Feeling sheepish in Wicklow

It takes all kinds, I suppose  -  even those who have a paraphilia with zoophilia. 

In other words, humans who are sexually attracted to (other) animals. 

They don't just exist in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, New Zealand and Yorkshire either - here's a case from the Netherlands, and here's another from London.

Then there's this one from a couple of years back which I'd forgotten about...

Irish Woman Dies after Sex with Dog  (8th July 2011, Pets.ie)

A Limerick woman died after suffering an allergic reaction to dog’s semen according to the Irish Daily Star.  The 43-year old mother of four willingly engaged in intercourse with an Alsatian in 2008, after arranging the tryst on an online bestiality chatroom.

The owner of the dog, Sean McDonnell, 57, is being charged with the woman’s death and could face life in prison if found guilty. 

Tests show that following sex acts with the Alsatian, she suffered a reaction similar to that of someone with peanut allergies. The woman fell ill at 7.30 on October 7th and
died just half an hour later. The Alsatian has been kept in quarantine ever since the incident.



Bloody hell... the world can be a scary place.  Especially if you are a sheep (or a dog).

And whatever you think about this off-beat post, let me assure you that I'm only joking in the video above.

I go driving in Wicklow soley for the roads, mutton else.




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Top Gear v Fifth Gear. A triumph of nonsense over substance.

This post has nothing to do with Ireland or life in it, but we all need a break now and then.  Even me.

  It's about quality and public taste, and how the two are very often diametrically opposed – often helped by marketing people, all too keen and ready to exploit public dim-wittedness.

This is an international phenomenon.   History is littered with dubious, but successful,  products that eclipsed far better rivals. 

During World War Two, for instance,  the Luftwaffe had the Messerschmitt 109 – an aircraft inferior in most important respects to the Focke Wulf 190.   The later FW 190s were even a match for the mighty North American Mustang, yet the aircraft played second fiddle to the older BF109 throughout the war. The Messerschmitt was a bugger to fly and many of them were written off in take-off and landing accidents due to the wheels being too close together, a consequence of their weak wings.

Back in the 80s there was the VHS video system.  It was poorer than its rival Betamax, but that didn't stop VHS becoming the standard whilst Betamax was consigned to the cassette bin.   A triumph of slippery marketing types in large-framed Elvis Costello glasses and speckled suits.   You have to wonder how these people have made our lives worse than they could have been, with their cliche-crammed bullshit and bollocksology.

Then there is Top Gear and Fifth Gear.   Sweet suffering Christ, what an utter crock of shite Top Gear is, but that hasn't stopped it becoming one of the most popular TV series in the world, along with an execrable live touring show.    I stopped looking at it years ago, after they thought it would be a fabulous wheeze to take the wheels off a Jaguar XJS and put train ones on in their place.  They then drove the car on a track... a railway one.   Madcap stuff indeed, and quite possibly hilarious if you are three years old or are a public schoolboy.  

The only vehicle that features on the show these days is the one that carries the massive egos of its three journalist presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. By contrast Fifth Gear, which of late has been on Discovery, boasts at least three ex-racing drivers who know their stuff and actually review motor cars... sometimes even motorbikes.  

Despite all this, Top Gear can count its viewers in multiple millions; Fifth Gear, on the other hand, is relatively cult viewing.   

I suppose it all comes down to popular taste, which tends to favour the lightweight – but the power of the Beeb and slick marketing must play a part too.

"Marketing" remarked Edwin Land "is something you do when your product is no good".

Ouch.


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€35,000 booze donation from Shell to gardai?

Multinational conglomerates like Shell are well used to operating in godforsaken Third World countries.   They know how things work, how to keep corrupt authorities sweet.   How to oil the cogs of power to keep them turning in the right direction.

Last Sunday’s Observer – and it would be a British, rather than an Irish media organ – claimed that a company contracted to Shell donated the Belmullet plod €35,000 worth of booze, after some particularly dedicated work against Corrib gas protestors.

See follow-up in today's IT, below.

You needn't expect much from  the "investigation" into gardai, by gardai, on the matter. 

They'll probably just clutch their heads and say they don't remember anything about it.

Senior garda examining claims alcohol was delivered to Mayo station

Lorna Siggins  Irish Times, Tuesday 13th August 2013

An Garda Síochána has appointed a senior officer to examine claims a company contracted to Shell E&P Ireland delivered large quantities of alcohol to Belmullet Garda station in Mayo. The Garda Press Office confirmed to The Irish Times last night that “a superintendent has been appointed to examine the matter”.

It is understood Supt Thomas Murphy of Swinford Garda station has been instructed to contact the contractor, OSSL, in relation to a number of allegations against the force.

The “examination” has been underway for more than a month, and is subsequent to inquiries previously conducted by the gardaí following “allegations” made to the district officer at Belmullet Garda station on December 7th, 2011, that “alcohol was distributed to members of An Garda Síochána on behalf of Shell E&P”.

Inquiries conducted in relation to the December 2011 allegations had “found no evidence of alcohol being distributed to members of An Garda Síochána by, or on behalf of, Shell E&P”, gardaí have said.

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Racist man in NTL jacket on Brighton train

Years ago, during a nine-year stint in London as an economic migrant, I was sitting in a pub looking at Leeds United v Someone-or-other in a match of no consequence to anyone in the pub but me (it was an Irish pub called Mulligans, in Stratford, East London) when a black man walked in.

He was a little the worse for wear, but wasn't really bothering anyone as such - unlike the witless, ignorant gobshite you will see in the video above.   

Anyway, one hero in the pub descended from his regular pew beside the bar, and ejected the reveler.   He came back dusting his hands proudly before declaring in a strong Irish accent (as is mine, by the way) "just because he's black doesn't mean he has to be stupid",  seemingly oblivious to similar bigoted attitudes towards he and his fellows in that pub and elsewhere in the UK.

I left in embarrassment.

Have a look at the video.  It needs no further comment from me.

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Corrupt "elite" in Ireland don't go to jail

We live in a tin-pot shithole of a country where 272 people were jailed in 2012 for not paying their RTE licence fee (some inaccurately refer to it as a TV licence).  

If you are a corrupt planner, senior civil servant or politician – I'd better be careful here, as they might sue me – you can abuse your public position for personal gain, safe in the knowledge that your establishment  fellow-travellers in the judiciary will let you off. 

The following piece by Fintan O'Toole in today's Irish Times - with more examples - is well worth a read...

Ten things you can do in Ireland that almost certainly won’t land you in jail

Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times, Tuesday, July 30, 2013, 12:54

Beata Schmid has been told to turn up in the High Court in Dublin today packed for a trip to prison. An Garda Síochána has been told to make sure there are officers in court “with a view to conveying Ms Schmid to prison”.

Ms Schmid worked for a division of IBM Ireland and sees herself as a whistleblower. She told the court in her last appearance before Judge George Birmingham that she had discovered and reported “severe discrepancies” in sales records. She downloaded the data on to a memory stick which she took home. IBM then went to court and secured an order requiring her to hand over her laptop and the memory stick, which she did.

IBM then went back to court demanding the return of a second memory stick on to which it believes she made at least a partial copy of the data. She insists she does not have a second memory stick. The judge ordered her to produce it nonetheless and told her that she will go to prison today if she does not comply.

I make no comment on the rights and wrongs of this case. I don’t doubt at all that the court will apply the existing law fairly and with integrity. I merely draw attention to a certain poignancy – Beata Schmid, who rightly or wrongly sees herself as a corporate whistleblower, may well go to prison just days after the collapse of the trial of those accused of corrupting the planning process in Dublin.

Here are 10 things for which we can say with confidence that Beata Schmid almost certainly would not go to jail.

1 Systematically paying workers a significant portion of their wages “under the counter”, without deducting tax and insurance. And regularly sourcing the cash for these from local banks using fraudulent cheques made out to nonexisten 
individuals. (Goodman beef processors, as concluded by the beef tribunal.)

2 Undermining the integrity of a key State commercial competition by exerting an “insidious and perverse” and “pervasive and abusive” influence on the process. (Michael Lowry, Moriarty tribunal report.)

3 Acting in a manner that was “profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking”. (Lowry and Ben Dunne, in relation to attempts to influence arbitration of rental payments to Dunne, Moriarty report.)

4 Making corruption “both systemic and endemic” at every level of Irish political life. (The Mahon tribunal)

5 Stealing money raised for a friend’s life-saving operation. The Moriarty tribunal found that Charles Haughey stole a  “sizeable proportion” of Brian Lenihan’s medical fund.

6 Committing perjury. Charles Haughey lied to the McCracken tribunal, claiming that he had not received money from Ben Dunne but later conceding he had done so. The Bailey brothers “hindered and obstructed” the Flood tribunal in a number of ways, including making untrue statements under oath. Not only did Mick and Tom Bailey each give false evidence under oath, but the tribunal found that they had colluded to concoct that evidence.

7 Insider trading. Both the Supreme Court and the Director of Corporate Enforcement concluded that businessman Jim Flavin had improperly used inside information in dealing in the shares of Fyffe’s. But a High Court inspector found that this was okay because “Mr Flavin genuinely believed that he was not in possession of price-sensitive information.” Perhaps uniquely in the developed world, insider trading in Ireland is not about objective facts but about one’s state of mind.

8 Covering up and repeatedly facilitating sexual attacks on children by known predatory paedophiles. (Several Irish bishops, the Murphy report.)

9 Operating a massive and systematic tax fraud against the State. In 1993, the then huge sum of £2 billion was held in nonresidential accounts the banks knew to be fraudulent. Allied Irish Bank alone had 88,000 “non-resident” accounts – thepractice was highly organised throughout virtually all Irish banks. The public accounts committee found it to be “an industrywide phenomenon”.

10 Manufacturing a therapeutic substance without a licence, not informing women that you knew had been infected withhepatitis C and not informing the Department of Health of the infection as you were obliged to do by law. (Senior management of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, Finlay report).

These are some of the socially destructive things you can do in Ireland, confident that there is a tiny chance you will beprosecuted, a tinier chance you will be convicted and a chance of going to jail that recedes towards vanishing point.

And this is not about the dark past: in the three years after the bank collapse, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the conviction rate for white-collar offences fell dramatically. In 2004, there were 467 convictions for white-collar crimes; in 2010, there were just 178. This is in spite of the fact that the number of recorded white-collar offences rose by 33 per cent in the same
period.

A country that can’t enforce its own laws against acts that cause immense damage to citizens is not merely not a republic – it’s not even a functioning State. And only a dysfunctional State would be refusing to talk about the catastrophic failure of its
legal system.

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OMG! Seven years off Purgatory for tweeting the Pope is like soo cool

If there's one thing that got Martin Luther going it was "indulgences".   

A leading mover in the 16th century Protestant Reformation, Luther took exception to the idea of the Catholic Church taking cash, land, or favours from contributing Christians in exchange for a cushier life in the hereafter.  

Luther had his faults – being a vicous anti-semite was one – but you have to say he was principled in his way, and took a hard line on corruption and shysterism.   Principled, as opposed to promiscuous –  the main urge for Henry VIII's later expedient conversion to the reformed church.

Don't worry, we haven't gone all Holy Joe here on Gombeen Nation.   It's just that a reader brought attention to the story below, which tells of the Catholic Church getting all down and with it with the kids (as opposed to going down on the kids, please note).  

Yes, it seems that subscribing to Pope Frannie's Twitter account will shave a sweaty seven years off your time in Purgatory, should you end up there when you slip off the mortal coil.  

That's a hell of a deal, isn't it?  

And let them scoff.  When you're hopping on the heavenly escalator seven years before your fellow Purgatorians you can – in the spirit of true Christian charity – thumb your nose at them as they continue to sizzle on the subterranean griddle.

Hurry though, the offer won't last for all eternity.  

Vatican offers 'time off purgatory' to followers of Pope Francis tweets

Papal court handling pardons for sins says contrite Catholics may win 'indulgences' by following World Youth Day on Twitter

• Tom Kington in Rome
• The Guardian, Tuesday 16 July 2013 18.50 BS

s

In its latest attempt to keep up with the times the Vatican has married one of its oldest traditions to the world of social media by offering "indulgences" to followers of Pope Francis' tweets.

The church's granted indulgences reduce the time Catholics believe they will have to spend in purgatory after they have confessed and been absolved of their sins.

The remissions got a bad name in the Middle Ages because unscrupulous churchmen sold them for large sums of money. But now indulgences are being applied to the 21st century.

But a senior Vatican official warned web-surfing Catholics that indulgences still required a dose of old-fashioned faith, and that paradise was not just a few mouse clicks away.

"You can't obtain indulgences like getting a coffee from a vending machine," Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the pontifical council for social communication, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

Indulgences these days are granted to those who carry out certain tasks – such as climbing the Sacred Steps, in Rome (reportedly brought from Pontius Pilate's house after Jesus scaled them before his crucifixion), a feat that earns believers seven years off purgatory.

But attendance at events such as the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, a week-long event starting on 22 July, can also win an indulgence.

Mindful of the faithful who cannot afford to fly to Brazil, the Vatican's sacred apostolic penitentiary, a court which handles the forgiveness of sins, has also extended the privilege to those following the "rites and pious exercises" of the event on television, radio and through social media.

"That includes following Twitter," said a source at the penitentiary, referring to Pope Francis' Twitter account, which has gathered seven million followers. "But you must be following the events live. It is not as if you can get an indulgence by chatting on theinternet."

In its decree, the penitentiary said that getting an indulgence would hinge on the beneficiary having previously confessed and being "truly penitent and contrite".

Praying while following events in Rio online would need to be carried out with "requisite devotion", it suggested.

Apart from the papal Twitter account, the Vatican has launched an online news portal supported by an app, a Facebook page, and it plans to use the online social networking site Pinterest.

"What really counts is that the tweets the Pope sends from Brazil or the photos of the Catholic World Youth Day that go up on Pinterest produce authentic spiritual fruit in the hearts of everyone," said Celli.

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The Darndale horse and other scumbag sacrifices

Imagine my surprise whilst recently walking down nearby Navan Road, I spotted what looked like a dismembered horse's head placed on a gaudily attired human body (left).

I thought it might be the latest instance of Dublin's many scumbags torturing and killing sentient beings for their amusement. You know... because there's nothing else to do, like. See previous post's comment section.

Thankfully, it wasn't – just a rather unusual advert for Kitchenwise (right).  But back to serious matters.

My perception of urban animal cruelty is that it occurs mainly in "working class" areas - though many such areas contained a high "unemployed" cohort even during the boom, when there was near full employment in most other places.

There have been other instances of animal – not to mention people – cruelty covered on this blog at Smithfield, Finglas and Donaghmede. Now we have Darndale.

My own parents were working class inner-city Dubliners of many generations. The Ma having been brought up in York Street, Charlotte Street, Fatima Mansions and Crumlin. The Ol'fella Pearse Street and Sean McDermott Street. But scumbags they were not - and nor where most of their contemporaries, as far as I could gather. So where has all this come from?

Is it because people have been encouraged to pop 'em out in our "republic" for much of its history (remember contraceptives were effectively banned up until relatively recently) with little  thought for following up the feat with parenting?  

Is it because we are ruled by a gombeen political class that has set the bar for the whole country?  Or because we have an education system based on rote learning and conceived only to peddle bullshit and perpetuate existing class divisions?  One that is happy to see large sections of our population leave school early and illiterate, while the usual select goes off to Uni? 

Has each ignorant, brutalised generation just become worse with every subsequent manifestation?   The case of the horse having its ears lopped off and intestines ripped out just the latest expression?


We seem to have a lot of "this sort of thing" in Ireland when you consider our relatively small population per square metre. It's been bad as long as I can remember but, incredibly, it seems to be getting even worse.

It doesn't augur well for the future, does it?

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Cyclist hurt by rope tied across road in Dublin.

You really have to wonder about the breed of über-scumbag being brought up these days in dear old Erin.  Particularly - I'm shamed to say it, as a Dubliner of many generations - in the capital.

What about this one below?  If this woman, or anyone else, had been on a motorcycle they would most likely have been decapitated.

And then we have the head of the Dublin Cycling Campaign witlessly advising the perpetrators on how they can hone their techniques...



Cyclist hurt by rope maliciously tied across road ‘hopes it’s a oneoff’

Monique Kelleher was knocked off her bicycle by a rope tied to two poles at head height
(Irish Indpependent 2 July 2013)

A WOMAN knocked off her bike and left with neck and hand injuries after schoolkids tied a rope across a road has said she will continue to cycle.
Monique Kelleher was cycling at night along Mercer Street in Dublin 2 when she hit the rope tied across to poles and went “flying”.

‘I was cycling past and my neck got caught in the rope causing me to fly off my bike and hit the ground,” she wrote in an online account, in which she also posted pictures of
her injuries.

“Luckily, I haven't broken any bones and have come away with light injuries, but someone else may not be so lucky.

‘I just want to warn other cyclists and the public that this is happening as I haven't heard of it before in Dublin,’ she wrote.

This morning, speaking on RTE Radio, Ms Kelleher said that the gardai are investigating the matter – and thanked a couple who came to her aid.

“They (gardai) said that it happened a couple of years back in a adjacent street to Mercer… but nothing more recent. The guards were brilliant and have been really helpful.
“The couple who did help me – they stayed for an hour. They were very helpful,” she added.
“I don’t know if it’s a once-off or not – I hope to think so.”

And she said the incident would not put her off cycling in the city.

“It will definitely make me make different choices on where I cycle, especially late at night.
The Dublin Cycling Campaign has branded the dangerous prank “absolutely unacceptable”.

The campaign's Mike McKillen said he wasn’t aware of this happening in the city before.
“She was very lucky that it was just a string or a piece of rope. If it had been a wire, it could have killed her,” he told the Herald.

“This sort of thing is absolutely unacceptable.”

Given that the schools closed last Friday, the rope on Mercer Street may have been tied by local schoolkids, he added.

“It's a serious offence to do that. It's not a joke at all. I've never come across it before in Ireland. Cyclists have enough to contend with. That is the last thing they need.”


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Racist B&B, anti-immigrant racism on increase during the recession, and clubbing Anglo Irish Bank executives in a sack

"Put former Anglo Irish Bank executives into a big sack, along with all shareholders, creditors, members of the last Irish government, relevant members of the Irish Central Bank, Irish and European regulatory authorities,  then hit the sack with a club until the screams of pain are unbearable".

You will know by now that the above is a rough approximation of a Frankfurter Allegemeine editorial, written in response to Anglo Irish bankers joyfully taking the piss out of us all surrounding Fianna Fail's decision to make the banks' debts sovereign debts which the taxpayer must repay. 

You might have thought there would be lynching parties throughout the land, with every ex-Anglo manager swinging from the lamposts, their (still very comfortable) houses having been first burned to the ground. 

You might have thought that every member and supporter of Fianna Fail would suffer the same fate, or at least get a good kicking - depending where they were in that abominable party's hierarchy.

But no, that is not the "Irish way".

Instead, another article in The Irish Times described how racism was on the rise in Ireland, with immigrants being the recipients of public hatred and bile, rather than the people who bankrupted the country. Here's a piece by Judith Crosbie in last Saturday's edition:

"What surprised Ernest about the monkey chants during his daily commute to Maynooth was their persistence. As an African man in Ireland he says he is used to racist insults but when a man taunted him on the train and then followed him off it, he knew things had reached a new low. “In a coach full of people he did a monkey chant and told me to go back to my own country and to stop taking our jobs,” he says.

“Then he followed me off the train and walked beside me doing monkey chants. It amazed me that no one stepped in and said, ‘What do you think you are doing?’ ” he says.

The Gardaí were called when he confronted the man but Ernest declined to press charges. “I don’t see any cases of anyone getting convicted over racist insults. It’s a waste of my time to take something like that any farther,” says Ernest, who doesn’t want to give his real name.

This week, a report by the Economic and Social Research Institute, commissioned by the Integration Centre, showed that Irish opposition to immigration has spiked since the recession began. The number of people who say they are not in favour of immigrants coming here from different ethnic backgrounds or from poorer non-European countries has jumped from about 5 per cent in 2002 to about 20 per cent in 2010, according to the report.

Whether this has a racist motivation is unclear. There is also a growing opposition to immigrants of the same ethnic background, with the number of opponents rising from 4 per cent to 15 per cent.

Some campaigners fear a growth in the types of racial tensions that have plagued other European countries, and say recent cuts in funding to migrants’ projects and the absence of a Government policy on integration are among the causes.

Campaigners also sense a rise in racist incidents. Earlier this month racist graffiti was posted around Dublin; it included anti-Semitic slogans on the Anglo Irish Bank headquarters building on North Wall Quay, and a message saying “Out if you’re not working” on a family home.


The Immigrant Council of Ireland’s poster campaign on buses and trains in Dublin, to encourage reporting, has increased reports of incidents from one to five incidents a week. The council says 17 serious incidents were reported in one month. Official statistics compiled by the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration show a decrease in racist crime. Campaigners attribute this to the recording system, which does not categorise incidents as racist crimes, and to a lack of Garda training.

Vocal politicians
Some politicians have also become more vocal on the issue. In January, Sen Paschal Mooney of Fianna Fáil said he would not get into a taxi driven by a foreign national. In April Kevin Sheahan, a Fianna Fáil councillor for Co Limerick, said Irish people should be given priority over foreign nationals on housing lists.

There may not be much political gain from such statements. Political parties are usually quick to admonish their members for such comments and the Immigration Control Platform, which favours strong limits on immigration, says it won’t be running candidates in next year’s local or European elections because of poor results in previous votes.

But Seamus Treanor, an Independent councillor on Monaghan town council and county council, believes people’s concerns about immigration are real and need to be heard.

Campaigning for the local elections for the first time in 2009 opened his eyes to the “seething anger” about immigration, he says. “We were sold a pup. We were told there would be between 5,000 and 10,000 immigrants coming in here and now look at the numbers,” says Treanor, who topped the poll in both the town council and county council elections and has just finished a term as mayor of Monaghan.

Ireland should have introduced a strict immigration policy and refused to sign up to EU rules that allow people to move here, he says. “People can come in from other EU countries, work for a few years and stay on the dole indefinitely. No country can stand that,” says Treanor.

Perhaps this gobshite will also call for restraints on Irish people emigrating abroad,  thanks to the mess that bankers, investors, and his political class made of the country?

Or maybe he should open a racist B&B in monaghan?

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Clare Daly and the Obama visit - she's right; our obsequiousness is embarrassing

Regular readers will know how narrow nationalist "republicans" love to bandy the term "imperialism" about.  They usually apply it only to the Normans and the Tudors, however... anachronistic gobshites that they are.

How often do you hear them talk about the world's greatest present-day imperialist, the United States?  

Mind you, considering our rotten little country is used as a landing-craft for US multinationals to penetrate the UK and mainland Europe - and a haven for them to avoid paying taxes - it's not that surprising.   Interestingly, the Shinners have campaigned for a similar conglomerate-friendly tax regime in Northern Ireland.

Think of a war crime.

The Holocaust, undoubtedly.

But what about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the beacon of freedom dropped the most horrific weapon ever devised on the defenceless populations of two Japanese cities? 

And all because the Yanks wanted to show the Ruskies what capability they had, as they did in tandem with Bomber Harris when slaughtering, by "conventional" means, the  defenceless civilians of Dresden.

Power corrupts, and now the US doesn't even have the counterbalance that the Cold War provided.

But even so, as with warmonger Ronald Reagan's visit back in 1984, Paddy and Mary can't tug their forelocks enough for  their imperial masters in the US of A.

Clare Daly has it spot-on. 

Nice to hear the "imperialist" charge come from a true, internationalist socialist for a change.

Daly attacks ‘slobbering’ over Obamas
Marie O'Halloran - The Irish Times.

Last Updated: Wednesday, June 19, 2013, 17:30

Taoiseach Enda Kenny rounded on Independent TD Clare Daly after she accused him of showcasing Ireland “as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head”.

He described as a disgrace remarks about US president Barack Obama, whom she described as a “war criminal” who had increased by 200 per cent the use of drones, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people.

She said there was speculation this morning on “whether you were going to deck the Cabinet out in leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes to really mark abject humiliation”.

Mr Kenny retorted: “I think your comments are disgraceful. I think they do down the pride of Irish people all over the world who are more than happy to see this island being host to the G8. ”

The Taoiseach said: “And for you to stand up and criticise the American president for giving a continuation of support for a fragile peace process in Northern Ireland, where over 3,000 people lost their lives in 30 years, is a disgraceful do-down.”

‘Unprecedented slobbering’

Ms Daly, a TD for Dublin North, hit out at the “almost unprecedented slobbering” over the Obama family’s visit. “It’s really hard to know which is worst, whether it’s the outpourings of the Obamas themselves or the sycophantic falling over them by sections of the media and the political establishment,” she said.

“We’ve had separate and special news bulletins by the State broadcaster to tell us what Michelle Obama and her daughters had for lunch in Dublin, but very little questioning of the fact that she was having lunch with Mr Tax Exile himself,” she said in reference to U2’s Bono.

She described Mr Obama as a “war criminal”, having “just announced his decision to supply arms to the Syrian opposition, including the jihadists, fuelling the destabilisation of that region, continuing to undermine secularism and knock back conditions for women”.

Ms Daly said: “This is the man who is in essence stalling the Geneva peace talks by trying to broker enhanced leverage for the Syrian opposition by giving them arms - and to hell with the thousands more who’ll lose their lives, or the tens of thousands who will be displaced.

“This is the man who has facilitated a 200 per cent increase in the use of drones which have killed thousands of people, including hundreds of children.”

International laws

She asked the Taoiseach what he was going to do to ensure no weapons for Syria are going to go through Shannon, in breach of our international laws on neutrality.

“What steps are you going to take to showcase this country, not as a lapdog of US imperialism, but as an independent nation with an independent foreign policy which takes a lead in international diplomacy to outlaw the use of drones?”

Mr Kenny rounded on her for criticising the US president, “who wants to support that [peace] process visibly, personally and with assistance from the US, where 35 million Irish-Americans want this peace process to continue”.

The Taoiseach also said there was a serious discussion about Syria at the G8 summit. “Ireland took a very clear position on this as articulated by the Tánaiste - that the embargo should not be lifted.”


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Harry Browne - The Frontman, Bono.

You have to be innately suspicious of people who are seen to champion "good causes", very publicly  -  even when they minimise their own tax liability while simultaneously advising governments to divert more of other people's exchequer money to developing countries.

U2 upped sticks with much of its operation when the artists' tax exemption was capped in Ireland, some years back. 

 Interestingly, Bono once defended the very person who introduced the exemption, Charlie Haughey - just when some sections of the Irish public belatedly realised what a corrupt shyster the man was.

  But Bono has been known to rub shoulders with some very unsavoury characters, in his endless quest for ego-massaging publicity... he's Mother Teresa with silly yellow shades.  (See book cover.)  And just as ineffective, to put it - erm - charitably.

Harry Browne has a book out on Mr Vox which, judging by initial reviews, is well worth a read.  The Irish Times reported that friend of the Hewsons (aka Mrs and Mrs Bono Vox), and fellow look-at-me-I'm-doing-good-deeds merchant, Adi Roche, has said that people shouldn't buy the tome.

And what better recommendation could you get than that? 

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Senator McDowell wants to save the Seanad

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The not-so-surprising, not to mention unedifying, spectacle of senators campaigning against the abolition of the Seanad is a bit like turkeys voting against Christmas.

Doyens of democracy such as Michael McDowell are all promising dire consequences if the Senate is abolished. 

 The Senate is, of course, an inherently elitist  undemocratic institution – its members are voted for, not by the public, but by various interest groups.

Others are chosen by councillors, and some are simply appointed by politicians.  The standing prime minister, for instance, can appoint eleven senators.

It is a talking shop full of wafflers and inadequates (with the notable exception of Ivana Bacik) that has no real power, and can only delay Dail decisions.   It is a also a handy depositary for  failed politicians such as McDowell, who was rejected by voters at the 2007 general election.  

Here are some interesting facts:

• Senators are paid an annual salary of €65,650.   There are expenses on top of that, of course.
• Between January and March of this year, senators sat for only 29 days.
• The country's national debt is something in the region of €200 billion.
  
  (All data from Sunday Times, 2/6/'13).

Not only should the Senate be scrapped due to it being elitist and undemocratic –  it is a politicians' comfort blanket we can ill afford.



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