Without doubt my biggest shock of the week was my mobile phone bill jumping Fosbery Flop style from £18 to £48. Panic. Being something of a Ludite it took some explaining before I grasped the rudiments of the system, Data, Wifi, Roaming, Sounds and Haptics and the rest. Thank you to Houston and Robin who gave me a lesson as we sat in the cafe of the Hospice on Thursday morning. Then over to Daniel who knows everything and has never been beaten yet with any of my dramas. He soon got to the bottom of it – I’d donated £30 to Red Nose Day via the mobile!!k
A MAN OF DIGNITY AND PURPOSE
Don’t you learn something every day, that’s the beauty of life. There was a football commentator (not Gary Lineker) who made a list of unusual words to include In his commentary and so stretch peoples interest and education. In the same way it’s fascinating to hear of new places and organisations with hidden secrets, just like Magen David Adom. I learned about MDA recently when I attended a fundraising event in Belfast Synagogue and there, along with around 150 others, heard about this organisation which translates as Red Star of David. This is a vital part of Israeli society, a national medical emergency, disaster, ambulance and blood service, officially recognised by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
However, it isn’t exclusively a service for Israeli citizens, as Daniel Burger, leader of Magen David Adom UK explained. The massive underground blood centre is the largest in the world supplying 300,000 units every year and now that the ban of Mad Cow disease is lifted, the all clear has been given for blood donation to resume. 1716 ambulances are fully equipped with qualified medics with a direct line to hospital operating theatres and bicycle transport is thanks to donations from Northern Ireland. MDA work with the Palestinian Red Crescent and have been very involved in providing armoured ambulances to Ukraine and sending help to the Turkey/Syrian earthquake disaster, indeed earlier this month Virgin Atlantic gave two flights to MDA to fly vital supplies to help aid relief efforts. Where ever there is disaster internationally they will be on hand to give support and, as their literature promises, ‘give urgent medical care to civilians irrespective of their nationality, religion, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or political affiliation.’
ALSO Man Of Many Talents
The organisation, established in 1915 in Switzerland to help wounded and Jewish prisoners during World War II, now has 7500 first responders and 23,800 volunteers.
The guest speaker was Judge Rinder criminal barrister and television personality. He loves theatre so is well suited to the law and presenting himself and his brief and is just as happy on the sofa at Good Morning Britain where occasionally he can show the sensitive side of his personality and tears come in sympathy. Robert Rinder MBE, who was honoured for services to Holocaust education, is also an active supporter of MDA.
What an inspirational man, he talks passionately about his work, never raises his voice but captivates his audience, he admitted that this, his first visit to Belfast, meant he wasn’t sure what to expect but a walk through town left him in no doubt he was welcome. That was the case in the Synagogue as he talked of many things from the Holocaust to Strictly Come Dancing when in 2016 he took to the spangly floor with Oksana Platero and danced through to the quarter finals obviously enjoying every minute of it. Craig Revel Horwood said he was a ‘delicious dancer’ and his beloved grandmother was in the audience to cheer him on. He’s obviously a man who goes into every project 100% no more so than when he’s making programmes about his background; especially moving is ‘My Family, The Holocaust And Me’ and ‘The Holy Land and Us’ currently on BBC 2.
Horrible Facts Of Life
Here’s a point to ponder from the majesty of David Attenborough, a man who cuts to the chase so much so that there’s talk of his final BBC programme in the series Wild Isles may not be broadcast for fears that, ‘Its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the right-wing press’.
Despite this, in a recent lecture he didn’t hold back.
“One of the things Darwin’s work has taught us, that we break natures connections at our peril yet break them we do at ever greater speeds. 96% of the mass of mammals on our planet today are us and the livestock we have domesticated, only 4% is everything else from elephants to badgers to tigers and bats. 70% of all birds are domesticated poultry, mostly chickens. Nature once determined how we survive, now we determine how nature survives. The impact of our growing population and our consumption now directly threaten our own future.”
When it comes to birds I can visualise the Bass Rock as I have often sat in my brother’s front window and watched thousands of gannets circle the Scottish Rock off North Berwick. The largest gannet colony in the world, 75 thousand pairs return each year to build their nests, two to every square meter, now I learn from Attenborough that not content with the fish in the Firth of Forth they are prepared to fly many hundreds of miles to catch their herrings and other small fish to bring back to their young.
The Demise Of Clowns
And I recall seeing my first puffin from a boat sitting in a calm sea at the base of Donegal’s Slieve League, one of the highest cliffs in Europe. The sun was warm and glinting off the sea water and the air was filled with the lazy call of gulls. Then all of a sudden a puffin popped up. I nearly fell overboard in excitement. A long held dream became a reality as he, or she, was joined by brothers and sisters; these clowns of the sea as they’re called bobbed and dived, their oversized brightly banded coloured beak leading the way. My companion was delighted, even he who had seen everything to be seen at sea, was taken with their antics. But these birds who mate for life and return to the same burrow to have their single chick, called a puffling, are in danger. Now David tells me these delightful little birds are on the venerable list because of the state of the sea and the lack of their favourite sand eels.
“Nature once determined how we survive now we determine how nature survives.” Sir David Attenborough.
Actor Barry Adair was much loved within the theatre community and admired by everyone who saw her detailed miniature dolls houses complete with lavish furnishings. There have been so many tributes including these beautiful words from Carol Moore.
“Our dear friend Barri Adair, passed away peacefully in Glenmachan Tower House nursing home on Tuesday 21st March, aged 92. Born in Belfast in 1930, her mother saw an ad for the Group Theatre drama school when Barri was 16 and asked her did she want to go along. The rest is history. A wonderfully, skilful character and comedic actor, with a long and distinguished career in theatre, radio, television and film. Barbara Adair’s career in theatre, which has spanned over six decades, placed her first with the Group Theatre Players, then with a number of English fit-up companies in the 1960’s, before taking up many and varied roles in contemporary Irish theatre. This included her memorable performance as the ghost of fiercely proud protestant lady, Lily Matthews, in Field Day’s premiere production of Stewart Parker’s last play ‘Pentecost’ (1987). Eleanor Methven directed Barri, Susie Kelly and myself in a Charabanc production of ‘Skirmishes’ and she returned to the company, working alongside Abigail McGibbon in the wonderful two-hander, ‘Vinegar Fly’. In 2002, I was more that delighted that she agreed to join the cast ‘The Factory Girls’ by Frank McGuinness at the Lyric Theatre and directed by me. She had a recurring role as Mrs Stapleton in the Dublin series ‘The Clinic’ from 2003/05, various episodes ‘Fair City’, a cameo as Queen Victoria in ‘Ripper Street’ and most recently an appearance in “Derry Girls” in 2018. From 2011 she enjoyed a relative profusion of screen work, including the dying women (her favourite onscreen roles) in Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s film, ‘Stella Days’, starring Martin Sheen. She will be sadly missed by family and close friend Abbie McGibbon, along with the rest of Irish theatre community, who like myself, considered it an honour and pleasure to work with her. Funeral arrangements will be for Roselawn and a celebratory memorial event will be organised in the summer months. Sleep well, dear Barri.
