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

Change. Willa, Lucy and their four kids are huddled around the laptop late on a Monday night. It’s the family’s fourth day relying on the generator for power. Coastal floods have plagued the town for months and the persistent heavy rain of the last few weeks is affecting every aspect of the family’s life. They’ve all been housebound for the last few days.

James, their eldest is fit to be tied. He was recently appointed Coordinator of the Community Garden, known locally as the Big Feed. James is universally loved by all. Sincere, serious and like all their kids he has a big heart.

Poor James is utterly dejected. For decades the Big Feed has used tens of hectares of raised beds to grow crops for the community. It’s the town’s primary source of fresh produce. The raised beds can weather the rain and power outages, but the hydroponic gardening system is not faring so well. Sporadic power outages have impacted on the crops. They’ve tried to tend them manually, but crops are starting to die.

Willa and Lucy can’t travel to work, a fact of life that has become common place. Lucy’s Mam Eileen has just been on the phone. She was due to come up today to mind the kids. Willa needs to get to Dublin to start planning for the next edition of her magazine Dublin’s Voice. Lucy, who is a government Minister for Sustainable Economics, is due in Belfast for this week’s sitting of the shared parliament. Thanks to the weather all their plans have changed.

Eileen lives in the city. Truth be told she would like to be closer to Lucy. She’s lonely at home and feels the change would do her good. Eileen was going to talk to Lucy and Willa this week about moving up. Oh well she thinks, it will have to wait.

The latest bad weather has affected public bus and rail services out of the city. Private cars have been effectively non-existent for decades. Fares are long gone. After Sinn Féin successfully secured the necessary support from progressive member states, the EU agreed to drop its regressive State aid rules on public investment in infrastructure. Public transport provision in Ireland is first class, but it operates in an increasingly changed natural environment.

Willa has gone into the kitchen to make hot chocolate, a much-needed treat on a miserable night. They should all be in bed but Banba has them all up watching an old documentary on YouTube. After listening to Lucy rehearsing a speech that referenced the 2020 general election Banba, ever the researcher, had found an old TG4 documentary about the election. Willa pops a tray of steaming hot chocolates and sugary madeleines on the table.

TG4’s documentary is simply called ‘Change’. It charts Sinn Féin’s success from the 2020 election when it won the largest vote share in a general election to its first majority government. 

When the documentary ends Banba closes the laptop, sits up straight and gets ready to give her analysis. Here we go, the mini Minister is about to give a speech, Afric teases. Alroy has fallen asleep on his big brothers lap. James sighs and mutters under his breath. Lucy smiles at Banba and says, “Don’t mind them love, tell us what you thought of it.” 

“It reminded me of the Frederick Douglass speech you’re always quoting Ma. You know the bit that goes – ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.’ There’s another bit that talks about the amount of injustice people will take, what is it Ma.”

Lucy knows the speech by heart. ‘The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.’

“That’s it Ma. It’s like the people quietly endured all the wrongs of the Great Recession but when things didn’t get better for families the people said they’d had enough. Sinn Féin heard them and stood up for them.”

The old parties and all those who benefited from an unfair system went absolutely mental. They spoke to the people as if they were children. They spoke about Sinn Féin and their voters like how our history books tell us the British lords and politicians used to talk about and treat the Irish people when they occupied Ireland. 

Lucy smiles at her daughter and says, “it’s a lesson for us all love. As a politician I understand I must stay true to my commitment to equality, and never ever take the people for granted. We have nothing to fear from change. It can be an opportunity or a challenge. Together we can face both in the interests of all.” Afric nudges her sister and says with a cheeky smile, - and in that spirit, any chance of you sharing that last madeleine you greedy lump.  