paleoutlaw

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME 1409 LXVII

October 30, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in sport

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME

The twentieth World Cup finals were played in Brazil June and July. The tournament was memorable, vying with the greatest, thoroughly entertaining throughout and topped off by an excellent final featuring undoubtedly the two best teams in the tournament. Few of the matches were dull, few were vicious and goals were abundant. The competition was marked by two extraordinary results, one in the early stages, one in the semi-finals, which will reverberate around world football for some time to come.

Ireland was not there but we followed the event enthusiastically on T.V. We can take some solace from the fact that our early elimination in the qualifying stages was from the group won by Germany, the eventual winners, and the drubbings we sustained from them look less bad after seeing what they did to Portugal and Brazil in the finals. We must now face Germany again, in the qualifying groups for the 2016 European Championships.

The tournament included all previous winners. Brazil entered as slim favourites, given their tradition and position as host nation. Their arch-rivals, Argentina, however, had the world’s greatest player, Messi, which many felt would cancel out home advantage. Third favourites were Spain, World Cup holders and European champions, though no European nation had ever won in Latin America. The only other country rated by the bookies was Germany, which actually had the shortest odds pre-tournament to reach the last four.

A number of countries had something to prove. England, perennial under achievers, had brought along a group of young guns and were optimistic. France hoped to cast off the miserable memories of four years earlier, and Holland, runners up in the 2010 final, had a disgraceful and cynical performance on that occasion to live down as well as a rapid, winless exit from the 2012 European Championships. Belgium, one of the dark horses, with a formidable squad, hoped to gel as a unit and achieve their greatest success since 1986. Italy, marshalled by the ageing Pierlo, hoped to repeat their surprise showing in Europe 2012.

The Latin American contingent was strong overall, and looked set to emulate 2010 when all had battled through to the knockout stage, with Uruguay reaching the last four. The Africans also hoped to do better than last time out; many fancied Algeria to spring a surprise with an experienced squad, chiefly French born.

The group matches produced several upsets, setting the scene for some rapid exits by several of the fancied teams. The seismic shock was the 5 – 1 defeat of Spain by a Dutch team playing flowing football in a style reminiscent of the great “total football” side of the 1970s. The rout was started by a superb looping header by striker Van Persie. Spain followed this up with another dismal display against Chile and suddenly the holders were out, their beautiful football vanquished. Xavier Alonso, who played Gaelic football in Ireland as a youth, suggested that the Spanish players were tired after an arduous season in which, in addition to the domestic scene, Spanish teams had dominated European club competitions.

England also made an early exit, the young guns failing to fire. Italy joined them, after a bad tempered match against Uruguay which generated worldwide publicity when the Uruguayan striker Suarez bit an Italian defender. Suarez, the most on-form striker in the world, had previous form for biting and was summarily ejected from the competition, carrying with him Uruguay’s hopes. Brazil limped through, crude, disjointed, a shadow of the great teams of the past and over – dependent on Neymar. Argentina were winning but looked less than impressive, relying heavily on the genius of Messi. Germany overwhelmed Portugal, even with Ronaldo, a hint of things to come. The surprise qualifiers were the USA, joining most of the Latin Americans, Algeria, France and Belgium.

The tournament pointed up certain trends and traits in the modern game, not all positive. The gap between the very best nations and the next echelon has narrowed even further, with better coaching and well drilled defences able to offset, in part or totally, superior skill. There were few easy matches and in others the superior team just squeaked a late result when skill finally triumphed; Messi’s goal against Iran, Ronaldo’s cross to frustrate the USA, both deep in injury time, just two examples.

Diving remained a problem, though most matches were played in a sporting spirit. The offence has now become chronic, with referees forced to make rapid decisions under pressure; it is surely time for FIFA to take some action. Mostly the charades were of little consequence but this time Mexico were eliminated by Holland through the award of a dubious last minute penalty. Referees overall were in an invidious position, under constant pressure of one sort or another, and it showed. There were several blatantly bad decisions.

The Round of Sixteen produced, in the end, few surprises but some exciting and exhilarating matches, none more than that which saw a gallant never-say-die USA go out to Belgium in extra time. The USA brought honesty and endeavour and their success may well ignite the game there. So also did Chile, eliminated cruelly in a penalty shootout against Brazil, after a game they deserved to win. The question marks over Brazil were mounting, while for Argentina Messi seemed jaded and had ceased to inspire. Yet when the dust settled, the quarter finalists were the eight group winners, including surprise packets Colombia and Costa Rica.

The quarter final between a floundering Brazil and Colombia saw Brazil’s crude tactics of kicking their more skilful opponents around the field pay off in victory but at great cost. As the match degenerated into an unsavoury contest, Neymar suffered a cracked vertebrae after an innocuous looking tackle. Without their diamond, Brazil were just rough. Argentina and Germany advanced efficiently, while Holland needed penalties to see off Costa Rica.

Belo Horizonte, scene of USA’s famous 1950 victory over hot favourites England, saw Brazil get their comeuppance against Germany, who scored four goals in nine minutes, led 5 – 0 at half time and ran out winners 7 – 1. The demolition was swift and clinical. Germany played like Brazil of old, like the great Brazilian teams of the past crushing a hapless opponent. The myth of Brazilian superiority was shattered – and on home soil. It’s reasonable to assume that next time around Brazil will no longer intimidate Chile, Colombia, Mexico and the others. World soccer will never be the same. Meanwhile, in Sao Paulo in the other semi-final, Argentina overcame Holland on penalties.

The Final COULD have been anticlimactic. It was, rather, an excellent game between two evenly matched teams. The question was less whether Germany could repeat their heroics, more whether Messi would rise to his greatest player tag and repeat Maradona’s feat of 1986. He couldn’t, appearing just a shadow of his best, seeming to carry heavy weights on his legs, as his father put it – perhaps another victim of Alonso’s arduous Spanish season. Germany won 1 – 0 in extra time with a fine goal by Gotze, a rising star. A final worthy of a great tournament.

On October 14 next Ireland face Germany in Gelsenkirchen. Some prospect!
5/8

BEYOND THE TIPPING POINT 1408 LXVI

October 30, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in TIME CAPSULE

BEYOND THE TIPPING POINT

Operation Stable Door has begun. The last few weeks have seen the Government attempt to rebrand itself in the wake of dismal local election results in May. The Government hopes for some “bounce” from its attempted makeover as a first step in recovery. Two hard questions arise: is it realistic and will it work.

First up was Labour, the major loser in May, which, as expected, elected Joan Burton as its new leader. There followed a week of negotiations between Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Burton, now installed as Tanaiste (Deputy Leader) , following which a major Cabinet reshuffle was announced. Out went three of the five Labour old guard while Fine Gael for its part promoted two newcomers as well as effecting a round of musical chairs among surviving Ministers.

The chief move of interest was the kicking sideways of the accident prone Health Minister James Reilly, who is succeeded by one of the party’s Young Turks, Leo Varadkar. What Varadkar will do with the poisoned chalice of Health remains to be seen. He will not have much time but the popular view is that he can scarcely do any worse than his predecessor. The other feature of the new cabinet is that four of its fifteen members are women, though Fine Gael failed to follow up, and has been criticised, when appointing ten male only junior ministers several days later.

Simultaneously the Government launched a ten page “ Statement of Priorities” as a road map for its remaining (maximum) 21 months in office. This in an attempt to redefine priorities, building on the (64 page) Programme for National Recovery published when it took office in 2011. The new document is modest on specific deliverables, concentrating on refining and re-targeting many of the elements in the 2011 document.

The main 2014 deliverables announced are promises to begin reducing the tax burden on low and middle income taxpayers ( a process to be spread over several years), some help with water charges for those on lower incomes, a programme of social housing and another tinkering with medical entitlements – this time extending free GP care to those over 70 not already in receipt of it. There is also a stated commitment “ to the full retention of the Free Travel Scheme” – an inclusion which tells volumes about the Coalition’s apprehensions about next facing the electorate.

For the rest the Priorities Statement is a less than inspiring brochure of aspiration. It consists for the most part of announcements to follow through on previous commitments, with projected targets in many areas to be achieved later in or at the end of the decade, well after the looming general election. There is renewed emphasis on “rebuilding trust in politics and public institutions” which seems designed to counter criticism of the slow rate of reform to date in areas such as public appointments, local government funding and transparency and accountability in the public sector.

The Statement is gung ho on the economy and future economic growth, with little reference to the still parlous state of the public finances, mentioning only that “significant challenges remain” to achieve the 2015 budget deficit target of 3%. There is the first rub. Whatever about the recent upturn in the economy, and however the figures are interpreted, some adjustment – for which read spending cuts or tax increases – will be necessary in October’s budget to hit the 3%. It may be a billion rather than two but even that figure will be hard achieved, given what has been taken in recent years. Factoring in even a modest amount for the promised tax cuts and hand-outs will further complicate the issue. From here the budget seems likely to be an exercise with mirrors, cuts in capital spending, more increases in excise on alcohol, fuel, and cigarettes and a balancing figure based on pious hopes for “ revenue buoyancy.”

There is considerable doubt whether the new strategy is economically realistic. It has been excoriated by Colm McCarthy, one of the country’s leading economists, with a reputation for plain speaking. As he put it, succinctly, no sooner was the Troika gone than it was back to “ the core business of Irish politics” – buying votes. He described the new measures as “ominous,” and threatening to worsen the state’s finances by using what could be a temporary rise in tax revenues to finance a permanent reduction in direct taxes. Meanwhile, of course, government borrowing goes on, adding to the national debt.

Ominous also is the prospect that the once-off ( or twice-off, if the Coalition survives that long) “ soft” budget, with giveaways, coming from the Government which preached and practiced prudent economic management to restore the country’s finances, will open the floodgates to a general election bidding war, with the main parties striving to outdo each other with unrealistic election promises. Forget for a moment the 2011 election, fought against the sombre background of the Troika presence, and think back to 2007, before the deluge, when the then opposition parties made ever more extravagant promises in an attempt to dislodge Fianna Fail. Sobering.

Whether the rebranding will work politically is also doubtful. Labour has fallen a long way and will be hard put even to regain its traditional core support of around 10%. Fine Gael also has much ground to make up. And time is short. From 1 August the current Dail will have a maximum of less than 600 days left; it must adjourn no later than 9 March 2016, with an election to follow by 3 April. If the trend for banana skins shown over the past year were to continue apace, the chances of the government lasting that long cannot be great. The whole health area is a morass, with both the medical card issue, now well and truly thrown open, and the need to exert some form of meaningful control over health spending, carrying potential for further trouble.

One major trouble looming is water. The issue has been badly handled from the outset, and even this late in the day the cost to be levied for what was once free is still not known. The government appears to be pinning its hopes on the benign scenario of an average annual charge of $350 per household proving palatable. But if the government thinks its problems over what many feel has been the tipping point are in the past, wait till the water bills arrive in voters’ houses from January next.

Hard pounding, Gentlemen!

As a footnote, I’ve just finished reviewing “ Obama Power” about Obama’s 2012 re-election, something that appeared improbable after the 2010 Congressional election results. The authors attribute Obama’s victory to his success in rebranding himself and in succeeding in stretching the “narrative arc” of his message so that, instead of being judged on his first term his stated goals would be stretched to encompass achievement before the end of his second term. Such a strategy would have appeal to the beleaguered Government here. But then this Government does not have the witless Tea Party or the gaffe-prone Mitch Romney to help restore its fortunes.

19/07

MUGGED BY REALITY ? 1407 LXV

July 9, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in TIME CAPSULE

MUGGED BY REALITY?

Political columnists and commentators have a new sport – guessing the date of the next General Election and which parties will make up the Government after that election.

This after the results of May’s local and European elections when the Coalition achieved the near impossible. The Government with the largest majority in the history of the state, which did nothing to bring about the economic collapse, for the most part performed credibly in repairing the damage, including seeing off the Troika successfully, was punished so severely in the ballot that its chances of recovery before its term runs out are slight. This regardless of any policy initiatives it may take.

The facts make stark reading, particularly for the junior Coalition partner, Labour. A protest vote was expected, but not on this scale. Its vote fell from 14.5% to 7.2% in the local elections, and from 13.9% to 5.3% in the European elections, both a far cry from the heady 19.4% in the 2011 general election. The party lost all three European seats. On this showing most of the party’s deputies seem set to lose their Dail seats.

Fine Gael also got a shock, dropping from 32.5% to 24% in the local elections and from 29.1% to 22.3% in the European vote, significantly below its 36% general election figure. The party is now neck and neck with a partially revived Fianna Fail. Like Labour, party strategists can take little comfort that some of the fall was probably due to protest by way of abstention (the turnout was just over 50% compared to the 70% in the 2011 General Election). Suddenly a second term in government looks far from certain.

The big winners were Sinn Fein, which continued the upward trends of the 2011 elections (General and Presidential) , doubling its vote in the local elections to 15.2% and increasing its share of the European poll from 11.2% to 19.5%, winning three of the eleven seats. This despite the arrest and lengthy questioning of Gerry Adams by Northern Ireland police just before election day. The other beneficiaries were a slew of Independents and minor parties, chiefly on the Left, who garnered 28% of the vote, three well entrenched personalities winning seats in Europe.

Some pundits have seen Sinn Fein’s continued success as marking a significant shift in the Irish political landscape. Certainly it has muscled its way onto the party scene and, with an efficient dedicated party structure at local level, now appears very much a fourth political force. Having creamed off much of Fianna Fail’s “green” vote in 2011, this time around it added the scalp of the 2011 sans culottes surge to Labour. Not being in office is an additional bonus.

How it, and the other parties, will fare in the looming General Election is another matter. Several pundits have pointed to the current volatility of the electorate, present since 2008 and showing no signs of diminishing. That 28% vote for others – chiefly of the left – reflects this, as do successive opinion polls showing high percentages rejecting both the traditional political parties and the arriviste Sinn Fein. Ominously, the figure for “others” – 15.45% in the 2011 election – lurched above 20% in opinion polls in January and has been rising since.

The message from the voters, however unrealistic, is clear: there has been enough austerity, and people have no more to give. An annual property tax in 2013, doubled in 2014, and the prospect of a savage charge for domestic water commencing in 2015, on top of previous impositions, were steps too far. The Troika is now a memory and the Government’s overhyping of the “achievement” of getting rid of it cut no ice. This year also, with the fig leaf excuse of the Troika’s diktat removed, the ineptitude of the government in mishandling a number of small but sensitive issues has been exposed, compounding its woes. The banana skins proliferated.

The post-mortems have begun. While Sinn Fein is preening, Labour is reeling. Its leader Eamon Gilmore, has quit and, as I write, the succession contest is under way. The irony is that, by any standard, apart from the foolish comments made by Gilmore prior to the 2011 election, Labour in government for the most part delivered for its constituency on its major commitments. Core welfare payments were protected almost in entirely, as was the minimum wage, while those on lower incomes were taken out of the Universal Social Charge net.

It was primarily the small hurdles that tripped Labour up, rendering it vulnerable to sustained attack from Sinn Fein and the left . Core welfare payments WERE protected, but the collateral damage from the alternative – a host of small stealth cuts brought in to achieve the necessary budgetary targets, and which affected disproportionately the old, sick and marginalised – proved too much. Arguably a further ten euros off unemployment and ( non means –tested) child benefit or higher excise charges could have avoided all this and proved more palatable politically.

Then, a small hurdle that became big. While the water charges remain an accident waiting to happen – particularly next year when they have to be paid – another accident, though well signposted in advance, has already occurred. The Discretionary Medical Card fiasco hung the Government out to dry – Labour in particular – and offered a perfect example of a government out of touch.

Irish medical cards are issued, not on medical need, but on a means tested basis, under legislation dating from 1970 – the Stone Age in terms of Irish social policy. They provide free medical care, are a gateway to certain other welfare benefits, and are much sought after. Roughly half the population have them – around two million – including those, healthy or not, on the dole or the state pension. The total in January 2013 included around 60,000 people(3% ) with discretionary medical cards, awarded case by case on the basis of individual need, and by definition, all with real medical needs.

As part of the cost cutting measures to tackle Ireland’s enormous health budget of €14 billion, this year’s budget targeted savings of €113 million from medical cards, through reviews of eligibility, including strict means testing of discretionary card holders. Thousands lost them, or were “ under review”, including many highly publicised distressing cases. The media had a field day. It became THE issue on the doorsteps. Government reaction was to parrot that legally its hands were tied. Voters were not impressed, and remain unimpressed in the most recent polls as the Government, in panic, has, post-election, suddenly found a way to reverse policy.

Such is the level of popular disenchantment with the main parties that what happens next is anybody’s guess. The new Labour leader may try to be more assertive, though the scope is limited. A government reshuffle is on the cards. There is speculation of more policy change. But time is running out. The summer beckons. After it, October’s budget. Few would wager on the Government now lasting until 2016. Even Benjamin Franklin’s rationale for hanging together is wearing thin. And then what? Political alliances thought unthinkable are now being contemplated. At least among journalists. For now.

VOTES FOR EMIGRANTS 1406 LXIV

July 9, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in TIME CAPSULE, Uncategorized

VOTES FOR EMIGRANTS?

Irish citizens living abroad may have an opportunity to vote in the election for the next Irish President, due in 2018. A recommendation to that effect was proposed by the Irish Constitutional Convention last September. Two major hurdles have to be negotiated before anything happens. Firstly the recommendation has to be approved by the Government . Secondly any proposal has to be passed by referendum.

The artificial deadline for a Government decision has passed. There may be more time to wait. We are now at a key moment politically, with parties absorbing the recent results of local and European elections. An issue pertaining to a possible vote in four years’ time is hardly likely to seize the Government’s attention with a general election less than two years off. Moreover, the Convention’s recommendation is just slightly contentious enough to give politicians pause, unlike some others, uncontroversial and which have been nodded through. In the end the Government may well accept the proposal. But then the referendum has to be carried.

The Irish Constitution came into force at the end of 1937. Though on the whole it has served the people well, at this stage it is showing signs of its age. Of the thirty six referenda proposing amendments, two thirds have taken place since 1992, reflecting both changing lifestyles and attitudes among the electorate and Ireland’s changing position in the world. While it is difficult to generalise, one thread evident from the referenda results has been the reluctance of voters to be swayed by arguments advanced by politicians. Some proposals which seemed reasonable, including those regarding the EU, have come a cropper at the ballot box.

A number of parliamentary and officially sponsored Constitutional reviews have taken place since the sixties but it has become clear that the Irish political establishment has no appetite for any radical reform of the document. We have been left with some useful analytical reports, suggested alternatives and amendments but very little else, the reviews on occasion serving merely to kick the can on an issue down the road.

The current government, elected in 2011 on a tide of “ a plague a both your houses,” had another bash, announcing in its programme for government the setting up of a “Constitutional Convention to consider comprehensive constitutional reform.” The areas identified hardly lived up to the rhetoric They included a review of the Dáil electoral system, reducing the presidential term to five years, providing for same-sex marriage, removing blasphemy from the Constitution and a possible reduction in the voting age. The first threatened to be a non-runner from the off, the rest were at best non-controversial, at worse irrelevant. Two other areas mentioned promised more – amending the wording on women in the home and encouraging greater participation of women in public life, as well as “other relevant constitutional amendments that may be recommended by the Convention.”

The Convention was duly launched in 2012, holding its first meeting on December 1st. It consisted of 100 members, two thirds randomly selected members of the public, and with terms of reference expanded to include, as well as those mentioned, consideration of “giving citizens resident outside the state the right to vote in Presidential elections.” Hence the current recommendation. The Convention completed its deliberations in March 2014.

The Convention’s recommendations can be divided roughly into three: those immediately acceptable politically, those requiring further consideration and those likely to prove unacceptable. In the first category, recommendations to reduce the voting age to sixteen and to legalize same-sex marriages have been accepted by the government and will be put to the people in 2015, together with a recommendation to reduce the age for presidential candidates from 35 to 21. In the second category are the Votes for Expats issue , the recommendation to replace the blasphemy provision with a ban on incitement to religious hatred, proposals to alter the current wording regarding women, reform of Dail procedures and the recommendation to include references to certain economic social and cultural rights.

In the final category is the most contentious recommendation by far – that proposing changes in the Dail electoral system. This calls for constituencies to have a minimum of five seats; at present (the next election) only eleven out of the forty constituencies will have the current maximum of five seats. The recommendation, if accepted, threatens to alter dramatically the composition of the Dail, giving greater opportunities to smaller parties and independents at the expense of the larger parties.

Currently, while second preference transfers can and do provide spice and uncertainty to election results, the general rule of thumb is that, in a multi-seat constituency, to get elected a candidate requires a certain percentage of the first preference votes, represented by 100 divided by the number of seats plus one . So in a three seat constituency a candidate requires 25% of the vote( 100 divided by four) , in a four seat constituency 20% ( 100 divided by five), in a five seater 16% (100 divided by six), and so on.

It is not hard to see how the current arrangements, under which two thirds of Dail seats are in three and four seat constituencies, favour the larger parties. In the three- seaters in particular the prospects for an independent or a small party seeking to break through are bleak. The big picture is whether larger constituencies ( five or five plus) would lead to a proliferation of smaller parties and independents and what effect this would have on the functioning of Irish parliamentary democracy.

In the early years of the state there were a number of constituencies with more than five seats, including one (Galway) with nine, without any earth-shattering splintering of the vote. And, to take the current Dail, there are six identifiable party groupings, plus independents, while after the 2002 election there were seven. The jury is still out, but the best guess is that the larger parties, with one eye on the increasing volatility of the electorate, and the other on their own political skins, will opt to hunker down and stick with the status quo pending further consideration of the issue. It is one, incidentally, on which the Constitution says nothing beyond declaring that any constituency must have a minimum of three seats.

What are the chances, then, for yet another referendum before 2016, permitting citizens resident abroad to vote in presidential elections? The issue is not straightforward. Extending the franchise to non-resident citizens is complicated, politically, legally and administratively. An argument in favour is that it would constitute a positive gesture towards the diaspora, suitably topping off a decade of increased official engagement with that diaspora.

The recommendation comes at a time also when the issue has built up a moderate head of steam with lobbying from some of the recent economic emigrants for a say in how the country has been and should be run. Their argument is that their emigration was involuntary, is temporary , and that having a vote would enable them to keep in touch. Whether this will cut any ice with domestic politicians fearing a backlash remains to be seen.

JOHN BULL’S ISLAND 1405 LXIII

July 9, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in TIME CAPSULE

JOHN BULL’S ISLAND

A landmark event in modern Irish history took place last month – President Michael D Higgins’ State Visit to Britain. This, the first by an Irish President in the history of the state, was in return for the Queen’s 2011 visit here. Both have been applauded as great successes and important steps in the process of reconciliation between Ireland and Britain. Particular and deserved praise has been given to the President and his wife; the visit was one which instilled a sense of pride. President Higgins will visit Chicago in early May. Get to see him if you can.

Parking the symbolism and diplomatic niceties, the Visit was particularly important in the formal recognition it accorded to the Irish community in Britain, both in terms of social acceptance within Britain and in terms of official recognition from Ireland . To a community which has often been taken for granted, and on occasion faced hostility or indifference, this formal acknowledgement is important in a country where so many have found a home. President Higgins, like many others a onetime Irish emigrant to Britain, could empathise easily with our people there, who enjoy generally excellent relations with the host nation, which has welcomed and given a livelihood to several million Irish over the centuries.

There are no exact figures for the numbers who came or their descendants. The British Ambassador to Ireland, Dominic Chilcott, suggested recently that as many as twenty five percent of the British population could claim some Irish ancestry A rough rule of thumb used by many has been the number of Catholics plus 10% – reflecting the fact that Britain’s Roman Catholic Church , roughly seven million, was overwhelmingly an Irish immigrant church, and adding in a percentage for those who “lapsed.”

This may be a considerable underestimation . The obvious examples aside, there are people of recognisable Irish descent to be found at every level of British society. While it is widely known that Tony Blair’s mother was born in Donegal, making him , incidentally, an Irish citizen by right, it came as a revelation that Mrs Thatcher’s great-grandmother was a Sullivan from Kerry! And that could be just the tip of a very large iceberg. Though not as visible or as talked about as the Irish Americans, the Irish in Britain have made a significant, sometimes unrecognised, contribution to British society.

While there are roughly 34 million persons claiming Irish descent in the USA , reflecting the phenomenal numbers who arrived during the Nineteenth Century, those of Irish birth living in Britain today – at least half a million – constitute by far the largest grouping of Irish-born now living outside Ireland and greatly exceed the number in the USA. The 2010 US Census gave just under 145,000 Irish-born naturalised US residents; throw in those with or awaiting green cards and the undocumented and the total figure is probably around 250,000.

Irish immigrant experiences in the USA and Britain have been markedly different . While the USA has celebrated diversity, acknowledging the contribution of different immigrant groups, including especially the Irish, to developing the country, Britain has until recently historically taken the different path of assimilation. This has changed in recent decades, with the arrival of large numbers of culturally and ethnically different immigrants which has seen British society become more pluralist, diverse and multicultural.

Until the sixties, however, immigrants to England, even from other parts of Britain, were steered towards assimilation and absorption into the dominant culture. There were reasons. Like immigrants everywhere, most arrivals were poor, entering society at or near the bottom. It was a long slow march up the social ladder in a society more closed and class ridden than in the USA. Assimilation helped.

You were here, you worked, you were accepted, on the host’s terms. And, to a large extent, it
worked, certainly on the surface.

There were many exceptions, of course, and it is to their credit that Irish culture, and Irish identity
were preserved and championed among emigrants. Yet within a generation or two many had become
British, with usually just a nod to an Irish or Scottish grandparent. Hence the Thatchers, and many
more like them ( three of the Beatles). Remember some members of the legendary Irish soccer team
of a generation ago – qualifying through a grandparent.

Historically there have always been many Irish in Britain. Irish-born immigrants constituted until
very recently the largest “foreign” community in Britain; Indians and Poles have now passed them
out. ( The same, incidentally, is true in reverse of the British in Ireland ). There was considerable
migration even pre-Famine and steady, increased, flows thereafter, with spikes in the numbers
arriving corresponding to economic downturns at home . During the 1950s the numbers surged, as
the Irish economy hit the bottom, with up to half of each year’s school leavers emigrating, most to
Britain. As an example, in 1960, of my mother’s siblings three of four were living ( and working) in
Britain, while in my father’s case the figure was seven out of fourteen.

It was a time of mixed experience. Generally Irish immigrants were well received and fitted in. But
increased immigration after 1950 included many single men, generating a flurry of “ No Irish” notices
from landlords. While most thrived, indeed prospered , for the few at the margin life was hard, with
alcohol, loneliness and impoverished lifestyles taking a toll. Remnants of these “forgotten Irish”
remain, and one of the main thrusts of official Irish policy towards emigrants in recent years has been
to provide assistance to them. In the 70s also the impact of the Northern Ireland “Troubles” was
overwhelmingly negative, with widespread anti –Irish feeling after numerous people were murdered
in IRA bombings and shootings. The hysteria spilled over into a number of miscarriages of justice,
with ordinary innocent Irish people wrongly convicted of terrorist crimes. It was not a good time to be
Irish and most immigrants kept their heads down.

Rising prosperity at home from the early 1960s on saw emigration gradually reduce, though thousands
continued to move annually in both directions. A further spike in Irish arrivals in Britain followed
Ireland’s economic collapse of the 80s and the meltdown since 2008 has seen yet another surge.
Unlike the earlier emigrants, many of whom were poorly educated and doomed to menial jobs, the
latest arrivals have been better qualified and have slotted in at every level of British society.

The two decades of peace since 1994 have helped enormously. There has been quicker acceptance
of the Irish against a background of heightened awareness generally about ethnicity and cultural
identity. It has been a period which has seen a steady rise in profile of and regard for the Irish in
Britain. Events like Riverdance, groups like U2 , the arrival in Britain of talented and high profile
Irish artists and entertainers, fashion designers and professionals generally, have combined to generate
a welcome change in attitude. Ireland and Irishness have become trendy, almost chic. The State Visit
topped this off nicely. For the Irish in Britain, the Visit was a signal triumph.

ALFREDO DI STEFANO : A GREAT PLAYER PASSES

July 9, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in sport

A GREAT PLAYER PASSES

The 2014 World Cup is approaching its final exciting stages. Yet spare a thought for a great player of an earlier era. Alfredo Di Stefano died yesterday at the age of eighty eight.

He never played in a World Cup yet is very clearly in the pantheon of all time football greats. Last week Maradona hailed him as an equal, together with Messi, at the summit of Argentine football. Elsewhere he was voted fourth greatest player of the Twentieth Century. He enjoyed success playing in leagues in his native Argentina and Colombia, yet it was after his move to Real Madrid in 1953 that his career took off. He spent eleven seasons with Real, scoring 216 goals in 282 appearances, as well as scoring twenty three goals in thirty one games for Spain.

It was his European Cup exploits with Real for which he will be most remembered. He was fortunate, of course, in that he was involved with the competition from the start at a time when the television age was beginning. He was the first television football super star, just as his team, Real Madrid, was the first television wunderteam. The Hungarians were pre-television, even the 1958 Brazilians only a passing phenomenon. For a number of years Real WERE football, thrilling a growing international audience on T.V. and establishing the European Cup – their cup(!) – as the premier club competition in the world.

Real dominated the early years of the competition, appearing in six of the first seven finals and winning the first five. Di Stefano was at the heart of the team, dominating a squad that contained several fine, indeed great players, Puskas, Kopa, Gento and Santamaria. In 58 European matches he scored 49 goals, including, incredibly, a goal in each of Real’s five winning finals. In 1962, when Real were beaten by Benfica, Di Stefano, by then thirty six, though failing to score in the final, was joint top scorer in the competition with seven goals.

If the 1962 final will be remembered as signalling the eclipse of Real and Di Sefano and the emergence of Eusebio, the game for which Di Sefano and Real will be most remembered took place two years earlier – the 1960 European Cup Final, regarded universally as one of the greatest football matches of all time. It was surely the greatest display by Real, who defeated the German champions , Eintracht Frankfurt, 7 – 3. Seven – Three! Puskas scored four – still a record for a final, Di Stefano scored three, including a memorable solo goal, running from the half way line. Watch it on You Tube!
Football is poorer for Di Stefano’s passing. As a tribute there follows an article I wrote for the Irish Times in May 2010, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that memorable 1960 final. Fittingly it was headlined “Real Magic.”

8/7/14

REAL MAGIC

When Christian Ronaldo was introduced by Real Madrid last July, the figure beside him, old, and on a stick, needed no introduction. Whatever Ronaldo may or may not achieve in his career, it is a reasonably safe bet he will never equal Alfredo Di Stefano’s achievement of scoring in five (5) successive European finals.

It is just 50 years, more than half a lifetime, since he and the mighty Puskas demolished the German champions, Eintracht Frankfurt in what some have called the greatest ever footballing display, the 1960 European Cup final. Real ran out winners 7-3, showing skill and style which has set a standard rarely equalled. The game, watched by 135,000 in Glasgow, and by millions more throughout Europe on television, enthralled all who viewed it and remained long in the memory.

The grainy black and white TV images of the game on U Tube could almost be a metaphor for the Britain of the time. The 1950s had been a grey decade, and even if the Tories had won the 1959 election with the slogan “You’ve never had it so good”, prosperity was hardly evident. Britain’s heavy industry was in terminal decline. In Lancashire, where I lived, men still wore clogs to work. National Service was just ending.. The first motorway, the M I had only opened in late 1959. The era of mass car ownership was just beginning. Lady Chatterley’s Lover was still banned. One of the highlights of the cricket season was a game between the “Gentlemen”, i.e. amateurs, and the “Players”, i.e the professionals. Around the turn of the decade a radio commentator at the Isle of Man TT races poked fun at the first appearance of a Japanese motor bike with a funny name – Honda.

I was a football mad 13 year old in 1960, living just a few miles from Burnley and Blackburn, where I went to school. Every Saturday I trekked in turn to Turf Moor or Ewood Park. That season there was cause to support them both. Burnley, there or thereabouts for several seasons, won the League Championship in their last game, away to Manchester City 2-1, pipping Wolves (champions in 1958 and 1959) for the title by a point, with the much fancied Spurs a further point behind. Rovers meanwhile had battled through to Wembley, where they lost the Cup Final disappointingly 3-0 to Wolves, who were thus within a whisker of becoming the first club in the 20th century to win the league and cup double (Spurs would do so the following year).

My interest went beyond domestic. I had watched, fascinated, on T.V. ,the European Cup quarter final second leg at Molyneaux between Wolves and Barcelona, one of the first European Cup matches televised live in Britain. Wolves were down 4 – 0 from the first leg. On a rain-soaked quagmire of a pitch, they were overwhelmed 5-2 at home in an exhibition which left me awe-struck. Burnley played good football – probably the best in England at the time – but this was something else.

Barcelona included two of the great Hungarian side of the early 50s – accorded sainthood status in our household – and seemed to me invincible. Yet they were defeated by Real in the semi-final, 3-1 in both legs. I knew nothing then of the complicated political and historical rivalry between the two clubs, only that Real must have been mighty indeed to have won so comprehensively.

Real Madrid were well known. They had won the European Cup every year since its inception and had seen off the Busby Babes 5-3 on aggregate in the 1957 semi-final. Money was no object ; they could buy the best and pay the best. Real were marshalled by the Argentinian superstar, Di Stefano and also fielded another of the anointed Magyars – the most famous of all, Ferenc Puskas. Eintracht Frankfurt were virtually unknown – certainly to schoolboys like me – until their semi-final against Rangers. They won the first leg in Germany 6-1; in the second leg, at Ibrox, they again put six past Rangers for a total aggregate of 12-4.

The story of the final is well known. Real came from a goal down to score six in half an hour, winning comprehensively and unlucky not to score more. Di Stefano scored three, the third after a marvellous solo run. Puskas got the other four. The game ended as a contest early in the second half when Real were awarded a dubious penalty to go 4 -1 up. As a spectacle it endured, long after the finish.

There was more to it than just a game, of course, particularly in Britain, home of football. It was the era of the maximum wage, under which players’ wages were capped at a level roughly equivalent to the average industrial wage – £20 per week. The players, almost universally working class and with no freedom to break their contracts, put up or shut up. The decade had been dominated by Manchester United, cruelly destroyed at Munich, and Wolves, with three championships each. There was, however general acceptance that, in world terms, English soccer was second-rate, following poor World Cup performances and defeats by 6 -3 and 7 – 1 to the Hungarians, defeats which had entered the realm of legend. Real’s victory, following on the demolitions of Wolves and Rangers, emphasized just how far British football was behind the best.

Was the game a watershed? There’s always a danger that nostalgia lends a rosy hue. At school next day my history teacher declared flatly “No English team could ever play like that!” Certainly it was a wake-up call, and football, in England and elsewhere, was never quite the same. A new bar had been set. More thoughtful, skilful (and successful) football gradually became the norm. Wolves, exponents of the “powerhouse” game fell rapidly from grace and were never again a major force. Many successful coaches and pundits subsequently pointed to inspiration from Real’s display. Yet Real were gone, almost as quickly as Wolves. There was one other epic match, the 1962 final which they lost 5- 3 to Benfica. May 18 1960 was a pinnacle they never reached again. In the words of a newspaper headline next day, it was “Real Magic”.

THE SAVAGE ALTAR by ASA LARSSON a review

April 7, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in Book Reviews

THE SAVAGE ALTAR
ASA LARSSON
PENGUIN/VIKING 307 pp

This is the fourth thriller by Asa Larsson which I’ve read, though actually the first in the series introducing Rebecka Martinsson, her heroine. It was first published in Sweden in 2003, in Britain 2007. In January I reviewed, and was tremendously impressed by , her latest, the fifth in the series, The Second Deadly Sin, the second of her novels to win the Best Swedish Crime Novel award.

The Savage Altar won the Best First Crime Novel award. It’s not hard to see why. For a debut novel it is superb, with finely drawn characters great atmosphere and pace, an excellent, dark plot and a unique setting . Kiruna, population 20,000, where Asa Larsson actually grew up, lies in Norbotten County, within the Arctic Circle close to where the borders of Sweden Norway and Finland come together. It is 600 miles north of Stockholm, with an estimated driving time of fourteen hours. Flight time is 1 hour 40 minutes.

Norbotten County itself is bigger than the island of Ireland but has only 250, 000 inhabitants (think the population of Galway in an area over sixteen times the size; for comparison, Sweden is six times larger than Ireland, with a population of 9,500,000). Finnish and Sami are as widely spoken as Swedish and the populace have retained their own customs and culture. The area is rich in natural resources, with Kiruna famous for its iron ore. The town was developed to take advantage of a vast iron ore deposit which makes up much of a mountain towering over Kiruna.

It’s worthwhile pointing out that Asa Larsson’s first two novels were published before Dragon Tattoo Larsson had appeared on the scene. Many of the themes running through the Millenium Trilogy are to be found here – the gloomy religious and biblical obsessions, the brutal ritualistic killings – linked to old testament tales- the savage rape, the hints ( or actuality) of incest. The only major dimension missing is Stieg Larsson’s portrayal of the evil wealthy capitalist family, which is very much in the Southern California tradition of Chandler and Ross MacDonald. There is, however, a theme of exploitative tax fraud, which in part provides if not motive, then certainly catalyst for the first murder.

The novel introduces also two very strong, very appealing and very human female characters, Rebecka and the policewoman Anna-Maria Mella. Whatever qualities Lisbeth Salander – she of the Dragon Tattoo – might have, appealing is not one of them . The Kiruna characters – the two already mentioned and a number of the others – recur in later books and develop, since, like Wallender, the series is set in real time. The only character that grates is the prosecutor von Post. He crops up also in the Second Deadly Sin, where his incompetence, ambition, lack of judgement and self-importance are again demonstrated. Overall, however, he is a caricature and is probably based on some fool the author has encountered.

The plot centres on the murder of a charismatic clergyman from one of the number of fundamentalist churches and factions that seem to abound in Sweden. It’s sobering and somewhat depressing to note that the type of religious fundamentalism and flat earthism we identify with the American south and, internationally, where others of that ilk are to be found, including some of the sects in Northern Ireland, are alive and well and flourishing in twenty-first century Northern Sweden (this book, after all, is set post Nine Eleven, not post – 1945). Our until very recently monocultural and overwhelmingly Catholic society, rarely encountered at first hand people who actually believe – or profess to believe – in the literal truth of the bible.

The dead clergyman, known cynically as “ The Paradise Kid,” has been murdered and mutilated. His sister turns for assistance to Rebecka, an old friend from school, now a tax lawyer in Stockholm. Rebecka returns to her childhood home in a claustrophobic rural society where religion still rules. People not only quote the bible, they believe it! Rebecca’s memories of there are of religious indoctrination, sexual exploitation, seduction and worse. Now, with her friend charged with murder, Rebecca is drawn into help, her only ally, of sorts, a heavily pregnant local policewoman.

A triumvirate of powerful clergymen, and their wives, acquaintances and adversaries of old, seem determined to hide the truth about the murder. Rebecka digs, and discovers why. She is now the quarry and the book builds to a nail biting ( rarely has the phrase suited better) and violent climax.

Asa Larsson has commented that the sixth book in the Rebecka series will be the last. As with Mankel’s Wallender, it will be a great pity if this is the case.

12/3/14

A LIFE WORTH LIVING by MICHAEL SMURFIT a review

April 6, 2014April 6, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in Book Reviews

A LIFE WORTH LIVING

MICHAEL SMURFIT

OAK TREE PRESS, 314pp, hdbk, €32.50

What makes a tycoon? One of the best places to find the secret surely must be the newly published memoir of Michael Smurfit. This gives a fascinating account of how he developed his business over the years and, as an obiter, an equally fascinating insight into the mind of a seriously successful alpha male.

It’s not a catechism on how to become a tycoon, however. There’s not quite enough detail for that. But it should be required reading for any aspiring young business man or woman in Ireland.

What is particularly interesting is how much of his success was down to doing the obvious, like cutting costs, managing stocks, etc, something that other Irish alpha male Michael O Leary is also good at (will he ever write a book, I wonder?). What is also interesting is how Smurfit took a small Irish company to the top of the world in the area of wood and wood products, beating off rivals from countries with significant wood and native paper industries.

The book is not just about Smurfit’s business life, of course. It’s his life story and he certainly has led a full life. The first Irish mega tycoon, he built a small family business into Ireland’s first multinational company and one of the world’s largest paper and packaging companies, particularly spectacular when coming from a country with no indigenous wood industry to speak of.

This autobiography is an account of his life and of the company he built over three decades and is in many ways a primer on how to succeed in business. As well as cataloguing his step by step progress there are revealing insights into his business philosophy, with chapters on the Smurfit culture and the Smurfit system, both bearing his indelible signature.

Michael Smurfit, however, was and is more than just a successful businessman. While building the Smurfit empire he served as Chairman of Telecom Eireann from 1979 to 1991, supervising the transformation of an antiquated national telephone system, an essential foundation for the development of the Celtic Tiger. He also served for six years as Chairman of the Irish Racing Board, where he brought his business acumen and organisational skills to develop an important national industry. Separately, his vision led to the development of the K Club and the bringing of the Ryder Cup to Ireland in 2006. He has been decorated by a number of countries and received a Knighthood from the Queen in 2005. He is Ireland’s Honorary Consul in Monaco, where he resides.

Yet it could have been so different. He was born in 1936 in St Helens, Lancashire, the family moving back to Ireland during the war. His father, a tailor by trade, acquired a small box factory and mill in Dublin through his Belfast in – laws. He was moderately successful and Michael and his brother were sent initially to Clongowes before being taken out when Michael was sixteen and put to work in his father’s Clonskeagh factory to learn the business from the bottom. As time went on he became bored and frustrated and at nineteen was poised to emigrate to Canada with a workmate. At the last minute his visa application was refused – “a bombshell” – on medical grounds.

He was diagnosed with T.B. and entered Peamount Sanitorium the day he had been scheduled to depart for Canada. He spent ten months there, learning that had the condition not been discovered when it was he would have been dead within six months. There he was shocked to learn also that his former workmate had been paralysed in a traffic accident in Toronto; he could have been with him. The brush with mortality proved sobering. He realised how lucky he had been and returned to the family firm determined to succeed, this time to the office rather than the factory floor.

There followed a spell in the USA working with Continental Can, one of Smurfit’s paper suppliers. Here he honed his growing expertise in the practicalities of business, but getting his father to apply his ideas was another matter. It was to be a decade before he was able to put them into practice. Meantime he met Norma during a six month study stay in Richmond. Norma Triesman was a hairdresser, a Jewish girl from London’s East End. They met at a dance where he “asked the owner of the best pair of legs to dance.”

They married after two years, in 1963, moving initially to his Lancashire birthplace, where he set up his own first factory in Wigan. Their sons, Tony and Michael, were born there. Norma he described as “ the perfect partner,” “a wonderful woman” and “a tower of strength.” He gave up his early passion for racing cars and motorbikes ( his first car had been the iconic E-type Jaguar).His Lancashire business began to prosper and in early 1966 his father asked him to return to Ireland to take over the family business. He grasped immediately that, with Ireland’s tariffs coming down after the 1965 Anglo-Irish Free Trade Agreement, Smurfits, worth roughly £1 million, had to expand or die.

Expansion meant takeover. The Irish paper and packaging industry consisted of many small businesses and was ripe for rationalisation. Smurfits cut their teeth on this, devising and refining tactics over time. The Irish dominoes tumbled in turn. It was the era of family businesses, with management often dominated by Protestants, many amateurish and hostile. Smurfit fought to take them over. “My motto was I must, I can and I will; and I did.”

The approach involved complete forensic analysis of the targeted company, based on a thorough knowledge of every aspect of the paper and packaging industry, something many competitors and targets lacked. This knowledge was developed all the way back to Michael’s period on the factory floor and his subsequent years of business apprenticeship up to 1966. Meticulous research, full knowledge, and better preparation than the opposition, was the key. The same tactics were repeated over and over again on an ever increasing scale in Ireland, in Britain, in the USA, in Europe. Sometimes there were setbacks, but very few.

The phrase coined for the Smurfit approach was “logical opportunism.” There was never over-reach, something many companies were guilty of, with too much borrowing and over investment. Sometimes the target could be part of a conglomerate, but not part of the core activities, or an adjunct to the main business. Once acquired there was further forensic investigation, of staff and stock levels, of management technique and of how the new acquisition could best be assimilated.

There were six and seven day weeks, long hours, interminable dinners – up to 200 in a year – and much travel, with every mill and plant visited. Yet there was a private life also. His sporting interests are chronicled, including the successes of his racehorses , as well as his interest in skiing and yachting. There is a chapter on the K Club and the 2006 Ryder Cup. The book is generally sparse on personal details, though he does deal with the painful end of his marriage to Norma. When he revealed over dinner on April Fool’s day 1985 that there was someone else, she threw a glass of wine over him and stormed out. He has only kind words to say about Norma.

There is advice, in particular in the chapter on the Smurfit System, with emphasis on cost controls and ensuring up to date information on cash flows and on how each business component is functioning, as well as a section on the anatomy of a deal. And, with a keen eye on the present and future in a changing business environment, advice to any one starting out to master computer skills, find a market niche, and why you must never, ever, give up.

As befits a tidy and organised mind, the contents pages helpfully include separately named sections within chapters, while there is an appendix detailing the staggering History of the Jefferson Smurfit Group.

Insightful. A book worth reading.

5/4/14

SOLO by WILLIAM BOYD a review

April 6, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in Book Reviews

SOLO

WILLIAM BOYD

William Boyd is one of my favourite writers. Try “ A Good Man in Africa” – a hilarious book which became an excellent film. Or “ An Ice Cream War,” set in East Africa during World War I . He has now become the latest writer of note to be presented with the potentially poisoned chalice of attempting to write another James Bond novel, following in the footsteps of Kingsley Amis, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver.

It’s important to mention here that there is a James Bond Mark One and a James Bond Mark Two. Bond Mark One is the popular Bond of film, portrayed over half a century by a succession of actors, from Sean Connery to the current Bond, Daniel Craig ( not to forget Bob Simmons, the stuntman who featured in the early Connery 007 movies as the figure in the gun barrel sequence at commencement as the Bond theme played). Most people have their own favourite James Bond ( mine is a mixture of Connery and Craig) while the Bond character has become a modern cinema icon.

James Bond Mark Two is the hero of a dozen books written in the fifties and early sixties by Ian Fleming, a journalist and former naval intelligence officer, from an upper-middle class background (Eton, Sandhurst and two universities) who died in 1964. The books inspired the first films and were classics of their genre for their time. I can recall as a schoolboy the impact they had. They provided technicolour images for a generation of schoolkids growing up in the era of limited choice black and white television. Fleming was a master craftsman, writing for his time. The Bond books, their place in British fiction, their style, have been parsed and analysed at length by writers as distinguished as Anthony Burgess and Umberto Eco. There is a particularly informative and incisive Wikipedia article on James Bond and his creator which is well worth a read.

But, and it’s a big but, the novels were written over half a century ago, pitched at an audience eager for escapism and glamour as Britain and Europe slowly emerged from the devastation and relative poverty of the post war world. Part of the challenge faced by any writer tasked or invited to write “ another Bond” is whether to situate it back in the 60’s – before most of the current reading public were born – or update it to the present or more recent past. The past is very much another country, and, given the speed of technological change, the farther back the more alien that country. An era before the Internet, no mobile phones, no personal computers. And either way, the additional shadow cast by the Cinema Bond will be long and deep.

Boyd has chosen the sixties, and has made a very commendable job of it, but has cautioned readers also to remember it is the book Bond, not the film one, that they should keep in mind. “Solo” is a very good, very well written and entertaining thriller. It has been well received critically with more than one commentator observing that the book is better written than were the original James Bond novels. And it is; it’s by William Boyd rather than Ian Fleming.
It portrays a somewhat softer, more socially aware Bond, now 45, with something of a conscience, shocked at his own savagery when he eventually does snap. That aside, he smokes drinks and womanises like the Bond we know, though he has swopped his Aston Martin for a Jensen Interceptor ( Anyone remember them? An in-law of mine drove one). The novel is set in Africa and the USA in the late Sixties. Boyd knows West Africa well. He was born and grew up there and it is the setting for several of his best novels.

The plot of “Solo” is interwoven with one of the major tragic events of the second half of the 20th Century – the Biafran War in which the oil rich province of Biafra sought to break away from Nigeria. The secession was crushed over several years, and featured a severe economic blockade of the breakaway province, with images of starving and malnourished children pricking the conscience of the world. The Irish Aid agency Concern was born out of the conflict, founded on the initiative of Irish missionaries moved by the Biafrans’ plight.

Without giving too much away, in the book Biafra is thinly disguised as Dahum, Nigeria as Zanzarim. 007’s role is to get close to the secessionist leader of Dahum and kill him ( Britain backs the Federal Government). When he fails and is almost killed himself, he resolves to pursue his assailants, who have surfaced in the USA after the collapse of Dahum. Bond acts alone, without official sanction – hence “Solo.” This is vintage Bond, but interwoven with the usual escapist heroics are thoughtful and disturbing portrayals of the bloody conflict with images of massacres and starving children, as well as the involvement of mercenaries, including East European pilots hired to drop napalm on villages.

Furthermore there is no evil international organisation or master criminal with which Bond must do battle on behalf of the forces of good. His task is more prosaic, the reason clear and not particularly edifying. Bond is to kill “ the African Napoleon” because Britain wants the civil war ended to ensure the future safety of Zanzarim’s oil. So too do the Americans, confirmed to Bond late on by his old CIA friend Felix, who speaks of an apparently limitless subterranean ocean of oil in the country . Felix refers to the West’s need for security of supply and the desirability of steering away from dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

There are echoes of the present day here though it is unlikely that CIA (and MI6) strategists were all that prescient in 1969. OPEC had yet to flex its muscles, Gaddafi had just come to power and the Middle East, though definitely a powder keg, was nothing like it has become. Realpolitik, however, just as the crushing of Biafra was real. An unsavoury touch, though one that adds spice to the novel and prompts reflection.

A satisfying read and well recommended.

4/4/14

INNOCENCE by DEAN KOONTZ a review

April 6, 2014 by paleoutlaw, posted in Book Reviews

INNOCENCE by DEAN KOONTZ

HARPERCOLLINS 338 pages

Dean Koontz is one of writing’s heavy hitters, in or just outside the top ten dollar earners ( $ 20 million or so last year). He writes suspense, horror and supernatural thrillers. His output is prodigious, at least sixty five novels under his own name and a further canon from the past, including some disputed ones, under a variety of pennames. He is sixty eight and continues to churn out novels, fourteen of which have topped the New York Times bestseller lists. Most people will have read at least one of his books; I’ve read quite a few, though none recently before I tackled his latest, “Innocence.”

Koontz is very much a “what you see is what you get” writer. His books are good, attention holding, page turners, well plotted. Some critics have pointed to an underlying moral tone in his works in which right normally triumphs, suggesting that links can be traced to Koontz’ personal life. He and his mother were abused by his father, an alcoholic, which undoubtedly influenced his writing, as did his admiration for his mother and his early conversion to Catholicism. Yet despite his very considerable financial success, Koontz has never really received the critical acclaim accorded to his contemporary, Stephen King, with whom he is often compared. I’m not sure if “Innocence” will do much to redress the balance.

I was reminded at the outset of “Innocence” of the great H.P. Lovecraft short story about a ghoul which lives deep underground, surfacing at last, craving human company only to be shunned in horror by humans, so dreadful is its appearance. The book’s hero, Addison Goodheart, is a freak, a young man with a facial appearance so terrible that any person who sees him reacts with horror and violence, seeking to kill him. Goodheart lives in a secret windowless apartment deep in the bowels of a large city ( taken to be Manhattan) from where he ventures forth only in the dead of night, masked and muffled, to forage for food and, occasionally to explore the city library.

One winter’s night in the library he encounters a beautiful young woman, Gwyneth, fleeing a malevolent evil man, the murderer of her father, intent on raping her. Addison befriends her and together they set out to frustrate the villain, their pact being that she does not look and he does not touch. On the way they encounter strange, supernatural, or at any rate non-human, entities: Clears, positive or good spirits, but nonetheless not to be approached, and Fogs, evil and malevolent wraiths which feed and interact on humans’ basest desires.

The story is obviously allegorical, with echoes of Beauty and the Beast, but with exquisitely written passages which make for easy reading. The book appears to be grinding along towards the inevitable conclusion – the triumph of good, after much travail – until, with about seventy pages left, there is a gear-change. A philosophical interlude on the nature of time in the universe is followed by quite a breath-taking build up to the novel’s climax. It would spoil it for the reader to reveal too much. Suffice to say that there is an all too plausible scenario suggested towards the end, something that gave me food for some uncomfortable thought, something I’m pretty sure other readers will share.

11/3