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| An argument between brothers becomes a fight, then a tragedy. Now it's a crime | An argument between brothers becomes a fight, then a tragedy. Now it's a crime |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Reading Bruce Chatwin’s book Songlines last week, I came across a passage that reminded me of growing up with three younger brothers. It was something about the fighting and the wrestling that brought things back to me: bouts on the rug that ended in carpet burns and with an elbow in the eye or a tumble down the stairs, hair pulling, Chinese burns, pinching, sparring with sticks and freshly shed spear-like leaves from Norfolk pines, the pushing, hitting and the struggle – where the only way out would be when one of us cried out for a parent to intervene. | |
| Describing early man in Songlines, Chatwin wrote: | Describing early man in Songlines, Chatwin wrote: |
| As for the young heroes, they could only become ‘fit’ as a result of the most rigorous training among themselves: in wrestling, grappling and the art of wielding weapons. Adolescence is the ‘sparring’ phase. After that, all enmities are – or should be – channelled outward on to the Adversary. The ‘war boys’ are the ones who never grow up. | As for the young heroes, they could only become ‘fit’ as a result of the most rigorous training among themselves: in wrestling, grappling and the art of wielding weapons. Adolescence is the ‘sparring’ phase. After that, all enmities are – or should be – channelled outward on to the Adversary. The ‘war boys’ are the ones who never grow up. |
| Chatwin’s point was that sparring – usually between siblings in the early years – is a developmental stage will be, like every stage, outgrown. The mass killings of the world wars (the “war boys who never grew up”) were an aberration – arrested development on a monumental scale. At a certain age, we are meant to lay down our weapons. | Chatwin’s point was that sparring – usually between siblings in the early years – is a developmental stage will be, like every stage, outgrown. The mass killings of the world wars (the “war boys who never grew up”) were an aberration – arrested development on a monumental scale. At a certain age, we are meant to lay down our weapons. |
| I wonder how much of this residual sparring spirit resides in siblings, particularly brothers, long after they have passed adolescence. I still see it now sometimes, in siblings in their 20s and 30s. They’re adults with jobs and briefcases and mortgages, who apologise profusely for bumping into a stranger in a pub. | I wonder how much of this residual sparring spirit resides in siblings, particularly brothers, long after they have passed adolescence. I still see it now sometimes, in siblings in their 20s and 30s. They’re adults with jobs and briefcases and mortgages, who apologise profusely for bumping into a stranger in a pub. |
| But there they are with their brother, maybe a joke misfires, and the mood rapidly changes: there’s a shove, an insult, tension flares and the dynamic suddenly shimmers with a dangerous charge, only to be broken with laughter a few minutes later. | But there they are with their brother, maybe a joke misfires, and the mood rapidly changes: there’s a shove, an insult, tension flares and the dynamic suddenly shimmers with a dangerous charge, only to be broken with laughter a few minutes later. |
| Occasionally I see it in my own relationship with my brothers. Love that can turn to aggression with the quickness of a dab hand dealing cards. Our muscles have a memory of all that early fighting; when provoked there are deep, historic instincts to lash out. | Occasionally I see it in my own relationship with my brothers. Love that can turn to aggression with the quickness of a dab hand dealing cards. Our muscles have a memory of all that early fighting; when provoked there are deep, historic instincts to lash out. |
| Siblings are who we practice on when we are becoming fully human. From the cot, they are our first true companions – and it is through them we learn to share, negotiate, fight, show loyalty, manipulate and love. | Siblings are who we practice on when we are becoming fully human. From the cot, they are our first true companions – and it is through them we learn to share, negotiate, fight, show loyalty, manipulate and love. |
| How could anyone familiar with that dynamic not feel heartsick when reading about the brothers Barry and Patrick Lyttle? | How could anyone familiar with that dynamic not feel heartsick when reading about the brothers Barry and Patrick Lyttle? |
| Arriving to Sydney two days earlier from Belfast, 31 year-old Barry Lyttle joined his older brother Patrick 33 for dinner in Kings Cross on Friday night. Barry, along with his father, were on the trip of a lifetime, catching up with Patrick, who had spent the last few months travelling around Australia. | Arriving to Sydney two days earlier from Belfast, 31 year-old Barry Lyttle joined his older brother Patrick 33 for dinner in Kings Cross on Friday night. Barry, along with his father, were on the trip of a lifetime, catching up with Patrick, who had spent the last few months travelling around Australia. |
| According to reports, Barry, 33, allegedly punched his younger brother in the head on Bayswater Road in Potts Point shortly before 3am on Saturday, causing Patrick to fall backwards and hit his head on the ground. Police say CCTV footage appears to show the siblings having a “minor” argument before Patrick pushed his older brother, who reacted by throwing a punch. | According to reports, Barry, 33, allegedly punched his younger brother in the head on Bayswater Road in Potts Point shortly before 3am on Saturday, causing Patrick to fall backwards and hit his head on the ground. Police say CCTV footage appears to show the siblings having a “minor” argument before Patrick pushed his older brother, who reacted by throwing a punch. |
| Although they had been drinking, police ruled out alcohol as an aggravating factor. Patrick is now on life support after undergoing emergency surgery to release pressure on his brain. | Although they had been drinking, police ruled out alcohol as an aggravating factor. Patrick is now on life support after undergoing emergency surgery to release pressure on his brain. |
| One-punch laws were designed in many ways to regulate the conduct of strangers, many of them drunk or on drugs. The press of the teeming crowds in Kings Cross on a Friday or Saturday night will always cause friction. But this case feels different. | |
| Photos show Barry devastated and shocked, sitting in the gutter as his brother was put into an ambulance. He sobbed when he appeared at Parramatta bail court on Saturday afternoon. Now out on bail, he is keeping a vigil at his brother’s bedside. | |
| According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, “Facebook shows the tight-knit family loved spending time together and the brothers revelled in spending nights on the town in each other’s company”. | |
| “Bros in arms,” their cousin Stephen wrote after Barry posted one snap of the pair together. Their father told reporters that his sons “have loved each other from when they were kids.” | “Bros in arms,” their cousin Stephen wrote after Barry posted one snap of the pair together. Their father told reporters that his sons “have loved each other from when they were kids.” |
| The sibling origin story, Cain and Abel, never made much sense to me. It was all hate and no love: just a killing in a field and not much care before that (God asked Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain replied, “I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?”) | The sibling origin story, Cain and Abel, never made much sense to me. It was all hate and no love: just a killing in a field and not much care before that (God asked Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain replied, “I know not: am I my brother’s keeper?”) |
| Nor did the Greeks really see much nuance in their sibling story. In Seneca’s first century AD tale, Atreus kills his brother Thyestes’s children, cooks their corpses and watches as Thyestes, unaware, eats them. | Nor did the Greeks really see much nuance in their sibling story. In Seneca’s first century AD tale, Atreus kills his brother Thyestes’s children, cooks their corpses and watches as Thyestes, unaware, eats them. |
| But then to see that animating spark between siblings – the love and the violence – play out on the streets of Kings Cross last weekend, is more gut wrenching than any Greek tragedy. | But then to see that animating spark between siblings – the love and the violence – play out on the streets of Kings Cross last weekend, is more gut wrenching than any Greek tragedy. |