Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

I am delighted to be able to tell you all about the great time we had in Cabra Castle, Kingscourt. The buildings are spectacular, looking for all the world like a medieval fortress. Rosie was surprised to learn that most of the buildings only date from the nineteenth century.

As an older building though, access for people in chariots can be problematic, yet it was never a serious issue thanks to the unfailing helpfulness and courtesy of the hotel’s staff. Our room was spacious – extremely spacious – and on the ground floor.

The highlight was our evening meal. I started with a remarkably velvety carrot and parsley soup. The carrot flavour was not over-powering and was nicely combined with the herbs. Rosie had seafood fish-cakes which she pronounced excellent. She opted for beef fillet accompanied by black pepper sauce. She also ordered a side dish of red cabbage, which was delicious. I could not resist the medallions of monkfish served with a white wine beurre blanc accompanied by wilted spinach. I love monkfish, but it is a difficult fish to cook. Its flavours can be overly assertive. The idea of serving it with an equally tricky beurre blanc might have struck some as suicidal, but the two were very well-matched and the balance of textures and flavours was perfect. The wilted spinach was proper spinach with a wonderful metallic taste, not the green, amorphous sludge that comes from freezer compartments.

Rosie was so sated that she had to forego a dessert, but I was only getting going. I opted for some French crepes served with vanilla ice-cream and toffee sauce. They were heavenly. A nice touch to the menu is the opportunity to round off one’s meal with a small drink of port or a liqueur. I chose a glass of Benedictine.

But one of the nicest aspects of the menu was the way in which the produce was actually sourced, so I knew that my monkfish had only come from Kilkeel Co. Down while Rosie’s beef had come from Co. Cavan supplier Donal Dawson. Not only does this mean that local produce is show-cased but it does allow diners to consume with a clearer conscience, in that their food has not left a dirty big carbon foot-print on its journey from producer to plate. So well done Cabra Castle. We will be back. 

The death has taken place in Anchorage, Alaska of Marie Jones 89, the last surviving speaker of the indigenous Eyak language. With her has died a living vernacular which had evolved and survived for maybe thousands of years.

During her often difficult life Marie was aware of the position she held as a linguistic repository. She helped produce a dictionary of the language along with University of Alaska linguists, and she worked tirelessly as a champion of indigenous culture.

I often wonder what will happen when the last native speaker of Irish dies. Will it be noted? Of course there will still be those who claim to speak the bastardized ersatz of “official” civil service Irish.

I often feel that the last speaker of common sense has long ago passed from life’s stage.

I am delighted to be able to announce a new book by my good friend and Cavan author Sean McElgunn. The volume entitled World Without Women explores the doleful effect that has been produced by the Catholic Church’s ban on marriage by its ministry. Once again Sean argues against this ban in very persuasive and convincing terms, backed up by voluminous research. 

It is published by Choice Publications from whom more information can be sought at

http://www.choicepublishing.ie/index_files/seanmcelgunn.htmThe book is availabledirectly from them, and is also on sale in Cavan town’s Crannog Bookshop, telephone: (049)4332861

During the election campaign in Kenya, Mwai Kibaki used the economic prosperity that has embraced the country as one reason why Kenyans should re-elect him. However, having decided that he shouldn’t leave the decision regarding his re-election entirely up to the Kenyan people, he now risks seeing the prosperous nation he superintended for five years go up in smoke. Was his desire to hold on to power worth ruining his country?

I’ve just received an e-mail from avaaz.org asking me to write to my foreign minister urging him to delay recognition of Kibaki’s regime pending, at the very least, an independent audit of the polls. I’ve done this and I urge others to do the same. But in all honesty, what’s the use? Ireland doesn’t have an independent foreign policy any more. Decisions are taken “in consultation with other EU members”. This is a great excuse for doing nothing. Anyway Dermot Aherne wouldn’t intervene. For one thing, if he were in Kenya he’d be loudly defending his president. He wouldn’t see anything wrong with a bit of electoral manipulation. He’s from Louth for God’s sake.

It’s very easy to feel helpless in this world.

Why oh why is it that some countries in Africa, such as the bigger, apparently more developed, cannot organise an election without the whole thing going pear-shaped and attracting the world’s media attention to the resulting mess? There are other countries, much poorer, that apparently can manage the thing pretty well. Places like Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso to name three. When polls are held there and they pass off peacefully no-one hears about it. Sadly that’s the way it is. Murder, mayhem, riots, disaster etc. sell newspapers and attract viewers.

While we’re on the subject of Kenya I must comment upon the indecent haste with which incumben Mwai Kibaki was inaugurated. The count was going against him and the electoral commission then calls a halt. When it resumes a short time later hey presto Kibaki’s back in the lead. It announces the “final” result and within only a few hours Kibaki is re-inaugurated. As Paul Daniels might say “Now that’s magic.” In other countries there is usually a bit of time between the results being declared and the formal “crowning.” In the United States, a country not necessarily any better at counting votes than Kenya but with much more experience there is a period of at least two months before the inauguration – plenty of time for judicial reviews and court cases challenging the result. Even in dear old sod-land – Ireland – where the president has nearly as little power as the British Monarch  a space of a m0nth is considered normal between the announcement of the results and the inauguration.

Given that there were going to be some doubts about the outcome in Kenya, to put it mildly, it might appear to some observers that President Kibaki is trying to pull a fast one.

Meanwhile the world is allowed to see a view of Africa with which it is all too familiar – Africans killing Africans. This allows so many to shake their heads as they turn their back on a continent, believing that Africans have only themselves to blame for their endemic poverty. Certain accessible terms like “tribal” are used to describe the mayhem and carnage, yet in reality much of the fighting is inspired by western-educated politicians greedy for western-style prosperity at the expense of their people.

The events in Kenya draw attention elsewhere from developments elsewhere in the Continent; apparently mindless violence in Nigeria’s Delta region; the “usual” attacks and counter-attacks in Somalia, while in South Africa not even the great and the good are free from violence, as discovered by the outgoing Tanzanian ambassador who was beaten up and robbed at his farewell party in Pretoria, while in Cameroons one of Africa’s most eggregious thieves, President Paul Biya is planning to amend the constitution (which he wrote in the first place), to allow him to run for a third presidential term. Cameroons is one of the poorest of Africa’s nations; Biya one of its richest citizens.

But not all is fire and brimstone. In Senegal the leader or caliph of the influential Mouride sect of Islam died over the weekend. The caliph is highly respected. He is also a fairly wealthy person, but neither his life nor death caused any controversy, except a deep sense of sadness at his loss felt by most Senegalese.

This New year bear a thought for the people of Somalia. Their capital, Mogadishu, is rent by fighting between the forces of the western-backed government and Islamic militants. This conflict does not observe any of the niceties of International Law or the Geneva Convention, and so the long harried people of the capital often find themselves caught up in the fatal crossfire. No wonder then that hundreds of thousands have left this battlefield for an uncertain life on the road, where they are prey to bandits and all manner of oppression, in search of shelter, food and medicine. Many no longer can see a future for themselves in the country and seek a better life as migrants in the Middle East and Europe. Once again they are fleeced; they have to pay huge amounts to couriers to organise their passage out of the country on flimsy, unseaworthy vessels. It is not unknown for their couriers and erstwhile protectors to push them off while in the middle of the sea so as to rescue their miserable craft. Last week an estimated 150 migrants drowned while making their crossing in an over-crowded vessel.

Many news reports on Somalia routinely end with a phrase similar to the following: “Somalia has lacked an effective government for the last sixteen years.” When we look at what passes for “effective” governance elsewhere in African, perhaps this is not a curse after all.