HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY DROWN YOUR SHAMROCK WITH ENTHUSIASM
There was a lovely celebration last week, just one event to mark the 250th year of an institution which has contributed so much to Belfast. The Belfast Charitable Society was founded in 1752 and our oldest charitable organisation. It continues its philanthropic work from Clifton House which the society opened, originally as the town’s poor house and infirmary in 1774. The kind invitation was for a musical evening with supper and good company and that’s just what it was. We enjoyed a marvellous youth choir, a small but beautiful accapello group and then Afraa Ahmed from the Sudan sang two plaintive songs in her native language. We were catapulted back in time to the gracious days when the ladies and gentlemen held their elegant soiree and flirtatious conversations over supper.
ALL IS NOT LOST
Thankfully we seem to have moved on from Mindfulness to Kindness and what better move could there be. Nothing is new, all these thoughtful fashions we go through are most often based on teachings from thousands of years ago, including the Buddhist philosophy. This for instance – ‘loving kindness’ – part of a Buddhist discourse, Motta Sutra.
“Let none deceive another nor despise any person whatever in any place;
in anger or ill-will let them not wish any suffering to each other.
Just as a mother would protect her only child at the risk of her own life,
even so, let him cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings.
Let her thoughts of boundless loving kindness pervade the whole world:
above, below and across, without obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity.”
If we could only live up to this. I also think the Just For Today programme is a very special challenge to every day life – it was always in our house when I was growing up and was never far from my father as it helped him through his struggle with alcoholism . One of the 10 Steps challenges: Just for today I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out; if anyone knows of it, it will not count.
I’m going to blow a lady’s cover. In Ballycastle recently she did me a tremendous good turn and didn’t wait for a thank you. I had a meeting in the hotel on the hill but turned left instead of right and found myself on the way to Bushmills. I stopped beside a lady who was getting into her car loaded down with messages. I asked the way to the Salt House hotel. “Oh you’re going in the wrong direction, turn round and go back. Do you know the tennis courts?” No. “Right, you turn round and I’ll turn my car and you follow me.” I am sure she was not going my direction at all but she led me for almost two miles and deposited me at the front door of the hotel, lowered her window and waved and, with a smile, went on her way. There wasn’t even a chance to say thank you. Now I consider that a real kindness and I suspect she didn’t tell anyone.
There’s another powerful woman being remembered at the moment, A statue to Mary Ann McCracken was unveiled on Friday at Belfast City Hall. She was a woman of stature all right, brave, resourceful and kind. Health and housing, bringing destitute mothers and their babies to the Charitable Society in Clifton House to give them shelter and education, her mantra was it’s better to wear out than to rust out and she didn’t wear out until 1866 when she died aged 96. Her life story is fascinating, doing good for everyone kindness was in every bone in her body, a brave campaigner for human rights. She worked to abolish the use of climbing boys controlled by chimney sweeps, she championed prison reform and was an early and active suffragette. She seemed to have a hand in every walk of life in the city and she was brave. Can you imagine this Protestant gentlewoman packing a bag full of literature condemning slavery and marching down to the docks to hand them out on behalf of the Belfast Women’s anti slavery league, ignoring opposition and ridicule to dedicate her life to the campaign. Even at 90 she walked the docks talking to emigrants embarking for the slave owning United States. Slavery brought huge wealth to Belfast businessmen from sugar estates in the West Indies and rum from the Caribbean, there was even an attempt to establish a slave trading company in the city by some members of the board of the Charitable Society who were benefitting from the trade. This disgusted Mary Ann to the extent she refused to eat anything containing sugar.
It’s interesting that at a time when two women from different walks of life, Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly stand side by side in Stormont that Mary Ann is standing side by side with Bangor born Winifred Carney a suffragist, trade unionist and Irish independence activist. Raised on the Falls Road she was in charge of the women’s section of the Irish Workers Textile Union before becoming friend and personal secretary to James Connolly.
She later joined the women’s auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers and stood for parliament as a Sinn Fein candidate for Belfast Victoria in the 1918 general election.
Kindness and acknowledging others is high on the agenda right now and with this new wind of change sweeping through our society, may it sweep away fears and resentment and bringing a spring of optimism.
THE PICTURE OF HAPPINESS?
I think a little kindness should be shown to Kate and William and their young family. What a ridiculous reaction to a snap whether or not it had been doctored. More important is the poor girl’s health, why shouldn’t she keep it private, this silly claim that she is a public servant paid for by you and me and so should tell us her most intimate business is just so much cowdung. Undoubtedly she is unwell and I hope it is not as serious as we think it might be.
I don’t often criticise the media but honestly, putting this as the lead story on BBC News is sinful, the world is in a dreadful state with really frightening stories unfolding and although they make difficult listening it’s important we know what’s going on. The only good news I saw was scientists pouring salt water on ice flows to give the ice more density for the polar bears to survive.
RAIN RAIN GO TO SPAIN
The rain has been very persistent which is something we can do nothing about but between ice melting and raising water levels the future is a bit worrying, so boys, keep pouring salt water on the unfrozen north.
The red sections in and around Belfast are in danger of being under water some day. Yikes. At least a hose pipe ban is unlikely come the summer!
