Remembering Julie
- Children of The Troubles (Radio One)
- Leargas - An tOileanach (RTE)
- Don't Feed The Gondolas (Network 2)
- Breasts (Channel 4)
Catholics ``knew their place'' before 1969, so says Robin
Livingstone, who shared a two bedroomed house off the Falls with
his thirteen brothers and sisters and parents.
Brother of plastic bullet victim Julie Livingstone, Robin was
reminiscing on Radio One's ``Children of The Troubles'', whose only
fault lies in their desperation ``to show both sides'' which often
blights the media.
Houses were still being used as a form of political patronage in
the mid sixties, with Catholics outside the ``Golden Circle'' and
Robin being confined to a double bed with seven of his brothers.
Livingstone had his first experiences of sectarianism when at
six, he was subjected to ritual sectarian abuse ``and a few wee
slaps about the head'' when he went to buy Rosses lemonade for his
dad - ``I already knew my place. By the age of six, we didn't
question it, families were apolitical, happy in their small
houses, that's just the way it was''. Until ``with a crash and a
whoosh'' the family were petrol bombed by loyalists on 13 August
1969.
Led by ``colourful character'' (as the media described him) Johnny
McQuade, all ``taigs'' were systematically burnt out. As an eight
year old Livingstone looked on it as ``a great adventure'', until
his mother began to scream at the prospect of scaling a thirty
foot wall, with two year old Julie in her arms.
The family were later picked off the street by a wealthy
businessman, after coming under fire with bricks and bottles from
the `B' Specials (``with their Darth Vader outfits'') and were
later feted by Protestants with baskets of biscuits and bread -
``their humanity kicked in, but they still wouldn't discuss
events''.
The family duly arrived in Twinbrook, where baby of the clan,
Julie was murdered in 1981 by ``a Brit who decided to take a pot
shot at her'' while returning from the shops for her mammy.
The British propaganda machine portayed Julie as ``a rioter from a
leading republican family'' and true to form The Sunday Times
claimed her death was due to ``a thin skull''.
Predictably Julie was later proved innocent and no soldier was
ever taken to task over the murder, and Julie's mother retreated
into a corner underneath a photo of her child and ``knitted until
she died''.
Four years into the peace process, the Brits are still firing
plastic bullets and Catholics are still being intimidated and
shot, but it's republicans who are supposed to decommission.
Boobs is a topic most Irish shy away from and the majority of us
lack the necessary body confidence to go topless, men included,
but then again maybe our climate isn't very conducive to the
practice.
``Breasts'' was all the rage on Channel 4 last Tuesday with women
of all ages discussing everything from 28B's to blossoming
cleavages - did you know that big breasts were all the go in the
fifties and that small breasts didn't make the breakthrough until
the eighties, with nineties has seen the return of cleavage,
inspired no doubt by Eva Herzogovic's Wonderbra.
Silicone implants have become fashionable with Paula Yates among
their ranks, but they have also led to severe problems, including
severe infection, breaking or leaking into the body.
increasing number of women, particularly in America, feel the
need to dish out thousands of dollars to get the perfect size,
and thereby use their breasts as ``a power tool''.
The most serious aspect of this issue must surely be the
increasing number of women who are suffering from breast cancer -
most people will know of at leaast one woman who has lost a
breast or at least had a serious scare.
Unfortunately the aftercare and support here in Ireland is pretty
poor and many women are unwilling to seek support from others for
fear of being ridiculed by a society which is still suffering
from a Victorian values ``under the carpet'' mentality.
Sean Moncrieff is genuinely witty but unfortunately his guests on
``Don't Feed The Gondolas'' are prone to reverting to sex and
personal insults in their attempts to please the audience.
As part of his act, Moncrieff regularly catches out naive Dublin
folk with ridiculous questions - the sort of people who want to
make the city's O'Connell Street more middle class, which would
mean excluding all northsiders, the sort of people who give out
about farmers blocking the traffic, as 40,000 of them gather
under Clery's clock for a few thousand ``hang sammidges'', the same
people who clog the country roads with their mammy's BMW and
``mowbile'' phone, with their yellow V neck jumpers around their
neck, tut-tutting about the poor and the ``Kaw-tolic church'', and
looking for ``a decent cappucino'' - a species not to be found in
your local Sinn Fein cumann.
``Last TV'' is another of Dublin's new wave of witty TV, except it
was a shame to see Navan Man falling back on Benny Hill-style
tactics, ``women are pigs, wave your willy at them etc etc'', when
his radio work has in the main been very clever and politically
hard-hitting.
Who remembers ``The Blades''? Ringsend's finest tipped for
international after appearing on the all important Late Late Show
in 1981. Talented songwriter Paul Cleary and his colleagues
embraced socialism and his ``working class consciousness'' but were
cast out of one venue for playing The Sex Pistols ``God Save The
Queen'' - ``you won't play that muck in here boy''. And for the even
older fogies Mick O Connell, the Kerry great, who spent hours
kicking a ball against a gable wall in Valentia island, and
rowing to training, looks remarkably fit for a man of sixty. On
``Leargas'' he recounted the death of community life on the
islands, the importance of saving our language, and his love for
his family, including his Down Syndrome son Diarmuid, who has
become the focus of his life. His likes will ne'er be seen again.
By Sean O Donaile
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)