Mary Kenny
Jo Swinson You think about strange things when you wake up with a bout of insomnia at 3am. One of those small-hours anxiety I’ve had is that my driving licence expires in eight months’ time. And I’m worrying whether it will be renewed. Will I pass the tests for older drivers, of alertness and awareness, and will my eyesight be judged good enough?
I tell myself that millions throughout the poorer world have no transport, let alone a driving licence. Millions, even in the developed world, live without a car, and the environmental campaigners tell us we should use private vehicles far less.
Yet the motor car has represented, for me, as for many women, a sense of independence. Even if only for short distances, the car means not having to summon taxis, wait for infrequent buses, or ask for lifts.
Public transport
In cities, more young people are choosing not to drive – because public transport in cities has been steadily improving. In some European cities, public transport is superb. But in outlying towns, or in the country, a car can seem a necessity.
I stayed in a part of rural France last month where you could scarcely survive without a car. There was no public transport and taxi services were patchy.
This, it was explained to me, was why the gilets jaunes had been on the warpath: their diesel-run cars had become ruinously expensive.
So I worry about the possibility of not having my licence renewed.
But you know what? We have to hope for the best, but accept what we cannot change. If I lose my licence – well, here’s an opportunity to practice acceptance, and offer it up!
The other side of the coin is that I now really appreciate the pleasure of getting behind the wheel, and having that independence of movement while I can.
You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry, they say: but the thought that the well might run dry surely turns our thoughts to an appreciation of water.
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LibDems have to answer a big question
Jo Swinson, the 39-year-old leader of the Liberal Democrats in Britain, inherits the mantle of the greatest friend Ireland ever had at Westminster, William Gladstone, a committed Christian.
But will the LibDems even allow committed Christians in the future? The party whips are vetting applicants for conformity on LBQT rights and abortion.
David Alton – the best friend the pro-life movement has at Westminster – may well be in a minority of one in his newly-revived party.
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Male savagery is no play thing
New productions of The Playboy of the Western World are part of the theatrical cycle and this great Irish classic will be again at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin next week.
It is a drama written with much poetry by J.M. Synge (who died of tuberculosis in 1909, aged 38). Yet I remain a little uncomfortable with the storyline.
Christy Mahon claims that he has murdered his father, and that immediately makes him some kind of hero. The girls of the village flock around him, while Pegeen Mike and the predatory Widow Quin battle for his favours, which delights Christy so much that he reflects: “Wasn’t I a foolish fellow not to kill my father in years gone by?”
Admittedly, Pegeen Mike’s official fiancé, Shawn, is a bit of a drip, and Pegeen flatters the patricide Christy as “a fine lad with the great savagery to destroy your da”. There’s more in that vein, although in the end Christy is not the macho man he seems.
As a classic, the Playboy deserves regular revivals, yet at a time when there are claims that “toxic masculinity” is the cause of domestic violence, a story in which women dote on men of “great savagery” does prompt questions.