The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Quid pro quo June 8, 2021

Speaking of choreography, interesting that Edwin Poots offered a more sunny side this last week. On Thursday he offered the news that:

Democratic Unionist Party leader Edwin Poots has confirmed his party will attend the North-South Ministerial council meeting on June 18th.

Speaking outside Government Buildings on Thursday evening after a meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin Mr Poots said it was his intention to lead the DUP team into the meeting.

And on Friday came the news that:

DUP leader Edwin Poots has pledged to implement Irish language legislation at Stormont as quickly as possible.

Mr Poots said he wished to “expedite” the rollout of all outstanding aspects of the New Decade, New Approach agreement that re-established powersharing last year.

Mr Poots said Stormont leaders have also agreed to convene a summit to tackle spiralling healthcare waiting lists in the North.

Perhaps he calculates that the Irish Language legislation is less of an ask for his base than, God forbid, certain social issues. But perhaps also there is an element of quid pro quo in all this. That he has moved on two areas and now others must move – presumably most immediately on the Northern Ireland Protocol, or perhaps equally importantly on the issue of continuing the devolved administration and nominating First and Deputy First Ministers. Mind you, as noted last evening, with the loss of Councillors this is a person with their work cut out for them on every front. 

More choreography? June 8, 2021

I’ve been wondering as gloomy reports come in regarding EU:UK negotiations on the Northern Ireland Protocol whether there’s not some contrivance to what is being released to the media. For example, a lot of negative stories over the weekend, but then last night one will read that:

Brussels is preparing to make concessions over Northern Ireland but has warned Lord Frost ahead of a key meeting that the EU’s “patience is wearing thin” over the UK government’s repeated failure to fulfil its obligations.

In response to claims from the Brexit minister in recent weeks that the bloc had been insufficiently flexible, EU officials pointed to a series of decisions by Downing Street that had eroded trust while signalling that it was prepared to bend on some issues.

Those concessions? 

Brussels will this week put pressure on the UK to change tack by publicly offering to go beyond EU law to ensure the undisrupted supply of British-approved medicines. There will also be a derogation from EU law to permit people with guide dogs to travel unencumbered by paperwork to the rest of the UK and solutions to avoid rabies and tapeworm controls for those returning with their pets from Great Britain.

In a way so much of what we see seems designed to shield the sensitivities of the UK. And perhaps London is aware of that and has played that up from the off. But it’s a strange way to exert and express supposed newfound power on foot of Brexit. 

Attrition… June 7, 2021

Telling to see that the DUP has suffered the loss of two Councillors. Of course this isn’t a disaster for the party which has 120 remaining representatives in local government in the North, but for a party that has long been the dominant force within political unionism in Northern Ireland this is an intriguing straw in the wind.

Was slightly entertained by the reasons given for this departure:

“Glyn Hanna and Kathryn Owen are among a number of members from that branch of the DUP to step down over concerns about the new direction of the party under new leader Edwin Poots.

Ms Owen claimed that women and moderates in the party were being left “voiceless”.”

The thought comes to mind did they realise they were joining the DUP when first they signed up?

The party response is also telling…

“A spokesperson for the DUP said that the South Down Association held its AGM on Saturday.

“Some of the members who have resigned, sought re-election to hold office within the party. It is disappointing they have chosen to resign from the party, following the outcome of the meeting.”

And RTÉ notes that the party also says it takes complaints seriously and that they should be made in writing ‘to ensure a thorough and fair investigation’. Hmmm…

Irish Left Archive: A Man of the People, Jemmy Hope, by Sean Cronin, Sceim na gCeardchumann, 1964 June 7, 2021

 To download the above please click on the following link.

Please click here to go the Left Archive.

Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive.

This is a document of considerable interest, a twenty-eight page pamphlet, written by Sean Cronin and published by Sceim na gCeardchumann. This latter was ‘an independent educational, social and cultural association which promotes a knowledge of the language and history of Ireland among trade unionists. Established in the late 1950s the organisation was very active in the 1960s but effectively became defunct in the early 1970s (for more on this John P. Swift’s biography of Brendan Scott has some detail).

The pamphlet notes that it was decided to:

…mark the bi-centenary of James Hope’s birth (25th of August, 1764) by commissioning and publishing this study of the great United Irish organiser’s life, times and ideas.

And:

The Templepatrick-born weaver commanded the famous Spartan Band under Henry Joy McCracken at the Battle of Antrim in June, 1798, and organised the workers of Dublin behind Robert Emmet in 1803. But it is as a social thinker that the name of this Ulster Presbyterian Republican and early trade unionist deserves to be remember in Dublin, Belfast and indeed all parts of Ireland.

And the document notes that Cronin is ‘a Dublin journalist, writes on Irish social and political questions. He published a short study of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen in 1963. He has written a number of pamphlets on partition and its effect on the economic and political life of the nation’.

The Introduction, written by George Gilmore is worth reproducing in full:

When the Volunteers of 1782 won for Henry Grattan the measure of legislative independence that he valued he lauded them as “The armed property of the nation”. Later, when they removed the crown from their uniform buttons and supported Tone’s cam­paign for “The Rights of Man in Ireland-the greatest happiness of the greatest numbers in this island”, he denounced them as “The armed beggary of the nation”.
The play of social forces so sharply stated by Grattan was understood better, perhaps, by Jemmy Hope than by any of his con­temporaries who have left their views on record. His vision was clear, and from his viewpoint on life he had no escape.
Even before the rising Jemmy Hope had forebodings. When, on its eve, the merchant-class leadership of the Northern United Irishmen collapsed, he understood-as Fintan Lalor understood the failure in 1848, and as Connolly would have understood the failure of our own day if he had survived it.
We are inclined to speak too glibly of “Betrayals”. Different viewpoints make for different real objectives, and fine phrases are subject ‘to reinterpretation. In our own day we have seen the rulers of the Twenty-six County state (under any name) evolve what a disappointed Indian ambassador called “A kind of nationalism that is not anti-imperialist”. It is good to see a renewed interest in the play of forces that went to the making and the breaking of so many efforts for – national independence. It is high time that something of the clear vision of the leader of McCracken’s “Spartan Band” should be brought to bear on the “Green Paint” politics of to-day.

Fortnightly Culture Thread June 6, 2021

gregtimo proposed in comments recently this idea for a Culture Thread.

It’s a great idea. Currently culture is a bit strange, but people read, listen to music, watch television and film and so on – spread the net wide, sports, activities, interests, all relevant – and any pointers are always welcome. And it’s not just those areas but many more. Suggestions as to new or old things, events that might have been missed, literally anything.

Sunday and other Media Stupid Statements from this week… June 6, 2021

Note an intriguing framing in the following in amongst the rhetoric about ‘nanny state’:

With hospitalisations and ICU numbers at a fraction of where they were, the only conclusion that can be made is that this extension [of emergency powers due to the pandemic] has less to do with the public health emergency of last year and has much more to do with the nanny state writ large.

I am no conspiracy theorist and I do not write such a conclusion easily, but it is difficult to see it any other way.

“the public health emergency of last year”? After Christmas and New Year and with the UK looking as if there may be a delay in easing restrictions due to the spread of variants….

Meanwhile here’s a classic from the IT:

The PUP is to be tapered and the wage and business supports continued for now, but we can expect them to also be phased out towards the end of this year and the beginning of 2022.

The howls of “austerity” were perhaps the most predictable part of the day, but for all that the Government is terrified of the label, it’s hard to make it stick when the coalition is still borrowing and spending at such an enthusiastic rate.

Surely the correspondent appreciates that it depends what is being borrowed for and what is being spent on that is key issue, not that money is being borrowed and spent. 

Meanwhile the editorial in that paper – while sensible enough – has decided that there’s either fear or vigilance in relation to the reopening. 

And look who is talking about neutrality?

It is worth remembering that during the protracted negotiations over Brexit, when this country’s interests were at stake, we received full support from all our EU partners. Many of them – particularly the Baltic states and countries in eastern Europe like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary – had no vested interest in backing the Irish case, but they did so out of solidarity with a fellow EU member in the far west.

But there remain other states in the EU amongst our partners which have policies of neutrality who also displayed solidarity with this state. Could it be that neutrality has nothing at all to do with that solidarity? 

The right response to such risks is not fear but vigilance. After a long, traumatic period, people have developed good protective instincts and adherence to public health advice remains very strong. For its part, the Government and its agencies must prepare for any sudden reversal by keeping the health service on high alert, maintaining test-and-trace capacity so that the system can respond quickly to any spike in cases and closely monitoring global epidemiological trends for signs of concern. Perhaps none of this will be needed. But if the pandemic offers one lesson, it is that preparing for the worst is a sensible posture for any Government to take.

But is fear the emotion most people feel, as distinct from, well, caution? And what does it tell us that the IT seems to view the situation in such exaggerated colours?

And here… 

[Taylor] Swift’s music has not benefited from adhering to these demands. But, if the project is to be thought of as the right sort of person, then she may well have achieved her aim. And it is not her fault that we have engendered a culture where being the right sort of person is a commodity in itself. It sells records, after all.

Have we indeed?

Sent a link to this piece from during the week – Oirishy, very…

An Rabharta Glas – Green Left: Launch video June 5, 2021

“An Rabharta Glas – Green Left (ARG-GL) is an eco-socialist political party for the island of Ireland. As Gaeilge, ‘An’ means the and ‘Glas’ means green. ‘Rabharta’ has no direct translation in English — it could mean wave or spring tide. With that, An Rabharta Glas can be translated as The Green Wave. Our slogan is ‘Comhshaol agus Comhionannas’. Comhshaol is an older Irish word for environment which means ‘living with life’, and Comhionannas translates as equality. An Rabharta Glas – Green Left was born during a global pandemic, when a group of people decided to come together virtually to build a vehicle for change. We live across Ireland: ARG-GL was woven in Cork, Dublin, Monaghan and on the borders of Lough Derg. As a collective, we are united in frustration and hope. We envisage an eco-socialist Ireland that protects nature by protecting people, where a decarbonized economic system is democratically owned and controlled by the communities who rely on it. We must reconstruct the political system so that it serves people and nature, not profit and extraction. We will do this by building within local communities a party with core principles of ecology and justice — through education, community organising, and political activism.“

Their website

Deep time June 5, 2021

Lovely image here assembled by astronomer Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts Amherst which shows a “composite of 370 observations over the past two decades by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, depicting billions of stars and countless black holes in the center, or heart, of the Milky Way”. Always fascinates me how this shows both space and time. The galactic centre is 26,000 light-years away which of course means the light from there has taken that long to reach Earth.

If that is a little too limited for you, how about this?

“…a new map captures not only the 3D structure of the universe, but the positioning and movement of invisible dark matter, too”.

International supersonic travel June 5, 2021

A hardy perennial…

a fresh bunch of start-ups are working on supersonic and hypersonic projects. Last October frontrunner Boom Supersonic was the first to roll out an actual honest-to-goodness IRL demonstrator aircraft, the XB1.

CNN Travel caught up with its founder and CEO Blake Scholl to talk about Overture, the Mach 2.2 commercial airliner he wants to get in the air by 2026, and the company’s ambitious long-term plans.

Telling though how they are positioning this as post-pandemic:

Airlines have had to downsize their fleets and, in some cases, it’s forced an early retirement for wide-body jets such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380.

“As things get back into growth mode,” says Scholl, “There’s an opportunity to build a new-generation fleet that’s got supersonic baked into it. That actually makes it easier to adopt.”