My twin brother and I share a joint birthday on New Year’s Eve and when we were younger we felt it was a good day to celebrate a birthday with the general party atmosphere almost everywhere, although it is one of the most expensively priced up nights of the year to do so. In recent years my Christian convictions have led me to view birthdays as a rather selfish and egotistical pursuit and so I just let it go by as an ordinary day. As the Bible says, better is the day of your death than the day of your birth, that is usually when people remember a person hopefully for the good life they have led, not bringing attention to themselves through it by having a special day for themselves. We are created to glorify God, not ourselves.
Also the whole concept of having a new year starting just after mid-night, or half-way through the night is foreign to the construct of days and celebrations in the Bible and what Jesus would have observed.
Genesis 1:5 informs us that “the evening and the morning was the first day”. So the dark part or evening part of a day precedes the light or day time part, not the other way around. The Jews have kept this in perpetuity to this day with all their celebration and fast days such as the Sabbath and Passover starting at sunset, the beginning of the evening. Only the Christians would dare to change the timings of the day that are governed by the moon and sun according to Genesis and start a day in the middle of the dark part in the present calendar set in place by Pope Gregory XIII.
Many Christians also quote Acts 20:7 when the disciples met on the first day of the week to break bread in Troas (Troy) with Paul as a proof text for Sunday observance – Sunday always being the first day of the working week throughout the Bible. However, Paul spoke until midnight, on the dark part of the first day, that is actually our Saturday night, which preceded the daylight part of the Biblical first day just after the Saturday Sabbath finished at sunset on the seventh or last day of the week. To take this verse literally would require all Churches would have to meet on Saturday evenings, but they view it through Gregorian goggles.
It is good to celebrate if the practice does not take away from something God has set in place. The Biblical new year starts on 1st Nisan in the spring, not in the winter. That is the proper New Year’s Day.
COLIN NEVIN
Bangor, Co Down
Call for a 50:50 police service should be seriously debated
Given the failure of the PSNI to transform into the police service envisioned by Patten, the archbishop’s call to reinstate 50:50 recruitment should be debated seriously and other measures taken to ensure we have a police service which performs effectively and has the full confidence of all sections of our society.
The premature abandonment of 50:50 recruitment was a serious error which scuppered any realistic chance of the PSNI being able to claim it was reflective of the society which it served.
The crucial ‘mass of Catholic officers’ hoped for as required by Patton failed to be realised despite the phenomenal initial rise from 8 per cent to 30 per cent in officers from a Catholic background.
The firm of Deloitte was commissioned to research and advise the PSNI on the shortfall in recruits from a Catholic background and after a precursory review advised changes to the first three stages of the recruitment process.
The failure rate of Catholic applicants during the following five stages, overseen by the PSNI itself, lends credence to a ‘subconscious Catholic bias’ within the organisation.
It speaks volumes that more applicants from a Catholic background are unsuccessful at the initial stages than applicants from a Protestant background.
It speaks volumes that career progression for officers from a Catholic background lags so far behind their colleagues from a Protestant background. (Sergeant 28 per cent, inspector 25 per cent, chief inspector 18 per cent).
It is totally astounding that a generation after Patten not one representative from the Catholic community can be found among the ranks of the senior leadership team which gives strategic direction to the PSNI, oversees its effectiveness and is accountable of the implementation of the Patten Reforms. So much for transformation.
The reintroduction of 50:50 recruitment would only the first step required to rectify a long running problem. Radical solutions are required. Perhaps all of the eight stages of the recruitment process ought to be assigned to an independent body, at least for the next generation.
PADDY WARD
Randalstown, Co Antrim
Celebratory frivolity
In keeping with continuing celebratory frivolity, the Republic’s government might well consider – along with plazas for the really cool to hang out of a Saturday – and river-rafting for the millennial elite – a nice dancing-pole in the centre of that lovely plush Dáil carpet should round off the life of Leo’s administration very nicely.
Another reason for the bored and offended TV viewers to tune into Oireachtas Report.
There is the reasonable assumption the colourful Michael Healy Rae and sporty Leo might duet around that thing while Mary Lou and Micheál Martin wait their turn.
ROBERT SULLIVAN
Bantry, Co Cork
Political Christmas chart
The countdown is: 1. Claire and John – We Built this City; 2. Colum and the Classic 58 Band – Eye of the Tiger; 3. Stephen and the Goldliners – Elected; 4. Michelle’s 57 Variety Showband – I Will Survive; 5. Arlene and her Eight Piece Ensemble – It’s All Over Now; 6. Emma and Nigel – Homeward Bound; 7. CPW Trio – It’s the Same Old Song.
An update is possible after January 13 2020.
BRIAN WILSON
Craigavon, Co Armagh
Bloodless coup
The mandate provided to both Colum Eastwood and Claire Hanna at the general election, and the antics towards the Oath of Allegiance – which was never an issue for the party before – underlines how the SDLP have been subject to a bloodless coup.
The ‘student class’ has arrived in South Belfast, with a vengeance. They are hell-bent on implementing namby-pamby progressivism into Northern Ireland.
The US Democrats are the real movers-and-shakers in the party, as they feel indebted to Senator George Mitchell. The society that has emerged since 1998 is inconsequential to the party members.
The SDLP have sold its soul to win back Foyle and South Belfast.
DESMOND DEVLIN
Ardboe, Co Tyrone
