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Simon Harris finds channelling Seamus Heaney is not so simple

The presumptive taoiseach used a familiar quote when introducing himself as leader, but whose line was it anyway?

Simon Harris's attention to detail was left open to question after his maiden speech as Fine Gael leader. Photograph: Eamon Ward/PA Wire

Karl McDonald
Sun Mar 31 2024 - 06:00

Will Simon Harris be a taoiseach in command of the detail? Possibly not. In his maiden leadership speech to Fine Gael last weekend, the presumptive premier quoted the “late, great poet” Seamus Heaney, as one does in such scenarios.

The Derryman “penned lines which have become a guiding principle for me”, Mr Harris said: “Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.”

Heaney did pen something very close to them, but when he did so, he was quoting Vaclav Havel.

Havel, a Czech statesman, thinker and writer well worth quoting in his own right, was speaking in 1985 as a dissident about the prospect of a future beyond his country’s then Eastern Bloc regime. Heaney was channelling him in a 1990s lecture describing his philosophy of poetry.

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The internet’s inspirational quotes resources consider this enough to attribute the quote to the poet, and so have many speechifiers since – including Minister for Finance Michael McGrath, who used Harris’s exact wording in a Budget speech. So, a question of catechism for Harris: are you really the Taoiseach if you haven’t quoted Heaney properly?

(Not much) Dancing in the moonlight

Should Ireland’s ravers be concerned about moves within Fine Gael to step away from liberal reforms such as extending nightclub opening hours? Fine Gael Mayo TD Michael Ring urged the leader to step away from the “daft idea of opening pubs all night”, which colleague Charlie Flanagan, the Laois-Offaly TD, further described as “all night drinking”.

The situation, surprisingly, is much worse now than it was in the olden days. In 1952, there were 1,258 licensed dance halls in the country, compared with only 89 nightclubs today. Revellers in Kenmare in 1953 could throw shapes until 4am at the hunt ball, while dancing didn’t even start until 10pm at Clonmel Rowing Club’s annual ball in 1946. Everyone from Conradh na Gaeilge to Caherciveen District Garda Siochána themselves were putting on late events at the halls and ballrooms of Ireland in this period.

The chances of the all-night rhythm orchestras returning are slim, however. Even when nightlife supporter Leo Varadkar held the reins, he said Minister for Justice Helen McEntee had “more important priorities”. And if the promised Bill does make it into law, campaigners fear it will be set up with hard limits that benefit pubs, either by extending their own licences or by forcing those who want to forge new clubs to buy extinguishments from existing pub licence holders.

Dance music advocates of licence liberalisation aren’t especially interested in “opening pubs all night” (a warehouse will do), but the way things are moving, the nation will be home in bed by midnight for another few decades.

Perspective goes AWOL on West Mayo greenway

New ground is being broken by the day on reasons why greenways shouldn’t go ahead around the country. While the Dodder greenway in south Dublin continues to struggle past a golf club in leafy Milltown, bigger problems are emerging out west.

After the suggestion last year that the Galway-Athlone greenway could be beset by passersby who “might open a gate to see what’s there”, it was reported this week in the Connaught Telegraph that one resident abutting the West Mayo greenway might be forced to move his clothesline. The latter greenway is producing particularly colourful rhetoric: local commentator John Bradley wrote for Mayo News that the proposal showed “all the signs of fumbling in a greasy till”, quoting Yeats, while Fianna Fáil councillor Brendan Mulroy feared a flood-prone section “may cause death” to those who try to cycle it.

Meanwhile, Independent councillor John O’Malley was asked by IrishCycle.com whether he really believes “you will never see a war in Ukraine like it” – as he stated – if land is compulsorily purchased for the route.

“I wasn’t really comparing it to that,” he said, before adding: “What I meant was that there is a war in Ukraine but that if they [Irish authorities] were to try to come down to go through the land there would be a war as well.”

That clears that up then.

Woodwork if you can get it

It’s the Chinese century, and the Department of Defence is keeping up – it is seeking a mandarin fluent in Mandarin. The department has just posted a jobs ad seeking a “civilian linguist and cultural adviser” working in Chinese Mandarin. The criteria are somewhat strict: the nation needs an Irish citizen who also has three years of experience in Chinese translation, understands the culture and, ideally, has knowledge of the complex geopolitical issues at stake. The position offers no overtime payments for those who put in the hard yards on Beijing time. It’s worth €69,000 a year to start, however.

For those whose Mandarin is rusty, the department is also looking for a carpenter.

Museum’s dynamism on display

Ireland made minor international waves in 2021 after news emerged that the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) was looking into returning its collection of 21 artefacts from Benin City, with the Hunt Museum in Limerick open to handing over its own example.

The Benin bronzes are one of the most egregious examples of colonial looting of cultural treasures. Unlike many priceless artefacts from Greece or Egypt, which were shipped away at least by boffins who, in some cases, had permits, the decorative objects from Edo State in Nigeria were stolen by British forces after a punitive military raid on the Oba’s palace in 1897.

Some museums, such as Aberdeen Museum in Scotland, the Horniman Museum (yes, really) in suburban London and the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin have returned artefacts already.

Where are the Irish ones? Still here, it emerges. “NMI has not received any restitution requests in relation to this material to date,” the museum said, although it says it’s working on it.

“We have not made a lot of progress but hopefully you should see a policy emerge this year,” Jill Cousins, director of the Hunt Museum, added – an expert committee, thankfully, is on the case.

Colin Coyle is away

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