In a world where a blog is created every second does the world really need another blog? Well, it's got one.
An irregular set of postings, weaving an intricate pattern around a diverse set of subjects. Comment on culture, technology, politics and the occasional rant about life.
Alan ... in Belfast, Northern Ireland
The opening titles of The Survivalist graphically set up the background to the fundamental changes that have devastatingly changed society: the collision of population growth and plummeting oil production. It’s a world that has had no option but to embrace vegan diets (large animals have been hunted to extinction), heat from wood rather than electricity, and survival of the fittest.
Martin McCann plays the titular Survivalist who has been living in a wooden shack in a clearing in a Northern Ireland forest for seven years. The forest supplies fuel, the stove provides warmth and a place to cook. He’s planted lines of crops in front of his hovel, though his choice of organic fertilizer is unusual (and frankly an unforgettable cinematic image).
Tin cans hang from trees as early warning signals of approaching foes. Everyone who visits is assumed to be an enemy and his paranoia is turned all the way up to eleven. It’s a case of shoot first ask later.
Mother and daughter Kathryn (Olwen Fouéré) and Milja (Mia Goth) approach the house one day. They’ve walked up from Monaghan and seek refuge. Desperate for shelter, after the initial rebuff the mother offers her daughter to the Survivalist for sex in return for lodging. They pair stay and help cultivate the land. However, they’re not the only people in the forest, and when their food supply is disrupted and diminished, drastic decisions have to be made.
It’s a shocking scenario. How extreme would circumstances have to be for a mother to prostitute her daughter? (Not so far fetched in today’s world when families are faced with brutal conflict and the high risk of death.) There’s no question that the mother might offer herself rather than her teenage daughter. In what kind of a world are welcome and hospitality exchanged for sexual depravity?
After a screening in the QFT, someone quipped “it’s all about the seed”. And that neatly sums up the post-event world that writer and director Stephen Fingleton has created. Power is wielded by those with something to offer. And the only resources left are the basic ones. It’s clear that Fingleton has done his research and made the environment as realistic as possible: nature is blooming while people are dying.
The Survivalist is not a zombie apocalypse film. Nor is it a filmic version of BBC’s Survivors with a community fighting back against a virulent strain of influenza. Fingleton’s world is much more isolationist and sophisticated.
There is no musical score, unless you count a few notes on a harmonica. Instead there’s the sound of breathing and the wind rustling through the forest added in post-production. No 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound: the majority of the film uses a mono feed through the front centre speaker to heighten the audience’s sense of sound. There’s not much dialogue: even when the shack’s occupancy increases, there’s not that much to talk about. But despite the stripped down sound design, Jamie Roden’s post-production mix is as beautiful as Damien Elliott’s camerawork.
Everyone looks weary. The cast’s emaciated bodies reflect the low-carb diet of mushrooms. Martin McCann looks like he’s been living in the forest. (While the cast did forgo showers during the filming, they didn’t go to quite the lengths of The Revenant cast and crew.) Olwen Fouéré’s long white witch-like hair belies a woman who is losing grip on her own destiny.
Trust is in short supply. Loyalties are complex. Affection may be a cypher for survival. The decision to take a life or save a life is more likely to be based on selfish reasoning than the urge to prolong life.
Ultimately the moniker ‘The Survivalist’ may belong to the young and virile who can make harsh choices and take opportunities when they arise. An elongated crane shot changes the perspective of the power play between the three characters, signalling the pivot point in the film’s narrative. Mia Goth depicts a young woman who is more in control that she lets others believe and can emotionally detach to boost her lifespan. Perhaps this is more like “Little Red Riding Hood in reverse” as the film’s director has suggested?
The Survivalist (18) is not for the fainthearted. But it’s a story and a set of circumstances that continues to haunt my imagination long after the credits rolled and the lights came up. 105 minutes of original cinema from a Northern Ireland writer and director who has been nominated for a the Outstanding Debut BAFTA. If he continues to question what we take for granted, his future films will be worth viewing too.
Queen’s Film Theatre is exclusively screening The Survivalist from Friday 5 February, a week ahead of its UK cinema and on-demand release.
Stuck in Mexico City for an unexpected three day layover while promoting his epic fifteen hour documentary The Story of Film, filmmaker Mark Cousins decided – in the middle of a press-up – to go out and make a film.
He took with him the laminated photograph of Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein. Walking fifteen or so miles a day, he pounded the pavements of the bustling city like a melancholic flâneur, exploring it with Sergei, and filming only using his pocket Flip camera.
A male and a female voice talk over the shaky pictures taken by Mark as he marches all around the city. Sometimes he’ll stop for a rest and a drink. Sometimes the camera will rest on some facet of nature and stare for a minute or two.
With a fixed wide angle lens, a short battery life and only a built in mic, the Flip camera is limited to just two kinds of shots – wobbly and stable – depending on whether a tripod was used.
The voiceovers are fabulously detailed, referencing poetry and history as well as musing on the meaning of ecstasy. While the slow pace of the film grated at the start, I relaxed into the easy going, free-flowing narrative and warmed to the peculiar plot-less tale.
What is This Film Called Love has flashbacks galore – and flashbacks within flashbacks – along with dreams and at least three twists in the last ten minutes of the film.
Shot in three days without a thought-out plan, and edited in just nine days, the 77 minute film is a remarkable example of what you can achieve if you give a creative mind a camera and the space to think. Film buffs will love the auditory and visual references to classic movies and soundtracks. You can read more about the editing process on the film’s website and read through the storyboard that Mark crafted and (re)sorted on A6 index cards.
Sitting in the soft QFT seats watching Mark and Sergei take a gander around Mexico City, I remembered a weekend in September when I spent long periods walking through Boston city centre and over the bridge to Cambridge to wander around MIT. Fond memories of being solitary in a city, of having time to think and read and watch. Memories shattered as I returned home from the QFT to hear the news of explosions and the unfolding tragedy at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in a city I grew to love so quickly.
If the recent spate of documentaries and marches to mark the centenary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant has intrigued you and sparked an interest in the history of this place, then you may want to catch the play 1912: A Hundred Years On as it tours around Northern Ireland over the coming weeks.
Written by Philip Orr and Alan McGuckian, the hour long play takes a wide look at what was happening in 1912, placing the overlapping events into a context, politically and culturally. Two actors – Ciaran Nolan and Gerard Jordan – assume the roles of County Antrim neighbours as they adapt to the changing situation, as well as playing the parts of the leading politicians and statesmen.
The play’s first run in March was well received, and sets the scene for the next decade of centenaries, including the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Irish National Volunteers, gun running at Larne, the Suffragist movement in Ireland, the Battles of Gallipoli and the Somme, and the Easter Rising all form a continuum of history.
Co-playwright Philip Orr says that the arts have a role in examining our history:
“We can ask questions about our past and not be scared of it; ask questions about our own past and not be seen as traitors; ask questions about other people’s past and not be seen as bigots.”
October
Tuesday 16 – Saturday 20 (various times) // Ulster Museum
Monday 22 – Wednesday 24 (various times) // Ulster Hall
Wednesday 24 at 7.15pm // Belfast City Hall
Friday 26 at 7.30pm // Hopelink Centre, Carlisle Circus, Belfast
Monday 29 at 7.30pm // Braid Arts Centre, Ballymena
Wednesday 31 at 7.30pm // Drumalis Retreat Centre, Larne
November
Thursday 1 November at 7.30pm // Alley Theatre, Strabane
Friday 2 November at 7.30pm // Glenavna Hotel, Cookstown
Saturday 3 November at 7.30pm // Enniskillen Library
Monday 5 November at 7:30pm // Kilmorey Arms Hotel, Kilkeel
Tuesday 6 November at 6:30pm // National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
Full details of how to book tickets – which all seem to be free – can be found on the Contemporary Christianity website, whose Centenaries Cluster Group arranged for the play to be produced.
The project has received the support of NI Community Relations Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs/Anti Sectarian Fund, and the Lyric Theatre.
It’s a 3D platform game that puts you in the shoes paws of a crafty fox that is raiding the local chicken farm for lunch. Watch out for the knife-wielding farmer’s wife, or the owner himself brandishing a shotgun. Get past them and you'll have to dodge the hounds.
With a desire to use local talent, animator William Barr turned to fellow Ballymena man Jackie Fullerton (sports commentator and silver fox) to provide the distinctive and distinguished voice-over. As the fox moves around farm, Jackie chips in with witty one-liners that could soon become his catchphrases.
Check out the video to see a demo of the video and hear Jackie and William discuss Outfoxed™ as well as the state of the local games industry which is steadily expanding, with a couple of small companies making a mark in the iPhone app/games scene already. Billy Goat received seed corn funding from the Creative Industries Innovation Fund (administered by the Arts Council NI for DCAL).
Outfoxed™ has now launched on the iTunes Apps Store and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. There are plans to port the game to Mac and PC too. Priced at £1.49, Pocket Gamer website describes it as “chicken pickin’ good”.
As a child, I used to look out the window on the evening of 5 November to see the fireworks display that was set off from the nearby army base. In recent years, I remember flying back home from England and being able to watch fireworks displays from above, little pin pricks of explosions, mushrooming over the English conurbations.
Last night, along with many local people, I got to see the army's display - held in conjunction with Lisburn City Council, and with its mayor Councillor Brian Heading (SDLP) in attendance.
Update - Oban's community fireworks display suffered a technical hitch, setting off the entire display in the first 60 seconds ...
Over the past few days, I’ve been posting on Slugger O’Toole about a range of events and activities associated with the Twelfth. I’ll not repost everything here on Alan in Belfast, but you may be intrigued to read more about.
A ten minute conversation with (Lord Mayor and Sinn Fein councillor) Niall Ó Donnghaile as we walked around a deserted Short Strand at 11.30pm, half an hour before the bonfires were lit across the wall on the Newtownards Road.
A long post detailing conversations, photos and video as I followed Ballymacarrett District Lodge No 6 through parts of their Belfast parade on the Twelfth, including footage as it passed the lower end of the Newtownards Road, comment from the District Master, spectators, protesters and stall holders.
Update - Since the Monarch Street bonfire was part of the Belfast City Council management programme - which provides grant assistance in return for socially and environmentally responsible bonfires (ie, no tyres, no burning flags etc) - the council are sending up one of their beacons to this site for this evening. You can see pictures of the beacon ... and their replacement bonfire - on a second post.
The plume of smoke above RISE this morning was the result of an early-morning arson attack on the Monarch Street bonfire rather than an out of control BBQ in the middle of Broadway roundabout.
There was disappointment and a hint of anger in the voices of the group of teenagers who were the first to arrive at the Donegall Road/Broadway bonfire this morning. Days of effort destroyed.
Sixteen hours early, someone – and fingers were pointing at another community – had lit the unguarded bonfire. The blaze was well underway when the fire truck arrived, briefly pausing before driving off.
What the pictures can’t depict is the wall of heat that hits you – even at that distance – and the stench (most likely of tyres). Update - probably not tyres as the bonfire was part of the management programme run by Belfast City Council.
The Monarch Street residents will have a quieter than expected Eleventh Night.
Update on RISE - Belfast City Council confirm that work on the main sculpture has now finished, and the footpaths across Broadway roundabout will shortly be reinstated. An “official opening” event is planned for mid-September, when a time capsule will be buried on the site and the lights will be switched on.
Moderators of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland take on the role of the denomination’s ambassador for twelve months. By the end of their term, most moderators appear to have grown in wisdom and understanding of both the church and society, as well as become quite weary with the workload and travel.
Prior to taking a year out to be moderator, Norman Hamilton had been ministering in Ballysillan Presbyterian Church and the surrounding north Belfast for more than twenty years. He described his feelings in the run up to becoming moderator last June as “a mixture of apprehension and excitement and anticipation and certainly a journey into the unknown both in terms of places to go, people to meet and situations to encounter”.
During their year, PCI’s moderator has duties within the denomination.
“The moderator does some formal things within the life of the church. He chairs some of the senior boards and committees. But his main role is be the chief spokesman, the chief public face, of the Presbyterian Church for the year, certainly throughout Ireland and to some extent overseas and in the UK.”
Outside of ecclesiastical circles there is a role in wider society too. In Norman’s case, that included seven engagements with the Royal Family and three with President McAleese.
Norman reflected that it is time “to redefine the relationship of the church with the state”.
“I think the models of a previous generation have long since passed their sell by date and that we need to find a proper mutually helpful, challenging relationship.”
That includes rethinking role of the ‘four main church leaders’. I wondered whether it was time for a fifth person to stand alongside them to give a non-religious viewpoint.
“I am very uncertain about the value of statements from the four church leaders to be honest.
Some of the latest initiatives by the Taoiseach out of the Lisbon Treaty do involve other faiths and indeed do involve humanists. And I was at the first meeting of that group convened by the Taoiseach only a couple of weeks ago.
That is what I mean by a reconfiguration of the relationship. Those of us who are Christians and want to promote a Christian and biblical worldview need to realise that we are in a society that no longer accepts that as given or takes it for granted.”
The Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s motto is Ardens sed Virens – “burning but alive” or “burning but flourishing”. Is the denomination flourishing?
“Some bits are flourishing and some bits are struggling. Our structures are struggling to cope with the realities of an increasingly secular changing world. Certainly the much more overtly critical emphasis in wider society is bringing challenge at local levels that we haven’t faced in the past. That’s what I meant earlier about the reconfiguring of the proper relationship between the church and wider society.”
Both in his work in North Belfast and over the last year as moderator, Norman Hamilton has conversed with many politicians. What is his assessment of the maturity of our local political process?
“I was seriously disappointed by the level of internecine warfare over the budget … That seriously troubled me. But I do think that that penny has probably dropped with the new Executive and they do understand the need not so much to hide their differences but to actually ensure that they are seen to be rowing the boat in the same direction, pulling in the same direction. I would be hopeful that they would do it together but slightly fearful that from time to time we will be mentored negatively.”
“There hasn’t been a lot of tangible progress in policy terms in the north. The widespread disaffection with the previous Executive’s papers showed that.
However the visit of the Queen and the welcome given to her by President McAleese and the Irish people I think has changed the dynamics of that. And perhaps in the North we have some catch up to do with what we saw modelled in the Republic.”
Confident that he’s not leaving his moderatorial successors “a cupboard full of skeletons” Norman also suggested that the definition of the role of moderator deserved thought.
“There is a task for the role of the ministry of the moderator to be defined from the role of the moderator. The moderator does all these things, but what’s he actually there for in Christian ministry terms? I think we need to give a bit more careful thought to that.”
Around many issues, including the gender of moderators – of which he says “I would love to see a woman who was moderator, but I suspect that’s a wee while away” – what makes PCI so conservative and slow to change?
“It does seem to me that temperamentally we are conservative, with a small ‘c’. We are conservative about everything. And therefore we are conservative about our theology, we are conservative about what we do, what is acceptable. There’s just an in-built conservatism in our DNA and I think that has been accentuated by the Troubles. The need to be protective of who we are and what we stand for. That will change, but I still think it’s a long process.”
Norman described a charity concert run by the Carrickfergus Presbytery in the Ulster Hall as an “extraordinarily uplifting” highlight from his year as moderator.
“Some of the praise and worship was led by a group of young adults who have significant learning disabilities. That was stunning and those folks are contributing on Monday night. That is one of my outstanding positive memories because it is all too easy to think that only the good things are done by the great and the good.”
There were difficult moments in the year too.
“There were many. How many do you want? I think probably the most difficult one was being in Malawi during the visit of the Pope and the furore that broke around me when actually I was unable to even hear what was being said and to respond to it. That’s not a complaint, just a statement of fact. That was really quite difficult.
I think the other thing I have found difficult is that we still live in a society and even in a church world where relationships are often very strained and very difficult. And it does seem to me that there is a real challenge for Christian people to show in action the gospel of grace that we proclaim in our teaching. We have to behave graciously. And I’m not sure we do that as well as we might.”
When I talked to Dr Ivan Patterson, he was less than 72 hours away from taking over the reins at the front of PCI. I asked what in his life or ministry had prepared him for this moment?
“I think life prepared me. Having been in business for a number of years and come back to study, life for me has always been just a plodding on. There’s never been bright lights, it’s just been listening, seeing what’s available, where I go, and through all of that listening – hopefully to God who would direct me. I suppose life teaches us lots of things. I ministered in a rural area, been in semi-rural in Newcastle. Lots of dealing with people, seeing what makes them tick, and in the context of trying to make God relevant to them through scripture, through teaching and through talking.”
He’s been ministering in the Newcastle congregation for twenty years. The church has recently completed a redevelopment and he welcomes the opportunity for children from the town – who attend different schools in surrounding towns – to be able to mix together twice a week, breaking down church and community barriers.
What are the big issues that face Newcastle today as a town, a society, a community?
“It’s really a restaurant town nowadays and there are quite a number of clubs. One of the areas we’ve been trying to do something about is a Night Light team. That’s folk out – usually only on a Friday night because that seems to be the busier night – it’s just being there as a Christian group of people, seeing kids not well enough dressed … it’s really just making sure they get home, they’re not cold, all of that. I think that is one of the major issues.”
He’s proud of the good relationships between townspeople and churches in Newcastle.
“From I went to Newcastle, I was keen that there would be good relationships between everybody. So I’ve gone out of my way to keep good relationships. I think Newcastle was a town that throughout the Troubles was very fortunate. There are no ghetto areas, so the whole town is mixed and relationships have always been – at least superficially – good if not slightly deeper than that.
At the beginning, churches were a little bit suspicious of each other. Even Protestant churches didn’t always do things together. We have been able, not only to reach out, but to do things with the Catholic community – Bible studies and services – but we also do work with the Baptists and sometimes the Elim come to that. Every fifth Sunday there is an open service down in the Newcastle Centre.”
Later in the interview, Ivan refers back to another example of “reaching across the community” and his involvement in the setting up of Youth Link NI, an inter-church youth service established by the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in 1991.
“That was quite a unique thing in the British Isles because at that stage there was no other youth organisation which included the Catholics. We had about three agonising years to try and get that to work. That was a real learning curve for me. Because you discover that we all have our own hang-ups, but there are certain things very core issues about what it is to be a Christian that are the same. There is a big report on sectarianism. It would be good to be talking about that and seeing how we are part of it because none of us are perfect.”
As Norman Hamilton pointed out, society is increasingly secular. I asked what Ivan thought about the church’s changing role in society?
“Certainly I think we are fairly largely “post-Christian”, in the sense that even some of the Christians are almost post-Christian because for many people it is really something they do rather than something they know about and something that they want to experience of God.
This year the theme that I’ve got is “Word is Life” so it’s really discovering God through his Word, and trying to expose people to what Christ was saying to us and what he expects of us in the world. To me one of the big challenges is to try and get folk to think – especially Christian folk to think – what God might think and not necessarily to be preaching to people but to be just among people.
I try to encourage some of our folk [congregation of Newcastle Presbyterian] – particularly some of the business men – to get involved in the Chamber of Commerce, get involved in those areas where they can go and bring not necessarily a preaching role but to be some kind of salt and light that the New Testament talks about.”
So given Ivan Patterson’s theme for the year, does he think it’s important for churches to spend more time worrying and agonising over ordaining gay ministers and resolving Kirk Session disputes than tackling things like poverty which is what Jesus talks about most in the Gospels and seemed to be pushing his buttons?
“I do think there are times when we get hung up on important issues but sometimes … If I can explain it this way. I remember Orlando Costas being here years ago and he talked about the truth being like a flash lamp. And what so many Christian people do is they shine the flash lamp up into the air and look at the beam, and they forget they ought to turn it down onto the road and say what does this mean for me living out my Christian life.
If we are going to be influential people – and I believe the Christian gospel has something to make an impact on people’s lives and without it I believe they’re not as whole as they might be – then I think we need to sit down and with people, whatever their problem is, whether we like who they are or what they are, just to be able to sit down and share 'This is my understanding, this is how it works for me, but what do you think about this?'”
For the first time, representatives of various sporting organisations have been invited to the opening night of the General Assembly, including the GAA, IFA and Irish Rugby Football Union. Ivan welcomes the greater inclusion of civil society.
“I can’t actually speak for the General Assembly, but as a personal opinion – locally at least – I don’t see that anybody should be told not to come in. And I think it’s good to allow people to see that you’re human, that this is how we do things, this is what we’re about, do you want to engage with us?”
Given that approach, does it sit oddly with him that somebody like Cardinal Brady – who he’ll meet regularly during the year – would not be invited to the opening of the General Assembly?
“My feeling on this would be – and I’ve no idea how the church is going to go on this – but especially at an opening night, the service is our service. And there’s no sense in which anyone’s being compromised – the only person who’s probably being compromised would be the archbishop if he comes. So I don’t really have a problem with it and I would welcome it. Although I did read somewhere in a report that maybe we should actually be thinking about others because we don’t invite the Baptists, we don’t invite the Reformed Presbyterians.”
Described as “conservatively biblical with a strong evangelical outlook”, Ivan Patterson explains what those labels mean to him.
“What it says to me is that I believe the Bible, even the difficult bits. And I believe the Bible impacts people’s lives. I think the good news of Jesus – the Gospel – is something that changed me. Not as dramatically as some people, but it certainly changed me. So I would be fairly conservative in all of that, but I think as I get older – which is maybe not how it should be – I would want to be much more open to how we live that out, how we do church, how we react to people.”
He’s looking forward to the year ahead, with its programme of church visits and services, as well as invitations to civic events. What’s he dreading?
“Probably at this point in time: next week! I’ve two sermons to preach. It’s one thing preaching to other people, but I always feel it’s a different thing preaching to your colleagues.”
Having been away for the last three weeks preparing for his year as moderator, he knows that he’ll miss his home congregation in Newcastle.
The opening night of the General Assembly takes place on Monday night at 7pm in Church House, Fisherwick Place, Belfast. Tickets aren’t required and anyone is welcome to attend. (Belfast Lord Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile is taking up his invitation and will be joined for the first time by representatives from sporting organisations including the GAA, IFA and Irish Rugby Football Union.
Radio Ulster normally broadcasts the opening night on Medium Wave with a wry commentary from Bert Tosh and William Crawley, and there’s always a chance that PCI may stream it on their website.
Last month I posted links to some of the YouTube versions of the TEDxBelfast talks from the first ever independently organised TED event to be held in Belfast. You can read my review of the night's talks and sessions in another post, but this this post closes the loop and deals with the remaining talks.
Maureen Piggott
Maureen Piggot, director of Mencap in Northern Ireland, was a revelation amongst the evening's speakers. She provided a window into a world of which I’m mostly ignorant.
f(impairment, environment) = disability
In our text-based society, she pointed out that there is no symbol to designate learning disability. Maureen suggested that
“the computer is the new wheelchair … the power of computing technology offers new solutions for people with intellectual disabilities that could be as useful and as liberating as the wheelchair is for people who have mobility difficulties.”
I spoke to Maureen afterwards ...
Sinclair Stockman
Sinclair Stockman was the first presenter of the evening, taking the subject of A Fully Interactive World. He took a look at a number of very ancient technological advances in early postal and communication systems. Sinclair was taken with the vastly distributed (though low volume!) postal system set up in the time of Genghis Khan. He pointed to infrastructure sometimes getting in the way of efficiency. Sinclair said it was criminal that while Northern Ireland probably has the best broadband network of any territory its size in the world, yet we have 20,000 illiterate children.
I caught up with Sinclair during the interval ...
Ken Thompson
Biomimicrist Ken Thompson spoke about Seven Secrets of High Performing Teams. To be honest, at times it came across like a précis of his book. But in amongst the management speak and the jargon, there were some nuggets of advice for people organising and operating teams. How often does the simple lack of clear ground rules cause disruption and conflict in projects?
His sixth “secret” was “Fast co-invention”. There’s room for command and control “leader decides” management, and there are occasions when wisdom of the crowds copes well when no specialist knowledge is required. But sometimes it’s a matter of figuring out who is most expert on a subject in a team and give them the responsibility to decide of those matters.
If zooming around on oversize Segway scooters dressed up as shopping trolleys is your thing, then look out for Granny Turismo motoring around the streets of Belfast as part of the Festival of Fools.
Three of the talks are now available to watch online.
Ruth Morrow
Ruth Morrow, is professor of Architecture at QUB [I posted last year about her inaugural lecture] and co-founder of Tactility Factory a spinout company that combines concrete with textiles to create softer surfaces. While a lot of education is about transmitting knowledge, she believes that architecture is transformative, developing the design process in people, and empowering students to change places and lives.
Ruth talked about “making mad ideas sane”, reckoning that if you’ve faced difficult problems before, then you can approach new madcap schemes with a greater bravery and chance of success. She’s a believer that “critique is a sister of creativity”, of mixing contrasting materials and styles (“vinegar and chips” / linen and concrete), and of encouraging cross-fertilisation of thinking.
Her final challenge to TEDxBelfast attendees (and anyone who watches the talks online afterwards) was to help develop a “Designed and Well Made in NI” branding that would expose products that are not just quality crafted but also have a strategic relevance and opportunistic fit in the market place, communicating value.
I spoke to Ruth afterwards ...
Mark Dowds
Fundamentally Mark Dowds challenged why so many people continue to feel so unhappy and dissatisfied at work. Remarking that non-democratic countries are amongst the most corrupt, he suggested this could apply to companies and organisations too.
His talk dovetailed well with an earlier one from Ken Thompson. Instead of employees continuing to arrive at work with long faces, he suggested that more democratic workplaces would offer greater employee satisfaction, productivity and results for their employers. He cited examples where senior managers had become facilitators, where HR policies had been thrown out the window, and where workplace democracy had led to sustainable growth.
I talked to Mark afterwards too ...
Paul Moore
Paul Moore heads up the University of Ulster’s School of Creative Arts at Magee and holds a personal chair in Creative Technology. In his talk he rubbished the kind of city creative quarters and notions of a creative class espoused by academics like Richard Florida. As well as saying “the creative class is a con-trick”, he spoke out against “symbolic creativity”.
Instead of believing in an creative elite, Paul explained his passion for the “bottom-up” creativity of ordinary people. He used local examples to demonstrate NI creativity, and pointed out the (not always originally foreseen) long tail of their work.
The rest of the TEDxBelfast talks will appear online in a few days time.
If any AiB readers have ever wondered what’s to the left of Sinn Féin in the political spectrum but been too afraid to ask, then hop across my interview with éirígí council candidate John McCusker on Slugger O’Toole. It’s one of a series of interviews with representatives from smaller parties standing in the Assembly and/or local government elections.
Or save yourself the read, and just watch the twoclips from our conversation I’ve embedded below!
I finished the Slugger post with these words:
There’s a sense that éirígí’s manifesto stretches back a hundred years into the past and forward another hundred. éirígí’s long term goals are more important than short term fixes. It’s a very different mindset to that of most parties who are thinking no more than ten years (or ten minutes!) ahead to achieve their visions. It’s also a mindset that explores everything through the prism of history and socialist heroes like Connolly, in a way unionists do not match. In the end, to me, I found it to be a struggle without any obvious hope. But the West Belfast electorate may disagree.
When someone in the Wellington Park Hotel audience last night asked Martin McGuiness whether any “middle ranking or even junior members of Sinn Fein” had joined the PSNI, the last thing I expected him to comment on was his perception of Ronan Kerr’s voting record.
Answering slowly, and in a calm matter-of-fact way, the Deputy First Minister explained
“I went down to see Nuala within hours of her son being killed. And it was very obvious from being in that household that many of the family circle were Sinn Fein voters.
And I would go so far as to say that Ronan Kerr voted for Sinn Fein, and joined the police because he wanted to be part of change and wanted to support the peace process.”
Martin McGuinness was sharing the platform with Mary-Lou McDonald and was in conversation with commentator Jude Collins at one of a number of Sinn Fein town hall events open to the public. (For me it was an interesting and warm place to shelter before the 9pm showing at the QFT as part of the Belfast Film Festival!)
The exchange begins about 31 minutes into the audio clip embedded above.
The temptation was to immediately tweet the comment. But it felt like it needed to be interpreted in context. Twitter’s 140 character limit doesn’t allow for a lot of subtlety. He wasn’t boasting or bragging. A couple of people I talked to at the event remarked that Martin McGuinness’ comments had felt inappropriate. (Conversely, the vast majority of the audience didn’t seem to bat an eyelid.)
But as a politician he was making a remarkably inappropriate statement (in my opinion) in a public forum. Is speculating – or indeed revealing – the voting habits of a dead man ever a dignified thing to do? Is it not an unnecessary politicisation? (over on his own blog, Jude Collins outlined his opinion.)
Later Martin McGuinness went on to say that he would be as outraged if a young protestant policeman was killed in the morning.
Asking Martin McGuinness about his remarks afterwards he said:
“It’s clear to me from my own first hand experiences that we are now seeing a situation where young people who are very nationalist-minded and republican-minded, who want to contribute to bring a change within policing and who want to support the peace process, have joined the police in the course of recent times. And that’s why I have made it absolutely clear that people who are prepared to do that – and I also include in that young protestants who have joined the police and do so for the best motivations – that if they are prepared to stand by the political process, the politicians have a duty to stand by them.”
But was it fair to politicise Ronan Kerr’s death by speculating on his politics?
“I don’t think I was politicising his death. It has never been contested that he was an Irishman, that he was nationalist-minded, that he was republican-minded, that he was a supporter of the GAA. So I don’t think that offends anybody. I actually think people should take encouragement from the fact that there are now young people who are motivated by the best possible ideals, prepared to join the police. And in doing so, continue to support the ongoing development of the process that has brought so much change to our society.”
On Wednesday evening, Belfast Harbour Commissioners’ headquarters was full of ideas and creativity as Belfast’s first ever independently-organised TEDx event brought together six speakers, one orchestra and the lucky 100 ticket holders.
Davy Sims had been planning the event for six months or more. I’ll update this post when the full talks are uploaded shortly to the TEDxBelfast.com website. In the meantime, I caught up with the speakers to get a flavour of what they’d been talking about.
Sinclair Stockman was first up, taking the subject of A Fully Interactive World. He took a look at a number of very ancient technological advances in early postal and communication systems. Sinclair was taken with the vastly distributed (though low volume!) postal system set up in the time of Genghis Khan. He pointed to infrastructure sometimes getting in the way of efficiency. Sinclair said it was criminal that while Northern Ireland probably has the best broadband network of any territory its size in the world, yet we have 20,000 illiterate children.
Ruth Morrow, is professor of Architecture at QUB [I posted last year about her inaugural lecture] and co-founder of Tactility Factory a spinout company that combines concrete with textiles to create softer surfaces. While a lot of education is about transmitting knowledge, she believes that architecture is transformative, developing the design process in people, and empowering students to change places and lives.
Ruth talked about “making mad ideas sane”, reckoning that if you’ve faced difficult problems before, then you can approach new madcap schemes with a greater bravery and chance of success. She’s a believer that “critique is a sister of creativity”, of mixing contrasting materials and styles (“vinegar and chips” / linen and concrete), and of encouraging cross-fertilisation of thinking.
Her final challenge to TEDxBelfast attendees (and anyone who watches the talks online afterwards) was to help develop a “Designed and Well Made in NI” branding that would expose products that are not just quality crafted but also have a strategic relevance and opportunistic fit in the market place, communicating value.
Biomimicrist Ken Thompson spoke about Seven Secrets of High Performing Teams. To be honest, at times it came across like a précis of his book. But in amongst the management speak and the jargon, there were some nuggets of advice for people organising and operating teams. How often does the simple lack of clear ground rules cause disruption and conflict in projects?
His sixth “secret” was “Fast co-invention”. There’s room for command and control “leader decides” management, and there are occasions when wisdom of the crowds copes well when no specialist knowledge is required. But sometimes it’s a matter of figuring out who is most expert on a subject in a team and give them the responsibility to decide of those matters.
Just before a short break for refreshments and serendipitous networking, The Really Rubbish Orchestra demonstrated what was possible with handmade instruments made from reclaimed rubbish: an electric guitar made from a couple of lab stools, various stringed creations based on skateboards mounted on a wooden ladder complete with wobbling spoons!
Maureen Piggot, director of Mencap in Northern Ireland, was a revelation. She provided a window into a world of which I’m mostly ignorant.
f(impairment, environment) = disability
In our text-based society, she pointed out that there is no symbol to designate learning disability. Maureen suggested that
“the computer is the new wheelchair … the power of computing technology offers new solutions for people with intellectual disabilities that could be as useful and as liberating as the wheelchair is for people who have mobility difficulties.”
Fundamentally Mark Dowds challenged why so many people continue to feel so unhappy and dissatisfied at work. Remarking that non-democratic countries are amongst the most corrupt, he suggested this could apply to companies and organisations too.
His talk dovetailed well with the one from Ken Thompson. Instead of employees continuing to arrive at work with long faces, he suggested that more democratic workplaces would offer greater employee satisfaction, productivity and results for their employers. He cited examples where senior managers had become facilitators, where HR policies had been thrown out the window, and where workplace democracy had led to sustainable growth.
Paul Moore heads up the University of Ulster’s School of Creative Arts at Magee and holds a personal chair in Creative Technology. In his talk he rubbished the kind of city creative quarters and notions of a creative class espoused by academics like Richard Florida. As well as saying “the creative class is a con-trick”, he spoke out against “symbolic creativity”.
Instead of believing in an creative elite, Paul explained his passion for the “bottom-up” creativity of ordinary people. He used local examples to demonstrate NI creativity, and pointed out the (not always originally foreseen) long tail of their work.
While I wish there had been more time at the end of the evening for attendees to mill around and discuss what they’d heard and been challenged by, it was an excellently curated event with a good range of talks. It also avoided buffer overload by providing space to mull over the ideas rather than being constantly bombarded with more.
In the spirit of Ruth Morrow’s challenge to “make mad ideas sane”, I look forward to Davy applying to organise a follow-up TEDxBelfast in 2012!
Update - three of the TEDxBelfast talks are now available online.
Brian Ervine emerged as the Progressive Unionist Party’s leader last year after Dawn Purvis quit in the aftermath of UVF members’ involvement in the murder of Bobby Moffett.
I caught up with Brian in the PUP’s Newtownards Road office on Thursday afternoon. Serving in the shadow of his brother – and physically, sitting under a photo of David Ervine – he talked about his political beliefs, party policy, election hopes, and was happy to discuss the PUP’s relationship with the UVF and his impression on the UVF’s progress towards standing down.
Back in November 2009, I posted an interview with Dawn Purvis on the blog. Since then she has left the PUP and stepped out as an independent MLA for East Belfast.
If you ask me, deep down Dawn Purvis is a political anorak who could carve out a career as a party strategist or advisor. While conveniently fitting her positive self-belief about her re-election chances, I realise that her analysis and explanation of how the other parties around her in East Belfast are approaching the upcoming election (and in some cases playing into each others’ hands) is certainly more sophisticated and well-constructed than most of the commentators who get paid to write columns in the local press.
But talking to Dawn earlier today, it was clear that she has no intention of becoming a part-time pundit or party advisor. Instead, she is confident that she’ll be re-elected to the Assembly in May.
She suggests that four years ago “people didn’t really know who I was at the time of the last election as I didn’t really have a track record in East Belfast but I’d like to think that over the last four years my record stands on its own and I think people will see that through hard graft and sticking to my principles and what I believe that I’ve done my best to represent the people”.
Her independence means that she’s “not boxed in by any party policy and can focus specifically on local issues” and have a constituency focus. She can “choose to look at big picture issues if I want but I’m not expected to be a Jacqueline of all trades and mistress of none”.
Dawn highlights the continuing educational underachievement in protestant working class areas and says that the DUP and UUP have done “absolutely nothing” about the issue.
Asked about her sense of where the UVF are in their journey towards non-violence Dawn simply answers “I don’t know, I’ve no idea”, refusing to speculate in more detail.
“I made a decision last June based on the information available to me at that time that I thought that the statement of intent that they had issued in May 2007 and subsequent to that their act of decommissioning but then followed by the murder of Bobby Moffet was a clear intent to me that there were individuals within that organisation who were never going away. So I made my decision to resign at that time, so I don’t know.”
Despite early promise, Dawn’s own private members bill (seeking to eliminate double jobbing between local councils and the Assembly) ran aground. Last night, John McCallister’s caravanning bill was completed and became the first private members bill to negotiate the legislative assault course since 1948.
A complete session of the Assembly with no suspensions and yet only one private members bill passed seems a tad lethargic? Dawn disagrees and points to comments in the chamber last night that compared the Assembly with other UK legislatures that also have low volumes of private members bills.
Asked about the achievements she is most proud of over the last four years, Dawn quickly compiles a list:
“Track record in the constituency. Networking with the community and voluntary sector. Being chair of the all party group on children and young people and pushing those issues up the agenda within government departments. The working group I established to look at educational underachievement, particularly within protestant working class boys. My bill on double jobbing, although at this point we don’t know how successful that has been as we’ve still to table final stage. I think overall the four years has been quite a learning experience and I’ve certainly gained in my knowledge of the issues that affect my constituents and I hope that I’ve represented them well.”
Earlier today - about half a mile away from Dawn’s constituency office - Tom Elliott outlined his ideas around the review of the Stormont administration and the possibilities for parties to be in opposition in 2015. Dawn recalled her advice to the SDLP and UUP after the 2007 election not to take up the three ministerial positions offered to them and to “work together with the other smaller parties in the Assembly to form a constructive opposition”.
“I think the past four years would have been better spent by those parties in forming an opposition. Their electoral gains this time around would be looking a lot more hopeful than what they are at the minute. But we need to evolve our structures in the Assembly. I think constructive opposition is a good thing. With [just] a few individuals it’s much more difficult because you lack the combined resources of parties.”
Alliance are running two candidates to pick up on any bounce from Naomi Long’s success at the Westminster elections. The DUP are a lot more confident than this time last year. The UUP haven’t quite given up - though running three candidates in East Belfast may be self destructive. And the PUP are running Brian Irvine. I asked Dawn if she felt squeezed?
“No I don’t. I think it’s all to play for. I think every candidate that runs will be going after every single vote. I don’t feel squeezed. I think maybe some of the other parties need to review their strategy in light of the last four years and even in light of the last year. I think that maybe some of them are basing their strategy on figures that may not add up at an Assembly election particularly when you are running different candidates.
I think the field is wide open. I think it’s anyone’s for the taking and it’s up to me when I’m going around the doors to convince people that they should vote for me.”
The Dock should be pleased with last night's turnout. People working in (and for) Titanic Quarter, along with residents and friends gathered inside an unoccupied shop unit at the base of the new apartments in Abercorn Basin. It was easy to find - the open door with the VW blue camper parked outside and a brazier offering heat to anyone needing a smoke.
The unit's concrete shell was decorated with fairy lights. Mulled wines were stewing on a gas stove, along with supplies of shortbread and good cheer. Residents met for the first time. TQ employees explained what excites them about the area. And once again, food (and drink) was a door to relationship.
For another 36 hours or so you can still catch his thoughtful (and more boisterous than normal!) Morning Worship for Advent from Radio Ulster last Sunday in which he describes a bit more about the project.
Belfast City Council and PLACE are out and about this week with Wolfgang Buttress, the artist behind the 40m high RISE sculpture that will be unveiled on Broadway roundabout by Easter. There was a public meeting in the City Hall on Wednesday at lunchtime, followed by an evening event at Falls Community Council.
You can catch Wolfgang from 7-8pm on Thursday night at the Richview Regeneration Centre, Donegall Road. Light refreshments will be served. To reserve your place, please call Ivy Rollins, Tourism Culture and Arts Unit, Belfast City Council on 028 9050 0512 or email culture AT belfastcity DOT gov DOT uk.
The process to place a piece of public art on the pylon-free roundabout has taken longer than Belfast City Council and Roads Service ever imagined. The first commission – Trillian, a 45m tall wild flower designed by Ed Carpenter to represent a post-Troubles city – fell through when the price of steel rocketed beyond the project’s budget.
Wolfgang Buttress had been shortlisted the first time round, and nearly didn’t apply again when the commission was re-advertised. Speaking before the event began, he explained that having visited the site, he wanted a sculpture that would acknowledge:
“… the fact that there are two different sides, the fact that it’s important that it’s seen by both sides of the community as well as people coming into Belfast. It needs to be nice and simple, universal, and looks the same from each angle.”
The Bog Meadows are reflected in the reeds that will sit below the balls and (in some cases) structurally support them. Some of the reeds will also house the lights that will illuminate RISE at night, making it an icon from ground level as well as from the air as flights come in and out over the city.
Wolfgang describes in the short clip that he wanted the sculpture to be “open” and yet “have presence”. At nearly 40m tall and 30m across, it is a huge structure. It’s certainly in proportion with the tower blocks next to the Royal site.
Fabrication of RISE is already underway in Rasharkin and work to prepare the Broadway site should begin before Christmas.
A good aspect of the project is that around 80-90% of the money is expected to flow back into local NI businesses and suppliers.
I’m looking forward to Nick Patterson’s timelapse project to capture the construction.
There was quite a bit of discussion at the lunchtime event about how public art is commissioned. How constraining are the strings that are attached to public art projects, potentially compromising the raw art with constraints, briefs and box-ticking. Of course, throughout history, pretty much all commissioned art has been tainted by the funder and not just requested for arts sake.
But what should be the balance between aesthetic judgement and city building? How do democratic structures and civil representation sit alongside community involvement. Rather than be a completed monument, should public art be something that enriches people’s lives on an ongoing basis?
Belfast has an on-off relationship with public art.
The Big Fish has had a positive impact, along with the quiet persistence of the Nula with the Hula.
While the public got what they voted for, Dan George’s steel squiggleSpirit of Belfast was a bit of a let down and failed to capture the imaginations and hearts of city centre workers and shoppers. (The sculpture’s promised lighting features – “ribbon of light … [whose] … intensity, color and movement will be programmed” - failed to materialise which damaged its evening impact in Cornmarket.)
Personally, I suspect the sheer size of the enormous sphere, and the mesmerising effect of the smaller sphere suspended inside, will capture the imagination and hearts of drivers as they come towards the end of the M1 motorway heading into Belfast, or drive out of the city centre heading towards the underpass.
RISE has the potential to take over from the big wheel as the media’s shortcut image of Belfast.
I’m less sure about what local communities (the Village and the Falls) will make of it and how they’ll be able to engage with the alien structure that is about to appear. I can help fearing that it’ll be a target for throwing toilet rolls at and decorating with flags once a big enough cherry-picker is found.
A roundabout – even one that is as large as Broadway – is an unfriendly and isolated place. No matter how much grass is laid, no one’s ever going to cross over to the middle of it in order to kick a ball or sit on a bench and stare up at the sky. Cars whizz clockwise around the circumference, and people scoot across the middle spending no more than a minute or two to get to the traffic lights on the other side.
Although there may be a passing trade of shoppers heading to Park Gate, and staff heading over to the Royal Group of Hospitals, they are transient, windswept and in a hurry to get past. Poor access and parking, together with health and safety concerns must practically rule out any use of the space underneath the sculpture (owned by Roads Service) for community festivals and events.
Yet maybe there’s hope in the fact that within days or weeks of its announcement, RISE had already been given the nickname of the Balls on the Falls. Artist Wolfgang Buttress seemed quite pleased that it had been so quickly adopted.
Yesterday morning’s Thought for the Day on Radio Ulster yesterday, mentioned the Feast of Saint Columbanus. The speaker described him as “a bit of a stirrer”. Which set the tone for the lunchtime celebration of Columbanus organised by the Ullans Academy in an East Belfast hotel and featuring speeches from academy president Dr Ian Adamson, Lord Bannside and the Irish President.
For anyone having trouble keeping up, as far as I can tell, the Ullans Academy is very much on the liberal wing of the innumerable organisations that represent and promote the Ulster Scots language and its culture. They point to shared culture and history, from Scotland and through Ireland. They’re not hung up on equality or parity, and are interested in inclusion rather than exclusion.
Tuesday lunchtime’s event – one of a regular series – brought together people from all sections of the community, for the most part mixing easily with each other. Presidents, preachers, politicians, ex-paramilitaries, community workers, teachers, school children (from Ashfield Girls School and St Joseph’s College), political advisors and the odd blogger. MLAs, councillors and candidates from a number of parties across the political spectrum. Lord Bannside and Baroness Paisley sitting at the same table as the Irish President and her husband “the lovely Martin”. But no sign of the culture minister Nelson McCausland.
Columbanus died on this day in 615 AD. Big celebrations are predicted in Italy – where he’s buried – in 2015. As someone who hasn’t spent much time in Bangor, I hadn’t realised that he’d had spent time there and was a local hero. Ian Adamson has written a twelve page booklet summarising the life and impact of Columbanus. He quipped: “I’ve dumbed down this brochure so the academics can read it!” before going on to claim that Columbanus was “probably the greatest of all the Irish saints, in that he re-evangelised Europe at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire.”
Local artist and lecturer Ian Fleming had been commissioned to produce a piece of art to give to the two special guest speakers. At first refusing to produce two copies of the same work, he instead created two interlocking jigsaw pieces that can be lifted out of their frames and locked together. Columbanus means “white dove” and it’s present on the two pieces, locked in a cage of “decommissioned” barbed wire. The Belfast Lough coastline and Bangor are also represented on Lord Bannside’s half of the jigsaw.
I’m not sure that Ian Adamson’s hope that Ian Paisley and Mary McAleese “will come together very frequently so that they can slot each other’s pictures together” will come true.
Ian Adamson gave a potted history, highlighting Columbanus’ roots in Ireland.
Columbanus after great tribulation travelling throughout Europe re-established Christian virtue throughout that whole land. It’s mainly due to him I think that Christian virtue did survive in Western Europe. So he’s one of the founders of Western civilisation.
By the time he left it, Bangor was a great university and the scholars who were trained in Bangor constituted some of his best disciples. Three of them were English. The whole of Bangor’s thought was centred on a form of praise – a continual praise to God – which was based on the temple praise in Jerusalem.
Columbanus is not thought of so much in Ulster or Ireland. He came from Leinster– which wasn’t his fault – but he came up to Bangor and it was there that he trained after a period in County Fermanagh.
He was a very special person and represents a lot of what we need to consider as shared history, the shared past Unless we can share our history of the past we will not be able to share the future.
His introduction finished with a deliberate and stretched comparison between Columbanus and Paisley.
This is a special day – his feast day – and we’re absolutely delighted not only to have her Excellency here today who is so interested in Columbanus and will be speaking about him in a few minutes, but also Doctor Paisley. Columbanus was a very complex character. One of the great scholars of his work said “he’s a character so complex, and so contrary, humble and haughty, harsh and yet very tender, pedantic and impetuous by turns, but her had as his unifying pattern the ambition of spreading the gospel of Christ in Western Europe. All his activities were subordinate to this one aim, and with the self sacrifice that can seem close to assertion he worked out his whole salvation by the wondrous pathway he knew. He was a missionary only through circumstance, a monk by vocation, a contemplative and wise man, but driven to action by the political world around him. He was a pilgrim on the road to paradise.
And therefore it’s a particular pleasure that we have with us today a second Columbanus. I’ll not say which of those characteristics characterise our next speaker! But a very special person – perhaps the most significant political person in the whole of the end of the twentieth century we’ve just come through, and he has a particular interest in Columbanus and the old Celtic church. I speak of course of Dr Ian Paisley, now known as Lord Bannside although Eileen took the name Paisley away from him. But I think they can forgive her for that. Ladies and gentlemen, Lord Bannside.
Lord Bannside started his short contribution by describing Columbanus as a “great saint” who “took a stand against things which were common in many of the churches of which he did not agree with and which he spoke out against”.
I think that this audience today and the fact that the president of the Irish Republic is with us and her husband – and she needs a husband – I think it’s interesting as it does send out a message and that message is clear that we need to go back to our history books and we need to learn some of the things we haven’t learned. Many times in Irish history the emphasis has been upon those who have wanted to make that emphasis. But there are other things about Northern Ireland and the south of Ireland that we need to learn. And the one we come to think about today – Columbanus – we come to think of him today. And what a man he was.
He didn’t go with the times. He didn’t say I will visit the Pope and get my orders and then I will do what he says. In fact, strange to relate, he had some very hot things to say about one of the then Popes. Things I wouldn’t even dare to say!
But he was an independent man. Why? Because those that know the truth, the truth shall set them free. And his writings and his teachings, but best of all his example was a witness to the apostolic gospel that came to us through the presentation of God’s son and ended on the dark and cruel cross, the tree of Calvary, that we who are sinners might know forgiveness and peace and life everlasting. That was his message and he delivered that message.
And it’s interesting today, after all this time, we’re coming back to that message. There’s a very famous poem, some lines that he wrote.
So Satan acts to tire the brain, And by temptation souls are slain. Think, lads, of Christ and echo him. Stand firm in mind ‘gainst Satan’s guile. Protect yourselves with virtue’s foil. Think, lads, of Christ and echo him.
Strong faith and zeal will victory gain. The old foe breaks his lance in vain. Think, lads, of Christ and echo him. The King of virtues vowed a prize For him who wins, for him who tries. Think, lads, of Christ and echo him.
And that’s what he did. He echoed Christ. And here we are after all this time. And these echoes come with great fire and vigour today to us all. And in the silence we should utter the same prayer that was in the poem of this great man.
Beginning her speech which at times wandered away from the published draft on the Irish President’s website, Mary McAleese reckoned “it’s a strange company when we have Lord Bannside quoting a Pope and Columbanus, and Sammy Douglas quoting Saint Augustine. I feel in a very strange place today but in absolutely the right place!”
And I want to thank Dr Ian Adamson and the Ullans Academy for inviting Martin and I to join you here today to mark the feast of St Columbanus, celebrated in the Roman Martyrology on this day [the 23rd] by tradition or throughout Ireland by tradition on the 24th of November. So it’s very fitting that we gather on this day, particularly in what is a slowly but surely reconciling contemporary Ireland, where the most raw of historical divisions have actually been between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians. It’s important I think that we ask ourselves: is there anything about this man, born fifteen hundred and seventy years ago, that could help us – this man who was the great pilgrim, the great journeyer – is there anything about him that could help us on the journey that we’re all on together this day?
There’s nothing new about turning to that far off millennium that he came from for inspiration. We do it all the time. We’re always turning back to Saint Patrick, by far Ireland’s most influential immigrant. He was the stranger who came among us and who left that huge indelible imprint on Ireland so much so that he became the patron saint of Ireland. Columbanus could justifiably claim to be Ireland’s most influential emigrant, the man from this country who went out to the world. Of course born here, raised here, educated here. But he left his imprint not just here in Ireland but throughout Europe. Though I have to say it’s not really a fair deal in my view that Patrick who didn’t come from here ends up being the patron saint of Ireland and Columbanus ends up being the patron saint of motorcyclists. It doesn’t seem like a very fair deal to me. If he was alive today he’d be straight down to the Equal Opportunities Commission I’m sure. And he might – given this gathering – take encouragement from the fact that he would have cross-community support.
I was going to skirt rather delicately over Columbanus’ fidelity to the Pope. For obvious reasons it might arouse passions in some quarters, but thankfully Lord Bannside skirted over that anyway for me. And I was also going to skirt over the fact that he was also a man well known to protest at times to Popes. But again Lord Bannside took that and hit it right on the chin. So here is a man that we can all – no matter what our tradition, no matter our faith perspective – here is an Irish man that we can be proud of. He was an adventurous man, a courageous man, a man of faith, set out on a journey, long before the days of Ryanair, long before the days of Skype and email, when to set out from Bangor and to end up in Bobbio by way of a long, long journey through Europe, it was very much a journey into the unknown. If he had a donkey that would be the height of his technological equipment for the journey. Why did he do that? As we heard, it was because he had an all-consuming passion. That passion was an absolutely ferocious fire inside him that was lit by the idea of how love could transform life: the great commandment to love one another.
That Europe he travelled through was a mess. Probably an even bigger mess than certain Europe’s we’re more familiar with. It was riven with political tensions, rivalries, corruption, decadence, depraved leadership, conflict … you name it. The Europe that he travelled through had any amount of evidence of the messes that human beings are capable of. It was a very dangerous place. He was exposed to danger more often than I’m sure he had anticipated. And on that road that took him from Bangor through England, France and to his final destination – the place that he eventually died – in Bobbio in Italy. There was no guarantee that he would arrive safe and intact in any of those places he set out for because he was a sign of contradiction. He was a man who wanted to turn people to the same passion that he had, to look at the world through different eyes.
Today the physical and the intellectual legacy of that very arduous itinerary is seen in the monasteries he founded and the towns and the cities that are named after them, and of course the place-names that honour his memory all over continental Europe. But the intellectual legacy is the one I think we can be very, very proud of. Because in a dark Europe and a very grim Europe, that lacked any kind of a unified and life-enhancing vision for how people could and should relate to each other. Here comes this man Columbanus. He was a light, he was a civilising influence, he was a man accustomed to scholarship, accustomed to being prayerful, accustomed to silence, nor afraid in the least of silence. And he was a man who had a message to people to tell them how they could relate humanly to each other. And how if they related in that loving way they would release into their lives and into the civic space and the political space a whole new power.
It’s described very beautifully – and I see that you use the phrase Ian in your book – someone has described him as “creating a contagion of holiness”. It’s a beautiful phrase. His own words are inscribed on the wall of the Columbanus chapel in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome which I recommend anyone who’s in Rome go to see. And in that basilica the words that are written are very important: ‘si tollis libertatem tollis dignitatem’ – if you take away human freedom you destroy human dignity. Or where human dignity flourishes, it flourishes because of freedom. And these words are probably to familiar to some of your ears because these words written by Columbanus a millennium ago are of course to be found in the first Article of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Taken straight from Columbanus: “Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected.”
Here we are today, the inheritors of his vision, fellow inhabitants and sister inhabitants of his homeland, citizens of the European Union, probably itself the greatest, most ambitious peace process the world has ever undertaken. We are co-partners with each another in another very important peace process: the one that effects us mostly and most immediately on this island, and one that could yet vindicate Columbanus’ faith in the transcendent power of love. The European Union’s motto is ‘in varietate unitas’, unity in diversity, a powerful and very appropriate summary of where we are all at as peace-makers, striving to create here a place that acknowledges people of very different perspectives, acknowledges them as neighbours, as friends. So a place where differences of faith or politics should not and will not in the future inspire either fear or hatred or contempt or distrust but would rather be the very test the Columbanus in us. Are we able to respond to those differences with respect for difference, with love for the person. Are we truly able to love our neighbour as ourselves, differences and all.
We are really very privileged to live in this time when a thousand years almost after Columbanus we begin to feel the power at work in our own lives, our own relationships, of the release into the civic space and into the political space of a new way of relating to each other, a more loving way. We willingly now acknowledge the mosaic nature of our own identity and the mosaic nature of our history.
We also do something very important more often than not now. Sammy alluded to it and Ian alluded to it. And that is the way in which we now track back through history not using it in the way we were accustomed to, to ransack it for ammunition to hurl at each other, but looking at it now with different eyes to see what have we overlooked, where was the shared history that we could have created a common platform out of. Where were we able and where are we able to position ourselves so that we begin to look at the world through the same eyes. Maybe one of the reasons why Columbanus is not as he should be as the patron saint of Europe is precisely because we were discordant in our voices. We weren’t unified in our admiration and respect for him, seeing ourselves – all of us – as his successors and his inheritors whether we’re Irish, British, Northern Irish, Ulster Scots, Gaelic, European, whatever our identity, whatever our mixed identity or our fused identities in this Ireland, in this island we now inhabit. We now inhabit a world that is determined to be free of labelling people in order to be distrustful, labelling in order to be contentious. Now we pledge ourselves to, and through, this man whom we gather in honour of this day, a world absent of the threat of sectarianism, absent of threat of racism, secure in the knowledge that on this island there are no favourites. Everyone is a cherished child of the island. And that was the message Columbanus had. It was a message to all leaders, all key influencers of his day, that that is how people should be treated. That all of those that were in public position, they lived and existed to serve that image of the individual human person, as a person to be respected with innate human dignity. But he also had a message for each of us as individuals. That not only are we entitled to our human dignity but each one of us in everything that we do and everything that we say and everything that we plan, we are the sacred custodians of the dignity of every other human being. And that places us in a very, very special relationship one to the other.
Many times since the millenniums since Columbanus made that extraordinary journey and became the European intellectual and spiritual colossus that he is today, many times in the meanwhile his message of the transcendent power of love and the dignity of the human person has come very close to obliteration on our planet, on our continent and here in our own island. But what’s great about being here today is the evidence that in this room and is abroad, on the streets of this city and right across this island, the peace-loving people of Northern Ireland, of Ireland, of the European Union, they are once again carrying that torch of Columbanus. They’re continuing that journey, from Bangor to Bobbio, from dark to light, from hate to love, from despair to hope.
I just like to think that we who have the benefit of fifteen hundred years of rather humbling hindsight now, unlike Columbanus who couldn’t see the future that we can look back on now. He believed that it could be a great future, he probably didn’t realise how long it was going to take for his words to really take hold of people’s hearts. We have the benefit now of fifteen hundred years of very humbling hindsight. We have the benefit of a direct limited experience of the devastating consequences of violence and intercommunal violence and now we have charge of the plant of peace. It’s ours. It’s been grown by our hands. It’s been grown by our hearts. And we have planted this extraordinary story now in the history of this island. I think we have done something that Columbanus would be very, very proud of. But I think our job is to ensure that we bring it to full flowering and full fruition in a much shorter time-frame than the millennium and a half since the man in whose name we gather today. I think that would be the best thing we could do, to pledge ourselves as he did to live with the same passion, the same enthusiasm, to live every single day as if it was its last. Every single day dedicated and devoted to building up friendship between human beings, to making people understand that if you love one another, difficult though it may be, good things happen, wonderful things happen, miraculous things happen. That’s the message of Columbanus that we gather to celebrate this day. Enjoy each other’s company, the vary fact that we are around these tables is itself proof of the miracle.
