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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 monogamous.
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 shoots. Some will be happy
for years in a pot as long as you keep upsizing the pot in keeping with the
size of your tree. But I appreciate that not all of us can have our own tree on
our own patch of earth. So it’s
good if you can but not the end of your relationship with trees if you
can’t.
The main
thing is to be aware of them. Even on its own a tree can make the
landscape. At this time of the year many decidious trees are bare. No
leaves. Except for the mighty Beech. But there is a beauty in these
skeletal growing things standing proud against the skyline and stretching their
limbs heavenwards, secure in the knowledge that soon they will be clothed in
green leaves.
I love the
expectancy and promise of Irish winters. Yes it can be dark and downcast
and dismal outdoors but it won’t
last long. Be sure of that. There is already a grand stretch in the evenings.
And it’s
still January. Look at our hedges or the tree lined motorways.
Now they are stark and naked. But in a month or so they will start to
change. Wee buds will emerge. Then before we know it boughs will be in full
leaf. Trees are home to our squirrels and other little animals.
Soon they will emerge from hibernation.
Trees are
home also for our birds. Our landscapes will once again be green and alive
with lush emerald colours and alive with the chitter and chatter and music of
birds.
Enjoy the
Winter. It too will pass. Soon it will be Spring.
I am
minded of the optimistic words of Ho Chi Minh.
‘Without the cold
And desolation of Winter.
There could not be the warmth
And splendour of Spring.’
This is the
season for planting trees. Any month with an ‘r’ for bare rooted saplings. Or
any month for pot grown yokes. Wee whips won’t need stakes. Bigger ones will. Avoid the frost of
course. And plant native trees. They will encourage native insects,bugs and
other creepy crawlies and these will sustain native birds. And other animals.
As well as playing constructive roles in the natural world.
I prefer
decidious trees to conifers. We have too many conifers. Dark, light
blocking,unchanging blanket plantations. Decidious are more interesting. Native
species are essential for our natural world. We need more of them.
Everywhere.
Trees will
provide homes and food for bees and butterflies or flutterbys as I and the
little people in my life call them. Trees clean the air. A walk among trees is
good for us. A solitary tree is a thing of beauty. Be friends with
it. A hug is very therapeutic. G’wan hug a tree. Nobody is looking.
The tree won’t
tell on you. And you will feel better.
‘THERE IS NOTHING GREATER THAN FREEDOM'
Martin
Luther King’s birthday is on 15 January. Each year since 1986 the USA has
celebrated the life and legacy of King with a national public holiday.
In 2001 I had the good fortune
to visit Atlanta in Georgia where Martin Luther King was born and where he
spent much of his life preaching. Atlanta was at the heart of the Civil Rights
struggle and I had the opportunity to sit quietly in Ebenezer Baptist Church
where he preached his first sermon at the age of 17.
A short distance away is the
King Centre with its impressive Visitors Centre and Dr King’s tomb. He was shot
and killed in April 1968. Coretta King is buried next to her husband. Like him
she was a dedicated champion of civil rights for over 40 years and after her
husband’s death Coretta carried on the campaign for equality and justice right
up until her death.
I took the time with
Larry Downes, who was then President of Friends of Sinn Féin, and Ted Sullivan
from Atlanta to pay our respects and lay a wreath.
Dr King was a visionary leader
but he wasn’t naïve. In August 1967, just seven months before his murder, King
said: “I must confess, my friends that the road ahead will not
always be smooth. There will still be rocky places of frustration and
meandering points of bewilderment. But difficult and painful as it is we must
walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future.”
60 years later his efforts and
those of millions of others have brought about enormous change in American
society but intolerance, racism and inequality still exist. The work is not
finished.
Similarly,
in the 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement there have been many positive
and fundamental changes in the North. Ireland today is in a process of
transition. A lot of the old conservative influences have been weakened and
progress has been made. But it is equally clear that there is still huge
resistance to change. So, our task is to get the job done. To finish the
journey. To have faith in the future and in our ability to build a new, shared
Ireland.
As Martin
Luther King said in 1956: “There is nothing in all of the world greater than
freedom.” He was right.
THE DEMOCRATIC PROGRAMME OF THE FIRST DÁIL
21 January 1919 was a day of firsts. It was
the day the first shots were fired in the Tan War at Soloheadbeg. It was the
first day those TDs elected in the December 1918 election met in the Mansion
House as the first Dáil Éireann. And it was also the first ever democratically
elected Parliament in Ireland. Lá stairiúil a bhí ann.
The First Dáil was the moment
the Irish people democratically asserted our desire for sovereignty from the
British Empire. Just over a century later of the three texts presented to the
Dáil that day the Democratic Programme is as relevant today as it was then.
Reflecting
the language of the Proclamation of 1916 the Democratic Programme
declared “the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of
Ireland” and called on the Government of the
Republic “to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual
well-being of the children, to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold
from lack of food, clothing, or shelter, but that all shall be provided with
the means and facilities requisite for their proper education and training as
Citizens …” And to “safeguard the health of the people.”
100
years later and none of this has been achieved. In the South over 3,000
children are homeless. There is a health crisis clearly evident in the
appalling scenes in hospital emergency departments and a housing crisis that
the FFFGers refuse to tackle.
It’s
time to deliver the promise of the Democratic Programme. That means ending
partition and building the new Ireland.
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