Belfast City Council Supports Gay Marriage

Belfast City Council has become the first local authority in Northern Ireland to pass a motion in support of gay marriage.

The motion proposed by Sinn Fein's Mary Ellen Campbell stated: "This council supports the same rights and entitlements to civil marriages for all citizens of Belfast regardless of race, religion or sexuality."

It passed by 21 Sinn Fein and SDLP votes to zero, with unionists and SDLP members walking out before the vote, reports the Belfast Telegraph.

"It is regrettable that people walked away from such a serious issue. However, we are very happy the motion was passed," Sinn Fein Councillor Conor Maskey told the Belfast Telegraph.


"It sends out a strong message on pure equality for people in same-sex relationships."

Gay Pride Flag Flies Over Whitehall

The Deputy Prime Minister said flying the flag, a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride, to coincide with London's gay pride event this weekend was a ''small but important emblem''.

It comes after Mr. Clegg yesterday called for churches and other religious premises to be allowed to host gay weddings.

He said: ''There has to be a first time for everything - flying this iconic flag in the heart of Whitehall is a small but important emblem that the Government and this country are behind equal rights.

''I'm absolutely delighted that, with a little bit of persuasion and determination, we've been able to fly the rainbow flag for this weekend's festivities. I hope this is the start of a new era of pride across the historic Whitehall village.''

A Revolutionary Remembered

From a revolutionary of the 50's to an icon today, say the name Che and almost everyone on earth will know who you are talking about.  For many living in third world countries under oppressive right wing regimes he remains a hero to the poor and forgotten and hated by others.  

The iconic image of Guevara, worn by youth worldwide, was created by Dublin artist Jim Fitzpatrick.



Born in 1928, he grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Rosario, Argentina as Ernesto Guevara Lynch De la Serna. 

Nicknamed "Fuser" he would spend many hours in his fathers library reading books that included those by Marx and Engels, and Freud. His grandmother, Ana, was the daughter of Patrick Lynch, who was born in Galway, Ireland. 

Guevara's Irish links have been traced to Galway, and one Patricio Lynch, the founder of the Argentine branch of his family, was said to have been born in Galway in 1715. From there he spent some time in Spain before eventually settling in Argentina.

Galway City Council supporters of Che have passed a motion calling for a statue to be erected in his honor which is being condemned by House Foreign Affairs Committee Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and those of Cuban descent. 

“The romanticized reputation of Ernesto “Che” Guevara as a liberator and freedom fighter is nothing more than a myth of the Cuban revolution. In reality, Guevara was a mass murderer and a bigot.” Ros-Lehtinen wrote.  “Che Guevara embodied hatred. Using his own words, he exulted 'hatred as an element of the struggle' to transform a person into a 'violent, selective and cold killing machine.'" Ros-Lehtinen wrote.

Che's father, Ernesto Guevara Lynch, said in a 1969 interview: "The first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed with the blood of the Irish rebels. Che inherited some of the features of our restless ancestors. There was something in his nature which drew him to distant wandering, dangerous adventures and new ideas". 

As a young man finding his place in this world, he kept a journal of his experiences that detailed how he was shaped as a young man.  He witnessed the harshness of military despots and the poverty and misery among the people he met when traveling through the country on his bicycle with his friend Alberto Granado, which was excellently portrayed in the Motorcycle Diaries.  

In 1952, a semester before Guevara is due to complete his medical degree specializing in dermatology, he and his older friend Alberto Granado, a biochemist, leave Buenos Aries in order to travel across South America. At first they intend to work in a leper colony in Peru, but the main purpose is initially fun and adventure and to court as many woman as possible while getting to see as much of Latin America as they can.  They would eventually travel more than 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) in just four and a half months.  Their initial method of transport is Granado's dilapidated Norton 500 motorcycle christened La Poderosa ("The Mighty One").

Through the people they encounter on their Latin American continental trek, Guevara and Granado witness firsthand the injustices that the destitute face and are exposed to people and social classes they would have never encountered otherwise. As a result, the trip also plants the initial seed of  radicalization within Guevara, who would later view armed revolution as a way to challenge the continent's economic and social inequalities.

He was a handsome, well educated, a man who could have had a comfortable life as a doctor; yet he gave up all this, putting his life on the line for the things he believed.  After he had finished his academic career, qualifying as a doctor and specializing in dermatology, his experiences in Guatemala, where the CIA was instrumental in overthrowing the government and installing a military dictatorship, were the final steps in his radicalization.

Che met Fidel Castro in Mexico City in September of 1954 and soon joined Castro's group, training as a revolutionary on a Mexican farm. He had found his calling. Che was in the group of revolutionaries that sailed for Cuba in November of 1956. A group of about 80 left from Mexico, but only 12 made it safely to Cuba. Just 12 men, and yet in less than three years these 12 would conquer the country; of such stuff are legends made. Though Che started out as the doctor for the group, he was soon a Commandant, leading men in battle.

Che was involved with the Cuban government for some years after the revolution, but he had the heart of a revolutionary, not a politician and was soon out of the government and in Africa. His attempt at exporting revolution to the Belgian Congo was a failure but through the attempt his legend grew. He soon moved on to Bolivia, a country he thought was ripe for an uprising.
 
In the anti-Vietnam, anti-American era of the '60s, Che became the poster boy for revolution. But his life would come to a violent end on October 8th, 1967, when he was captured and executed by Bolivian soldiers with the help of the American CIA. His body was put on display by the Bolivians and then put into a secret, unmarked grave along with some other revolutionaries.

In 1997 Che's body was found, dug up, and returned to Cuba. His remains were met by Castro and members of Che's family. 

For me, he was a hero who became misguided either by the rush of power or the need for revenge.  But there is no question his is a life that will always be debated and never forgotten.  

Big And Beefy Irish Boys

Keith Earls, Jonathan Sexton and Sean O'Brien training. 

Sean is a really nice guy and has the type of body I love.  Big and beefy.

 Gordon D'Arcy Stretching

Cooking Out

I love cooking out.  I'll cookout any day and time of the year.  I don't care if its snowing or 100 degrees.  Nothing beats the taste of food cooked on a grill.  Cooking out is a guy thing I guess.  Brings out our inner caveman.  Argh!

A Romantic Moon

Nothing is more romantic than holding the one you love under a moonlit night and nothing beats a Harvest Moon or a Summer Moon.  I remember as a young teenager sneaking out of the house and meeting my friends and sitting up all night talking, laughing and watching the moon cross the sky.  When I close my eyes I can still vividly remember the sounds of the crickets, the cool-dewy mist that would settle on the grass, and the bright stars of the constellations we tried to name.  


I'm back home again from being at sea and it was wonderful spending a day on land walking around, shopping, eating, and not smelling anything fishy.  I brought three kittens home today to spend some time with our cat to see which one he likes.  My friends are going to adopt the other two.  They are all curled up around the computer sleeping as I type this at the desk.  So far my cat hasn't warmed up to any of the three.  He just sits there watching them tackle each other and trip over things as they chase each other.  He looks at me like what the hell is this?  They're a bunch of F*ing idiots.  lol  

Its about 3:30 in the morning and I couldn't sleep.  I'm used to be up at night on the ship.  I was looking forward to a night in my bed, but just can't fall asleep.  Gareth is at work so I can't even wake him up to do unspeakable things to him.  I just ate a a bagel with some pineapples and some warm milk and now I'm getting sleepy.  I don't want to wake all the sleeping kitties, so I'll share the couch with my cat and try to get some rest before the kittens wake and decide 5 am is a good time to start the day.

The Life Of A Scoop Of Ice Cream

The world famous Irish Ice Cream shop Murphy's has a funny video showing you the life of an ice cream.  The scoops are small compared to American ice cream shops, but that just means you can try several flavors on a hot summer evening.

Tulips and Other Greens

Tulips are my favorite flower.  I would give them to my mother growing up on Mothers Day and every special occassion.  I would spend hours looking for the perfect one to give to her.  I still leave them on her grave when I am in the States.

She would plant them in our backyard and every time they bloomed she would say I know how much you love me, the garden tells me so.  I love you Mom and everytime I see a Tulip garden I see your smile.

Friends Enjoying The Day

Shopping In Dublin

Fixing The Nets

Euro 2012 - Irelands Boys Take The Field

Duff, Dunne, and Keane being the Euro 2012 tournament play tonight.  Lots of Irish fans traveled to Poland to support the boys.  We're not among the favorites to win the tournament, but hopefully we can make some noise and give those fans that traveled a happy reason to drink some beer. 

Irish Team - Pre-Tournament Cooking Challenge

Robbie Keane Comments On Ireland at Euro 2012

What A Beautiful Day

Yesterday we went to Gareths cousins wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony and they're a lovely couple.  The men, including my Gareth, looked dashing in their suits.  Of course he looked even better when I helped him out of that suit, but that is another story altogether now isn't it. 

After my marriage to Gareth in South Africa, I've never once wished we had done it any other way.  I'll always remember the dust of the dirt road we walked down from our hotel to the marriage license place, the irritating flies and the scorching sun.  I remember continously wiping beads of sweat off our faces, caused not only from the heat, but also from the nervousness of standing in front of strangers and expressing a desire to be together for life.  I remember we each had a photo of our parents that we carried in our wallets and we took them out and stuck them in our shirt pockets so we had a little piece of our families with us.



As I watched Gareth dancing with the bride, it suddenly occured to me,  that we had never had a wedding dance (nor a honeymoon) and don't really have a couples song.  In passing, I mentioned this to Gareth and we started joking around throughout the day about what our wedding song would have been.  I teased him that it would have been Robert Plants "Doctor, Doctor, give me the news" and he teased me that he would have chosen Westlifes "Queen of my heart" to which he got punched in the arm. 

The joking on songs continued for awhile and then was forgotten.  It was a long day of fun and when we arrived home I was more than ready to kick my shoes off and strip out of the suit.  But Gareth stopped me and said "Uh Ah, not yet."  I didn't know what he was talking about, so I just looked at him with a confused look on my face.

He started rooting through some stuff and then he found this CD and started laughing.  He told me to come over to him by the stereo and he told me that after he first met me he couldn't stop thinking about me when I wasn't around.  Which I found really sweet because he had never told me that.  He said he did something back then that he had never done before and that he made a mixed tape of love songs that made him think of me. 

As we both started laughing, he put the CD in the player and said, "I don't know if any of these songs will ever be 'our song', but can I have this dance?"  I don't think either one of us could have had bigger smiles on our faces as we took each other into our arms and started to dance.  So there, with only our cat as a witness we had our long lost wedding dance. 


I'm happy for anyone who finds love they feel is true enough to stand amongst family and friends and express a desire to show the commitment they wish to make with each other for what is supposed to be the rest of their lives. 


Yet I can't help but feel sad everytime I go to a wedding knowing there are still people around the world who can't make such a public display of their love and affection in a legal manner.  Two people choosing to share a commited loving relationship, no matter their race or gender, can only strengthen mankind, not destroy it.