Hope in troubled times
Celebrities as role models? No thanks.
The book “The Audacity of Hope”, penned by President Obama, marks the President of America out as a gifted writer and an intellectual. It allows a small glimpse into the character of a man who has managed to pull together many different influences to inform his outlook on life. Vitally, he talks about role models and their importance in his life.
I read his book and began to think: In our economic downturn who do we young people have to be inspired by? Our parents - almost certainly, a teacher or two - possibly. But, in our MTV age of fame without talent, the erosion of faith in the current Irish political landscape and the disillusionment with the church due to scandal: where do we find our role models? President Obama has shown that positive role models build character, encourage strength and perseverance in hard times, and make us think about, and question the world around us.
I want to share two role models with fellow SpunOutters. These are men who are touched upon in history books, and whose strength of spirit offers many lessons to learn from. Both men showed hope, determination, bravery and belief in humanity. Celebrated and not forgotten on a small scale; their lives were marked by beliefs bigger than the societies in which they lived. In our world of economic uncertainty, for me, these two men helped me to grasp on to something that cannot be modified in a consumer driven, media led society: the value of humanity towards one another. They may ask the questions, “Who are your role models”? “What would you like them to be?”
Jim Larkin (1875-1947), trade union leader and socialist activist, agitator and advocate for social justice. He combined fierce qualities of genius, powerful oratory, and courage. He challenged a world of Dublin where nearly a third of the population lived in 5,000 decaying tenements and men were paid their wages in public houses. In 1907 he managed to unite protestant and catholic workers in Northern Ireland for a time with a shared goal. He led numerous strikes and oversaw the infamous 1913 lockout, an action against the employing classes of the time. Always the revolutionary, he was at one stage imprisoned for his beliefs.
Beliefs that saw that many of Dublin’s problems stemmed from exploiting politicians and exploiting employers, issues that are still relevant today. He ignited the hope of working people, used his pen rather than his fist to condemn injustice, and believed in intellectual freedom for all classes of people. His memory is commemorated by the statute of “Big Jim” on O’Connell Street in Dublin.
Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, “the Pimpernel of the Vatican"(1898-1963) saved the lives of 4000 Jews and Allied soldiers during the Second World War. In the early war years, he toured prisoner of war camps in Italy seeking information about those missing in action. If found alive, he reassured their family through radio. A Cork man, he never waited for permission from his superiors, and with the help of his allies concealed 4000 escapees in flats, farms and convents. SS attempts to take his live failed, and the number of times he escaped capture or death is breathtaking, in a city filled with Gestapo who would kill him on sight. He hid himself in many guises, including a beggar, a postman, a nun, even a Nazi to escape their attention. He spoke the words “God has no country”, an indicator of the love he shared for human beings irrespective of their differences. When the war was over, he visited Rome’s Gestapo chief (and old arch enemy) in his prison cell, and was said to be his only visitor. He is commemorated by a grove of trees in Killarney National Park.
A teenager once said that a role model dares you and themselves to be different. Who do you choose to be yours?
By: Annette Carter
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