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December 19, 2015
Irish Times: 50 Things Ireland Needs in 2016.
This appeared in Saturday's The Irish Times by Ireland historian and author Diarmaid Ferriter: "50 things we need in Ireland in 2016". Excerpts:
5. A new government committed to the idea of a republic.
8. A narrative of 1916 that is honest, evidence-based and complicated.
12. A solution to the homelessness crisis.
13. Cyclists to be treated with more respect and subjected to less abuse by bullying motorists.
15. Those who do not clean up after their dogs to be interned in Frongoch, joining the commemoration hijackers.
21. Women’s sporting achievements to achieve the recognition they deserve.
22. Further subversive speeches from President Michael D Higgins.
25. Children able to attend their local schools regardless of religious faith or belief.
28. An Irish soccer team scoring goals in France. Lots of them. Don’t laugh.
30. Oscars for Irish films and actors. Just a few will do.
32. A new style of politics in Northern Ireland.
36. The staging of more plays by women.
38. Fewer tweets.
39. A greater number of handwritten letters.
46. More satire.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2015
Heroes: James M. Edwards.
Below: WWII picture of Jim Edwards (left), one of my Dad John Hull's best and oldest friends--and a hero of mine from the time I met him, which was right after we moved from Chicago to Cincinnati in the Spring of 1962. Quiet and self-effacing with (I thought) the most amazing eyes. 57 missions as fighter pilot in the China-Burma-India Theater before being shot down by ground fire behind enemy lines. Shortly before he died he told my Dad for the first time about how he escaped capture with a pistol and the help of local pro-Allies natives. Saw him and his new wife Shirley a lot in his last years. I was very close to his oldest son Bobby in elementary and middle school. I played at Jim's house on Brillwood Lane, both football and basketball, and the house next door where the Harness family lived. Jim was a genuinely brilliant, cultured, hardworking and good man. Brains behind P&G's paper products (Charmin) success. See James M. Edwards was P&G engineer, manufacturing leader. Like no P&G top executive you could meet. Serious. Intellectual. Playful. Athletic. Self-made. A well-read engineer who loved opera and theater. Liked to fish. And a Democrat. Unique. Boola Boola, sir.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)