Belfast-It is Daedalian

    There is a shiny edge to the bewildering and convoluted city that is Belfast.

     The impressive Titanic Museum reminds the world this was a leading ship building city, the apex of an industrial  power. Linen, tobacco, and rope making started a march to industrialization that now involves aerospace, missiles, and filmmaking. 

     The history is told masterfully in the marvel that tells the story of the building of the Titanic and its fate.
      The Titanic and the HBO super hit Game of Thrones are a minor industry unto themselves in Belfast. Thrones was filmed across Northern Ireland and the studio is near the Titanic Museum and Hotel.

    The room where the blue prints of the Tiatic were drawn is now a restaurant and bar with extraordinary natural lighting.

    Belfast remains a city of culture and industry even though the famous and employment providing Harland and Wolff shipyard is facing uncertainty.

    Belfast has a population between 300 and 400 thousand though it has the vibe of a larger city.

    The source of the major Belfast storyline dates to the 1922 partition of Ireland. Belfast is part of the UK in  Northern Ireland. That it and the Irish Republic adjoin is the nexus for what has been a history of Trouble.

   The Parliament of Northern Ireland meets at Stormont in Belfast, though it has not met since 2017 and is presently in suspension because of the inability to agree. It is a symbolic image of the division that rends Northern Ireland.

  Principally, because of what is euphemistically called "The Troubles," Belfast remains divided. 
   There are walls and cages for separation and protection in areas where Catholics and Protestants adjoin, or in neighborhoods where those who favor British rule and those who want to be independent or part of the Irish Republic reside closely. 

   There are neighborhoods where the two sides are separated by gates that close at night, blocking access. 

   Violence from the Troubles once gave Belfast the reputation as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

   It is better now, but bitterness and hostility lurk.

    For years politics, emotion and legacy tributes have been painted on walls. They are an index to the struggles, memories of those who perished, either by hunger strike or by violence.

  Belfast is a city of martyrs on walls. 

   The walls provide a narrative. 

    To get a feel for these areas, we hired a Black Taxi tour. 50 years ago former political prisoners began driving the taxis. It was a way to both earn a living and to proclaim by visiting  friction spots, or places where freedom fighters died or places of military action. 

   On this day in Belfast we hired one of the original drivers, now an old boy, a former prisoner, and with a keen sense of these neighborhoods. 

    I thought it oddly ironic his aged cab needed a pause for repair at the very Clonard Abbey where the Good Friday Peace Agreement was achieved. (By the way he knew exactly what to do and where to pound.)

     The phrase The Troubles is an anemic expression of what happened to Belfast and Northern Ireland. It was cultural and political war and a fight for self determination that cast shadows even now.

   Divis Tower in the Falls neighborhood remains locked in that history. The British Army set up tower surveillance and sniper positions here.

    Today the children of a woman who "disappeared" from here in 1972 wonder what happened to her. She was then a young widow with 10 children when taken. Her  murder is still a matter of inquiry and investigation. It is featured in the non-fiction Say Nothing-A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland written by Patrick Radden Keefe and published this year. 

    By 2019 some of the street painting politics reach into even US and international scenarios. Note the red x over a face in the above tribute to liberators and rights activists. Aung san Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel Peace laureate has fallen out of favor. 

   Throughout Belfast are memorials to those who perished in the Troubles. 

    The fallen of both sides are remembered, daily.

    Sinn Fein remains in place and active and too has suffered loss.

    It was in the room behind the fourth window on the ground floor where the Good Friday Agreement was reached on April 10 1998. It ended 30 years of active violence, military presence, bombing, riots and discord. It birthed an uneasy truce and with a long history as preamble.  

    The Women's Voices Matter movement is an island of words of hope and inspiration.

     And the "Peace Wall" stands. While it is an open expression of peace, it is none-the-less still a wall between neighborhoods, like those barriers above the roofs.

   Thousands from around the globe have been here to sign on for peace.

    I have neither the expertise nor skill to write an explanation for what has played out on the streets and homes of Belfast. 
    It is a history all should know. It is readily available.

    Between 80 and 90 thousand cars pass the Sculpture RISE that went up in 2011. 

    
     Today as you drive from Ireland into Northern Ireland the road signs change from kilometers to miles and the words change from Gaelic and English to only English. License plates are different and that is how you know you are at or through the soft border. Brexit however, as ill conceived and foolish as it is, and as mishandled as it has been, threatens perhaps to raise up old animosities, stir ghosts, reanimate divide and hostility.
     Good Friday has produced a kind of cooling and a reach for normalcy, but trouble has not disappeared.
    It is indeed very complicated.

      On the agenda, the lively, vivacious and friendly city of Dublin.

     See you down the trail.

There is a moment...

     The magic begins to work on the heart, with the first step in the climb up the hill, crowning Cambria's East Village. It quickly reaches the mind as one recalls the wrap of sound, image and memory that are so delicately woven in this special place on this special night.

    Lana is quick to tell that this night, the Candlelight Concert is the highlight of her year, let alone this festive season.

      For almost 150 years the Chapel has been aglow above our village tucked between the Pacific and the Monterey Pine and Oak forests of the Santa Lucia Mountains. Readers of LightBreezes have received impressions since 2011. 

         There is a moment in this traditional evening when time melts and when emotions and feelings and your sensory memories glide into a kind of current and all that you've ever known of Christmas and family are there in your head and heart as the sweet music and narrative write even more code.
      Judith Laramore's annual Reflections open those portals with her exquisite narrative. This year recalling a cold and drafty winter on Hoot Owl Lane outside Bluffton Indiana, my mother's hometown, was a literary Norman Rockwell for the soul. Colorful and vivid scenes, family gatherings, visits to  aunt Norma and uncle Charles on Chicago's Lake Shore drive and the special place in her heart for Aunt Lois created a homily to the nurturing love of family at the holidays. They are universal memories.
       And of course there is the music and the magnificent players arranged by the renown Brynn Albanese who makes the violin an instrument of love.

      We were treated to a world premier of sorts. John Neufeld, a Cambrian arranged and Orchestrated almost all of John Williams movie compositions for decades. He did an innovation on Ave Maria for this special night on the hill in our little village. 

    Before the Farewell, blend of instrument and voice, Bruce Black again told tales of family humor and treated us all to the annual Twas The Night Before Christmas.

      And so, Christmas has come again, and the magic of the season has been lit by the candles glowing in an historic chapel, flowing from a hill top mixed with sweet music and memory, a place where life and dream weave.

      See you down the trail, in Ireland.

In the Kingdom

     It was the Kingdom of Meath. From the 1st to 12 century Kings ruled what is now County Meath in Ireland. The high land, the hills, were the place of power. The hills in these frames were especially so.

   Of more recent history, the early 1700's, Slane Castle has dotted County Meath. In the 21st century, Slane Castle is a venue for special concerts. You can seen classic U-2 performances at Slane. 

 5 Thousand years ago a civilization used the high land to build a what is thought to be a transit tomb, Bru n Boinne.

   The fascinating story of Newgrange or Bru n Boinne  
can be linked here from a September post.  

   The guide specialist noted the origins of the people and the exact nature of the ancient site of an astronomical observance and a ritual are still a mystery lost to the centuries.  

   Willie and Kay noted the ancient cultures selected their sites well, in the Boyne River Valley.
    The site below is Tara, the ancient capitol. In Druidic ritual "it was regarded as an entry place to the other world."
     The Gaelic term for Tara means "a place of great prospect."
     Once the five roads in Ireland met here, on the Hill of Tara where one can observe half of the island. 
     The two high mounds were the seats of the Kings. In the age of the Kingdom they were the High Kings.

    Historically, Tara has been a place of mystical importance.
Rituals, burials and observances occurred here. The High Kings ruled here. The hill holds power and is prominent in folklore and myth.
    Both serious scholars and those who believe come to Tara to study the fairies and/or read the legends. Several Sheela Na Gigs have been unearthed on Tara. (What are Sheela na gigs? Link here)

   As long as there has been a record, there is evidence of a spirituality and super nature in this part of the Boyne Valley.

    Tara is a mere 26 miles from the hill transit tomb Bru Na Boinne. History, mystery, myth and folklore transect County Meath.  

      County Meath is also simply beautiful and verdant.

   That our journey to this enchanting part of Ireland was curated by friends, who, like the ancients, chose their place well, 

  made it all more precious. 

   Before we headed to Dublin, Kay introduced us to friends who have converted an old church into The House of Art

    Enchanting hospitality; a special and ancient tea, marvelous treats, accomplished and skilled art and captivating people.

    The "Kingdom of Meath" is place to wander and wonder.

   The through story of Belfast coming in a future post and later we go southwest. 

    To all readers, especially those on the US side of the Atlantic, Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for those of you who visit these posts. 

    See you down the trail.

A Moment Please-I Beg Your Indulgence

Reflections from the US

      I beg your indulgence for this brief break from the series of reports from Scotland and Ireland. A post on the historical and mystical County Meath is forthcoming. 

      The historic US Constitutional drama that played out on screens this week requires this old journalist, who covered the two previous impeachments in my life time, to offer some observations, unsolicited though they are. 

The People

      Over the past few years some of the more adamant folks in coffee deck conversations run toward the old cliche about politically biased civil service employees and a "deep state" conspiracy. I've countered by observing that in my reporting career some of the most impressive people have been civil service employees. At local, state and federal levels I've seen a commitment to public service and sense of mission. I've seen a non partisan, non political devotion to getting the job done for the benefit of the common good.

      All of this is especially so in law enforcement, national security and intelligence. These are fellow citizens doing an incredibly difficult job at wages well below the value and skill evinced and demanded. 

      The world saw that this week. The contrast between federal employees in the national security apparatus, including the military and those of the US political culture, the members of the House, was staggering especially so in specific cases. The career foreign service and security experts had a grasp of real politic, national security and international relations. A few were frankly impressive and dazzling beyond expectation.
       They were calm, quick thinking, intelligent professionals. Some members of the house displayed a commensurate understanding, others were merely political actors, shallow and in a couple of cases stupid.*  

The Process 

       I would suggest widening the scope of the articles of impeachment, either with specific charges or with a preamble.

       This Ukrainian play and the President's attempt to engage a foreign nation to participate in our election process needs to be put in the context of this administration's explicit tumble to the Russian priorities and preferences. To be considered:

     -The private meeting in the White House with the Russian spy master shortly after the election

     -The private meetings with Putin, without a US interpreter

     -The televised Helsinki repudiation and degrading of the US intelligence community and the siding with Putin over the issue of Russian intervention in the 2016 election

     -The continued attempt to break old alliances and to weaken NATO

     -The unilateral and unadvised decision to withdraw troops, betraying the Kurdish allies, and paving the way for the for Russian dominance in Syria.

     -The attempt to withhold Congressionally approved military aid to an ally under attack and at war with Russia

     -His continued insistence the Russians were not involved in the 2016 election, despite findings to the contrary by all intelligence agencies in the US, the House and the Senate and foreign investigations as well finding that Russia was involved.

     -The true findings of the Mueller investigation, not the spin he and his Attorney General have spun.

     The painful truth is Russian has been strengthened by the Trump administration. To repeat what I have observed before Trump is either a Russian agent or Russian stooge. He is probably too ignorant to know the difference.

     We Were Warned

    It is important to remember this story reported in August of 2016.

      Fifty of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials, many of them former top aides or cabinet members for President George W. Bush, have signed a letter declaring that Donald J. Trump “lacks the character, values and experience” to be president and “would put at risk our country’s national security and well-being.”

Mr. Trump, the officials warn, “would be the most reckless president in American history.”  New York Times 

         You should link to that story Here or to the text of the letter and the list of senior Republicans who signed it at this link.
       The people who signed the letter made the case he was unfit and unqualified and lacked the character. The world has seen the truth of their prophesy for the last  3 years.

       That 2016 Republican warning and the spiderweb of his dangerous behavior should be read to the Republican members of the Senate, until they acknowledge their once proud party has been pimped out to the Russians by, in the vernacular,  Putin's little bitch. 

Why It Matters

      There are greater goods than partisan advantage and there have been periods in our history when our political culture behaved as though they understood that. That is not so now.

      The Impeachment is not about "undoing" the 2016 election. Everyone who says that is merely mouthing a Putin trope. The sad fact is those who say that have their heads in a Fox News or Trump silo and don't comprehend the nature of their brainwashing and the extent to which it does exactly what Putin wants-to undermine our faith in our democratic republic. 

      It is true that the majority of American voters voted against Trump, by the millions, but his team, many of whom are now imprisoned and who had ties to Russian efforts, figured a way to win the electoral college. So he moved into the White House against the wishes of the majority of the nation. Still he is the President and must be held accountable. Here he is, complicit in undermining the security of the nation he is supposed to lead and contributing to the death of our allies. 

     He must be held accountable, not only because of his traitorous and criminal behavior, but because if he gets away with it, we have moved the lines on so many aspects of our constitutional government and expectation, that we will only hasten the call of our own demise. 

     No President, regardless of party, should be permitted to do what he has done, and be so reckless with our security. No President should openly or secretly ask foreign powers to engage in our electoral system. 

     Once the Republican party was staunch in their advocacy of national security, and tough in their opposition to the Russian (then USSR) threat. Now they need to look beyond their ability to make court appointments, or pass more tax breaks for the wealthy and consider what matters in the frame of history and what matters to the health of our equal branches of government.

      Those real Republicans who signed that August 2016 warning letter had it right. Those who now call themselves Republicans need to look in a mirror and decide are they people of principle or are they members of the Trumpist cult? Do they really believe the man who is Donald Trump could even sit in the same room with Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush George W. Bush, Gerry Ford and yes even Richard Nixon. Flawed as he was, Nixon did an honorable thing in the face of his impeachment. He did not want to further fracture the nation.

      Are those who call themselves Republicans in alignment with the constitutional values of this Republic or are they merely whores, working for an unfit and unqualified and disgusting Russian stooge?

    Who do you trust Donald Trump, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Paul Manafort, William Barr, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, or those stalwart civil servants who endured endless hours of questioning, challenges, excoriation and belittling but who displayed what it is to be a citizen and a patriot.

     Can you even imagine Donald Trump being put into a chair and examined as such?  This nation is much, much better than that. Our Presidency deserves much, much better. We should be able to expect much better out of Republicans, if any still exist.

    *Devin Nunes embarrasses even himself. I liked what California political strategist Mike Murphy said about Nunes' side kick Jim Jordan, "...he was so wild I expected him to pull out the sock puppets."

     I wonder how Congressman Jordan would receive a full scale investigation of his knowledge or role in aberrant sexual behavior on his watch as an Ohio wrestling coach. Check the history of this incident for yourself and then ask yourself, if a guy like Jordan is a point man for the House Republican defense of a man like Donald Trump what has the party come to?

    The US deserve much, much, much better.

    Ok, getting off the soapbox and getting back on the road through Ireland and Scotland.  Sorry for the intrusion.

   See you down the trail.