The Political is Personal?
The queen's visit has caused an outbreak of transference and counter-transference which would make Freud chuckle, I think. He had a good sense of humour, as his hilarious book "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life" goes to prove and his cracking open of human motivation is always worth a look.
One person stopped on the street yesterday by the police worked in the context that her grandfather fought with the IRA almost a hundred years ago and that up to that very moment,when being stopped and scrutinised, she had roamed wild and free though the streets of Dublin, unhindered by any force.
She has my sympathy. I have a similar problem when getting through airports but I do not call on the sins of the fathers as a link to the inconvenience of having my underwear examined as if it contained all the fowl and characters from that jolly ditty "The First Day of Christmas". If you go where security forces are, you are fair game I think, which is the reason that I stayed home yesterday and wondered, vaguely, if it might be safe even to go shopping.
The paranoia that world leaders bring in their wake is entertaining, but a bloody nuisance too.
When Prince Charles came to Dublin, I forgot about all the problems it might cause and got stuck in a car park that had cars parked illegally ending up late for an appointment. Bad planning on my part, not a reminder that my grandfathers had a political viewpoint that had led to such a nuisance.
The mockery that the parking attendants poured on me that day was simply a reminder of the coarse nature of city life back to the dawning of time. It also ensured that I did not go back to that carpark for years.
And, just in passing, one of my grandfathers was in the Somme during the Easter Rising in Dublin. He survived and lived to a ripe old age, giving instructions daily as only an Irishman can, regardless of their political hue...
One person stopped on the street yesterday by the police worked in the context that her grandfather fought with the IRA almost a hundred years ago and that up to that very moment,when being stopped and scrutinised, she had roamed wild and free though the streets of Dublin, unhindered by any force.
She has my sympathy. I have a similar problem when getting through airports but I do not call on the sins of the fathers as a link to the inconvenience of having my underwear examined as if it contained all the fowl and characters from that jolly ditty "The First Day of Christmas". If you go where security forces are, you are fair game I think, which is the reason that I stayed home yesterday and wondered, vaguely, if it might be safe even to go shopping.
The paranoia that world leaders bring in their wake is entertaining, but a bloody nuisance too.
When Prince Charles came to Dublin, I forgot about all the problems it might cause and got stuck in a car park that had cars parked illegally ending up late for an appointment. Bad planning on my part, not a reminder that my grandfathers had a political viewpoint that had led to such a nuisance.
The mockery that the parking attendants poured on me that day was simply a reminder of the coarse nature of city life back to the dawning of time. It also ensured that I did not go back to that carpark for years.
And, just in passing, one of my grandfathers was in the Somme during the Easter Rising in Dublin. He survived and lived to a ripe old age, giving instructions daily as only an Irishman can, regardless of their political hue...
Labels: Queen's visit
posted by Tales from the Birch Wood. at
09:49
7 Comments:
We've been heartily sick of the coverage, as we're simply not at all interested except in the abstract - obviously, it means very little to us.
I'm afraid I don't have a reverential temperament and find large public gestures, regardless of where they are performed, a bit boring.
However, I am not typical in this and there are many people who have worked for years to have some normal official contact between "Ireland" and "England" and if this is what must happen in order to stop people hurting one another, I'm not going to criticise too much.
There used be hilarious stories about Gandhi wandering round and insisting on travel third class after he had become famous. It caused far more concern and financial expenditure than if he had swallowed his pride and deigned to get in a first class train carriage.
I can imagine how anybody not reared in Ireland must be puzzled at "our sad history". Frankly, the English never did anything to me and one branch of my family was part of the colonizing forces that came in with the Normans. It may be a subconscious race memory, but I'm terrified of "freedom" fighters.
Just to say that the real fun will start next week when Obama turns up.
I'm wondering if I should not just stay home but dig a bunker in the back garden.
There will be snipers everywhere.
I hadn't even heard that Obama was going to be around! How awful for you!
Well as everyone knows..
when sorrows come, they come not single spies but in batallions...
Just in passing, have you found any good TV programmes?
I'm considering that the next cutback could be getting rid of cable, television is so boring.
Even BBC 4 has worthy documentaries about bizarre writers and lacks any sense of joy.
We haven't had TV for several years, now. In our last flat, we paid for a TV license and found out that our landlord was also paying for a TV license. The TV license people refused to reimburse us without a whole bunch of paperwork, despite the fact that they could clearly see that there were two licenses for the same flat. So, we vowed never to go there again.
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