Whistles the Wind

Max Modine is a long-time reader and commenter at Gates of Vienna. His first guest-essay concerns the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, and its relevance to today’s events.

Whistles the Wind
by Max Modine

It was Easter Monday, April 24rd 1916. 200 everyday men walked down Sackville Street in Dublin led by the schoolmaster and Irish language activist Padraigh Pearse, joined by James Connolly and his small band of labour unionists, along with 200 members of Cumann na mBan, nurses and women of menial employment. The group seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic independent of the United Kingdom.

POBLACHT NA H EIREANN
___________________________
THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT
OF THE
IRISH REPUBLIC
TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

Having organised and trained her manhood through her secret revolutionary organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and through her open military organisations, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, having patiently perfected her discipline, having resolutely waited for the right moment to reveal itself, she now seizes that moment, and, supported by her exiled children in America and by gallant allies in Europe, but relying in the first on her own strength, she strikes in full confidence of victory.

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the last three hundred years they have asserted it to arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations.

The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and all of its parts, cherishing all of the children of the nation equally and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.

Until our arms have brought the opportune moment for the establishment of a permanent National, representative of the whole people of Ireland and elected by the suffrages of all her men and women, the Provisional Government, hereby constituted, will administer the civil and military affairs of the Republic in trust for the people.

We place the cause of the Irish Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms, and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, in humanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Irish nation must, by its valour and discipline and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.

Signed on Behalf of the Provisional Government.

Thomas J. Clarke, Sean Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh,P. H. Pearse, Eamonn Ceannt, James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett

All of the above men were executed by the British Government for their efforts in trying to secure a free Ireland.

The guns of Brittanie responded in brutal retaliation; monster naval guns available to only the great powers of the time, aimed at fewer than 500 husbands and wives and teachers and architects and millers and nurses occupying the General Post Office building near the banks of the river Liffey. What did Pearse and his boys have? Not much. Fewer than 100 rifles and a few Webley revolvers.

For six days they bombarded them and killed many of them. Afterwards they executed Pearse, and tied a dying Connolly to a kitchen chair and shot him as well.

They buried Pearse and Connolly along with Tom Clarke, Joseph Plunkett, Thomas McDonough, Éamonn Ceannt and Seán MacDiarmada, the seven signatories of the Irish Proclamation, covered in quicklime, as was a traitor’s due at the time, to destroy the bodies, as a signal to the Irish of the terrible punishment facing those who rebelled against the Crown.

Eamonn DeValera narrowly escaped execution in large part due to his being born in the United States of America. The Crown was cognizant of the power of the significant Irish voting bloc in America and the Crown desperately needed America, its manpower and resources to offset its massive losses of both on the battlefields of Europe in 1916.

Why do I bring this to your attention? There is a greater combination of communistic and Islamic evil manifest in the current government of the United States than the despotic government American patriots rebelled against in 1776.

The small band of Irishmen and Irishwomen who walked resolutely to their inevitable death in 1916 — only 98 years ago — followed a thousand-year cycle of never-ending refusal to accept an occupying regime of slavery. Ireland achieved its independence in 1923. America, I say this to you: If you do not rise up now and confront the tyrant resident in Washington your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will live in slavery to socialism and Sharia, in perpetuity.

35 thoughts on “Whistles the Wind

  1. One has to admire courage. My own grandfather fought against the Irish during the Rising. If he was the man I thought he was, he would have doen his job as part of the British Amy but would have felt uneasy about it all.

  2. This contentious analogy points to important political undertones in the West both historically and in the present in that islam has been a vehicle of political aspiration and influence of both the authoritarian left and right.

    In the UK that vehicle of political aspiration and influence at this time is more one of a social economic alliance than the outright promotion of an alien religion. Reversed colonialism where the civilised indigenous peoples are to be uncivilised and controlled by the natives of other lands and their false prophets.

    “A noble hart may have no ease, gif freedom failye”

  3. Most Brits started leaning towards “home rule” for Ireland from the 1870s on; the big problem was the Irish nationalist insistence on a “united Ireland” combined with Protestant Irish refusal to join a Catholic theocracy. After four years of fighting, Irish nationalists got what they could have got without firing a shot – independence for the Catholic south while the Protestant North remained British.

  4. A curious article indeed. The writer seems surprised that Britain used naval guns against the rebels. At a time when hundreds of thousands of men were being killed fighting the Germans; it is naïve to think the British government would allow an uprising to take hold, possibly with the support of our enemy. Which could then provide a base from which to attack Britain.
    This had been tried before in the 1790’s when Wolfe Tone of the United Irishman, attempted to persuade Napoleon to strike at Britain through Ireland. If he had, the course of European history might have been very different.
    I fail to see the, even tenuous, comparison towards the end of the article, between the American Colonies under British Rule and the “communistic and Islamic evil” of the present government of the U.S.
    I don’t understand why this was put up on a CJ website. To me it just seems like historical Brit Bashing, under cover of a warning against the communist muslims or Islamic communists or whatever running America. Very strange.

    • You’ve missed the point of the article entirely; the analogy is not so much in the description of what now ails America or the West for that matter in general, it is to point out that unless there is an uprising NOW throughout the West, then generations of our children will be doomed to repeat the mournful history of the Irish.

      • Sure, I understand the point about what the determined courage of a few may accomplish.

        However, I cannot help but note that so many of my American countrymen who wax nostalgic about the Easter Rising have also generously supported the IRA, that band of vicious thugs who have been in bed with every enemy of Western civilization from Hitler down through Qaddafi and Andropov; and who also invented the suicide bombing technique by taking a man’s family hostage until he blew up himself, his car, and a British checkpoint. Now that Gerry Bogtrotter Adams has been arrested for probable involvement in a woman’s murder back in the Troubles, I say it’s a crying shame that the UK no longer has the long drop and short tow. It was a national disgrace that the Clintons entertained such scum in the White House to ensure northeastern votes for their party. Apologies, Britain.

        I don’t care a fig about how many lachrymose songs about the young hoodlum Kevin Barry and poor, oppressed Erin are sung in Boston bars every March 17. Good King Billy’s 1690 victory over James VII and II ended the possibility of royal absolutism in the Anglosphere and made certain that Britain and its heirs would enjoy constitutional liberties for the next three hundred years. I will try to have an orange shirt to wear this July 12.

        BTW, while Protestant, I am an Anglo-Saxon through osmosis more than anything else, thanks to the immigrant-assimilating genius of the great Western Republic.

        • There has only been one successful revolution throughout history in which the true spirit of a free people, and as unshackled by the elite or the politics of the day, were able to accomplish real liberty along with the actual means of pursuing happiness – The American Revolution.

          All other revolutions have come at a price to the citizenry it was supposed to liberate due to the political influence of those orchestrating the revolution.

          The next revolution must of necessity to it surviving through time be similar in ideals to the American Revolution – anything else is second best and may as well not be pursued.

          At any given time in history it is those who are prepared to sacrifice their lives in the pursuit of their revolution who gain the high ground only to lose it to those more intent on commandeering the revolution for their own political ends.

          And that is what must be avoided!

          • As a child, my mother sold lillies on the streets of Galway to raise money for the IRA. One of my great uncles, also called Peter, was shot by the Black and Tans for violating curfew. However, the more my mother banged on about heroics and martyrdom, the more I rebelled against it and in the end I tended to suport the British, right or wrong. I hope that Gerry Adams gets what is coming to him if he is guilty of his part in the murder of that woman. I would also like to see McGuinness prosecuted for his part in “Bloody Sunday” but he seems to have negotiated an immunity from prosecution.

    • In following the many types of CJ sites; and CJ has morphed to address the Socialistic Jihad as well as the Islamic one, I notice the mood of the masses increasingly trending toward despair as our options diminish in the face of the burgeoning tyranny the elite continue to push. Eventually it is Rebellion or Slavery and at least the American Constitution is constructed to recognize the entitlement of the people to overthrow its government that has become its enemy.

      When your government forgets it works for the people and starts dictating to the people society has arrived at a pivot point. Some of the most transforming pivot points of history were the French and American Revolutions and the 1916 Rebellion to a lesser extent. Armed rebellion is the last resort. They are difficult to organize and take courage on a scale most humans cannot conceive of. They rely on tight internal control; the informer and collaborator are their worst enemies and government relies on these to put them down. These last points are what I hope readers will focus on. What is required is immense. Many voices tip-toe around the issue; I merely put facts to the issue.

      Any government’s biggest fear is NOT its foreign enemies; rather it is fear of its own people, particularly free thinking people who are not indoctrinated to believe the myriad lies every government spews every day. Every pivot point has a triggering event. For the western world it is the unwelcome, unsolicited mass infusion of unintegratable, intolerant, largely unemployable moslems into our unprepared society.

      My intent is to draw attention to where the Western world sits relative to the next historical pivot point. We are very close. Your average American or Frenchman’s understanding of their revolutions consists of a little text-book awareness, the odd movie and 4th of July and Bastille Day celebrations. They occurred 300 years ago and the emotional contact they evince only happens but rarely. That said I believe the flicker of awareness of the threat exists more deeply in the bosom of freedom loving Frenchmen and Americans than it does the rest of the west.

      Britain has never had to deal with such an existential threat; nor has Holland or Sweden or Germany. This threat is from WITHIN. The conflict will begin at home. Unlike wars of past glory there will be no national focus on the enemy. No marches to raise fervor and awareness. No naming of the enemy as he is next door and sitting in Westminster and the White House. The very people responsible for the security of the people, which is government’s responsibility, are the very people pushing us into disaster. Governments’ fear of the people manifests itself in the fierce control of the major organisms of state. Governmental control is exercised through its security apparatus; namely the various police entities. Look around you in Britain and observe the behavior of your various police. Police answer to public servants and when your police are arresting its citizens for speaking the truth and ignoring the seditious hate speech of a minority you surely are not far from disaster. The armed forces are different. The military (in the US at least swears an Oath to uphold the Constitution), not to uphold Government and certainly not to uphold practitioners of treason and treachery.

      P.S. Is ‘Brit Bashing’ now blasphemous? All truth should be discussed; hence the existence of history books, although the truth will appear differently in the history book of the victor than the vanquished. According to Wikipedia over 200,000 Irishmen served in the British army during WW1 and an estimated 30,000 died. I find your attitude curious. You might cuddle up to Anjem Choudary for a wee bit of sympathy regarding the audacity of the unwashed to criticize the truth of Britannia and Islam. I’d do it soon as in a few years old Anjem will be a lot less sympathetic.

      • I have no problem with you criticizing my country (Brit Bashing), we’re used to it. I know how many people around the world don’t like us: I don’t care.
        But when you dress it up in some kind of half-arsed anti-communist Islam / Islamo-communist nonsense, that you refer to in the last couple of paragraphs; I responded. When you seem to compare Ireland under British Rule to being what the U.S. will be like under sharia, I didn’t agree, I responded.
        There is only one comparison, that I can see, between Islam in the West and the British in Ireland.
        In 1170 the Earl of Pembroke, nicknamed Strongbow, landed in Ireland at the invitation of a local king to assist him with some internal Irish quarrel. In feudal times, whatever an Earl, Baron or Lord got a piece of: the King got a piece of. The Irish invited the “Brits” (initially Normans and Welsh) into their country. Everything else which happened, stemmed from that. The rest, as they say, is history.
        The leaders of the West have invited Muslims into our countries, and continue to do so. They have come (are coming); in vast numbers. Everyone who reads this site, and others like it, has there own view as to what the ultimate consequences of that open invitation are.
        However it wont be seen by us, but maybe by our children, possibly by our grand children or definitely (in my opinion) by our great-grand children what the results of that invitation, will prove to be.
        PS The only thing I’d cuddle up to Anjem Choudary with, is a sock full of £2 coins.

        • Patrick, they might not like us, but people around the world respect us even now after the leftist campaign of slander against our country kicked into overdrive. Also, those that hate us most have the deepest pockets when it comes to British foreign aid.

      • Max, your perception of a shift in opinions expressed on this site to address the socialistic jihad is accurate and reflects the unholy alliance between islam and the left. It is real and if nothing else, shows that leftists have not yet learned the lesson of the Iranian revolution.

      • Max, a well thought out and constructive assessment of the West today. Many things you mention I continually wrestle with in my thoughts because at some point in any nation’s history, there comes a time when thinking people can see the very wrong direction that government takes, and while many will say that if you don’t like the direction then become a politician, the time and money necessary just to get started in that direction is daunting and completely out of reach to most.

        I too believe we have passed the point where the political direction that the West is now on can be reversed through the political process and those who are likeminded, must now prepare ourselves for a push back of some kind.

  5. Many in Ireland may still wonder if only General Maxwell had not executed the leaders of the rebellion?

  6. Sorry, I just can’t believe that the U.S President is communist and islamic whatever his faults. Stay within the boundaries of crediblity please. When articles like this start appearing it damages your movement. And as for the linking the current problem of islamization with nationalist mythologies, well that helps nobody. I could point out that both the Irish and the US independence movements were not rebellions against tyranny because there was none. What they both have in common is they were both revolts against a democratic and liberal form of government which was doing its best to meet their concerns. Essentially they were power grabs by fanatics. The home government had to act in both cases to protect its loyal citizens. The Irish rebellion was successful due to a lack of will by weary politicians in Westminster. The US revolt only succeeded after the French won the battle of Yorktown. To hide the truth nationalistic mythologies were created. They should not be taken seriously today.
    I suggest that GOV does not get bogged down in historical arguments which go nowhere but concentrates on credible articles on the situation today. I feel there has been a decline in these over the last two years and too much emphasis on tea party fantasies. I have recommended GOV to many people I would like to continue to do so.

    • Your comment reflects revisionist history as re-written by those who have a political ideology to pursue – namely Communism. The true history of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as written by those who experienced first hand the oppressive policies of the English elite made lawful by Acts of Parliament is far more stark and mournful than what you have revealed with your comment.

      Why not check out what Oliver Cromwell did to the Irish after deposing King Charles in his eagerness to spread his brand of Christianity amongst the Catholics or what the English landlords did to their Irish and Scottish land renters in their own countries?

      This site only puts up posts that reflect the TRUTH and is not a movement in any political direction as you have suggested. That is the main reason I visit and put up comments. If I found this site to be political in any one direction I would not bother to do so.

      And the only people who lose credibility are those who would rather parrot what they have been told rather than do their own research when it comes to historical facts.

  7. It would seem very unfair to the British when the Irish took the opportunity to rebel when Britain was at war with somebody. But all free countries actually have done that with their enemies. You can’t fight a country when it is strong.
    How many times have read about those courageous, magnanimous, martyrs, whose last words pierced the air and the English conscience, if they had any. Defying death with those lofty words, those words that have seared themselves in our hearts. Those people had faith in their cause and sacrificed themselves for the love of their country and impoverished people: The most noble death under the sun.
    Now we come to the conclusion: what is the purpose of life: Be a PM and invite muslim invaders and repeat mantras of diversity mindlessly. Or is it to live like a celebrity and die when one is 52 of overdose?
    I very much wonder: If those Irish martyrs were alive today would they behave in such servitude to Islam as all western politicians, including Irish, do. Only yesterday the pastor, who told the truth about Islam was investigated, on the brink of tears, and apologized. Why Islam has so magic spell on the west to voluntarily kiss Islam shoes. What makes the west lose honor, dignity, nobility, to debase themselves to that low level? Can the west, after these abject attitudes towards Islam, have the face to talk about or utter the word freedom. Do they know what freedom is? A 12 year old muslim can take a white town hostage and the government is there to rationalize his behaviour, and find causes and mitigating reasons for it.
    Would the present rulers of Ireland defend Ireland if they had been born, say around 1877?
    Who would believe that the Irish, who we thought they loved their country literally to death, would take it from the British and offer it to muslims with their heads down as a homage to the supremacist masters.
    What happened to honor and courage. If they are absent in people better to die than to live. What happened to ” Give me liberty or give me death.” Ah replaced by: Give me Islam or give me death.
    The west : wake up. think about honor. taste it. Death with honor is noble and sweet.

    • Look, Bertrand Russell and a number of others told us it is better to live on our knees than die on our knees. Thanks to leaderships on both sides of the Atlantic who have taken his words to heart, we will do both.

  8. The IRA have always supported the palistinians and have been anti Israel and anti Jewish. They have painted palistinian flags on walls alongside their murals and flown palistinian flags.
    I don’t see the point of the above article, it is a non-sequitor on this site.

    • I should have also mentioned that Israeli flags are flown in the Protestant parts of Belfast.
      It is clear who supports whom.

  9. I’m sorry to see the Ulster Protestants dwindling. Stormont was one of the few European legislatures with the sense to reject Sodomite “marriage”–and to me, the normalization of perversion is a far greater risk to the West than Muslim immigrants (some of whom have converted to Christianity). Many of today’s advocates of creeping Islamicization were also advocates of radical feminism and tolerance for every deviance before that.

    • Your “perversion” is the way another human may instinctively feel about him/herself, even before puberty, and more strongly when adult.

      • Mark, the true homosexual, that is the effeminate male or masculine female, are born that way – the other brand of homosexuality – the Gay, is not. The Gay is turned into preferring the sexual company of the same gender through his/her upbringing, and as such must therefore be considered an abnormality or perversion which has some chance of being cured through psychiatric therapy.

        • Please note, the IRA was a Marxist organisation whose objective was not merely a united Ireland but a united Ireland under a single party Marxist state. Even in the 1960s, their members boasted of an aspiration to create an island in European waters to rival Castros Cuba.

        • Even if you’re correct, Nemesis, this doesn’t excuse the bigotry (stemming, I believe, from religion) of the Stormont government’s decision.

          I’m not often given to quoting that misogynistic fanatic, St Paul, but didn’t he advise us to “Hate the sin, but love the sinner”?

          • Mark, I believe that Christian based morality over the past four decades has largely taken a back seat to what is now seen as ‘normal’ but which when dominant, did hate the sin, while loving the sinner.

            The bigotry against what was once generally accepted as perversion, as you suggest, has come about due to the in your face process of enforcing ‘normalization’ of what was once considered to be sinful.

            You may lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink!

            And while the ‘perverts’ were once upon a time generally admonished by the clergy for their ‘sins’, they were forgiven by God on repenting for their sinfulness which issue was then left within the realms of Heaven.

            Compare what you believe to be bigotry against something that many find unacceptable today, to the political/social/personal and sometimes violent attacks against those who express such views.

            And so I ask you:

            Which system of moralizing do you believe is the most damaging to civilization?

    • “the normalization of perversion is a far greater risk to the West than Muslim immigrants”

      Whatever reservations one may have about the contemporary normalisation of homosexuality, it is utterly preposterous to contend what has been contended above. The Islamisation of the West spells civilisational suicide and the consignment of future generations of Westerners to a life of second-class “subjects” at best.

      Belief in the foregoing proposition is the raison d’être of this site. GoV should not become a place for “homo-bashers”. One of the earliest and best publicised Counter-Jihadists was a homosexual man, Bruce Bawer, as was one of Europe’s first political leaders to boldly identify Islamic immigration to the West as a major problem, Pym Fortuyn. Without the latter, the great man (whose greatness may only be recognised decades from now), Geert Wilders, would have had a much harder row to hoe in attaining recognition and support for his anti-Islam agenda in the Netherlands and Europe.

  10. Nemesis- Rather than try the considerable patience of the Baron and Dymphna with a detailed reply to your last paragraph, may I refer you to my last reply (two up from the end) to his post of 5th June, “Principal Product of Minnesota: Jihad” (I thought it was politeness, or maybe snow).

    I quote the appalling treatment of illegitimate children and their mothers by Catholic nuns in Ireland (details are still emerging), and refer to the bigotry suffered by my “bastard” mother at the hands of her “devout”- and hypocritical- Methodist inlaws. Muslims may be world champions at the brutal imposition of their alleged religion on others, if this answers your question, but they’ve had no shortage of competition.

    • Mark, I am well aware of the ‘inconsistencies’ to practice what is preached between adherents of a religious code and its practitioners.

      I am Catholic by baptism. I abandoned my beliefs as I grew older due to several earlier in life ‘incidents’ involving the intemperance of the Nuns and a physical approach by a so called Priest.

      However, I do not condemn the whole established Church for the actions of a few – no matter how systemic those actions may appear to be imbedded. Yes, organized religion most definitely has a case to answer but, and I put this point forward because I believe it is most valid – Christianity is superior to Islam in all aspects particularly so in its caring for those who find themselves at a disadvantage to ‘normal’ society, and regardless of the actions of a few who take advantage of the young or those they perceive have committed ‘sin’, the greater good of Christianity has always benefited mankind, unlike Islam which has subjected and continues to subject its believers to a life of misery in most Muslim states.

      We are all human and subject to our upbringing which may include many biases that can lead to bigotry – but I ask you what is wrong with having a bigoted view or an intolerance toward others if the bigot has formed his/her bigotry through observation and personal experience – isn’t bigotry just expressing a personal opinion?

      • Nemesis-

        Even though I was partially raised in an orphanage -mostly by young Irish nuns just off the boat and dying of the Florida heat – I seem to have been more fortunate in my “organized religion” experiences than you were. A kindly Irish priest who’d been sent to the parish to dry out (I didn’t know that until I was an adult) took a liking to my Irish mug and used to pretend to count my freckles. He’d bring me over to the rectory and have the housekeeper fix Waldorf salad for me since I loved it so much. He died suddenly in his sleep; a heart attack at the age of 47. I never really healed from that loss; every January 18th I think of him. Again, as an adult, I now know that loneliness killed him.

        When I was studying theology and it came time for the gospels and Paul’s letters, I saw so clearly that where two or three are gathered in His Name, at least two are vying for power. I finally saw the point and started laughing…

        …organized anything leads to a mess of in-fighting. We learn how to do it in our families and carry that template out into the larger world. I’m sure you’ll agree that just because no family is perfect, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t darken the doorways of our relatives again. For me, it is the same with religion. Being a semi-invalid is frustrating because I don’t get to celebrate the yearly observances of holy days anymore. Sitting in the woods communing with nature doesn’t do it for me. I want ritual. Sacred space and sacred time and in that space and time, sacred music shared with others. The Psalmist said singing was praying twice though the Quakers might not agree.

        Bigotry? It’s built into the human brain. But don’t tell the kumbiyah folks – they’ll be forced to be bigoted re your pov. Cognitive dissonance will make they heads ‘splode.

        • Dymphna, I have just read your reply to my comment and I find myself completely blown away by your openness! Please let me reply to your insightful comment tomorrow when I have dried out, as that Priest was supposed to have done. I do like black beer.

          You are such a deep soul.

          • Amen! (If that’s not irreverent). I still find ritual too close to hypnosis, bypassing the critical faculties God (?) gave us, but I was raised Nonconformist!

  11. Dymphna, I was going to include in my last post to Mark that religion is not for everyone, but there are many who need to have it in their lives as a comfort and to let their soul imbibe in its ritual.

    You are one such person, and from your writings you convey a sense of inner peace that reflects in what you subscribe to. In many ways your thoughts remind me of my Nana who was indeed a very deep soul and who without obligation radiated love and kindness to all, even when the chips were down on the home front.

    She was a wonderful person.

    And speaking of ritual, our lives are almost governed by some kind of ritual or discipline if you will. Those who are able to accept a regimented life style are usually those who truly have their house in order and generally raise families who appreciate life and what life has to offer to those who are inquisitive without being over bearing toward others in thought and in deed.

    My formative years in Convents and The Christian and Marist Brothers, were overall, quite memorable. I have many more fond memories of my times at those institutions than bad ones. Perhaps that is why I still uphold the Christian religion as a general force for good in the world – and let’s face it, there must be something going for it if the Marxists spend so much effort in trying to destroy it.

    My view of life now is that it is a personal thing between God and God’s people that no mere human can facilitate while acting in a role of intermediary. Anyone who doubts the existence of God, is in my humble opinion, completely blind to all that is around them.

    Mark, you being raised a non-conformist – I guess that inculcates within you a certain cynicism of many things, including religion?

    At some point in your life though, surely you must begin to appreciate that life is not simply all black and white issues?

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