COVID Alarm
Back
a couple of months ago we thought we had it beat but it came back with a
vengeance. Now the challenge is there again and it is on our doorstep. So
hopefully we as a community will stay the course and do the necessary to stem
the tide. And it is certainly a tide in places like the Donegal border areas and
Northern Ireland. The third level institutions are really a major issue right
now and when the guard is let down it can jump in and create mayhem. The Elphin
example is a lesson to us locally.
GAA Response… ‘Disappointing’.
‘Disappointing’
in the GAA context of today introduces me to one (of a series) of words I used
in a different life like alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile with the classic being
metaphor. ‘Disappointing’ in this line-up might be regarded as a ‘euphemism’
which is really a very mild understatement for something much more serious.
If the Covid 19 directions meant little or no
personal contacting or hugging and the classic social distancing, then there
were many and obvious GAA examples of this being ignored. The front runner of
an example of this was following the Dungannon victory in the Tyrone
Championship. It was joy unconfined that evening. Rarely have I seen such a celebratory
expression of joy at a victory. (Perhaps after Clare won their All-Ireland in
’95.) That was on the pitch. One can only try and imagine what it was like when
the ritual celebrations followed in the H.Q. bar of the Club. Apparently Blackrock
the winners of a classic Cork county hurling final v Glenn Rovers Sunday had
extravagant celebrations which flowed from social media. I have been told also
that when Mountbellew-Moylough dethroned Corofin in the Galway Semi-final it
was similar.
It was not always so this summer season. The
first final I watched was that of Wexford hurling and at the conclusion of the
game it was a pretty muted if satisfying response. I think that may have been
in the total lockdown period with no supporters present. Also a real template
as to how it might be done was at a top Galway double header in Pearse Stadium.
After the first game was over stewards tried to get the spectators for the
first game to exit while the quota for the second game entered. How that worked
is hard to know but the spirit of compliance was in place.
I
have not seen much o.t.t. celebration in Roscommon. St. Brigid’s responded with
a body language that suggested that they were confident of victory and were
looking to the future. Their Intermediate ladies did however show an unhealthy exuberance
in their celebrations after they defeated Boyle in Ballyforan. Recently in
passing the Abbey Park where a junior game was in progress the number of cars
in the neighbourhood suggested a ‘crowd’ exceeding the acceptable.
So
it seems as if you just cannot play team games like these and pretend that
‘social-distancing’ exists and that the mantra of health guidelines is adhered
to.
An
odd contradiction emerged for me when watching a rugby match on television
Leinster v Saracens. A couple of medics attended to an injured player all
masked up and covered in protocol. Then, after the stoppage, the thirty players
ripped into each other as if it was an experiment in Covid 19 distribution. As
Doctor Spock used say ‘Not logical’.
Shane
Curran struck a blow for the concerned when he, the manager, absented himself
from the Offaly County ‘B’ Final in which his team Durrow was involved and
there were some Covid issue connections to his team. This was a small personal
strike for individual care. An early rule was if you find yourself
uncomfortable in a particular environment then get out of there.
It
is a big pity as the streaming and Television coverage of games this summer was
a great success for the cocooned and there many examples of great games with
plenty of drama. It is all a learning process I guess.
The
recent highlights came from Galway and Queens University in Belfast. The
numbers in the 26 counties is very unnerving but those in Northern Ireland they
are alarming. That cursed border, in so many ways, seems to be a penance from
history for this small island.
So
follow the rule if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck it is a ……. Get
out of there.
President Trump and that circus.
I’m
back with my oft used exclamation of Victor Meldrew “I dooon’t believe it!”.
The cliché with this is; ‘It would be mad funny if it wasn’t so serious’.
Well
the past couple of weeks in Washington have been pure theatre. It is hard to
have an appropriate title for the kind of ‘theatre’ it was, Macabre perhaps!
Trump strode through as the cameras clicked and spectators watched open
mouthed. Many applauding the ringmaster and many more just open-mouthed in
disbelief.
I
stayed up for a time for the debate but just couldn’t take any more. You may
recall times when you are watching someone to whom you have no earthly
connection but you get embarrassed for them. That whole debate as a unit was an
embarrassment to the level of discourse in the United States and many of its
citizens must have sensed that. As I have said before; how a great country,
which has achieved so much and produced so many branches of arts and culture,
cannot consistently have top grade candidates for the primary position in the
country i.e. President, just depresses me. This, in fairness, isn’t that hard
to do right now!
Trump,
for reasonable people, by my code, is just their worst nightmare. Joe Biden looks
like a weak opponent and a percentage of the U.S. electorate will reluctantly
vote for him because they just cannot vote for Trump. I watched Mister Biden
giving an address at Gettysburg (location of one of the great battles of the
American Civil War and a famous speech by President Lincoln) yesterday (earlier
this week) and he gave a good speech calling for unity of purpose and healing.
There were many quotes from the classic original Abraham Lincoln speech so that
had to be a big help.
For
my education I have tuned into the competing news channel the pro Trump Fox
News and the opposing CNN. They show the polarised state of play there. The
drama of Trump being hospitalised, giving his video messages, the outrageous
motorcade to salute his supporters, his theatrical exit from the hospital …just
incredible stuff. Then the comments about Coved and downplaying it with
utterances not to be afraid of it (after 200,000 plus U.S. deaths) and so on.
‘Unbelievable’.
I
presume that Rd. Sean Conley cannot be as dumb as the utterances at the ‘press
briefings’. He sounds more like a ‘spin doctor’ than a top specialist. A
question; why does it take up to nine other doctors to accompany the one
spokesperson at those briefings?
While
supporters of Biden wear furrowed brows all of Trump’s spokespeople, many of
them quite young, carry a visage of smugness and overbearing confidence with a
‘bring it on’ attitude. Many of them have brought it –Coved illness- on
themselves and their boss has to take a lot of the blame for that. While all
this was unbelievable drama, the probability is that it will continue for the
next month and maybe more. The test will be November 3rd. But
whatever way it goes it is not guaranteed to be written in stone either. So
take an ‘abundance of caution’ in how you anticipate the great U.S.A.
negotiating this strange time for their country. A country that impinges on us
all which is why I am so engrossed with it.
Television
Watch and ‘University Challenge’
I
presume I am not alone in watching more television than normal. What do I
watch? You may not have asked but I’ll mention a few programmes. The one show I
consistently make time for is ‘University Challenge’. It is not that I can
answer many of the questions but it has a structure and lightness that appeals
to me. It is also a team challenge which distributes the responsibility. The
original quizmaster was named Bomber Gascoigne while today it is Jeremy Paxman.
From early days it achieved cult status. From time to time an Irish student
turns up on teams as with a Wicklow girl, Miss Clarke, last Monday night (Oct.
5th) for Edinburgh and one’s curiosity and support anchors there.
Last April a Conor Mc Mel from Dublin was on the winning team, Imperial College
London, which defeated a Cambridge College. The classic intro of ‘Starter for
Ten’ was the title of a film which illustrated the prestige and background to
the quiz-with a twist- and its participants. For students it is a real prestige
C.V. reference.
The
Chase is now hugely popular as is ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’, 15 to 1 with
Anne Robinson and finally the General Knowledge section of Mastermind is worth
a shot if you are ‘into’ quizzes to a decent degree. A few days ago Ray D’Arcy
had Shaun Williamson as a guest and he is a quiz anorak with his book ‘A matter
of Facts’. While they can be addictive they are a great source of general
knowledge. I always remember my great friend John Mac Nama when I reference
quizzes. He was a master. It is odd that RTE does not have a regular quiz show.
Years ago it had ones like ‘Rapid Roulette’, ‘Where in the World’ and for
schools a very popular one called ‘Blackboard Jungle’ which a very good team
from St. Mary’s College gave good shots at in the 80s’.
Ray D’Arcy Show and Recording
Grandparents
Whilst
I do not listen to Ray much I did yesterday for a time while walking and he
popped in a decent idea which came his way. It came from a listener who
regretted not being able to hear his grandfather’s voice and stories. The
listener suggested that people might record their grandparents (even their
parents!) for posterity. Everyone has a unique voice and when that is stilled
it cannot be replicated like photographs and such. I have experience of this in
that I ‘taped’ my own mother in the early 80s’ (she died in 1984). The reason I
taped her was to send the tape to my brother in Perth, Western Australia. I
prepared for the task by writing a ‘script’ for her to speak into my microphone
and this she did clearly. Following this I talked to her for a good length of
time about whatever with her not knowing that I was still taping. I sent the
tape top my brother in Oz and he was delighted with it. But …I made a mistake…I
did not keep a copy of it! I regret that of course and when I asked my brother
about it subsequently the regret was enhanced it was lost with him.
Documentaries …Notorious RBG.
One
could watch any strain of television programming all day if one wished but I am
not an addict and I am a night owl in watching respect. Netflix is a pretty
recent outlet for me. The early days of Covid cocooning was signposted in T.V. terms
for me by a classic sports series involving the great American basketball
player Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls. I seem to remember that I mentioned
and recommended ‘The Last Dance’ documentary at the time.
About
a week ago, on Netflex, I happened on another very different icon the Notorious
RBJ (Ruth Bader Ginsburg). You may remember her death a few weeks ago on Sept.
18th in Washington and of her being the first lady to lie in state
in the Capitol. She was a member of the U.S. Supreme Court and was only the
second lady to achieve this accolade. She was a brilliant law student and a
liberal member in a generally conservative and hugely influential branch the
U.S. Government. The three branches of which are The Legislature comprising the
Congress and Senate; second is the Executive comprising the President and his ‘ministers’
and the Courts, especially The Supreme Court. These branches are meant to act
as a balance on each other but often they hobble the work of each other. Two
years ago a Brett Kavanagh was nominated (after a struggle) to the Supreme
Court and Trump hopes to have a second nominee Amy Coney Barrett –a Catholic-
nominated before the election. This will reinforce the conservative numbers in
the Supreme Court. It was in the Rose Garden of the White House for an
introduction of Coney Barrett by Trump to his foremost supporters that the Covid
allegedly took off. You may have seen (especially from U.S. news shows) a
picture and nomination of up to a dozen who got the Coved then.
If
you are a Netflix person you could do worse than tuning into the documentary on
RBG as I can in no way do justice to her here.
Censorship in the Free (!) State
RTE
1 Tuesday Nights at 7 ‘Cosc’ which translates along the lines of ‘BAN’.
Well
‘Cosc’ focuses on morality in Ireland and the strident efforts to enforce a
Catholic ethos in how people lived their lives. A big plank in all this were
laws which introduced a broad raft of censorship on various forms of public
diversion. These covered Books, Newspapers, Music and Cinema. It also extended
into the ‘Ban’ on material of a very personal nature.
The first programme in the series dealt with
the extraordinary effort of a priest in Mohill, County Leitrim to Ban… Jazz.
Now it was Jazz in a broad sense which would have included other music and
dance. On Tuesday last the show dealt with censorship which had been introduced
in the Free (!) State circa 1927. Many of Irelands greatest books were ‘banned’
as a result. Most people will be familiar with the notification of films being
for various age groups ‘A’ etc. and the film censor’s names being scribbled at
the bottom. The film censorship Act came
into being at the beginning of the State in 1922. The idea behind all this
censorship is that Irish people would not be contaminated by film or written
material especially if it were of a sexual nature. A great promoter of this was Archbishop
McQuaid of Dublin from 1940 until 1972. Mc Quaid had enormous political
influence in his time and sexual material was a special taboo with the Cavan
born cleric. Was it Gay Byrne himself who suggested that there was no sex in
Ireland before ‘The Late Late Show’.
One of my favourite songs;
These
can change from time to time. A while ago it was Linda Ronstadt and ‘Across the
Border’ but recently it has been ‘Forever Young’ written by the great Bob
Dylan. There are many fine interpretations of the song including Bob himself.
My favourite interpretation is by another of my favourite singers Joan Baez. One
of my regrets is that I did not go to Dublin to hear Joanie (as Dylan used to
call her) about four years ago. Anyway I regularly have her singing this song
from my laptop You Tube. I have some very good reasons to link into the lyrics
also. So I recommend you listen to it a few times to absorb the sentiments.
Forever Young written by Bob Dylan sung
by Joan Baez
May
God's blessing keep you always
May
your wishes all come true
May
you always do for others
And
let others do for you
May
you build a ladder to the stars
And
climb on every rung
May
you stay
Forever
young
May
you grow up to be righteous
May
you grow up to be true
May
you always know the truth
And
see the lights surrounding you
May
you always be courageous
Stand
upright and be strong
And
may you stay
Forever
young
Forever
young
Forever
young
May
you stay
Forever
young
May
your hands always be busy
May
your feet always be swift
May
you have a strong foundation
When
the winds of changes shift
May
your heart always be joyful
May
your song always be sung
And
may you stay
Forever
young
Forever
young
Forever
young
May
you stay
Forever
young
One
should not leave a reference to great songs this week-end without mentioning
that if John Lennon was alive now he would be aged 80 as he born on October 9
1940. He was shot on December 8th 1980 nearly forty years ago by a
Mark David Chapman. It was one of those great artistic tragedies and with it
surfaces the eternal question, ‘What if?’
John
was responsible for the song which was voted at some stage as ‘the greatest of
all (popular) songs’ i.e. ‘Imagine’.
End Note
It
has been a number of weeks since I posted to the blog. A good deal has happened
since then and there were a number of items that I meant to mention here but
looking at the word count in the bottom corner I better adjourn for now. You
are taxed enough especially if you have reached HERE.
Take
extra care at this dangerous time and if you are not comfortable in an
environment …walk away.
Slán.
t.
c.
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