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Louis Hemmings
poet, author, quixotic

The Irish Vigil for October 7th victims and hostages in Dublin

photo: Louis HemmingsThe Irish Vigil for October 7th victims and hostages took place today, Sunday October 6th in Burlington Road, a south Dublin City side street, where the Israel Embassy resides.

About 500 – 600 people attended to hear Ireland’s new chief rabbi Yoni Wieder, poignantly speak in his English-accented lisp, about the Hamas-murdered grandfather, who acted as a deliberate decoy on behalf of his hiding family. The ploy worked but Hamas gunned him to death…

No pro-Palestinian provocateurs were present to megaphone-mock the many Jewish and Christian attendees, as they did at the Dublin march last May. Why not this time also? Perhaps they vented all their sectarian, anti-semitic spleen at yesterday’s march / take-over of  Dublin City streets? Hezbollah flags flew and bully-boy Hezbollah chants peppered the air, accompanied by general calls for terrorism against Jews at that Dublin “pro-Palestine” march.

Tomorrow, Sinn Féin’s Dublin City Councillor, Daithí Doolan, is seeking support for a motion on the ‘Occupied Territories Bill’ – to be read on October 7th. To the small community of Irish Jews this malicious move seems vindictive and vexatious in its pointed timing. Ireland is indeed a “cold house” for the now subdued Jews and any Christians who esteem the God of Israel…

The six Gardai (police) present were genial enough, until the growing numbers of corralled attendees got chided to step in from the road. I and many others then observed the proceedings from the opposite side of the street. A member of the Gardai approached us on the clogged path, and suggested that we move to the end of the long queue we had recently left! I piped up that we had gathered there trying to obey their previous instructions on the far side of the street. No-one moved and the Garda left us alone after his feeble foray.

Meanwhile Jewish and Gentile men and women prayed Jewish and Christian prayers. One Germanic-sounding woman prayed from the Torah, where God promises to bless Israel, at which point three flags near the stage (Israeli, Irish &  International Christian Jewish Embassy) – fell in unison.

A few songs got sung in Hebrew and English and moving testimonies from October 7th survivors played on the large screen. As the proceedings wrapped up, I approached a journalist. Hearing his well-regarded name, I informed him I was covering the vigil as a blogger for The Times of Israel. He got quite taken aback by my declaration. I told him I’d started blogging while on a Journalism Diploma course. Before we parted, I briefly told him why I supported Israel: because of watching ‘Raid on Entebbe Airport’ in a Dublin cinema, back in 1978.

Then, looking for my wife among the departing peaceful and poignant crowds, I bumped into a young Jewish man who I know. Asking after his sister in Israel, he told me that his niece begged her mother (his sister) to attend the Nova festival. It was two days before she was to join her IDF regiment, and so the girl’s mother refused permission to her daughter, thus most likely saving her life or her possible kidnap…

photo: Louis Hemmings

In closing, I leave readers with a new version of my pungent prescient poem, which has been viewed by 42,000 people (and some bots no doubt!) – on You Tube.

Supernova Slaughter, October 7th, 2023.

Bass beats boom, synths swirl, dawn kissed
barefoot dancers, blissed Nova tribe, party vibes;
hell soon comes for happy hippies, sublime
spell quelled, festival final fate spelled out.
Supernova Slaughter, Supernova Slaughter
Hundreds of parents lost sons and daughters.
Sinister shadows, sunny skies suddenly darken,
evil eyes survey, para-gliders slyly preyed;
bullet sprayed – dancers lay dead, played dead:
Hamas hunt with unjust blood-lust.
Supernova Slaughter, Supernova Slaughter
Hundreds of parents lost sons and daughters.
Screams and scattering, fleeing thwarted,
escape plan aborted, car windows bullet-shattered;
marquee empty, sound system eerily silent.
victim violence videoed with godless glee.
Supernova Slaughter, Supernova Slaughter
Hundreds of parents lost sons and daughters.
People pray; Elisha’s mighty angel army
absent: no sword raised, no arrows aimed –
Torah prophets proclaim Yahweh’s promise –
Judah’s Lion awaits… God guards the golden gates.
Supernova Slaughter, Supernova Slaughter;
mourned sons and daughters – their siblings treading water;
kaddish prayers wailed, familial spirits impaled:
holocaust haunted, terrorist taunted, Israel undaunted…
סופרנובה קציר, סופרנובה קציר;
בנים ובנות מתאבלים, אחיהם רצים במים,
תפילות קדיש בכו, רוחות משפחתיות נדקרו:
שואה רדוף, טרוריסט מגוחך, ישראל ללא פחד…

 

photo: Louis Hemmings

About the Author
Louis Hemmings has been writing prose and poetry since 1972. Some of his work has been published in Poetry Ireland, The Irish Catholic, Forward (USA) and Books Ireland. He is a late-life journalism student in Dublin, Ireland. He is married 38 years, has two boys, buried a stillborn and holds an ecumenical Christian point-of-view.