McHugh's Miscellany: The new ‘prophets’ who are constructing the parables of tomorrow

There was a certain sense of irony in the minds of many when Paul Lynch’s book 'Prophet Song' scooped this year’s prestigious Booker Prize in London over the weekend.
A dystopian tour de force, the book looks at an Irish republic under the veil of totalitarianism through the eyes of the Stack family and would have the Donegal Democrat grammar police pulling out their hair, in light of the continuing fluidity of the paragraph continuations.
Ironically many pundits suggest that this alone imbued an “urgency” into the dialogue and drama of the award winning book of fiction.
The fact that Mr Lynch (well that is how he must now be addressed) was reared in Malin and later Carndonagh was another Donegal bonus, but less so was the symbiotic mayhem that visited the streets of Dublin last week, in what was a most coincidental but possibly salutary lesson, if not full blooded stark warning, when facts and misinformation are thrown into the same social media porridge pot.

(Above: Booker Prize Winner, Paul Lynch, who has strong Donegal connections)  

Which takes me on to one of the most solid citizens I know in the county, Cormac Meehan from Bundoran.
A successful articulate, amicable auctioneer and travel agent, as well as the former president of the Irish Travel Agents Association, he would be, what I would call, a man of the people.
In other words the perfect sounding board for all things happening around us in the world of today and more specifically, the four green fields that we inhabit.
We would occasionally use each other as a sounding board, if we got a chance to chat.
Reflecting on the changing times around us, a letter from Cormac appeared in this week’s Irish Times, which articulates a challenging precis of what many believe is happening in our capital, founded by the Vikings and baptised Dubh Linn in ancient times.
It is worth reading in full:
Sir, – As a very regular visitor to Dublin from the northwest, my travel options are bus from Ballyshannon to Busáras or train from Sligo to Connolly.
The train trip invariably involves menacing visits from various anti-social interlopers boarding and disembarking anywhere between Ballymote and Enfield.
Arriving at Busáras or Connolly Station involves encountering reception committees of vagrants, drunks, beggars and drug users at all exits, escalators, stairwells and toilets.
The next stage of my journey takes me on the Luas to the Four Courts Quarter where the carriages are controlled by individuals who strive to make eye contact and provoke conflict. The quality of attention given to a working day in the capital is challenged and compromised in anticipation of the potential hazards that may be encountered on the journey home.
The town I once loved so well is, sadly, not a very pleasant or welcoming place to visit anymore. – Yours, etc,
It certainly makes you draw your breath and ponder the juxtaposition of both fact and fiction of last week and whether such accounts could even become a self fulfilling prophecy.
For in the alleged words of the 18th century philosopher and economist Edmund Burke, who coincidentally was also a Dubliner by birth:
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Again ironically, it is said this quote too, is a work of fiction, as it does not seem to appear in any of Burke’s writings.
I will tag along with the more up to date philosopher from my youth, the character Sgt Phil Esterhaus on Hill Street Blues, played by actor Michael Conrod, whose weekly anthem after briefing his team in each episode contained the simple but classic line: “Let’s be careful out there”.
And that holds as strong today, and everywhere, as then.