Where has the year gone?

… a quiet time of publishing

While still zipping up and down Irelands waterways and trying to keep ahead of the Waterways Ireland inspectors, the publishing of writings and the repair of the house have taken a back seat of late.

However I have been learning a wealth of information on the stories of the south Ulster area, and may find that they lead to a few verses in the months to come.

War rumbles on…

Ukraine war rumbles on, just as bad conflicts are in Sudan and elsewhere, but none with the immidiate effect that Ukraine can have on Ireland.

It is the closest that we have to the run up to WWII, but without the racism (the Ukraine issue is imperialism and geopolicticism as opposed to Nazi-esque racsim.

The danger I see is if Russia are to win, political chauvinism from former imperial powers like France and Italy and closer to home, Britain, may see militarist expansion on our own island as our non aligned status is a threat to UK. I hope I am wrong and it does not happen, but Russia is far from the only threat for Ireland.

Looking back on Lockdown

The COVID lockdowns were an ideal opportunity to network online with fellow writers and engage with online events, and while there was a mass and myriad of same, yet somehow I just wasnt up for it.

Its good to see those dark days passed, and we have to find a better way of dealing with them should they ever return again.

If it was up to the ZeroCovid fanatics, we would still be under lockdown. Thanks to Boris Johnson – who was nearly twenty for out with it – we came out of lockdowns as he faced down the fanatics, and that may be his lasting positive legacy.