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.

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.

Dunderry Adult Management 2016

Word is filtering through that the following is the set up.

Football.
Manager Kevin Dowd.
Selectors.Phil Fay Junior,Mickey Molloy,Lee Mulligan.

Hurling.
Mark Nolan.
Selectors.Christy Coogan,Kevin Heffernan,Paddy Darcy.
And Tom Ryan ,former Dunderry and Meath Manager has agreed to give a hand. from time to time.

All these guys have a huge wealth of Experience under their belts and are good guys as indeed were the retiring Managers and their selectors led by Stephen O Rourke and Paddy Gorey.
It is great to see that volunteerism is still alive and kicking in Dunderry for jobs that make you either a hero ,if you succed or a knave ,if you fail.
But would we have it any other way.
Kevin would have more managerial experience at Hurling level including at County level.He is the fourth member of the 2005 team which I managed and was demoted from Senior to Intermediate to take up the challenge of regaining Senior status,the others being his brother Tommy ,Barry Callaghan and Stephen O Rourke.
I will be watching to see if he can succed where the others failed and hope that the players will give him the full loyalty he gave me.
All his backup team is hugely impressive and all were dual players so there should be a smooth relationship with their hurling counterparts.

Older Dunderrians may not know Mark Nolan and Kevin Heffernan.Mark is a Boardsmill man and married to Eunice O Brien whose mother is Mary Newman.He has been involved with juvenile hurling here for some years,Kevin is a fanatical Limerick hurling man doing fantastic work wit the juveniles.He really loves hurling and has a name that is hard to live up to.Paddy was a selector before if I am not mistaken .
Tom I WORKED WITH BEFORE.He knows his onions.
INTERESTING TIMES AWAIT US .

Dunderry Christmas Masses 2015

Christmas Eve 24th December.

Kilbride.6.00 p.m. Carols and Music from 5.30 on under tutelidge of Aoife Stephens on trombone with Deirdre Mc Hale singer,Lauren Finnegan Harp,and David Lamb organ.

Dunderry.7.30 with Carols beforehand and during by Dunderry Church Choir.

Christmas Day 25/12/2015.

Robinstown 9.30 a.m.with Carols before and during by Robinstown Church Choir.

Dunderry 11.00 a.m.with Carols before and during by Dunderry Youth Choir.

Stephens Day.

10.00 a.m. Robinstown.

IT IS ADVISABLE TO ATTEND WELL IN ADVANCE OF STARTING TIME TO GET A SEAT ON CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY

And give a thought to Father Hornick who celebrates all these Masses and organises the shoot bang lot.No easy job that.

The seagulls know.

Our land is over 30 miles from the sea,that is the part of it not covered in water from the incessant rain.Today the non submerged part was covered with seagulls picking maggots from the ground as said maggots surfaceed from the earth in fear of drowning from the upcoming deluge. I assume.
If I am right in this analysis we are in for some deluge.And these seagulls have an uncanny ability for foresight and how to turn nature to advantage.
The hoors have set up house in it and have started to squalk to me.Bad cess to them.

Death of J,Doonan and my tribute to,

Word is just filtering in of the unexpected death of the very well respected J,Doonan of the Meadstown Road,Dunderry,husband of the late Breda Stanley .
He was suffering from pneumonia in a Dublin Hospital ,as I understand it and died there..They had no children .
J was  Down man and kicked football with them in his youth.If I remember correctly his brother subsequently played in goal for the County.He also played professional soccer in England and was interested in boxing and at one stage approached me to see would I be interested in setting up a club in Dunderry,Because of my time consuming involvement in the GAA I had to decline and the idea was stillborn.
He was a die hard Republican and spent several years in Long Kesh on remand ,never being charged with an offence ,as far as I know.
He was also a nurse by profession and worked for many years with Sister Consilio in the fields of addiction in which he was an acknowledged expert.
Indeed when one of my extended family had a habit he did all humanely possible to help and I will be eternally grateful to him for this.
I think but am not certain that no State Hospital gave him employment because of his Republican past but that Sister Concilio was above that sort of retribution ,I may be wrong in this.
Well after his retirement date he continued to ply his trade and was working until recently.
I found him to have been a decent guy and good neighbour.
I have no knowledge of the funeral arrangements yet.
Ar Dheis De go raibh  hanam dilis.
P.S  .J.was brought to Dunderry Church last evening at 7.30 to a good crowd of neighbours and a wider congregation of friends and colleagues and Father Hornick paid fair tribute to him and his late wife Breda Stanley,who he  now joins after 9 years separation.
She too died around this time of the year and it is hard to realise that it is 9 years since she walked this earth.
They were devoted to each other and had to be considering the continuing disruption that occurred in their nursing and personal lives because of their Republican beliefs..
Long after he was able to walk with comfort because of wonky knees you would see J.on the bicycle with Breda alongside, as they prepared for the annual Dublin Marathon which they participated in until they were physically unable .I am full sure that all the funds raised were for the laudable aims of sister Concilio.
The funeral Mass took place this morning to a packed Church ,consisting of a combination of neighbours,work colleagues,Down family and  friends ,Fellow Republicans and the wider GAA community from the North.including Oisin Mc Conville and several members of the Kilcoo Club ,the Down County Champions.
Orations were made at the graveside by both Joe Reilly ,Sinn Fein Councillor and Sister Concilio,who were ad idem on a number of things ,particularly that J.was an exemplary member of the caring profession and that he left a lasting impression on all who met him.
Around here we had no idea he was so sick but he himself must have known that the end was near as Sister CONSILIO said that she arranged his final confession shortly before he expired .
I called to see him last summer to thank him for all his efforts regarding my extended family member's difficulties and to inform him of the outcome.
I can say that there was no behaviour in the addiction world that would have surprised J.,HE HAD SEEN IT ALL and more.
I quizzed him about getting his memories down in writing and he said he intended to do this in due course.I hope he did, but suspect that death crept up on him before he could.
No matter.He lived his life by his beliefs and made no efforts to hide them.
Any man who has  moving orations by a true blue Republican and a Sister verging on Sainthood can consider his life well spent.
Ar DHEIS dE GO RAIBH A HANAM.

PRAY FOR dUNDERRY BURN VICTIMS.

In recent times two Dunderry people ,one man and one woman, have received fairly severe accidental burns.The woman is way worse than the man and he is under some pressure also.
Sustained prayer wouldn't go astray.

Down Memory Lane

I was blessed to move to Dunderry in 1986 as that was the start of the Golden decade in Gaelic Games in the GAA  Club.
Tommy MC Cormack my uncle had recently retired as Chairman of the  Club,having thus served for over three decades I reckon.There was never a more fanatic member .In fact he died less than a decade later and his dying wish to be visit the Pitch one last time before being buried was honoured .
I atttended my first AGM shortly after arriving and declined the nomination for Secretary proposed by Gerry Callaghan as I was of the view that one should start on the factory floor ,as it were before looking for the Gaffer's job and boy did I spend many years on said floor before the chance came around again.
At that time we had some of the foremost dual players in the County at underage level and there was no adult hurling team here and the neighbouring hurling clubs were salivating at the prospect of getting their mitts on our boys.
The men and women who had achieved this underage hurling miracle were loath to see these boys dispersed to our hurling neighbours and naturally had a preference to keep them together in our club but were very much aware that there would be stiff resistance within the Club to upsetting the footballing apple cart as it were by entering a hurling team,
So a number of them approached me and requested me to propose such a team as they were somewhat afraid to do so themselves less they be chastised.
At the appropriate stage during the AGM I put the motion to enter a team and it was just carried despite the virulent opposition of most of the top table.To say I was shocked was an understatement.
Anyhow the work went on and there was a fierce buzz around the place.a buzz grounded not only in the high expectations of success on the playing fields because of the undoubted emerging underage talent allied to the acquisition after fierce machinations at Provincial level ,which  enabled Parish residents the Rennicks brothers and Pat Gibbons  transfer here from Trim for whom they had played at Juvenile level and in respect of whom Trim refused transfers, but also because o the excitement of finally acquiring our own Pitch.
Basically it involved the transferees thansferring to another County ,playing with a a club  there and then transferring back to Meath when they could play with whatever Club they chose .
My ex club Saint BRIGIDS of Blanchardstown gave a hand in this process and I AM ETERNALLY GRATEFUL FOR THIS.
By this route we eventually got these men onto our books and they contributed significantly to our unfolding success.
And Dermot Dempsey also threw in his lot with us and added his considerable maturity to the gosoons on the hurling fields of Meath and added to his considerable haul of county medals .
The Rennick transfers s sparked a rule change in the GAA and the new rule now applicable that you play with your home Parish makes those machinations irreverent today
I played a small part in the drive for the top in that I did my best for the adult hurlers on the field of play at full back for as long as my battered and ageing chassis was able to compete and picked up two Junior medals as a player and one Intermediate one as a sub,being usurped at full back by Plug Levy and more luck to him.
On the football front I turned up for training a number of nights ,fully intent of competing for a place ,but never got further than being mandated to kick the ball in between  back and forwards in competing drills.
It rapidly became clear to me that anyone nearing the three o wasn't wanted  and a guy of my vintage, nearer 40 than 30 was not flavour of the month.
I felt huge sympathy with lifelong and ebullient Dunderry men of the era who were thrown on the scrapheap at the time in order to make way for the emerging youth ,in what I still consider to have been premature retirement.
Anyhow what happened happened and the Club prospered,but in due course.
In 1988 the Pitch was opened to great jubilation and to the profound credit of those who had made such valiant sacrifices in putting it there,.
But not everybody in the Parish fully grasped the full extent of our achievement in the overall scheme of things GAA.
On the way to open the Pitch Tommy and Joe were stopped by a man whose hobby and job were farming exclusively and who had never darkened a football pitch ever nor never would  and on being told here they were off to said"Well that's Croke Park fucked ,I hear that Dunderry is so good that Croker will get no more matches."And he genuinely meant that.
Well the pitch was opened and Meath played Cavan in a challenge to a huge crowd .I remember a guy called Cahill fielded for Cavan and I think he was related to our Phil.
Tommy had a prodigious memory and dictated an article from memory to me about the history of Dunderry GAA which i wrote down and it was published in the programme written for the opening.
He concluded by wishing that the Club would attain Senior status in the near future.
Hid wish came to fruition as we attained Senior status in football in 1990,in Hurling in 1991 and as a bonus in Camogie in 1991 also.
And all this in an era when the MEATH on the national stage GAA SPORTS WISE WAS  VERY STRONG.
 to be continued.

God 1.IRFU .0.

In 2010 the greed machine that is professional rugby showed its true nature when a match between Munster and Leinster was fixed for Thomond Park on Good Friday ,which as everybody knows is the date when Jesus Christ was crucified for the salvation of humanity.
Not only was disrespectful to the children of God ,which according to the last census 84 per cent of the population claim to be,to have such a match on this Holy Day ,but Good Friday is one of only two days out of the 365 days of the year when pubs are bound to close for the best part of a century.
The greed machine and its vociferous proponents adored their Mamon and insisted that the game go ahead and mounted a campaign to have the drinking laws suspended in Limerick so that the stuck up nobs that follow the game could sate their thirst that most Holy of days and to their eternal shame the ASSOCIATION that represents the publicans backed them to the hilt in pursuit of greedy profits.And a   judge stretched credulity to the limit when he allowed the opening of the pubs for health and safety reasons,thus conjuring up the vision of a rampaging mob of rugby supporters breaking down the doors of the pubs in limerick IN HOT PURSUIT OF AN ALCOHOL FIX which may be accurate
And then we had the Rugby supporters of Munster waving flags and sporting jerseys that Rugby was more popular than Catholicism and denigrating the Mass.
And the mass hysteria that infests both the written and electronic medias sucked up to the professional rugby game and its proponents as though it was a divine gift and as though its over paid players and mostly  Australian and New Zealand coaches were minor Gods themselves.
This coalition of the greedy and delusional talked up Irish Rugby as though they were confirmed world beaters and all they had to do was show up and claim their rightful place as the World's chosen.
 Except they did what a bad horse does when the load is heavy-----it shits on the traces.
And Irish rugby did shit on the traces and not very  graciously either.
I heard a guy called Trevor something sneering at Gaelic Football when he likened the hasty retreat of a rugby referee after some match to what happens in the GAA world and I heard another Star ,a Cork guy with a smart mouth and a similar contempt for the GAA ,sneering at the Junior grade of football in GAA competition,a grade in which I would bet he would not last pissing time.
And there was a guy called Shane who played minor football for Meath in his day on the panel where the latter sneer was made and he made no attempt to correct his rugby buddy.
We know now that these guys are just mouths without anything to back themselves up and we also know that the sneers who belittled God and his flock in Munster very much barked up the wrong tree.
The way Munster are playing now Dunderry Junior C  team would  give them a good run for their money and no amount of talking can change that.
These guys just don't get it .They have denigrated God ,the National Anthem and are doing their best to rugbify the national schools in strong GAA areas to put backbone into a sport that is short of it.
And if the GAA leaders don't wise up to this these greedy schemers will succeed.
God however just waited in the long grass and it is only a matter of time until the greed for handy money pollutes Rugby in the same way that it has besmirched Soccer,Athletics  and cycling to name but a few.

The only good injun is a dead one.

Do you remember those old cowboy movies that glorified the massacre of the native red injuns of the USA by the the Blue Coats when scalps were paid for irrespective of whether they were from murdered men ,women or children.Yep they were treated like vermin and massacred to the point of extinction.Not all that long ago relatively speaking.
Now while the targeting of the civilians by ISIS in PARIS is reprehensible it is worth noting that at least two hundred civilians a day are killed in SYRIA according to a recently released hostage held by ISIL --A FRENCHMAN I heard interviewed on France 24 or Euro news last night.
We have all the World's Superpowers Carpet bombing Syria and Iraq ad lib and killing God only knows how many men,women and children and fighting to be first in the queue "understandably"for revenge.
Seems to me that the so called civilised Western World has reached the same conclusion that the USA authorities reached about the Red Indians over a century ago and that the only good member of ISIL Is a dead one.
I thought that when a black man assumed leadership of the world,given the persecution that blacks suffered historically, that a more peaceful one would result.
Hasn't happened.
Does the civilised Western world want to exterminate an entire race of people men,women and children.
WITH THE SHOOTING DOWN TONIGHT OF a   Russian plane by a Turkish SHELL the anti ISIL Coalition are starting to shoot down each other.
ALL we want now is for China to test out its weapons there also.
Sure maybe an atomic bomb is the answer.
Just blow the entire place to Kingdom come and be done with it.
Yep the War to end wars ended in 1918 Sir.

Bucklepping

We own a few cattle,calves,cows and one only bull.They have a goodish life.And they have a way of letting you know what's on their mind.
Its been   good year so far for cattle until two weeks ago.The grass was growing well into November and the weather was clement and the rainfall was scarce.
Plenty of grass to ate and happy cattle.
Then the rain came and boy did it rain.The Clady runs through our land and it was swollen to the top of its 20 feet depth.And then some.A fair bit of the land was waterlogged and the grazing thus restricted.But the cattle had free access to a shed full of good barley straw and they sated themselves on the grass and the straw as they desired.
And then a touch of frost,
The cattle know where the hay is stored and of a sudden they congregated at the gate outside the hay shed looking mournfully over the gate at the hay.
I got the message and brought three bales of sweet hay from the hay shed  to the field where they are foddered for the time being.
They followed the tractor single file until we reached the field and then still single file they danced past the tractor in delight bucklepping as they passed by and kicking their heels into the air with delight.Bit like the bull with rider on board as he is released from the schute in the Rodeo movies if you can visualise that.
Filled my heart with wonder.
Cattle definitely feel delight and don't let anyone tell you different.

Chilling TIMES

After watching TV this evening a chill ran down my spine.
The rhetoric of WAR is all over the place and Truth is the first casualty.
First we had Vincent Brown trying to blame religion on the situation.Even someone as hateful and vilely anti Catholic as he  must surely have heard of the Commandment thou shall not kill.
Perhaps his hatred has so twisted him that he cannot distinguish between God and the Devil ,the latter's propensity for evil  seems to be more acceptable to him.
Am I wrong in thinking that the main protagonists here are atheist and secular and anti religious as is generally understood.
Secondly we had a guest panellist of his demanding that an entire race of people.men,women and children  be eliminated.Hitler is mild by comparison.
Then the PRIME minister of France ratcheted up the ante by declaring war on ISIS AND the military singing so redolent of HITLER'S STORMTROOPERS being sung with hatred.
There is no doubt but that ISIS  is evil and must be defeated and as a Catholic I DESPISE ITS STATED AIM OF destroying Catholic Rome,but mass genocide is not the answer.
Of course there are many atheists within Europe who share the  AIM OF DESTROYING THE VATICAN   with ISIS and are only too glad to see them MURDERING CHRISTIANS,ESPECIALLY THOSE PROMULGATING THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENT UNBORN.
GOD HELP US.

A week of despair on the world stage.

Here in Dunderry I seldom travel more than five miles,so I am and have been dependent on the papers and electronic media for information.
I have gone way past believing half of what I see and nearly none of what I read because I am convinced that now ,more than any time in history ,the truth has become a poor second to lies and deceit and there is nearly no reporter nor publication that doesn't promulgate lies all the time.
My week of disgust  and horror had to do with the total disregard of Sovereign States and their leaders for the sovereignty of others and the impunity with which they kill, murder and maim others ,who they regard as enemies, just because they can.
The more advanced States can target and snuff out human life from thousands of miles away in the safety of bunkered or even unbunkered environments, safe in the knowledge that they are safe from retribution.
This is because they have more advanced technology and superior fire power and weapons than their protagonists.
The less advanced States the subject of these sallies from afar have long since figured that the only, puerile by comparison .way they can strike back, is by their adherents making themselves into human suicide bombers willing to carry themselves into the midst of their protagonist,much like the Kamakazi Japanese pilots of WW2.
Honour has long since disappeared into he mists of time and the more sneaky,underhand ,cunning and ruthless and murdering you are the more heroic you are painted by your own side.
The first vile and underhand act that appalled me this week was the murder of a WOUNDED Palestinian Leader in a hospital in his own country whilst being treated there for his wounds, by an undercover Israeli murder squad some of whom dressed as women to carry out their murderous mission.
From reports it seems that the Israelis regard one Israeli life as equivalent to 10 Palestinian ones and are Hell bent on maintaining this ratio.
There is little doubt ,it seems to me, that the beasts in the field are accorded a higher ranking than Palestinians in the Israeli scheme of things and that the World at large would be more outraged if such depravities were perpetrated on animals than Palestinians.
What happened to the Jews at the hands of the Nazis was inhumane and they are not slow to bring it up when it suits and proper order.
But that does not excuse their treatment of the Palestinians NOW THAT THEY ARE IN THE SADDLE.
The second matter that appalled me was the murder of two hundred PEOPLE in Paris by suicide bombers whom ISIL claim ownership of.
I had been thinking of this situation in the Middle East for some time back.
It seems to me that this whole scenario has its genesis in the colonial past of certain European States centuries ago and the assumption of the USA of the role of world policeman in more recent decades.
As before WW2 and Pearl Harbour the USA thought it was immune from conventional attack because of the sheer distance it was from its protagonists until the atrocity of the Twin Tower  outrage ,which cost the lives of thousands of Americans,
In retribution the USA struck back  AND IS STILL TRIKING BACK.
Afghanistan,Iraq,Syria,Libya,Tunisia,Pakistani,Somalia and the overwhelming majority of the ARAB SPRING STATES ,which Countries secular Europeans and others tried to model on their concept of democracy, have been turned into  hell on earth by constant bombing and drones by the USA, the coalition of the willing ,which included most European States and the EU and latterly by Russia.
Now my mother used talk about TOOPHS,which I understand to mean innocents abroad or amadans as gaeilge.
Barrack Obama has played a blinder in persuading the Toophs of the EU into joining the Coalition of the Willing and setting itself up for the sort of atrocity perpetrated in France yesterday.
The USA is too far away to be hit by such an atrocity but, as witnessed every day by the massive influx of displaced peoples from the HELLHOLES  of the Muslim World into EVERY European Country, we are sitting ducks.
It is hard to gauge the numbers of peoples killed since the Twin Tower tragedy but the best Estimates run into millions,mostlty Muslims.
It may be that the relatives of these people will forgive and forget but I doubt it somehow.
If retribution is sought and secured by these Muslims on the same scale that was delivered unto them then the carnage has only begun.
Within Secular Europe we have a further massive problem fiacing us in the ability to defend ourselves.
Militant feminists and atheists have for decades waged a war on our viable and unprotected unborn and slaughtered them by the million if not billion  since the start of the last Century, to the extent that the population of the EU is in decline and we shortly won't have the manpower to defend our aging populations.
When that day arrives the first boot/bootees we must place in the frontline are those responsible for these vile senseless and barbaric murders of the defenceless unborn.They will then find that murdering those that are old enough and motivated enough to fight back is a different kettle of fish entirely.
I look forward to Ivana and her legions of the blabbermouths talk their way out of that one.
Finally the most ridiculous proposal I have head in this centenary year of 1916 is that of some fools who put forward proposals to tackle border smuggling by  ceding to England a corridor of seven miles into the Republic TO POLICE AND OTHERS OF THE CROWN TO HAVE UNLIMITED ACCESS IN HOT PURSUIT.
Why stop at 7 miles .Why not give them free access the whole way to the South coast,YEP GIVE THEM THE COUNTRY BACK ENTIRELY,.
When France is sealing its borders our TOOPHS ARE PROPOSING handing control to another foreign power.
You couldn't make it up.

Probably the best value eating house in Ireland today.

Yesterday myself and two friends attended a funeral in Carrickmacross.We came home through through Kingscourt AND DECIDED TO STOP THERE FOR A FEED.
Paudge knows his onions and shepherded us into an eating house situate where the road from Carrick joins the Main Street in Kingscourt on the right hand side as the roads adjoin.
An entrance to the cattle mart, which was in full swing, is opposite the joint.
We had four courses of soup ,meat ,spuds ,chips and veg,succulent dessert and coffee.
Enough to fill Joe Higgins in his prime,GOD REST HIS SOUL. AND FOR FIFTEEN EURO A HEAD.
Now there's value for you.
The very best of grub.

Muskaterr Carmel loses brother Benny

Today myself and fellow Muskateer Liam Dalton went to Carrickmacross to console Carmel Geraghty and attend the funeral Mass and burial of her brother Benny WOODS.Paudge Dalton accompanied us on the sorrowful journey on one of the wettest and vile days weather wise I can remember.
The ceremony was of the highest calibre and there was a large crowd from Dunderry there.
He got a fine send off.
As a matter of interest he is the third relative of our group to succumb to the blight of cancer,the others being my brother Robert  and Liam's brother.
So Liam ,Carmel and myself have all lost brothers to this accursed disease.
Go deana Dia trocaire ar a Anam dilis.
To his wife, brother, sister and wider family we offer our sincerest sympathies.
He had no children.

Ray DARCY A PERFEC FIT FOR ANTI CATHOLIC RTE

Ray Darcy,aka the Gnome with the Dome is the perfec fit for RTE ,through which a rancid anti Catholic hate campaign is being promulgated.
His older colleague Olivia O leary aka the Crone with the Moan is another example of this visceral hatred.
Every chance these bitter pills get they belittle and smirk at traditional Catholic  values and promote pagan and atheist values.
Their narrative runs like this.The 84 percent who described themselves as Catholic in the last census are fools incapable of marking the box correctly but the 16 per cent who didn't are pure geniuses like themselves way above the rest of us in intelligence and knowledge.
Now their unquestioning sucking up to their own kind on public radiio is sickening and actually anti democratic and it is high time that someone in RTE  called these little shits in and explained to them the meaning of respect.
However I will not be holding my breath as I fear that the atheists have long since taken over RTE .
MAYBE   a boycott of the LICENCE FEE WOULD be a legitimate way of protest at this vicious bias.

IABA AND CHRISTLE WIN BY TKO.

The Directors of the IABA are unpaid nor do they get expenses.
Unlike the other members of the Dail Committe who showboated their way through the farcical nonsense they promulgated on the occasion of their disgraceful performance on the T.V. lately.
And I include in this all the clowns on the Committee and all the members of the Sports Council .each and every one of whom have their snouts in the troughs of cash ,whether provided from general taxation or from the money legally skimmed from the Lotto.
But to me the most cowardly and disgusting performance of all was the green with jealousy and bitchy comments of Drimnagh boy  Eamonn Coughlan on Prime time radio ,who despite serious State backing in his day and the instructions of the best foreign coaches abroad always shit on the traces when the OLYMPICS CAME AROUND.
Just like John Tracey ,another bitter pill.
As far as I know the last athletics OLYMPIC GOLD was won by Ronnie Delaney .
Now these clever dicks have had decades to pluck Gold for their own athletic cronies and have failed miserably,so no one in their right mind would let them have any say whatsoever in other sports that do the business.
By his nuanced mispronunciation of the words democracy and committee and by calling ,IF NOT BY NAME THEN BY Implication a real gentleman Joe Crystle a person of small mind and a myriad of other names SAID SHITTTER has exposed himself for the bitter and hateful pill he is.
A perfect fit for Fine Gael WHOSE NOMINATION TO THE SEANAD HE IS.
Not fit to lace Joe's boots.
Knowing Joe and his innate decency and moral code I fully back his call for an Independent investigation ,but guess what ,the mouthpieces will run scared from this lest their prejudices be established and their lies be exposed.

More on Mulville ,Crystle and the IABA

To my great consternation I read more about the Sports Council's bullying of the IABA and its executives today.
Mulville said that he had serious problems with individual leaders of the IABA and that the IABA had 24 hours to reconsider the reappointment of Billy Walshe or the A SPORTS council ,which he seems to own ,would reconsider its funding of the IABA.
He had his chance to take on Joe Crystle the Chair of the IABAand most certainly one of the leaders of the IABA  on National Radio last Friday but like every coward who meets his match he ran and  hid for cover.
This wouldn't be the first time that Mulville ran for cover when he met real men.If memory serves me right he tried to intervene in the Cork hurlers strike some years ago but ran away when the going got tough.
Of course these Government appointed hacks feel free to bully everybody they deem unworthy and they consider defenceless.
In this they mimic the attitude of their political masters who have spewed a contempt for the populace which is the unholy child of  fascist blue shirt father and an authoritarian Stasis East German type mother,which must face the murder run of abortion before it emerges,which is a serious threat to democracy.
Garrett the Good set up the LOTTO ,which  denuded the plethora of voluntary organisation of finance and has  made it into  a political slush fund to buy up votes and has encouraged its organisers ,including the present Minister AND ITS EXECUTIVES TO BEHAVE LIKE LITTLE DICTatORS in administering money not even theirs .
Naturally the menopausal auld wans and their one trick pony panellists who deface RTE speak uno voce in favour of the Government which nourishes them.
These gob shites are so far up the arseholes of the Rugby failures that it is embarrassing to even listen to them spout total bullshit.
Just put JOE in the Ring against Melville and his sidekick Tracey.
Come on Crystle.

Joe Crystle a man of total honour.

My late father was a  Welshman and proud of it.As a young man his sports of choice were rugby and boxing,He tried his hand at both and I don't know how successful he was .But I do know that these sports were the sports of choice of the ordinary people in Wales.
Which is probably why he continued to attend them when he moved here.
I  well remember going to the National Stadium on the South Circular Road to watch National and International boxing matches with him.I enjoyed them immensely I must say.
This was long before the Sports Council and its its obnoxious politically appointed operatives were ever heard of.
Boxing people produced world rated combatants by the dint of hard work and through amateur effort.
And not to put a tooth  in it was and is overwhelmingly the  sport for tinkers and working class people,not for know all toffs who know as  much about it as my arsehole knows about snipes hooting.
Recent events in South County Dublin illustrates perfectly just how Governments and their pet appointees have succeeded in killing off and persecuting tinkers and their families.
They.the Tinkers,and the working classes  just don't rate which is probably why Kieran Mulvey and John Tracey felt  totally at ease hogging the airwaves and threatening the IABA and its democratically elected officials with all sort of sanctions if said ASSOCIATION didn';t bend to their bullying and intimidating demands.
It goes without saying that neither man has any  expertise whatsoever in boxing nor its promotion and I suggest would run a mile if confronted by a togged out opponent.
Singing from the same hymn sheet they have threatened over the airwaves to -
 - Review the Sports Council funding off the IABA with repercussions going forward
-  See how funding is given and establish from latest review of accounts just how it is spent
  -Review IABA CHIEF'S Fergal Carruths role ,We pay him and are not happy.
 --We pay the administrative staff and are  not happy
--The Sports Council totally funds boxing and is unhappy.
In this these little Dictators have striven to drive a wedge between the democratically elected Officer Board and the imaginary ordinary membership .
Joe Crystle is the Chairman of the Board and I know him well.
His father,also Joe I think, and his brothers founded  the Ras Tailteann and made it the international success it is .Needless to say no mouthpieces like Tracey nor Mulvey nor their ilk were around to help out.
The same man,a a Guinness employee,who self educated,founded  Dublin Institute of Technology to give ordinary working people ,who had not the wherewithal to go to University, the chance to advance themselves.
It was rumoured that he blew up Nelson's Pillar in 86 although this has since been claimed by another boxer of renown.
As far as I know he died of cancer some years ago in  Public Ward in  DUBLIN HOSPITAL. AS A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE, ALTHOUGH HE COULD WELL HAVE USED THE OFFICES OF HIS SONS TO SAY GOODBYE IN MORE COMFORTABLE SURROUNDINGS.
He is buried in Kilmessan.
He has three sons ,Joe,Mel a Senior Counsel.and Terry a surgeon in Navan Hospital.
To my knowledge all three held the All Ireland Heavy weight crowns at different stages and boxed professionally .
If memory serves me correctly all three appeared on the same bill in Navan some years ago.
These guys have forgotten more about boxing than Tracey and Mulvihille will ever know.
Joe is a trained barrister and has not forgotten his boxing roots.
These guys were also formidable hurlers with  Drimnagh Castle School years ago and ,although a little after my time often changed epic hostilities with my younger brothers in Cumann na Bunscoile competitions.
Borth families knew how to hurl and protect themselves.
Now as stated both Tracey and Mulvey have hogged the headlines belittling ,bullying and attempting to intimidate the IABA and its officers backed up by journalists who speak uno voce in their favour and sneering at the fact that the IABA was slow in responding.
Knowing JOE  and in the certain knowledge that he is the sort of guy that would not countenance anything underhand nor improper I was not surprise that he gave the other side of the story on Radio and totally routed the mumbling mouthpiece Mulvey and a disturbingly partisan Des Cahill, from the fray.
Mulviey wouldn't be the first bully to turn and run when confronted by an intellectual and physical equal who he couldn#t intimidate and shout down.
I WOULD TRUST Joe WITH MY LIFE NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
As for the SPORTS COUNCIL and its mouthpieces THERE OUGHT BE A FULL ENQUIRY INTO ITS MODUS OPERANDI AND HOW THE PREJUDICES OF ITS MEMBERS DENY NATURAL JUSTICE TO THE BODIES IT CLEARLY THINKS IT OWNS,STARTING WITH THE MINISTER.

Death of Bill Doherty in England.

Every Sunday Gerry and Rita Doherty drive Gerry's 92 year old mother down to 11.00 a.m.Mass in Dunderry ,ensconce her in the side isle and return to the main body of the Church for MASS themselves.She is,I would guess ,around  90 years and fully in possession of all her faculties.
She has outlived her late husband and one other  son who died in England some years ago.Today her son Bill was prayed for  in Mass.
I can remember him and his wife at times,coming on holiday to Gerry and Rita when they lived in Father Flood Park years ago and remember meeting him a number of times.He was a nice guy.
Well seemingly he went for a fairly routine operation in I  think Blackpool where he lived with his wife and children about a week ago and died unexpectedly there last Wednesday.
Bill emigrated in the mid 1960's
.He previously worked in Leonards of Athboy Gate alongside Pat Leonard and Ted Murtagh selling clothes and footwear, a crew he can reunite with now within the pearly gates and recite with the Angels "Shine up your button with Brasso,it's only three halfpence a tin ,and if you can't get it on the Black Market you'll get it in Leonard's of Trim",
Afterwards he worked in Navan Carpets.
To his devastated mother, sister,brother ,wife ,children and grandchildren and all who held him dear,including Thomas,Bob,Rachel and especially his mother and Gerry and Rita we offer our sincere condolences.
Ar Dheis De go raibh a Annam Dilis.
And I hear that Johnny Gough ,a neighbour who knew Bill,went to the funeral in England,a fair journey for a 88 year old man.

Lourdes 2015- an appreciation.

It's 4.00 a.m.Myself and she who must be obeyed are sitting in a queue of cars in Navan Hospital awaiting a bus that hopefully will bring us on the first leg of our journey to  Lourdes.I haven't slept a wink all night afraid we might sleep it out and miss the bus and am in a daze.
It's funny the thoughts that slip in and out of the tired mind at that time of the morning.One irreverend thought I have is that Leo's enforcers of the latest tax on sickness,that is the clamping of cars of the sick and indigent in Navan Hospital for the release bounty of E.90.00 ,will swoop and steal our vehicles.From what I hear I wouldn't put it past them.
To go back a bit  and explain how I came to be on this journey I must revert to July 1 2009,when I was stricken with a stroke and made the uninformed and life changing mistake to go to Navan HOSPITAL ,AN INSTITUTION singularly ill equiped to handle stroke patients.in that it had neither the MRI SCANNERS to determine the type of stroke suffered nor the medication to dissolve the clot responsible for my particular stroke..a  situatuion subsequently rectified when I ran for office and shamed the authorities into treating the people of Meath with  A modicum of respect and rectifying these shameful and life destroying omissions.
Since then I have serious issues with the left side of my body.But I am grateful for the good bits left to me and can live alife of some normality unlike many destroyed or dead from the official neglect caused by the apalling  lack of the amenities outlined above.I  sometimes wonder whether those responsible ought be charged with manslaughter at a minimum.
When I eventually emerged from Hospital a brother of mine offered to run a few functions and send me to Lourdes but not being in the best of form at the time I declined.Since then I have become involved in a prayer group and one member of that group,Deirdre Clinch,who herself went to Lourdes ,has been encouraging me to give it a twist. This year I decided that I might as well and made contact with Jennifer Reilly from BOHERMEEN ,who is the nearest thing to an earthly Angel you could hope to meet and she set the whole thing up via the Meath Diocesan Pilgrimage.I subsequently learned that she is also a volunteer at the female bathing area of Lourdes ,no small job for such a slight girl.
.I had ,among  other tasks, to get a Passport ,this being my first time out of theses ISLANDS and also  attempt to conquer my fear of flying.
I have recently had cause to severely question my judgement of character when activities of the most unsavoury type came to my attention and again was gobsmacked when discreet assistance towards our pilgrimage came from a most unlikely source.Those involved will know  of what I speak and to the latter a most sincere thanks.
A few night before our departure Mass was celebrated in St.Oliver's Church in Navan and afterwards tay and light refreshments were provided.It was there when I met such a preponderance of GAA people that I knew I was among friends.There were Bennets and Boylans and King Administrator for Navan and former Chair of Senchaelstown GAA club and Ardbraccan native Tom Mulvaney and family.The essence of decency.
Soon the coach arrived and suitcases were deposited at the entrance to the hold of the bus.And a clatter of people dressed in blue coats proceeded to load the cases onto the bus.
I subsequently learned that these blue coated men and women  are volunteers from all walks of life who take a week off work ,pay the cost of the flight and accommodation and help out the sick and ill pilgrims free gratis for the week.Unheralded heroes from hidden Catholic Ireland and ,as I subsequently observed, the essence of kindness.
We were loaded onto the bus in the kindest way possible,a mixture of pilgrims with the whole range of physically  apparent and not so obvious illnesses ,a corp of voluntary nurses and a troop of voluntary doctors ,the most dedicated contingent of blue coats and a group of Priests  and nuns and headed for Dublin Airport.
We stopped on the way at Garlow Cross ,at Ross Cross and at Dunshaughlin to pick up more pilgrims .
Ger.Gordon,wife of Jack the referee and daughter of Tom Mulvaney, head nurse on our bus,  recited the Rosary and sang a Hymn,All joined in with gusto.My people .Unashamedly Catholic AND PROUD OF IT .
And sandwiches and sweets were passed around and we were advised to whet our hunger,free snacks not being available on the plane.
We reached the Airport in due course and made our way to the plane.I overestimated my capacity for walking and had to seek wheelchair assistance to finalise the journey.It's a fair step.And having long hair and a beard I got a fair shake up by security who relented somewhat when I was unable to raise my left arm for frisking because of my stroke.
We had to descend two floors to get to the departure gate and with many people being wheelchair dependent and unable to walk the presence of a working lift was essential.And wouldn't you know it,the lift packed up and stayed that way.With fierce grunting and groaning and huge and kind handling by carers and the blue coats and nurses and docs ,everybody was transferred down the two flights of stairs and we made it onto the plane.
I don't like flying and my sense of insecurity was heightened when I saw that the name of the Airline was Titan.Just add an "ic" and the omens are catastrophic.
Up ,up and away as the plane climbs higher and higher until we reach 37,000 feet and I chance looking out the window.We are above the clouds and they look like a bed of cotton wool below us into which you imagine you could jump and be softly embraced.But that is an optical illusion.You would plummet like a stone to 37,000 deaths.
In no time at all we land in Lourdes Airport.And wouldn't you know it,there are Dublin volunteers working there to make you feel welcome and assist in every way possible and help load you on a bus for forward transportation to the Resort.
We are loaded onto single decker buses and each seat has a seat belt which must be belted before we set off.As we pass through the countryside I am anxious to compare and contrast France to Ireland .The countryside is just the same as in Ireland,the grass is the same colour but there are no cattle or sheep to be seen anywhere,just field after field of tillage ,predominately maize as far as I could see.And the roof tiles are different than ours,seem to be mostly orange clay based. And they drive on the other side of the road. 
In no time at all we are in the Hospital where we will be based for the week.Agnes is my carer and we are assigned a double room with two beds,a wet room and a separate bathroom ,where I notice  a hose beside the toilet bowl which emits water and am told it is not for washing your feet.First class set up thank GOD.
I am bushed and take to the bed and miss the dinner ,which is cooked by the French staff but served up by the Irish volunteers who are kindness itself.
Not only do they ensure that we are watered and fed but they assist many patients, who are immobile through sickness, from the rooms  to the dining room and to table and so on.There are volunteer nurses and doctors on hand to help the distressed and as you would expect there are many seriously ill people around.
The first discovery I make is when  my wife goes for a smoke is that there is a designated smoking area for smokers at the base of the building and that she and others are not mentally whipped and humiliated by the authorities into dragging themselves outside the confines of the hospital to light up.There is much talk about bullying in this country but by far the most despicable form of it is that of the anti tobacco lobby and the way they humiliate sick and dying people in denying them a smoke which is indicative of the derision the medical and political classes feel for ordinary people.The French have a much more civilised approach.
The second thing that becomes obvious is that there area substantial number of pilgrims with us from Weastmeath and Offaly.This is because the MEATH Diocese covers Meath,Westmeath and a large chunk of Offaly,We forge strong friendships with two cats who suffer from M,S.one from Meath and the other from Biffo Country , whose bravery in the face of this disease is awesome and inspiring.
It seems to me that the most common illness are cancer and M.S. followed by Autism in the very young.But the list is endless.
Over the week it becomes clear that the Faith displayed by these sick pilgrims and their belief in the Mother of God and the solace the Lourdes experience gives them is only awesome and totally uplifting.
There are about 30 priests from the Diocese on the Pilgrimage and the Bishop of Meath Michael Smith heads up the Delegation.Two Franciscan Nuns from a USA based Order ,temporarily based in Drogheda are vivacious,devout and bursting with the joys of Catholicism,
An English born nun informs me that there is no major tradition of Catholicism in England but that those who practise the Faith do so because they really want to,the Church there being small but united.On the issue of Catholic schooling there admission to Catholic Schools is way oversubscribed and uniquely Muslims are by far the biggest non Catholic applicants.
Since I came home I listened aghast as a female member of the INTO tried to justify the introduction of non Catholic concepts on transgender ,homosexuality and alternative lifestyles as the norm for Catholic families to children as young as 5 years in Catholic Schools on the instruction of Jan Sullivan a   Labour Party Minister ,whose Party is aggressively hostile  to Catholicism .
I am not surprised at this, as I remember of one of the homosexual pressure groups boasting shortly after the results of the Referendum that the schools would be used precisely in this way and for this  purpose ,
The man who lectured the Pope and shut down the Irish Embassy in the Vatican guaranteed that this State interference in the Catholic ethos of Catholic Schools would not happen.As in the area of eviction ,where he promised it would not happen on his watch Enda's words were valueless.
French cook the food and meals are at 7.00 a.m.,noon and 6.00 p.m.There is no such thing as a fry for the breakfast ,which consists of either porridge or cornflakes and a bread roll with either coffee or tea.It's hard to bate Irish brown bread and it becomes a firm favourite when it appears.
Likewise the French spuds just don't compare to the ours.You would actually kill for  floury Irish spud after a few days and by far the best meat served was Irish cooked ham when you could get it.And what made every meal was the good humour of the Irish serving staff which was par excellence ,even the lady whose face cracked when she rarely smiled.
Now this is not to denigrate the French cooking ,but to a guy reared on floury spuds and marrow bone soup,home cooked brown bread and fresh eggs its too late in the day to change tack and I fully admit that I am a gastronomic pleb.
A river flows through the site.On one side of it are a number of hospitals like the one we inhabited  and a number of Churches and this area can be cut off from the opposite side by closing off the bridges.On the other riverbank is the Grotto itself ,the baths ,the Basicilla ,another underground Church ,another Church and above them the town of Lourdes,which has many shops and hotels and restaurants and the usual service enterprises you would see in any other town .
The volunteers stayed in a Hotel in the town and this was the place for the craic,singsongs and a few jars if you were so inclined and I was for one night only, but Agnes and the two ladies made it a for two nights.
There was a schedule of services and religious events for each day and if you were able you could attend.Now many Pilgrims from Ireland who were not on the Meath Diocese Pilgrimage booked into the Hotels in the town for the week and would  join the rest of us early in the day.
High Mass was celebrated every day in one or other of the Churches,the chief celebrant being Bishop Smith whose stamina for a man of his age is amazing.And upwards of 25 priests from the Diocese con celebrated with the Bishop.Now the wheelchair users were pushed each day from the hospital by the volunteers to whatever service was being played out and chariots ,which are a cross between a tricycle and a rickshaw were also pulled along for people like me whose mobility is limited.
Now I would have to say that I strongly suspect that some people who took to the chariots  were no more disabled than Sonia O Sullivan and all they were short of was a corgi to hold on their laps as they waved to one and all.
The wheelchair users and the charioteers were placed at  the front of the Churches and the able bodied to their rear and the ceremonies were highly impressive and emotive.
They were hugely enhanced by the Dunboyne Choir.whose singing was out of this world.Such was the atmosphere generated that if you closed your eyes during the Hymns you could easily imagine that this is what Heaven must be like.
The Grotto where Mary appeared to Bernadette is a stone cave and the very spot where Mary appeared is marked with a life sized statue of Her.Beneath the statue is a recess where I guess water over the ages has hollowed out the rock and above the recess is a massive column of rock which forms the foundations of one side of the Basicilla which towers above the  Grotto.
There is a continuous queue of pilgrims who file past the Grotto and touch the rock or kiss it and much of the rock is black from human contact.Beside this again are holders for candles and you can light as many as you like and voluntarily pay for them.Adjacent to this also are containers for petitions and donations.
Now the baths are beside these and I bathed twice in them.

Before I travelled out there I discussed the impending trip with a tinker friend of mine ,who had visited Lourdes several times.He had informed me that the water there did not wet him.I found this incredible and was inclined not to believe him.
So I tried it for myself.
It works like this.There are separate individual baths for each pilgrim.The operation is managed by mainly French guys ,for the men anyhow,who help you disrobe in a cubicle for six men ,down to underpants level .When your turn comes you are escorted through a curtained doorway into another cubicle where a sunken bath accessed by three steps is located.There you discard your underpants and these guys place a rubber sheet around your waist to preserve your modesty ans escort you down the steps into the coldest water I have ever felt.In my case a man held me each side and helped me down the steps and holding each arm told me to sit down into I guess three and a half  feet of water ,whilst praying.
This I did and I was well dunked up to chin level whilst being firmly held backwards and well immersed in the water.
I exited the water with their help ,soaking wet and immediately dressed without drying myself in any form or fashion.Within three minutes BOTH I AND MY CLOTHES WERE AS DRY AS A BONE.I SWEAR TO GOD.
And it happened two days trotting.
I am  unaware of any scientific explanation for this and consider this a miracle.I am not unique in this experience I am told.It happens millions.
As you can imagine all sorts of diseased bodies are immersed in these baths and I am told that there is no contagion either .
By far the most impressive and moving aspect o the Pilgrimage for me was the nightly Processions in which tens of thousands of  Pilgrims worldwide participated and during which many languages were used,including I am proud to say,Irish, on the night  the Meath Dioceses  led the procession.
Many of the Continental languages ,including Irish are far easier on the ear and much more maleficent than English ,which is sterile by comparison.
The sight of unlimited thousands of people ,including the sick and disabled,cared for as they are by able bodied carers ,as they file past with lighted candles protected from the wind by cardboard surrounds and raised to the Heavens as the Hymns praise the Mother of God ,on their journey to the front of the Basilica,is extremely emotive and awesome and reduced this Pilgrim to tears of joy.
An experience not to be missed.
There were several connections to this Parish on the Pilgrimage--Paudge Dalton and his wife,Davy Gilkinsons ma and sister and her child,Paddy Kavanagh and Mary,Phil Smith and his wife,Shamus Boylan and his wife,Father Macken from Bohermeen,Father Casey who was in this Parish in the 1970's and who is,as far as I know the sole surviving selector of the Intermediate winning Football Team of 1970,the others being Tommy Mac Cormack,Jimmy Coogan and the Major Cregan all of whom have gone to their eternal rewards.
Father Casey is 85 years young and still very active and is 60 years a Priest this year.I would hope that the GAA Club and the Parish he so gracefully served see fit to honour his achievements.
Also there were many people I had met through the years through the GAA including Harry Connors from Trim,Joe Murphy from the Hill of Ward ,Sean Bennett from Bohermeen and a lovely Stalwart Volunteer from Drumconrath whose name escapes me and a Kells chap who works in Mullagh.
Interestingly.a Priest I met who once hurled with Ratoath is from Rosemount in Westmeath and was greatly influenced by Father Malachy LYNAM in his vocation And wouldn't you know it Megan Garry,a grand daughter of DOT and Vincie Rattigan was there as a youth  volunteer .
Damian Englishe's brother was there as a most enthusiastic Priest and it is a terrible pity that this blatantly anti Christian Coalition don't take a leaf from his book and give due respect to the Church and its adherents
I met several people who have been there multiple times and asked why they kept returning when no miracle was worked for them.
To a man and woman they said that the ability to cope with their particular burden for a while longer was their personal Miracle.One jolly lady put it best perhaps when she explained that she went for a top up in Faith to lessen the pain she experienced daily as a result of losing three of her children to bizarre accidents within a three year period.
I will return D.V.
On the issue of numbers of Pilgrims per annum it is generally accepted by those I spoke to that c.6 million visit yearly but that the recession resulted in a decrease .
There is also a firm view THAT THE iTALIANS IN PARTICULAR HAVE DECIDED TO BOYCOTT lOURDES IN THEIR MILLIONS BECAUSE OF THE ANTI RELIGIOUS STANCE OF THE FRENCH ON THE JE SUIS CHARLIE ISSUE.

RSA and RTE a thundering disgrace.

In the run up to the All Ireland Final today I was watching RTE 2 with one of my three year old grand daughters sitting on my knee playing with her play dough.We both had half an eye on the TV and the other half eye on the play dough.
Then an ad by the Road Safety Authority came on the telly,It showed in graphic detail the result of a car crash where little is left to the imagination of the horrific results.
This was screened at 2.30 today when viewership was at a premium and was so timed to terrify shock and traumatise as many viewers as possible.
It certainly traumatized my three year grand daughter as she shook with shock and terror at the images broadcast.

I must say that I find this pornographic display of wanton violence by two organisations out of taxpayer's money disgusting, indecent and obscene and shameful.
They seem bent on terrorising even babes at arms and those responsible. if they have even a shred of decency in them ,ought resign in my opinion.
It is of course fully in keeping with the fascist nature of this Government who are already engaged in wholesale eviction of families in a level unprecedented since the foundation of the State,the false branding of at  least one innocent Priest as a paedophile and the incessant attack of all State bodies on Christian values and structures.
It is no wonder that their limitlessly powered minions take their cues from their political masters and treat with disdain the ordinary citizens who they clearly despise.

HARASSMENT OF COMMUNITY LEADER

Reports are filtering in from concerned parishioners of the bullying and intimidation of a highly respected community and GAA leader by a member of the Gardai Siocana ,who it seems ,when all other intimidating tactics failed,resorted to forcing the most upright and law abiding of citizens of taking a breathalyser test in front of infant children in the middle of the day when it was patently  clear that no drink was involved.
In other words it seems that when no unlawful activity could be found by the Garda in question the breathalyser was produced to break the will of the citizen and humiliate the person in front of the neighbours.
Not satisfied to relent on the bullying and intimidating tactics it seems that this outrageous behaviour continued until the person and the young children were reduced to tears and totally distraught.
The person involved is fearful of taking the matter further for fear of further harassment and my information comes from a concerned citizen.
In Lourdes soon I will be praying for guidance on whether to publish the name of the Guard in this blog.
It;s in the hands of GOD pro tem.

Dublin revisited.

In contrast to my earlier life ,when I was in the City almost daily ,I rarely visit Dublin now.
Within this last two weeks I had reason to go there twice and there has been profound changes since 2009 ,when I last visited the home of Molly Malone.
The first thing I noticed is that the indigenous Irish were in a minority in the areas I visited.
All around the ILLAC Centre the overwhelming colour of the populace was black and it was easily discernible from their mode of dress that they they were not of our stock.
The taxi rank I went to to get a taxi across town was entirely manned by black male taxi drivers and the patients in the hospital waiting room  were 90% foreigners.
I know this because of the accents they used when responding to the calls for their turns for treatment.
Many of them were accompanied by companions and the place was like the tower of babel such was the disparity of language,
Now I wouldn't know whether they were EU citizens or otherwise but Paddy and Biddy were in a severe minority.
Reminded  me a bit of Navan Hospital in 2009 when I was a patient there and the standing quest was to find an Irish doctor on the staff.
I had occasions to be in the Dame Street area and much the same story there
Paddy and Biddy a minority in their own city .
Now I dropped my walking stick twice and both times it was immediately picked up by a foreigner and handed to me,so that was grand.
I wonder what the attraction of Dublin is for such a swarm of foreigners and ask the question whether our Government has any real handle on the numbers of foreigners actually living here.
I also wonder whether all these folk are included in the employment/unemployment statistics and what the actual employment /unemployment statistics are for our own citizens .
The second thing I noticed was that between the hours of 8 a.m and 9.a.m.every person either dawdling to work or scurrying there had a cardboard cup of coffee or its equivalent either clinched between their lips or tightly grasped in hand.
No time for breakfast seemingly.
And lastly these rental bikes are all over the gaff and have taken off big time.And I mean all over the gaff..including footpaths and anywhere they shouldn't be as the riders have only marginal regard to pedestrian safety.
And it seems that any civil servant unfortunates enough to have a male appendage has only a 1 in 4 chance of promotion such is the anti man bias in the civil service under this Government and the obvious baleful view of heterosexuality held by easily identifiable politicians.
I  am told that man career civil servants are queuing up to get out and are living in depressing resignation of their certain unjust fate,

Dublin and Mayo serve up a classic

If the first half of the replayed semi final today wasn't the best exhibition of football served  in my lifetime I don't know what was.
The intensity ,honesty and skill on view left nothing to be desired.
And it was particularly gratifying to see Paddy Andrews in such scintillating form and earning the Man of the Match accolade.Very well deserved.
As a former Chairman and member of Saint Brigids for many years I  take pride in his achievements.
Just last year my good friend and President of the Club ,Herbie Hughes ,confided in me that he didn't think that Paddy was getting a fair shake from the Dublin management team.
Thanks to be God that they have seen the light and given him  a fair chance to showcase the vast array of talents at his disposal.
I don't know this guy nor his people as far as I know but he is a good one.
More than likely he was introduced to Football by Tony Hegarty,encouraged by Davy Nolan and Brendan Mac Namee, who did trojan work in Castleknock school to popularise the GAA in what was barren ground three short decades ago.
For me the turning point in the game was the dismissal of Seamos O Shea for responding ,very moderately in my view .to the knavish and cowardly blow from behind by the Dublin player.
O  Shea is a man and the cowardly blow from behind was a disgrace..
It is a sad day for the ASSOCIATION when  manly reaction to  a sneaky and cowardly blow is penalised and the knave goes free of punishment and and  the game hinges on the unjust dismisal,
My personal view is that his Black Card thing should be binned entirely.
It would be more effective by far to awatd the team which is rogued two points from the resultant free if scored and if the foul is committed in the half of the offended  team  to bring the free to the forty five meter line.
Dublin have a gem of a manager in Jim Gavin but I fear that he will have to put his best troops on from the start in the final.
We won't win the battle without the best troops on the field ab initio.

Kilkenny worthy winners,

As long as I can remember Kilkenny were the bees knees in Hurling.Tipp and Cork run them closest but whatever it is about Kilkenny they are simply the best.
Galway gave it a right good rattle but just couldn't last the course.
The experts on the Sunday Game this evening failed to select the best hurler Galway has produced for decades on the team of the year and if Joe Canning is not first choice ,bar none ,of the men you would select in any hurling battle then I don't know who is..
It is gratifying to know that three Presidents of the GAA lodged concurrently under the roof of Nan Coffey of this Parish a number of years ago while conferring on affairs as Gaelige.
The current man Aodhgan O Fearraghail,Joe Mac Donagh and Kilkenny man Nicky Brennan lodged there while brushing up on their Irish.
The present man stands out head and shoulder as the most appealing man for the job in recent years.
On a personal note I am sad to see that Jimmy Barry Murphy has resigned as Cork manager,Apart from the pure pleasure he gave to all genuine hurling people as a player he has had to stand into the gap and elevate Cork hurling from the morass into which Donal OG Cusack O Hailpin   and their insufferable and his big headed contempories  had dragged it.
I wish him well .

Dunderry V Blackhall SHC .Kilmessan 30/8/22015

This Sunday was my idea of GAA Heaven.My beloved Club playing at 1.45 p.m and the Dubs V Mayo in the All Ireland semi final at 3.30 p.m.It doesn't get much better.
Kilmessan is a fine pitch and most of the Kilmessan,in fact the overwhelming majority ,are the finest of people.
I picked up the auld Bomber Farrell on the way.He is the freshest 68 year old I know and soldiered with me with the juvenile hurlers for a decade when men were men and we inculcated the importance of courage in the game of the Gaels.
We are firmly of the view that the most important attributes of any proponent of the Games of the Gaels are located between breast and buidin i.e.heart and guts.
Still depressed after the disastrous performance of last week against Castletown in the IFC, where we effectively had an eight point start against Castletown and would have to lose by more than  than that to be thrown out of the Championship  and we did so lose,I was only slightly apprehensive that we might put up another gutless display.
Thanks be to God we didn't.
I N fact were we to win today by over 8 points we could advance to the playoffs.I never thought this on and would have been happy to just win the match and retain our Senior status.
We lined out thus.
                                                 Ivan Mc Cormack

Davy Stephens                          Evan Stephens                         Aaron Feeney

C,Dempsey                              B. Wright                                  Davy Mac Cormack

                                 Bomber Farrell                C O Shea

Davy Gilkinson                              J, Moran                              S.Coogan

C.Harrington                                   L.Martyn                             Alex Walshe.

Subs introduced.d,Keenan and J.Martin.
Blackhall led by 0-2 to 0-0 when I got there 5 minutes late.
Both teams were on fire in a well contested game of equals .The game swung from end to end in a first half some of which was poetic in its execution.
They have good forwards and our back line had to be and was magnificent in its defending,especially Finn who was marking the biggest full forward I have seen in a long time.
Sprog,Feeney,Dempsey.Wright and Spongee played with valour and skill and the full plethora of those attributes from breast to buidin were on permanent show.
The midfield was even stephen , Harry was plucking them from the sky  and Lukie was the master of his markers.Any ball delivered right to him was sure of a minimum pointed free from an accurate Gilkie who punished every misdemeanour ,at least for the first half.
The other forwards tried their dam nest but just don't click fully.They did enough however to earn their keep I thought.
We went in ahead 1-9 to 0-9 and well deserved that lead.
 There seemed to me to be a long delay in the referee and Blackhall returning to the fray and this had an unsettling  effect on our second half display it seemed to me as we never reached the heights we attained in the first half.,which was riddled with  Free's ,some of which were hard to figure and two of which ,organist us, were definitely not frees at all ,both of which were pointed in the dying minutes and which resulted in a drawn result of  0-15 to our 1-12.
Gilky was somewhat erratic in his freaking in the second half and we don't appear to have a plan B
and some of our line pucks were poorly executed .We need to sort this.
I m nitpicking a bit here as this was a hard fought gutsy display overall and a match we rightly won but were denied victory because of two poor decisions by an otherwise good referee.
Wrong decision one was when Finn  was wrongly blown for throwing a ball he clearly correctly hand passed and  wrong decision two was against Davy Mac for the bravest bit of defending I have seen this many a day.It happened like this.
He and his opponent pulled head height on a fast moving sliotar.The caman was struck out of his hand and his opponent hared towards goal with the sliotar on his stick. Davy followed him without caman ,caught up with him and as the guy pulled on the ball Davy USED his bare hand as a bat and struck the ball away so as the stroke missed the ball
Instead of granting him an award for bravery  a free was awarded against him which caused our considerable and dedicated supporters to howl with frustration,
 It was somewhat heartening to see that Black hall have stopped that hateful sledging which manifested last time we met by calling our boys Pickeys and that they have largely abandoned the habit of invading the pitch at the merest suspicion of injury and disrupting play .
I t never ceases to amaze me how there can be such a remarkable difference in spirited resistance between our hurling and football teams and it would be interesting to put the hurling team out in block in a football match to see whether that spirit of defiance would translate across.
Ivo kept a clean sheet and his presence has brought something extra to the team and Jordan when he came on had a fine game.Dylan wasn't on ling enough to be rated'
I didn't get all our scorers but Lukie got 1-4 from play ,Gilkie got at least 0-4 and Bomber and Harry a minor apiece.
 Were both DOCS,both Brutons ,Liamie Dempsey,Simon Carty,Subs who were togged out today and maybe Brendan Farrell and  A Few other former hurlers approached and a full commitment given I  could see a Senior Championship coming our way.
But this casual approach by some which exposed us to thumpings in Leinster and against Killyon this year will have to be exorcised once and for all.
Onwards and upwards and Paddy you are doing a good job.

The pillage and sack of Churchtown

Dot and Vincie or Vincie and Dot are 47 years together this year.Married for 47 years that is.Never
a night apart.Correction.She took bad a few years ago and was confined to Navan Hospital.She couldn't sleep .At all.Nothing worked .Sleeping pills had as much effect as smarties.She missed Vincie too much.Vincie himself hasn't slept for more than a half hour a day for over 40 years.The medics can't cure him nor explain how he keeps going.But he does,
And common sense eventually prevailed in the Hospital.A clever nurse called Vincie at nighttime and he held her hand and HE hushed her to sleep and off she dozed.
They have four kids Ellen Garry,Johnnie,Teresa and Hammer and grand kids aplenty,
They are senior pensioners now .Dot has had severe health problems this past six years.She is still awaiting resolution of her problems and some decent run at a fair quality of life.Doctors have come and doctors have gone as she is passed from one to another.
She was confined to her house day and night because of her condition  this last year but left it for one hour only last evening,about more of which anon.
Herself and Vincie are lifelong Pioneers and lifelong supporters of Dunderry GAA Club ,Camogie Club and most social organisation in the Parish,
I am not perfect at anything ,sums especially ,but would be fairly sure that the extended family collected upwards of a quarter million euros for the Club LOTTO this last decade..
Put simply there would be no GAA facilities in Dunderry but for them.They put in the hard hours and the time.
 It must be to the shame of some people who hide behind their electronic  gates and ignore their bell rings so as to avoid contributing the weekly E.2.00 Lotto, while concurrently sending their offspring to avail of Club facilities.
When the bingo was a big deal and great fundraiser here she was a huge supporter and there was no better man than Vincie to supervise the car parking and greet the exiting hordes with a catchphrase that ran"Any luck with the Bingo Mam "in an accent unique to him.
Of course the anti smoking Taliban and their political allies put an end to these outings for every auld wan and auld fella whose only pleasure in life was a game of bingo and a smoke by the anti smoking ban, transforming them into social outcasts akin to homeless refugees trying to get a gasp of a fag in the freezing rain and often bitter cold outside the halls,
I had the great pleasure of interviewing Mickey ,Vince's bachelor uncle on video in 2008 as I wished to record some of the Club history before men and women of his era disappeared altogether.
Well into his eighties at that stage it was clear he hadn't long to live.In fact he died three weeks after the interview.A lifelong smoker he was brainwashed into quitting them at that age despite the fact that he loved them so much that he asked for a smell of my tobacco pack.
What a pity it is that the same medical professionals aren't as prompt in treating seriously sick elderly patients  as they are in harranging them about smoking or the growing list of other pet hates that emerge.
Any how the point is that they minded Mickey at home until he died ,treating him like a King,concurrently minding a clatter of adoring grand kids so as their own kids could earn a living during working hours.
I wouldn't know the financial situation of the Rhattigans BUT  would surmise the they have no material wealth of any significance.Vincie was prior to retirement a road operative with Meath Council and Dot a full time housewife and minder of her children and now her grandchildren.Llike my own wife and millions of others her contribution to society when it comes  to pension provision is regarded as unworthy of entitlement unless she can prove she is practically a pauper,
Yep in the land where the writs of the bull dikes , the rabid feminists and the Jesus haters run wild , where the  Taoiseach on  who watch eviction has become common place and who has the temerity to lecture God's representative on earth, the mother who raises her children at home has the same statutory pension status as a dog .
But one thing I am sure of is that it was for  this family the  words decent ,noble ,caring,exemplary and truly Christian were  coined.
They have more nature in the nails of their little fingers than most have in entire bodies,
As I said earlier for one hour yesterday they left the house empty to see two of their grand daughters off to their Debs,
In that hour an unspeakable scumbag or bags broke into their humble house,stole every cent they could find and every valuable ,totally ransacked each and every room ,throwing valuable documentation like birth certs and such like all over the place,flittering all sort of underwear and over ware wheresoever they could find space ,emptying every wardrobe and press in the  house and turned beds and all the furniture they could lift head over heels.
I did not thinks it possible that this sort of hack could be wreaked in one hour,but seeing is believing.
To say they are devastate is an understatement.They are understandably wrecked at this dastardly invasion of privacy and wanton destruction.
I do know that the wider community owes them a huge debt of gratitude and strongly feel that anything that can be done to bring the perpetrators to justice should be done without compunction.
I personally feel that it is payback time to this family in the most appropriate manner acceptable to them.
Combined with the targeting of the graveyard for the theft of flowerpots the arrival of the post Christian multicultural Society so beloved of  the lefties and their ilk has come to Dunderry big time.
God help us.No one else will.
Oremus.
I know that the Rattigans would kill me for writing this but so in awe of their innate decency is mise that I HAD TO PUT PEN TO PAPER.
Nothing was recoverd and the thieves wore gloves.
As per fucking usual.
And to update the matter the thieves later threw on the roadside the more valueless trinkets for recovery and have not and will not be caught.They live in total fear and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the Insurance Coimpany having seisin of the cover are doing their best to minimise their exposure.THIS IS WHAT THESE COMPANIES DO TO THOSE IT CAN BULLY INTO SUBMISSION IN POST CHRISTIAN MULTICULTURAL IRELAND WHERE THE CRONES WITH THE MOANS MISRULE . 

Dire Dunderry Dumped from I.F.C.by Castletown.

I t is one thing to be beaten by a superior team after giving your best shot at it,
It is another to come out with the white flag of surrender.And aside from the best efforts of the usual  veteran suspects and maybe three more recent arrivals this was the worst football championship display I   have seen in a decade.
We missed enough handy chances in the first half to be well set up for the second half instead of going in two points in arrears and spent as much of the second half as I could bear to watch passing the ball as near either corner flag as possible before either losing it altogether or simply giving it away and enabling  Castletown to come up the field and score at will,and drive the ball past an unprotected Jennings,
After the ceding of a third handy  Castletown  goal I, for the first time in my life,left an important Dunderry game to save myself emotional devastation.
We were beat 11 points I  am informed.From what I saw WE WERE LUCKY TO HOLD THEM  TO THIS.
It is no great shock to me that it has come to this.For up to a decade now we have been languishing in the  bottommost divisions of minor football and as I discovered  to my shock three years ago when I gave   a hand with an under 14 football team.Mmost of the better players never trained with Dundery but were the first selected  and any attempt by me to do even the most gentle training and insist on it as a prerequisite to selection was resisted in every way  by other mentors who considered basic qualities such as availability ,loyalty and team solidarity as quaint concepts.
The pigeons are now coming home to roost big time.
It is as simple as this .Some of the players pay baby sitters to mind their kids when their partners are working so as to attend training. Others think nothing of saving their money to go on gang holidays to the fleshpots of Europe and to hell with their team mates if there are vital matches to be played.
Unfortunately the attitude of casual disregard for the Club and its teammate's has seeped up from our Juvenile section.
God help us.

Death of Mona Travers formerly of Boyerstown.

I have just heard that Mona Travers ,formerly of Boyerstown and latterly of Navan has died.She was A Bishop before she married John Travers who predeceased her by a number of years.
Carol Callaghan,widow of Peter and mother of Ryan,Sean AND Nicola  is one of her daughters.
Her funeral Mass is at 1.00 p.m.tomorrow in Boyerstown Church.
Ar Dheis De go raibh a hanam dilis..

The little things that matter most

The eleven o clock Mass last Sunday in Dunderry was an anniversary Mass for Clement Daly of TULLAGHANSTOWN ,who is deceased a good while but whose memory obviously lives on in the minds and thoughts of his descendants.
On the way into the Church I  was called aside by Paddy Conway of Halltown who said to a fierce sprightly old gentleman that he would surely have known my mother Peggy Mc Cormack ,who I must clarify is long since dead having lived on this earth for 80 years odd.
Paddy himself is no spring chicken either.
The gent said that he knew all the Mc Cormacks having gone to school with them in Tullaghanstown or TULLAGHANSTOWN ACAMEDY OF EDUCATION as my uncles used call it in jest.
The school is long since gone and is commemorated nowadays in a plaque in the wall of the school in Dunderry..
I had to ask the man who he was and say to him that he was a fierce fresh man to have gone to school with my mother and her siblings .
He is Peter Daly the last survivor of that generation of Dalys and is the freshest man of 90 years I  have ever seen.
His memory is crystal clear and he could recall to this day the differing sounds of the axles and wheels of the horse and ass drawn drays and the identities of the owners thereof which enabled himself and his siblings to know who was heading to the bog to cut turf without looking out the window of their house in School or Daly's Lane,where they lived over 80 years ago.
This remarkable man has lived in Monghan for over 70 years and has a slight touch of a Monghan accent and looks certain to draw the centenary bounty  from the President and passionately loves his native shore.
He cast doubt on the story my uncles often recounted concerning the floods that flooded the bog cross in 1947 to a depth of 3  feet ,when a tramp travelling from Athboy to Navan mischievously enquired from a local man if this was a Port Town and was advised to ask the local man's bolo....,saying that never a curse word was spoken in Tullaghanstown in those days.
Yeah right.

Death of John Darcy

John Darcy of Ballardin,Dunderry,(beside the football pitch )died last night Sunday 16/08/2015 after a short illness aged,as far as I know,79 years,.
John was a decent man and spent some years in a nursing home in Kells ,a place he enjoyed living in.
Newer residents would know him from his frequent visits in his wheelchair to the village on days of clement weather when he would park around Flanagans Shop and talk to old friends who passed by.
Generally he was brought here and back to Kells by his good and loyal friend Mickey Flanagan.
I knew John well.He was a nice guy and I will do a more detailed tribute after his burial,which I believe will be on Wednesday.
To all his relatives I extend my deepest condolences.
Ar Dheis De go raibh a hanam dilis.
His funeral Mass is in Dunderry Church at 11.00 a.m.Wednesday 19/8/2015 with funeral to local cemetery afterwards.

A lesson learned,forgotten and relearned.

I have been distracted of late,snowed under with a huge volume of work,as busy as a bee and have not published a blog for ages.
For those who follow my blogs on the adult Dunderry matches,I have a backlog to put up and will start soon.
I have a number of tributes to do for deceased friends both in Dunderry and Blanch in the most bizarre of years and have much to say on the present Government who have done more to reinstate the Landlord system in Ireland than any other administration since Cromwell cleared the three provinces to Connaught and murdered half the population because they were Catholic.
And it is sad to see that the Labour Party shares his hatred of Catholicism and is threatening to attack the right of religious freedom and the fundamental right of Christians to educate their children in schools with a religious ethos.
They and their ilk are more interested in murdering preborn indigenous Irish in the womb so that they can dilute the Christian ethos of our people and reduce our numbers and  replace us with East European stock who regard abortion as a form of birth control  .
Don't get me started.
As the fella said "when I wasn't fishing O I was mending my nets."
And when strangers say to you "I wish to have a conversation about..." it would serve you well to remember that that was the opening line of the serpent when he induced Eve to bite the forbidden fruit and led to man's banishment from the garden of Eden.
Anyhow to the lesson mentioned in the title.
In my middle teens a lifetime ago I worked for a summer break from school with a potato wholesaler as a lorry helper.
My job was to lug bags of spuds onto a lorry from the farmer suppliers and from the lorry back to the storage shed.In addition I had to load them onto the lorry each morning and unload them from the lorry to the customers who were supplied all around the city and county of Dublin.
Hard work but sure I was well able for it.
A new lorry driver joined the firm and I  was put working with him.Seemed to be a nice guy.
Every morning he would be first into work and would have the lorry loaded before I or anybody else arrived in work.
He would do the deal and I did the grunting throwing the spuds off and often bringing them up five flights of stairs.He collected payment and handed it over at day's end.
Nice and all as he was he only lasted a month.
And here is why .
We used deliver to a small supermarket.The owner noticed our driver lifting small items like disposable razors on a regular basis, a matter I never copped nor suspected.These were not worth much but he informed our boss ,who decided to do a count of the number of bags in the store the night before the mornings when the spuds would be loaded.by our man.
Any how it transpired that our man was selling about ten sacks of spuds each and every day and pocketing the money.
The lesson I learned from this is that if a person is dishonest in little things he will more than likely be dishonest in bigger things.
To my discredit I had forgotten this but have relearned it and chastise myself for forgetting it.
Human nature never changes.