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.