Experience, wrote CS Lewis, is a brutal teacher. And former politician Peter Mandelson, who has been disgraced over his ties to notorious sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, once taught me a lesson. We were both attending one of those awful receptions for “the great and the good”. I was there as a BBC political correspondent covering the peace process when I came face to face with Mandelson, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. It was pretty evident that I was not worthy of his time. He was quite blatantly looking over my shoulder for someone more important and useful to speak to. I immediately repented over my own failures in that regard.
Repentance is the great gift of Lent. And I must confess that after a surface reading of the Epstein revelations (I haven’t the stomach to delve too deep), I was longing for the black dust of Ash Wednesday.
The world seems a darker place than I imagined.
Wonderously, the admission of our own guilt is the first step to redemption and a mysterious renewed innocence in Christ Jesus, the light that overcomes the darkness. I no longer wonder why so many turn up at church on Ash Wednesday – particularly those who do not regularly attend the sacraments. More and more I have come to appreciate the ashen cross on my forehead, a reminder to turn away from my own sins. Frankly the more sordid claims around the Epstein scandal has left an uneasiness. And this week I could not wait to receive the ashes – in the hope of spiritual cleansing, and a desire to be drawn away from worldly values, where pride rules and power corrupts.
Challenge
In fact the more I read about politics these days, the more grateful I am for quitting that world. When Jesus was tempted in the desert, Satan offered powerful Kingdoms – a sign perhaps the evil one regards these domains as his own, where souls can be corrupted.
Lent is always a challenge – though forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving hardly seems adequate in human terms to dispel the evil that affects us all. Thankfully, God multiplies our little offerings.
Questions have arisen over some of the contents of the Epstein files, indicating the Senator had contact with Epstein”
As a political journalist, I was in direct, albeit brief, contact with some of the people named in the newly released Epstein files. Being solely named in these files is of course not in itself an indication of wrong-doing. I participated in press scrums with President Bill Clinton (full of charm), and George Mitchell, the smiling senator from Maine who seemed to make a point of being on good terms with everyone. (He used to personally telephone the constituents who wrote him the most critical letters).
The Senator, now aged 92, was a key player in forging the Good Friday Agreement, and was deservedly lauded, among others as a peacemaker. Who could forget the quip he made as he left Belfast at Easter 1998, “I hate to leave but I’m dying to go.”
It’s a very different story now – and it seems Belfast can’t get rid of him quickly enough. Questions have arisen over some of the contents of the Epstein files, indicating the Senator had contact with Epstein after his conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution.
Controversy
Senator Mitchell, in a statement, has denied any wrongdoing, but Queen’s University has been quick to drop him. His bust was removed from the university grounds days after the US-Ireland Alliance said the George J Mitchell Scholarship Programme would no longer bear his name. The Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s has also severed ties.
He now regrets his association with Epstein and condemns without reservation the harm Epstein did
to women”
The controversy has refocused attention on a claim made in 2020 by the late Virginia Giuffre that Senator Mitchell had sexually assaulted her. A spokesman for the Senator has pointed out this was a case of mistaken identity, noting that Ms Guiffre had issued a photograph to a publication that turned out not to
be the Senator.
A spokesman for Senator Mitchell also said he now regrets his association with Epstein and condemns without reservation the harm Epstein did to women, adding that he had “never met, spoken to or had any contact with Giuffre or any underage women”.
Justice
As I write, there has been no charge of illegal activity or even a formal investigation involving Senator Mitchell. Some Belfast politicians want to revoke the Freedom of Belfast he was given, while a few voices have questioned whether Senator Mitchell has been treated justly.
Justice, after all, demands he be given the presumption of innocence.
Truth like justice often takes time but society’s judgement is rather more swift, and often flawed.
The whole saga is deeply disturbing as we mark thirty years since the start of talks that finally brought a peace accord to Northern Ireland. As we journey towards another Good Friday, and the light of Easter, Ash Wednesday reminds us that only God knows the human heart and of what we are made.Good Friday, and the light of Easter, Ash Wednesday reminds us that only God knows the human heart and of what we are made.
***
Canadian friend texted me in distress over the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge British Columbia last week. She was particularly upset about the innocent child Maya, 12, who was fighting for her life and her mother’s cry for prayers. Yes, I agreed – and this guy who shot them had “red flags all over him”. She immediately corrected me: “I think the shooter was a woman.”
It’s bad enough when innocents are murdered, and my friend, an intelligent and educated woman, should know better. Let us not murder the truth too. The gunman – or gunperson as one account put it – was a biological male in a dress, who was clearly mentally disturbed and had been pumped full of hormones.
The BBC went to great lengths not to call him a her and described him as biologically male who identified as a woman. This is factually correct. Shame on those reporters (I would say propagandists) who called him “a woman in a dress”. RTÉ used female pronouns to describe the gunman.
Jesus tells us he is the Way, the Truth and the Life – and in that sentence, we learn that truth and life are inextricably linked.
We need to demand more from our media, health professionals and our politicians.
How shocking (though not surprising) that so many MEPs last week – including twelve out of fourteen Irish members – backed a non-binding EU resolution to fully recognise transwomen as women. Independent Co Clare MEP Michael McNamara did not vote, nor did Ciaran Mulloolly of Independent Ireland. The logic of the vote is to give transwomen – that is men who identify as women – access to women’s spaces. Such an abdication of civic duty and common sense, which in Biblical terms, is a combination of wisdom and
discretion.
***
Author and rebel Brendan Behan has this month been remembered in his native Dublin – with a plaque on his childhood home beside Croke Park. The Lord Mayor described him as an unmistakably Dublin writer. Of course, Behan, who went from fame to notoriety, was also unmistakably Catholic. He was critical and may have described himself as a bad Catholic, but he did not mock the faith. Yes, he deeply resented the English Catholic chaplain who excommunicated him when he was serving time for his IRA activity, but he deeply respected the heroics of Jesuit chaplain Willie Doyle in the 1st World War. Behan’s wish to die in the arms of Mother Church was fulfilled before he left this earth on March 20, 1964. His wonderfully Catholic poem ‘Repentance’ was written in Gaelic while he was in prison. A man is dying and the name of the Virgin Mary is whispered in his ear. Behan describes “the steadying grasp of her hand to steady him on the trembling voyage…”
Ash Wednesday – a welcome relief in a world of sin
Experience, wrote CS Lewis, is a brutal teacher. And former politician Peter Mandelson, who has been disgraced over his ties to notorious sex offender and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, once taught me a lesson. We were both attending one of those awful receptions for “the great and the good”. I was there as a BBC political correspondent covering the peace process when I came face to face with Mandelson, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. It was pretty evident that I was not worthy of his time. He was quite blatantly looking over my shoulder for someone more important and useful to speak to. I immediately repented over my own failures in that regard.
Repentance is the great gift of Lent. And I must confess that after a surface reading of the Epstein revelations (I haven’t the stomach to delve too deep), I was longing for the black dust of Ash Wednesday.
The world seems a darker place than I imagined.
Wonderously, the admission of our own guilt is the first step to redemption and a mysterious renewed innocence in Christ Jesus, the light that overcomes the darkness. I no longer wonder why so many turn up at church on Ash Wednesday – particularly those who do not regularly attend the sacraments. More and more I have come to appreciate the ashen cross on my forehead, a reminder to turn away from my own sins. Frankly the more sordid claims around the Epstein scandal has left an uneasiness. And this week I could not wait to receive the ashes – in the hope of spiritual cleansing, and a desire to be drawn away from worldly values, where pride rules and power corrupts.
Challenge
In fact the more I read about politics these days, the more grateful I am for quitting that world. When Jesus was tempted in the desert, Satan offered powerful Kingdoms – a sign perhaps the evil one regards these domains as his own, where souls can be corrupted.
Lent is always a challenge – though forty days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving hardly seems adequate in human terms to dispel the evil that affects us all. Thankfully, God multiplies our little offerings.
As a political journalist, I was in direct, albeit brief, contact with some of the people named in the newly released Epstein files. Being solely named in these files is of course not in itself an indication of wrong-doing. I participated in press scrums with President Bill Clinton (full of charm), and George Mitchell, the smiling senator from Maine who seemed to make a point of being on good terms with everyone. (He used to personally telephone the constituents who wrote him the most critical letters).
The Senator, now aged 92, was a key player in forging the Good Friday Agreement, and was deservedly lauded, among others as a peacemaker. Who could forget the quip he made as he left Belfast at Easter 1998, “I hate to leave but I’m dying to go.”
It’s a very different story now – and it seems Belfast can’t get rid of him quickly enough. Questions have arisen over some of the contents of the Epstein files, indicating the Senator had contact with Epstein after his conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution.
Controversy
Senator Mitchell, in a statement, has denied any wrongdoing, but Queen’s University has been quick to drop him. His bust was removed from the university grounds days after the US-Ireland Alliance said the George J Mitchell Scholarship Programme would no longer bear his name. The Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s has also severed ties.
The controversy has refocused attention on a claim made in 2020 by the late Virginia Giuffre that Senator Mitchell had sexually assaulted her. A spokesman for the Senator has pointed out this was a case of mistaken identity, noting that Ms Guiffre had issued a photograph to a publication that turned out not to
be the Senator.
A spokesman for Senator Mitchell also said he now regrets his association with Epstein and condemns without reservation the harm Epstein did to women, adding that he had “never met, spoken to or had any contact with Giuffre or any underage women”.
Justice
As I write, there has been no charge of illegal activity or even a formal investigation involving Senator Mitchell. Some Belfast politicians want to revoke the Freedom of Belfast he was given, while a few voices have questioned whether Senator Mitchell has been treated justly.
Justice, after all, demands he be given the presumption of innocence.
Truth like justice often takes time but society’s judgement is rather more swift, and often flawed.
The whole saga is deeply disturbing as we mark thirty years since the start of talks that finally brought a peace accord to Northern Ireland. As we journey towards another Good Friday, and the light of Easter, Ash Wednesday reminds us that only God knows the human heart and of what we are made.Good Friday, and the light of Easter, Ash Wednesday reminds us that only God knows the human heart and of what we are made.
***
Canadian friend texted me in distress over the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge British Columbia last week. She was particularly upset about the innocent child Maya, 12, who was fighting for her life and her mother’s cry for prayers. Yes, I agreed – and this guy who shot them had “red flags all over him”. She immediately corrected me: “I think the shooter was a woman.”
It’s bad enough when innocents are murdered, and my friend, an intelligent and educated woman, should know better. Let us not murder the truth too. The gunman – or gunperson as one account put it – was a biological male in a dress, who was clearly mentally disturbed and had been pumped full of hormones.
The BBC went to great lengths not to call him a her and described him as biologically male who identified as a woman. This is factually correct. Shame on those reporters (I would say propagandists) who called him “a woman in a dress”. RTÉ used female pronouns to describe the gunman.
Jesus tells us he is the Way, the Truth and the Life – and in that sentence, we learn that truth and life are inextricably linked.
We need to demand more from our media, health professionals and our politicians.
How shocking (though not surprising) that so many MEPs last week – including twelve out of fourteen Irish members – backed a non-binding EU resolution to fully recognise transwomen as women. Independent Co Clare MEP Michael McNamara did not vote, nor did Ciaran Mulloolly of Independent Ireland. The logic of the vote is to give transwomen – that is men who identify as women – access to women’s spaces. Such an abdication of civic duty and common sense, which in Biblical terms, is a combination of wisdom and
discretion.
***
Author and rebel Brendan Behan has this month been remembered in his native Dublin – with a plaque on his childhood home beside Croke Park. The Lord Mayor described him as an unmistakably Dublin writer. Of course, Behan, who went from fame to notoriety, was also unmistakably Catholic. He was critical and may have described himself as a bad Catholic, but he did not mock the faith. Yes, he deeply resented the English Catholic chaplain who excommunicated him when he was serving time for his IRA activity, but he deeply respected the heroics of Jesuit chaplain Willie Doyle in the 1st World War. Behan’s wish to die in the arms of Mother Church was fulfilled before he left this earth on March 20, 1964. His wonderfully Catholic poem ‘Repentance’ was written in Gaelic while he was in prison. A man is dying and the name of the Virgin Mary is whispered in his ear. Behan describes “the steadying grasp of her hand to steady him on the trembling voyage…”
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