Here is the "Lucky Seventh" issue of the Irish SIG Newsletter. If you haven't become an e-mail subscriber, please consider doing so (and don't forget to validate your subscription, or you won't be getting any newsletters!). If you're a subscriber, you might also want to consider joining the SIG, whether or not you're a member of Mensa. Just follow the instructions — but be sure to tell us that you are, in fact, a member of Mensa (especially if you really are), so that we can notify national and get the Irish SIG — one of the oldest in American Mensa — relisted as "official." Remember: without you and your input, the SIG would not exist . . . but you have to tell us so that, like the Whos down in Whoville, we can let them know that "We are here!"
Beannachtai!
Michael
DISCLAIMERS
Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of individual authors and may not reflect those of other SIG members or the SIG as a whole. Nothing in this newsletter should be taken as an official position of Mensa. Mensa as a whole has no opinions.
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CONTENTS
Announcements
Organization, Publication and Membership Information
Letters
News and Reports
Articles
Food
Reviews
The Fourth Page
ANNOUNCEMENTS
As a newsletter, we rely on you to tell us what's going on. If you have an announcement for an upcoming event, please let us know. Just keep in mind that we try to publish on the 17th of every month, so get your announcements in at least a few days before that. Otherwise, consider sending it in as a report or a news item for the subsequent month.
• Official Nagging Announcement. We still have a number of subscribers who are probably wondering why they're not getting the newsletter. It's because they haven't verified their subscriptions by clicking on the link in the e-mail Google sent to their specified e-mail address. If you subscribed but have not received the newsletter (which means you're visiting the blog and are reading this there), it's an easy matter to correct. Enter your e-mail address again, and Google will send you another verification e-mail. Come on. This isn't rocket surgery. Or brain science.
• The Irish American Partnership's Nollaig na mBan (Women's Christmas) Breakfast Celebration at the Hay-Adams Hotel, January 9, 2013. You are cordially invited to attend The Irish American Partnership's Nollaig na mBan (Women's Christmas) Breakfast Celebration, honoring the women of Ireland. Nollaig na mBan, (Women's Christmas), is an Irish tradition celebrated annually in January to recognize the role of women during the holiday season and throughout the year. The Irish American Partnership is commemorating this tradition in Washington, D.C. with proceeds granted to the historic Kylemore Abbey in Co. Galway.
The Hay-Adams Hotel
Hay-Adams Room
800 16th Street Northwest
Washington, District of Columbia
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
8 a.m.
Featured Speaker
Abbess Maire Hickey, OSB
Individual Ticket: $ 75 Gold Table of 10: $1,000 Table of 10: $750
Further information is available at: irishap.org
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ORGANIZATION, PUBLICATION AND MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION
What We Are
Litir Scéala an tSIG Gaelach is the newsletter of the Irish Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd. More information about the SIG and this newsletter may be accessed by clicking on this link.
Resources
We are preparing to put together a list of resources and organizations that might be useful to our members. Due to the global scope of our readership, we are trying to limit the list to organizations that extend beyond a purely local constituency. This is a matter of simple logistics, due to the immense number of organizations out there. If you're looking for a local group to get involved with — and we encourage that — do an internet search. You may be both amazed and pleased at what you will find. We expect to list resources as we rebuild our membership, but right now notifications are coming in at less than a snail's pace.
Who We Are
As we hinted rather broadly above, we have no new members this month, either. We have a significant number of visitors and casual readers, but that's not going to get the SIG reactivated officially, however gratifying it may be personally.
Anyway, here's this month's membership report:
5 Members of Mensa
2 Other
1 Institutional Member
24 Newsletter Subscribers
32 Total Circulation (This does not include forwarded newsletters or visitors to the website who have not signed up for the newsletter — approximately 750 to date.)
LETTERS
We had a few admin notes back and forth between the Coordinators, but nothing earth-shaking. Evidently, none of our members or subscribers has anything to report.
NEWS AND REPORTS
Members of the Irish SIG don't usually belong only to the SIG, but to other groups with an Irish orientation as well. This is all to the good — the more society becomes more social, the better chance we have of influencing our institutions in a positive way and carrying out "acts of social justice" aimed at improving the common good for everybody. We want to encourage your community participation and then report on local events in which SIG members took part.
• The Colonel John Fitzgerald Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Arlington, Virginia, had its December meeting, election of officers, and Christmas Party at the Edward White Council of the Knights of Columbus on Little Falls Road. Professional Chef Chris O'Connor prepared shepherd's pie (which suggests that he is reading this newsletter), while other members brought a covered side dish or dessert. One of the members observed during the afternoon that young people seemed reluctant to join organizations like the AOH under the impression that it is somehow connected with the IRA. Admittedly, some members make statements and hold opinions that could be construed as support for the IRA, but this does not represent the official position of the organization, any more than, say, advocacy of women's ordination or substituting grape juice for sacramental wine represents the official teaching or position of the Catholic Church. The fact is that AOH members expressing support for the IRA or similar groups are stating their personal opinions, which they are free to do, but do not (and cannot) thereby commit the AOH. In the opinion of this editor, a number of people who express support for the IRA do so as a matter of form, and as a vent for frustration they feel as a result of the general decay of the global situation, both politically and economically.
ARTICLES
Feature Article: Spot that Fallacy!
You do understand that, as long as no one submits articles for the newsletter, you're going to get whatever I decide to give you. I realize they are brilliant, erudite, insightful, and all that, but if you really don't care to read about the economic woes of the world (even though Ireland is particularly afflicted), you might want to consider submitting something. No pay, but tremendous prestige. Just keep it clean — and literate (so that I don't have to do any editing). Anyway —
It's time for Spot That Fallacy, the game show in which you, the voter, decide which Keynesian program promises the most, and delivers the least. This week, it's the fixed belief that human labor alone, even without doing anything, is somehow the sole effective factor of production! This is, in fact, the reason why (in my opinion) much of the effort, laudable as it is, that has been put forth to revive the Irish economy, is headed in the wrong direction: it's using the wrong road map, so to speak, and employing bad assumptions about how the economy really works.
For example, according to Rick Newman of U.S. News and World Report, a George Mason University economist has explained that,
"Even now, with the U.S. economy in a rut and too many people out of work, productivity is rising, which means a larger population would generate more wealth per person than a smaller one." (Rick Newman, "Why a Falling Birth Rate is a Big Problem," U.S. News and World Report, 12/04/12.)
The concern in the article is that a significant drop in the U.S. birthrate will have disastrous consequences for the economy. I agree. I also agree that, despite all that's going on, the U.S. economy is still the largest in the world, although possibly not the strongest, relative to its size. You can imagine the effect that these assumptions have on the Irish economy, with nowhere near the strength of the U.S. economy.
Before I address the problem with the professor's logic, however, I'd just like to point out that the article confirms what I've been saying since the "downturn" began in 2008: we are in a depression, not a recession. A decline in the birth rate always happens during bad economic times. People tend not to have children when they can't afford them.
Adolph Berle used the declining birthrate during the 1930s to justify the claim that the U.S. had reached the stage of "economic maturity," and to put forth his program of socialism — State control or direct ownership of the means of production ("ownership" and "control" are the same in all codes of law). Berle claimed that the U.S. therefore needed more direct State control of the economy, possibly even outright ownership of critical industries and companies. The "economic maturity" thesis was one of the arguments advanced to justify the New Deal.
The problem is that if "the population" (a.k.a., "people") don't produce by means of their labor ("jobs") or their capital ("ownership"), exactly how are they producing? The professor seems to accept as a proven fact that, in a developed and growing economy, more people automatically means more wealth is generated per person.
I don't follow his argument. If productivity — typically measured as output per labor hour — is rising, it's because either the numerator is increasing, or the denominator is decreasing in the equation. Since the professor makes the statement that there are "too many people out of work," it is logical to conclude that the denominator, "labor hours," is decreasing.
This gives a "false reading" for the equation, creating the illusion of economic growth occasioned by a decrease in the number of people who are employed. Even if the numerator is increasing, however, it is because capital, not labor, is becoming more productive. This results in more wealth around . . . but not more wealth to go around.
Put it this way. Suppose there are ten people in a room. One of them has €1 million. The other nine have nothing. What is the per capita wealth in the room? €100,000. That sounds pretty good . . . until they go out for lunch at the local pub. The other nine can't spend the first one's money — any more than more people automatically create more wealth just by being born.
Yes, the amount of wealth produced per person may be increasing, but the wealth is going to fewer and fewer people. The fact is, most people don't own a meaningful capital stake. They rely for their income on artificially high wages and benefits, or welfare — both, ultimately, backed up by an increasingly powerful State . . . in a world in which governments are finding it harder and harder to keep the promises they've made so lavishly.
Capital in the U.S. is astonishingly productive, but the productivity of labor is declining rapidly. If something isn't done — and done soon — owners of capital are going to have a very hard time selling the goods and services their capital produces at such an incredible rate to people with no money — and who have no money because (consistent with Say's Law of Markets) they aren't producing anything.
If a Capital Homestead Act were enacted tomorrow — anywhere on earth, but Ireland would be ideal — I estimate that within three to five years we would see a complete economic turn-around — and the birthrate would increase . . . if anyone stopped to care about it. As R. Buckminster Fuller noted in Utopia or Oblivion, poor people have too many children, the middle class has the right amount, and the rich have too few — nor is he the only one to make this observation. When the economy is justly structured and everyone has the opportunity to be productive, whether through ownership of labor, or of capital, or both, the rate of population growth seems to be matched naturally to the number of people we "need" to keep things running — as if people were made for the economy, and not the other way around.
FOOD
Penne with Broccoli and Cauliflower
Is this Irish? Of course it is. One two counts: 1) Broccoli is green, and everything green is Irish by default. (If you think that logic is flabby, you ought to see what comes out of academia these days.) 2) I took this to the AOH Christmas Party, and one or two people actually ate some.
1 lb of mixed frozen broccoli and cauliflower. This goes under various names, e.g., "Winter Vegetable Mix," "Normandy Blend" (I have no idea where that name comes from), or whatever moves the marketing arm of the distributor.
1 tsp anchovy paste (approximate — don't dirty up your measuring spoons, just give a good guess as you squirt it into the pan).
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes.
Couple of tablespoons of olive oil (again, just guess as you put it into the pan).
One pound penne rigate (yes, you can use other shapes of pasta).
2-3 tablespoons of freshly ground pecorino romano cheese (or whatever you got; I'm telling you how I make it).
3-4 cloves minced garlic.
Salt and black pepper.
Put a pot of water on to boil. Don't add oil or salt, despite what the cookbooks and TV shows tell you. Waste of money and makes a mess.
Put a big frying pan on the stove and start heating it up. When hot, put in the olive oil, red pepper, and garlic. After a few seconds, put in the anchovy paste. Stir that around, then add the frozen vegetables. Yup, frozen. When they are thawed, they're pretty much cooked. Turn off the heat, but let everything stay in the pan.
When the water comes to a boil, put in the penne. Cook it until it's done. Just before it's done, turn the heat under the vegetables back on. Drain the penne, and toss it into the pan with the vegetables (see why I said a BIG pan?), mix around, and put into your serving container. Add the cheese, mixing it around. You don't need much, really.
Oh, yeah. Serve.
REVIEWS
A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey
A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey: Inspirational Classics and Practical Advice from a Serial Entrepreneur and an Entrepreneurial Priest
By Jeffrey Sandefer and Rev. Robert Sirico
(c) 2012 Acton Institute • ISBN: 978-1-938948-31-2 $10.00 • 156 pp.
At first glance this book, a collection of inspiring selections from history and literature interspersed with commentary, seems to be just another effort to raise people's spirits in a world in which the State, viewed by many as the only recourse in times of trouble or need, has been revealed as a false hope and an idol with feet of clay. That assessment, however (while accurate), would be incomplete, and therefore unjust. Rather than being simply a random collection of "feel good" quotes, there is a definite structure to the selections and commentary. It is, as the title tells us, a "field guide for the hero's journey."
Which hero? You. The message we got from this book is that the potential to be a hero lies in each one of us. The book details a list of nine steps on how to be a hero. We say "steps," not the authors, and it's probably a bad term, or at least a misleading one. It implies a sequence of actions to be taken in order, a sort of "PERT chart for life." This is not, however, that kind of book, nor that kind of program. If you're looking for specifics on how to be a success as a person — which seems to be the authors' definition of hero — you won't find it here . . . and should be extremely suspicious of it when something of the sort is recommended.
Instead, what we found was a list of general principles to keep in mind on life's journey. None of these are original with the authors, nor do they make any such claim. The principles are (or should be) obvious, once we think about them. This book is extremely valuable as a reminder of what we should already know, and as an inspiration for developing and maintaining our own program. It does not give you a program, though, respecting your human dignity enough to leave that critical process to you.
In that respect, we do not think that "field guide" is the best description for this book. It may put off some potential readers, probably the ones most likely to take inspiration from it, the incipient entrepreneurial types who, while valuing advice, reject dictation. Others, searching for program specifics, may start to read it under the impression that they will be presented with a sure-fire list of no-fail actions to take to become a hero. These, while also in need of a little (or a lot of) inspiration, will tend not to read past the first couple of pages when they realize that's not what this book is about.
That would be a pity for either group. There is a great deal of good to be gained from reading "The Hero's Journey," as one would expect from a distillation of a few thousand years of human thought — Father Time is a much better editor than any mere human, after all.
Aside from the title, we found only one substantive flaw in the book, and even that is something that I didn't see, a "sin of omission," if that's not putting it too strong. I do not believe there is enough warning about the dangers of those invisible barriers that can inhibit or prevent us from attaining our fullest human potential.
Our institutions can be just as much "stones in the road" as anything else, but are less susceptible to correction by individuals, sometimes even impossible to correct through individual action. As Pius XI noted in § 53 of Divini Redemptoris, individuals are frequently helpless to ensure justice . . . unless they organize with like-minded others and work directly on the institution that is causing the problem.
What's the Irish connection here? Nothing direct (I didn't have time to finish the science fiction book I wanted to review), but this sort of "pep talk," combined with the specifics of the Just Third Way of the Center for Economic and Social Justice, could be very beneficial to Ireland.
THE FOURTH PAGE
The Geraldines of Ireland, VI: The Wars of the Roses and the Geraldines
BY 1450, RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK (A DIRECT DESCENDENT OF Edward III) had almost certainly begun making his preparations in Ireland for a return to England. In July of that year, York had taken the Earl of Ormond as his liegeman, and thus gained the adherence of the Geraldines as well. In 1452 Ormond and Desmond engaged in a campaign carrying on a rather extensive campaign against the Irish, taking several castles, releasing a number of captives, and accepting tribute to secure the peace. Ormond died in August, 1452, and was succeeded by his son, also named James Butler, who had been created Earl of Wiltshire in 1449.
This succession changed the whole complexion of Irish politics, for Wiltshire was high in favor with the Lancastrian faction, being a leading member of the Beaufort party, and his influence lost Richard of York the support of the Butlers, formerly solid Yorkists. The Beauforts were descendants of the illegitimate children of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, third surviving son of Edward III. Katherine Swynford was a commoner, possibly the sister of Geoffrey Chaucer's wife (and John of Gaunt was a patron of Chaucer), and was Gaunt's mistress during his second marriage to Constance of Castile (through whom Gaunt made an abortive try for the Castilian throne). Katherine bore John of Gaunt four children, all surnamed Beaufort after a lordship and castle once owned by him in the Champagne region of France, but lost in 1369, before their birth. These children were legitimized after the marriage of Katherine and John of Gaunt, and all came to play an extremely important role in the Wars of the Roses, being the backbone of the Lancastrian faction. The eldest, John Beaufort, is the one through whom Henry Tudor (the last Lancastrian heir) traced his rather tenuous claim to the throne.
The assumption of James Butler to the Ormond dignity also created a rift between the Ormonds and the Geraldines, by this time firmly established in the Yorkist camp. In June of 1454, the English of County Kildare petitioned the Duke of York, who was serving as Lord Protector during the first bout of Henry VI's insanity, complaining of "mysrule and mysgovernaunce" as the result of a fight between Wiltshire and "Thomas fitz Morice of the Geraldynes" (Kildare VI) over the manors of Maynooth and Rathmore.
The Wars of the Roses officially broke out on 22nd May 1455 with the battle of St. Albans. There was a brief respite of peace for a while, but hostilities soon resumed. After the back-and-forth of the fortunes of war, the Duke of York was routed and fled to Ireland, while his son, the Earl of March (the future Edward IV), made for Calais. They were attainted, and the Parliament which met at Coventry in November of 1459 re-appointed Wiltshire, a solid Lancastrian, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for a term to last twelve years. Wiltshire made some efforts to dislodge the Duke of York, but he was apparently as popular with the English people of Ireland as he was with the English of England (as well as with some of the native Irish), and his efforts in this direction seem to have been completely ineffective. The Lancastrians even took the unprecedented step of attempting to stir up the native Irish against the overwhelmingly Yorkist English of Ireland, but this did nothing except seal their fate when the Yorkists regained power in England.
Richard held his own parliament in Drogheda in 1460, which subsequently adjourned to Dublin, and provided that the Duke of York (Richard himself) should continue as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as he had been appointed by the king and not removed. Of course, Henry VI's bout of insanity may have had something to do with the king not being able to take personal charge of matters, and the council probably didn't consider Ireland of sufficient importance to worry about who was officially in charge.
Securing his position, Richard created himself virtual king of the English in Ireland, with special legal provision by the Anglo-Irish parliament made for any possible charge of treason against himself, as well as a well-appointed army, and a revocation of all licenses of absence. The revenues of all absentees were to be applied to Richard's war chest. A provision was even made for a special coinage, to pass at three-quarters the value of the equivalent English coinage, with distinctive designs to prevent it being exported and used in England. Seaby credits this coinage to a Lancastrian effort, apparently unaware that the Parliament in Drogheda was directly under the control of Richard, and thus Yorkist. These coins were never issued, since Richard was killed at Wakefield in December, 1460. As part of a rather convoluted settlement reached a few months earlier, Richard's son, the Earl of March, was crowned Edward IV by the Londoners early in 1461. After Edward defeated the Lancastrian forces, Queen Margaret, the Prince of Wales, and Henry VI escaped to Scotland, where they were given refuge.
The Geraldine Earl of Kildare (Kildare VII) had been appointed Richard's Lord Deputy and was governing Ireland in the Duke of York's absence. When the council learned of Richard's death, they appointed the FitzGerald Justiciar, and he was re-appointed by Edward IV and sworn in on 1st May 1461. Since Norman-Ireland was so solidly Yorkist, the ascension of Edward IV had little influence or change on conditions in Ireland.
The southern Geraldines were not idle during this period. As virtually the only pro-Lancaster force in Ireland, the Butlers lost all their lands after Ormond was attainted. The sixth Earl of Ormond made a landing in 1462 and took and destroyed the city of Waterford before being defeated by Desmond VI at Pilltown near Carrick-on-Suir. In that same year, Desmond VI died and was succeeded by his son (Desmond VII), who was appointed king's Lord Deputy in 1463, remaining in office until 1467.
It was this seventh Earl of Desmond, Thomas FitzJames FitzGerald, "The Great," who was probably the most gaelicized Norman lord in Ireland. He endowed churches and attempted to found a national university to match his foundation of the College of St. Mary at Youghal in 1464. A true descendent of Gerald the Rhymer, he was fluent in Latin, English and Irish, and was praised by the Irish annalists as "valiant and successful in war, handsome, learned, affable, eloquent and hospitable, generous, especially to the Irish poets, and a suppresser of vice and theft."
The seventh Earl of Desmond became a folk hero of the Irish people, who considered him a "Martyr of Christ," and the first in the long line of Sean Ghalls to be martyred in the cause of Irish freedom. He was excoriated by his "fellow" English for such "Enormities" as promoting trade between Ireland and the continent, and actually taking an Irish wife.
#30#
