Postcards from the Edge

I depend on the kindness of snowflakes

Don’t bash the young. They’re always so helpful to Mary Kenny

I shall be – all going well – 78 in April. One advantage of my increasing age is that young people are so nice to me.

The present generation of young people have occasionally been teased as ‘snowflakes’ – since they seem so sensitive to the cruelties of the world. But if they are, the other side of the coin is their notable kindness.

They are always stopping me to ask if they can be of any assistance, as I wend my way. I’m often dragging a suitcase containing books, magazines, an iPad and heaven knows what else, and they rush, with the chivalry of Renaissance courtiers, to help me at every opportunity.

The most eager are often young Asians, who explain, as they volunteer to carry my luggage up the many steps at Piccadilly Circus underground station, ‘Oh, I would always do this in honour of my grandmother!’ The Oriental respect for oldies shows.

Sometimes I play up to this ditzylittle-old-lady image, especially when it comes to downloading information via apps that are puzzling or annoying. At Heathrow Airport recently, a young Chinese lass spent a patient hour toiling over a very awkward check-in app. She then accompanied me to ensure I was OK with the subsequent check-in.

Young people at libraries are utterly sweet when I bewail some electronic source of cataloguing that I find complicated. They’re happy to help out, even doing the research for me.

Sometimes their solicitous attitudes are a little overdone, and there’s a slight hint that I’m viewed as a confused halfwit. But I’m willing to go along with their ‘Are you sure you’re all right, dear?’ so long as they perform all these caring courtesies.

Bless their tender hearts!

Female beauty contests have rather gone out of fashion, but County Kerry’s Rose of Tralee – a decorous Irish version, launched in 1959 – has endured.

Any woman under 30 with an ancestral Irish connection may enter the contest, which occurs annually in August. The original purpose was to involve the Irish diaspora. The Rose of Tralee focuses on personality and style. But contestants are expected also to be attractive, and the winning Rose is always pretty – although entrants have never been required to appear in swimsuits or revealing frocks.

It has kept up with the times. In 2014, Maria Walsh, a gay Bostonian, won the title. And this year, in the first postpandemic festival, transgender people will be accepted – the Rose of Tralee is open to those biologically born male who identify as female.

Can a person born male really be crowned a female beauty queen, taking precedence over people biologically born women? If the late April Ashley were the template, it certainly could happen: a pretty boy, a beautiful woman and a ladylike lovely in old age.

County Kerry is now officially woke!

The Eurovision Song Contest – starting in May – usually produces bland ditties indistinguishable from one another. I suppose it’s a kind of united-Europe ideal.

The last redoubt of musical patriotism is the collection of the national anthems of the 27 EU countries. Liam Murphy, a retired Irish civil servant, has compiled them in a detailed study, The National Anthems of the EU Countries. He adds the United Kingdom as a former EU member.

National anthems lavishly praise their country’s wonderful homeland and the pride of their traditions. They suggest that the Almighty should especially bless their territory – or, as in the case of France, that the people should take up arms in its defence (‘Aux armes, citoyens!’)

‘La Marseillaise’ may be most stirring, but the author suggests the German ‘Deutschlandlied’, composed by Haydn, may be the most musically distinguished. Germany might not have retained it after the Nazis had made such bullish use of ‘über alles’ but it was restored in 1952. However, the second verse, praising ‘German women, loyalty, wine and song’, was considered outmoded.

The oldest anthem is the Netherlands’ ‘Het Wilhelmus’, dating from 1568. The Welsh anthem ‘Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau’ (‘Land of My Fathers’) was the first to be sung at a sporting event, in 1905.

Finland, Estonia, Croatia and the Czech Republic all express proud national sentiments, extolling their beloved countries. Latvia, one of the least religious of European nations, sings ‘God Bless Latvia’. The Vatican City’s anthem, written in Latin, extols the nobility of Rome – with music by Gounod. The Greek anthem is the longest, while the Spanish has no words at all. The Polish anthem is a dance – the lively mazurka.

Slovenia’s anthem is the most international, calling for God’s blessing ‘on all nations’. ‘God Save the Queen’ is rather aggressive. Its sixth verse beseeches the Almighty ‘Rebellious Scots to crush’. In its second verse, it suggests the Lord scatter the monarch’s enemies: ‘Confound their politics/Frustrate their knavish tricks’.

A case of Brexit foretold?