Presentation Night destroyed by ignorance.

It's twelve years since Dunderry GAA Club had a Dinner Dance in the Darnley Hotel,I am reliably informed.
That night the medals garnered were as winners of the football leagues.
In 2014 we won the Intermediate Hurling Championship.against outside expectations and the Under 21 Hurling Div.2 Championship ,having failed at the final hurdle three years running previously.
Very justifiably we were overjoyed to have landed such important trophies and went to celebrate in the Darnley last Saturday night.
I am proud of the fact that I had two sons on the Intermediate team,Evan,who was captain and his younger brother David who played well throughout the year,.The family connection was strengthened by Davy MC Cormack a full cousin also a vital cog.I am also very proud of my connection to the GAA Club.
So the family was out in full strength for the occasion.
Now the food and service were  grand as we have always have found to be the case in the Darnley over the years and the medal presentations went fine .None of the speeches were overlong and Evan's was over short if anything.
Kevin Dowd deservedly got Club Man of the Year (Hanny Kelly Cup )and as a previous recipient I well know the honour this is.
And the music was the finest,played by a duo led I believe by a  fellow called Fox.
And a stranger to me ,who put me in mind of Crusty the Clown from the Simpsons. hauled many's the lady from the comfort of her armchair onto the dance floor in order to display the excellence of his Tipperary dance technique.
All good clean fun and just what you could expect in any well organised GAA outing.
And before I get to the insult served up in place of the National Anthem at the end of the night I feel that I must place my own cards on the table.
My farther was Welsh,his first language was Welsh and his favourite team game was rugby.He had played it in his youth and revered it,it being the game of the common people in Wales and it still is the game of the people there.
AS long as I can remember he never missed a Wales game in Landstown Road and could sing the Welsh National Anthem word for glorious word..
He never attended a club rugby game in Irelanfd as he saw straight away that it was a game for the elite boarders of the fee paying schools around the country ,unlike the GAA which occupied then and still occupies the same place in Irish society that rugby occupies in Wales.
He encouraged all nine of us to play Gaelic games and was fierce proud of our modest achievements on there fields of play.
I played a small bit of rugby myself at the lowest lo possible level.I found three things pertinent to the came at that level :-
1.The rugby heads were brutal athletes and had  no coordination whatsoever.
2.The worse the player he was the more he talked abut the good game he played.
3.The arrogance of these useless mouthpieces knew no limitation.
I was not impressed.
I do like watching rugby however and admire skill and bravery.
But that abomination "Irelands CAll"from the otherwise excellent Phil Coulter makes my blood boil
I see little point in watching po faced blokes who owe their allergies to the Crown putting on their stony faces when our national Anthem is being played and then bellowing out that abomination to pretend that all is well.
If they chose to be un Irish they should throw their lot in with their motherland and be done with it.
You won't find any other country pandering to those of another loyalty no matter what.
Why should we ?
Anyhow I couldn't believe my ears when the aforementioned group started to bellow out Ireland's Call instead of the National Anthem at the end of the night.
Maybe they are stupid enough to believe that this abomination is the Irish National Anthem ,but they added insult to injury when informed that it wasn't and they persisted in playing it anyhow and thought that this was great gas.
Ignorance is indeed blissful.

Acting the Goat

I haven't read the detail of the proposed Bill on the redefinition of the family being peddled by the worst Government since Cromwell held sway ,more of which anon.
I am old enough to remember the repressive times in this country when Fine Gael and Labour held power under Garrett Fitzgerald as Taoiseach.
And I well remember the plethora of referenda promulgated by that Government to divert attention from the misery under which the populace laboured and to also divert real attention from the civil war being waged across the border and disguise the pro Brit. and anti Nationalist hue of that government.
I also remember the despairing spin promulgated to gloss over the massive emigration figures and the sneering at all things rural.
Much the same as today in all respects.
Except that the present day's agenda is additionally being skewered by the overbearing homosexual slants being pushed by certain parties and individuals and the anti nationalist and anti Catholic agendas being pushed by certain graduates of Trinity College ,who clearly drank copious amounts of the Soup during their stay there.
Anyhow it is often the case that a lamb born to a ewe which has no milk is fostered to a goat that has no kids but has milk and the goat happily rears the lamb.
Now we have four parties here ,the sheep ram and father,the ewe mother and the goat in loco parentis.and of course the lamb.
And there may be a fifth party, the goats husband the buck goat.
Now the lamb may have thousands of siblings ,depending on the libido of her ram father or on whether she was conceived by artificial insemination or even cloned.
The same with the goat and so and so forth.
And of course the buck goat being a buck goat may mount the lamb and breed on from her,further complicating the matter and the ram sheep might mount the lamb,thinking that because the she goat is ardently the mother of the lamb and she is not related.
You can see that the number of combinations possible are limitless.
And of course there is the additional possibility that the buck goat may hit it off with the ram sheep and set up pasture and realising that their life is incomplete without a lamb/goat of their own, procure a fertilised ovum from a source specialising in this area and hire a sheep or she goat to bring it to fruition.
And of course there is always the possibility that the ewe sheep may hit it off with the she goat and also procure a fertilised ovum and have it implanted and so on and so forth.
Yep I have absolute faith in this Government to redefine the settled meaning of family,not.

Third Dunderry Wild Geese Team

I am uncertain about the exact location of all the players but if you feel you can help out let me know.

                                                     P.J.Feeney (USA)

Tony Fagan (Sas)                       Paul Newman (Aus)                         Martin Fagan (Sas)


Christy Fagan (USA)                 Bob Clarke (Sas)                                Jack Fagan (Aus)


                           Tommy Spollen (Sas)          Stephen Conway (USA)

John Daly (Sas)                           Richie Folan (Aus)                              Barry Conway (Sas)

Pauric Carroll (Aus)                   Alan Garry (Aus)                                   Barry Conaty (Aus)


Manager Joanne Mc Cormack (Canada )

I have promoted Alan Garry from  management of the second team to full forward in this team.
This is the tallest midfield pair ever fielded by the Club.    

Dunderry Fox seen in Passport Office.

The computer literate Dunderrry Fox ,having read about the 2 WIldgeese teams published by mise and aware that a third and maybe a fourth is in the melting pot has decided that he too will head to foreign shores.
He says he would be barking mad not to do so as the pickings anywhere abroad must be more plentiful than hereabouts.

Clean Sweep in Dunderry .

The recent news that the Geraghty's family car has been stolen gives us a clean sweep of all the houses on the main street in the Village.
The owners of every house have now been robbed .Horans,Geraghtys,Myself .The Church,.The Hall ,the GAA Club,and most frighteningly Flanagans ,who were robbed at knife point.
Additionally many of the elder residents adjacent to the village have too been robbed,some more than once.
Some people are afraid to even report robberies to the Gardai because they are afraid that the few bob they have accumulated over a lifetime of frugality(they had more cop on than all the lauded and over educated economists ,bankers and regulators combined ) might attract a tax liability so they keep mum.
I am encouraged by the news that Liz O Donnell , Doyenne of the Roads Authority , wants to divert even more Gardai to the Traffic Corp so as to criminalise even more decent citizens and bleed them dry financially and increase their insurance premiums by further penalties imposed because of these penalty points.
This will surely make the citizens of this Parish feel safer and increase the expectation that some of the stolen items will be recovered and the perpetrators apprehended.
A solution might be to entice Joan Burton to live here.
Given the Gardai response to her being struck by a water balloon in Tallaght ,we  could surely expect a massive focus on the criminality hereabouts.
Its no wonder that the suicide rate is six times higher in rural Ireland than in the cities.
I have no doubt but that the NRA are issuing penalty notices to the owners of this car and other stolen cars  for failure to pay assorted toll charges but hey such if s life under the Parties of law and order.

Tribute to Gary Travers deceased.

I have been putting this tribute on the long finger for some time,partly because of indecision about whether to tell his story ,as much as I know it,  warts and all,partly because of my my profound sadness of the very premature loss of a talented intellect but mostly out of a sense of sadness of unfulfilled promise and the heartbreak he visited on those that adored him,especially his mother Josie who did more than anyone could expect to keep him on the straight and narrow and to make his life as fulfilling as possible.
I watched a programme about Bob Marley last week and know that Gar adored him.
I didn't know that Marley ,a Rastafarian ,was such a religious man and that his values and music were inspired by the Rasta take on the Bible  and I can see that this would find favour with certain men irrespective of the religious ethos into which they were born.
It might therefor have surprised Gar to know he was religious despite himself.But then again he always thought different..
Which brings me to the next point and it is that Gar was the most peaceful and non violent man I knew.I'd say he never struck anyone in anger or otherwise.
My family history with the Travers and the Conatys go back a long way .
My late and revered (by me in any event ) uncle Tommy Mac Cormack often told me that he was present in Conaty's house manys the time when Oliver Travers and Benny O Brien came calling to court the sisters Marie and Josie.
I know that when the  Crannach Co Op was formed by the workers to buy out the furniture factory in Navan  and which Oliver was later to Chair ,that Tommy bough a fiver share from Oliver.
I know that when I had a severe need of independent transport in 1969  Tommy paid Oliver £50 for a Honda fifty and gave it to me to fill the need.
It was rumoured that Oliver rode the bike with Josie on the back pulling the pram with the current baby in tow as the need arose .In these politically correct and hateful days this would merit death by firing squad ,sputtering indignation by Government Ministers and Quangos who are hell bent on criminalising as many despised plebs as possible in order to savour  the power that electoral success,copious lying  and privilege  brings.
In those days when handball was played at Lawlesses Cross,often uninterrupted by traffic for hours at end, such behaviour was safe and normal and I was glad of the bike which served me and them well.
The Gar went on to form the P.L.C.(People of Lawlesses Cross ) a revolutionary anarchist secret society whose two known acts of sabotage were  :-
!.To spray the legend  P.L.C.on a stolen car which was burnt out near the Cross.(neither stolen nor burnt out not by the PLC I might add ) and
2,To replace the first letter "R"of the road sign to Robinstown with a capital "N"
The membership fee for admission to the PLC was the price of a a pint of Guinness ,later replaced by a pint of Cider,
Towards the end Gar amalgamated his PLC with my political movement.I never got around to buying him the pint.
Gar was in the age bracket of my eldest kids and they palled around for a while.
At the time of their late teens a disco in the Darnley was all the go.Never having had the moolah to buy a half decent car I had a series of safe but elderly motor vehicles including a washed out St,John's ambulance which Georg in had converted from petrol  to diesel,with the impediment that the gears didn't synchronise with the gear box in the proper ratio.
The outcome was that you would have to rev. the fuck out of it to attain 30mph.And the load bearing capacity was  not the best up a steep incline.
I used drop my own kids over to the Darnley and the word spread and all their pals used pile in.Half way up the Hill of Ward the lads used jump out ,run beside the van to the top of the hill ,them jump in  again.The same on the way home.
Romances developed from time to time and it soon became evident that the Gar and Susan Reilly had eyes only for each other.Which was fine in its own way until they used disappear after disembarking when we arrived back in Dunderry  and a very worried Kathleen Reilly used appear at my door looking for her missing daughter .
Many's the night we spent searching round the Church,the GAA pitch and the school shelter looking for them .No luck .
I took to dropping him off at the Cross and bringing her to the village.Same result.He was the scourge of my life at times.I needn't have worried as himself and herself eventually moved in together and she gave birth to a smashing daughter and the apple of his eye Laura.
I since deduced that himself and Susie had a secret nest in Geraghty's hay shed,suitably equipped for comfortable courting away from prying ayes.Their lair was undiscovered for yonks
Towards the end of the eighties I bought an Opel car of some sort from Noellie Murtagh.It was the finest save the lights would  not work as the makers intended.To switch on the headlights there was a crocodile clip attached to the battery which had to be manually connected to a wire which fed the power to the lights.This neccessitated lifting the bonnet and attaching the crocodile clip.
.Not the best yoke to use in a bank heist  nor indeed in any circumstances where a quick getaway had to be done in the dark.
One evening I had to leave our Jacinta,Gar,Rooney Conaty,Laura O Brien,Tommy Coogan and Matthew Duffy into Navan to go to the pictures and pick them up.
I went to pick them up at the appointed time and parked as prearranged the Dunderry side of the Hospital.
No sign of them for a long time.I walked towards the town to see what the delay was all about.The first I met was Rooney with his head split open lying on the footpath .I got him up and told him to make for the car.The next I met was was our Cynti in full flight followed closely by Laura.Then Tommy Coogan with his head also split open.And finally Matthew.
Back to the car with me to be told that three Navan guys ,well older than themselves had picked a row with them outside the chipper and proceeded to beat the shit out of them.As I was lifting the bonnet of the car to attach the lights the three guys were advancing rapidly towards the kids to finish off the job.
I advanced to meet them head on,hoping to avoid a bloodbath.They were all big men in their mid twenties.No reasoning with them.I told them that if they passed me I would severely maim the biggest of them before the combined efforts of them all would stop me.As one guy was carrying a half block and another a two by two plank this was some claim by me and were they to look down they would have seen my legs shaking.I also threatened to call the Guards ,which they found hilarious.
I then turned to go back to the car fully expecting the block at the back of the head but to my utter amazement they ran off through the grounds of the hospital.
So off home with us with a shocked and battered crew.
We patched up the wounded and then remembered the Gar.
Calfer and me fein,with hurleys in tow, went back to collect him.Looked high up and low down.No sign and no sleep after for me.
Early next morning he appeared,having spent a very comfortable night,thank you very much ,holed up in the emergency Department of Navan hospital ,no worries.
Later again there came to live amongst us a man who had a fierce need for female company which was never to be filled .
Not for the want of trying however, as he made advances to all eligible and many ineligible females in  the locality.
He got to be a bit over the top.
The Gar informed him that a certain female he desired would meet him sat Dunderry graveyard the following evening.As pre arranged the Gar dressed as a very presentable female,wig and all, with the willing help of the citizenry of Dunderry and perched on the wall at the appointed time.
Yer man was sure all his birthdays can me together and moved in for the kill at which stage the Gar roasted  "Let  him have it lads " and the concealed ,up to them ,kids showered him with eggs ,flour and milk from head to toe.
Cure delivered.
Yet later again I suffered a stroke in 2009 and was holed up in Navan hospital for a while.The Gar paid me a few visits which coincided with visits to his aunt who wasn't well either and died shortly afterwards.
I liked to be wheeled down the steep ramp from my Ward to the outside to enjoy the fresh air and asked the gar to do the honours.No bother to the Gar,he wheeled me down.and we had a great chat and he went under the tree fir a smoke for a while.
Back he came and had to wheel me back to base.
Now he wasn't the healthiest at that stage and fierce short of wind.So he huffed and puffed and got me there.
And boy was he knackered ?
And he lay down on my bed to recover.
,More luck to him.
Gar and the first love of his life Susan had unhappy differences and eventually parted but he found love again with Kerry Bellew  and they had a lovely child called  Holly   and I am glad to say that my son Evan is her God Father,  but for whatever reason that romance also fizzled out.,mores the pity.
It fell to Josie and his siblings to pick up the pieces as it were and Josie did all that was humanely possible and more ,to fill the gaping emptiness that filled his breast.
But Gar fell a victim to his excesses and was unable or unwilling ,who knows which ,to keep on track.
Never a man to blow his own trumpet Gar,his mother Josie and Oliver before them were quiet but serious supporters of the juvenile auction of Dunderry GAA Club in  Geraghtys when I was involved with it and generously contributed to it when the need arose.
He was a generous guy and there wasn't a mean bone in his body.
He was also a talented carver of wood,which was his working medium,but never got the time to fully develop his full potential.
He was a dear Facebook friend of mine and we traded respectful insults all the time and he was without doubt quite erudite in his diction,never misusing the English language.
He likened me to Gerry Garcia,whoever he is but I am sure he is not a bad guy.
Garry was universally liked ,the gentlest of men , a divil for the beer and maybe too good for this world.
He is missed by his mother Josie,his dear siblings Linda,Sarah,Alan ,Jane and Rebecca,his daughters Laura and Hollya  ,his granddaughter Layla and a  circle of friends ,whose first reaction when they think of him is one of fondeness and a hearty  chuckle.
Ar DHeis De go raibh a hanam dilis.

Wildgeese Dunderry Football team.Reserves A

                                                 Stephen Mitchell(Aus)

Ramon Mc Cabe  (USA)                     Paul Fitzgerald  (New Hampshire )               Noel Clarke(AUS)

Gary Coogan  (USA)                            Pat Conway(USA)                           Noel Healy(USA)

                               Paddy Darcy  (Captain  )  (Dubai)                      Thomas Newman (Holland)

Father Lynskey (AFrica )                        Mousey Gough   (Sas)            Jim Fitzgerald (Boston)

 Dermot Stanley(Sas )                        Eamonn Garry (USA)                        Kevin Stanley(Sas)


Manager .Dermot Stanley
Physio .Celine O Neill.(Can)
Team Sec.Brigid Wright.(Can)

Dunderry Wild Geese Football Team.

Lat week we got it hard to field a third adult football team.
I wasn't long putting together the following team of Parish Exiles.
 
                                          Gussie Daly(Sas )

Razor Fagan (Aus)                Junior Cahill (Sweden)                  Kenny Fagan (Sas )

Gerry Murray (Aus )          Conor Moran (N.I.)                    Gerry Coogan (USA)

                                 T.J.Garry (Aus)             Brian Newman (USA)

Gordon Weldon (Aus )     Donie Mc Gourty (USA)              Joseph Higgins (Aus)

Donal Daly (Sas )               Oliver Daly (Sas)                          John Kelliher (Sas)

Manager .DEs FAgan (Sas)
Physio .
Alan Garry (Aus)
Conor Moran doubles as team doctor.
Altogether now "We are the best little country in the world to do business with" and "austeriy really works."
A back up team will be published shortly.

B League Football Rathkenny beat Dunderry 8/2/2015

On a freezing foggy evening Rathkenny just about beat us in the field ,by two points I think.
Report when I thaw out.

The fox is out every night.

Even the animals know that this talk of an economic recovery in rural Ireland is pure bullshit.Well the Dunderry Fox knows anyhow.
He feels free to patrol the village every night shortly after midnight inspecting each building in the village ,safe in the knowledge that he will not be disturbed in his routine.
Over the Christmas he relieved us of our chickens and I hear that he and his buddies also raided the Yellow Walls and committed similar larcenies there,
He checks out my gaff regularly to suss out if we have got replacements ,mosies over to Horans,then Geraghty's and thence by the back of the Church over to Flanagan's Shop ,which he susses out back and front before  heading for Dowds .
I am not kidding.

Dogs killed sheep in Dunderry

The night of 6th February 2015 was a distressing one for the farmers and sheep of Duder.Two dogs ,I believe Alsatians ,went on the rampage ,maiming and killing a number of sheep and lambs in the area.Two farmers we know had sheep and lambs killed and we hope it is limited to this.
Any farmer who hasn#t checked his stock since Saturday should do so pronto to see if they too had visitors.
I understand that one and possibly two of the dogs have been put down.
This is a recurrent problem in this area and dog owners should have their animals restrained and not let them roam free to inflict such brutality on livestock.
From past and personal experience I know only too well the carnage and misery such events cause animals and owners of the killed and maimed stock.

Stephen Fry a greyhound

Instead of going on his knees and thanking the Lord for the riches of the  many bounties bestowed on him this arrogant and insulting person  has branded Him evil on national television.
The Lord had his type set when the first Commandment was burned into the rock i.e."You shall not have strange Gods before me ."
Stephen is obviously too clever for God and sets himself up a superior even to Him.
There is an old rhyme 
"God mad man and man made money,
God made the bees and the bees made honey,
God made the hare to hide in the grass
And the Divil made the greyhound to bite him in the arse."
Yep there's Fry for ya,could have been written with him in mind.

A League Div/3 Dunderry 0-8.Bective 0-6

Played on a Sunday morning in Dunderry on a clean and crisp day the pitch held up well.
I am not impressed that we are in Division 3 and hope we get back up as soon as possible.Really you would want to be competing week in week out against more elevated opposition.
Now I am not saying that Bective are no good.They have oodles of promise and we made hard work of beating them and with a bit of luck they could have won the laurels.
They were two points ahead at half time 0-4 to our 0-2 and we stared defeat in the face.
A fierce bad scoring return but it was the first match of the year and there were cobwebs aplenty evident on both sides.
All the lads who started played Inter.Championship last year and I don't go with the talk that we were short some of our squad.
Its all about availability and all serious players must if possible be available for all occasions when the team fields or trains,unless excused for pressing reasons.
 Team.
                                       Jennings
A.Newman                       Slattery             Davy Mc Cormack

A Waters                        E.Stephens          C.O.Shea

                Liam Dempsey              Seamus Harte

S.Carty                            Swiss Clarke            M. Kane

M.Garry                          A.Coogan                    S.Coogan.

Subs used.Tom and Bob Doherty,Paddy Kenneally,Jordan Martyn,Stefan Clarke.
Stephen O Rourke remains in charge for this year at least.He is the latest club man to try and get  back Senior after a decade when yours truly was in charge of the last Senior footballs team to field in DunderryAll four semi finalists came from our Group,so we weren't that bad at all.
He played on that team as did Barry Callaghan who was at the helm a few years since and we haven't made the jump up despite some  near misses.Tommy Dowd too tried too but no luck.As indeed as Con O Neill,who has taken over the B.League Team (see later )
We pray that this will be the year.
As a matter of interest.Jennings,Slattery,Mc Cormack,Stephens,Harte,Clarke,Garry and both Dohertys played in the 2005 team that went down ,as did O Rourke,Callaghan,and Kevin Dowd who guided the Hurlers back to senior last year.
And they are still vital men one and all.
If anything Bective were well the better team in the first half and well deserved their 2 point lead at half time.Only our dogged defence kept the score to  manageable proportions.
Our cause wasn't helped by the awarding of a black card to Slatts ,for what I didn't see and he was playing well.
O Shea went full back and various positional changes were made as Bob was slotted into corner forward where he played well scoring two points I think.
We took over in the second half but made hard work of scoring,until Kenneally was sprung from the bench.I  understand he fielded with the  Meath under 21 team on the Saturday and played well,as he certainly did with us and did enough to forge us ahead and to victory.
We made hard work of it but a win is a win and I hope that it is the start of a long winning sequence.
We need it.

As a footnote Billy Bligh was voted out as manager  of the second football team to be replaced by Con O Neill.
This is a milestone in Dunderry as I believe that Billy has been involved at some level in football management for over forty years and was .if I am not mistaken, involved in all the major titles garnered at Minor,Intermediate and Senior level.
He actually is irrreplacable and no amount of praise is too much for his devotion to the cause.
Con steps into huge shoes and we wish him and his selectors the very best.

150,000 pageviews

The blog passed the milestone of 150,00 hits lately.
I would like to thank all the monkeys all over the world who are sitting at consoles hitting random keys ,the security services worldwide which pick up key words and phrases and especially those who have the genuine interest to read the articles I publish ,especially all Blanchies and Dunderrians worldwide.

Open prison that is Ireland further strangled

The present Government ,in my view the worst since Cromwell stalked this land ,has further legislated to widen the gap between the rich and the poor by placing a minimum price on alcohol,which will make it too dear for the low paid to reasonably enjoy it ,while the rich ,as usual can enjoy it as much as they want.
That doctors are behind it ,as they are are to the forefront in the anti tobacco campaign of bullying people who smoke,is no surprise.
Many many people only go to their doctor as a last resort such is the exorbitance of fees and it sticks in my craw that a profession that continues to murder countless of unborn and defenceless children worldwide  has the nerve to even suggest to anyone how to live their lives.
Of course any Government which allows the eviction of families willy nilly is liable to do anything.
Pity we hadn't the balls to elect a few Greeks to represent us and look after us the citizens,instead of perpetuating death,poverty , emigration and despair on huge swathes of our poorer and middle class people.
The members of the main parties are so obtuse that they are afraid to join Greece in seeking fair play for their citizens lest they are shown up for the traitors Euro screws they are.
Fir is Mna breaga one and all.

Obama supping with the Devils

Obama ,the American President is a clever man.
He wages war in lands far away from his home and pays other countries to risk their people on the ground against America's foes.
The nearest his own people get to the action and danger is many miles away at the end of a console that controls a drone or from the safety of unchallenged aircraft that showers death and destruction on the heads of his enemies.
Now all European countries ,including Ireland,are uncritical in their support of all actions done by the USA .no matter how reprehensible they may be.This uncritical approach is especially evident in the electronic media and the written media which has no soul and no credibility whatsoever on any issue I can think of.
I haven#t seen the video of the Jordanian pilot shot down on a bombing raid over Syria in which he seems to have been deliberately burned alive.This is undoubtedly the most barbaric act ,aside from the throwing of the Christians to the lions ,the torture  and the murder of civilians by multiple countries over the years and the genocide of between one and two million Irish civilians by the Brits during famine times ,witnessed on social media for years.
Nearly as bad as hanging quartering and disemboweling civilians while still alive ,as done by the Brits to Saint Oliver Plunkett all those years ago.
In retaliation Jordan has killed at least one woman prisoner and one other prisoner man and is threatening to go on a murder orgy in revenge.
NOW the pet press describes the ISIL killers as brutal murders  but  the deaths of the Isis prisoners as executions.
Boiled down the are all dead as a result of hatred.
And  Obama has been the architect of this mess ,gathering a coalition of the unwilling to get down and dirty while his own people exercise Star War technology in the total safety of their bunkered lairs.
Western Europe and the USA has set the devil free in the middle East and opened a barbaric Pandora's Box which will spiral out of control and descend to unfathomable depths.
When the Day of Judgement comes there will be many who will shy from the gaze of the Lord in my view.
Obama and his allies and opponents could usefully take a s dose of sackcloth and ashes before the whole region explodes.
Change your ways before ye suffer the fires of hell yourselves.

Drumbeat position on Ukraine/Russia

Anyone with an  elemental knowledge of history,even the sanitised European version,will have heard of the sieges of Limerick,Derry and Stalingrad and remember stories of the besieged having to consume rats to survive.
Sanctions is a nice word for siege.
Now I have seen the gobdaws who are directing the sanctions against Russia and trying to bring that country to its knees.
I'd say they know as much about real war as my arsehole knows about shooting snipe and wouldn't like to be depending on them if they do actually succeed in goading Russia into war with Western Europe ,which actually has no army and would ultimately be dependant on the Yanks.
These are of course so far away that they would be insulated from the immediate effects of conventional warfare .
They would want to stop acting the bollix and sit down and parlay realistically before it is too late.
You can be certain that the people pulling the strings will not be in the front line but as far from it as humanly possible.

Aer Lingus Sale.Dunderrydrumbeat Position

We are an Island nation,dependant on transport to the wider world to facilitate our valuable exports.
Previous Governments have let our naval fleet wither and die.
It would be madness to let our aero fleet into foreign control.
Irrespective of the legalities and the weasel words being bandied about ,Aer Lingus should be retained under Irish control.
Pascal O Donoghue,the responsible Minister, has no problem introducing retrospective legislation to criminalise as many motorists as he can (and in this he is adhering to the  blue shirt philosophy of criminalising as many plebs  as possible a la  his predecessor Leo Varadikar ) so he should have no objection in principle to retrospectively enabling the sale to be stymied by enacting whatever legislation is appropriate.
If the Government haven't the balls to stop the sale they might usefully give a Greek minister the reins for five minutes as these guys really care about their citizens and are not just messenger boys and girls for the Europhobes.

Suck it up Lorraine Higgins

Two weeks ago our Taoiseach  attended the funerals of those people killed because a magazine in France persisted in publishing insulting cartoons of people and religions many millions hold dear.
He and all other Western European leaders endorsed,by their presence at the funeral's ,the right to publish such cartoons as a cornerstone of democracy and as being essential tools of a Free press.
Personally I find this logic absurd and fear for democracy if its existence is bedded in and a cornerstone of the right to grievously and gratitously  offend and if an inevitable outcome is the death of many innocent bystaners and if it fosters justifiable protest resulting in death and the fermentation of hatred.
But I swim against the liberal tide of journalism and political correctness which infects the written media and  electronic media in this view, who think it great gas to goad Catholics in particular and Muslims more rarely  on account of their deeply held convictions.
Now our Lorraine,who is quick to point out that she wears a legal hat as well as being a Labour T.D. in the West and who presumes to advise the Gardai on the public airways on how to do their jobs and investigate protesters against water charges for incitement to hatred because they labelled  our President a dwarf and a parasite for refusing to refer the Water Charges Bill to the Supreme Court ,is fuming at the language used in legitimate protest and questions why the protests were not aimed at people who provided their own water schemes in rural Ireland  and whom she calms to represent.
No  doubt her legal mind can connect the protests against the President  with the local providers of their own water ( provided because successive Governments ,including Labour  influenced ones failed to cater for rural citizens despite their contributions to general taxation  ) and no doubt you take her and her legal mind on if you disagree with her politics.
But I will risk this and point out that the head of the administration she supports considers objectionable commentary and insulting and derogatory behaviour a cornerstone of democracy and suggest she suck it up and stop behaving like a spoilt child that has lost her lollipop.
And try to remember that even Cromwell didn't try to steal the people's water.
But there again the liberal agenda is the most hypocricital of them all.
And Sean O Rourke should wise up and stop resurrecting this policy of condemnation as he tried on with Gerry Beades this morning.It was tried  on by the pet media against the Party of another Gerry years ago.It didn't work then and it won't work now,

Ireland's elite stand shoulder to shoulder

Assuming that reports that the PAC cannot even take evidence from civil servant Gerry Ryan  relating to alleged tax dodging by the cream of Irish society are correct and I have no doubt but that they are,I am not in the least surprised,
I predicted this last November in my article "Tax dodging by the political classes "where I outlined the multiple scenarios that would result in any such investigation running into the sand.
Anmybody who cares about these things can only surmise that the powerful and mighty totally cover each others backs and that it is only the small people who are subject to the repeated full rigours of the law.
Shameful behaviour in a democracy.
Would make you puke.

Appeal Court and Criminal Fraternity ad idem O Brien judgement/

The recent decision of the Appeal Court relating to advanced age and infirmity  i.e. that neither advanced age nor serious illness nor infirmity are reasons for avoidance of long prison sentences places the administration of justice as a matter of principle on a par with the modus operandi of those  vicious criminals who by the same measure rob, intimidate and beat up their elderly and infirm victims irrespective of their age and infirmity.
Consistency .
Is justice now about revenge solely.
Have victims of these atrocities the right to insist on castration ,for example.
Or the amputation of hands for thieves.

Nil me Chartlie

I for one do not buy into the wave of hysteria emanating from the liberal secularist  media centering on the so called fundamental right of people who selectively hate religion and religious beliefs to denigrate ,belittle ,disrespect ,debunk ,insult and stir hate against people who hold religious beliefs of any sort and to represent this right as a cornerstone of democracy.
It is not that long ago since such reprehensible behaviour ,aimed at the Jewish faith ,orchestrated by Goebbels a communicator ,led to the acceptance of most of Europe ,including a large part of France ,to the dehumanising of that race  and the attempted elimination of them entirely.
Caricature of their faith and its adherents by the production of belittling sketches by so  called artists ,who misused their talents for the forces of evil played a big part in this process .
When the Brits misruled this country Punch magazine sketched the Papists of Ireland as apes in human form as the Brits stood idly by and let between a million and two million people die of starvation and many more die on the coffin ships as they fled the country in desperation and despair.
Militant atheists and secularists worldwide are totally bent on debunking religion and by the use of weasel words and using their baleful influence never miss an opportunity to put religious belief down.
I am a night owl and well remember from night time television the secularist support in the overthrow of Morsi,the democratically elected leader of Egypt by a military dictator.Of course these guys and gals voiced their support from afar in the bosom of liberal European and American academic shelter ,safe from the effects of the murder and mayhem they supported.
IN this country too the existing Jesus haters immediately seized on the misbehaviour of certain evil  so called Catholics to attack all Catholics and institutions associated with them and stoke and fan a wave of anti Catholic hate .
The Taoiseach and then Tanaiste bought into this hysteria by withdrawing diplomatic representation to the Vatican for spurious reasons  and took to lecturing them on morality and proper administration.
This from an administration which governs a country where families are evicted onto the streets in all weathers despite the pre election lies of the top men that evictions would not be tolerated and where ,according to one top medic,over 350 per annum people die because of  administrative  neglect in our hospital accident and emergency areas.
Is there a case to bring these people before the International Courts for  overseeing such a level of neglectful death in a relatively rich country ?
I ,as a very imperfect Catholic ,am sick in the stomach of the incessant assault on my faith by a coterie of male and female journalists and opportunist politicians whose pens and lips drip poison against me and mine at every opportunity and whose aim in life seems to be to see how many notches of the murdered un born they can rack up in their belts .
Of course these hateful bigots know full well that the Catholic faith forbids retribution and this suits their cowardly ,disrespectful and odious comments and pronouncements.
I took the trouble to look up the baleful magazine, which with malice and full knowledge of the probable fracture of society resulting aforethought , to see first hand its belittling depiction of Religious leaders .
Knowing how sacred the belief in the Trinity is to Catholics they have portrayed this belief as a son mounting his father doggy style from behind with e triangle emanating from the son's hole  which in turn contains a spirit ,a sneer and denigration of the Holy Ghost.This as art and this is satire ?And this is the cornerstone of democracy.?
Could the devil do any better ?
And this is the a essence of atheism ,secularism and democracy.And this is Charlie and worth fighting for ?
You must be joking !!
I know very little about Muslims nor their beliefs.I do however know that they share certain core beliefs with our Government in that both abhor the right of educated people to smoke and drink.These pastimes are forbidden in ISIS and we are well on the way here.
Our very own anti smoking and drinking Taliban think nothing of forcing dying people in our hospitals to crawl out of our grounds to the public road to have maybe their last smoke.In times past a dying man was allowed his last smoke before execution.Maybe it is a cunning plan to keep smokers from our hospitals and free up beds for those who are in agreement with the Taliban.
Methinks that a spell fighting with or against ISIS would do our legislators a bit of good and expose them to real danger.
It seems certain that certain Muslims regard Christians as  infidels to be put to the sword  and there is  evidence that this has and is happening,This is reprehensible but where have the democratic upholders of free speech that are  EU and France organised mass demonstrations in their memory and to prevent a recurrence?
No they would prefer to support those sneer at their Faith.
The war that is going on in Europe is one between Secularists and Religion,make no mistake about it..Cowardly secularists shit from a height on Christians knowing full well that their religion forbids retaliation,Cetain Muslims do reply with force  and regard it as their duty to defend disrespectful attacks on their beliefs.
France and Europe need to start to show respect to people's religious beliefs and stop putting  the lives of their citizens at risk by protecting those who chose to belittle and sneer at those beliefs.
Encouraging those whose life's works seems to be to offend the Muslim and  Catholic believers at every turn by financing five million copies of the magazine instead of 60,000 per week is not the way to go about this.
It is interesting to note that when Russia entered the second world war the communist and arch secularist Stalin had sapped the spirit of his people so much by persecuting religion that the army was not prepared to fight seriously  for their Country.It was only by reinstating religious fervour that they emerged from their stupor and that belief was restored.
When push comes to shove and matters come to a head on this issue it will be found that the secularist's will run for cover and away as always and expect those who they sneer at to protect them.
Don't expect the Religious turkeys to vote for Christmas ,as it were,in this instance.

Death of Michael Conroy

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I today learned of the tragic death of Michael Conroy,son of John,late of this Parish and a good friend.
He died in Mayo over the Christmas.
Go ndeana Dia trocaire ara a hanam.

Mass times Dunderry Parish Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve 24/12/2014

6.00 p.m.Kilbride.Vigil Mass

7.00 p.m.Carol Singing  Dunderry

7.3o p.m.Vigil Mass.Dunderry

Christmas Day 25/12/2014

9.30 a.m.Robinstown.Mass

11.00 a.m. Dunderry  Mass.

St.Stephens Day

10.00 a.m. Mass Dunderry

8.00 p.m. Mass Kilbride.

Lumberjacks move over.

Those older groovers of the Parish will remember the Dunderry show band of the above name who were very good musicians in their hey day and the crooners who fronted it .
Well after attending the concert of Scoil Ceol Dundoire last Sunday and the School concert of Christmas Carols in the Church during the week I have no hesitation in saying that there are a load of musicians and crooners of the highest calibre well on the way to competency and more on a variety of musical instruments and progress is encouraging and marked from last year.
A lot of the school kids attend the music school and it is a joy to behold the progress being achieved  as the kids advance in age,from the faltering notes of the starters to the confident renditions of the older lemons.
Guitars .tin whistles,fiddles,pianos.keyboards  and harps featured.
All to deadly effect.And the vocals were out of this world.
Both the Hall and the Church were full foe each performance.
You would want a rubber neck for the Church performance as adoring parents leaned hither and thither trying to capture their adored kids on camera and video.
And haven't we reached an awful impasse when the organisers had to issue warnings and invite any objections to photographing the kids performing.
How did we arrive at such a low point ?Is this political correctness gone bananas ?
Anymore great entertainment for all and a first for me."Fairy tale of New York" was sung ,to great effect as Gaelige.
And wouldn't ya know it .Christy Coogan's daughter ,a niece of Patsi,former lead singer with the Lumberjacks sang Kirsty' Mc Call's part in the Pogues famous song.
Auld tradition.
And lest anyone think that we had a musical drought since the Lumberjacks we have the Davey Family,Brian Darcy of Ham Sandwich and a rake of musicians tained by Cheolteas whose identity I dint know.
And the Church Choir is back in harness.
A Holy and Musical Christmas to all.

Treatment of Marie Farrell an abomination

Marie Farrell is a mother and wife who has recanted evidence she gave against Ian Bailey arising from the murder of a French lady who lived in West Cork.
In short she alleges that she gave the false evidence because she was blackmailed ,forced and cajoled into doing so partly because some Gardai took unfair advantage of the fact that she,a married woman ,was in the company of a man who was not her husband on a certain night.
She has been pursued relentlessly by the Barrister representing the State,fully backed up by the presiding judge to reveal the identity of this  man.
What the identity of this man has got to do with the alleged false identification of Bailey  is beyond me.
It seems to me that it is being used as a stick to beat her with in an attempt to embarrass her and her family and that of the family of the man.
To me the  behaviour of the judge and the state legal people is sending out a clear message to everybody who finds themselves in the position she alleges herself to be in as follows :-If you believe you were forced /blackmailed by the State into making false statements don't ever  ever try to tell the truth and recant because the State and the Courts will use every scrap of their considerable wealth ,expertise and knowledge to crucify,discredit,humiliate and destroy you.
And there is no depths to which they won't sink to do this.

I have a long way to go.

Recently I attended again the Tridentine High Mass held each Sunday in Johnstown at 1.00 p.m.
I enjoyed it .
It is not for those in a hurry anywhere.
The celebrant is some man for one man.Not a political correct bone in his body.
He is a hermit and rarely appears in public.
Anyhow a met a couple who regularly attend the Mass and we spoke briefly.
It transpired that their home had recently been burgled ,much of value robbed and considerable damage done.
I am only too aware of the number of unresolved  burglaries perpetrated on the elderly here abouts and sympathised with them citing my deceased grandfather who was wont to say "the curse of God on them"
Wrong spake by mise."No Daithi ,no Catholic can feel that ,We are praying that they see the error of their ways".
Sure I am only playing at this Catholic thing.

Dunderry GAA Ladies come up trumps.

The Auction in Geraghty's last Saturday raise just short of E.5,5000.00.
Well done ladies and well done all contributors ,buyers and auctioneers.
Top drawer stuff.

Top men in GAA are pussycats.

I am shaking my head at the craven way the top men in the GAA throw in the towel so cravenly to the rugby confraternity.
Earlier this week I heard a rugby head from Australia blatantly pitch for all Gaa players to participate in some new form of rugby which would soon be introduced here and worldwide and which will have Olympic status.
Later in the week I hear the top guys totally roll over and promise the use of all GAA grounds to facilitate the holding of the world cup in rugby here and heard the Secretary of the GAA laud the pleasant and cordial relationship he had with the Rugby crowd.
All he was short of doing was to confirm the Aussie rugby man's call to GAA players to take up the new form of rugby too.
After selling out the GAA rights to Sky and denying the poorer grassroots supporters the right to view certain championship matches for the first time in our history these guys seem determined to pass the advantage yet again to a sport which we are in competition with and to popularise it even further at the expense of our own Association.
All the bullshit about giving Croker to the Rugby boys for  the English match in the national interest didn't amount to a tin of beans when it came to recruiting players from Rugby to the GAA  nor did even one Rugby a school convert to the GAA as far as I am aware.
And of course the political establishment did sfa to  settle the Garth Brooks situation in the GAA's favour.,thus causing it millions of euros in lost revenue
You would have thought that Sean Kelly who engineered the handing over of the stadium to the rugby people  in the national interest  and made his political name as a result might have remembered where he came from and get his finger out but not a word about it.Eaten bread is soon forgotten indeed.
One is tempted to say that were these guys in charge in 1921  the Auxiliaries might have had the keys of Croker bestowed on them after Bloody Sunday but I wouldn't go just that far.

How the ruling classes cover their asses

Anyone interested in this subject ought now read my article on "Tax dodging by ther political classes,"
Just as I predicted.This will be dropped quicker than a  hot snot.
And the people who call themselves journalists will lead the possee to see that it is dropped.

Dunderry V Boardsmill 30/11/2014 Div 3 Camogie league Final.

The continuing development and  maturing of this essentially young Dunderry team was well tested by a very promising Boardsmill team at a well appointed Drumree on a pleasant Sunday afternoon weatherise  (but not experience wise for me personally ).
After the disappointment of missing out on the knockout stages of the Intermediate Championship ,a factor which the management exploited as a motivator for this game,the young ladies were well up for the challenge.
They were not playing from a full deck as the Misses Blaithnid Keyes and  Emily Bray were unavailable due to injury.They were definitive losses as it transpired ,but one girls loss is another girl's opportunity and their replacements were well up to the mark.
The  team ,under the care of long time and dedicated managers,Tracey Fitzsimons and Evelyn Griffin ,assisted by Drumree man and trainer G.V.Troy, lined out as follows :-

                                                   Rebecca Scanlon

MIchelle Smyh                     Grainne Dowd                       Michelle Daly

Aisling Mac Donagh             Danielle Clarke                    Emer O Shea

                         Tara Scanlon                        Labaoise Martyn

Aoife MInogue                Aoife Mac Cormack                 Anna Stenson

Aoife O Shea                   Jane Martyn                           Emer Daly.

Subs,Megan Doherty,Laura O malley,Freda O Leary,and Niamh Martyn.
Like ourselves Boardsmill draw from a relatively few houses and are properly a family dominated club,a sense of unity and respect being fundamental to fielding successful and progressive teams.This policy has been for generations a basic principle of the wider GAA movement,which includes this team ,in Dunderry.
As an example of what I am talking about you will see that we have three sets of sisters on the team .It is worth noting that the dedication of Tracey and Evelyn is such that they have stuck to the job despite the fact that their own daughters were not available for selection on the day .
.In a nutshell we cannot afford divisive influences if we are to progress.
Referee for the day was Martin Ennis a good Longwood Gael,who I last encountered at the under 21 B Hurling Final,where we pipped them at the final post.I had seen him refeering football and hurling matches before now ,but I understand he is new to the Camogie scene.
Overall he has vast experience in the general refeering scene but has not ,as far as I know ,reached inter county status,but then very few do.Like us all he makes the odd wrong call.
I was a tad late for the game but Seanie Duffy and Caroline and Mark Stenson were of great help in getting me close to the pitch and placing my stool close to the sideline ,where I sat and had a mainly good view of the game.
We have one outstanding adult inter county forward in the shape of Aoife Minogue who is our scorer in chief.But as man does  not live by bread alone neither dies one player make up a team.And we do have a good team.
The older,well tried and tested  and more experienced girls very properly formed the spine of our team and the emerging future stars were at midfield and on the wings.
Jane Martin ,who played at midfield thus far,has been tried at full  forward during the year and ,I am told ,to good advantage.Today I could judge for myself.
AS I thought these teams are  fairly evenly matched.There was committed end to end play ,some of it not too pretty  stuff ,as both teams strove for dominance.Minogue was watched like a mouse under the gaze of an attentive cat.Despite this she opened our scoring when a well taken free fooled the goalkeeper and skipped into the net .It transpired that she scored a total of 1-3 of our overall total of 2-3 over the seventy minutes played,the remaining goal falling to Martyn after an impressive dummy sold to the full back.
For the remainder of the half our back line were under the most severe of unrelenting pressure as our goal line was under siege and how they held out is still a mystery to me .Rebbecca made at least three incredible saves in this half ,all the backs played out of their skins,with Aisling wommaning the trenches without regard to personal safety and with considerable skill.The midfielders had to channel back to help out their rearguard and did so with considerable skill and full effect and the forwards were dependant on the  quick break when the rare ball did reach them.
When Minogue got a sniff panic broke out in the Boardsmill rearguard and she scored another few points before the half time whistle.(I didn't keep a written account ,much to my discredit ,but we went in two points to the good ,if I remember correctly.)
Martyn had the beating of her immediate opponent and when she got her hands on the ball laid it off to a better placed colleague ,mostly Minogue ,to effect.but in general the opposing backs were well versed in defending their territory and conceded few opportunistic scoring chances to us.Mostly we shot under pressure. But then again so did they.
There was good Dundrry support at the game ,so much so that all it took was for one person to intrude onto the pitch to follow the play and  create a mass reactive intrusion that limited the view of those standing behind and this happened so often that  I had to change my pitch a number of times to follow the platy with comfort ,but such if s life without a wife.
I was reasonably happy at the half time score but apprehensive
The second half repeated the pattern of the first but we were more involved in the play ,which was more end to end.It was dogged tough stuff in which all gave all that could to the cause.Martyn took a goal which raised Dunderry hopes momentarily and O Shea kicked against the upright ,but a dogged and skillful Boardsmill team clawed their way back into contention and the final whistle blew with us on the score of 2-3 and them equalling that .
Before the start of the extra time I went to the far sideline which was more sparsely populated to have a better view of the proceedings ,well assisted by Ciaran O Shea who carried my stool across and on which were located the parents of many Dunderry players and the subs and  mentors.
The first period of extra time was a repeat of earlier proceedings with both teams struggling for supremacy and nether succeeding.The referee made some conrtroversial decisions which induced a n initial muttering amongst the Dunderry support,which soon ascended to a more voluble level clearly and undisguisedly directed at the man in the middle.
Whatever you think about referees you can't manage without them and my life experience says that you would be wise to keep your thoughts during action to yourself less you turn then totally against your team.
I advised this to trainer Troy ,whose response that he didn't give a       about me,that he wasn't afraid of me and that he would say whatever he wanted no matter what I said ,took me totally by surprise .
In my fifty years involvement with the GAA in Dublin and Meath I have never experienced such an ignorant  attitude from  a trainer towards a former Chairman and existing President of the same club.
Not a only am I a former Chairman and existing president of the camogie Club but I am also hold similar positions in the GAA club and am also a member of the Executive there.
He has by his remarks debased not only me and mine personally but also debased and insulted the offices of Presidents of both Clubs and all offices I hold.
The fact that he did it so volubly and in front of so  many supporters adds  to the insulting behaviour and displays a complete ignorance of what membership and responsible behaviour of any GAA Club incorporates.
One only hopes that this attitude towards me is not being encouraged by any persons in authority within the Club and if it is I will get to the root of it.
Back to the game itself after that diversion.
Neither team scored in the first period of extra time and the final ten minutes commenced.
End to end stuff again but by degrees they crept more into dominance and our ladies ,in my view adversely affected by the voluble and spreading criticism of the referee.finally cracked and in the final ten minutes the defensive dam broke and and Boards mil register a combined goals and points total of 13 points to nada for us.
A heartbreaking result for us after a huge effort.
But better and more rewarding days beckon.
A brighter aspect to the day out was the performance of our Camogie tots ,under the tutelidge of the dedicated and well respected Stella Keyes who did beat a similarly aged Boardsmill as part of the half time entrertainment.
All in all an interesting and informative outing.

GAA auction in Geraghty's pub 6/12/2014

The GAA Club is strapped for cash.This may be because most of its members are strapped for cash also.Nonetheless there may be some who have a few bob to spare as Christmas approaches.
These latter people and all others of goodwill towards the GAA Club will have the opportunity to dig deep and part with some of their hard earned cash next Saturday evening in Geraghty's Pub.
There will be no tickets for sale for soccer  or rugby matches which would encourage players to absent themselves from vital GAA Matches in the future ,please God.

PRAYER urgently needed in Dunderry

If ever there was a need for prayer in Dunderry it is now.A number of well known families have members battling serious illness.
We hope and pray that the good Lord will give some solace to them in their hour of need.

Insulting Catholics a hateful past time in RTE.

Circumstances dictated that I work long and lonely hours presently.I am a great listener to the radio,mostly RTE.
The casual and none too subtle insulting to all things Catholic permeates the Station and I might add that of all religions it is only the Catholic religion that is treated like this.
Earlier this week the woman who replaces Sean O Rourke while he is on holidays hosted a slot about the totally legitimate complaints concerning the bigotry of the student faculty in Cork University and the way they refused recognition to a Catholic Society  who are of the Pro life viewpoint.
In my view, if this is true and is stood up,all funding should be withdrawn from the Students Union until such time as  it reforms itself and they should be made repay whatever monies they advanced to other societies whilst refusing recognition to this Pro Life Group.
In any event what was supposed to be a balanced discussion was hosted by this replacement broadcaster.
We had a Catholic Priest who was putting his view of the situation in the one corner and an Atheist ,whose name escapes me but who is wheeled out at every occasion where that viewpoint is needed by RTE.And then we had a columnist from the Irish Times who stated that she was there as a referee.
Well the antagonism of the atheist towards the Catholic viewpoint was palpable and it transpired that the columnist from the Times was of the view that religion was a private matter (which begs the question just  why she took part in the programme in the first place ) and that she was on the periphery of the Catholic faith just hanging on by her fingertips.
She went on to deride the pro life movement in general because of one only experience she allegedly had over a phone call with a pregnant student many moons ago.
And then she derided in words of extreme vitriol the actions of a dead man,who many would regard as a hero, because the way he corresponded with the Catholic Hierarchy over fifty years ago.
The dead can't sue for slander nor can they respond.I'd say you learn this at journalist school.
I doubt she is fit to lace the shoes of Sean Mac Bride nor never will leave the mark on history he  did.
Not one word did she say against the alleged blatant discrimination in Cork University.
So much for balance from that quarter.
But the presenter tore into the Priest stating ,iter alia ,theist the Catholic Church was responsible for a rake of abuses over the years and it was probably payback time against Catholics.Just what you would expect from the RTE mindset.
Neither she,nor the other heads in charge in the station have the wit to recognise that, yes certain evil individuals within the Catholic Church did unspeakable evil against children etc and to blame the entire Church for the deeds of these evil people is a nonsense .
I am a member of the Church and I never abused anybody,neither did countless millions others and I find such statements by journalists who do know better gratuitous insulting.
It is generally accepted that about 4 % of child abuse was caused by religious and the remaining 96 %by non religious .
! % is far too much but to extrapolate that because 96% of abuse is caused by non religious Irish people and makes the entire  Irish  race into child abusers is just as absurd as saying that he entire Ca tholic Church  was involved in abuse .
The dissemination of  these sort of inaccurate casual and harmful untruths should cease.
And then we had this  a guy ,whose name I forget, on what I think is the" living word",trash his parents for sending him to the Christian Brothers ,trash them further for involving him in attendance at Mount Argos Church for various ceremonies,belittle the Christian Brothers because they did corporal punishment ( like all  teachers at the time ) , decry their promotion of Gaelic games as against the game of the squaddies.
And then he trashed Irish society in general as it was at the time.
I lived through those times.
The Christian Brothees educated me and many millions like me.I have the height of respect for them.I loved and still love  the games of the Gaels and fair dues to the Brothers for inculcating them.
I still have bad memories of a married lay teacher who beat us up with a stick regularly whilst a very young boy in National School .Immeasurably worse than any Brother I encountered.
I treasure the memories I have of serving Mass and the clergy I encountered .
I have only the fondest memories of my parents and appreciate totally everything they did for me.
And the society I remember,whilst it had its faults was one where you never locked your door,where breakins were as rare as hen's teeth and where a murder was so rare that it was a talking point for years.
Those were the god times man.
But of course RTE puts forward more nonsenical shite.

The denigration of the people of Tallaght.

The political classes and the pet journalists ,who are practically bedfellows for their chums ,are at one in heaping opprobrium on the decent people of Jobstown,who recently had their democratic say and utterly rejected the candidate's of the main political parties.
I remember Bertie describing someone as a "Mouth",a spake which true Dubs will understand fully but will not be so obvious to others outside the pale.
Well having heard the likes of Vincent Brown ,Aodhan O Riordan and Cathal Mac Coille ,to name but a few, bully,intimidate and ,in my opinion,maybe libel Paul Murphy on the national airwaves, I can say with conviction that they are nothing but mouthpieces for the Government.
You will notice the contempt that these people and the Government have for those who speak with a Dublin accent , how they belittle them and how contrastingly they suck up fawningly to those with the more cultured accents of their buddies and chums,whose views they think sacrosanct.
It reminds me of the two sides in the Smithfield showdown over the now defunct horse fair,where on the one side you had ordinary non privileged and poor Dubs and on the other the educated well off snobs who can afford horses and ponies ,modern spec stables and manicured lawns  for their spoilt offspring.
No more horse fair and fuck the poor Dubs ,and seize their horses and enact legislation which ensures they can never aspire to what their better spoken and rich contemporaries take for granted.
Sure they  are only scum and let them take heroin and with a bit of luck thy will became methadone zombies and that is much preferable to allowing them anywhere near a horse or pony ,God forbid.
And keep these unruly mob of bowsies in Tallaght well away from our fragrant Ministers and put our kind of people in there to give them second chance education,having made a hames of them the first time round and use this delayed benevolence as a stick with which to beat them as they legitimately protest.
And Aofhan O Riordan's linking of the protest in Tallaght with a bomb threat was totally despicable as was his claim of a gun threat against himself.
He and his buddies in Labour have bitten the hand that feeds them and are turning  on their working class supporters .
And by the way the fact that adults were failed by their teachers and left illiterate the first time round is some indictment of the teachers profession of which himself,and the all of the gang of four are members,Tanaiste included.
Now I would get it fierce hard to vote for Paul Murphy and those of socialist leanings because of the way they push for the medieval murder of the defenceless unborn and the zealous disregard they have for the younger life of the three involved (surely the father ought have a say too ),but in this instance of standing by their constituents I have the height  of admiration for their stance and refusal to be bullied and intimidated.
The Government has long tried to blacken the anti water charge movement by claiming that dissident terrorists and all manner of unsavoury people are involved and are using what happened here as an attempt to dissuade people to stay at home and stop protesting ,
And their supine media and craven journalistic friends are so far up their ..... that they will stop at nothing to help them.
To hear these stooges you would swear that it was a capital offence to have a megaphone and  that  if you sit down and block the passage of a car you should be deported.And that if someone else in a demonstration misbehaves the fault is communally shared.(Does this principle of communal blame attach to all Gardai on duty if one lets fly and half kills someone ?)And don't count on legislation  to outlaw this not being rushed through the house,as was the legislation causing the furore  ,on the sly and in a few minutes.
No wonder the people of Rossport who demonstrate against their nemeses are so pissed.
The pious platitudes that "I fully support the right to demonstrate"which is chanted like a mantra by the political elite when being lined up for fawning interview by their media chums is always followed by a "but" in which it becomes clear that what they really mean is that these protests should take place out of sight,nor against them or their buddies and somewhere else,maybe an abandoned warehouse for example.
And what is the touch of a water balloon compared  to the heartbreak of a parent waving goodbye to a child and grandchildren to the far side of the world ,a suicide or abortion induced by economic despair and the unspeakable distress of people being evicted from their homes as a direct result of Government policy and a series of broken promises on these  issues.
And then to push workers who probably would be unemployed but for this work into the front line and shelter behind their employment as a reason to desist protest is disgusting in the extreme.
I mean how low and self pitying can these people get.
Because of the neglect of successive Governments to supply proper scanning machines,clot busting medication and doctors fit to make the call on its administration  to Navan Hospital until 2010 I am severely disabled for life (lucky not to be dead) and can only walk as far as a well directed fart .
I have not yet been on any of the demonstrations.
With God's help I will be on the next one.

Tax dodging by the political classes.

One must admire the optimism and innocence of the gentleman in the civil service who sent particulars of alleged tax evasion by the rich and powerful to the Public Accounts Committee in the hope that it would be followed up.
As evidenced by the appointment of Liz O Donnell to the head of the RSA ,it matters not what Party you belong to ,rather what counts is what Club you fit into.
Now the politicians ,the judiciary and the top public servants are all part of the same Club and are locked together in an embrace of mutual entitlement and are like the dancers at Lanigan's ball "You step out and I'll step in again ".
The politicians appoint the judges and the politicians also appoint the top public servants and there is cross pollination inter Se.
And as they are inter dependant on each other there is little doubt that ,without being told to do so they cover each others backs.No need for a nod even ,a wink will  do.
There are so many ways of running investigations into the sand and frustrating right thinking people that this cunning alliance are spoilt for choice.
You move a man here and swap a man there and place a woman yonder and keep at it until you get the person in situ who will do "the right thing ".
And you abolish a section here and appoint a new one there,all in the name of efficiency of course and transfer away supporting staff and heap as much shit as you can on the shoulders of the investigator until he gets the message and just gives up.
Or you bully him/her unmercifully ,break him and destroy him and force him to retire.
And when the guard changes you keep the new heads in the loop with a sneaky and discreet word fingering the man who won't take the soup.
And you go out of your way to reward those who help keep him down.
There is absolutely no chance whatsoever that any meaningful investigation will be undertaken into these allegations.
You can make up the responses with fair accuracy at this early stage even "Fully investigate already ","insufficient evidence found to warrant reopening them ","they are sub judice ""a witch hunt against the dead "" breach of Revenue law to disclosing informal on individual cases ","entitled to the Amnesty "They happened too long ago ".
Take your pick .

Fine Gael/Labour don't know what truth is..

As the flood of evictions is turning into a tsunami rendolent of Cromwell's time I hark back to what Enda Kenny said on the subject in the pre election debate on RTE "I guarantee nobody will lose their homes. "Gilmore on behalf of Labour said "Head off the bailiffs ."
'Nuff said.

NCT Scam latest shakedown.

The extortioners masquerading as a Government are at it again to satisfy the bondholders and their European buddies.Needless to say the working middle and the unemployed rural are the target of these legalised Mafioso in yet another shakedown.
If you are stretched for money, and who is not ,with the obnoxious property tax ,attempted water tax,exorbitant TV licence fee,outrageous price of fags, scandalous State take on diesel and petrol ,inhuman levy of E100.00 for attending "our "hospitals as a last resort as an outpatient,oppressive level of motor tax,solid fuel carbon tax and replacement tax for the goods stolen by rampant and out of control criminals this Cromwellian Government is yet again dead set on criminalising and oppressing the unfortunate poor who dare to aspire to owning their own transport and doing their damnest to put and keep their cars on the road.
If you haven't the money to pay to repair your car and have the price of the test before the renewal date you will suffer three penalty point sand financial penalties.
This is yet another money grab directed against the less well off by the party of the ranchers and the refuge of the haverels.
No doubt our Frannie will give special training to her traffic corps on the necessity to target as many poor people as possible by camouflage themselves in the bushes and raising as much for the exchequer as possible.
Another handy source of income for a Government at war with its people.
And Lizzie the fragrant ,con jointed back into the golden circle of those living the life off taxpayers money ,will no doubt renew acquaintance with Leo the fiver and dream up newer and better ways to further impoverish the drones and blacken their names.
My stomach is turning.

My position onWater.

Water is totally essential for the sustenance of life.It falls from the skies and cannot be manufactured.Insofar as it is owned by anybody it is owned by all the people of Ireland.Whatever about assiting its distribution to everybody and everything depending on it in the country ,nobody has the right to appropriate it and decide who gets it and how much they get.
Given that politicians of every political hue,prodded on by an E.U.that is totally dysfunctional,have destroyed us and indeed the E.U.,it defies belief that they should decide to steal it from us and decide who gets what.
I wouldn't trust these guys and gals with minding a kitten ,never mind a commodity essential for life.
They should abandon this greedy grab ,revert to funding its delivery from central funding and try to rediscover the meaning of decency .

Bittersweet victory in Dunderry.

There are no victories in Dunderry presently against crime.In the village in which I live,the local shop,the Church ,the Community Hall and the GAA Club have all been robbed ,the shop by knife holdup,the Church and Hall by stripping the roof of lead and brass and the GAA Club by the theft of heating oil.
The theft from  farmers of tractor diesel is now routine and CCTV offers no protection as the thieves wear balaclavas and unremarkable clothes and work away with immunity.
They have even begun to steal metal gates that owners install to protect their properties.
And that is only the people  with balaclavas.
A Government at war with its people are skimming from the top extortionate fees from people who successfully house themselves and are trying to appropriate to themselves the very source of life itself,water , and decide who should have it and who should not.
This same Government ,vassals of its European overlords and totally in trall to them ,see nothing wrong with dipping its claws into the wage packets of its citizens ,evicting them from their houses,and allowing venture capitalist sharks to sweep up poor  performing mortgages for a song and evict the destitute people from their homes and resettle vast tracts of Ireland by selling it off for a song.
Not to mention the deportation of at least two generations of our population to the other side of the world.
Simultaneously every sneaky cut they  can get away with is being slyly implemented and every charge they can get away with increasing is being multiplied.
Instead of protecting its populace the Gardai and all other State agencies are shooting the compliant fish in the barrel by hiding in the bushes and doing them out of as much as they can manage by virtue of fines,inspections ,impossible regulations and every wheeze they can think up.
This Government has out Cromwelled Cromwell.
They have jeopardised Christmas.They have killed hope.Unless you are rich you have no business getting sick.If you are elderly you live in constant fear.Nearly  all the elderly I know have been robbed at least once.
The only reason the two pubs here have not been done yet is that they are not worth doing.They are only shadows of their former selves as the tumbleweeds drift down the street most of the time.
And I haven't heard of one thief being caught nor brought to justice.
Government T.D.'s are about as useful in protecting the populace against hardship as  performing seals standing on their  heads waving their  back flippers in the air whilst having its mate throw a bucket of iced water over them and boasting that they had completed the ice bath challenge.
Before the Vincent Brown school of sneering at Catholic values became de rigeur for the printed and electronic media and the liberal ignorant there was far less crime hereabouts and  nationwide.
My uncle Paddy used cycle down to Mass every Sunday and go for a few very enjoyable pints with his friends afterwards,leaving the bike outside the pub until he needed it.He did this for decades,never having learned to drive a car.
And of course one day he went out after a few and it was gone,stolen.
He was raging and enquired who stole it .Confidential information came back who had done so and where it was.
So Paddy,who could drive a tractor, drove down to the house in question ,went to the shed,brushing aside those who tried to stop him,broke down the door,got his bike and out to the tractor with him,amid the howling protests of the thieves that he had invaded their privacy,not that he was worried.
HE tied the bike to the back of the tractor and headed for home,in the process having to reverse the tractor.
As he did so the bike fell off and he reversed over it destroying it.
A bittersweet victory for a man who refused to be victimised .
Fair dues to him.When he wasn't fishing he was mending his nets.
It behoves us all to do the same.

The "Cruiser "school of journalism.

In a certain part of this country there live many inter related families of O Neills (not their real names ).To differentiate one from the other  nick names are locally used.One family employed for generations on the roads by the Local Authority have a reputation for swinging the lead,as it were and are called the O Neill "stand idles".
When Nationalists in the North were under attack,being burned out by the RUC and the British and Unionist Bigots,.ably stoked up by Arch Bigot,Ian Paisley and murdered in the streets,aside from sending Paddy Hillery to the United Nations for help(,he was laughed out of it ),the then Taoiseach of this country made his famous speech ,while sitting down ,that we would not stand idly by.
But he,did,we did and the "stickies" in the main ran away leading to the rechristening of the words IRA to Irish Ran Away.
The vacuum was filled by the Provisional IRA which took up arms to defend the Nationalist population and did so successfully for decades until the peace process.
I hadn't the courage to join up.I stood idly by,a" stand idler",as were all the political parties down here.
Not only this but the Fine Gael/Labour government ,introduced legislation prohibiting anyone from the Republican movement putting the Republican viewpoint over on the airwaves.
The Cruiser ,a Labour man, was the most enthusiastic proponent of this policy of censorship.
The stickies and their fellow "runawayers " were well embedded in the media and spun their own brand of cowardice..
Only one journalist out of the thousand's who plied their trade those days broke ranks and allowed a limited reportage of the Provisional view.
Hus name was Kevin O Kelly and for his courage he was prosecuted.
So in all the years that the repressive legislation operated only one decent man broke ranks.
Only one man with the balls and conviction to stand up for free speech and go against the herd.
Now fast  forward to the claims of Joe Cahill's niece that she was raped and that a so called kangaroo court ,composed of IRA members insulted /demeaned her etc .,principally it seems by putting her in a room with her alleged rapist.
Am I missing something or is it not the case that when an accused rapist is put on trial in a non kangaroo court ,as in this country, that both alleged rapist and alleged victim are in the same courtroom.during the trial.
But the most depressing thing about the whole scene is the ganging up of the journalist herd,whipped up by a Taoiseach trying to make political capital out of a misfortunate woman's predicament and kept going by a certain type of tight lipped feminist devoid of reason ,trying to make out that they are entitled to  make judgement in the kangaroo court of public opinion on those they clearly despise.
That's right ,the stand idlers and their followers yet again betraying the standards they claim to uphold  but in reality don't give a fuck about.
The Cruiser must have thought the Second coming had arrived,God rest him.
I am no Prove nor fellow traveller.While I do admire those who did not stand idly by,I find their policy on murdering the unborn,which they share with all the establishment parties and the assorted Socialist strays,abhorrent and intend to stand against them all in the next  election.
So help me God.

Dunderry beat Clanna Gael in u 21 Hurling .1/11/2014

Today was a brutal winter's day,the sort of day on which you would think twice about putting even a milk bottle out.The game was played nevertheless and we scraped home by three points.I had to get out of the car to see the game and ended up like a drowned rat and the paper on which I recorded the action melted in the rain so I haven't the exact score.When I get it I will put it up.(2-8 to 1-8)
But before I get to this game I want to hark back to the previous game against KIllyion which was played last weekend and which we won comfortably enough.
Now last weekend was just a hop skip and  jump from the won Intermediate Final and severe and hard celebrating had been had during the week immediately preceding the Killion game.
As long as I have known them Killion are a serious hurling outfit and if you beat them you do beat someone.We don't do it too often.
So I was interested to gauge how we would respond to a hard contest .
I could nearly feel the backwash of stale beer from some of our guys.But youth is great.Without over exerting themselves our guys displayed a confidence in their own ability which comes from long practice ,familiarity and the confidence that winning brings.They played with confidence ,aplomb and threw the ball around so effectively that  it really didn't matter who scored because the over riding thing was the teamwork.
These guys are skillful,confident ,brave and united.
All the guys who played on the Intermediate team the previous weekend were on their game and exuded an authority that was infectious and I concentrated on watching the performance of those who didn't get the start the previous weekend.
And I was impressed.
Alan Casey kept a mean goal.His puck outs were on the spot and he is not lacking in confidence.He may be the real thing.
Dylan Keenan at corner back has all the skills ,is as brave as a bull and has a voice like  rhino in heat .He just needs to speed  up one step in five to achieve his full potential .Aaron Feeney is a great bit of stuff and has it all also in  skills and in the liathroidi department,He is a little raw but improves with every outing.
Cathal Ryan had a very impressive debut at this level and serialising his true potential.A bit raw but ballsy .
Stefan Clarke had a great game too and is a pleasure to watch.If he was a horse I'd say he has no vices.
Simon Carty ,better noted as a footballer,has the speed of a gazelle ,no little skill,pluck aplenty and an eye for the ball second to none.Needs a bit more practice.
And Stephen Coogan we all know has it all too but probably would benefit from a bit more hurling.
Now in the Killlion match the more established lads didn't get out of second gear and it was up to the guys above to take on the game,and in the second half particularly Killion threw caution to the wind and went for it gig time.
Our boys stood their ground ,weathered the storm comfortably and became came made men in the process
Won by six points I think
Mc Cabe,Leonard and Mikey got a run late on and slotted right in.
Today we lined out as on the last day.

                                             Casey
Dempsey                                                                               Keenan

Ryan                             Wright                                        Feeney

                      Lukie Martyn (0-5.)(3f)                 O Shea
Clarke                               Moran  -0-2                                 Carty

Walshe 1-0                                                                             Coogan 1-1
Sub used. P.Mulligan for Ryan.

I was uplifted when I saw Stephen Masterson appear to referee the game.Serious players deserve serious referees
And this was a serious test.That there is no love lost between the teams is no longer in doubt after this game.Clanns were  men on a mission.They are teak tough and physically intimidating and went about their work with a vengeance in horrible conditions for hurling.But our guys didn;t flinch and meet them head on.Nothing soft, but I did think that Lukie was unfairly targeted and hit the far side of acceptably in the first fifteen minutes by a variety of opponents.Not sporting and a very tolerant Masterson put an end to it after he was ploughed out of it shamefully after he had parted with the sliotar,The Yellow card did the trick , the intimidation stopped and teak tough hurling ensued.
Alex came up trumps yet again ,rattling the net yet again past former Dunderry player Ciaran Fitsimons ,who stopped a few outrageous bullets over the hour,And then Coogan scored a minor to put us four up before they  scored a point.
The game was  slugged out for the first thirty minutes in a downpour,with scores as scarce as hen's teeth until the halftime whistle at which we led by 1-4 to 0-4 and deservedly so I thought
After the restart Coogan came good and did what he was threatening for some time.He got possession,left half of Athboy in his wake and bulged the  net with a shot that Fitzsimons didn't even see,And we followed up with a point.Goals win matches they say and we ought have made more of our lead.
Athboy ,like a wounded bull just wouldn't lie down and die and came at us in waves .and clawed their way back into the game putting sufficient points over the bar to reduce our lead to five  points with eight minutes to go ,when they too rattled the onion bag.
There often develops a certain flow to a game and in these final minutes the force was with Clanns.All the decisions went their way but the back line ,Keenan and Dempsey in particular held their nerve and when Lukie pointed on the cusp of time we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Overall we played well against a highly motivated and strong team,but only rarely hit top gear,sometimes over elaborating when a simpler approach would have yielded richer dividends.
I don't know who we play in the final but I do know that we have to up our game for it and get out of cruise mode.
Minogue and Timber have their work cut out.
Next up is the little matter of dehorning the Kilkenny bull in our own backyard on 16th .
Bring it on says I.
I pray O Farrell and Bligh create history and bring the match to Dunderry.
Leinster Council are you listening ?