HEART BEAT: I have been busy recently, reliving my student days up until my qualification. Accordingly I essentially excluded all that was happening around me in the big bad world, writes Maurice Neligan.
"And righteous men
Shall make our land
A nation once again"
My medical journey will resume in the New Year with the stories and experiences of my year as an intern in the Mater Hospital.
This will compare and contrast the then and now. This reflective odyssey is cathartic for me, although not in the medical sense. It is rather a fumbling attempt to make sense of it all and to discern the rivulet of progress, indeed sometimes a broad stream of medical knowledge connecting my past and present.
Anybody can jump ship at any time if the confusion between the old and new becomes too great. Indeed I know many good psychiatrists and counsellors who would be willing to take on any malcontents who feel unable to follow this devious course.
Meanwhile, to return to my saner readers; I had hoped that when the fog of battles long passed had dissipated and I had returned to the real world, everything would have improved.
I realise that I am a trusting and naive soul, because realistically there were the two proverbial chances of that. The world brightened as usual for me by the advent of Christmas, otherwise looked distinctly gloomy.
Although I am a medical professional, I do not live in a cocoon, and I feel the need, as do most folk, to express my feelings about the events that impinge on our daily lives.
Several important things suggest themselves. I have lived through the latest exacerbation of the seemingly eternal "troubles" in the North, from the brief campaigns of the mid '50s right up to the "peace process" of today.
The earlier campaign achieved nothing, excepting the addition of a hero or two to the Republican pantheon, and the bringing about of internment in this State. There were the usual ballads, justifying Chesterton's assertion;
"... the Irish,
The men that God made mad
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad."
In what seemed to be no time at all, both sides were at it again. The Civil Rights movement produced extreme Unionist reaction. Bloodshed and the phoenix-like revival of the IRA quickly followed, ushering in generations of misery and grief. Then came peace of a kind and political posturing on both sides. Both communities had their own internal struggles, and currently the hard liners on either side are in the ascendancy.
As I write we are scuppered again over the issue of photographic verification of disarmament. "We don't like each other but we may have to do business." That's tough. Only why don't you all have a shot at growing up and joining the real world?
I would suggest that the old weary posturing will not transpose easily to the world of the future. It runs the considerable risk of alienating the young, to whom this future belongs. A plague on both your houses lads, and your bloody mondates (phonetically speaking).
Have your photographs taken, and try being nice to each other. Spare us the cant about humiliation and the convoluted speech and spin, for frankly, I and I suspect a large majority of people do not care any more. Most folk just want to live peacefully and without fear. Nor do they want to see paramilitaries of whatever hue simply transmute into drug dealing, protection and racketeering.
Let our legitimately elected governments on this small island get on with making it a better place for all. If we have to fight, let us fight ignorance, handicap, poverty, and all kinds of disadvantage. For that purpose we can all join in and feel proud of ourselves. Let the Big Men step forward and show willing, and give the long suffering silent majority a break. I cannot leave this subject without reference to Jerry McCabe. It sickens every right thinking person I know that the family of this brave man can be used as pawns in this infernal charade.
I don't think any government should do something that clearly the vast bulk of the citizenry do not wish. Do the means justify the end? I think not. Talk of demands, army councils etc. leaves me cold.
We have an elected government; we have one army and one police force, and a working democracy of which we can justifiably be proud. That's us, come and join in, but abide by the rules. Agreement must be between righteous people and conditions that impugn our integrity must be rejected. No amount of spin can turn dross into gold. Only acceptance of reality and the exercise of goodwill can provide our Philosopher's stone.
This is all very dreary but, as I have said, being a doctor does not isolate you from your community, and indeed your calling is the antithesis of the killing and hatred we have all endured. Let us try another path.
Dr Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon