Come Here to Me! – DU History’s Alternative Walking Tour of Dublin
The sharp words of Henry Grattan echo around the former House of Lords as our tour guide and author of the award-winning blog, “Come Here to Me!” recreates the organised chaos of a debate in the late 1790s. Across two hours last Thursday, an assorted group of nerds were treated to the delights of Donal Fallon’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the unspoken history of Dublin’s popular attractions and the less well-trodden paths. DU History has once again created an event that was exceptionally creative and a pleasure to attend.
Leaving the House of Lords, we were invited back across the humming river of College Green and back into the quiet of College. Donal leads the way, wandering towards the cricket pitch on a distinctly inefficient path that betrays his UCD credentials. He comes to a stop against the Nassau St wall, and turns. I’m quite confused at this stage, being quite convinced that this section of brick wall cannot possibly have a history at all, never mind an alternative one. He points through the bushes to an unassuming plaque, dedicated in grey script to Arthur Charles Smith. Smith was killed on 29th April during the Rising, along with a second soldier and Irish volunteer. All three were buried on College grounds, but subsequently moved to official cemeteries.
The unknown history of College continues to be distinctly blood soaked. Donal turns in characteristically excitable fashion towards the cricket pitch and begins painting again. Fast-forward five years and a cricket match is underway on a clear summer’s day: 3rd June, 1921 to be precise. The peace is suddenly shattered as shots ring out from the direction of Nassau St, thudding dully into the ground around the players. Most throw themselves to the ground, avoiding injury but Miss Kathleen Wright was hit and died soon afterwards. I’m quite sure that I’ll never walk across the cricket pitch without feeling at least a slight chill.
Our last stop on the whistle-stop tour is O’Connell atop his monument. Though his political life rested on an abhorrence of violence, O’Connell fought and won a duel against John D’Esterre. He shot his opponent dead and often wore a handkerchief or glove on the hand he used when attending Church in mourning. O’Connell’s attempts at brewing were distinctly less successful. Having acquired the Phoenix Brewery on James’s St, the family proceeded to brew an ale that was by all accounts undrinkable, despite whipping up widespread boycotts of Guinness.
If you take anything from this other than a random assortment of interesting facts, take two things. First: history is little more than a mosaic of fossilised voices vying for our attention. The loudest voices are those who get to write the canon, whilst those who cannot shout loud enough are often the most worthwhile. Second: that DU History has started the year in style. Be sure to keep an eye out for them – it’s going to be an incredibly exciting year.
— Liam Hunt
The Palestinian Ambassador speaks to Sofia!
The Palestine Ambassador to Ireland, Ahmad Abdelrazek, addressed a packed panel discussion held by the Society for international Affairs (SoFIA) in the Robert Emmet Theatre last Tuesday. The panel discussion entitled “Peace in Palestine: What’s Next” was also attended by Dr. James Gallen of the Irish Society of International Law.
The discussion began with a presentation by Ambassador Abdelrazek who talked about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to show “how we [the Palestinians] passed from an unknown people only recognised as refugees to a recognised people’.
Ambassador Abdelrazek also described how people ignored the Palestinians in the 1950s and 1960s, “considering them just as refugees and ignoring their national aspirations”, including some Arab countries. He referred to the famous Zionist slogan of the 1800s about Palestine: “a land without a people for a people without a land”, which ignored the Palestinians on the land at the time. He recounted his own experiences in Europe in the 1970s and how he had to hide his nationality due to perceptions Europeans had of Palestinians at the time.
His Excellency made clear on a number of occasions throughout the night that the Palestinian Authority’s position was for a two-state solution on the internationally recognised 1967 borders. He stressed that despite Israeli claims that they sought to eradicate Israel, this position in fact “legitimises Israel”, but not its settlements in the West Bank. He said negotiations have continually failed with Israel “for the simple reason that the Israelis have failed to negotiate borders”.
Israeli treatment of Palestinians was another topic raised by the Ambassador. He contrasted the Israeli response to the murder of three young Israelis which involved eleven deaths, 500 arrests and damage and destruction to homes, with the treatment of those arrested for murder of a Palestinian teenager in response, with the Israelis, he claims, trying to find one mentally ill and the other two underage.
He concluded his talk by saying that the Palestinians have “strong legal means [they] will use if America and Europe do not find a rapid solution”, namely seeking admission to all United Nations institutions and the International Criminal Court (ICC). He finished by saying Israel has two options, either to accept a two-state solution or else become an apartheid state should settlements continue, as he felt it will become near impossible to evacuate settlers in the long-term if they come to exceed one million.
Ambassador Abdelrazek was then asked a variety of questions from the audience. One of the more interesting questions of the night came from Senior Freshman student Patrick Matthews who asked where Fatah would draw the line in unity government talks with Hamas. The ambassador said that in the end he thinks Hamas will abide by agreements, not because it believes in them, but because they have no choice. He also believed a second reason they would abide by agreements is the people of Gaza. He was critical of Hamas for rejected the first cease-fire, and he felt the people of Gaza will now start looking for a proper account of this.
— Patrick Lavelle
The Hist does Drugs with Dr Joao Goulao and Marc Emery
Dr Joao Goulao and Marc Emery, two of the world’s most prominent spokespersons on drug policy reform, came to speak to students of Trinity College last Tuesday, in an event organised jointly by The Hist and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). The event, “Decriminalising Drugs, International Insights,” was one of a number of similar events being held around Ireland this week by SSDP.
Dr Goulao is the long-running drug policy coordinator of Portugal and one of the team responsible for Portugal’s radical drug policy reform of 2001. Emery is the Canadian ‘Prince of Pot’, a prominent activist in the cannabis legalisation movement who was only recently released from US Federal prison after a five-year sentence.
Dr Goulao gave a very interesting speech about Portugal’s drug problems and his own involvement, first as a family doctor and later as a government advisor, in trying to tackle them. He told of how in 1997, a board of experts from various fields was brought together to draw up recommendations for policy reform. The board recommended the decriminalisation of all drugs, a radical policy that Goulao believes to have been accepted by a relatively conservative population due to the fact that drug use of all kinds was spread over socio-economic classes and so was not viewed as a criminal issue. Goulao was eager to emphasise that in addition to decriminalisation, Portugal adopted new policies on prevention and treatment which he thinks have had positive effects in the long run. He concluded by saying that he thought decriminalisation had allowed Portugal to “drop the taboo and talk openly in families and schools” about drugs and the effects of using them.
Emery rose to a raucous reception from the crowd, proclaiming “we, the marijuana people” were the most “productive, beautiful and important people on this planet”. The event began to feel more like a rally as Emery spoke of his life as an activist, his 28 arrests, and his five years in prison for distributing cannabis seeds to the US. Emery, unlike Goulao, wants total legalisation of drugs – primarily cannabis – rather than decriminalisation, which he said left the criminal side of the drug business undealt with: “politicians that support prohibition are producing organised crime”. He spoke of many reasons to support cannabis legalisation, such as health benefits and safety of the drug, but mainly addressed the issue from a civil liberties point of view. It was interesting to see the points at which the crowd broke with him, such as when he jokingly encouraged “telling your kids to smoke pot”.
Goulao encouraged students interested in drug policy to take a close look at Portugal’s policy and the legal distinction between terms such as decriminalisation, depenalisation and legalisation. Emery told the audience to take a more active approach to challenging prohibitionist policies, encouraging us to “stand in front of a Garda with a cannabis plant in your hands until they arrest you”. Despite the estimated high percentage of weed smokers in the audience, I can’t imagine there were too many following his advice on Wednesday morning.
— Rachel Graham
Photo by SoFIA.
