Postcards from a New Republic

The ‘Postcards from the New Republic’ series is a hat tip to British designer, artist, entrepreneur and Socialist William Morris’s News from Nowhere series of articles from 1890 published in the Commonweal, the newspaper of the Socialist League and set in a distant future where Morris’s socialist, and romantic, utopia has been secured. Our story’s protagonists are Willa Ní Chuairteoir and Lucy Byrne accompanied by their four children James, Afric, Banba and Alroy who together enjoy and endure the equity and exigency of the future’s New Republic.

To check in with the family visit: fb.me/PostcardsfromtheNewRepublic

It’s one of those rare week day afternoons when Lucy and Willa are both at home. It’s recess week for the shared Parliament so Lucy has taken a couple of days off to catch up on things at home. That was the plan anyway! Her phone hasn’t stopped, and she’s been on the laptop for most of the morning. 

Lucy is the Minister for Economic Sustainability. It’s the monthly Belfast sitting of the shared Parliament next week. One of the outcomes from Irish unity is that the Dáil sits one week in four in a beautifully repurposed Belfast City Hall.  

It’s going to be a big week for Lucy and her cabinet colleague Mary Ní Bhaoigheallain. Mary is Minister for Climate Action and she’s also Lucy’s best friend. The two first met in college but really got to know each other when working on the OECD’s Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) project. 

GPI was under development for years across the developed world, but Lucy and Mary along with a small number of activists and academics played a central role in popularising the new international measurement of economic progress. Sinn Féin was one of the first European political parties to call for the adoption of the GDP alternative as the climate crisis deepened globally. Now in government they have led the charge both at home and within the European Union for its adoption across the developed world. 

Next week Ireland will formally ratify the GPI Convention in tandem with all EU member states bar England. A Tory government is in place and despite the decades of progress since Britain re-joined the EU the progressive influences of Scotland and Wales have been sorely missed since the both countries secured independence. 

Whilst Lucy fields calls and emails at the kitchen table Willa is stomping around the house roaring at some poor unfortunate at the other end of her mobile phone. She’s Editor of Dublin’s oldest monthly magazine; ‘The Voice’ and it goes to print next week. Ongoing power shortages have really disrupted production over the last year or so. They nearly missed last month print deadline and she’s determined to have everything ready to go a couple of days early just in case.

Slumping down at the kitchen table Willa puts her head on Lucy’s shoulder and teases, “What’s the effing point of being married to a Minister if I’ve to keep worrying about the magazine’s power supply?” “Sadly love, I’m not the Minister for miracles” Lucy says sympathetically as she pours her tormented wife a cup of tea. The landline rings and it’s the school. They’ve sent their youngest Alroy home early. Just as the headmistress starts to explain what’s happened Alroy lands into the kitchen in a terrible state. 

The poor young child is sobbing his heart out. “What on earth has happened” Lucy asks as Willa scoops Alroy up in her arms cuddling him close. Alroy is inconsolable so they just let him cry it out. Eventually it all tumbles out. 

“There was a boy like me eating his dinner off the street,” he gulps. “It was just so unfair. I don’t understand how that happened.” Lucy and Willa looked at each other confused. “Where did you see that?” “It was in a book in school. One of the older kids left their history book behind and we were looking at it during lunchbreak. There was a picture of a little boy eating his dinner on a piece of cardboard on a street in Dublin. The book said there used to be thousands and thousands of children with no home and their Mammies had nowhere to cook them their dinner. Did that really happen Ma, really?”

Lucy pops Alroy up on her lap. He’s always been the most sensitive of the four kids. “It did happen son,” Lucy tells him, “a long time ago. Hundreds of families were homeless and then thousands, then tens of thousands. After that the government stopped counting and shipped them all to compounds in remote areas around the country.” “But how did people let that happen Ma?” “Well” Lucy says with a sigh, “mostly because it wasn’t happening to their families. It all changed after the Great struggle though. Finally, people realised that an injustice to that little boy and his family was an injustice to us all.” 

Alroy looks earnestly at Lucy and says, “I’m never ever going to let that happen to anybody Ma and you better not either.” “Not on my watch son, not on my watch.”