Travels with Ulick

Travels with Ulick by Ulick O’Connor. Mercier Press, Cork, 1996. SB, pp 96.

This review was written on August 18, 2005.

I was out walking with Ulick on the 12 August and afterwards during our talk in his house he gave me a copy of this short account of his first lecture tour in America in 1967. I had finished the book before I went to bed that evening. I enjoyed reading it. It was light-hearted and amusing in parts and was absorbing because of his references to the various social and political disturbances which prevailed in the United States at the time - Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King, widespread student disturbances and the residue of McCarthyism.

Like all good diary writers, Ulick is vain enough to stimulate one's interest in his own personality and the many people he met. He relates his account with the honesty and frankness which I have always found during my long friendship with him. His concise and effective writing, and particularly his use of short sentences make for easy reading and gives a description of the American scene in the 1960s which accords closely to my own experience when I first went there in 1962. I met a different class of American - academics, hospital consultants, public health specialists and epidemiologists. Most would have been European in their outlook and international in their interests. I would have had less contact with the American political scene and with the 'typical' American. Ulick's contacts were mostly with media, literary people, academics, students and university staff. They apparently made up the great bulk of his listeners. They may have included what we then called the blue rinse brigade. Their ignorance of Irish affairs was balanced by intense interest in Ulick's talks on Ireland and it's literature, politics and history of the early 20th century.

His frequent allusions to the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and other contemporary problems then existing in America are evocative of these turbulent times. He refers to the extraordinary link between religious fundamentalism and the pursuit of wealth, a feature of the United States which had its origin in the pragmatic attitude of the early settlers. Other references to the American scene bring back memories of these times. He describes the unacceptable level of violence in the country, including his own brushes with violent people, and the Americans’ denial of the massacres and near extermination of the indigenous people of the continent. The widespread personal violence and corporate corruption we associate with America must have its origins in the degree of personal freedom enshrined in its constitution and its history, and the absence of an effective system of law and order in the early days, particularly among those who pioneered the exodus to the plains and the West. The increase in personal violence and corporate corruption in Ireland and other European countries is evidence of the Americanisation of Europe and the world, of their materialism and waste of the planet’s natural resources, their limitless urge to enhance their standard of living which is a chimera in pursuit of happiness.

Loyola University circa 1950

Ulick refers to Loyola University where he had been a student for a year about 1952. It was
 sad to read his account of the University on his later visit there. He described the  destruction of many of the sporting and exercise facilities which existed during his student year. No doubt this was evidence of the American drift towards the sedentary life and the obesity syndrome, why they have become couch potatoes and television viewers of the sporting elite.

Can we anticipate the same fate for sport and exercise for the non-elitist students at University College at Belfield where there has been a continuous and increasing invasion of the sports fields by new buildings and, from my observations as a frequent walker on the campus, decreasing student activity on the sports fields in recent years? And will this trend continue into the future with an ambitious administration putting such emphasis on research and technology, and encouraging a closer association with industry and creation of wealth? I do not think Newman would approve.

I wonder if competing in the industrial and commercial world is more important for our third level students, our future leaders, than having a rounded general education, being concerned about civics and the care of the planet, being caring citizens, and learning the value of good physical and mental health.

Ascendancy to Oblivion

“Ascendancy to Oblivion – The Story of the Anglo-Irish” by Michael McConville. Phoenix Press, London.  2001 (1986) pp  288.

This review was written on December 8th 2004.

I read this book at the end of August 2004 having borrowed it from Geoffrey Dean. The contents are based on secondary sources. The author traces the people arriving in Ireland from the earliest recorded history and describes the many invasions since the Celts first arrived on our shores.  He finds it difficult to define exactly what we mean by the Anglo-Irish in view of the heterogeneous nature of the current Irish population, made up as it is of Celts, Vikings, Norman’s, Anglo-Saxons, Scots, Welsh and a scattering from other European countries.  He proposes that the latter-day definition of the title refers to those who came to Ireland at the time of the Cromwellian settlement and who dispossessed most of the great pre-Cromwellian landowners of Elizabethan, Norman and Gaelic stock. 

The Cromwellian landowners became the dominant group in the Protestant Irish Parliament up to the time of the Union. It was they who continued after the Union to hold their possessions up to the time the Land Acts were enacted.  The word Ascendancy refers to their occupation and control of much of the land of Ireland while the word Oblivion in the title refers to their loss of property and privilege starting with the Land Acts towards the end of the 19^th Century, with further erosion in the early 20^th Century leading to their deteriorating economic, political and social circumstances.

The text underlines the great tragedy of the Anglo-Irish landowners after the Union.  Their gradual separation from their tenants and from the people of Ireland as they deserted Dublin and the provinces for the wealth, power and influence of London and Westminster had a baleful effect on their power and influence in Ireland. And they deserted Ireland often in response to the bribes of the British authorities at the time of the Union. Later their influence was further depleted by the 1916 Rebellion, the rhetoric of the Republic and the disaster of the Civil War.

A relatively few landlords remained in Ireland, and administered their own properties personally and some showed concern for their tenants. While not realised at the time, the Union of Great Britain and Ireland established in 1801 spelled the beginning of the end of the Anglo-Irish as defined by Michael MeConville.

It is clear that the absentee landlords, removed from their responsibilities in Ireland and their contact with the native population and culture, had a baleful influence on English policy in Ireland. Many English politicians, even on the Tory side, such as Wellington, were more sympathetic to Irish reform than is generally realised but any concern the British might have felt for reform was discouraged by the Irish nobility living in London.  Pitt had promised early Catholic emancipation as part of the terms of the Union but legislation was delayed for another 28 years, partly at least because of the influence of the Irish nobility. Blame for the famine and the many other disasters which occurred during the 19^th Century is generally levelled at the British but, with few exceptions, the Anglo-Irish nobility must bear a major part of the responsibility. They contributed to their own oblivion by supporting the Union, by leaving their tenants and by deserting to Westminster.

For a reader seeking knowledge of the political, cultural and social history over the two millennia, Ascendancy to Oblivion gives a useful account of the major influences which determined the fate of the landed gentry.  Tracing every immigration to Ireland over the two millennia gives a rounded account of the polygenetic Irish people. It provides an informative and amusing account of the governing classes in Ireland during the years they largely governed themselves and dominated the lives of the great majority of the Irish people, at least up to the time of the Union.

I have to say that this short review only touches one aspect of the history of our latter day ascendancy. We still have the remains of their people and families in Ireland, some of whom have usefully continued the occupation and welfare of their estates and who have played their part in the welfare and success of the New Ireland. In particular, some members of the landed classes paid a crucial part in the Celtic Revival of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.

“Galileo’s Daughter – a drama of science, faith and love” by Dava Sobel.  Fourth Estate, London 2000 (1999) pages 429

This review was written in December 2004 and amended in January 2005.

This paperback is described as “completely unputdownable” by a reviewer. If for no other reason but as the story of one of the world’s great geniuses, it is certainly essential reading for those seeking a knowledge of European history, the role of the Vatican  and the march of science. Sobel uses the correspondences between Maria Celeste Galilei, the older daughter of Galileo Galilei, to her father as the background to the lifetime and achievements of Galileo himself. Galileo never married but had three children, two girls and a boy, by Marena Gamba who subsequently married somebody else!  Galileo was born in 1564 and died January 1642.  His two daughters entered a convent near Florence where they were incarcerated largely because of their illegitimacy.  The boy Vincenzio was legitimised by the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1619, having been born in 1606. 

The book gives a good background to life in Northern and Central Italy during the late 16^th and early 17^th Centuries. It underlines the huge influence of the Vatican in the political, social and spiritual life of the people.  Life was cheap then thanks to recurring epidemics of plague and to various other ill defining fevers which must have included malaria, TB, typhoid, smallpox and other less common infections. Galileo was not immune and suffered many illnesses and disabilities during his lifetime. Although he lived to the age of 78, many others included in the elaborate family tree published in the book failed to reach the age of 50.

Whilst the book is a detailed account of the relationship between Galileo and his older daughter, the substance of the book portrays what a remarkable person Galileo was at a time when the world was guided largely by superstition and tradition, and when there was little evidence of a scientific approach to natural phenomena. 

Galileo might well have been a 20^th Century scientist with all the energy, the insights, the serendipity and the enquiring mind of one of our leading inventors.  He was first noted for his major advances to the telescope which allowed him to see into space to study the stars and he invented many other useful gadgets and made huge contributions to the knowledge of astronomy and of the physical phenomena of motion and of measurement.  He remained a fervent Catholic all his life but was probably one of the first to disagree with the Church’s dogma that scripture determined the form and the function of the natural world and that anything which was contrary to scripture was a form of heresy. 

The critical situation facing Galileo was the question of the centrality of the earth in the Universe.  Copernicus had published the view that the sun was the centre, at least of the planetary system, although he provided no definite proof of such a concept. Indeed, far back in Greek and Egyptian times the centrality of the earth was doubted by some observers.  Galileo went further than Copernicus by providing some astronomical evidence to confirm the centrality of the sun, but his views were to lead him into serious trouble with the Vatican and particularly with his old friend Pope Urban VIII who became his implacable foe on the issue.

Pope Urban VIII

Galileo’s challenge to scripture was totally unacceptable to His Holiness. who  had previously been Masseo Cardinal Barbini and had been a long-term admirer and supporter of Galileo. It was in 1622 that Barbini succeeded Gregory and adopted the title of Urban VIII, Before his elevation to the Papacy he had been very concerned about the Reformation and about counteracting the loss of the faithful in Germany and Switzerland.  Galileo reminded him that part of their reluctance to return to the Church was the Church’s conservative views about Copernicus and his own views in relation to the centrality of the earth.  This appeared to increase Barbini’s interest in Galileo’s proposition and it is difficult to understand why, after he had become Pope, he became so implacably opposed to Galileo and his advanced  views of the world’s real ralatiohship with the solar system.

Clearly when Urban VIII became so implacably opposed to Galileo he must have been influenced by some of Galileo’s enemies. Like all innovators and advanced thinkers, Galileo had many enemies, both within the clergy and among the less enlightened laity, including some resentful and jealous colleagues. While he met much opposition and bitterness in his own country, his work was greatly admired and accepted by scientists in Holland, Germany, Switzerland and the more advanced and less bible committed countries.

 

Maria Celeste Galilei

Despite Galileo’s strong conviction about the centrality of the sun he was obliged to renounce his views some years before his death. He was forbidden to write or teach on the subject.  He was virtually treated as a house prisoner during the rest of his days after he had been sentenced by the Vatican’s Inquisition.  He had much covert support, even from Churchmen and Church leaders in Italy and particularly from scientists abroad.  It was a classical case of the reluctance of most people to accept his revolutionary views, views which lead to denial, insecurity and hostility amongst many of those who became his critics and his enemies.  He was isolated from the public to an extraordinary degree during his lifetime in Italy but his life was made tolerable by the loyalty, support and sympathy of friends and colleagues. His greatest support was his daughter Maria Celeste who, from her enclosed convent and through her frequent correspondences, sustained him with her love, compassion and her advice up to the time of her own tragic death. 

It may seem a step from the sublime to the ridiculous when I recall my own experience of denial, indifference and hostility during my own professional career.  On the one hand I was almost alone on these Islands in the 1960s in advocating risk factor identification and modification as a rational basis for the treatment and rehabilitation of coronary patients, while the rest of my cardiological colleagues confined their treatment regimes to drugs, surgery and angioplasty. It is only in recent years that cardiologists have begun to pay attention to the fundamental need to seek out causes of arterial disease and to deal with such causes vigorously, not only in the healthy population but also in patients who suffer from coronary disease.  The same indifference and covert hostility was evident among my colleagues during the early years when I was advocating in public the importance of cigarette smoking control, healthy nutrition and the value of exercise in maintaining physical and psychological health.  We have seen over the past 50 years or more huge advances in diagnosis and treatment but at the same time we have seen an excessive emphasis on therapeutic and invasive intervention and a general neglect of causation and of a natural approach to prevention and to encouraging the healing powers of nature by natural means.

   

The Roman Church’s conflict with Galileo and his condemnation by the Inquisition can only be ascribed to ignorance, superstition and the abuse of power. Nowhere in the book does the author say that the Church accepted the truth of the centrality of the Sun.  It was only very recently that the Vatican officially accepted the concept put forward by Galileo

Hobson's Choice

Bulmer Hobson and the Nationalist Movement in Twentieth-Century Ireland, Marnie Hay. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2009. pp 275. SB

The following letter was written by me to Marnie Hay, author of the above book, on June 6th 2009.

Dear Marnie,

I have now finished your biography of Bulmer Hobson. I congratulate you on this excellent biography, obviously based on the most diligent and detailed research. You said at the launch that it took you ten years to finish the book. I am not at all surprised if I am to judge by the extent of the bibliography and the vast number of references.

You have succeeded well in conveying the personality of your subject. He comes across as an energetic and quite an obsessional character with a compulsion to follow his political and social instincts and at times a reluctance to compromise. He also seemed to have the capacity to accept the frequent slings and arrows of outrageous fortune by retiring, if only temporarily, into the background. We had all heard of him preceding 1916 but in my case at least he had later disappeared from the pages of Irish history.

An important aspect of your biography was the detailed information you provide about the many different forces and levels of nationalism which existed and evolved from the late 19^th century up to 1916. I have to confess that up to now I had far too simplistic a view of these forces although I was aware of the conflict between some IRB members and Griffith, and the dominant role of the Irish Parliamentary Party.

I do not think 1916 could have happened if there had been a greater coherence between pre-Rising nationalists and if the small minority of separatists had not been influenced by Clarke and McDermott, and eventually by Pearse and a few others. How many volunteers would have joined in the 1916 Rising if they had known that it was the action it proved to be and not simply manoeuvres?

My father played a crucial part in the Ashbourne action and I doubt if the Fingal Brigade would have gone on the attack without his initiative and encouragement when, at the arrival of the heavily armed police force, Ashe thought of retiring. These facts are well documented and led either Diarmuid O’Hegarty or Denis McCullough to remark that ‘’Mulcahy was the only person who emerged from 1916 with a military reputation.’’ He was deeply religious and a man of peace. Would he have taken part in 1916 if he had known that he would be responsible for the deaths of nine innocent policemen? I often wonder why he refused to attend when the President, Seán T. O’Kelly, unveiled the monument celebrating the Ashbourne event in 1959. Was it the less acceptable aspects of 1916, as recorded by my father on tape during one of our conversations? It was hardly his poor opinion of O’Kelly and his concern of being patronised by him. By 1959 he had been fully reconciled to O’Kelly and, with my mother and family, he had often visited O’Kelly during the previous 14 years when the latter had been President of Ireland.

In my biography of my father, I had this to say:

If 1916 had not occurred, our conception of a nation separate from Britain would have been accentuated by the strong cultural movement which had much wider support than the forces of militancy which were unleashed by the Rising. The cultural revival which was gathering strength from the late 19^th century to the Rising in 1916, added to the political consciousness following the 1798 centenary celebrations,  had wide community support, from Protestant and Catholic as well as some of the land-owners and others who had no thought of separatism or even limited home rule. Yeats, George Russell, Standish O’Grady, Douglas Hyde, Edward Martyn, Synge, George Moore, Lady Gregory, Pádraig Colum, G.B. Shaw as well as Griffith and Rooney and the stirrings of Sinn Féin, represented a powerful force for national  revival and national consciousness which would inevitably have led to a degree of self-government and separatism which would have satisfied our most ardent nationalists before 1916 and which would have avoided the disaster of our civil war and the long-standing and unnatural division of our country. 

I might have added the GAA, Conradh na Gaeilge and the National University among other progressive influences and the support of the British Irish Secretary, Birrell, for reasonable Irish aspirations.

Hobson was certainly insightful in opposing 1916 and in his persistent faith in civil disobedience and guerrilla warfare, as was proved later during the War of independence. Without 1916 we would not have had the damaging rhetoric of the Republic. And his reputation was ill-served by accusations of cowardice. His correspondence during the early years of the Free State and up to his retirement was consistent with his restless concern about the wellbeing of Ireland. He must have had a measure of patience and forbearance to have encountered so much indifference and opposition to his ideas.

Again, my congratulations on your seminal contribution to recent Irish history.

Yours sincerely,

Risteárd Mulcahy.

Another time, another place.

Fiche Blian ag Fás. 

Muiris O’Suilleabháin. An Sagart, An Daingean, 2002. an Ceathrú Eagrán.

This review was written on 20th April 2010

Doctors are familiar with the patient who comes into the surgery with some complaint or other and then adds in a gloomy resigned way “I’m afraid I’m getting old.”  In responding to this remark I used to say that it is surely better than the alternative.  My meaning could take a moment or two to register but the patient would frequently cast off some of the gloom and look a little brighter about things.

I am reminded of the not uncommon gloomy preoccupation with ageing when I read Maurice O’Sullivan’s Twenty Years a’ Growing, the English translation of his Fiche Blian Ag Fás, his description of life on the Blasket Islands off the coast of Kerry in the early part of the 20^th century.  During one of his many conversations with a grandson who called his grandfather Daddo, the old man said 

"Did you ever hear how the life of a man is divided?

Twenty years a growing, twenty years in blossom,

Twenty years a stopping, twenty years declining.

Look now, I have sayings you have never heard!”

‘’And in which twenty are you now?” said O’Sullivan.  And grandfather replied “in the last twenty and it is to God I am thankful for his gifts.”

As I get older and occasionally think of my vanishing youth, I am comforted by Daddo’s prayer of thanks.  As I get older too I am learning that one can improve with age and that many of the physical and cerebral disabilities associated in the popular mind with late middle age are the products of disuse and neglect rather than the products of ageing.  Use your mind and use your body and if you do so prudently you have no need to fear these later years.

This book was conceived by Muiris O’Suilleabháin between 1929 and 1932 after some encouragement from some of his friends. He lived in Conamara at this time. He had joined the Civic Guards and lived his entire professional life in the Conamara Gaelteacht because, one assumes, of his knowledge of the Irish language. It was customary in the Guards that no officer was appointed to his own part of the country. O’Súilleabháin, born in the Great Blasket Island, was induced to write about his young life the Blaskets and Dingle.

An tOileánach by Tomás O’Criomhthain was published in 1929 and Peig had been published by Peig Sayers is 1936. They formed the trio of authors in Irish from the Blaskets which made that island so famous afterwards. I cannot remember if I had read any of these books before but I was fortunate to have the fourth edition of the Fiche Blain ag Fás in my library. During the last few years I have made a more serious effort to become an Irish speaker again after my fifty years of neglect of the language following my departure from school. I dealt with my attitude to the language and my father and my family’s background to the language on pages 216-218 in my autobiography published in 2010.

The Irish spoken in the Blaskets was almost a patois in the sense that it had words and expressions which differed widely from the Irish which we were brought up with in Dublin and indeed from the rich Munster Irish which we knew so well in Corcha Dheana during our summer holidays in Ballyferriter and Baile Mór during the late 1920s and the 1930s. The Blasket form of Iriish is well noted in the text of O’Súilleabháin’s book. It left me (and even in Tomas de Bhaildriethe’s Irish-English dictionary) at a loss as to some of its words and phrases, My reading in Irish was slow and tedious at first but my comprehension improved as I progressed although I was still left with having to guess  some phrases of his text.

The author was the last and fifth member of a family in the island whose mother died shortly after his birth. He was fostered to Dingle for his first ten or eleven years and only then returned to the island to his father and grandfather and his four siblings. He had no Irish until he returned to his family but he soon learned to become part of its tight community.

In his book he has left a warm, sentimental and sometimes sad memoir of the community, its tightly connected people and the ambience of its natural features of sky, sea, landscape, the grandeur of Dingle Bay, the Kerry coast, the distant Skelligs and mountains as far as the McGillicuddy Reeks.  It became increasingly apparent as one reads his account that, over the years from 1912 after O’Súilleabháin’s return to the island to his departure to the mainland in 1927, there was a slow but inexorable departure of the young people, mostly to America and to Springfield and Boston, to join their families there.

The young were largely influenced to migrate to America by the encouragement and financial support of their American siblings and also by the globalisation changes taking place in modern society. Fiche Blian ag Fás is tinged in all its pages with the sadness of a dying community which was unique in our country.

Getting ready to launch the Naomhóg

The author conveys a close and isolated community on the island, the simplicity of their lives, the close relationship between all generations and the vagaries of the weather. They were close to nature with their donkeys, sheep, goats and rabbits on land and the dominant part played in their lives by fishing and by the ocean wildlife, including the masses of seals (Rón) on the rocks and beaches, the whales (Míol) and the ever-present birdlife nesting on the cliffs and on every nook and cranny not too accessible to humanity. Fishing formed a dominant part in their livelihood and it was conducted in the Naomhóg, a canvas covered and latticed currach which was unique to the Kerry coast. Fish was plentiful, except during prolonged stormy weather, not infrequent in the West coast of Ireland. However, the fish was preserved in barrels full of salt in some households. The naomhóg was a safe boat, even in rough weather, in expert and experienced hands.  My own experience as a child when returning from the Blaskets late in the evening in very rough weather was terrifying as the boat mounted the huge waves only to be immediately followed by a precipitous fall into an abyss of wild confusion. All this was part of the daily lives of the fishermen who became powerful oarsmen and were only rarely assisted in quieter seas by a sail.

Music, singing and dancing were some of the pastimes of the younger people with the older parents and grandparents always in close attendance and full of talk and gossip... the fireside was the centre of the house and was the natural place of repose of the older people, all of whom appeared to be sucking at their pipes or dudeens. Tobacco appeared to be one of the few imports from the main land and was always greatly valued by the older Blasket community.

There is a touching piece about O’Súilleabháin and his first love, Mairéad. Of a sudden he falls in love with her but he was loath to show his feelings. However, after a few impersonal encounters, he heard her say casually to him the word cuid and this was to bring the two together for the rest of his stay in the Blaskets.  Cuid was the Irish for my dear and would be used among lovers. It was a passionate relationship within the strict mores of the Island at the time. Yet, once he left the island to join the Civic Guards in 1927 when he was about 24 years of age there is no mention of her nor does he in his autobiography mention anything about his personal affairs afterwards, including his marital and family status. He was the last of his siblings to leave the island for the mainland and for the future.  

No ordinary Empress

Catherine the Great – Portrait of a Woman 1729-1796. by Robert K. Massie. Random House, NY, 1911. Read on Kindle.

This review was written on August 10th 2012

Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, was the eldest surviving daughter of

Peter the Great

Peter I (Peter the Great), Emperor of Russia. Whilst emperor, Peter undertook extensive reforms in overcoming the opposition of the aristocracy, in creating a navy on the Baltic and reorganising the army. He secularised the schools and administered greater control over the Orthodox Church. He introduced new administrative and territorial divisions of the country.  Amongst many other reforms he modernised the Russian alphabet, introduced the Julian calendar and established the first Russian newspaper. Although, clearly a forward thinker, he could be cruel and harsh in dealing with his 

subjects. He died in 1725 without nominating an heir.

Elizabeth, Empress of Russia

Peter’s daughter Elizabeth’s claim to the throne was disputed (her parents were unmarried when she was born) so it took almost twenty years for her to become the supreme ruler of Russia. She was elected Empress in 1743, after deposing the infant Emperor Ivan the Fourth and his mother Anna Leopoldov who was acting as Regent. Elizabeth never married nor had any children so in order to secure the throne she invited Ekaterina Alekseyevn from the German State of Holstein (who had close family ties), and her cousin Peter to Petrograd where they married as young as 14 or 15 as Grand Duke and Duchess of Russia.

Peter III

Elizabeth died in 1762 and was immediately replaced by Peter, who became Peter 111 but he was unstable and immature, and totally unsuited to any form of leadership. His tenure was brief. In 1763 it was brought to an abrupt end by his wife’s collaborators. He died under unexplained circumstances while under their supervision. Ekaterina adopted the title Catherine 11 when she became Empress and remained Empress until her death in 1796.

Catherine the Great

Catherine was noted for her liberal outlook, her interest in self-education and her warm and informal personality. She added fluent Russian and French to her native German. From the early years of her reign she kept in close touch with Voltaire, Diderot, Grimm and other European authors connected with the 18^th century Enlightenment.

During Catherine’s early years as Empress she showed a liberal approach to her subjects by abolishing torture and by reducing the number of executions to a very low level. In her second year she founded a College School of Medicine. She soon established hospitals in every province and medical facilities in every county including an institution for unwanted babies. She was the first to accept vaccination for smallpox from a doctor she invited from Scotland and encouraged its widespread use among her subjects.

Her very liberal approach was exemplified in the publication of the Nakaz which she wrote embodying her liberal approach

 towards government and towards the people.  But after the unexpected and serious rebellion by Pugachev, the Cossacks and southern Russians ten years after her elevation, which threatened the stability of government, she adopted a less liberal approach, stating that this would be necessary until the population became more educated. At no time was she able to overcome the resistance of the nobility and big landowners in an effort to improve the lot of the 10 million serfs in the country.

The Empress was averse to war in Europe although she managed to carve up Poland, sharing it with Austria and with Fredric of Prussia. Poland was to wait 120 more years to the first great war of 1914-1918 before she became a separate nation again. She also had two successful wars against the Turks. Grigory Potemkin was the leading administrator Catherine had during her later years as Empress. He was her most trusted representative and the real power in the southern part of the country. He was responsible for the success of the two Turkish wars and for the extension of the Russian state in the south at the cost of the Turks, and the opening up of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Potemkin was ambitious, powerful, very efficient and fervent in his loyalty to the Empress. Apart from ruling southern Russia for many years on her behalf, he also played a major role in reforming the army, expanding and modernising the country’s naval resources and in taking control of Russia’s foreign affairs.

Potemkin

One of the remarkable things about the Empress was her personal history. She had a number of lovers, twelve in all. Her marriage to Peter, her cousin and Grand Duke, was unsuccessful. They did sleep in the same bed during Empress Elizabeth’s reign but the marriage was never consummated, almost certainly because of his inability or lack of inclination. She had three children by three other men. She was quite open in her sexual life and was always unhappy when she did not have a sexual partner. The older she was the younger the lovers appeared to be. She was clearly devoted to sex and to frequent sexual activity. Her lovers tended to have a limited duration and when a relationship came to an end it was generally amicable and the lover was invariably treated with every consideration of honours and wealth. However, her lovers were not infrequently jealous of her and often resented when she became tired of them.

Primogeniture had been suspended in Russia sometime before Catherine the Great but after much uncertainty she nominated her first illegitimate son Paul as the next Emperor.  This was in accordance with primogeniture and this existed as part of the Romanoff family right up to 1917 when the revolution occurred.  Paul was accepted by the Russians as the son of Catherine’s husband Peter III but he was in fact the son of one of her early lovers. 

This book on Catherine the Great extends to about 740 pages. The same history could have been undertaken and much of her achievements could have been described in a shorter biography if a lot of her own personal details and the many details of her lovers had been reduced in extent or had been excluded. Many of her relationships with lovers, foreign ambassadors, family and friends she describes in very great detail.  She does not speak about her actual sexual life with her lovers but it was clearly obvious to her household and extensive staff and acquaintances that her lovers were intimate friends of hers, frequently attended her in her bedroom and no effort was made to conceal the relationship between them. 

Catherine the Great

The foundation of the superb collection of art in St Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum was laid by Catherine within a year of her reaching the throne.  Afterwards the Prince Dmitri Golitsyn became the Russian ambassador in Paris and he was responsible for purchasing many other artefacts on her behalf, including Diderot’s library in 1765. The latter, who was an outstanding and well informed expert on paintings, continued to add to Catherine’s collection. He bought several important collections including that of Augustus the 2^nd King of Poland.  She paid 180,000.00 roubles to acquire his collection which added four more Rembrandts, a Caravaggio and five works by Rubens. After Diderot, Grimm became her agent in Paris and continued to supply her with more pictures. Amongst other collections she bought the celebrated English collection of Lord Walpole, sold by his grandson to pay for his gambling debts! Her purchases were not because of her love of art, she admitted on one occasion. She simply stated “I am a glutton’’. She became the greatest collector of art in the history of Europe and by the time of her death she had collected four thousand paintings provided by the most famous European painters. Many of these are still held in the museums and galleries of St. Petersburg.

The bronze Horseman (Peter the Great), St. Petersburg

This book gives a detailed account of Catherine’s reign and establishes her as one of the great leaders of Russia and one who greatly advanced its history. It would be impossible to have a complete insight into the last five hundred years of Europe without a detailed knowledge of the Russian Emperors and in particular Peter the Great and Catherine. They were the two outstanding leaders who brought Russia into the European orbit and who played such a successful part in the long-term power and influence of Russia within the European community. 

The book includes a wealth of material about the social and personal side of the Empress and her household and her continuing dependence on sex right up to her old age. The fragility of marriage at that time amongst the Russian community was clearly evident as was the liberal approach to sexuality.

In her time Russia had become an important part of greater Europe. My reading of the end of the Romanovs in 1917 and the subsequent brutal and paranoid figure of Stalin leaves a jolt in my mind about the latter-day role of Russia in Europe as did the very much shorter Nazi period from 1933 to 1945

In touch with fantasy

Benedict XVI – Commander of the Faith. 

Rupert Short. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2005. pp 150. photos.

This review was written on 23rd June, 2010.

I found this book on the shelves of the RDS library in late March 2010 and I decided to read it because of the current controversy involving the Pope in relation to sexual abuse among the clergy. I found the book most interesting mainly because of the insights I received about the relationship between the Vatican and the wider Catholic communities of the world. I was struck by the conservatism of the Vatican and its opposition to the increasing liberalism of the faithful and the extraordinary situation where the great majority of Catholics, while professing the faith, ignore the precepts of the Pope on so many matters of morals and behaviour. The Church leaders in Rome must surely be in denial about a laity which is so lax in terms of faith and morals.

Joseph Ratzinger started his religious life in Germany and was a member of a devout German family. He and his brother Georg became priests. There is little in the book about Georg but Joseph made rapid progress in the church, particularly on the academic side. He was quite liberal in his early years but eventually, after much preferment, he was appointed to the Vatican as Prefect by Paul 11 and thus joined the powerful inner circle of the Vatican’s cabinet. He served Paul and his conservative policies faithfully and was soon to become the most influential member of the Vatican’s councils. According to the author, apart from a few rare occasions, Paul 11 and he worked hand and glove together.

The impact of the book was the conflict between a conservative Vatican and the laity and many of the priests and bishops who shared liberal views which have been emerging during the last generation or two. In not one instant does the Vatican, voiced by the Pope Paul 11, Ratzinger, later Benedict XV1, and the other Vatican leaders, accept the urge of the faithful to allow marriage of priests, women priest, artificial contraception, divorce and remarriage after divorce, homosexuality, or some of the laity’s interpretation of the liturgy. It also appears that many approaches to Christian ecumenism are blocked by the Vatican.

The conservatism of the Vatican is already undoing much of Vatican 11. The Vatican’s insistence that its interpretation of the liturgy and of scripture is the only acceptable interpretation seems based on little substance, at least to those of us who adhere to the principles of a true Christian life.  It is hard for a lay person to understand why Christian worship is based on the cleansing of the Temple and why it is important that the priest should face or have his back to the congregation. Why is the liturgy based on revelation?  It seems to me that, bearing in mind the uncertain origin of scripture and the ease of different interpretations, the matters which cause conflict between the Vatican and the faithful may be based on mumbo jumbo rather good sense.

When the Vatican is faced with a challenge its response is slow and often forms an uncompromising counter attack when it arrives.  The controversy can be less evident by the long delay in responding to the challenge, and the Vatican is as dismissive about the views of the clergy and theologians as much as those of the laity. The strike against dissents became more evident from about 1990. There is clearly an increasing conflict between the Vatican and the wider church which might portend the increasing likelihood of serious conflict within the Church, where there is now a persistent muzzling of some of the church leaders within the community. It might indeed be of benefit to Christian unity and ecumenism if there were a major conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, a second Reformation. It seems that the priests and bishops are powerless in the face of rigid Vatican control  because of the dire effect their open criticism can have on their careers and their livelihoods. It is not surprising therefore that our secular priests in Ireland, at least some of whom favour the abolition of celibacy, cannot express their views openly.