"Onwards and upwards to the stars." My father's letters to me at university were always energising in their brevity, providing an immediate picture of the family life I had left behind for three years - but they always ended with an almost impossibly romantic and idealistic motto.
That was him, really - an exhilarating person in both public and private, a man whose ability to rouse the senses and set the heart racing was always underlaid with a greater purpose. His life story still inspires me, and the briefest outline of it puts most people's achievements (or lack of) to shame.
Brian Behan went to England ("the land of big money and small shovels") from a poverty-stricken Ireland in 1948; alcohol and gambling had lain waste to the ancestral fortunes and his entire family - mother, father, seven brothers and one sister - had lived in one room in a Dublin tenement. When he arrived in Britain he was 22 and had three shillings and sixpence (Dh1) in his pocket. Making that journey was the turning point of his life and he never looked back, despite some people's obsession with his Irish "roots". "The only ones I ever saw weeping were those left behind," he later wrote. "I wished to Christ that the bloody boat would push off and let me get the hell out of there."
Not looking back is a lesson I've tried to draw on, but I've never met anyone who embodied the principle quite as much. When he arrived in London, my father worked as a labourer on building sites all over the capital, including on the new South Bank project, where he was a piledriver, living 10 to a room in a basement in Southwark. "To get dressed you had to stand on the bed," he later told me, "there was no room on the floor." He soon became active in the trade union movement, fighting for basic working conditions for himself and fellow workers - including gangs from Connemara who spoke no English and had no idea what a trade union was.
He became a paid-up member of the Communist Party and helped instigate a series of strikes, including a go-slow on the day the Queen was due to visit the Festival of Britain site. He went to prison several times: on his release he rose higher up the ranks and joined Communist delegations travelling across China and Russia, meeting Mao and Stalin along the way. Yet he was disappointed - Russia, he said, was particularly Victorian and un-revolutionary, and he despised the way both countries' leaders lived. He left the party in 1956, after Russia's invasion of Hungary, and had a brief sojourn with the Socialist Labour League before abandoning party politics altogether.
My father's formidable grasp of history was ignited when he attended Sussex University as a mature student in the 1960s; 30 years later he was delighted when I got British Academy funding to do an MA there. By the time I was born in 1976, he was working as a media lecturer at the London College of Printing and was already writing his autobiography. We had been discussing politics at the dinner table for as long as I can remember, and I always had the sense that I was talking to someone extraordinary, someone with a lifetime's worth of wisdom and experience, interlaced with humour. I still miss this now. But he had mellowed, and seemed to enjoy the company of his family the most. When I was at primary school he'd enthral and terrify us with stories of monsters coming to get us - I think he taught us to use our imaginations so that we'd never be bored. At night when I couldn't sleep he'd take me walking through the streets of London, telling stories till I felt drowsy. He'd take me to school on the back of his bike every morning - in later years we'd cycle for miles along the canals.
Throughout his life, my father demonstrated an ongoing lack of respect for middle-class notions of creativity by rising at 6am to bang out a few chapters on the typewriter every day before work. "Balzac wrote 10,000 words in a night, so a dissertation should be no trouble to you," he would tell me at university. It worked. From later years I remember my father's healthy disdain for other's opinions - something he successfully passed on to me - his lack of respect for conformity and equal disdain for political correctness, his positive attitude and his energy and determination, from which sprang his willingness to embrace new ideas. He also had a fierce sense of equality, which he instilled in me from an early age. "Remember," he would say, "there's no one in this world better than you." This was backed up by the very real promise to annihilate anyone who touched me or my brother.
My father embodied what I have always believed - that you can do anything if you really want to and that most people only make excuses. The other lesson is that one should live by one's convictions, but when experience contradicts theory, one should also have the courage to change and not to hang on to beliefs like an ideologue. There is more than one way of achieving anything.
While my father was idealistic, he was also realistic. He made me get a paper round at the age of 12 so that I'd know the value of money - I also worked in a supermarket on weekends - and at 16 he sent me on a secretarial course in case I ever found myself out of work. I didn't, but giving me the ability to type 100 words a minute was one of the best things anyone's ever done for me. When I got a job at The Daily Telegraph, he was thrilled - not least because it paid well. For him, life had paid off. He worked hard so I didn't have to.
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Two-litre%20four-cylinder%20turbo%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E235hp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E350Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nine-speed%20automatic%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh167%2C500%20(%2445%2C000)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
%3Cp%3ECory%20Sandhagen%20v%20Umar%20Nurmagomedov%0D%3Cbr%3ENick%20Diaz%20v%20Vicente%20Luque%0D%3Cbr%3EMichael%20Chiesa%20v%20Tony%20Ferguson%0D%3Cbr%3EDeiveson%20Figueiredo%20v%20Marlon%20Vera%0D%3Cbr%3EMackenzie%20Dern%20v%20Loopy%20Godinez%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETickets%20for%20the%20August%203%20Fight%20Night%2C%20held%20in%20partnership%20with%20the%20Department%20of%20Culture%20and%20Tourism%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20went%20on%20sale%20earlier%20this%20month%2C%20through%20www.etihadarena.ae%20and%20www.ticketmaster.ae.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
SCORES
Multiply Titans 81-2 in 12.1 overs
(Tony de Zorzi, 34)
bt Auckland Aces 80 all out in 16 overs
(Shawn von Borg 4-15, Alfred Mothoa 2-11, Tshepo Moreki 2-16).
Structural%20weaknesses%20facing%20Israel%20economy
%3Cp%3E1.%20Labour%20productivity%20is%20lower%20than%20the%20average%20of%20the%20developed%20economies%2C%20particularly%20in%20the%20non-tradable%20industries.%3Cbr%3E2.%20The%20low%20level%20of%20basic%20skills%20among%20workers%20and%20the%20high%20level%20of%20inequality%20between%20those%20with%20various%20skills.%3Cbr%3E3.%20Low%20employment%20rates%2C%20particularly%20among%20Arab%20women%20and%20Ultra-Othodox%20Jewish%20men.%3Cbr%3E4.%20A%20lack%20of%20basic%20knowledge%20required%20for%20integration%20into%20the%20labour%20force%2C%20due%20to%20the%20lack%20of%20core%20curriculum%20studies%20in%20schools%20for%20Ultra-Othodox%20Jews.%3Cbr%3E5.%20A%20need%20to%20upgrade%20and%20expand%20physical%20infrastructure%2C%20particularly%20mass%20transit%20infrastructure.%3Cbr%3E6.%20The%20poverty%20rate%20at%20more%20than%20double%20the%20OECD%20average.%3Cbr%3E7.%20Population%20growth%20of%20about%202%20per%20cent%20per%20year%2C%20compared%20to%200.6%20per%20cent%20OECD%20average%20posing%20challenge%20for%20fiscal%20policy%20and%20underpinning%20pressure%20on%20education%2C%20health%20care%2C%20welfare%20housing%20and%20physical%20infrastructure%2C%20which%20will%20increase%20in%20the%20coming%20years.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDirect%20Debit%20System%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sept%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%20with%20a%20subsidiary%20in%20the%20UK%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Undisclosed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elaine%20Jones%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%208%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Points about the fast fashion industry Celine Hajjar wants everyone to know
- Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
- Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
- Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
- Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
- 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
- Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women