14 thousand genuine visits to this site in November 2012 - Why?
A léitheoirí, comrádaithe is cairde - dear readers, comrades and friends
(The author outside the Irish embassy in Rome this year)
Irish author admits he is happy and not in crisis - don't tell Anne Enwright!
An amazing number of people reading Cic Saor/Free Kick
The Wizard of Oz people who throw shapes in the hypertext background of this site - like weird disc jockeys at their PC stations, speaking in a strange language full of bits and gigs,their eyes bathed in code (and who only seem to come fully alive in the dark, silky ether of night) tell me that 14 thousand real people visited this site in the month of November just passed.
I find this staggering.
Now the baldy boffins in the background, (OK they are not bald but they should be, and with exaggerated glasses), tell me that this is because of my, and I quote, "forceful political analysis and up to date commentary", and that I should forget my poetry and occasional lyrical essays to concentrate on being a scourge of our often mediocre political and media fraternity, not to mention our former colonial masters - who haven't gone away you know. I find the suggestion that I should stop posting my poetry a bit hurtful and I shed a quiet tear to be honest, but I can see their point.
Cic Saor readers who are with me from the start of this blog in 2007 will remember that I started this site because of the quiet censorship that governs all forms of media comment in Ireland. In 2004, Easons (the main book carriers here) had refused to distribute or sell my book - "A Very British Jihad". The choice of title was deliberate, because what I argue (and provide ample evidence for) in the book is that secret elements of the British government gave arms, training and then updated target packs to the most rabidly sectarian and lethal section of the loyalist community in the North so as to specifically target the Catholic and Irish community. Nothing that has happened since has changed that view. On the contrary - I watch as the "respectable" world gradually swings round to my perspective.
Eason's subtle form of censorship has been shown for what it is by the fact that the book has sold out, sells at least five copies a month on Kindle and is used in court cases as a definitive work on collusion. Also prior to 2007, I had written several letters to the Irish Times about that same collusion between covert forces like the FRU and pro-British death squads in the North, whilst I also highlighted the fact that the Irish media have suppressed discourse on this issue. Ireland's alleged "paper of record" refused to publish any of these letters.
Do you see what is happening dear readers?
The real (and far more democratic) Irish Republic that is now arising is bypassing the likes of the Irish Times and this blog is, an albeit very small, part of that process. Or to put it more bluntly, the official media is out of touch with its people. RTÉ will one day have to have a Toy Show (still love it) that includes Irish speaking kids and Irish speaking schools. Mar níl dabht ar bith gur sin an todhchaí - There is no doubt that this is part of the future. The future has to be socialist and Gaelach. It embraces the Irish diaspora and the North of which I am a son (I was born in Manchester and my Nana Larkin's family was from Belfast). Of course, there will always be people who will not warm to Irish culture and nobody can or should be browbeaten on this issue, but all they will be doing is cutting off their noses to spite their craic. The future is confident and non sectarian, forgiving and inclusive, or it is not a future.
All the world is our stage now and the global fault lines are becoming clear because they affect all of us regardless of where on earth we are:
Greed or not Greed. Colonial or not Colonial. A future for all, or no future.
This is the basis of my existential journalism. As far as I can see, it is our only basis for survival as human beings, because if we have no empathy and cannot forgive how can we live together?
But the future also has to include the poetry. Because there sometimes has to be line breaks and spaces between things, with a form that carries a rhythm and a beat that tells a story, so that we can fall down unexpected holes and see a deeper truth via a sudden illumination in the dark, or be flung skyward by some subconscious spark that might be inexplicable but utterly revealing. Its the opposite of rocket science but far more powerful and explosive.
If only one other Cic Saor aficionado reads my poetry and appreciates it, that's enough for me. Besides, if all else fails, I can just leave it up in the ethernet until more intelligent and sensitive human beings come along ...
xxx Pablo
@Paul Larkin
Carraic
Gaoth Dobhair
Tír Chonnail