Monday, October 28, 2013

History made by Dunderry Gaels this weekend.

History was made today when the Dunderry u 16 Camogie Team played Rathoath in Martry this afternoon.I doubt if hurling was ever played in Martry before,much less camogie.Very kindly St.Ultans lent the girls the pitch as our own pitches at Dunderry and Rathcairn were unplayable.Can't beat good neighbours.
Although narrowly beaten the girls have great pride in the Dunderry jersey and fought to the bitter end..
The under 21 hurlers played their match in Dunganny ,having been rerouted there from KIldalkey which too was unplayable.The place was bitterly cold and I had to scarper before half time I was so perished.The boys were in total control at that stage and ran out comfortable winners in the end against Clanna Gael,who were short on the day.
Our boys have enough pride in the Dunderry jersey to make the effort to appear despite having had double cause for major celebration over the bank holiday weekend.
And now to history of a kind I would rather not report.Last year I got involved with an under 14 football team who did the unspeakable of awarding a walk over in the Football Championship.Subsequently they were unbeaten and were the only football team in the Club to win silverware.
A month ago I was again invited by Juvenile Chairman Darren Yourell to join him and Derek Hickey and get involved ..I did so gladly.To my astonishment I discovered that a few of the better players from last year had retired from the team and gone elsewhere to play other sports and that about half the team hadn't trained with the Club  in the interim but were plying their sporting trades  and training with assorted non GAA clubs around the County.
It was normal procedure for these players to play with us even though they don't train with us.This is totally alien to my concept of Club loyalty and totally at variance with my notion of promotion of our native games.which in Essenes means being available for training  and matches in a condition mentally and physically to participate meaningfully.
I outlined this scenario.And then found that about five players were coming to our Saturday afternoon matches straight from the  soccer fields of Meath totally exhausted after giving their all there.They were in no condition to play our matches in any meaningful way.
We were beaten so comprhensively by Dunsany and Oldcastle that it was a total embarrassment to the Club and an insult to the jersey.And this is in Division 5.
I totally qualify this by stating that there are a number of players who do respect the jersey and do their level best but worry that this total disrespect for the jersey and by extension the mentors and indeed the Club will too permeate their thinking.
Last week only 6 out of thirteen were willing to field and give preference to our native games.So we gave a walkover.
No sense of loyalty ,no sense of community and and some actually despise the game.
I am flabbergasted how it is possible that so many players ,who have been involved,coached and looked after by our club for over 5 years  have so little respect for it and for our mentors.
I have discussed the matter with Darren and we are resolved to give top class coaching and attention to those willing to commit to Dunderry and restore pride in the jersey at that level,
This coaching will recommence this week .
I am mindful of the boast of Robinstown Club in the 1987 Meath  yearbook,over a photograph of soccer posts fronting GAA goalposts that sporting harmony was the way to go.Not for Robinstown it wasn't.It ceased to exist permanently very  soon afterwards.
We won't be making this mistake.
This is a rally to arms ,as it were for Gaels of this age group.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Bullied,threatened and intimidated in Trim.

Today 25/10/2013 is a day to remember.Our Fiachra Geraghty from Duderry married Leane Darcy from Cortown.A Union made in Heaven, about which more anon.I was at the solemnisation in Cortown and afterwards dropped a number of family members off at the Castle Hotel for the reception and proceeded to the Vodaphone Shop opposite Coogan's Butcher's shop in  Trim where I had some business to transact.
On entering the shop I observed that there was one woman behind the counter serving a male customer and there was another male customer next in line,a well known local sports journalist who I know well.All very serene.
Just as the man being attended to by the Vodaphone lady,Ciara I believe her name is,had finished his business and before the sports journalist or indeed myself could begin our business two physically imposing males burst into the shop,brushed us aside and aggressively and with menace tore into the unfortunate and visibly distressed Ciara shouting her down and demanding a refund of e50.00.
Never have I seen such aggressive,ignorant ,threatening ,menacing and indeed frightening behaviour in public ,nor indeeed private before.
The sports journalist objected to the behavior but was totally ignored and these two boys proceeded too bully and intimidate Ciara,
I had enough and as civilly as possible in the circumstances pointed out to them that there was a queue,that they were third in it and their manners towards us and especially towards the lady was totally unacceptable.I worked my way to the counter to position myself between them and Ciara and have my business attended to .I was brushed aside and glared at with menace.All the time these heroes kept their heartening and nakedly aggressive row with Ciara,who was visibly distressed ,shaking with fear,trying to get clear instructions over the phone and hold herself together.
I don't take intimidation too readily and even though disabled,relying on a walking stick for mobility and having one useless arm ,permanently in my pocket ,continued to face up to theses bullies,pointing out to them that bullying older men and women was the mark of a coward.
For this I was called a "four eyed c..."and invited to the car park around the corner to "sort it out".I might point out that I am 62 years old and would have difficulty walking as far as the car park and these two gents would be under thirty ,well muscled and were in full flow.They are obviously athletes of some description,boxing I would guess.
I can say with certainty that were this challenge put to me before my stroke I would give it a lash.Not now however but still I was not prepared to be cowed.
I threatened to call the Gardai.The sports journalist said he would have done so before now only his phone was broken,hence his presence in the shop.They dared me to so,so I did despite stares and body language designed to intimidate,but having the opposite to the desired effect.
I outlined the position to the Gardai and was assured they would be down shortly.I announced this but the news had little effect on their behaviour except to motivate one of them to go outside the door and talk into a car that was idling outside the shop.I went out the door to take the registration of the car and came back into the shop and borrowed a pen to write it down,not attempting to conceal what I was doing.I was barked at to give up the piece of paper but refused putting it in my pocket.
I sat down on the window ledge with my back to the road watching the proceedings unable to do much more except await the arrival of the Gardai.Maybe ten minutes I saw the Garda van drive slowly by out of the corner of my eye but it did not stop.Surely said I the squad won't be too far behind.But divil a sign of it.I have since deduced that the van  drove slowly by,observed no fighting and kept going.
Realising that the Gardai were not coming I went outside the shop,to have the younger coward put his face in mine calling me a "four eyed fat >....who never washed ,was also smelly and asking me again around the corner to sort it out"I told him that him and his ilk didn.t scare me and I would be making a phone call to a lad near his own age to see how brave he really was,or if his courage disappeared when dealing with other than disabled people and women.I must say I seriously considered giving one telling belt of my walking stick and feck the consequences ans was nearly goaded into it.
I reentered the shop and in full view of the two bullies did phone a friend and asked him to appear quam cellerime as I feared for my own safety and that of the others involved.These boys continued their abuse as though invincible.
A smaller male customer who seemed to know them entered the shop,said he knew them having boxed against them and asked them to calm down and leave.Not a word about it.
My friend arrived .He matches them for physicality.I asked them to repeat the threats they had made to me and invited them to challenge him to the car park to sort it out.
You never saw such a climb down in your life.They proceeded to regale him with the details of their claim against Vodaphone and denied they ever intimidated anyone.As regards the car park to sort it out,not a mention of it .
Typical cowards and bullies,.thugs.
Afterwards I contacted the gardai and gave them the registration number of the car outside.
This is rural Ireland for you and in the capital of Meath,

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Keeping your word,

On 21st.October,according to newspaper reports ,a woman in the course of an eviction by the Sheriff',backed up by the Gardai,was found to be dead,when they went in to the property in Dublin.
She had been alive the previous Friday when discussions on "voluntary" vacation took place.
The death of the woman has been described as a "personal tragedy"although no official cause of death has yet been disclosed.
Before the most recent election Enda Kenny and Eamonn Gilmore gave the following commitments on the subject of evictions,"Guarantee won't lose home " and "Head off the Bailiffs"
I wonder whether the poor misfortunate woman  and indeed everyone who has been evicted since then actually believed these men ?
I know a number of people who have been voluntary evicted .These are all personal tragedies.
Government T.D.s complain vociferously when citizens picket their homes,(Too" personal" they say).
I can think of little more" personal" than being evicted.
It seems to me that the pre-election commitments of these men should be taken at face value and that anyone threatened with eviction should buy a tent and try to gain access to the "personal" accommodation of their local T,D,s pitch it there and stay  there until these bucks deliver on their promises.
And to make it more "personal"their local Government canvasser should be approached for" tent" space on the canvasser's property  until the matter is resolved.
And by the way the printed and electronic media are so totally in the Government's pocket as to be useless,so media coverage of the above woman's death has been so muted as to be non existent.
Imagine the the media uproar that would ensue were she to die in a religious institution in rural Ireland..The atheist hacks and their fellow travellers would be salivating with indignation.
The one environment this Government have created is one where suicide is rampant and widespread and getting commonplace and hope is dying a tortuous death,

Monday, October 21, 2013

Anti Catholic Bigot sneers at Bishop on RTE.

I relapsed into a former habit of watching other than sport on RTE tonight.I  have long since given up the ghost on any notion that Christians and especially Catholics would receive a balanced hearing from the hateful and vociferous atheists and agnostics that infest the station as staff and as  guest panellists.The stickies of the sixties and seventies who dominated RTE seem to have morphed into a sneering cabal of hateful knowalls who get their jollies from belittling religions of any sort except Islam (because these cowards know that Muslims will strike back).
True to known form an atheist blogger showed his total ignorance by making a snide remark about Jesus appearing in a pub in Coronation Street,pontificated disparagingly at length about the rules of Catholicism,belittled the 86% of the population who claimed to be Christian in the census as being too stupid to know what their religion was and making the ludicrous claim that the Church censored  Irish writers over the centuries (the Censor was never a clergyman ,always a Government employee.)
I am beginning to fully believe a clergyman I admire who claims that the Devil is fervently at work in the media conditioning the populace into the acceptance of evil by  the drip.
Given the preponderance of aggressive atheists,prejudiced anti Catholic bigots and outright liars that populate the electronic and written media he may just  be right,
Let me clarify that Des Peelo the presenter was fair to all sides.
But why was that hateful prick of an atheist even given air time to sneer sat decent people?
Sport only from now on.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

The refusal of people to abolish the Seanad.

The politicians,the pet media commentators both electronic and written,the useless pollsters,and the bookies all got it wrong.These gob shites live in a bubble totally divorced from the reality that is most peoples lives.
The inescapable facts of the matter are that it is dawning on the populace that they were totally duped by the unholy alliance who are running the country into the sands,
I repeat for the umpteenth  time that Enda and Eamonn pledged that there would be no evictions from the family homes of Ireland on their watch.These are happening daily and this government went to the trouble of ensuring they would continue by legislating to remove a judicial block imposed for a period by the Courts.
Driven by a Central Bank and Regulatory offices  that fanned the flames of greed  in the first place,whipped up by mouthy mini Ministers who use the language of deceit to disguise their real intentions,ponied up by banks who betrayed our trust in the vilest manner possible, executed by grippers who owe their ancestry  to feudal Norman and Anglo Saxon invaders and presided over by the fir and mna breaga who have broken the hearts of the population.,the "no" vote is the clearest possible sign that we have had enough.
These spiritual successors of Cromwell have implemented eviction on a massive scale,taxed the right to own your own home,the right to drink water ,the very air we breathe (carbon tax) ,the right to dispose of your own shit in your own land and have placed the cost of electricity and heating fuel out of reach of most people.
They have legalised the murder of the unborn and assumed the right to lecture the religious leaders of the majority Churches all the time pushing the secular theism of a Labour Party in total free fall.
Well liberal Ireland,secular Ireland and all the main parties got it up the Khyber and properly so.
For once the Pale got it right.
The simple fact of the matter is that the majority of people just hate this Government with an unbridled hatred because of what they are doing to us.Pure and simple.


The curse of cancer.

The older I get the more people I know who are afflicted  with the curse of cancer.I would say that one of every two people I know who are ill have it.It is the scourge of our times.
Now I know very little of the forms of cancer that mostly afflicts women.I am a bit like that man in the Lotto ad.who cringes when a female employee tells him that she suffers from "women's problems."
Nevertheless I must keep a promise I gave to a female friend of mine to implore all ladies,especially younger ones,who think they may be immune on account of their youth,to frequently and regularly check for the tell tale signs of breast cancer.
I am sure that they know better than me what these signs are.
So over to ye ladies.
And by the way I am the world's worst to get check ups myself and hate being lectured to on the subject.
So do as I say not as I do.

Thr Drudge is under pressure, a little.

Jim Newman a.k.a as the Drudge is hobbling around the village on two crutches.He recently got the hip done for the second time in Navan Hospital,because the first one put in  wasn't up to scratch,.He says he was  treated well in the hospital and asked me to say he is getting on the finest.
Rumour has it that he will be going in to training for the Intermediate Team for next year.Jim himself refused to either confirm or deny these rumours.