role in:

•   assisting the HSE, on request, as they assess and prepare service statements for adults with disabilities;

•   planning and co-ordinating the provision of education services for adults; and

•   assessing and reviewing the resources required in relation to such educational provision.

As the parent of an adult daughter with special needs, this development will be of special interest.

In conclusion if the Committee is kind enough to ratify my appointment as Chairperson i will continue to ensure that the parental perspective plays a formative role in NCSE work.

I will also strive to continue the excellent work of my predecessor, Eamon Stack, who directed the Council with flair and skill gained during a liftime of experience as a teacher and senior inspector.

Eamon had of course the support of a talented, experienced and supportive Council which operated as a strong united team. They set a high standard for the incoming Council.

Chairperson, Members thank you for your time and your attention.

Unlike my distinguished predeccesor I have no background in education, no particular skills and no professional insights. I have, however, a lifetime’s experience as a parent and an abiding belief that the most important person is the child, the adolescent and the adult recipient of our services. They are the heart and centre of everything we do.

Thank you.

The super rich and their super dirty carbon footprint

According to an Oxford report the richest on per cent of the world’s population is accountable for more carbon emissions as the poorest two thirds.

It seems to be the wealthy who always cause the most harm and suffering.

A long winter of discontent - until Pope Francis arrived

 Fr Brendan Hoban at his best.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2023/11/19/my-years-as-a-catholic-priest-were-a-long-winter-of-discontent-until-pope-francis-arrived/

The Israel Palestine ‘conflict’ perfectly suits Russia

 The war in Ukraine has disappeared from our newspapers, radio and television.

Hamas has friendly relations with Russia.

While the war between Palestine and Israel is a centuries old war, might it be possible it suits Russia that the world’s attention is not focused on the Israeli Palestinian war? Might Russia have suggested to Hamas to do what it did?

It’s worth noting that it’s the Ukrainian war but with Israel and Palestine it is a conflict.

Irish Domincans feature on Hugh O’Flaherty Programme

RTÉ I’s Nationwide programme yesterday evening featured a report on the work done in Rome during World War II by legendary Kerry priest Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who died 60 years ago on October 30, 1963.

Dominican priest, Paul Lawlor appeared on the programme. He spoke about how the Irish Dominicans at San Clemente accommodated a small number of people of the Jewish faith during the German occupation of the city in World War II.

Paul gave an excellent interview and it’s well worth watching. Paul hails from Tralee, County Kerry, and Hugh grew up in Killarney, having been born in Kiskeam which is close to the Kerry border. 

The programme is available on the RTÉ Player, Wednesday, November 22, 7pm, RTÉ 1.

Dominican priest Raymond Dowdall, who lived in San Clemente during the war years, had close contacts with Hugh O'Flaherty but never spoke about the work he did with him.

During those years cattle were kept in the cortile of San Clemente.

Because of his work, a painting of Raymond Dowdall is on a wall of a cafe on the Via Condotti in Rome

Joe O'Connor in his book on Monsignor O’Flaherty, My Father’s House mentions the role the Irish Dominicans played in protecting Jews from the horrors of the Germans during the war.

Better to fix a bicycle puncture than bin the tube

The EU passed a law yesterday so that customers will be able to have their products repaired, rather than binned.

At last we are coming around to the nonsense of the throwaway society.

Anyone who cycles a bicycle and does not repair it themselves will know that when you leave a bicycle into a bicycle shop for repair of a puncture, the tube is binned and replaced with a new tube.

What a waste. Anyone know a bicycle shop that repairs punctures? It might be time consuming but it absurd to throw out tubes that can easily be fixed.

It offers potential for a new business.

Need for honest talk in Catholic Church

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

On Saturday, November  11 Pope Francis sacked Joseph Strickland, the bishop in Tyler, Texas in the United States. It’s a small diocese with a population of approximately 1.44 million of whom 119,168 are Catholic. 

While it is a small diocese Strickland had and still has a large following on social media. For years he has been an almost daily tweeter. Not sure what you call a person who now writes on X? When I read the news on the BBC feed I can’t say I was sorry, indeed, I see it as a great day in the papacy of Pope Francis. I wonder did Rishi Sunak take a leaf out of the pope’s playbook when he sacked Suella Braverman?

I can imagine most people in Ireland will never have heard of Joseph Strickland. He’d probably be known to a small number of Catholics, who want to bring the church back to a time that is long past. 

The Vatican has not said why he has been removed from his job. But there had been a pontifical investigation of the diocese and as a result Strickland is no longer bishop in Tyler. 

It would take more than a column to describe what the man has been writing and doing. I found much of it bizarre, indeed, alienating. I can imagine many ‘conservative’ Catholics will see him as the saviour of the church.

Will his sacking lead to the beginning of a schism in the church? That is always a possibility, but he will just be another catalyst on what is happening in the church right now.

It’s a breaking organisation. Maybe it always was but the signs are strikingly evident today.

Of course there are wonderful and great people in the Catholic Church just as there are in the majority of organisations. And in the same breath there are great Catholic priests in the church. But it is all collapsing in front of our eyes. Who is going to church today? Who listens to what priests or bishops are saying?

Within priesthood there are great divisions.

Everyone who pays PAYE has a line manager and if they don’t perform they most likely will and should lose their job. That’s not so with priests. 

There is a small number of taboo subjects, which when spoken about are the only time a bishop or provincial will take action. We all know what they are. When last did you hear a priest being reprimanded or sacked for what he said about some theological or social issue?

How many of us really discuss with our priests? How many of us priests actually ever openly and honestly engage with our fellow priests and bishops? That means genuine listening and talking, no shadowboxing, no lies, no hidden agendas, far less careerism and far more openness.

What real say do parish councils have and how are people appointed to them? How genuinely do we try to understand the other person? If we are to listen to the word of God, surely we have to learn how to listen to one another.

I’m reminded of Mark Twain’s words: ‘If we were meant to talk more than listen, we would have two mouths and one ear.’

Taking account of the times in which we are living

 “That expression - ‘We have always done it that way’ - is poison for the life of the church.

Those who think this way, perhaps without even realising it, make the mistake of not taking seriously the times in which they are living.”

- Pope Francis

The money Farage accrues for clowning about

It is reported that Nigel Farage is receiving €1.7 million to appear  on 'I’m a Celebrity ... get Me Out of Here!’

Handy money for clowning about. The damage and pain Farage has caused.

Was he at one stage married to a German? For someone so opposed to European integration is there not something odd about that? And as for his anti-immigrant tirades.

Farage speaks highly of Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump.

Miriam O’Callaghan interviewed LBC presenter James O’Brien on her RTÉ Radio I programme this morning.

On Nigel Farage, O’Brien said: “He’s not a serious person. He’s a vain attention seeker. And ITV using him on its celebratory show is an attempt at ‘fun washing' him.

Insisting on making sure to be sure

Back in the 1960s young

novices were told about ‘custody of the eyes’. While the novice master was explaining the value of keeping one's eyes looking down, a novice piped up saying that surely with the arrival of the mini skirt the practice of looking downwards might not be a good idea for men attempting to live celibate lives.

Whatever about ‘custody of the eyes' it’s never a good idea to keep our eyes peering downwards. There’s so much to see, anyway, why did God give us eyes?

And by keeping them open we often see the strangest and funniest of things.

This public house in Tralee was only recently redecorated.

Whatever about a missing fada, it seems the owners made sure to be sure. If they were not sure about how to spell accommodation they went at it with two runs and got it correct on one occasion.

A question of them hedging their bets?

Their last days on the Blaskets and Maharee islands

On this day, November 17, 1953 the last people living on the Blasket Islands left their homes for the mainland. And by coincidence, on the same day the remaining family on the Maharee Islands moved the short distance on to the mainland to the parish of Castlegregory in West Kerry.

On that boat was a young boy by the name of Bob Goodwin(in picture). Today he lives in the Maharees and in the summer months regularly travels to his old home on the island.

Absurd nonsense on RTÉ Radio yesterday morning

Yesterday morning Brendan Courtney on the Nine O’Clock Show was involved in an ‘animated' conversation with a listener on a particular perfume or deodorant that she and he use. It seemingly is popular in Spain and that’s where they both first came across it. It can be bought in large litre-style bottles.

Is that really the best RTÉ Radio can offer listeners?

Some months ago Brendan Courtney, on the same programme, explained how difficult it was to drink a cup of coffee while cycling. His dialogue was absurd and this happened some days after at least five people had been killed on our roads over a weekend.

How much is the tax payer giving RTÉ? How much is RTÉ paying Brendan Courtney?

Anniversary of birth of State of Palestine

Israel and Palestine are in dispute for a long time. 

Just one ‘recent’ date in the conflict: on this day, November 16 1988 an independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council. 

On Mary 15, 1948 the State of Israel was established, marking the end of British rule in Palestine. This triggered the first Arab Israeli war, which involved neighbouring Arab countries. This led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland.

The lies and half truths behind our words

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Words are fascinating. The older I get the more fascinated I am with them. As I wrote that sentence I was wondering should I have written ‘by’ rather than ‘with’. And that reminds me, one day teaching German prepositions a student came late into class. 

He apologised, saying that he had slept it out. I asked him did he sleep it out or sleep it in. It turned out we had a great discussion on those small positioning words we call prepositions. Did you meet her on the bus or in the bus? 

With the current wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine there has been much discussion about war crimes, crimes against humanity and indeed, people have spoken about a just war. It has all stopped me in my tracks and I have been asking myself is war itself not a crime. 

When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine the Russians refused to call it a war, instead they called it a Special Military Operation, indeed they are still calling it that. And we in the West laugh at the misnomer. Of course it’s a war with all the horrible and evil consequences of a bloody war. By calling it a Special Military Operation the Russians, at least in the early days, were attempting to make it sound less savage. 

Both Ukraine and Russia are downplaying or keeping silent about the number of soldiers killed and wounded. It is estimated the Russians have lost 120,000 and the Ukrainians 70,000.

When we learned about the Bucha massacre in the early days of the war we spoke about war crimes. Again, is war itself not a crime?

Expressions such as collateral damage, even the word casualties take the edge off the suffering. In ways it makes a desperate unimaginable situation polite. It sanitises the awfulness of it all.

Words can be mysterious. They can give meaning to things but they can also be used to hide the real meaning. Is that what propaganda is?

And then there are the oxymorons and we trip them off our tongue without the slightest embarrassment. The one that always comes to mind for me is a ‘civil war’. Surely a war is anything but civil. Other examples: ill-health, the living dead, a deafening silence, a militant pacifist.

During this current war in Palestine we are constantly hearing words that try to lessen the horror. One moment the Americans are saying they are on the side of the Israelis, the next moment they are pleading for ‘humanitarian aid’. How can you be killing people and trying to protect them at the same time.

 

Have you noticed that people are no longer dying, instead they are passing on or passing away. There is something ironic about using such an expression at a time when there is less talk about a life after death.

Why have we stopped talking about dying and death? Is it that it sounds impolite? It might not be PC? Of far less importance but really worth mentioning is the advertising trick of the ‘free gift’. A gift of its nature is free. Lastly, we are no longer passengers. We are now all customers? I’m lost for words.

The genius of musician Jacob Collier

Obviously twenty nine-year-old Jacob Collier is a genius. Interestingly, his birth name is Jacob Moriarty. With such a name has he an Irish, Kerry background? He is partly of Chinese descent, through his maternal grandmother, Lila Wong.

His mother, Susie Collier, is a violinist, conductor and professor at the Royal Academy of Music’s Junior Academy.

“We sing Bach chorales together as family - it’s just so much fun,” he says.

Interesting to know what he has to say about words. He says in this clip: "no one has a clue why music is so important.” He sees music as putting things together that are bigger than you.”

Interesting to know does he believe in God.

The clip is just over 30 minutes, a half hour well spent.

 https://youtu.be/Dn9XqM8PQ2M?si=DfnguatypEuU1dZb

Pope Francis removes Strickland as bishop in Tyler, Texas

Pope Francis removes Texan bishop after criticism of reforms.

A good news story, though might it lead to schism?

And of course, it’s not just matters of theology.

What about Irish publications that support the former bishop of Tyler and those who advertise in such publications?

A great moment in the papacy for the man from Flores, Buenos Aires, Argentina.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67390366

Time the NTA called for joint up thinking

A new Irish Rail timetable comes into operation on Sunday, December 10. There are many positive aspects to the new timetable, including an early morning Dublin Heuston Cork service. Departure time Heuston is 06.00 and arrival time in Cork 09.35.

But why does the NTA not call together bus and rail companies and suggest they synchronise their timetables?

Two simple examples a Dingle Tralee bus arrives in Tralee at 15.03, the Tralee Dublin/Cork train departs Tralee at 15.05.

Bus Éireann operates one bus a week between Cloghane and Tralee. The bus runs on a Friday, arrives Tralee 11.15. The rail service from Tralee to Dublin/Cork departs 11.05.

If one asks Bus Éireann why this happens they are told Bus Éireann is a separate company to Irish Rail.

Joint up thinking would greatly help here.

Wendell Berry invites us to stop, think and see

A poem by American poet Wendell Berry. It appears in The Peace of Wild Things.

Wendell Berry is the author of more than 50 books of poetry, fiction and essays.

                  A Meeting

In a dream I meet my dear friend. He has,

I know, gone long and far.

and yet he is the same for the dead are changeless.

They grow no older. It is I who has changed,

grown strange to what I was.

Yet I, the changed one,

ask: ‘How you been?’

He grins and looks at me.

'I been eating peaches

of some mighty fine trees'.

Prisoner WIlli Kufalt’s impression of the prison chaplain

Hans Fallada in his 1934 novel

Once a Jailbird tells the story of Willi Kufalt, a prisoner and petty criminal.

Germany its in turmoil, six million people are unemployed but like all Fallada’s books, it is a story of our time.

About the prison chaplain prisoner Kufalt says: 

"The chaplain, there wasn’t much to be said about him. He was already over sixty, and had been in the jail for over forty years; the chilliest Pharisee on this chilly earth.”

The slogan ‘Never Again is Now’ was projected on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin yesterday, marking the 85th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, the night the Nazis, their collaborators and supporters destroyed the premises of Jewish people across Germany.  Millions of Germans looked on.

That the Wall fell on the anniversary of this pogrom is one of the reasons that this date was not chosen as German unification date.

A number of German scholars are not happy with the use of the word Kristallnacht ‘Crystal Night’ to describe 48 hours of horror and evil. 

The day the Berlin Wall fell and Europe cried hope

On this day in 1989 the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. It all happened by accident when a senior official of the East German Government at a hastily arranged press conference read from a document that people could cross to West Berlin taking effect ‘immediately'.

Streams of people arrived at a Berlin crossing point. The guards on duty were taken by surprise, hesitated for moments, then decided not to open fire, the gates were opened and East Berliners ran across the frontier in total shock, not believing what was actually happening.

But for many months before the collapse of the Wall people in Leipzig were carrying out weekly demonstrations at a Protestant church. At one stage the authorities were going to intervene and send troops to break up the peaceful demionstrations. They phoned Berlin for instructions but the phone was never answered.

What followed with the fall of the Wall gave Europe a great moment of hope, East and West would join hands in comradeship and fraternity.

Who’s to blame for what has happened? Did the West treat Russia with respect? Was Nato unwise in moving eastwards?  Who created the former KGB agent based in Dresden into the man he is today?

‘If all the ifs and buts made pots and pans, there’d be no need for tinkers’.

A few bob to see the Boss in Croker in May

The cheapest ticket to see Bruce Springsteen in Croke Park in May is €103.40.

The late Dominican priest Canice Murphy was a great Springsteen fan. No doubt some of his students will think of him on the night.

Close encounters with two wise people

This week’s Mediahuis Irish Regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

On the Sunday of the October bank holiday weekend Miriam O’Callaghan interviewed John Clarke on RTÉ Radio 1. I was in the midst of preparing my breakfast, in fact squeezing an orange when this man started talking. I was immediately taken by what he was saying. John is the husband of the late Marian Finucane and he has written a book Finucane & Me: MyLife with Marian, published by Gill Books.

John and Marian had been together for 40 years. He’s now 87 and the interview gave him an opportunity to talk about his life with Marian. He spoke poignantly about the death of their nine-year old daughter Sinéad, who died in his arms and how Marian never recovered from her death.

 

Both are buried close to his house and he always talked to Sinéad when passing the grave but never does now and doesn’t know why he stopped. He tried to explain it by saying that he was annoyed they died before him, it wasn’t meant to happen that way. The mystery of our lives is beyond our understanding.

His father wanted him to be a scientist and his mother hoped he’d be a lawyer but ‘I wanted to be a layabout,’ he quipped.  At 15 he wanted to be an existentialist. He said that he has been searching all his life to discover the purpose of it: ‘What’s the purpose of it all and I still ask the question.’ 

At that stage he quickly added that it has something to do with doing good. He slipped it in quietly and quickly but it made great sense. Right through the interview I certainly got the impression his life was all about being connected with people. 

Miriam reminded him of the charitable work he and Marian had done in the slums outside Cape Town, where they supported over 50,000 children. Listening to the interview I got the impression that he has that great gift of touching people and allowing people to touch him, a person with empathy. He touched me.

Just three days before that interview I had a man here in my house doing work for me. He was recommended by a friend and he did an excellent job.

Besides being a fine craftsman he fascinated me. Maybe better said, we had a lovely encounter. We found ourselves able to talk to each other and I certainly appreciated what he had to say. Our opinions on people and places seemed to be in harmony.

He had a great ability of standing back, looking at the world and knowing very well there was more to it all than power, status and money. In the few hours he was with me over the two days I had this feeling I was in the presence of a wise man. 

I liked his take on the world. He had soul, there was an ease about him that shone bright. I got the sense it all came so naturally to him. He had nothing to prove, no need to.

It’s a great gift to meet someone in whose company you feel at home. The interview with John Clarke reminded me of him. I got the impression both he and Clarke are forever in search of what it is all about. The wonder of the journey of our lives. Every day throws up something new. It’s good to relax in the now and be more comfortable with ourselves on our search.

Some interesting facts and figures about the River Liffey

The Irish Times completed on Saturday a series on the river Liffey from its source not far from Kippure to where it flows into the sea at Dublin Port.

Approximately 7,500 ships come in and out of the harbour every year. Five thousand trucks go through the port every day, 21 ships arrive and depart every day.

Some 36.7 million tonnes of cargo travels through the port annually.

There are over 300 shipwrecks in Dublin Bay.

The source of the river and its mouth are only 22 kilometres apart and yet it is 129km in length. It supplies 85 per cent of the drinking water in the Greater Dublin Area.

Wise words from Timothy Radcliffe to the Synod

"Friendship flourishes when we dare to share our doubts and seek the truth together. Conversations need an imaginative leap into the experience of the other person to see with their eyes and hear with their ears. We need to get inside their skin. From what experiences do their words spring? What pain or hope do they carry?"

Words spoken by Fr Timothy Radcliffe op at the three-day retreat before the Synod in Rome began.

Brian O’Neill RIP (1948 - 2023) A gentleman to his fingertips

Brian O’Neill died in Belgium yesterday.

Brian is a former Dominican. He joined the Irish Province in 1966, made first profession the following year and was ordained a priest in 1973.

He left the Order and retired from priesthood within 10 years of ordination.

Brian spent most of his working life teaching.

Some years ago he developed motor neurone disease and lived with it in a stoic manner.

Brian stayed in touch with many Dominicans of his generation over the years and his home in Belgium was always a welcome place for his Dominican colleagues.

Brian was a gentleman to his fingertips. Did anyone ever see Brian being rude or unfriendly to anyone? Most unlikely.

He was a lovely human being and the world is a better place for his presence in it.

Heartfelt sympathy to his wife Detty, their children,  his family and friends and colleagues.

May he rest in peace.

We can all be guilty of hypocrisy and vanity

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane  

It is easy to look back and see the mistakes and wrongdoing that was done by our ancestors. In a similar way it’s the easy option to make scapegoats of a particular group or groups and blame them for all our woes. 

Right now it’s easy for us in Ireland to express critical opinions about the dire situation in the Middle East.

Tomorrow’s Gospel gives people like me, who have a tendency to be critical, a great opportunity to get up on my soapbox and point the finger at the leaders of State and church.

 

Remember the story in St Matthew’s Gospel (23: 1 - 12) where Jesus upbraids the Pharisees and scribes for their hypocrisy and vanity? There are brilliant lines in the passage, this for example: ‘Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader phylacteries and longer tassels, like wanting to take the place of honour at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues, being greeted obsequiously in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi.’ (Phylacteries are boxes of sacred texts attached to ceremonial robes in case you were wondering.)

   

I’m reminded of the damage done to children in the past. Today for those who have suffered hurt, it’s payback time, and with a vengeance in some instances, understandably too. But it’s always dangerous to miss the wood for the trees and too easy to find scapegoats on whom we can shovel all our problems and all the injustices that have been meted out to us.

 

I taught Hamlet for the Leaving Certificate. I can still vividly remember a classroom discussion about whether or not Hamlet was a hypocrite. 

The students present clearly felt that hypocrisy was one of the worst human failings. Students raised their voices in anger when expressing their disdain and hatred for hypocrisy and hypocrites. I tried to explain it was not as simple as that. Their youthful idealism was having none of it. 

 

What happens to us, that as we mature, we can so easily slip into the habits of the world and our society and have no problem playing the role of the hypocrite? How often have we at some stage or other spoken out of both sides of our mouths at the same time?  It’s something we do. We are doing it right now and it’s not just the politicians who do it.

Look at all the current talk about protecting our environment and yet there have never been as many people taking flights that are surplus to requirement. How much food and clothing do we waste?

Immediately after the recent budget there was a nationwide discussion about funding the HSE, and a general view that the government should have been more generous in funding the health service. 

Has anyone ever done a survey of the millions that are wasted on medicines thrown away? Did we ever open our own medicine chest and be shocked by the amount of out-of-date medication we find? It’s far too easy to criticise ‘the other crowd’ and exonerate ourselves from all wrongdoing.

  

We are forever spotting the errors and failings of others while at the same time living so easily with all our own failings and faults. It makes life comfortable to relax in our own failings. 

And we don’t like being told of our errors and wrongdoing. Often the only time we own up to it is when we are caught. Would the churches ever have done anything about protecting children from sexual abuse but for the horrifying reports in the media?  I doubt it.

 

Tomorrow’s Gospel ends with a powerful sentence: ‘Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted’.

 

I can’t help but think of the arrogance of those in our society who do what Jesus condemned the Pharisees and the scribes for doing more than 2,000 years ago. 

Today we may be doing it in a far more subtle and sophisticated way but we sure are behaving in such a manner that brings little good or love to our society. 

We should recall what Jesus said: ‘You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven’. 

Inspiring, even audacious words. 

Ryan Tubridy launches Clarke’s book on Marian Finucane

Ryan Tubridy yesterday launched John Clarke’s Finucane & Me: My Life with Marian.

At the launch Clarke said: "I was considering becoming a Buddhist. I am convinced I know nothing. I don’t have any answers.  But as a former salesman I encourage those present to buy lots of the books.”

Finucane & Me: My Life with Marian, by Clarke and Kathy Sheridan, has been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2023.

Likely the moon is 4.46 billion years old

New tests on crystals brought back by Apollo astronauts in 1972 suggest the moon is 4.46 billion years old, that’s 40 million years older than previously thought.