Mary Kenny
Mary McAleese Some people are stroppy and rebellious when they are young. They proclaim themselves red-hot socialists and challenge the inherited traditions of their society.
Then, as time goes by and they gain experience in life, they begin to revise or modify some of their youthful opinions. Shouting “property is theft” – the famous anti-capitalist slogan coined by Proud’hon – seems a little contradictory when you’re desperate to obtain a mortgage.
You may begin to perceive that sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll more often cause havoc in personal lives than deliver fulfilment.
Byron might have said “Wedlock’s the devil!”, but the statistics couldn’t be more emphatic: children growing up do better if their parents are in a faithful and loving marriage.
Wisdom
Quite of lot, generally, of what might have been dismissed as “old hat” often turns out to be the wisdom of centuries based on human experience.
Yet for some individuals, the trajectory goes in the opposite direction: they are prudent and sensible when young, working diligently to build their careers and their family lives. They may succeed because they thus accumulate a flawless record of integrity and steady judgement.
Then, in later middle age, or even in the pensioner years, when freed from the responsibilities of career and office, they suddenly go all radical and rebellious, living out the bolshie adolescent years they didn’t indulge in as teenagers. They start saying things that sound shocking, at least to their own ears.
William Hague, sometime Conservative leader, a serious-minded teenager and a committed Tory since the age of 16, suddenly came out recently urging the liberalisation of cannabis.
I’m tempted to suggest that Mary McAleese belongs to this second category, too (and perhaps I myself belong to the first), of role-reversal rebels. This year alone, Mary has given out yards about the Catholic Church being a carrier of the noxious virus of misogyny – while vociferously taunting elderly cardinals for having hearing aids – voted “with a heart-and-a-half” to legislate for abortion rights, marched in a Gay Pride parade and now, says that the Catholic (and Anglican) churches “breach fundamental rights” with the practice of infant baptism. Such babies, she has declared, are “infant conscripts who are held to lifelong obligation of obedience”.
Really? Why not send a reprimanding note to her former cohort, Queen Elizabeth to this effect? The 92-year-old Queen will shortly be presiding over the infant baptism of her great-grandchild, Prince Louis. Shouldn’t she be told that she is breaching human rights by recruiting “infant conscripts” to early baptism?
Alternatively, perhaps Mrs McAleese should consider joining the Baptist Church, which doesn’t practice infant baptism. Mind you, there could be a problem: the Baptists are strongly opposed to abortion rights.
MacGill still leaning towards the left
After some vociferous feminists complained that women have too often been excluded or marginalised from the well-established MacGill Summer School, which takes place annually towards the end of July at Glenties, Co. Donegal, the organisers have quickly shuffled the cards to allow for discussion on such subjects as “Why are organisations such as the MacGill school still trapped in a world of Gender Stereotypes?” (Speakers: Fintan O’Toole, Gerard Howlin.)
Anyway, there seem to be quite a few women featured now, including Prof. Brigid Laffan, Mairead McGuinness MEP, Aziliz Gouez (the President’s speechwriter) and Susan Mitchell – and at least ten others.
I’m all for diversity and why shouldn’t women be just as involved in the public realm of political discourse as are men?
But diversity is a cake that can be cut many ways: gender alone does not guarantee variation. With the possible exception of David Quinn, I couldn’t swear there was a single name on the MacGill prospectus who would not be part of the left-liberal consensus of ‘official Ireland’ today.
Great effort but former First Lady didn’t get it quite right…
Ryan Tubridy had a lively broadcast conversation with Hillary Clinton last Monday on the importance of history.
Mrs Clinton was evidently referring to the general odiousness of President Trump when she expatiated on the imperilled nature of democracy today – and the injustices that can arise towards minorities when bad men are in power.
She quoted the well-known warning that arose from Nazi persecutions in the 1930s, saying: “First they came for the Gypsies…then they came for the Jews…then they came for the Communists…then they came for the Trade Unionists.”
The moral is – if we don’t identify with persecuted minorities, from the beginning, we will all eventually be picked off.
The narrative wasn’t accurately recounted, however. It should begin with: “First they came for the handicapped children…” – because the first victims of Nazi extermination were children considered “unworthy of living”, young people with Down Syndrome, and adults categorised as mentally retarded.
And who protested against this first exterminating policy of the Third Reich? The Catholic Church.
Ryan could have interjected this information, if he had known it. But perhaps not a lot of people do know it…