See the bird with a leaf in her mouth

I see absolutely no reason to cudgel my brain for words to use to describe how I feel when Marcus at Harry’s Place has said it so eloquently for me:

"Unfortunately, there are those who, whatever this week’s result, will continue to preach pessimism. Some of them would rather see Iraq fail than have to admit that the international presence could have any positive consequence... What else do Iraqis have to do to show they deserve our admiration and support?"

(Ah, what I meant to say was Marcus found the quote, from the good old London Times, excuse me for getting it wrong there.)

The comments, as ever, are great, including:

“If I didn’t know better, I would say the Guardian is a tad upset.”

Read the whole thing here.

Mick: The Real Michael Collins

Of course I read the review in the Sunday Times and you can read it too, here.

The author, Peter Hart, is amazing. His last book, "The I.R.A. at War 1916-1923" was brilliant. Here are a few quotes from the preface:

"...three things: the endless capacity of Irish history to surprise; the extraordinary volume and variety of evidence available concerning the Irish revolution; and the necessity for historians to challenge all assumptions made about it."

"I hope my findings are intriguing to all readers of revolutionary history and useful to those thinking about the same issues."

From chapter one, "A new revolutionary history":

"We do have the materials for a new revolutionary history. Ireland's may be the best-documented modern revolution in the world."

"Organised violence is inherently coercive and traumatic, and therefore subversive of rational decision-making and political choice."

"...it can still be argued that paramilitary and state violence only succeeded in early twentieth-century Ireland when it was used to achieve goals that received a clear popular mandate: Irish independence and northern exclusion."

To think that someone that knowledgeable, intelligent and articulate has written a biography of Michael, well, Christmas has come early for me this year.

Naturally, he won't look at things the way I do.

The little he says about Kitty, as outlined in the review, is enough for me to see that he didn't quite get the game she was playing, and the game Michael was playing right back. And I've got new insight into his relationship with Lady Lavery after visiting the Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire the last time I was in Dublin.

There, all that didn't take 20 minutes. People keep saying to me "where do you get the time?" It doesn't take any time to throw thoughts down, what takes the time is writing up a thought provoking and compelling story about events one has just lived through. That I rarely do - for free! Cheers you-all.