James O'Brien's Posts - The Wild Geese
2024-03-29T11:36:34Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
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Production Team Moves From Easter Rising to 'Snow Falls'
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2017-01-23:6442157:BlogPost:211712
2017-01-23T01:30:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84719866?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" height="350" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84719866?profile=original" width="512"></img></a></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">O</span>ne of the many events held during 2016 to honour those who took part in the Easter Rising</strong> 100 years before was a stage play <i>From the Backbone Out,</i> which told the story of Richard O’Carroll, a labour leader and a member of the Irish Volunteers.</p>
<p>O’Carroll who…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84719866?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84719866?profile=original" class="align-center" width="512" height="350"/></a></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">O</span>ne of the many events held during 2016 to honour those who took part in the Easter Rising</strong> 100 years before was a stage play <i>From the Backbone Out,</i> which told the story of Richard O’Carroll, a labour leader and a member of the Irish Volunteers.</p>
<p>O’Carroll who commanded an outpost in Camden Street, was fatally shot after he was captured by the infamous Captain Bowen-Colthurst, who the same day would murder the pacifist, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and two journalists.</p>
<p>When they came face to face, Bowen-Colthurst asked O’Carroll if he was a “Shinner’? O’Carroll’s response was unequivocal, he replied, "From the backbone out!” Hence the title of the play, which premiered in Dublin’s Liberty Hall to a packed audience of 400 people in April. The play is the work of two young Dublin men -- Alan O’Brien and Patrick Ferris --and marked their debut into playwriting.</p>
<p>Alan is a poet, writer and part-time actor and has won a Slam Sunday event, as well as being shortlisted for the Maeve Binchey Travel Award in 2015. Co-writer Patrick Ferris has a degree in history and classics and has written "as far back as he can recall."</p>
<p>Now this dynamic duo has written (Alan) and directed (Patrick) an award-winning radio play <i>Snow Falls and So Do We.</i> Winner of the P. J. O’Connor Award 2016 (RTE), the play has been independently produced for the Internet. It has received wide acclaim, described by one listener as “Very Beckett. Kept me totally enthralled.” Other comments can be viewed on the link below.</p>
<p><b>Link to the play on Soundcloud:</b> <b><a href="https://soundcloud.com/greenember/snow-falls-and-so-do-we">https://soundcloud.com/greenember/snow-falls-and-so-do-we</a></b> </p>
The Push for 'Republic Day'
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2016-07-07:6442157:BlogPost:194650
2016-07-07T08:00:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717697?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717697?profile=original" width="518"></img></a></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">J</span>ohn Steinbeck, who had an Irish mother, once wrote that every good Irishman goes back once</strong>. This Irishman must confess that he's been back more than once in the many years since he first left for Australia. But it took 13 years before I could make the first trip, and it…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717697?profile=original"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717697?profile=original" width="518"/></a></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-5">J</span>ohn Steinbeck, who had an Irish mother, once wrote that every good Irishman goes back once</strong>. This Irishman must confess that he's been back more than once in the many years since he first left for Australia. But it took 13 years before I could make the first trip, and it is 19 years since I had last set foot on the auld sod in 1997.</p>
<p>Appalled by what I found then with the excesses of the Celtic Tiger and the unthinking and unreasoned embrace being given to unbridled capitalism, I was never anxious to return until this year. This year, on the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, there was a personal reason that I should return. My grand-uncle William O'Brien, aged 18 years, was a member of the Boland's Mill garrison during that fateful week.</p>
<p><em>Above, the colour party assembled by the grave of William O'Brien, December, 12, 2015</em></p>
<p>Last year, thanks to my nephew Liam O’Briain, a headstone was erected on William’s grave at Dean’s Grange Cemetery in the south of Dublin. Although William had died in 1939, the dispersion of his family had meant that no one had taken the trouble to mark his grave during all those years. And so, in December last year on a cold wet Saturday morning, members of the family and the National Graves Association marched behind a colour party and a lone piper to unveil a small headstone as a tribute to a rebel.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717732?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="221" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84717732?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="221" class="align-right"/></a> On April 24 this year, exactly 100 years since he and 1,700 comrades made a stand against the might of the British Empire, I stood beside that headstone and reflected on William and his comrades who had challenged one of the greatest empires in the world at that time. I reflected on the fact that in the land that he had fought for, all his family could afford at the time of his death was to inter him in a shared grave. Great care was taken to ensure the names of those others who are buried with him are named on the headstone. We know that would have been his wish. </p>
<p>In 1939, the year William had died, as in 1914, war had again broken out in Europe. But this time there would not be enormous recruitment or encouragement to join the British forces.</p>
<p><em>Above, the author at the headstone of his grand-uncle William O'Brien, April 24, 2016</em></p>
<p>Although ‘economic conscription’ was still very much a factor in Ireland, there was little ‘neutrality’ for those without a job who would find themselves working in munitions factories in Britain or fighting as members of the British forces. </p>
<p>Press reports of the funeral tell how the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, was there to show his respect for my grand-uncle, one of the men he had commanded, and that “more than two-hundred-and–fifty 1916 men marched behind the hearse” as it made its way to the cemetery. Many of those in the procession had been his comrades, together with surviving members of other garrisons that knew of his work in Cumann Oglaigh na Casca (Associated Easter Week Men). William O’Brien was a member of the Executive Council and took an active part in the interests of the unemployed members of the Cumann.</p>
<p>Historical accounts say that William, aged 18, was chosen to carry the green flag emblazoned with a gold harp that would be proudly flown above the mills during the fighting. He would maintain his faith in the Republic for the rest of his life. He also took part in the Black and Tan War and his home was raided on several occasions by the British forces.</p>
<p>When Fianna Fail came to power in 1932, William, like many others, had hoped that this would bring change to the <i>gombeen</i>-ridden country that the 26 counties had become since the Free State’s formation in 1922. In its early days, Fianna Fail had offered that hope of change to the “plain people” of Ireland. But that was many years before Charlie and Bertie had converted that party to their own image and likeness. </p>
<p>As I stood by the headstone, I reflected on the fact that William had been one of those lucky enough to survive the War of Independence and the Civil War and had at least had the privilege to die and be buried in Dublin. Many others had struggled for Irish freedom only to find themselves scattered throughout the world, often in the slums of London, Manchester, New York, Chicago and Sydney or Melbourne. Such were my thoughts as I paid my respects.</p>
<p align="center"> <b>Remember, Reflect, Reimagine</b></p>
<p align="center"><b><a href="https://theirishrepublic.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/our-street.jpg?w=760" target="_blank"><img src="https://theirishrepublic.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/our-street.jpg?w=760&width=221" width="221" class="align-right"/></a></b></p>
<p>The other purpose of my visit was less personal. This was to attend the Citizens’ Commemoration Ceremony in O’Connell Street in Dublin. On this — the Rising’s launch date by the secular calendar (April 24) — a “Reclaim the Vision of 1916” event was held, which interspersed re-enactments and historical readings with rousing speeches. The title came from a “citizens’ initiative,” which had been established in 2015 with the support of some relatives of the 1916 leaders. The concept and date of choice was not that new, however. In the demand to make April 24 ‘Republic Day,’ demonstrations had been organised by a group of academics, writers, artists, actors, journalists and trade unionists to commemorate the Rising then as far back as 2010. </p>
<p><em>Above, a picture of the Citizens' Ceremony, courtesy of <a href="https://theirishrepublic.wordpress.com" target="_blank">The Irish Republic</a> blog, April 24, 2016</em></p>
<p>All believe that April 24 should be declared Republic Day. Just as July 4 is Independence Day in the USA and Bastille Day, July 14 is a day of national celebration in France. The ludicrous commemoration of the rising at Easter, which is a moveable liturgical feast, has meant that this year there has been a gap of almost 50 days between April 24, 1916, the date of when the Proclamation of the Republic was declared and the execution of James Connolly, the last of the leaders to die, on May 12.</p>
<p>Gradually their efforts have gained more attention, and this year, in conjunction with the National Graves Association, a rally attended by over 50,000 citizens preceded a parade to Glasnevin Cemetery to rededicate a refurbished memorial to the rank-and-file men and women of Easter Week. From across the world, the ‘Wild Geese’ came in their thousands, with over 20 of their own bands to lead them. This stood in stark contrast to the government’s largely unsuccessful 2013 event, dubbed “The Gathering” in a cynical effort to encourage Irish expatriates to return on a holiday to boost the economy. (Details of the event can be seen on the blog site: <a href="https://theirishrepublic.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">The Irish Republic</a>.)</p>
<p>On my arrival in Dublin a week prior, I noticed the tricolour flag and the <i>starry plough</i> — the flag of the Irish Citizen Army in 1916 — were proudly flying on every lamppost on the way from the airport. As one who remembered well the low-key celebrations on the 50th anniversary in 1966, I asked my friend who was driving, if he thought this was part of a move to “reclaim” the vision of 1916.</p>
<p>“Perhaps. Though it's too early to tell,” he said. “But things are slowly changing, and it looks as though the two main parties are deadlocked after the inconclusive general election in February. People have seen through their pretense of being different.</p>
<p>"Sinn Fein, the independents and many women candidates offered an alternative to the policies of the conservative parties and that’s where the real opposition can now be found.” </p>
<p>This makes that opposition’s 2016 political agenda -- whose overarching themes are “remember, reflect, re-imagine” – all the more relevant. </p>
<p>On April 29, party negotiators (the “cute hoors,” as some call them) for the two main parties reached a three-year "confidence and supply" deal, allowing the formation of a new Fine Gael-Independent cabinet through a de facto relationship with Fianna Fail. An arrangement that has led some to refer to the “civil war” parties as “Fianna Gael.” Even so, Ireland’s politics are very much in a state of flux. In the February election, voters put the system on notice and an independent source says, “Reform of leading institutions, including both houses of the Dáil, is overdue, while the social impact of the debt crisis remains acutely painful.”* Meanwhile, a lack of accountability and opportunity drives many to despair, or to emigrate. </p>
<p>Those who are part of the Diaspora may not be able to influence the politics of the country to any great extent. But the push to make April 24 “Republic Day” is something we can and should support.</p>
<p> * <i>Inside Story:</i> Swinburne Institute for Social Research</p>
<p> </p>
'Jimmy’s Hall': Why This Remarkable History -- and Film -- Matter
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-09-11:6442157:BlogPost:169837
2015-09-11T00:00:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><b><i><span class="font-size-5"><a href="http://www.ucd.ie/news/dec05/devalera_slideshow/slideshow_22.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="http://www.ucd.ie/news/dec05/devalera_slideshow/slideshow_22.jpg" style="padding: 2px;"></img></a></span></i> <span class="font-size-5">I</span>t's almost like looking in the mirror.</b></p>
<p>High unemployment, mass emigration of the young and problems affecting health and education services are as current today as they were in the first decade of Irish independence, the period that informs the narrative of Ken Loach's newest film, "Jimmy's…</p>
<p><b><i><span class="font-size-5"><a href="http://www.ucd.ie/news/dec05/devalera_slideshow/slideshow_22.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.ucd.ie/news/dec05/devalera_slideshow/slideshow_22.jpg" class="align-right" style="padding: 2px;"/></a></span></i><span class="font-size-5">I</span>t's almost like looking in the mirror.</b></p>
<p>High unemployment, mass emigration of the young and problems affecting health and education services are as current today as they were in the first decade of Irish independence, the period that informs the narrative of Ken Loach's newest film, "Jimmy's Hall."</p>
<p>The film, Loach's third to deal with the legacy of British imperialism on Ireland, throws the turmoil of modern-day Ireland into sharp historical focus, almost frighteningly so. </p>
<p>The story is focused on the Leitrim-born socialist Jimmy Gralton, the only Irish citizen ever deported from Ireland. The film depicts life in Ireland 10 years after the formation of the Irish Free State and deals with difficult subjects, but, we believe, it will help the people of Ireland better confront their history since gaining a qualified form of independence. The political and social climate that evolved after the Civil War indeed formed the Ireland of today.</p>
<p><em>Pictured, newly elected Taoiseach Eamon de Valera with John Charles McQuaid and Papal Nuncio Paschal Robinson, during the Eucharistic Congress, 1932. Eamon de Valera Archive, University College Dublin</em></p>
<p><b><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/jimmy-s-hall-where-anything-goes-and-everyone-belongs-current-us" target="_self">WHERE 'JIMMY'S HALL' IS NOW PLAYING</a></b></p>
<p>At the end of the Civil War, the man that had been largely responsible for that war, Eamon de Valera, gave the order to his followers to “Lay down arms." And so the fight was finished for many who had fought to maintain a viable republic based on the principles of the Proclamation of 1916, as well as the democratic program of the First Dail in 1919. But for many of those of rural and working-class backgrounds, who had been the backbone of the struggle for independence, there remained a battle to settle many unresolved social and agrarian issues.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84713477?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="375" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84713477?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="375" class="align-left" style="padding: 2px;"/></a>The Proclamation of the Republic at Easter 1916 had promised ‘equal rights and equal opportunities for all its citizens.’ But this worthy ambition was lost in the madness of the Civil War. The 1919 Declaration of Independence in the first Dail stated<i>: “We declare that the Nation’s sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation’s soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation, and we reaffirm that all right to private property must be subordinated to the public right and welfare.”</i></p>
<p><i>Pictured, in this scene from "Jimmy's Hall," Jimmy Gralton's fictional flame Oonagh (Clare-born Simone Kirby) fights back against the petit-minded, priest-bidden lackies destined to hold Ireland back for decades to come.</i></p>
<p>These were the aims and ideals that inspired men like Gralton. Land on the family’s farm was used for the construction of a Pearse-Connolly memorial hall, built with voluntary labour and used as a community centre and for educational classes. The committee that ran the hall consisted of republicans, trade unionists and small farmers. During the struggle for the Republic, it was also used for Sinn Fein courts, where a local land committee settled land disputes.</p>
<p>But after the treaty Gralton’s activities were regarded with hostility by the new Free State army, which imprisoned him for a short period for taking forcible possession of a disputed farm. When the Civil War broke out, Gralton, like many more disillusioned fighters, left Ireland for America and other parts of the world. The first 10 years of independence saw Ireland run by "an oppressive native gombeen ascendency buttressed by the Roman Catholic Church," in the words of Tomas Mac Siomoin, in the introduction to the 2013 release of Liam O'Flaherty's once-banned novel "The House of Gold."</p>
<p>When Gralton returned to Ireland in 1932, he, like many others, had hopes that the newly elected government of Fianna Fail would improve the lot of the small farmers -- and workers in general. He joined Fianna Fail and urged the party to create employment in local areas, but was soon expelled because of his radical beliefs.</p>
<blockquote><p><span class="font-size-4">The first 10 years of independence saw Ireland run by ‘an oppressive native gombeen ascendency buttressed by the Roman Catholic Church.'</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1923, in the 26 counties at the end of the Civil War, those with vested interests -- political, economic and religious -- took control of the governing of the Free State.</p>
<p>If the North had a ‘Protestant Government for a Protestant People,' as most in the 32 counties believed, the true beneficiary of ‘independence’ in the South was the Roman Catholic Church. Obscurantist and ultramontane Catholicism would dominate political, educational, social and cultural issues in the new state.</p>
<p>Free State politics became the preserve of the conservatives. The successors to Michael Collins became the Fine Gael (Tribes of Ireland) party, and, in 1926, Collins’s opponent Eamon de Valera set up the Fianna Fail (Warriors of Destiny) party -- both conservative to ultra-conservative in ideology. The small Irish Labour Party recoiled from using the term ‘socialist’ in its charter for fear of being branded ‘communist’ and thereby incurring the wrath of the pulpit. Later, there was de Valera’s Roman Catholic ‘fiefdom’ and a ‘privileged position’ for the Catholic religion (1937) as part of the state apparatus.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cairogang.com/ira-men/o'malley/Ernestomalley.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.cairogang.com/ira-men/o'malley/Ernestomalley.jpg?width=300" width="300" class="align-right"/></a></p>
<p>Ten years after the death of Collins, de Valera became Taoiseach (Prime Minister). One of his first acts was to inform the directors of the Abbey Theatre that plays by Synge and O’Casey would damage the ‘good name of Ireland.’ From 1932 until 1948, Fianna Fail under de Valera ruled without a break. It was conservative in social and economic policies and had the fullest support, sanction and complicity of the orthodox Catholic Church of the time. Dissenters throughout the country were notably scarce or silent. Intellectualism was suspect and liberalism was equated with ‘communism.’</p>
<p><em>Pictured, 'IRA's intellectual' Ernie O'Malley, who said of Ireland in 1940 'There is no art, no library worth a small curse, no one who writes or paints near to you: very few people who read.”</em></p>
<p>Even those with a genuine love for rural Ireland like guerrilla leader Ernie O’Malley found the conditions that prevailed frustrating and hard to tolerate. In 1940, he wrote of the need to be “very intellectually self-supporting in order to live in the Irish countryside. ... There is no art, no library worth a small curse, no one who writes or paints near to you: very few people who read.” His American wife, Helen, wrote even more scathingly, “I don’t believe life in medieval Russia could be any harder than it is in Ireland in 1943," adding that she could well understand “why the average person with any ability leaves.”</p>
<p>And while there can be no justification for the way Gralton was treated and then hunted down and deported, perhaps in some ways he was better off. Even in the Depression years of 1930s America, he was still free to read, to sing and to dance. After all real freedom is having a choice.<b> </b></p>
<p><b> <strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/learn-more-about-sixteen-film-s-jimmy-s-hall" target="_self">LEARN MORE ABOUT SIXTEEN FILMS' 'JIMMY'S HALL'</a></strong></b></p>
Roscommon Poet Becomes Bard for 100,000 Aussie Workers
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-07-31:6442157:BlogPost:166510
2015-07-31T10:00:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><b><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712990?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712990?profile=RESIZE_320x320" style="padding: 10px;" width="250"></img></a> Songs of the Snowy Mountains: </b><b>The Settlers (</b><b>Editor: Shannon O’Boyle)</b></p>
<p><b>Reviewer: J.A. O’Brien</b></p>
<p><b><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Summary:</span> </b><i>Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers</i> represents an important new contribution to the history of Australian folk music and to Australian folklore. The new…</p>
<p><b><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712990?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="250" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84712990?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Songs of the Snowy Mountains: </b><b>The Settlers (</b><b>Editor: Shannon O’Boyle)</b></p>
<p><b>Reviewer: J.A. O’Brien</b></p>
<p><b><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Summary:</span> </b><i>Songs of the Snowy Mountains: The Settlers</i> represents an important new contribution to the history of Australian folk music and to Australian folklore. The new book<i> </i>tells the story of Ulick O’Boyle, a prolific writer of songs, poems and ballads. Compiled and edited by his daughter Shannon O’Boyle, the handsome book tells the history of the man and his times and includes pages of the words and music of 24 songs, with a superb collage of photographs.</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 21.3333339691162px;">A</span>ustralia's huge Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme</strong> was started in 1949 and completed in 1974. Covering more than 5,000 square kilometres, it has been described as ‘one of the modern wonders of the world’ -- there is only 2 percent of the massive engineering project above the ground . It was an enormous undertaking that would change not only the landscape of the Snowy Mountains but the very culture of Australia forever.</p>
<p>During its construction, more than 100,000 people from 30 different countries, including Australians, worked on its 90 miles of tunnels, drilled and blasted through granite rock. Towns were moved to new sites or submerged beneath 16 large dams. Seven power stations, two of which were underground, together with a pumping station, were all part of the infrastructure. The project diverted the waters of the Murrumbidgee, the Snowy and the Tumut rivers, to provide irrigation water west of the Great Dividing Range, and to generate hydro-electric power for use in New South Wales, Victoria and the national capital, Canberra.</p>
<p>Into this feverish activity in 1962, came a young Irishman, Ulick O’Boyle, from County Roscommon, finding employment as a concrete worker. During the five years he worked on the scheme, O’Boyle observed the interaction of people from many nationalities that lived in the construction camps and nearby small towns. Working and living together in the freezing cold or stifling heat of the capricious mountain climate, these ‘New Australians’ forged a vibrant multiculturalism.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84713123?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84713123?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>O’Boyle was a very talented man, with the heart and mind of a poet. In poem, ballad and song, he wrote his impressions of the places, the people, and the work that was being done. His fellow settler Paul Davey says, “Ulick captured the atmosphere of the life of Snowy workers, the diverse nationalities, the loves and heartaches, the dangers and terrors, the comedies and tragedies.”</p>
<p>To perform the songs he had written, together with his wife, Anne Rutherford, and a fellow worker, Peter Barry (pictured, left to right<span class="font-size-2">: O'Boyle, Rutherford and Barry</span>), they formed a group, named The Immigrants, that later became The Settlers. They released their first album on the RCA label in 1966, followed by five more over the next 30 years.</p>
<p>The songs tell the stories of <i>The Big Construction Game</i>, the fate of <i>The Dozer Driver</i> <i>Man (</i>Olaf) and the tragedy of <i>The Ballad of Big Pedro</i>. Interspersed with these gripping tales of the lives of workers are songs of young love, <i>Old Talbingo</i> and the pain of parting (and renewing) <i>Winter Back in My Heart.</i> Then a change of mood to the ‘colour, life and laughter’ of the times with <i>The Cooma Cavaliers, The Thredbo Slop</i> and <i>Friday Night – Long Weekend.</i></p>
<p>But O’Boyle reminds us of the price of progress with touching songs and poems like <i>Jindabyne Farewell</i> (one of the old towns submerged) and <i>Jack Bridle’s Farewell</i> to a way of life on the land. A well-informed man, he comments on life and social issues with wry humour in <i>Long Gone Pom</i> and <i>Dear Hoffman</i> and poignantly in <i>Paddy</i> <i>Went Home in the Rain</i>, <i>Young Jack Frost -- Texan</i> and <i>Hard Rock Drilling -- I’ve Done It</i>. There are 24 songs on a CD that comes with the book, or it can be purchased separately.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84713140?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="250" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84713140?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="250" class="align-left" style="padding: 10px;"/></a>Ably accompanied by Anne Rutherford, Peter Barry and, later, Paul Davey, O’Boyle’s instrumental skills match his lyrics to perfection. Behind it all is the admiration he felt for those who came together from so many countries to build the wondrous Snowy Mountains scheme. The last lines from the song <i>1949</i> say it all:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><i>There is something of value left behind</i></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><i>When you come from the breed of the building kind</i></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">That built and worked and made the Snowy Scheme</p>
<p>His daughter, Shannon (pictured, with her father), has made a fitting tribute to her father and has ensured due recognition of a man who in the words of Paul Davey, “will stand in history as one of Australia’s foremost song writers and balladeers.” Ulick O’Boyle’s songs and ballads have become part of the Snowy legend and as such are a significant contribution to the story of Australia. Click on <a href="http://www.songsofthesnowy.com.au/">www.songsofthesnowy.com.au</a> for the full story.</p>
<p><i>Photographs are courtesy of Shannon O’Boyle.</i> </p>
'A Dirty Mind,' Mr. Joyce? -- A Tale of Repression and Redemption
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-07-12:6442157:BlogPost:161927
2015-07-12T02:00:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><a href="http://c2.bibtopia.com/h/585/043/777043585.0.m.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="http://c2.bibtopia.com/h/585/043/777043585.0.m.jpg?width=250" width="250"></img></a> <strong><span class="font-size-5">“A</span> nice thing to find</strong> in one of the largest bookshops in the city. And in one of the main streets of Dublin, no less.”</p>
<p>Dan slammed the book on the manager’s desk.</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy looked at the book. “My good man, there is no way we would have that book for sale,” he said.</p>
<p>“It was with the Greek literature. Any young student could have…</p>
<p><a href="http://c2.bibtopia.com/h/585/043/777043585.0.m.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://c2.bibtopia.com/h/585/043/777043585.0.m.jpg?width=250" width="250" class="align-right"/></a><strong><span class="font-size-5">“A</span> nice thing to find</strong> in one of the largest bookshops in the city. And in one of the main streets of Dublin, no less.”</p>
<p>Dan slammed the book on the manager’s desk.</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy looked at the book. “My good man, there is no way we would have that book for sale,” he said.</p>
<p>“It was with the Greek literature. Any young student could have picked it out thinking it was by Homer,” Dan snorted. “Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. <i>Ulysses</i> indeed.”</p>
<p><em>Pictured, a 1922 edition of "Ulysses," published in London by Egoist Press. This edition was smuggled in various forms against the threat of discovery and pirated printings. Source: <a href="https://www.vialibri.net/552display_i/year_1922_0_846415.html" target="_blank">ViaLibri.Net</a></em></p>
<p> “I assure you there has been a mistake. We have never ever stocked that man Joyce's book in our store. We have very strict rules.” Mr. Molloy wiped sweat from his forehead.</p>
<p> "It's a banned book.” </p>
<p>Dan pointed to the notice that was prominently displayed around the shop and could be seen through the glass panel of the office. It read:</p>
<p align="center">“THERE ARE OVER 8,000 BOOKS BANNED IN IRELAND. IF BY CHANCE WE HAVE ONE ON DISPLAY,</p>
<p align="center">PLEASE INFORM US AND IT WILL BE DESTROYED.”</p>
<p>“So much for that, indeed,” Dan sneered. “Not only banned by our own Irish censors, but I believe it is on the Index, too.”</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy went white. “Not the Index. Oh my, God, not that." The Church's <i>Index of Forbidden Books</i> carried more weight than the censors' list so far as he was concerned.<i><br/></i></p>
<p>“The same.”</p>
<p>“A filthy piece of work. And it gets worse at the end. A married woman languishing in her bed recounting her escapades and indulging her fantasies. A disgusting soliloquy.” Dan said.</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy reached for the book. “As bad as that?” he asked.</p>
<p><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Joyce_oconnell_dublin.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Joyce_oconnell_dublin.jpg?width=250" width="250" class="align-left"/></a>Dan detected more eagerness than shock in his tone. “I’ll show you,” he said, and opened the book. “Forty-five pages.” He held the last chapter between his fingers.</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy licked his lips. He leaned forward as if to try to read the vertically held pages. </p>
<p>“Will I read some of it to you?” Dan asked.</p>
<p>“Yes. Yes, of course.”</p>
<p>Still holding the pages together, Dan turned to the last page of the chapter and read:</p>
<p><em>I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.</em></p>
<p>“My God,” Mr Molloy said. “What a wanton hussy! How could any man write it?”</p>
<p>Dan looked him in the eyes, “A dirty mind, Mr. Molloy?”</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy's eyes were wide, his breathing heavy. “Leave it with me then. I’ll burn it this very day. It shouldn't be held with the tongs.”</p>
<p>“Ah, now, I think that I had better take care of it. After all, you didn't even know it was on your shelf.”</p>
<p>“It's just that I wouldn’t want it to be an occasion of sin for any young man. You know what I mean.”</p>
<p><em>Pictured, the James Joyce Statue on North Earl Street, Dublin, dubbed "The prick with the stick" by many Dubliners. By Toniher; Marjorie FitzGibbon (the statue) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5</a>)], via Wikimedia Commons</em></p>
<p>“Or any young woman, for that matter,” Dan said, with just the right touch of innuendo.</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy flushed a bright red. He licked his lips again. “God forbid, and may He keep the women of Ireland pure,” he said. By now, he was almost panting.</p>
<p>“I’ll take care of it for you,” Dan said. “After all there is your reputation and that of your store to be considered. You supply most of the schools in the city. And it would never do for this to get out.”</p>
<p>Mr. Molloy sought to recover himself. “Perhaps we can come to some arrangement then."</p>
<p>Afterwards, Dan told his delighted friend Mick, “Brother, I got all the books the kids need at school this year. All free of charge. A very nice little deal, Mick. We can always benefit from the influence of the obscurants in this country.”</p>
<p>“Yeh, turned the tables there alright. But I’m glad you didn’t let him keep me book,” Mick laughed. “Brand new and smuggled across the border via Belfast. From one peculiar and closed society to another. Jaysus! The bould Joyce himself would be tickled pink at it all.”</p>
<p><i>This story is based on an incident that occurred in 1950s Dublin that involved two friends of our family. They did not live to see a statue of James Joyce erected close to where the bookshop with the sign once stood. Acknowledgments to the James Joyce Estate for the lines from Ulysses. ©</i></p>
Michael Collins: Saga of Heroism Against Daunting Odds
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-08-08:6442157:BlogPost:111606
2014-08-08T04:00:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706688?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706688?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>In his book "Ireland – A History," Robert Kee describes Collins thus:</p>
<blockquote><p>Of all the many rebel leaders to shine out of Irish history only one stands out as a really effective revolutionary: Michael Collins --- He took hold of a potentially revolutionary situation in Ireland and made it work.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Born in 1890 in County Cork, he…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706688?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706688?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>In his book "Ireland – A History," Robert Kee describes Collins thus:</p>
<blockquote><p>Of all the many rebel leaders to shine out of Irish history only one stands out as a really effective revolutionary: Michael Collins --- He took hold of a potentially revolutionary situation in Ireland and made it work.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Born in 1890 in County Cork, he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood while still in his teens and at the age of 26 took an active part in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. Fighting at the rebel headquarters in the GPO Collins watched as two brigades of reinforcements swelled the British ranks. And he wondered about the strategy of the rebels in seizing buildings and attempting to hold them against a tightening cordon of well-trained troops.</p>
<p>Heavily outnumbered and bombarded by artillery, the rebels held out for five-and-a-half days, but under pressure from the intense artillery fire and with much of the city in flames the order was given to ‘lay down arms.’</p>
<p>Although he had fought in the rebel headquarters at the GPO, Collins was regarded by the victorious British as being just one of the rank-and-file. Sixteen of the more prominent leaders were executed by firing squad. As the prisoners were being marched to board a ship to take them to gaols in England a fellow prisoner remarked to Collins, ‘Sure it was a good fight, Mick’ and got the terse reply, ‘What do you mean a good fight… we lost, didn’t we.’ Such was his mood as he joined hundreds of other rebels in a special prison camp at Frongoch in Wales.</p>
<p>There were men from nearly every county in Ireland in the camp and Collins put those who were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in charge of the huts and camp administration. At ‘Frongoch University’ classes were held on intelligence gathering, military tactics, and in particular, aspects of guerrilla warfare. Collins was determined never again to be caught in ‘an English duck shoot.’</p>
<p>When they were released in December 1916, Collins and his IRB cadres immediately made contact with those rebels who had managed to evade arrest. These Volunteers had kept a subversive network alive after the defeat at Easter and Collins used this basic undercover structure to mould Irish hearts and minds for a new fight for national independence.</p>
<p>In conjunction with the moderate Sinn Fein organisation, Collins and the ‘IRB machine’ won massive support in two by-elections in early 1917. In the first by-election they stood the father of the executed 1916 leader Joseph Plunkett and in the second a candidate who was still imprisoned in a British gaol. To cap it off, later in the year Eamon De Valera, whose death sentence had been commuted in 1916, won a huge victory in County Clare.</p>
<p>Collins used the IRB and the Volunteers relentlessly to change Irish public opinion away from the old Parliamentary Party. An IRB colleague, Thomas Ashe, was arrested for making a seditious speech and went on hunger strike. He died while being forcibly fed in gaol.</p>
<p>Ashe had taken part in the Easter Rising and Collins organised his funeral as a national demonstration. Volunteers with rifles flanked the coffin. At the graveside a firing party gave full military honours and Michael Collins in full Volunteer uniform gave a short oration. Declaring to the huge crowd, “That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make over the grave of a dead Fenian.”</p>
<p>When the British government tried to extend conscription to Ireland, resentment hardened among all shades of nationalists. On the promise that Ireland would have Home Rule at the end of the war more than 200,000 Irishmen had gone off to fight for the British Empire in Europe. They had gone as volunteers, not conscripts, to fight for ‘king and country.’</p>
<p>Now, Collins and the new movement rekindled the anti-war sentiments of the 1916 leaders and mass rallies were organised against conscription. The British abandoned the plan, but too late to stop another flow of sympathy to Sinn Fein.</p>
<p>December 1918 saw the first British general election for eight years. Women who were over 30 years could vote for the first time, as could all men over 21 years of age. Films of the time show Collins on the campaign trail, and there is no doubt about his energy and his charisma. Stories are told of the ‘laughing boy’ and his love of wrestling with anyone game enough to take him on.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706796?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="300" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706796?profile=RESIZE_320x320" class="align-left"/></a>Sinn Fein was primed and ready. Although De Valera was the leader, it was the Collins ‘machine’ that delivered victory. The Republican cells active since Easter Week, 1916, now achieved an overwhelming victory, with almost 75 per cent of seats going to Sinn Fein. The Sinn Fein candidates had stood on an ‘abstentionist’ ticket. In other words, they would refuse to take their seats in the British House of Parliament, and in 1919 they set up an underground government known as Dail Eireann.</p>
<p>Among those elected were Eamon De Valera, Michael Collins and Countess Constance Markievicz; the first woman to win a seat in a British General Election. But who as a Sinn Fein candidate took her seat in the revolutionary underground government. Many of those elected were still in gaol when the Dail met for the first time.</p>
<p>Collins was a natural leader, a dominant figure yet loved by those who worked with him. On the run with a price of 10,000 pounds on his head and often with a subscription for 50,000 pounds under his hat (he was Minister of Finance in the underground government) Collins directed and coordinated the Volunteers later to be known as the Irish Republican Army.</p>
<p>The scene was set for a confrontation. The British knew it was one thing for the Dail to declare an ‘independent republic’ -- it was another thing to win it against the might of the British Empire. A cat and mouse game developed.</p>
<p>On the Irish side, Collins was impatient. He knew that he had a potential revolutionary situation in his hands. And yet he could not see a way to force it. He said at one Sinn Fein meeting, “The sooner that fighting is forced and a general state of disorder created the better” and he added “the country would get more from it” than the position of stalemate that then existed. Neil Jordan, who directed a film on Collins, subscribes to that view, “How often has independence been achieved without bloodshed? Very rarely. They could never win a conventional war.” In an interview with Fiachra Gibbons in the <i>Guardian Weekly</i>, Jordan said, “Collins used force with great care, concentrating on the upper echelons of the establishment and the intelligence services that is why he was so effective.”</p>
<p>In response to the British tactic of burning down the nearest peasant cottage to the site of an ambush, Collins had the IRA retaliate by burning two mansions. This recognition of how to hurt the ruling class earned him the hatred of the House of Lords but it stopped the burning of the homes of the poor. He also understood that the real enemy was not the ordinary foot-slogging soldier and concentrated on eliminating agents and informers: the ‘eyes and ears’ of British intelligence in Ireland.</p>
<p>Guerrilla leader Ernie O’Malley has testified to Collins’s knack of having his finger on the pulse of things. O’Malley recalled being with Collins, when two officers of the IRA asked for more arms for their area. He reminded them that there was a particularly arrogant and sadistic Black and Tan officer in their area. “Go back there and shoot him and then I’ll get you more arms,” was his reply.</p>
<p><img width="300" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706906?profile=RESIZE_320x320" class="align-right"/></p>
<p>Latter day revisionists of Irish history claim there was no need for such killing or for physical force. Some baulk at the idea of the necessity of the carnage. But carnage was rampant in the Europe of the time. Four years of the ‘war to end wars’ had claimed the lives of millions of young men on the bloody quagmire battlefields of Europe.</p>
<p>Men who had been urged to ‘fight for the freedom of small nations’ had instead found themselves being slaughtered in the interests of imperialist empires. Influenced as much by what they had suffered in the gas fumes and mud of the trenches as by Fenian ideology, ex-soldiers and released rebels forged the militant arm of the independence movement.</p>
<p>After what they had been through and convinced their country was worthwhile, they would know the dignity of a different type of combat; guerrilla warfare, perfected by Michael Collins and the IRA. As Jordan has said, “All these young guys emerged from rural and working class backgrounds and they changed the whole politics of the country.” To any thinking man or woman that was very much the necessity of the times.</p>
<p>Collins was an inspiration to every anti-colonial movement in the twentieth century. Asian guerrilla leaders like Mao Zedong of China and General Vo Nguyen Giap of Vietnam claimed urban guerrilla warfare was transformed by the ‘Big Fellow’ from County Cork. Within 20 years of his death the guerrilla tactics he invented and employed were being used in France, Holland and other European countries against yet another empire builder. Later in the century Che Guevara and Nelson Mandela would adopt similar tactics.</p>
<p>His one tactical mistake was the event which made him realise it was time to compromise. In May 1921, the IRA seized the Dublin Customs House, which was then the administration centre for the British in Ireland, with the intention of burning it down. The attempt failed. Two IRA men were killed and 120 forced to surrender with the loss of valuable weapons to the British.</p>
<p>Although the IRA was still strong in the country; in Dublin, Collins had lost most of his best men. But both sides had reached a stalemate and within four weeks, in June 1921, an approach by British Prime Minister, Lloyd George set the scene for a truce.</p>
<p>In December 1921, a treaty was signed that set up an Irish Free State comprising 26 counties with six of the Ulster counties remaining under British control. Collins regarded the treaty as a ‘stepping stone’ to an eventual United Ireland. ‘Freedom to gain freedom,’ as he put it. Shortly after he had signed it he is reported to have said, “I have signed my death warrant.” Within nine months, he was dead.</p>
<p>News of his death in an ambush in his native County Cork shocked the country and the world. Republican anti-treaty prisoners in gaols under his government fell to their knees in prayerful mourning. Ireland would not know his like again. Brendan Behan, no lover of what the Free State became could still write <i>The Laughing Boy</i> a poem in honour of Collins:</p>
<blockquote><p>For all you did and would have done, my enemies to destroy,</p>
<p>I’ll praise your name and guard your fame, my own dear laughing boy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>‘And would have done’; surely raises the question of whether or not Collins could have ended the Civil War sooner had he lived and perhaps prevented the counter-revolution that destroyed the aims of the Republic. The tragedy for Ireland is that we will never ever know. Lesser men of all shades have tried to write him out of history. He has been denigrated in Britain, and even at times in Ireland over the years. This writer can remember it being frowned upon to mention him in republican circles in the 1950s. But what cannot be denied is the fact that Michael Collins beat the British in the guise they chose to adopt as the champion of small nations. It must be acknowledged that at the height of the British Empire, Collins had to gauge the measure of success. And that in less than three years of armed combat he had won the first independent Irish state in 700 years.</p>
<p>The Irish history revisionists are reluctant to admit that the Irish resistance was as valid as any against Hitler in World War II. Ireland’s struggle was old and long sustained throughout centuries of occupation. The Irish writer, Oliver St John Gogarty, has written:</p>
<blockquote><p>'Hundreds of Irishmen in every age were glad to put their necks in risk of England's halter and quick-lime. Collins alone pulled his generation out.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Michael Collins’s life is not merely a story of heroism against overwhelming odds, but an expression of ideals forever with us. The resistance of ordinary men and women to the powerful and unjust in many countries has been inspired by his example. In that sense, it is right to regard him as a universal soldier.</p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-1"><i><strong>J.A. O’Brien</strong> is the author of <a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profile/AgainstTheWind?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_self">‘Against The Wind: Memoir of a Dissident Dubliner’</a>. His grand-uncle, William O’Brien, at the age of nineteen, took part in the Easter Rising and was later interned at the Frongoch Internment Camp.</i></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><b>Sources:</b></p>
<p>Robert Kee; <i>Ireland</i><i>; A History.</i></p>
<p>Frank O’Connor; <i>The Big Fellow.</i></p>
<p>Ulick O’Connor<i>; Michael Collins.</i></p>
<p>Oliver St. John Gogarty; <i>As I Was Going Down Sackville Street.</i></p>
<p>Fiachra Gibbons; <i>The Guardian Weekly. (1997).</i></p>
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<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-1st-brigade-cork-volunteers-and-the-coolnacahera-ambush-1">The 1st Brigade Cork Volunteers and the Coolnacahera Ambush</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/michael-brennan-and-the-east-clare-brigade-at-the-glenwood-ambush">Michael Brennan and the East Clare Brigade at the Glenwood Ambush</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/piltown-ambush-1-november-1920">100 Years Ago: The Piltown Ambush (1 November 1920)</a></p>
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<p>“<a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/tipperary-s-dan-breen-the-hardest-hard-man">Tipperary’s Dan Breen: The Hardest Hard Man</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/greyhound-on-train-the-rescue-of-hogan-at-knocklong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">'Greyhound on Train': Rescuing Seán Hogan at Knocklong</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-headford-ambush-time-runs-out-in-kerry" target="_self">The Headford Ambush: Time Runs Out in Kerry</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-dromkeen-ambush-down-into-the-mire-in-county-limerick" target="_self">The Dromkeen Ambush: Down Into the Mire in County Limerick</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/rineen-ambush-hell-comes-to-county-clare" target="_self">The Rineen Ambush: Hell Comes to County Clare</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/trauma-at-the-burgery-part-1" target="_self">The R.I.C. In An Untenable Position, Part 1: Trauma at The Burgery</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-irish-war-of-independence-the-lispole-ambush-avoiding-disaste" target="_self">The Lispole Ambush -- Averting Disaster on the Dingle Peninsula</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/patrick-white-a-tragic-death-on-spike-island" target="_self">Patrick White: A Clareman's Tragic Death on Spike Island</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/and-to-watch-the-sunbeams-dancing-o-er-the-wicklow-mountains-high" target="_self">'And To Watch the Sunbeams Dancing O’er the Wicklow Mountains High'</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/always-remember-cumann-na-mban" target="_self">Always Remember ~ Cumann na mBan</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/my-fathers-story-how-the-nuns-of-kylemore-abbey-saved-his-life" target="_self">War of Independence -- How the Nuns of Kylemore Saved My Father's Life</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/terence-macswiney-irish-martyr" target="_self">Terence MacSwiney: Irish Martyr</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/walking-to-work-through-a-battle-zone" target="_self">Walking to Work Through a Battle Zone</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/review-of-emmet-dalton-somme-soldier-irish-general-film-pioneer" target="_self">Review of 'Emmet Dalton - Somme Soldier, Irish General, Film Pioneer' by Sean Boyne</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-village-of-generals" target="_self">Ballinalee, County Longford: The Village of Generals</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/the-anglo-irish-treaty-seed-of-the-troubles" target="_self">The Anglo-Irish Treaty: Seed of 'The Troubles'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/shot-while-attempting-to-escape">Shot While Attempting To Escape</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:184709">Easter Rising to Irish Civil War Archive Available Online</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:111606">Michael Collins: Saga of Heroism Against Daunting Odds</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:180517">A Short History of Michael Collins, Ireland's 'Big Fellow'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:74979">Great Irish Romances: Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:144731">Kitty and Michael: a revolutionary courtship</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:163757">The Tan Who Was Hanged By His Own Side</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:24652">Liam Lynch: Victim of the Irish Civil War</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:87437">1916 and the Rebels' Priests</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8890">After The Rising … 'Fron-goch and the Birth of the IRA'</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:177498">Ernie O'Malley: Mayo-Born Freedom Fighter and Writer</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:75936">The Wild Geese Virtual Síbín with Cormac O'Malley</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8961">Evidence Abounds: British Leaders OK'd Mayhem</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:162480">The Price of Freedom</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:8947">The West Cork Trail: Scenes From the Anglo-Irish and Civil Wars, 1920-1922</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:189731">How I Learned That Grandad Executed Erskine Childers</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:151451">Leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising: Éamon de Valera</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:184590">Erskine Childers: Author, Irish Gunrunner, Churchill's Bête Noire</a></p>
<p><a href="https://thewildgeese.irish/xn/detail/6442157:BlogPost:63600">The Scum of England, or Ordinary Men? A Review of DJ Kelly's 'Running with Crows'</a></p>
<p>The Forgotten Ten:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-just-a-lad-of-18-summers" target="_self">Part 1: 'Just a Lad of 18 Summers'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-2-an-example-has-to-be-made" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 2: 'An Example Has To Be Made'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/kevin-barry-part-3-proud-to-die-for-the-republic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 3: 'Proud To Die for the Republic'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-4-down-into-the-mire" target="_self">Part 4: 'Down Into the Mire'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-5-england-executes-prisoners-of-war" target="_self">Part 5: 'England Executes Prisoners of War'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-6-death-with-no-tremblings" target="_self">Part 6: 'Death With No Tremblings'</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/part-7-fight-on-struggle-on" target="_self">Part 7: 'Fight On, Struggle On'</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://thewildgeese.irish/page/focus-remembering-the-easter-rising-of-1916"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84706917?profile=original" width="750"/></a></p>
Scold That 'Tiger': Recalling the Dark Side of the Boom
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-31:6442157:BlogPost:95473
2014-05-31T03:00:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><em><span class="font-size-1" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705670?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705670?profile=original" width="375"></img></a> Two new books by Irish writers have highlighted modern Ireland in all her graces and faults. Both works of fiction; they are grounded in the realities of recent Irish history. The Spinning Heart, by Donal Ryan, tells of what happens to a small Irish community in the aftermath of the collapse of the…</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" class="font-size-1"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705670?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705670?profile=original" width="375" class="align-right"/></a>Two new books by Irish writers have highlighted modern Ireland in all her graces and faults. Both works of fiction; they are grounded in the realities of recent Irish history. The Spinning Heart, by Donal Ryan, tells of what happens to a small Irish community in the aftermath of the collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy, and has been reviewed by Sandy Boyer on the WG site. A Mad and Wonderful Thing, by Mark Mulholland, deals with the Northern Irish Troubles and it is Mulholland’s comments on the Celtic Tiger in a recent interview that interest the present writer. He says: “I never believed in the Celtic Tiger. We all just got caught up in nonsense; it is as if the whole country went mad. It was a delusion, a house of cards.”</span></em></p>
<p><em><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" class="font-size-1">For the present writer no remarks in hindsight are relevant or necessary and I publish here a piece I wrote on the phenomenon of the Celtic Tiger in 1997. And I might add it gives me no satisfaction to see how it all turned out for the 'auld sod.'</span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p>“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” The memorable words of Charles Dickens come to mind as one contemplates the “new” Ireland at the end of the twentieth century.</p>
<p>Back on the “auld sod” after almost 30 years in Australia I am bombarded with the achievements of the “Celtic Tiger” economy. Television, radio, newspapers and magazines roar their message of growth and success.</p>
<p>And the facts and figures are there to support the claim. “The growth in the economy (is) unprecedented in the history of the state”. (Irish Times editorial). A report by the Economic and Social Research Institute predicts the economy will expand by seven per cent this year and that 50,000 new jobs will be created. In the past three years around 46,000 jobs were created annually.</p>
<p>Towns that once were little more than service centres for farmers have become centres for light industry. New factories produce high-tech products, car accessories and pharmaceutical items. Over 75 per cent of goods are exported.</p>
<p>Family and friends urge me to recognise “How far we have come” and there are veiled suggestions that perhaps I “didn’t have to” emigrate all those years ago. I remind them that former President Mary Robinson had kept a lighted candle in her window as a reminder of the Irish “diaspora”. Since the middle of the last century almost five million people have left Ireland in search of a new life. Those that went had made it easier for those that were left to share what work there was.</p>
<p>Now, for those who stayed, all has changed utterly. A new prosperity has been born. Times have never been so good.</p>
<p>But even in the best of times for some there are the worst of times and there is another side to the tale of Ireland’s new prosperity. The average worker can expect a pay increase of 2.25 per cent this year and has been tied to an agreed total of 7.25 per cent until the year 2000. With inflation expected to go to 2.5 per cent per annum over the next three years, many workers feel that in effect this perpetuates a majority of them as a “working poor”. Despite the “boom times”, more than 60 per cent of Irish workers say that they are “no better off than they were five years ago”.</p>
<p>One young trade union activist says, “We’re the Celtic Tiger. But what do the workers get? Nothing”. Put that alongside a growing number of long-term unemployed and the widening gap in income distribution and for many the smile begins to fade on the face of the “tiger”. Last year corporate profits rose by 20 per cent but consumer spending increased by only 4 per cent.</p>
<p>Foreign companies are encouraged to invest with a corporate tax rate set at just 10 per cent until 2010. But they can repatriate their profits and move off shore to greener pastures at any time. Recently more than 5000 Irish workers were “dumped” by these companies who were lured by cheaper labour in Asia.</p>
<p>That the Asian “tiger” and the Celtic “tiger” are of similar pedigree is evidenced by the crony capitalism that is rife in the Irish Republic. A chain of tribunals and inquiries has been held in recent years, the most famous of which netted former Prime Minister, Charlie Haughey. A tribunal found he had received 1.3 m pounds (Aus$2.6m) in gifts from a prominent businessman during his time as head of government. Political figures in all parties have been investigated and many people are disillusioned with politics. Some go so far as to say, “So what? Sure aren’t they all at it,” when another notary is caught with their fingers in the till.</p>
<p>But those who play the Tweedledum / Tweedledee games of the two major conservative parties survive and are well placed to take advantage of EU subsidies and can then claim credit for a boom they didn’t wholly create. In recent years the European Union has poured over $50 billion into the Irish economy. Last year $5.5 billion of EU capital was fed to the Celtic Tiger.</p>
<p>At a time when Ireland needs a lead in combating social disruption and lawlessness the influence of the Catholic Church has waned dramatically. Not because of raunchy bishops or immoral priests, but because God is being replaced by mammon. Materialism is triumphant, ethics and spiritual values abandoned. And the “have- nots” grow more visible on the streets each night.</p>
<p>In O’Connell Street a statue of the great social reformer, Jim Larkin, stands with arms lifted and appears to offer up a prayer for the common good. But Ireland is “on the move”; “Ireland is connected” is the catchcry now. In Connemara potatoes from Israel are on sale everywhere. I remark that while oranges would be acceptable I question the ability to be self sufficient if we no longer grow the staple food of generations. I remind family and friends that the Celtic tiger is of the same pedigree as the Asian tiger. But they ride the tiger’s back and laugh with exhilaration.</p>
<p>It is the best of times. It is the worst of times. Where to Ireland? “It is a state of mind as much as an actual country,” as Edna O’Brien has written. It is not necessary to live there. For some, not to live there, is a ‘far far better thing’ to do.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>For further reading:</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/the-fall-of-the-celtic-tiger-how-ireland-nearly-fell-into-the-aby" target="_self">'The Fall of the Celtic Tiger’: How Ireland Fell Into the Abyss</a></p>
Bendigo Remembers Brian Boru
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-05-22:6442157:BlogPost:93992
2014-05-22T00:00:00.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705550?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">O</span>n Sunday May 18</strong> around sixty people attended a concert in Bendigo to celebrate the victory of Brian Boru at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Organised by the Central Victoria Irish Association the event took place at the historic <b>Brian Boru Hotel</b>, established in the 1850s at the height of the ‘gold rush’ era. Where else?</p>
<p>A lively and entertaining program of music,…</p>
<p><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705550?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">O</span>n Sunday May 18</strong> around sixty people attended a concert in Bendigo to celebrate the victory of Brian Boru at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Organised by the Central Victoria Irish Association the event took place at the historic <b>Brian Boru Hotel</b>, established in the 1850s at the height of the ‘gold rush’ era. Where else?</p>
<p>A lively and entertaining program of music, poetry, song and story was well received and appreciated by all who attended.</p>
<p>The proceedings started with a lively rendition of the Brian Boru March, played by Meryl Wilkinson, harp, and Patrick Holden, bodhran. An historical narrative by Maggie Brady set the scene and provided some background to the bloody battle. This was followed by songs and guitar with John Clancy and poetry and storytelling by Ian Read and Janet Tucker. The ninety-minute program concluded with a reading by John Clancy, in Irish and then English, of James Clarence Mangan’s epic poem <i>Kincora.</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705852?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705852?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705825?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705825?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>Host proprietors of the historic establishment, Gary and Anne Wilson, provided an extensive menu that was greatly to the taste of the audience and performers. At the end of the official program the Bendigo Celtic Music Group continued the festivities well into the evening much to the delight of those that were tempted to stay on for the ‘craic’.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
Information about my book
tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-04-23:6442157:BlogPost:89754
2014-04-23T05:42:17.000Z
James O'Brien
https://thewildgeese.irish/profile/JamesOBrien
<p>Link to back cover blurb:</p>
<p><a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profile/AgainstTheWind" target="_self">Against The Wind (on The Wild Geese)</a></p>
<p>Image of back cover:</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705615?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705615?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p>
<p>Link to back cover blurb:</p>
<p><a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profile/AgainstTheWind" target="_self">Against The Wind (on The Wild Geese)</a></p>
<p>Image of back cover:</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705615?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84705615?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p>