Made from algae found in coastal waters, this so-called superfood can be added to tea, smoothies and yoghurts, juices, or even eaten straight from the jar. But is there any point?
Alan Riach takes a look beyond the titles of two of Hugh MacDiarmid’s most controversial essays. IT was disappointing to read Fintan O’Toole describing the origins of the Scottish National Party like this: “The SNP itself was a strange beast. Its roots lay in a semi-fascist 1930s racialised nationalism.” (‘Nicola Sturgeon’s staunch ally in her push for independence – Boris Johnson’, Irish Times, January 16, 2021). And it was characteristically encouraging to read Joanna Cherry promptly correcting him gently but firmly in the same newspaper. O’Toole’s words, she said, were “not accurate”: “The founders of the SNP were a diverse group who included writers and intellectuals from the left, as well as those who were keen to preserve our country’s culture and traditions in much the same way as those who founded the Irish Republic.” (‘The SNP and Scottish nationalism’, Irish Times, January 19, 2021).
Comment We would never have got this far had we and those who went before us not been prepared to be radical and to think outside the box OVER New Year, I was re-reading one of my favourite novels, Extraordinary Women by Compton Mackenzie. It’s a richly comic satire based on his and his wife’s experiences in lesbian society on the island of Capri where they lived during and after the First World War. Unfortunately, it’s out of print but if you can get hold of a copy, I highly recommend it. Like many of his fellow founders of the SNP, Compton Mackenzie was an intellectual and a free thinker. If he had not been prepared to question conventional beliefs and the status quo in the 1930s, he would not have been able to envisage an independent Scotland.