THERE’S been a lot of talk lately about Queen’s University being a “cold house” for unionists with the preponderance of students wearing GAA shirts cited as one example of the intimidatory atmosphere.
I see that as more a lapse in sartorial standards myself, but you have to acknowledge it’s also about county pride and rivalry, plus the fact that those tops are easily washed and don’t need ironed, which is important when your ma isn’t doing your laundry.
I went to Queen's in the early 1980s and can’t say it felt like a nationalist space then. I do vividly remember the shock of the oft-cited murder of law lecturer and unionist politician Edgar Graham on the campus in 1983. But why is the murder of history lecturer Dr Miriam Daly a few years earlier forgotten? She was as much a victim because of her republican politics as Mr Graham was for his unionist beliefs.
I also remember God Save The Queen being played at the graduation ceremony in the Sir William Whitla hall while we ate our strawberries and cream on the lawn afterwards, serenaded by the RUC band.
I wasn’t brave enough to join the sit-down protest during the anthem that year. Instead I opted for a semi-slouch which nobody would’ve noticed.
I’ve never fretted much about symbols, particularly when they’re from the past. I’m more disturbed by the chorus of unionist politicians who’ve already attacked academics for daring to espouse a united Ireland, and are now joining this knee-jerk campaign prompted by the juvenile tweets from the incoming Students Union president who will hopefully grow up in office.
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ONE of the saddest sights this week was the image of boatloads of frantic refugees trying to cross over from Turkish camps to the Greek island of Lesbos. One child drowned when a flimsy dinghy overturned but there was no repeat of the international outrage inspired by the lifeless body of three-year-old Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach.
Pity for the plight of these desperate people seems to have evaporated and this comes at a time when several European countries are trying to cope with rural areas facing depopulation through emigration and ageing.
Germany is changing the law to allow more non-EU migrants to work in a bid to fill up to a million vacancies. It’s offering Filipinos a range of incentives including free flights, language classes and accommodation to fill gaps in its care system. Spain, northern Italy and central France are also struggling with “youth deserts” as young people leave for the big cities. Could there not be a concerted global effort to help refugees willing to settle in some of the places Europeans are leaving empty?
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FOR all its confusion over caucuses, primaries, super delegates and electoral colleges, one clear fact emerges from this presidential race: being elderly, infirm or indeed absurd (like the incumbent) is no bar to high office in USA.
It’s too early to say if Bernie Sanders (78) or Joe Biden (77) will emerge as the Democrat contender, though sleepy Joe seems to have woken up and Michael Bloomberg is discovering you can’t buy political love.
I met a few Americans last weekend who were optimistic that Bernie could deliver. They pointed to his ability to galvanise young people as well as the consistency of his left-wing views. Hmm, remind you of anyone?
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I WAS a bit alarmed when I read that some hairdressing salons in England have responded to the sad death of Love Island presenter Caroline Flack by immediately banning showbiz gossip magazines from their salons.
Nicky Thompson, owner of Nix in south London, said she was replacing those “pages and pages of negativity, fat shaming, shaming celebs with no make-up on” and replacing them with lifestyle, home and health publications instead. She probably does have a point.
But that’s part of the guilty pleasure of going to the hairdressers. You get to look at magazines you wouldn’t dream of buying and catch up on the chaotic love life of people you’ve never heard of but apparently became famous for a reality TV show.
And there are the ups and downs – usually on the scales – of others in the public eye. I recall seeing the front page of one mainstream women’s magazine where the spotlight was on broadcaster Vanessa Feltz and her apparent weight gain.
“Friends fear she’s back drinking custard again,” ran the banner headline. You couldn’t make it up.
