TDs arrested at Shannon

I just got home from having lunch and gossip with the notorious Sarah Clancy, pictured here centre, to learn that the two people pictured either side of her - TDs Clare Daly & Mick Wallace - were this afternoon arrested at Shannon Airport for attempting to inspect what they believed to be two U.S. military aircraft. 

It has long been alleged that military equipment and 'rendition' prisoners on their way to very bad places are regularly transported through Shannon. I have a, well, complicated relationship with the anti-war movement. I just find it a bit hypocritical of some to loudly oppose torture and illegal invasions by the U.S. when you were enthusiastically for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, or indeed anywhere else the Soviets chose to invade, and are sorry the Stasi are no longer there to torture those you think need torturing. It may be a minority, but a significant part of the anti-war movement is soft on tyrants, and by soft on tyrants I mostly mean soft on themselves. In the hearts of some 'peace activisits' there certainly lurk future Ceausescus. Then again, I would say that wouldn't I, because, as Cillian Gillespie of the Socialist Party used to like to say before the Party told him to shut up, I am a raving pro-war imperialist and, even, "an apologist for mass murderers". By "mass murderers" I think he meant Paul Wolfowitz. Poor Cillian. It can't be easy for him.  

Unlike too many others Clare Daly and Mick Wallace have no record of such secret worship of the interrogation methods of the East German secret police; or of endlessly downplaying facts inconvenient to their own side, such as the continued existence of George Galloway and Tommy Sheridan. Quite the reverse. Both have made enemies of those gurus on the Irish left who would, given the half chance, crown themselves Emperor. Whatever else can be said about Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, and some of the online commentary this afternoon has been predictably toxic, they probably have more courage between them than the entire rest of the Dáil put together. Reading much of the online commentary against them, I suspect that many of those venting are impotent males who these days can only achieve release by endlessly mowing the lawn. 

Finally, as well as having had lunch with the notorious Sarah Clancy this afternoon, I should declare a further interest, Clare Daly launched my book of essays, Mentioning the War, in Dublin in 2012, while the other, Mick Wallace, launched my recent poetry collection at the Cuirt Festival in April. 

Let Us Rise! The Dublin Lockout - its impact and legacy

Here, strategically placed in one of Mick Wallace's restaurants, is a poster for the recent Dublin launch of Let Us Rise! The Dublin Lockout - its impact and legacy. The book has a foreword by Joe Higgins T.D. and is published by the Socialist Party with contributions from Oisín Kelly, Cillian Gillespie, Ray McLoughlin, Fiona O'Loughlin, Dominic Haugh & Councillor Ruth Coppinger.

I will be reviewing Let Us Rise! for the September Biblio book review page in The Galway Advertiser and attended the Galway launch at Charlie Byrne's bookshop last Friday week. The process of obtaining a review copy was, well, circuitous.

All going well, the review should appear on Thursday, September 5th.

Poem In Search Of Good Home

Hannibal Lecter was a poetry fan. One of the items that can been seen in his cage in The Silence of The Lambs is a copy of the magazine Poetry (Chicago). It is one of the leading such magazines in the world and last year celebrated its hundredth anniversary.



I have published somewhere in the region of a couple of hundred poems in literary magazines since my first published poem appeared in Poetry Nottingham magazine in June, 1996. John Major was still Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Monica Lewinsky was busy not having sexual relations with that man, Mr Clinton. They were idealistic times.

Poetry magazines play a hugely important function, and will continue to do so. They are the place a new poet finds her or his first audience which, as T.S. Eliot once pointed out, is usually made up of other as yet unemerged poets.

These days, though, while I still do send poems to such magazines, I find that I am increasingly drawn to publishing poems in places that have a readership beyond what some call the literati. In the past couple of years I've regularly published poems on political websites, such as Irish Left Review, Harry's Place, Neoneocon, Socialist Unity and in newspapers, such as The Galway Advertiser, The Galway Independent and (even) The Irish Times. Last November my poem, 'The Euphemisms', was published on Clare Daly's website. In April, I had another poem published on a T.D;s website when Mick Wallace published my poem 'Alternative Proposals', in which I gave Minister for Health, James Reilly, some excellent advice.

Perhaps this is the beginning of my Ezra Pound phase and, over the next few years, I will slowly turn into a raving maniac more concerned with extremist politics than poetry. Claremorris poet and dramatist, John Corless, has recently expressed concern that this might in fact be the case. And he's probably right.

Whatever the outcome, I find that these days I aspire to be read by more than poets. I want the people who might agree with what I'm saying in the poems - this is the political and satirical poems I'm mostly talking about here - to have easy access to them. I also want those who won't like either what I'm saying, or the way I'm saying it, to also have access to the poems because I don't wish to deny either them (or myself) the dark pleasure of their eternal disapproval. Sadly, unlike Hannibal Lecter, most people do not subscribe to Poetry magazine.

Last week I put out a call on Facebook asking if there were any political or literary blogs that might be interested in publishing my poem 'What The Virgin At Knock Would Say If She Could Speak'. Roisín Peddle stepped up and published the poem on her excellent personal blog Random Descent. The poem was very quickly condemned as 'not poetry' by a foaming at the mouth member of Youth Defence, or at least a member of Youth Defence I will now forever imagine foaming at the mouth. This I considered a great success.   

In a similar vein, I am now looking for a home for my just finished and very topical poem: 'Irish Government Minister Unveils Monument To Victims Of The Pro-Life Amendment' [to the Irish constitution in 1983]. Like Bertolt Brecht's 'To Those Born Later' and Mayakovsky's 'At The Top Of My Voice' the poem looks forward to a tomorrow which can only be better than today and will, certainly, be infinitely better than all our dark abortion free Irish yesterdays.

Anyone interested in publishing the poem should email me at kphiggins@hotmail.com   

UPDATE the poem is now published here Clare Daly and here Pro-Choice Campaign Ireland

and here Referendum on the 8th Amendment NOW  and here Irish Student Left Online and also here Rabble. 

"in a Wallace-controlled Ireland women could be free to have an abortion in all circumstances"

Ger Walsh of the Wexford People is one of the intellectual giants of this (or any other) century. This week Ger proves that there is more to him than his immense and always very active brain. He is also perhaps Wexford's greatest comedian since Brendan Corish's skeleton graced the set of Hall's Pictorial Weekly. In his column in this week's Skibbereen Eagle Wexford People he uses his razor wit to expose the threat to the morals of the women of Ireland posed by Deputy Mick Wallace, who since February 2011 has been a T.D. for the Wexford Constituency.

“So, in a Wallace- controlled Ireland, women could be free to have an abortion in all circumstances if they unexpectedly became pregnant. For example, a woman might be due to go on an exclusive foreign holiday but an unexpected pregnancy could interfere with her plan and how she might look on the beach. Or there could be an unexpected pregnancy in the run up to a family wedding, ruining the chances of fitting into a very expensive dress. Under Mick Wallace’s proposals it could be open to both women in these hypothetical situations to abort their babies."

Ger Walsh is, as you can see, a very funny man. In some quarters he is now being spoken of as Wexford's answer to Ant and Dec. In other quarters he is not being spoken of at all.

A couple of week's ago Mick Wallace published my poem 'Alternative Proposals' on his website: http://mickwallace.net/?p=2527 . In it I make helpful suggestions as to how one of the issues concerning the government's abortion legislation might be resolved.

The Catholic hierarchy are calling on the faithful to assemble this weekend in Wexford for a marathon rosary saying session to ward off the deadly threat of "a Wallace- controlled Ireland". It is understood that both Joe Higgins T.D. and Seamus O'Brien of New Ross People Before Profit Alliance have offered the hierarchy's stand against "a Wallace- controlled Ireland" their critical support. It is not known, however, what prayers, if any, they will be saying.

Mick Wallace poem

I have a new poem on Irish Left Review.

It was provoked by the reaction to the Mick Wallace V.A.T. issue.

http://www.irishleftreview.org/2012/06/13/anatomy-public-outcry/

Mick Wallace ran on the platform of 'A New Politics'. He was a T.D. for only 14 months when he co-sponsored (with Joan Collins and Clare Daly) the bill to legislate the the X-Case. It was the first attempt to legislate for abortion in Irish history. Seems like a new politics to me. Given that in the 20 years since the X-Case not a single T.D., not one, had the courage to attempt to legislate on this issue. Just saying.