ALL CHANGED, ALL CHANGED UTTERLY

We have grown up.   It won’t stop us making mistakes in the future but the Tiger years have indeed change the Irish nation.

We gained confidence.  

We now know that we can excel.   And not just at home, we can excel on a world stage.

Our population is well educated.

That gives us options and choices.   It increases our range of skills and makes us more employable and more desirable as employees.

We speak English.

We may grumble that this is the language imposed on us by the Sasanach but we cannot deny that it's handy to have.    The fact that it is the lingua franca of international commerce gives us an edge in the world market.

We’re starting to take responsiblity for ourselves. 

We've at last stopped blaming the "seven hundred years of slavery" for all our shortcomings.   Listen to radio and you'll hear about the projects local communities are setting up to help themselves through this recession.

We’re more entrepreneurial than ever.

Our new found confidence means that we are more willing to take risks and try new ideas.

We’ve  have travelled the world.

That has broadened our views and shown us that, compared to much of the globe, we are very well off.

We have started to demand responsibility and accountability.

We are demanding it of ourselves, of business, trade, the churches, the professions and  our politicians.      And about time too.

We have a great sense of humour.

This means that  we can laugh at ourselves, we can laugh at the world and we can make the world laugh at us and itself.   An essential attribute during a recession.

Most important of all - we’ve stopped kow-towing to authority.

Another advantage of our new confidence is that we can look authority in the eye, ask the hard questions and demand the answers.

None of this will prevent us from making mistakes but it will stand to us nevertheless..

THE COUNTRY GROWS UP

The Irish have been like adolescents, so busy partying that we’ve only just realised that our parents are fallible, that not everything our teachers told us was true, that politicians are duplicitous and Life is not as simple as we thought.

When we set up our little Republic in the 1920’s we were innocents. We believed in Santa Claus, the Catholic Church, Bankers, Doctors, Layers, Teachers and, in spite of the fact that they slaughtered each other as well, we still believed in the Men who Fought For Our Freedom... but hush now, don’t mention the Civil War.

We believed that Church and State were a marriage made in Heaven and that they should definitely be in bed together. And when that marriage gave birth to the Constitution, we were thrilled. We prided ourselves on our National Independence and our Faith in the Catholic Church.
But, whenever we challenged authority, religious or lay, they slapped us down like bold children. And we acted like school-children confronted with a sadistic teacher. We did as we were told, bowed the head and said nothing or we ran way from home to England, America and Australia.

Then we got education, money and rock bands. We started to win things. We got into the quarter finals of the World Cup. Foreigners started to tell us that we were clever and funny. We became cocky teens. We partied,drank,snorted and had guilt-free sex. We travelled the world, wore designer clothes, arranged fabulous weddings. We were all for the craic and the craic it was mighty.

Then we came down with a bang. The Church let us down, the Law let us down, the Medical profession let us down, Bankers destroyed us and laughed in our faces,our politicians screwed us to the wall and blamed it all on the world economy.

Now the party’s over. Now we’re demanding accountability, responsibility, equality. In other words, we’ve grown up.

THE MEN FROM KILMACOW

Last Thursday was gravestone cold with bitter wind sneaking into any chink in our coats, scarves and hats as we stamped our feet and hunched our shoulders outside Kilmainham Jail. The Kilmacow narchers were there getting their banners ready and happy to talk to supporters and press. They are ordinary working men from Kilmacow in Co. Kilkenny who were so fed up with the mess our politicians have created that they decided to march to the Dail in protest against the way they have been ruining the country.

They set off from 'The Fox's Den" pub five days ago. By the time they got to Dublin one was on crutches, another had shin splints but they were determine to finish the march. On their way up the country they got great support and were offered enough tea to float the Queen Mary.

We set off from Kilmainham jail led by Donal Fallon of Historical Insights. As we marched cars honked, groups cheered, people waved from windows and doorways and shouted good wishes and bystanders joined in It was a happy kind of a walk. Some people were there because "I'm always giving out about the government and I thought it was time to walk." Others had sons or daughters who have to emigrate to find work because builders bankers and politicians have destroyed our economy. All were united in their disgust at the Fianna Fail/Green Party coalition but especially at the Fianna Fail.

On the way we stopped at various historical sites and Donal Fallon talked about various men who had fought and died for Ireland. At first I was uncomfortable with all this historical 'up the republicanism@. I've felt for a long time that it's time for us Irish to stop quoting our martyrs and get on with making our country and decent place to live but, as the march went on I realised that what Donal was doing was reminding us of the men in the past who were prepared to take action and to give their lives to make this country a decent place to live and that the comparison with them and our present Government was very odious indeed.

The men laid a wreath at the G.P.O.for all those young people who will have to emigrate. When we came to the Dail, they read a simple statement urging us all to use our votes in the elections and the demand responsibility and reliability from our politicians.
I found the whole thing very moving and I am deeply grateful to the men from Kilmacow. They are:

NED MURRAY
KEVIN DUMPHY
JOHN KAVANAGH
STEPHEN TOBIN
PATRICK LENNON
ARAN(SCRAWNEY)TOBIN
JOHN DUMPHY
DERMOT MURRAY
JOHN CROWLEY
CHILLY HOBAN

THANK YOU, GUYS.

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

I’ve never been able to understand why the Fianna Fail party has the support of so many good, honest, responsible, upstanding citizens. The party has been corrupt since the beginning. It’s founder, Eamon De Valera, sold fake shares in the Irish Press to Irish Americans. There was Taca, there was Gubu, the mohair suits, the Arms scandal, Ray Burke, Liam Lawler, Charlie Haughey, Bertie the Hernia, John O'Donoghue, expenses scandals,jobs for the boys, backhanders, brown envelopes… the list goes on. If I, the least political person in Ireland, knew about this stuff, party members must have known too. So why did they stay members? And why did so many more keep on voting for them?

I think it’s because the Fianna Fail party is not an expression of politics, it’s an expression of faith. Faith in “up the republic,” “wrap the green flag round me.”, “thank God we’re surrounded by water”, “burn everything British except its coal”, “don’t worry Missus, I’ll get you the medical card”.
It is akin faith in the Catholic Church. It took scandal after horror, after horror, after scandal to shake the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland. And still there are people who, in the teeth of the evidence, insist that it’s all the fault of the media. Now it is taking the ruin of the country to undermine faith in Fianna Fail.
There was a hymn we learned in school which went:
“Faith of our father’s , Holy Faith
We will be true to thee till death.”
And boy but we took those words to heart.

Buffo Bows

Buffo bows to the inevitable and resigns. But it's only a partial resignation. He's resigned as leader of the party. He's still Taoiseach. So he's not fit for Fianna Fail but he is fit to lead the country?

This stuff is happening so fast we can't keep up.

But there are a number of young men marching on Dublin in protest about everything that has been happening in this green little island of ours. Will it be like Ghandi? Will people join them on their march?  I hope so. I intend to. Let's see what gives.

ELECTIONS - AT LAST

We've had great excitement since Sunday. After numerous calls for his resignation and demands from all quarters for an election, the Taoiseach, otherwise known as Buffo rose on his hind legs in front of the T.V cameras and press.
"I'm proud," he said, "of the discussion our party has had."
It was behind closed doors so who are we to comment.

Then he declared that he had tabled a motion of confidence in himself for Tuesday and it would be a secret ballot. And immediately went into election mode. Tough decisions/ interests of the country/put the country first etc.

So they had their secret ballot. Buffo won. Then Ministers started resigning. By lunchtime to-day six Ministers were gone. Buffo could not be found. Mary Hanafin came on tele and did her best but looked pretty freaky-eyed as she tried to tell us that she didn't agree with the Taoiseach but she still supported him.

Then they announced an election.

Already the Fianna Failers are singing Buffo's tune
"We took the hard decisions,
And we know ye're all upset
But in the interests of the country
Fianna Fail is your very best bet"

And you took those "hard decisions" because...?
The downturn in the International Economy.
Why are we so much worse off than almost anyone else? We were, after all, one of the wealthiest countries in Europe before all this?
International markets/ banking crisis/ burble-de-burble-de-burble.
No. It's because you, the Fianna Fail party, who has been in office almost continuously since the foundation of the State have behaved like ignorant cute hoors and ruined us.
How do you expect us to have any faith in you if you don't have the guts to own up to your disgraceful behaviour in office.
We're not eejits.

AT THE WEXFORD OPERA

AT THE WEXFORD OPERA
I met Richard Wargo in Annamakerrig, the Artist’s Retreat in Co. Monaghan. The house felt like it was exploding but that was because the theatre group Charabanc was staying. Writers, musicians and visual artists tend to disappear into their studios and only emerge at night for food. Theatre groups are different. They’re often only able to stay for a short time so every second counts. And is some way which I don’t understand this intensive work seems to up everyone’s energy levels and the rest of us stop clutching our brows and get loads of work done as well. On top of that Charabanc were an all female group who made us all laugh and took no prisoners
Richard writes Opera and this was his first time in Ireland. He arrived into dinner tired, jet-lagged and looking like a teddy-bear that had been left too long in the rain. The Charabanc women ragged Richard him mercilessly. I felt sorry for him and tried divert their attention but Richard needed no help. We’ve been friends ever since.
Richard is a composer and has written two short Operas “Winners” and “Losers” based on the Brian Friel plays of the same name and this year “Winners” performed at the Wexford Opera Festival. Festival goers feared the worst, Richard is American and Friel is a literary god. It might be Riverdancing leprechauns.
I had my own fears. What would I say if it wasn’t much good? But as soon as it started I knew that I could relax. It was wonderful. Faithful to the Friel play and, at the same time, adding another dimension. It was funny and tragic and at the end I was in tears, my husband was in tears and most of the audience was also in tears.
There were only two disappointments.
1. The Festival did not use a full orchestra and,
2. On the night of the premier Richard had to bunk down with friends of friends because the festival did not provide his accomodation.