Saturday, January 30, 2016

The Devil's Soapbox

The T.V.Repair man was at the back end of beyond as they say around here.He was hopelessly lost and had but the name of the customer who rang in with the request  to repair his telly.
He came across an elderly gent out walking in the rain with hair down to his waist wearing a leather sombrero hat from which the water dripped .
"Would you be Stephens,with a broken television"said the repair man.Without breaking pace nor looking up yer man said "Television ,the soap box of the Devil ""Na not me ",
It's as well he hadn't heard of the Internet.

Monday, January 18, 2016

In the morning Lord.

The trusses and timber work in the Church roof were magnificent ,complex and mind numbing.They were primed,painted and varnished by hand every five years and generally treated with the respect they fully deserved.It took a number of skilled craftsmen a month from start to finish to complete the work,nestled as they were on high and perched on top of the objects of their lavish attention.
They worked all day long from dawn to dusk carrying up with them enough food and equipment to last the day.Once up they stayed up and Masses and all the other ceremonies continued apace as they worked.The Parishioners forgot them after a while and continued about their Church business as though they didn't exist.
Including the Budda Stephens the most devout attendee at the Church and so nicknamed because of his obvious devotion.
The painters watched down on all from on high and the Budda was in the habit of doing the Stations of the Cross after every ceremony he attended ,which was each day in effect.His last act was to light a dozen candles and pray fervently on his knees.But the Budda never put any mulla in the candle cash box.Ever.
The boys copped this and told their boss ,himself a genuine devout man.
The next morning he hid above in the trusses out of sight entirely.
Things progressed as per normal and the Budda pulled his normal stunt of lighting the candles and getting up to leave sans payment,whereupon the foreman intoned in his best and deepest voice"Pay for the candles Budda "to which the reply issued as the Budda bowed without breaking pace  "In the morning LORD".
In Dunderry the craic never ends.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

TALK TO THE HAND.

There are many people of my vintage who have made valuable contributions to Irish Society over the decades and the zenith of our educational achievements was the Primary  Certificate which was a State exam which one sat after 9 years at Primary School at about 13 years of age.
Passing it meant that one had mastered the three R s i.e reading writing and arithmetic.
With these at your disposal you were fit to take on the world and many millions did and continue to do.
Of course many fell between the cracks and are illiterate to this day.Many of my vintage could  not afford to get second level education as it had to be paid for and that was as far as we went.
Relatively few got Second level education and fewer still went to Third level.
These last two decades have seen huge advances in Technology and the State has paid to upgrade the computer skills of millions of youngsters the vast majority of whom now go to third level at least,largely on the taxes contributed by my generation.
Generally there are millions of my age and older who might as well be looking into a bush as confronting a computer screen and a  keyboard,but who can perfectly execute the three Rs in totally legible hand writing.
Instead of showing some element of appreciation towards us  for our contributions to society over the years this State and the major Financial Institutions do all in their power to victimise ,bully .penalise and intimidate those of us who can read ,write and do arithmetic but have not yet nor will master the complexities of computerisation.
Many Government Office sand Financial Institutions will not accept the written word as a valid form of communication but insist on computer text to deal with customers and even if they do reluctantly accept perfectly written text as valid severely penalise and disadvantage the writers in monetary terms.
This is callousness.ageism and discrimination of the most insidious type.
Imagine the uproar that would ensue were a defined minority,say Japanese people ,who were known to be computer deficient ,penalised in its dealing with the State and the Financial Institutions Yet this happens daily to millions of people of my vintage and older in the Ireland of today at all levels of society.
I can best illustrate the point being made by the  abominable treatment I witnessed of a person I know to be a pensioners and severely disabled  in a Pillar Bank recently.
This person subsequently nformed me that he was banking with this Bank for 40 years or more.
I was behind this man in the queue.
The Bank has a number of machines to which we were directed and told to use instead of the two tellers who were behind the counter and totally unoccupied.
The man had two things to do,he had a cheque to lodge and he wanted a cash withdrawal.Of the 6 machines there only one allowed both transactions.I strongly suspect that the Government's strong aversion to cash and its use and its desire to know what you had for breakfast is the reason for the glaringly obvious dearth of cash dispensers generally .
Not only did this man look his age but he had severe discomfort standing in the queue on a clearly lame leg.
We had the misfortune to be behind a woman who had a handbag as big as a Santa's sack on the start of his rounds and who proceeded to lodge individual cheque after individual cheque in the machine for several long minutes with no end in sight.
The life long customer ,by now visibly wilting, called a female clerk who was one of the posse of people herding us to the machines and asked would it be all right to do his business with the idle clerks behind the counter to which she replied that the female ahead of him would be finished shortly and to wait on.
Now how she could know this was beyond him  and so it proved as five minutes later yer wan was still parked in front of the machine talking to it.
On the point of collapse the old guy just turned on his heel and left.
This is what Baldy Noonan and Enda the Cromwellian ,their ilk and their devotees think of our generation.
 Bad cess to them one and all.





Death of Eithne Lee Dunderry

Eithne died recently in a Dublin Hospital after suffering for some time from severe accidental burns,which compounded the discomfort she has suffered from multi weekly dialysis treatment she had to undergo in recent years.
These last few months have been severely taxing on her and her exemplary daughters Anne,Maura and Eithne who have maintained vigils at her bedside and have for some time feared the worst.
Eithne was a Louth woman ,of quiet disposition and was married for many years to the late Bob Lee ,a Galway man ,who was the more outgoing of the two.
Bob died some years ago in some distress also and I know his family suffered considerably at the time.
The Parish was lucky that such a decent and outstanding exemplary family chose to live here and enlighten the lives of those fortunate enough to know them.
Bob was a life member of Dunderry GAA Club and so enrolled because of the involvement of their youngest daughter Eithne in the Camogie Club and she remains to this day the firmest of friends with  our Mags as a consequence of friendships then forged.
Her many friends and neighbours in the Parish mourn her passing.
Her mortal remains will arrive at Dunderry Church this evening ,Sunday  17th, January at 6.00 p.m.and the funeral Mass is on Monday at 11.00 a.m.
Her remains will be cremated in Mount Jerome at approx.1.30.p.m. afterwards.
Ar Dheis SDe go raibh a hanam dilis.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Sunday Independent.A total rag.

Two weeks ago I momentarily forgot just why I had years ago ceased buying and reading the Sunday Independent and made the gross and inexcusable once off mistake of buying it just the once..After reading a scurrilous article by a being  called Carol Hunt the reasons came flooding back.
She wrote an article demonising the life's work of Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa who has been nominated for Sainthood.
Firstly let me state that this was cowardly journalism in its most invidious  form in that this insufferable wagon knows full well the first rule of knavish journalism is that you can spread whatever lies that you wish about the dead because they are not alive to defend their good name.
Secondly this anti Catholic bigot thinks it kosher to belittle the beliefs of Catholics by besmirching the Status of Sainthood which as even a smidgen of research would reveal Sainthood is held sacred to us who practise Catholicism.At the very least it is disrespectful and at its worst is bigotry of the worst sort ,far worse than that practised by that French Satirical Magazine which has put world peace at risk.
Maybe she thinks she is being clever and cool in asserting that Mother Teresa took pleasure in the suffering of the poor and that She subjugated them to such suffering for her pleasure.
Of course she can make such false allegations in the sure knowledge that Catholics will not place a fatwa on her,unlike Muslims who might.
Such a cowardly journalist would not repeat in print ,nor would her Rag publish such damning and hateful rubbish, about any Muslim prophet nor religious icon.Guess why.
Satan himself could have found it difficult to more effectively demonise such a Holy Woman and Saint as the pro abortion Carol Hunt has done and therein may lie a clue for her hateful vindictiveness towards Catholicism and Saint Teresa.
In my very simple take on Catholicism there are good and evil.There are God and the Devil.Obey God's laws and after death you will have eternal happiness in HEAVEN in the company of the Saints and the good people.
Deliberately disobey God's laws and you will enter the realm of Hell from which there is no escape.
Do the Devil's work in this life by calumnising  God's Saints and you will serve Satan for eternity in the next life.
It may be that in Satan's realm in the afterlife that Carol Hunt will be renamed Mike Hunt  (SAY IT QUICK) and when Satan calls her from the ranks of the damned ,she will scurry on all fours to serve him in the capacity that best suits her.