Blood out of Stone is forming itself. It’s an output for creations including musical recordings, video, poetry, art, social systems and structure plans, chapbooks and photography.
Based in Ulster, one of four provinces in Ireland, Ulster also known as Northern Ireland or the North of Ireland depending on how you see things. It’s either made up of six or nine counties, there are six counties in Northern Ireland and historically nine counties in Ulster with a total of 32 counties on the whole Island of Ireland.
When I was on tour in America once an elderly lady told me that 26 and 6 was one, indicating that once Ireland became reunited under one political jurisdiction that it would be whole.
In Northern Ireland where I am based there are three basic categories of politics when it comes to reunification or remaining a part of the United Kingdom and that is those that wish Ireland to be one nation or republic and so they are known as nationalists or republicans each with a different viewpoint on how this can be attained and then those that wish to be part of the United Kingdom and are loyal to the crown, so they are either known as Unionists or Loyalists who also have different degrees of believes and also socioeconomic backgrounds similar to all and any political categorisations.
I’ve always thoughts that politics is oversimplified when talking about the right and the left as if a two dimensional structure is sufficient to describe the postitioning of personal political democratic persuasions. I see in three dimensions, I think in more and I dream in still more so the complexity of the human condition can’t be laid out so simply without there being a loss of expression, a squeeze to a dichotomy of beliefs. If one power source is a dictator then two is not sufficiently different to enable the proper implementation of democracy.
The problem with democratic goals is that it brings with it a short term popularity contest where the will of the people is fickle made more fickle by the tricks of marketing and advertising, of entertaining the journalistic circus. The ability to track our social interactions has exacerbated this problem enabling very specific targeted adverts at exactly the right swing voter that draws out inaccurate and negative responses which also creates a hyper reaction to the same exaggerated position which is attracts the attention of social media users which improves the statistics of exposure which aids the sale of adverts. In some ways counterculture is an accelerated variation of the same expression of the human condition validated to some degree by an unknown algorithim that caresses the flow of information.
Brexit has been, since it’s inception a shit show. The day the vote was announced I sat in an armchair and was dumbfounded. How did it happen, how could it be allowed to happen? I couldn’t imagine how things were going to go after that. I sat there staring blankly into space, in shock really, I asked myself if I had something to eat would it make me feel better, or had something to drink would that ease the pain. I’m not sure how long I sat there but the feeling just somehow passed even if it unravelled and the repercussions are still ongoing today. There are so many things that can’t be ordered to be delivered to Northern Ireland. It doesn’t seem to matter whether it comes from the UK or Europe, it’s just another degree of paperwork that causes an increase in the cost of bureaucracy and so they just don’t bother selling to Northern Irish addresses. Things like leisure batteries, postboxes, plants, seeds or bulbs. The list goes on and whenever things can be delivered the cost is significantly more. Its not so much now whether I agree or disagree with the change of the political structure or not, it’s just that the change itself, the migration away from European Laws, mixed with the Good Friday Agreement, which I was just old enough to vote in, I’m really a good friday baby. I remember the 80s and 90s my formative years, I remember the politicians having a concert in the Waterfront in Belfast to celebrate the newly formed peace and I’ve seen the seven shades of shit that have flowed since. The collapse of Stormont, again and again has left a vacuum of power and administrative difficulties. It seems to now be the new normal for us. There is talk of a united Ireland but that is a long way of, there would be votes and referendums and all that not to mention then there would be an awful lot of changes that I really don’t want to have to go through which are very rarely simple and lose my familiarity with a system that I have grown up with. It’s now the case that the Unionist population of Northern Ireland are now less than the Nationalists and so there is a glimmer of hope for those that have craved a united Ireland for generations. It’s the lack of consideration now for those that would be a minority in a one island Ireland and unfortunately there is still a lot of prejudice which is endemic, with chants supporting murder gangs being thrown around like a counter culture currency. I watched an Irish chat show with Tommy Tiernan and one of his guests was a Psyciatrist and he made a spash with the audience telling them that people in Ireland were happier, or statistically less depressed, than the population of Northern Ireland, the audience let a massive roar of support, cheering and jeering. I was down in Cork once, I went by motorbike and stayed in some accommodation in the old town, it was quite beautiful. I was going to see an informal screening of a film that I had contributed to the music. Cork is really beautiful, the people are too. I was talking to one of the guys who put on the screening and he asked me where I was from, I told him up near the North Coast, he asked if I meant Donegal which is the northern most county a part of the republic of ireland, he asked if I meant real Ireland. I told him I was from Northern Ireland and he just nodded like it was the second place prize and that Ireland was the first. It’s not a big thing, none of them are but they all form a stand point that is supported throughout Irish society and so it doesn’t quite feel like a welcome embrace of a kind and accepting nation, not yet at least. I hope that it does at some point but every time it comes up which is daily I think that perhaps there are better things that we could be concentrating upon like saving the environment and the planet for future generations of Irish, British, Europeans and world citizens as well as all the species that could well be the solution to our problems know known and not yet known.
If there was more money spent on infrastructure then we’d have a better and happier society. One thing we could do is to build more train lines, double decker with beautiful comfortable train lounger seats, refreshments, hair dressers, dentists, manicures, banks, libraries, post offices and other services that passengers could potentially avail of whilst travelling between their various destinations. It’s a longterm plan. One that is bigger than any one political movement, one that sees the construction and implementation of social structures and systems to create a better flow for humankind, reduce emissions, reduce world temperatures and facilitate stability and an enviable lifestyle and sense of pride in community. I thought about what that would look like and I think that Train systems as a metaphor for a better society works as an alternative to the left and the right, the blue and the green or whatever dichotomy is offered. The Train Party or maybe the Ulster Train Party but it would be nice it if it was possible for it to grow beyond jurisdictions but maybe in Ireland it could be the Irish Train Party, or the Scottish Train Party or the Swedish Train Party or the European Train Party or Fête de Train Français. Some old Train posters remade for the party political publicity and then some representatives in the next elections who could start to make some progress. If trains can’t unite Ireland, if trains can bring us together as one then what can.
There are no trains near where I live, I like trains. The bus is ok but all the seats are too small for my legs except the emergency exit seat and the seal on the door isn’t secure so the cold wind blows through. A big beautiful Hydrogen powered train with faux leather lounge seats and modern comforts, superfast wifi and snacks and amenities, it’s a dream but dreams mean something.
Vita Brevis, Ars Lunga.
