Hello again, though my first item below concerns a diary, Christmas and new year are at this stage but a dim and distant memory. However, it's the time of year when traditionally (= since last year) I award my prestigious Adolf Awards - these are for conspicuous disservice to peace and/or to the community at home or abroad. The Adolf Awards are, of course, named after the best known person of the 20th century with that first name. So go to the end of my column to check out who made it onto the list this year.

Success
'Nothing succeeds like a parrot with no teeth' goes the somewhat innacccurate parroty of a well known aphorism. In the peace, nonviolence and alternative movements we're pretty hopeless at celebrating our successes (what successes - Ed? Don't start! - Billy). Would the Cold War would have come to an end, for example, without the painstaking and unsung work over decades to build bridges and challenge stereotypes? Anyhow, I was delighted to be given a copy of the War Resisters League (USA) 2002 Peace Calendar (that's a diary to us European English users) with "52 True Stories of Nonviolent Success".

The good thing about it is that it tells lots of stories in summary form so you quickly get the impression "yes, that's really interesting', or "that was really successful". As it's a US publication it majors on that part of the world but covers ancient Romans and Jews, South Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. Some are stories I know quite well, but summary form has its own strengths. My very favourite, because it illustrates how we can be successful on something when we're actually working on something else, comes from the US itself, a story entitled "Rice bags defeat nukes" in the diary. During the 1950s the inter-faith Fellowship of Reconciliation in the States had a campaign entitled "Feed Thine Enemy", encouraging the US government and public to feed the hungry. People were encouraged to send tiny bags of rice to the White House with a message about the famine in Communist China, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him".

This campaign flopped, and hostility grew between the USA and China. A crisis arose over possession of islands disputed by mainland China and the US-backed Taiwan. Twice US generals recommended to President Eisenhower that the USA take pre-emptive nuclear strikes against China. Eisenhower turned to his aides and asked how many little bags of rice had come in; thousands he was told. Eisenhower gave the little bags of rice as the reason he ruled out using nuclear weapons.

If you want to get hold of the WRL 'calendar', it's ISBN 0-940862-13-1, edited by Tom Hastings and Geov Parrish. WRL is at 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012, and the cover price is US$12. A query to www.warresisters.org might reveal price including postage in your neck of the world woods.

Money, money, money
Well. I hope you've got rid of all those punts or you'll be up the creek in a leaky punt with no paddle, at least more trouble to change them. In came the shiny new Euros. Yes, I know the plural of 'Euro' in English is officially 'Euro' but I prefer the commonsense 'Euros'. It'll be interesting to see what nicknames emerge, e.g. "E's". Maybe we could call them 'thalers' after the old Austrian unit of currency which is the origin of the word 'dollar'. On principle I wouldn't be too enthusiastic given the curtailment of the use of exchange rates which national currencies brought with them. But unless you're very certain about staying outside the mainstream, e.g. Norway on the EU, it's difficult to resist the momentum and sitting out for a few years, as Britain will probably do, is certainly not the best of both worlds.

Anyway, it's good to know if you've 'Irish' currency in your pocket it's also good in France, Germany, Greece etc. But I note that banks will have no more inclination to accept cheques from other countries, even if it's Euroland-to-Euroland, than heretofore. The clearing mechanisms don't exist, they say. Which is probably true but how do I get the feeling that they will still charge us something similar for processing a foreign cheque even if there is now no currency conversion involved? Which is really rather bizarre because the previous 'Eurocheque' system, which went out a few years ago, allowed you to write a cheque in any national currency and the exact amount you paid was calculated at your bank. It had the disadvantage that you didn't know exactly how much you were paying but you did know that there was only a very modest fee involved. There would have been a lot more work involved than in Euroland now but there are no proposals that I see for even a very modest 'flat rate' payment system enabling you to write a cheque for, say. 12 Euros to someone in France and not have to pay the same amount again in commission to the bank. Come on, banking system, get your Euro-house in order and don't be so caught up in losing hundreds of millions of dollars speculating on the currency markets when you could actually do something to help customers internationally.

In a state
It's not very often that I need to video a television programme in order to watch another. I'm one of those people who would actually watch more television if they had the chance. Which I don't always have. But, anyhow, it happened when one of the two recent Bloody Sunday films was one at the same time as the 'No Tears' programme on RTE about the Anti-D women who were given Hepatitis C courtesy of a state agency. It struck me that in a sense there two simultaneous TV programmes were very different and yet the state's response was the same. In the case of Bloody Sunday in 1972, the British state treated it in counter-insurgency mode using their crack military fighters to deal with civilians. While this sounds a bit simplistic it is nevertheless true, I believe, and Bloody Sunday, along with internment, was a large part of what ensured that the Troubles turned into a Thirty Years War. In the case of the Blood Transfusion Service Board in the Republic, it was a situation where officials of the Board knew there was a problem early on but ignored possible repercussions

Bloody Sunday was covered up as well as it could by the British establishment (which wasn't actually very well) with the Widgery tribunal being a travesty of justice. Insult was added to fatal injury when the people shot dead by the state were labelled as nail bombers and gunmen. It is no wonder that the people of Derry refused to lie down before this cover up and fought until they eventually got a new, improved tribunal of enquiry (the Saville judicial enquiry currently costing lots of money). Some Protestants in the North feel aggrieved meanwhile that 'their' atrocities go untribunaled. This is understandable. But when the state itself kills and covers up the deaths of its own citizens then there is something the state has to answer for. If the job had been done the first time then there would have been no need for the current process.

In the case of the Republic and the Hepatitis C scandal, the Blood Transfusion Service Board and the Department of Health denied, stonewalled, prevaricated, tokenised, patronised before eventually being forced by the women in Positive Action and by public opinion and the political process to adopt a reasonably equitable settlement. In the state's role in this case they didn't even have the token excuse of 'state security' which the British state undoubtedly tried to use in relation to Bloody Sunday. They were thinking of their backs and their budgets.

In both cases the political apparatus concerned, and the appropriate bureaucracies, proceeded as they know how. They denied the truth and harried those who spoke out. They refused to admit literally fatal errors of judgement on behalf of state agencies. The tried to obfuscate the truth, admitting token aspects of the situation which would not damage their own case so much because to deny the truth entirely would be to be ridiculed. But they did this in such a way as to try to fend off the real implications of what was done. They tried to muddy the waters. It is a great credit to all the activists involved, North and South in these two terrible and very different dramas, that the truth was sought, that there was a refusal to accept the distorted and twisted versions presented by the state. All may not be well in the body politic in Ireland, North or South, but these cases are a credit to grassroots activism and democracy in Ireland. Maybe as people we know bullshit when we see it and refuse to have it palmed off on us as the gospel.

‘United Ireland’
Having dissected 'United States' and 'United Kingdom' in the last couple of issues, it's only fair that I should turn my acerbic attention to the concept and practice of 'United Ireland'. Here goes.

A 'United Ireland' has never existed as a modern political entity. The most recent manifestation of when Ireland was united in any sense politically was as part of the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland' from 1801 onwards, and that hardly counts. Before that, Ireland had been a subservient, but separate, kingdom to England and under the English monarch, but as it was only Protestants and in particular Anglican upper class Protestants who counted in this state; so it is difficult to say that that was a 'United Ireland' then either - and modern concepts of nationalism were only just emerging. If you go back pre-plantations and in particular pre-Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland (1169) you can make claims for relative cultural homogeneity but politically Ireland was a myriad of chiefdoms and little kingdoms despite there being a High Kingship during part of this period. So a 'United Ireland' in any possible modern form is an aspiration which has never had previous existence.

Republicans are those who proclaim themselves most vehemently for a United Ireland. But as most republicans during the Troubles of the last Thirty Years war have supported armed struggle to achieve a United Ireland, there has been a surprising lack of logic. Trying to 'persuade' Northern Protestants to enter a new political arrangement while attacking and killing their members (in the RUC, UDR etc) and other agents of the state they support (British soldiers etc) hardly seems a very sensible way to win friends and influence people. Another famous example of this lack of logic - which continues regularly today - is attacking or threatening the railway line between the two largest cities in Ireland, Dublin and Belfast. This is purportedly trying to 'unite' people by attacking people travelling on their normal business and pleasure between the two major cities in Northern Ireland and the Republic! All to 'bring home the seriousness of the war situation' to the public, bla bla bla, but how ludicrous can you get? Preventing people interacting! 'United' Ireland, my arse!

Another feature of the lack of support for a United Ireland in practice, as opposed to theory, is the fact that most people in the Republic would run a mile, or certainly a kilometre, if the prospect of a United Ireland actually loomed into reality. While the theory of a United Ireland is popular among all parties and most people in the 26 counties, the thought of having to deal at more than arm's length with Northern Protestants and their representatives would drive many politicians to perplexion if not apoplexy. Prior to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the refusal to 'live unification now' by holding onto to things like Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution indicated a fundamentally partitionist approach to the North.

Even now, with cross-border bodies of various kinds, the level of cooperation at an institutional level is pretty much what you would expect between neighbouring states, e.g. in Scandinavia. The idea that these institutions are the advance guard of a united Ireland, as feared by some unionists and as proclaimed by some republicans, is just so much rubbish.

That said, what the future holds is anyone's guess. The demography of Norn Iron is changing with a higher proportion of cultural Catholics. What the proportion of Catholics and Protestants is in ten, twenty, fifty years time depends on relative birth and emigration rates in the intervening period. And that has yet to be determined. There may now be more Catholic primary school children than Protestant ones, and while some factors might predicate a higher Protestant than Catholic emigration rate in the foreseeable future, these are things which cannot be certain.

And even if there is a Catholic majority in Northern Ireland in twenty or thirty years time, that does not necessarily equal a United Ireland. Closer links, yes, united politically, not necessarily. However there is one other factor which is currently running in support of a 'united Ireland' which in the 19th and 20th centuries militated against it; economics. As the 19th century progressed, Northern Prods saw their economic interests as being very much in favour of a United Kingdom (of Britain and Ireland); shipbuilding, linen etc were dependent on the British link (this is aside from political and cultural fears Prods had). The 26 counties had very little economic production outside of agriculture. The boot is now on the other foot. The Republic's economy has streaked ahead and may continue to do so. Within the EU, political units are now of less significance economically but taxation still has an important role. If the Republic's economy continues to outstrip Britain and the North that would be one more reason for closer links (though the Republic, as a much smaller population unit than Britain, shouldering the economic cost of baling out the North would be another matter). However the Republic's economy is very dependent on multinationals and high-tech ones at that; if they prosper and don't move their plants to India or the Far East, or other cheap wage locations, then the Republic is likely to continue to prosper - and if not, not.

Me? Well, yes, I'd support a united Ireland. But a different kind of one to what that term traditionally implies. Many injustices have been perpetrated in the name of a United Ireland. It is only with tolerance, magnanimity, and courage that anything like it will come to pass. And there are other things which are more important than a United Ireland; respect, nonviolence, a willingness to be patient, security in people's own identity. At some point I would like it. But I can live without it. And I'd like to finish with an adaptation of an old aphorism; living for Ireland is far more important than dying or killing for it.

Not the dentist
Meandering by foot from point A to point B and then on to C on the north side of Dublin, I came across a sign hung in the front of a relatively salubrious looking house, Mobhi Road I think, which said 'Not the dentist'. You can imagine the scenes. You're exhausted and trying to have a lie in on a day off and the doorbell rings at 8.55 a.m., and a face grimacing in pain announces "I'm here for my 9 o'clock appointment". And so on. Until a sign is the logical response to proclaim "Not the dentist". But it made me think of something else, describing yourself by what you're not. You could do it as a circle game in groups, "Now we're going to do a round with everyone describing themselves by saying something they are not without putting yourself down." Difficult. I suppose you might get away with saying you're not the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury (since no one imagines that you are or are likely to be so) but you wouldn't be allowed say "I'm not good at chess" or "I can't cook". It would certainly challenge the thought processes. Statements like "I'm not good at lying" would presumably be permissible, or "I'm not keen on custard" since neither lying nor custard are necessary for civilisation (Ed - Forget about custard but I thought our world was built on lies - 'Security' = militarisation, 'Peace' = war, 'Prosperity' = social division, and so on) (Billy - OK, you have a point). Anyway, let me know if you try it some time.

Adolf Awards
Sound the fanfare! Roll those drums! Roll out the red carpet! Carpet bomb Afghanistan! Oops, how did that get in there. Yes, folks, the moment that none of you have been waiting for, when we unveil our Adolf Awards on an unsuspecting world. The Adolf Awards were first carried in 'Dawn' magazine many moons ago and the practice was resurrected in this column last year, so here goes, the awards which go where no one else dares.

'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord' Award
It is particularly appropriate that this should go to a great 'Christian' country, which managed to kill more civilian people in retaliation than were killed in one day's atrocity against them - and which still did not succeed in its aims of getting the perpetrators behind the deeds. I refer of course to the United States of America, and its war on al-Qaeda, and Afghanistan. Verily I say unto you, not 'an eye for an eye' but 'someone else's eye for your eye' (Afghani civilians' deaths for those of US civilians).

Hurling (abuse) Award
To Ruairi Quinn of the Irish Labour Party for calling Fianna Fail 'bastards'. Polite it ain’t but sounds very mild to me, considered in the context of Irish politics.

Survivor of the Year
Yes, Daithi Trimble made it again, the Houdini of the North.

Ecumenist of the Year Award
Osama bin Laden, for his services to inter-faith dialogue (though in fact many Christians have actually looked at the real teachings of Islam since 11th September - Ed).

Warlord of the year
There are two many competing Afghani contestants in this category for us to award a winner. Unless of course we were just to consider Norn Iron.

Chamber pot award
To Liam Lawlor TD (= Totally Disreputable) for regularly swapping one chamber (the Dail) for another (a prison cell) in his ongoing battle to refute the irrefutable evidence of planning misdeeds and corruption.

Paramilitary group of the year
It has to be the UDA for being behind more violent attacks on people than any other in the last year.

Sycophant of the year
Tony Blair, Prime Monister of the UK, for a specially painful relationship in backing the USA in Afghanistan.

Flight of fancy award
To the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, for her use of state resources (admittedly subsequently partly paid for when the scandal broke) to get her to the off-licence in time - which she was opening for a friend.

Well, that's that, with the awards awarded I can call it a day ("it's a day") and go home. Until we meet again, take care, be good to yourself and a few other people as well, and I'll see you the same place and time again next month. 

Your humble servant, Billy.