Cassandra Voices

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  • Bull Moose – A New Monthly Column from Across the Pond.

    Bull Moose is a monthly bulletin discussing the politics and society of the United States.

    A Gift to Dems – should they take it…

    The news that Donald Trump had not been adjudged to have colluded with the Russians prior to the 2016 election was greeted with elation on the Right and disappointment and annoyance on the Left. Emboldened, the White House renewed calls to investigate the investigators. Little was said about how Attorney General Barr did exactly as promised when he wrote a memo in 2018, stating that the President should not be indicted for collusion, and that, frankly, he should be considered above the law in certain respects.[i] The 4-page memo of the 300-page Mueller report that Barr sent to Congress merely followed up on this promise to protect the President.

    The Democrats, for their part, reacted with a mixture of incredulity, anger and promises to continue the investigations. Clearly, they are within their rights – there is plenty of smoke, and where there is smoke there should be some fire at least. But they are missing an opportunity by not refocusing attention on issues that matter to Americans

    Realistically this shouldn’t be a win from Trump – he is not celebrating innocence, only the inability of prosecutors to pin conclusively any charges on him, even as some of his closest allies fester in jail. Trump’s strategy is clear and simple: aggressively go after anyone who questions him and say, repeatedly, ‘we want the full report released,’ without having any intention of ever doing so. Does ‘I will disclose my tax returns’, ring any bells?

    Most Americans have more progressive views than the Republican party. On issues like the environment, immigration, health care, and yes, even freedom and civil liberties, the public should naturally side with Democrats. Even on core issues like balanced budgets, debt and higher rates of marginal taxation, Republicans are vulnerable.

    Yet, the next election will be won by whoever controls the dialogue in the media. Trump won last time out, and will likely win again, because of his ability and desire to maintain a firm grip on the narrative.  Not for nothing, in order to get an idea to stick in a listener’s head he will mention a soundbite three times in a row – it’s a simple trick that is wildly effective.

    For him any day that he is not in the headlines is a bad one. Under this principle – bad publicity is better than none. At least he is still at the center of the conversation. Few Democrats seem to realize this. Yet, in order to win back the White House, they will need to learn from Trump, rather than simply demonize him.

    Control the narrative, control the outcome…

    Not Rich Enough

    News that some celebrities had paid bribes for their children to gain entry into the most prestigious universities in America received widespread attention in March. Some had paid around a million dollars to coaches and middle men, who helped game the system in their favor. About fifty people were accused and some will, no doubt, spend time in jail.

    The best take on this whole ‘scandal’ emerged organically, via social media. Dr Dre posted a picture of his daughter’s acceptance letter from USC, proudly boasting how she had ‘earned’ her entry. Shortly afterwards, one commenter reminded him of his $70 million gift to USC, whereupon he quickly deleted the post.

    The lesson? Don’t try to bribe your way into college unless you can pay for an entire building.

    The most interesting insight into the American mindset came from the comments section – the most liked ones were those adopting this line of thinking: if he donates that much money, he should be allowed to send his daughter there because he is providing opportunities for those less fortunate on scholarships.

    Twisted thinking to be sure, but clearly, if you are rich enough you can act like a socialist to rig the capitalist system in your favor.

    [i] Jonathan Hafetz and Brett Max Kaufmann, ‘William Barr’s Unsolicited Memo to Trump About Obstruction of Justice’, February 14th, 2019, ACLU, https://www.aclu.org/blog/executive-branch/william-barrs-unsolicited-memo-trump-about-obstruction-justice, accessed 30/3/19.

  • A Spectre Worse than ‘Brexocide’ for the British Establishment

    Fact is a poor story-teller. It starts a story at haphazard, generally long before the beginning, rambles on inconsequentially and tails off, leaving loose ends hanging about, without a conclusion. It works up an interesting situation, and then leaves it in the air to follow an issue that has nothing to do with the point; it has no sense of climax and whittles away its dramatic effects in irrelevance.
    Somerset Maugham[i]

    And so the Brexit drama continues, wending inconclusively through the House of Commons as a post-modern farce premeditated by Franz Kafka. It must, nonetheless, be counted a success of sorts given the column inches it has generated. Like an episode of Channel 4’s ‘Big Brother’ it is difficult to take one’s eyes off this distracting blight on the politics of our archipelago of islands.

    Perhaps what Brexit has revealed, above all, is that the UK’s unusual unwritten constitution[ii] – arguably a contradiction in terms – is not fit for purpose. When a majority unexpectedly voted in a referendum in 2017 against remaining in the European Union, it was unclear what should happen next. A court challenge was required to assert parliamentary sovereignty[iii], which is now as divided as the country on the matter. Speaker John Bercow recently invoked a precedent from the reign of James I, having been accused of acting ‘unconstitutionally’ for breaking with other precedents.[iv] The mind boggles at the pick and mix of Conventions from which fundamental laws derive.

    That referendum was David Cameron’s brainchild for keeping troglodyte Eurosceptic colleagues off his back. The outcome was not supposed to happen. His strategists probably assumed that recalcitrant Mondeo Men, and Shire Tories unable to get over the smoking ban in pubs, were a lost cause. But they surely did not expect the working class of Stoke and Sunderland to put their two fingers up at the European Union in such numbers; never mind they had been incubated on unwholesome doses of Euro-trashing by the Red Tops, amidst repeated identification of the Union with Nazi Germany.[v]

    Conservative Party top brass had been, after all, solidly Remain; the Parliamentary Labour Party could be relied on – even Jeremy Corbyn’s previously doctrinaire opposition had softened into a lukewarm Remain – while the Lib Dems were gushingly Europhile; and the SNP saw in the Union a counterweight to the ‘auld enemy’.

    UKIP seemed an anachronism, a busted flush electorally, barely mustering a single MP, making the political earthquake all the more startling.

    An amorphous and secretive – but identifiable and enduring nonetheless – Deep British State (DBS) is doing all in its power to avert damage to trade and industry; devaluation of the pound; and to prevent London’s property bubble from bursting. Make no mistake a fabled no-deal brexocide would damage corporations and wealthy individuals, with a rise in unemployment and even food shortages looming for the working class. The pillars of a profoundly unequal but at least functioning economy are shaking, but Brexit is only one aspect of a wider difficulty.

    the DBS

    The financiers, captains of industry, press barons, and elements within the BBC, are presided over by a permanent civil service, including the intelligence services MI5 and MI6. These not entirely comic Sir Humphreys keep a vigilant watch over the political officeholders, often intellectual inferiors, without the distinction of an Oxbridge education. At the highest level of government there are well documented connections to major corporations, including the armaments industry[vi], allowing good fellows to secure pleasant retirements, where the only crash disturbing the evening air comes from willow and ash meeting above the village green.

    The prospect of another referendum became politically impossible once the volume of True Believers in the Conservative Party became apparent. With a smell of Dunkirk in their nostrils, some relish Brexit at almost any cost. The DBS are struggling to contain this rowdy element, which could do serious damage to the economy, but this is the devil they know.

    After her disastrous performance in the 2017 election, the ‘May-bot’ became as lame as any duck can be. No doubt she has been eyeing up a comfortable pile among wheat fields in rural Oxfordshire since – where good Tories go to die. A favourable retirement package requires her to align closely with the DBS.

    The really scary outcome for the DBS is a Jeremy Corbyn-led, Labour Government. The City of London is petrified lest a large proportion of its vast wealth derived from speculation is seized. So an immediate election must be avoided, with only one winner possible in another round of Corbyn-May. Thus, according to the lead story in The Telegraph on March 30th: ‘Snap election under Theresa May would ‘annihilate’ the Conservatives, senior Tories warn’.[vii]

    Corbyn, defying expectations, masterfully played his strongest card to offer a so-called People’s Vote – a referendum rerun – at a pivotal moment in the game. As the BBC’s Andrew Marr put it:

    Corbyn’s greatest political skill may turn out to be his talent for delay. He lets events come to him. Under his bo tree, he quietly sits, and sits, and takes the hits – as, for instance, on the referendum issue – waiting for his moment.[viii]

    Having averted deep ruptures in his own party over Brexit, at least compared to Tory factionalism, Corbyn allowed centrist opponents, including Chuka Umunna, to resign from the party to form the so-called Independent Group. Who’d have thought the bearded lefty could be so cunning?

    So a deal, however humiliating, is pushed through, and the DUP are surely being offered the required sweeteners in exchange for the Backstop; having been informed a refusal will see them being thrown to the wolves – howling rosaries in Gaelic.

    The DBS is playing for time, seeking an orderly but irrelevant Brexit, and then for someone reasonable to emerge from within Conservative ranks, now May has obligingly agreed to fall on her sword. The chauvinist bluster of the likes of Boorish Johnson, Rabidly Dominic or Jacob Really-Smug do not inspire confidence, but Populism may be required to counteract the radical appeal of Corbyn, who has the DBS firmly in his sights.

    A Very British Coup

    Former Bennite Labour MP Chris Mullin’s 1982 novel A Very British Coup imagines the possibly of a genuinely left-wing Labour Prime Minister coming to power. The fictional Labour leader Harry Perkins wins a general election on a platform of radical change to a floundering economy serving a privileged few.

    Perkins is frustrated, however, at every turn as he endeavours to withdraw the U.K. from NATO and re-nationalise industries. Collusion between the permanent government, including Intelligence services, media barons and the captains of industry leads to his premature resignation – A Very British Coup – and replacement with a malleable, New Labour, government.

    Although originally from Sheffield in the North of England, Harry Perkins bears a striking resemblance to one Jeremy Corbyn. Thus:

    Harry Perkins made a fetish of travelling on public transport telling one official: ‘I am afraid it is necessary, Inspector. You see, my party wants to phase out the private motor car in cities and encourage people to use public transport instead.[ix]

    On entering office he addresses an uncooperative Governor of the Bank of England: ‘What’s the point in having elections if, regardless of outcome, a handful of speculators in the City of London and their friends abroad continue to call the shots?’[x]

    Perkins also dismisses New Labour centrism in a manner reminiscent of Corbyn: ‘We offer the electorate a choice between two Tory parties and they choose the real one;’[xi] and confronts a centre-left media that often pays lip service to promoting meaningful change: ‘The Guardian agonised for ten column inches before concluding that, although Labour’s plans made sense, “Now was not the time.”’[xii]

    In the novel the DBS, many with links to the arms industry, are determined to maintain the American alliance and resist de-nuclearization. Thus, Sir Peregrine Craddock the fictional head of ‘DI5’, ‘had long regarded CND as the most subversive organisations on DI5’s books. Its subversive nature lay in the breath of its appeal.’[xiii]

    Perkins, like Corbyn, invokes the possibility of a neutral Europe ‘which had haunted Pentagon defence planners for so long.’ Also, as with the current Labour leader, Perkins arrives from the point of view: ‘apparently supported by documentary evidence, which saw America as the centre of a worldwide network of tyranny, terrorism and suppression.’[xiv]

    Little is said in the novel on Britain’s relationship with the Europe Community. This reflects how the Labour Left’s historic opposition Europe was based on an assessment that the E.E.C. was set up in the interest of capitalists, and used as a pawn against the Soviet Union by American Cold Warriors. This is quite unlike the sense of cultural exceptionalism and even outright racism motivating ardent Brexiters.

    ‘Eventually Socialists run out of other people’s money’

    The DBS assumes that a Corbyn-led government will interfere with an economy still, broadly, dominated by free market doctrine, albeit the NHS remains largely untouchable.

    Free market ‘reforms’ were unleashed by Margaret Thatcher throughout the 1980s as her dictum, ‘Eventually Socialists run out of other people’s money’[xv] became preeminent. The relative brutality of the adjustments impoverished large swathes of the country. The rust belts of the North, Midlands, and even Wales, would ultimately vote for Brexit.

    Thatcherite policies were tempered slightly under John Major, and more so with the advent of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s New Labour, but the adjustments, especially privatisation of essential government services including railways, endured and in some cases continued.

    At the end of Conservative rule in 1996 Britain was the most unequal society in the Western world, with the gap between rich and poor as great as in Nigeria. By then the worst-off were living on roughly the same incomes as their equivalents in Hungary.[xvi] Inequality actually deepened under Blair and Brown[xvii], albeit outright poverty diminished[xviii], but the Crash led to welfare cuts, while inequality deepened apace.

    Armed to the teeth

    The DBS is also profoundly worried by the turn U.K. foreign policy would take under a Corbyn-led government. This could jeopardise the valuable armaments industry that Corbyn has inveighed against throughout his career.

    In 2016 The Independent reported that that U.K. was the second leading exporter of armaments in the world.[xix] Saudi Arabia alone pays £10 billion for equipment[xx] as it pursues a dirty war against Yemen. Just this month Jeremy Hunt visited the kingdom, and we may safely assume contracts were discussed. The DBS is intimately linked and lobbied by the leading companies, as the organisation Campaign Against the Arms Trade reveals.[xxi]

    Furthermore, a Zionist lobby in the U.K. has long exerted influence over U.K. foreign policy, beginning with the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which led to the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. This is hardly a controversial point, and there are many good reasons for this, not least sympathy for the idea of a Jewish homeland in the wake of the Holocaust. The Labour Party itself has a long tradition of support for Israel.

    Corbyn, however, has stood with immigrants from Third Wold countries deeply opposed to Zionism throughout his career. This brought him into contact with unhelpful figures espousing implacable hostility. But there is no evidence of Corbyn advocating a military invasion of Israel or questioning its right to exist as sovereign state.

    He did, however, make ill-judged comments during his years in the political wilderness, comparing ISIS to Israel, and calling for Hamas and Hezbollah to be treated as ‘friends.’[xxii] To his credit he has, however, apologised for these statements. As a consistent advocate of the rule of law, and multilateralism, there is no reason to be believe Corbyn has any concern other than vindicating the human rights of Palestinians, and respecting international law.

    The accusation that Corbyn is anti-Semitic is simply a way of getting at him. The virtuous, ascetic and seemingly incorruptible character needs to be darkened, and prominent members of the Jewish community, including from within the Parliamentary Labour Party, are lined up to level the accusation.

    Some of his colleagues, including Ken Livingston, have made unacceptable comments, but Corbyn has never stooped to racial stereotyping Jews. His quarrel with Zionism is political, and he has collaborated with left-wing Jews including the American Mike Marqusee.

    Corbyn’s alliances with what he perceives as comrade anti-imperialists in the Irish Republican movement also brought accusations of treachery. To many, however, especially the young, the disadvantaged and those from immigrant backgrounds, he is a hero, who shares their own critical views on the domestic and international policies of successive U.K. governments.

    Getting it right more often than not

    Corbyn has leveraged popular global causes to engineer domestic political success. After Afghanistan he correctly predicted that George W. Bush would link the terrorist attacks with the ‘axis of evil’ – Iraq, North Korea and Iran – to justify an invasion of Iraq. This was ridiculed by the media and the majority of MPs.

    Subsequently, during the febrile period before the U.S-led invasion of Iraq, supported by Tony Blair, Corbyn was granted a rare audience with the Labour Prime Minister. ‘One question’, he asked, ‘Why are we doing it?’, to which Blair testily replied, ‘Because it is the right thing to do,’. Corbyn responded ‘That’s not an answer.’[xxiii]

    A platform of wealth readjustment, especially advocating transfers from older property owners to younger people, including students, proved extremely popular during the 2017 election. The demographic supporting Corbyn is growing, and well-equipped to play the data wars that modern elections require.

    Corbyn’s challenge, as with any aspiring socialist movement – whether that failing in Venezuela or those delivering across Scandinavia – is to ensure that state dominance of the means of production does not diminish innovation or lead to bureaucratization. Socialists must learn from the mistakes of the past, both in the U.K. in the 1970s when the trade unions ground the country to a halt and, more obviously, the extremes of Communism in Eastern Europe.

    Perhaps the most pernicious influence of Thatcherism, and neo-liberalism generally, is the dominance of the view that state services are automatically inferior to those provided by private enterprise, and that civil servants do not take pride in their work in the absence of incentives. In many cases this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    For a true revival in the U.K.’s fortune a greater sense of national cohesion seems required. This need not involve a lasting break with the European Union, but could require a loser arrangement within the United Kingdom itself, with individual ‘nations’ granted increased autonomy, or even full independence. A written constitution and the abolition of monarchy would also be salutary.

    Under Corbyn, England could accept its lot as a medium-sized country, guaranteeing a basic level of income for all, and operating within supranational institutions. The trade-off for would be a decisive end to imperialist ambitions, including abandonment of the vastly expensive nuclear weapon programme. This will, however, be resisted by vested interests seeking to preserve the status quo within the DBS.

    In 2016, at one of his lowest ebbs politically, and with even long-standiy supporters losing heart, Corbyn was addressed by David Cameron in the House of Commons in the manner of a school prefect dismissing a lackey: ‘For heaven’s sake, man, go!’[xxiv]

    In the interim  Cameron has become a widely-derided irrelevance, while Corbyn is the front-runner to become the next Prime Minister. The question is whether the apparent disorder of Brexit will be resolved by this unlikely leader. If Corbyn does come to power he confronts the real possibility of A Very British Coup, whittling away its dramatic effects.

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    [i] W. Somerset Maugham, Ashenden, London, Vintage Books, 2000, p.v

    [ii] Frank Armstrong ‘UK Unwritten Constitution Brews Brexit Confusion’, February 1st, 2018, Cassandra Voices, http://cassandravoices.com/politics/uk-unwritten-constitution-brews-brexit-confusion/, accessed 31/3/19.

    [iii] Sandra Fredman, ‘A vital reaffirmation of Parliamentary sovereignty’, 25th of January, 2017, University of Oxford, http://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/oxford-and-brexit/brexit-analysis/parliamentary-sovereignty#, accessed 28/3/19.

    [iv] Isabel Hardman, ‘John Bercow’s disregard of precedent is a serious constitutional issue’, 9th of January, 2019, The Spectator, https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/01/john-bercows-disregard-of-precedent-is-a-serious-constitutional-issue/, accessed 28/3/19.

    [v] Julia Rampen, ‘The 4 most unfortunate Nazi-EU comparisons made by Brexiteers’, 19th of January, 2017, New Statesman, https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/01/4-most-unfortunate-nazi-eu-comparisons-made-brexiteers, 28/3/19.

    [vi] The website of the Campaign Against the Arms Industries (https://www.caat.org.uk/resources/influence) provides details of high level contacts and ex-public servants working in the arms industry.

    [vii] Edwark Malnick and Nick  ‘Snap election under Theresa May would ‘annihilate’ the Conservatives, senior Tories warn

    [viii] Andrew Marr, ‘Andrew Marr’s Diary: May’s reshuffle plans, Corbyn’s gardener socialism – and why I’m painting clowns’, 20th of March, 2019, New Statesman, https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/03/andrew-marr-s-diary-may-s-reshuffle-plans-corbyn-s-gardener-socialism-and-why-i, accessed 28/3/19.

    [ix] Chris Mullin, A Very British Coup, London, Hodder and Staughton, 1982, p.44

    [x] Ibid, p58

    [xi] Ibid, p.63

    [xii] Ibid, p.80

    [xiii] Ibid, p.172

    [xiv] Ibid, p.174-175

    [xv] ‘Margaret Thatcher on Socialism’, Margaret Thatcher’s Speech to the House of Commons on 22 November 22nd 1990, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okHGCz6xxiw, accessed 30/3/19.

    [xvi] Geoffrey Lean and Graham Bell, ‘UK most unequal country in the West’, 21st of July, 1996, The Independent, https://www.independe’nt.co.uk/news/uk-most-unequal-country-in-the-west-1329614.html, accessed 29/3/19.

    [xvii] William Underhill, ‘INEQUALITY HAS GROWN UNDER NEW LABOUR’, August 1st, 2010, Newsweek, https://www.newsweek.com/inequality-has-grown-under-new-labour-70943, accessed 30/3/19.

    [xviii] Robert Joyce and Luke Sibieta, ‘Labour’s record on poverty and inequality’, June 6th 2013, Institute for Fiscal Studies, https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/6738, accessed 30/3/19.

    [xix] Jon Stone, ‘Britan is now the second biggest arms dealer in the world’, 5th of December, 2016, The Independent¸ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britain-is-now-the-second-biggest-arms-dealer-in-the-world-a7225351.html, accessed 30/3/19.

    [xx] ‘UK Arms Export Licences’ Campaign Against Arms Trade, https://www.caat.org.uk/resources/export-licences, accessed 30/3/19.

    [xxi] https://www.caat.org.uk/, accessed 31/3/19.

    [xxii] Tom Bower, Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot for Power, London William Collins, 2019, p.276

    [xxiii] Ibid, p.136

    [xxiv] ‘Cameron to Corbyn: ‘For heaven’s sake man, go!’ – BBC News’, June 29th, 2016, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHIQAnUGhIQ, accessed 30/3/19.

  • Could Southern Ireland Accommodate Unionist Culture?

    Just a few years ago the prospect of Irish unity seemed remote. However, things are changing. Power-sharing has broken down and the Northern Assembly has been suspended for over two years. On top of that, a combination of a demographic shift in favour of Catholics, and the Brexit-influenced warming of some Protestant voters towards Irish unity means the idea of a pro-reunification majority in both jurisdictions emerging cannot be ruled out.

    There remain, however, serious obstacles to unity south of the border. For one thing, many Southern taxpayers may think twice if asked to replicate the very high level of subsidy currently provided by Westminster to the North. But money is only money. It would take a brave political leader in the South to propose a ‘no’ vote in a unity referendum on financial grounds. A more important obstacle, therefore, may be the issues of symbols and identity.

    The Good Friday Agreement guarantees ‘parity of esteem’ and ‘just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos and aspirations of both communities’ in Northern Ireland. Were this principle to be applied to the Southern state, it could involve changes to many symbols and arrangements that are emotionally important to large numbers of citizens.

    Would Southern voters, for instance, be willing to accept unification if it meant having to compromise on the Irish/Gaelic nature of the symbols of the State. Securing a State that reflected and promoted a Gaelic cultural identity, was a central goal of the Irish national revolution and, as things stand, the symbols of the Irish state reflect this primacy of Nationalist and Republican symbols.

    If a united Ireland meant replacing the tricolor with a neutral alternative; replacing terms like Dáil and Taoiseach with ‘Assembly’ and ‘Prime Minister’; dropping mandatory Irish in school and downgrading the Irish language in the constitution; many voters may begin to wonder if unity is a price worth paying.

    After all, in the Treaty negotiations of 1921, the 1925 crisis over the Boundary Commission, in World War II and during the Troubles, when faced with a choice between obtaining or protecting the independence of the South from the UK and abandoning Northern nationalists, Southern leaders have consistently chosen the former.

    The possibility that unification is blocked due to opposition from Southern voters cannot be discounted. However, it should also be considered whether, under the Good Friday Agreement, unification needs to raise the issue of symbolic changes at all.

    As the Brexit process has slowly been teaching the British government, the political effects of the Good Friday Agreement cannot be localized to Northern Ireland, and even affect decisions taken at U.K. level.

    However, that is not the case for the symbolic arrangements. Under the Good Friday Agreement the requirement of parity of esteem for both traditions is localized to Northern Ireland, and does not affect the symbolic arrangements of the U.K. as a whole. For the U.K. as a whole, the national flag remains the Union Jack, the national anthem remains ‘God Save the Queen’ and state bodies display British and monarchical symbols.

    Therefore, under the Good Friday Agreement structures, should Northern Ireland join the Republic, there would still be an obligation to ensure parity between nationalist and unionist symbols within Northern Ireland. But such an obligation would remain localized to Northern Ireland and would not necessarily be extended to the symbolic arrangements and identity of the Republic.

    This approach would give Unionists recognition of the legitimacy of their British identity, just as Northern Nationalists now have recognition of their Irish identity. And presumably, Northern Ireland would retain autonomous institutions characterized by power-sharing, with power being devolved from Dublin instead of London.

    But just as Northern Nationalists are currently required to accept that Northern Ireland is part of a larger state with a British identity, post-unification Unionists would be required to accept that Northern Ireland was part of a larger state with an Irish identity, provided that within Northern Ireland itself, parity of esteem was ensured.

    With the issue of reunification increasingly likely to come on the agenda in the medium term, it would be wise for citizens in the Republic to start thinking about what they would and would not be willing to sacrifice for unity.

    Of course, as a matter of prudent politics, it may be better for some symbolic concessions to be made by the Republic in order to smooth any process of unification, but such concessions are not necessarily required by the Good Friday Agreement. Indeed, given the emotional importance of symbols such as the flag and language, it may be that a smooth process of reunification would also require reassurance to nationalists in the South that the wholesale change of symbols precious to them would not be required.

    Ronan McCrea is Professor of Constitutional and European Law at University College London

    Cartoon by Octo.

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  • No Comment – Daniele Idini

    All Images © Daniele Idini

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  • Brazil Special Report: Families Still Seeking Bodies after Brumandinho Dam Disaster

    Last January 25th a dam burst over the town of Brumandinho from a height of eighty-six metres. It unleashed a tsunami of approximately twelve million cubic metres of toxic red sludge over the valley below, eviscerating all in its path.

    The structure had been built as part of an iron-ore-mining operation in Minais Gerais, Brazil’s second most populous state. This is the heartland of the country´s extractive sector, servicing industries all over the world.

    Responsibility for the humanitarian and ecological disaster in Brumadinho lies squarely with Vale, a Brazilian-owned mining company, which has been extracting minerals from the region for decades. Reports circulating indicate the company had been aware of the risks, but failed to adopt precautions in line with international guidelines.[i]

    In prioritising profit, the company externalised the inherent danger of retaining toxic by-products from a mining operation in a tailing dam.

    In late February I visited Brumadinho and Mina do Feijão district, the scene of one of Brazil’s worst Brazilian humanitarian and ecological disasters.

    With main access roads to the town destroyed, I journeyed via unpaved, narrow streets through lush Atlantic forest, enhancing my awareness of the breath-taking ecology still surviving in this region.

    The mountainous state of Minas Gerais is rich in iron, gold, niobium and other minerals, and responsible for more than half of the country’s mineral extraction, with over three hundred mines operating. According to a report published by the Nacional Agency for Mining (Agência Nacional de Mineração), Minas Gerais concentrates 63.1% of the high-risk mining dams in the country.[ii] As in Brumadinho and Mina do Feijão district, most of these dams sit atop mountains, posing threats to villages, towns and ecosystems located in valleys adjacent to the sites.

    Walking down the dirt road towards the epicentre of the disaster, I was hit by a wave of unpleasant odour. A mixture of smells, from decomposing bodies to toxic metals, charges the atmosphere, growing stronger at the approach to the worst scenes of devastation.

    The sight of what greets me is as striking as the odour. At the end of the street, a sea of red mud has consumed all before it. Its force so intense that it has uprooted trees, crushed houses and swallowed human lives. It spread nine kilometres, as far as the Paraopeba River where it has killed aquatic life, adversely affecting local indigenous communities, whose subsistence depends on fishing, and a healthy river for drinking water.

    A month on, families are still looking for bodies. So far, the Brazilian civil defence has set the official death toll at one-hundred-and-eighty-six, but one-hundred-and-twenty-one are still unaccounted for.

    Despite there now being almost no chance of finding anyone still alive, firefighters tirelessly keep up the search for bodies.

    One-hundred-and-twenty volunteers from different parts of the country sustain the rescue mission. Their courage is a lesson in solidarity and care, in the midst of Vale´s criminal negligence and indifference. While firefighters heroically contribute their time and strength, equipped with rescue dogs, bulldozers, drones and helicopters, Vale continues to extract minerals, even from the very site where the tragedy occurred.

    The sound of trucks carrying minerals from the open pit speaks louder than the silenced cries of victims.

    At the disaster´s scene I encountered a woman whose husband is still missing. Martha (not her real name) had arrived with two relatives. Every day she travels the hour’s journey from a neighbouring town, hoping to hear news of her husband José (also not his real name).

    The dam collapsed, without warning, during lunchtime. Around two hundred employers were dining at Vale´s refectory when the walls of the barrage burst. In less than two minutes the mud consumed all, including the refectory.

    According to three surviving workers, José was waiting for the shuttle bus at the time of the disaster. His shift had ended, and having finished his lunch, he was waiting outside, under a tree – the usual spot where the shuttle bus picked-up staff.

    Alas, on that last Friday of January, the shuttle bus never arrived, and José remains missing.

    Martha is grieving her loss. She endures the agony of not knowing what has become of her husband. At least a body, or even a piece of it, would allow her to dignify him with a funeral.

    Martha´s grief resonates with the sorrow of an entire town. Most of Brumadinho´s forty-thousand inhabitants either work for Vale themselves, or know someone who does.

    the sacred soil

    When I think of mud, I think of earth and water, essential elements to life on planet Earth. I also think of soil and its healing properties. Pure mud is the foundation of life, the sacred soil out of which food grows.

    On the contrary, toxic mining mud is lethal.

    When I speak of toxic mud, I speak of earth and water contaminated by heavy metals and poisonous chemicals. Mining operations are sources of pollution and harm. Among the chemicals involved are lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury. These kill people, other animals and soil.

    Yet, of all the pollutants the most hazardous is greed, the moving force in our economic system that demands the extractive industries.

    To truly decontaminate the affected region and purify river and soil, we as individuals and societies must first decontaminate the financial greed from our economic and political systems. We may purify our hearts and minds by awakening an understanding of the Earth as a source of life to be cared for, not a resource to be exploited.

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    All images (c) Bruna Kadletz

    [i] Beatric Juca, ‘Detenidos otros ocho empleados de Vale por el desastre de la mina de Brumadinho’, 15th of February, 2019, El Pais International, https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2019/02/15/politica/1550262453_887391.html accessed 4/3/2019.

    [ii] Matthew Bloch, Scott Reinhard and Sergio Pecanha, ‘Where Brazilians Live in High-Risk Areas Downhill From Mining Dams’ February, 14th, 2019, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/14/world/americas/brumadinho-brazil-dam-collapse.html, accessed 4/3/19.

  • From Psalm 119

    Gimel/Retribue servo tuo

    O do well unto thy servant

    Vincible world, I see blown blossom
    hurled with the crumpled rooks before May’s
    impertinent, spooky breezes; newly-dressed
    branches rattled already before
    counter-prevalent and centrifuge gusts.

    Vincible earth, no stranger to kenosis, then;
    it’s what you do. I can’t arrive at saying it.

    I’m lip-deep in the unsayable, (don’t you know?)
    dealing out, let’s say, deuteranopic cusses
    to a space and time all-too-green, in fact,
    to observe Coverdale’s green observations
    in the bright shadows of Hebrew’s plenty.

    Lip-labour for our vincible domain
    in the light and shadow of opulence.


    He/Legem pone

    Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes

    Prayer’s printed page whitens out of seeing;
    self-divesting, and on the run, leaked
    in a voiced extinction, even as the fire
    among the thorns,
    _                            its bright dereliction
    without self-favour, but spoiling
    immarcescibly into faith’s erasures;
    a pale palimpsest, even Cranmer’s gift.

    My page is blinded. Its tongue is stolen.
    God’s syntax is glass, o! cerulean
    titmouse! It’s entropy’s hard vacancy.
    Don’t be caught,
    _                            songbird iconoclast!
    not in time’s continuum, but before
    untimely Abraham. Good philosopher,
    teach us the way of thy statutes.


    Yodh/Manus tuae fecerunt me

    Thy hands have made me and fashioned me

    It’s the waiting. Waiting for the form
    of a hand, in likeness as the appearance
    of fire, from Ezekiel’s amber chambers.

    There in the nonsense, today, of my roustabout
    apple trees and oak, the willow next door,
    though not the form of a fiery, friendly hand.

    It would all be too easy. There’d be no need
    for Empson’s monstrously clotted language –
    antagonyms of faith in affliction.

    Swelling with the skittery breezes, willow
    is no open hand but clutched then hurling,
    yes, a likeness as the appearance of fire.

    And, monstrously clotted, Ezekiel wavers
    into afflicted speech, and this faithful, fiery hand.

    Sections of Psalm One Hundred and Nineteen have also found a home in Scintilla journal. Poems from An Atheist’s Prayer-Book are forthcoming at Litter. Reviews have appeared at Litter, and at Stride. A PhD, Natural Strange Beatitudes, can be found at www.pearl.plymouth.ac.uk. Jonathan Wooding has spoken at academic conferences in Plymouth, Oxford and York on the poetry of Geoffrey Hill. 

  • Making Films

    I’ve just made my last film, a short called Bog Graffiti. Another last film.

    I always make that resolution when a film is put to bed. Never again, I say, will I go through the pain.

    In my childhood the cinema was already a fantasy, one which we could only occasionally afford.

    When as day trippers we went on excursions to Bray, one of the novelties was a machine with a handle. If you inserted a penny – a large investment – you could wind the handle and view a jerky series of photos which constituted a thirty-second epic of what the butler saw. The technique was analogous to that of Edison fifty years before, when he filmed a five-second sneeze.

    Though moving images are what have been laughingly called my livelihood for too long, the medium was never my first love. I merely stumbled into it, an accidental activity that seemed to fit me like a glove, rather like a loyal and unappreciated wife.

    I am no longer considered by apparatchiks to possess the puff to make another, but I can still enjoy the rare film of excellence made by somebody else and, if provoked, become long-winded about the process of becoming a film maker.

    There are two accepted routes. The first is the apprenticeship method: you watch and listen to other people doing it. The second is through formal media courses which produce experts rather than film makers. Neither of these processes has much to do with actually making a film – it largely depends on not being very good at anything else. The same principle applies to most art forms: they are not a matter of loving or wanting, but about desperation. You either have to do it or you do not. I needed it, or at least something like it. Film would do for what is referred to ‘as the time being’ – a period which in my case extended to a half-century.

    My first short film took as its theme Eliot’s, ‘The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock’. It featured a middle-aged actor paddling in the sea, listening for the mermaids while his withered wife lay on Killiney beach, settling the pillows by her head and murmuring about Michelangelo. At least that was what I hoped to imply. Surefire box-office. Six of us RTE trainees had spent a few months listening to two Danish film experts. First they showed high-class documentaries. Secondly they loaned each of us a 16mm camera for a day. I went into the city and filmed shadows. I was hooked: it wasn’t like work at all.

    My early attempts have been lost in the bowels of RTÉ. In those early days, the concept of posterity did not exist. Nobody was going to die. Until Seán Ó Riada did, aged forty.

    It is not easy, in this impenetrably complex era of digital reality, to re-imagine what film-making once involved. Principally, film was a chemical, rather than the electronic process which now dominates the activity. The former meant controlling a light source (usually daylight) so that it would disturb the silver nitrate particles on sensitised celluloid in such a precise fashion as to produce a desired image.

    Whether it was 16mm gauge film, which was the TV standard in those days, or 35mm which was the cinema standard, there were twenty-four of those images exposed per second. In between, each of those images was a fraction of a second of black whose quickness of passing deceived the eye so that it was not noticed.

    Next, the same celluloid had to be treated in chemical baths to remove the silver and reveal the negative images. It was rumoured that film laboratories in England made more profit from the recycling of silver than from the processing fees they charged.

    The late and much-travelled Barney McKenna, banjo player in The Dubliners, once confided to me his advanced ideas on the subject. He said that the Rhine was so polluted with chemicals flowing down from Switzerland that the film industry didn’t need laboratories. German film makers simply dipped their films in the chemical stream. That’s how Germans could make films cheaper, Barney said.

    At our basic level the director and cameraman had to work without a picture monitor. Using the tiny camera viewfinder and a light meter, the framing and exposure of the picture had to be imagined beforehand. The resultant images could not properly be seen until they were processed and returned from the London laboratory as ‘rushes’.

    Nowadays there are LCD viewfinders on video cameras, which allow you to see precisely what the lens is producing. If you still don’t know what you are doing or can’t make up your mind, that is no obstacle. Videotape, mini-cards and something called cloud technology now mean that you can cover your vacillations by shooting endless hours and unlimited ‘takes’ of the same scene. You can rely on the editor to spend hours and days selecting the most appropriate shots from the chaos. That is why film editors develop a nice line in profanity and why post-production costs escalate.

    Previously the director had to describe the shot and movement he wanted. The cameraman had to interpret this wishful thinking and, sighing, mark the lens barrel with slivers of white camera tape to remember his different points of focus. Nothing was automatic. He had to meter the available light and adjust the lens accordingly. All these matters had to be addressed after the important creative decisions were made: what was the purpose of the shot, what should the actors say and do, how much film stock and daylight are left, how can the sound man pick up dialogue without revealing the microphone but, principally, what time is coffee break?

    The process was tangible, especially the editing which was done by physically manhandling the film on a Steenbeck machine and winding the magnetic soundtrack backward and forward to acquire synchronisation of sound. The latter required, at the beginning or end of each take, a distinct noise in precise coordination with an image of that sound’s source. This requirement was usually met with the clapperboard. Sometimes you just clapped your hands in front of the lens.

    It was not just a rumour that the late Fr Joe Dunne, intrepid Radharc oneman film crew, solved this problem in non-unionised foreign parts with his shoe. He would start the camera (a Pro 1200 monster which I inherited from him) and focus on an interviewee, then take off one shoe and fling it at the visible wall behind the subject – which might easily have been a flinching Archbishop or a South American dictator, for all Joe Dunne cared. All human beings were accorded equal respect by him, and his primitive technology worked, according to his talented editor Dáibhi Doran.

    As film stock and processing were expensive, the ratio of exposed film to the final product was at most 4:1 and even that, I remember, was extravagant. To save money, every shot involved making up your mind beforehand. Film had some of the physical satisfaction of a sculptor choosing his subject and material and then eliminating all that was superfluous to his or her vision. I liked working with my hands – a trait presumably inherited from my cooper father and every one of his similarly-employed ancestors.  I approached every subject through the prism of my own experience and prejudices. The job was to analyse first impressions, pin down the essential, eliminate the superfluous and then gaily use the material to say what you yourself wanted. Objectivity in TV and film is a myth. The same goes for all of our perceptions.

    The film editor was crucial. The basic skill he demanded from a director or cameraman was a cutaway to any relevant object in the scene. With this he might execute the desired sleight-of-hand transition from one angle or scene to another. That was until Godard made ‘jump-cuts’ fashionable. Dáibhí Doran always called these little cutaways his ‘bananas’ because of the exotic locations frequented by Fr Joe Dunne. ‘Where’s me bananas?’ was his plaintive cry. From Dáibhí, Merritt Butler, Martin Duffy, Victor Power, Bill Lawlor, Gordon Bric, Manuela Corbari and many other patient people, I learned everything worth knowing about film editing, even how to edit my own work. That came in useful in Connemara when I became the only independent film maker outside Dublin. Now I have the impression that there is a standing army of such foolhardy souls vying for pittances from the Irish Film Board – now titled Fís Éirean, which daringly suggests that the state body might have a vision for Ireland.

    Since the microchip has made computers accessible and all the work is now performed on their sophisticated programmes, much of the satisfaction has gone out of the job. I am like a steam train stoker replaced by the diesel engine. The physical approach to the material is obsolete. The director now sits helplessly for hours beside the editor, or is told to come back to-morrow, is sometimes even allowed to voice a suggestion. It is the difference, on the one hand, between the late sculptor James McKenna hacking away for months at wood or stone and, on the other, the subsequent breed of conceptual artists who merely have to state their intentions in order to be taken seriously by art critics.

    For a long time I refused to  learn  the technique of computer editing. Besides, female editors were now in the ascendancy because of their quicker minds and fingers. They also knew that the way to be re-employed was to refrain from telling the director or producer that their material was rubbish. There is no more disillusioned breed than television film editor, male or female. That is part of the reason why the enormous bulk of  TV and film today consists of trailer-trash reality directed by schedulers at female consumers. I call it flatpack film and TV. Anybody can assemble it and at the end it resembles product but it falls apart under close examination.

    The tail is wagging the dog.

    I was lucky. I had so many disparate ideas that I could never hope to express them in formal or traditional artforms. In film I had to filter my ideas through dedicated professional camera, sound and editing people. No matter how chaotic my imperatives might be, those artisans still had to concentrate on their own corner, make sure pictures were appropriate and at least in focus, that the sound was crisp and clear, that the ingredients could be cut together in some coherent way. This was the only process that could have disciplined me and I am indebted to all of those people who kept me up on the tightrope. They are the real artists. We directors are the flippertygibbets and I suppose we have some higher purpose but I no longer can remember what it is.

    Alas, in the craven new world of film and TV, the director has slipped down the ratings and now is more like a bus driver, merely keeping tightly to a schedule and subject to ticket inspectors – the bean-counting executive producers. My brilliant director son modestly describes the job as shot harvesting.

    The apparatchik reigns, the auteur is dead. So are Kieslowski and Tarkovsky, both at too early an age.  My theory is that they died of shock, along with eastern-bloc Socialism which, despite its repression of ordinary citizens, had actually nurtured their genius. The field of art was regarded as a legitimate battlefield between ideologies. Artists were cherished as front-line combatants. When the Iron Curtain vanished so did the concept of film as State-supported art. Those two eminent film makers’ optimistic embrace of Western freedom and democracy exposed them to a harsh market ruled by pragmatism and bean counting. Having survived the heirs of Stalinism they perished under global capitalism.

    The irony is that this petty island of Ireland, which always stoutly denounced the evils of socialism and was itself denounced for aesthetic narrow-mindedness, is the only State that now officially and consistently supports the individual artist with an institution called Aosdána. And the politician responsible for realising this vision? The much-derided but far-sighted Charles J. Haughey. He knew that the new economic reality of Globalism would turn us all into homeless beggars or advertising whores.

    Feature Image: © Hugh O’Conor.

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  • ‘Focused on Phibsborough’ – An Interview with local election candidate Sean McCabe

    After working for the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice at global conferences, Sean McCabe is now relishing the chance to represent the local concerns of his Phibsborough community. He intends to bring meaningful improvements to people’s lives, and help build community-owned initiative to tackle threats posed by climate change and inequality. Cassandra Voices interviews this first-time independent candidate in the May 24th election.

    What motivated you to enter politics?

    I think we are all in politics whether we like it or not. In January 2010 I moved to Calcutta, India where I spent a little under two years working in a hospice, serving people whose lives were devastated and extinguished by poverty. It was a formative time. The depth of injustice made me angry and shaped how I understood life and my opportunities in it. I made a promise to myself that I would use whatever ability I have to serve people. I think lots of us feel like that – we want to contribute positively to society and support the people around us – but maybe we don’t necessarily look to politics as an avenue to achieve this. Back then, in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis, I didn’t have much faith in the political system.

    My understanding evolved in the years after I returned home. It took time to find the type of work I wanted to do. I had studied physics and worked in finance for several years, so transitioning to people-focused work was not easily done. That was a difficult time, full of uncertainty which, after time, can lead you to doubt the path you’re on. If anyone told me then I would go on to spend five years working closely with Mary Robinson, I’d have thought they were mad.

    But that’s how it turned out. My work with the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice shaped my understanding of political engagement, and the right to participate in society. A focus of our work was ensuring that people with lived experience of the impacts of climate change had their voices heard during international negotiations around climate and sustainable development. I had the opportunity to listen to, and learn from, many conversations where community leaders, mostly women, told their truth to world leaders and decision-makers. I grew to understand the importance of meaningful participation in addressing injustice. In this time I also became involved in projects related to homelessness, Direct Provision and mental health.

    The injustices that exist in Ireland and elsewhere will only be overcome by communities engaging directly with the decision-making processes that affect our lives. Similarly, to tackle climate change and build a sustainable, safe future, we will have to ensure that anyone can participate meaningfully in the design of action, and benefit from sustainable development. So in answer to the question, I am not motivated to enter politics, I am motivated to play my part in addressing the serious challenges of our time. I see participation as fundamental to addressing these challenges and that is why I am running in the local elections.

    Are there specifics polices for your local area that you are focusing on?

    We are hoping to secure a voice for the Phibsborough community on Dublin City Council. Due to adjustments to the Local Area boundaries, 2019 is the first time all of Phibsborough will be voting in the same constituency. This gives us an important opportunity to address a lack of long-term investment in the area.

    I want to ensure the redevelopment of Dalymount Park goes ahead. It offers a wonderful opportunity to significantly enhance community life in the area as the plans includes cultural and recreational facilities. A concerted political push is required to ensure it receives the funding it requires. I also want to address the issue of traffic in Phibsborough. Despite relatively low levels of car ownership, the community is dominated by the roads that divide it. I want to work to deliver infrastructure improvements that ensure that pedestrians and cyclists can move safely and effectively. I want to see Bus Connects and Metro North developed in as inclusive a manner as possible to avoid potentially regressive impacts on the area.

    I will also work to ensure the community start seeing the benefits of climate action through renewable energy cooperatives that can reduce heating and electricity bills, as well as carbon footprints.

    We are taking note of lots of other issues coming up on the doorsteps, including illegal dumping which suggests a lack of pride in the area that we aim to address.

    Another concern is the prevalence of anti-social behaviour and crime. This needs to be addressed firstly with enhanced community policing, but also through development and enhancement of youth services.

    I also want to help create a local food cooperative along with more allotments and urban gardens which will enhance biodiversity.

    Why did you choose to run in the local elections rather than a general election?

    They are different very different roles. My decision to run in the local elections is based on a belief that local government has a very important role to play in mobilising the action required to create a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable world.

    I was in New York in September 2015 for the adoption of the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 2030 Agenda was signed by 193 countries and applies to all. Through it, world leaders committed to eradicating poverty, addressing inequality, and protecting our planet for present and future generations.

    During the celebrations at the United Nations Headquarters I remember feeling a million miles away from the communities that this agenda is supposed to help. I felt the ambition was not matched by a concrete understanding of how ownership would be passed to regular people and communities. We must have communities around the world that are empowered with the information, tools and resources to implement the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals contained within the 2030 Agenda. Only then will we be able to create the world free of suffering and want which the 2030 Agenda calls for.

    The past three decades have seen the edge being taken off community agency in Ireland with people encouraged to view themselves as individual consumers, rather than citizens and community members. But that spirit still exists and is ready to build a fairer, sustainable and more compassionate society, it just needs to be set free.

    I love living in Phibsborough because I’m surrounded by people who dedicate their time and energy to their community. There is an abundance of grassroots organisations, actively enhancing social, cultural and environmental wellbeing. Even Bohs is a collective, member-owned football club run by volunteers. It’s remarkable!

    Local government should be facilitating and building on this active engagement. Together we can channel the agency that exists within our communities and develop a new approach to local governance in Ireland; one based on deliberative democracy, where people participate meaningfully in the decision-making processes, to the benefit of everybody.

    To address poverty, inequality and climate change, we must start with local solutions, building the world we want from the ground up.

    How do you intend to get yourself elected?

    I want this campaign to be inclusive and participative, and we are planning a few community-based direct-action projects that will hopefully encourage people to consider the role of local government in their lives.

    Traditional canvassing also plays an important role. A great team has been coming out with me, as we seek to understand the specific needs of the community.

    This is a grassroots campaign. We would love for people to join in and take part – even if they have no prior experience in this kind of thing. The more people we have, the more we can do. We want to have fun doing it too. People can get involved by messaging us through Facebook or sending me an email on smccabe@outlook.ie.

    How do you overcome voter apathy?

    I’m not sure I have the resources to address that as an individual candidate. I want to avoid the type of cynical campaigning that I think contributes to voter apathy. We have a set of principles that govern our campaign which include taking the people we meet, and their concerns, seriously; avoiding echo chambers; not stealing ideas from, or taking credit for, community initiatives; not undermining other candidates; and ensuring complete transparency. We are publishing the campaign incomings and outgoings live online. My hope is that constituents will recognise our approach has integrity and that this will encourage participation in local politics.

    Why did you choose to run as an independent rather seeking the nomination of one of the established political parties?

    I don’t really see the point of political parties at a local level. Local government should be about empowering communities by electing representatives to the council that give them a direct channel to the decision-making table. Party politics is the antithesis of this. As a member of a political party, I think it seems inevitable that, on occasion, it would be necessary to put the interests of the party ahead of the community. That just seems wrong to me.  I want to see community-led local government, where deliberative approaches are used to seek common ground, sharing the benefits and burdens of administration across the city.

    Which of the parties would your ideas tend to align you with and are there any political parties that you would not work with?

    That is hard to answer. I prefer to see public representatives as individuals and decide how best to work with them based on the substance of the proposals they wish to bring forward. Unfortunately however, especially at local level, party politics can cloud decision-making processes and risk obscuring priorities.

    Which writers have inspired your political ideas?

    That’s a difficult question. I don’t sit around reading books on political theory. I’m inspired by writers like John Steinbeck, Boris Pasternack, Amartya Sen and Maya Angelou. I just finished reading Fredrick Douglas’s Narrative which is a remarkable account of unrelenting courage in the face of oppression in all its forms. Musicians like Luke Kelly, Woody Guthrie, Harry Bellefonte, Dominic Behan, Kris Kristofferson, Ewan MacColl and Paul Robeson, and their life stories, have shaped my political outlook as much as writers.

    What is the burning political question of our time?

    I suppose the simple answer is how are we going to muster the political courage to tackle climate change. The more complex answer is how to build a movement based on solidarity to secure climate justice. Climate change confronts us with our interdependence. No country or leader alone can change course. If we do not find a way of including everyone in a transition to a green, low carbon economy, then we are facing an existential crisis.

    The impacts could occur a lot sooner than most people are anticipating, and there is no technological silver bullet to save us. We need solidarity – locally, nationally and globally. The children’s climate strike gives me hope. They are fighting for their future. Our communities and our leaders must listen to them.

    What further ambitions do you have for your political career?

    Right now, I’m only concerned with running an inclusive and participatory campaign until the May 24th local election. Let’s see what happens then. Whether successful or not, my ambition is to continue working with the community to play my part in addressing the challenges we face. I have no grand plan!

    If you were Taoiseach for the day what would you do?

    Not much that can be achieved in a single day. I would probably pay a surprise visit to a Direct Provision centre and then spend the night typing up detailed notes of my conversations there for whoever was taking up the office after me.

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  • The Path of Pollen and the Seed Facilitators Way

    The path of pollen: the lovers’ tale between bee and flower. Once upon a time, bees were carnivorous – entering into flowers to gain access to smaller insects as a means for protein food supply. After frequent visits to the opening of the flower, curiosity began to mount in the bee. The flower was so visually beautiful, producing aromas incredibly alluring, what else could this elusive creature have to offer besides a convenient fast food location?

    Inching its way deeper into the delicate flower, the bee dabbled the sweet nectar and nutrient-packed pollen. Fireworks. Explosions. The bee bid farewell to catching flies and raised its standards, dedicating itself to the bees new life partner: the show-stopping flower.

    With a vegetarian pledge, bee and the flower began a co-evolution, involving nourishment for the bees in exchange for seeds for the plant. A balanced, harmonious relationship. The bee still earns its stripes as one of the plant’s best allies in reproduction.

    Will this love stand the test of time?

    I was walking through a park wondering if I should fulfil my original intention to dedicate an article to bees, or focus on Spring Tonics (maybe another time). Suspended in this mind chatter, I stumbled upon a dead bee on the pavement. Thank you for hearing me and delivering this obvious sign, Universe.

    I examined the bee – it could have just been taking a break. It was sitting on its legs, wings side up. I sat with the bee, not spotting any obvious injuries, but I did not sense any movement either.

    Wishing not to leave it alone in the middle of the foot path, I regretfully took a leaf of ivy and scooped the bee up – a perfect fit. Looking around for any nearby flowers to rest the bee by, I had to settle for a mossy green spot that had collected morning dew next to a stream.

    It struck me again (double thank you, Universe) that the initial direction in my head for writing this article was to raise awareness of our responsibility to plant food for bees, and Nature was presenting me with a perfect illustration.

    Around this time of year, humans have adapted the ritual of planting bulbs ‘for Spring’. Flowering Daffodils and Tulips being the most obvious example. While a pop of long overdue colour is therapeutic, these plants generally are not the best options for pollinators. Modern hybrids have been heavily manipulated by plant breeders to select uniform eye-candy for human adoration, heedless of the side-effects such as loss of nectar and pollen.

    These Frankenstein-flowers come at a major cost to bees: after hibernation, without early sustenance, a bee will die.

    We as seed facilitators need to plant with others in mind and treat the soil and seeds as sacred. We can do so by adopting these three rule of thumb:

    1. Prioritize bulbs and seeds or ‘in the green’ plants that are Organic. A number of commercially produced bulbs are manufactured with pesticides. What is toxic to humans is also toxic to bees. When a seed or a bulb is modified with pesticides, do you think these chemicals disappear when the plant develops?
    2. Buy local! And plant locally, too.What plants are indigenous to your environment? These plants will be the most attractive to your local pollinators.
    3. Shapes and sizes matter.Consider the depth of different flowers in correlation to the anatomy of different species of bees. Variety will help attract all sorts of beneficial pollinators. A varied selection of plant species is required not only for a balanced diet, but also to ensure a steady food supply throughout different species blooming times.

    These three points flow in the same vein as what is important to consider when shopping for honey. Choose Organic, Local, and Variety. To me, it is best practice to purchase seeds with the understanding that everything you plant enters into a common space for fertility: the same soil we as humans and all those alive depend on for existence. Put another way, mirror purchasing seeds to the way you would choose your own food for optimal health.

    Your body being the soil; and food the seeds. A full circle.

    Still not sure what to plant? A lot of seed providers will actually state on the packet whether a plant is attractive to pollinators. You can also consider the following bee magnets:

    – Crocus
    – Snow Drops
    – Hellebores
    – Clover
    – Heather
    – Herbs (Borage, Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, Marjoram, Calendula, St. John’s Wort and many, many more!)
    – Trees (Fruit, Rowan, Hawthorn, Elder etc.)
    – Wild Flower Mix

    Finally, nature provides some of the best early bee foods without any human intervention. Many human-classified ‘weeds’, such as dandelion, are a fantastic first food source for hungry bees, and can aid in fostering greater biodiversity within a collective ecosystem.

    Ethical, local seed resources in Ireland try:

    Irish Seed Savers (Co. Clare):
    www.irishseedsavers.ie

    Brown Envelope Seeds (West Cork):
    brownenvelopeseeds.com

    Check out Ireland’s Pollinator Plan from 2015 -2020 for excellent tip, advice, and a full list of native bee friendly plants.
    www.pollinators.ie

    You can also contact your local community garden! Mindfully harvesting seeds is very therapeutic, and the rewards speak for themselves.

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  • Musician of the Month – Matthew Jacobson

    A Brother’s Influence

    I distinctly remember this day, aged about twelve, going for a family walk down (up?!) the west pier in Dun Laoghaire when my older brother by seven years was teaching me different rhythms, while the rest of the family discussed the day’s concerns as the seagulls squawked overhead. He would first get me to repeat the same rhythm that he was clapping, before teaching me a second alternate rhythm that would interlock with his original. We walked along with our footsteps creating the pulse and our hands beating out polyrhythms to the bemusement of other families and dog walkers.

    Around the same period, I also clearly remember being at home doing homework when my brother came in and put on John Coltrane’s Giant Steps album. I can still recall the sense of wonder at this chaotic and exotic sound coming out of the CD player. A seed had clearly been planted.

    Another memory is of being in the kitchen before dinner one day and my brother putting on a Sonny Rollins album and getting me to try and click on beats ‘2’ and ‘4’ – as is customary in that particular idiom. At that stage I just could not fathom how it was possible to discern which beat in the bar was which.

    A further recollection is of an annual holiday in Wexford by the beach (along with the rest of Dublin it seemed) and my brother trying to teach me to sing a major scale, using the intervallic approach of tone; tone; semi-tone; tone; tone; tone; semi-tone. ‘How the hell am I supposed to tell what a tone or semi-tone even sound like?’, I remember thinking.

    As you have probably gathered, my brother was at that age a very big influence on me. He was studying jazz performance, and I was more than happy to be his musical guinea pig, testing out and practising everything he was learning himself. It was around then that I also started taking piano lessons, aspiring to play music but not on the same instrument as my guitar-wielding brother. I worried there would be too much competition or that I would end up in his shadow, and there was already a piano in the house as my older sister had also been getting lessons.

    The piano lessons were going well and I had a great teacher, who literally lived at the end of our garden. These continued for about a year, before he moved out of Dublin and the lessons stopped. Over the following couple of years I continued to play a bit, getting one or two lessons with a family friend and my brother also taught me a couple of jazz standards. He said: ‘Chords in the left hand, melody in the right hand. Then to improvise just use any of the notes that are in the chords in your left hand at the time – fun!’ I got a little repertoire together including, ‘Mr PC’ (from Giant Steps) ‘Blue Bossa’, ‘Mac The Knife’, ‘All of Me’, ‘There Will Never Be Another You’ etc.

    At the age of fifteen, when I had to pick an instrument for Junior Certificate music, my teacher at school, who loved that I was playing jazz and improvising – as opposed to the many other Bach-bashing pianists – encouraged me to stick with the piano. When I asked my brother, however, he suggested I take up the drums. Perhaps he had seen some natural talent that day on the pier, or maybe he just wanted a drumkit in the house for him to rehearse on with his own band at the time! Either way, once again his words were paramount and my parents kindly signed me up for a term of lessons, understandably, before they would commit to purchasing such a large and dynamic instrument. The lessons went well and within six months I was swinging away (or at least trying to) on my wine-coloured Pearl Export.

    Image © Gabriela Szeplaki.

    I have since realised how unusual it is to sit down at your first ever drumkit and attempt to play swing grooves à la Elvin Jones, as opposed to the more common rock beat #1. This unconventional route was confirmed by my decision, once again at the prompting of my brother (surprise, surprise), to take transition year out of secondary school and take the same one-year music performance certificate course at Newpark Music Centre that had set him on his way some years beforehand. Later, after I finished my Leaving Certificate, that course became the first year of a four-year music degree programme that I went on to complete.

    This deeper delve into the world of jazz, and the connections that I had made through my brother’s involvement in the scene, meant I gained lots of experience in situations that technically I was probably unready for. I now believe this was an invaluable part of my musical education, meaning there was always a creative or musical reason for practising, as opposed to practising a mechanical exercise purely with the goal of ‘being able to’.

    These formative experiences, absorbing music from somebody I looked up to, learning the piano before the drums, and playing with a variety of seasoned musicians gaining valuable insight into the necessities of a drummer, have made me the musician I am today. And what kind of musician is that?

    Well, I feel hugely privileged to play drums in a lot of different projects, in many different contexts and with musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds. I am at a stage, twenty years on from that day on the pier, where almost every day I get to play with people I respect and love, and whose music I care about.

    My foremost aspiration is to make all of that music sound as honest and real as possible. Amazingly, all of the musicians I play with trust me to make the most appropriate choices for each situation.

    I do not think of myself as a drummer, but as a musician that happens to sit down behind a drumkit (no longer a wine-coloured Export!). For this I thank my brother (who is still very much involved in music too), along with the rest of my ever-supportive family, including parents who have travelled as far as Paris, Cologne and New York to see me perform. Thank you.

    www.matthewjacobsonmusic.com

    Featured Image: © Gabriela Szeplaki.

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    Image © Gabriela Szeplaki.