I have been away for four days, playing in a festival. I returned to find that a number of you had sent me PM's asking for my views on all of this a week later. I read through these threads and don't know what I can offer. There is diversity, wisdom, lunacy, sadness........it is all here already. I am glad we played the festival this weekend. Gaelic Storm, Lawrence "Larry" Nugent, The Brothers, my own Conklin Céilí Band, Fonnmhor, Brian Mason and the Shelmaliers..........we all determined that we were going to give the folks a breath of fresh air....a chance for some relief. And yet every one of us did some sort of tribute. The gigs were exhausting for the effort in them. And yet, at the end of the night, Twigg and Stevie Wehmeyer from Gaelic Storm, Larry Nugent, Brian Mason, Jon Koeze (from my band), and meself sat down with a table full of the dark stuff and played until 4:00 AM. We found relief, as we always do, in the music.

I believe that is the best rebuke to the animals in this world. They are lost in their fantasy. They believe that they can, in these senseless acts, change the world into what they want it to be, instead of learning to live in it the way it is. My whole life has been devoted to being an agent for change. But I have always known that to do so, I must act, and testify, and make my case in a way that brings people to me. I have always known that I must speak in a language that people understood. These fucking animals were faced with a world that doesn't see it the way they do. They couldn't make their point................so they lashed out thinking they could force us to their way of it. And so the best response is to give them the opposite. To stand up, brush ourselves off, rebuild, and go on.

Their has been much talk of war here. I agree that we must strike out, and bring these people out. But I object to the term. War is a process. It is filthy. And it has a beginning and an end. It is true that we must root these bastards out. It is true that we must destroy, utterly, their ability to do this again. We must bankrupt them. But more importantly, we must cause the nations of the world to reject this as an alternative entirely. And that means it isn't a war, but rather it is molding the moral base that we all operate under. It is the process of alienating in every way possible, those who participate or support it. Which means that it has no end. It must, from September 11, 2001, be forevermore a sin of the highest order, to take terrorist actions against non combatants. And we Yanks must understand that the sin didn't begin here. We are not the only victims. If it is wrong in Manhattan, then it is wrong in Belfast, Omagh, and Derry, it is wrong in Jerusalem, it is wrong in Bagdad, .............. it is just wrong.

Pray, in whatever way you do, for wisdom as we pursue this. Pray that the outcome is a better world. Pray that we pursue not only the purveyors of this terror, but that we also pursue understanding of what we have done that spawned such hate. And then, when the hunt is done, that we will use the same might that we will use in that hunt, to pursue and put an end to hunger and hatred.

The rest of my views can be found HERE.

All the best,

Mick