Tea on the bog

I touched briefly on the Esk, I think when I spoke of Radio Eireann. The Esk is a hill farm in Kerry, just before you go over the Caha Mountains on the long road from Kenmare to Glengariff, and I must tell you some time about when my father-in-law and his brother worked building that road when they were young.
It wasn't the first time I was in Kerry, when I first was on the Esk, but that's another story, of an earlier Kerry. Padraig and Una were on holiday with us, with their family, when we decided to go up and see the Esk. The farm-house was abandoned, but we roamed around, and found a piece of bog-oak, from trees which were overwhelmed by the bog when it started growing four thousand years ago. I put my eye on a piece which I longed to have for my rockery in County Meath. We left, and I had a phone-call in the evening and had to leave Kerry.
Maura, Padraig and Una, decided Des must have his bog-oak, and went back to the Esk, but this time they had company, Stephen, Maura's and Padraig's cousin, who was stacking turf. "So it was you was here yesterday." We had thought the hills were deserted, but someone had told Stephen he had company. In fact, Stephen told how his neighbours would know his sheep individually, and would look out for one if it was lost. I have just thought of the time we found the ewe lying on its back on the other side of the Mac gillicuddy's Reeks, and how our attention was drawn by the plaintive bleating of its lamb: another story. Stephen was anxious to get the turf out to the road and get payment for it that night, but said, of course they could have the bog-oak, and he would help them get it out, but first they had to have a cup of tea. 'There's no tea like the tea you brew in the bog". They said "Well now we'll help you get the turf out to the road." "Well, I'm beholden to you, now I'll have my money here [right-hand, back trousers pocket] this evening".

Europe

I remember, it must be sixty years ago, a Jesuit priest telling me "Des, Europe is finished, youth must look for its future elsewhere." It is impossible to convey why his comment was no more than an expression of the reality which surrounded us. We were just on the fringes of the devastation, but as you went south it became more and more real: one third of London was in ruins, and God only knows how great was the devastation in Germany and central Europe. Then a miracle happened: one man had a vision. Why don't we knit the iron, steel and coal industries of Europe together, so that no single nation can ever again use them in a quest for national domination. That man was Jean Monnet, and his idea was seized upon by Konrad Adenauer and by Maurice Schuman, for the first step in what would become the European Community.
Europe is far from finished, and people throughout the world still look to it for the initiatives which will bring us all closer to our dreams. It is wrestling now with one of its greatest challenges: how to acknowledge Turkey's European credentials, and integrate one of the most populous Islamic states into the European Community. What an accomplishment that will be, in showing that the future lies not in bombs and suicide attacks, but in partnership and acknowledgement of our brotherhood, and in the charity to accept our different customs and beliefs.

Too Many People

Yesterday, somewhere, I heard of someone, rather prestigious, if my memory serves me, say that there are too many people, and the world cannot support this endlessly increasing population.

Origen, a distinguished member of the early Christian church, thought we are the fallen angels, and this life is our opportunity to regain paradise. Suppose he was right. Then we may expect that the world will not run out of food, water, or whatever else, until every one of these souls has been born into this life.

Of course, Origen may have been wrong. In any event, God has a plan, and nothing is going to interfere with its implementation, which is not to suggest that a prudent use of our resources is always appropriate.

A better idea, than limiting population, might be to concentrate on distributing what is available in a more equitable manner.

Democracy

"Equality of opportunity and freedom for the individual to do as he likes are, for Plato and Aristotle, the salient characteristics of democracy." These editorial comments are taken from Plato's Republic.

Sometimes, in the West, we preen ourselves on our democracy, even prime ministers and presidents, although we acquiesce in the denial of democracy to others, outside our jurisdiction, and even within it, when we begrudge our fellow citizens the opportunities from which we take so much pride ourselves.

I think it is especially shameful when we are accessories to the killing of innocent civilians, or when we allow helpless people to die from natural disasters.

The Greeks felt that democracy required all citizens to be knowledgeable about their state's affairs, and to participate in their management. To-day it almost seems that we are content to be bombarded by campaigns dependent on vast finances spent on television and newspaper advertisements, but otherwise without much substance.

Irish Television

Telefis Eireann broadcasts a programme, 'Nationwide', Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings at 7:00 p.m. The purpose is to introduce viewers to different places around Ireland, and what the local people are doing. In the summer it makes a practice of visiting various locations which are finalists in the 'Tidy Towns' contest. The interest, for me, is that they manage to give me a snapshot of what is happening all round the country. Very often they focus on an entrepreneur, mostly humble people. For example they might interview a woman who decided to commercialise her ability to make cheese: other times it may be someone who is using modern communications and computer technology to run a successful business from modest homes in remote parts of the country, quite often foreigners, mostly from the European mainland.

Last Wednesday evening there was a unique approach. The subjects were two towns, one in County Leitrim, in the Irish Republic, and the other in County Fermanagh, in the North of Ireland. The approach was to show how people in both places were using their ingenuity, and local resources to develop small businesses, and how they were co-operating with their cross-border neighbours. This is just the latest sign I see that the Good Friday agreement is really working. Who among us ten years ago would have thought that the centuries long hostility might start to disintegrate so fast?

Time Magazine's Poll

Time's fiftieth annual poll of its readers, as to the most influential world personality, appeared in this week's issue. In 2nd place was a South Korean singer, and in 158th place was the president of the United States. No matter what your opinion of President Bush may be, he is still president of the United States, the most powerful nation in the world.

I must admit to being surprised, but not shocked. Powerful, or advanced nations, tend to have little interest in those they consider less powerful or advanced, although I do think they tend to have more respect for their leaders. The results, however, show us something else, the interests of the voters. The interest of a great majority of the voters, is with popular entertainers, not politicians or religious figures, especially when we see that the maker of Nintendo video games garnered almost 2 million votes.

The worrying thing for me is that it is, I expect, from a similar body of voters will come the next president of the United States.

Democratic Primaries

The Democratic Party primaries have developed in what I think is a rather unusual way, and I thought I might explain why I have this opinion.

The 'super' delegates, whom I believe to be about six hundred prestigious party members, but unelected in any primary, hold the balance of power, so that they are in a position to sway the election if they believe the public choice to be ill-advised. I assume that Senators Kennedy and Kerry of Massachusetts would be in this group.

Florida and Michigan chose to disregard party instructions as to the permissible dates for holding their primaries, and the results were declared invalid. There appears to be no intention of allowing, or requiring, the states to reschedule them. Senator Clinton won both states.

The results so far show Senator Obama to have a significant lead. However, a great part of his total is in states which are dominated by the Republican Party. Will his popularity among Democrats be of any help in swaying Republican voters? Senator Clinton's strength is in the Democratic heartland, with exceptions, such as Illinois

I think it was unfortunate that Senators Kennedy and Kerry sought to influence the choice, instead of waiting to see how they could ensure the best partnership of presidential and vice-presidential candidates, before they showed their hand. Their backing in their own state, Massachusetts, was insufficient for Senator Obama to carry the state primary.

Radio Eirean

I like to listen to the radio, especially on weekend mornings, when there are interviews, or one-on-one discussions with authors about their work, but I suppose my interest really rises when people speak about themselves, or when they have written about their lives. They are mostly not what the world would consider successes, but they seem always to have done fulfilling things, or can speak of that with which we can all relate.

Last weekend John Bowman interviewed the author of a recently published work, in which the gentleman spoke about cutting the turf when he was young. In the country, and even in the towns, people would have access to a defined area of bog, where they would cut their winter supply of fuel, stack it to dry, and then transport it home. He spoke of when he was young, and his memories of days spent at the bog, and then went on to talk of Bord na Mona, which mechanised the harvesting of the turf. Gone then were the days spent with his father and brothers, and the tea which his dad said never tasted as good as it did at the bog. And that last comment took me back to a bog in Kerry, and a hillside farm called the Esk. But that's for another day.

The Weather

You know how I go on about the weather here, a minor irritant given everything else we have.

Yesterday and today have been gorgeus, in the low 20's I should think, which is bliss for us. I took my work out on the terrace, and puzzled over it out there yesterday and today, allowing myself to be distracted by everything which drew my attention. You see, we may not, although it is quite unlikely, have weather like this again before next spring, We ate lunch and dinner out there too, each day. Of course our neighbours must think we are mad. Still, we can't resist any opportunity to recapture how we used enjoy the halcyon weather in Connecticut.

I must tell you, another day, about the proposed subway station in Stephens Green. And how they are going to tear up O'Connell Street, which only recently got an expensive facelift, for another subway station.

Spring

I think this may be my favorite season, although I have special feelings for the Fall, especially the wonderful ones that occur in New England. Perhaps it is the mystery I sense.
It has been especially cold this year, and I thought we surely won't have much of a spring this year; everything will just stay huddled in the ground. Still the daffodils came out, and blanketed every open space in the city, in that wonderful display Dublin puts on, and I remembered that nature is more concerned with the solstices than the temperature. Now the chestnut trees are in full leaf, with that beautiful green that the leaves have when they have only recently burst out of their little cocoons, while the flower clusters show us where the chestnuts will soon nestle. The days lengthen,and the earth knows, while the roots of the trees, the trunks, and the branches sense they must get ready for the surge of nutrients which will waken them for another season of life.