Before George Floyd

“Out of the goodness of my heart, I've taken a young girl on work-experience,” Sylvia told me. I imagine Dad encouraged her to do so. Again, perhaps one of his social experiments. “I’ve agreed to pay her whilst she’s working for me, but I swear she’s useless. I’m sure she’s special needs, autistic or something. She spends so long on simple tasks, it’s costing me money.” Dad sometimes agreed with her comments, as couples do, and observed the lack of compassion from a woman, whose ancestors may have suffered under the hardship of the industrial revolution. I suspect a contributor to her attitude, was her father. I remember witnessing his anger at the success of the Brazilian football team, during the nineteen ninety-four World Cup. “Monkeys that swing from trees, when they’re not kicking a ball!” he shouted at the television screen, as the players ran across the pitch, heading for success. The idea that some humans are inherently superior to others was advocated in Sylvia’s family. ...

Lancashire’s hills are the stage for stories of the struggle of us common folk. At the foot of these hills, are the industrial towns. Within them, the imposing giants; the carcasses of the ‘Dark Satanic mills’, symbolic of the cause of dehumanisation, exploitation and deprivation. Yes, the North was one of the machines upon which the success of the British Empire was dependent.  Some inhabitants of the North are still struggling to escape deprivation. The small terraced houses, once inhabited by mill workers and their extended families, are occupied by new people. Perhaps, initially two-parent families, with the desire to be long-term. However, the pressure becomes unbearable, working long hours to provide for your dependants, not just yourself. The opportunity to see your loved ones becomes infrequent, you cease to know them. Eventually, the two-parent family ideal slips from your grasp, and the onus to both financially and emotionally support your children is solely yours. Some ...

Who was Molly? Was she Mr Rochester's Giacinta from Italy? His Clara from Germany? These female characters possessed a foreignness, which Jane Eyre's English Mr Rochester could never truly be drawn to. Yet, to completely demonise one group and to aggrandise the protagonist(s), is lazy and simplistic.  Before Molly met dad, she was a single parent, living in a small terraced house in Accrington. Not long after they became a couple, they decided to move to County Kildare in Ireland. Dad knew that Molly would be content with their decision to move, because she could be closer to her Irish family. I suspect, that although she was born in Britain, she still felt like an outsider, a foreigner. She was perhaps quite similar to my mother in this respect. And like mother, Molly had experienced difficult times.  There were similarities between Molly and Sylvia too. "She's done well for herself you know. She owns a theme park called Dollywood, and does a lot for charity," Mo...

I cannot claim to know much about anything, particularly in the case of the island of Hibernia, but I know it is beautiful, and reputed to be so, both in the North and the South. Twenty or so years ago, some of the island seemed largely untouched by man. As Dad drove through the country roads, we would only see the occasional car fly past us at incredible speeds. I was unsure if there was a set speed limit on Hibernia’s narrow lanes, but it was apparent that nobody other than my father, was driving at less than sixty miles an hour. In the night, the fast cars' back lights, were like fireflies that disappeared beyond the trees in a millisecond. There were other interesting visions in Hibernia’s night-time. We once saw an abandoned burning caravan on the roadside. "Bet they're uninsured," Dad said.  Molly and Dad would often visit Kathleen. There were very few signposts in Kathleen’s part of rural Hibernia, so Dad would rely on Molly’s guidance. When they reached K...