Sunday, October 09, 2022

Salute to Che Guevara


Che Guevara

Once again... October 9 2022 marks the anniversary of the fall in combat of Ernesto Che Guevara, freedom fighter and legendary guerilla born: June 14, 1928, Rosario, Argentina.

His father Ernest Guevara Lynch said "The first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels", he said in a 1969 interview. He went on: "Che inherited some of the features of our restless ancestors. There was something in his nature which drew him to distant wandering, dangerous adventures and new ideas".



As an Irishman I must again reiterate my immense pride in the fact that Che Guevara has family connections with Ireland.

a toast to Che... y hasta siempre

Friday, October 15, 2021

Allie and Daisy

 It is so interesting and encouraging to look at what is happening in creative space and in terms of artists - none more so than Allie Sherlock.

With 5m+ subscribers she has more right to speak for Ireland (than many) and so should be appointed our creative Ambassador (and paid by the Govt of Ireland - tighten up now Govt, get into the digital domain ffs)

Over the years I've seen her move from better to great and now to fantastic, so professional so polished... 

I was so impressed with Allie giving space to Daisy a lock of days ago... and so impressed with Daisy - fair play to ya Daisy :-) 

..the Allie Sherlocks channel

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

What You Can Do for Palestine

 IPSC “Irish Artists’ Pledge to Boycott Israel”

In August 2010 the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) launched the following pledge, initially signed by over 140 (now over 1,200) Irish creative and performing artists, whereby they undertake to boycott the Israeli state under present circumstances:

“In response to the call from Palestinian civil society for a cultural boycott of Israel, we pledge not to avail of any invitation to perform or exhibit in Israel, nor to accept any funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.” – See the full list of signatories here.
http://www.ipsc.ie/cultural-boycott/ipsc-irish-artists-pledge-to-boycott-israel#1

I call on all Irish artists to stand up and be counted!

Furthermore if you could find the time to visit https://www.ipsc.ie/
one particular area of concern is collaboration of An Garda Síochána and PSNI with the notorious Israeli Ministry of Public Security.

I'd ask everyone to follow the process outlined on IPSC to declare their opposition to any engagement with the notorious Israeli Ministry of Public Security. The letter is prepared so it is two clicks.

https://www.ipsc.ie/action-item/stop-gardai-psni-collaboration-with-israels-ministry-of-death-torture-and-racism


 'If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.'
Albert Einstein

...and for those of you who say it is nothing to do with me have a look at the images of the dead children in Gaza and everywhere else in Palestine where children and mothers and fathers are being killed indiscriminately.

Go go look in the mirror and tell yourself you are doing the right thing by doing nothing.,
go look at your children sleeping peacefully in their beds not spread around different houses to avoid the entire family being wiped out. 

You tell yourself whatever you think is right and proper and correct and I hope you have a good sleep on it....


I saw a man 

carrying his child 

out of the shop

here in Aughnacloy

it was alive..

:-(

Sunday, June 03, 2018

Remember her name: Razan al-Najjar, murdered by an Israeli sniper. #Gaza

We as a nation, the Irish, must remove the israeli from our land... we must...




Razan's mother, Sabreen Najjar:

"She was deliberately and directly killed by an explosive bullet..."I wish I could have seen her in her white wedding dress, not her shroud."





Friday, December 15, 2017

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

a really good friend the famous ET Gallagher says take no prisoners... and this is very Tyrone.. nonetheless as I get older I am more impressed by his brand of tolerance...

In this context then we must look at the Pale, The Pale | An Pháil | An Pháil Shasanach 


They are long conquered and it is reflected in everything they say and do
in truth we have nothing in common with them...

..but sure whatever they like, believe or not

this is my introduction for something beyond the Pale...
(it's the best I can do while the British have anything to do with Ireland...and all of Dublin are siting on their fat chairs complacent, complaining but not campaigning.. welcome to Ireland and the contradictions that abound on every turn in the crooked road...

without further ado / to do 


The Beauty Queen of Leenane






.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

"What is an American?"



In this era of Donald Trump and the changes that will follow my American friends may find it interesting to read the letters of J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur and particularly his Letter III published in 1782:

"What is an American?"

Jean de Crèvecœur, naturalized in New York as John Hector St. John, was a French-American writer. He was born in Caen, Normandy, France, to the Comte and Comtesse de Crèvecœur. Wikipedia






The University of Virginia have the full text of Letter III (& all his letters)

The New Republic published a commentary in 2013

Herewith a small extract;-

"Formerly they were not numbered in any civil lists of their country, except in those of the poor; here they rank as citizens. By what invisible power has this surprising metamorphosis been performed? By that of the laws and that of their industry. The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption; they receive ample rewards for their labours; these accumulated rewards procure them lands; those lands confer on them the title of freemen, and to that title every benefit is affixed which men can possibly require. This is the great operation daily performed by our laws.

From whence proceed these laws? From our government. Whence the government? It is derived from the original genius and strong desire of the people ratified and confirmed by the crown. This is the great chain which links us all, this is the picture which every province exhibits, Nova Scotia excepted. There the crown has done all; either there were no people who had genius, or it was not much attended to: the consequence is, that the province is very thinly inhabited indeed; the power of the crown in conjunction with the musketos has prevented men from settling there. Yet some parts of it flourished once, and it contained a mild harmless set of people. But for the fault of a few leaders, the whole were banished. The greatest political error the crown ever committed in America, was to cut off men from a country which wanted nothing but men!

What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his country is now that which gives him land, bread, protection, and consequence: Ubi panis ibi patria, (Where there is bread, there is (my) country" (or home, or homeland))  is the motto of all emigrants. What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.

He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry which began long since in the east; they will finish the great circle. The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born.

Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all; without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord. "