Gary J Byrnes, writer

My story continues at www.readathriller.com

2018-12-28T13:20:00.000+00:00

My blog has moved! Find my latest posts about my fiction, content marketing, hemp, climate change and more, at www.readathriller.com

See you soon!

Gary J Byrnes
28 December 2018

Top 5 crazy things about Pope Francis Ireland visit

2018-08-26T00:18:00.001+01:00

That crazy pope, what a guy!

You'd think it was the end of the world! All roads closed, warnings to keep your kids indoors, no bread in the shops, masses of chanting old people walking through the streets. And a sense of despair, even among the zealous. For Pope Francis is the head of a poisonous lie, so here are the most crazy things about his visit to Dublin, Ireland, August 25 and 26, 2018.

Here in the Dublin trenches, living through it, it's just a pain in the ass. For them, the ones who still believe the story, it's something unknown to me. Kudos to Irish leader Leo Varadkar for insisting that the Church brings in mandatory reporting of child sex abuse. Without that, Francis is just the front man of a monster.

1. So expensive! Like, 40 million quid!

Half will be paid up by gullible donors and suckers in mass every Sunday. The Catholic Church has been incredibly successful at getting its followers to pay for everything, and is worth... well, God only knows. Literally. Meanwhile, the hard-pressed Irish taxpayer will help fund the 20 million quid that pays for Garda overtime and, subsequently, rounds in Copperface Jacks.

2. So mental! Like, they actually believe this shit?

Religion is mad, Ted. There's just no other way to put it. Okay, maybe back in the day (like 5,000 years ago), we knew fuckall about anything, so making up stories to explain things made some sense. Then science happened, and enlightenment. So, we know that the Bible was just made up and is not the word of God. Because there is no god and this stuff is just not on. But if you want to turn a blind eye to the child abuse so you can listen to crazy stories every Sunday morning while the rest of us are having a lie-in, just go and do your religion in private. No need to shut down a provincial yet buzzy city for it.

3. 600 million communion wafers to be consumed!

If you stacked all the communion wafers to be consumed in Dublin this weekend on top of each other, they'd reach the moon! Even more crazy: there's a full moon on the day of the big gig in Phoenix Park! Wow! A disc of unleavened flour and holy water never sounded tastier! (Gags.)

This weekend, the faithful in Dublin are expected to consume:

600 million communion wafers,
17 million cups of tea,
2 million cups of Maxwell House Fine Blend,
24 million ham sandwiches,
7 million Club Milks,

1 million Choc Ices (depending on the weather),
32 million custard cream biscuits.

4. Francis was a nightclub bouncer

Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century. A Syrian, no less! Francis also used to work as a nightclub bouncer until he swapped sweaty late nights for early mornings of mass and unleavened wafers every day. Don't be surprised if you bump into Pope Francis on Harcourt Street late on Sunday night, picking fights and spilling pints.

5. A lot has changed in Ireland since the last pope visited

Pope John Paul 2 visited an adoring Ireland in 1979, and almost everyone went to bend the knee, and hear him pontificating when Polish accents were still quite rare. Other changes include the appearance of real coffee (only Maxwell House Fine Blend back then), the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993 (!), and the IRA ending its campaign of violence in 2005. In 1979, the only drinks were Guinness, Harp, Paddy whiskey, Babycham, and the only wine was Blue Nun or Black Tower. There were no drugs, no grass, no cocaine, not even heroin, as the whole Afghanistan thing was just kicking off. Ireland in 2018 is a bleary trip and that's why we are mostly immune to Francis's Jesuit mind tricks.

Mandatory reporting, or else

So Francis will hopefully get the message loud and clear: we're mostly done with the Catholic Church game. We will no longer be controlled, educated, brainwashed or abused by a fantastical system that twisted a benevolent ideology into something cruel and sadistic.

We have so much more to learn about what it is to be human and what the Universe means, but religion has nothing to offer humanity on this journey. Thank you and goodbye, Francis.

Bizarre bible quotes: https://listverse.com/2011/10/13/15-bizarre-biblical-quotes/
Gary's books on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/author/gary-j-byrnes/id424154219?mt=11
Read about Pope Francis on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis
Read about Catholic Church sex abuse cases here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases
Enjoy 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins: https://youtu.be/4aeETEoNfOg

www.GaryJByrnes.com

Support Canada against Saudi Arabian bullying, intimidation and dysfunction

2018-08-12T00:30:00.001+01:00

I am reprinting a message from Avaaz here on my blog, as it is clear, concise and to the point. Also, this is a really important, urgent issue. Please share. Thanks!

Saudi Arabia sentences women to death by stoning, brutally whips peaceful activists, and with their allies, just bombed a school bus full of kids in Yemen.

Canada just called out their latest jailing of women activists, and now Saudi has slammed them with sanctions! It's a typical bullying Saudi response: make an "example" of anyone who dares stand up to them. 

Enough is enough -- let's get our governments to stand with Canada by publicly demanding the release of human rights activists, calling to expel Saudi Arabia from the UN Human Rights Council, and to bring sanctions if the abuse continues - sign now!

Click to stand up for human rights!

Most of the world is still democratic and respects human rights. But rogue states like Saudi are trying to change that, to move us away from law and rights and democracy, towards a darker world where might makes right.

They’re targeting Canada to make an example of a champion of humanity and global values. The rest of the world’s democracies need to unite, or we’ll all soon face the same treatment.

But get this -- Saudi Arabia isn’t just on the UN’s Human Rights Council, they actually sit on women's rights committees, even as they lock up women unjustly! Now is the moment for our governments to stand up for human rights. Join the call for them to speak out and expel Saudi from the Human Rights Council!

Click to stand up for human rights!

Our movement played a major role in helping to win a vote in the European Parliament to ban arms sales to Saudi Arabia. It was the first time democracies have strongly stood up to Saudi oil and cash and done the right thing. Let’s make sure that a bright future of justice and law and human rights prevails over the dark dystopia that Saudi Arabia and Trump are pushing on us.

With hope,

Rewan, Andrew, Fatima, Ricken, Bert, Sarah, Christoph and everyone at Avaaz

More information:

Why Saudi Arabia is waging diplomatic war on … Canada (Vox)

https://www.vox.com/world/2018/8/6/17656864/saudi-arabia-canada-ambassador-persona-non-grata-samar-badawi

Saudi Arabia freezes Canada trade ties for urging activists' release (BBC)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45079682

Saudi Arabia’s fight with Canada exposes its fragile crown prince (Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/07/saudi-arabias-fight-with-canada-exposes-its-fragile-crown-prince/?utm_term=.5379238b4f64

'We are always going to speak up for human rights': Why Saudia Arabia abruptly suspended trade relations with Canada (National Post)

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/saudi-arabias-diplomatic-dispute-with-canada-an-explainer

Saudi Arabia's row with Canada: Silencing Western criticism? (DW)

https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabias-row-with-canada-silencing-western-criticism/a-44988894

Here’s why Canadian allies are keeping their mouths shut in dispute with Saudi Arabia (Global News)

https://globalnews.ca/news/4376037/canada-saudi-arabia-dispute-united-states-silent/

Avaaz is a 47-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.x

Ireland to stop kissing the ring?

2018-06-18T00:35:00.001+01:00

After the 8th, time to make Ireland a secular republic

The Almighty Sun God clearly approves of the Irish vote to remove the 8th amendment from the Constitution on May 25, 2018. We know this because the Almighty Sun God shone on voting day, and has shone pretty much every day since, in an unprecedented stretch of great drying weather. After a long and miserable winter, the Almighty Sun God finally looks upon us with favour once more, and all because of how we voted.

That sounds insane, right? Of course it's crazy. But it's no more crazy than the everyday madness that passes for the teachings of the theistic religions, including the Catholic Church. Ireland is a Catholic-controlled country, governed by a tiny elite which has always bent the knee to the Catholic Church. Yes, there was a blip from 1916-21, when a small number of genuine republicans managed to wrest independence from the British Empire. But after a vicious Civil War, 1921-22, our best and brightest were slaughtered by their fellow Irish, leaving the conservatives to define the new Republic. So they kept the Empire's control systems in place and allowed the Catholic Church to define the nation's morality, even to the extent of the Church taking complete control of Ireland's education and health systems.

Irish history a litany of failures

Just check out this stomach-churning picture of then Fianna Fail President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, bending the knee, and kissing the ring (literally and metaphorically) of Archbishop of Dublin McQuaid...

President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, kissing the episcopal ring of Catholic Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid at the turning of the sod ceremony, University College Dublin, 1962. Photo: UCD Archives

The god clause

Let's go back to fix 1937, the year that the Republic of Ireland adopted Eamon de Valera's Constitution which, in its preamble, states:

"We, the people of Éire (Ireland),

"Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ... "

"In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred..."

Give me a break! We removed the dastardly 8th amendment, but the actual Constitution itself is riddled with God baloney and the outdated thinking of a conservative, peasant society that was in thrall to the Catholic Church. I don't believe that Ireland's Constitution is fit for purpose.

We should set about writing a completely new Constitution for Ireland, one which reflects our true values and aspirations, not the twisted ideas of a depraved, cruel and absurd elite. They came from such a different place and time, they seem like aliens to me.

As a citizen of 21st century Ireland, I want a liberal, secular democracy, that puts people before gods, human rights before the State. This can only be achieved by continuing the fabulous momentum that brought the God Squad to its knees on May 25, 2018. Getting blasphemy out of the Constitution is great, but we need a much bigger plan.

Gary's action plan for a secular Ireland

Before the abortion legislation comes into force, offer free contraception to all Irish teens and adults forever. 46 countries already offer free contraception, so why can't we?
Get rid of religion across the entire Irish healthcare system. From hospitals named after saints (really!) to religious orders actually calling the shots at many key hospitals, this is a shameful state of affairs. Medicine is about science, not god. I ask you! And never admit me to St Gertrude's* Hospital!
The Catholic Church controls almost 100% of Ireland's primary and secondary level schools. Really! The local bishop actually decides how schools are run! And they teach kids a shedload of religion, too! This is indoctrination. Do languages, more science, and more sex education instead, for Christ's sake!
Health and education are just the most obvious (and damaging?) places where religion affects our daily lives. There's got to be a million more sneaky ways the Church has gotten its fingers into our brains, pants and pockets. So let's do an audit! An independent examination of how religion influences the running of the Irish State. I'd pay to read that report!
Let's make religions pay their way. Property taxes are just the start. Why should some of the richest organisations in the world be exempt from taxes while I, a model citizen, get royally screwed every paycheck? I just don't get it!
When we shake off the mental shackles, we can collectively write a new Constitution and really grow up as a nation.

Read Gary's take on McQuaid and De Valera in Ireland Trilogy, available for free on iTunes.

More about Gary's writing: www.GaryJByrnes.com

*St Gertrude the Great is patron saint of the dead. Not a great hospital brand.

Wouldn't you vote yes if it was you that got pregnant?

2018-05-22T08:00:00.000+01:00

Inspired by the 1970 Pregnant Man ad created by CramerSaatchi, now Saatchi & Saatchi

How you can deliver equality and liberty for Irish women this Friday

Share this post.
Help the yes campaign to own the digital space by tagging every social post this week, whatever the content: #repealthe8th #menforyes
Make sure you vote.
Vote yes.
Tell all your friends to vote yes.

Let's give free contraceptives to Irish women

I admire and respect Ireland's Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, for leading the campaign to take Ireland from the dark age of religious misogyny and into the light of equality, where women have full control over their own bodies (why is the Catholic Church so obsessed with women's bodies?). I ask Minister Harris to go one step further and announce free contraception for all Irish women. This move would help to minimise unwanted pregnancies, as has been proven in the 46 countries worldwide that offer free contraception to women.

46 countries offer free contraception to women. Let's make Ireland number 47.

Free contraception prevents abortions, saves money, empowers women

Unplanned pregnancies cost the global economy billions every year, causing distress and harm to women. Let's work towards free contraception for all women everywhere, starting with adding Ireland to the list of countries that already give this important health benefit free to citizens.

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Read more

Masters of Dublin maternity hospitals encourage a yes vote, with Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD:

https://www.rte.ie/news/eighth-amendment/2018/0521/964995-eighth-amendment/

A two-minute guide to the referendum

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2018/0510/962588-guide-eighth-amendment/

Referendum Commission FAQs

https://refcom2018.refcom.ie/faq/

Irish Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, on the mental health implications of a no vote:

http://www.thejournal.ie/eighth-amendment-simon-harris-4025310-May2018/

The 46 countries where contraception is free

https://www.vox.com/2014/6/30/5857904/where-the-pill-is-free

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This campaign was inspired by the iconic 1970 Pregnant Man ad created by CramerSaatchi, now Saatchi & Saatchi. The ad, created for the Family Planning Association, succeeded because of its simplicity. It posed a simple question: ‘Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?’. Read more here: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/04/12/pregnant-man-how-would-todays-marketers-reimagine-classic-ad-campaign

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More about Gary J Byrnes

Thriller writer, existentialist, parent. www.garyjbyrnes.com

Why the SpaceX Falcon Heavy test launch matters

2018-02-11T23:34:00.003+00:00

Thank you, Elon Musk, for the spectacle

It was a bit like the Roman idea of the circus. Give the plebs a spectacular show of blood and death and they'll forget about how shit their own lives are, and how they are being controlled by a small elite of unelected twats. And, in these shit times, the Falcon Heavy test launch on Tuesday, February 6, 2018, did indeed distract so many of us.

Falcon Heavy launch highlights

Historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center and the ghost of Saturn V. The power of the three rocket boosters. Kerosene and oxygen and thunder and lightning. The side boosters coming back to land simultaneously. Starman in his Tesla Roadster, driving through space, the gorgeous planet that we call home, David Bowie rocking the soundtrack. Don't panic on the dashboard and a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide in the glovebox. It was a non-stop, multi-sensory, space-tech, popular culture emotional orgasm. The Earth moved.

The begrudgery

The buzz lasted for days, but the begrudgers were quick to appear. Musk was denounced for spending $90 million to send a $100,000 car into space, when there are so many other good uses for money down here. This is wrong. For starters, SpaceX is a private venture. It gets government assistance, certainly, but Musk has invested his own fortune in the venture, a fortune he earned himself through innovation and perseverance. Better to look at something like military expenditure, and the global arms industry, which is heavily government-run or subsidised.

"Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated that 2012 military expenditures were roughly $1.8 trillion. The combined arms sales of the top 100 largest arms-producing companies amounted to an estimated $395 billion in 2012 according to SIPRI. In 2004 over $30 billion was spent in the international arms trade (a figure that excludes domestic sales of arms). The five biggest exporters in 2010–2014 were the United States, Russia, China, Germany and France, and the five biggest importers were India, Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan." - Wikipedia

So the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council, who are entrusted with keeping the peace, sell shitloads of armaments to oil and gas and iPhone producers, as well as the two countries that have been essentially at war since Britain's shambolic imperial retreat and partition. This is a much bigger issue, an elephant in the room. If we stopped spending money on guns and missiles, we could solve global poverty, hunger and inequality permanently, in a year. Peace has never been given a chance, because the US, UK, France, Russia and China are making too much money from war and death.

It's all about the story

But back to the event itself. As a marketing storyteller (and novelist), I take my hat off to Mr Musk and the SpaceX team for making a great story and telling it with style. The story's the thing, to paraphrase Shakespeare, and this was a complete story, with depth, layers, twists and a climax. In these marketing times, there is a realisation that true, compelling stories are the holy grail. This was a true story, a real story and a story that will be told around campfires for generations to come.

The Beginning.

Stay tuned to Starman

Watch the continuing saga that is Starman in space here: http://www.spacex.com/webcast

Explore my books here: www.garyjbyrnes.com

Axial tilt - the real reason we celebrate Christmas

2017-12-21T20:38:00.000+00:00

23 degrees

Earth's axis - an imaginary line between the north and south poles - is not perpendicular to the sun, but is off by 23 degrees. This is known as axial tilt. Because of axial tilt, we have our seasons: when our hemisphere is tilted towards the sun for half of our orbit around the sun (half of our year), we get more solar radiation. This is felt most strongly as summer. And when we tilt away from the sun for the other half of the year, we get winter. And the exact turning point in the middle of winter, when we (in the northern hemisphere) start to tilt back towards the sun, is technically known as the winter solstice. This annual event is imprinted on the global consciousness. As Christmas.

Newgrange and the winter solstice

How? Let’s start by going to the first large-scale building in human history. We don’t have to travel very far from Dublin (where this post is written), just up the road to County Meath, and Newgrange. On the 21st of December every year, a shaft of light penetrates deep into the heart of this ancient structure. It is believed that the light awoke the souls of the dead buried within, because the world was literally given new life. It is also believed that the appearance of the beam of sunlight was a cause of celebration for the early farmers who lived around the structure. It proved that the gods had decided that enough was enough with the ever-darkening winter days and that light and hope had returned. We can only imagine how it must have felt for people whose very survival depended on the return of spring to see that, clearly spring was on its way. Two minutes' worth of extra sunshine every day.

At around 5,000 years old, Newgrange predates the Pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge, and it is likely that those mighty structures also had some connection with the solstice, as did structures around the world from Mexico to Easter Island. Imagine the energy and organisation and meticulous study of the sun that went into the construction of Newgrange and the other monuments to the solstice! The solstice was clearly the single most important thing in people’s lives.

Mithraism vs Christianity

If we fast forward to the mighty Roman Empire of the fourth century CE, the official state religion was called Mithraism, a pagan cult that celebrated the sun. On December 25th every year, there was a huge celebration of feasts and games - the Romans did like to party - in honour of the sun god’s birth. They called it Natalis Solis Invicti and it was the biggest party of the year, marking the rebirth of the sun after the winter solstice.

Christianity was gaining a foothold in Rome at the time but, during the early 4th century CE, it looked like Mithraism could come out on top, with Christianity potentially fading away. Church leaders decided ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’. They decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, which had never been celebrated before. Nobody knew when Jesus had been born. Most likely it was in spring, as that’s the only time of year when shepherds would mind their flocks at night. But that didn’t really matter. It was decided that the 25th of December, the exact date of the sun god’s birthday party, would also be Jesus’s birthday party. When the Roman emperor Constantine was baptised in 337 CE, Christianity became the official state religion of the empire and Christmas became a permanent feature of the calendar.

Merry axial tilt

So, as you enjoy Christmas, with its mix of customs and traditions from all over history, from Queen Victoria to Coca-Cola, remember that the most important thing of all is the winter solstice. Merry axial tilt everyone!

Learn more

See the sun live: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/the-sun-now/index.html

Newgrange: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

Live coverage of the sun entering the chamber at Newgrange, 2017: https://youtu.be/a4Zv3EUmxP4

Image credits

The sun - NASA

Newgrange - Tjp Finn - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51765798

Gary J Byrnes stories

www.garyjbyrnes.com

Blade Runner 2049. Yes. It's awesome.

2017-10-15T15:32:00.001+01:00

Summer 1982. I just turned fifteen, lived in Limerick, in Ireland's Wild West. A city with two cinema screens and a bumper crop of movies. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Poltergeist and The Thing. I remember the Saturday afternoon. I went with some friends to see E.T. but it was sold out. We walked the block to the other cinema. Blade Runner? Ridley Scott? Too young for the bars, it was either this unheard of movie or nothing. And the rest is future history.

Blade Runner has since become a bold pattern on the fabric of our planetary culture. If you haven't seen it - and there are millions, if not billions who haven't - I urge, nay beg, you to watch it before you see 2049. In fact, before you watch the first movie, go read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick.

The best way to measure a movie in my book is whether I can stay awake. There's something about the cinema's cosy darkness, like a factory womb, where replicants are nurtured. So I feared the 163 minutes. It turned out that 163 felt like 5. The movie looks amazing, plenty of nods towards the original's unique style, but glad to make progress in time, in look, in visual depth. The acting is universally excellent, highlights include Ryan Gosling in his best screen performance to date, Harrison Ford owning the screen when he shows up, Jared Leto utterly credible as the mysterious Wallace, Robin Wright perfectly cast as the grizzled LAPD police chief and Ana de Armas as an engaging hologram.

In terms of the big idea, it's still about what it means to be human and whether we can ever really know for sure that we are human. These are the kind of questions that don't surface very often in popular culture and it is to the credit of the filmmakers that they have taken Philip K Dick's obsession and really run with it. There's a scene where K's hologram girlfriend offers to read to him, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. There may be meaning here, in terms of imagined entities creating or owning further imagined entities. In my opinion, she should've offered to read Philip K Dick's Ubik. Could it be that everyone in the film is already dead, from that mysterious blackout that erased digital history? That would've pushed it out.

In terms of where we are now with our humanity, the Blade Runner future is one without animals, humans themselves in decline. We feel bad when Joi the hologram is destroyed, which brought me back a couple of weeks to when my daughter was on my phone, poking Talking Tom repeatedly in his face. The virtual cat said 'Ow, ow, ow' and I said 'Stop hurting him, that's not nice.' Are we already there, I wonder?

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Read my fiction at www.garyjbyrnes.com

Climate change, hurricanes, gods and logic

2017-09-10T16:48:00.002+01:00

Are the gods angry with us?

Nobody likes hurricanes. As Irma hits Florida today after leaving a trail of death and destruction across the Caribbean, our thoughts are with those in her path. While many secretly hope that President Trump's Florida resort gets flattened, that is not a positive wish. This doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. Anyway, hopes, wishes and prayers are completely useless in the face of nature. Nature doesn't care about gods. Nature is what we constructed our god myths around. You could say that nature is god. So, are the gods angry?

Climate science 101

If the climate is a god, we've made it angry by adding heat. Hotter oceans have more energy and release more - and more energetic - water vapour into the air. Hotter air holds more water. Hotter air melts icecaps, leading to higher ocean levels and more devastating storm surges. This is very basic science, something that most 10 year-olds can grasp.

Where's the heat?

Burning fossil fuel - oil, petrol, diesel, natural gas - creates greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as carbon dioxide. When these greenhouse gases gather in the atmosphere, they block solar energy - heat - from escaping back into space. So the atmosphere gets hotter, more energetic, more capable of intense weather events and enormous hurricanes. Critically, water vapour itself is a greenhouse gas. See 'Climate science 101' above.

What's the alternative and why don't we embrace it?

Renewable energy, such as solar and wind, creates the power to run an electricity-generating station or to power an electric car, but without any greenhouse gases. It really is that simple. A key blocker is that we are lectured about the high cost of renewables. Take that one with a pinch of salt. A 2016 study estimated that global fossil fuel subsidies were $5.3 trillion in 2015, which represents 6.5% of global GDP. So, while Elon Musk and the Chinese make great progress driving down the cost of solar, there is not a level playing field while big oil still gets billions in handouts from friends in high places.

Applying logic

President Trump's decision to pull the USA out of the Paris Agreement on GHG control was a mistake, especially from a business logic perspective. Here's my three point plan for getting things back on track:

Err on the side of caution on GHGs. If the thousands of scientists are right, we have a slim window of opportunity to get our emissions under control. If we don't, we're in big trouble and our kids and grandkids will inherit a devastated planet. And if we can’t reduce our CO2 emissions, let’s plant hemp everywhere and just soak it out of the air.
Reduce or eliminate the subsidies given to fossil fuel businesses. Add up all the costs generated by mega-hurricanes and follow the money. Until the money runs out.
Invest some the fossil fuel subsidy savings in flood defences and improving renewable efficiencies.

Prayers just don't cut it.

Easter Rising 1916 Remembered - Ireland's Crazy History and Broken Present

2016-03-26T15:49:00.001+00:00

A Brief History of Ireland and Dublin

In a nutshell, Ireland's history is: warring tribes, St Patrick, warring tribes, Vikings, warring tribes, Normans, warring tribes, King Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, King William of Orange, Easter 1916, Independence, European Union, warring tribes...

No real recorded history of Dublin until the Vikings sailed up the River Liffey in the 9th century. Ireland at that time was populated by a lot of Celtic tribes constantly at war with each other, St Patrick having converted some of the pagans to Christianity in the second half of the 5th century. Then the Vikings came over from Denmark, said 'Hej' and that was that. They liked Dublin because it was a good spot for catching salmon and handy for grabbing and exporting slaves. They made their bases at rivermouths across Ireland, including at Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Cork and Galway - all Ireland's current cities, basically.

Dublin's name in Irish is Dubhlinn, meaning 'black pool', which may derive from a deep river pool where salmon gathered. The original Viking settlement is at a place called Wood Quay, just upriver (on the south bank) from the quaint Ha'penny Bridge, past U2's Clarence Hotel and now the location for the bunker-like offices of Dublin City Council (the original Viking origins of Dublin were dug up and skipped to make way for these horrible offices). The Vikings did annoy the locals, (something to do with the slave trade, perhaps) so a warrior called Brian Boru, from Killaloe, Co Clare, became the first to unite the Irish tribes against a common enemy. Boru's army defeated the Vikings in the Battle of Clontarf on Dublin's north city coastline in 1014. But Boru was killed in the aftermath of the battle. Ouch.

The Norman invasion began in 1169, commanded by Henry II. The Pope at the time gave Henry dominion over the "barbarous nation" of Ireland so that its "filthy practices" may be abolished, its Church brought into line, and that the Irish pay their tax to Rome. The Normans ruled the roost, mixing with the locals,until King Henry VIII decided to reconquer Ireland in 1566. The mainly Catholic Irish peasantry were never treated well and there was the occasional rebellion and famine, with Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator, bringing about Catholic emancipation in 1829. Dublin's main street, and the bridge leading from it to the southside, is named after O'Connell, as is the main street of virtually every town in Ireland. The Great Irish Famine of 1845-49 was a major event, with over a million starving to death. Dublin was largely insulated from the Famine, as the seat of British power, the centre of a defended coastal strip called The Pale, its citadel Dublin Castle. The Pale gave us the expression 'Beyond the Pale', meaning something weird and bizarre. Dubliners call people from outside the city 'culchies' or 'boggers' while country people call Dubliners 'Jackeens' because they loved to fly the 'Union Jack' flag in deference to the British rulers. So there you have it.

But the drive for independence continued, with the Easter Rising, a mainly Dublin event, beginning on 24 April, 1916. Led by Padraig Pearse and the Irish Volunteers, it lasted for six days with much of the action taking place around the General Post Office (GPO) on O'Connell Street. The rebellion was crushed and its leaders executed in Kilmainham Gaol. This outraged the Irishand a War of Independence was launched in 1919. Led by Michael Collins, it was intelligence-led, used innovative guerrilla tactics, and brought about independence in 1921. But Ireland was partitioned, Ulster remaining part of the United Kingdom, and this caused a brutal Civil War, which ended in 1922. A bitter taste remains and Ireland's political landscape is still described as 'Civil War politics'. Neil Jordan's film Michael Collins is an excellent evocation of the period.

Pearse and Collins are revered as heroes (de Valera less so), with many streets and buildings around Dublin named after them. But we owe Britain a great deal, including our love of the language, the finest architecture in Dublin, a key emigration destination and a strong bond between the peoples.

Dublin today is capital of a broken nation, an utterly bankrupt economy and a people with little faith in the inbred political class that caused the spectacular collapse, which began in 2008. There is a general sense of malaise and despondency and a visible urban decay in vacant retail units, derelict office blocks and so-called ghost housing estates. There has also been a noticeable increase in beggars, vagrants and homeless people on the city streets. But Dublin's people have not lost their sense of humour, their joy of life and their love of going out, dining, drinking, partying. Dublin people remain among the friendliest and best-mannered on Earth and are very welcoming.

Dublin was, back in the 'boom' times, considered to be Europe's party capital. The joie de vivre isn't quite as bubbly these days, but it is coming back, and there is still a discernible buzz to the city centre, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights. Go taste it!

Easter Rising Centenary

This weekend, Ireland remembers the Rising. The Easter Rising of 1916, often simply called The Rising, was the key event in Irish history. It was that important. Ireland was changed utterly and, as famed poet William Butler Yeats kind of said, 'A terrible beauty was born'.

A Very Brief History of the Easter Rising

Started

Easter Monday, 24 April, 1916

Background

Ireland was part of the British Empire. Irish republicans decided to launch an insurrection while Britain was distracted by World War 1 (1914-18). A number of armed groups took part: Irish Republican Brotherhood, Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan, a women's organisation. The rebels had small arms and faced the mighty British Army.

Key characters

Patrick Pearse led the Irish Volunteers, rose to command the GPO HQ unit and, eventually, unconditionally surrendered. Pearse signed the Proclamation of Independence, along with six others: Thomas J. Clarke, Seán Mac Diarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, Éamonn Ceannt, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett.

Main event

The Proclamation of the Irish Republic was read by Pearse at the General Post Office, GPO, on O'Connell St, Dublin 1, on Monday, 24 April, 1916, and the flag of the Irish Republic was raised.

Battles

Key battles took place in Dublin, mainly around Mount Street and the Grand Canal, the Four Courts and North King Street, the South Dublin Union, now St James's Hospital, and St Stephen's Green, with significant rebel successes. Rebel positions in the GPO and Liberty Hall were shelled by British artillery, including from a gunboat on the River Liffey. The only major event outside Dublin was a series of successful rebel attacks in Ashbourne, County Meath.

Ended

Saturday, 29 April 1916.

Casualties, Irish Rebels

64 dead, 16 executed.

Casualties, British Forces

132 dead.

Casualties, civilian

254 dead.

Immediate outcome

16 Irish leaders, including the seven signatories of the Proclamation of Independence, were executed, mostly by firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol. Roger Casement, captured while trying to bring Germany into the conflict, was hanged in London.

Impact on course of Irish history

The Rising put militant republicanism back on centre stage, after the 19^th century's mainly pacifist attempts at achieving Irish freedom. On January 21, 1919, republican abstentionist MPs, by then known as Sinn Fein, declared the independence of the Irish Republic. The Irish War of Independence began that same day, with an ambush by the newly-formed Irish Republican Army (IRA) on British forces. The War concluded with the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December, 1921, with Britain giving up control of the 26 counties. Britain held on to the six counties of Northern Ireland.

Legacy

The loss of the six counties bitterly divided Irish republicans, leading to the vicious Irish Civil War, 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923. Pro-Treaty forces, led by Michael Collins and with British support, won. The two leading political parties in Ireland today, Fine Gael (Pro-Treaty) and Fianna Fail (Anti-Treaty), are the direct descendants of both sides in the Civil War. The Rising gave Ireland her independence and led to the Republic we have today. This is justifiably a source of pride to Irish people. But it is also valid to wonder if the Republic which was created made all the horror and death worthwhile. At the time of writing, March 2016, Ireland has no democratically-elected Government and nobody really cares. The European Union has taken the role of empire.

Centenary

Check the official website for all events being held across the country to mark the Rising. Key commemoration happens over Easter weekend 2016, though the dates do not correspond, but there are events all year long.

www.ireland.ie/EasterRising

World War 3 - Ireland's neutrality no longer tenable

2015-11-26T22:44:00.002+00:00

Now that Islamic State has threatened attacks in Ireland, it's time to reconsider our position of neutrality and join the civilised world in a combined effort to destroy IS.

The Paris attacks have surely alerted us to the utter depravity of this religion-inspired death cult. While attacks in the West get most of our media attention, IS slaughters Muslims by the thousand and seems to aim for the worst excesses of Christianity - the Spanish Inquisition springs to mind.

I am ashamed that Ireland stayed out of the struggle to rid the world of Nazism - another death cult with a bankrupt ideology of hate and pain - so this could be an opportunity for us to make up for past failures.

World War 3 is upon us and it will continue for many years to come until the poison of militant Islam is discredited. The first step in this process is the military destruction of IS on the ground in Syria and Iraq.

This is the defining issue of our generation, more important even than climate change. Can we stop sitting on the fence when democracy, freedom of expression and women's rights are on the line? Or do we wait for the IS hordes to enter Europe, in a destructive spiral similar to the collapse of the Roman Empire, sending us into another thousand years of darkness?

My #Apprentice audition experience left me cold

2015-10-14T23:19:00.002+01:00

A frigid February morning in London. Tottenham Court Road tube station closed for upgrade, so a Central line train from Buckhurst Hill to Holborn and a walk through the quiet office canyons, tourists and street cleaners. Saturday. Counting Pret A Mangers. Nasty head cold, so into Boots for some dirt cheap painkillers and antihistamine tablets. There's another guy in a suit. It is Saturday.

"Apprentice?" I ask. He nods, smiles uneasily.

The email from the producers is drilled into me. Your interview time is 12:15. Please arrive on time (but no more than 15 minutes early) or we may not be able to see you. It's noon. I see a long queue outside the studio, decide on a Pret espresso. Probably the sixth Pret I'd seen.

So to the line. An hour at least out on the street, chatting to the other candidates around me. A guy tells me he's been through it before and that I should expect to have 30 seconds to pitch and to stick to 30 seconds.

Good advice. Even though we are technically competing against each other.

ARRANGEMENTS ON THE DAY
Due to the volume of applicants and the nature of the day, the selection process may be very short, but you should allow three hours in duration, possibly longer in the event of unforeseen delays. When you arrive, you will be asked to explain very briefly why you think you are a suitable candidate for The Apprentice. Some candidates may be asked to leave after this stage - so please note that it is possible that you may be required for only a very short time.
Please take into consideration your travel time to and from the venue and the possible duration of your stay.
Please come dressed in business wear.
Please note also that water will be provided at the venue but no other refreshments.
Unfortunately, due to the large numbers of applicants, we will be unable to provide any feedback in relation to the decisions made during the selection process.

Into the expansive, marbled lobby for another hour. Security guys - suits and earpieces - check documentation.

DOCUMENTS TO BRING WITH YOU ON THE DAY:
A copy of your passport to include; the front cover, any pages that contain personal details about you, any page with your photograph, any page containing your signature, any page containing an expiry date and any page containing a UK immigration endorsement. * If you do not have a passport, please bring a copy of your birth certificate and a form of photo identification, such as a driving licence. You will have to bring the original of any photocopied documents at a later stage if successful.
Proof of address (for example a utility bill).
Your up to date CV.
A colour passport photograph (taken within the last month).
Full application form (Download and print here)
If possible please type in your answers so we will be able to read them clearly and print a copy to bring with you
This form must be signed by you.
Applicant release form (Download and print here)
Please read this carefully. If you accept the terms, complete your personal details on the first page. must be signed by you where indicated. The contributor release form gives us permission to film, record and retain footage of you during the interview process.
Please note that due to the volume of people attending the interviews we will not be able to discuss the contributor release form with individuals or any proposed amendments. If you attend the interview with an amended contributor release form it may mean that you miss your interview slot and risk the opportunity to progress your application further. IMPORTANT NOTE Please note that if you fail to bring the above documentation, and completed and signed copies of the Application Form and Applicant Release Form you may not be permitted to take part in the selection process and will therefore miss the opportunity to be selected for inclusion in the programme.

A woman doesn't have a UK work permit and is sent away, dream crushed just as she got in the door.

We were taken to the lifts in groups of 12, by production assistants wearing the big earpiece mics so loved by the TV community. Up a few floors - TV production is big business, apparently hugely profitable - to what must be the staff canteen and general production waiting area, where the audiences get cheap booze before the recording. QI is playing on a big screen, sound off. A couple of staff at reception desks go through all the documents, make copies, allow us through to the chairs. Chairs! There are jugs of tap water and plastic cups. Printouts are taped throughout the space where maybe a hundred people wait, saying Do not talk.

I use this quiet time, at least another hour, to go over my pitch again and again in my head, getting it down to 30 seconds exactly. My name is called and, with 11 others, I'm taken to a small rehearsal studio, numbers on the floor, a man and a woman. Stand behind a number. He's got a stopwatch. 30 seconds to make your pitch, numbers called at random. People go over the 30 and are stopped mid-sentence. I make my pitch and it's good, bang on time. My business proposition is an original app in the financial sector. It's a good idea.

After the pitches, four of us are selected to go to the next stage and the others are thanked for their time. Another elevator ride to a half-used office space, some desks full of the clutter of paperwork and personal effects, other desks bare, some chairs and a waiting room. A view of the British Museum, just a block or two away. I'd hoped to get down to see the Rosetta Stone after the audition. After a couple of hours, the production assistants brought packets of Walkers crisps and cans of fizzy drinks and apologies. Some candidates were unhappy at the endless waiting and made this abundantly clear. I chatted with a Scottish guy and we wondered if this was part of the process.

My name was called and I was led to a room that looked like a smaller canteen, tables set up, maybe a dozen one-on-one interviews in progress. A woman interviewed me for about twenty minutes, along the lines of the questions from the application form. How would someone who knows you well describe your worst points? What intimidates you? What makes you angry? What is the worst lie you have ever told? What is your greatest regret and why? Describe something you would do if you knew you would not get caught? And some businessy questions. What's the difference between gross profit and net profit? Some mental arithmetic. What's 16 times 24? Or something similar. After a long day of waiting, this is hard. I try to focus on my business proposition, which is strong. I get the impression that my business idea is not so important.

Into the night with other candidates, single file. It's dark and the museum is long closed. Oxford Street is buzzing. I pick up some souvenirs.

Cheap, plastic tat. This may be a long day for you but we hope you enjoy the experience and we look forward to meeting you.

I don't get a callback. I don't know if any of the hundreds who shared that day did. I see the first episode of The Apprentice Series 11 and I wonder about the truth, the reality of it all.

---

The links to application form and release form are live - well worth a read.

Find out more about Gary at www.GaryJByrnes.com

#Syria - How to stop the war

2015-09-13T23:44:00.000+01:00

Everything about this crazy war is on a biblical scale. So much of it bizarrely symbolic.

Syria's been at the heart of the cauldron of religious and geopolitical conflict since the year dot, with Damascus the oldest continuously-inhabited city on the planet. The hideous Islamic Sate, born of western and regional powerplays, threatens the planet with an Armageddon, while instilling fear and revulsion on a planetary scale. Syria's also the location of the Battle of Yarmouk (636) which was a final decimation of Byzantine Roman power by the first post-Muhammad Islamic army. As then, so today, the floods of refugees are epic. Wouldn't you flee with your family if you thought that Islamic State could take over your neighbourhood? Of course you would. Until the war is over, the people have no hope, so they come to us, so we must offer human kindness.

With Russia and Iran pumping in weapons, the US - as always - arming its own chosen ones, and plenty of mustard gas up for grabs, Syria could continue to spin out of control over the next decade, like the lazy, slowmo catastrophe that it's been for how long? how many hundred thousand dead? how many million refugees? how many drowned children in the Mediterranean?, and then bring the entire Middle East down with it.

Or we could stop the war.

Assad, born into his position, will go. But with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah fighting for him, he will be near-impossible to dislodge from his Damascus base, so he must leave at a time of his choosing. The rest of Syria is already partitioned: Kurd, Shia, Allawite, Sunni, Yazidi, FSA. And Islamic State.

Allow Assad to create a federal Syria, with himself as head of state. His adversaries take control of the areas they hold, with local discussions working out border disputes. Crowdsource a constitution. Full and free elections, to vote on a federal, participative democratic system. Once they stop fighting each other, all the Syrian groups with credible demands for self-determination would find common enemy in Islamic State.

IS wouldn't survive six months. Better: the planet, and her children, wouldn't have to bear the daily horror. Win/win, I'd say.

---

Find out more about Syria here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria

Discover Gary's fiction at www.GaryJByrnes.com

Greece, democracy and a fascist plot

2015-07-05T16:53:00.002+01:00

Is there an adult in the room? Dominique Strauss-Kahn, MD of the IMF when the world economy collapsed. His mind was probably on other things.

We are living through a struggle between democracy and fascism. On one side, the Greek people have been given the opportunity to participate in a democratic process, in a reflection of the first democracy to emerge from that very nation around 500BC. In the other corner, the hated Troika* of European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund. So, is this democracy V fascism?

The definition of fascist is "totalitarian, authoritarian, one-party, oppressive, autocratic, dictatorial, undemocratic, monolithic, despotic, tyrannous" (Free Dictionary), so could that be a valid description of the Troika?

European Central Bank

The owners and shareholders of the ECB, which is structured as a corporation, are the central banks of all 28 EU member states. The primary objective of the ECB is to 'maintain price stability within the Eurozone'. This is defined as price inflation of 'close to' 2%. The main decision making body of the ECB is called the Governing Council. The Council's minutes are not published. The Central bank of Greece has paid-up capital in the ECB of €220 million, for a 2% stake. Curiously, the ECB has paid-up capital of a mere €7.6 billion. Non-euro EU countries also own stakes in the ECB, which is also curious, as the ECB also runs the euro currency.
Eurozone inflation in May 2015 was 0.2%.
More from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Central_Bank

European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the EU, essentially Europe's Government, with 28 commissioners, a staff of 23,000. Commissioners are appointed by member state governments, as opposed to being elected. In Ireland, the plum role of commissioner is normally awarded to disgraced politicians as a reward for doing dirty work, or just to get them out of the domestic political arena. The EC is increasingly sidelined by Germany, France and the UK.
More from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission

International Monetary Fund
Set up to rebuild Germany after WW2 (which included massive debt write offs!), the IMF is controlled by America with a complicated organisational structure and voting system, which is based on wealth. The IMF is about pure financial muscle, even though it claims to have the reduction of global poverty as one of its aims. Eight countries get to appoint an Executive Director, including Saudi Arabia, a twisted, fundamentalist monarchy with no regard for human rights, no democracy, the root cause of much climate change, the wellspring of Al-Qaeda and IS.

Most observers agree that, when the IMF forces its loans on a country, income inequality rises. The IMF has been described as a pillar of global (economic) apartheid, a supporter of dictators and a cheerleader for US neoliberal policies.

800 million people go to sleep hungry every day. Current MD, Christine Lagarde is paid a tax-exempt salary of $467k, plus allowances and entertainment expenses.
More from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund

So three supranational organisations, run by political appointees, with utterly failed objectives, are running scared from democracy. What does this tell us? Interestingly, all three member organisations of this unholy trinity are wholly behind the US/EU trade deal, TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. This deal is being negotiated in secret and aims to create a supranational judicial system that will operate above national law to deal with trade disputes. TTIP essentially gives corporations their own global legal system as a means of ensuring 'free trade'. If TTIP passes, I can guarantee that Irish Water will be sold to a global corporation within five years.

While Greece's misfortune - much like Ireland's - results from political incompetence, it must be remembered that most of the Troika's bailout funds to Greece are used to pay off existing debts, primarily to German and French banks, with only 10% going on social programmes or investment (and it sickens me to hear Christine Lagarde lecturing anyone about tax codes when she doesn't pay a cent in income tax). Again, a similar situation to Ireland's. What's different about Greece is the recent election of the Syriza-led Government, on a platform of ending austerity and crazy loan-piled-upon-loan policies, and with a left wing focus. Ireland's neoliberal Fianna Fail Government caved to the Troika's demands because they fitted with our Establishment mindset. And Ireland's current Fine Gael/Labour Government is even more right wing and neoliberal. But Greece is different. Greece doesn't fit with the groupthink of taxes, cuts, austerity and debt. So Greece must be stopped. We are witnessing an attempt at regime change by the Troika, to get rid of fresh thought and install a government that embraces groupthink.

The Troika is composed of three deeply dysfunctional organisations, each of which has failed miserably to achieve core goals, instead creating a superstate that operates above what we call democracy. The Troika is not answerable to the citizens of the world in any meaningful way and it rules by fear. As such, I believe that the Troika can be called fascist and that democracy itself is entering a dangerous phase, however Greece votes.

*Troika is from the Russian, meaning three of a kind.

More on TTIP from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership

Participative democracy is the only alternative to a fascist, neoliberal European Union. Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/wesayireland

Find out more about Gary J Byrnes here: http://www.GaryJByrnes.com

Ireland's gay marriage referendum - a true watershed

2015-05-19T20:50:00.000+01:00

Ireland's Gay Marriage Referendum, Friday 22nd May, 2015

It's ironic that Ireland is to be the first country in the world where a public vote will decide to change the Constitution to allow marriage between same-sex couples. Ironic because our 1937 Constitution was drafted by famously conservative, Catholic Eamon deValera, guided - it's widely believed - by the then Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. Dev would have had no idea that Irish society could have turned from the Church in such numbers. We have grown up.

In a Constitution that's littered with all sorts of crazed homage to a mysterious sky being, we're not taking anything out, simply adding a sentence:

“Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”

The rest of the god stuff will have to come out of the Constitution, and the sooner the better. For now, let's take a step towards ridding this Republic of the prejudice, ignorance, hatred and suffering that have been inflicted on society by the evil of organised religion. We are awake to the fact that our priests are obsessed with sex. Obsessed! Theoretical virgins who want to own and control our organs, especially women's organs. Oh, they adore women's organs!

So we are on a long road, one which will lead us genuine equality for all, for access to contraception, abortion and a free healthcare system that isn't about carving up women or considering the almost-life of an unborn foetus as more important than its so-alive mother. There's still a long way to go. But we take a great step forward towards a genuine democracy and a secular Republic when we vote yes.

---

Get Gary's stunning Ireland Trilogy free from Smashwords here - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/171603 - just use coupon code WW76G

Find more free ebooks from Gary at www.GaryJByrnes.com

Paris, a Shining Beacon for a New Age of Enlightenment?

2015-05-01T12:32:00.003+01:00

Eiffel Tower, Paris, seen from Trocadero

My latest novel, To Eat the World, places two characters from the food and art worlds into one of this planet's great cities, New York, and a race against time to save us all. I'm constantly thinking about my creations, Sophie and Jacob, and where they should experience their next adventure. I've just enjoyed my first visit to Paris. So now I know where my characters will go. They will walk the hills of Montmartre, then eat croque monsieurs in the shade of the Tuileries Garden. They will get up close to the greatest art in human history. They will be stupefied by a multisensory assault, every sensation tickled, every cultural and gastronomic yearning embraced.

Inside the Louvre's pyramid

Dublin, my hometown, is a quaint little city, capital of a dysfunctional, bankrupt country. Ireland is a broken, depressed nation, certainly, but Dublin has its moments. Contextually, Dublin was the second city of the British Empire for many centuries, on an island strategically important to the Crown and in relative proximity to the capital of empire, London. Dublin's only notable examples of decent architecture are the remaining monuments of colonialism. After a brief interlude of independence, which entailed little more than domination by the brutal Catholic Church, mass emigration and the entrenchment of a new landed gentry of farmers and slum landlords, Ireland is once again a colonial outpost. But this time, our capital is in flux. A tussle between distant Germany, Frankfurt, home to the European Central Bank, our financial overlords. And Washington, which sees Ireland as a convenient military transit hub off the coast of Europe and a convenient tax avoidance location for the biggest American corporations, many of them large political donors back home. Ireland is also a great place for US presidential hopefuls to drink a pint of Guinness and we punch way above our weight in greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to cow farts, mainly.

Blanche metro station, Art Nouveau at Montmartre

Because Irish culture is so deeply coloured by our experience as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and our reliance on the US for jobs, inward investment and export markets for alcohol, we have lost any real understanding of what it means to be Irish. We consume British and American news media, music, sport, junk food and junk culture and we have sleepwalked into the Anglo-American groupthink. This is evidenced in many ways, from our docile acceptance of the open market capitalist mantra to the sacrifice of caring society on the altar of the banks. And we've always had a sneaking suspicion of the French.

Musee d'Orsay

The French are savages - they chopped the heads off their monarchs! The French have no place for organised religion! The French always surrender! The French smell! The French are rude! These are the subtle messages that have been propagated through the Anglo media and into the Irish psyche for generations. The French traits of liberty, equality, secularism and republicanism have been transformed by the British and American establishments into negatives and this poisonous message has been gleefully disseminated by a monocultural media.

Well, I have woken from a bad dream and have seen the reality. Sure, Paris can stink, but so does every major city. Yes, Parisiens can be rude, but Londoners tend to be ruder. Certainly there is not a McDonald's on every street corner, and that can only be a good thing. Of course France has no place in her constitution for kings or queens or popes or mullahs. And that is only right. Ireland, smothered by the insidious blankets of empire and religion, lost her greatest talents to Paris, among them James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. And the contrasts with dowdy, backwater Dublin could not be more pronounced.

Venus de Milo, Louvre

Paris is an epic, stylish city, full of a unique design sensibility, artistic expression, treasures of the the world, glorious architecture and a confident sense of itself. Parisiens are justly proud of their unique and exciting city and it is no surprise to me that Paris should be the world's top tourist destination. It is a genuinely multi-cultural, buzzing metropolis. People sit outside bars reading books. Books! People write, draw, paint, talk. People stroll through the parks in 1920s dress. Couples dance for tips in the squares. There is a fashion shoot around every corner. You can eat wonderfully simple food in a classic restaurant in the city centre for less than you'd spend on a burger meal in Dublin.

It is precisely because Paris is so successful at what it does that it has become a target for the haters. Rightwing US media buffoons hate that France didn't help to destroy and dismember Iraq. Cheese-eating surrender monkeys? Give me Camembert de Normandie on crusty bread over genetically-modified junkfood any day. And the evil spawn of US foreign policy, al Qaeda, with their hideous attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine, hate the very idea of free speech and their brothers-in-arms, Islamic State, despise the values of secularism that are at the very heart of what France means.

Gary J Byrnes at Bouillon Chartier restaurant

France is not perfect - nowhere is - and that nation's colonial experiences are every bit as shocking and destructive as Britain and America's. And France seems to have an unhealthy obsession with nuclear weapons. But these shortcomings could be laid at the feet of her 'Establishment'.

Paris, the birthplace of the Age of Enlightenment, is the only city I've experienced which has the potential to foster a new enlightenment. With secularism, true republicanism, technology and culture at its heart, Paris must step up now and offer a clear vision of a better world. We can't all live in Paris, so Paris must come to us. France tried to save Ireland once, despatching thousands of troops to assist in the 1798 rebellion against British rule. France must once again come to our rescue by taking the lead in the European Union, challenging the austerity dogma and putting people first.

Je suis waiting...

Find out more about Gary at www.GaryJByrnes.com

Taste Paris at Bouillon Chartier, more details at http://www.bouillon-chartier.com/en/

Win a signed copy of Gary's latest thriller with Books Ireland Magazine at http://www.booksirelandmagazine.com/

We Say - A new participative democracy model for Ireland, Europe and the World

2015-03-13T11:49:00.000+00:00

Irish writer, Gary J Byrnes, today helps launch We Say! on Facebook. We Say! aims to build a functioning, online, participative voting platform which will allow citizens to learn about, discuss and vote upon the issues that matter. The platform will allow for direct decisionmaking by the electorate on local, national and international issues.

We Say! will learn from the experiences of other nations in participative democracy and work to integrate Ireland's solution with solutions in other European Union states and, eventually, the World.

The democratic deficit has never been more pronounced in Ireland, the EU and worldwide. Our planet is being pillaged for the enrichment of corporations and banks. Religious ideology is driving too many politicians to the edge of global catastrophe. Austerity programmes are being inflicted on populations who never deserved them. The divide between rich and poor grows more pronounced by the day.

People feel powerless, justifiably. The political parties who rule on a platform of representation are disconnected from the realities of their electorates. The time is come for a new approach to democracy, one which allows the electorate to make the decisions that affect their daily lives and to choose the direction in which society should go.

We Say that change must come. We Say that we are smart enough to make decisions. We Say!

Join We Say on Facebook today: https://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Say/448494228642336

We especially need computer programmers to help build our open source platform.

Find out more about Gary here: www.GaryJByrnes.com

Islamic militants to merge

2015-03-01T01:20:00.000+00:00

The Mujaheddin - Islamic terrorists, armed to the teeth and with a 7th century mindset - were created by America in Afghanistan in 1979, to combat that country's first secular, democratic government. Perhaps surprisingly, it was good old peanut-loving President Jimmy Carter behind that decision, aided and abetted by Britain's then new prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. Interestingly, recent American history seems blighted by Democrat presidents who appear benign but lead their nation into deadly, strategic cul-de-sacs, especially with militant Islamic forces. Carter was encouraged to support Afghan Muslim terrorists by his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is still pushing buttons in Washington, recently encouraging NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. You have to wonder about history repeating and all that.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, who gave us Islamic State.

Carter's key Afghan ally was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a scumbag of the VERY highest order. Hekmatyar specialised in throwing acid in the faces of women who wouldn't wear the veil and growing the opium that poisoned the cities of western Europe, not least Dublin, where the heroin epidemic that has ripped the heart from the city can be directly linked to when the CIA began pumping billions of dollars into Hekmatyar's twisted operation. The CIA would likely call a junkie syringe stuck in a Dublin schoolboy on a bus to school blowback, collateral damage. Unless the destabilisation of Europe was an objective of what is obviously, in hindsight, an absolutely insane idea.

That idea: to work with the crazy, misogynistic mountain men of Afghanistan, with their medieval Islamic ideologies, against the atheistic, secular, modernising city dwellers of Kabul so as to weaken a Soviet influence that wasn't even there yet, then grab Afghanistan's mineral wealth and strategic location. That idea must rank with the stupidest, dumbest, most suicidal ideas of all time. The Afghan craziness (July 1979) followed the Iranian Revolution (February 1979) so I can only conclude that America jumped straight into the Sunni/Shia conflict that had been raging for centuries, opposing Iran's Shia because they'd had the cheek to depose the US-supported dictator Shah.

For it gave us the Taliban. It gave us al-Qaeda. It gave us 9/11. It gave us Islamic State. It gave us the shit world we live in today. That stupid idea gave us World War 3.

The Islamic Caliphate thrives in the cauldron of the Middle East, a region torn to pieces by US foreign policy. You actually couldn't make up a worse tale of incompetence, arms marketing, war starting, oil loving, dictator sponsoring, fundamentalist accepting and death dealing. America may, in a Fight Club kind of way, have decided that the occasional bit of blowback - the Twin Towers, Boston, Charlie Hebdo, Madrid. Benghazi, Bali - is worth it from a strategic perspective. But it is now certain that the militant Islamic armies will unite under the Caliph of Islamic State. The doctrine of divide and conquer cannot survive much longer and the Islamists know it. Islamic State will formally unite with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram, al-Shabab and all other Islamic terrorists. They will combine their resources, link their networks in the west, conduct simultaneous, complex, asymmetric attacks worldwide. The west will blame Snowden, WikiLeaks and the Russians. But we need to look much closer to home to identify and accept the root causes of this World War 3, and come to terms with the reality that this war cannot be won militarily. I just hope that we can do so in time to prevent the Islamic Caliphate of Europe.

For more by Gary J Byrnes, see www.GaryJByrnes.com

Photo credit: "MSC 2014 Brzezinski Kleinschmidt MSC2014" by Kleinschmidt / MSC. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 de via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSC_2014_Brzezinski_Kleinschmidt_MSC2014.jpg#mediaviewer/File:MSC_2014_Brzezinski_Kleinschmidt_MSC2014.jpg

#JeSuisCharlie - Much western media already defeated

2015-01-11T22:16:00.003+00:00

Charlie Hebdo, Survivors' Issue, Front Cover, 13/01/2015

Western media prides itself on its liberalism, openness and edginess but, in reality, it is generally conservative, Christian and owned by hedge funds. The massacre at Charlie Hebdo has put the European and US media in an uncomfortable place. They are afraid to publish the cartoons that Charlie Hebdo magazine published. Simply afraid. Afraid of any backlash - from terrorists or Muslim media consumers or investors - that will negatively impact the bottom line.

Sure, the media will whine about not wanting to inflame the situation, nauseatingly bowing to the fear principle, but that does not excuse the need to report. Ireland's media is too afraid of its own shadow to rock the boat. Like in Britain, Ireland's media is owned by the state or by oligarchs, and will never take a stand on principle if a few quid can be found elsewhere.

But the media misses the key point:it it is impossible to effectively report on the issue of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons and why they caused the religion-inspired slaughter of 17 innocents in Paris without showing the cartoons. Impossible.

Because when normal, balanced people see the cartoons they can really only come to one conclusion: What's the big frikkin' deal? So, if the western media is too afraid to report on reality, where does that leave us?

France is a shining beacon of secularism, anti-monarchism and progressive culture. France has also challenged the rise of Islamofascism with military force, unlike many of the west's key military powers. When Britain collapsed in the face of Syria's descent into inhumanity, President Obama hesitated, IS was born and the jihadists of Paris were emboldened.

And here we are, after the al Qaeda/IS Charlie Hedbo attack, after the Taliban Pakistan school slaughter, after the latest Boko Haram massacre which killed 2,000, after 9/11, after 7/7, the list is endless, here we are and nothing has changed. Except that things have gotten worse.

It's a big question: what can we do in the face of such relentless attacks on our way of life?

The best we can do is to fight for our freedom of speech and challenge those in power who would dilute it. We must not appease murderers and censor ourselves so as not to attract hate from the Middle east, the cradle of civilisation, of our religions. The poison of religion has never been compatible with freedom of thought or expression. The west has woken up to this. France led the way, the rest of Europe followed, kicking and screaming. Ireland lags far behind, with religion enshrined in her Constitution and the Catholic Church - as fundamental and destructive as militant Islam - still in control of most of the country's education system. This must change.

So the world must catch up with France. If that means combating violence from those who would rather live in the Middle Ages, while we keep our focus on progress, then that is what we must do. If men, women and children are to have any hope of freedom, human rights and equality in the 21st century, we must all be Charlie.

Find Gary's new thriller, To Eat The World, on iTunes.

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United Hates - My New Thriller

2014-12-30T00:17:00.000+00:00

BUY THE BOOK NOW IN PRINT AND EBOOK, ON SALE WORLDWIDE (First published as 'To Eat the World'.)

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Everyone must die during dessert. Can Sophie save New York and the world?

In the dying days of World War Two, Nazi rocket scientists were spirited to America to give the United States a strategic edge in the atomic arms race. Some of the Nazis built a secret empire in New York, founded on looted art and gold.

Fast forward to today. Emboldened by the rise of right-wingers and the broken economy, the Nazis plan to take over the Presidency, destroy Wall Street and enslave the world, launching their coup at a King Louis XVI-themed art banquet. Sophie, a Manhattan chef, is asked to cook for the President at the feast. Her ex-lover, art expert Jacob, will be served as the main course.

A sexy, thrilling tale of great food, classic art and the meaning of beauty, love and life.

www.readathriller.com

Extract to follow:

United Hates

by Gary J Byrnes

That feeling, that good feeling at the end of a busy, smooth service. Uneventful but for the trainee chef dropping his spectacles into the pot of boiling water and the customer who didn’t want to pay for his steak. Sophie put her hand into the water to retrieve the glasses without thinking. ‘All the nerves in your hands will become numb over time. And get a cord for the spectacles, yeah?’ Steak guy said he didn't like it. ‘He should’ve realised that before he ate the whole damned thing. He even licked the T-bone clean! Now tell him that we’ve got police officers on the premises and I can get them to sort it out for us.’ So he paid and apologised. It reminded her of the time the diner complained that her Vichyssoise was simply freezing. This kind of stuff happens every single day. Part of the reason she loved the job. It was all about meeting the key primal need for food, which comes even before sex and shelter in terms of daily importance.

Her dad, who brought his French culinary skills over during the War, always impressed on young Sophie the importance of food as a business. People can put off buying a new car or a coat. They can never put off eating lunch and dinner. And, in the end, hunger will make them kill for food.

So just some desserts going out, then a gushing sliced thumb, ‘You using my Global knife again, Jimmy? So don’t. Back in my knife bag before you get the first aid kit. And never cut towards yourself. Really’. Definitely a first generation cook. The busboys fiddling with the fancy coffees, the waiters counting out and divvying up the tips, the kitchen staff eating the family meal at the table by the kitchen, a hot Thai curry tonight, or drinking Peroni beer from coffee cups or smoking cigarettes or grass joints out in the back alley by the stinking trash and the sodium street lamps and the fat rats and the pure, clean night air.

Sophie pointedly ignored the drug and alcohol abuse that went on among the staff. It was defined by economic class, from the crack-smoking dishwashers to the pot-smoking busboys to the alcoholic waiters to the coke-snorting managers. It came with the territory. When you go out to a restaurant on a quiet night, you will likely deal with a staff that’s collectively off its face. Busier nights are better. Less boredom, less time to be filled with narcotics.

‘Table four sends their compliments, boss,’ says Ramon, a good waiter, union rep.

‘Four? Okay, thanks,’ she muttered. Odd. And he hasn't been out for his smoke with the help yet. Something’s up.

She washed her hands, slapped some cold water on the back of her neck, dried off. Then she carefully applied some lipstick, poured a glass of house red, a decent Californian Pinot Noir - Ingrid’s - good berry and chocolate tingles. And so, to meet her audience.

The restaurant was still full of customers but calmer now, all baked New York cheesecake, Colombian coffee and French brandy. The congressman spotted her and stood, grinning broadly. That spark in his eye, that curious, irresistible molecular reaction in her, like strawberries meeting balsamic vinegar. How did it happen, the two of them? He loved his food and the restaurant was near his campaign office. Was that it? Was that what brought people together, the coincidence of the mundane? No. Her food was definitely not mundane. That’s why her stake in Oral Pleasures was worth at least a million, so the accountant said. She glanced at the couples sharing desserts with single, long-stemmed spoons. Eight out of ten would certainly get in the neighbourhood of sex tonight, the condom machines in the bathrooms proved that. The minds would be willing, the bodies less so. Have more sex, then you won’t get so fat. One hundred and four covers, two seatings per night. Sometimes three. Hundred bucks a head. Do the math. Turnover last year: eight million. Surely this was something to be proud of?

So why the unease, the slithering emptiness?

Sophie’s typical day: Lie in bed awake until the alarm bings at 7.30. Green tea and salty olives and French cigarettes on the terrace, feed the dog, the Bijon Frise in her little house outside on the balcony (she rarely gets in the apartment), morning noises and smells, honking cabs and muffled shouts and the aromas of toasting bagels and street coffee drifting up from Bleecker Street below. The Village. The pulsing heart of Bohemian New York. Nigella sniffs the air, cocks an ear. Beautiful. Okay, she gets inside when Sophie's home. Shower. More tea, more smoke. Set up Nigella’s feeder, top-up her water. Then stroll up to West 4th St, catch the E up to 50th Street or, more often than not, walk, walk fast. Impossible to do that now without thinking back to that day, that crazy rush uptown with the bewildered thousands on The Day The Planes Came.
In the restaurant by 9.30, checking that the night cleaners had done a perfect job. Oversee the prep for lunch and dinner and the deli counter. How many potatoes peeled and diced? How much pesto today? Ten gallons, ten! It also sells by the half-pint to take away out front, nice little side earner. Sophie helps out a little during lunch service, but doesn't run the show. Her assistant, Carl, a little rough around the edges but talented and getting better, he manages lunch. She monitors, rolls her sleeves up when required, say when a tour bus with thirty jaded Japanese tourists turns up unannounced, all facemasks and Nikons. This happens. It's the pesto and the Facebook page.

Split shift. The afternoon is all about the accounts, with Wang, who runs the back office for her. Numbers, account balancing, debtor and creditor management, payroll, taxes. The dullest but most important part of the restaurant business. Sophie enjoyed it. As much as cooking even.
This was why she was so successful, why she was sometimes hard to live with. She cared passionately about the little details, wouldn't let stuff slide. When things were in a smooth groove, she'd have some time to work with Lucy, the young marketing graduate who looked after the ads, the coupon deals so-loved by the rich, the public relations, the website. Green tea and cigarettes and a bowl of fresh pasta with butter and black pepper at six. Maybe a few prawns fried in olive oil on top.

On sticky summer days, she would sneak up to the rooftop herb garden and sunbathe naked for an hour. This made her feel like she was being naughty, a feeling she relished. Of such tiny revolutions are interesting lives made.

5pm. Send a busboy out for another pack of Marlboro Gold, then sleeves up and dinner service. Four manic hours, wind down, maybe sit with some guests for a while, depending on who's in: movie star, politician, fashion designer, or anyone old rich. Sip a glass of wine. Maybe another. Pass the baton to her business partner Rod, the general manager and maitre d’, the perfect front of house man, who was rich (old money, very old), interesting and had the connections that mattered in business. Cab back to Greenwich Village. Balcony. Cigarette. Shower. Cigarette. Bed, to lie there, stare at the cracks in the ceiling, process the day. It seems like her eyes just slow-blink and she's awake again, waiting on the alarm.

‘Sophie!’ called Congressman Sam Walsh, the third most powerful man in American politics.

‘Mr Speaker. Enjoy your meal?’

‘Did you get my compliments?’

‘You normally do it in kind. What's up?’

‘Later, honey. Don't bust my balls, okay?’

That vague edge of menace to his syrupy voice, not strong enough to put a finger on, just the subtle ring that made you do what you were told. The congressman was not a super-wise man, not especially charismatic, so go figure how he became so powerful. Family. Tradition. Wealth. Connections. No real ability, yet just two heartbeats from being the most powerful man in the world. Sophie felt this enigma from the beginning, chose to ignore it. And here she was, his piece on the side when he was up from Washington, typically at weekends. No doubt he had a woman, maybe more than one, down there too. She often wondered whether he’d make a good president, wondered if she’d get to see the Oval Office.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said then. ‘It’s all this war talk.’

He embraced her and kissed her cheek wetly, caused her glass to lose a drop or two of red, which trickled down her grubby whites. Then he turned to his party. Sophie knew them all, especially the congressman's permanent detective escort, Danny O'Brien, a decent Irish-American cop from Woodside, over in Queens. Those wet lips proposed a toast to the best chef in New York City.

A wild-eyed man eased off the bar stool.

They sat and talked and spooned dessert and drank and then the guy showed up at the table. He wanted to keep both fifties. Everything slowed down as the congressman’s security got to their feet and reached inside their jackets. The congressman grabbed a wine bottle by the neck. Sophie's crazy alarm went off as the guy loomed over her. He looked familiar, somehow. But how could a guy like this be familiar, with his shining blue eyes, his shaved head and his tattoos? The street, he's off the street.

‘This is for you, sir,’ he said in a strong voice, more of a bellow, as he thrust a little parcel towards the congressman. Sophie thought that it looked like a lover’s gift, wrapped nicely in golden paper with a white bow. Maybe a pearl necklace inside.

The background buzz of slurred conversation stalled, died.

One of the other plainclothes cops grabbed the guy from behind while Danny snatched the parcel from his outstretched hand. A tableful of drinks went flying crashing. Sophie instantly calculated the replacement cost. Bastard.

The package fell apart, exposed its contents. The congressman saw the flash of gold, remembered, knew. It has to be a real surprise.

End of extract.

www.facebook.com/garyjbyrnesthrillerwriter

The Irish and water

2014-12-10T23:17:00.001+00:00

Shannon Estuary, County Limerick, Ireland, July 2014.

At last. The Irish people, in their tens of thousands, are standing up to their Government and its endless austerity/tax mantra/delusion.

The Irish have a deep connection with water, something that was obviously underestimated by the bean counters who spend every day thinking up crazy new tax-generating schemes. For starters, Ireland is an island and the water around us has been the key driver in our national evolution, our very psyche. From the Ice Age glaciers that carved out the landscape to the Atlantic Ocean that pounds holes in the Cliffs of Moher every day and the mighty Shannon, the biggest river in these islands, we are defined by water, fresh and salt. Our new blood (and blood-letting!) has come by water, from the Vikings to the Normans to the armies of Cromwell. St Patrick was brought over by seaborne raiders and holy water is still revered by many to this day. We call whiskey 'uisce beatha', the water of life. Water is key to our brewing tradition and we are the only country in the world where the law requires the addition of the neurotoxin fluoride to the drinking water supply. Let's not forget the rain. We get a lot of that.

The Romans called Ireland Hibernia, the land of winter. Not bad. The land of water would've been better. Aquania.

It's not just about paying twice for water, or the cronyism endemic in the creation of a new utility which will be privatised ASAP, or the imposition of endless new taxes on the Irish people by the international money overlords. It's really about the unending incompetence of the politicians who have put party political interests above the interests of the people since independence. In my opinion, the only viable solution is not a general election, but a participative, secular democracy and the dissolution of politics as we know it.

Meanwhile, the unholy mess that is Irish Water can be solved with three actions. Firstly, the Constitution needs to be changed to make clear that Ireland's natural resources, including water, will always be owned by, and used to benefit, the people. This could be done as part of a complete, crowdsourced overhaul of the Constitution which would give the Republic back to a battered and disillusioned people.

Secondly, the metering of water consumption by every household should begin immediately, but with no bills whatsoever for at least a year. People should be given regular statements of how much water they've used in excess of allowances and how much their bill would be if their habits remain the same. This would give everyone the opportunity to improve their usage of water.

Finally, with a measurement of the amount of water leaving the treatment facilities and meter readings of how much water is being consumed at the far end, we will know exactly how much water is being lost along the way. Until new utility 'Irish Water' gets wastage down to less than 10% nobody should face a water bill.

Ireland's salvation will not come from Bono or Bob Geldof, who hold little sway with the people, or even Russell Brand, who does actually appear to walk the walk. The hope for a better, fairer future can only come from within, from the population as a whole, through mass participation in the decisionmaking process, a process which has been an utter failure to date.

www.GaryJByrnes.com

Vampire Story - Free full spectrum entertainment

2014-11-27T16:08:00.002+00:00

When I had the idea for Vampire Story a couple of years back (that idea being to tie Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, in with modern vampires living in Stoker's hometown of Dublin), I didn't realise how big the project would become. Making a film, even a short one, is a piece of work. Dozens of talented people, location permits, equipment hire, the weather, the script - all these have to come together at the right time for magic to even stand a chance of happening. But the magic did happen and we have a showcase available now for all the world to see, for free.

I figured that a story about a novelist needed to be expressed in its literary form also, so I wrote Vampire Story the book, taking the intimacy of text as an excuse to push back the boundaries of the story, create some new worlds within the world that was captured so well by Canon 5D cameras.

Then I contacted the musical geniuses who made the movie soundtrack, Carol Keogh and Aidan Casserly, and asked if we could release the Vampire Story music to the people of the world to enjoy as their own, personal soundtrack to life. They said Yes! and, within days, the original soundtrack was available globally.

Vampire Story is now full spectrum entertainment, and all for free (except on Amazon - they don't do free). So go and enjoy it and spread the vampire love...

See the movie here: http://youtu.be/mtbuLxOcHLo?list=UU4FqaSDtMkYv9uLUIipzXDA

Download the ebook from Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/488055

Download the ebook from iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/book/vampire-story/id934729908?mt=11

Listen to the OST, for free, on BandCamp here: https://carolkeogh.bandcamp.com/album/vampire-story-soundtrack

Please share widely - the perfect soundtrack to life. Even if you live forever...

Like Vampire Story on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/vampirestorymovie

Connect with Gary J Byrnes and find free ebooks here: http://www.garyjbyrnes.com

So, how's World War 3 going for you?

2014-09-27T00:53:00.003+01:00

"Destroy IS - God does not exist - All people are equal"

It will be interesting to see what future historians make of us and these days. When will they set as the start date for this great conflict that is slowly eating the world and our hopes for the future? Will it be September 24, 2014, when President Obama told the UN that the war against IS/ISIS/ISIL was just the beginning of a wider struggle against fundamentalist Islamic ideology? Will it be June 29, 2014, when the new caliphate was declared (caliph means successor, the first caliphate declared in the Arabian peninsula back in 632, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad).

Will the start of WW3 be dated at September 11, 2001, when the al-Qaeda attacks on the US punched the liberal western world in the gut, almost causing the collapse of society, but leading directly to the financial crisis that has made the 99% so tired, miserable and hopeless? Or will it be back in August 1996, when Osama bin Laden issued his Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places (US troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia by President George HW Bush in 1990, enraging Muslims. Most were withdrawn in 2003.) Is it only a declared war when the superpower decides to name it so? Or did it really get serious with al-Qaeda's second declaration of war, fatwa, on February 23, 1998?

The second fatwa states that three facts that are known to everyone compel war against the United States. First, the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places. Second, the crusader-Zionist alliance has inflicted great devastation upon the Iraqi people. Third, the United States' goal is to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. It concludes with instructions to all Muslims everywhere:

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it. Every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded should comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.

Or should we go back a little further? Perhaps to 1095, when Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to holy places in and near Jerusalem. Two centuries of war ensued. Two centuries. Or should we go back to 636, when Muslims forces defeated the Byzantines at the battle of Yarmouk (in Syria) to take control of the famed Levant? Or back again, to 610, when Muhammad first started receiving revelations from the archangel Gabriel? (Of course, these early options for dating WW3 precede World Wars 1 and 2, creating a paradoxical conundrum for another day.)

Tricky.
Let's just go with the reality that we are where we are. So, what's it all about? I have three possible answers:

1. This is just the latest chapter in the clash of cultures between Islam and Judaism/Christianity (remember Yarmouk*?).

This is credible, but strange, because all three religions are monotheistic (believing in a single god, as opposed to, say, Hinduism, which believes in many gods) and all their god stories derive from Abraham, an ancient figure from Canaan who was 'ordered by god' to kill his son and was about to do so until 'told by god' to kill a goat instead. Really. So it's all a big, stupid, endless game: Which of these related religions is the most mental? As an atheist, I am both horrified and confused by how religious fervour on both sides seems to underline the entire conflict.

*The Battle of Yarmouk happened in Syria in 636, when the first Muslim Caliphate destroyed the army of the declining Byzantine Empire, effectively forcing the West from the Levant until the Crusades. The parallels with the current situation are uncanny and IS is really pushing the historical precedent of Yarmouk. Find out more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yarmouk.

2. This is all about the American Empire in decline and IS wanting to fill the vacuum.
WikiLeaks, the diplomatic cables, Edward Snowden, the NSA. Our understanding of American strength has changed in recent years. Duplicity, conspiracy and hypocrisy led to the Arab Spring and the downfall of US puppet dictators across the Middle East. Some of them, anyway. The most powerful US-allied dictators, the Saud dynasty in Saudi Arabia, still reign supreme, still control the flow of oil, upon which the US economy and the US war machine depend. The Saudi brand of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism, birthed al-Qaeda and Saudis piloted the 9/11 jets. Many assume that the Saudis also created IS, as a counter to Iranian (Shia) influence in Iraq. Maybe they saw their American proxy army having its political limitations so they decided to create their own?

3. This is really a war between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam and the west is being used as a pawn in a bigger struggle.
Saudi Arabia leading the majority Sunni Islamic sect against Iran leading the minority Shia Islamic sect. The Sunnis and Shias have been at each others' throats virtually since the dawn of Islam. Consider the Catholic V Protestant Christian wars that have consumed Europe for centuries, most recently in Northern Ireland, and you get the flavour of what hatred pathetically minor religious differences can generate. Some say that the disastrous Iraq War which began in 2003 was caused by Iranian agents leading the US into an unwinnable conflict so as to remove Iran's greatest regional and religious enemy, Saddam Hussein. The very first caliph (Sunni), who ruled after Muhammad from 632-634, was named Aby Bakr. The leader of the Islamic State caliphate is named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

In my opinion, the real answer is a bastard mix of all three scenarios and the only way to effectively deal with IS and this never-ending conflict is to address the three main issues from bin Laden's 1998 declaration of war: Get all US troops out of Saudi Arabia, while replacing the horrific Saud monarchy with a secular democracy. Place the religious sites of Mecca and Medina apart from Saudi Arabia, controlled by a coalition representing all Muslims everywhere. Then fix Iraq. A secular, participative democracy must be created. Throw as much money at this problem as was thrown at the war that destroyed the place (about $6 TRILLION, including future veterans' benefits). Fix Palestine, a two-state solution, ideally without Netanyahu, recognising that Orthodox Judaism is as much part of the problem as Fundamentalist Islam.

It is my dream that atheism and secularism can replace the religions that have poisoned the Middle East and spread like a virus into the world. Without religion, can you genuinely see this mutating conflict, from Iraq and Syria to Gaza and Afghanistan, sustaining itself?

In 2014, in 13 countries, all members of the United Nations, and all Muslim nations, being an atheist is punishable by death, typically by beheading - so shocking when carried out by IS. These nations are: Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Is this a clash of civilisations? I think so.

Connect with Gary J Byrnes at www.GaryJByrnes.com

Scotland decides

2014-09-18T10:06:00.000+01:00

The decline and fall of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland began in 1919, with a guerrilla campaign, devised by Irish terrorist Michael Collins. Collins and his teams murdered British agents in cold blood on the streets of Dublin, organised ambushes of British military columns and dealt with informants ruthlessly. Britain responded with massacres of civilians, the torching of cities and the mobilisation of death squads, the infamous Black and Tans. But Collins' asymmetric warfare campaign could not be countered with the standard British scorched earth tactics that had worked so well in Ireland for centuries. So a peace settlement was reached in 1921.

When the Irish Free State was created, Northern Ireland remained with the Union. Settled by mainly Scottish Protestants during the Plantations of the 16th and 17th centuries, Ulster would keep her Scottish links, treat Catholic/Nationalist residents as officially second class citizens and continue to say "Never!" So the island of Ireland remains a broken place, divided by anger, hatred and the Union.

Scotland today has an opportunity to break with the Union, to break with the idea of a 'united kingdom' dominated by an unelected monarchy, controlled by an elitist, English Establishment and ruled by a ruthless, market-obsessed Tory Government. Importantly, Scotland can break free using a referendum, without a single shot being fired. And, if she does choose independence, the Unionists of Northern Ireland will sleep uneasily as the last vestiges of legitimacy for their union are stripped away, exposing the moral vacuum at the heart of the failure that will be the Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Come on, Scotland!

On finishing a novel. An advertisement for myself

2014-09-04T00:18:00.000+01:00

Working cover design for the new novel from Gary J Byrnes

Four years. That's how long it took to finish my latest novel. Looking back at the events of the summer of 2010 - on Wikipedia, you can look at world events for every day in the recent past, every day! - I was struck by how little has changed. Iran, Gaza, recession, this was the 2010 news. If anything, things have gotten worse. Syria. IS. Ukraine. But I have my novel and maybe that can help to make things a little better for some, if only by providing my readers with a distraction, an entertainment, a different perspective.

That's the magic of stories. Stories are what give us the best of humanity. They are educators. They share ideas, spark revolutions - yes, a tweet is a story - and can provide a history and a future all at once. The Internet is a story, a glorious, connected, infinite dazzle of chapters and books and autobiographies. "Here I am! Look at me! Please." And the Internet has changed book publishing over those four years. The terrible beauty of self-published ebooks, with virtually instant distribution to an entire planet, countless trees saved, swathes of middlemen and their margins bypassed, analytics that don't lie and, best of all, readers in the driving seat.

"Read this sad and desperate ghost-written autobiography of a perfectly boring sports person!" shouts the ad on the side of the bus. "Let's talk about the shit book written by the actor who works for the film company that's also owned by the megalomaniac who owns this TV channel and is also the publisher of said shit book," says the talking head on the living room flatscreen. "Christmas is coming, so let's talk to a tedious chef about why you must buy yet another fucking cookbook," says the dying magazine which has been paid peanuts to peddle crap. These are the breathless last gasps of a dead business model.

I will be happy, delighted even, to publish To Eat the World myself. My story is about food and art and Nazi bankers who want to control the world economy but who will also detonate a nuclear bomb under Wall Street, because fiddling with the economy is just so fucking boring and people have had just about enough of that shit reality. So you can smell the food, you can visualise the great art as you glimpse a greater understanding of why we cook and why we make pictures and why the two go together. Why Nazis? Because they have influenced the modern art world more than any other organisation. Perhaps they've had more of an influence on today's world than we would like to acknowledge.

And the understanding that you will reach as you read my story will come from you. I don't join all the dots. I give you the dots to join as you will.

So, yes, I will be happy - delighted even - to publish To Eat the World myself. It can be in the iTunes stores and on Barnes and Noble's virtual shelves in a day. It can be in every Google Play app store and every Amazon marketplace that same day. And it will be very good value and it will sell as my body of self-published work proves. But would I like to work with an agent or publisher who can put it on bus sides and TV and magazines so that it can reach a wider audience? Absolutely. Because I know that my story is worth it.

If you're an agent or publisher and would like to find out more, email Gary at garyjbyrnes@gmail.com or call +353-87-249 3051.

More at www.GaryJByrnes.com

Find Gary's books, including bestselling 9/11 Trilogy, on iTunes.