steve houlihan

A Time to Say Goodbye to the Mountains.

I’ll start with a question, are you listening? Why do we sometimes find it so hard to write the right thing, what is the actual cause of this bewilderment? Well in this case good memories are the answer, and Ian Smith certainly helped people create some fond and often funny ones!

The first time I met Ian was in a Manchester bar, looking all the world like some veteran fighter pilot refuelling on alcohol before his next mission. I recall his attitude towards the establishment was non-conformist and refreshingly similar to mine. Here was a man who had quite obviously experienced more than one aspect of life but in his wisdom had decided to infiltrate and change the system from within.

Social justice underpinned Ian’s concerns for all excluded communities. A clever man, he recognised peoples right to equality and fair treatment, the right to live in peace and in freedom from constraints as well as the right to have an equal and equitable distribution of resources. Maybe his conversations with machine elves during the years spent in the Welsh mountains gave him access to the ‘bigger picture’.

Ian was an adventurer who was never afraid to try something new and see what developed. He worked hardest for the benefit of those who needed it most – the marginalized and excluded within society. He was a tolerant listener and accepted peoples viewpoints for what they where. Ian knew that our search for meaning is like an endless experiment but basic human values should prevail in our dealings with others. He was passionate about learning and sharing his knowledge with others so they too could learn. Helping eliminate ignorance through education his individual ‘Hannibal’ lecturing style kept audiences entertained throughout the country.

During the final days he saw the writing on the wall and in his own words revealed, “The barbed wire was going up”. Governmental bean counting had begun to take the fun out of things and Ian the maverick liked to fly by the seat of his pants. He decided to vanish from the radar and slip out of the grind, to take his chance in the no-go zones, doing the research that he enjoyed so much.

Ian Smith was an influential character and an inspiration to many people including myself. All those that knew him well will sadly miss him. He was fun to work with and equally fun to drink with, his seemingly endless anecdotal stories were always accompanied by roguish laughter, caustic wit and that mischievous glint in his eye. All in all, a fighter pilot from the ‘Space Monkey Mafia’ it was an honour to know him.

Upon crags and splendid mountain peaks,
ravens, falcons and eagles shriek.
As evening dusk on hidden cliffs fall,
a peaceful quiet settles on all.
Time to say goodbye to the Mountain.
Free Spirit