Léargas

  TREES.  I want to recommend that you make friends with a tree. Any tree. Pick one in your local park or glen or up on a mountain. Get up close and friendly with it. Or admire the very welcome trees now being planted along our urban roads and streets. Make friends with one of them. And you don ’ t have to be monog a mous. You can love lots of trees. In lots of places.They come in all shapes and sizes. All produce seeds. Some have berries, bright and attractive.  Most of them are older than us. In the Irish tradition some trees are sacred. They ward of evil spirits. Or bring good luck. They provide shelter. Some are ancient. They have wisdom. They are holy. Of course it ’ s better if you have a garden or a bit of ground to plant your own tree. It ’ s even better if you grow it from seed. Seeds are there for the picking up anywhere trees are growing. Just plant them. And if you are landless put them in pots. It ’ s nice to see them taking root and producing little...

  BE PREPARED FOR MORE STUPIDITIES I considered ignoring the British Government’s exclusion of the Sinn Féin President from the recent talks. Then I thought why should I?   Stupidity like this needs highlighted. For me it is proof, once again, of what democrats here are up against.  This column could analyse the statements from the current British Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister - With – The – Wonderfully – Inaccurate - Surname. But I will let you do that yourselves if that is your want. Suffice to say that every statement was even stupider than the one which preceded it.  So, I don’t intend to take us through all the he said, she said bits of this most recent debacle except to say that Mary Lou has spelt out the democratic position in her usual articulate way and Leo Varadkar sounded as weak as water with his; ‘I hope this is a one-off and that it doesn’t represent a change of policy’. Ach Taoiseach. Surely you can do better than that! This is ...

A failure of leadership The Irish government’s two year term on the UN Security Council is at an end. Micheál Martin, now Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs claimed last week that the government had “ achieved some real and tangible results." As evidence of this he pointed to the UN role in providing humanitarian aid in Syria and challenging Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. However welcome the Irish government’s role was in addressing these matters the reality is that its time on the Security Council failed to match the ambitious targets it set two years ago. Its most obvious failure has been in providing leadership against Israel’s apartheid policies toward the Palestinian people. In recent months Israeli actions have resulted in hundreds of Palestinian deaths, especially of children. Last week the new Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, announced further measures against Palestinians. This followed the Palestinian Authority’s success in getting the UN t...

A rights based society will benefit all of us 2022 was an interesting year politically. Particularly around the changing attitudes about the relationship between the different parts of the ‘United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland’. Methinks 2023 will be just as interesting.  But for all the positive shifts in public opinion on the constitutional future for the people of this island there is still an embedded awfulness about the plight of homeless people, the poor and disadvantaged. This is no accident.  A government in Dublin wedded to policies which advantage their friends in high places has made little impression on the crisis in public services, especially the health services and the lack of affordable housing. Partition and the absence of a real national democracy have perpetuated this imbalance.  Thank God for those brave souls who struggle within our public services to mind the sick and elderly who depend on these services. They deserve...