PART 3 > IRISH NEWS ROUND-UP > http://irlnet.com/rmlist/ > > Saturday/Sunday, 1/2 July, 2000 > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > > >>>>>> Book Review: The Deposition of Father McGreevy > > By Brian O'Doherty > Arcadia Books > Paperback #11.99 > > > > Its part of the book reviewer's trade that you don't look at > previous reviews. This paperback edition had previous reviewers' > comments on the back from the hardback edition. > > I deliberately didn't look. > > There was one on the front that my eye couldn't help but stray > over as I sat down with this novel set in 1940s Kerry. The quote > was from a review in "Atlantic Monthly", describing the book as > "Bone-chilling". > > I put that to one side, ignored it, and tried to discount it as I > read O'Doherty's work. To no avail, I re-read the book after the > initial read. I'm still cold, shivered, like being a room with a > corpse alone. > > This is stunning stuff. > > Its no feelgood book, but its truth follows you after you've put > it down. Not since I read Liam O'Flaherty's "Skerret" in the 1980s > have I encountered a description of the West of Ireland that was > so shamefully accurate. > > This is nothing less that a literary treatment of the West of > Ireland psychosis that was so brutally laid bare by Nancy Scheper > Hughes in her excellent, if unethical, Saints, Sinners & > Schizophrenics (1979). > > One cannot argue with the fact that human communities have a > critical mass. If they grow beyond that, they usually sub-divide. > Dublin is made up of how many urban villages? > > As communities become progressively smaller they cease to be > viable. In this novel, a remote mountain village in Kerry is cut > off by the snow from the town, which represented the outside > world. > > During the harshest winter, the women of the village, one by one, > die of a mysterious, unexplained illness. This, for me, is a > powerful metaphor for the civic death suffered by women in that > patriarchal society. > > The main body of the novel - as the title suggests - is taken up > with the parish priest's recounting of what happened in the > village when it had to rely on its own dwindling resources, > material and human, in the harsh winter of 1940. > > O'Doherty examines all of our rural Irish Catholic baggage. > > He uses a native of the village who hears of its demise while > working in publishing in London in the 1950s. He - William Maginn > - is a distant relative of the good Father McGreevy - as we all > are. > > Father McGreevy is an interesting priest to come across these > days in Irish literature, a good one. Here, like all of us, is a > product of his environment and of his historical moment. He seeks > to explain the random cruelty of a chaotic universe within his > own belief system - a worldview inhabited by an omnipotent, > omniscient male deity. > > From the pages of O'Dohertys work you can taste this simple man's > despair at what his god is visiting upon his flock. The mountain > in winter will not yield to their efforts to allow a decent > burial for the women. Finally, church and state collude to clear > these people from their mountain. Father McGreevy bitterly notes > that not everything that has befallen the people of the West can > be laid at the door of the English. > > The story concludes with the psychiatric system incarcerating and > punishing two members of a community that the English speaking > Free State never understood, nor valued. > > As I said, this is not a feelgood book, but if you care about how > the West was lost after the British went, then start here. > > BY MICK DERRIG > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > > >>>>>>> Analysis: Time for deep breaths and deeper reflection > > By Robin Percival of the Bloody Sunday Trust > > Last Wednesday night, as most people settled down to watch the > Portugal v France European championship semi-final, there was a > well-attended public meeting in Derry. > > It was the first opportunity for the relatives of those killed, > the wounded, a few of their legal representatives and many of > their friends to draw breath and take stock of the significance > of what had happened as Christopher Clarke QC, counsel for the > Bloody Sunday Tribunal, finished the longest opening statement > (176 hours) in British legal history. > > Inevitably, it is the human tragedies, now given a renewed and > graphic reality by the evidence which Clarke has laid out, which > came to mind - the way Jim Wray was clinically executed by a > still anonymous para as he lay wounded on the ground in Glenfada > Park, or the way Alex Nash was shot and wounded, pleading for > help as he held his dying son, William, in his arms. > > At the meeting, William's sister, Linda, told of the way the > death of her brother had impacted on their lives - her mother was > never told the full circumstances of how her son had died, the > house raids that followed, of being strip-searched at the age of > 16. > > It is clear that whatever else it does, the tribunal is already > providing a healing context for many in which their grief and > sense of bitterness and failure can be acknowledged and dealt > with. > > Inevitably and rightly there is still a huge sense of anger. Much > of it focused not only on the organisers and perpetrators of > Bloody Sunday, but on the former Lord Chief Justice Widgery, > whose original inquiry was such an outrage. Day after day, as the > opening address continued, it became increasingly clear that > there is now prima facie evidence that the Widgery Tribunal > itself was partly responsible for perverting the course of > justice. > > There is now significant evidence that but this whole charade > actually encouraged members of the parachute regiment to change > their original statements in order to exclude anything which > could point to criminal acts of wrong-doing. > > Lord Saville, in his opening statement in 1998, said that he did > not see it as being part of their task to comment on the conduct > of the Widgery Tribunal. Yet it is difficult to see how he and > the other two members of the inquiry can ignore and overlook the > extent to which the British legal system failed the people of > Derry and the loved ones of those killed when it allowed Widgery > to tamper with the evidence in the way that he did. > > Another theme that has emerged from this inquiry is the degree to > which - even now - the British army and the Ministry of Defence > feel able to snub their noses at the whole judicial process. > > The disclosure that the army had destroyed some of the guns used > in the killings after the tribunal had requested them, the false > and misleading "security assessments" provided to back the former > soldiers claim for anonymity, the failure to provide information > about which soldiers were in Derry on that day, all point to an > institution eager to undermine the work of the tribunal and to > prevent it from uncovering the truth, and which feels, as ever, > that it will get away with it. > > At the meeting in Derry, Eamonn McCann called for serious > consideration to be given to demanding that the parachute > regiment be disbanded. It was an idea that got a mixed reception. > > What about the responsibility of men like General Robert Ford, > who was in overall charge of the army that day in Derry? Or the > politicians in both Stormont and London who took the decisions to > unleash the paras on Derry? > > Nevertheless, the demand added emphasis to what many people in > Derry are saying. What do we expect from the tribunal? The truth, > yes. But is that all? Can 14 people be murdered on our streets > with nothing more than, perhaps, a statement of regret or even an > apology? > > Those campaigning around the issue of Bloody Sunday are now > increasingly focusing their attention on what needs to be done > when the tribunal is finished and its judgements handed down. It > is no longer just about remembering the past; it is about > changing the future. > > > > > > > > > c. RM Distribution and others. Articles may be reprinted with credit. > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > RM Distribution > Irish Republican News and Information > http://irlnet.com/rmlist/ > > PO Box 160, Galway, Ireland Phone/Fax: (353)1-6335113 > PO Box 8630, Austin TX 78713, USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > > > RMD1000703120034p4 >
