Support is flagging
Isn't it amazing. But then again, when you think about it, it's not. Palestinian and Israeli flags have been flying in the Wee North (well, certainly in north and west Belfast where I have seen them with my own I's, and elsewhere too) to show who the respective sides are gunning for in the Middle East . In one case I saw a plethora of Israeli flags - and no loyalist ones! Maybe they're waiting to July. It may all be misleading, it may be an empathetic or just plain pathetic idsplay of solidarity, I don't know. But when one side shows their support, and republicans have traditionally supported the Palestinians over the period of the Norn Iron Troubles, as portrayed on many gable walls, and the situation blows up and that side are getting a hiding, well, why not a bit of oneupmanship and fly the Israeli flag on the Protestant side to show who's boss - there if not here. In reality the situations are quite different. And sometimes quite the same. When I saw 'settler' Israeli flags in Jerusalem some few years ago then I felt right back home in Belfast; the flag being used as an instrument not just of identity but also flaunting territorial superiority in other people's faces. Sad. But if you didn't laugh you'd have to cry. One e-mail I was forwarded was from Irishwoman and Atlantis member Mary Kelly who was in Bethlehem at the height of the trouble there (notice that use of the euphemism, 'trouble', now where did I hear that before?). The heading on the e-mail? 'Mary from Bethlehem '.

In'it INNATE anois anocht?
What's in a name? A lot when you're trying to arrive at a website title. 'Innate.org' is already taken by a US firm. So we have been looking for a new domain name. Thank you to those who replied to our e-mail request for responses to possibilities. Of course the result was inconclusive, I mean what else should we expect? However we do hope to arrive at a name soon and upgrade the website as well. However perhaps we can be grateful that we don't have the problem of the Flights of The Earls Experience visitors centre in Draperstown, Co Derry . When they run the 'Flight of the Earls Experience' together in the e-mail address and website they have found it necessary to use different coloured ink for the 'Flight of the Earls' part, in case anyone might get the impression that it was a very different kind of website. Naked earls! Gracious, that would never do!

But a goggle at Google can reveal all sorts of things on the web. 'Nonviolence Ireland ' yielded 5,330 results and an interesting time seeing who on this island identified with nonviolence (or, alternatively, just happened to mention 'nonviolence' and ' Ireland ' is close proximity so that Google picked them out). A sub-search here on 'Innate' yielded 194 results - admittedly more people talking about innate qualities than Innate. Also revealed was a US website offering two early editions (Numbers 6 and 18) of Dawn magazine (1974 - 85) for $14! It is amazing what can turn into a 'collectors' item'. Lots of fun with Google too if you want to choose unlikely combinations of words and see what comes out - no, 'nonviolence Ireland ' doesn't fit this unlikely combination I'm talking about.....

It's no holiday
Got your holiday booked? Yes/No/Don't take a holiday/What is a holiday?/Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I have come to the conclusion that deciding on and booking holidays is the most traumatic time of the year (unless you're getting divorced, moving house or dying). Despite the fact that you're booking for something maybe months away, by the time you get to book you're ready for one. The process of decision making is painful (at least it is in our household and unless you live and travel by yourself I imagine it is for you too). The permutations are endless. The difficulty of pleasing different ages and stages of a family is next to impossible. Paying for the holiday is painful too, on the pocket. And maybe like us last year you've finally arrived at affordable flights and ready to book on the internet, and BING, it's already after midnight and the prices have just gone through the roof. So back to the drawing bored. Endless hours wandering around travel agents and every known website in the universe and you still can't decide. There are so ways to cope with this, e.g. let one person decide (and everyone else will be grumpy for the whole holiday because it's not what they wanted). Or just stay at home, put your feet up and ignore everything you should be doing. Sounds good. I'd like to try that sometime. PS I really do enjoy holidays, it's the deciding and booking that gets me every time. PPS I also support fuel tax on aviation fuel as it is a major major pollutant - Lord make me chased by land and sea but I air on the plane side yet.

Right, right, right
Well, could I be a-droit (or would I just be gauche?) in writing about the French selection of M. Le Pen to fight the last round of the presidential election? It's a bit scary when you look at what has happened in Austria and Italy too over the last number of years. Up to now not that many people have been voting for the far right around Europe but enough are now to put the likes of Le Pen to (the ballot) paper - and achieve 5 million votes in the final round. But we can't be complacent. One possible explanation for the lack of a far right in Irish politics, North or South, is the existence of a strong populist and centre-right - Fianna Failed, the Progressive Democarts, Fine Gale, the Ulster Onionist Party, and the Demonocratic Unionist Party. Where the SDLP and the Irish Labour Party are on a left/right spectrum is also debateable, they are not of the 'right' but whether they are of the left as opposed to the centre is debateable. When you consider that Ireland , North and South, is certainly one of the most divisive societies in Europe between rich and poor, well, that just illustrates the point. We have no need of the far right appearing when the centre right are doing so well, thank you. 'Populism', Fianna Fail or DUP models for example , hides a multitude of right wing sins. But just keep an eye on who tries to use the immigration/refugee issues for their narrow political advantage in Ireland over the next years. It'll also be interesting to see whether the Sinners (Sinn Fein) edge in front of the Greens in the election in the Republic on 17th May as polls indicate, out of the larger smaller parties (if that makes sense). Meanwhile Fianna Fail has been working to avoid the impression that they are out for an outright majority in the Dail; enough people seem to trust them enough to support them and the Teflon Taoiseach, Bertie Ahernia, but not enough to let them loose to rule the country by themselves. Given their record in power, avoiding an FF-only government would be surely wise, whoever people might want to vote for.

Transports of no delight
No wonder Norn Iron's transport system is so pathetic. The amount spent per head is a fraction of what is spent in Britain , and less again currently than in the Republic. It used to be that bus fares in Dublin were a lot more expensive than Belfast - now it's the other way around. Part of the key to developing public transport is frequency and reliability. Plans for Dublin are not fantastic but at least things are happening, LUAS light rail/tramway and all that, but in the North? The most that seems to be planned is new rolling stock for the train service and that's about it. Even Translink, the public transport company in the North, is criticising the Regional Transport Strategy (which Friends of the Earth NI has made an excellent and strong critique of). Translink points out that public transport expenditure per head is £73 in the Republic, almost £48 in Britain ......and under £17 in Northern Ireland ! The transport strategy proposes 65% of the money available for transport to go on the roads and only 32% on public transport (almost the reverse of the situation in Britain where 59% is to go on public transport and 33% on roads). Think again, Peter Robinson Centre, oops I mean Peter Robinson, it's just Castlereagh Council named a leisure centre after him that I get confused.

Friends of the Earth NI have made some very sensible proposals in relation to transport. They propose a major effort to increase the number of people in rural areas who have an hourly bus service pass within ten minutes walk of where they live. If that kind of goal was set then we would be beginning to get somewhere in cutting the Curse of the Car or the Infernal Combustion Engine. For info on FOE-NI see NN 94.

PS No comment on Bertia Ahernia breaking the speed limit by 25+ miles per hour on the campaign trail, well, only one comment, it's a bloody poor example.

PPS One from a French Canadian website I got; What's the difference between a priest/minister of religion and a tram? A tram stops when it loses the track.

At which point it's time for me to go off the rails for another month and bid you a fond farewell. The train leaving Platform No. 1 is the express service for June. Your next column will be dated June, midsummer almost. See you then, Billy.