Two recent Irish funerals observed: the first was that of Cardinal Desmond Connell, Archbishop of Dublin, and the first Dubliner to be given a cardinal’s hat for 120 years. He was a doctor of philosophy and a professor of metaphysics, and died in February, aged 90. Dr Connell was a conservative on doctrinal matters and was much criticised for his mishandling of the paedophile clerical scandals. Yet his former students said he was a good man, caring and conscientious.
No member of the Irish government attended Dr Connell’s funeral. Nor did any TD (a member of parliament, the Dáil) – just a sole senator, Rónán Mullen. President Michael D Higgins issued a short and perfunctory statement.
Second funeral: Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, and previously the most commanding figure in Sinn Féin-IRA, whose endeavours would have included knowledge of, and often strategic direction of, most bomb attacks on civilians in Britain and Ireland over the time of his stewardship.
To this burial came every significant political figure in Ireland – led by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny – many notables from Britain and from the United States, including Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell. President Higgins issued a warm statement about McGuinness’s “unwavering” commitment to “securing peace and prosperity for all of the people of Northern Ireland” – in addition to his personal courtesy and affability.
A funeral is not a place to judge a man’s life, and it is for good reason we don’t speak ill of the dead. All men and women make mistakes, some of them grave, and McGuinness’s last years certainly seemed an amendment for his earlier ones.
Yet the attendance at a public funeral is an interesting point of observation. In this case, it tells us much about the shifts of power. Not too long ago, Irish politicians were falling over themselves to kiss an archbishop’s ring, and a cardinal’s funeral was an occasion to pay their respects to the man and the office. Now that power has drained away, they see little advantage in doing so.
Perhaps it tells us something about a shift in values, too. To seem to be complacent about paedophile offences is regarded as worse than directing a policy of explosions in which three-year-old Johnathan Ball and 12-year-old Tim Parry were killed when purchasing a Mother’s Day card in Warrington.
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Pope Francis is surely right to say that the European Union needs a new “vision” after 60 years in business (though it was just the European Coal and Steel Community at the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, not then a political union).
But to have a new vision, it needs new visionaries – individuals like Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Jean Monnet (the “founding fathers”, perhaps not coincidentally all Catholics) – rather than some of the less than inspiring current Eurocrats, who seem so remote from the people.
Jean Monnet said in later years that if he were to start the European project all over again, he would begin not with institutions but with culture. This is so apt. People understand one another better through art, music, literature, films and even through football, than via any number of treaties.
The most striking aspect of the photograph of the original Treaty of Rome signing ceremony is that it is 100 per cent male. Not a woman in sight. Perhaps more female involvement from the beginning might have inspired more culture. The “gentlemen’s clubs” of London that have admitted women have all experienced a marked increase in cultural activities.
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For any oldsters who fear falling over – a hazard of advancing years and crooked paving stones – may I recommend a visit to a “balance clinic”? These places of rehabilitation examine a person’s mastery of balance, and whether it may be affected by other health conditions (such as hearing), and your GP should be able to refer you to one.
I was sent to a balance clinic after tripping and crashing over at Christmas and I found it an encouraging experience. I emerged, I am gratified to say, as a person with a 90 per cent competent balance. I’ll try to take that as a metaphor for a general outlook.
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