On the campaign trail

Campaign Update and People Farming

Was on local radio (LMFM) at 10a.m.Tuesday and national television (RTE1) on Sunday evening last-The Week in Politics. Also on local weekly paper Meath News and Sports, on front page and inside page this week . Had fliers dropped to all voters in constituency over the last few days and attended anti pylon meeting on Monday in Headford in Kells. An I.F.A. meeting I meant to attend on Monday coincided with pylon meeting so I couldn’t attend.

Maybe God is cutting me some slack.

My campaign manager, diary secretary, publicist, research director, graphic artist, I.T. consultant and transport manager (my daughter Margarita), whose remuneration is zilch will attached the gizmos which enable the viewing and listening of these events to the blog. (Of necessity i’m a miser on administration).

In general I can definitely feel that people who don’t know me tend to think because I am fairly banjaxed physically that I am mentally retarded. This is disheartening . If anything a lot of my inhibitions have disappeared and my tolerance for bullshit has worn thin.

I canvassed in Navan on Saturday last on my tricycle. Met many nice people. Some people thought I was retarded. But it is perhaps a measure of how low politics has sunk that I overheard two old wans saying that politics had sunk to a new low when people (i.e.me) were pretending to be retarded to get votes. As my grandfather used to say “bad cess to ye”, whatever that means.

The persecution of the self employed continues unabated. Nobody cares and I have heard nothing to indicate  that any relief is in sight.

Genuine people who did their best and ran onto the rocks have only three realistic options available to them (1)Throw yourselves at the mercy of the State or (2)Get the hell out to a country that genuinely cherishes its people and get a fresh start. (3) Vote for me and demand change.

Economic emigration continues apace. My correspondents suggest and the evidence of my eyes confirms that the equivalent of 2/3 rd of the Annual Leaving Cert. class emigrates and that about that number of welfare tourists replace them. The country is like a bath with a tap running  which stays at the same level because the emptying plug  lets out the same amount of water. It can’t last.

On the subject of farming I think that we have been farmed as a nation recently and will continue to be so farmed for the future. Farmers produce grains or animals for sale. They  provide whatever is necessary to maximise production,

My blog on Irishness has a point. We are a consumer State, importing all consumer goods ,bar food. It is in Europe’s Bank  and the World’s Bank interest to keep us as consumers and to support us financially to do this. We will have our blood , sweat , tears and money farmed by these  until we pip at the seams and a vote for any of the main parties will only determine the number of notches on the whip and the frequency of the scourge.

On a more optimistic level I take great heart from the contacts I have had from remarkable and inspiringly genuine people. There are enough of you there  to make a difference , if you can find and support candidates of genuine conviction and compassion that can think outside the box, a place I think I occupy.

I really cannot get over the way the politico muinteoiri have things so well sown up for themselves that they get teacher’s pensions for life having spent so few years in the classroom.

Needless to say there won’t be any fall out between the parties over this as they are all dominated by this species.

And before the teaching teachers rear up I am not criticising you.I know the great community work you do and will do in future. Like us all you are straining under the yoke or universal health levy etc.

Great to hear from John from Blanch. and Garret from Dunderry , both in exile in Sas. Two decent, hardy genuine Gaels, who you would love to have beside you in a tough corner. It’s a shame you don’t have the vote. I bet you never will either .Guess why?

Our politicos have decommissioned our sugar industry and are planning to decommission our language, our electricity production and gas industries. Let me remind you that this island no longer has an air fleet nor a merchant navy. But then again our farmer masters will look after us. Won’t they?

I see the reverse takeover leader of the Labour Party, from the calf eyes he is fluttering at his chosen partner this time around, still finds time to plead to the voters to crush the independents  by vacuuming up the votes in his favour. No glasnost there then. Tell him to flutter off on Friday.

My political advisor tells me I make no political friends by attacking them like I do and that they will send the vampire canvassers or agents to get me (canvass in the dark in case you are seen and operate in the shadows).Truth is that aside from torturing us with hot pokers they could not cause more pain than we are suffering daily and we are sucked dry as it is.

I can meet my maker when the time comes and tell him that at least I tried.

A definition of Irishness?

Goodbye to Seanie and Gilki  on their voyage to Aussieland. And to their parents we mourn their departure with you.

Hello to Kate and Julie in England, Eoin, Daniel,  Mark, Philip in Aussieland (all nephews and nieces) Razor, Yvonne, Lisa, Noel  and Gerry in Australia, Tommy in New Zealand and Garrett, Niall and the Daly clan in Sasana. Also Kenny,  Gerry C. and family and Tommy G and sister  in the USA and Tommy B. in Uganda.

We wish Eileen Mc Nally a happy 80^th and are delighted that her five children made it home from their homes in England for the celebrations in the Lodge and Horans and Geraghtys.

You might like this one-

“Being Irish is about driving a German, Japanese, Korean or French  car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer or an Irish coffee infused with Irish sugar (you must be joking) on the way home from a German or Canadian supermarket, then grabbing either a Chinese, Indian or Thai curry, a Turkish kebab or chips from an Italian chipper, ordered in English, to sit on a Swedish sofa and watch English, Australian  or USA shows on a Japanese T.V. set

And being very suspicious of anything foreign.

Only here can you get a pizza delivered quicker than an ambulance and only here do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counter. Only here do Governments lumber children yet to be born with the as yet to be fathomed  billions in losses by the same banks.

In  supermarkets sick people have to walk to the back of the premises for prescriptions, while healthy people are served fags at the front.

And only here would the leader of the main political party and Taoiseach in waiting promulgate the decommissioning of the native Irish language and accrue a teacher’s pension of 100K up front and 30k for life for spending 4 years actually teaching ”

Hey lads drink a pint of Guniness, munch a pack of Tayto and ate a fatherly feed of rashers, sausages and black puddings on the way home from the hurling match. Make sure to go to the ceili, sing the National anthem as gaelige and pray for us.

Slan.

Daithi.

Dunderry GAA News

The lads played Ballinlough in the Div.2 Football League last Sunday in Ballinlough. A good test played on a very heavy pitch.

 Dunderry are doing very heavy training, conducted and devised by a boxing coach of some stature.No football of consequence but fierce lifting of tractor (back wheel  tyres and big lorry tyres, amongst other muscle building exercises.

Training is  three times weekly, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for both hurlers and footballers,with the hurlers having a puck around on Sundays to keep the eye in under the hawkeyed coach John Joe (Whacko) Mc Gourty, who is bringing to his coaching career the same heart he displaced on the pitch in days of yore.

Dunderry won by two points in a match where it was clear that neither team had done much ballwork. Ballinlough could feel hard done by, but a win is a win is a win.

The match marked the debut in the Club of Darren Fay, former Meath great who transferred to us from Trim this year, having lived in Tullaghanstown this many years .

A great addition and living proof that there is no substitute for a man.

He is blending in well with our own men and I think  we will figure again this year.

I won’t give any more particulars until things bed down, when I will give fuller reports naming names and giving ratings.

This week the club is gathering scrap metal,the value of which has soared ,all over the Parish and this will be realised for Club funds on Saturday (Scrap Saturday). Word has got out and it is a sign of the times that at least one bogus collector is going around pretending he is collecting for the club and heading off with scrap for himself.

Could you be up to them ?

Personally I may have media interviews over coming days.Am strongly thinking of just pointing to either of two adages on my fliers,”fir breaga “ or “empty Vessels”. These should cover most arguments put out by major political parties!

The Worst Recession in the History of the State

In the worst recession in the history of the State,with despair stalking the land and nearly every family living in fear,all the political parties have colluded in yet again sharpening the State’s claws to squeeze the last drop of blood from those who have no way out of the country.

I refer to Sec.74 Finance Bill 2011,which put simply entitles the State,through the Revenue,to effectively seize your wages from your employer if you are misfortunate enough to owe money to the Revenue.Not only can they seize your wages without Court Order,but also your pension and most Social Welfarepayments(all emoluments).This further strengthens the State’s ability to destroy families without Court approval .There is no upper limit nor lower limit on the amount of wages they can seize ,nor is any age group excluded.There is no mention of compassion nor is there any limitation of any description specified in the bill.

Before now if you owed money to Revenue and Revenue discovered that someone owed you money revenue could attach that money from your debtor.This is still the position.For example ,if you have money in a financial institution, that institution owes you a debt and the Revenue can take it,telling you afterwards.   Which is another reason the State wishes to get payment by bank transfer and are so anxious to force everybody into the arms of the Banks ,most of which they now own.

With the powers they have and ownership of the banks they have total control over you.

So now you know that not only is the State going to screw your wage packet and pension for taxes but they can take all your wages if you run up a bill to them.This they can do without any regard to family circumstances and the many problems people labour under in these hard times

How long now until similar legislation is introduced to allow the state owned banks to similarly seize your wages to collect arrears of mortage repayments?

Since the craven surrender of our sovereignty to the Germans,who rule the European roost,our freedoms over all aspects of our lives have been taken away bit by bit and placed in the hands of State officials ,who if they take a dislike to us can destroy us .All you in business know exactly what I mean.Every State body and  quango  is bursting itself to prove how much pain it can inflict in its area of operation in order to avoid the chop.

Our country has been turned into a hateful open prison by our greedy political masters ,eagerly assisted by a clever and self serving advisory elite.

For these reasons and out of shame that so many of my generation left the running of the country to people we trusted but turned out to be charlatans I am  sticking  my neck out and  running as an independent candidate in Meath West

I would welcome the support and assistance of like minded people and can be written to at the address below.

Daithi Stephens,

Dunderry,

Navan,

Co.Meath. 

 

Drumbeat Intro

My name is Daithi Stephens.I am 59 years old,a father of seven adult children and a grandfather of seven.My mother was a Mc Cormack from Churchtown and I have been coming to Dunderry since 1954 and living here since 1986.

Before 1986 I lived in Blanchardstown  and later Mulhuddart,Co.Dublin.I am the eldest of 9 (7 boys and 2 girls)and grew up in Blanchardstown when it was a village at a time when we were considered “culchies”by city people.

My passion has been and still is all things GAA.I was involved in St.Brigid, GAA Club from the age of ten ,playing and enjoying hurling and football until 1986.I was involved in coaching from a young age and served at all levels on committees, including Chairman,for my last two years there (1985 and1986)

After I left there was a falling out between the Club and my six brothers ,all of whom played with the Club from early childhood.My mother,who was GAA through and through was greatly upset at the breakup right until the time of her death and I can well remember herself and Mary Brennan manning the gap in the fence at Swords when a fierce fight broke out between Brigids and St.Maurs in a replayed Intermediate championship final many years ago.

 The outcome was that they broke away and formed Erin Go Brath ,a new Club currently going strong in Littlepace,Clonee ,biut still in Dublin.The name was derived from a defunct Club which had operated around the Clonsilla,Porterstown and Westmanstown areas of Dublin and which often played players from the Meath side of the Border.I’d say thay Brian Smyth of Meath 1949 fame might have known some of these players as it existed around the time he was at his best.

After my migration to Dunderry I got involved in the Dunderry GAA Club ,initially at Juvenile level and then at Adult level,playing in a manner as long as I could.I stood in as a very bad sub at 57 years of age in a junior hurling match.In 2008 I was honoured to take the Chairman’s job ,a position I was to occupy until the end of 2009,when I had to give it up because of a bad stroke I survived in that year

I would say that my GAA genes derived from my mother’s side as the Mc Cormack’s were GAA mad and were steeped in GAA tradition ,my uncle Tommy serving as Chairman for most of his adult life.

About 1988 I resurrected Camogie in the Parish to give my 4 daughters a sporting outlet and this is still going strong.I served as Chairman until 2010 and have since stepped down,being  president for life. 

Work wise I was a Public servant for over 30 years .I now have a small farm and help small scale self employed people in their tax and other obligations.I know the two sides of the coin and I can definitely say anyone with a public service job or pension ,even the lower paid and despite all the cutbacks ,is in heaven compared to the hell of the  self employed and the unemployed..

I like to think that I exercised my duties as a public servant in a considered and non hurtful way and never kicked a dog when he was down.I regret to say that compassion,generousity and a willingness to help those in need is noticeably absent from some public servants ,but thankfully present in the majority still.

On a personal level I hate with a passion thoughtless and  deliberate  boorishness on the part of those paid from the public purse .Do these people know or care how the misuse of their powers effects people,sometimes mortally? 

I am  running in the upcoming general election as an independent candidate as an expression of my  disgust that so many  well educated persons of my generation sold our country down the Swanee,while thousands like me stood aside and trusted them .What a bunch of bankers .They thought more of the  rights of a stag than of whole generations of our people.I know people who took their lives in despair because of their ineptitude .I know of families who live in constant fear and are torn apart ,families who struggle to find enough to feed and clothe themselves and their kids and families which  have lost either all their kids or most of them to forced emigration ,while those left behind are being scourged on a daily basis by the organs of state for more and more taxes in all their guises.Not to mention the serious ill health brought on by the impossibility to cope.

Look ,the mission statements of nearly all the public bodies in this country contains platitudes  about“serving our customers”and giving the impression that a presumption of decency exists in the citizen’s favour.

We now know that all we get is the mushroom treatment and that the reality is that we are considered  to be docile and  untrustworthy peasants to be ravished  at will and codded up to the eyeballs.As I see it when you see all the main parties agreeing look out.Remember Lisbon 2.They kept going until they got the result they wanted to suit their masters .The payback was to be jobs.Well now you know .

The best of all is that the modern day Diarmuid mc Murroughs haven’t the guts to face the populace and have ridden into the sunset with bulging pockets leaving devastation as their legacy.

Many historians decry DeValera.To be fair to him he maintained our sovereignty during the greatest world war ever seen .A giant compared to the political pygmies who shamed his Party.

As the apple never falls far from the tree ,Dev Og shows the promise of great integrity and he can join me if he wishes.

Neither Fine Gael nor Labour can take solace from the above views.I am old enough to remember the Governments of the seventies and eighties when fear ,despair and the absence of hope were commonplace and when people went into forced emigration by the new time,the exact same as now.A lot of revisionism is going on .I well remember Garrett Fitzgerald being booed at the centenary all  Ireland final in Thurles in 1984,something that GAA people don’t do lightly,

For my own part I have recent first hand experience in a local hospital and nearly died..I know the score.

I know people who are at their wit’s end and I am absolutely certain that so much power has been given to administrators that those trying to make a go of it are absolutely spancilled.We live in an open prison,becoming more like the inhabitants of the former East Germany by the day,such was and is the anxiety of our political masters  to please our German and French overlords.

It is time to stand up and be counted and this I do.

If you feel as I do contact me.

When this election is over I will continue this on a lighter vein and would welcome any information relating to Dunderry and its environs that you wish to share.

For my part I will ,as time allows,update the blog and publish any thing which is not libellous ,maintaining absolute secrecy at all times.

Slan.  

Fear Breaga

My mother’s brothers and sisters and her father and mother could barely speak Gaelic, a result I suspect, of poor teaching in the subject. Nor would they have been overlong at school, the economic necessities of the times dictating that they had to put their shoulders to the wheel as soon as they were physically able.

Nonetheless they had a smidgin of Irish, which I suppose had come down to them from the time that gaelic was the vernacular in this part of the country.

Potatoes were “praities”, boys were “gasuns”, girls were “gersas”. The word “in” was added to most names.Thus Tommy became” Toimin “, Joe became “Join”,Paddy became “Paidin”,Mary became “Mainin” and so on. As in “our Mainin has notions”.

Notwithstanding the lack of formal education they were the best
conversationalists I have ever met. Intelligent too and as sharp as razors.

I witnessed them once in hard conversation, where unusually they could make no progress. A stranger to me dominated the conversation. No matter what subject came up he had all the answers, would brook no argument and was the undoubted hero of every situation in his  own mind.

The conversation was short lived.

Afterwards I asked my uncle who the bore was. He told me a name that meant nothing to me. I said that he was not a very pleasant man.”No” said my uncle “Fear Breaga”.

For years I didn’t get it. A “Fear Breaga” was a “scarecrow” as bearla.

Then it clicked. The literal translation is “a false man”.

Since then I have had the best of fun watching political programmes and identifying the “Fir breaga”.

Try it sometime and do your own list. Maybe start a website.

Policy on evictions and repossession of domestic dwellings

I listened carefully last night to the big five debate on the Pat Kenny show on  the above issue.
I would assume, even though the question arose in the context of mortgage arrears, that the principles enunciated would not differ when it comes to public housing and that if you cant pay your rent you would get similar treatment to those with private houses.

In brief the leaders position were :

M.Martin; Increase mortgage interest relief and in no circumstances take the roof from over their heads.

E.Kenny; Guarantee you won’t lose your home.

E.Gilmore; Head off the bailiffs.

G.Adams; No evictions in Ireland.

J.Gormley; Dont take the roof from their heads.

They are all in broad agreement. They all have representatives on the ground.

Well I can tell you from a witness, whose identity she wishes to keep secret, that on the very day of the debate, up to eight men and I think one woman, went to evict a single mother with two small children from her local authority house for non payment of rent in a heritage town in this constituency and not one person from any of the big five parties intervened.

The day was saved by an unlikely Robin Hood, whose identity I know and who is unrelated to the mother in question, by paying the arrears. Well done.

How seriously can we take our leaders?

I can afford just seven posters. One of the few gentlemen who supports me told me that while putting up one of my posters at dusk (the detail on the poster could not be seen) in a town, he was subject to oral abuse from passing cars, mainly young men.

Would you wonder?

My policy position on health

Preliminary steps.

(1).Did you know that in some hospitals patients who are obviously dying are let do so in the midst of all the other patients in the ward.I am not talking here about people who suddenly die, but people whose death is predictable and may take hours at a minimum and even longer.

It has been the practise in these cases to leave the dying person in the wards amongst the other patients, surround him/her with the curtains and nurse him until death.

This results in;-

(a). That person having no privacy as life ebbs away.

(b). The family /next of kin having very little privacy to say their farewells or say their prayers.

(c). Families having to conduct their vigils in whispers for fear of upsetting the other patients, being afraid to raise their voices to communicate with the dying patient.

(d). Dread  being instilled into the other patients, who after all are not there because they are bursting with health,that they might be heading in that direction shortly and the discomfort endured by them during the process.

I don’t know why this practise is allowed to continue but to me it is barbaric.

It may be because the Health Services are so run down that some hospitals cannot afford decently equipped  and staffed facilities to enable death with dignity.

I imply no culpability on the staff but consider that the practice should be stopped.

(2)During my interface with the health services I have had contact with many dedicated and kind non nationals who do excellent work. Nevertheless there should not be an overwhelmingly  disproportionate number of non irish staff in  hospitals. Like every culture, we Irish have certain national characteristics not immediately detectable to others but immediately understood by our compatriots. For example older people, and especially country people are not prone to complaint and in fact often downplay their discomfort and it can be difficult ,even for Irish people, to accurately assess their situation.

(3).The health service should be overwhelmingly public based, as it probably is and and should deliver the sort of service the Mater Private delivers and in as timely a fashion as that hospital does for its paying patients.

The service should  service its patients “pauper to prince” to the same high standard.

(4)Consultant contracts should be renegotiated on the basis that all their work be public work at a salary of £180,000.00 and their numbers doubled.

(5)G.P.contracts should be be looked at again and be salary based and not “per item”. They should be subject to peer review every three years.

It appears to me desirable that newly qualified doctors should, if vacancies exist, be required to work for three years at the average industrial wage in order to reimburse the taxpayer for the the cost of education and training.

The funding to achieve these reforms could be got by the diversion of health insurance premiums currently paid by those who can afford  them  to a regulated body to scrutinise costs and keep contributions at affordable and reasonable levels. The body to have an inbuilt executive majority of non professionals with a grasp real world conditions and prices.

To cut down on administration costs and record keeping I would make citizens responsible for keeping their own medical records.

Each citizen would be given an indestructible container into would be placed all medical records relating to his treatment as it arises.He would take this with him personally and be responsible for its safety, presenting it as new treatments arise.

Of course special arrangements would have to be made for those not able to care for their own records, but this would not be insurmountable.

More About My Policies

I am currently writing more about my policies and views, I will have them typed up and ready for you to read tomorrow. Remember to Vote No. 1 for Daithí Stephens in Meath West if you want to see change. If you are a newcomer to my blog please read my first post to get to know about me as a person and why I am running in the elections.

If you would like to contact me with any questions or help me with my campaign, I would be delighted to hear from you. Email me at info@dunderrydrumbeat.com

Welcome to Dunderry Drumbeat

Contact me with any questions you may have: info@dunderrydrumbeat.com

My profile and policies; Daithi Stephens.

I am a 59 year old father of seven adult children and grandfather of seven, GAA junkie and former Chairman of Dunderry GAA and Camogie Clubs. I have been coming to Dunderry since 1954 to my mother’s people the Mc Cormacks of Churchtown and living here since 1986. The eldest of nine siblings reared in Blanchardstown and former Chairman of St.Brigids GAA Club.
Worked in Public service for over 30 years and currently working a small farm and helping small self employed and unemployed people navigate the multiple hurdles they are required to jump in order to survive.

Having seen life from both sides I am certain that anybody with a public service job or pension, no matter how severely cut is in heaven compared to the self employed and unemployed who are in a permanent hell of over-regulation by a dysfunctional political and administrative systems.

I am disgusted by the transformation of the country into an effective open prison by overregulation of ordinary people, the enactment of unnecessary and oppressive laws and the lingering death of rural and provincial towns.

Dont trust main political parties. Remember false promises re.Lisbon 2.

I survived a stroke in 2009 in Navan hospital. Was appalled to discover that stroke patients hospitalised there never had available to them the clot busting medication which can greatly ameliorate the effects of stroke, medication available in all decently functional hospitals for many years. This was only rectified in 2010.

I know only too well the score re treatment of disabilities.

I will pursue policies of compassion, generousity and help of those who need it, especially mortgage holders.