In Eunte Verae

national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis

Friday March 11, 2005 16:50

by Sean Crudden

sean.crudden at iol dot ie

Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth.

087 9739945

Any Sign of a Change?

"In eunte Verae" (if I remember correctly from my schooldays) is a Latin tag which means "With the coming of Spring." The weather has been kind and growth is in the air. But what I hunger for is political growth. Will the Progressive Democrats national conference bring change or will it be, politically, another lost opportunity - another stale affair?

The Primrose - Harbinger of Spring

With the coming of spring young men’s hearts, we are told, turn to love. At this time of the year my thoughts and plans turn towards The Progressive Democrats’ National Conference which is scheduled this year to take place on 8/9 April in The Silver Springs Hotel on the outskirts of Cork City.

Last years conference in Killarney was stage-managed to give maximum exposure to party candidates in the local elections. As was easy to predict at the time this ploy helped the candidates very little as the results of the local elections bear out and it ruined the conference for me as a political event. Years ago there used to be plenty of motions and participation in the debates involving many of the keener rank-and-file members. In more recent years the agenda has become slimmer and more streamlined and even for a pilgrim like me the only thing I can usually contribute to the conference in latter years is a slightly sullen pair of ears.

When things are not going the way one likes them to go one usually looks round for someone to blame. My diagnosis is that the leadership is stale and it has profited the party little in the past 12 or 14 years. As a reasonably active party member I get the impression that there is a small circle of people (I don’t know any of them) at national level who are plotting out the course of party policy and party strategy. For example, everyone knows that I do not like the way my party has deliberately and cynically set out to demonise and damage Sinn Féin. Perhaps I am in a minority of one in the party but, whether I am or not, there is no channel through which I can effectively call for more mature reflection within our party about the national question and the present peace process. There is someone higher up calling the shots and I cannot lay a finger on them. I feel there is the same dimension (or lack of dimension) to appointments and routine political decision making.

Where is another leader to come from? During the Meath by-election I met and canvassed a little for Sirena Campbell and to me she has the qualities of savvy and human understanding that I would like to see in my leader (for a change). I think that a younger brain might break open this sealed think-tank that I am talking about at the centre of the party and the current received wisdom that seems to permeate the party like an unspoken gospel and which I find repulsive. The party has its own characteristic way of isolating and cold-shouldering people and some of the best talent in the party locally (here in Louth) and nationally was lost (driven out?) in this way. And I don’t think that any of this should be understood as springing from ideological difference or motives of political purity. Could it be motivated by purposes of self-preservation and self-protection in an ancien regime which has long ago passed its sell-by date but which strives to live on like some ugly dinosaur preying on the good-will of simple-minded party faithful like me and using its position in the driving seat of government to abort and destroy at origin more progressive and democratic ideas which are springing up in the most unlikely places in this green and pleasant land?

Sirena Campbell

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Comments (4 of 4)

in my haste I left out the all important "pseudo" from the latin name in the comment above

by ooops - "children of the potter"

Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:11

the botanical family "narcissus" covers all types of daffodil, which though pretty, are poisonous, the earlier flowering type is called "narcissus psuedo narcissus", and the later more yellow type is called "narcissus laretta". One of the key love myths of the ancient greeks tells us of the youth "narcissus" who fell in love with his reflection in a pool and was transformed into the flower as a consequence.
Of the many takes on this instructional myth the most known is perhaps the painting by Salvador Dalí (which is available in popular poster format from most movie poster stores) or to see at the Tate Gallery in London. In it the youth is by a trick of Dalíean perspective shown in both human and petrified (literally) egg form with the flower emerging from cracks. In the background the bucolic muses dance near what appears to be a chess board.
http://www.rockover.com.br/letras/blitzkrieg-bop.htm

Oscar Wilde interestingly wrote a short (only one paragraph) version of the myth, which is a charming example of his late creative work after being released from prison. Much of his early work had foccused on Narcissus from a very different angle. He last focussed on the river seeing itself reflected in the eyes of the youth and also what the youth could see behind him. Its a very telling late work on what is a myth of eros, love & decadence.
(significantly if you google for it you get his many earlier narcistic writings by people who have been inspired to write books on them). You'll also see a new type of hybrid daffidil was named after Oscar Wilde in the XX century. Quite a curious legacy.

I'd recommend reading the last narcissus text to people who read books and don't just google.

Myths are a very important part of education, and have not consistently formed a part of cultural language for nothing. In the retelling of myths, be they grecian, roman, early christian, et cetera... we communicate essential truths about human nature and the consequences of human behaviour as well as gardening. Which are the most important secrets that can be "taught".

narcissus pseudo narcissus

oh no i wouldn't say "it's complete rubbish".

by LOL - "gardeners"

Sat Mar 12, 2005 10:37

Depends on how you say it! I take great delight in the little slips of spelling and grammar and stuff, that we all used to see all the time.
Remember you'd buy a paper, and it would be full of typos, and stuff, depending on how the subeditor, and the copywriter, and the typesetter, and the proofreader had done their jobs. They were the "workers" or at least that's how I seem to remember them being called, who helped make your newspaper. Then along came Dr Prof Knight commander Bill Gates of the British Empire, who proved we didn't need "workers" just something called "spellcheck" instead.
Oh well, great changes were had, in the short space of two years, all the newspapers got proper spelling, and sentances that had formerly been seen at the end of paragraphs to just trailled off tantalisingly wi

Nowadays, if you want to see a proper human "worker" style, spelling error, or split infinitive, or grammatical mistake, you have to "log on" (with the calculus and the maths tables under the desk) to indymedia, where we, let us admit our very conservative about things like that in our very radical and alternative ground breaking wa

The mistakes that creep into wiki pages and translations can be very funny, or even the extra letters that get squeezed into words, or indeed left out. Over here (over there) we sport quite a few, "thinkthanks" for "thinktanks", and the classic "we are more powerful thank we think". (with that lovely little abreviation in modern text messaging protocol argot, the "k" which means "que").

Primroses are all very nice, but the Daffodil "narcissus narcissus", is a true sign of springtime fervour, but do be careful not to plant other little bulbs too close as the sap is in fact poisonous.

I though prefer concrete and crazy paving.

Ineunte Vere

by Sean

Fri Mar 11, 2005 22:06

On slightly more mature consideration I think the Latin translation for "with the coming of Spring" is "ineunte vere." So the title I gave the article above is almost complete nonsense.

don't get it

by bobcat

Fri Mar 11, 2005 18:12

I don't understand why you just don't leave the PDs. You obviously have a belief in the electoral system but you can't honestly believe that the PDs are going to change, by staying in the party, even as a vocal minority, you claerly will not achieve the results you want. Just join another party, your efforts and beliefs will be far better rewarded

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Comments (4 of 4)