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21st year into the 21st century; into the month of October, the 20th day: a Wednesday.

Introducing an enriching 21st century digital anthology of 16 original philosophical works of fiction composed and compiled by Richard Mc Sweeney of Ireland; a self-designated Planet Earth philosopher of the natural kind.

"Philosophical fiction: fictional literature that enjoys carefree-ly philosophising on anything it so wishes; on anything it so wishes without letting itself be bound by any philosophical system, logic or method." RMcS

The anthology would be ideal for throwing some light on various philosophical concerns of the individual; encouraging group discussion and inviting scholarly exploration.

Browse below or go direct to the Google Play Store where individual eBooks have been on sale since early January 2021.

Introducing my latest ongoing writing/audio project:
Riches by Rich: audio shorts – Inspirational imperatives of the Recherché kind for Self-care
Commenced: Wednesday, 22nd September 2021.

The Visions of The Shepherd
Exploring the visionary claims of a 13th century Christian saint: St. Diovis of Illyria. A case study on the Phenomenon of Private Revelation.
ISBN: 9781716618956
Pub. September 2020

Rich Voy Beinecke's Dream
Paperback 138 pages; full-colour.
ISBN 9780359933389
Pub. December 2019

Solaris Hibernia
A Philosophising Beau-Ideal
ISBN 9780359609529
Pub: May 2019

The I be The Me
Earnestly commit to living a moral life
ISBN 9780359270095
Pub: Dec. 2018

As Children Of Ireland
Original Stories for Ages Eight to Twelve
ISBN 9781365444685
Pub. 2016

Abiding In Bobbio
Monaco Colombano Europaggio
ISBN 9781329382237
Pub: 2015

Visitant Eve
Spirituality, Philosophy & Romance
ISBN 9781304904423
Pub: 2014

Bradawn Yeats
A Khalil Gibran tribute to W. B. Yeats
ISBN 9781304816436
Pub: 2014

A Green Desert Father
Philosophical converse of an Ard Ri of Ireland
ISBN: 9781365452338
Pub: 2013

Bridging Al-Serenities
Sacred lands of Eire & Ebla
ISBN 9781365581472
Pub: 2017, 2nd ed. as hdbk. 1st ed. as pabk in 2010

Unto Lineage Royal
A Midsummer's Dream
ISBN 9781409276388
Pub: 2009

Innkeeper's Fire (Vol.I)
Sightings of a sacred hearth
ISBN 9781847995513
Pub: 2008

Innkeeper's Fire (Vol.II)
Sightings of a sacred hearth
ISBN 9781847995520
Pub: 2008

Hearing in the Write
Long lines of ripping speculations
ISBN 9781847992932
Pub: 2007

Generations Reaching
Mythologies in the making of Tallow
ISBN 9781847991102
Pub: 2007

A Jesus of Nazareth
Closing the book on Jesus content
ISBN 9781847990303
Pub: 2007

Myriam of Lebanon
A lyrical philosophy of ambiance
steadfastly established on
Gibran Khalil Gibran's The Prophet
ISBN 9781847536730
Pub: 2007

A Personal Poetic Prose Memoir on Myriam of Lebanon
By Richard Mc Sweeney of Ireland
© 2 June 2020 RMcS
Forward by Glen Kalem-Habib

Richard Mc Sweeney

Risteárd Mac Suibhne; Richard of Éire is a self-designated Planet Earth philosopher of the natural kind; a self-originator who enjoys expressing his ideas and insights: his philosophical fiction in a charmingly personal prose-poetic style.
He is happily married to Lee Sung-ja 李勝子 of Seoul, Republic of Korea. They live on the beautiful isle of Éire - Ireland. Their son and daughter are also happily married and have children of their own.

He is the son of Risteárd Mac Suibhne - Richard Mc Sweeney (1923-1985) of the western environs of the village of Baile Mhúirne - Ballyvourney in southwest county Cork and Siobhán Ni hÉalaighthe - Joan Healy (1936-2021) of the southeastern environs of the village of Gleannúir - Glanworth in northeast county Cork. He himself was born in the eastern environs of the town of Mainistir Fhear Maí - Fermoy also in northeast county Cork - Contae Chorcaí.

The closing two decades of the last century saw him teaching English Language and Literature and studying philosophy in the Far East and the Middle East.

He has a Masters in Chinese Taoist Philosophy (Lao-Tzu & Chuang-Tzu) from Seoul National University which he gained through the mediums of Korean and Classical Chinese. He was also enrolled in the PhD programme for two years in the same department at SNU. He has a BA in Korean Language & Literature from Kyunggi University in Seoul and a Diploma in Philosophy & Arts from Saint Patrick’s College in Maynooth, County Kildare. The latter he gained while being (for six years) a Catholic seminarian for the priesthood with the Missionary Society of St. Columban based in Dalgan Park, Navan, County Meath in Ireland.

He has been constantly practicing the art of expressing himself in written form ever since returning to Ireland in June 2001.

To date he has published sixteen books: The Visions of The Shepherd being his most recent which he brought out in September 2020.

Introducing as of 17th June 2021 his latest ongoing writing/audio project:
Out of Eire: A reflection on the mind inspired by a Taoist text: The [Chuang-Tzu]
Commenced: Wednesday, 17th March 2021.

Always he keeps before him the belief that his best originality is yet to come.

From 13th May 2011 to 27th September 2011 he put himself forth as a possible independent candidate for 9th President of Ireland.

Senator David Norris, Richard Mc Sweeney, Seán Gallagher and Mary Davis in Kerry County Council offices in Tralee on Monday, 18th July 2011. Courtesy of The Irish Times ©Tuesday, 19th July 2011.

Senior news reporter at The Corkman Newspaper: Bill Browne - 15th September 2011: "INDEPENDENT Fermoy based presidential candidate Richard Mc Sweeney has made an emotional appeal to Cork County Councillors to back his campaign for the Aras."

My journey to Áras an Uachtaráin, n' the World

Tuesday, 30th January 2018
Richard announced:

“Already a month has almost gone by since I tossed my four sacred keys into the Ocean of Oblivion. Namely: since I either permanently deleted or deactivated my Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Pinterest accounts. And I am not missing them in the slightest, even though I had been with them for a number of years: had hundreds of followers, shared loads of photographs and penned thousands of tweets.”

Sayings:

“Like unto an extraterrestrial terrestrial do I feel myself to be; an outsider within. And contrary to conventionality, I am quite at home with being thus me.” RMcS

“I let those who have a sense for the unique decide for themselves what my words might mean; what my writings might mean. Merely I am honoured and happy to be a sensitive receiver and passionate transcriber of inspiration within my ever-culturing listening and writing abilities.” RMcS

“I am persistent in my conversations with places of place Past; with places of place Present; with places of place Future and with places of place Universe.” RMcS

“Be remembering we our Irish heritage with joy, pride n’ tears; but now let’s open wide our eyes n’ ears: it to defend for the years.” RMcS

“The right to life hidden you see is a self-fulfilling prophecy; to who to where to what to when, how else can it be?” RMcS

“A living dynamic in the service of change do I take my philosophising to be.” RMcS

Made the following comment on Monday, 1st February 2021 on a Newstalk YouTube video:

      ‘They were round objects, gone in the blink of an eye’ – Ireland’s UFO Sightings

[The presenter’s question goes right to the heart of the matter:

      “How does it feel to have an experience like that and know that you know that so many of the people you tell aren’t going to believe you?”
        And even more so the caller’s reply:
      “… I just stay quiet about it.”

Wherever on the planet people have seen things; whether in the countryside strolling, sitting on the balcony of a high-rise apartment or from the deck of a ship, the cockpit of an airplane or a Space Shuttle or the International Space Station or even from the surface of the Moon: have seen things not of home sweet home; not of Planet Earth, many, if not the majority of them, will have all come to the wise realisation that the best thing for them to do is to say absolutely nothing about it; just stay quiet about the experience (at least for the time being anyway) for only in that way can they get on with living their life as normally as possible. The privilege is to have seen the special; the burden to have to keep quiet about it until the time is right; until people: until all people will be able to sing the new song.] RMcS

6th February 2021 - commenting on a speech:

President Higgins lends support to “Ireland Reads” campaign (Thursday, 4th February 2021)

His Excellency’s words are greatly welcomed.

Especially, I like where he speaks of - “The initiative aims to help us all to combat so-called ‘lockdown fatigue’ by encouraging us to reacquaint ourselves with the wonders of literature, and the pleasures of reading, to take time to sit and enjoy a book, or perhaps a poem, a newspaper, a magazine or comic” and in particular –“or whatever it is the eyes might fall upon.”

The Chinese Taoist philosopher, Zhuangzi 莊子 (350 BC-250 BC) was asked: “What is meant by the true person?” And he answered as follows:

何謂真人？
古之真人，不逆寡，不雄成，不謨士。
若然者，過而弗悔，當而不自得也。
若然者，登高不慄，入水不濡，入火不熱。
是知之能登假於道也若此。

“The true people of old did not reject (the views of) the few; they did not seek to accomplish (their ends) like heroes (before others); they did not lay plans to attain those ends. Being such, though they might make mistakes, they had no occasion for repentance; though they might succeed, they had no self-complacency. Being such, they could ascend the loftiest heights without fear; they could pass through water without being made wet by it; they could go into fire without being burnt; so it was that by their knowledge they ascended to and reached the Dao.”

In the 1968 musical drama film Oliver Twist the question in a song is asked:
“Who will buy my sweet red roses? . . . There must be someone who will buy.”

The Lebanese poet-philosopher, Gibran Khalil Gibran in his work, The Garden of the Prophet presents the following:
“Behold, there was a man standing at the cross-roads with hands stretched forth unto the passers-by, and his hands were filled with jewels. And he called upon the passers-by, saying: ‘Pity me, and take from me. In God’s name, take out of my hands and console me.’ But the passers-by only looked upon him, and none took out of his hand. Would rather that he were a beggar stretching forth his hand to receive – ay, a shivering hand, and brought back empty to his bosom – than to stretch it forth full of rich gifts and find none to receive.”

And Jesus of Galilee had this to say:
“To what shall I compare this generation? It is like little children sitting in the market places, who call to the others, and say ‘We piped the flute for you [playing wedding], and you did not dance; we wailed sad dirges [playing funeral], and you did not mourn and cry aloud.’” Mt. 16-17

I would like to extend an invitation to my fellow Irish readers to go on a digital reading excursion into the world of the author hermits of this green desert island we call home. Who are these people? They are writers rejected by mainstream and traditional publishers; by newspapers, radio stations, television channels and social-media platforms; rejected primarily on the grounds that their writings have little or no commercial value. There must surely be many such hermits who have for years been conscientiously perfecting their gifted craft; making every effort to create works that will reflect their particular take on reality. These are the outsiders within.

Readers, you will always have the popular staple diet of books; will always have the consensus of the majority classics but when will you ever make - if not now - the opportunity to read the writings of your own green desert hermits? Those writers who have been outcast; those courageous few who have been banished and sacrificed to the oldest trick in the book, namely the running down of the clock. Perhaps at times they feel very much like Zhuangzi, the Oliver Twist singer, Gibran and Jesus.

Save for the Google Play Store the writings of these hermits would be all but forgotten and you would never have the opportunity to appreciate them. Now however they are available as affordable ebooks in some 70 countries around the world. Global readers purchase these based on the sincerity of the writer and wholly decide for themselves the merit of the works. Finding them worthy they gladly recommend them along. This is the 21st century way of Planet Reads.

And to conclude with His Excellency’s fine philosophical words:
“Books are . . . a portal into a wider universe and the beginning of an enriching and creative journey that will transport us . . . to new places, introduce us to new experiences that enable us to experience, engage with and change the world.”

Thursday, 25 February 2021 - Posted the following unanswered question and comment during the live streaming of –

President hosts second “Machnamh 100” seminar - “Empire: Instincts, Interests, Power and Resistance”

“Peace is indeed a process but so too is conflict. We know day is day and night night but how can we clearly identify if we are now in the process of peace or in the process of conflict?” RMcS

“There is nothing ordinary about the ordinary people of Ireland. In fact, quite extraordinary would be more true to say, given the resolute way, in which they have survived down through the centuries.” RMcS

The following letter was carried in the Friday, May 28th 2021 issue of two local newspapers:
Tallow Fire Brigade – a Marvellous Group of People - Dungarvan Observer
Tallow Fire Brigade Praised - Dungarvan Leader

Dear Editor,

I wish to highly compliment Tallow Fire Brigade for their speedy response yesterday afternoon: Tuesday, 18th May to an inexplicable fire on an electricity pole directly outside our house here in Chapel Street, Tallow. Within five minutes of the emergency call having been made they were already turning into the street and with arriving immediately set about cordoning it off. With assessing the situation they assured my wife and I that they had everything under control.

The courtesy and professionalism of the firemen was most admirable and greatly appreciated. They are a marvellous group of people who are willingly sacrificing their time and skills for the safety of us all and the wellbeing of the town and its environs.

A thought crossed my mind when we first heard the explosion and saw the flash of light – we were sitting just inside the window – what it must be like for people in several countries around the world when their homes are hit from the air with military projectiles of one kind or another. Such atrocities being carried out mostly in the dead of night. I can only imagine what it must be like, but no doubt it must be truly terrifying, especially for families with small children and for the elderly! Turning a blind eye to what is going on in such places is a shame on humanity.

Particularly in these unusual trying times we need to be very appreciative of our many blessings and of one another. And whether we wish to be of the herds of the fields mentality or that of the lone heron standing on the river bank when it comes to having ourselves vaccinated or not, we need however to be looking out for each other. Being a human it seems is a very fragile experience.

There are fires of the physical kind and then there are those of the mental and emotional which need to be lovingly and professionally taken care of. Blessed be the world if it abounds with such fire fighters; fire fighters of the standard of the Tallow heroes, who with hearing the distress call, will rapidly appear on the scene; quickly make everyone feel at ease: assure all that they have accurately assessed the situation and having determined the appropriate action to take, not just alone for the sake of the here and now but also for the long term – will unhesitatingly make it so.

Thank you.
RMcS

A RMcS reply to the following letter which was carried in:

     Letter of the Week, Sunday Independent newspaper, 6th June 2021

     Nobody wave at those UFOs - they just might wave back

     Sir - Within weeks a major Pentagon report on UFOs will be published, further fuelling debate and speculation on whether there’s life elsewhere in the universe. And radio telescopes around the planet are busily sending out signals in the hope that someone “out there” might respond.
     But should we humans really be drawing attention to ourselves?
     Extraterrestrials might not be all that well-disposed towards us if and when they arrive here. Just think: What if our visitors turned out to be as far removed from us on the evolutionally scale as we are from the animals. Might they not be inclined to exploit us for their own use and benefit as we have exploited every other species here on earth? And what ethical objection could we make to such a decision on their part?
     We could very quickly end up being “harvested” by the aliens for food. Factories would appear everywhere to process unfortunate humans whose only crime was to taste good to ostensibly superior beings.
     They might have sport with us, zapping away at inferior human prey for the thrill of seeing us suffer – or blown to pieces.
     Or humans might be forced to participate in one-sided coursing matches. I wouldn’t fancy being hounded by alien super dogs in the Alpha Centauri Man-Baiting Championships. They might experiment on us too.
     Of course aliens might not wish to exploit us at all. Another possible scenario is that they could, having reviewed our impact on the planetary ecosystem, regard us simply as pests and opt to be rid of us altogether.
     Aliens might be so enlightened and well disposed towards us that they wouldn’t harm a hair on our heads. But is it worth the gamble?
     I’d switch off those radio telescopes. It’ll be too late to act when we’re sizzling on a barbeque, writhing in a vivisection lab, or running for our lives…
     John Fitzgerald - Callan, Co Kilkenny

Sunday, 13th June 2021
Note the following reply to the above letter: “Nobody wave at those UFOs…” was sent to the Sunday Independent but they didn’t publish it.)

Sir – Resoundingly yes! It is worth the gamble; in reply to your Letter of the week: Nobody wave at those UFOs – they just might wave back – Sunday Independent 6 June 2021.

It is the preferred response to cowardly living our lives in fear of what dreadful thing might happen to us if we were to open ourselves up to visitors from beyond the island orb we call home sweet home. The mind-set depicted in the letter is just that: a mind set in its own smallness; in its own insular ways of always being fearful of something in the unknown.

Forget what the American Pentagon (or for that matter any military or naval body around the world) is going to present this month in its non-classified report to its Congress with respect to UFOs/UAPs. It makes little or no difference what they say or don’t say for if the truth be told not one of them knows what it is they are really talking about. For full sure they will by default be invoking their age-old reliable adage: that they can neither confirm nor deny their existence..

Bravely letting go of all of our preconceived ideas on what we say life; existence, reality is or isn’t will be the first step in helping us to get rid of our fears with regard to the unknown. We have to let go of the rationale which causes us to believe that we know what we are talking about when it comes to the Cosmos; call it the Universe. Let us honestly admit and humbly accept the fact that what we are facing here is beyond religion; beyond humanism and above all beyond science..

Contrary to global opinion the scientific take on reality is probably the biggest contributor to our fears for like religion and a multitude of isms before it it has come up against a situation; a reality for which it has no ability to adequately address.

Let us fearlessly welcome those from afar who will help us to transition out of science into a new and more robust way of appreciating what it is we are part of. When all is said and done though; to be continually calling them you foes or you apes is definitely not a very big-minded way to be going about it.

Richard Mc Sweeney

Postscript: The Irish Times newspaper on Saturday, 12th June 2021 carried an article in the same vein as the above letter: “Nobody wave at those UFOs – they just might wave back” but with an added emphasis on making a mockery out of the whole phenomenon. The article was titled:
“Sean Moncrieff: Are UFO sightings just alien tourists having a laugh?
Maybe Earth is an unpopular destination, the intergalactic version of Longford”

     When I was a kid, one of my favourite television shows was called UFO. Set in the dizzy future of 1980, it told the story of how a secret organisation (posing as a film production company) was battling invading aliens. There was a submarine with a jet attached to it. There was a base on the moon. But mostly, there was a lot of catsuits and wigs.
     It played with a standard sci-fi trope that if there were visitors to Earth, hostile or not, all our governments would instinctively not tell us about it: the reason being that it would cause “panic”. Why it would prompt such hysteria is rarely explained – though it is implied that the arrival of beings who don’t look like us and are probably smarter than us would collapse the Judaeo-Christian world view that humans (or Americans) are unique.
     That fictional convention plays into a real-world fear that there are things going on that we don’t know about: one that has ballooned into what is, by today’s standards, on the more benign end of conspiracy theorism. The US government knows all about aliens. They are living in secret bases. They gave us the internet. Vladimir Putin is from Venus.
     The truth might be more prosaic and bureaucratic. By the time you read this, the US Congress may have already been presented with a report about what it calls “unidentified aerial phenomena”; or UFOs. Or it’s just about to happen. Or, if you have time-travelling capabilities, you read it ages ago.
Unusual objects
     Don’t start building a bunker just yet. While the overwhelming majority of UFO sightings have a humdrum explanation, there have been a number of encounters over the years that can’t be so easily explained. Experienced pilots have seen unusual objects. Radar has tracked things moving at high speed and making manoeuvres that would be impossible for human-made craft.
     A couple of videos have been leaked in which US Navy pilots tracked these craft – if that’s what they are. But like all such evidence, the pictures are grainy and not very convincing. A billion-dollar aircraft and they spend $10 on the camera. Their accounts describe objects of different shapes. One looks like a tic-tac. Another is triangular. It could be a piece of Toblerone.
     But none of this gives us even a hint of what these flying sweets are, or where they come from. The various theories are entirely the result of political or cultural expectations. Some US politicians suspect the Russians or the North Koreans. Other people, many of them reasonable people, maintain that we have to consider the possibility that they might be extra-terrestrial in origin: because a century of science fiction has drummed the idea into us that anything unexplainable must come from outer space.
Unpopular destination
     I’d love if that were true. But there are far more questions than answers. If they have travelled hundreds or thousands of light years to get here, why have they no interest in making any contact with us? If they are so technologically advanced, how is it that we’ve seen them at all? If you can build a craft capable of faster-than-light travel, surely you can also make it invisible?
     It could be that they don’t care if there’s an occasional sighting; or they are doing it deliberately. They might not be here to study humans or steal our organs or mine our planet for some rare mineral. They might simply be tourists; and it’s likely that Earth is one of the less popular destinations, the intergalactic version of Longford.
     So, just to jazz it up, part of the tour might be to hover above a bar in rural Idaho until some drunk people stagger out, spot the craft and scream in terror. The aliens might find that hilarious. The truth, if it ever emerges, might indeed be one that we find difficult to accept: planet Earth and human beings aren’t that interesting.

Wednesday, 23rd June 2021

Eulogy for my Beloved Mother: Mrs. Joan Mc Sweeney (née Healy)'s Requiem Mass

RMcS @

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