Loyal Disloyalism
Well, it's me again, bet you forgot I was around with my poisoned pen or I should say wicked word processor. There's many a slip betwixt thought and printer but I do love what speel checks throw up from time to time, particularly older ones which may not be nuanced to local usage. For 'loyalism' my spell check suggested three alternatives; 'royalism', 'realism' and 'loathsome'. Take your pick!

Religious Kickers and Knickers
With the religious world getting its knickers somewhat twisted (or is that just the media) over the Vatican 'Dominus Iesus' document which restates some of the classic claims of the Catholic church about itself, it reminded me about a previous more local statement. The Catholic bishops in Britain and Ireland issued a statement on the eucharist and inter-communion which they called 'One Bread, One Body'. The priests' monthly magazine, 'Intercom' joked that the next bishops' statement was going to be on priestly celibacy and it would be called 'One bed, one body'!

I am also reminded of Oscar Wilde (he of the recent century being dead) when he was asked what his religion was. "I'm not sure I have any", quoth he, "I'm an Irish Protestant!"!!

Assylum and Refusgees
So, the Republic is really a hard touch rather than a soft touch when it comes to admitting people as refugees. Comparisons made with other western European countries for admitting people from strife-torn countries like Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo show the admittance rate by the Republic way down (Denmark admitted 92% of Somalis, Ireland 36%; Ireland admitted 5% of Congolese in 1998 compared to an industrialised countries' average of 33%). What was that about Ireland being a Christian country? 'What do you mean, just because Jesus and his family were refugees in Egypt escaping the anger of Herod doesn't mean we should be kind to these good for nothing, lazy economic migrants'… Which reminds me of the best contemporary song on the topic, 'The Siren's Song' by Christy Moore (who else?) from his album 'Traveller'; it moves swiftly from the 'Cead Mile Failte' image to the harsh 'Mile Failte my arse!'. That's just the way it is at official level - at community level it's another story (from the bad to the brilliant) - but sin sceal eile.

Categories and Pigeon Holes
An interesting workshop exercise for all you facilitators out there is to ask people to rate the importance of their nationalism on a score of 1 (of very little significance) - 10 (supremely important), and get them to compare the results. This can be done in a unicultural or multicultural setting though certain 'speed restrictions' apply (don't try this at home folks unless you know what you're doing). Reminds me of the technical college lecturer in Norn Iron some years ago who thought letting his class draw a flag on the computer screen would be an interesting exercise - cept he hadn't even thought of the fact that people would want to draw different flags! While Irish people are used to being claimed as 'British' when successful, I was interested to pick up a Lambeg drumming CD in the 'Irish' section of my local music library. While the origin of Lambegs may lie in the Williamite wars, it is an indigenous music form which an outsider might unhesitatingly label 'Irish' if they don't go for the term 'Ulster' (which is usually even more problematic as it is often code for 'Protestant Ulster' - just listen to Big Ian). However another time I found one of the Rev William McCrea's CDs also under the category of Irish music. I can't work out who might be more offended - Willie McCrea or Irish music enthusiasts.

11 Minus
So, Norn Iron may know by May 2001 the fate of the '11+' exam taken by the vast majority of children in their last year at primary school.. If it is not significantly consigned to the dustbin of educational history I will be a) mightily disappointed, and b) feeling Minister McGuinness (Martin to you) has lost the thread entirely. Any system which publicly labels 75% of children as failures at age 11 - 12 is violent (yes) and definitely at odds with anything to do with education. Typical stories; 1) Child fails and refuses to come out of bedroom for the whole day. Reaching middle age it is still remembered as a traumatic event. 2) A provincial girls' secondary school; girls doing well at GCSE exams at 16 automatically choose to go to the grammar school, irrespective of what is appropriate for their future, because until they do so they don't feel they have regained what they lost by failing the 11+. NI has more high achievers than elsewhere in the UK - and more young people coming out with no qualifications at all; the former probably explains why the archaic system has survived so long.

There are lots of different educational systems in Europe. There is nothing inherently wrong in different kinds of schools for different children though I would tend to go for the comprehensive model myself (possibly streaming children for some subjects and not for others but all abilities educated together in the one school). What I would feel are key elements to any system are; 1) No universal label based on exams which themselves distort education 2) Avoiding stigma attached to school attended - which may entail significant additional resources for currently low achieving schools 3) Ease of transfer between different systems. It is way beyond time to stamp out the current iniquitous and violent system.

Travelling Hopefully
As a reasonably regular traveller on the 'Enterprise' (so called) train between the two largest cities on this island. Dublin and Belfast, I am amazed that Connolly Station in Dublin has no seats yet in its new revamped concourse (and only pathetic sized toilets). 'Information' told me the seats are coming and meanwhile passengers can sit in the cafe without ordering. Thought you might like to know. There's still disruption on the line between one thing and another - and bomb scares aren't a thing of the past either. But it put me in mind of fifteen or twenty years ago travelling in the same carriage as 3 young US tourists. Now personally I feel tourists are as entitled as anyone else to be critical, but do need some understanding. In this case they expected everything to be As It Was At Home. At this stage the train was going painfully slowly and they were moaning again. So to give them their cultural understanding I informed them that the reason we were travelling so slowly (where we were just North of the border) is that we were at this moment passing over a bridge which the IRA had blown up a week previously. Silence, blissful silence.

Wave Power
This island has potentially far more than its share of renewable energy through wind and wave power, apart altogether from solar and other forms of renewable energy. So we shouldn't be the least bit afraid of the implications of dealing with global warming - costly at first but once the change is made then we'd be on the pig's back. Think of it like changing from IR£ to Euros....no, no, forget that analogy. Reminds me of the training weekend in Dublin one time where we ended with some street theatre at St Stephen's Green (see, he supports renewable energy too...). Anyway, there was I with a placard saying "Wave power" waving to the passing buses and motorists! It got a good laugh and I hope a little bit of a message through as well.

Yer Lot
That's yer lot for this month, remember if you want to pass something on to our massive readership, just drop me a line… on second thoughts, don't, there's a postal strike on as I write in the Wee North. Try telepathy. Or Email: if that fails. Yours truly, Billy.

PS I was very distressed at our Web-meister's rendition of the title for this column with the last issue. It came out as 'Billy King - The voice of reason'. It was really meant to be 'Billy King - The voice of t'reason'.