CICERO, DE JUVENTUTE, FINE GAEL & EGREGIOUS AND MERITLESS NOTIONS by Donal Kennedy


 I write not of Cicero, Illinois, a Chicago suburb once run by Al Capone and his mob, and in the news as I write because of the backlash from the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

No, I write of Marcus Tullius Cicero, whose ethnicity was shared by Capone, and whose moral character, philosophy and political skills have been imputed to Fine Gael.

A letter THE IRISH TIMES (June 2) by John Dillon (Regius  Professor of Latin and Greek, Emeritus)  of Trinity College,Dublin, supports the idea put forward by Pat Leahy

in the same paper recently.

I last had contact with Cicero when I was 17 and “Pro Lege Manilia” was on the Leaving Cert Syllabus. What I remember of it would not cover a manilla envelope, and what I

remember of “De Senectute ” (Concerning Old Age) which was inflicted on me though it wasn’t on the Syllabus wouldn’t cover the back of a Postage Stamp. Old Age held little

 interest for me, buried  in a boarding school, one hundred miles from civilisation and sixty from Cork. My imagination was fired with other notions.

I see today that Fine Gael favours allowing children under 16 years of age, to choose to have their sexual organs surgically re-arranged without the  explicit consent of their

parents. My sister studied medicine under Eamon  de Valera (son of the Statesman) who explained that, despite appearances, gender could not be definitively established

at birth. So surgical readjustment might be appropriate at some stage. But it seems to me that the party’s policy, rubberstamped after its adoption by the LGBT pressure-group is crazy, and not the cunning stunt it imagines.

Why LGBT anyway? Lesbian relationships were never illegal, nor were lesbian women harassed by police, blackmailers or gay-bashers.

As for Cicero, did he give anyone his thoughts on Youth. DE JUVENTATE, anyone? 

America’s greatest Car Rental Companies, Herz and Avis, never let anyone under 25 rent their vehicles. A few years ago  their policy got the support of science when  it was established that, while the human brain is as powerful as it will ever get by age 12, it does not reach maturity  before 25. 

Before that age a person might be compared to a Ferrari,with  a powerful engine, but faulty steering and brakes. 

I see that HERTZ has just filed for Bankruptcy because of the Virus. I imagine Avis has gone belly-up also.

I seem to have read that Fine Gael proposed to reduce the voting age to 16.

Another Silly Stunt?

The American Founding Fathers, some of whom were addicted Ito Roman models set the minimum age for Senators at 30. Senators, are by definition “Elders” so that made sense. The Irish idea of having whipper-snappers in the Senate is ,if, you will pardon my Latin IPSO FACTO, NUCTES.

The idea of having a Fine Gael Taoiseach, considering the electorate’s verdict in February, is worthy of a very Nutty Professor.

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