Tipperary Live Column: Aspiring to take on the mantle of responsibility

“Honour is something all men are born with. It cannot be taken from you, nor can it be granted. It must only not be lost.” ~Clive Owen, Last Knights.

The honour of being a warrior in ancient times meant something because it was a necessary set of skills to possess to protect life and property in ages where the rule of law wasn’t something that was necessarily in force or enforced except at the pointy end of a blade, writes Karl Clancy in his Tipperary Live column.

Warriors, knights, soldiers all had codes of conduct by which they lived. Those codes were necessary in eras where everyone carried a weapon as a matter of course. The knights of the middle ages practiced the code of chivalry, an anglicised version of the French word ‘chavalier’, a mounted warrior. That code governed all aspects of their lives and to go against it was seen as a tremendous disgrace. To become a knight meant first being a knight’s squire, learning the trade as it were.

Here in Ireland the most famous knights have slipped into legend, those of Fionn MacCumhill and the Fíanna. The Fíanna were a group of young men whose lives were dedicated to protecting the land and its people. Most people think of the stories as myths but as with all myths they have a basis in fact. The Fíanna did exist. The young men hoping to become members had to undertake trials such as learning nine books of poetry, dodging nine spears without moving their feet and running through a forest without breaking a single branch.

These trials were the thin end of the wedge. They were expected to protect women, marry wisely and to protect the forests from all enemies. There were severe penalties for doing any less and the rites of passage to becoming Fíanna were both difficult and coveted at the same time.

So where am I going with this? Rites of passage were important milestones in a young man’s development, especially when they created and reinforced ties with his family, his community and his land. They provided important standards that had to be upheld to be seen as a man within the tribe.

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Today, our rights of passage are limited to doing a Leaving Cert, playing a sport or gaining a driver’s license. Then of course there’s the ubiquitous first pint with the auld fella where everyone pretends it’s the young fella’s first pint. The question might be asked how these events compare to dodging nine spears! They are certainly safer and I’m not sure that many people have spears anymore.

Young men need something in which to believe and to which they can belong. They crave the kinship of peers and the sense of adulation and respect that being special gives them. Rites of passage provide those attributes and here’s the challenge.

It’s up to the older generation to create the environment where young men can aspire to greatness and take on the mantle of responsibility for their thoughts and actions. We must provide direction for them to see protecting their tribe as something that marks them out as having become men, and where becoming a man is synonymous with respect for oneself and everyone else in the tribe.

Being a man must return to meaning someone noble, someone on whom the community can rely and someone who lives a life where service is paramount. A life where that service is rewarded with respect and where women feel safe and the land is protected.

To do this we have to test them by providing physical, mental and emotional goals. It’s not enough to have them hurling or playing sports. Not all kids will excel. We have to create environments where completing the course is the goal. We have to extol intelligence and creative thinking.

I was once part of a group that ran up a river bed on Sliabh an Mban. Once the last of us had reached the top the question was asked ‘What have you learned?’ I gave two answers that day. ‘Firstly, we leave no one behind. We all get to the top and we help anyone struggling. Secondly, no one took exactly the same path but we’re all here.’ Apparently those were the right answers though I’d liked to have told everyone not to run up a river bed but use the sheep path beside it instead but I thought it would probably ruin the intended lesson.

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Bringing young men together and raising their standard of self expression, their ideals of how to treat people and their environment, broadening their views of those weaker than them or those stronger than them, giving them a sense of purposeful place in a society will dissolve so many of our societal problems at their root.

Where young men feel alienated, isolated, unvalued, have poor self esteem and no community connection they have nothing positive to which they might look upward and so they are more likely to look downward and act that direction too.
They are lost and only with understanding and guidance can we replace what the more malicious elements of the world call men with real men who live for their loved ones and their homes in ways that feed their souls.
Those men will fashion and eventually leave behind a world that will be far better for their passing.