Though weregild and eric may both refer to the concept of “a blood price”

there are concepts that float free of any word.

Take Peter Bardens, the former keyboardist for Them,

showing up on Wavelength in 1978. Is there a term for that? Or a farmer of pecans

enjoying a higher status

than a peanut farmer. If allegations of assault were made against officers

in the RUC, very rarely were said officers

subject to investigation. In the matter of Alan Price and only Alan Price

receiving songwriting credits for “The House of The Rising Sun,” that special status

reflects the alphabet. In the beginning was the word

and the word was Bhagwan.

When I first read Langston Hughes’ “Theme

For English B” I had some sense of the concept of being under a thumb,

chiefly from my encounters with UDR Officers

who were former B-Specials. The Baltimore Beacon

was built in the light of 1798; although a United Ireland was a pearl of great price

those who cherished that idea were often, in a word,

terrorists. In early Irish society, chieftains and other men of status

were buried standing up, like their own statues,

their faces set against their enemies. By 1978 “Moondance” was an anthem

Van Morrison played twice on one night in the Bottom Line. Their names a byword

for militant Republicanism to the officers

in Armagh Gaol, the sisters Dolours and Marian Price

were trying to keep their noses clean. The Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin,

had signed another peace treaty with the Piegan

around the time Earl Old Person was granted the honorary status

of Chief of the Blackfeet. All for the price

of a blanket! That arrythmia may be cured by a self-administered chest thump

is well attested by officers

of all stripes. On that you have not only their word

but Jimmy Carter’s. As far back as 1976, the IRA leaders in the Maze had sent word

to the Army Council asking them to begin

a campaign of assassinating prison officers.

The idea was that since the prisoners were prepared to die for political status,

those who tried to take it away from them

must be prepared to pay the same price.

Who would have guessed that every god, pagan or Christian, has his price?

Or that an Irish king might keep, as a status symbol, a Viking sword?

Who would have guessed that lithium would be such a money-spinner for Pfizer?