Exploring English Revisited

Are you one of those people who subscribes to the unlikely notion that schooldays were the happiest days of your life?  If so, your life must have turned out very badly indeed.

I have to admit that I harbour some fond memories of schooldays, though.  Namely ones spent on the mitch –  or playing truant, as Dennis the Menace and friends called it in the comics.

School was awful.  Being threatened, battered and browbeaten every day by bullies bigger than you.  They called themselves teachers.  

How some of these ignorant gobshites ever got near a classroom, in adult life, is a scandal.  Some came through the religious orders, some were mutton-headed Gaelic zealots who appeared little qualified in anything else.  Others were just plain incompetent.

English was OK though – one of the few subjects in which you were encouraged to think for yourself.  The Inter Cert syllabus featured the Exploring English trio of schoolbooks, compiled by Augustine Martin: short stories, prose and poetry.  

They were pretty good reads, and believe me, such an assertion is not coloured by time-tainted nostalgia on my part.  Even if, looking back, the omission of something from Joyce’s “Dubliners”– Araby,  for instance, jars a little.  Maybe it was that mention of a petticoat?

I loved to read Exploring English on my own time – admittedly, the stories I liked rather than the ones the teacher thought might come up in the exams.  In fairness, most of them were pretty good anyway.

The Exploring English series was re-issued for adult consumption a year or two back, and – much to the other half’s surprise – I got a copy from Eason’s last Saturday.  My original copy had long been consumed by the damp and mould of the Georgian childhood abode, complete with its very own bare stairs.

 There is something decidedly weird about reading stuff you last perused when you were sixteen or so.  Fundamentally, your impressions and understanding are much the same – but enriched and confirmed by having been around that “little” bit longer.  There have to be some advantages to it, after all.

Well worth a read, even if you didn’t do so first time round.


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New, improved, Alternative Irish National Anthem - brought to you by Gombeen Nation

I know you're sick of this...  I really do.

But I have been grappling with a camera and Corel VideoStudio Ultimate since yesterday evening.  I have no idea what's going on in the world, or Ireland - except that in the latter case it's probably  more of the same.  Same as it ever was.

Anyway, the new Irish national Anthem is now ready - and it is about to become a You Tube viral sensation... not.  

But there you go.  

Whereas the punk movement in 70's Britain questioned orthodoxies, Ireland and its spoilt youth is still a quantum leap from sticking a safety pin through Dev's - or Bertie's, or Endas, or Michael D's  - appendages.

But there you go.  It takes time here.  

Maybe a couple of generations. 

While you're waiting.





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You Tube AudioSwap not swappy enough

Anybody walking past the gaff would swear there was a rabid nationalist residing in the manor.

You see, I spent most of yesterday playing a piss-take version of  the Irish national anthem on guitar, bass and a drum machine.  Sad I know.

 When I say drum machine, I mean you tap in the bass drum and the snare with your fingers... you still have to keep time and all that - but mercifully, you don't have to be an actual drummer.

Years ago, while living in London, I had this Fostex four-track recorder.  It cost a packet and broke after a couple of days.  Home recording was not a straightforward affair back then.

Now, however, you can get a brilliant free programme called Audacity (this isn't a paid ad, by the way) which gives you a load of audio tracks to record onto.  Then all you do is plug your instrument into your computer, courtesy of a mini-jack, play and record.  It's fantastic. 

A few weeks back, I was farting about with several bottles of Stella Artois, my bass and guitar,  and a trial version of  Corel VideoStudio Pro.  I ended up doing an alternative version of the national anthem which some of you may have seen on You Tube:  Alternative Irish National Anthem.

Now, while Corel VideoStudio Pro is great for making videos, it only has four audio tracks. And I had the sound turned down when I was creating my musical accompaniment for the slideshow, such as it was. (Thank goodness for that, I hear you say).  

Thing is, I was able to make a better recording using Audacity yesterday -  I even made a metronome-aided click track to get the timing a bit tighter.  I'm not usually so methodical.

Now I have a better audio track but cannot replace the original track on the video I have uploaded.  You see,  though You Tube will allow you to replace your original audio with one of its selected songs, it won't let you replace the audio track with a new one of your own.

So it looks like the only thing to do is replace the current You Tube video with a new one when I get the full version of VideoStudio Pro next week.  

In the meantime, there's an MP3 of the reworked national anthem above.

I think it's a bit better.


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Migrant Rights Centre Ireland head calls for Fianna Fail to tackle racism in its ranks

An interesting piece appeared in The Irish Times op-ed page today, by Siobhan O’Donoghue, director of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.

O'Donoghue cites instances of rabble-rousing racist comments from two Fianna Fail councillors, one who advocates an "Irish-first" housing policy – similar to the BNP's "British first" policy when it had a councillor, Derek Beackon, elected in the Isle of Dogs back in the 90s. 

It's interesting to read the comments section in the original Times online article, where the feeling of some esteemed commenters seems to be "and what's wrong with that?".

What's wrong, is that at least the BNP were honest in their racism – unlike the mealy mouthed Soliders of Destiny, and their economy wrecking, gobshite, backwoods gombeen TDs and councillors.  

Even though open racism is not official Fianna Fail policy – apart from a bit of institutionalised Anglophobia – it seems to be OK by Micheal Martin once his party colleagues issue their xenophobic utterances "in a personal capacity".

Mind you, this is not confined to The Soliders and their gobshite voters...  the blog has previously highlighted a Fine Gael mayor, Kevin Kiely, who called for "foreign workers" to be deported, another one, Kieran Dennison, who complained about "foreign nationals" on housing lists and a Shinner, Aengus O Snodaigh, who used the cloak of Irish cultural nationalism (so much more subtle, as the likes of Plaid Cymru will know)  in an attempt to exclude "foreign workers" from the Civil Service by means of unnecessary Irish language requirements, after moves were made to relax such barriers.  Then there was a "Labour" senator, Jimmy Harte, who called for a woman to be "sent back to Poland".

Ireland is full of such attitudes, from the right to the so-called "left".

They are, it seems, endemic.

Racism must never be accepted as a strategy to gain votes

Siobhán O’Donoghue

Last Updated: Wednesday, April 10, 2013, 17:48

Democracy requires accountability and accountability is synonymous with integrity, transparency and honesty. The willingness of elected representatives to uphold these principles and values is in theory the cornerstone of a functioning democracy.

Transparency International amongst others have signalled a dramatic weakening of these principles in recent years, and readers will be only too well aware of the dire consequences arising from the lack of accountability in public life.

In the recent incident of a Limerick Fianna Fáil councillor declaring that there should be an “Irish first” policy to access social housing, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin claimed that councillor Kevin Sheahan was “acting in a personal capacity”. Martin provided this view in a response to an email sent by many concerned people to him about Sheahan’s comments. Fianna Fáil has not made a public statement on the issue to date.

The use of the term “acting in a personal capacity” seems to have become a popular strategy in accountability avoidance tactics. A number of weeks ago Fianna Fáil also said that Donegal county councillor Seán McEniff was “acting in a personal capacity” when he demanded the segregation of Travellers and settled people. For the record neither McEniff nor Sheahan stated at the time they made these comments that they were “acting in a personal capacity”. Both made their comments in public settings in the course of carrying out their public office.

Racism, fascism and far-right movements are on the rise across Europe. Most people are appalled by the extremes of hatred targeted towards minority groups, including immigrants and Roma. The actions of groups such as Golden Dawn in Greece have been compared to pre-World War II conditions. It may seem a stretch of the imagination to make the connection between the rise of extreme right wing movements elsewhere in Europe and events involving local elected representatives in Ireland. However, if in this insidious manner racism goes unchecked, the conditions that lead to violent extremism can and do become a reality.

The comments of councillors Sheahan and McEniff have appeared on right wing and white supremacist websites and discussion boards as justification of the extreme views being promoted by these groups. There is also evidence on social media that some people willingly believe his false assertions even when the facts are presented to them. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government has strongly rejected councillor Sheahan’s assertion that immigrants are getting preferential treatment in accessing social housing, and the statistics reinforce the facts.

The fact that there are local and European elections next year adds urgency to the need for decisive action to deal with those who use the lives of vulnerable minority groups to engage in dangerous and rogue electioneering. Allowing the politics of fear and resentment to blossom is dangerous. Political parties cannot turn a blind eye to their members using racism as a strategy to gain votes.

All the main political parties have endorsed the Anti-Racism Political Protocol first produced by the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Xenophobia and now co-ordinated by the Irish Network Against Racism. Candidates in signing the protocol agree to “guarantee that when engaging in ongoing debate in relation to groups which are the potential targets of racism, such as asylum seekers, refugees, migrant workers and Travellers, [their] contribution to such debate is conducted in a responsible way and with respect to the dignity and rights of minority ethnic groups”.

All political parties, not just Fianna Fáil, need to dust off their copy of the protocol and engage in an education process with their members, especially candidates running in next year’s elections.

Fianna Fáil now has a choice to make. Does it allow its councillors to wilfully deceive their constituents, and condone the blatant fuelling of racism by party representatives? Or will it uphold its proclaimed condemnation of racism by holding its representatives accountable through imposing sanctions? As Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

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Bono's "tax-cheat" graffiti scandalises Killiney - and The Gloss

Have you ever heard of Irish author, Robert Noonan?   Noonan, a Dubliner, is probably better known to the world as Robert Tressell - after the painter and decorators'  bench on which he plied his trade, his experiences of which can be found in The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists.

I read it yonks ago - when I was a mere slip of a thing in my twenties - and enjoyed it immensely.  I remember that Tressell was merciless in his satirisation of the supposed "charitable" tendencies of the factory owners, assorted town worthies and their wives, and the clergy.   The former loved to be seen doing "good deeds" for charity, even as they created the very conditions for such in their grimy, exploitative, sweatshop establishments.  

The book was set in the Edwardian era, between 1901-1910...  around the time the bockety old house I grew up in was built, in fact - fashioned by Tressell's very contemporaries.  

That house still stands - just about - and the "charitable" characters so keen to be seen doing "good deeds" are very much alive and thriving in Ireland... or living for tax reasons outside it.  You know the list:  J.P. McManus, Dermott Desmond, Denis O'Brien and the like.

Sure, they are doing nothing illegal.  Maybe if I was stinking rich I'd get out of the place too, not only for the sake of getting out of the place, but to "minimise my tax liability" .  I don't know for sure, but if the Euromillions numbers come up, I will keep you posted.

What gets me is the hypocrisy of -  on the one hand  -  denying a very broke Irish exchequer much-needed revenue and - on the the other - being seen to do "good deeds" in the eyes of the ever-dopey, ever-passive, ever-gobshitey Irish public.  

Not all of them are, thankfully.  Quite a few people are slowly wising up to the antics of one Bono Vox,  pop star, tax-avoidance specialist, and sickeningly pompous, self indulgent, charity posturer.  

Witness the following from the usually vacuous "The Gloss", which came with last Thursday's Irish Times:

We're speculating as to who on earth could be responsible for the new graffiti in Killiney? "Bono: shorted-assed tax cheat lives down here", it reads, in red, with an arrow helpfully pointing the way to the singer's house.

Neighbours have observed that the graffiti is in the CCTV blind spot, and therefore must have been executed by someone who knows the area very well.  

(See simulated Gombeen Nation graffiti - as it might have appeared - above.  Not very scientific, I know, but I can't be arsed driving out to Killiney to take a photo).

To get in on the fashion/gossip magazine spirit, one wonders if the culprit might have been grumpy Belfast contrarian Van Morrisson, who lives nearby?   He might not be all sweetness-and-light, our Van, but I can't imagine his hypocrisy-tolerance-level to be too high either.

And do you know what?  Despite being a grumpy so-and-so who doesn't bang on about saving the planet and spend time cosying up to world leaders - ostensibly to persuade them to do the same - he has, to the best of my knowledge, never availed of the artists' tax exemption. 

He pays his taxes which must run into monetary multiples of other popsters' "good deeds".

Quietly.

Maybe Van really is the man?

And maybe a word for JP, Dermott, Denis and the rest:







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Catholic Church takes shotgun to weddings over gay marriage

The Gombeen Nation position on religion is that its adherents can do – or believe – what they like once they don't bother anyone else.   All too often, however, transgressing that boundary proves too big a temptation for many of them.

Religion, you see, is absolutist.  Each brand is sure it alone is right, and the others are mistaken.

The Christian phrase "Do to others as you would have them do to you" probably isn't a bad principle for running a society – but one that many a "heretic" must have ruefully considered as the flames licked around their ankles for maintaining that the Earth revolved around the Sun, and other such thoughts which ran counter to Catholic teaching.

More recently, I grew up in a time when priests and nuns were to be found outside divorce referendum polling booths campaigning for "no" votes.    A time when getting a rubber johnny required a doctor's consultation or a trip to the Dandelion Market... assuming you actually had reason to need the things.   A time when all sorts of abuse was being carried out on children by priests and nuns.

Thankfully, the battle against the Church's overpowering influence is more or less won - and the topic of the Catholic Church is something I can't really get worked up about now, as I did in the 80s – as it dictated, through the State, to me and other non-believers like me.

However, much of the Catholic Church's decline is not due to any epiphany on the part of the Irish public who, despite a newly-professed "secularism", can't beat a path up the chapel isle quickly enough when it comes to marriage.   The Catholic Church's decline is due to it repeatedly shooting itself in the foot with a high-calibre blunderbuss.

It cannot help itself, it seems.

And the blunder below should see yet more of its flock leaving the pen, if only because of the extra inconvenience encumbered.

"CATHOLIC CHURCHES in Ireland have said they would refuse to perform civil marriages as part of religious ceremonies if the constitution is changed to allow full civil marriage for same-sex couples – potentially forcing Catholic couples to have two separate wedding ceremonies."


The claim is in a submission made to the Constitutional Convention by the Irish Episcopal Conference, the group made up of the country’s Catholic bishops.
The submission says that the Catholic Church does not recognise “any other partnerships or legal unions as having an ethical or legal equivalence with marriage”, which the Church defines as being between a man and a woman. 

“Any change to the definition of marriage would create great difficulties and in the light of this, if there were two totally different definitions of marriage, the Church could no longer carry out the civil element,” it says. 

Move may mean couples need two wedding ceremonies
Because Irish law does not explicitly recognise religious weddings, and instead offers its own civil marriage, it instead gives religious bodies and their officials the ability to perform civil marriages, with powers similar to a State-employed civil registrar. 

As a result, a civil marriage is usually performed in the same ceremony as a religious one. In Catholic weddings, the civil marriage register usually signed after the religious Mass has ended and before the newlyweds leave the chapel. 

This means couples seeking a Catholic wedding, and who want their marriage to be recognised in law, only need to have one ceremony, despite having two separate marriages.
A directive from bishops to end this practice would mean that couples engaging in a traditional Catholic wedding ceremony would not legally be married – and would instead have to visit a registry office in order to have a legally recognised civil wedding performed. 

“Changing the Constitutional definition of marriage to include same-sex unions would, over time, inevitably influence how society as a whole understands marriage,” the bishops’ submission says. 

“Marriage would be reduced to an arrangement of the sexual relationship of any two people. It would cease to be the institution upon which the family, and therefore society itself, is founded.”



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Blogger spam filter not working - evidently

Blogger's spam filter is crap, it really is.   This blog gets spam comments in the hundreds every day: and it takes a while to sift through them all just in case there is a valid comment among them.  

Much of the spam is the very same stuff over and over again.  Blogger's filter is supposed to recognise it and put it all into the spam folder.   It's supposed to be trainable and remember what you mark as spam and what you mark as genuine.

As trainable goes, it is more Odie than Lassie. 

Quite often I get emails from regular readers asking why their comments have not been published.  The reason, invariably, is because Blogger has decided their comments are spam  while designating  the same penis enlargement ones as legitimate, time and time again. (How are they onto me, anyway? I suppose that's targeted marketing for you).

So now, as an experiment, I have activated word verification.  

This uses the CAPTCHA system - unfortunately a Blogger default -  a thing usually so unintelligible that humans cannot read it, never mind spam robots.  

CAPTCHA usually results in a would-be commenter leaving bloody tufts of his/her ripped-out hair in the vicinity of the keyboard... and no comment to boot.  But I notice it seems to have improved, so we'll try it for a while and see how it goes.

Just type in what you see (letters and numbers) without a space in between.  If you get an attempt wrong the next one should be a bit easier to read.  

It's a bit of a pain, but hopefully not too much so.  

You can email me (address to the left somewhere) and let me know how you are getting on.



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John Delaney's salary - it's that Irish L'Oréal thing again

Last Friday's 0-0 result away to Sweden wasn't a bad one, and the Irish team played with a level of application last seen under Jack Charlton.  

I wasn't going to bother switching on the TV, to be honest - Republic of Ireland games have been drab, dour affairs under Trapattoni - a manager who can't communicate with his players and whose sell-by-date is well past its time.

The Football Association of Ireland appointed Trapattoni amid much fanfare in May 2008, some thought it a master stroke by John Delaney, head honcho at the FAI.   Ireland qualified for the European Championship finals in 2012, but were humilated at every match in a tough group.  

You would think Delaney capable of master-strokes, given the salary he draws from the FAI, a notoriously inept organisation.  According to Michael Clifford in today's Sunday Times, Delaney's wages amount to €360,000 per annum.   He was previously on €400,000 before straitened times saw staff being laid off and Delaney feeling the pain by taking a pay cut.

€360,000 is still a hell of a lot of money.  The head of Spanish Football Angel Maria Villar, for example, is on €152,000.   Spain, by the way, are the current World Cup and European Championship holders.

Go figure.


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Pat Rabbitte and Skrine Hill residents on windfarms - contrasting views

It is one thing to make dismissive comments about the phenomenon known as NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yardism), but would you want one of these monstrous wind turbines close to your home?  

I mean, it is one thing to knowingly move into an area with eyes - and ears - open to any potential sources of disturbance in the area; but to live somewhere previously unspoilt, only to have a disturbance plonked right next to you must be hard to take.  


What struck me about the following feature was the genuine distress of the two residents affected by a windfarm constructed nearby - you can see how close in the video - and the genuine arrogance of Pat Rabbitte. 

What, exactly is Pat's definition of "unobstrusive"?  

Not in his backyard, I suppose.





*PS.  Captions are Gombeen Nation's, not RTE's.


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Alternative Irish national anthem – Happy Paddy's Day!

New version of above video here

A bit late for Paddy's Day but here we go.  The blog's very own revised national anthem.  Four tracks -  drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitar.  Mercifully, no vocals.

Stand up now!

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Pat Rabbitte and RTE to extend licence fee to those without TV

"...RTE took advertising from the start [in addition to the licence fee].  It was therefore something of a hybrid.

The element of top-down control was a comfort to the political elite as well.  The Lemass government made no bones about its view that RTE should be an arm of the state..."

(A Brief History of Ireland, Land, People, History.  Richard Killeen)


Not surprising then, to find that ex-Stalinist Pat Rabbitte thinks we should all pay an RTE licence fee, even if we do not look at the state broadcaster's mix of light "entertainment' dross and Official Ireland bollocksology.  Even if we do not possess a TV, in fact.  



Broadcast charge to hit all homes – even those with no TV
Michael Brennan Deputy Political Editor – 27 February 2013.  Irish Independent  3/12/13 

EVERY household will have to pay a new "broadcasting charge" even if they do not own a television.

The move is intended to take account of the fact that many households are now watching RTE and TG4 programmes on their laptops and smartphones – and do not
need to own a television. But it will also hit households who do not have any computer or television.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte confirmed in the Dail that it was his intention to get every household to pay the new broadcasting charge, even if they did not
own a "device".

"In short, everyone benefits from the availability of these services, regardless of how content is accessed or relayed to the public and, therefore, it is my view that the
cost should be borne by society as a whole," he said.

RTE has estimated that up to 15pc of households do not pay the TV licence fee – even though 99pc of houses have a TV.

It currently gets around €180m per year from the licence fee – and could see this increase by a further €25m if the new broadcasting charge is collected from all households.

Mr Rabbitte said that an independent group was carrying out a value‐for‐money review on the new broadcasting charge, which is due to be completed at the end of next month. It will have to make recommendations on the best way to collect the charge.

In the Dail, Mr Rabbitte did not give any specific commitment about when the charge would be introduced. It is not expected that it will be any higher than the current
TV licence fee of €160 per year.

Currently, the lion's share of the licence fee revenue is given to RTE, which received €183m in 2011. TG4 also gets funding and 7pc of the licence fee is put into a fund
for independent broadcast productions...




Maybe RTE and Rabbitte should embrace the digital age in earnest, and make the station a subscription-only service?  

I, for one, would gladly go without. 


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Sally Gap drive in(g) rain

Gone fishin'.   Well, the motoring equivalent anyway. 

It's been pretty quiet here on the blog between one thing and another.  One being Gombeen Nation's attempt to go all multimedia, the other being that we live in a mad country and maybe the easiest thing is to just accept it?  Course of least resistance and all that?   Or should that be "curse"?

One good thing I have always said about Dublin - perhaps the only thing - is that it is easy to get the hell out of the place.  Aeons and aeons ago, I discovered that on my old Vespa PX scooter.  Back in the 80s you might see maybe two or three cars all the way from the Pine Forest to Laragh.  It's busier now, especially at the weekends, but during the week - especially outside summer - it is still pretty quiet.  Much of the time you will have the road to yourself.

Back in the 80s, there was one bizarre occurrence when I saw a posse of Garda motorcyclists emerging out of the wilderness towards me.  Motor insurance was incredibly expensive then, of course, and I'm not sure if mine was, erm, up-to-date at the time.  (Let me point out that all  this was 30 years ago, officer).    

To put insurance costs for two-wheelers in 80s Ireland in perspective, consider the following.  My scooter cost me about £700 (Punts).  A year's insurance (third-party only) cost £503.  I was on about £80 a week... before tax.  A lot of young people took their chances.

Anyway, I got a bit of a fright to be honest, but thankfully they were more interested in trying to look like "CHiPS"  to be bothered with a passing young mod on a scooter who was also trying to learn his trade.  

Just a couple of short years after that, I headed off to London, got a job, and bought a brand-new Kawasaki GT 750.   The insurance was £193 for third party fire-and-theft.  And I was suddenly on £10,000.  One thing I did miss, however, was being able to get away from it all - you nearly had to take the motorbike up to Scotland for that.

So, as I've said before, the Military Road is a great place for getting away from it even today.  Its a good place to drive/motorcycle/cycle too,  as you can see what is coming for miles on the undulating roads that wind like asphalt ribbons through the brooding hills.  Poetic, eh?  Or bullshitty - there's a subtle difference.

Getting  away to the Wicklow hills is a great way of  blowing the soot of the city from your soul.   The only downside is the bumps, which seem to be more in number every visit.  The road was, of course, constructed by the British military under the guidance of Charles Cornwallis between 1800-1809, atop blanket bog, so I suppose it is not the best environment for longevity.

According to Michael Fewer's "The Wicklow Military Road", the road was constructed by first excavating, then  "laying down a bed of timber logs, on top of which layers of stones were compacted, and the surface finished in gravel".   Fewer cites a local sheep farmer who saw the road opened up some years ago to a depth of 4 metres, and observed that its base was filled with tightly packed bundles of rushes.  It seemed to work though.

You would think that if Cornwallis and Co. managed such a feat of engineering in the early 19th century, it wouldn't be beyond Wicklow County Council to fill in a few potholes.   But...

Progess, eh?


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Pope job advert - interviews start today

Irish unemployment figures eased marginally over the past six months, according to official CSO statistics.   But there are still plenty of people on the brew and plenty more attending international job fairs, desperate to get work and, as a bonus, get the feck out of this place.  It's like the 80s all over again.

Anyone interested in working abroad could do worse than throw their zucchetto into the ring for the job advertised below.

Note to An Post workers:  you're going to be very busy for the next while..

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Irish government scraps disability grants in the interests of equality

Hypocrisy is one of the most strongly developed qualities here in Ireland.  91 years of mistaking myth and fantasy for fact has seen to that. 

So when kiddies were being buggered by priests, and otherwise tortured by nuns, we didn't have things like divorce or extramarital sex.

Sinful, you see.

And Paddy and Mary happily supplied the human cargo that went to the Magdalene Laundries, the industrial schools, and the Christian Brothers.  And they went to mass at least once a week -  more if they were especially pious.

The bollocksology that was  Dev's 1937 Constitution - which some still consider sacred  - made a language the vast majority of us don't speak (and those who do are English speakers anyway) the state's first official one.

It also claimed jurisdiction over the entire island - something that will never happen as Irish nationalism/"republicanism" ignores the inconvenient existence of a large number of "Prods" up north who don't  subscribe to Catholic/Gaelic identity.   Then it gave the Catholic Church a "special place" in the life of the state. 

Paddy and Mary think they are very trendy indeed, now that they don't go to mass anymore. A bit like  Ming Flanagan thinking smoking pot is oh-so-counterculture.   It was in  the Sixties, Ming.  Get with it, maaaan!   

Paddy and Mary still like the trappings of Mother Church when it comes to weddings and funerals though.  They still can't quite kick the habit.  Or cassock.

You know what we're saying here.  Poor old P&M are always trying to overcome their instilled beliefs to play catch-up with the rest of the world.  The developed part, anyway. 

And what about this?  Enda Kenny and shyster  Minister for Heath James Reilly doing away with disability and mobility allowances without so much as a by-your-leave, rather than extend it to those over 65..  Ostensibly in the interests of equality.  

Let's see how quickly they "roll-out" their replacement scheme, and how many truly vulnerable people lose out in what is most likely another cynical stealth cut.

Irish Independent, 27 February 2013

THE Government has come under intensifying pressure to reverse shock moves to scrap mobility grants for the disabled.

Opposition parties have described the decision that affects around 5,000 people as scandalous and reprehensible, and have demanded an immediate U-turn.


But Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisted the schemes were illegal, obsolete and discriminatory, and needed to be replaced with a fairer and more appropriate regime.

"These two schemes - the motorised transport grant and the mobility allowance - are illegal, are not in conformity with the Disability Act, are not in conformity with the Equal Status Act, and are not in conformity with our constitution," Mr Kenny said.

"We cannot stand over a scheme that is obsolete, that is unfair, that is discriminatory, that is not in compliance with these acts and therefore we have got to deal with it."

Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly had ruled last year that the scheme as it stood was illegal as it was not open to over 65s. She asked for it to be expanded.

The Department of Health accepted the scheme breached equality laws but said it could not afford the €300m to widen eligibility.

Ms O'Reilly publicly criticised Health Minister Dr James Reilly at an Oireachtas committee for refusing to act on her ruling and widen the allowance.

Meanwhile, Age Action warned scrapping the schemes would have a huge impact on thousands of low-income people who depend on them.

Spokesman for the charity Eamon Timmins said the Government must have a replacement allowance lined up for after the last payments are made.

"Failure to have a replacement scheme agreed within four months will result in severe financial hardship 10,000 people with a disability, and this is totally unacceptable," Mr Timmins said.

The Centre for Independent Living said the Government's decision was an attack on the rights of disabled people, and that the move would make them prisoners in their own homes.

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