by Brendan Hughes

The race to catch up with the great capitalist buffalo, that same great capitalist buffalo that feeds us, clothes us and makes us rich - but not all of us; in fact only a few of us - is infectious. Along the trail to catch the great buffalo we see the hoof prints of those who went before us. Oh the lucky ones they are. They sit smoking their pipes, drinking their brandy. Indifferent to millions of children living in poverty in Europe alone. Indifference makes the race go on - never mind the starving spectators, just don’t take your eyes off the prize. Keep your eyes on the pipe and brandy. Keep your eye on the buffalo. Just make sure you get into the dance hall of the rich.

After all, haven’t they all done it? Russia, the great bear, for so long the dream of non-buffalo chasers. Enlightened Europe, for so long the intellect of the world, now with its millions of poverty stricken children. Ireland, a bastion of resistance to those trampled in the path of the buffalo, has caught its own and now chases the tiger.

The problem with chasing the buffalo is that like Lot’s wife, you cannot look back on the trail – you must never look back. To do so will show the price that others must pay for you catching the buffalo. The price in terms of human suffering that has paid for the brandy, pipe and log cabin is a costly one. For the trail is littered not with the corpses of buffalos but with human bodies, blood, sweat and tears. And still those millions live in poverty in Europe alone. Don’t look back or you will lose sight of the buffalo, lose sight of the pipe, brandy and log cabin in which you reside warm and comfortable while the poor scrimp and save, out of your vision. Tommy Gorman is right. He forces us non-buffalo chasers to ask; has the working class been left behind? So what is the answer? For humanity’s sake look back. Come out of your second homes in the country and come back to the people whose blood built them.