Posted by admin on Feb 12, 2010 in
People,
Poetry,
Religion,
zeitgeist 
Chary is the reason behind this series of interviews. She interviewed me for European Irish, the website for all the Irish expats and Hibernophiles living in on the Continent. So I thought I would turn tables and get to know her. She lives in Chiclana, Cádiz, a very special paradise with its own guardian, the Wind from the East (like the witch in the Wizard of Oz) that protects the area from overcrowding.
She studied Philosophy in Salamanca because she wanted to know EVERYTHING about this world, she really wanted to fully understand it, and she thought Philosophers would give her the answers she needed. Funny enough, they just had more and more questions. As one friend of hers says: we’re still at the beginning, but not as we were at the start. And I suppose that’s the important thing.
She got an Erasmus grant, and headed to Galway for a year. Not being able to stand the crazy climate in that country, she decided to come back to Spain, where the light of the sun makes life so much easier. But she brought a nice Irish fellow from Sligo who was delighted to get out of the rain. And since then, they’ve been living in Chiclana. they have two lovely children (one of them says about himself that he’s a miracle! And that he wants to be like the guys in The Beatles, have a band, become famous, but the most important thing, have long hair; and the other one says she’ll dance for her brother’s band, she just loves performing).
What is love for you?
Often answers depend on who is asking… I suppose love is what makes us BE. This is just a guess. So much has been said about this topic! I don’t exactly know what love is, but I’m aware of its effects. Love must be shown, or it is not love. Love is also irrational. And so are humans, even though it has been said they are rational animals… Nonsense. Computers experts try hard to make computers think like humans by getting them to be logical. The truth is that a computer will never be like a human being… because the essential part of humans is irrationality.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Coincidence. This might be difficult to accept, but I don’t think there’s a reason beyond this.
What is the biggest problem facing the human race at the moment?
How to cope with intolerance, how to accept that difference is part of our lives. Multiculturalism is a challenge for us.
If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
I wouldn’t change a single thing. Not at all. Everything in life is so weaved that it is very difficult to change one thing without changing the others.
Do you read poetry? Why? Why not?
I think there might be a difference between poetry and poems. While poetry is felt, poems are written down. How many poems do you know that have a lack of poetry? And yet, sometimes, one single word could be full of poetry… Anyway, I used to read poems, yes… There was a time when I could read in loud voice. Poetry has to be read in loud voice; otherwise we just have loose words on a piece of paper. Life is made of different stages: you do exercise for a while, and then you suddenly stop. The same thing happened to me with poetry. Sometimes you have to leave the land fallow, and give time a chance. From time to time, someone delivers a poem for me on a tray –in the inbox of Outlook . And I’m starting to recite them… again.
What is your mission in life?
Mission? Missions have to do with heroes. And I don’t like heroes. Jesus was one of them. They all have a tendency to die because of a real necessity of stating that his ideas are worth a life, their own life, and sometimes their follower’s life. Therefore, I do not have a mission. I might have little goals…
Have you ever felt hate? If so, tell me about it.
No.
Is optimism a strength or a weakness? Explain your answer
Optimism is, without any doubts, strength. I’m not talking about some sort of naïve optimism for which everything is fine. As I understand it, optimism means being aware of reality and its faults and it entails a great effort in order to make it better.
What is your favourite recipe?
Shepperd’s Pie… but the way we’d cook it in Andalucía: white wine, onions, garlic…
If you had a motto, what would it be?
I wouldn’t have a motto. Humans are too changeable to have just one single motto in life. But“Nosce te ipsum”could be a good motto. However, Simone de Beauvoir said that “you cannot get to know yourself, all you can do is narrate yourself”. Isn’t it what I’m doing know? J
Add and answer two more questions that you would like to be asked!!!!
Ok. Why am I answering this questionnaire?
Because it seems to be a challenge.
(I would not add a number 13th question, sorry)
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Tags: cadiz, interview, People, Poetry, Spain, spirituality
Posted by admin on Feb 8, 2010 in
People,
Poetry,
Religion,
zeitgeist 
I had arranged to make a Skype video call to conduct this interview and what came alive on the screen was a white well-lit room. On the wall hung a cheerful painting – ‘Children of the World’- and sitting in front of it was Simone, dressed in white and smiling angelically. It was like phoning Heaven. She has a smile like spring water.
What is love for you?
Love is everything for me. Love is what I need to live. Love is what I want to give to my nearest and favourite people. And for me love is God. I’m a very religious person and I know what love is in a spiritual way and of course in a human way.
If love comes from God, why do we suffer from love?
Because we are just human beings. I studied theology in Germany and I know that we’re so little that we’re just thinking and feeling like human beings. Love can not mean for us what it means for God. So we’re suffering from a love that is not the real love that I know is the love of God. I loved my ex-husband but I loved him in a very small way compared to my love of God. I’m still on way to understanding my love for human beings and transcendental love.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
I’ll speak personally now. That’s my talent…to be personal. I am a good person and bad things have happened to me like my car accident in Preston, England on 1995 when I was almost dead. This was my essential experience. This influences me every day. I broke my pelvis in ten places and the pain was terrible. I asked myself a lot of times ‘why did this happen to me?’ I had to fight a lot and I’m still fighting against my pain but I have good faith although I have chronic pain. I hate having pain. You can’t imagine what it is. It’s like I am a bull in a bullfight and the matador is killing me. But I am still fighting and l am still living. This is my destiny. This is my drama.
What is the biggest problem facing the human race at the moment?
I have a great fear of terrorism. And I want to maintain nature. People are destroying themselves and that’s a fact and so we are destroying in our little relationships and in general. When I watch the German news I am very worried about what’s happening in the small things and the big. We need the economic crisis, I think, to be more responsible and show more solidarity. But terrorism and stupid religious mess this is what I worry about.
If you could change one thing in your life what would it be?
I’ve been thinking about it but I wouldn’t change anything in my little life. But I would go with my daughter to a poor country to help and I would change my little emotions against my ex-husband and seek mediation with him. This a complex question. I can’t answer it in two sentences.
Do you read poetry?
Sometimes. It depends on my mood. I have a lot of poetry in my room. And yesterday I read a little bit of poetry – ‘Pasión’! Love poems. We have a lot of great German poetry – not Shakespeare we have Goethe and Schiller, and I like it and I have in the other room more poetry. Ask me which poetry is my favourite.
I don’t have any favourite poems but I have one motto. In Latin it’s ‘carpe diem’. That my favourite poetry for my life. I saw it in ‘Dead Poets society’. This is pure poetry. I saw that film when I was a student nurse in Germany in 1991 I think. I and I have it in my DVD library. I love it. I am a teacher and I wanted to be a teacher when I was 6 years old. This is my passion.
What’s your mission in life?
My mission in life is to be still alive and to make this life full of life and full of love. I need people to love and be loved by. This is quite religious but it is what I am for. And also to be a good mother. My daughter is the best thing I ever did. I hope I can love to be a hundred. My new decade – I am now 40 – and I think every decade has its own energy and in 2010 I am 40 and very happy to be!
Is optimism a strength or a weakness? Explain your answer
Both. I think I’m optimistic but I know how hard it is to be optimistic if you’ve got in your surroundings pessimists and people who cannot use their intelligence because they are jealous and selfish. When you are optimistic and in a very good mood and you have success, and then because…oh, how to explain it in English?! I’m optimistic but sometimes I feel quite weak. Or it could be because…no I’m not pessimistic..but I am sometimes weak because I have all the constructs in my head that I am not good enough and I don’t do what society expects me to do.
What’s your favourite recipe?
I don’t have any favourite food like children but my Mum is a good cook and so when you ask me this I am thinking of her to ask her for a good recipe. Yesterday I cooked something with potatoes and mushrooms and it was good. And I like pasta and Italian food bit this is not my favourite recipe.
You have already told us that your favourite motto is ‘carpe diem’…
My motto is ‘carpe diem’ and in Facebook I put a motto one and half years ago – ‘I love to live and I love to love’ . I put it in German and it’s a nice wordplay.” Ich liebe mein Leben und lebe, um zu lieben…!”
What does the future hold?
Well, I will have a man in my life but I don’t know if he will be German, Basque or Spanish. My mission is to help people, this is my energy. I have some photos of over sixty people who have stayed here in my place and I am saving up to buy a hostel. I have about 8 years to go. Everything I try, I do! I am Capricorn. I will call the hostel Besarkada , a Basque word, which means something like ‘hugs’ or ‘meetings’. So that will be the future; hugs and meetings in my house!
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Tags: interview, simone
Posted by admin on Jan 12, 2010 in
People,
Politics 
800 years of Sassenach oppression are nothing to the tasty story of a 59 year-old woman and her 19 year old lover. Iris Robinson, the wife (at the moment) of Northern Ireland’s Prime Minister has gone into media purdah (viz psychiatric treatment) after a scandal surrounding her extra-marital adventures.
Apparently, she played away from home with a young lad who wanted to open a cafeteria and managed to get him £50,000 from property developers. He must make one hell of a beans on toast. So must his dad. She had a go on him too by all accounts.
All this has blotted the escutcheon of hubby Peter Robinson who represents the DUP – a loyalist party that espouses family values. The poor fella is being pressed to explain how much he knew. I’d have thought that if his Misses was indulging in extramural matress dancing, it was pretty bloody obvious that he didn’t know anything. Now, I have no sympathy whatsoever with this man’s politics, but give the guy a break! If you just found out that your one and only had been riding the baloney pony with a teenager, wouldn’t you think you deserved a wee bit of space to get your head together?
Samson and Delilah, Anthony and Cleopatra, Monica and Bill….sure, it’s all part of life’s rich tapestry. And I find it comforting that in spite of all the money and power, affairs (of the heart or wherever) can still make a politician declare ‘Alas! I am undone’. There, but for the grace of God, go more of us than we’d care to consider.
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Posted by admin on Dec 19, 2009 in
People,
Politics,
Predictions,
Religion,
zeitgeist Listen to the PODCAST
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BLOG Predictions 2010
From November 2002 to October 2009 I wrote weekly articles for the website www.weeklyletter.com and every Christmas I would make predictions about what the next twelve months had in store. I predicted, truly, the month and year of Pope John Paul II’s death, I predicted the name his successor would take and I predicted the assassination of Benzir Bhutto.
Here are my predictions for next year.
- The Queen of England will substantially curtail her public appearances after something, possible something very permanent, befalls her husband the Duke of Edinburgh. There will be talk of abdication but she will refuse.
- Manchester United will win the English Football Leage Championship and Chelsea will win the European Champions League.
- There will be a surprise General Election in England in late March and the ruling Labour party will win it but with a hung parliament.
- There will be an Irish presence at all the French games in the South African World Cup – which will be won by Spain after they beat England 3 -2 in the final.
- Penelope Cruz will marry Javier Bardem discreetly and something sad will happen to another famous Spanish actor.
- There will be a major development in battery technology that will rewrite the rules for laptops.
- Osama Bin Laden will be detained or killed by US soldiers in late April.
Let’s see.
Happy New Year.
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Posted by admin on Sep 28, 2009 in
Madrid,
People,
zeitgeist
On Friday we will hear if Madrid has been awarded the 2016 Olympic Games. We deserve the Games. We want the Games. But what we don’t want, are the professional cheats.
Athletes are supposed to be role models for children. At least, when I was a child they were. They represented the triumph of will over adversity. Work hard, be faithful and you will, if not win, at least compete with dignity. That was the message.
How things change! The Olympic ideal of ‘mens sana in copore sano’ is as laughable as a bald man’s comb
There have always been cheats – people who confuse crossing the line first with winning. But it was in 1988 when ‘doping’ became an international issue. Ben Jonson, in the 100 meters race in the Seoul Olympics, used steriods to win a gold medal . He was supposed to use his legs.
Cycling may never fully recover from the shock of the entire Festina team being banned from the Tour de France for having suitcases of doping material with them. There were rumours of doping in that race for many years before.
Such is the effect of these elite cheats that doping is now appearing in amateur sport. School students are finding that steroids are cheap and easily obtainable. In the USA 4% of teenagers (mainly boys) have used anabolic steroids in the past year.
We are used to cheating in football. Every time a player falls down pretending to be fouled we get angry (if it’s their player) or shrug (if it’s ours). Football stopped being sport a long time ago.
But the Olympic Games are supposed to be noble. We’ve all seen “Chariots of Fire”. Surely we all know the story of the Jamaican bobseligh team who fought against all ridicule and technical problems after their first Olympics Games in Calgary? They went on to beat the USA and Russia in subsequent competitions. No drugs. No cheating.
And they don’t even have snow in Jamaica!
But what can you do? Now some athletes take ‘masking agents’ which hide illegal substances. For every drug test developed there will be some cheating chemist finding ways round it.
But it is not the chemists who take the drugs. Nor the team doctors. Nor the trainers.
The sole responsibility to take drugs out of sport lies with the athletes themselves. It is question of restoring sporting values.
In English a person who enters into the spirit of things is called “a good sport”. If you do something against the rules you are “not playing the game” and “it’s not cricket”.
Doped sportspeople should be ashamed of themselves. If they are not, we should make them be. Honesty is not something to flirt with. We must be married to it.
It should start in the home, continue at school until it eventually regains its place on a podium in an Olympic stadium. Maybe a podium in Madrid.
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Tags: Madrid, Olympics, Spain, sport
Posted by admin on Sep 21, 2009 in
Madrid,
People,
Poetry Listen to the PODCAST
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On Saturday I attended the first meeting of the Irish in Spain. Well, I suppose there must have been thousands or millions of meetings of Irish in Spain over the years but not a big, official one of the Irish in Spain where we have a look at ourselves and see what we’re all about.
I was lucky enough to get invited to read some poems such as the deeply beautiful Lake Isle of Innisfree by WB Yeats.This is one of my favourite poems of all time as opposed to just one of my favorite poems. The latter chop and change according to internal weather systems but the all-timers are as fixed as the North Star. Have a read and see how you can see twinkly stars in the second stanza and hear the lake in the third .
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now,
And go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there,
Of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there,
A hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there,
For peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning
To where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer,
And noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now,
For always night and day
I hear lake water lapping
With low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway
Or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
A million years ago in Manchester I used to perform poetry with the Live Poets Society (motto: Poetry So Good You Can Actually Understand It) and it was with that happy band of poets that I learned the difference between poetry on the page and poetry on the stage. You need to lift the language from the paper and get it flying around the room. Poetry isn’t literature! It is sound. It is physical.
This Yeats poem is perfect for reading aloud. It is joyous and reverent and decided.
Anyhow, the Irish in Spain event was great. I hope the Madrid Irish can get some regular meetings going and that we have a national event at least annually. Good craic so it was.
Read about it here innisfree1916.
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Tags: Ireland, Madrid, Poetry, Spain
Posted by admin on Sep 17, 2009 in
People,
Religion
The man in the photograph was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the direct descendant of the Inquisition) have said that this man’s writings could be dangerous. They are right.
Listen to one of his stories. ‘All questions at the public meeting that day were about life beyond the grave. The Master only laughed and did not give a single answer. To his disciples, who demanded to know the reason for his evasiveness, he later said, ‘Have you observed that it is precisely those who do not know what to do with this life who want another that will last forever?’ ‘But is there life after death or is there not?’ asked a disciple.’Is there life before death? that is the question!’ said the Master.’
You can imagine how that sort of story would upset people with rigid religious views. It is surprising then to discover that Antony De Mello was a Jesuit priest.
De Mello collected many stories from around the world ;stories that illustrated some point of awareness, of wisdom. He removed all the cultural references so the readers’ prejudices would not impede understanding. The book was called The Song of the Bird and was published to great acclaim. Other books followed including One Minute Wisdom , Sadhana and the vastly important Awareness
In “Awareness” we are invited to wake up and stop suffering. Reading the book is like attending one of De Mello’s Spirituality Workshops (which were famous for their effectiveness). But I warn you. The book is, as Cardinal Ratzinger , now Pope Benedict said, dangerous.
It could change your life.
For better. For ever.
As De Mello said… _“I challenge anyone to think of anything more practical than spirituality as I have defined it… not piety, not devotion, not religion, not worship, but spirituality…waking up, waking up! Look at the heartache everywhere, look at the loneliness, look at the fear, the confusion, the conflict in the hearts of people, inner conflict, outer conflict. Suppose somebody gave you a way of getting rid of all of that? Suppose somebody gave you a way to stop that tremendous drainage of energy, of health, of emotion that comes from these conflicts and confusion. Would you want that? Suppose somebody showed us a way whereby we would truly love one another, and be at peace, be at love. Can you think of anything more practical than that? But, instead, you have people thinking that big business is more practical, that politics is more practical, that science is more practical. What’s the earthly use of putting a man on the moon when we cannot live on the earth?’
My aunt gave me the book years and years ago. I am convinced I have avoided some terrible mistakes by reading it. Maybe. Maybe not. I promised myself that I would do what my aunt did – introduce Anthony De Mello to someone, someday. And maybe that person would benefit in the way I did.
Maybe that someday is today.
Maybe that someone is you.
The unaware life is not worth living.
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Tags: De Mello, Humour, Religion, spirituality
Posted by admin on Sep 16, 2009 in
Autobiography,
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My Sligo Grandparents - The Cawleys
What’s in a name? I suppose that depends where you come from. In Spain women don’t change their names when they get married. Where I come from they do. And we never incorporate our mothers’ maiden names into our surnames. Unless you are very posh like Helena Bonham-Carter.
So I am only Dónal Thompson and not Dónal Thompson-Cawley.
I was pleasantly reminded of my mother’s maiden name and of her entire family when I was contacted by my cousin Chris a couple of months ago.
He has been researching our family tree and has managed to trace Cawleys all the way back to the 1830s. He didn’t find the blood of ancient Irish kings but he found no horse thieves either. We have a great-great-great grandmother called Mary Crystal.
His e-mail was especially important to me because although my three brothers and I were born and raised in England, it’s only me who considers himself Irish. I’m the only one with the Gaelic name and the Irish passport. John, Michael and Gerard could move effortlessly through the social maze and be indistinguishable from their Anglo-Saxon and American colleagues. But me?
- She: So, what’s your name?
- Me: Dónal
- She: Donald?
- Me: No. Dónal.
- She: Dolan?
- Me: No, Dónal
- She: Ah! You mean..Dylan!
So my family tree is important to me because everytime I’ve met someone I’ve been reminded of my roots. “My name’s Dónal. It’s Irish”
Cousin Chris is organising the mother and father of all family reunions in August. When I was a child we didn’t go on holidays. We always went ‘home’. Home was Sligo on the west coast of Ireland. That’s where the family reunion will be.
Sadly, I can’t be there. But I will send a video greeting and I’ll remotely raise a Guinness or two on the day.
I’ll remember travelling over the Ox Mountains, being terrified, as a city boy, of being bitten by sheep on my Auntie Eithne’s farm and of being entranced by Uncle Louis’ stories which always began with “There was this man…”. I’ll recall falling in love with the redheaded and green eyed Catriona Mahon, the year Elvis died. And I think I remember Gerry Molly’s poteen (home–made whiskey).
Memory, they say, is the power to gather roses in winter. So you can expect a few thorns. I miss those who have gone. Auntie Eithne, Uncle Felix, Auntie Eva and my own dad. And I miss my Auntie Pat. She was a nun, a Sister of Mercy, and one of the most intelligent women I have ever met. She changed the course of my life with the gift of a book. But that’s another story.
My brothers feel at home in England. I never did. My name provoked occasional racism and foolish jokes. I even hated my own name at one point. Now I sing with Irish music groups like Limerick and I look back almost 200 years to Mary Crystal and feel connected to home.
What’s in a name? Sometimes, everything.
(Music by kind permission of Limerick )
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Tags: Autobiography, Ireland, memories
Posted by admin on Sep 15, 2009 in
People,
zeitgeist 
Can I Have a Word?
In most countries talking to yourself is a sign of mental instability, if not downright madness. The reason hand-free telephones are now never used outside of the car is that no-one wants to look as if they are vocalising an internal dialogue. “The voices told me to do it” is the often used plea of an assassin desperate to avoid Death Row.
As far as the West is concerned Augustine of Hippo invented the interior self of mind and memory as distinct from the exterior “self of perception”. This found its highest expression in James Joyce’s awful book Ulysses.
We all talk to ourselves and what we say is important. People with inferiority complexes are always telling themselves how bad they are, how undeserving of respect: You deserve to fail because you aren’t good at anything!. Arrogant people are always sharing their perceived superior qualities with themselves: You are easily more intelligent than these buffoons!
In both cases the interior dialogue is defective because it leads to damaging delusions. A correct interior dialogue leads to a happier life.
Harmful interior dialogues come from negative statements about yourself which sprinkle your everyday conversation, self-deprecating remarks that influence your behaviour or beliefs, negative descriptions given to you by members of your family of origin or peer group when you were younger and which you still believe.
A good start to developing a healthy interior dialogue is to make daily affirmations. Imagine that every time you see yourself in a mirror you say I am competent, I am energetic or I am a good person. These are statements about who you are and will act like affirmative antibodies on your infected interior self.
Then you can start working on your potential! I can lose weight, I can handle my children, I can be positive and I can laugh and have fun with my feelings.
Use sentences that start with I am, I can and I will. Avoid negative sentences like I will not smoke and make them positive, I will stop smoking.
Shakespeare used the technique of letting us hear the interior dialogue of his characters. One of the clearest is the opening of Richard III when the protagonist basically says I am ugly and so I will be bad.
… since I cannot prove a lover
To entertain these fair well-spoken days
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days
In the rest of the play we see how his interior dialogue affects the outside world.
We can be Richards or Romeos, closed gates or Bill Gates, winners or losers. So, tell yourself what you want to be and to do.
Literally, say what you will.
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Tags: Humour
Posted by admin on Sep 8, 2009 in
History,
People
Pumping irony
341 years ago a remarkable Irishman was born. His name was Jonathan Swift and he is best remembered as the author of Gulliver’s Travels.
He was a priest and a poet —almost obligatory occupations in Ireland— and he wrote some of the best essays the English language has ever seen.
After writing the classic Gulliver’s Travels, which sadly has become a children’s story and ceased to be the political satire it really is, he wrote A Modest Proposal. In this piece he recommends that the poor families of Ireland sell their children to be eaten. This was really an attack on the unscrupulous English landlords who were oppressing the Irish poor. Swift admits “…_this food may be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords, who as they have already devoured most of the Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children_.” This piece is considered the greatest example of sustained irony in English literature.
Swift was an early example of a great tradition of Irish writers writing in English. Some people forget, and more don’t know, that Ireland has its own language, Gaelic. Swift wrote essays, books, poems and sermons but as I said before, he will be remembered for Gulliver’s Travels.
The book is a parody of the traveller’s tale genre which was very popular at the time. It tells of the adventures of the eponymous Gulliver in the lands of Lilliput (where the people are twelve times shorter than he is) and Brobdingnag (where the people are twelve times taller). His ship is attacked by pirates and he spends time on a flying island infelicitously named Laputa*. It is here that Swift describes “The Machine,” the first mention of a computer in world literature. He also describes aerial bombing, which had obviously never been thought of up to then.
If the book is a look at the good and bad in humanity, it seems clear to which conclusion Swift came. Gulliver starts off as a cheery optimist and ends up as a gloomy misanthrope. Swift’s own end was not a happy one. He predicted that he would die like a tree “from the top” and indeed he did become mentally disabled before he died. The fortune he left was used to build a hospital for the mentally ill.
*Unfortunately for Spanish speakers ‘Laputa’ sounds like the Spanish for ‘the whore’
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Tags: Ireland, language, literature
