Today when I was peering our my study window, trying to see if the sparrows were being skinned alive by the piercing wind and snow-blizzard, a thought came about 'the Irish Question'........which living here is of course the Irish-English question raised by Purple at his hurt at what felt like lack of knowledge and interest.
We should DANCE for the English!
This could be the answer! I remember reading that when The Ulster Chiefs went to see Elizabeth (I, not the current one) in London circa 1600 Elizabeth was so enthusiastic about 'Irish habits' that the entire Court was an ongoing ceidhli for months.
When I first came to London a black friend invited me to a big 'do' at a posh London hotel. It was an annual event where the former-Colonies invited English people to evenings where their original and/or evolving culture, lifestyle, preoccupations, music etc. were shared with the former Colonials.
The evening had a strange quality. The ex-colonised were very centred in their own experiences and activities; there was nothing confrontative, no finger-jabbing, no verbalisations of 'you enslaved my people' etc. It was a very powerful experience.
The point is made by the post about the English couple who were interested in the Brian Freil play. I've brought artist friends to 'the northern part of Ireland' (and I can't even remember myself which side of the wretched line the township was) to visit other friends who were artists and to look at their studios.
Some of the most interesting people I meet here these days are headed westwards........to work with the children of 'the Troubles' or just to live and breath in a spectacularly beautiful place.
We need something simpler and more profound than words. The words seem to keep getting in the way.
An analyst friend in Dublin was involved some years ago (through Stephen Mennel in Trinity College) with a project akin to what I do here with groups (called Social Dreaming). In the Irish project the 'dream matrix' brought together disparate groups. Difficult to describe without going into much technical detail but the things that came out of these 'dream matrices' - which evoke the old Irish oral tradition - produced so much insight, healing and wisdom.