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Christmas Viewed from Afar: Heaven
Series: Christmas Series: Christmas Viewed from Afar
Sermon by Derek Thomas on Dec 13, 2009
The Lord's Day Evening
Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas
Now I'm grateful to Ligon for giving me the honor and privilege this year of preaching a series of three Christmas, or Advent, sermons. And last week we were beginning about as far back from Christmas as we could possibly get, that is in Genesis 3:15 — Christmas from afar in the Garden of Eden where, you remember, God gives that wonderful Gospel promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of Satan.
Well tonight we come to again a very familiar passage. I'm trying to think how many times I've preached on this prologue of John's gospel. It's too numerous for me to actually calculate I think tonight, but again, Christmas from afar because this is looking at Christmas from the point of view of heaven. It's standard for us to think that the other gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and particularly Matthew and Luke — describe the Christmas story from below. They describe the manger and Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and so on, but John doesn't begin from below, he begins from above, looking down as it were toward Bethlehem. And we are forced to look, not so much to Bethlehem, but to look beyond Bethlehem to what C. S. Lewis described as a stable - that in that stable and in that manger was someone larger than the whole world.
In the early church, the four creatures that are described in the first chapter of Ezekiel — I'm not standing on this interpretation you understand — but the early church understood the lion and the human being and the ox and the eagle as - those are four creatures that are described in a vision that Ezekiel has in the first chapter — the early church saw those as representative of the four gospels. The lion was Mark and the human figure was Matthew and the ox was Luke and interestingly enough, the eagle was John because the eagle soars high into the clouds and forces you to look upwards. Well that's exactly what John does in this opening prologue tonight. He forces you to look upwards.
Well, before we read the passage, let's look to God in prayer.
Lord our God, we thank You again tonight for the Scriptures that holy men of old wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We are as needy as ever. Every day we find ourselves in need of Your Word, in need of Your promise, in need of Your gentle rebukes. And we pray tonight that as we read what is a very familiar passage of Scripture, that You would be pleased to come down, to draw near to us, to write Your Word upon our hearts. We want to see Jesus. We want to grasp something of His beauty and splendor and glory. We want our souls to be enraptured and captivated by who He is and the glory of the Gospel. We pray, Lord, by Your Spirit, that You would so help us tonight. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
This is God's holy and inerrant Word:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about Him, and cried out, 'This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.'') And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known."
Amen. May God add His blessing to that reading of His Word.
There are many different ways of looking at this extraordinary passage. It's a passage that's meant, I think, to literally take your breath away. In short, relatively small words, both in English and in Greek, John describes the indescribable: he describes the Incarnation, the infleshment, of the second person of the Trinity.
You'll notice that seven things are said about Jesus in these opening words of John's prologue. He tells us in verse 1 that Jesus was in the beginning. That is, at the point when creation began, Jesus already had existence. It's an indicator of Jesus' eternality, that He is eternal. You'll notice also that John says He was with God, side by side with God, indicating His person or even His personality. John also tells us that He was God, indicating His deity. In verse 3, He is described as the One through whom all things are made — a reference to Jesus as the Creator of everything that is. In verse 4 — "In Him was life" — He's the animator, He is One who gives life, and new life, and spiritual life, to the people of God. He is the "light of men" in verse 4, a reference to the fact that Jesus is the great revealer, the revealer supremely of God and of the Gospel. And in verse 13, we read that "the Word became flesh," a reference to His incarnation.
Well, it would be more than possible to look at this passage simply from those seven assertions that are made about Jesus, but I want us tonight to look at it from a slightly different perspective. I want us to think about it in terms of three environments, or three contexts, or perhaps three families, that John, the author of the gospel, seems to want us to capture.
I. The environment from which Jesus came.
In the first place, the environment in which Jesus spent eternity — the environment, or the context, in which Jesus spent eternity. John is giving to us here something by way of a symphonic overture to the entire gospel, and as we begin this prologue there is an immediate reference, isn't there, to Genesis chapter 1 — "In the beginning — in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Well, John is saying in the beginning, when heaven and earth was created, there was the Word, there was Jesus, and nothing was made without Him. Everything that is, everything that exists, that has existed and will exist, owes its origin, its being, to Jesus. He is the One who spoke and said, "Let there be," and there was. He brought the cosmos, the vastness of the universe, into being.
I'm something of a Hubble telescope junkie. I have the application on my iPhone. I love to look at those extraordinary pictures, pictures of parts of the universe that no human being has ever seen before now. Ten years ago it was thought that the universe contained one hundred and twenty-five billion galaxies. Today they talk about billions of billions of galaxies and each galaxy is said to contain a thousand trillion stars. Now, you can't follow that and neither can I. They are numbers that boggle the mind. The vastness, parts of the universe that no human being has ever seen, and Jesus brought it all into being. In all of its complexity, in all of its minuteness, the various particles and forces that make up matter, all owes its origin and existence and being to Jesus.
And John is saying, particularly to his audience, that Jesus is greater than wisdom itself, the wisdom that existed at the very beginning of creation, the wisdom that is the complexity of creation — it's a reference. The very fact that John uses this expression, "the Word," is a reference to Proverbs chapter 8, which refers to the wisdom that is creation itself, and Jesus is greater than that wisdom. He is greater than John the Baptist because John the Baptist has just said that Jesus existed before John the Baptist. Now we know from Luke's gospel, and Ligon has just recently preached on this very passage, that John was born before Jesus and yet John says Jesus existed before John and He is greater than Moses. The law comes through Moses, but if you want to see grace, if you want to taste grace upon grace upon grace upon grace, then it comes through Jesus Christ, because He was God and is God and ever will be God.
However you define God, in terms of His essence or in terms of His attributes — that He knows everything, that He is everywhere present, and that He is all powerful — and all of these belong to Jesus by right because He is God. He's not just a god.
You may be familiar, as I am, that the Jehovah's Witness bible translates this passage by saying that Jesus was "a god" with a small "g," a reference to the fact that maybe He has divine-like qualities but that He is not God. They are drawing attention to the fact that John, in the Greek, drops out the definite article. He doesn't say "Jesus was the God." John could not have written "Jesus was the God" because that would then itself give rise to another heresy because there is more than one who is the one God because the Father is God and the Spirit is God and Jesus is God, but there is only one God. And in the simplicity of Greek and English grammar, John is trying to say something that is beyond our comprehension. John doesn't mean that Jesus was "a god" because he writes the gospel telling us expressly in the twentieth chapter that the reason he writes this gospel is that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that three verses after Thomas' extraordinary confession where he says about Jesus, "My Lord and my God." Jesus is God as the Nicene Creed from the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD summarized - "of the same substance of the Father by whom all things are made."
But it's more than that. It's not simply that Jesus is God, but He's God with God. "The Word was with God and the Word was God." There's only one God but there's more than one who is that one God. And in the plurality of the one God, there is Jesus who is God and He is with God, side by side with God, or as the preposition could mean, towards God, in fellowship with God, in a personal relationship with God. They looked into each other's eyes and kept that stare and there was no shame. And from all eternity, there is this rapport, there is this bond, there is this loving embrace of the Father and of the Son, in communion, in reciprocal love for each other.
You know, when you first get hold of the Gospel, and John seems to speak about this when he writes his first epistle — he talks about the various stages of spiritual growth and development. You remember in 1 John he writes to fathers and he writes to young men and he writes to children, and it seems as though John is identifying stages of spiritual growth. He tells the young men, for example, that they have overcome the wicked one, they have overcome the devil, they have made some progress in sanctification. He tells the children that they have come to know Him whom they now call Father.
But when he writes to the older men he says, "You've come to know Him who was from the beginning." And there comes a stage in our Christian lives and it's particularly, I think, meaningful at this time of year, at Christmas when we focus our attention on the nativity, that we begin to contemplate that there is more to Jesus than a baby lying in a manger. There is more to Jesus than a man dying on a cross. There is more to Jesus than a man rising from the dead, because He always has been. And even during His incarnation He was in fellowship and communion and in a relationship with His human body, the God-Man, and you've come to know Him who was from the beginning.
That's what I want for Christmas. That's what I want above everything else — that I would come in some small way to know Him, to really know Him. Not in the sense of understanding the relationship between the divine and human natures of Jesus, not in a way that I can understand the relationship that the Son had with the Father from all eternity — we merely glimpse at that and we glimpse in holy wonder and adoration that He who has been with the Father in a loving embrace from all eternity would condescend for the likes of us, for sinners like you and me. He who had breathed that perfect air of that communion with the Father came into a fallen, sinful world, surrounded by all of its sins and ugly temptations. That's the environment, that's the context, in which He had been from all eternity.
II. The environment into which He came.
But there's a second context here, and that is the environment into which He came. There is the environment in which He was, but there is the environment into which He came. John summarizes it there in verse 14 — "The Word, the eternal Word, the Word who was God and with God, the Word who made everything there is, the Word became flesh." He didn't cease to be God. He always remained God. But in addition to being God, He takes to Himself human flesh and a human soul in the frailty of human existence, no more poignantly described than a baby lying in a manger. "God," as Wesley poetically puts it, "contracted to a span from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger — God contracted to a span."
You notice the contrasts that John has set up. The Light has come into the darkness; the Creator has come into His creation. Isn't that an astonishing sentence that John gives us in verse 10? "He was in the world and the world was made by Him." Just think about that. He is in the world, finite- a little infant, perhaps no longer than eighteen inches long, and He made the world. It takes your breath away. The Light comes into the darkness; the Creator comes into His creation; Messiah comes to His people, and at every single point there is rejection. The darkness tries to overcome the Light; creation rises in hostility against Him; His people do not know Him. It's almost, it's almost parallel isn't it, with what Paul is saying in Romans chapter 1 when he's talking about creation and he's talking about the revelation of God that is to be found in creation and there's this blindness. The natural man doesn't see this creation. This revelation, it's not, Paul says, it's not because there is some inadequacy in the revelation itself. It's because of the sinfulness of man's heart that he holds down that revelation in unrighteousness. And John is saying something very similar here. It's not because of a lack of clarity about who Jesus is. The fault does not lie in the lack of clarity that there was in Jesus. The fault lies in the human heart.
Do you remember in C. S. Lewis', The Last Battle, and Lewis describes that scene where there are those nasty little dwarfs, and the dwarfs are being fed in a stable and they've been given lavish provisions, but they spit it out and they grumble about these stable provisions and the dwarfs are for the dwarfs. They say over and over and over. And Lewis says, "Their prison is only in their minds, and yet they are in that prison and so afraid of being taken in, that they cannot be taken out." What an extraordinary insight that is. They're so afraid of being taken in, that they cannot be taken out. They're locked in this prison of rejection. And that's exactly what John is describing.
He comes into the world and the world refuses Him - the very fact that He's born in a stable because there was no room for Him in the inn. At the very outset, at this very entry point into the world, at His exit point, He's hoisted above the ground as though the ground is rejecting Him. The sun darkened its face as though the sunlight is rejecting Him. And as He takes our place, and takes our sin upon Himself, He hears that ultimate word of rejection and He cries, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
This is the environment into which He came, an environment of sin and an environment of rejection. You mothers who have daughters who are expecting their first child, you want them to be born in the Suites at River Oaks, or Baptist, or UMC, or MethodistHospital — some other establishment that you trust. You want the finest medics. And Jesus is born in a stable and made to lie down in a feeding trough for you, for me.
There's the environment in which He had always been, there's the environment into which He came, and then John is saying there's the environment that He longs to bring us in to.
III. The environment that Jesus longs to bring us in to.
But you see in verses 12 and 13 — "To all who did receive Him, who believed on His name, He gave the right to become the children of God." And then He says, "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." He came into a world where men and women reject Him and he uses, John is using language here that he is going to use again in the third chapter when he describes Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus. "Unless a man is born from above, he cannot enter, he cannot see, the kingdom of God."
When we first discover the Gospel, we think we've discovered it, and then when we get down on our knees and give thanks to God, we realize that it was the Gospel that discovered us. It was the grace of God that found us and brought us out of our sin and misery and into union and fellowship with the Lord Jesus. To be born, not of the will of men, not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God.
Why did Jesus come into the world? That's a great, great question. That's perhaps the greatest question we can ask in the next couple of weeks. Why the God-Man? Why did Jesus have to become a human being? Why did He have to endure what He endured? Why did He have to come from the environment that He had been for all eternity into this sinful world?
The answer: To bring sinners like you and me into fellowship with His Father and with Him and with the Holy Spirit.
You know we sing about that, don't we, a lot. Over the next couple of weeks we'll sing Charles Wesley. I was listening to it in the car coming down to church tonight — "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." "Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth," that's what Wesley says. Why did Jesus become a man? Why was the Word made flesh? To give us second birth, to bring us out of our sin and misery and the darkness of our condition into fellowship with God, by the sovereign, energizing power of God's Holy Spirit.
We sing it, don't we, in Phillips Brooks' hymn, "Little Town of Bethlehem." "Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today." Not of the will of the flesh and not of the will of man, but of God. And that's what Christmas means — that God has so loved us, even in our sin and misery, that He was prepared to send His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life - that we might know what it is to have Christ in us, the hope of glory.
I'm ashamed that I'm not completely bowled over by that. I'm ashamed that every emotion in my body doesn't rise in jubilation to that because it doesn't get any better than that. It doesn't get any better than that — that Christmas is God's answer to sin and death and the grave and hell, and says, in Jesus Christ, there is victory, and there is eternal life, and there is a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
And I trust, I trust tonight that if you're here and you're not a believer, you've not put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, I urge you tonight to do just that — to cast your entire selves on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, because He says, "Whosoever comes unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."
Our Father in heaven, we thank You again for this Word. We pray that You would now write it deeply upon our hearts and that we might, as a consequence, love the Lord Jesus more and more and more. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please stand. Receive the Lord's benediction.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of you, now and forever more. Amen.
© First Presbyterian Church.
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Tag Archives: House of Commons
Opening of Ireland's First Passenger Railway
Ireland's first passenger railway, the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), opens on October 9, 1834. It links Westland Row in Dublin with Kingstown Harbour (Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin. The D&KR is also notable for a number of other achievements besides being Ireland's first passenger railway. It operates an atmospheric railway for ten years, claims the first use of a passenger tank engine and is the first railway company to build its own locomotives.
Construction begins on a new harbour at Dunleary village in 1817 that soon begins to attract traffic due to silting problems elsewhere around Dublin Bay. Proposals for canal or rail infrastructure links to Dublin are variously proposed through to the 1830s. James Pim takes the initiative and commissions a plan by Alexander Nimmo which is presented as a petition to the House of Commons on February 28, 1831 for a rail line from near Trinity College Dublin to the west pier at the Royal Harbour of Kingstown under a company to be known as the D&KR. A bill is presented and is progressing but is scuppered by a prorogation of parliament and an election. A fresh bill receives Royal assent on September 6, 1831.
A meeting of D&KR subscribers on November 25, 1831 at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce includes the submission of a long report which indicates that Westland Row is to be the Dublin terminus and that the enterprise is initially to focus on passenger traffic with a high train frequency.
The construction contract is awarded to William Dargan, with Charles Blacker Vignoles as engineer. The construction contract is signed on May 7, 1833 and is completed in about 18 months. The railway proves expensive to build with the final cost being a little under £60,000 per mile. Thomas Grierson, the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway (DW&WR) chief engineer comments in a presentation to the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland in 1887 that speed of construction is remarkably short and leads to "many failures in masonry, bridges, etc."
On October 4, 1834 the first recorded train with invited passengers is hauled by the engine Vauxhall and runs as far as the Williamstown Martello Tower at what is now Blackrock Park before returning. The engine Hibernia on October 9, 1834 hauls another train of invited passengers composed of eight carriages the entire length of the line and back. Plans are made to introduce a service on October 22, 1834 but storms and flooding damage the line including wrecking the bridge over the River Dodder and this leads to delays for repairs. A timetabled regular service is introduced from January 1835.
On June 30, 1856 the Dublin and Wicklow Railway (D&WR) takes over operation of the line from the D&KR with the D&KR continuing to lease out the line. The D&WR had formerly been known as the Waterford, Wicklow, Wexford and Dublin Railway (WWW&DR or 3WS). It changes its name to the Dublin Wicklow and Wexford Railway (DW&WR) in May 1860 and is ultimately renamed the Dublin and South Eastern Railway (D&SER) in 1907, a name which is retained until the amalgamation of the D&KR and D&SER with the Great Southern Railways on January 1, 1925. As of 1974, its independent existence of over 90 years by a railway company is only exceeded in the British Isles by the Great Western Railway and the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway.
(Pictured: Sketch of Second Class Carriage on the Dublin and Kingstown Railway by E. Heyden, with Patent Spiral spring Buffer, as invented by T.F. Bergin)
Categories: Irish History, Transportation | Tags: Alexander Nimmo, British Isles, Charles Blacker Vignoles, County Dublin, Dalkey Atmospheric Railway, Dún Laoghaire Harbour, Dublin, Dublin and Kingstown Railway, Dublin and South Eastern Railway, Dublin and Wicklow Railway, Dublin Bay, Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Dublin Wicklow & Wexford Railway, Great Southern Railways, Great Western Railway, Hibernia, House of Commons, Institution of Civil Engineers, James Pim, Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway, Martello Tower, Prorogation in the United Kingdom, River Dodder, Royal Assent, Tank Locomotive, Trinity College Dublin, Westland Row, William Dargan | Permalink.
Trimble Rejects Power Sharing Compromise
On July 14, 1999, Ulster Unionists under David Trimble reject a compromise for the creation of a power sharing government placing the Northern Ireland peace process in grave trouble. The proposals would have seen inclusive self-government introduced in Northern Ireland on Sunday, July 18, 1999.
Early in the day the government rushes legislation through the House of Commons providing for the suspension of the Executive if the Irish Republican Army (IRA) fails to decommission all its arms by May 2000 in line with a timetable, yet to be drawn up. It refuses to accept any Ulster Unionist amendments. But within 12 hours, British Prime Minister Tony Blair signals that three new amendments will be included to tighten the so-called failsafe mechanism when the bill is debated in the House of Lords in the evening.
The first amendment makes clear that decommissioning must proceed in line with a timetable to be drawn up by General John de Chastelain. The second provides for the automatic suspension of the Executive, while the third provides for the party in default to be clearly identified.
They fail to sway Trimble, who criticises The Way Forward as a hastily concocted scheme. However, he does leave the door open for further negotiations to save the agreement. "If there was a clear watertight scheme, in which there was at the outset an unequivocal commitment to change and a process that genuinely guaranteed to deliver that change, we would have to consider whether a scruple over a period of days could be justified."
Sinn Féin is furious with party president Gerry Adams saying, "Those who may genuinely want to deal with the issue of guns are going about it in absolutely the worst and wrong way." The party wants the assembly to be wound up immediately, and all members' wages to be stopped. It wants the British and Irish governments to continue to implement all aspects of the agreement which are within their control. Adams is enraged by Blair's move to amend the failsafe legislation. His party says it will consider applying for judicial review of the amended bill, believing it to compromise the International Commission on Decommissioning and unlawfully conflict with the agreement.
Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern announce on the following day that the 15-month-old and ailing Good Friday Agreement will go into a review procedure involving all the political parties and be effectively parked over the summer.
Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionists, resists intense government pressure as he refuses to back the British and Irish governments' blueprint providing for a power-sharing executive the following week and IRA decommissioning in the summer. He repeats his party's view that Sinn Féin can only join his cabinet once the IRA has started to hand over its weapons.
The outcome is a bitter personal setback for Blair. In a last-minute televised appeal to the Unionists not to "close the door' on an agreement, he appears to acknowledge that they will have to try to find another way forward. "I believe in the end we will get an agreement on this. Whether we manage it by tomorrow morning, that is more difficult," he says.
Trimble complains he had too little time to secure backing within his split party for The Way Forward, which the governments issued twelve days earlier after a week of intense negotiations at Stormont Castle. Blair's handling of the affair is questioned.
Trimble's problem with the legislative failsafe is that it punishes all parties for an IRA transgression of a decommissioning timetable, yet to be drawn up. It provides for the executive to be suspended, rather than carry on with Sinn Féin's two ministerial posts allocated to other parties. The nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), which could have given Trimble cover on the issue of expulsion, declines to say whether it will vote for Sinn Féin's expulsion, which infuriates Ulster Unionists.
Negotiations to save the Good Friday Agreement have gone through four deadlines during the year. There are fears that the latest delay might lead to Sinn Féin withdrawing its declaration on IRA arms.
(Pictured: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern present a joint British-Irish blueprint for implementation of the Good Friday Agreement at Stormont Castle in Belfast, June 2, 1999 | Sean Gallup | Getty Images)
Categories: Irish History, Irish Peace Process, Irish Republican Army, Northern Ireland, Politics & Government | Tags: Bertie Ahern, David Trimble, Gerry Adams, Good Friday Agreement, House of Commons, House of Lords, Irish Republican Army, John de Chastelain, Judicial Review, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Executive, Northern Ireland Peace Process, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sinn Féin, Social Democratic and Labour Party, Stormont Castle, Taoiseach, Tony Blair, Unionism | Permalink.
Birth of Irish Nationalist Bobby Sands
Robert Gerard Sands, commonly known as Bobby Sands, Irish nationalist and member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, is born on March 9, 1954 at Abbots Cross, Newtownabbey, County Antrim, outside Belfast.
Sands is the oldest of four children born to John and Rosaleen Sands, and the couple's first son. Sands grows up in Belfast under the cloud of nationalist and loyalist divisions. At an early age, Sands's life is affected by the sharp divisions that shape Northern Ireland. At the age of ten, he is forced to move with his family out of their neighborhood due to repeated intimidation by loyalists.
"I was only a working-class boy from a Nationalist ghetto," Sands later writes about his childhood. "But it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom." Loyalist intimidation proves to be a theme throughout Sands' life. At the age of 18, he is forced out of his job as an apprentice car builder. Not long afterwards, he and his family have to move again, as a result of political trouble.
The steady number of conflicts pushes Sands to join the Republican Movement in 1972. His ties to the movement soon capture the attention of the authorities, and later that year, he is arrested and charged with possessing firearms in his house. He spends the next three years of his life in prison. Upon his release, Sands immediately returns to the Republican Movement. He signs on as a community activist in Belfast's rough Twinbrook area, quickly becoming a popular go-to person for a range of issues affecting the neighborhood.
In late 1976, authorities arrest Sands again, this time in connection with the bombing of Balmoral Furniture Company and an ensuing gun battle. After weathering a brutal interrogation and then a court proceeding that offers up questionable evidence connecting Sands and three others to the attack, a judge sentences Sands to 14 years in prison at the Long Kesh Detention Centre, a facility used to house Republican prisoners from 1971 until 2000, located just outside of Belfast.
As a prisoner, Sands's stature only grows. He pushes hard for prison reforms, confronting authorities, and for his outspoken ways he is frequently given solitary confinement sentences. Sands contention is that he and others like him, who are serving prison sentences, are actually prisoners of war, not criminals as the British government insists.
Beginning on March 1, 1981, Sands leads nine other Republican prisoners in the H-Block section of the Maze prison on a hunger strike that lasts until death. Their demands range from allowing prisoners to wear their own clothes to permitting visits and mail, all of which are central in improving the inmates' way of life.
Unable to move authorities to give in to his requests, and unwilling himself to end his hunger strike, Sands's health begins to deteriorate. During the first seventeen days of the strike alone, he loses 16 pounds. A hero among his fellow nationalists, Sands is elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone while in prison. Sands becomes the youngest MP at the time. However he dies less than one month later without ever having taken his seat in the House of Commons.
Only days after slipping into a coma, on the morning of May 5, 1981, Sands dies from malnutrition due to starvation. He is 27 years old and has refused to eat for 66 days. He becomes so fragile over his final weeks that he spends his final days on a water bed to protect his deteriorating and fragile body. At time of his death, Sands is married to Geraldine Noade, with whom he has one son, Gerard.
The announcement of Sands's death prompts several days of rioting in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. Over 100,000 people line the route of Sands's funeral. He is buried in the 'New Republican Plot' alongside 76 others. Their graves are maintained by the National Graves Association, Belfast.
While loyalists dismiss Sands's death, others are quick to recognize its significance. Over the next seven months, nine other IRA supporters die on hunger strike. Eventually, the British government gives proper political recognition to the prisoners, many of them earning their release under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Bobby Sands' final days are depicted in the 2008 Steve McQueen film Hunger, with actor Michael Fassbender portraying Sands.
Categories: Irish History, Irish Republican Army, Northern Ireland | Tags: Bobby Sands, Coma, County Antrim, Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliamentary Constituency), Good Friday Agreement, Government of the United Kingdom, H-Block, House of Commons, Hunger, Hunger Strike, Irish Nationalism, Long Kesh Detention Centre, Malnutrition, Member of Parliament, Michael Fassbender, National Graves Association Belfast, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, Prisoner of War, Provisional Irish Republican Army, Republican Movement, Solitary Confinement, Starvation, Steve McQueen, Twinbrook, Ulster Loyalism | Permalink.
Founding of the Irish Women's Franchise League
The Irish Women's Franchise League (IWFL), an organisation for women's suffrage, is established in Dublin on November 4, 1908. Its founder members include Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and James H. Cousins. Thomas MacDonagh is also a member. The IWFL has 1,000 members by 1912 but only about fifty of these are active.
In the early 20th century, the Irish Parliamentary Party under John Redmond and his deputy John Dillon is opposed to votes for women, as is the British prime minister, H. H. Asquith.
In June 1912, after a meeting of a number of women's organisations, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Margaret Cousins with six other members of the IWFL smash government windows in the General Post Office (GPO) and other government buildings. They are arrested, charged, and jailed. The following month Asquith makes a visit to Dublin to address a meeting in the Theatre Royal. Frank Sheehy-Skeffington manages to gain entrance and demands votes for women before being thrown out. Meanwhile Asquith's carriage is attacked by British suffragists Mary Leigh and Gladys Evans. In that attack John Redmond is injured. Leigh and Evans go on hunger strike in Mountjoy Gaol, and are joined by the imprisoned Irish IWFL members in solidarity.
In March 1913 a bust of John Redmond in the Royal Hibernian Academy is defaced by a suffragist protesting against the failure of the Irish Parliamentary Party to support a Women's Franchise Bill in the House of Commons. In contrast, as a mark of solidarity with the women, James Connolly travels from Belfast to Dublin to speak at one of the IWFL's weekly meetings which is held in the Phoenix Park, and members of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) provide protection and offer escorts to women as they leave the meetings.
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington loses her teaching job in 1913 when she is arrested and put in prison for three months after throwing stones at Dublin Castle. While in jail she starts a hunger strike but is released under the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge of Ill Health) Act 1913 and is soon rearrested.
The league keeps a neutral stance on Home Rule, but is opposed to World War I. After the killing of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington by a British officer in 1916, it supports Sinn Féin.
The Irish Women's Franchise League publishes a paper, The Irish Citizen, from 1912 to 1920. The paper is edited originally by James H. Cousins.
Categories: Human Rights, Irish History | Tags: Belfast, Charlotte Marsh, Dublin, Dublin Castle, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, General Post Office, H.H. Asquith, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, Home Rule, House of Commons, Hunger Strike, Irish Parliamentary Party, Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, Irish Women's Franchise League, James H. Cousins, John Dillon, John Redmond, Margaret Cousins, Mary Leigh, Mountjoy Gaol, Phoenix Park, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prisoners (Temporary Discharge of Ill Health) Act 1913, Royal Hibernian Academy, Sinn Féin, The Irish Citizen, Theatre Royal, Thomas MacDonagh, Women's Suffrage, World War I | Permalink.
The Funeral of Charles Stewart Parnell
The funeral and burial of Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist politician who serves from 1875 as Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, takes place in Dublin on October 11, 1891.
Parnell dies of pneumonia at half-past eleven on the night of October 6 at his residence at 10 Walsingham Terrace, Aldrington, near Brighton, England. He dies in the arms of his wife Katherine whom he had married just five months earlier.
Prior to the funeral, Parnell's body lay in state for several hours and his death is the primary topic of conversation around Dublin. The belief that his demise would close the chasm in the Irish ranks is no longer tenable. His death makes it too wide even to be bridged. His old opponents may have felt inclined to forget and forgive, but this spirit is crushed almost before it is born, and his old adherents are simply ferocious in their enmity.
The city is astir at an unusually early hour, and there is a crowd of thousands in and around the Westland Row Station before seven o'clock. In front, as a guard of honor, stands a body of the Gaelic Athletic Association, armed with camans, around which are bound crape and green ribbon. It is nearly eight o'clock when Parnell's body is placed in a hearse drawn by four black horses. The Gaels march in front. Thousands join the cortège, which includes several bands and fife corps.
Though an Anglican, Parnell's funeral at the Irish National nondenominational Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin is attended by more than 200,000 people. His notability is such that his gravestone of unhewn Wicklow granite, erected in 1940, reads only "Parnell."
Parnell is buried amid warring elements and in the presence of an immense assemblage. As a scene of great but suppressed excitement, and of still greater impressiveness, the funeral and its surroundings will never be forgotten by those who witness it, and it will long furnish a landmark in history for Ireland.
Categories: Irish History | Tags: Aldrington, Anglicanism, Brighton, Caman, Charles Stewart Parnell, Cortege, County Wicklow, Dublin, England, Gaelic Athletic Association, Glasnevin Cemetery, House of Commons, Irish Nationalism, Katherine O'Shea, Member of Parliament, Pneumonia, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Westland Row Station | Permalink.
The Rineen Ambush
The Rineen ambush is carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on September 22, 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. It takes place at Drummin Hill in the townland of Drummin, near the hamlet of Rineen, County Clare.
The Volunteers in County Clare have been active since 1917 and by late 1920 have forced the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) to abandon most of its small rural barracks in the county. This gives the IRA greater freedom to move in the countryside. In August 1920, the RIC are reinforced by the British deployment of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries to the county. Five RIC men, eleven IRA volunteers and four civilians have been killed in County Clare during the two years before the ambush.
The Rineen Ambush is ordered by the leadership of the IRA's Mid-Clare Brigade, who had noticed that a RIC lorry travels every week on the Ennistymon to Milltown Malbay road. John Joe Neylon, leader of the local IRA battalion, is put in charge, although the actual attack is led by Ignatius O'Neill, the Officer Commanding. He is a veteran of World War I who had formerly fought with the Irish Guards. The ambush party has only nine rifles and some grenades, the remainder being armed with shotguns or handguns. They prepare to attack the lorry from a railway bridge that overlooks the road at Rineen.
As the IRA party is lying in wait, Alan Lendrum, the local resident magistrate, drives unwittingly into a roadblock of the IRA's West Clare Brigade, in an unrelated action. He is stopped at a railway crossing at Caherfeenick near Doonbeg. When the IRA demand he surrender his car, he draws an automatic pistol and the IRA men shoot him twice in the head, fatally wounding him. The IRA weights his body with stones and dumps it in a nearby lake. Even though the British Military inquest establishes that Lendrum had died of gunshot wounds, members of the RIC in Clare spread a false version of events and claim that Lendrum had died of drowning.
Although in strict military sense not related to the ambush, it has serious consequences for the ambush. It is quite quickly noticed that the magistrate is missing and the military in Ennistymon decide to send out a search party of ten lorries of soldiers.
The RIC lorry passes safely through the ambush position, travelling from Ennistymon to Milltown Malbay, due to some confusion among the IRA over the numbers they face. However when they learn that there is only one lorry, it is attacked on its return journey from Milltown Malbay. The lorry is hit by a grenade and blasted at close range by rifle and shotgun fire. The shooting is over in seconds, with five out of the six RIC men being killed outright. The sixth man manages to run about 300 yards before being shot dead. Five of the dead are Irish RIC officers and one is an English Black and Tan. The IRA take their weapons and burn the lorry.
Not long after the lorry has been set ablaze, the ten-lorry search party arrives on the scene. A running fight develops, as four IRA riflemen keep the troops at bay while the other volunteers make their escape. Two IRA volunteers and several British soldiers are wounded in the firing. Padraic O'Farrell lists the casualties as three British soldiers killed, but this is not confirmed by the other sources.
The British forces, enraged by the ambush and the escape of the IRA force, take out reprisals on civilians in the surrounding area. Immediately after the action ends, they burn the house and farm of the O'Gorman family and shoot a local farmer, Sean Keane, who later dies of his wounds.
That night, a mixed force of police and soldiers raid the Lahinch home of Dan Lehane, whose two sons had taken part in the ambush. They shoot him dead and burn his house. Patrick Lehane, who is hiding in the attic, perishes in the blaze. Several other houses are burned in Lahinch and a further eight are razed in Milltown Malbay. A separate RIC raid takes place in Ennistymon, in which several homes and businesses are burned.
In what may have been a belated reprisal for the ambush, four IRA men are arrested by the Auxiliaries at Killaloe on November 16, beaten, interrogated and then shot dead. Another two are summarily executed in the same manner on December 22 at Kilkee.
The reprisals are condemned in the British, Irish and international press. In the House of Commons, the British Labour Party tables a resolution condemning the reprisals and calling for an investigation. This is defeated by 346 votes to 79. Hamar Greenwood, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, defends the State Forces' actions, saying that the houses destroyed were those of "notorious Sinn Féiners…I am convinced that the people of those two villages knew of this ambush."
In Clare itself, according to IRA man Anthony Malone, the ambush has two effects. One is that the RIC becomes careful to travel in convoys of no less than three lorries. The other is that, as a result of the reprisals, the civilian population becomes embittered against the British and adopt a more defiant attitude to the British military and Black and Tans.
The death of Resident Magistrate Alan Lendrum, however, according to pro-republican Catholic priest Sean Gaynor, "was not to our credit." On October 1, the local IRA remove Lendrum's body from the lake, put it in a roughly constructed coffin and leave it on the railway tracks at Craggaknock railway station for British forces to find.
(Pictured: Monument for the attack at Rineen during the Irish War of Independence, designed by Walter Kiernan)
Categories: Irish History, Irish Republican Army, Wars & Rebellions | Tags: Auxiliary Division, Black and Tans, Chief Secretary for Ireland, County Clare, Doonbeg, Ennistymon, Hamar Greenwood, House of Commons, Irish Guards, Irish Republican Army, Irish War of Independence, Kilkee, Killaloe, Labour Party, Lahinch, Lorry, Milltown Malbay, Padraic O'Farrell, Resident Magistrate, Rineen Ambush, Royal Irish Constabulary, Sinn Féin, World War I | Permalink.
The 2017 Northern Ireland Elections
The 2017 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland takes place on June 8, 2017. All eighteen seats in Northern Ireland are contested. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) gain two seats for a total of ten, and Sinn Féin wins seven, an improvement of three. Independent Unionist Sylvia Hermon is also re-elected in her constituency of North Down. Meanwhile, the Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP) loses three seats and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) loses two seats, meaning they both lose all their representation in the House of Commons. The two parties so central to the Good Friday Agreement are not represented in Westminster nineteen years after the signing of the historic deal.
As Sinn Féin maintains a policy of abstentionism in regards to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the 2017 election marks the first parliament since 1964 without any Irish nationalist MPs who take their seats in the House of Commons in Westminster.
Nationally, the governing Conservative Party falls eight seats short of a parliamentary majority after the election, reduced to four if the absence of Sinn Féin is taken into account. The DUP thus holds the balance of power, and announces on June 10 that it will support the Conservative government on a "confidence and supply" basis.
Five seats change hands in Northern Ireland. The SDLP loses its seats in Foyle and South Down to Sinn Féin and the constituency of Belfast South to the DUP. Meanwhile, the UUP loses South Antrim to the DUP and Fermanagh and South Tyrone to Sinn Féin. The number of unionist and nationalist representatives, eleven and seven respectively, remain unchanged from the 2015 United Kingdom general election, although none of the nationalist members are participating in the current Parliament.
Categories: Irish History, Northern Ireland, Politics & Government | Tags: 2015 United Kingdom General Election, 2017 United Kingdom General Election in Northern Ireland, Abstentionism, Balance of Power, Belfast South Constituency, Confidence and Supply, Conservative Party, Democratic Unionist Party, Fermanagh and South Tyrone Constituency, Foyle Constituency, Good Friday Agreement, House of Commons, Independent Unionist, Irish Nationalism, North Down Constituency, Northern Ireland, Parliament of the United Kingdom, Sinn Féin, Social Democratic & Labour Party, South Antrim Constituency, South Down Constituency, Sylvia Hermon, Ulster Unionist Party, Westminster | Permalink.
by Jim Doyle	1 Comment
Birth of William Lewery Blackley, Divine & Social Reformer
William Lewery Blackley, divine and social reformer, is born at Dundalk, County Louth on December 30, 1830.
Blackley is the second son of Travers Robert Blackley of Ashtown Lodge, County Dublin and Eliza, daughter of Colonel Lewery, who is taken prisoner by the French at Verdun. His maternal grandfather is Travers Hartley, MP for Dublin (1776-1790) and governor of the Bank of Ireland.
In boyhood Blackley is sent with his brother John to a school at Brussels kept by Dr. Carl Martin Friedlander, a Polish political refugee, whose daughter, Amelia Jeanne Josephine, he subsequently marries on July 24, 1855. There he acquires proficiency in French, German, and other foreign languages. In 1847 he returns to Ireland, entered Trinity College, Dublin, graduating B.A. in 1850, M.A. in 1854, and takes holy orders. In 1854 he becomes curate of St. Peter's, Southwark, but an attack of cholera compels his retirement from London. From 1855 to 1867 he has charge of two churches at Frensham, near Farnham, Surrey. He is rector of North Waltham, Hampshire (1867-1883), and King's Somborne (1883-1889). In 1883 he is made honorary canon of Winchester.
Blackley, who is an energetic parish priest and is keenly interested in social questions, carefully elaborates a scheme for the cure of pauperism by a statutory enforcement of thrift which has far-reaching results at home and abroad. In November 1878 he contributes to the Nineteenth Century an essay entitled National Insurance a Cheap, Practical, and Popular Way of Preventing Pauperism, and thenceforth strenuously advocates a scheme of compulsory insurance, which the National Providence League, with the Earl of Shaftesbury as president, is formed in 1880 to carry into effect. At the same time he recommends temperance as a means of social regeneration. His views reach a wide public through his writings, which include How to teach Domestic Economy (1879), Collected Essays on the Prevention of Pauperism (1880), Social Economy Reading Book, adapted to the New Code (1881), Thrift and Independence; a Word for Working-men (1884).
Blackley's scheme provides that all persons between eighteen and twenty should subscribe to a national fund, and should receive in return a week in time of sickness, and a week after the age of seventy. The plan is urged on the House of Lords by the Earl of Carnarvon in 1880, and is the subject of inquiry by a select committee of the House of Commons from 1885 to 1887. The majority of the boards of guardians in England and Wales support the proposals, but the commons' committee, while acknowledging Blackley's ingenuity and knowledge, reports adversely on administrative and actuarial grounds. At the same time the friendly societies, which Blackley has censured in his Thrift and Independence, regards the principle of compulsion as a menace to their own growth, and their historian and champion, the Rev. John Frome Wilkinson, sharply criticises Blackley's plan in The Blackley National Providence Insurance Scheme; a Protest and Appeal (1887). Blackley's plan, although rejected for the time, stimulates kindred movements in the colonies and in foreign countries, and leads directly to the adoption of old age pensions in England by legislation in 1908, while the national insurance scheme which receives parliamentary sanction in 1911 bears some trace of Blackley's persistent agitation.
In 1887 Blackley, who is director of the Clergy Mutual Insurance Company, makes proposals to the church congress which lead to the formation of the "Clergy Pension Scheme" and of a society for ecclesiastical fire insurance. In the autumn of 1889 Blackley, whose active propagandism brings him constantly to London, becomes vicar of St. James the Less, Vauxhall Bridge Road. There he enlarges the schools and builds a parish hall and a vicarage.
William Lewery Blackley dies after a brief illness at 79 St. George's Square, on July 25, 1902. Brasses are put up in Blackley's memory in the churches of St. James the Less, North Waltham, and Frensham.
Categories: Irish History, Religion | Tags: Bank of Ireland, Brussels, Cholera, County Dublin, County Louth, Dundalk, Earl of Carnarvon, Earl of Shaftesbury, England, Farnham, French Language, Frensham, German Language, Hampshire, Holy Orders, House of Commons, House of Lords, King's Somborne, London, Member of Parliament, North Waltham, Pauperism, Southwark, Surrey, Trinity College Dublin, Vauxhall Bridge Road, Verdun, Vicar, Wales, William Lewery Blackley, Winchester | Permalink.
Death of Justin McCarthy, Novelist & Politician
Justin McCarthy, Irish nationalist and Liberal historian, novelist and politician, dies on April 24, 1912. He is a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1879 to 1900, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
McCarthy is born in Cork, County Cork on November 22, 1830, and is educated there. He begins his career as a journalist at the age of 18 in Cork. From 1853 to 1859 he is in Liverpool, on the staff of the Northern Daily Times. In March 1855, he marries Charlotte Ailman. In 1860 he moves to London, as parliamentary reporter to the Morning Star, of which he becomes editor in 1864. He gives up his post in 1868 and, after a lecturing tour in the United States, joins the staff of The Daily News as leader-writer in 1870. In this capacity he becomes one of the most useful and respected upholders of the liberal politics of the time. He lectures again in America in 1870–71 and in 1886–87.
McCarthy is first elected to Parliament at a by-election on April 4, 1879, when he is returned unopposed as a Home Rule League MP for County Longford. He is re-elected unopposed as a Parnellite Home Ruler in 1880, and when the two-seat Longford constituency is split into two divisions under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, he is elected as an Irish Parliamentary Party member for the new single-seat Northern division of Longford. His sole opponent, a Conservative, wins only 6% of the votes.
At the 1886 general election, he is returned unopposed in North Longford, but also stands in Londonderry City, where he is declared the loser to the Irish Unionist Alliance candidate by the narrow margin of 1778 votes to 1781. However, the result is later overturned on petition and McCarthy opts to sit for Derry City. During the divorce controversy surrounding Charles Stewart Parnell in November 1890, the British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone expresses a warning, given to McCarthy as intermediary, that if Parnell retains leadership of the Irish Parliamentary Party it will mean the loss of the next election, the end of their alliance and Home Rule. When the annual party leadership election meeting is called later that month, the threat is somehow not conveyed to the members, who re-elect Parnell leader of the Party.
After a further historical meeting of the Irish Party MPs in early December, Parnell refuses to retire and the Party divides. McCarthy becomes chairman of the Anti-Parnellite group, the Irish National Federation, for a year in 1891–1892. His nationalism is of a temperate and orderly kind, and though his personal distinction singles him out for the chairmanship during the party dissensions of this period, he is in no active sense the political leader.
At the 1892 general election, McCarthy again stands both in North Longford and in Derry City. In each seat there is a two-way contest between the Anti-Parnellite McCarthy and a Unionist candidate, but the narrow Unionist victory in Derry is not overturned, and McCarthy sits for North Longford, where he wins over 93% of the votes. He is returned unopposed for North Longford in 1895 general election, and stands down from Parliament at the 1900 general election.
It is claimed that McCarthy's true vocation is literature. His earliest publications are novels, some of which, such as A Fair Saxon (1873), Dear Lady Disdain (1875), Miss Misanthrope (1878), and Donna Quixote (1879), attain considerable popularity. His most important work is his History of Our Own Times, which treats of the period between Queen Victoria's accession and her Diamond Jubilee. He begins a History of the Four Georges (1884–1901) and the latter half is written by his son, Justin Huntly McCarthy.
Justin McCarthy dies at the age of 81 in Folkestone, Kent, England on April 24, 1912.
Categories: Irish History, Journalism, Politics & Government | Tags: 1886 United Kingdom General Election, 1892 United Kingdom General Election, 1895 United Kingdom General Election, 1900 United Kingdom General Election, Charles Stewart Parnell, Cork, County Cork, Diamond Jubilee, England, Folkestone, Home Rule League, House of Commons, Irish National Federation, Irish Nationalism, Irish Parliamentary Party, Irish Unionist Alliance, Justin Huntly McCarthy, Justin McCarthy, Kent, Liverpool, London, Londonderry City Constituency, Longford Constituency, Member of Parliament, Morning Star, North Longford Constituency, Parliament of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria, Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, The Daily News, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United States, William Ewart Gladstone | Permalink.
Birth of Actress Valerie Hobson
Valerie Hobson, Irish-born actress who appears in a number of films during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, is born Babette Valerie Louise Hobson in Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on April 14, 1917. Her second husband is John Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo, a government minister who becomes the subject of a sensational sex scandal in 1963.
In 1935, still in her teens, Hobson appears as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Colin Clive. She plays opposite Henry Hull that same year in Werewolf of London, the first Hollywood werewolf film. The latter half of the 1940s sees Hobson in perhaps her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean's adaptation of Great Expectations (1946), and as the refined and virtuous Edith D'Ascoyne in the black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
In 1952 she divorces her first husband, film producer Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan. In 1954, she marries Brigadier John, 5th Baron Profumo, an MP, giving up acting shortly afterwards. Baron Profumo is a prominent politician of Italian descent. Hobson's last starring role is in the original London production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical play The King and I, which opens at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on October 8, 1953. She plays Mrs. Anna Leonowens opposite Herbert Lom's King. The show runs for 926 performances.
After Profumo's ministerial career ends in disgrace in 1963, following revelations he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler, Hobson stands by him. They worked together for charity for the remainder of her life, though she does miss their more public personas.
Hobson's eldest son, Simon Anthony Clerveaux Havelock-Allan, is born in May 1944 with Down syndrome. Her middle child, Mark Havelock-Allan, is born on April 4, 1951 and becomes a judge. Her youngest child is the author David Profumo, who writes Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir (2006) about the scandal. In it, he writes his parents told him nothing of the scandal and that he learned of it from another boy at school.
Valerie Hobson dies on November 13, 1998 at the age of 81 at a Westminster, London Hospital following a heart attack. After her death, her body is cremated in accordance with her wishes. Half her ashes are interred in the family vault in Hersham. The rest are scattered on January 1, 1999 by her sons David Profumo and Mark Havelock-Allan, near the family's farm in Scotland.
Hobson is portrayed by Deborah Grant in the film Scandal (1989), and by Joanna Riding in Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical Stephen Ward, which opens at the Aldwych Theatre on December 19, 2013.
Categories: Film, Radio, & Television, Irish History, Northern Ireland | Tags: Aldwych Theatre, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Black Comedy, Boris Karloff, Bride of Frankenstein, Brigadier, Christine Keeler, Colin Clive, County Antrim, Cremation, David Lean, David Profumo, Deborah Grant, Down Syndrome, Great Expectations, Heart Attack, Henry Hull, Herbert Lom, Hersham, Hollywood, House of Commons, Italian, Joanna Riding, John Profumo, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Larne, London, Member of Parliament, Northern Ireland, Profumo Affair, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Scandal, Scotland, Stephen Ward, The King and I, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Valerie Hobson, Werewolf of London, Westminster | Permalink.


Interesting horse scene - a chase throughout New York City, maybe they need to get back to getting from place to place on horseback after seeing this lol. You just gotta love their idea they use to get info out of a bad guy. Has its funny moments.
Hold onto your hats and get ready for a wild ride with some of today's hottest stars!
Woody Harrelson, Kiefer Sutherland and Dylan McDermott bring the wide open plains to the crowded big city in this rip roarin' urban action-comedy...A missing girl has Sutherland and Harrelson saddled up for big trouble as they set out to find her within the badlands of New York City. Featuring plenty of excitement and non-stop laughs.


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This Experiment Proves Why Staying In Tune With The Earth's Pulse Is Key To Our Wellbeing
Have you ever felt disconnected from the earth? Interesting question to ponder, and while some of us feel that in some sense we become disconnected when we spend too much time indoors or on technological devices, the truth is, we don't disconnect from the earth and its natural rhythms entirely, cause if we did, you would notice it big time.
That isn't to say there isn't huge benefit in being in nature, putting down your phone or even practicing some like earthing, instead, I'm saying there is a deeper connection we all have to this planet that we may not be aware of.
The law of biogenesis states that life cannot be created from nothing, it is always life that creates life. This profound statement can begin a series of questions into the scientific unknown relating to who or what created human life.
"Omne vivum ex vivo – all life is from life"
In 1952 German physicist Professor W.O.Schumann of the Technical University of Munich began attempting to answer whether or not the earth itself has a frequency — a pulse. His assumption about the existence of this frequency came from his understanding that when a sphere exists inside of another sphere there is an electrical tension that is created. Since the negatively charged earth exists inside the positively charged ionosphere, there must be tension between the two, giving the earth a specific frequency. Following his assumptions, through a series of calculations he was able to land upon a frequency he believed was the pulse of the earth. This frequency was 10hz.
It wasn't until 1954 that Schumann teamed up with another scientist (Herbert König) and confirmed that the resonance of the earth maintained a frequency of 7.83 Hz. This discovery was later tested out by several scientists and confirmed. Since then The Schumann Resonance has been the accepted term used scientifically when one is looking to describe or measure the pulse or heartbeat of the earth.
Even though the existence of the Schumann Resonance is an established scientific fact, there remain few scientists who fully understand the importance of this frequency as it relates to life. In the 1920's another German scientist, Hans Berger, built an EEG machine himself which led to the first ever recording of frequency transmitted by the brain. While this was a profound discovery on its own, it is when we link it to the Schumann resonance that we see an even more profound truth.
Dr. Anker Mueller, a colleague of Hans Berger, stumbled across Schumann's published research results in the journal Technische Physik. Upon reading Schumann's results about the earth's frequency, Dr. Anker Mueller was astonished to discover that the frequency of the earth was an exact match with the frequency of the human brain. Herbert König, who became Schumann's successor at Munich University, discovered and further demonstrated a clear link between Schumann Resonances and brain rhythms. He compared human EEG recordings with natural electromagnetic fields of the environment (1979) and found that the main frequency produced by Schumann oscillations is extremely close to the frequency of alpha rhythms.
Natural electromagnetic processes in the environment (I-IV), human EEG readings in comparison. Schumann oscillations (I) and the EEG a-rhythm, as well as locally conditioned fluctuations of the electric field (II) and the EEG d-rhythm, show a noticeable similarity in their temporal variation. – Herbert König, 1979
Research carried out by E. Jacobi at the University of Dusseldorf showed that the absence of Schumann waves creates mental and physical health problems in the human body. Professor R.Wever, from the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Erling-Andechs, began a study where he built an underground bunker that completely screened out magnetic fields. He then got student volunteers and had them live in the bunker for four weeks where they were hermetically sealed in this environment. Throughout the four weeks, Professor Wever noted that the student's circadian rhythms diverged and that they suffered emotional distress and migraine headaches. Considering that they were young and healthy, no serious health conditions presented — which likely would not have been the case with older people or people with compromised immune systems. Wever then added the Schumann frequency back into the environment and the results were astonishing. After only a brief exposure to 7.8 Hz (the frequency which he had been screening out), the volunteer's health stabilized. This demonstrated a direct link between humans and their connection with the pulse of the earth. This was later confirmed in 2011 by Luke Montanye who stumbled upon a discovery during research of water memory.
We go back to the statement that all life must come from life. This life was always believed to come from material forms like egg and sperm or spore and cell division. The professor showed that DNA sequences communicate with each other via frequency. Further, he was able to show that the frequency communication was so advanced that it was able to organize nucleotides, which are the ingredients that make up DNA, in such a way that it could make brand new DNA. While other previous studies were able to show this, Montanye did something different that no other study had done. He removed all DNA from the water and introduced a frequency. That frequency was 7.38 Hz, Schumann Resonance. When introduced, the test tubes were producing new DNA helixes. When the frequency was not present, no new DNA formed. Thus we have a link between Schumann Resonance and the creation of life.
Even though Schumann Resonance could be confirmed by measurements at the time of discovery, it is now much harder to detect that resonance due to the fact that our atmosphere is now heavily inundated with manmade radiation and various frequencies. This suggests that our wireless technologies of today are drowning out the natural signal our mental and physical body requires to function in a healthy way. Could this be a link to the increase in cancer cases over the past few decades? Considering the importance of the Schumann Resonance as it relates to health and the creation of life, one would assume our energetically polluted air space is certainly not helping.
More About Professor W.O.Schumann
Winfried Schumann was born in Tubingen, Germany, the son of a physical chemist. His early years were spent in Kassel and in Berndorf, a town near Vienna. He majored in electrical engineering at the Technical College in Karlsruhe. In 1912 he gained a doctorate with high-voltage technology as his thesis.
Prior to the First World War, he managed the high voltage laboratory at Brown, Boveri & Cie.
During 1920, he was made a professor at the Technical University in Stuttgart, where he had previously been employed as a research assistant. He subsequently took a position as professor of physics at the University of Jena. In 1924, he was made professor and director of the Electrophysical Laboratoy at the Technical University of Munich.
The Munich laboratory subsequently became the Electrophysical Institute, where Schumann continued working until retiring from active research in 1961 at the age of 73, though he continued teaching for a further two years. Schumann was 86 years old when he died on September 22, 1974.
http://www.dpl-surveillance-equipment.com/articles/article_34.html
http://www.fosar-bludorf.com/archiv/schum_eng.htm
Schumann Resonators – http://www.schumannresonator.com/
60% of Kale Samples Contaminated With Cancer Causing Pesticide – Organic Is Key!
A new analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found a high level of Dacthal in non-organic Kale.
Why do we justify the spraying of poison on our food? How does this make any sense? These substances have been linked to several diseases, how are they approved and marketed as safe in many countries? Why are they banned in so many others?
Do you still think organic is not necessary? A recent study published in the journal Environmental Research examined four families who eat conventional diets. Pesticide levels were measured via urine before switching to an organic diet for 6 days. A dramatic drop in pesticide levels was found. Another study conducted by researchers from RMIT University, published in the journal Environmental Research, found that eating an organic diet for just one week significantly reduced pesticide (commonly used in conventional food production) exposure in adults. This study found a dramatic 90 percent drop in pesticide levels. Both studies used urine samples to measure pesticide accumulation. You can access those studies and read more about them here and here.
A lot of these agents were initially developed as nerve gases for chemical warfare, so we do know that they have toxic effects on the nervous system at high doses. Conventional food production commonly uses organophosphate pesticides, among many others, which are neurotoxins that act on the nervous systems of humans by blocking an important enzyme. Recent studies have raised concerns for health effects of these chemicals even at relatively low levels.
There is no question or doubt about it, organic food not sprayed with pesticides is much better for our health, and eating organic is a great way to prevent multiple diseases, including cancer. Despite all of the publications and research on this subject, it's confusing how cancer awareness initiatives continue to focus on raising money without ever addressing the root causes of the disease, one of which is clearly exposure to herbicides and pesticides.
This is why the Environmental Working Group (EWG) advocates buying organic products. Since its inception in 1993, EWG has fought for consumers' rights to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. EWG's very first report in 1993, "Pesticides in Children's Foods," played a pivotal role in Congress passing the Food Quality Protection Act two years later. They are a well known group of scientists and activists doing great work.
Recently, they discovered that approximately 60 percent of kale samples sold in the United States were contaminated with another carcinogenic pesticide, according to the EWG's analysis of the 2017 Department of Agriculture's test data.
The pesticide is called DCPA, often marketed as Dacthal, and it's a substance that the EPA classified as a possible carcinogen in 1995. In 2005, its major manufacturer voluntarily terminated its registration for use on several U.S. crops, including artichokes, beans and cucumbers, after studies found that its breakdown products were highly persistent in the environment and could contaminate drinking water sources. This is why in 2009, the European Union prohibited all uses of Dacthal, enforcing a complete ban on it. With all this being said, the fact remains that it is still used in the U.S. on crops including kale, broccoli, sweet potatoes, eggplant, turnips, and who knows what else.
Even as kale's popularity as a health food rich in vitamins and antioxidants has soared in recent years, the level and type of pesticide residues on kale has expanded significantly. EWG's new analysis places it third on the 2019 Dirty Dozen™, our annual ranking of the fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residues. Recent EWG-commissioned tests of kale from grocery stores found that on two of eight samples, Dacthal residues were comparable to the average level reported by the USDA.
The USDA has not tested kale for pesticides since 2009, when it ranked eighth on the Dirty Dozen. Between 2007 and 2012, the acres of kale harvested in the U.S. grew by more than 56 percent, with more than 2.5 times as many commercial farms growing it.
Conventional kale farming relies heavily on the use of several synthetic pesticides, including Dacthal. The EPA's 1995 classification of it as a possible carcinogen noted increases in liver and thyroid tumors. Dacthal can also cause other kinds of harm to the lungs, liver, kidney and thyroid.
According to U.S. Geological Survey data from 2016, about 500,000 pounds of Dacthal was sprayed in the U.S., mostly in California and Washington state. In California, the only state where all pesticide use must be reported, nearly 200,000 pounds were sprayed in 2016.
In states with high Dacthal use, concerns have grown about the capacity of its breakdown products to contaminate surface and groundwater. Not only can Dacthal contaminate areas near its use, but studies indicate it can also travel long distances in the atmosphere as well. (EWG)
You can read more from EWG on the subject here.
Again, multiple agents can be found on non-organic produce, but this article just outlines one. At the end of the day, the choice is up to you whether or not you buy your fruits and vegetables organic. If you can afford conventional produce, you can afford organically grown produce as well. One helpful tip is to cut out junk food from your purchases if you have any, and that can make room for organic produce. Another way to look at it is spending the extra few bucks to invest in your health.
It's unfortunate that organic food is more expensive, especially when organic food in general could be provided to the entire world if we actually utilized our fullest potential. It's actually cheaper to produces, it's just that governments subsidize convention farmers, not organic ones. At the end of the day, kale is extremely nutritious. It's high in vitamins A, K and iron, and consumption of leafy greens is associated with reduced risk of various diseases. It's best if we keep it that way by only growing organic kale.
A List of Children's Foods That Are Contaminated With Monsanto's Roundup Herbicide
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Roundup herbicide that was manufactured by Monsanto, has been found in multiple foods that've been marketed to children. You can view the list below.
With countless scientific publications and examples of fraud clearly showing that glyphosate is a major health and environmental hazard, how is it still on the market in multiple countries? Why? What is going on here?
It's very confusing as to why poison is still being sprayed in our environment, and how anybody could ever justify the use of these poisons. Justification has come from mass brainwashing, marketing campaigns, and just downright deception. There are many examples of deception when it comes to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. A great example comes from Europe, where the product was recently re-licensed and approved by European Parliament. However, MEPs found the science given to them was plagiarized, full of industry science written by Monsanto. You can read more about that here. Another example would be the corruption that plagues our federal health regulatory agencies, which have been completely compromised by big corporations. There are several other great examples that illustrate this point, in fact there are decades of examples. One of the best would be the SPIDER papers. A group called the CDC Scientists Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research, or CDC SPIDER, put a list of complaints in a letter to the CDC Chief of Staff and provided a copy of the letter to the public watchdog organization U.S. Right to Know (USRTK).
We are a group of scientists at CDC that are very concerned about the current state of ethics at our agency. It appears that our mission is being influenced and shaped by outside parties and rogue interests. It seems that our mission and Congressional intent for our agency is being circumvented by some of our leaders. What concerns us most, is that it is becoming the norm and not the rare exception. Some senior management officials at CDC are clearly aware and even condone these behaviors.
When it comes to glyphosate, there are currently more than 10,000 pending cases with regards to ailments it's caused people, and we are now starting to see cancer cases go through courts of law. One of the latest examples would be school groundskeeper Dewyane Johnson, who was awarded a victory after a jury found Bayer (Monsanto) to be guilty of causing/contributing to his terminal cancer. You can read more about that story here.
This is why it's a bit concerning that this substance is ending up in our food, and that includes food that's being marketed to children.
For example, Moms Across America, a National Coalition of Unstoppable Moms, recently discovered glyphosate in multiple brands of popular orange juice. You can read more about that here. The full report can be seen here. The testing methodology was "Glyphosate and AMPA Detection by UPLC-MS/MS."
Furthermore:
Major food companies like General Mills continue to sell popular children's breakfast cereals and other foods contaminated with troubling levels of glyphosate, the cancer-causing ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. The weedkiller, produced by Bayer-Monsanto, was detected in all 21 oat-based cereal and snack products sampled in a new round of testing commissioned by the Environmental Working Group. All but four products contained levels of glyphosate higher than what EWG scientists consider protective for children's health with a sufficient margin of safety.
The new tests confirm and amplify EWG's findings from tests in July and October of last year, with levels of glyphosate consistently above EWG's children's health benchmark. The two highest levels of glyphosate were found in Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch, with 833 parts per billion, or ppb, and Cheerios, with 729 ppb. The EWG children's health benchmark is 160 ppb. – Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., senior science advisor, and Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., Toxicologist for the Environmental Working Group (EWG)(source)
The EWG recently purchased a number of products via online retail sites, and then they packed and shipped approximately 300 grams of each of the products they purchased (listed in the chart below) to Anresco Laboratories in San Francisco. Glyphosate levels were analyzed using a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method described here.
Glyphosate is used mostly as a weedkiller on genetically modified corn and soybean crops. But it is also sprayed on oats just before harvest as a drying agent or desiccant. It kills the crop, drying it out so it can be harvested sooner, which increases the likelihood that glyphosate ends up in the foods children love to eat. It's present almost everywhere and it's a great example of how we don't really live in a democracy, and how big corporations are operating without any concern for human health or the health of our planet. So far, more than 236,000 people have signed a petition directed at these food companies, calling on them to take action to protect consumers' health.
The best way for you to combat something like this is to help share information like this in any way you can and go organic. Multiple studies have shown that pesticide exposure dramatically drops from consuming organic food. Just one week of eating an organic diet can drop pesticide levels in the body up to 90 percent in both children and adults. You can read more about that study here.
There are more concerns here, as it's not just glyphosate, but also pesticides like organophosphates, which are sprayed on our food and have been linked to multiple diseases. A lot of these agents were originally developed as nerve agents for warfare.
Change starts with you, so you can go organic and spread awareness. Just five years ago not many people would have even known what glyphosate is, so things are definitely changing for the better.


If a person is low in the protective version of cholesterol known as HDL-cholesterol (HDL) they tend to develop coronary artery disease. In patients with metabolic syndrome the development of heart disease starts at an early age. Metabolic syndrome occurs in people with a big belly. The term signifies a person has a cluster of conditions including high cholesterol, low HDL, high triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, and a lot of systemic inflammation. If a person doesn't take corrective measures at this point they are sure to develop diabetes in less than a decade.
Scientists at the Heart Center, University of Leipzig in Germany note that Time release Niacin improves the level of HDL and slows down the rate of development of hardening of the arteries. The researchers gave thirty patients with impaired glucose tolerance 1,000mg of Niacin Time Release daily for 6 months. Impaired glucose tolerance is a very dangerous component of metabolic syndrome that leads to diabetes. At the end of six-months HDL had increased significantly by 24%. Adiponectin increased by 35%; adiponectin is a very good hormone that promotes insulin sensitivity decreasing the risk of developing diabetes. Niacin significantly reduced Lipoprotein (a) by 38%; this type of blood fat is very damaging to the lining of blood vessel walls and very few agents lower it. Additionally triglyceride levels dropped by 12%. Niacin Time Release also improved insulin sensitivity and shrunk the size of fat cells on the belly. The study is published online ahead of print in the December 2008 issue of the journal Atherosclerosis.


text: From director Ben Proudfoot and executive producers Shaquille O'Neal and Stephen Curry, The Queen of Basketball is an electrifying portrait of Lusia "Lucy" Harris who scored the first basket in women's Olympic history and was the first and only woman officially drafted into the NBA. Despite her incredible accomplishments, Harris, who died unexpectedly on January 18, has remained largely unknown — until now. Here, she shares her story in her own words.


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Report: Lazio fans racially abuse Bakayoko prior to Coppa Italia semifinal
By Kyle BonnApr 24, 2019, 1:41 PM EDT
According to reports from Milan, visiting Lazio fans have begun racially abusing AC Milan midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko prior to kickoff of the Coppa Italia semifinal second leg at the San Siro, according to a report by Football Italia. Midfielder Franck Kessie was also reportedly a target, with the same fans filmed outside the stadium chanting racial abuse aimed at the player.
Lazio fans have taken particular aim at Bakayoko and Kessie after the pair was forced to apologize for mocking Lazio defender Francesco Acerbi by holding his jersey around during postmatch celebrations of a 1-0 AC Milan win over Lazio in Serie A play. Bakayoko and Acerbi had gone back and forth in the media during the buildup to the match.
"Harboring hatred is not sport but a sign of weakness," Acerbi said after the match when he learned of the postmatch display by the two AC Milan players.
According to Football Italia, rules in the Italian top flight do not allow a referee to stop or postpone a match for racial abuse. That falls to the duties of the official in charge of public safety and security, not the match official.
In addition to the racial abuse, a group of around 50 Lazio ultras from the "Irriducibili" group traveled to nearby Piazzale Loreto to unveil a banner that read "Honour to Benito Mussolini" and make Nazi salutes.
There is political pretext for the group to make these displays. Piazzale Loreto is the location where Mussolini's body was hung up in the final moments of World War 2, while Thursday marks the Festival of Liberation in Italy to celebrate the defeat of the fascist rule in Italy.
The stunt forced Deputy Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Salvini – also an outspoken AC Milan supporter – to release a statement on social media."No tolerance for any form of violence, whether physical or verbal. I thank the police force who are carefully monitoring the situation. Football must be an occasion to celebrate and meet up, not of brawls and clashes."
Tags: AC Milan, lazio


Tree roots and shrubs can be the source of home foundation problems. Trees and shrubs withdraw large amounts of water from the surrounding soil and in areas of expansive soils that could be problematic.
The southern part of the United States is home to large areas of expansive soils, which expand in volume when wet and shrink in volume when dry. This process of expansion and shrinkage is repeated many times and is called horizontal movement, vertical movement, uplift, upheaval and/or soil movement. Unfortunately for home foundations this soil movement is strong enough to crack and damage them. Usually the moisture content of the soil under the center part of the foundation remains stable. Usually it is the soil around the perimeter of the foundation that is alternately exposed to large volumes of water (rain) and long periods of drought. The repeated swelling and shrinkage of the soil will cause portions of the foundation to rise and to fall.
Tree roots and shrubs can cause foundation problems when they absorb large amounts of water from areas near and under a specific portion of the foundation. Most people do not realize that tree roots usually extend outward to the extent of the tree canopy and up to three times the height of the tree. A medium size tree about one foot in diameter and twenty-five to thirty feet in height can absorb 150 gallons of water a day. If this tree is close to the home foundation then the tree absorption plus evaporation during the summer can leave the soil in that area much dryer than the soil under other areas of the foundation.
What happens when a large tree or dense shrubbery removes a disproportionate amount of water from the soil on one side of a home? Since the loss of water is not uniform around the entire perimeter of the home foundation, the soil near the tree or shrubbery will shrink to a disproportionate degree. The soil will then lose contact with the foundation and there is nothing but air between the foundation and the soil. The foundation will then "sag," "sink," or settle on that side of the home and the both the foundation and the home will suffer damage.
Large trees such as Live Oak, Red Oak, Arizona Ash and Chinese Tallow have extensive tap root systems that extract large amounts of water from the soil. If trees are too close to the home then their roots can also extract moisture and water from the soil under the center of the foundation. If too much moisture is lost from this area then interior portions of the foundation may "settle" or sag and collapse.
In most cases the solution for tree roots and the risk of foundation problems is to remove the tree and / or install tree barricades. A good rule of thumb is that a mature true should be located no closer than one-half of its canopy width to the home foundation. Another general guide is that a large tree should be no closer than ten to twenty feet to the home foundation. Trees that are closer than these guidelines should be considered for removal. However, sometimes there are exceptions to these guidelines for tree removal. When a large tree is older than the home then its removal may cause a large void under the foundation as the tree roots gradually die and decompose. In these situations an arborist should be consulted. Similarly shrubs and plants should be located no closer to the foundation than their mature width. Therefore if a mature shrub has a width of five feet it should be no closer than five feet to the foundation.
Tree barricades are good solutions for deflecting tree roots and the home foundation problems they cause. Generally a trench is dug approximately five feet from the exterior foundation. A series of overlapping sheets of Plexiglas (plastic) is placed in the trench to a depth of 30 inches. This will prevent the tree roots from growing toward the foundation and withdrawing a disproportionate amount of water.
Landscaping is another potential source of home foundation problems. The elevation of a landscape bed should be three to four inches below the top of the home foundation. And landscape beds should never cover weep holes and they should be angled so that rain water drains away from the home. Unfortunately landscape companies frequently commit these errors as well as placing shrubs and plants too close to the foundation.
Martin Dawson is the co-founder of Dawson Foundation Repair headquartered in Houston, Texas. He is a leading authority on repairing failed commercial and home foundations using the time tested and thoroughly researched drilled Bell Bottom Pier method. His company has serviced Texas and other southern states since 1984.


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Dakota Access Pipeline series
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Our Stance
Beck's new album is so original, it's not
by Sam Danshes October 18, 2017
Cover art of Beck's new album: Colors (Photo courtesy of Capitol Records)
In his latest album, Colors, Beck offers the world a blast of sonic songs that will drown the listener in a slurry of sounds.
Beck is known for his ability to add novel touches to almost any genre of music, and he took a stab at teeny-bopper pop in his newest tracks. Colors is chalk full of unwavering psychedelic, complex sounds that will make your head whirl.
Within the dynamic of the album, there is a very distinct line between disappointment and brilliance, which makes it hard to define it in terms of good or bad. Colors is much more complex than just one label.
In the first track, "Colors," Beck makes it clear that this album is a complete 180 from his more rugged-punk albums, like 1994's Mellow Gold and 2014's moody, folky, Morning Phase. The introduction consists of a variety of fun, galactic sounding synths that emanate on top of a heavy drum beat. As Beck's voice chimes in with the instrumentals, a blaring reed pipe plays in the background. The only problem is that the amount of different sounds with Beck's intense tone of voice becomes too jumbled, making the song a tad too confusing to listen to.
Chaotic instrumentals are a common trend throughout the album. The discord created by mixing gyrating synths, pounding bass, static percussion and fierce vocals can be very overwhelming to listen to — especially when most of the songs have those features.
Specifically, in "Up All Night," it is hard to pick up on the tasteful elements of the song because they are hidden among the surrounding clutter. Reed pipe essences are mixed with claps and tambourine. Percussion instruments and the lyrics are placed on top, making all of the musical aspects of the track literally blend together.
In some tracks, the untidy yet intricate backtrack actually proves to be quite delightful. In "No Distraction," Beck incorporated a reggae-funk style that somewhat mirrors The Police in their hits from the '70s and '80s. The song does not contain as much synth as the others, except for a shaky fill that sounds something like "haha." The rest of the instrumentals are a tasteful medley of strummy guitar, earthy bass and a clap-like percussion beat.
Beck, unlike before, used a lot of musical influences in his new material. Despite his seemingly strong will to create extraordinary music, in Colors, connections to pop songs from various decades are obvious. Beck borrowed The Beatles' cabaret piano style of "Hey Jude" in his song "Dear Life." Similarly, in the song, "Seventh Heaven," there is a clear connection to Two Door Cinema Club's tendency to use twangy guitar and staccato yet flowing lyrics.
The most complex songs of the album, "Dreams" and "Wow" not only completely captivate the attention of the listener but also show that Beck, despite being a 47-year-old musician in the new-wave pop world, has hip intentions to share with the world. In "Wow," released in 2016, more reed pipe and heart-pounding base accompany bizarre lyrics like "standing on the lawn doin' jiu-jitsu" and a "girl in a bikini with a Lamborghini Shih Tzu."
"Dreams," which has been circulating the music world since 2015, takes the listener into Beck's dream world, where he goes that to find freedom. The song is divided into very distinct parts and starts off with a scratchy guitar that goes hand-in-hand with a static drum beat. During the chorus, the heavy beat subsides into a euphoric melody with quieter instruments and zapping synths. The trippiest transition comes with the bridge, when a tweaky guitar and a supersonic synth come together like a spinning vortex on top of Beck repeatedly singing, "ahhh stop fucking with my dreams, dreams yeah."
Listening to Colors is a mind-bending experience that is both rewarding and exhausting. The album is a compilation of features that Beck tried to weld together in order to make a unique, musical masterpiece. In some senses, his intentions came together in a zany, beautiful way. Yet in others, they turn into a jumbled mess.
Either way, the album is a strong example of how a weathered artist such as Beck tries to keep himself fresh and succeeded.
Contact arts writer Sam Danshes at Samantha.Danshes@colorado.edu
Sam Danshes
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