Why I am voting no in referrendum.

It has long been my contention that we are living in an open prison for this last decade and that the present Government and its groupies are increasingly trying to mould and shape us into a compliant and docile imitation of the former East Germany ,where individual rights were suppressed and where the State ,through the encouragement of informers .regulated all aspects of behaviour.The State's version was the only one ,free speech and open debate were stifled,inordinate power was given to Government agents ,religion was suppressed and derided,atheists and their ilk ruled the roost and the governing elite governed for the benefit of another power,the USSR.
The parallels with our present society is striking.
The Government are merely Kapos for the EU and the Troika.It represents their interests not ours.
We are lied to all the time.Remember the false promises about the plenitude of jobs if we voted for Lisbon .And remember we handed over more and more sovereignty to Europe at the urgings of the politicians and their fellow travellers.
Remember the pre election Pat Kenny debate when all the leaders promised to abolish evictions.
Remember the pre election promises locally from members of the existing government parties representatives to save Navan Hospital and how people got elected on that pledge.
Guess what .There is another rally tomorrow .Some word these people have.
Anybody who had been at the receiving end of action from the multiplicity of quangos and State sponsored agents who have unlimited power to interfere with you life or business will know only too well that unless you have the resources to employ the very best of legal people you have no chance of fair play.
Around here all the males I know who died by their own hand were self employed.This is hardly a coincidence.
The ultimate display of arrogance was perpetuated by Fianna Fail,the Greens and the remnants of the Progressive Democrats who unilaterally placed on the shoulders of the people of this country the debts of the supposedly regulated banks .These parties put us back forty years.
And the present crew have put us back another 20 so far.Tweedledum and Tweed dee is right .You step out and ill step in again is right.And I must say this .Any spokesman of any of the parties could step into any of the other parties and you would notice no difference.
Which is why they all agree on the yes argument on the referendum.
But the arrogance and derision the yes side have for their opponents is really sickening.And is not confined to the referendum.
First we have the so called practising catholic Taoiseach the aetheist Tanaiste breaking off relationships with the Vatican.Not enough money they said,But they still find enough money to grant aid the Orange Order ,a wholly sectarian lay organisation which has suppressed Catholics since it was founded .Has anybody counted the number of deaths it is responsible for.
Just yesterday we had the politically appointed ex judge Catherine Mac Guinness belittling those opposed to her as scare mongers and Conservative Catholics.And this is not the first anti CAtholic rhetoric she indulged in.On the day of the Hurling ALL Ireland final she had another go on the Marion Fiinnucane radio show where she belittled the going ons of Catholics after Mass.Her compatriot Sam Smyth backed her up,expressing the view that because Ronan Mullen ,a Catholic Senator backed the referendum, it clearly didn't go far enough.Whatever that means.Could it mean that Conservative Catholics should have their children taken away at birth.
With these condescending views towards their obvious opponents it is hardly surprising the there was civil war in the North for so many years.Not everybody took the soup ya know.
Hugh O Flaherty is presumably as well qualified to pronounce on these matters as she is.Is he too a scaremonger and conservative catholic and anyhow what is wrong with being a conservative Catholic;.
He says that there is absolutely no need for constitutional change.I believe him.
Now the derision that the present government parties have for ordinary people is all embracing.Let me put it this way.
At the very moment that the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbour,their U.S,.ambassador was plamasing his counterparts that all was well.WE know the results.
At the very moment that the Quinns were going to Dublin for talks at the invitation of Anglo .Anglo;s appointees were on the way to take over the Quinn's businesses without their knowledge.See the parallel.Didn't they learn well.
Which probably explains why an Aussie was appointed the head honcho in Anglo.But there again the Chair is an ex f.g leader Dukes.
Now one should go back and see who the board of management of all the banks were prior to the balloon busting.You will see your fair share of ex political leaders and favoured civil servants.
Anyhow Brian Hayes has stated that anybody supporting the Quinns are either blind or misguided.This condescending and derisory statement smacks of arrogance and ignorance .Its a wonder that he didn't lend his expertise  to his government colleagues and tell them  that wasting over a million in unfairly favouring one side over the other was unfair and illegal.And he with the power and money of the State and all the legal experts at his disposal.Blind and misguided is right.
Some would call it cheating.
Now the sneaky and underhand way that the Government and all the parties have arranged it that your wage packet can be attacked for taxes th\at have nothing to do with employment ,e.g. property charges and whatever you are having yourself, shows a mentality that must have studied closely the tactics of the Japanese on pearl Harbour day.
All creatures need shelter and sustenance to survive,These kapos have attacked both.WE have people sleeping on the streets going hungry.If you did it to an animal you would be jailed.

The derision n the politicians display towards the populace is mirrored in the attitude of the yes side in the debates on the issue.Not once have I heard the yea side allow the no side to make their point uninterrupted.They constantly cut across them,threat them as idiots and assume the superiority that every ignorant demagogue displays towards his opponents.
In this the print media and electronic bask them up.This is no surprise as there wasn,t a peep out of their journalistic ancestors  when thousands s of children were wrested from their homes by judges on the reports of state agencies and charities like those now advocating a yes vote.
Let me get this right.This amendment is supported by charities concerned with children whose corporate ancestors were primary responsible for putting children into State care by state judges  and never looking into their welfare afterwards.They would have you believe that it was the fault of the parents because they had primary rights over the children,Now they want to remove these rights from parents in exceptional cases,which is not defined.Both they and judges will define what is an exceptional case.A stranger will decide what is best for the child.
And a politicians pledge on what is exceptional is worth Nada.Has no legal effect whatsoever.None.
Thea real agenda here is that these people are trying to promote culturally changes and using kids as cannon fodder.I heard  Fergus Finlay say that cultural change towards the way we treat our children is desirable.Well Fergus ,my siblings and I,my parents ,their parents ,my kids and my grand kids  were and  are brought up in loving families  as were thousands of million other Irish families over the millenia.I don't need knowalls like you deriding our rearing.And I certainly do not want to be like you and your cohorts and have your notion of cultural values shoved down my throat.
I firmly do believe that the parents are the natural and final arbiters regarding their children and I don,t trust the State nor any well paid charity head to decide what an exceptional circumstance is and take the place of the parents.
Given the track record of the Stare and judges and so called charities ,where after all this time,these matters are treated in secret away from the public eye I wouldn't trust them with the care of a hen,much less a human child,
History is on my side,.One decent judge ,by making unannounced visits has discovered major abuses of c children in state care in St.Pats.Yes the State does value children,.My arse/,And the State was so concerned about children in its care that it kept no centralised records of how many died prematurely in recent times.Well over a hundred if memory serves me.Yep great job done there.

Finally I look around me at kids I know taken  into State care.in the last decade.They emerged from the process different people all right.Far worse and mentally and physically scarred for the worst for life.
A resounding no for me.

Truckers Tip 10/11/12

The message is " Michael le Bon 3.25.Wincanton."Fiver win I'd say.

U 16B Hurling Shield Final,Dunderry v Dunboyne /Donaghmore Ashbourne.

Before we get to the match itself I must share with ye my reaction when I saw the fixture.Surely ,said I, there is some mistake.Is it possible that the Parish of five hundred houses would be taking on the combined might of that vast swathe of housing and massive population from Dunboyne to Donaghnore and all areas in between.There must be a mistake said I.For a lifetime hurling has been steady in Dunboyne and Donaghmore.Sean Boylan.a hurler before he was a footballer,the immortal Brian Smyth,all the Reillys,ex comrade Colm Brennan,the Moyleses,My good friends Ciaran and Teresa Clinch and son and daughters,the Hutton's,the Mac Intryes,dedicated hurling people all.And that's just a few.Is it possible that hurling has sunk so low that only one team from this entire area is competing in a B Shield Final against us.Talk about David against Goliath.
Yeah ti's true,Not  only that but Drumree are joined  up with Blackhall and Wolfe Tones with Kells. in this vital age group.So from Kilcock to Ardcath and Navan to Kigscourt we have 3,yes 3 hurling teams under 16.My God this is unbelievable.And I hear Navan is joined up with Donaghnmore in underage Camogie.
Looks like this generation will consign hurling in Meath to the dusty pages of history.What a disgrace.
And no red flags raised at Club,County ,Leinster nor Croke Park.In GAA terms this is a national emergency.Never has so much money been raised from setting our crown jewel to aid the promotion of the games of our competitors,never has so many people been employed to promote the game,And this is the result.
It is no surprise however.I heard Sean Kelly say that his proudest day as President was when Ireland played England in rugby in Croker.And the present guy is now on to further promote our competitors advance by offering a further six provincial grounds to the savvy Rugby boyos in case they might need them.
Yep, remember when Seanie swore that only Croker would be rented  to help out our poor neighbours for Ireland's sake and that the rental would be used to promote our games.Now we see how hollow those pledges were.We have given up the ghost in 75% of our county on promotion and competing in our ancient game and left the area wide open for our competitors.I guarantee you that there are many multiples of three teams playing soccer and rugby in these areas.
I would say that the Sight easy lucre blinded the most passionate advocates of the sell out and alienated those fior Gaels who were driven by idealism.Now you have the result.
But it is not too late,if people of genuine idealism and vision take control.My proposals are:

1. Restructure the Club Scene to allow a maximum of 1,000 houses per club catchment area
Look for inspiration to ourselves,Boardsmill,Kimainham ,Killion.Kilskere ,Ballinlough ,Carnaross.It is eminently doable if idealistic and determined people get involved.

2.It amazes me that that so many good GAA people ,mainly those who can#t emigrate are languishing on the dole while so many social problems exist in their localities.These decent and suitable people should have their dole payments upped to enable them to put time with their local GAA Clubs in promoting the games ,thus saving society a huge fortune in combating social disturbance.
There are enough men now Fine Gael T.D.s who owe their political prominence to the GAA that it is high time they delivered for us.Name them out yourself.
And I'm not talking nominal tokenism here but real action.

It is time the GAA as a body called in some ofthe favour owed it for selling its Jewel's for a mess of pottage ,got its finger out before it is too late and put the pressure on Edna whose political prominence arose because his DA  won an All Ireland.

None of this is in any way critical of the youngsters who played us on Sunday nor the mentors who manage them.They at least are to b e lauded for keeping the game alive in what appears to be a hurling wasteland.

The game was played in KIlmessan on an overcast but not wet pitch and offered some entertainment as play swung from one end to the other and each team in turn had the winning post in their grasp.Masterson from Boardsmill was a fair referee.He played .You'd know.
The Border boys started well going five points up after fifteen.We fought back to within three points at half time .Score.2-3 to 0=6 against us.After a second half full of skill,determination and huge effort from both sides level again.Us 1-10 them 3-4,
After the first period of extra time we led2-12 to 4-4
At full time us 2-13 and them 4-7.
Another day out and no complaints either side.
We have a fair team.This is the first time I saw them play and they are a decent bunch of hurlers with great potential and no shortage of guts.

Team.
                                         Owen Smyth.

             Mickey Dowdall                                            Tomas O Conaire.

 Aaron Feeney                        Luke Martyn                           Killian Conway

              Killian Leonard                              Conor Dempsey

Alex Walsh                       Robert MC Cab                              Mark Kanee

             Pearse Hickey                                 Danny Morris


Subs.Eoin Daly(used )
Peter Casey.

Owen ,Tomas and Danny are as good at hurling as they are at football,where I saw them more ofter and at close quarters .No wonder.Trish Smyth well knew her ash from her elbow on the Camogie field agus do bhi athar Tomas,Tomas freisin,in a peilidor iontach.And Danny from a great GAA tradition on his father's side and the son of a fair yielder of the Cama n didn't miss it.
Mickey has a hidden hurling heritage in his genes,Aaron is as god as his Da was when I mentored him underage and as tough as nails,Lukie is a game winner and as good if not n better than Joey and Jane at his age.He has skill in buckets.
Christine Leonard can be proud if Killian who is tough ,skillful and fearless ,just like herself when she graced the CAmogie fields of Meath  and KIllian Conway is one tough ,skillful and sticky son of a bitch to have marking you.I mentored his father Philip years ago and this lad is just t like him,fearless.
Conor Dempsey is right up there ,more skillful maybe than his father Dermot,i#d say but not as tough yet.He has time.
bob Mac Cabe has the genes of Sugsie and his great granduncle Barney a ,the first Dunderryman to field in an Ireland, coursing through his veins and it shows in his excellence .
Pearse Hickey gives his all but put his foot where his hurl  should be and retire4d injured.
I must admit I didn't see much of young Kane and Walsh before Sunday and was most impressed by their tenacity ,toughness and no little skill in play.
Owen Dal is the spit of his DA Dan but a player of far superior status and is a good one too.
Our Mentors were Mick Minogue and Dermot Dempsey,Two decent,sound and timid men,I assure you.
It takes two to tango and the Border boys gave as good as they got and with our lads,produced a hurling spectacle worthy of any occasion.
Roll on the replay.



                Pearse Hickey                         Danny Morris.

Bective Blitzkreig as Dunderry run amok in Under 21,

Dunderry blitzkrieged ragged Rathkenny this evening in a bitterly cold Bective to record their second win in the Under 21 football championship,The one sided nature of the encounter can be gauged from the fact that the half time score was 5-10 to 0-2 in Dunderry;s favour.
The fulltime score was,I think,6-14 to 0-4 and this was achieved without top scorer Stephen Coogan ,who went off early because of a hurt ankle .And we emptied our bench mid way through the second half.
Referee Richie Morris did his usual efficient job and wasn't called into action very often as there was hardly a decent challenge in the entire match and play flowed ,if that is the proper term.
Nor was there any repeated and unbidden  pitch incursions from the mentors of either side as bodies were not repeatedly falling without reason.
For the record Richie was not one of the pitch invaders that drew my ire in  the Dunderry V Blackhall Inter Hurling Championship Mach.
I had been worried about the future of Dunderry Football as we have been playing in the very low grades at juvenile level in recent years but there is some reason for optimism now,maybe.
There is no point analysing individual performances such was our superiority .This must await a more even contest and then we will call the men from the boys,


Team.
                                                       Patterson
              Maguire                                                         Carty

O Shea                                   Dempsey.E.                     Kenneally J.P.

                              Minogue                 Dempsey's.L.

Martin                                    Farrell                         Garry A.

                               Kenneally                    Coogan
Introduced,
Mooney,
Keenan,
Wright,
Keaveney,
Mitchell,

Footnote.For the first time ever I abandoned ship with five to go,Seamin's reference to hot soup to put the cold at bay had to be explored.

Truckers Fancy 3/11/2012

The grizzled Trucker kicks off his career as a tipster with a double bet tomorrow.

Bet 1. Fiver win on Red Jazz in 3.40 Newmarket on basis that he is dropping down in class and should have stamina and pedigree to triumph.

Bet 2.Fiver each way Ace High 3.10 Ascot.He just thinks that this is the time for this horse.

We're on the road again.Here goes.

Fashion Show.The epilogue.

I know that a huge amount of work went into organising the Show.I know that the shops involved gave it all they could.It was widely advertised and while a number of other events clashed it was poorly supported.
No fault on the organisers but the position on the ground is that people have very little,if any disposable income.Bar a few ,where both parties have good jobs.
The unemployed and the working poor in this Parish have barely enough for basic necessities .
To even write a cheque induces anxiety in most people as Banks seem to take pleasure in bouncing them,irrespective of the status of the customer and  period of time clocked up.
In theses circumstances I am perturbed about reports that the Club is considering reversing its policy of not paying any of its team managers.To misquote Mickey Rattigan "Are they fu..... mad ?

Tipster being put out to grass.

After tipping 5 successive losers,a feat hard to do in itself and failing to return to the ways of a winner ,despite intense and pressurised rehab.,I have put the tipster out to the paddocks for the foreseeable future.
A more grizzled replacement,who came up the hard way in the era of Rasher Byrne and Liam Ward and who honed his equine skills in the streetwise company of such astute students of form  as Larko,Dicker Mc Entee and Cairde O Rourke in Blanch .Tech.in the mid sixties ,is taking on the tipping duties for next month ,
He reckons he knows his horses.We await with baited breath.
Like Willie Nelson,this man is on the road and the multiple sources of tit bits that he mines will be shared with all.
The original tipster will be chomping at the bit for reinstatement we reckon.

U21FC.. Dunderry 2-18 Carnaross 2-4

A phenomenal win,which was unimaginable at the halfway point of the second half,when only a point separated the teams ,was well earned by a competent Dunderry team today in a bitterly cold Martry .
In my view the redeployment of the injured Minogue ,after being taken off for an injury and an accident to the excellent Carpenter ,which compelled his early retirement ,were a bridge too far for Carnaross as Dunderry went on a unstoppable scoring spree .
Our team has potential ,just how much a tougher examination will show.
In the meantime all we can do is beat what is put before us,
 Team,

                                                    Patterson

                     Maguire                                        Carty

O Shea                              Dempsey E                            Kenneally J.P.

                     Minogue                          Dempsey L

Mooney                              Farrell                               Martin

                      Kenneally                  Coogan

Garry,
Daly/
Keenan.
                 

Fashion Show 27/10.2012.

The glue that holds rural and indeed much of urban Ireland together is the GAA and its sister organisations.Without it we would be in a bad way indeed.
At 8.00 p.m.this Saturday in the Darnley in Athboy,Dunderry  GAA and Camogie Clubs are hosting a fashion show .
Admission is E.15 for adults and E.10 for children.
They are fairly stuck for models as they asked me to strut my stuff.I had to decline as my ankle is well strapped .
I can't make it but it deserves support.
The usual suspects will be giving it diddy.So go.

Robinstown -A Hamlet once again

Robinstown,once possessed of a thriving Post Office,General Grocery and petrol pumps  and a popular public House has neither Post Office,Grocery nor Public House at the moment nor for some time. To be entirely accurate there is a sign up that the grocery store site saying it will soon reopen.
Any student of my blog will not be surprised that such an appalling vista has befallen such a relatively wealthy and picturesque former village ,now hamlet.
I have constantly preached that the austerity policies imposed via the present Government and the horrific over regulation of business will reduce rural Ireland to  tumble weed status.
It is ironic that a hamlet that so overwhelmingly endorsed Fine Gael in the last election should suffer so.Their activists have much to answer for now.
This is the first of many villages in rural Ireland that will be wiped out commercially.
Where now all those quasi Blue shirts who were so prominent in campaigning for rural Ireland before the election ?

MIck Gillick.A tribute.

Mick Gillick from the Black Road,Robinstown ,died over last weekend ,arrived at Dunderry Church at 7.30 on Monday and departed for St,Loman's Cemetery ,Trim,after 11.00 a.m. Mass today.As would be expected the Church was full of friends,neighbours and admirers of a man who lived a full life ,while farming to the highest standards,a tradition his only son Stephen carries to this day.
I knew him socially as,no more than myself,he did appreciate a good pint of Guinness when he had the money and the opportunity.His choice of pub.in Dunderry was Geraghty's and he loved the company of all there especially Hugh Geraghty.
In fact Hugh has lost two great social companions this last week in Mick and Tommy Tuite.
We offer our sincerest sympathies to his loving wife ,Margaret ,his son Stephen aforesaid,his grand daughters Lisa and Aoife,both handy camogie players for Dunderry ,a trait they picked up from their Dunderry father and Killion mother ,also Margaret .
 I had the great pleasure of managing them both in the arts of Camogie ,which they mastered with ease and two more determined and decent ladies you wouldn't meet in a long day's walk.
By misfortune I happened to be in Navan Hospital in July 2009 and when I came to found that Mick too was also sick and in the same ward.I was as bet as a man could be,barely able to blink my eyes and Mick too was somewhat under the weather.He was frail and disorientated and confined to a chair ,when not in bed.Even so his memory on all things to do with the land was spot on and he was bang up to date on the price of cattle,a subject on which he was quizzed a few times.
While I had plenty of family visitors and he had too, I used marvel at the devotion his wife displayed towards him.She was there first thing in the morning and last thing at night and she herself was no spring chicken and had her own health problems.She would also spend time with me,visits I enjoyed and which she kept up when I was moved to a different ward than him.Some woman I tell you.As  are Stephen and Lisa who went out of their way to be pleasant to me.
Any how we got on fierce well.Mostly he was confined to a chair but constantly had it in his mind that he would die for a pint in Geraghty's .And by God he was determine to break for the border to get it,as it were.
When closing time for visitors came he would watch the exit door like a cat watching a mouse.all the time rocking back and forth and biding his time to break out when the nurses weren't watching.Which they were nearly always as they were wise to him.
He rcruitesd me to the breakout team.I readily agreed even though I could do little more than blink and even needed attention to go to the toilet in my bed ,which was not forthcoming on all occasions humiliatingly.
Anyhow one night he was on the top of his game.Scoped like a hawk and rocked to his feet and out the door like a bullet.Go for it boy I roared  to myself,a vision of him somehow making it and entering Geraghty's and calling for pint pleasantly filling my mind,
But too loyal for his own good he came back to get me and was rumbled.I nearly cried I was that heartbroken.
I used promise myself that when ,if ever I got a wheelchair,I would spring him on my lap,head for Dunderry and enter Geraghty's and he would say "two pints please Leo".Now that's what you would call an entrance.
I have no doubt but that he will whet his thirst in the company of the good Lord tonight,
Ar Dheis De go raibh a hanam dilis.

Is Ireland the Mc Keown of Europe ?

If you go into Dunderry graveyard and turn immediately right before the first row of graves and proceed to the end of that row you will come across a well kept  plot beneath a weather worn headstone with the writing illegible to the unaided eye.This is the grave of Mc Keown,although  some say he was called Mc Kenna,a matter I hope to clear up for once and all soon.
Anyhow he was a tramp and lived hereabouts in the nineteen thirties ,residing in a shed belonging to the Horan's the local publicans.He was a working tramp and when work was available he took it.
Things were bad for most people here in the thirties because of the so called Economic war with England.This was as a result of Dev's decision to stop paying the Land Commission annuities to England.
To elaborate further the Land Commission was set up in the late 1880's to buy out the English Landlords who owned the land of Ireland and redistribute it to the tenants.I recently had reason to investigate how this worked in practise and it went something like this in this area.
If  a tenant could establish that he and his people were tenants of certain lands back to the 1850's to the satisfaction of the Land Commissioners and wanted to buy out the land ,then the Commissioners decided on the current market value of the land ,immediately paid the landlord this price,assigned the land to the tenant as "Freehold Registered"Land and charged the tenant with paying off the price to the State  over a number of years as a Land Commission Annuity,which was charged on the lands until it was paid off entirely.The State kept the mineral rights under the land.
As a matter of fact I worked for some years in the Estate Duty Office and during that time had the job of investigating the historic title of lands the Land Commission acquired to establish if any claims for death duties arose on the title to ensure that any such claims were paid to the State before the proceeds were paid to the persons from whom they were acquired.
You will notice that the necessity to prove occupation spanned the great famine of 1845 to 1847 and this reassignment of title was achieved despite the halving of the population from 8 to 4 million over the 1845 to 1900 period through death from starvation and emigration.
Anyhow Dev decided in the 1930's that it was nonsense to send these annuities to England when this newly formed country needed them so badly.The Empire struck back by  levying import charges on the importation of cattle and sheep into Britain so as to price them off the market there.This fecked up Ireland as the one thing we could do well then and still can is produce the best livestock in the world and Britain was our main market.The hole fell out of the market and valuable cattle became valueless.Many big farmers ,mainly blue shirts then and now,became impoverished overnight and these  Fine Gael families still despise Dev and Fianna Fail over this.
Then as now poverty and hunger stalked the land.To help alleviate it in rural Ireland the Government introduced a grant for digging and clearing ditches  on farmland.The bounty was ,I think 2 shillings and six pence a perch paid for each perch completed.The bigger farmers went for this and employed their poorer brethren to do the work at half the grant rate per perch  ,with dinner thrown in.
Some of my uncles worked at this,as did Mc Keown.Pick ,spade and shovel were the implements employed and the work was brutal.For dinner most farmers dined at their own table in the dining room and a separate table was set up along the wall for the workers,just to let them know who was boss.Dinner was served simultaneously.
On one such occasion ,Mc Keown was at the side table for dinner when all save him was served two herrings and spuds ,he getting only one herring.He looked mournfully at his plate for a long time ,then asked the woman of the house ,pointing to his single herring,"where's his companion Mam?"
Given that ten percent of the population are suffering food deprivation (in layman's terms going hungry ),that over 80,000 people are fleeing the Country every year ,the highest since famine times,that hundreds of thousands are in despair over their inability to afford the cost of food and shelter,that our European "partners" are forcing every family in the country to repay the gambling losses of our own and pan European banks and that the embarrassing rolling over of our political representatives before the German controlled Union and the sucking up of Enda to Angel has so humiliatingly been rebuked ,the time has come to replicate the request of Mc Keown ,
And if we are not sorted properly to tell Angel and her cohorts to f... off.
Dev had the balls in the thirties and we survived it .Has Edna the balls to do it now?

Dividend for 20/10/2012

Having purged his mind of all extraneous matters and resolved  to return to winning ways the Tipster sticks his neck out yet again and opts for Carlton House in the 3.30 in Ascot.Me thinks he fancies the Queen but I will put a handy fiver win on all the same,although the more cautious may go a fiver each way  on this outsider.

Boggers not alone on Quinn victimisation.

The professional classes who dominate the media and which steered the good ship Ireland,but not themselves nor their cronies,,onto the rocks of economic Armageddon ,and who despise all decent people from the hidden Ireland are at it again.
Having lectured the populace at large about the evil Quinns of Cavan and demonised them at every hands turn,and having sneered at those decent GAA people who continue to stand by the most maligned family in Ireland ,these vultures who fed from the froth  of the economic bubble and were cheerleaders for the culture of greed  continue to spew their biased poison in the reportage of the Supreme Court case on the contempt issues which arose there.
Both the print and electronic media headlined the judgement as a loss of the Appeal by the Quinns .It was anything but.Certainly he lost the Appeal on one ground only and that was he was in contempt regarding a payment made to to a Russian lady.
But all the judges agreed that a contempt finding relating to to 30 coercive orders was entirely wrong .
Not only that but the vastly experienced Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman disagreed with the majority decision on the issue of the payment to the Russian lady.
I suppose he too is an ignorant bog man who doesn't know his arse from his elbow.
I find it horrifying that The Government ,our Bank under the former  leader of Fine Gael and such a supposedly well up coterie of financial experts could get it so wrong in the second highest Court in the land.
It is disappointing that a High Court judge could be so wrong also.Bearing in mind that judges tend to stick together makes the successful part of the Appeal all the more remarkable.Fair play to the Judges for bringing some objectivity and fair play to the matter.
The tactics of the State in this matter are appalling.They have bankrupted the Quinn patriarch and placed a coterie of Receivers over all the Quinn Companies,thus ensuring that the Quinns cannot contest the States actions on a level playing field.They cannot afford lawyers of a calibre equal to the States nor do they have the resources of the State.
The Assignee for Bankruptcy ,as far as I know,steps into Sean Quinn's shoes in all matters relating to his assets,including personal assets and Company shares in the Quinn companies.His job is to realise the assets for the benefit of Quinns creditors,which creditors Quinn  cannot pay,which is why he was bankrupted in the first place.Given this the Assignee,even if he wants to,would not have the money to pay for legal fees for Sean Quinn.
The Receivers have control of the assets of the Quinn companies so no fighting fund there.
All fair minded people recognise that this is an unequal battle ,similar to the All Ireland foot ball Champions playing the Dunderry junior 4 football team.
Now there is genuine doubt over whether the majority of the debt claimed by Anglo is owed at all and I cannot understand how this part of the debt can be pursued at all until this issue is decided.It seems to me to be putting the cart before the horse to enforce this portion of the debt before the hearing of the fully and equally contested court case on the issue.
The attitude of a Rte journalist toward people who were willing to fund the Quinns legal actions on a recent Sunday programme was entirely in Keeping with e the wider media bias on the issue,that is totally biased against the people involved.And fairly sickening.
I suppose nothing symbolises the gulf between Officious Ireland and the hidden Ireland than the contrast between Miriam O Callaghan and the Quin women in the recent programme on the issue.Miriam is so noticeably different from them that she might be from another planet.
There are indeed two Ireland's ,which I would classify as know all Ireland ,where the same media pets are trotted out all the time,and get up and do it Ireland ,where the Quinns live.

 

Straws in the Wind.

The D.I.S.E.i.e. Dunderry Institute of Social Economics or Mise makes  the following predictions on and observations from rural Ireland.
1. The 2012 spend on necessities,that is those staple goods and essential services people need to survive ,will decrease by 6.5 % on comparative 2011 goods and services.
2.The 2012 spend on the next band of goods above necessities will decrease by 20% on the comparative 2011 spend on such goods and services.
3.Given the increased VAT take on such goods and services,and the stealth taxes snuck in all the time ( increased Electricity and Gas charges,a super sneaky 10% increase in toll charges by Leo Varadakar,the continuing extortion of taxes from motorists in the form of VAT,Excise Duties and Carbon Tax,,the immoral and inequitable Property levy ,the Septic Tank charge and the proposed tax on homeowners,the actual amount of goods and services consumed will fall by well over 6% and 20% in reality.
4.If the jigger pokers get their way and reduce the children's allowance most families will fall further into poverty and become reliant on the Vee de Pee.
5.The farming of our people by the political kapos running the Country for the benefit of the Teutons and not for the citizen's, will continue apace because these guys and gals haven't a clue what to do except follow blindly in the footsteps of their immediate predecessors and then blame them for so doing.See my earlier blog on "People Farming."
6.In the last twelve months over 80,000 people have voted with their hearts and feet and left the place,not for the E.U.but Australia and Canada mostly.These are the highest figures since the famine.
7..I feared before the last election that the equivalent of our annual Leaving Cert number was leaving the country and that this was unsustainable.It has gotten even worse.56,000 people sat the Leaving last year.Over 80,000 left.
8.It appears that about 500,000 residents here are not Irish born.Out of a population of about 4,000,000 this is far too high and we are are diluting our Irishness.I would say no other country would allow this to happen.And it will get worse.Anybody who can get to a maternity hospital will see that non Irish mothers are fierce plentiful  compared to our own.
9.Sad to say any Irish parent who is asked by a child currently in Australia or elsewhere ,whether that child should stay there or come home ,is being told not to be foolish and stay abroad.
10.And sadder to say the age profile of those leaving is getting older.In this Parish two further families,husband s,wives and children have quit the supposed riches of farming and emigrated lock,stock and barrel.The parents are in the fifties and sixties.
11.The echo of the jackboots in the open prison inhabited  by those who don't emigrate is getting louder.Lately Joan's Storm troopers have started swooping into the homes of those selected demanding Birth Certificates and Passports.Simultaneously people are being encouraged to spy on and report on their neighbours.Merkel came from such a background in East Germany.WE have our own Statsi groupies right her in Ireland.Be afraid.
!2.We have a Doctor sponsored Bill proposing the penalisation of parents who smoke in front of their own children in a car.And we have a proposal to allow adults other than the parents of children to decide who has the final say in their upbringing and who will rear them "in exceptional circumstances".Can you think of any other regime which banned smoking and where the State took precedence over parents regarding their children? Try the Thousand Year Reich for size.Be very afraid.Its only a matter of time until some control freak,or political appointed judge , decides that children of say drug addicts,smokers and maybe even religious persuasions demonised by the media are considered "exceptionally "unfit to rear their own children and have them seized by the State.
13.I recently read an article in the Sun poking jest at the Irish a la Punch in times gone by.Included in the supposed insightful article was the gem that the Irish had a propensity to put" Catholic" down as their religion in the Census Form when everybody knows this is not true.I'd say the journalist who published this article had done no research on this matter and thinks very little of the Irish if she believes that we would lie on this question only and be entirely truthful on the many other questions in the form.As a Catholic I find it grossly offensive and as an Irishman grossly insulting.Here's another saying that is currently in vogue in the real Ireland and which has application to her reported views-"She is talking through her hole."
14.If there is a lower and more cowardly form of human life in this world than an abortionist I don't know what it is.Certainly torturers,executioners,people who snuff out human life at a whim,persons who who direct the murder of civilians ,men women and children, like say the bombing of major cities and use words such as termination and such to justify murder  and adults who sexually abuse children come close.
But an abortionist just murders a  human with potential that is totally defenceless ,totally innocent and totally dependent on its mother for survival.I would say that any moral woman or girl who underwent such a procedure was imbalanced at the time and would have sympathy with them.But not so for those who enable and execute the children.
It never ceases to amaze me that so many of these enablers and executioners are fellow women.Can anyone explain to me how these enablers and executioners get their jollies from doing this?
I know of no religion that approves of this so these people must be atheists.Be very ,very afraid.
15.Cannot everybody not see that the Euro experiment was a colossal mistake and that it ought to be abandoned forthwith and that austerity is a recipe for disaster and it too ought be terminated.
16.The fact that the Banks were nationalised and that they are now our Banks does not entitle them to do things to people that are immoral and indecent ,even if legal and judicially approved.Remember that our law is the law of the conqueror and was bought in lock.stock and barrel when we secured Independence.It always favours the rich at the expense the poor .And remember also that until the 1960,s the paper of record overwhelmingly employed Protestant staff and that the Independent was until recently headed by a Knight of the Realm.Their coverage was and is  is very much in favour of the monied and powerful.
If we lived to a thousand we could not clear the debts owed and imposed on us.Now is the time for write down and away with the nonsense.
I will have an article shortly on the Quinn's and the religious meanderings of the Articulate and well heeled matrons who never were elected to Office ,but assumed positions of power because of political patronage,and feel free to lecture us ordinary Catholics on our beliefs.

Sad death of Tommy Tuite.

News has just reached me that the King of the Dealers and resident of Tullaghanstown,Tommy Tuite had a turn yesterday evening and died a few hours ago.
I knew he wasn't well this while back and had gone downhill since a traffic accident some time ago,but didn't know until last week that he had also contacted an incurable disease and was fading.He was the luckiest man in Ireland to have such a loving wife as Rose and such a respecting and kind son as Brian,who I would say hasn't got it in him to offend anybody ,to care for him in his time of  need.
Last Friday after our six o clock Vigil Muskateer Liam and his cousin Podge picked up Hughie Geraghty and went to visit Tommy.This was the first indication I had that all was not good.
I meant to visit him but never dreamed that his time was so short.
A more complete tribute will be penned later for this man,who sat beside my uncle Tommy at Tullaghanstown School for many years and who will now join his own son Thomas in Heaven.
His remains were received this (Monday) evening at 7.30 in Dunderry Church,where they will repose overnight and depart for Rathmore cemetery after 11.00 a.m. Mass tomorrow.

Tipster does a runner.

Following on from a brutal run of five successive losing tips the tipster has disappeared from view.I wouldn't blame him.I would do the same in his circumstances.I can only hope that he is has gone on retreat to Lough Dearg in Donegal and that he stays there until his sharpness is restored.This may take up to a month but if so,so be it.

Tip for 6/10/2012

To try and break our losing streak we opt for a fiver win on Moon Dice in the 4.20 in Gowran on the basis that rumour has it that he is a good lepper over the fences.Here's hoping.

Has Barnardos lost it entirely?

Fergus Finlay ,on behalf of Barnardos ,of which he is Chief Executive  and one supposes on a salary that way exceeds that of many of the families who his Charity cares for,has publicly pronounced that there should be a modest decrease in the children's allowance.I assume he has no qualifying children himself and even if he had he could do without the allowance.
The real world,in which I live ,has nothing in common with the type of nonsense he is spouting.Despite appearances this recession has destroyed nearly everybody,irrespective of the strata in society once occupied by them at the height of the boom.
Even the apparently wealthy haven't a bob to rub together,much less the coping classes.
As an upfront Labour man he must surely know that the country is awash with quangos and the addition of another one, to decide who is worthy of the fullest allowance and who is not, could only result in the further deprivation of those families most in need.
All he has to do is look at the queues at the Labour Exchanges every week and the obvious discomfort ofthose in line for their benefit.And at the number of children in State care who died well before their time ,while still in Sate care.
With the Government trying to downsize further its already stretched workforce does he really expect parents to go and beg for the money necessary to feed their children.
The overwhelming majority of people totally depend on this money to survive and provide a decent standard of living for the same children.
What should really concern him and others like him is the fact that over 76,000 people are voting with their feet every year and emigrating from the country his political mates are running for the benefit of the Troika.
Has he no conception of the hurt that a thirty year old,who wishes to marry and start a family,goes through when he or she realises that they have no chance here of ever getting a house,decent jobs nor raising  children properly in this country and make the heart breaking decision to go to the far side of the world for that chance.
The sort of nonsense he is spouting will surely encourage them to stay ,would you say.
The highest emigration since the time of the famine,when another Empire ruled us,is indicative of the failure of all the politicos here and their blind adherence to the diktats of their latest masters ,against the interests of the people,just shows that the worst oppressors of the Irish are other Irish.just as in famine times ,when the Brits could not run us (into the grave and abroad),without the active co operation of fellow Irishmen and women.
Might I suggest that Banardos does itself no favours when it acts as an extension of the Labour Party and  go about its business in a way more commensurate with its core function.

Dunderr V Wolfe Tones IHC Semi Final 6/10/2012.

At 4.30 in Trim our Hurlers play the Tones in the semi final,with Rathmoylan,who beat Clanna Gael well in the other semi ,awaiting the winners.We have already been beaten by the Tones in the group stages and nothing but a massive improvement on our performance that day will do tomorrow.
I hear that the Tones have secured the full commitment of their Rathkenny and indeed Gibbstown contingent of dual players and are confident of victory.
Tommy Dowd ,who was an integral part of our climb up the hurling ladder in the eighties and nineties ,and who is now a Tones man ,must have a dilemma as to who he will support.I like to think that his heart is still here.
In those years,when I played full back,there was a huge rivalry between the two teams and any match involving us was hugely contested.
I think we rose through the ranks with them on our coat tails,both entering the Senior ranks in the early nineties ,with us contesting a Senior Final Replay against Trim ,which we lost and they winning one soon after.
Both teams have slid back the ranks since and for us in any event this is the only competition we can possibly win this year at adult level.

History repeats itself and our Evan has been playing full back lately and I am proud to say that our Davy is Captain.
Junior and McLoughs and a younger Frog ,who were involved them times will remember what it takes and Flange Mc Guinness has a good few Championships under his  belt,.so we need have no fears on the line.The players are made of the right stuff too and with a supreme effort and a rub of the green we are capable of prevailing.
Here's hoping.
As a sign of the times ,one man who won't be available tomorrow is Andy Coogan who has emigrated to Blighty  in pursuit of work and ,I believe,romance.
We wish him well but would much prefer were he and his paramour able to pursue their romance and careers here.
.

A little love does the trick.

Some time ago I asked for prayer for a number of Parishioners who were under the weather health wise.Some but not all have recovered,about which more anon.
Anyhow one of the persons involved ,a lady,who had to give in and go  to hospital and is the sort of person who would be as comfortable there as a wild hare in a cage ,couldn't sleep at all when she began to recover.Despite every sleeping tablet prescribed she just couldn't enter the land of nod.
One night she informed her fellow patients that in her forty years of marriage she had never slept without her husband at her side and asked that he be brought in to stay by her side to see if she could sleep.
A message was got to him and in he came.He held her by the hand and said "Now,now don't be worrying Dear ,hould me hand and relax there won't be a bother on you.".And she did and was sound  asleep within ten minutes.
Now the accursed stroke that struck me has a number of side effects,one of which is that I cry like a baby when I hear of such wonderful events,
As I write this I am blubbering like a baby,but like to think that even had I never got the stroke I would be likewise touched,
I know that a lot of people in exile read the Blog and ask that they continue to pray for two well known Parishioners who are entering the last furlong in the race of life and for whom the medical profession can offer little than the comfort of a pain free run in to the finishing line.
Living opposite the Church in Dunderry I see from time to time people drop in for a private prayer or whatever.Where ever you are you might do the same if you can or just pray for them where ever you are . 

Best sub ever.

The Muskateers were under pressure this last fortnight.I had and still have a horrid dose of somethinh in the throat and chest.I was smothered in phlegm when I could get it up ,alternating with the tubes around my throat closing in to the extent that I could hardly swallow.I had to give in and go to the Doctor and between tablets and a cough bottle am improving a little every day.The result was that I missed the six o clock vigil these last two Fridays.
Liam was  so far from home that he copuldn't make it  and Leo too was unavailable.
Every Team needs a good sub and Carmel alone kept the show on the road .
I have no doubt that her prayers floated straight to the Lord.
'Hon the Ladies.

Dividend for 29/9/2012

We pray that Beechdale Lad with jockey Tommy Tracey aboard will put an and to our losing streak.Jessica Harrington is a good trainer and we think the horse is worth a fiver win in the 3.35 in Navan.

A right fu...n Haverel.

My grandfather Paddy Mc Cormack was wont to call somebody he didn't hold in high esteem a right fecken haverel or words to that effect.I can remember him using the phrase in the 1960's and 1970's.As he was born in  the 1880's no doubt he used the phrase well before the 1960's.I have checked the use of this word locally with people of my vintage(over three score) and most of them have solid memories of its use in their youth.It has fallen out of fashion hereabouts in latter years as has the word trollop which is seldom used nowadays.
I know from the context in which he used the word that it was far from complimentary but never considered what it meant until recently.
If you google it the seemingly accepted meaning of it is a fool or simpleton who never shuts his trap,or what in Dublin we used to call a "mouth".
An extremely knowledgeable brother of mine is convinced that it meant a badly castrated buck goat,while another trained mind who has an interest in these things is sure that it was slang Irish for a person who was gluttonous in the extreme ,as when a person who had stuffed his face with s food and drink would say "I made a right haverel of myself at dinner last night and have indigestion since".
The vehemence with which my grandfather used utter the word would rule out neither of the above meanings but the buck goat meaning holds the greatest appeal for me.
Can anybody throw any more light on the matter?

Suicide and the self employed.

Anybody who is self employed is fighting a losing battle against the stinginess of "our "Banks ,the austerity programme and the ocean of over regulation and multiplicity of State quangos and Government Departments.which take up disproportionate time and impose impossible conditions on these unfortunate people.Every one of these  is trying to outdo the other in its zealousness to achieve preset targets and only  the odd decent public servant with a modicum of commonsense makes the existence of the self employed normally bearable.
The powers theses quangos have is frightening and small traders haven't got the resources nor expertise to play them on a level playing field.All it takes is one contrary person to shut down your business and traders live in a permanent state of fear.
Unless the Government immediately  keeps its promise to whittle away all this bureaucracy there is absolutely no hope of the employment numbers creeping back up as many small businesses are on the verge of shutting in the short term.
For a start there a should be a rule brought in which would limit the number of agencies who could visit any trader to a maximum of two per year and no more.This should be administratively possible.
The suicide rate amongst men is horrendous.I guess it is under reported.For example how would you know whether a one vehicle accident was accidental or deliberate , whether a man drowned himself or fell into the river or whether an unwitnessed death by machinery was accidental or deliberate.
Now back to the suicide rate amongst the self employed.
Within five miles of Dunderry six men I know of ,and I wouldn't know all the suicides within this radius ,had one thing in common,that is they were self employed.
I don't know what drove these men to take their own lives but strongly suspect that one or other of the agencies above were actively pursuing them or interacting with them..
It would be interesting to find out if our State is driving these people over the edge.
It wouldn't be too hard to find out.If the political will is there each Government and State Department ,Quango and Bank should be required to detail their involvement with the deceased in the run up to the suicide.
Will it happen.Probably not because there is no real will to do something about it other than to wring hands when opportune.

Shorthall does not make Fear Breaga list,

 I disagree vehemently with Roisin' Shorthall's proposal to bar advertising by Drink's Companies of  sporting events ,partly on the grounds that it has the potential to reduce sport to the level of the Pub trade,which is now on its knees,but mainly on the basis that the far more serious and fatal problems caused to society by the massive trade in illegal drugs is of  more immediate and urgent concern.
I repeat that nobody is being murdered nor assaulted for the price of a drink nor a fag but murders for drugs and the addictions caused by them are commonplace .
Having said this I can only admire the principled stand that this "Old Labour"lady has taken on the issues dear to her heart and the delay in reforming the Health services.Along with her colleagues Shane Nulty, Tommy Bruen and Willie Penroser  ,she has the courage of her convictions and did the right thing by resigning.Like them she is not on my Fear Breaga list.
It is no surprise to me that her Leader ,who was part of the Workers Party /Democratic Left  rump which morphed so successfully into Labour Party and have  effectively  taken it over ,has  like his former comrade Kathleen Lynch.thrown her to the wolves and chosen to back James Reilly instead.
Think about it.How many of this rump have become either Ministers ,mini Ministers ,Programme Managers etc.since the merger and work out how disproportionate the number is compared to the Old Labour people.
They seem to be in complete control and that is no jiggery pokery.

Dunderry Minor's odessy ends. Loundes continues.

With Dublin winning the minor All Ireland Football final today the exciting journey taken by the three Dunderry lads,Stephen,Paddy and Alan comes to an end.Stephen started,Paddy came on and Alan ,although number 17 didn't get the nod.A good Dunderry judge of football told me some time ago that this was an exceptional Dublin Team and although Meath pegged the lead back to a point early in the second half,after a foul on Kenneally,Dublin surged into a lead they were never to surrender. They are worthy winners and very very few players get to play for their County ,never mind to an All Ireland ,so our lads can hold their heads up high.I know these fellas well enough to know that they will not get swelled heads ,as some have opined.
Actually Dublin had a Meath man of impeccable breeding on their team.The man in question is Eric Loundes,son of Imelda Maguire of KIlmessan and John Loundes a true son of Dunboyne.They live in Mulhuddart ,just a stone's throw from the Meath/Dublin border and I have no doubt but had reasonable priced housing been available in Meath years ago that its Meath not Dublin he would be fielding with.
We lived in Mulhuddart when they settled there and if memory serves me right a Donegal man,Seamus Mc Anaw ,was a founding member and driving force in setting up Saint Peregrins GAA Club ,for which Eric and his brothers play and of which their father is Football Manager.Sean Stephens is my nephew and son of Teresa Maguire and a first cousin of Eric  and  played minor football for Meath in his day.
I'd say that thee is a little corner of Heaven ,where the hedge is being cut by Paddy Maguire ,their grandfather ,and where the linnets are singing in harmony and Paddy is saying"Be Janey .isn't it great all the same and we still have the minor Hurling Final Replay to look forward to."Isn't that right Mary "

Lynch lauding of Reilly a step too far.

To put things in perspective there was a claim that some years ago  a mother of a very sick child was forced to hand over a ring from her finger as security  because the doctor asked to treat  her sick son  didn't believe that he had a medical card ,which would entitle him to free medical attention.He worked for James Reilly's practice in North Dublin.He left some time afterwards.
Despite the media spin , as a  Minister Reilly  did attempt to cut back on carers time for the most severely handicapped people in the State to save money.This was only reversed when the very same people were forced to protest in all their obvious handicaps outside the Dail in the full glare of electronic and print media.Had they lain down passively like the rest of us there is little doubt that the cutbacks would have gone sneakily ahead as another knot on the whip of the austerity programme.
His fans were loud in praise of his achievements in cutting back the numbers in various in house hospital procedures and said so in the debate in the Dail on the no confidence motion .The flip side of this  was revealed the day following the Dail debate when he reason why the in house figures improved became clear,that is because they virtually stopped taking in people to hospitals and over 340,000  out patients were waiting to be seen.Relative to the size of our population is this a Western European record. ?
In any event Kathleen Lynch was fulsome in her praise of her Boss the Minister.I have often wondered at the ability of the former Sinn Fein /Sinn Fein    Workers Party/The Workers Party /Democratic Left/Labour members  to change parties and colors so easily .As many faces as Big Ben some would say.They definitely have morphed from Dark Green to pink to Red.
After her support for the Fine Gael Minister I wonder if she will now morph chameleon like to Blue.She wouldn't be the first Labour minister to so do.
As a footnote I have no sympathy for Fianna Fail on these issues.As far as I am concerned their shameful neglect of Navan Hospital over their years in power ,when they failed for decades to supply clot busting medication there is despicable.Just how many deaths did this cause and just how many people wee left permanently disable as a result will never be known.
I m most firmly of the view that Fianna fail /Greens /Progressive Democrats put this country back forty years and since getting the reins of power this Fine Gael /Labour coalition have regressed us another 15 years.

Unbridled Joy

At 5.47 a.m.on Thursday last Liam Evan Stephens clocked in at  8 lb11 ounces.Mother Aoife is grand and Evan is fine also as is the new arrival.This completes the spine of a future football and hurling team.We have full and centre backs,two midfielders and centre and full forward.I am delighted.
The fact that there was a meteor shower around the time of his birth has been remarked on but we draw no special significance for the moment.

Dividend for 22/9/2012

We had frost last night so we pick White Frost in the 5.15 at Ayr to break our losing streak.

Dunderry V Blackhall IHC 15/09/2012

Its Saturday evening and I head for the Showgrounds in Navan for the quarter final showdown between Blackhall and ourselves.Our Padraic, 5 years ,Evan's son comes with us with a  complete set of gear,that is bag packed with boots ,knicks,socks boxers ,towel ,hurley and helmet.And ,which was never about in my day,deodorant for freshness afterwards.Isn't Evan's wife great all the same.Packing for husband and son.We have to persuade him to leave the gear in the car at the game as he won't be playing just yet.No problem.
The stile man on duty is at his highly civilised best and ensures a smooth entrance for me.Fair dues Dessie.The pitch is at its immaculate best and the weather is grand with a strong breeze blowing towards the clubhouse end.
The 4 .00 p.m. start caught  me out somewhat and the game was on when I arrived.Against the wind we were level pegging at 3 points each.
Our quatrain of Flange,Junior,Mc Loughs and Frog lined them out as follows.

                                                         Doc

Sprog (Capt)                                         Finn                                      Red

Swiss                                                    Wright                                  Ivo

                                 Bomber                                    O Shea

Martin                                                 Keith                                    Geraghty

Gorey                                               Baby Doc                               Spongy

Yes we do have monikers here but that does not make us Pikers as some Blackhall players taunted us.Not that we would mind fielding any Traveller eligible to play for us had we got them.I have heard this term of abuse used against Travellers ,but usually by certain low bred English bigots and not here before.Just goes to show that the spawn of the Tans thrives in some still.This sort of thing has no place in the game of the Gaels and the sooner it is culled from its supposed participants the better.And sad to relate similar abuse has spread to Camogie circles as I am aware that certain young players our Camogie sisters field were threatened at least once by the opposition before the ball was thrown in.Not good enough says I.
Well back to the game itself.
From the puck out after the levelling Blackhall point a series of line balls in our favour result with the ball eventually reaching Baby Doc who is blown up in possession,why I don't know.Some committed play from both sides ends with Blackhall taking a point from play.An inter passing move between O Shea and Ivo gets the ball to Martin who takes a fine point.
4 points apiece.
Finn breaks up a probing attack and delivers to o Shea who passes to Ivo ,whose long delivery breaks to Keith and he is blown up .The crowd are vociferous in their displeasure at the free for which no reason is apparent from the stand.The first of what will transpire to be many Blackhall breaks in play results when a gaggle of physios ,water boys and maors enter the field of play to treat a player who appears to be on death's door but miraculously recovers some minutes later.Blackhall land a long  free in our goalmouth but we are awarded a free out.Square ball perhaps.Bomber catches our free and lets it into the forwards.Another free out to them.This clean but manly  game is being riddled with frees.Blackhall play the tidier hurling and secure a point from play.Doc's puck out finds Geraghty ,who delivers to Martin who pulls the trigger but misses.Wide.Blackhall 10 gets a free ,not clear to me what for.Point.0-6 to 0-4 to Black hall. Spongy wins the ball and passes to Gorey who hits wide.Referee  gives a free to Blackhall which they point and gives Bomber a yellow card.I am baffled.They miss. Blackhall water boy is on pitch again.These antics must distract players .Black hall attack is broken up by Sprog  to Bomber to Ivo to Gorey to Baby Doc who splits the posts.
Ivo wins puck out and lets in low but it crosses the sideline.O Shea is fouled in possession and Ivo's free goes to Geraghty whose delivery is foiled by a fine block .Black hall earn a free which is an opportunity for another pitch invasion by a gaggle of Black hall physio ,water boys and selector.The dead arose eventually and in fine fettle played on.Free missed target and shortly afterward another more scorable one awarded ,which they pointed.They followed up with a wide from play.Keith catches the puck out and to Bob via Geraghty who is fouled.Happy days.Keith secures the point. 7 to 6 in their favour.Finn breaks up attack and clears under pressure.Blackhall regain possession and point from play.After some robust play Keith is clocked and gets a free.He needs attention .No free.We register a wide and half time whistle blows.
Early on Swiss and Wright changed positions and Spongy went to midfield.
We are two points down but have a strong wind to follow.We are in the hunt .
Minogue replaces Geraghty .Geraghty can consider  himself unlucky.
Good defensive play by us force an overcarry by them but Keith misses the long distance free.Black hall hit wide under pressure from Sprog.Doc finds Minogue who hits wide.Gorey shoots wide. Martin takes a fine point from play.Keith atones and splits the posts..Minogue wins puck out  with a long distance point following a foul on Bomber.Blackhall waterboy on pitch yet again.
Minogue wins puck out and transfers to Ivo to Martin who scores again.Another intrusion onto the pitch by a waterboy.
A clear Dunderry line ball is blatantly wrongly signalled the other way by three Blackhall officials and a linesman.The crowd howls its frustration.The ref,saw it and gives us the lineball.Successive frees concede by Gorey and d Ivo result in a further point to Blackhall.Wright is blown and they work a point from play.Spongy works ball to Baby.Wide.
Gallant defending  forces Blackhall into another wide from play.Good interplay from Finn,Swiss Martin and Baby results in a Spongy point.A Blackhall player is on his back and Physio ,water boys and others invade the pitch.There is a long delay and the seemingly helpless player makes a miraculous recovery, trotting like a spring foal to his position.Mysteriously Martin gets a yellow.Nothing to do with the man on the ground.The crowd again howls in frustration.A scorable free is given against us and moved further in,about twenty yards I judge , but thankfully falls short.They work a point from play however.Another Blackhall player is down and on cue the gaggle of Blackhall officials et al. invade the pitch.When play eventually resumes and with the Blackhall player restored to full vigour ,Bomber secures possession and passes to Spongy who scores.Another unfathomable free is awarded against which Finn  repulses twice at the cost of a lineball which they hit wide.Yet another mysterious free is awarded against us and yet again it is moved closer to goal .Everyone is baffled and Blackhall ride their luck and score.They could scarcely miss.Wright is replaced by Keenan.Keith fires over s free.12points each.O Shea off,Gilky on.Red is poled defending his lines but jumps straight up and Keenan hits the resultant free long and true into open ground ,where Spongy collects and is penalised for over carrying.It falls short and we get a free out.Only four minutes to go.Tension is  palpable.Our long free lands in their 21 and they get another free out,After fierce defending ,particularly by Sprog and Swiss we concede a point.We are one down with two minutes normal to go.Gorey is fouled and Keith shows that Canning has a peer in Dunderry and levels.Announcement that a miserly three minutes extra time will be played.Seems inordinately short and is wrong.One break alone lasted that time.Blackhall score from play and Carty replaces Gorey.Gilky is fouled and Keith delivers yet again.Liam Dempsey replaces Baby Doc.
Time runs out.Draw game.Extra time.
Sprog wins the toss and elects  to play against the wind.
Blackhall hit wide from throw in.And miss another scorable chance.We defend heroically and Blackhall spurn an open goal,Martin misses a scorable chance set up by the speedy Carty.Blackhall water boys on the pitch again.Blackhall full forward is grounded and this sparks another gaggle of Blackhall officials onto the field.The prone player miraculously jumps to life ,defying all the odds seemingly and is given a yellow card as is Finn.Spongy and Keenan  slip and the ball rolls to Blackhall who score.They attack ,we repulse and they are awarded a seventy.n.Two Blackhall players lie down and five Black hall officials enter the field of play,This is joke.Eventually they convert the seventy.And refreshed score another from play.They are all over us.Martin scores from play having been set up by Keith.The excellent Carty is fouled and Keith delivers yet again.17 to 16 against us.Martin who was having the game of his life gets a second yellow and line.His opponent gets a yellow also.Most st undeserved and a thorn in Black halls side removed.Blackhall make it 18-16 and Baby Doc replaces Dempsey.Stays same after extra time.
A wild pull on the throw in gives us a scorable chance but ball falls short and as Spongy bends to pick it up he is shouldered in the back resulting in a free to them.I have never seen the like.Fin fields the free is fouled in turn and Blackhall introduce another sub.Finn then takes the free,which we secure and score .18 to 17 now.As is usual when we get up steam another Blackhall man is down,The usual multi peopled invasion happens and the player hops up the finest after a while.The umpire is consulted.They temporarily return to the sideline but the warterboy returns to the field without water,Play resumes and they get a free ,which Davy intercepts and is fouled.Ive scores from an impossible distance.There is hope.Under pressure Blackhall shoot wide from play.Another Blackhall man is down and five more Blackhall officials are on the pitch holding play up yet again.As per usual the  apparently mortally wounded player resumes after a considerable time with no obvious impairment.Ball is worked to Baby who shoots wide.A tense period of ding dong play ensues and we score from play.WE concede a seventy ,which they shoot short and a free which they convert.19-19 with a conservative extra three minutes to go.All or nothing now.Desperation stakes.We shoot short to goalie and Bomber kicks  wide.The Blackhall physio runs on to the pitch again but has to retreat as no one is down.WE are awarded a scorable free and two Blackhall players drop like slaughtered cattle ..where the free is.Now the physio is in sync with the action and re enters the field.Keith delivers yet again.Great stuff.
Another miraculous double recovery and play resumes we hold out.And the spirit of the game triumphs.Thanks be to God.
The referee was young and I would guess never  hurled .It was impossible to guess when he would blow or who might get the free.This was for both sides  but had we lost I might have had less charitable thoughts.He can only improve.
The continuous breakages in play caused by the incessant falling of Black hall players to the ground ,if orchestrated ,was an abuse of the rules.Not one apparently injured player failed to miraculously recover as  far as I could see and some of the Blackhall officials spent as long on the field as some of thee players.They had ten substitutes and if so many of their players were in such delicate physical condition as to need constant physio attention its  a wonder they didn't give the subs a chance.
Goalie and full backs are thriving and while Wright didn't reach the heights of our draw with Rathmoylan he is a good player .He will improve more and most importantly helped me calve a cow later that evening.Swiss is flying and Bomber is manning up nicely.O Shea had an off day by his standards due no doubt to his successful studies.Martin excelled,Keith is priceless and Geraghty did all that was expected from him,Davy Mac is at the height of his game and fulfills all high expectations we have of him,The full forward line did all they could but there is room for improvement there.Minogue,Carty and Gilkinson did well when introduced and Dempsey and Keenan contributed also.
The boys on the line made the right calls.
All in all we were lucky to win but Blackhall have only themselves to blame for losing.Ironically the continuous breaks in play may have done themselves more harm than good.

HSE drug warning compelling proof of my views on prohibitionists.

The recent warning of the dangers of a brown powder mix containing various drugs and the apparent fatal consequences of its ingestion lends considerable support to the views expressed by me in my recent article on the proposal to ban sponsorship by drinks companies.
A deceased friend of mine remarked some years ago that a pub we strayed into that had a funereal atmosphere "would be a great place to bring your mother in law to coming from  a funeral",.
An entirely predictable consequence of making pubs places  a substantial minority of people do not find appealing and of effectively emptying them by the introduction of draconian laws ,is to drive people to house parties where a everything goes.
Were the governance of pubs and drink driving laws relaxed to reasonable levels people would party there under some decent level of supervision and perhaps  the deaths recently experienced might not have happened.

Political establishment attacks pay packets of workers.

Tonight the Finance Minister casually mentioned that the tax attacking the ownership of residences which his political masters have instructed him and the other political kapos to impose on the populace will be deducted from your wage packet ,before you get your wages,And if you don't get wages but get for example a farm payment for producing cheap food it will be deducted from that payment by the process of attachment.
Not one politician nor trade union objected to the legislation introducing this sleight of hand when the legislation was passed by the Oireachtas.SO we can assume that all of them are in favour of further impoverishing ordinary decent working people.
At times like this I am in awe of the foresight and principles of those genuine Labour members who resigned on principle from the Party  when the jigger pokers of the Sinn Fein/Sinn Fein the Workers Party/Workers Party/Democratic Left morphed into and took over the Labour Party.
Neither the Labour Party nor the Unions have the remotest concern for working people nor their pay packets and poor auld James Connolly must be revolving in his grave looking at the betrayal of the party he founded by his so called successors.
Remember that precisely the same collection machinery will be used for the household charge,the septic tank charge and the water charges and whatever other chicanery they dream up to torture us with.
If you know any ex Labour Party members who left over this betrayal go up to them,say sorry sir/madam  for buying into the spin of the jigger pokers and shake their hands.
AS for Fine Gael.Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein,aren't you now real glad you voted for them.Look what they helped to foist on ye.
A further step in the continuing re subjugation of the Irish.

DUNDERRY V BOARDSMILL J.F.B.C. 6/9/2012

This match was played under lights in O Mahoney's side pitch in Navan.It must be one of the finest pitches in Ireland and the hurling wall beside it is something else.The Navan men manning the gate are among the most civil  in the county,fair dues to them.Our own Phil Fay Junior is coaching the underage girls in football .His own daughter plays there.They tell me that the variety and excellence of his drills is something to behold.Our loss is Navan's gain.Maybe he would come to take over the Intermediate football in Dunderry next year.He might be THE MAN.
Ned Howley is coaching underage there as well.Another gain to Navan and loss to us.Maybe he would add to our coaching efforts here also.He is a good man.
With our Inter Football Team gone out of the Championship there was good support for the team ,including Club  Director of Coaching Sean Kelly ,who was keeping absolutely schtum on his position vis a vis the Meath job.My own view is that if he is ever going to take it ,now is the time.Assuming the County Board wants him that is.
Bligh ,Hickey and Keaveney selected the following team.

                                                James Mitchell

Kenny Fay                             Kevin Slattery                    Owen Dempsey

Davy Stephens                       Gary Newman                    J.P.Kenneally

                                   Conor Farrell                  Liam Dempsey

Thomas Doherty                   Paul Bartley                      Alan Watters  

Jordan Martin                      Trevor Conaty                     Paul Govern.

Sub used .Killian Minogue,Davy Gilkinson ,Paddy Gorey.  Chris Fitzgerald                                                                

We hoped that this team would continue to entertain and surprise as they have done for the year to date and we opened with a miracle point from distance by Martin.Despite being marginally outplayed for the rest of the half  we were unlucky to go in four points down at half time.
Rocked by the concession of a soft goal our spirits sagged and the writing looked  to be on the wall. Luckily the players didn't share this view and commenced a spirited fightback making a compelling ding dong battle of it and hauling back a five point lead to two with minutes to go.
We had our chances to draw level but careless and lazy passing gave away hard earned possession on a number of occasions and must have broke the hearts of those players who put it on the line for the year ,not to mention the management team who also gave their all.
The concession of a penalty at the stroke of full time put the hat on it and we were beat by 2-12 to 2-7.
Goalkeeper backs and midfield were adequate and gave all they had.Slattery's experience stood him in good stead.Fay's speed and guts were somewhat diminished by the concession of frees but he remains pound for pound one of the classiest players in the Club.Dempsey was caught for pace a few times ,Stephens continued his good form despite the deployment of the Mill full forward to blunten his effectiveness,Newman was efficient and Kenneally had a good outing ,some stray passes excepted.
Farrell was the better of the midfielders with Dempsey'lack of participation on the training field  glimpsing through at times, one miracle long distance foot pass excepted.He has vision however but needs to up his fitness level to enable execution of his potential.
Despite glimpses of potential the forwards ,with the honourable exception of Bartley ,who ran till his legs gave way.cannot have been satisfied with their contributions.Bugle is an example to all who aspire to realise football potential.
I am not going to belittle them but they must know that effort must be matched by some element of carefulness when in possession.Carelessness in passing is not acceptable in any circumstances and the simple pass has no trump when all is said and done.
All in all this voyage was an interesting one and I was sad to see it come to an end.I wish the Mill all the best in the competition and would concede that they were the better team on the night.
As one whose football days are but a memory  every single body who played for us on the night can up their games in the future and owe it to themselves to do so.
This should be their aim from this moment forth.Time stands still for no man and before ye know it the clock will have consigned ye to the sidelines of sporting life.
Make the best of it while time is on your side.

Dunderry Football winds down for year.

On Thursday last the Junior B's were beaten by Boardsmill,bringing to an end the interest of this team in the competition.Report is cooking.
Clanna Gael have withdrawn from the I.F.C.so we get a walkover tonight in the fixture.
Sin sin.Where will our football addicts get their weekly fix now.
Not a great year,compounded by Billy Bligh stepping down as manager.
Only the hurlers left now.

Dividend for 8/09/2012

After some frustration with last week's tip Richard Hannon's Strong Suit is fancied to prove himself a top sprinter on the quickening ground at Haydock in the 3.25.He is worth a fiver win  we judge.Should be decent odds and the tipster is strong on this one.

Mainstream media bias in U.S.presidential election.

I have more than a passing interest in the U.S. presidential Elections.This is because 7 out of 10 of my maternal grandfather's siblings emigrated there between 1890 and 1920 and they have families over there.In addition many people I know of more recent vintage have been forced there by economic mismanagement in this country.I am well aware that many millions emigrated there during and after the famine years ,when the alternative was death by starvation in a country governed by an Empire on which the sun never set.America was good to us and I suppose we were good for America.
Many families here were kept going by emigrant remittances.
I have a curiosity about what happens there and I rely to a great extent for information on the Irish media both electronic and papers.I must say however that it seems to me that all the reporters are unashamedly biased towards the Democratic party In their coverage of the issues and the candidates .They put across the Republican side as gob shites and backwoodsmen and never cease to sneer at them.
This may be because the of the liberal convictions of the same reporters in matters of gay marriage,feminism ,anti unborn life,secularism and religious bigotry.
In order for us to form informed opinions on the Election a lot more balanced and objective reporting is needed.It surprises me that the reporting imbalance is not taken up by republican and fair minded Americans before now.

Proposal to bar drinks advertising in sport absurd.

The Prohibitionists that dominate all the main political parties have learned little from history.It is widely acknowledged that the failed American experiment  with Prohibition did little but create and consolidate  a well resourced criminal fraternity that persists to this day.
Already I would guess that the exorbitant prices charged for Motor fuel and cigarettes is creating a new smuggling elite as we speak.
Speaking plainly the most socially destructive social scourge in this country is that of heroin.Addicts must have their fixes daily and do rob their own mothers and anyone else they can to get the price of their next fix.Other drugs are nearly as addictive.If there are 30,000 such addicts robbing for their fixes each day and indeed twice a day you don't have to be a genius to work out the number of robberies resulting..Given that the stolen goods are fenced at way below their actual value  the stolen property  must be worth millions of Euro each day.
I have never heard of a person mugging another for the price of fags nor drink,but I have often come across people mugged or threatened for the price of a fix.
Yet the Authorities devote far more resources in fighting the legal pastimes of smoking and drinking than in the other more destructive areas of addiction.
For over 30% of the population having a drink and a smoke concurrently are a pleasurable past time.Michael Martin initiated a Taliban like Prohibition on smoking in Public Houses that signalled the death knell of the Public House in Ireland. All parties contributed to this and had no problem bullying thirty percent of the population.
There were three public houses in this Parish.Now there are two.A blind man could see that the trade of the remaining Pubs is way down on what it was.It is the same all over the country.
Between the smoking ban and the over zealous drink driving laws single and elderly  people in rural Ireland have been turned into depressed recluses .
A more insidious by product of this is that house parties are on the increase.There is no knowing what goes on at these.At least in the pub there was some check on behaviour.I have little doubt but that there are those in the Prohibitionists Taliban that would only be too glad to patrol the private homes of everybody to impose their will.a la the Stasis.
The politicians that made a basket case of the country are proposing an increase in the price of drink and the banning of advertising by drinks companies to penalise all drinkers and sports fans.These are the same politicians that swore blind that all the proceeds of the National Lottery would be filtered back exclusively for sports and recreational needs.Yeah right,
By far the most social destruction in the Country was caused by the behaviour of the banks and the regulators etc.Think emigration,suicide depression, premature death,mental and actual illness,hunger ,and unending stress.
These institutions have given nothing only unremitting  miseryA few pints or glasses of wine will give some little relief.
Leave the drinks companies and the millions of imbibers alone and ban advertising by the banks.
And don't fuck up the sporting organisations in the country the way ye did the entire country by sticking your unwanted oar in.
Rather run the health services in a way that doesn't involve depriving the old ,the disabled and the feeble of mind  of essential services and stop killing them with neglect.

Dunderry I.F.C hopes run out of road.

With St.Michaels beating Syddan well this weekend our hopes of progress  in the I.F.C.is over.Kaput.Its been a long year and a hard one on players and management.My heart goes out to them.This is the first time in a while that we failed to qualify.
I personally refuse to believe that there is not an I.F.C. in this group of players.The long serving ones have been in many playoffs ,always the bridesmaid but never the bride.Must be sickening.
The management should know that they are in good compny in failing to win outright.Even Tommy Dowd and Barry Callaghan ,multiple all Ireland winners both,couldn't bring home the laurels as managers .
Nevertheless I firmly believe that a Messiah is out there that can deliver. If not two.I have my own dream team.
One thing the club must do is to try and advance all teams at juvenile level up to grade one in all competitions within a maximum of three years.
We have one match to play in the I.F.C. against our near neighbours Clanna Gael.Like ourselves they ae playing for pride only at this stage.I will be attending the match this Saturday.
The burden of bringing home the football laurels rests on the shoulders of the Junior B team under Manager Billy Bligh and selectors Kevin Keaveney,Derek Hichey and Mickey Casey.
They play Boardsmill this Thursday in the quarter final in Navan.
Beidh  me ann le cuineamh De.

Dividend for 01/09/2012

Tommy Stack and Wayne Lorton are in cracking form and their winning streak can continue with Mister Aviation in the 3.20 in KiIllarney.Should be about 3/1.The tipster is on a roll and it would be a foolish man who would go against him.After collecting E.82.00 last week I for win will chance a fiver win.Feck the expense.