Storey time

Mervyn Storey is getting all hot under the collar about an exhibition about evolution:

However, North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey has called for a creationist exhibition to be run alongside which explains the origin of life according to a literal reading of the Genesis account in the Bible.

“All I’m saying is that there should be a balance because there are other views out there,” Mr Storey said.

“There are people who have a different view to Darwin on creation.”

There are indeed other views, such as the traditional creation myth of the Igluik to pick just one:

Long ago a great catastrophe caused the world's supporting pillars to collapse and destroy the earth. Two men emerged full-grown from hummocks of earth. They married each other, and one became heavy with child. The other man sang a magic song, which caused the pregnant man's penis to divide, he then became a woman and gave birth to a girl child.

Hang on, that probably won't make Mervyn happy as:

1. It features two men marrying.
   
2. One of them has a sex change (performed by the other).
   
3. Magic is used.
   
4. The now woman gives birth (which probably confuses the hell out of Mervyn).
   

Oh my, 'tis enough to give the poor wee lamb a case of the fantods!

All of this would be too racy for Mervyn, who is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, founded by none other than Ian Paisley.

I haven't asked either Mervyn or Ian, but I suspect they would give a resounding "No!!!" to an exhibition featuring that!

Of course, he wants to promote a literal interpretation of Genesis only.

But more of Mervyns' objections:

Mr Storey, himself a proponent of creationism, said that he was entitled to express his views on the subject.

“I believe in creationism and intelligent design, I don’t believe in the theory of evolution”, he said.

Mr Storey also said that a failure by the museum to reflect the views of “other people” could raise the possibility that a legal challenge may be launched under equality legislation.

He's certainly entitled to his views and to express them, but he wants to make the museum run an exhibition promoting his literalist interpretation of Genesis, which is taking it too far.

What's stopping him running his own exhibition in a hall?

He's done this kind of thing before with the Causeway Creation Campaign.

Sadly, he's a chairman of an educational committee.

Consider a photograph

You've probably seen this photo many times before: in the foreground a father with his daughter perched on his shoulders, both looking at the camera.

The background is a street in a town - it stretches off into the distance with cars parked at the side of the road, a row of cars stopped at a junction. In the middle distance on the left can be seen a street, possibly Drumragh Avenue.

People can be seen walking down the street on the left hand side of the photo, while on the right some are about to cross the street while others walk along the pavement. Someone hurries across, partly obscured by a car, while a man in a flat cap also crosses the street.

The car on the right is a red Vauxhall Cavalier, its licence plate clearly visible. Minutes later, the car became shrapnel, the bomb it carried detonating at approximately 15:10.

Three telephone warnings were made:

• "There's a bomb, courthouse, Omagh, main street, 500 lb (230 kg), explosion 30 minutes." - to Ulster Television at 14:32.
  
• "Bomb, Omagh town, 15 minutes" - again to UTV, one minute later.
  
• The Coleraine office of the Samaritans was also rung, giving the location of the bomb as on "main street", 200 yards (180m) from the courthouse.
  

The bomb was, in fact, 400m from the courthouse - apparently the perpetrators couldn't park there, so they parked further away and gave vague, inaccurate, indeed contradictory warnings.

The courthouse is at the junction of High Street, Georges' Street and John Street - the bomb was placed on Market Street. The third of the warnings above place the bomb at the junction of High Street, Market Street and Scarffe's Entry. Even though it gave a location that was closer than the others, the actual location was about twice as far from the courthouse as claimed.

But the perpetrators's mistakes cost others their lives, many survivors their health and caused much heartbreak.

The criminal investigation into the bombing has foundered - the police in Northern Ireland have been criticised for ignoring intelligence that a bombing was imminent and other aspects of handling the case. The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garda_S%C3%ADoch%C3%A1na have managed to make an investigation that eventually led Michael McKevitt, leader of the organisation responsible for the bombing, being convicted of directing terrorism. That is something, at least.

A row has erupted over the wording on the memorial and there are two memorial services which there have been arguments over.

It's now half-an-hour to the tenth anniversarary of this atrocity. I hope that the relatives taking the civil case get some measure of justice - it'll be won't bring back those murdered, nor will it heal the scars, physical and mental, or the heartbreak of survivors. It will be something, no matter how small.