The Hibernian magazine is a publication dedicated to the promotion of Irish Catholic Culture

Our aim is to provide quality media that will help bring people to a greater understanding and appreciation of our Catholic Faith and Gaelic heritage

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Issue 7 - November 2006

I have passed on what I have received
Gary Brady

“There is something to be said for gently putting aside the mistaken old ways of our elders…If it cannot be done gently, it may have to be done roughly, or even violently.”
Dr Brock Chisholm, Director General World Health Organisation 1948-53.

I could have picked any one of a dozen of such quotes for this article.

All around us we see funding and support from the E.U. and the Irish Government for courses and classes, which are designed to help us forget what we are, and what made us. Everything from ‘parenting courses’ which show that child knows best, to ‘wimmyns’ groups which celebrate the ‘de-masculisation’ of the male, and not forgetting multi-cultural days in which Irish children are encouraged to see how bigoted they are for wanting their own future children to look like they do.

In order for secular humanism to thrive it is vital for its protagonists to sever the ties people have to the past. The Catholic Faith and the Republican cause have to be made to appear irrelevant to the modern Irish lifestyle in order to replace it with something new; a new lifestyle in which all that matters is self-interest. The (so-called) global ‘free market’ will not work if people become or remain tied to the traditions of the past or live with one eye constantly on the future. Therefore, all links must be gradually broken.

At one time people correctly considered themselves to be a link in a chain of history. It mattered what their father did and it mattered what their children would be. The well-worn cliché about everyone’s grandfather being in the GPO in 1916 is a testimony of this. From Paris in 1884 Mgr Isoard wrote-

“The life of the individual is one, but if we analyse it, we discover three elements in it, the different forces of three distinct epochs. This man already, in a certain sense, lived other existences. He has the sense of already having lived in his grandfathers and great-grandfathers. He finds in himself what they thought. The life of his forebears precedes his own and constitutes the first epoch.

“In the second, which is the present, the individual’s life is, so to speak, the flourishing of the first: I continue the work of my grandfather, and I add my thinking and knowledge to his. I do that which he desired to do and I thus prolong his action on this earth. Ah! How long I have lived on earth - for I already lived many years of infancy in my grandparents, of adolescence in my father, of maturity in my own existence.

“The third epoch of life is the one that he loves and gazes at without ceasing: He will live in his son, his nephews his grandchild. His great-grandfather glimpsed him from afar, through the mists, as he worked, economised and guarded the traditions. In his turn, he looks in the same direction ahead of him: he thinks, desires and constructs for his grandchild, for those beyond him, even further along the line of the horizon.

“Thus the man who lives in a time when the spirit of tradition reigns is one link in a chain that links many generations. He lives in each of them. He feels that his own life was already prepared for him in the lives of those who preceded him, and that it will continue to live still much longer in those who come after him.”

This concept is one that ran throughout Europe in centuries past and in Ireland especially due to its agricultural background, for the land that was once one’s fathers is now yours and would be your sons and his sons. The driving of people from the land was possibly the initial breakage of this mentality, a breakage from which we have never recovered.

Throughout society a mentality in which all that matters is profit and self is changing Ireland for the worse and may change it forever unless we fight back. We must begin to change, starting with ourselves, to once again view that what we are and what we raise our children to be, matters. An old native American saying goes along the lines of “today’s men are killing their grandchildren”, whilst fundamentally they are talking about the environment, it is not a bad saying for our own situation. If we wish for an Ireland that is better than what we live in, then we have to live a life of sacrifice today. Perhaps we may not see the Ireland of our dreams, perhaps we will, but the point is that unless we begin to live a life that is lived with one eye on the past and one on the future then we cannot expect the masses to wake up to their own obsession with material wealth and self absorption.
Some may ask “on a practical level, what can I do?” as though any kind of action is beyond us. Those who despair are often those who believe that all action must make newspaper headlines in order to have any effect whatsoever. The truth is that Nations have often been changed one family, one community, one town at a time. Therefore for those Nationalists’ attempting to imbibe our Nation in Catholic social doctrine there is much that can be done. I have listed 70, yes 70, small initiatives which readers may ponder on. This list contains suggestions, not mandates. It has been ‘doing the rounds’ and been added to and amended. It is provided to help people look at their own situation and discern practical ways that they can help build a more just future for themselves, their families their communities and their Nation. It is vital that Nationalist’s become aware that ideological Nationalism means that what is good for the Nation, whether that be organic farming or opposing the selling of our national resources, are ipso-facto Nationalist causes as they effect both ourselves and our future kin. Let us work to make this Country better in every way.
1. Never give up on an Ireland truly united and free.

2. Bank with a credit union.

3. Patronise locally owned stores, co-operatives, and worker owned businesses.

4. Grow some of your own food.

5. Learn the Irish language.

6. Patronise a farmers’ market, or purchase food directly from farmers/producers.

7. Collaborate with those who want to build homes without involving usury.
8. Seek out and attend the Latin Tridentine Mass.

9. Support local currencies, and any other counter-power initiatives.

10. Avoid corporation-debt (borrow from credit unions).

11. Home school.

12. Seek out stores that do not stock pornography on their shelves, support them and tell them why you are supporting them.

13. Avoid commodified entertainment in favour of personalist entertainment such as local GAA, picnics, dances, social events, fleadhs, etc.

14. Support live music by listening and by making your own music, singing Traditional songs etc.

15. Create your own job, or join with others to create a cooperative or worker owned business.
16. Organise an employee association at your work, perhaps one that teaches the Irish language.

17. Start moving towards alternative, non-centrally generated power.

18. Write letters to the editors of secular and religious publications and to politicians.

19. Do not allow yourself to become obsessed by the Internet. Do not waste time on ‘chat-forums.’
20. Volunteer at a homeless shelter.

21. Reuse, recycle, reduce. Waste not, want not.

22. Spend your money wisely, prudently, and intentionally.

23. Avoid TV soaps all of which promote multiculturalism and ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity.

24. Donate to political activists and periodicals.

25. Keep extra food on hand (typically, 2-4 months, this supports frugal shopping and household management)

26. Reject the British press.

27. Talk about distributism to others.

28. Study distributist classics by Chesterton %26 Belloc.

29. Teach your children basic social teaching.

30. Kill your TV, or at least, grievously wound it.

31. Teach logic and rhetoric and also (while you’re at it) learn how to understand, interpret, and mediate modern Mass communications, especially the nature and identification and purpose of propaganda, and then tell everyone everywhere what you have learned and how you learned it.

32. Ignore most advertising, or watch it “intentionally” for what it tells us about our Nation. Teach your children to ignore most advertising. Encourage them to teach their friends to ignore most advertising.

33. Practice the theological virtues (faith, hope, love), the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance), and the civic virtues (self-discipline, respect, cooperation, responsibility, honesty, motivation, friendship, courage, work) so you eventually will get good at them. (Practice makes perfect. If you can’t do perfect, do good. Then do better.)

34. Volunteer at a school, library, hospital, or agency/apostolate in service to the poor.

35. Tithe your time and your money (generously and sacrificially).

36. Be vocal about your opposition to ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity. Most people agree but wait for someone else to comment first.

37. Start a transportation co-operative (ride sharing, car pooling, kid picking up/delivering, etc.)

38. Avoid sweatshop clothing and products.

39. Pray the Rosary daily.

40. Go to Mass regularly and devoutly participate, receiving the Body of our Saviour as spiritual sustenance.

41. Become a catechist of economic justice (distributism)

42. Pray and publicly work for pro-life. Ensure that your children understand that life begins from the moment of conception.

43. Distribute literature and information about Catholic economics. Give away cassette tapes on distributism/injustice of usury etc..

44. Practice kindness to your neighbour. Eat with your neighbours, treat them as Catholics should and understand that ‘real’ people matter more than ‘internet chat friends’.
45. Make your own bread and teach others how to do this. Eat healthily and encourage others to.

46. Donate good books to a library and donate stuff to thrift stores

47. Teach your children to have a love for Irish Saints and heroes.

48. Make intelligent use of pre-evangelistic techniques and materials, i.e. advertising, bumper stickers, tracts, prayer cards, greeting cards, stickers, etc.)

49. Adopt voluntary poverty as a lifestyle. Seek a certain indifference about material things and a humble gratefulness for the bounty of Creation.

50. Teach healthy recreation to your children such as fishing and archery.

51. Practice the ‘first Fridays/first Saturdays.

52. Start a Catholic social justice publication, e-zine, webzine, or website.
53. Tear up your credit and debit cards.

54. Save and wait for items rather than getting into consumer debt.

55. Practice a regular discipline of fasting and abstinence.

56. Teach people how to cook tasty, frugal, and nutritious meals. Prepare such food for your family and share it with others.

57. Avoid the television news except during emergencies. They lie.

58. Teach your children to love their Country and to hate that which endangers it.

59. Do not allow non-Catholics to influence your children.

60. Compost.

61. Encourage your catechists, priests, and bishops to provide proper formation in social justice.

62. Create garden and neighborhood shrines.

63. If you are a teenage girl, volunteer your help to Mothers of large families, especially when they are in the latter stages of pregnancy or just after the birth.

64. Breast feed your babies, better for the baby and the environment.

65. Use cloth nappies, better for the baby and the environment.

66. Accept all the children sent by God.

67. Oppose multiculturalism from a political, societal and just as importantly, a personal perspective.

68. Ensure that your children learn a practical trade.

69. Call in to talk radio programs and discuss issues from the perspective of a Catholic Patriot.

70. Support those who support you.