A chairde —
As you will see
below, recently someone sent us a copy of God
and Intelligence, Fulton Sheen’s first book from 1925. CESJ, our newsletter sponsor, welcomes
contributions of books for its library — but check first to see if we want
them!
I only mention that
because it is the most recent “Irish event” to happen around here. What with the holidays still winding down,
and the denizens of Washington, DC, wrapped up in unimportant things that have
nothing to do with Ireland, we’re a little short of news this month. If this keeps up, we may switch back to a
bimonthly. Until then, however, enjoy! (And send us in an occasional news item.)
Beannachtai!
Michael
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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.
• The Usual 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.
• His Eminence Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of
New York, wrote a letter to the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ)
in Arlington, Virginia, commenting favorably on CESJ’s suggested alternative to
the current healthcare proposal in the United States. According to Cardinal Dolan, the proposal
embodies Catholic social teachings, especially the principle of subsidiarity.
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 andorganizations
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 800 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 have anything to report.
• We received a note that an article we wrote, “The Blind
Leading the Blind,” will be published in an upcoming issue of Social Justice Review, the official
journal of the Central Bureau of the Catholic Central Union of America in St.
Louis.
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.
• A few days ago we received a copy of Archbishop Fulton
Sheen’s first book, God and Intelligence,
from 1925. Interestingly, the book has a
short introduction written by none other than G. K. Chesterton. Even more interesting, the main theme of
Sheen’s book, the abandonment of reason in the modern world, was echoed by
Chesterton eight years later in his biographical sketch of St. Thomas Aquinas, The Dumb Ox. We think it might be something more than a
coincidence, especially since Chesterton makes the same arguments as Sheen, and
names the same names, albeit in a more popular style.
Articles
Feature Article: Capital
Homesteading and Ireland
Occasionally all the chattering we do on
LinkedIn, especially in the Irish-themed groups, pays off. This month we got into a discussion regarding
what might be done about Ireland’s current troubles, especially the financial
ones caused by overweening State interference in everyday life. Naturally we suggested Capital Homesteading.
Many people don't realize (at least at a
conscious level) that the State was made for us; we were not made for the
State. Commercial and central banking were invented as tools to help finance
private sector growth and development, not fund government. The whole apparatus
of government, the economy, the financial system, etc., is there for ordinary people. The task is to restructure the
system so that it meets the needs of us ordinary people.
Does that mean allowing or forcing the government to take care of all our needs? Of course not. The job of the government is to watch over and maintain the common good, not everybody's individual good. That means the government has to pass — and enforce — the laws that make it possible for ordinary people to take care of themselves.
In my opinion, this can best be done by opening up democratic access to capital credit — but it's dangerous to say that. Most people think that the only way to finance new capital (and thus for most people to become owners) is to cut consumption and save (capitalism) or have the government redistribute (socialism). [N.B. — redistribution in an emergency is not socialist, but becomes so when it becomes a way of life.]
The fact is, however, that during periods of rapid economic growth, most new capital is not financed by cutting consumption or by government redistribution. Instead, it is financed by turning the present value of future marketable goods and services into money by drawing up contracts and discounting or rediscounting the contracts (bills of exchange) at commercial and central banks. This is how the United States financed its phenomenal industrial and commercial expansion from 1865 to 1893 . . . at a time when the currency was being deflated and savings were being depleted. (See H. G. Moulton's 1935 monograph, The Formation of Capital, http://www.amazon.com/Formation-Capital-Harold-Glenn-Moulton/dp/0944997082/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283125005&sr=1-1 [that's the U.S. link; it's also available in the U.K., but I don't have the link handy], and — if you can find one of the rare copies — Moulton's The New Philosophy of Public Debt (1943).)
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler advocated making every person an owner of capital by using advanced financing techniques and substituting "capital credit insurance" and reinsurance for traditional forms of collateral. No new money would be created until a financially feasible (i.e., expected to pay for itself) project is presented for financing and is properly collateralized, so both inflation and deflation would be avoided.
The bottom line to an aggressive program of expanded capital ownership (including land under capital) is that people's dependency on government for income could, in most cases, be reduced, even eliminated. Government workers and politicians would have to return to being servants of the people rather than their masters.
This is simply a recognition of what American statesman Daniel Webster noted in 1820: that power naturally and necessarily follows property. As Pope Leo XIII pointed out in 1891, "[M]an not only should possess the fruits of the earth, but also the very soil, inasmuch as from the produce of the earth he has to lay by provision for the future. Man's needs do not die out, but forever recur; although satisfied today, they demand fresh supplies for tomorrow. Nature accordingly must have given to man a source that is stable and remaining always with him, from which he might look to draw continual supplies. And this stable condition of things he finds solely in the earth and its fruits. There is no need to bring in the State. Man precedes the State, and possesses, prior to the formation of any State, the right of providing for the substance of his body." (Rerum Novarum, § 7.)
Does that mean allowing or forcing the government to take care of all our needs? Of course not. The job of the government is to watch over and maintain the common good, not everybody's individual good. That means the government has to pass — and enforce — the laws that make it possible for ordinary people to take care of themselves.
In my opinion, this can best be done by opening up democratic access to capital credit — but it's dangerous to say that. Most people think that the only way to finance new capital (and thus for most people to become owners) is to cut consumption and save (capitalism) or have the government redistribute (socialism). [N.B. — redistribution in an emergency is not socialist, but becomes so when it becomes a way of life.]
The fact is, however, that during periods of rapid economic growth, most new capital is not financed by cutting consumption or by government redistribution. Instead, it is financed by turning the present value of future marketable goods and services into money by drawing up contracts and discounting or rediscounting the contracts (bills of exchange) at commercial and central banks. This is how the United States financed its phenomenal industrial and commercial expansion from 1865 to 1893 . . . at a time when the currency was being deflated and savings were being depleted. (See H. G. Moulton's 1935 monograph, The Formation of Capital, http://www.amazon.com/Formation-Capital-Harold-Glenn-Moulton/dp/0944997082/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283125005&sr=1-1 [that's the U.S. link; it's also available in the U.K., but I don't have the link handy], and — if you can find one of the rare copies — Moulton's The New Philosophy of Public Debt (1943).)
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Louis Kelso and Mortimer Adler advocated making every person an owner of capital by using advanced financing techniques and substituting "capital credit insurance" and reinsurance for traditional forms of collateral. No new money would be created until a financially feasible (i.e., expected to pay for itself) project is presented for financing and is properly collateralized, so both inflation and deflation would be avoided.
The bottom line to an aggressive program of expanded capital ownership (including land under capital) is that people's dependency on government for income could, in most cases, be reduced, even eliminated. Government workers and politicians would have to return to being servants of the people rather than their masters.
This is simply a recognition of what American statesman Daniel Webster noted in 1820: that power naturally and necessarily follows property. As Pope Leo XIII pointed out in 1891, "[M]an not only should possess the fruits of the earth, but also the very soil, inasmuch as from the produce of the earth he has to lay by provision for the future. Man's needs do not die out, but forever recur; although satisfied today, they demand fresh supplies for tomorrow. Nature accordingly must have given to man a source that is stable and remaining always with him, from which he might look to draw continual supplies. And this stable condition of things he finds solely in the earth and its fruits. There is no need to bring in the State. Man precedes the State, and possesses, prior to the formation of any State, the right of providing for the substance of his body." (Rerum Novarum, § 7.)
I should add that if anyone thinks
that's Catholic propaganda, it was my Jewish business associate who pointed it
out to me . . . and a Muslim Imam who gave me a few pointers on understanding
it.
Frankly, Ireland is ideal for a program of expanded capital ownership — and (as Leo XIII pointed out) it would solve a lot of the problems (not all, of course, and would cause new ones — but they'd be easier to deal with when people are gainfully employed instead of on the dole). "Capital Homesteading" was designed for the United States, but could easily be adapted to any country on earth. Ireland, with its common language with the U.S., similar legal system, relatively integrated culture, small area and population, could "experiment" with it much easier than most places, and experience a much faster turn-around than an economy like the U.S. with its incredible inertia.
True, Ireland has a great deal of inertia as well, but with the smaller population, integrated culture AND more representatives in the legislature per capita, it's easier to get in touch with your member and get some action — especially if you're organized and have a definite proposal that a leader with vision can grasp and appreciate. One U.S. congressman represents nearly 1 million constituents, so you can see the difficulty — and a lot of them are, frankly, party hacks and time servers, out for the pension and the benefits. Even if you get a meeting, all you usually get is a handshake and an autograph. And that's from an aide.
Frankly, Ireland is ideal for a program of expanded capital ownership — and (as Leo XIII pointed out) it would solve a lot of the problems (not all, of course, and would cause new ones — but they'd be easier to deal with when people are gainfully employed instead of on the dole). "Capital Homesteading" was designed for the United States, but could easily be adapted to any country on earth. Ireland, with its common language with the U.S., similar legal system, relatively integrated culture, small area and population, could "experiment" with it much easier than most places, and experience a much faster turn-around than an economy like the U.S. with its incredible inertia.
True, Ireland has a great deal of inertia as well, but with the smaller population, integrated culture AND more representatives in the legislature per capita, it's easier to get in touch with your member and get some action — especially if you're organized and have a definite proposal that a leader with vision can grasp and appreciate. One U.S. congressman represents nearly 1 million constituents, so you can see the difficulty — and a lot of them are, frankly, party hacks and time servers, out for the pension and the benefits. Even if you get a meeting, all you usually get is a handshake and an autograph. And that's from an aide.
Food
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes? Are
we kidding?
By no means. Of
course, you know how to make mashed potatoes.
We’re not suggesting you change.
You might, however, want to try something different, just for a change.
It’s simple. Instead
of simply boiling the peeled and cut up potato pieces, cook them in chicken
broth. Do not, however, discard the
broth when done, but reserve it, and make gravy with it, using your usual
method.
Except for this small change, mash the potatoes the way you
always do.
Reviews
Donn Byrne, A Very
Brief Overview
“Donn Byrne” (Brian Oswald Patrick Donn-Byrne, 1889-1928),
is almost forgotten today. This is a
shame, for while he was the original publicity hound who “reinvented” himself
several times — so much so that verifiable details of his life are sometimes
obscure — he was a good writer on the verge of greatness when he died
unexpectedly at a relatively young age.
The self-styled and largely self-invented “Bard of Armagh,”
exhibited four distinct phases in his career.
He started out as a journalist, then became a hack writer of magazine
stories. Bryne’s stories are competent
and clever, but they are not great literature, although well worth reading even
today.
Byrne then tried his hand at novels. These, too, are well-written, although
somewhat dated. To be financially
feasible, Byrne wrote what he thought would sell — and they did. A “gritty” examination of the struggle
between “labor” and “capital” that was made into a silent film, some
semi-fantastic historical novels, and (where he excelled) views of Irish life
in the late 19th and early 20th century as the last
vestiges of Gaelic culture were fading.
While all of this showed promise, none of it really signaled
his final novel, The Power of the Dog (U.S. title, Field of Honor),
a stupendous treatment of the Napoleonic Wars from the Irish point of view,
completed shortly before his death in an automobile accident. Byrne’s last novel, despite what is to
Americans an odd title, represents a significant leap forward for the
Irish/Irish-American (it’s not clear even today) writer.
While clearly the work of “Donn Byrne,” popular novelist,
the final novel displays a depth and maturity not seen in his earlier
works. It’s almost as if he decided
that, having made it as a popular writer, he was now going to write for
himself.
The problem here is that, if Power of the Dog is the first thing by Donn Byrne you read, you
will be spoiled, in a sense, for his other work. My own perception of his earlier stories was
somewhat spoiled by the fact that I first read his stories of Destiny Bay,
which are definitely a cut above his earlier stories and first novels.
Power of the Dog
is not marred by the self-conscious “Irishness” that sometimes seeped into
Bryne’s other work. The “Irishry” is
there, of course, but it has become natural, and without the studied archness
that can spoil a story line or mood for a moment.
Eventually Universal Values Media plans on publishing
annotated editions of Byrnes complete works — we were stymied for a while by a
gigantic typo (if that’s the way to describe an entire misplaced and repeated
page!) in a first edition of one of his novels that was carried forward to all
subsequent editions, but we figured it out.
Now all we need is the market — and we’re working on that.
The Fourth Page
The Geraldines of
Ireland, VII: Rise of the Great Earl
Apparently
unhappy at seemingly taking second place to the native Irish, the
English commons of Meath rose against the new Lord Deputy, Thomas FitzJames
FitzGerald, seventh Earl of Desmond, early in his tenure. These disturbances,
accompanied as they were by a renewed effort by the Butlers to regain their
position (which Desmond VII put down in seventeen days with an army of 20,000
of his own men—an enormous force to field in those days), were probably
interpreted by the Anglo-Irish parliament as an outburst of Lancastrian
feeling, for it sent a message to the king testifying to Desmond's valuable
services and certifying that he governed himself and his lieges according to
law. It didn't hurt any that his fundamentally Irish orientation also virtually
assured peace with the native Irish. The Parliament asked that the king ignore
any accusations against the earl.
There were, obviously,
Anglo-Irish circles in which the seventh Earl of Desmond was not popular.
Except for the well-known enmity of the Butlers, who were attainted anyway
(although restored in 1475), the source of this ill-feeling is not known,
unless it is attributed to the degree of his assimilation into Irish culture
and civilization, and his efforts to promote the interests of the native Irish.
The anti-Desmond clique, however, included prominent lords and clerics, some of
whom managed to gain the king's ear, but, in this instance at least, to no
avail. Still, the king replaced Desmond VII as Lord Deputy in 1467. The new
Lord Deputy, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, summoned Desmond before the
Anglo-Irish parliament in February, 1468, and Desmond attended, although
advised not to do so by his friends, being reassured with fair words from
Worcester and promised a safe conduct. Worcester had already, in 1467, beheaded
two of Desmond's children—one of them too young to understand what was going
on. Tiptoft is regarded as a sadist by some modern historians, who may be
projecting contemporary motivations, thought patterns and psychoanalysis onto
someone not of our age. Apparently they disregard the possibility that the Earl
of Worcester may simply have been an extremely evil man and guilty of extreme
cruelty. His participation in evil may be deduced from his activities as Lord
Deputy.
The first act of the Parliament
was to attaint the Earls of Desmond (Desmond VII) and Kildare (Kildare VII),
along with one Edward Plunket, of, "…horrible treasons and felonies contrived
and done by them, as well in alliance, fosterage and alterage with the Irish
enemies of the king, as in giving to them horses and harness and arms, and
supporting them against the king's faithful subjects." Clearly the degree
of assimilation of the FitzGeralds, apparently the sole basis for the charge of
treason, as well as the power of the family, had aroused hatred and jealousy.
Desmond was arrested, and executed on 15th February 1468, taken by "ugly
treachery," and "slain by the swords of the wicked." An Irish
annalist maintained that the earl was "beheaded without proper cause….all
Ireland and from Rome westwards was filled with sorrow and affliction."
For this crime, the Earl of Worcester was ever afterwards known as, "The
Butcher."
All three earldoms of Ireland were
now under attainder, with the seventh Earl of Desmond dead, the seventh Earl of
Kildare imprisoned and the sixth Earl of Ormond in exile. A reaction was swift
in coming. Garret FitzGerald ("Garret" being an Irish form of
"Gerald"), the late earl's brother, invaded Meath with 2,000 cavalry
and 20,000 galloglach, and laid waste
to the entire county. Roland FitzEustace, the treasurer, took it upon himself
to release Garret's cousin, Kildare VII, from prison, and they immediately went
to the aid of "Gerot of Dessemond," as one chronicle refers to him.
By the time the Lord Deputy Worcester marshaled his forces to attack Garret,
the FitzGerald had been joined by O'Connor Faly and Donnell Kavanagh, but he
suffered a defeat, probably as the result of seeking plunder over a military
victory. Kildare VII and FitzEustace were left behind in the retreat, but
managed to make peace with Worcester. Garret moved on to raid Tipperary, and
burn Fethard.
Nor was Kildare VII having an
easy time of it, in spite of the removal of his attainder. As a condition of
his restoration, he had to undertake the pacification of the Irish of Leinster,
a costly, and not entirely successful venture. One danger, however, was
removed: since Garret FitzGerald was attacking English, Anglo-Irish,
Norman-Irish and native Irish indiscriminately, the Irish of Desmond rose
against the Geraldines almost to a man. No doubt thinking that he should have
the dignity, Garret subsequently attacked the new Earl of Desmond, James
FitzGerald (Desmond VIII), his own nephew. The dowager countess formed an
alliance "with all the Munstermen she could find," and fought back,
while, at the same time, various Irish chieftains also carried out successful
campaigns against him.
Changes, however, were in store.
In 1470, Edward IV briefly lost the throne to Henry VI. The Lancastrians,
however, did not seem to be in any position to take advantage of this
restoration, and, after the usual purges, lost again to the Yorkists, who were
once more firmly in power by late spring, 1471. There was enough time, however,
for the Lancastrians to have "that object of execration to all the men of
Ireland" executed: the Yorkist Worcester was beheaded on 18th October 1470. The Geraldine seventh Earl of
Kildare was appointed Justiciar by the council, later also appointed Lord
Deputy, and called a Parliament to confirm Yorkist support soon after the
restoration of Edward IV. As a matter of course, fighting continued with the
native Irish.
In 1475, the seventh Earl of
Kildare was replaced as Lord Deputy by William Sherwood, Bishop of Meath (an
old antagonist of Desmond VII), probably as a result of the Bishop's influence
with the Duke of Clarence. However, Clarence was involved in a Lancastrian
uprising in the summer of 1477, convicted of treason, and executed on February
18, 1478. The seventh Earl of Kildare died shortly after, in March, not having
had the satisfaction of watching his enemy's fall from influence. When news of
Clarence's condemnation reached Ireland, Sherwood was replaced with Gerald
FitzGerald, the new, eighth Earl of Kildare, as Justiciar by the council.
This was Gerald "Garret
Mor" ("Great Gerald") FitzGerald, "the Great Earl,"
who was virtually the uncrowned king of Ireland for forty years, reigning
through many ups and downs until his death in battle in 1513. Both he and his
son, Gerait Og ("Young Gerald," Kildare IX), served as king's Lord
Deputies, although with the usual measure of Tudor ingratitude.
The Duke of Suffolk was appointed Lord Lieutenant for twenty
years, but never took office, and Kildare VIII continued to act as Justiciar,
but without official sanction. In May and September, 1478, he held a Parliament
which he had been forbidden to hold, and whose acts were subsequently
annulled. Suffolk was replaced as Lord Lieutenant by Edward IV's infant son
George, who died within a year. The post was filled by Henry, Lord Grey, as
Lord Deputy for the next two years.
#30#
