Irish Ireland, not Ireland

'Posting in Ireland', by James Gillray

Republican teaching records that Irish Ireland and the true Irish Nation had nearly extinguished, only the Easter Rising ‘woke up’ the Irish people and unleashed them towards independence.

Todd Andrews wrote that "Dublin [in 1901] was a British city and accepted itself as one", and Ernie O'Malley said, "‘the old hatred of the redcoats had disappeared."

Tom Barry wrote that he had "no  national consciousness" but events of Easter Week gave him a "rude awakening", and "Through the blood sacrifice of 1916 had one Irish youth been awakened to Irish nationality."

Eamon de Valera said in 1926:

"[Clarke, Pearse and Connolly] made sure of an Irish Ireland by dying for it."

Fintan O'Toole - "A parody of culture"

Northern Ireland makes a lot more sense if you replace the word 'culture' with 'hobby'.
— Newton Emerson (@NewtonEmerson) September 12, 2013

In an article in The Irish Times from August 29 2000, 'When bigotry takes on a life form of its own,' Fintan O'Toole questioned loyalist culture and it's definition. Calling some loyalist "cultural events" as a "parody of culture". He wrote of Johnny Adair and elements of loyalism:

"For the peace process to work it was necessary to sustain certain myths about Northern Ireland. The most potent, and potentially the most dangerous, was the idea that NI was divided between two "cultures" or "traditions", one catholic, the other Protestant. 

This notion was useful and perhaps indispensable, for how can you show "parity of esteem" to two different cultures if you don't recognise their clear existence? Yet it is also a lie. For one thing, it ignores the fact that surveys of attitudes in NI have consistently shown that something like 40% of the population does not identify with either the unionist or the nationalist (i.e. politically Protestant and politically Catholic) "traditions". For another, the most dangerous mindsets in NI don't belong in any real sense to a "culture" or "tradition".

Martin Amis on the good effect of in-migration

Martin Amis wrote of the good effect of in-migration here:

"As England becomes more like America in the sense of more like an immigrant society people like that are going to have a bit of play for a while. It’s not going to be smooth that switch. It’s much to be desired I think. [It’s] a very complicated issue but in principle it would do England nothing but good to mix it even more."

Charting the Artist's Journey

I’ve been making political cartoons and producing general illustrations for around 3 years. The drawing process is forever challenging. But for all the difficulties, there is one stand out lesson that I’ve learnt: you cannot be consumed by the difficulty of the moment – you need to stand back and look at the process from a distance and see art and drawing as a journey.

I took a lot of comfort and reassurance when I compared the two pieces I had done in the image above of Northern Ireland Justice Minister and leader of the Alliance Party, David Ford. The cartoon on the left was done in April 2012, while the one on the right was produced in October 2012.

Thoughts on Public Speaking with Dale Carnegie

We always hear that children need to be fluent in reading, writing and arithmetic. However there’s something missing in this recipe to social success.

In order to succeed children must be taught the fundamentals of public speaking and effective communication.

As I looked back and evaluated my own college training, I saw that the training and experience I had had in public speaking had been of more practical value to me in business — and in life — than everything else I had studied in college all put together. Why? Because it had wiped out my timidity and lack of self-confidence and given me the courage and assurance to deal with people. It had also made clear that leadership usually gravitates to the man who can get up and say what he thinks.

These are the words of Dale Carnegie, words which have been formulated and structured in a way which express better the argument than I could ever wish to argue that children MUST be taught public speaking.

The video above is a recording of Dale Carnegie’s famous work ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.’ Dale Carnegie was an American  writer, lecturer, and the developer of famous courses in self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

James Joyce on the Torture of Writing

I’ve written a couple of times before (here and here) that I often find writing intensely difficult. It’s a situation where I’m frozen by doubt, worry and self-criticism. Crippled by the inability to structure syntax correctly, get the phrases and sentences flowing or have the paragraphs follow on from one another in a linear narrative.

Unfortunately there’s no quick fix. Like anything it’s a matter of practice and of course reading often and widely.

Also, taking a long view I’m still in my writing infancy. And that’S the most pragmatic way to look at it; writing and becoming a writer is a journey. There will be challenges, highs and lows – but I’m up for the challenge.

I recently stumbled across a quote by the iconic Irish writer and novelist James Joyce.

Writing in the English language is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives.

And so it appears even he, surely one of the most storied and studied writers in the history of man, also struggled writing in the English language. What a huge comfort this has been!

Derry-Londonderry - City of Culture? What is Culture?

In a recent BBC Radio 4 series entitled The Value of Culture Melvyn Bragg delved into the world of culture. Exploring where the word has come from. What culture means. How its meaning has changed. What mass culture is and where we're going with culture today.