To shrug or not to shrug… what will you do?

I’ve just seen my first swallow – flying high over Glasnevin Cemetery.  I was so glad to see it.  Heralding the start of the Irish summer.  Goodness knows we need some good news these days – so here we go again – a Haiku for the swallows.

Féach na Fáinleoga

is an Samhradh ag filleadh

Buíochas le Dia

Did you know that swallows travel about 9500 kilometres twice a year, all the way to South Africa and back.  They nest here in Ireland for the summer and then, they head south in September, flying across Europe and over the Sahara desert till they reach their holiday homes in the southern hemisphere.  They cover about 325 kilometres every day, flying at an average speed of 35 km/h – not bad for a tiny bird, no bigger than a sparrow…

Oh, for a moment there, I thought everything was back to normal, the swallows, the seedlings ready for planting out, the song of the blackbird but no, things are definitely not normal.

It’s not normal that we have to spend our Saturday afternoons, protesting outside Dáil Éireann.  (Yes, they’ve made fine speeches but there’s been no action – it’s time for serious sanctions).  It’s not normal that “the leaders of the free world” continue to support barbarity and ethnic cleansing.  It can never be normal to accept the wanton slaughter of children, the deliberate starving of an already traumatised population, the murder of medical staff, the crimes against humanity… It’s not normal to continue with our daily lives with just a shrug of indifference.

“Caoineadh/war”, charcoal and watercolour, 2024

How long more will the swallows continue to return?  Their population fluctuates from year to year as it is, because of the hazards of their journey but now, with the increase of emissions…

Did you know that the military is not bound by international climate agreements?  That’s right – all those bombers, all those missiles – they were left out of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and exempted from the 2015 Paris accords.  One guess who arranged for that to happen!

And the Militaries account for about 5.5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.  And much more than that this year, I’d say – but do they care?  We’re sleepwalking into geopolitical and climate extermination, as my old friend Donal says.

Tom Molloy: “Borderline”, enamel on paper globe, from “What do we Want?”

In the meantime, there’s our anti-war group show at the Olivier Cornet Gallery.  It’s causing a bit of a stir, I’m told.  Entitled: “What do we want?”, it is our response to the increasingly dangerous geo-political situation in the world today.  The 4 artists involved are:  Jill Gibbon, Tom Molloy, Gail Ritchie and myself.

Finally, WordPress has made some changes recently so that I can’t see anymore who you are when you write your comment (Probably something to do with GDPR) so, if you don’t mind, can you please write your name after the comment – or even your intials would be nice, thank you – I always appreciate your feedback.

What do we want?

https://www.oliviercornetgallery.com/