The Irish Farmers Association reacted angrily to plans by Dúchas to designate nine Special Protection Areas (SPA) which means there are certain restrictions on the use of the land. As usual, the issue was over money rather than opinions on the environment. The designation means that the land cannot be used to build housing estates or for forestry - the IFA are demanding compensation for farmers who will be restricted by the new rules.
Treating land in these areas as a purely economic resource is nonsense, becaus the only way to make money would be to consolidate
many farms into a much smaller number of huge holdings.The result would not be pretty - demolishing the hedgerows and stone walls
to create larger fields (convenient for machines) would irrevocably change the landscape, as would widespread afforestation.
Forestry as practised in most of Ireland today means planting trees either for Xmas trees or for lumber - either way, the trees are harvested in a relatively short time, leaving an ugly, scarred and lifeless landscape behind. Ironically, some farmers have complained that, because of the tax subsidies that are available for forestry, they cannot compete with outside investors when agricultural land comes up for sale.
As usual, the IFA are their own worst enemies when it comes to public relations. On radio and TV, they came across as the usual bunch
of whingers looking for yet another handout. Now, I happen to think it is perfectly reasonable that landowners who are restricted
by such laws receive compensation. However, it would be infinitely preferable if the IFA were more proactive in relation to
the future of farming, particularly in tourist areas. The west, south (west Cork, Kerry) and north of Ireland attract the most
tourists - they are aso the areas where the land is poor and the farms are small. It is obvious that when the river of subsidies
from the European Union dries to a trickle, these farmers will be most affected.
The IFA are preventing Dúchas officials from entering farms to perform surveys but this is a short-term measure.The IFA need to face up to the fact that in the future, landowners may still be caring for their land, but they will not be commercial farmers. They need to start planning for that future now, and educating the rest of the country that the nice green fields that everyone is so fond of requires constant work and attention. In other words, it is essential for our tourist industry that there are people living and working the land, even if it is not a full-time job, and even if it requires a tourist subsidy rather than a agricultural one.
The government could help too. The trespass law still does not indemnify farmers against people who enter their lands - it needs to be changed so that farmers do not see every hillwalker, etc. as a potential insurance case. It might also help if walkers were encouraged to join clubs that carried their own insurance (such as the Mountain Climbers of Ireland) would help. Of course, trying to find a fair price for an insurance policy is another story...
By the way, Michael Viney, in the Irish Times, describes how the SPAs will hopefully protect the habitat of the hen harrier which, he says, are rarer than the corncrake. It is nearly 30 years since I actually saw a corncrake in a cornfield, though I have heard them more recently in the Shannon Callows, south of Athlone. I have been luckier with the hen harrier - I saw a female in late 2001 in the Sliabh Aughty mountains in Galway. I had a video camera with me but, piece of cheap crap that it is, it couldn't focus or fix the light exposure fast enough to capture the bird, even though it flew only about 20 feet right over my head.
On RTE Radio One's World Report (you can here the report here), xxx cogently analyses Jacques Chirac's spat with the Eastern European countries who have sided with the United States position on Iraq and who are also applying to join the European Union. The French kept Britain out for years (and Ireland as a result), but it is unlikely that they will be able to veto the current set of applicants. There is another cause for tension. France receives huge agricultural subsides - in fact, it is the French resistance to reform of the Common Agricultural Policy that has been fortuitous to Ireland's farmers as well. Germany had been hoping to reform the CAP as part of the procedure for admitting new countries, but the French weren't having any of that. The subsidies may not be as generous as they were, but they shall remain. So the Polish, Rumanian and Lithuanian farmers can perhaps whisper a small merci to Monsieur Chirac.
It's always exciting to get the holiday snaps back. The Connacht Tribune carries a snap of Michael D Higgins TD and Senator Michael Kitt from their recent trip to Baghdad, alongside a grinning Tariq Aziz, a man for whom the saying he know where the bodies are buried is probably more than just a political metaphor.
Two district judges apologised within 24 hours of each other last week, when the media and various equality organizations highlighted remarks mad by them from the bench. In Castlebar, Judge Harvey Kenny told a Nigerian woman (who was appearing on a charge of driving without insurance)
I don't think any Nigerian is obeying the law of the land when it comes to driving. I had a few of them in Galway yesterday and they are all driving around without insurance and the way to stop this is to put you in jail.
Now, I read the local papers most weeks and there are loads of people driving around on out-of-date licences and no insurance. They're called locals and I've never heard of any of them being threatened with anything more than a fine or disqualification. Funny how the judge has a different attitude to Nigerians.
Judge John Neilan went further. Adjourning a case of two non-national women who were charged with shop-lifting, he remarked
There are people in this state who have worked all their lives, and they don't, in their old age pesion, have the benefits that these ladies have. The majority of shopping centres in this District Court area will be putting a ban of access to coloured people if this type of behaviour does not stop.
Not a ban on foreigners, not a ban on asylum-seekers. A ban on coloured people. Ah yes, they would be the coloured people from the country
called coloured, from the planet coloured. Tough luck on any Irish person who doesn't share the pasty complexion of
the majority. Needless to say, no shopping centre had even contemplated such a move, any more than they would ban people from Mayo if a Mayo person was convicted
of shoplifting.
Judge Neilan's apology was not much of an improvement.
I am appalled to think that I would have the capacity to offend or insult anybody, least of all those who came before my court, in any particular regards, and if my remarks have in any way offended anybody I would unreservedly, wholeheartedly withdraw the remarks in their entirety and extend my sincere apologies to the parties involved and indeed the community that they are drawn from in Longford.
which is not the same as saying sorry because he realized himself that the remarks were offensive.
The Irish Times weekend section carries an article on mining in Ireland, and some of the mines that can be visited as tourist attractions. The list includes Arigna, Castlecomer (a coalmine that my grandfather worked in) and Glengowla near Oughterard. Glengowla is worth a visit - it was used to extract silver and lead. The lead was used for bullets in the Crimean War - an early example of the negative effects of globalization.
It takes 40,000 cows to make the six million cases of Baileys Irish Liquer sold every year.That's a lot of slurry too.
Buy your very own Axes of Evil
It was bad enough that Eurovision will go on for two days this year. Now this, from the Guardian:
Belgium's participation in this year's Eurovision song contest ignited controversy last night when the state security service accused a singer of having links with the country's neo-Nazi movement.
We never had this problem with Red Hurley.
Maintenance Car, Bog Railway, Boora, Co. Offaly
If this good weather keeps up, I'll have to find something else to complain about.
Another beautiful day on Saturday if a little cold. Roundstone and Clifden looked absolutely
beautiful - rugged, desolate but beautiful.
My intention had been to visit Finish Island near Carna, after it featured in Dermot Somer's programme
on TG4 last week (he walks and climbs around Ireland - the photography is fabulous). Finish Island
is no longer inhabited, and visitors can walk to the island at low tide. Due to a map-reading
problem (though my wife has a different version of events), I reached Carna after the water had begun to
swirl towards shore. Maybe in a few weeks time.
We reached Roundstone around three and stopped in at Dowds for simply superb seafood chowder. Which was just as
well, because I nearly froze to death taking photos at the Alcock and Brown memorial - the wind was unmerciful.
An attempt to reach the landing site was scuppered when I ran the car aground on the road up to it (hint - leave the car
at the head of the lane and walk it or you'll be carrying your exhaust pipe under your arm back down). The sight
of a local farmer struggling to load what looked like Connemara's biggest pile of turf into a trailer in the bitter wind
reminded me why I have an office job.
When your car has reached the end of it's life, what do you do?
Well, if you live in an area of outstanding beauty
such as the Burren, you find the most scenic part, such as the lake in front of Mullaghmore, rip off the licence plate
and just push it in. Unbelievable, simply unbelievable.
What a week. I'm amazed that the media reaction to Osama Bin Laden's latest taped message was whether it
proved a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Queda, rather than Bin Laden is still alive. As if to highlight
the danger, there are 450 troops guarding Heathrow as rumours abound that terrorists are planning to use a
surface-to-air missile to shoot down a passenger jet.
One million people marched through London yesterday to protest against the impending war in Iraq, with thousands
also marching in Dublin. Maybe it was the weather, but thankfully there was
no nude protesting,
which only lessens the credibility of the peace protestors. Of course, all the TV channels showed some of the
nude protests last week. RTE showed a video clip of a bunch of naked female peace activists in New York, who lay
down in the snow so that their bodies formed the slogan "No Bush" - a statement clearly contradicted by
the video footage.
Going to a Greek tragedy probably wasn't the most romantic thing to do on St. Valentine's day, but I went to
see Storytellers Theatre Company's production of Sophocles' Antigone in the Town Hall Theatre in Galway. The play
is basically about the effect of hate begetting more hate, and the dilemma when individuals acting on their own
sense of morality comes into conflict with the law by the state. This production uses a series of images
from the current conflict in the Middle East as a backdrop to the drama, and the program reproduces an article
on the nature of terrorism from the Guardian.
However, the play itself is not strictly about terrorism, and it feels like the procession of images (projected
as wall-high images on the stage background) are there because they are dramatic in themselves rather than
relevant to the story. Tom Paulin has
used the same story in the past to comment on the politics in Northern Ireland (The Riot Act) and Berthold Brecht
used the text as to rail against tyranny. It occurred to me that pictures of Limerick as a backdrop would have
been even more relevant. By transposing images of grieving Palestinians and Israeli troops against the bloody
events of the play, it seems to be trying to make a political statement that is, at best, muddled.
The events of the play are very dramatic - the play opens with the aftermath of a bloody war that pitted two
brothers against each other. The war is settled by a duel that kills both brothers. Their uncle, Creon, is now
the king - he orders that the brother that fought with him should be buried with full honours. The brother that
opposed him shall be left to rot at the spot where he fell - Creon orders that anyone who defies his edict
shall be executed. Antigone, a sister to the two brothers defies the order and is sentenced to death. To
complicate matters, Antigone is betrothed to Creon's only son. Creon decides that the need for order, and
obedience to the state, must take precedence over family loyalty. Needless to say, it all ends in tears.
It doesn't help that the performances are all played at full volume without respite. Almost all the dialogue is
screamed, shouted or cried out, and the moral dilemma at the heart of the play is almost lost in the overwrought
delivery. It doesn't help either that the events of Antigone are a "sequel" to Oedipus the King (he of the
complicated Mother's Day arrangements) though Antigone was written first. It's a nice touch that the cast is
also the band - they alternated between playing the musical soundtrack at the side of the stage with acting
the roles. As the bodycount mounted, I wondered what further horrors were in store - then I spotted an accordian
at the side of the stage. Unfortunately, some of the cast are better musicians than actors. Pauline Hutton brings
plenty of passion as Antigone, and Simon O'Gorman is good as the Chorus - Bosco Hogan has a cameo role.
Overall, the impression is that of a lot of energy and talent but perhaps not so much direction. In essence,
more heat than light.
Dolly the cloned sheep, went to the great grassy meadow in the sky during the week. As the New York Times pointed out, she was the famous twin of an unknown, long-dead ewe. Given all the fuss of genetic manipulation and GM foods (and yes, I know they are different), it would have been reassuring if we had learned that the scientists involved had tucked into a few Dolly-flavoured chops, with no ill-effects.
Where there's a will, there's usually a lawyer. There was predictable fury in Israel when a Belgian courts
gave permission to a number of Palestinians leave to pursue legal action against Israeli prime minister Ariel
Sharon when he leaves office. The Palestinians, who survived the massacres in the Sabra and Chatila refugee
camps in Lebanon in 1982 are suing Sharon for his role as Defence Minister responsible for military operations
in Lebanon when the massacre occurred. Sharon was fired as Defence Minister by the then-Israeli government for
his handling of the military situation. Israel troops allowed Christian Phalangist guerillas to enter the camps
and perpetrate the slaughter without intervention.
Why Belgium ? As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz notes,
This judicial decision is rather astounding, as the Belgian prosecution also noted in its opposition to the survivors' petition. What is the connection between Belgium and the atrocities committed by Phalangists in Beirut, in terrority for which the IDF - acting on behalf of the Israeli government - was responsible? The prosecution had argued that for there to be grounds for trying someone suspected of crimes against humanity, some connection with Belgium was necessary.
In contrast, when a judge in Spain tried to extradite General Pinochet of Chile from the UK, it was on the basis
of crimes allegedly committed against Spanish citizens, not Chileans.
However, the very same law is being used by Israeli groups to sue Yassar Arafat for his alleged role in the
suicide bombings in Israel. As UPI notes,
Other proceedings under Belgium's controversial law have been brought against world leaders including Arafat, Saddam, Castro and Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo. So far, however, only four Rwandans were tried and sentenced by the Belgian court for their role in the 1994 genocide of the central African country's ethnic-Tutsi minority.
Civil action is being taken by victims of terror closer to home. A
group representing the victims of the Omagh bombing in 1998 are suing a number of people who are alleged to
organised the bombing. The action, the first in Northern Ireland, has been pursued to a sense of frustration that
the criminal investigation has stalled, perhaps permanently.
However, since there were 3000 deaths and countless more injuries as a result of the Troubles, there are probably
many more lawsuits in the pipeline. It has the potential to make life very uncomfortable for former paramilitaries
and their associates. During the week, the lawyers
for the Omagh victims issued subpoenas to Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and three other republicans to give
evidence at the forthcoming trial. Since McGuiness
will admit at the Bloody Sunday tribunal that he was a commander in the IRA in 1972, he can probably look
forward to a few more writs himself in the future. For one thing, the prospect of lawsuits might put an end to the
cottage industry of paramilitary biographies - of which loyalist Michael Stone's is the latest.
Hilarious Beckett riff on Microsoft software from The Register.
Rusheen Point, Galway.
The Oscars nominations have been announced, and some of the choices are a bit left field. Of course, I haven't seen any of them yet. One movie I won't be seeing is Chicago, simply because Richard Gere is in it. I would rather sit and watch a piece of basalt being slowly weathered by the wind and rain on top of Croagh Patrick than watch a Richard Gere performance - the rock would display more emotional range for a start. I don't think I'm alone in that opinion. Despite a record 13 nominations for Chicago, Gere didn't get one. Cheer up, Rich, there's always the Razzies to look forward to.
Tom Dunne devoted an hour of his radio show tonight (on Today FM) to bootleg remixes, of the type where two songs are simply spliced together.
Now, some of them are not bad at all - a remix of The Human League's Don't You Want Me and Eminem/D12's Purple Hills was fun. However, a marriage made in hell was the
melding of Destiny's Child and Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit - it just doesn't work at all. In fact, the perpetrator deserves to be stoned to death
with balls of their own shite (as they say around my way) - a fate that ideally would be shared by the composer of Samantha Mumba's godawful
reworking of David Bowie's Ashes to Ashes, as well as the entire cast of Don't Feed the Gondolas.
It didn't help that Tom invited Stuart Clarke onto the show, whose complete inability to express a single original thought about music merely confirms my determination
never to buy or read Hot Press ever again. Apart from that, the show was grand.
Where better to soak in the first sunshine of spring in 2003 than the 5000 year old Poulnabrone dolmen, just outside Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare. The dolmen is about 100 yards from the road, on the R480 out of Ballyvaughan. There was a steady strem of
visitors arriving today, including a Spanish family, one of whom (a little girl aged about 5) exclaimed over and over again, "Wow, Stonehenge!". Ah well...
The trial of the three Irishmen continues in Bogota. When I was in Bogota in 1998, people there expressed sympathy over the Omagh bombing, which had received a lot of coverage
in the Spanish-speaking world. Little did they know that Irishmen would be subsequently accused of exporting that misery to their own country. Last night, a huge
bomb ripped through a nightclub in Bogota that I visited when I was there
(at least I think it was the same place) - ironically, I had been in a cafe in Omagh the year before it was blown to bits.
El Nogal was the sort of nightclub that
you only see in movies - as befitting it's slogan, the privilege of having it all. There were TV and press cameras outside filming the revellers entering and leaving. Inside,
simply the most beautiful collection of women I have ever seen were dancing and generally being kept in the manner to which they had become accustomed,
by the city's power-brokers and industrialists. A lot of expats and visitng business people also used to frequent it. I finished the night on the terrace balcony, on a beautiful balmy August night, sipping a rather fine Scottish
single malt, thinking that a body could get kinda used to this sort of thing. Sad times indeed.
See also the
Bogota gallery
I was in Stockholm during the week, and even they were complaining about the cold weather. About a foot of snow fell at the beginning of the week
and even though it caused some disruption (e.g. delayed the trains), I was delighted. The city looked simply beautiful (of course, I left my camera at home. Doh!).
The temperature dropped to around minus 10 C by Wednesday night, so the waterways that intersect the city (it's not called the Venice of the North for nothing)
were transformed into gleaming white boulevards. Naturally, people were using them as shortcuts. This is not as simple as it sounds - two people had drowned the
previous week after crashing through ice. There is only one way of discovering that the ice is no longer thick enough to support your weight - the hard way.
If you see a set of tracks that suddenly stop in a splotch of wet snow, it's time to back up.
One of the downsides of travelling is that I sometimes find myself stuck in a small hotelroom exposed to the world's worst TV. This week was
no exception. There was the bizarre celebrity interview where a self-promoting interviewer was given simply the most unbelievable answer to each,
gingerly posed question. But enough about Tony Benn's interview with Saddam Hussein.The TV in my room had a channel from every country in Europe and
every bloody one
of them covered the Michael Jackson interview. I think it would have been much funnier if Martin Bashir had originally sent in a white interviewer who would be replaced half
way through the interview, and see if Jackson thought it was unusual that his interviewer was changing skin colour 'naturally'.
Other than non-stop coverage on every channel of the latest UN debate on Iraq, there was very little else on TV. Big Brother Sverige seemed to represent the dumbest collection
of Swedes possible. They seemed to have upped the babe factor this year, and they also have a sauna for extra nude possibilities. It's still crap, though. There was also a Carry On movie
(Carry On Up the Kyber) dubbed into German. Fakir! Raus! Dear, oh dear.
One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from becoming characters - Slaughterhouse Five.
The biggest character in Iraq looks like he is going to get some very terminal discouragement shortly. There is a very thoughtful piece in today's
New York Times that seems to sum up European fears about the forthcoming war (though
it is written from an American viewpoint). It is amazing how the attitude to the existing situation in Iraq has changed. The US and Britain are effectively engaged
in a low intensity war with Iraq for the last decade by imposing the no-fly zones (which ensure the safety of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis). Also, it is
alleged that the sanctions have cost the lives of thousands of Iraqis, particularly children. for years. It seems to me that the status quo carries
a high price in human lives too.
Meanwhile, the French, without a murmur of dissent from the UN, sent a military force to Cote d'Ivoire to impose regime change and a
military settlement on warring factions. Now, the intervention will probably save many African lives in the long run, but isn't that also the argument for invading Iraq?
Meanwhile, America is on high alert this weekend, braced for terrorist attacks, Russia threatens Georgia and China may well solve
the North Korean problem the old-fashioned way. As Moshe Dayan once said, "If we lose this war, I'll start another in my wife's name".
Ireland's nomination to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Maureen Harding Clark , topped the poll in the election to select judges.
Meanwhile, the habit of trying to link any famous person to Ireland (no matter how tenuous the link),continues unabated. A letter in the Galway Advertiser
describes how one of the recently discovered lovers of Wallis Simpson (the American divorcee for whom the British king, Edward VII abdicated his crown) was married
to a woman from Athenry (who presumably wasn't too thrilled by the link either).
Meanwhile, US Senator Bob Kerrey had to clarify his own background last week. He is not of Irish descent, though as a
Democrat senator from Massachussets, it's an easy mistake to make.
I guess the roads bug some people more than others. On Peter Jordan's site, he has listed all the signs from Dublin to Mayo as an example of how uninformative they are. And the new ones are just as bad as the old ones. My own theory is that the councils get three or four of each sign made. The workmen plant one down on the appropriate road, and the other two or three on the next most convenient roads on their way home.
More peace protestors at Shannon airport sneaked in this morning and attacked a US cargo plane. The plane had already been attacked last week (causing half a million euro worth of damage). Considering the Gardai had armed checkpoints in Limerick city last week to try to contain the feud between rival gangs, they probably don't need this extra work. The Army will probably be called in.
The news everywhere is dominated by the loss of the Space Shuttle Colombia. There is a strange symmetry about this event - not least because it happened very close to the anniversary of the Challenger disaster. Aboard Colombia was the first Jewish astronaut since Judith Resnik, who died on Challenger. He was a fighter pilot and combat veteran, just like Neil Armstrong - the space flight probably wasn't the riskiest thing he faced in his life. As a child of a Holocaust survivor, he carried a picture of the Earth from space, as imagined by a Jewish child who died in a deathcamp. How strange that he should have ended up in the space program that took its early steps based on Nazi technologies that were tested on the people of London in the shape of V2s during World War 2.
Spring has arrived with a gale. The promised snow fell in Britain (and in Wicklow) but didn't reach the west after all. We
can look forward to a cold snap for the rest of the week.
Pat "The Cope" Gallagher is going to make life a little easier for tourists. As Junior Minister for the Environment, he has instituted a program of updating road signs, beginning in five counties (Galway, Sligo, Donegal, Wexford and Kerry).
"If we want to market ourselves successfully, basics like signposting should be in place,' Gallagher said. "It really has been a confusing experience for too many of our international guests.'
Plus, it's cheaper than fixing the roads.
Indeed, getting lost amid Ireland's lattice of narrow, hedge-lined byways has been a traditional part of the tourist
experience. Tales abound of following the 1920s-era signs to a particular promised land, only to find that the pointers disappear at a crucial
crossroads or even worse, to one that claims the hunted village in question is now farther away than when you started the journey.
Complicating matters, older signs offer distances in miles, newer ones in kilometers but you often can't be sure which is which.
New speed limit signs, meanwhile, are often presumed by visitors to be in kilometers, but they're still in miles.
What the article doesn't mention is the not uncommon habit of local yahoos twisting signs about 'for the craic' - something I noticed in Kilmihil a few weeks ago.
"Never mind the countryside. I still get lost in Dublin," said Irish Times columnist Kevin Myers, a road-sign crusader who argues
that the Irish have never understood the functional point of signs. "You've got extraordinarily misleading signs and signs that tell outright lies,
and most of these are new," he said. "Dublin Corporation is putting up signs at the moment that are designed to baffle anyone from outside Ireland."
"They refer to Dublin as 'an Lar,' which is Gaelic for the city centre and it's a term that nobody uses because we all speak
English here," Mr. Myers said.
"Everybody in Europe would understand the word 'centre,' so naturally we can't use that. The powers that be are
intent on putting up signs in a dead language for pseudo-cultural purposes and doing nothing to help visitors."
Indeed. Take, for example, the apparent arrogance of the Germans in using German for their street signs, or indeed, the insouciance of the French on insisting that their road signs be written in French. Have they no consideration at all for mono-lingual, English-speaking tourists ? Anyway, Kevin should know that the reason Irish is used for Dublin street signs is to help the country people. Sure, don't all the Dubs take the bus?
Feckin right, too! God be with the days when a day of Irish dancing meant hefty youngs ones with hairy legs dancing on the back of a flat-bed truck in a sodden field, and their mothers roaring abuse at them in the crowd below.
He says the decision by the Scor Congress last summer to ban wigs in Scor na nOg competitions was long overdue.
Wigs? What next - makeup, flouncy shirts, bikini waxes, hundreds of people actually making a living from Irish dancers, record numbers of foreigners signing up for Irish dancing classes?!? I tell you, this Riverdance/Lord of the Dance carry-on better be stopped.
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