Meathman's Diary: In case of emergency, have a laugh
Jimmy Geoghegan
Back in the 1980s a novel was launched by a Dublin-based publisher called Cloud of Desolation. It was written by Sam Baneham, a teacher in St Joseph’s Convent of Mercy, Athboy.
The novel, the internet, informs us, “creates a technocratic dystopia through its memorable story and singular language.”
The book, which I haven’t read, explores the consequences of nuclear war and what might be the fall-out of a nuclear holocaust or a “day of wrath.”
A central character in the narrative is a student – Dig 951 – who carefully examines the “database of Overlanders,” the name given to people who have survived the holocaust. In writing the book Mr Baneham, we are told, focused on the inner lives of the main characters “providing a stark depiction of life for the unlucky survivors of nuclear war.”
I thought about the Cloud of Desolation the other week when the Be Emergency Ready booklet dropped through the front door. I also thought of the author of this dystopian novel, a man I got to know well partly because he was a teacher of mine in the Convent of Mercy – hence the reference to ‘Mr Baneham.’ Habits formed in youth are difficult to shake off.
Mr Baneham, or Sam, as he preferred to be called, was a brilliant teacher, someone who really did embody that old saying about true education and how it should be about lighting a fire rather than merely filling a bucket. He was also a great guy to meet, in or outside the school grounds – affable, unfailingly friendly, good-humoured. I use the word “was” because I haven’t spoken to him in years and don’t know what he did in life after I left school.
What the Cloud of Desolation explores is a world dramatically changed by a dramatic event, something the Be Emergency Ready booklet also seeks to prepare us for.
There is no mention of a nuclear war in the booklet but there is a reference to other nasty events such as storms, flooding, cyber-attacks and “disruptions” which could mean anything including an AI or financial meltdown, a Russian takeover, a nuclear attack, raging inflation or an out-of-control El Nino. Anything.
The Government, it seems, likes to keep us on our toes by issuing stark warnings every now and again of what bleak events might, or might not, happen.
Back in the mid-1960s the rulers of the day sent out a booklet – it was called, starkly, ‘Bás Beatha’, life or death – and told us what steps we had to take in case of a nuclear fall-out.
You have to wonder what all this dark foreboding has on people’s mental health. So how do we counter all the bleak news that seeps into our consciousness every day. A good laugh is a great antidote of course.
So let’s treasure, I say, all those people in our midst who bring humour and optimism into our lives. They can help to lift any cloud of desolation that might descend on us. They are truly worth their weight in gold.