independent

Monday 20 May 2013

We can't afford to get romantic about guerrilla days in Ireland 

WHILE audiences in Dublin have been cheering the theatrical celebration of Tom Barry's 'Guerilla Days in Ireland' (mis-spelt, of course), in Belfast a bomb from so-called republican dissidents nearly killed three police officers. The failure to realise the connection between a celebration of 'good' violence in the past and 'bad' violence today has long been a chronic condition in Irish life. Whereas the myth of republican violence takes merely artistic form in some souls, in others it serves as a moral authoriser, like a virus that affects its hosts in different ways. Actual violence is always a consequence of this myth.

 

Endless winter of our discontent and the crazy ideology of global warming 

I KNOW it's springtime, because my frostbitten foot just fell off. I lost half my nose on the day of the vernal equinox, in this era of Official Global Warming. I am now down to my last thigh, one arm, and a nostril, and am typing this with my forehead. Forgive the spealing. 2013 seems to have lasted forever. Is it 2014 yet? No? Ah: how long to go? Nine months? You and I, we could make a baby in that time. You fancy one? No, me neither.

 

Students who get drunk and riot are just following an ancient stereotype 

It is a sorry reflection on how we handle St Patrick's Day that when it's over, we're always relieved if we haven't made complete fools of ourselves once again. So, let's hope Mayor Bloomberg of New York has put aside that bizarre little teapot that Enda Kenny gave him, possibly referencing the teapot Charles Haughey gave Margaret Thatcher. Taoiseach, teapot – must be an Irish thing. At least he's not seeing any St Patrick's Day riots on his screen.

 

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