Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: (Vigil) George Dolan, (25th Anniv).
11.00 John Murray (Oranmore), & Teddi Molloy, (Anniv).
6.30: Patrick & Sheila Commins, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

In July 1995, at Srebrenica in former Yugoslavia, 8,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated in what the U.N. war crimes tribunal described as "the triumph of evil." Radovan Karadzic, then the Bosnian Serb political leader, was arrested this week after more than 10 years on the run. He stands accused of ordering the violence at Srebrenica and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.

The horror of the massacre was compounded by its 'humanitarian' context. In 1995 Srebrenica had been designated by the United Nations a 'safe area', a zone understood internationally as 'inviolable'. Consequently, thousands of Bosnian Muslims had sought refuge there as the Bosnian Serb army marched towards them. 30,000 Muslims had crammed into the town. Within days there was not one Muslim left. A great number fled as the army advanced, only to be wiped out in Serb ambushes. But those who stayed fared worst.

Thousands of male Muslims, among them boys as young as 10, were rounded up and murdered. Those who tried to hide in their homes were "hunted down like dogs and slaughtered" according to evidence later given at The Hague Tribunal. A judge there described what happened as "truly scenes from hell written on the darkest pages of human history."

The UN were both incompetent and grossly negligent. They expected 100 illequipped Dutch peacekeepers to protect the inhabitants and refugees from the marauding Bosnian army. The Dutch peacekeepers were forced to witness the executions.

There is no doubt that Radovan Karadzic was the architect of that hell. Yet he still has his defenders and apologists. "In war anything goes" they claim. Yet the whole of European civilization recoils from that view. From the time that Christians first started thinking about war, the church insisted that even in the fog of war, there are certain moral standards to be observed.

When future historians look back on the terrible wars of the 20th century they will mark at least one great achievement: the attempt to bring about an international system of justice. From the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II to the War Crimes tribunal in the Hague, we are at least seeking to bring justice to bear on an imperfect world. The Nuremberg trials were criticized as being "victors justice" and we have already heard claims about an anti Serb bias in the Hague. So we will always have only an approximation to that ultimate justice that all the great religions of the world proclaim will one day be established.

But surely even partial justice is much better than no justice. For in such attempts to achieve it, our very birthright as human beings is at stake. Otherwise, it will fall to a gallery of megalomaniac monsters like Karadzic, Milosevic, Mugabe, and their ilk to define humanity! The UN may be maddeningly incompetent. But they remain civilisation's last line of defence against the barbarism that constantly threatens.

-Dick Lyng

Bits and Pieces....

If you are here for the Galway races, you are very, very welcome! Like marriage, I suppose, the annual visit to Ballybit represents the triumph of hope over experience!

The festival has a long history. It began at Ballybrit on Tuesday, 17th August, 1869, when contemporary records show that 40,000 attended. The park at Eyre Square had to be used as a camping site for the huge crowds that arrived in the town well in advance of the two-day race meeting. Captain Wilson Lynch of Renmore gave the land at Ballybrit free of charge, and the racecourse, measuring one and a half miles was laid out by a civil engineer, a Mr. T. Waters. The Galway Vindicator described it as "covered with herbage or moss and excelling any course in Ireland for good going."

There were eight events, four on each day, but the main attraction was the Galway Plate with the prize of "100 sovereigns," for an open handicap steeplechase of 2½ miles. Eight jumps had to be negotiated, two of them stone walls. Tenant Farmers could race in the Glenard Plate (£50); and there was a Visitors Plate for gentlemen riders.

There was wide advance publicity. The Midland and Great Western Railway agreed to carry all horses to and from the course free of charge provided they had run in a race. Special trains came to Galway from all over the country and the Lough Corrib Steam Navigation Company (the helicopter of the 19th century?) ran a special service from Cong for the two days. A mounted official watched the racing on both days and jockeys were warned that "if found guilty of sly practices in riding that they would be disqualified."

Local newspapers describe the first day as "a magnificent success." J. R. Bell's Absentee won the Galway Plate in a field of thirteen runners and Mr. John Ussher's Ishmael won the Ballybrit Plate and the Renmore Stakes.

Broadcasting of races commenced in 1929. Television arrived in 1963. Sponsorship came in 1959 and the Summer Festival Meeting was extended to five days in 1974. By 1999 it had become a seven-day festival.

However, the more things change, the more they remain the same. The Connaught Tribune of 1978 explains why: "Although the Met Office predicts little improvement in the weather over the next few days, there are no fears of the repetition of three years ago. Drainage improvements to the Ballybrit track have been carried out it is now well capable of absorbing heavy rain. Freak torrential rain caused the cancellation of three and a half days of the five day meeting in 1975."

We are already familiar with 'freak torrential rain' this Summer. However, one thing is certain: the races will not be cancelled, even if the jockeys do have to wear life-jackets!

Enjoy it! -Dick Lyng.

An Obvious Solution to a Happy Problem!

Madam,

As a supporter of Wexford hurling living in Dublin, I must admit that I don't share the widely held view of many hurling correspondents that the solution to the demise of the Leinster Hurling Championship, where Kilkenny have won nine out of the last 10 senior titles, is to invite participation from Galway and Antrim.

Surely a more straightforward solution is for Kilkenny to play in the Munster championship.

This would result in a far more competitive championship in Leinster - with at least three teams (Dublin, Offaly and Wexford) vying for success and advancement in the All-Ireland series.

In addition, the great Munster teams would have more and early opportunities to test their mettle against their nemesis. And finally in 10 years' time, when Kilkenny have won nine or 10 Munster Cups, the matter could be reviewed for the sake of Munster hurling!

- Yours, etc,
-MIKE BYRNE,
The Pines, Castleknock, Dublin 15.

Let Us Now Praise Horses

"Are you the one who makes the horse so brave?
And covers his neck with flowing mane?
Do you make him leap like a grasshopper?
His haughty neighing spreads terror.
Exultantly he paws the soil of the valley,
and rushes the fences with all his strength.
He laughs at fear; he is afraid of nothing,
He recoils before no sword.
On his back the quiver rattles,
The flashing spear and javelin.
Trembling with impatience, he eats up the miles;
When the trumpet sounds, there is no holding him.
At each trumpet blast he neighs exultantly.
He scents the battle from afar,
the thundering of the commanders and the war cry."

-(Book of Job, 39:19-25)

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