Posted by Jim on October 1, 2018
Nothing at All
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Everything remains as it was.
The old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no sorrow in your tone.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without effort
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was.
There is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting, when we meet again.
Posted by Jim on September 29, 2018
Acts of civil disobedience are set to continue after rallies across
Ireland and a motion of no confidence in the Dail failed to remove the
Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, over his failure to tackle an
escalating housing crisis.
Last weekend demonstrations were held across 13 counties, under the
‘Take Back the City’ banner, with the largest event in Dublin, where
demonstrators marched down O’Connell Street and held a large ‘sit down’
protest at O’Connell Bridge.
The protests took place in the wake of forced evictions, including one
involving masked Gardai acting alongside a masked ‘heavy gang’.
Several other demonstrations took place across Dublin, with other events
in towns and cities including Galway, Cork, Waterford and Belfast.
Activists in Dublin also occupied a vacant property in Crumlin to
coincide with the demonstrations.
People Before Profit TD Brid Smith said: “Activists are challenging the
idea that properties can lie vacant in the midst of a housing crisis.
They recognise that the government’s commitment to the market is
providing no real solutions.”
The protests have raised questions about why property and land hoarding
is going unchecked, why rent pressure zones have failed while evictions
take place on a pretext, and why those in power are not being held to
account.
Independent statistics continue to paint a devastating picture. In
Dublin the average rent for new tenancies is now 1600 euro, with annual
rent rises for new tenancies 8.4%, despite a supposed rent cap of 4%.
A government plan for 3,500 social homes, the ‘Repair and Leasing’
Scheme, has delivered just fifteen across the 26 Counties. Less than a
quarter of planned social housing has been delivered in the first six
months.
Meanwhile, Minister Eoghan Murphy has focused on his public image,
redefining homelessness in order to take more than 1,600 adults and
children off the homeless figures. A similar strategy has been used to
manipulate the total number in need of social housing support.
Sinn Fein spokesman on housing Eoin O Broin said official figures being
published by Murphy’s department are now “meaningless” and “not worth
the paper they are written on”.
“It is worse than awful,” he said. “It is time now that the collation of
homelessness figures is taken right out of the hands of the department
and handed to an independent body like the Central Statistics Office. ”
Minister Murphy told a joint parliamentary committee that he could not
say when the crisis would peak, but admitted more families will be
presenting as homeless over the winter. In rambling comments, he told
committee members: “It depends on how you define ‘crisis’. Very
regrettably there are going to be families in emergency accommodation
for quite some time to come because we have to build houses for them.”
With the threat of lives being lost due to cold weather, Murphy later
promised a delivery of prefabricated homes for homeless families. The
Phoenix Park in Dublin may be used as one of the sites for so-called
“portable homes” by the state Housing Agency, which is planning initial
shanty towns of up to 250 prefabs.
Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin demanded the “shackles” be taken off local
authorities to let them build desperately-needed homes, because the
Department of Housing has refused to approve large-scale council-led
developments. “All the councils are being given for social is small
insular developments of between 20 and 50-odd units,” he said.
After a stormy debate in the Dail on Wednesday, Murphy survived a Sinn
Fein motion of no confidence in him by 59 votes to 49 after Fianna Fail
abstained.
His voice wavering, clearly for effect, the Minister denounced the call
to build homes as “populism”.
“I won’t be distracted by populist nonsense and I won’t be hounded out
of office,” he declared. “I will not be responsible for damning another
generation by populist short term solutions.”
Repeatedly accusing Sinn Fein of having no alternative, Mr O Broin
pointed to the raft of policies, documents, analyses and legislation his
party had drafted to address the situation.
But he said Fianna Fail had lined up time after time to support the
minority government. If they will not listen to Sinn Fein “then they
will have to listen to the people,” he said.
Mr O Broin said Minister Murphy was the main obstacle to addressing the
housing crisis. He said his government’s ‘Rebuilding Ireland’ programme
was “fundamentally flawed; it is failing; it is making the problem
worse”.
He said the housing crisis would not be solved overnight but “Fine Gael
have been in government for seven long years”.
“The fact that Eoghan Murphy cannot see the problem in front of him
shows it is time for him to go,” Mr O Broin said.
Posted by Jim on
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British Labour MP has broken the silence of the mainstream media over
the consequences of Brexit in terms of the remilitarisation of the
border through Ireland.
Stephen Pound, a London-based MP and a spokesperson on the north of
Ireland in Labour’s Shadow Cabinet, spoke to Channel 4 at his party’s
annual conference. He said what almost all politicians and journalists
have refused to do, by spelling out the likely consequences of a return
of border checks and controls.
Describing the issue as “life and death to the people of Ireland”, the
shadow minister questioned the idea cameras could solve the problems of
a 302-mile Border with 282 separate crossing points.
“That will become a target. If you have a target, you have to defend the
target. If you have a defender, you have to have someone to actually
protect the defender,” he said.
“Before you know where you are, you’re got uniformed UK BI [Border
Force] or customs officers on the border. If you do that then, I’m not
being hysterical about this, but the peace process is finished.”
In that respect, he said, it was pointless to talk about a frictionless
border.
“I’m not entirely convinced that our negotiating team are completely
aware of just how absolutely visceral, how utterly serious and how
incredibly important this is,” he said.
Meanwhile, there have been warnings that the Six Counties could face
blackouts and food shortages as a result of Britain leaving the EU
without suitable arrangements on trade and customs. British government
documents show that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, diesel generators
may be needed to keep power supplies running.
Shortages and price rises in food products such as orange juice, olive
oil, sausages and butter are also expected. With fears of looting and
food riots, the British government has appointed a minister to manage
food supply for the first time since the Second World War. Access to
vital drugs, including insulin for diabetics, have also been singled out
as a key concern. Public transport across the border is also in
jeopardy.
Sinn Fein spokesperson Mairtin O Muilleoir said the North was being
treated as “collateral damage” by the Tories and the DUP.
“It again reinforces the absolute necessity of ensuring the referendum
vote in the North is respected by securing special status for us to
remain,” he said.
“The Irish Government and the EU27 must also continue to stand firm in
the Brexit negotiations and defend the interests of all Irish citizens,
North and South.”
Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald has accused the DUP of a “reckless
disregard” for the north’s economy and political agreements.
“The days of unionist veto are gone and will not be replaced by a Tory
veto,” she said. “Both the Tory party and the DUP should respect the
vote of the majority in the north to remain within the European Union
with all that entails. The DUP cannot veto the vote of the people in the
north to remain.”
Posted by Jim on
by Jude Collins (judecollins.com)
When I was a lad, our History teacher used to say that people should
look for signs of madness in a political leader, and when they saw it,
the leader should be shunned. Unfortunately, History wasn’t listening to
our teacher.
One of the signs, he said, was the destiny complex – when a leader
started talking about ‘the nation’s destiny”. Such leaders are
dangerous, our History teacher told us. And I’m sure they are. At the
same time I’ve found many Irish politicians to be incapable of seeing
beyond bread-and-butter issues, because that might mean addressing
broader and more embarrassing national questions.
The other sign of madness was politicians who talked about themselves in
the third person. The best example in recent decades would be Maggie
Thatcher with her “U-turn if you want to – the lady’s not for turning!”
Such people, my old History teacher insisted, were living in a fevered
mental state.
There’s been a recent example close to home. After months of hunkering
down in some secret place trying to decide if they loved or didn’t love
Ian Paisley Jr, word got through to the DUP that there weren’t enough
signatures to recall the North Antrim MP. Almost immediately the DUP
de-hunkered and announced that Ian Og was now a member in good standing.
What did Ian do? Well it’s what he did AND what he didn’t do.
He took two five-star holidays with his family in Sri Lanka – posh
hotels, helicopters, luxury stuff, the lot: all funded by the nice
government of Sri Lanka. What he didn’t do was declare these
mouth-watering holiers to the House of Commons, nor to the then prime
minister David Cameron, not even when he wrote to said prime minister,
urging him not to vote at the UN in favour of holding the Sri Lankan
government responsible for war crimes.
Ian’s resurrected political corpse, last seen getting all emotional in
the House of Commons, in more recent days was to be seen striding the
streets of Ballymena in grand form, calling greetings to passers-by,
explaining to the BBC’s Gareth Gordon that all this Sri Lankan stuff was
behind him, he had ‘fessed up (when caught red-handed), had been
suspended from the House of Commons, but thanks to the support of
“90.6%” of the North Antrim electorate, he was back. Without a sign of
embarrassment, Ian Junior looked Gareth in the eye and told him that
over 90% of constituents had concluded “Tell you what, big fellah, we
like you!”. See what Ian did there? Talked about himself as if he were
someone else. In the third person. Although I suppose any of us could
feel fairly buoyed up, if the people paying our salary had made it clear
they didn’t give a damn how we acted as long as we didn’t frighten the
horses.
Ian also explained to Gareth that Theresa May would avoid any tricky
votes in the House of Commons until the Big Fellah (yes,
that’s what his da was called as well) got back in to bolster up her
numbers in crucial Brexit votes.
And well might she want every support she can get. Given that things are
groaning and creaking in advance of Brexit, what will it be like when
Brexit comes? At this point Britain seems to have backed itself into a
cul-de-sac with very high walls all around. No matter what way it turns,
the UK is faced with bad stuff.
The Tory government could do like Norway, and follow all rules of the
EU, which would allow them to have a good trade relationship with the
Europe but allows them no part in EU decision-making. If that happens,
Britain will wind up less well-off than it was before Brexit.
The problem is, there will have to be markers showing where EU territory
begins and where UK territory ends. So will that mean a hard border in
Ireland, separating the south (in the EU) from the north (outside the
EU)? That would be a bad idea economically and a worse one politically.
Alternatively, the line between the UK and the EU could be in the middle
of the Irish Sea, which would mean, the DUP fear, a fatal loosening of
the ties that bind the north to Mother Britain. Theresa May has said she
will never do it, and she doesn’t believe any other PM will do so
either.
But has Britain, the EU or the DUP noticed that a Catholic majority is
due to arrive in the north inside the next five years? And that inside
ten years Britain could be faced with a border poll favouring a united
Ireland? Then there really would be a border down the middle of the
Irish Sea.
At that point Britain would put on its coat, heave what sounded like a
sigh but deep inside would be a whoop of delight. No more massive
annual subvention, the damnable Irish question finally answered, we
should have done this decades ago. What’s not to like?
Posted by Jim on
Loyalists paramilitary organisations have been involved in brutal
attacks in County Antrim amid violent wrangling over local control and
the proceeds of crime.
In Ballymoney, the UDA (‘Ulster Defence Association’) were responsible
for shooting an 18-year-old youth in both arms and legs. The attack took
place at his home last weekend.
SDLP East Derry representative John Dallat said he believed the shooting
is the “handiwork of the UDA who are operating in open defiance of law
and order”.
“I am also convinced this is the same gang that murdered Brian McIlhagga
more than three years ago in the same town and they will go on acting as
judge and jury against anyone who they don’t like,” he said.
“Anyone who doesn’t show due reverence to them is fair game,” he added.
McIlhagga, a father-of-five and small time drugs dealer, died after he
was shot in the leg in a similar shooting. An investigation by the PSNI
police failed to lead to prosecution.
Sinn Fein’s Philip McGuigan said the most recent attack “was quite
clearly carried out by loyalist paramilitaries”.
“In fact this is just the latest of many attacks, resulting in death and
serious injuries, close to Ballymoney, carried out by loyalists.
“There needs to be firm action by the PSNI to halt these attacks and
bring those responsible to justice.”
Meanwhile, there are concerns that the UVF (‘Ulster Volunteer Force’)
has has reorganised in east Antrim. It was blamed for an even more
brutal attack on a local man at his home earlier this month.
The victim, who is in his 20s, was beaten with sledgehammers in the
Woodvale area of Larne, suffering serious injuries to his arms and legs.
Items were also taken from the home, it is understood.
A woman, who lives nearby and did not want to be named, said she heard
the man’s screams.
“He said help and he was screaming in pain,” she said. “It’s scary,
isn’t it? I’ve got a son and thankfully he slept through it, could you
imagine if he’d heard that. The way you have to look at it too, that’s
somebody’s son.”
Mr McMullan said he believed that the UVF was responsible and said the
loyalist group has been reorganising and retraining in east Antrim in
recent months, with its leadership based in the Monkstown area of
Newtownabbey.
He also warned that the organisation in Larne is involved in the supply
of illegal drink and cigarettes and runs illegal drinking dens.