Mary Kenny
Boris Johnson Boris Johnson is what’s known as a ‘Marmite’ politician. Voters either loathe him – or they warm to his bonhomie, boosterism, and even dishevelled appearance.
His errors include a careless and arguably duplicitous approach to the Irish border in the context of Brexit – agreeing to a border in the Irish Sea, and then somehow denying it was ever intended. Women disparage him for his past record of philandering, and he doesn’t always seem too particular about where funds donated to the Tory party come from.
When it was announced that his wife, Carrie, was expecting their second baby, some comments were disapproving. “His seventh child!” exclaimed The Sunday Times with asperity.
Blessed
And yet, Carrie Johnson herself said that she felt so “blessed” to be pregnant again – especially since she had a miscarriage earlier this year. In referring to the distress of her miscarriage, Carrie publicly underlined something important – that losing a baby is a bereavement, and needs to be mourned. Interestingly, every media report referred to the loss of an “unborn baby” – none to a “foetus”.
So, I discern that Catholics in England (perhaps less in Scotland) are divided about Boris Johnson. On the one side, he has often seemed incompetent, and didn’t act swiftly enough to halt Covid-19. On the other, he was decisive about investing in the Astra Zeneca vaccine, which has been wonderfully effective.
His character has often seemed careless and wanting in a moral compass. Yet, if he’s had a track record as a philanderer, he is also, it might be said, pro-natalist. While depopulation and falling birth rates are now a universal concern, Boris has fathered quite a number of bambinos! At his matrimonial ceremony in Westminster Cathedral, the priest said a Catholic couple should be “open to fertility”, and that he certainly has been.
Boris Johnson had a difficult childhood himself: his parents moved house 32 times before he was 14 and his gentle mother had a mental breakdown. Perhaps that goes some way to explaining his self-confessed tendency to “chaos”.
But it’s never too late to be a redeemed, and perhaps Carrie and the babies she so welcomes will make a model paterfamilias of him yet.
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Bringing Latin back to life
Mr Johnson is Latinist – and now it’s been announced that Latin is to be introduced to English state schools from September. I perceive the influence of the TV celebrity classics professor Dame Mary Beard here. She has been lobbying for Latin for some time. She says Latin not only gives kids access to history and literature, but also helps pupils understand the root, and grammar, of so many modern languages.
There is also some evidence that Latin helps boys develop more verbal skills – they can be less adept than girls in this. It can also help improve maths skills by honing logic.
All Catholics once had some Latin – from Pater Noster and Ave Maria, to Ora Pro Nobis and well-understood expressions like In secula seculoram, and Nil desperandum. My uncle would say Anno Domini when asked why he felt a bit tired (though I see there’s a Prosecco with that name now!)
It’s nice to think of a younger generation getting the chance to learn Amo, Amas, Amat…
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When I was growing up in Sandymount, south Dublin, August signified an important local event: the Dublin Horse Show, held annually at the Royal Dublin Society. It was hugely exciting to us youngsters, and imparted to me a lifelong affection for horses – I can still remember the warm, equine smell as we watched the girl and boy grooms tending to the prancing, highly-strung showjumpers. (Alas, this year, the famed Dublin Horse Show is to be held ‘behind closed doors’ – which is no fun at all – later in the month.)
It surprised me to learn, in a memoir by Terence de Vere White, that God Save the King was still seen as the ‘real’ national anthem at the Dublin Horse Show even after the launch of the Irish Free State in 1923. The Soldier’s Song, which was formally adopted in 1926, was “played in silence so far as the members’ stand was concerned”. Eventually, as time went by, the old southern unionists who had predominated at the RDS adjusted to the new flag and Amhrán na bhFiann.
The Free State made a genuine effort to be inclusive to those southern unionists who stayed on in Ireland, and appointed many to the first senate. At the West Cork History Festival this weekend – 6-8 August – I will be speaking on this subject. I argue that the new Irish State was indeed predominantly Catholic, but not sectarian. See: www.westcorkhistoryfestival.org to attend online. (Talks will afterwards be available on the website.)