DRAGONS’ TEETH, PLASTICS AND A GRADUATION JOKE by Donal Kennedy

Those who saw “THE GRADUATE” when it was screened forty-eight years ago may remember the incomprehension of the eponymous anti-hero when his neighbour, Mr Robinson, took him aside to tell  him that he had one word of advice for him – “PLASTICS”. Some years later, one of my brothers-in-law was graduating in Hull showed similar incomprehension when  I gave him two words of advice – “PLASTIC BULLETS”. The year was 1981 in the third year of the Thatcher era which was not expected to last beyond one Parliamentary term. Toxteth in Liverpool, Brixton in London and the St Paul’s area in Brixton were the scenes of arson and riot. The ancient Greeks blamed the rising of armed men on the sowing of Dragons’ Teeth. In his BLOG on the ROOTS OF RADICALISATION, John Patton (25 May) has demonstrated how such sowing gives rise to stone-throwing children. When I cracked my joke, Bobby Sands had already been elected an MP and died on hunger strike, and others of his comrades were following, nine of whom died on that strike, and two of those comrades were elected as Teachtai Dala. Had  I realised how many people, mainly children, were being. murdered or maimed by the discharge of Plastic Bullets by HM Security Forces, I might not have thought my little pleasantry quite so pleasant.