This August the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a new award, honoring outstanding achievements in ‘popular’ film. They did not, however, reveal any criteria for how the award would be made. A month later, after a sustained backlash, they backtracked, declaring the new category was no longer being considered.
Among the criticisms of the ‘most popular category” was the uncertainty around what makes a film ‘popular’, and how this would differ from the criteria applied for the Best Picture category. Last year’s Best Picture nominees, including Dunkirk and The Shape of Water, raked in a measly $63 million. Not one of the top five grossing films last year (Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Beauty and the Beast, Wonder Woman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) were included
Was the ‘Popular’ category a way to placate moviegoers of arguably more niche, comic-book or fantasy films, who could not care less about the Oscars, because their favorite films are never acknowledged? It seems the Academy was endeavoring to increase viewership, and reverse a dwindling relevance in the popular culture zeitgeist.
They have failed to accommodate films inspired by comic books – with the rebirth of the genre coinciding with Marvel’s 2008 release of Iron Man – which have been dominant over the last decade.
It is evident that genre movies, like the Marvel films or Star Wars series, generate the big bucks, but do not gain recognition beyond the MTV Movie Awards.
One alternative to the category of ‘achievement in popular film’ would have been to award a special Oscar to the year’s box office champ, along the lines of the existing Honorary Awards, while saving the Best Picture category for typical Oscar-bait, which in recent years have tended to be so-called ‘indie’ films, but are really films with a stuffier audience in mind. The Academy had stated films nominated for the Most Popular category could be nominated for other categories, like Best Picture, but would they have been?
Many fantasy films are feats of storytelling and world-building that have found an extremely receptive audience. But they are invariably excluded from nominations for Best Picture. Although The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, did sweep up eleven Oscars, including Best Picture in 2003, in 2010, ‘Avatar’, by far the highest grossing film that year, surprisingly lost out to the somewhat propagandistic The Hurt Locker for Best Picture. There is a precedent for fantasy films being nominated, but it is a rare occurrence.
Other new categories have been created in the past, for instance Best Animated Film. As animated films became more popular, and skillfully made, the category was added to draw attention to the quality of work and craftsmanship in that sphere. Before it was introduced in 2002, just one animated film had been nominated for Best Picture, Beauty and the Beast, in 1992. Since then, only two animated films have been nominated — Up in 2010 and Toy Story 3 in 2011 – despite the wealth of good, if not great, animated movies being released over the years.
The leading candidate for Most Popular this year, combining critical acclaim with box office haul, was probably Black Panther (apologies to Avengers: Infinity War). Indeed, the plucking of the ‘Most Popular’ category out of thin air, might have been born out of fear of a backlash if it had not been nominated for Best Picture.
When blockbusters are good, like Black Panther is, they should be nominated for Best Picture. The film built an entire nation, language, traditions, and introduced some new players into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), to be revisited in Infinity War. It is a self-contained story of a power struggle between the heir to a throne and outcast royal (harking back to the Shakespeare-inspired, Kenneth Branagh-directed Thor), offering an alternate reality of a wealthy, technologically-advanced African nation untouched by imperialism or colonisation.
At the same time, the characters and setting are weaved seamlessly into the MCU. Failing to nominate this film for Best Picture would be an injustice, but the Oscars are full of injustices; just look at Get Out losing out to The Shape of Water this year.
The new category would have been a way for the Oscars to draw in more viewers, especially younger ones, by nominating more ‘popular’ movies, which would have their own category. But it was a poorly thought out approach.
The Oscars are a lavish extravagance, an opportunity for aging celebrities to pat one another on the back. It is doubtful if a popular category would have halted that slide into obscurity. Once the highest accolade for anyone in the film industry, and most anticipated award show of the year, the Oscars are an increasing irrelevance, especially to millennials.
At a festival recently I fell into the company of an exuberant character in his early twenties. After a while this smiling extrovert revealed he was tripping on LSD. Between performing acro-aerobics, and welcoming lashes from a fly-swatter that generated a temporary tattoo, he declared he was going to take a further dose. I dutifully warned him to consider biding his time, but he laughed off my concerns and threw the tablet down the hatch. Last I saw he was leading a toaster around by its chord, proclaiming – wild-eyed – it was his cat.
Festival frolics.
I wonder has he since returned to a respectable job to draw a wage, that ‘one eyed shrew of the heterosexual dollar’, as Allen Ginsberg puts it in his ‘Howl’, with festive memories sustaining him through the tedium of spread sheets or digital marketing. I pray he has not fallen over the edge into insanity, and like Carl Solomon in Ginsberg’s epic poem of post-modernity, ended up in a mental asylum:
where you scream in a straightjacket that you’re losing the game of the actual pingpong of the abyss
or
where fifty more shocks will return your soul to its body again from its pilgrimage to a cross in the void
To be clear, LSD, or acid, can, in rare circumstances, trigger a first psychotic episode, and should be treated with extreme caution. It is also a controlled substance, with possession or intent to supply ordinarily prohibited in most countries.
But after decades of identification with an orgiastic counterculture – famously with Timothy Leary’s 1960s rallying cry ‘to turn on, tune in and drop out’ – research scientists are returning to examine its profound therapeutic capabilities, including for treatment of seemingly incurable depression.
The ritualistic abandonment that I encountered at that festival is giving way to ‘white coat Shamanism’, where guides reduce the chance of bad trips, and lasting insanity, as well as more measured ingestion, including ‘micro-dosing Fridays’ in Silicon Valley.
Could its use yet realise a paradigm shift in how humanity interacts with the world, such as was hoped for by many of the 1960s evangelists, including Allen Ginsberg himself?
I – LSD and Psilocybin
There are two main varieties of psychedelics, or hallucinogens, in use: lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD or ‘Acid’) , and psilocybin, commonly referred to as ‘magic mushrooms’.
Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman discovered the properties of LSD in 1943, after deriving it from a naturally occurring compound called ergot, a fungus that infects grains, especially rye, exposed to moisture. Indeed, the visions – beatific and diabolic – commonly reported by peasants and others in the Middle Ages, and generally associated with the effects of starvation, have been attributed to this fungal growth in staple foodstuffs (Ferrières, 2006, p.141).
Hoffman himself had little doubt as to the significance of his discovery for humanity, subsequently writing:
the feeling of co-creationism with all things alive should enter our consciousness more fully and materialist and nonsensical technological developments in order to enable us to return to the roses, to the flowers, to nature, where we belong (Pollan, 2018, p.26).
The difficulty, however, for Sandoz, the Swiss laboratory which manufactured it, was to find a practical application for the curious, mind-altering compound. Throughout the 1950s the company responded positively to most requests from bodies engaged in research; this included the CIA’s MK Ultra Programme, involving trials on thousands of participants, mostly without their consent, in order to advance techniques in mind control.
Its discovery also ushered in a new class of anti-depressants, through an understanding of serotonin; and, notably, successful trials on alcoholics, before its use became tied up – inextricably it would seem – with the counterculture of the 1960s, and was prohibited in the U.S.A. from 1966. Timothy Leary believed that if four million people experienced its effects it would bring about major changes to society, in the end only two million gained the experience.
Nonetheless Michael Pollan writes of the period:
LSD truly was an acid, dissolving almost everything with which it came into contact, beginning with the hierarchies of the mind (the superego, ego and unconscious) and going on from there to society’s various structures of authority and then to lines of every imaginable kind between patient and therapist, research and recreation, sickness and health, self and other, subject and object, the spiritual and the material (Pollan, 2018, p.214).
Psilocybin, the other psychedelic in common use, also known as ‘magic mushroom’, is of far more ancient vintage in human culture, especially in the New World. It played a role in Mayan religious ceremonies, to the disgust of the Catholic church, which in 1620 described the use of plants for divination as an act of superstition ‘opposed to the purity and integrity of our Holy Catholic Faith (Pollan, 2018, p.109)’.
Despite the appalling repression by Spanish authorities of this and other aspects of the indigenous culture including foodstuffs like amaranth, the use of these substances survived in popular Mexican religious rituals. These were first brought to the attention of the English-speaking world in a seminal article for Life Magazine written by New York banker R. Gordon Wasson in 1956, entitled ‘Seeking the Magic Mushroom’, which contained the first known use of that term.
Wasson and his wife inveigled there way into one of the secret ceremonies; ultimately to the cost of the healer who was shunned by her village community after the revelations encouraged a steady stream of drug tourists to descend on them.
Terence McKenna has since popularized an hypothesis – ‘the Stoned Ape Theory’ – proposing that consumption of these mushrooms brought an expansion in human brain capacity. The idea is no longer so far-fetched when one learns that several tribes still feed psychoactive plants to their dogs to improve their hunting ability (Pollan, 2018, p.123), although it remains speculative.
Psychedelic mushrooms were also probably used by the Ancient Greeks in the Eleusinian Mysteries, initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone. Elsewhere in Europe, the Viking berserkers may also have been under its influence, explaining a disregard for personal safety in battle.
We may safely assume that such a powerful compound was well known across Europe, and probably used in various ceremonies, before the adoption of Christianity appears to have brought an end to its use. Monotheism does not appear compatible with the ambiguity fostered by hallucinogens.
II – The Ego is Stranded
Neuroscientists have isolated a hub of brain activity in the cerebral cortex known as the Default Network Mode (DMN). This performs metacognitive processes such as self-reflection, mental time travel, mental constructions, moral reasoning and ‘theory of mind’, all commonly associated with expression of ego, leading it to be referred to as the ‘me’ network (Pollan, 2018, p.302-4).
Revealingly, the DMN is only operational late in a child’s development, by which time a strong sense of self has been asserted, and a roaming imagination has given way to more ‘sensible’ considerations.
The DMN exerts an inhibitory influence on lower parts of the brain, like emotion and memory, which may help someone maintain a singular focus. According to Marcus Raichle it ‘acts as an uber-conductor to ensure that the cacophonies of competing signals from one system do not interfere with those from another (Pollan, 2018, p.303)’.
In experiments carried out under Robin Carhart-Harris volunteers were given psilocybin in a controlled environment. This revealed that the steepest drops in DMN activity correlated with the subjective experience of ‘ego dissolution’. This disinhibition may explain why thoughts, and even visions, not normally present during waking consciousness float to the surface of our awareness. In this Ted Talk he explains the benefits of the experiments:
As the influence of the DMN is unseated a feelings of connection with other ‘beings’ around us tends to manifest, making us ‘at one’ with Nature, a common experience among those under the influence of psychedelics.
This occurs alongside the disintegration of the visual processing system, allowing thoughts and even music to conjure images. The brain as a whole becomes more integrated as new connections spring up among regions that ordinarily keep to themselves, or were linked only via the central hub of the DMN. As Michael Pollan puts it: ‘The brain appears to become less specialized, and more globally interconnected, with considerably more intercourse, or cross-talk, among its various neighbourhoods (Pollan, 2018, p.316)’.
Franz Vollenweider also refers to ‘neuroplasticity’, whereby a window is opened in which destructive patterns of thought and behaviour are easier to change (Pollan, 2018, p.320).
III – Invention or Creation?
When Michael Pollan consumed magic mushrooms while researching his recent book on psychedelics he finds himself believing the trees in his gardens were the equivalent of his parents. As an atheist, he dismisses the idea there was anything supernatural about this ‘heightened perception’ requiring belief in a divinity, or magic, to explain it (Pollan, 2018, p.136), but his connectedness is nonetheless a fiction without scientific basis.
No great distance would appear to lie between Pollan’s belief in the truth of his mind’s subjective, and unprovable, conjecture, and a religious outlook, which George Steiner defines as ‘an endeavour to grasp, to offer thanks for, the gratuitous miracle of creation (Steiner, 2001, p.128).’
Steiner distinguishes between creation, which he connects to a religious belief in the truth of a fiction, and invention which arrives in science and technology.
Psychedelic drugs appear to play a role in permitting advances in the latter, but, surprisingly, not the former. Among those who tried LSD in the 1960s were technological visionaries in Silicon Valley, who began to revolutionize computers. These engineers relied on LSD in designing circuit chips, finding it helpful for visualising staggering complexities in these dimensions, and holding it all in their heads.
Scientists are not generally associated with mind-altering drugs, but the confounding influence on otherwise highly-rational, even rigid, minds may increase the possibility of technological innovation.
The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who who was fascinated by science throughout his life, once mused on the counter-intuitive nature of scientific understanding:
When we try to recognise the idea inherent in a phenomena we are confused by the fact that it frequently – even normally – contradicts our senses. The Copernican system is based on an idea which was hard to grasp; even now it contradicts our senses every day … The metamorphosis of plants contradicts our senses in the same way (Holmes, 2009, p.247).
Quantum Uncertainty is similarly counter-intuitive (how is something simultaneously a wave and a particle?). A fixed appreciation of ‘reality’ often must be set aside in order for a breakthrough to occur, permitting the vision that God plays dice.
What holds for scientific invention does not seem to apply to artistic creativity. The prevalence of LSD in the avant-garde of the 1960s Counterculture dissolved much of our cultural inheritance – not least the literary canon in the eyes of Post Modernists – but since the 1960s it is hard to identify an artistic genre that has advanced in any way comparable to previous movements, such as the Romantics, or even Surrealists, both of whom we continually hark back to in common speech.
In his account of the music of the Beatles Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald points to the effect of the LSD on the wider culture:
Though framed into terms of sexual liberation and scaffolded by religious ideas imported from the Orient, the central shift of the counterculture was drugs, and one drug above all: d-lysergic acid diethylamide 25, or LSD.
With the removal of what he describes as ‘the brain’s neural concierge’:
The LSD view of life took the form of a smiling non-judgmentalism which saw ‘straight’ thinking, including political opinion across the board from extreme Left to Right, as basically insane. To those enlightened by the drug, all human problems and divisions were issues, not of substance, but of perception. With LSD, humanity could transcend its ‘primitive state of neurotic irresponsibility’ and, realising the oneness of all creation, proceed directly to utopia.
He continues:
Using it, normal people were able to move directly to the state of ‘oceanic consciousness’ achieved by a mystic only after years of preparation and many intervening stages of growing self-awareness – as a result of which most of them not unnaturally concluded that reality was a chaos of dancing energies without meaning or purpose. There being no way to evaluate such a phenomenon, all one could do was ‘dig it’. Hence at the heart of the counterculture was a moral vacuum: not God, but The Void.
While pop music and television flourished, initially at least, McDonald identified a clear degeneration in older artistic forms. Thus:
Classical music, once an art of expression, became a pseudo-scientific, quasi-architectural craft of technique whose principles of design, opaque to the ear, were appreciable only by examining the ‘blueprint’ of the score. Similarly the rapid succession of conceptual coups in the world of painting and sculpture, so novel at the time, turned out to be merely the end of modernism and, as such, the dying fall of Western art. Overtaken by the ‘artistic discourse’ of post-modernism, art became as literary as post-Wagnerian classical music was visual, producing the arid paradox of paintings to listen to and music to look at. Shorn of their content, art, music, and literature degenerated by increasingly inconsequential stages from art about art, to jokes about art about art, and finally to jokes about art about art (McDonald, Ian, 2005, pp. 15-23).
Artistic creativity has been described as a form of divine madness, in which an immediate reality is dismissed in favour of the constructs of the imagination. Thus the nineteenth century John Ruskin asserted a belief in ‘spiritual powers … genii, fairies, or spirits’, claiming, ‘No true happiness exists, nor is any good work done … but in the sense or imagination of such presences.’ Who in their ‘right mind’ could conceive such an idea, yet such conceit is often a necessary tool for an artist. Whatever brain activity that is going on with the artist it does not appear that her ego needs to be dissolved.
In his essay ‘The Philosophy of Shelley’s Poetry’ (1900) W. B. Yeats refers to the ‘ministering spirits’ evident in his subject matter’s poem ‘Intellectual Beauty’: ‘who correspond to the Devas of the East, and the Elemental Spirits of medieval Europe, and the Sidhe [sic] of ancient Ireland’. In quoting that poem he evokes the mythical síde, nourishing his own Art:
These are ‘gleams of a remoter world which visit us in sleep,’ spiritual essences whose shadows are the delights of the senses, sounds ‘folded in cells of crystal silence,’ ‘visions swift, and sweet, and quaint,’ which lie waiting their moment ‘each in its thin sheath, like a chrysalis,’ ‘odours’ among ‘ever-blooming Eden trees,’ ‘liquors’ that can give ‘happy sleep,’ or can make tears ‘all wonder and delight’; ‘the golden genii who spoke to the poets of Greece in dreams’; ‘the phantoms’ which become the forms of the arts when ‘the mind, arising bright from the embrace of beauty,’ ‘casts on them the gathered rays which are reality’; ‘the guardians’ who move in ‘the atmosphere of human thought,’ as ‘birds within the wind, or the fish within the wave,’
Louis le Brocquy’s Portrait Head of W.B. Yeats.
The vivid fantasy of the creative artist may generate eidetic images, which are a type of mental picture, a vision, not necessarily derived from an actual external event or memory. This sounds much like the experience of someone on LSD, but the chemical manipulation of the brain does not appear to yield the same creative fruits, probably because, as MacDonald opines, it bypasses years of preparation.
IV – Paradigmatic shifts
Michael Pollan suggests that ‘Homo sapiens might have arrived at one of those periods of crisis that calls for some mental and behavioural depatterning’ (Pollan, 2018, p.124), resulting in a greater environmental awareness. Here he rather appears to be reprising Timothy Leary’s suggestion that widespread LSD use would dissolve the stolid social structures of post-War America, But in artistic terms this may prove to be fool’s gold, only leading to further dissolution and isolation.
Unfortunately, a common feature of the perceived wisdom derived from drug visions is its sheer banality: love is all we need, etc. Psychedelics may shake up rigid thinking among scientists, and have important therapeutic capabilities that should be better understood, and utilised, but there seems little prospect of profound artistic departures occurring under their influence.
Art at its best is invariably a hard-won product of intense labour, and drugs are generally a distraction. Thus Yeats opined in ‘Speaking to the Psalter’ (1903): ‘All art is, indeed, a monotony in external things for the sake of an interior variety, a sacrifice of gross effects to subtle effects, an asceticism of the imagination (italics added)’. The best works of art, capable of changing the way we think and act, seem to emerge when a narrow imaginative journey occurs, and LSD would in all likelihood just interfere.
Ginsberg’ ‘Howl’, like Eliot’s ‘Wasteland’, is instructive in this regard. I am guessing he wrote while he was sober, before he had ever sampled LSD, and it is a singular journey and experience that nonetheless is part of a conversation within a canon: ‘Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war’. He knew intimately the sacred cows of meter and rhyme he appears to be dispensing with, which may not be said for many of those that have followed in his wake.
The paradigmatic shifts we require in order to generate a genuinely “oceanic compassion” will not involve, alas, seeing one’s cat in a toaster at a festival, but will surely demand intense labour, in many artistic forms, in order to overthrow the toxic assumptions of our time.
That is not, however, to say that any state should criminalize these drugs, and drive their use underground. What we need is education. Anyone who embarks on a trip should be aware of what it entails, and certain personality types should be seriously discouraged from making use of them.
Perhaps the greatest irony of LSD is that many of the flighty characters who seek out LSD are precisely those who should avoid it, whereas the rigid personality types, who are unlikely to use it, might actually benefit from its unseating of the ego, and the eureka moments of scientific inspiration it appears to impart.
But unfortunately, as Timothy Leary put it: ‘Psychedelic drugs cause panic and temporary insanity in people who have not taken them’.
References
Madeleine Ferrières’s Sacred Cow, Mad Cow: A History of Food Fears, Columbia University Press, New York, 2006.
Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Harper Press, Croydon, 2009.
Ian McDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the 1960s, Pimlico, New York, 2005.
Michael Pollan, How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics, Penguin, New York, 2018.
George Steiner, Grammars of Creation, New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 2001.
In a previous editions of Cassandra Voices we discussed the Russian surveillance system, called SORM, and the far-reaching data privacy impact it may have vis-à-vis private individuals and communication service providers.
Russia is not the only state struggling to strike a balance between national security concerns that often mandate extensive surveillance measures, and the right to data privacy of its citizens. Recently, the approach employed by the UK in this area, specifically, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 that provides a legislative basis for governmental surveillance, was subjected to the scrutiny of the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECHR’) in Strasburg.
In particular, in the case of Big Brother Watch and Others v. the United Kingdom the ECtHR had a chance to opine on the legality of the UK bulk interception regime, its intelligence sharing policy with foreign governments, and the manner in which it may collect data from communications services providers.
Concerns around the UK government surveillance techniques were triggered following Edward Snowden’s allegations about the British Government Communications Headquarters’ (‘GCHQ’) surveillance protocols being even more extensive than the equivalent powers resorted to by the US government. Specifically, Snowden referred to the GCHQ-driven operation codenamed ‘TEMPORA’, which has supposedly facilitated tapping and storing of an unprecedented amount of data about private citizens in the UK. The British government has since neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such an operation.
The issue has been subsequently picked up by civil rights activists, journalists and non-governmental organizations, including Big Brother Watch, Transparency International, Privacy International, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Open Rights Group etc., with the ECHR passing final judgment on September 13th, 2018.
By five votes to two the ECHR judges ruled that the bulk interception regime adopted by the UK violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’), specifically a right of respect for private and family life/communications, in the absence of sufficient safeguards to prevent abuse. The Court noted that while the bulk interception techniques themselves did not constitute a breach of Article 8, the failure to secure adequate safeguards did.
The Court also held, by six votes to one, that the approach for collecting data from communications service providers breached Article 8, and that both the bulk interception regime and the regime for obtaining data from communications service providers violated Article 10 – the right to freedom of expression and information – of the ECHR, again, due to an absence of safeguards to prevent the abuse of systems, guaranteeing an appropriate level of confidentiality.
Notably, the UK regime for sharing intelligence with foreign governments was found to be in compliance with Articles 8 and 10.
It should be noted that the Court issued its judgement in the context of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 that currently forms a legal basis for surveillance activities pursued by the government in the UK. The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 is a new piece of legislation that was supposed to come into force after the allegations have been made and, therefore, fell outside of the scope of the present case. Once fully in force, this Act is expected to heavily amend the existing regimes with the recent ECHR judgement, hopefully, a timely guidance for this purpose.
During the 1990s the Irish state achieved economic lift-off, with almost double-digit growth each year. Outward migration flows not only halted, but actually reversed, leading to an unforeseen surge in demand for residential and commercial spaces. Notably, much of this pressure occurred in the Greater Dublin Area, where growth was most focused.
A study at the turn of the century noted that the preferences of both businesses and ordinary homeowners were, ‘determined primarily by access to vital infrastructure’. Deficiencies in administrative coordination had already, however, generated substantial urban sprawl, particularly as ‘management of the peripheral development of the region is seen to be inadequate’.
Matched by weak bureaucratic control, low density real estate development associated with sprawl occurred only with ‘the private motor car becoming the preferred or only method of transport in such areas’. The authors concluded that ‘previous commitments made to principles of sustainable development are null and void (Shiels and Williams, 2000).’
I – Sustainable Development
In attempting to resolve this the national policy document Sustainable Development: A Strategy for Ireland (Department of the Environment, 1997), had advocated minimising growth in transport demand, ‘and it was recommended that this be a leading consideration in future land use planning (Murphy, 2004)’.
The National Spatial Strategy (2002) further addressed the unchecked growth, recommending mixed-use and higher density development, which would focus on public transport centres. It also recognised a need to minimise urban sprawl, and maintain physically-compact and public transport-friendly cities. This stated policy of moving away from car-dependent development was refined further in the ‘2004 Regional Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area, 2004-2016 (Phillips et al, 2004)’, which emphasised the need for new developments to be sited along high qualify transport corridors.
Although access to public transport, and lax planning controls, have been major factors in bringing about car-dependent real estate developments, other aspects of governance have also contributed. Not the least of these have been fiscal policies in the housing area, which ‘have tended to systematically favour and support new building at greenfield locations’, these included inter alia ‘preferential taxation treatment in terms of stamp duty and first-time buyers grants (Williams and Shiels, 2000)’.
Not only are such developments car-dependent, but ‘allied with an increased dependence on edge city retail development encourage car usage and complement the edge city employment pattern in a combination which negates stated policies on sustainability (Wiliams and Shiels, 2000)’. Hence, a vicious circle develops wherein cars are not only required for accessing new developments, but this spawns further car-dependency, both by virtue of the remoteness of the location in the first instance, and because the car becomes, far and away, the most convenient way of getting around.
Between 1994 and 1999, with rising prosperity, rates of car ownership rose by a remarkable 164% in the Dublin area, but this was nothing compared to the exponential increases in outer commuter areas, such as County Louth, where ownership soared by 433.5% (Williams and Shiels, 2000).
With Dublin house prices soaring by 136% between 1994 and 1999 (Department of Environment and Local Government, 2000), a commuter belt emerged spanning an area within ninety kilometres of the city, and encompassing towns such as Gorey, Portlaoise, Mullingar, and Dundalk. Clearly, therefore, it is not that real estate development occurred simply because of road transport access, but because of the absence of affordable housing in central locations.
II – Deindustrialisation of the Urban Core
Another factor has been the deindustrialisation of Dublin’s city centre, in line with international trends, with plants, and hence places of work, relocating to the edge of the city (Murphy, 2004). Such changing commuter patterns have also placed a premium on car-based travel.
The facilitation of real estate development has not, however, been occurring on an entirely ad hoc basis along existing roads; a Dublin Region ‘edge city’ developed along an entirely newly-built road, that now forms ‘the central axis of Dublin’s edge city’, namely the M50 C-ring motorway (Williams and Shiels, 2000).
As with the residential sector, it appears that commercial growth was greatly driven by a lack of supply within the traditional downtown Dublin business district, where in 1999 vacancy – and hence supply – was estimated to be as little as 1.45% (DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, 1999).
The centrality of the M50 to Dublin’s new business axis is referred to in Chaos at the Crossroads by Frank McDonald and James Nix’s polemical account of Ireland’s construction craze. The authors claimed that ‘Gold-plating of greater Dublin through the NDP’s roads programme’ copper-fastened the location’s distinct advantage as the focal point of the new ‘hub and spoke’ motorway network that was rolled out under the NDP’s national roads programme.
Hence, while the Dublin region commercially developed, they contend that many areas were bypassed – albeit new developments could occur along the spokes.
Moreover, the projected cost of the national roads programme began at €6.8 billion, before climbing to €16 billion at the time of McDonald and Nix’s publication, who noted that the Department of Finance in 2002 had warned internally that the ultimate cost would likely rise to €22 billion, an estimate which has since been proved correct.
As subsequently described by the National Roads Authority in ‘A Decade of Progress 2000 – 2010’, overall this has meant ‘All told, over 1,200 kilometres of motorway and over 400 kilometres of single carriageway and link roads were built’, during these years, and also ‘some 100 grade separated junctions’.
III – The Poor Relation
In contrast to the apparently endless cash shovelled into a seemingly never-ending roads programme, not one kilometre of greenfield heavy gauge railway was built. Instead, as noted by McDonald and Nix, additional commuter trains were only laid on in response to demand in outer-lying towns such as Gorey, Portlaoise and Mullingar; matching this was NRA resistance to bus lanes being developed along national routes.
As is noted also by McDonald and Nix, public transport is at a fundamental disadvantage when dispersed development occurs. This leads to ‘empty bus syndrome’ wherein the further a bus has to travel at peak times in order to pick up passengers, the less viable the service becomes.
Hence, when the Gorey Local Area Plan was published in 2002, and the population had risen by 44% between 1996 and 2002, it noted ‘that ‘as much as 70% of the town’s new residents commute to Dublin on a daily basis, mostly by car (McDonald and Nix, 2005)’.
Gorey could be viewed as a microcosm for what was happening elsewhere; McDonald and Nix recall how thirty-seven acres of agricultural land beside an interchange on the new Gorey bypass, belonging to the elderly mother of a Fianna Fáil councillor Lorcan Allen, was rezoned without public consultation, and without any significant repercussions for the councillor.
Thus, the car-dependent pattern of commuter housing along or close to the new motorways, leading away from the main urban centres, became a feature of development in that period – with Killenard off the now M7 in Co. Laois described as the ‘most shocking’ – while separately McDonald and Nix predicted that much of Westmeath’s development would likely be a ‘necklace of villages’ along the M6 route.
Notwithstanding the relationship between property development and new road schemes, the effect of good public transport on the value of real estate also became apparent – albeit belatedly.
A 2008 paper by Karen Mayor et al evaluated the financial impact of suburban rail transport – including the two light rail Luas lines – on the price of nearby property. At the time of the 2007 census a mere 7% of commuters in the Greater Dublin Area travel by rail, in contrast to the 49% traveling by private car.
In total 6,956 house prices ‘covering most of the Dublin area’ were assessed to evaluate appreciation in house value attributable to proximity to the rail network, bearing in mind other environmental amenities, and the structural characteristics of the houses themselves.
They found, ‘properties within 500 metres to 2 kilometres of a light rail station are found to sell for between 7% and 17% more than properties not in proximity of the station’, with proximity being a decisive factor – typically 12–17% when within 500 metres.
Yet when the DART was analysed, the authors found the ‘station premium is approximately 5%’ – a lower figure they attribute to good buses services already existing, and also the antiquated rolling stock. A further complicating factor was that while there seemed to be a correlation between demand and proximity to functional stations, ‘train tracks however are considered a disamenity and reduce the price of a dwelling’.
The authors concluded that ‘rail connections have value to home owners, but also that not all connections are equally valuable (Mayor et al, 2008)’.
IV – One-off Housing
No review of the relationship between property development and transport in Ireland in recent years is complete without some assessment of the phenomenal amount of rural bungalows being built, where ‘single rural dwellings (SRDs) dominate the rural housing profile, accounting for all dwellings in some Electoral Divisions and 80% on average’ (Keaveney, 2007).
Keaveney notes:
Clearly, accessibility to urban centres and by road networks has continually been a driving force in the location of housing. Densities in 2002 reached up to 25 households per square kilometre along the national road network and adjacent to urban centres.
Hence while many of these houses are supposed to be for the benefit of the local economy, it seems reasonable to deduce that a premium is placed on good road access – although this is a variable factor that is probably best determined on a case-by-case basis.
Despite high level official policy statements and aspirations regarding sustainability, the institutions of the state encouraged private car transport in a manner that not only subverted such sentiments, but also opened up virgin lands for property developments that otherwise would have been inaccessible, uneconomic, or both.
While a genuine shortage of supply combined with economic prosperity drove demand, these two factors alone would not have created car dependent outer suburbs and developments. Without aggressive promotion and development of roads by the authorities – usually requiring property developers to provide car spaces – it would not have been possible in many instances to construct the low-quality unsustainable sprawl we now live with.
References
Brendan Williams and Patrick Shiels, ‘Acceleration into Sprawl: Causes and Potential Policy Responses’, ESRI, Dublin, June 2000.
Department of the Environment, Ireland, Sustainable Development: A Strategy for Ireland, Department of the Environment, Dublin, 1997.
Department of Environment and Local Government, Annual Report, 2000.
DTZ Sherry FitzGerald, Annual Report, 1999
Karen Keaveney, ‘Contested Ruralities: Housing in the Irish Countryside’, PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth, 2007.
Karen Mayor, Seán Lyons, David Duffy and Richard S.J. Tol ‘A Hedonic Analysis of the Value of Rail Transport in the Greater Dublin Area’, Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, January, 2008.
Frank McDonald and James Nix, Chaos at the Crossroads, Gandon Editions, Dublin, 2005.
Enda Murphy, ‘Spatial Restructuring and Commuting Efficiency in Dublin’, Trinity College Dublin Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, 2004.
National Roads Authority, ‘A Decade of Progress 2000 – 2010’, Dublin, 2010.
Tom Phillips, Atkins, the Urban Institute Ireland and Goodbody Economic Consultants, ‘Regional Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area’, 2004-2016, Dublin 2004.
It was around this time last year that I had arrived back to Dublin after a short trip to Brazil. Prior to embarking on this adventure, I had finally completed my Master’s thesis, which discussed the stylistic development of Western Classical music in Japan. The third chapter focused on the post-war era of the country, specifically on an artistic movement which throughout the 1970s and early 1980s gave rise to many now renowned Japanese composers including Midori Takada, Joe Hisaishi and most importantly for my work, Satoshi Ashikawa.
During my time in the city of Sao Paulo, I was repeatedly overwhelmed by its ever-changing nature. I became obsessed with imagining a music best able to reflect the blending of these modern urban environments. I found an elucidating reflection of this pursuit in the liner notes of Ashikawa’s album, Still Way, where he noted how his concept of an Environmental Music can be understood as an:
object or sound scenery to be listened to casually. Not being music which excites or leads the listener into another world, it should drift like smoke and become part of the environment surrounding the listener’s activity. In other words, it is music which creates an intimate relationship with people in everyday life.
Upon returning to Ireland, my obsession with Environmental Music only grew stronger as it offered me boundless agency for creativity, this is when I started work on my first album, Laistigh den Ghleo. It was during the writing and recording process that I began to realise just how relevant Ashikawa’s concept of Environmental Music had become in modern times.
Instant access to music via streaming sites has changed our day to day relationship with music, resulting in most experiencing this art form in a passive manner. This offers an opportunity for Ashikawa’s concept of a static music to develop into an Environmental Music which blends and reflects our ever-changing environments. An Environmental Music which moves with the listener throughout their day. This is what I have attempted to develop with my last two albums, the aforementioned Laistigh den Ghleo and most recently, Gluaiseacht. In order to reflect the changing environment of the listener, the music that I have written does give into certain dramatic qualities, leaning away from Ashikawa’s concept of a music “which does not excite the listener.” However, I believe this necessary in my pursuit of developing Environmental Music within a modern framework.
My main hope is that Laistigh den Ghleo and Gluaiseacht help the listener reengage with their surrounding environment and also to recognise the multitude of individual pulses that comprise the world around them. Instead of using music as a form of escapism, Environmental Music is instead designed to create an intimate bond with the listener and their everyday life.
Ryan Tubridy is the highest paid broadcaster in Ireland’s state broadcaster, RTÉ, earning close to half a million euro per annum. He presents an hour long radio show each weekday morning on Radio 1, as well as the station’s flagship Friday-night television show, The Late Late Show.
To many he is the public face of the broadcaster – although he is a contractor rather than a direct employee for tax purposes – his mug regularly appearing on the cover of the in-house RTÉ Guide, the widest circulating magazine in the country.
For these reasons, we believe a high ethical bar should be raised on potential conflicts of interest with his commercial and political endorsements. Any appearance of impropriety should be excluded, as others are likely to follow his lead. Alas, what we see is a Tubridy Flop, which like Dick Fobsbury’s legendary technique looks wrong, but does not appear to breach any rules.
Unfortunately, because RTÉ refuses to disclose details of third party commercial arrangements its leading ‘stars’ enter into, we are compelled to make enquiries where there is a suggestion of inappropriate dealings. This comes, however, with the significant proviso that the officer may deny an application for such information where it is deemed advantageous to competitors, might result in financial loss to contractors, and potentially ‘prejudice RTÉ contractual negotiations in respect of future engagements with independent contractors’.
Dick Fobsbury, no relation to Ryan Tubridy.
Our recent enquiries into Ryan Tubridy emanate from his close connections to the motor industry, which we connected to a surprising attack on cyclists, and past receipt of a free car.
The sight of Ryan Tubridy on the cover of the September edition of the RTÉ Guide sitting atop what is obviously a Vespa motor cycle appeared to be an example of ‘product placement’. As a result we submitted a Freedom of Information Request to the relevant office in RTÉ was filed, reading as follows:
I am requesting records (if they exist) of payments or payments in kind from Piaggio (the manufacturer of Vespa) or any of its agents or subsidiaries in Ireland to Ryan Tubridy over the course of 2018. I am making this request in response to photographs and an article that appeared in the September edition of the RTÉ Guide featuring Tubridy on his Vespa with the logo prominently displayed(see attached).
Further to this I am seeking records (if they exist) of payments or payments in kind from Piaggio (the manufacturer of Vespa) or any of its agents or subsidiaries in Ireland to the RTÉ Guide arising from the same article.
I believe it is in the public interest for any such inducements to RTÉ employees or contractors, or the in-house publication featuring same to be in the public domain.
More photos from the shoot.
The following email was received in reply:
Dear [Sir],
Thanks for your email yesterday. I have made inquiries and been advised that the Vespa belongs to a person in HR here in RTÉ. It was parked outside the building and the photographer just asked to use it as a prop for the photoshoot.
On that basis it seems that your request is unlikely to turn up any records. Do you wish to proceed with your FOI request? It’s not a problem either way – I just wanted to pass on the information I received.
Kind regards,
[…]
FOI Officer, RTÉ .
We chose to persevere with the application. On September .. we received a formal reply stating:
I have contacted several individuals in RTÉ by email and in person to establish if the records you sought exist. I have been advised that they do not. Mr Tubridy does not have relationship with Piaggio or any of the agents or subsidiaries in Ireland where he receives or received payments or payments in kind.
I have also been advised that there is no relationship between Piaggio or any of its agents or subsidiaries in Ireland and the RTE Guide.
…
As I outlined to you in an email on September 4th I was advised that the Vespa which was used in the photoshoot for the RTE Guide was actually owned by a member of staff in the Human Resources Department. The person was asked if it could be used as a prop and they agreed.
This communication throws up a few questions. First, how could no one be aware that a commercial brand was so obviously apparent in the photos? Secondly, can the public have confidence in the Freedom of Information process within RTÉ , considering the aforementioned proviso?
It is notable that when it came to the online version of the article the picture with the Vespa has been doctored to exclude the motor cycle.
Political Connections
Ryan Tubridy’s name crops up in another article published in this edition of Cassandra Voices, with his name, along with those of RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan and TV3’s Ursula Hannigan, appearing on the back of the recent publication Leo: Leo Varadkar – A Very Modern Taoiseach by Philip Ryan and Niall O’Connor. The book is by most measures a homage to the leaderships qualities of Taoiseach Varadkar, and published by Bitback Publishing a London-based house, owned by Tory donor Lord Ashcroft.
Tubridy enthuses that the book:
offers the reader and voter a fascinating insight into an intriguing and public figure that none of us really know. With incisive background detail coupled with up-to-date analysis, this is a very welcome account of a private man in the most public role in Ireland.
This does not appear controversial, but we question whether it is appropriate for RTÉ’s leading man (and, arguably, woman) to endorse a book, one of whose authors works for the government; at least in a form that is not part of a serious review.
It surely involved the publisher contacting Ryan Tubridy, and requesting a few words on the books. It seems fair to ask whether Tubridy received anything in return.
In the original interview for the RTÉ Guide Tubridy lists Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 as one of his favourite books. A Catch 22 has been defined as a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule. Similarly, RTÉ solution to the problematic situation of employees and contractors receiving payments from third parties is to introduce a rule whereby potentially damaging material is withheld if it is commercial sensitive.
Until RTÉ offers transparency regarding its code of conduct, and third party financial relationships, these questions will linger. Notwithstanding the Catch 22, if our readers come across further potential conflicts of interests we would invite you to email the relevant officer foi@rte, and send us any response (to admin@cassandravoices.com) you receive.
I am writing this account for the sake of those who follow. As victims of serious negligence by the state bureaucracy, my family and I feel vulnerable, and thus wish to remain anonymous. In any case, revealing my identity will add nothing to what I am about to disclose. If anyone wishes to contact me for support or guidance, please contact the editor of this magazine.
I – The Background
I am an Irish citizen originally from Pakistan. By the time of my citizenship application, I had already been living in Ireland for ten years, at all times on a valid visa. I am married to a Lithuanian national (and EU citizen), and we have a child, who is Irish by birth. We availed of the welfare system for a few years after the recession, when we struggled to find work despite our Irish university educations, but we have both since gained full-time employment. I entered Ireland on a student visa. A few years later, I met my partner, and we got married. The effect of marrying an EU national in an EU state is that it elevates your legal status in that country. It allowed me to take out a five-year 4EUFam visa, meaning I had a right to remain, live, and work in Ireland.
Fast forward five years, in 2015, I contacted the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (henceforth INIS), asking them what my options were, as I wished to remain in the country permanently. They replied that I had two options. Either, apply for a ten-year Permanent Residence Card (Form EU3), six months before the expiration of my visa, or apply for full citizenship.
In February 2016 my wife applied on my behalf, as is required, for the ten years visa. We expected the application to run smoothly, as we had always lived here in accordance with the Free Movement of Persons Regulation, had no criminal records, an Irish child, and had been consistently resident in the country.
Also, importantly, my wife had also applied for, and received, a Permanent Residence Certificate in 2010 (Form EU2), which provides leave to remain in the state, which can only be obtained after living and working in the country for at least five years.
Once certain conditions are met, this certificate grants that person’s family leave to remain. The free movement of EU citizens and their family members is a fundamental right under EU Law, enshrined in Article 45, and developed by EU secondary legislation and the case law of the European Court of Justice.
Nine months passed, because of a backlog at the INIS, as applications, which were supposed to be processed within six months, were taking much longer. But I hear this is only happening to Pakistani nationals, and a few select others.
In the meantime my five year visa expired, but the INIS sends a letter, which I can take with me to the notorious Burgh Quay, and request a 6 month extension, while my application is being processed. I had already, optimistically, sent my application for citizenship.
II – The Bombshell
In November 2016 we received a letter from the INIS, saying the Minister has decided to refuse my application, for the following reason:
You have not submitted the necessary documents which were requested.
The documents requested were as follows:
For each period of study, copies of the following documents should be supplied:
-Letter from college/course provider including start date and (expected) completion date
-Letter from private medical insurance provider for EU citizen and any dependants
-Evidence of financial resources and corresponding bank statements
For each period of involuntarily unemployment, copies of the following documents should be provided:
-Letter from Department of Social Protection with details of benefit claims
-Letter from previous employer outlining circumstances of redundancy
-P60s for prior 2 years of employment
Therefore your application does not meet the requirements of Regulation 15(2) of the Regulations as you have failed to submit the necessary supporting documentation set out in Schedule 7 of the Regulations.
In order to qualify for permanent residence under Regulation 12(1) of the Regulations, you must reside in the State with the EU citizen in conformity with the Regulations for a continuous period of 5 years. You have submitted the following as evidence of the EU citizen’s activity:
(long list of documents)
This does not satisfy the Minister that the EU citizen has resided in the State while engaged in employment, self-employment, the pursuit of a course of study, involuntary unemployment or the possession of sufficient resources in conformity of Regulation (6)(3) of the Regulations. Therefore, it does not appear you are entitled to permanent residence as a family member in accordance with Regulation 12(1)(b) of the Regulations.
It is now open to you to make representations to the Minister as to why your application should not be refused. Such representations must be made within 15 working days of the date of issue of the letter.
Naively, we assumed there had been a mistake, because we were sure we had submitted all the documents correctly. I had just fifteen days to re-submit all the necessary documentation for the application, without even knowing what exactly was missing in the first place.
In February 2017, after three months, we received a letter from the INIS, stating:
The Minister has examined your application based on the documentation on file.
I am to inform you that the Minister has decided to refuse your application for a permanent residence card under the Regulations. This is for the following reasons:
In order to qualify for permanent residence under Regulation 12(1) of the Regulations, you must reside in the State with the EU citizen in conformity with the Regulations for continuous period of 5 years. You submitted the following as evidence of the EU citizen’s activity.
(list of documents)
This does not satisfy the Minister that the EU citizen has resided in the State while engaged in employment, self-employment, the pursuit of a course of study, involuntary unemployment or the possession of sufficient resources in conformity of Regulation (6)(3) of the Regulations. Therefore, it does not appear you are entitled to permanent residence as a family member in accordance with Regulation 12(1)(b) of the Regulations.
…
Request for review:
If you feel that the deciding officer has erred in fact or in law, then you may request a review of the above decision. This must be done in accordance with Regulation 21 of the Regulations and should contain the details set out in Form EU4. A request for a review of a decision must be made on Form EU4 within 15 working days.
It is noted that you now have no immigration status in the State. In the event that you do not submit a request for a review of the decision not to grant you a Permanent Residence Card within the prescribed 15 working days, your file will be referred to the Removals Unit, Repatriation Division for consideration under Regulation 20 of the Regulations.
At that moment panic set in. Shocked, confused, alone and scared, after receiving the letter, we immediately contacted a prominent immigration lawyer, booked an appointment and went to see her. Assuming the INIS is overworked, we thought a mistake had happened in their offices. After ten years in Ireland, we had reasonable amount of faith in the public services.
We disclosed everything, looking for realistic, practical advice. What did we get from her? Scaremongering and incorrect advice. She told us that not only my own, but also my wife’s immigration status was not certain, even though she had a Permanent Residence Certificate, which was a serious shock. She said the INIS had become very strict on people who were receiving social welfare and were an economic burden on the State. She said they were deporting as many immigrants in that position as possible.
It seemed even my wife, an EU citizen, could be deported. I felt belittled after being questioned as to why I had even considered applying for a ten-year visa, and not just settled for reapplying for the five-year visa.
We were told that we might have to fight our case in court, and that she would get in touch with a barrister, and get back to us to say what further steps needed to be taken, which she never did.
She took €100 for the consultation. We contacted her a few more times, but she was never available and despite our leaving messages, she never responded.
As a last ditch effort, she had advised us to re-submit our documents and appeal the decision, and also apply for leave to remain in Ireland based on the European Court of Justice’s judgment in the Zambrano case.
She also advised us to take out a Freedom of Information Request to obtain records of the original application.
III – Digging Deeper
We started dissecting the Regulations ourselves, because the solicitor’s advice did not sit well with us. The more we dug, the more we realized that her advice had been misleading.
We racked our brains about what could be wrong with the application. We could not think of any other reason apart from that a document was missing. The letter from the INIS, however, did not specify the exact reason. We collected all the documents again and re-sent them to the INIS.
We were absolutely certain we had provided all proofs and all documents as requested, and that my wife and I both had a legal right to remain in the country.
We decided to appeal the Minister’s decision, meaning more letters, more documents, more legislation, more time, and more effort. I also sent an application for a visa under the Zambrano judgement.
We were considering our options, and we did not have many immediate ones. If I were deported, it would be horrendous for my family. For starters, my wife would be left to look after our child alone in Ireland. It would also make it very difficult for me to return as a deportee. Plus, I seriously feared living in Pakistan as an atheist vegan.
If we were all to move, as non-Muslims, my family would be treated as dangerous outsiders in an intolerant and violent country.
The only other option was to try to move to Lithuania, but for that we needed to show one year of private health insurance costing €5000, paid up front, and enough money in our bank accounts to survive for a year. There was also the small matter that I did not speak Lithuanian, which would have made getting a job extremely challenging.
I also made a Freedom of Information Request to the relevant Officer at the Department of Justice and Equality for a full copy of my original application and supporting documents, so we could go through everything they had on file as part of the application. That was the only way we had of finding out what was actually missing.
The INIS had never been specific about which document was missing, or what were the shortcomings of my application.
Meanwhile, my wife had been getting headaches and having sleepless nights because of the stress of fighting my case, as well as forthcoming exams.
We did not let them break us. We continued our full-times studies, while working part-time. We were sure we had the right to live here, and knew there must be something wrong. But at the same time we knew we were in an extremely vulnerable position.
Also, the temporary extension on my visa was about to expire, and I had exams coming up, which I could not sit if I was thrown out of the country.
This also threw my citizenship application into jeopardy as it cannot be processed without a valid visa.
IV – Aftershocks
We started to delve deeper into the legislation, and sent numerous emails and letters to the INIS, stating relevant legislation which safeguarded my right to remain as a family member of an EU citizen.
The weeks were passing, and we were hardly receiving any responses, even when we were asking for an extension to my temporary visa, while we appealed, and also while the visa under the Zambrano judgement was in process.
We told them about my forthcoming exams, and the threat to my employment which required a valid visa. Even on the rare occasion when we did receive a response, it was completely useless and frustrating, more or less stating:
Your correspondence has been forwarded to the relevant section.
The clock was ticking. Desperation was setting in.
A friend of our’s suggested contacting our local TD, as we could not get answers from the INIS ourselves.
She was quick to reply, and genuinely willing to help. She agreed to send correspondence on my behalf to the INIS, firstly to get an update on my three applications (the appeal, the visa based on Zambrano judgement, and the citizenship application), and secondly, to request a temporary visa extension because of my work and academic circumstances.
Lo and behold, in only a matter of days, I received direct correspondence from INIS via email and post, with a clear update on my three applications, and also with an entitlement to a temporary extension.
The letter had said my appeal was still being assessed, and I would be informed as soon as the Minister had made a decision. It is funny how people higher up in the pecking order can get information about you faster than you can get information about yourself.
When we visited their office on Burgh Quay to extend my visa, we were spoken to very rudely, including being shouted at that we did not have any rights here in this country because my wife was at that time involuntarily unemployed.
But at least we had found a bit of calm in the midst of very rough seas.
V – Another Angle
There was no time to rest while the appeal was in motion. We knew at least that the INIS would have to take all our documentation on file into account at the time of making the final decision.
Looking for another way of communicating our case to the INIS, we came across SOLVIT.
We told them our story, and they offered to send a letter to the INIS spelling out all our legal rights, and why the INIS had no legitimate basis for refusing the application. They performed this service for free, for which we remain extremely grateful.
SOLVIT confirmed that based on all the factors, including that my wife had been resident for over 10 years in Ireland, was involuntarily unemployed, and also had a Permanent Residence Certificate, we indeed had a right to remain as a family in the state.
A few days later they got back to us stating that after pressing the INIS for an answer, they were informed that the INIS had not received a P60 form from my wife, which is why they had rejected my application.
But we were sure we had sent it!
We wrote to the INIS stating that we had already submitted the P60 at least twice. Of course, we also took the precaution of sending a copy again ourselves, and via SOLVIT for good measure too.
More weeks passed by, until one afternoon, I received a call from someone in the INIS, admitting that there had been a mistake with my application (note the passive voice).
They apologised, and said my visa would be approved. She also casually asked me if I could withdraw my Freedom of Information request.
To make it clear, that is all I ever got from them in terms of an apology.
I wonder how many officers go through a single application before the INIS decides to reject it? Are there checks in place, which can offset or safeguard against negligence, laziness or carelessness?
This is the cold and inefficient system we are up against, which has total power to decide the fate of individuals and their families.
VI – Relief at last
A few days later, in May 2017, I finally received a letter stating my application had been approved:
Your application has been examined under the provisions of the Regulations and the Directive.
I wish to inform you that your application has been approved, as you fulfill the relevant conditions set out in the Regulations.
No mention of any mistake, as if the six months of torture had never happened.
A few months later, we received the records in response to our Freedom of Information request. These contained disturbing revelations, which included an internal memo from within the INIS, admitting that the initial application had been ‘incorrectly refused’, and which sought to rectify their mistake by withdrawing their refusal, and closing down the Freedom of Information request itself, unless I responded within ten days. It also suggested that they had only attended to our case because SOLVIT had applied on our behalf.
The Freedom Of Information records contain other information which I will be investigating in the months to come.
*******
I wonder was the INIS even aware of how the legislation operates?
And what of human rights? My child is Irish, and I, as his father, should have an inherent right to be with him in this State. I shudder to consider that I was almost deported because of this.
After being granted my visa, I wanted to complain about my treatment by the INIS. We went to the Ombudsman, but they do not handle immigration matters. We also went to FLAC, and other prominent immigration law firms, who all said that because we had not incurred monetary loss, the INIS had no case to answer. Do stress, mental pain and anguish, as well as a huge amount of wasted time, count for nothing?
Fast forward a few weeks, and my citizenship was granted too.
I wonder what if we had not been fluent in English? We would never have had a chance of overturning this injustice, and been expelled from the country.
So what advice would I have for someone in the situation I found myself? Do your research, and know the legislation like the back of your hand. Don’t blindly trust solicitors to fight for your case. Also, look for ways of using organisations like SOLVIT to communicate with state bodies, or an elected representative, although it should be noted that access to SOLVIT is restricted to EU citizens.
If you are sure you have a right to remain, never give up, keep fighting, and finding new ways to advance your case.
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Seemingly out-manoeuvred by more experienced, and ruthless, political ‘partners’, the Five Star Movement (M5S) has entered a crucial phase after forming a coalition government with the right wing La Lega. The key question is whether the issue of immigration will continue to dominate Italian political debate, or whether M5S can bring about meaningful social reforms. For the moment it is advantage La Lega.
I – La Lega Leading the New Government
After three months the new Italian government composed of M5S and La Lega is facing difficulties in aligning a complex mix of political leaders, many of whom are in power for the first time. The clash of conflicting ideas and constituencies, played out in newspaper articles and websites, brings to mind – not only to foreign observers – a stereotype of Italian political chaos.
The ‘yellow’ (as MS5 are referred), having earned 32.4% of the national vote in the March election, on the basis of an economic platform leaning towards socialism, should be leading the coalition. But this mantle seems to have been usurped by the minority ‘green’ (La Lega) partner, which gained 17.6% of the vote. The has been achieved through Le Pen-ist propaganda, focusing on migration, security issues and Euro-scepticism, while winking to Trumpism (and esteem for Vladimir Putin).
Matteo Salvini, the leader of La Lega has emerged as the public face (and sole heir of Lega father Umberto Bossi, following his forced retirement after charges of public finance misuse) of the government. He is Deputy Premier and Minister of the Interior; while his supposed ally, and interlocutor, Luigi Di Maio, the leader of M5S, is Minister for Labour and Economic Development. The factions are supposedly being coordinated by Premier Giuseppe Conte, the M5S nominee.
Salvini has injected atavistic fears of a foreign ‘other’ into political debate, highlighting criminality and legality, loss of jobs and waste of resources, as well as undeserved social spending in a period of economic crisis. Within days of entering office he stated to the media that he wished to divert five billion euros from migrant reception and integration policies, while ramping up anti-EU rhetoric.
In June 2018 he closed Italian ports – in particular the ports of Sicily – to the ‘Acquarius’, a ship from the fleet of the NGO ‘SOS Mediterranèe’ (MSF – ‘Doctors Without Borders’), sailing from Libya with six-hundred-and-twenty-nine migrants (including one-hundred-and-twenty-three unaccompanied minors) aboard, which had previously been prevented from entering La Valletta in Malta.
Salvini invited the captain, ‘to continue the crusade with all its comfortable services along the Mediterranean costs’, as far as Valencia, Spain, where the new Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez authorized it to dock. He then told another ship the ‘Lifeline’ it had no chance of entering Italian ports, and went on to ask his EU partners to consider radical changes in EU migration policies.
On August 2018, he created an internal conflict within the Italian Guardia costiera (‘Coastal Guard’), prohibiting another ship, the ‘Dicotti’, from unloading one-hundred-and-fifty migrants in Catania, Sicily, and then instigated what seems to have been a politically motivated investigation into the Agrigento public prosecutor Luigi Patronaggio on several charges, including abduction and segregation, illegal detention and abuse of public administration.
At the end of August 2018 he met the anti-EU and Far Right leader of Hungary Viktor Orban, theorizing on the so-called Democratura, or ‘Authoritarian Democracy’, while endorsing the Hungarian leader’s policy of closing his country’s borders to migrants.
Astonishingly, according to a majority of Italian commentators, in view of recent polls, Salvini had mastered the situation and, by escalating declarations, had emerged as a real political animal, front and centre of the political stage, to the detriment of the M5S.
In reality Salvini has been in election mode since the formation of the government, as he awaits another opportunity to go to the polls, with surveys showing his party appealing up to 30% of the electorate. This could allow his party to reconcile with former allies, and enter a coalition with the former fascisti Fratelli d’Italia or Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.
II – Transatlantic Connections
But the rapture of opinion writers can be misleading. Another Matteo (Renzi)’s recent adventures have shown the volatility of Italian voting intentions in an era of social media. Nothing should be taken for grant at this early stage in the electoral cycle.
Certainly Salvini’s political position has been strengthened by an axis with other Populist forces in Europe and throughout the world. Apart from reciprocal cuddles with Marine Le Pen, and the muscular chest-to-chest recognition by Putin, there are also bonds with the US Presidency. This has served to legitimate him and his party.
Salvini and other Italian right-wing parties see the 2016 US Presidential election as a sign of a shift in Euro-Atlantic politics away from buonismo, and ‘human rights-oriented policies’ deemed to be weak, inefficient and unpopular
Indeed, Attaccateve al Trump, a book by Paola Tommasi, with a degree of notoriety in Italy, credits the dissolution of the Italian Christian Democrats with the unlikely election, ‘Berlusconi-style’, of the outsider Trump.
Steve Bannon – Trump’s former consultant and spin-doctor – has hailed La Lega as a part of the constellation of ‘Breitbart’ (and perhaps Cambridge Analytica?) declaring with some confidence that ‘the Italian fellows are doing a good job’. Subsequently, Trump, while fomenting against Trudeau (as he travelled back to Washington from last June’s G-7 in Canada), recognized Italy as a primary political partner and warmly welcomed the new Italian policy on migrants.
Tellingly, both governments during their first days, created a storm over migration issues. Trump followed up victory by imposing visa restrictions on migrants arriving from selected countries, which generated street protests in the principal US cities. He has recently had to cope with a reversal in public approval on account of the shameful separation of children from their parents at the US-Mexico border, and incarceration in small cages, but his wife Melania’s apparent repentance was perhaps designed to balance the effect.
Salvini’s declarations on migrants issues also unleashed an emotional wave, expressed in national press and television, where commentators weighed in to contest human rights violations and defend the previous government’s policies.
But, as indicated, the overall effect on voting intentions appears to have been favourable for Salvini. Recent polls suggest his anti-intellectualism, and jibes about buonism, have galvanized a significant part of population. Many appear to appreciate his ‘muscular’ approach both in internal affairs, and in dealings with EU partners.
III – Democratic Impasse
The Democratic Party, out of Palazzo Chigi since the March elections, ending the premiership of Paolo Gentiloni, but with Matteo Renzi still on board, have proved ineffectual in opposition. A new leadership has still not emerged, and the old one never developed a comprehensive political platform for these challenging times, apart from to say: ‘we lost, it is up to them to govern’; meaning, in essence, ‘we remain on the side of the river hoping that corpses of political adversaries will pass by’.
The new (transitional) political secretary Maurizio Martina – appointed after the electoral collapse to keep a steady course before the next congress – has, unsurprisingly, inveighed against Salvini. In parliament there have been many pious statements from ambitious Democrat deputies attacking the approach of the Lega leader, but meaningful initiatives have been lacking thus far.
After falling from a high of 40% in the European elections of 2014 to just 19% in the March election a perception has emerged of a distinct lack of consensus in the Democratic Party. Energy has been wasted on strategies designed to compete with other party’s web presences, without producing any visible impact or, even worse, running an ‘opposition within an opposition’, against the left wing (‘former communists’), who are castigated for not toeing the leadership’s line.
The fallen ‘Matteo’ underestimated the ill-effects of simplistic proposals on institutional reforms, investing too much rhetoric on the efficiency and rapidity of political outcomes. He remained devoted to a Blairite ‘third way’, without any deep reflection on the future of centre-left politics in an era of shifting economic and technological plates. There were no original policies on equality or redistribution of wealth, no weltanschaung for Democrats in the years to come.
Affected by a curious ‘Zelig-style’ syndrome, leading to the party co-opting other parties’ proposals (on immigration, public funding of politics and cutting costs of institutions), the Democrats under ‘Matteo the 1st’ shared with ‘Matteo the 2nd’ a certain ‘muscularity’ in the tone adopted towards European partners, political adversaries (within and outside the Party), bureaucracies and allegedly ‘strong powers’. But they never renounced an associations with large corporations or the institutions of European financial orthodoxy, as they sought to retain the support of a shrinking constituency of moderates.
As a result, left-wing supporters left the party in droves, especially to the M5S. Beffa delle beffe, though not unexpectedly, at the last elections even former moderates seemed to prefer the more consistent right-wing voice of La Lega.
The Democratic ‘Matteo’ has divided his own party – and wider Italian society – pitching two sides against one another. One derives from the Catholic Democrazia Cristiana (later Popolari and Margherita), while the other stems from the former Partito Comunista Italiano (later Partito Democratico della Sinistra and finally Democratici di Sinistra).
Aldo Moro – compromesso historico.
After the election, ignoring the lesson of one of its greatest leader Aldo Moro – the great exponent of compromesso storico between Christian Democrats and Communists – he refused to countenance any convergence on social issues with the M5S.
In this depressing scenario, a strong answer to Salvini came from Roberto Speranza, the young leader of Liberi e Uguali (‘Free and Equal’), the political party that emerged from those groups leaving the Democrats before the elections, under the leadership of Massimo D’Alema, former Premier and Communist leader, in opposition to Matteo Renzi. Speranza reported Salvini to the prosecutors’ office in Rome for instigating racial hatred.
Indeed numerous public declarations and decisions taken by the green-yellow alliance appear inconsistent with constitutional values, and international laws to which Italy is bound by treaty.
In the ‘Acquarius’ case, as in the more recent ‘Dicotti’ case, Sicily was the safest port to dock, rather than Valencia. Any practice by Italian military forces involving returning migrants to Libya before security and peaceful conditions have been restored runs contrary to the European Court of Human Rights-stated principle of ‘non refoulement’.
IV – What does the M5S Stand For?
As regards the M5S, which is based on the principle of digital democracy and contesting Italian ‘cast’ politics and patronage, it is not clear what it stands for.
Doubts have been raised about its initial roots in a project of ‘community behavioural analysis’ by one of its founders, the ‘Internet guru’ Roberto Casaleggio, who died in 2016, but whose legacy has been carried on by his son Davide, with even greater efficiency.
M5S is associated with a private consultancy firm that seemingly derives financial gains from political information and advertising. The firm can also organize political communication and harness the vote of M5S, contrary to democratic principles enshrined in the Italian Constitution, which predicates democratic participation on political organizations, and freedom of individual political consciousness.
A stronger juridical stance against these new forms of political organization risks having any decision being twisted to reinforce populism. Moreover, any rejection by the court of such charges would be a sign of the failure of traditional constitutional instruments.
A finding against M5S would solidify a public perception that public institutions are anti-democratic – just as when the government was being formed President Mattarella was accused by the ‘piazza’ of inappropriate interference over blocking the appointment of Paolo Savona as Minister of the Economy.
What then for the new Matteo? Time runs fast but it is too early to appreciate the impact of Salvini’s strategies, in particular if he will last better than the ‘other Matteo’ on the prow of the Italian Government ship, and in the hearts of (certain) Italians. While a significant constituency has been galvanised by what appears to be a certain strength of personality, still the percentage of Italians who have ever gone as far as voting for La Lega amounts to a mere 5.6 million, out of over 51 millions of voters.
Far more of Italy’s citizens are seeking new voices supporting civic ideals, under a new Democratic leadership.
A turning point might be the opposition within the M5S to common political action with La Lega. This has already been seen at local level since the beginning of unnatural alliance: in June 2018, in response to Salvin’s repeated denunciation of migrants, Mr. Nicola Sguera, a city council member in Benevento, resigned declaring ‘We hoped for ‘Podemos’, now we have ‘Orban’’; for similar reasons Carlotta Trevisan resigned her role as deputy president of the city council in Rivoli.
At a national level their leader Di Maio has hushed up criticisms declaring: ‘I want suggestions, not complaint: now we run the government’, and recently declared in Versilia, that ‘misunderstanding and conflicts are not surprising, we will do our best’, and that ‘blockages and ‘refoulments’ cannot be made with kindness’.
However, the recent Roman meetings of M5S, before and after the summer parliamentary recess, witnessed further grumbling by the left-wing of the movement, led by Senate President Roberto Fico, who declared, contradicting Salvini and his leader Di Maio, that ‘Italian Ports shall remain open to NGOs, they are doing an essential job”.
Moreover, Barbara Lezzi, Minister for the South, Senators Elena Fattori, Paola Nugnes and Luigi Gallo are among the deputies showing commitment to the idea that ‘refoulments’ are not a policy appropriate for a civilised country. Fico also came out against the meeting on August 28th between Salvini and Orban, declaring, ‘there’s no political leader more distant from me in Europe’.
Worse still, after the meeting between the two Far Right leaders and the final declarations on a common stance in Europe (with the schizophrenic Salvini supporting the Orban position against migrant re-locations in the European Union, contrary the official position of his government), Prime Minister Conte leaked to the media that it was no longer possible to have an official public position.
V – The Reality About Immigration
The political context could easily evolve differently between the right-wing La Lega politics and the leftist M5S, which is animated in particular by opposition to the elitist politics of the Democrats, and is still rooted in the family photo album of la sinistra italiana.
There is a compelling argument that the whole ‘immigration affair’ is a lot of hot air, and part of a complex public relations campaign being orchestrated by unscrupulous politicians ‘senza arte né parte’ (‘without any virtue nor strong political faith’), for whom the M5S is naively providing a stage and microphone.
Its impact is increased by the inability of Italy and the EU more generally – blackmailed in part by their own constituencies – to agree on a real and effective common migration policy.
According to official United Nations reports, collected in the World Population Prospects – and reported in the ‘Huffington Post’ in 2017 – migratory flows into Europe from 2000 to 2010 were 1.2 million people per year, which makes up a mere 0.2% out of a population of five hundred million inhabitants (one million have arrived in the United States over the same period).
That figure then dramatically fell to 400,000 entries per year between 2010 and 2015 due to the Economic Crisis, which led to less money being remitted to sustain travel costs from Central, Western or Eastern Africa to Europe.
According to ‘Liberazione’, these numbers will have declined further in 2018: 8% less have disembarked on the Italian coast than in the same period last year. Data from the Ministry of the Interior indicates that 14,441 people arrived in Italy by sea in the first six months of 2018, while 64,033 had arrived in the same period of the previous year. This is not to say international migration is not a genuine issue, but it puts it in perspective.
In 2015 the United Nations said international migration had reached 244 millions per annum, 20 millions of whom were refugees. That number had grown from 154 millions in 1990 to 175 millions in 2000. Migrations will persist as long as economic cleavages exists between rich and poor countries. The real point is the small proportion of those, about one million, actually entering Europe, the biggest economy in the world (comprising 23.8% of the world’s GDP, against the 22.2% of the US), with 500 million inhabitants, compared to total migrations around the world.
The essential issue is how to adopt efficient, humane and stable institutions for the governance of humanitarian emergencies and economic migration to Europe.
Instruments to deal with economic migrations are not easy to be put in place. Decisions touch on political ties with foreign states, anachronistic colonial attitudes, distribution of military and security power, sovereignty over international waters, irrational beliefs and ancient fears, as well as normative politics.
Meaningful measures are, however, on the table for European governments to discuss. For instance, Angela Merkel recently proposed a common EU force for border control. Indeed, even in the absence of intense passions, a European Agenda on Migrations has been debated since 2013 among EU leaders, and the Migration Compact proposed by the previous Italian Government envisaged a scheme for infrastructural investment in Africa.
In this context, the EU’s ‘La Valletta Fund’ continues to provide financial support to projects tackling the ‘root causes’ of migrations in selected African countries. The new strategy of the European External Action Service – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the EU – includes closer ties and relationships with Europe’s ‘neighbours’, and the ‘neighbours of the neighbours’ from where migrants leave for Europe (not only North Africa, but also Sahara and Sahel countries).
The EU social agenda, debated since 2015, also contemplates rules and measures for social integration of migrants, within a larger scheme tackling the labour concerns of all Europeans, which could reduce social tensions.
VI – Three Scenarios
A responsible Italian leadership would initiate debate on these issues with other EU Member States. In contrast, at the last EU Council meeting an apparent ‘political crisis’ between Conte and some EU partners (Macron, Merkel, and Borissov) was reported.
The Dublin Regulation should be overhauled, but narrow nationalist politics is creating stasis in the Union, and the Italian government’s intransigence is not helping matters.
The only positive news stemming from the muscular stance of the yellow-green alliance is renewed (enduring?) attention being paid to the migrant question, and to Italy as a strategic stronghold for a federal Europe, meaning the country could finally reap concrete political advantages as regards sharing the costs of receiving migrants.
Salvini has gone so far as to warn that if the rules are not changed on migration then Italy will withdraw its annual contribution.
It remains to be seen whether M5S leaders – presumably to the left of Di Maio – will be able to counterbalance this ‘green’ communication agenda. Can that faction defuse the ‘immigration affair’ and the radicalising narratives of La Lega? Will they succeed in reversing the positions they had to swallow to gain the levers of power, and finally make their 32% of electoral votes correspond with real political power?
One opportunity for the inexperienced M5S and its leaders – in contrast La Lega as La Lega Norde was in local government from the 1980s and national politics from the 90s – is to implement their economic and social platform, from which Salvini’s ‘immigration issue’ has diverted attention.
These include the reddito di cittadinanza (‘basic social income’) it promised voters, and long-standing environmental commitments, including the closure or modernisation of the ILVA iron plant in Taranto, and the blockage or relocation of the docking of the ‘Trans-Adriatic Pipeline’ in Puglia.
The current route of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.
There is also the issue of investment in social housing and infrastructures for workers, active employment policies and the restructuring of unemployment agencies, digitalisation and other services for SMEs, simplification of laws, and incentives for youth entrepreneurship.
Recently Di Maio, now heading a monstre Ministry reuniting Labour with Economic Development (Industry), has initiated an investigation into the feasibility of basic income, against the indifference or opposition of his La Lega partners. On these points, the interests of the historical Lega constituencies and the expectations of M5S supporters might seriously diverge.
La Lega’s leadership in the north of Italy, after years of regional and local governments, are perceived as guarantors of established commercial interests, tied to the former Forza Italia barons of the northern economy. Any M5S initiatives implying significant redistribution of public resources seem likely to create rifts.
The more the M5S pursues social and economic priorities the greater the prospect of divergence with La Lega. But if M5S renounces these social policies they risk division into right and left factions, just like the Democratic Party before them, making its prospects in the next elections uncertain. Failure to act could generate new alliances before the next elections.
Would this mean glory for the ‘green’ ‘Matteo’? Two scenarios present themselves to Italian citizens in the medium term. The first is an abrupt end to the coalition, involving a never-ending cycle of elections, in which La Lega pickpockets the right wing M5S votes, and attracts new voters from traditional centre-right parties; or perhaps restoring a political dowry to the prodigal son Silvio Berlusconi, and his centre-right Forza Italia heirs.
The second scenario is a revitalized (inspired by Spain’s Socialists perhaps) ‘Democratic Party’ leadership emerging to end the short-lived Matteo II’s era in Italian politics, supporting dialogue with the M5S , under Fico, and reviving the social movements that Matteo I sank
This could bring an end to the financial and economic stalemate which has ruined so many firms and families, unravelling a delicate social fabric so as to give an opportunity to demagogues like Salvini.
Nothing is shaped until everything is shaped. A third scenario could play out where the M5S and La Lega develop ties at institutional levels, and become an inseparable Populist force. To the leadership of the Democrats, and the new forces emerging in Italian civil society, the hard task is to play the cards in front of them.
Leonard Cohen’s ‘Tower of Song’ is a short history, and valedictory, to the tradition of songwriting, fusing aphorisms and personal reflections on failure with nostalgia and regret. In this ‘Tower’, like that of Babel, the songsters of history communicate unsatisfactorily:
I said to Hank Williams “How lonely does it get?” Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet But I hear him coughing all night long Oh, a hundred floors above me in the Tower of Song
Cohen also hints at the immortality of his verse:
Now, I bid you farewell, I don’t know when I’ll be back They’re movin’ us tomorrow to the tower down the track But you’ll be hearin’ from me, baby, long after I’m gone I’ll be speakin’ to you sweetly from a window in the Tower of Song.
As advocates barristers, especially those representing criminal defendants, see themselves as part of a great tradition: maintaining a vocation in eliciting the truth, and telling it. We also trade in ambiguity, testing the veracity of an opponent’s case in order to establish reasonable doubt in the minds of a jury.
What sort of qualities should an advocate have? Fearlessness is intrinsic, which does not mean hysteria or histrionics. Flailing arms should give way to precision bombing, and the careful assembly of evidence.
A true advocate is honest, and never misleads a court, or fabricates evidence: offering persuasion within ethical bounds.
Nonetheless, the best bend the rules, leading a witness through examination-in-chief, at least until challenged.
An advocate should be unafraid to criticize the vectors of established authority. Thus Sir Edward Carson, frustrated by the proceedings of a tribunal presided over by a judge, who claimed he was not acting in his judicial capacity, responded: ‘Any fool can see that’.
Another great skill is knowing when to keep shtum. Silence can be golden, and verbosity pointless. This extends to deciding who to call as your witness. The old lawyers’ joke is that your client is your worst enemy. A question too far, when you cannot anticipate the answer, is a journey into unknown, perilous territory.
Advocacy is more art than science, and thus demands a high degree of creativity. It requires nimble thinking, judgment, and a degree of circumspection. This branch of alchemy cannot be taught in law schools, as is assumed in the United States.
It often benefits from non-linear sequences of thought that are the hallmark of a person who is out-of-the-ordinary. This may involve throwing out the rule book for that most devastating of interrogations: the surprise question. This remains the height of creativity in the often gentle, though far from gentile, art of cross examination.
Great advocates have their idiosyncrasies: from the thespian US lawyers, or indeed the late Adrian Hardiman in Ireland, to the blind courage and rhetoric of the aforementioned Carson, who displayed a unique combination of fearlessness and cold judgment.
After being frustrated by a playful deluge of responses from Oscar Wilde on his apparently innocent relationship with boys, Carson asked him about one Graingier, and, ‘had he kissed him’?
Wilde fell for the trap, responding, ‘oh no he was far too ugly’, and Reading Gaol beckoned. Implicitly he had revealed that his relationships with boys was of a different order.
It goes to show that a witness should never be over-confident. A witness box is the last place to send a stage performer, or for anyone who plays to the gallery.
Cross examination involves strategies, ruses, subtle discrediting, and of course laying traps. The strategy should be mapped out in advance, and requires the prosecution’s evidence to be parsed meticulously, in order to be dismantled.
In appealing to a jury, the great advocate often eschews the chronology of a case, instead presenting a fluid and protean account. They often mix it up, and it may not be initially apparent what they are getting at.
Any aspiring advocate ought to study and indeed listen closely to how senior advocates go about their trade. To attain greatness anyone must commune with the dead, and living, and be humble.
Increasingly, I believe great advocates should have a commitment to social justice. Alas, few do. Victory and payment is one thing; serving the community, or that nebulous notion of justice, another. Amidst the scramble for Mammon this often gets lost sight of.
The greater the capacity of an advocate for empathy, the more she will be prepared to do on behalf of her client, though it should be noted that even the best have their foibles.
I am deeply skeptical, from wide experience, about the motivations and funding sources of the human rights industry, and the type of advocacy we often hear that arrives in the form of sound bites. This is safe sex advocacy on politically correct issues such as gender equity, funded by shady organizations like the Ford Foundation, while ignoring far more pressing issues of homelessness, poverty and social exclusion.
The crucial test is whether you are willing to represent the wretched of the earth: including the gangster, the property speculator and the drug baron.
I intensely dislike those who take up causes driven by populist bandwagons. These are not advocates, but politicians in disguise.
The world is full of public avengers, and family lawyers often deserve contempt for the fake outrage and indignation peppering their speech, while they enrich themselves on cultivating misery with contrived, and even state-sponsored, fabrications.
As mentioned, advocacy intersects with creativity, which always contains an element of mystery. As when a tennis players enter the ‘zone’, great advocates are often inscrutable in their methods, and react instinctively. Great, as opposed to good, advocacy cannot really be taught. That ability is innate.
That is not to diminish the value of the science behind the trade: a closing speech should scrupulously assemble the weaknesses of the opponent’s evidence, establishing corroboration, or otherwise, and exposing holes and contradictions.
From his rhetorical palette the advocate paints in mosaic, fusing a degree of passion with calculated mind games.
An advocate should be a psychologist in his approach to keeping a jury as a criminal barrister, or judges elsewhere, on side.
What should be said before a judge, as opposed to a jury, is markedly different. A judge is case-hardened, and less likely to be swayed by the tricks of the trade, unlike a jury, whose affection should be courted.
But trial courts are becoming increasingly like reality television, or beauty contests. It is getting like Crufts, or a horse parade.
As I have indicated, a much underrated virtue is discerning when to leave something unsaid. Evidence that may seem advantageous may remain unexplored in a closing speech for fear it will generate ambiguity, and even implode another argument. But this should not lead to timorousness. Points should be put decisively, which may border on stridency.
I am increasingly of the view that advocacy is a necessary life skill, with application far beyond the courtroom. We all have to sell ourselves and relate to others: our daily lives involve persuasion, and to be too timid in discussion may invite disaster.
It is important to be confident and assertive, but never too sure of yourself. The minute you believe your own hype, or that you are the cleverest man in the room is when you need to get out of there. This unfortunately is often a feature of the ruling class of any country.
Like artists, most great advocates are assailed by doubt. These are complex and ambiguous creatures, whose practice of the dark arts may lead to a perception that there is something of the night about them. Perhaps as a result, the burden, and not just of proof, can be onerous.
In our times public advocacy, not confined to the court room, is in high demand. As Leonard Cohen sang:
Now, you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure: The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor And there’s a mighty Judgement comin’ but I may be wrong You see, I hear these funny voices in the Tower of Song
The world is completely out of balance and spinning towards the disasters of an economic and environmental apocalypse. The acceptance of neo-liberalism dogma is accelerating the prospect of social and economic collapse.
This has been steered by a diabolic trinity of religious fundamentalism, neo-liberalism, and the post-truth peddling of relativists in the universities: academics who sing for their supper. But there’s a “mighty Judgement comin’”.
Public advocacy from the likes of Naomi Klein, Arundhati Roy and our own Cassandra Voices is rising up.
Where better to learn advocacy than in the criminal and public courts of the Tower of Song? For the advocate is a truth-teller, who exposes bullshit wherever it is found. Real training in these skills is difficult to find. The art is increasingly diminished by failure to engage in adequate self-reflection.
The mark of the truly great advocate is a resolute independence. He is never a dutiful servant of the state: the best would never dream of acting for the prosecution. That is left to careerists, and others who can only dream of advocacy’s Tower of Song.
The Cassandra Voices musician of the month for September, Louise O’Connor, explores what makes a trad session so special.
I recently attended a large music festival in England where a trad session took over the night in a small fire-lit tent. There were Irish tunes, Scottish tunes, English tunes and a few Appalachian ones for good measure. Being an Irish fiddle player I was most at home with the jigs and the reels.
I sat and played for hours, mesmerised by the sight of a topless, heavily-tattooed man with a rainbow-coloured mohawk who sean-nós danced with ferocious intensity on a piece of wood throughout.
A trad session never fails to surprise.
These sessions have been a constant source of surprise and companionship for me for many years now.
Growing up in the Burren in County Clare, I played the fiddle from the age of seven. Aged seventeen I departed for university and the bright lights of Cork City. I hardly played in those days, preferring to listen to free jazz, contemporary classical music or the latest heavy instrumental rock band that my new urban friends introduced me to.
Fiddling at 3842m near Chamonix. Photo by Marc Cleriot.
I wasn’t to return to trad until, aged twenty-two, I found myself back in Cork after a period of travelling. The college gang had disbanded and I was in need of new friends. Cue the interjecting character of a French housemate with a passion for learning the bodhran. She brought me along to a session in a local pub. I befriended the fiddle player and was hooked. I was hooked on the atmosphere, the ritualistic nature of it, the sheer craic.
A series of lessons from that fiddle player I befriended and I was almost session ready. Apart from one thing: nerves. On the first occasion that my new teacher persuaded me to play in a session, my hands were sweating so profusely that it was practically impossible for me to play.
Things have certainly got better since then, and the meaning and importance of the session has grown and grown for me.
Céilí dancing in Germany.
In my years spent abroad, it permeated my experiences as a weekly ritual that allows release, a sense of stability and company on my many solo jaunts.
It is obvious how the session format was born out of the Irish emigrant experience in London and America, and the need to hold on to roots. Thanks to mass Irish emigration and the dispersion of the tunes, as a fiddle player I have been welcomed with open arms within the global fraternity of trad musicians. I leaned into the music and the dance as I travelled. I slowly started to depend on it.
Sessions in Oslo were my main social outlet. In Germany I organised céilís in the market square, while in Chamonix, I played tunes at 3842m at a temperature of -10. In Northern England, I picked up wild Scottish reels at the local session, and played them frantically on my lunch break, helping to relieve the stiffness of the office environment I was working in.
II – Among Old Friends
Returning to play sessions in Dublin was a slightly daunting task. I was no longer a novelty. Fiddle players are ten a penny in our fair capital. I forced myself out to sessions in the early days of Dublin life. I always feared I would not know enough tunes, and it would be embarrassing.
My first session came about after meeting a retired gentleman, who invited me to one in a nearby seaside village. It turned out to be have been running for twenty-five years, in a practically empty pub, and involved a group of retired men in their sixties upwards. I was the only female to have ever played in the session, so my arrival was a source of some bewilderment.
Overtime, however, they grew accustomed to my presence, and I settled into an uplifting weekly meeting. The session was more like a history lesson in Irish music, or a support group for musical fanatics. After each set the tunes were discussed; its origin; the historical recordings; the alternative key it might have been played in; the ornamental possibilities present in each one.
I absolutely delighted in the whole experience. Each person had their own seat, and had sat in that seat for twenty-odd years. Being granted a seat at that session felt like quite the honour, and I was intrigued to hear the stories of sessions and festivals in the 60s and 70s in London, Doolin, and Mayo.
At some point they would close their eyes and disappear into the reverie of music. And I imagined they were transported at times, back to these epic sessions they spoke of. The tunes were the same, the session was the same. The only difference was the passage of time.
When they told me short stories about each tune, it added to the magic of my schooling. I went away each week armed with a list of tunes to learn, and a story that went with each. My eagerness to tweak my trad vocabulary was renewed every week.
It was a gentle initiation into the Dublin school of trad from men most of whom had been playing for half a century.
III – Central Sessions
After a house move, I began playing at a session in the city centre, which is a more varied affair. Musicians drop in from all corners of the world.
It is the type of session where audience members are as much a part of the session as the musicians. They sit in for the chats, and contribute with a song or a dance. Many onlookers marvel at the whole process.
Like moths to a flame, tourists are drawn to the beat of the tunes. You see the sparkle of awe in their eyes at the frenzied energy through a set of reels, and the ‘earthing’ experience of a mournful sean nós song, which usually brings everyone in the pub to a halt.
We all savour the natural ebb and flow of the occasion.
‘You guys don’t get paid? Phenomenal! How do you know all the tunes?’ A young girl from Vermont asked me. ‘It’s an oral tradition’, I tell her. A tradition, truly, that is handed down by ear, by being involved in the session itself.
It is a much debated topic at a session, but you might never actually know what a tune is called.
IV – Trad Festivals
And then there are the trad festivals. I write this after my best summer yet of attending trad festivals. There is little in this world that gives me greater pleasure than heading West in my car of a summer’s evening towards a trad festival, with my fiddle and a tent packed up, and tunes racing through my head.
I camped at the Willie Clancy festival this year with my friend, a solicitor and concertina player in her 60s who I met in sean nos dancing circles. As it was her first Willie Clancy she remarked that if she lasted the whole week she’d be a different person… and she did. She camped the whole week.
And, as she said she would never be the same again.
The relentless music everywhere, the workshops, the set dancing céilís, the first wild camping experience, the wonderfully open and honest meetings with strangers.
All the components of a transformative experience that indeed has left its mark on her, uncovering courageous aspects of herself buried deep within. Maybe we were all different after that week of glorious sunshine, swims in the Atlantic and trad sessions by the beach. At these festivals, there is a different quality of time. There are days on end to sit and converse, to make friends, to learn new tunes and to gain new perspectives.
*******
The trad experience has certainly changed for me, from my beginnings being plagued by frenetic nervousness, to a point where, in the right lighting, and in the right context, I can even be persuaded to dance a step at a session or sing a song. I’ve constantly surprised myself while being held within the cocoon of the session.
It is as if the hot summer evenings of this year’s trad sessions melted my resistance in a way. I gave in to the encouraging wink and a nod: ‘Go on, give us a step.’ I cared less about perfection and more about embracing the occasion.
I have now started to give the same encouragement to others, in teaching ‘a step’ to groups in the form of céilí dancing. I want to involve people in the magic of the Irish music that I’ve been so privileged to be immersed in.
I’m glad that trad music has returned to my life, and it’s certainly here to stay.
Louise O’Connor is a fiddle player and runs Celtic Dance Party, teaching traditional céilí group dances. Her website is www.louise.ie. Instagram: @celticdanceparty. Facebook: Celtic Dance Party.
