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31 Lunasa 2009.
Back to Porridge.
Children are back to school this week. Most of them anyway. Cynics tell me that usually makes for better weather. By that they mean drier weather.
‘Kids locked up in their classrooms and the sun is splitting the trees. That’s always the way of it!’
This blog wouldn’t count on that, not this year at any rate. But anyway wet or dry, windy or warm, isn’t it great that we are able to complain about it. I met a man once, an Irish man, not long after he was released from a long term of imprisonment in a French jail.
‘What was the main difference between gaol there and gaol in Ireland?’ I asked him.
‘Nobody complained about the weather’ he replied.
Your man never complains about the weather either. He probably has French blood. But then according to him, it never rains in pubs. And as he often observes, we are far better off than decenter people. Yahoooo!
So as the summer draws to a close there are lots of good things to look forward to. Kilkenny and Tipp in the Hurling Final. Will the Cats make it four in a row? And Corcaigh and Ciarrai in the football. Will the Kingdom win through again or will Corcaigh do to them what they did to Tír Éoghan?
The Lisbon Treaty referendum? Now there’s a thing. The losers get to call a replay? Same as they did on the Nice Treaty. This treaty is no different, not even a comma of a change, from the one the electorate rejected last time around. But the establishment never accepted that result. So in the hope that they can mount a better campaign this time the Yes camp get to have another go. Wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time? As the graffiti down the Falls Road in 1969 asserted ‘F… 1690. We want a replay.’
Ah so…....Politics is a funny old business. Funny peculiar. Labour and Fine Gael agree with the government on Lisbon. It’s a good deal they say. This blog cannot figure that out. Both these parties, and here I agree with them, protest that this is the government which has made a mess of every other deal. But miraculously and totally contrary to their record on every other issue they say the government got it right on Lisbon. Nonsense!
There is also a budget coming up. The target is obvious. It’s the least well off and the most disadvantaged. And that includes the half a million people who will be on the dole by Christmas. The McCarthy Report is designed to give the government political cover for further widespread cuts to public services. If the establishment has its way the social landscape will be transformed. For the worse. A bad government in Dublin rewarding its cronies in the financial institutions while targeting everyone else.
That’s what NAMA is about. It is about protecting the golden circle. Even before NAMA the state guaranteed the banks to the tune of 440 billion euros. Crony capitalism how are ye? All needs changed, changed utterly.
And the north? Choices to be made there also. Not just on the economy but on all the outstanding elements of the Good Friday and Saint Andrews Agreement. So there is a lot to be done in the autumn. On all fronts and across the island.
Looks like its back to porridge in more ways than one.
But this blog likes porridge. I have been eating muesli for the few months of summer. Made my own to start with and then graduated to supermarket brands. Funny old thing I ran out off it this morning. But there was a packet of oatmeal at the back of the cupboard. So it will be porridge again in the morning. Just what this blog needs to get through a winter of discontent.
Back to Porridge.
Children are back to school this week. Most of them anyway. Cynics tell me that usually makes for better weather. By that they mean drier weather.
‘Kids locked up in their classrooms and the sun is splitting the trees. That’s always the way of it!’
This blog wouldn’t count on that, not this year at any rate. But anyway wet or dry, windy or warm, isn’t it great that we are able to complain about it. I met a man once, an Irish man, not long after he was released from a long term of imprisonment in a French jail.
‘What was the main difference between gaol there and gaol in Ireland?’ I asked him.
‘Nobody complained about the weather’ he replied.
Your man never complains about the weather either. He probably has French blood. But then according to him, it never rains in pubs. And as he often observes, we are far better off than decenter people. Yahoooo!
So as the summer draws to a close there are lots of good things to look forward to. Kilkenny and Tipp in the Hurling Final. Will the Cats make it four in a row? And Corcaigh and Ciarrai in the football. Will the Kingdom win through again or will Corcaigh do to them what they did to Tír Éoghan?
The Lisbon Treaty referendum? Now there’s a thing. The losers get to call a replay? Same as they did on the Nice Treaty. This treaty is no different, not even a comma of a change, from the one the electorate rejected last time around. But the establishment never accepted that result. So in the hope that they can mount a better campaign this time the Yes camp get to have another go. Wouldn’t it be great if it was like this all the time? As the graffiti down the Falls Road in 1969 asserted ‘F… 1690. We want a replay.’
Ah so…....Politics is a funny old business. Funny peculiar. Labour and Fine Gael agree with the government on Lisbon. It’s a good deal they say. This blog cannot figure that out. Both these parties, and here I agree with them, protest that this is the government which has made a mess of every other deal. But miraculously and totally contrary to their record on every other issue they say the government got it right on Lisbon. Nonsense!
There is also a budget coming up. The target is obvious. It’s the least well off and the most disadvantaged. And that includes the half a million people who will be on the dole by Christmas. The McCarthy Report is designed to give the government political cover for further widespread cuts to public services. If the establishment has its way the social landscape will be transformed. For the worse. A bad government in Dublin rewarding its cronies in the financial institutions while targeting everyone else.
That’s what NAMA is about. It is about protecting the golden circle. Even before NAMA the state guaranteed the banks to the tune of 440 billion euros. Crony capitalism how are ye? All needs changed, changed utterly.
And the north? Choices to be made there also. Not just on the economy but on all the outstanding elements of the Good Friday and Saint Andrews Agreement. So there is a lot to be done in the autumn. On all fronts and across the island.
Looks like its back to porridge in more ways than one.
But this blog likes porridge. I have been eating muesli for the few months of summer. Made my own to start with and then graduated to supermarket brands. Funny old thing I ran out off it this morning. But there was a packet of oatmeal at the back of the cupboard. So it will be porridge again in the morning. Just what this blog needs to get through a winter of discontent.
Comments
Me ma says eat your porridge it makes you stronger. Learning the song of the Gael and that to makes us stronger to avail what Gerry our troubled times or tera erieann. I long the story of what i must be.
Glad to know you eat muesli. It's good for keeping down cholesterol, especially if you put a generous amount of cinnamon on it. A good amount of oatmeal and muesli should counteract the effects of Ulster fry and black pudding!
For once in your life Gerry I think you have most of the people here on the bigger island behind you(hope the idea of lots of English people staring at yer back doesn't make you too nervous!!).
The Irish government has its faults but at least you have a constitution and a democracy, we've just got King Gordon telling us what we're getting, like it or not, whilst trying to be the longest serving PM to have never actually been elected to the job.
Please let us know what the poeple on this island can do to help the people on the island of Ireland reject Lisbon.