SOUL SURMISE

KEVIN BARRY - NIGHT BOAT TO TANGIER

A few years ago I stumbled across a book called Beatlebone. Those who know my Beatle fandom will not be surprised that it caught my attention. I picked it up, bought it and truthfully enjoyed the read. It was a little whacky for sure. 

John Lennon had bought a island off Mayo in 1978, about a decade after he actually had, and was wanting some Scream therapy, about 8 years after he actually had. It was a book that was at the one moment insightful on love and life and at the next quite crude. 

I enjoyed it but didn’t expect the writer Kevin Barry to be taken too seriously. It turns out he has been taken very seriously and one of the critically acclaimed novels of the year is Barry’s Night Boat To Tangier. Beatlebone had given me a soft spot for Barry so I needed no more convincing.

In many respects the two novels are similar. First things first. Barry is a lyrical writer. He is all about weather and skies and rivers and seas and the colours and moods that they conjure. He attempts usually successfully to conjure words that are almost poetry.

Into this poetic prose he has a trait for the profane and the profound, sometimes in the very same paragraph. I need to warn you that there is a lot of violence and sex in Night Boat To Tangier and the sex references are uncouth most of the time.

The drama is built around two Irish rascals Maurice Hearne and Charlie Redmond. The book starts with them in the port of Algeciras in Spain just sitting, chatting. When I say just chatting, it is page after page of Irish banter, hilarious much of the time. You will laugh out loud. Barry has a talent for the conversational. 

From this seemingly harmless and almost endearing beginning Barry throws us into a world of  sex and drugs and murder. There is an intensity to the story. Fear and love flow together as avarice overtakes any sense in the life choices of our main protagonists. 

Night Boat To Tangier is a book about choices and regret, every day love and the terror of drug trafficking. It is about the domino effect of one of life’s decisions knocking down every other domino in the collapse of marriage, family, friendship, the heart, the soul and the mind. It’s like a long tense journey towards the desperate need of repentance and grace and somewhere in there, if you listen to Barry’s literary wonder closely enough, you might find your own life. I did!

HOW U2 RESPONDED TO THE OMAGH BOMB

Tears started running down my face. U2 tugged my emotions. I was in a lecture theatre at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They had a screen that filled the entire wall of the theatre. The sound was great. I was showing U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday from the U2 Go Home: Live From Slane Castle film. 

The obvious reason for the tears was that this was filmed in Ireland. I had only been away from home for a few days but there is nothing like seeing home in a faraway place to feel that yearning. 

Bono was playing all the moves. Sunday Bloody Sunday is, of course, all about Belfast and our Troubles. In 2001 when they played Slane Castle we had had three years since the Good Friday Agreement but politicians were still in talks as to whether they could make our peace deal work. 

Bono use the concert to encourage the “brave men” to compromise for peace. He then literally turned the song into a prayer. Bono walks out across the Elipse stage into the middle of this Irish audience and chants:

“Put your hands in the sky
Put your hands in the air
If you’re the praying kind
Make this song into a prayer
Put your hands in the sky
Put your hands in the air
If you’re the praying kind
Cos we’re not going back there”

On that big Calvin College screen, this was epic. This is about home. This prayerful hope sung across a vast crowd. The screams of “No more!” Wow!

Then, as if that wasn’t enough Bono turns the thoughts of this Irish crowd to the events of August 15th 1998. Just three years earlier the Real IRA, opposed to the IRA ceasefire, left a bomb in the centre of the market town of Omagh, on a Saturday afternoon. When it exploded 29 people lost their lives. The island went into shock and grief.

Slane Castle was U2’s first gig after Omagh. As Sunday Bloody Sunday ends Bono starts to name every victim, one at a time. With the band pumping out the beat of Sunday Bloody Sunday the emotion is palpable. Bono’s voice cracks.

Then with Bono sitting down the band move into a stripped back Wake Up Dead Man. Oh my. This is the most perfect location that that song ever had. Right there. After Sunday Bloody Sunday. After the names of the Omagh victims. The grief, the anger, the confusion, the grapple for faith. It has the catharsis of the blues, the protest of folk and the power of stadium rock. Tears… 

This wasn’t actually U2’s first public reference to Omagh. On November 20, 1998 RTE’s Late Late Show broadcast an Omagh Tribute Special that also included The Corrs, Bob Geldof and President Mary McAleese. 

U2 sang two songs on that show. North and South of the River, written along with Irish folk legend Christy Moore, came cross as almost a grown up Sunday Bloody Sunday. 

In this co-write there is an awareness that religion has led minds astray, and there is yearning for repentance, reconciliation and mutual understanding without any need for surrender, a reference to the clarion call of Ulster Protestants: “No Surrender!” The lines that became most powerful and poignant as U2 performed the song for the TV special were those that suggested the loneliness of hurting your own. There are also fragments of hope in the midst of the evil that love is not lost and has its place in the future.

The band also played All I Want Is You which, in this context, metamorphosed from a yearning for love, in a romantic sense, to a lament for those who lost loved ones in the bombing. It was again powerfully emotional.

Today, 21 years on and I will make a little playlist of these 4 songs, as I remember those lost in that horrific afternoon and indeed everyone who lost lives or limbs, or their sight, or mental health or whatever else as a result of our terrible Troubles.

IN A WEEK LIKE THIS (MY RESPONSE TO THE OMAGH BOMB)

21 years ago today my country was in shock as news of the Omagh bomb broke.  It was a Saturday afternoon when the Real IRA, who opposed the IRA ceasefire, set off a bomb in Omagh town centre. Everyone thought of who they knew that might be caught up in it. In the end 29 were callously murdered.

It was my turn to do a Thought For The Day on BBC Radio Ulster six days later. This was my prayer as I reflected on the week that we had grieved through.

 

Lord, we come to the end of another week
Except it hasn't been just another week
It has been the worst week of our lives
And even worse for some
Lord help us to be honest, vulnerable and somehow hopeful in the reflection of our feelings

Lord we have been shocked
Shocked by how one tiny second can tear our lives apart
Shocked by how far humanity can fall
Shocked by how callous and painful mankind's actions can stoop

Lord, we are grieving
Grieving for the loss of lives with so much love and energy still to give
Grieving for the man and woman and child who we will never be able to hold again
Grieving for our history that is as sad and twisted as this

Lord we are confused
Confused at why this should happen
Confused about how this should happen to the innocent
Confused about where you and faith enter into these events

Lord we have been angry
Angry at why we allowed our family and friends to go shopping
Angry at how evil people could rip our world asunder
Angry that you allowed it to happen

Lord we are seeking
Seeking some kind of feeble consolation in the midst of our deluge of tears
Seeking some kind of hope that good might come from this evil
Seeking your Spirit whom Jesus called a Comforter to whisper into our maddening silence

Lord we are squinting for faith
Faith that the majority might have some kind of a say in the future
Faith that love will end our hate, good will end our evil and grace will touch our broken hearts
Faith in a God who is as angry as we are and who is reaching out his hand to us.

Lord we are remembering
Remembering those who today can no longer be shocked, grieve, be angry, be confused, seek or squint for faith
Remembering that you watched as your son covered in blood, died at the futile whim of injustice
Remembering that that very death is the only thing that we can grope in the dark for in a week like this.

Lord we have planted our loved ones deep in the bloody earth of Ireland this week
We have watered them with our tears
Lord may you allow them to be seeds of a love that will grow into our peace.

Lord remember us. 

A LEVEL RESULTS DAY...

So the results are out.

If your A Level results are good then a hearty congratulations. Good grades at A level are an amazing achievement and you deserve the accolades of family and teachers. It has been two years hard graft, in school and out of school. Many of you will have sacrificed some teenage things to put in the extra work. Enjoy the day. Milk the parental favour!

It might also be good to have a thought for those who didn't achieve what they wanted. Those, around you, who are down today. The pressure might not be so much the grades or that they didn't get the University choice they wanted. Their depression might be that they cannot jump up and down, get on the front pages of newspapers or put up happy emojis on social media. The sense of failure, when you are in a sea of successful peers, is perhaps the hardest part.

So a sensitivity might be needed in the celebrations too! Judge those social media posts with a caring perspective.

For those who think they've failed. Erase that F word from your minds and maybe, more particularly, your souls. School exams are not the beginning or the end of your humanity. Simply because I cannot run the 10 miles that I did a few years ago says nothing about my humanity. It does not declare me a failure. Not getting an A Star, or five, in your A levels says nothing about the preciousness and genius at the heart of your humanity.

If you haven't achieved what you expected or what you needed then think of it as a diversion. In July we were supposed to have a short stop over in Madrid before flying on to Addis Ababa. Storms caused a diversion to Barcelona and a long wait to refuel before heading back to Madrid! Seven more hours on that plane! It wasn't the plan. We could do nothing about it. Yet, eventually we got our next flight rescheduled and our lives only took a minor blip.

If your first or even last choice of University doesn't work out because of these results, it is only a diversion. Even if the examiners get it wrong, you have a contribution to make. You have a gift deep within. You'll find your place. Take this as a time for reflection. A time to reassess. You might have to confess that you need to go back and work harder at those exams. Or you might find another way to your destination from here. There is no rush. This is not the end of any world, just a crossroads to what is next.

You are made in the image of God. You are a wondrous creation. Jesus came to reclaim you into the family of God. Heir of the Father, co-heir with the Son is how Paul put it. God has given you gifts and invites you into his work of justice and peace and good news.

My friend Justin Zoradi put it like this in his book Made For These Times:

“I envision the work of the Lord as gigantic heavenly wheels rotating all over the earth. They roll around scrubbing up the darkness. mowing down injustice, and building up shaky structures of redemption and renewal. Put in motion centuries ago, the wheels are relentless vessels of creativity and disruption. The greatest opportunities of our lives are when you are invited to ride on the wheels for certain seasons. We may join with God for one or two rotations, and then shift off so others can hop on when our time is up.”

A Level examiners don't get in the way of that invitation. 

Those of you celebrating good results. Do not let these results define you either. Use these results to open doors and make sure you seek out what God has made you for. For many of you, you will now flourish in your chosen subject at University and fly to your next destination. Some of you might find that good results can open wrong doors to destinations that you are not built for. Never be afraid to change course. Your good grades should give you that luxury. 

In the end my old mantra, stolen from Frederick Buechner is the mantra for today, "your vocation is where your deepest gladness meets the world's greatest need." Today, whether you did well or not so well, is just a day to ponder that and find your gladness and where it meets the world's needs. You can get there, wherever you feel you are today!

STOCKI'S COVERS OF U2 SONGS PLAYLIST

Another of my wee self indulgent playlists. This time it is covers of U2 songs. This collection took on a personality of its own and has a downbeat sound. That is why there is nothing from AHK-toong BAY-bi on here (you can read my review of that one HERE) 

There is also a wee section dedicated to Andy Rowen. Bad was written about him so after Luka Bloom's version of that I add a few songs of redemption... (Read my Surmise on Andy's amazing story HERE!

It all goes on an 80 CDR as is my old fashion wont!

 

OCTOBER - THE DIVINE COMEDY

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE) - SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR

(from In The Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2)

 

WHO'S GONNA RIDE YOUR WILD HORSES - DREW HOLCOMB & THE NEIGHBOURS

(from Through The Night: Live In The Studio)

 

RUNNING TO STAND STILL - ELBOW

(from Heroes)

 

IN A LITTLE WHILE - BRIAN HOUSTON

(from The Raw Sessions)

 

WITH OR WITHOUT YOU - KEANE

(from Radio 1's Live Lounge) 

 

ALL I WANT IS YOU - JARS OF CLAY

(from In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa)

 

EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING - JACK L

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

BAD - LUKA BLOOM

(from Keeper Of The Flame)

 

WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN - DECLAN O'ROURKE

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

GRACE - NICHOLE NORDEMAN

(from In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa)

 

40 - THE FRAMES

(from Even Better Than The Real Thing Vol 3)

 

STUCK IN A MOMENT (live) - MARTYN JOSEPH

(from Official Bootleg Vol 3)

 

NORTH & SOUTH - CHRISTY MOORE

(from Live At The Point 2006)

 

MISS SARAJEVO - GEORGE MICHAEL

(from Songs From The Last Century)

 

ONE - THE COWBOY JUNKIES

(from Early 21st Century Blues)

 

LOVE IS BLINDNESS - CASSANDRA WILSON

(from New Moon Daughter)

 

I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR - CHRISTINE COLLISTER

(from Into The Light)