We shoot ourself in feet yet again.

Anyone who follows my blog will see the repeated references I make to the over the top and over enthusiastic application by the Irish authorities to the implementation of European dictates and the existence of far too many quangos in all aspects of commercial activity in this country to the extent that initiative is stifled.
The  over fussy pigeon has come home to roost yet again threatening the hard fought reputation of the only indigenous industry we have always excelled at ,that is the production of meat,and leading to the probable redundancy of the staff of at least one factory in economically depressed rural Ireland.
No other country in Europe had identified any problem with  meat burgers but over sensitive DNA tests has identified perfectly healthy horse meat in a few burgers emanating in one Irish factory.
I don't know ,but can guess that no other country in the E.U would firstly set such rigorous tests for its indigenous products and secondly would so mishandle the investigation into the matter so that headlines all over the world would cast doubt on the quality of Irish Beef.
This matter should have been immediately confronted ,firmly and discretely sorted ,placed in its proper.harmless to health and minute in extent context and brought to a conclusion before hitting the headlines.
This wasn't done and every malcontent with chips on their shoulders against the beef industry and the people who make a living in it are now giving full spout to their prejudices and talking down the industry in front of the world's press and effectively diluting the  reputation of this country.
In much the same way as the usual suspects denigrated the medical profession and the ethical standards  in this country over the death of the Indian woman in the maternity ward in Galway recently.
Such activity amounts to national treason in my view.

That such an unnecessary furore over such a trivial issue should emerge is no surprise to me.I well remember the earlier years of the Dunderry Fair when the Camogie Club made ham sandwiches as and when needed in a private and well clean  kitchen to raise funds for the Club.Some malcontent complained ,I don 't know who or why,about the  the sandwiches and we had to discontinue the practise on the very firm advice of the responsible authorities.Over prissy and a total downer.
The beef controversy is just a national example of what is inflicted daily on those further down the line and is yet another reason why people give up the ghost entirely and go to work and live in countries not yet strangled by battalions of quangos motivated by blind Europhiles who are bereft of any smidgin of National common sense.

Crap Times said Our Man..

Many lost the run of themselves during the excesses of the Celtic Tiger.Not our man though.At eighty he had seen it all,graduating from doing it at the windward side of a ditch all the way to the flush toilet.
Over drink he said to me."Do you know that no woman cooks a Sunday dinner nowadays."It's to an ating house or a lounge bar they go for lunch."."Too true "said I."Big change in the times "said he."Years ago you  went  out to ..ite  and in to ate,now they go out to ate and in to ..ite".You're right said I.

On which tasteless subject a very honest friend of mine had this to say on doing it al fresco."When we were young the place to make the lodgement was a ditch about fifty yards from our back door.Me mother kept hens and they wouldn't be too well fed.As soon as you went out the back door at any odd time they would have you set.You would have to advance with a dock leave in one hand and a stick in the other or they would pick the .ole off you."
Tough times .

Cameron has it right.

I have long since put forward the proposition that we are living in an open prison in this country these last two decades, as big brother  (the E.U.), through its most enthusiastic of agents ( I liken them to  political kapos) the Government and its multitude of agents and quangos ,has the citizens paralysed with over- regulation,living in fear that the roofs over their heads will be taken away and basically afraid to have a go at anything, such is the dread of interference from an over- intrusive State and a coterie of paid and unpaid spies encouraged to report on their neighbours at every hand's turn.
Just as a monkey with a broomstick up his arse ,if he did a tour of  the industrial estates necklacing every city and  town in the country during the boom years and  saw that nearly all the units were either warehouses for distribution of imported goods  or bases for services  and that nothing of value was being made here, could have predicted that it was all an illusion,,the same monkey could presently plainly see that unless the State gets rid of 90% of the ridiculous laws that are  stymieing initiative and forcing economic emigration ,suicide , depression and worst of all the loss of hope,then then we are doomed for several more decades to heartbreak and social disintegration.
We are now in an awful place with emigration levels at Famine levels,with our own citizens being treated as criminals in detention centres trying to get into countries with work available and with parents and grandparents broken hearted that their kids and grand kids are continents away.
Marauding criminals roam the land ,robbing and mugging the young ,the sick and the elderly .Seemingly the older the victim the better for a mugging.
Smartass well paid quango heads pursue policies that are denuding rural Ireland and a Godless E.U.inspired ideology informs the gutless political parties attitude to politically correct responses that drive another nail into the social fabric.
Those who can afford it now have automatic gates to protect themselves.It would be a fit and brave neighbour who would scale such a gate and break into a neighbour's house to investigate his absence and check on him generally.Sociability is discouraged by such a set up.God forbid that he would be let drive a few miles to the pub and drive home.No ,you must be joking.Fuck him.Let him die on the altar of political correctness.As for Gardai.Better to use them to mount checkpoints to see if any unfortunate lucky enough to get a few bob on a nixer is drawing the dole.Better still if the poor bastard is forced to emigrate.That will teach him.
We all know this is the score.Catch everybody out and terrify them into a comatose version of a citizen.Better again head them off in the womb and treat third and fourth children in the family less favourably than the first and second.
And deny pensions to women who did the right thing and devoted d themselves to the rearing of their children exclusively.Their work was of no value to the State.The mother who was slave to a typewrites  for twenty years has performed a far more valuable service  and she gets a contributory pension.The politically correct sisterhood have got their revenge and boy are they enjoying it.
And with all they spout about social concern and with all the spies they have ,paid and unpaid,two pensioners froze to death in a corporation flat within an asses gallop of Stanhope Street ,the former School of Joan Burton ,a few weeks ago.And Joe Costello knew them well.The man was the life and soul of the Party.
Did any of the Socialists check in on them to see that they were  O.K?
I am sick of what we have evolved into since the total capitulation of the political classes to our European neighbours,sick of the Judas goats who have split the meaning of the word "referendum" into "plebiscite " for ordinary users and "repeated plebiscites until the Government gets the result it wants" in its Irish context.
David Cameron has more courage in his little finger than the entirety of the political class in Ireland.He is prepared to stand up for his people not persecute them.
Would that our gobshites would get up off their arses and do the same.

Dromahair circa. 1978.

I am guessing at the year,but it is unimportant in a way .What is important was the friendships ,the craic and the fact that of the four people involved  I am the sole survivor.
It is well recorded elsewhere in this blog that I was a fierce St.Brigid's ,Blanchardstown man  until I moved to Dunderry in 1986.
Those years we were a bit like the United Nations of Ireland.We had members from all counties in Ireland ,including a very decent Leitrim man,Barney Mac Garholl,a Dromahair man who came to live off the Clonsilla Road with his family.He worked in the Post Office and was up to his oxters with their Football Team,Postal Gaels when he first arrived in Blanch ,but I think that they folded and he threw in his lot with us.
And a nice guy he was too.
Those years we used travel all over the Country at least once every year on a long bank holiday weekend ,book out a local hotel ,link up with the local GAA Club ,play a few matches and let our hair down generally.Barney introduced us to his hometown,a link that still exists to this day.
On such a weekend I was bunked in the Abbey Hotel with Paddy Skehan and Dinny Carroll ,good drinking buddies and the most decent of men.
Dinny was a Glen Rovers man,a maestro on the piano ,a great singer,a hardworking family man and a fierce Gael.I think his poison was a pint of Smithwicks but could be wrong.Paddy was a Tipperary man of huge stature and a fierce Gael also and the very best of company.His drink when I knew him was a double double Gold Label in a half pint glass topped up with red lemonade. And boy could he drink them but I never saw him drunk.
As a matter of historical record when Molloys of Tallagh took over the Greyhound Bar,the place we used imbibe  after a match and twice weekly ,they were that covetous that they insisted on charging Paddy for the drop of red lemonade on the very first occasion we went there after a match.Their predecessors were so glad to have our custom that  he used get it free gratis.All fifty of us left never to return and were like the lost tribe of Israel trying The Twin Oaks and Bertie Donnelley's in Mulhuddart until Patsi Phelan of Davy and Phelan's seduced us to patronise him until he built a lounge to accommodate the extra customers,which he did..Davy's was our local until the Club got the Morgan Schools (now Russell Park).
Back to Drumahair.We were as welcome as the flowers of May and the craic was on almost immediately.The hair was well let down and a we had a great few bevvies.Dinny and Paddy retired before me.I staggered up the stairs to bed .Not a wink's sleep did I get .If you have ever heard a badly tuned and blunt chainsaw in full flight you will have some idea of the snoring capacity of just one of these guys.Multiply this by two ,but not in harmony and you will have some idea of the noise levels in that room that night.
Paddy was a dapper man and as fussy as Hercule Poirot with his abulments in the morning.First up though that weekend was a glass of whiskey which he had poured the previous night and left in its glass on his bedside locker.With that in the tank and  dressed to kill he was right for the day.Breakfast no bother.Meself and Dinny were tidy enough but not in Paddy's class.
Anyhow I resolved that morning that I would get tanked early that night and hit the pillow well before my  room mates hit the sack.I would be asleep first and get some relief.We played a match that day ,had a (good )few joucuroms and I headed off first to the stretcher.I must have been over exhausted but, no matter what I did, sleep would not come.
The boys landed much later and I pretended to be asleep.Do you think that they had any bother entering the land of nod.Well they were asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.Not a wink did I get .
Then just as daylight intruded the door slowly opened and humming the air of "Jim Muggins went out with curry and stout"team mate and original Blanchie Jim (Jigser ) Powell tiptoed into the room.I squinted at him pretending to be still \asleep.The two chainsaws were still attempting to cut concrete.
He glanced around until his eyes settled on Paddy's bed side locker.He ghosted to it,lifted the glass of whiskey and let it down the hatch in one fell gulp.He savoured his moment ,produced a bottle of red lemonade from his pocket and replenished the glass with this poor substitute.Off he went.
NO way now would I sleep ,even if I could.Well into the day Paddy stirred .His snoring stopped.Without his glasses he felt his way to the glass.He put it to his lips and swallowed it in one gulp.Well no he didn't .Whatever contraption in the throat makes you splutter kicked in ,his head shook as though he was poisoned and the spray of red lemonade from his offended throat drowned me,Dinny and half the room.
He sure knew his Gold Label.
"And he burned all the hair of his as,his ass," did Jim Muggins.
I am sure that Jigser is singing about Jim Muggins to Dinny's accompaniment in the lounge bar of Heaven as Paddy hums Sliabh na Ban.Maybe Tommy Tonge is playing the mouth organ in the background and Tommy Moloney and Tommy Mac Cormack, who were there then, are joining in the chorus,although neither could sing for nuts.
Happy days.

The Double Barrel

Around here years ago there lived a man called the Cat(He had whiskers).There also lived a man called the  Goat (I'll leave that to your imagination.).Also the Mountain Ass (another imagination job ).
Anyhow the Cat was a very  masculine and extremely active man.And witty too.
His wife had twins.He was celebrating with my uncle and after a (good ) few my uncle said ,effusive in his praise of the recent births.that he ws some man for one man,or words to that effect.
"not one bit better than you Joe ,only I have a double barrel."
There after he was alternatively referred to as "The man with the double barrel b...."

No comment.

On a recent visit to the Church of a Friday for the Musketeer's weekly gathering I noticed some handwritten copybook pages which had been squeezed under the door.There were nine identical handwritten pages ,so the author had gone to the trouble of writing out the message nine times.
I have no comment to make on the contents other than to say someone is in fierce trouble,has a strong Faith and to hope that the person's prayers are answered.
"Most Holy Apostle Saint Jude ,faithful servant and friend of Jesus,the Church honours and invokes you universally .As the Patron of hopeless cases ,of things almost despaired of,pray for me.I am so helpless and alone.Make use I implore you of that particular privilege given to you to bring visible and speedy help where help is despaired of.Come to my assistance in this great need that I receive the consolation and help of Heaven in all my necessitous tribulations and suffering.
Particularly (.........make here your request........)
I praise God with you and all the Elect forever .I promise ,O Blessed Saint Jude,to be mindful of great favours and to always honour you as my special and powerful patron and to gratefully encourage devotion to you.
Amen."

Novena Prayer.
"Ma the most sacred Heart of Jesus be adored and loved in all the tabernacles until the end of time.Blessed be the sacred Heart of Jesus.Blessed be the Immaculate Heart of Mary.Blessed be Saint Jude Thaddeus in all the world and for all eternity."

To be followed by an Our Father and a Hail Mary.

"The bove are to recited six times a day for nine consecutive days.Each day nine copies of the above prayers must be left in a Church.Prayers will be answered within the nine days.Never known to fail."

The wisdom of Loman Mark 4.

Loman never married and was as free as a bird to socialise.He spread his wings far and wide in this respect.Of course there is always something to sour the sweet and a distant and contrary relative of Loman made it her lifetime's mission to decry his lifestyle at every opportunity.Which she did loudly and often.He dreaded her.She died and Loman and a few others dug her grave.
The ground was unstable and was inclined to collapse in on itself.They persisted ,squared it up and took a well earned rest.
Just then the close relatives of the deceased landed with the usual requisites of a bottle of whiskey ,a crate of stout ,sandwiches and tay.They tucked in and enjoyed the well earned repast .Then the grave began to cave in bit by bit and totally collapsed in on itself to their horror.
Back to the grindstone.Loman spoke through his teeth"The auld f...er persecuted me when she was alive and she's still at it."
 

"A little something to send him on his way"

Some years ago I spent some time with a good friend who was well into his nineties and was unwell.He was then living in a nursing home in mainland U.K.and was not expected to live much longer.He had no disease nor illness as far as I could establish and according to those who knew better,including the medical people, was suffering from nothing only "being worn out by old age".
Certainly as far as I could see,and I had seen people dying,he was in no obvious discomfort,and although bed bound was perfectly lucid while awake.He slept a lot.Some days he was in better form than others,a bit up and down you might say.
The nursing home was a grand place ,a hive of activity and full of the constant clamour and conversation and human activity you would expect from such a place.The interaction between the staff and the residents was excellent.It seemed a happy place.
Then one day I walked in to visit the friend and was just about to mount the stairs  when a deadly silence suddenly intruded.All conversation stopped and the residents scurried off to their rooms.I never saw an area empty so quick nor silently.Thinking that maybe the sudden change in the atmosphere had something to do with my presence I gazed frantically around.Nothing to  do with me.
But a person  closer than myself to the friend was ahead of me on the stairs accompanied by a doctor and advancing towards the room of my friend.All eyes were fixed on this pair and it became clear to me that their presence was the cause of the silence.I stopped in my tracks and sat down ,not knowing what to think.I suppose I thought the worst and that my friend had died.
I waited their return.The doctor walked past and out and my friend's last visitor  sat down beside me.Still the deadly silence.We walked outside."Is he dead ",said I."No ,he was on the way out and we gave him a little something to help him on his way" said he.
True to his word my friend died within the hour.I think and believe that an injection of morphine was given.The person was in no pain and didn't need pain relief.
My friend was cremated.
Suddenly all became clear.This was standard routine in that home.That was the reason for the silence.The residents and staff knew full what the script was.Giving a little something to help people on their way was normal practise.But what if my friend was not on the way out.I will never know.
My friend's life was shortened.He may have lived for hours or days or weeks or longer.Who knows?
How universal is this practise in the U.K.?
In my opinion the disregard for preborn human life inherent in abortion in that country has permeated the physique of the medical profession there.If you think it o.k. to terminate human life in the womb it is but a short step to shorten it as the end of the natural life span approaches.It tidies up loose ends and only advances the inevitable.
Not the Christian way,which may explain why those who favour abortion attacked and sneered at the Catholic stance in the recent Dail Committee hearings.
I don't consider the U.K. a civilised country since that experience, am very wary of medics who are in life and death calls routinely and may easily fall into the  "god "complex and lose touch with decency and proper practise.
I hope that we as a country never adopt this attitude to human life and firmly believe that any  legislation introduced the allows for the lawful killing of an unborn child ,save where the continued current physical existence of the mother is gravely threatened,ought not be introduced.
I am disabled.I am lucky to have a suppertime wife and family to keep me going.In a few years time I will not be improved for the better.Suppose I was doubly incontinent ,bed bound and a nuisance to mind and with no  close relatives to care for me ,but want to live on,will some desensitized friend and doctor also give me a little something to help me on my way?
Be very vary careful .Don't introduce a culture of death.

Recognition at last. in the Royal County.

Today the phone has been hopping with messages of congratulations from a selection of very discerning GAA men.To explain they were all at the Meath/Louth match in Navan in the O Byrne Cup during the week and were delighted to see my name on the Match Programme as a selector for the Meath Team."No more than you deserve" was the unanimous compliment."Sure you have vast experience of the game at all levels in two counties and as a prophet is never recognised in his own county (Dublin),Meath are right not to repeat the mistake" was the general consensus of the delighted callers."No more astute man in GAA matters "was another recurring theme.
Who am I to disagree?
I must say it is indeed an honour to have secured such a coveted position and I am only delighted to serve.No doubt Sean Kelly,a club man of my own had a major say in the appointment .And there were definitely no leaks from the existing selectors nor the County Board during the selection process.Mick O Dowd and Trevor Giles are the fairest of men.They obviously see the inherent unfairness of having two men out of three from the one Club picking the Team so have balanced the selection process up by having an equal number from each of two clubs steering the ship through the choppy waters impeding the County from an overdue All Ireland success.
I have heard on good authority that O Dowd is a meticulous man in all he does and therefor know that although I was never officially informed of my appointment he was so secretive about it that he was waiting until all background checks as to my ability were completed.Which they obviously now have.
I am awaiting my official notification from the County Secretary and that pass that entitles you to attend all matches in the County free of charge.
'Hon the Royal. 

Nobody is crying "stop".

Soon after the Christmas I met a friend in two minds as to which pub he would go to for his first pint in a long time.He was doing the Dunderry version of the twelve pubs of Christmas,which as I understand it means hitting twelve pubs on the one evening.This is a relatively new invention hereabouts.Unfortunately it didn't exist in my heyday.But hey,you can't have everything.
As there are but two pubs in Dunderry ,no public transport and no footpaths for walking home after a few pints,anyone having a few must keep some of the meagre few bob they might have to get a taxi home,we have but a mini version here .Two is better than  none I suppose.
He made a point with which  I can readily empathise.He stated that he was at so many funerals over the Christmas that he had only time for a cup of tay,a sandwich and a smoke for over a week .His stomach was crying out for a decent dinner and he was taking a rest as he was suffering from funeral fatigue.
I was a bit the same myself ,but had the benefit of the dinners.
And more funerals followed.It struck me that in that two  week period three people known to me or whose people I knew had died by their own hand.They were all men and spanned all ages.Young and old.They joined the six men I am aware of that died similarly around here these last few years.
While nobody knows for definitive why a person resorts to this desperate measure I would be fairly sure that the organs of the State or the banks have a major input into these tragic deaths.
I have read somewhere that there are over three hundred organisations of various hues dealing with the fall out from suicide in the country.
There is no doubt in my mind that as the economy has nosedived so has the rate of suicide risen.And there is also no doubt in my mind that many many people have lost hope completely in their futures in this country.
Those who can get out are getting out and I have not heard of even one suicide by the recent emigrants.Which tells its own story.They are so glad to be away from the morass of misery here that they can't believe their luck.
The Spanish government have banned all repossessions and evictions from the family home for over two years because two people committed suicide because of eviction.Here the Government grants the banks who fucked this country a right of veto over the humility of bankruptcy ,the Central Bank, which did nothing to avert the bankrupcy of the country ,demands the destruction of those who invested in property to let and a coterie of mostly female journalists screech approvingly on the sidelines.
And rural Ireland continues to be screwed and depopulated.Small business continues to be overburdened with bureaucratic and impossible regulation,the powers of State quangos and agencies increase by the new time and "our"banks are tighter than a duck's arrse with "our money".
All State and Financial institutions are in competition to name ,shame ,humiliate ,threaten ,deprive of credit,bring to Court,refer to debt collectors,send to the grippers and otherwise persecute those who fall on hard times.And if one of the persecuted takes his life,they just shrug their shoulders and move on to the next victim.
In this they take their lead from the Government who are little more than political capos for a revived Germany who rule Europe with a fist Hitler could never achieve.I mean what could be more Hitlerean than demanding treatment fees from half dead cancer sufferers for the treatment they must have to stay alive.
After Christmas I saw the future.Both pubs had shut one evening as a mark of respect to a deceased.The Church was closed because of vandalism.(No surprise because of long  standing oral attack  by atheist Government spokesmen and their buddies in the electronic and printed  media) and nobody had a penny to go to the local shop ,which was the only business open in the village.It was freezing cold and a bitter wind swept through the village.
All we were short of was the tumbleweeds .
And believe me these clowns who steer our destiny will make it worse.

Womb Raiders and Fellow Travellers dumbstruck..

An Indian medical student was gang raped in broad daylight by upwards of six men in India in recent times.Such were the extent of her injuries that she died despite being treated in India and Hong Cong.She has been cremated and her family are now calling for the hanging unto death of her assailants.I assume this is In accordance with Hindu law.I don't know.
Some weeks ago an Indian woman who choose to live in Ireland died while giving birth in an Irish Hospital .Her husband claimed that she died because Catholic Law applied in Ireland and her mother wanted Hindu law to apply here.
The Womb raiders and their allies decried the standard of maternal care here as both barbaric and inhumane and raised such a hullabaloo that Galway medics have been spat at in the streets.
Ardent feminists of both sexes  have used the death of the woman as a lever to force the legalisation of abortion as a right for women who want control of their own bodies ,without due regard to the rights of the unborn child and have  had no problem denigrating Ireland internationally at every hands turn.The gamut of womb raiders run from Journalists to the highly educated .
Just why these people have their eyes out on stalks demanding the creation of abortion mills in this country is hard to understand,If they admire those other EU countries who have liberal abortion laws why don't they go there to live.There is nothing stopping them.
Now the question I pose is this.They see nothing wrong in killing an innocent  unborn human in this country and this is their demand.Do they see anything wrong with hanging people found guilty of rape of a born human ,like the perpetrators of the rape in India.Why don't they come out and state their position .They had no problem denigrating Catholic Ireland,even before the facts are established .The logic of their position must be that if it is o.k. to take the life of an innocent child it must be o.k.to take the life of a convicted rapist who causes the death of the victim.Conversely if it is o.k.to hang the perpetrators of the rape of a live and born human then it must also be o.k.to hang the perpetrators of the death of an innocent preborn human..

I am awaiting the headlines of the papers of record and its sister journals decrying the barabaric and inhumane laws in India that would tolerate such a rape and clarification of their policy on the death penalty for such actions.
But I won't hold my breath.