Comments on The Pensive Quill: Christmas Eve

Helen, happy new year to you and yours also.

2011-01-06T19:40:30.888Z

Helen,

happy new year to you and yours also.

Aa usual, I'm always a wee bit behind in my re...

2011-01-06T04:55:41.592Z

Aa usual, I'm always a wee bit behind in my readings and postings, but I wish you all at the Quill a very healthy and prosperous new year.

Simon The Blanket took letters but had no commen...

2011-01-01T09:17:00.415Z

Simon

The Blanket took letters but had no comment facility.

‘I don't think it was worth dying for but it's a lot better than it was
and maybe it was worth stopping dying for.’

Not much to disagree with there.

Alfie.

‘There is enough hardship and misery in life, so people should celebrate when they can. Enjoy your bourbon!’

True

Michaelhenry,

I read Sven Hassel a long time ago. I think I read every one he wrote.

Only read one Le Carre one – The Russia House.

Martydownunder

So I wasn’t on a bourbon then! Have drank Beam but not Wild Turkey. It only seems to appear in Ireland if somebody brings a bottle back from the States.

Ryan

Essex Street as I knew it is long since demolished and been replaced with a newer version. The last time I was in the area our old home on the Ormeau Road was still standing but the earlier one in Bagot Street had been demolished along with Essex Street.

Anthony, what happened to Essex St and your childh...

2010-12-27T20:33:58.924Z

Anthony,
what happened to Essex St and your childhood home? Still standing today or has it like much of old Belfast been razed to make way for new housing?
Just curious.

Fionnuala, "All we got in terms of change, w...

2010-12-27T15:07:10.305Z

Fionnuala,

"All we got in terms of change, was line drawn under the past and the justification for everything that had gone before reframed as an inter-communal rift."

That was really well put. It never occurred to me any other way apart from subconsciously that this was the case. I suppose it has happened so gradually that I missed it. You are absolutely right, the way the Historical Inquiries Team focus on loyalists/republicans and seriously constrained inquiries focus on the British government's role as an "impartial overseer" of some kind. The work by ex-prisoner groups from both sides to have some sort of understanding and to work together on projects is laudable but it's downside is that it makes the conflict look like a war that the British oversaw in the same way the British oversee the projects.

The historians and other academics fall into the same trap. "Inter-communal rift" is all you can see. Partly because studies on ex-prisoners leave out the security forces. Perhaps because so few were charged let alone imprisoned. But I suppose that helps the "inter-communal rift" revisionism.

Mise Eire- The two books by Donal Nevin are quite expensive and only available from second-hand and specialist on-line sellers.(last time I looked) I hope you can track down a bargain. I would start with the biographical "A Full Life". It goes for around the £45 mark because it is out of print. It helps to shop around. "The Workers Republic" book is a smaller book with all Connolly's pamphlets and articles for the paper of the same name. It is good also but mostly focuses on labour. It not expensive and can be had for about £4-£6.

2010-12-26T19:02:04.897Z

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2010-12-26T18:49:36.276Z

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Simon, Everything that Connolly advised again...

2010-12-26T18:38:08.084Z

Simon,
Everything that Connolly advised against has been embraced by our politicans here in the North.
If change is to be measured by the absence of deaths through war, then yes there has been quantitative change, qualitatitive change is a very different matter.
Few people apart from the wealthy who have benefited from the (no holes barred get rich schemes)
would cite that there has even been a semblance of qualitative change here.
All we got in terms of change, was line drawn under the past and the justification for everything that had gone before reframed as an inter-communal rift.

Mise Eire- Your thinking is curiously like my own....

2010-12-26T18:29:42.747Z

Mise Eire- Your thinking is curiously like my own. We both know the country is messed (both parts), we know why but nobody knows what to do about it. Socialism is perhaps the best option but is it available?

Those are startling figures you produced.

It looks like an impossible task, something hard not to get despondent about.

2010-12-26T17:40:02.259Z

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MartyDownUnder- That's the very one!! Thank y...

2010-12-26T17:30:00.075Z

MartyDownUnder- That's the very one!! Thank you, I was struggling to find it.

Fionnuala, I really meant there are a lot less people shot or tortured by the state and less civilians and republicans are dying before their time or going to prison. I believe it's not only a quantitative but a qualitative change. I know a lot of people are living in poverty. We need huge change to combat this but at least people who would otherwise be dead are alive and where there's life there's hope and a chance to achieve better things for everyone.

I know many people will disagree with me but I think nothing can be gained now by armed force since it didn't gain it's main goals in the past and we are in a position now to try to achieve change that would have been impossible previously.

Trying to achieve things by violence is only excusable when you live in a non-democratic state. But when the state is arbitrarily created and you're dealt a fait accompli and that de facto means that you are living in a non-democratic state it doesn't necessarily mean that violence is the best way to achieve change.

Simon, If you remove the English army tomorrow and...

2010-12-26T16:51:07.829Z

Simon,
If you remove the English army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle, unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts would be in vain. England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.

As you said Connolly summed it up perfectly there.

Anthony,
Jack Daniels isn't a bourbon it's a corn whiskey, true bourbons like Jim Beam and Wild Turkey aren't or weren't that easy to get hold of there. I know as used to be a connoisseur of the stuff, never touch at all now, stick with the odd beer. Bourbons tend to be much sweeter than JD and are usually made more so by people drowning them with coke. Glad to hear you had no hangover anyway as that's why I won't touch it now! You should try the Jim Beam some time and you'll see the difference, Wild Turkey is superior but can't imagine it'd be easy to get there.

Hope everyone had good day yesterday and conditions improve, that great flying spaghetti monster has sent some of that cold weather here highly unusual for this time of year.

AM- A few baileys down my neck last night then i...

2010-12-26T15:09:52.524Z

AM-

A few baileys down my neck last night then it was up the bushmills
time-

Usually at holidays i go over some
of the books that i have read before- over the years i sometimes
forget what i fell in love with-

The last few days i re-read a couple of sven hassel books about a
german penal unit in world war 2
once this unit called for reinforcements whilst they were figting the russians- along came a
ss regiment- both the german penal
unit and the russians opened fire on the ss- when the ss were killed
both sides started to fight each other again
there's a message somewhere in that

Re-reading john le carre's tinker
tailor soldier spy to-day today a
few chapters at a time- only started this internet carry on a year or so back- im now hooked.

Simon, I don't understand what you mean ...

2010-12-26T14:46:44.765Z

Simon,
I don't understand what you mean by things have improved? Improved, politically, economically or both.
The poor people's lot has not improved, economically people are worse off, politically we are just being shafted.
They (our British politicans) have created a false utopia and named it the 'lesser of two evils' the truth being the greater evil.
They have manufactured a belief that if you follow the mumbo jumbo they spout then all will come good in the end.

michaelhenry, fine today inspite of a continual flow of wine and black russians, must be the steely dissenting spirit.

Mise Eire, Connolly was gifted with a great foresi...

2010-12-26T13:34:16.723Z

Mise Eire, Connolly was gifted with a great foresight and he knew that unless you change the system we'll be just as oppressed in a Republic by the Irish leaders. There'll still be greed, graft, corruption and harsh treatment of the vulnerable.

I am sorry I can't remember the exact quotation, perhaps someone else can, but it was one that concisely summed up this tenet of Connollyism. That there's no use in changing the government if the people are still going to be downtrodden.

Donal Nevin's books are great on Connolly. He planned to compile a many volumed set of Connolly's works but as he started at 83 I fear we will not have these. There was a separate 12 volume set published years ago perhaps they'll be re-printed.

I just re-read my last post from yesterday and it wasn't meant to be a slight on anyone. I just meant that if there wasn't such hardship there is no guarantee we would be as moved on as we are now. I know things are far from perfect but at least it's not as bad as it was. I am just thankful there is peace and a chance to further things without the same hardship.

Anthony, "happy Christmas you redoubtable at...

2010-12-26T12:55:09.030Z

Anthony,

"happy Christmas you redoubtable atheist skeptic!! My turn on the whiskey tonight - to be technical, bourbon!"

Thanks, Anthony. Best wishes to you and your family. I love Christmas even though its premise is, as you say, a con. There is enough hardship and misery in life, so people should celebrate when they can. Enjoy your bourbon!

Michaelhenry, a bit queasy but no sore head. Had...

2010-12-26T12:47:42.504Z

Michaelhenry,

a bit queasy but no sore head. Had a go at the Jack Daniels last night. What are you reading over Christmas?

2010-12-26T12:16:24.899Z

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2010-12-26T12:03:54.037Z

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Anybody not got a sore head Fionnuala- missed th...

2010-12-26T11:28:26.169Z

Anybody not got a sore head

Fionnuala- missed the crown queens
speech, i was in no tizzy over lizzy- i saw some of it on sky news
the same old yearly crap-

another group of ass-holes waiting
for their obe's or lower mbe's to come- but the class system makes them simple- in the end the ass-holes will do what their crown says
any way- cheers back to you and yours.

And there’s a hand my trusty friend ! And give us ...

2010-12-26T08:25:39.514Z

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

I trust your Christmas day was as pleasent as mine Anthony and heres wishing you every success with this fine blog for the new year.

Anyone happen to see The Adoration of the Christ Child
by Fra Filippo Lippi on BBC Two.
Bhí sé ar dóigh.

Glad to hear that the laughter of children (and th...

2010-12-26T01:20:10.985Z

Glad to hear that the laughter of children (and the "very lovely and irrepressible Mrs Mc) triumphs again. Beannachtaí na tseisúin agaibhsa go deo.

I was aware of the blanket and I read it a few tim...

2010-12-25T22:55:10.808Z

I was aware of the blanket and I read it a few times and thought it was a valuable resource. However, I don't believe I commented at all.

I know some of the prisoners in the mid 1990s were gently jested that they were on the quilt what with the open door policy and all (I mean the practice of absolute freedom of association not the Liam Averill type of open door policy!) The conditions for prisoners were a lot better but it was still prison after all, there were still harsh beatings and the like by the screws.

At the end of 2010 I believe politics aside and the method of gaining peace and the imperfect results of the process put aside for another debate I am glad few civilians are dying and few Republicans are dying or going to prison.

I don't think it was worth dying for but it's a lot better than it was and maybe it was worth stopping dying for.

Tain Bo, we enjoyed it indeed. My church is as...

2010-12-25T22:55:01.155Z

Tain Bo,

we enjoyed it indeed.

My church is as good as the next guy's!

I can see why the new church appeals good craic. H...

2010-12-25T22:28:40.360Z

I can see why the new church appeals good craic.
Hope the kids and the dog enjoyed Christmas morning.

Nula

Thank you best wishes to you and Albert.