NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY
Back in the day – a group from Dumbarton Churches Together gather at the Castle to honour St Patrick of Scotland.
So, you will have learned from The Democrat last week that it has now been established beyond reasonable doubt that St Patrick was born on the banks of the River Clyde just south of Dumbarton.
Had any other part of the world established this then there would be celebrations all round and a campaign would be launched to attract visitors to the great man’s birthplace.
However, this is West Dunbartonshire. Instead of welcoming the news enthusiastically with an advertising and marketing campaign to attract visitors, our local councillors went out and bought themselves three rickshaws to take old and infirm folk for a hurl round Levengrove Park.
Well, we did vote for them.
This will be a subject for discussion no doubt around the dinner tables where families sit down to a meat and two veg Sunday lunch.
The actuality however that they will be planked down on the couch in a cold living room in front of the telly with a Just Eat carry out supplemented with a few extras from one of the many local food banks.
Isn’t life just wonderful in SNP-run West Dunbartonshire and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, where the Green Party has sneaked across the floor of the chamber to keep the See You Jimmy hats crew and the Nippy One in power.
Today is the last day of St Patrick’s Weekend and we really should be having as party to celebrate the affiliation so many local families have with their forebears who landed at Greenock, Yorkhill and the Broomielaw more than 100 years ago.
The world has moved on in the past century though. We have seen two World Wars in that time and we are in the foothills of a third.
We are now three weeks into the Russian assault on Ukraine and cities along the county’s eastern border are being reduced to rubble.
In one such city, Mariupol, more than 400,000 people have been trapped for more than two weeks, sheltering from heavy bombardment that has severed electricity, heating and water, according to local authorities.
Diplomats from both sides are talking but the fighting, the bombing and the killing continues.
In trying to make sense of how we got here, the Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole this weekend says the invasion of Ukraine was based in part on a miscalculation by Russian president Vladimir Putin of the extent of the support from his cheerleaders in the West.
“Let’s go back just five years and stand in awe at the breathtaking triumph of Vladimir Putin in the West. In 2017, the man who has now made a catastrophically stupid mistake looked like a strategic genius. He had helped to push both of his adversaries, the United States and the European Union, close to collapse.”
Some may not like him, but Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspires his country.
One striking sub-text of the conflict is the roles of the two leaders. However performative the methods used by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to inspire his country might be, the results are wholly real.
One writer says: “The Ukraine war could have gone as an invasion by a vastly superior military power often does; its government collapsing and fleeing along with hopeless civilians fighting among themselves.
“Instead, a steely nation of Ukrainians, used to disappointment over their presidents, have unified, defended and maintained their pride amid dreadful grief. The difference has quite simply been the belting force of Zelenskiy’s personality.”
In terms of responses to the conflict, another writer, Kathy Sheridan, observes in The Irish Times that we are still “talking out of both sides of our mouths. . . Is anyone still not aware that oil revenue is funding that war?”
A significant response to the invasion would require significant changes to how we live, and as Sheridan notes, we are not there yet.
Writer Cliff Taylor notes that the search is already on for a “magic answer” to protect us from higher energy prices amid rising costs and against the backdrop of the most extreme uncertainty. Where everyone agreed, more or less, with what needed to be done during Covid-19 – this time, things are less clear-cut.
The economy has rebounded remarkably from the Covid-19 lockdowns. Managing the economy was not easy during Covid-19 – huge decisions were taken on vital social and business supports – but it was clear what needed to be done and borrowed money was very cheap. And there was consensus.
Now the answers about what should be done are less clear-cut. The war has exacerbated problems and challenges which were already lurking in the background – particularly in relation to energy costs and security and the transition to renewables.
Sunday newspaper columnists focus on a key cost of living issue has nothing to do with Vladimir Putin, sanctions or supply pressures for fossil fuels: the cost of land.
How is it that the least densely populated countries in western Europe – Ireland and Scotland – have the highest land prices?
“It is essential not to forget that the most stubborn contributor to the cost of living in Europe has nothing to do with Putin, Kyiv or sanctions and has everything to do with our political unwillingness to be serious about house and land prices,” writes one of them.
On the subject of property prices, housing expert Fiona Reddan looks at how the newly launched revamp of a State-sponsored home loan is expected to make it easier for single people – including those who are divorced or separated – to buy their own home. “How will the scheme work, and will it really achieve this goal?”
Finally, in her advice column this weekend, Roe McDermott deals with a query from a woman in her 30s floored after her partner – a man she expected to marry – left because he was bored. “Now I can’t even really think about dating, and am wondering if maybe my ex was right: if I relied on him and the relationship to motivate me?”
As always there is much more at irishtimes.com, including extensive coverage of all the weekend’s Six Nation’s matches including match reports and analysis from Ireland’s securing of the Triple Crown.
Given the day that’s in it, this Sunday of St Patrick’s Weekend, I think it’s only right that we are informed on where our fellow Celts stand on these issues that affect us all at this important time in history.
Picture of Dumbarton Castle by Arthur Jones