Friday, March 15, 2024

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 


The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit – a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and villages would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contest of athletic youths and the laughter of happy maidens, whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of serene old age. The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live. With the tidings that make such an Ireland possible, St. Patrick came to our ancestors fifteen hundred years ago promising happiness here no less than happiness hereafter. It was the pursuit of such an Ireland that later made our country worthy to be called the island of saints and scholars. It was the idea of such an Ireland - happy, vigorous, spiritual - that fired the imagination of our poets; that made successive generations of patriotic men give their lives to win religious and political liberty; and that will urge men in our own and future generations to die, if need be, so that these liberties may be preserved.

Eamon De Valera, St. Patrick's Day 1943

(A little in advance, but it's become a bit of a festival rather than a day, anyway...)

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Blessed Angela Salawa

Today is the feast day of Blessed Angela Salawa. I'd never heard of her before this morning and I found her story quite fascinating.

Read about her here.



Sunday, March 10, 2024

Deo Gratias!

Yesterday saw an overwhelming rejection by the Irish electorate-- or those who bothered to turn up-- of the government's attempts to remove Ireland's constitutional protections for motherhood and marriage, and to swap those terms for terms which were nebulous and indefinable.



Irish referenda are very mysterious. Why did the abortion referendum have a bigger "yes" vote than the gay marriage referendum? Why does an electorate which is so liberal on many social issues seem quite conservative when it comes to proposals such as abolishing the Seanad or lowering the age at which someone can run for President?

I've voted "no" in every single referendum in my lifetime. I've only regretted it once-- I wish I had voted "yes" to the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement. At the time I thought it was a mistake to relinquish our constitutional claim to the North. Now, I think it was necessary for the peace which followed.

I took a walk to the Dublin count centre in the RDS, close to where I live, to see if I could lap up any of the excitement from outside. But there wasn't much to see. I've always loved interviews and footage from the count centres. It's one of my life's ambitions to be present in one at some stage.

This referendum was the first time I've voted as a Southsider. I crossed the Liffey in 2019 and there was a local by-election in my constituency in that time, but I didn't change my address on the register soon enough to vote. This time I managed it just in time.

(I thought of turning the blog background pink for Laetare Sunday, but it doesn't seem worth it for one day. St. Patrick's Day is a Sunday this year, so since I rarely have desktop access at the weekend, it might be green for a few days on either side-- if I don't forget.)

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Vote No, and No

It hardly needs saying, but anyone who can should vote "No" to both referendum proposals on Thursday.

A country's Constitution is serious business. Our government (and we have had essentially the same government for decades now) seems to think it should be changed as often as a hand-towel.

Here's the statement from the Catholic bishops (good on them) and here's a video from Fr. Brendan Kilcoyne making the arguments against the proposals.

It seems most likely they will pass, given the voting record of the Irish public. But there's some hope; as recently as 2013, a proposal to abolish the Seanad (the Irish upper house of parliament) was narrowly rejected.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Leap Day

Today is the 29th of February, a day that only rolls around once every four years, or so.

As readers will know, I'm very interested in days, holidays, seasons, and so forth. But especially days. I've written about it in many posts. This one, for instance.

Leap Day is an interesting one because there's so little fuss about it. I think there should be. It's a day when the intersection between the day-to-day and the year-to-year-- different "streams of time", that is-- comes to the fore. A mysterious liminal space, like a crossroads or a lobby.

Perhaps it should be a day when we all look back on the last four years (or however long it's been since the last leap day). This could be the subject of articles, TV and radio shows, podcasts, etc.

Or perhaps we should have leaping competitions. Or leaping dances. Or eat salmon, which is well-known for leaping. (Vegetarians could have salmon-shaped pastries or chocolates, as indeed could non-vegetarians. Maybe we'll just leave the real fish be.)

I did hear some people talking about it in work today. One person suggested we should have an extra day's pay for an extra day's work. This caused some hilarity and was repeated from person to person.

Happy Leap Day!



Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Purple for Lent

Remember I used to turn the blog's background green for St. Patrick's Day? Today I decided to turn it purple for Lent!

A revived tradition is even better than a tradition, and an expanded tradition is even better than a revived tradition.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Ash Wednesday

For the day that's in it, a little poem I wrote two years ago:

Ash Wednesday

The priest rubs ashes on my head
And tells me to repent.
My sins are very far from dead,
My lusts are far from spent.

That ancient bonfire burns apace,
That blaze of sin and lust.
God send me hotter flames of grace
Before I fall to dust.

Today is also Valentine's Day. Here's a little poem taken from the novel Weaveworld by Clive Barker, which I think is very appropriate to today's double-bill, and is a pretty good poem. I hope Barker's people won't come after me for copyright violation, especially since it's freely available elsewhere on the 'net.

One part of love is innocence
One part of love is guilt
One part the milk, that in a sense
Is soured as soon as spilt
One part of love is sentiment
One part of love is lust
One part is the presentiment
Of our return to dust.



And, since that's all very grim, here's something that made me laugh yesterday. The full title of a joke-book from 1771, which I came across on my library's online catalogue:

The Complete London Jester, or, wit's companion: Containing all the fun and all the humour, all the learning and all the judgment, which have lately slowed from the two universities, from the two theatres, from White's Chocolate-house, from the Bedford Coffee-house; or, from the spouting clubs, and choice spirits clubs in London and Westminster. Including all the fashionable jests, epigrams, merry tales, humorous jokes, bon mots, conundrums, Irish bulls, comical humbugs, droll narrations, smart repartees, new adventures, funny epitaphs, and witticisms. Which will expel care, drown grief, banish the spleen, improve the wit, create mirth, entertain company, and give the reader a light heart, and a chearful countenance. The whole teaching the agreable art of story-telling, and furnishing pieces of wit, for the amusement and improvement of both sexes. The sixth edition. To which is added a genteel collection of the various toasts, sentiments, and Hob-Nobs, now in fashion