'THERE WILL BE ANOTHER DAY.....'
By Peadar O'Donnell ; first published in January 1963.For a short time I taught in a hovel of a place and in making the yearly return, by way of answers to printed questions on a form, I permitted myself considerable freedom : "How often was the school floor washed during the year ?" - every time it rained. "Are flowers cultivated in window boxes or in the grounds ?" - no , but we have a lovely crop on the roof. "Is there a school museum ?" - no, but the school should be in one. "Is there a school lavatory(or other suitable arrangements) ?" - no, but there is an unlimited scope of mountain with certain other facilities. Father Scanlan signed the return, without reading it, but I had overlooked the question about rent and so the form came back to him with all my answers underlined in red ink, and a request for an answer to the question on rent. Next time I called, Father Scanlan produced the form : "you have to write 'no' there, " he told me!
I wrote to the Education Office for an umbrella that I might use during heavy showers , pointing out that while the children did not matter, I did , for they had spent money on me and it would be bad economy to lose me for the sake of what an umbrella would cost. I had no idea in the world that such a letter would be sent back to Father Scanlan and put him to the trouble of writing letters to the Education Office - indeed, it was only by chance I found out that my letter was sent to him.
Then one day I suggested that it might be a good idea if we should knock down the school as they would then have to build us a new one : he told me to sit down and he would talk to me. I must bear in mind that there was a war on , it was early 1916. They would do nothing for us. A few evenings later, on my way home to my lodgings from a band practice - I had a contract to teach a fife-and-drum band for the Hibernians at Doochary - I looked at the soot-marked old shanty with its chimneys buried in the thatch : there was nobody around except the three special buddies who were accompanying me home and they were of the same mind that it would not take much on the bulge in the gable to do all the destruction we needed. Next morning I called on Father Scanlan and told him that the school had fallen during the night.....(MORE LATER).
THE BETRAYAL OF 1916 -
- REVISIONISM EXPOSED.....
From 'IRIS' magazine, Easter 1991.
By Martin Spain.
The official programme for Dublin's year as 'Cultural Capital of the European Community' did not even mention 1916 and a commemorative stamp to mark the anniversary wasn't even planned until pressure was put on the government. It is an indication of the success of the revisionists that the State saw no problem the previous year in bringing out a stamp to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne. The success of the 'Reclaim the Spirit of 1916 Committee' in organising throughout the country forced the Dublin government's hand.
The military parade is the result , and even this small concession is too much for the leader of Fine Gael , John Bruton : he has called for the commemoration to celebrate not just the 1916 Rising but also those who fought in the First World War. This idea should be examined in the context of his vicious anti-nationalism and anti-republicanism. He commented last December that a country ruled by (P)Sinn Féin would be "an Ireland of prison camps and jails, of secret police and cleansing pogroms" , which sounds more like a description of the present corrupt Northern statelet.
Bruton and his ilk would do away with (FS) Articles Two and Three * of their constitution to "bring about a change in unionist attitudes". What Bruton , Haughey , O'Malley and all the other leaders of the 26-County State really fear is a new Ireland where their record will be seen for what it is. The 26-County State is as corrupt as its Six-County counterpart. Constant economic crises, savage unemployment figures and a constant flow of citizens forced to emigrate to earn a living are not the mark of a successful nation State. Homelessness is a major problem , cutbacks in education and health have widened the barriers of privilege between the haves and the have-nots , and a third of the population lives below the poverty line. (* How ironic ! PSF would , in 1998 , in campaigning for the Stormont Treaty [GFA] , seek to have those two FS Articles watered down to suit the minority Unionist populaton in Ireland!) (MORE LATER).
15TH MAY 1847-
-DEATH OF DANIEL O'CONNELL.Ireland 1843 - 45 years after the 'United Irishmen' Rising , 5 years before the 'Young Irelanders' were to rise up in arms against British mis-rule , and 15 years before the Irish Republican Brotherhood was founded (on Saint Patricks Day , 1858) . The population of Ireland was in decline - 'famine' struck again and approximately 2 million people were to leave the island ; one million people emigrated and the same number died . A Mr. Stephen de Vere was an eye-witness on one of the emigrant ships - "Before the emigrant has been a week at sea , he is an altered man . How can it be otherwise ? Hundreds of poor people , men , women and children , of all ages , from the drivelling idiot of ninty to the babe just born , huddled together , without light , without air , wallowing in filth and breathing a foetid atmosphere , sick in body , dispirited in heart . The fevered patients lying between the sound in sleeping places so narrow as almost to deny them a change of position ....by their agonised ravings disturbing those around them . Living without food or medicine except as administered by the hand of casual charity , dying without spiritual consolation and buried in the deep without the rites of the Church..."
The 'Repeal Association' , led by Daniel O'Connell in the early 1840's, was one of the largest mass movements in Europe at the time ; it had its 'roots' in the 'Catholic Association' which , between 1823 and 1829 , led by O'Connell , and supported by the Catholic Hierarchy , organised the vast majority of the population into a political body seeking emancipation - for at least six years (1823-1829) the campaign was relentless ; civil unrest in Ireland and prolonged agitation in England itself concerning the issue . The British Prime Minster , 'Sir' Robert Peel , relented in 1829 , and Catholic Emancipation was passed at Westminster . Daniel O 'Connell was a 'God' - to the Irish , he could do no wrong , and he continued to press the British for more 'reforms' of the system . But , to the British , O'Connell was becoming more of a troublesome 'thorn in the side'. On April 15th , 1840 , Daniel O'Connell launched the 'Loyal National Repeal Association' (as it called itself from 1841 onwards - at its inception it was simply known as 'The Repeal Association' : O'Connell was back-tracking with the name-change , all but apologising to the Brits for asking them to 'tweak' the system a little more in favour of the Irish.)
Daniel O'Connell made it clear that it was his desire that Ireland should remain under the British 'Monarchy' - saying , if you like (as PSF , the SDLP , Fianna Fail etc are now saying) ' ...stay if you want , just treat us better.' The only force to be used , he stated , was "moral force" ; but even this was too much of a demand for Westminster - 'Sir' Robert Peel (Brit PM) replied that to 'grant' O'Connell his way " would not merely mean the repeal of an Act of (British) Parliament , but dismemberment of a great Empire . Deprecating as I do all war but above all , civil war , yet there is no alternative which I do not think preferable to the dismemberment of Empire... " A group within the 'Repeal Association' (or 'The Loyal National Repeal Association' , as O'Connell insisted it be known as) supported Daniel O'Connell in his endeavours but were not convinced that "moral force" alone would win the day ; they were the 'Young Irelanders' , and they viewed their leader "with a mixture of affection and impatience......." In 1842 , 'The Young Irelanders' established a newspaper called 'The Nation' , in which they supported the objectives of the 'Repeal' Movement . The newspaper , under the control of 26 years-young Charles Gavan Duffy , supported Daniel O'Connell in his quest to publicise the 'Repeal' Movement , and helped to organise and promote outdoor meetings (known as 'Monster Meetings') at which the objectives of the 'Repeal' Movement could be advanced.
The year 1843 was promoted as 'The Year of Repeal' , and Daniel O'Connell took his message to the people ; in Mullingar , County Westmeath , he addressed a crowd of approximately 150,000 people . The British 'authorities' were watching these developments with interest and , while no doubt regarding the 'Loyal' Daniel O'Connell as no more than a 'rebel pet' , were presumably more worried by the fact that the huge crowds he drew would be susceptible to the less 'loyal' message coming from 'The Young Irelanders' . After the Mullingar 'Monster Meeting ' , which was viewed as a tremendous success by the organisers , 'The Nation' newspaper helped to publicise another such meeting - this time in Mallow , County Cork : 400,000 people turned up - the Brits were uneasy . A third 'Monster Meeting' was held in Lismore , County Waterford - again , a crowd estimated at 400,000 people attended . At each meeting , the 'Young Irelanders' were recruiting , having made their position clear in the pages of their newspaper , 'The Nation' , in leaflets , and by word of mouth - ie ' we get back whatever we can by O'Connell's methods , but will not confine ourselves to those methods alone...'
The British were perplexed at what to do regarding the 'Monster Meetings' - were they a 'safety valve' at which the 'agitators/rebels' could let off steam in a more-or-less harmless fashion , or were they a possible recruiting exercise at which the more militant element could 'plot and plan' ? However , after the 15th August 1843 , the Brits decided to take action ; for it was on that date that between 800,000 and one million people gathered on the Hill of Tara in County Meath for a 'Monster Meeting' ; the 'Young Irelanders' newspaper , 'The Nation' , put the figure for those in attendance at the Hill of Tara 'Monster Meeting' at three-quarters of a million people "without fear of exaggeration" ; Daniel O'Connell himself claimed it was at least one-and-a-half million people , while another newspaper of the day ('The Times' ?) reported - " The whole district was covered with men . The population within a days march began to arrive on foot shortly after daybreak and continued to arrive , on all sides and by every available approach , 'till noon . It was impossible from any one point to see the entire meeting . The number is supposed to have reached between 500,000 and 700,000 persons... " Other reports stated that O'Connell's marshals were on horseback , that the crowds arrived on foot and in carriages , banners were present , as were bands and groups in " historic fancy dress " . Indeed , archaeologists have found human bones on the site , some of which are said to be 4000 years old , and traces of wooden platforms , bits of clay pipes and , of course (!) , whiskey bottles , dating back to the mid-19th Century. On that day in Irish history , Daniel O'Connell addressed a sea of people - " We are at Tara of the Kings - the spot from which emanated the social power , the legal authority , the right to dominion over the furthest extremes of the land .... the strength and majority of the National Movement was never exhibited so imposingly as at this great meeting . The numbers exceed any that ever before congregated in Ireland in peace or war . It is a sight not grand alone but appalling - not exciting merely pride , but fear . Step by step , we are approaching the great goal of Repeal of the Union , but it is at length with the strides of a giant..."
Again , it must be stressed that Daniel O'Connell would use only "moral force" to achieve what he termed "...Repeal of the Union " and, even then , favoured the island of Ireland remaining as a unit governed by the British 'Monarchy' - a 'new' coat of varnish on rotten timber . O'Connell could 'talk the talk' but .......however : the 'Monster Meetings' were a great success - despite all the "misfortunes" (as the Brits would have it) that the Irish people were suffering in their daily lives ; the desire , the demand , for a British withdrawal had not gone away . And , as stated here a few paragraphs back , after the Tara 'Monster Meeting' (15th August 1843) the Brits decided it just wasn't cricket : enough was enough . A 'Monster Meeting' planned for Clontarf , in Dublin , which was to take place on Sunday , 8th October , 1843 , was banned by the Brits on Saturday , 7th October 1843 - the day before the event was due to take place ; Daniel O'Connell and others in the leadership of 'The Loyal National Repeal Association' quickly lodged a complaint (they were later to be arrested by the Brits and sentenced to a year in prison for 'conspiracy' , but this judgement was then reversed in the British House of Lords) . On Saturday , the 7th of October 1843 , O'Connell noticed that posters were being put-up in Dublin by the British 'authorities' stating that the following days meeting had been banned , he backed down ; in this scribblers opinion he should have 'stuck to his guns' and ignored the British 'writ' - he should have went ahead with the Clontarf 'Monster Meeting' therby 'putting it up' to the Brits . But... "moral force only" won the day ; O'Connell issued his own poster that same day (ie Saturday 7th October 1843) as well as spreading the word through the 'grapevine' that the meeting was cancelled . That poster makes for interesting reading .......
NOTICE :
WHEREAS there has appeared , under the Signatures of " E.B. SUGDEN , C. DONOUGHMORE , ELIOT F BLACKBURN , E. BLAKENEY , FRED SHAW , T.B.C. SMITH , " a paper being , or purporting to be , a PROCLAMATION , drawn up in very loose and inaccurate terms , and manifestly misrepresenting known facts ; the objects of which appear to be , to prevent the PUBLIC MEETING , intended to be held TO-MORROW , the 8th instant , at CLONTARF , TO PETITION PARLIAMENT for the REPEAL of the baleful and destructive measure of the LEGISLATIVE UNION .
AND WHEREAS , such Proclamation has not appeared until LATE IN THE AFTERNOON OF THIS SATURDAY , THE 7th , so that it is utterly impossible that the knowledge of its existence could be communicated in the usual Official Channels , or by the Post , in time to have its contents known to the Persons intending to meet at CLONTARF , for the purpose of Petitioning , as aforesaid , whereby ill-disposed Persons may have an opportunity , under cover of said Proclamation , to provoke Breaches of the Peace , or to commit Violence on Persons intending to proceed peaceably and legally to the said Meeting .
WE , therefore , the COMMITTEE of the LOYAL NATIONAL REPEAL ASSOCIATION , do most earnestly request and entreat , that all well-disposed persons will , IMMEDIATELY on receiving this intimation , repair to their own dwellings , and not place themselves in peril of any collision , or of receiving any ill-treatment whatsoever . And we do further inform all such persons , that without yielding in any thing to the unfounded allegations in said alleged Proclamation , we deem it prudent and wise , and above all things humane , to declare that said MEETING IS ABANDONED, AND IS NOT TO BE HELD.
SIGNED BY ORDER ,
DANIEL O'CONNELL,
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE .
T. M. RAY , Secretary .
SATURDAY , 7 th OCTOBER , 1843 . 3 O 'CLOCK P.M.
RESOLVED - That the above Cautionary Notice be immediately transmitted by Express to the Very Reverend and Reverend Gentlemen who signed the Requisition for the CLONTARF MEETING , and to all adjacent Districts , SO AS TO PREVENT the influx of Persons coming to the intended Meeting .
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN .
Browne,Printer, 36 Nassau Street.
The Brits had turned on their 'rebel pet' ; to enforce their ban , Westminster ordered a number of gunboats and land-based artillery pieces to train their weapons on the Clontarf area . Daniel O'Connell was aware that thousands of people would already be on their way to the Clontarf meeting (some having left their homes on the Friday , or earlier , for the walk to Dublin) so he sent his marshals out from Dublin on horseback , urging the crowds to return home : he could do nothing else , having allowed the British to dictate his pace - O'Connell and his 'Loyal Association' had painted themselves into a corner ; they fell into a trap of their own making . He had publicly and repeatedly vowed to work within " the law " (ie British 'law') which could have at any time been used , as it eventually was , to ban his agitation and he had vehemently ruled out the use of force in any circumstances in challenging the British .One of the results of the decision by Daniel O'Connell to cancel the Clontarf 'Monster Meeting' was that the public lost faith in him and in the 'Loyal National Repeal Association' ; when he realised that he had lost that support , he expressed the view that "repeal of the Union" could not be won. The 'Young Irelanders' denounced him and began preparations for a military Rising - but the people were , for the most part , dispirited , and the 'Great Hunger' (so-called 'Famine') was taking its toll. Today , our people are again 'dispirited' and a different sort of 'Great Hunger' is among us - one for economic and moral justice, which is not only being denied by the British in six of our counties, but is also being denied in the other 26 counties by those in Leinster House who purport to 'govern' that area.
BUY YOUR LOTTO TICKETS FROM ANTO !
Anto the Cool Dude !Those familiar with the manner in which this raffle is held will verify that the raffle drum is taken by two committee members to eight different people , picked at random (usually the child with the loudest voice or, perhaps, a shy child who would like to pick a ticket but is too afraid to ask !) as one of the 'safety measures' ie it ensures that 'a friend with a loaded sleeve' (!) will not be able to influence the outcome : one of the reasons this raffle is the success it is is because it is not only a pure 'pot luck' raffle but it's seen to be such , which is very important, regardless of whether the tickets cost €2 each or €20 each. Punters don't mind if they don't win so long as they are 100% confident that those that do win do so in a fair manner, and that is guaranteed with this monthly event.
And that 'fairness' proved to be a saving grace for us on Sunday , as one of our sellers had four winners (each one of which was pulled from the drum by a different punter) ! Anto , who sells about 100 tickets each month for us , sold the 1st , 2nd , 6th and 8th prize to , respectively, Calo (208) , Paddy L (29) , TBX (067) and Theresa (217) , all of whom were present (and all of whom were decked-out in different 'colours' as they all supported different soccer teams that were playing that day, which added greatly to the atmosphere (!) as each one approached the raffle table to claim their prize !) and , for his sins, we made Anto say a few words as Theresa was legging it to the bar to spend her winnings ! Calo was stunned to walk away with €200 , as was Paddy L with his €100 , and TBX and Theresa were just as chuffed with their few bob !
Our third prize , €40, was won by JJC , on ticket number 371 , an Australian , living in Dublin, visiting the Kildare hotel and cheering for West Ham United - 'a well travelled individual' , as one of the girls put it , and he certainly found his way to the bar (!) but not before we got him to pull-out the fourth prize (€20 , ticket 509) which a member of the bar staff , Gerry M , had sold to one of the locals, Alex , who almost forgot to collect it as he was still trying to figure-out JJC's heritage ! Out fifth prize ,ticket 546, €20, was won by MM and sold to her by Mattie and the seventh prize of €20 went to Trish K , from Arklow, on ticket 461.
All things considered - the myriad of (interchangeable !) soccer supporters , the kids , curious hotel guests and Anto strutting his stuff like a peacock ! - it was a very successful venture for the Movement and a pleasure to work with , and for, people of such fine caliber!
FREE STATE ADMINISTRATIONS : TERMINATORS OF THE FUTURE.
Three hours - and they hope you are gone forever.Whether it's Fine Gael and Labour (as it is now) or Fianna Fail and the Greens (as it was before them) , both State administrations share the one objective : to stay in power , feathering their own nest, until such time (four years) as the State political pension-for-life kicks in. And they have learned well from those that went before them : the best way to lessen opposition to your objective is to thin-out the ranks of those most likely to oppose you and that is just what is continuing to take place here - this 'Time To Go?' study (pdf document) highlights the colossal loss of young and older people that are financially forced to look for a livelihood in another country thus , as per the current law in this State, taking their right to a political voice in this State with them. That last link explains the problem , whilst this one points to the solution.
NO PLACE FOR SICK PEOPLE.
The 'joke' is on us taxpayers.This article has appeared in a few Irish-American newspapers earlier on this month and should be forwarded to other newspapers and magazines as a warning to those visiting these shores from civilised countries :
"Since our return to Ireland last May life in Ireland has been good to our family. I’ve not complained about much. We have everything we want and we remain positive when friends in the U.S. ask us how we could live in an Ireland steeped in a recession because they certainly couldn’t.We had nothing negative to say about our own experience and that’s the truth.Until now that is.
It has finally happened. We came face to face (indirectly) with the Irish medical system, and yes, it’s as bad as they say it is. It’s an utter disgrace, and I’m here to tell you what we saw first-hand. It wasn’t pretty. My husband John’s mother made a recent trip to the emergency room at the, about a ten-minute drive from her home. It turned out it wasn’t a serious issue but she needed tending to immediately.She arrived at the reception area of the emergency department at 6:10 p.m. on a Wednesday evening. Like any emergency room at that time of the day it was manic.
Seats were full. Patients and their loved ones stood along corridors, sat on floors and paced back and forth in an effort not to go insane. Parents and children, people of pensionable age and many more middle aged folks all looked sickly and irritated.A young lady who appeared to be in her late twenties told my mother-in-law she had been there three hours and still hadn’t been seen to by a nurse.“You’re in for a long night,” Mary was told. She had no idea. After a few minutes of standing, a young man with a gentle face took pity on Mary and gave her his seat. She sat patiently and waited her turn.It was close to 10 p.m. before a nurse came to take her vitals and carry out some blood work. The nurse advised her yet again that it was going to be a long night.
Midnight struck, and by this stage everyone was tired, cranky and hungry. Mary was finally admitted into the emergency room, and what she saw before her was shocking. Beds full with patients, some in a very sickly way, took over the floor space. It wasn’t designed for this. Getting to the nurse’s station inside the department felt like one was walking through an obstacle course.There were beds all over the place. It was utter mayhem. When they ran out of beds, patients (depending on the severity of their medical problem) sat on plastic chairs propped up against walls throughout the department.Mary was directed to a chair for the following four hours. By this stage she was extremely tired and a little weak. She watched as some unruly characters entered the emergency room with various ailments, some causing quite a stir.In the end the only reason she got a bed (about 4:30 a.m.) in the emergency room was because she took a weakness and fainted.
At one point during the night she needed to use the bathroom. She was told there was a queue forming and it was best she went outside to the main hospital and used the public toilets. She barely had the energy to get off the bed. We sat with Mary as she tried to close her eyes to get some sleep. I was disgusted by what I was seeing.The nurses were running around trying to keep up with patients being admitted and others being discharged. At one point a young fella entered the emergency room via ambulance with what looked like a screwdriver stuck in his head. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and we didn’t ask what kind of altercation he was in before arriving to the hospital.Not only were the doctors and nurses trying to do their job, but they had to deal with scantily clad girls fighting with each other. A mother sitting across from us attempted to shelter her two-year-old son from such carry on.
It was disgraceful and kind of intimidating too. It was hard to know what would happen next.
When dawn crept in it was made clear to Mary that she would be admitted to the hospital for further tests, but she was warned it would be a while before a bed became available upstairs. Mary worked in that same hospital for 26 years as a secretary and retired three years ago.It didn’t matter though. There simply wasn’t a bed available for her. The hospital was as overrun as the emergency room.As I sat with Mary early on the Friday morning I pulled out my laptop and began writing what I saw around me. In the emergency room there were approximately eight bays where patients were put when admitted. All eight bays were full.There was another 15 or so patients sitting on chairs and 12 or so beds scattered across the moderately sized room. It was simply a case of wherever they could shove in a bed they did. It was necessary because a lot of these patients weren’t able to sit or stand, but it made the job of the nurses, doctors and porters next to impossible. They zipped in and out between beds, administered medicine where needed and hooked others up to IV's.
My poor mother-in-law was shoved up against a wall near the emergency room entrance. One minute it was warm, too warm. The next minute a blast of cold blew through the corridor making patients shiver.Behind Mary a little baby shared a chair with his mother. He squealed in pain. The nurses tried to appease him but it was difficult, both on the little boy and his mother.Across the corridor we could hear a man coughing. It was a rough, dry cough. The owner clearly didn’t have the energy to lift his head.He lay on a hospital bed, sheets strewn to the side. He was wearing a pair of jeans, an old looking shirt and had a hole in both his white socks. I’m not sure where his shoes were. He finally stopped coughing.The sound of monumental pain echoed from the bed next to him. The sounds were ad hoc, but when they came from the small-framed woman propped up in a bed I felt for her. She was alone.
The nurses and doctors were just too busy to attend to her needs. She had been admitted but that’s as far as she got.
A sprightly looking woman had her leg propped up in a bed. She looked exhausted. Later on I spoke with her to discover she came to the hospital at 2 p.m. the previous day and was still waiting for a bed upstairs.Beside her lay a man in his forties who had chest pains. His wife was worried. He wasn’t being kept in because scans showed nothing out of the ordinary.He told me he was waiting three hours for discharge papers. He was lying in a bed that could have been used for someone else, but because the staff were so overrun they hadn’t time to release his bed.Later that day we sat next to a lady in her nineties. She was frail. She didn’t have it in her to even speak. After a few minutes of tossing and turning she called for a nurse. She looked in distress. No nurse could tend to her. She started vomiting.John went to her bedside, propped her up and placed a jug underneath her chin so she would not choke while getting sick. The nurse came over, handed John a cardboard bowl and instructed him to hold it under the lady’s chin. He did as he was told.I could see the woman was ever so embarrassed and very grateful at the same time. She was alone.
I stayed with Mary until lunchtime on the Friday. I left her in an exhausted state and not any closer to a bed in the hospital itself.As I left the mayhem through the emergency room reception area there was another 40 or so people waiting to be seen to. It was unbelievable.Mary finally got a bed in a ward upstairs at 5 p.m. on Friday. She was 23 hours in the emergency room.We read about the state of our hospitals in the newspapers, we hear about it on the radio, we chat about it at dinner parties but to experience it, even indirectly, is a whole different story.
While living in New York we had our fair share of trips to the emergency room and the hospital. Each time we came away saying how wonderful the service was, even if it did cost us an arm and a leg (we didn’t have insurance). The nurses and doctors were always so attentive, and although we may have waited two or three hours in an emergency room to be seen to or admitted, it was nothing like the craziness I experienced in Limerick last week. I pray to God that I don’t have to bring either of my two children to the emergency room anytime soon."
If you have the misfortune to attend one of the remaining hospitals in this State, you won't see a politician or his/her son or daughter in the Waiting Room , the A+E ward or, indeed, on a trolley in a corridor : they have the financial means to go 'Private' or, better still , to go abroad for treatment. They are aware that, 'thanks' to their cutbacks, the State health service here is akin to a cattle market in a Third World country and is not to be trusted : those that have no option other than to attend same for any illness can be practically guaranteed that , at the very least , they will leave the hospital worse than when they entered. The 'vomiting bug' is rampant in State hospitals at the moment and can prove lethal for very young or elderly patients. But maybe that's what it will take for the majority of people here to 'wake up' , politically , and challenge the system and those that operate and profit from it - a dead son , daughter , mother or father etc. But I doubt that even that would force some people to face up to the reality of the situation.
REARRANGING THE CHAIRS ON 'THE SS HEALTH SERVICE' , A SINKING SHIP.
'Captain' Reilly attempts to convince the 'passengers' that there will be enough chairs to satisfy all if he can just re-arrange the existing stock.....Despite election commitments from James Reilly and his Fine Gael crew ("....Fine Gael's FairCare policy offers universal health insurance in a system to be run by private insurance companies, at no additional cost to the taxpayer.....there will be free GP care....an end to waiting lists...the two-tier system of access will end....under FairCare, we will make public hospitals more efficient....") , the best they can do is to apply a poor-quality sticking plaster to the existing structure ( ie place the existing failed entities into six 'groups', each of which will have its own Chief Executive and five 'Senior Offices' [so it's not just the useless State Senate that career politicians load with their suited buddies] with that particular 'management group' being accountable (lol!) for its 'group') and link the sticking-plastered entity to medical training centres and universities.
The given election commitments/promises worked but only in so far that those words helped to convince a good section of the electorate in this State that Fine Gael 'were gonna put things right in the health service' and they received enough votes to form an administration with the State Labour Party. But the 'words' (election promises) were quickly abandoned by Fine Gael , and the State Labour Party , as expected, didn't hold their State administration colleagues to account. Mary Harney performed much the same sleight-of-hand trick with her so-called 'Centres of Excellence' and it worked for her - she is now living off the State taxpayer to the tune of a €2700-a-week pension , a financial goal which Captain Reilly must hope his '49 into 6' plan will score for him.
The doors here should have been welded shut and a finger held on the 'Down' button. Because that surely is where the sick in this State are headed. Down.
PUTTING MANNERS ON THEM !
One is a Westminster-paid paramilarity thug employed in Ireland whilst the other is, apparently, a well-mannered Westminster-paid paramilitary thug employed in Ireland....As part of their (on-going) efforts to 'sell' the failed Stormont Treaty ('Peace Process/GFA') to those of their party members who aren't soft SDLP/Labour-type activists at heart , the PSF leadership had to invent something which appeared to make the whole sell-out worth while to their more 'militant' members , and they settled on the subject of 'policing'.
A 'guarantee' was given to the PSF militants (!) that , in return for their acquiescence, "manners" would be put on the RUC/PSNI, the pro-British 'police force' that is tasked with 'keeping the peace' in that part of British-occupied Ireland. This , of course, was never going to be permitted by Westminster but those PSF 'militants' once again allowed their leadership to do the thinking for them and it succeeded in buying some extra time for Lords Adams and McGuinness etc but they are now reduced to downplaying their 'guarantee' as 'a work in progress' - a spin is now being attempted by the PSF leadership that there remains "a force within a force" in the RUC/PSNI (as opposed to the overall 'police force' itself) which has 'not yet' had "manners" put on them despite the best efforts of Gerry and Martin etc !
But the PSF leadership are aware that no walkouts will take place as a result of this failure as their remaining members are not the type that hold strong republican views (that type left decades ago) and all they have to do to appease their SDLP/Labour-type members is to be seen to demand radical change rather than actually achieving same. And, once they continue to be salaried by Westminster and/or Leinster House , it's a readily perceived pretense they are happy to go along with , laughing all the way to the bank. Or to that private hospital , mentioned above.
EXTRA ! EXTRA ! READ ALL ABOUT IT......!
Tommy Morris , Fine Gaeler and avid reader...The 'good-day-to-publish-bad-news' trick is well known in political circles but, apparently , a small-time Fine Gael wanna-be spin doctor thought he could start a new trend and get away with it , not realising that the yokes on the ceiling with the little flashing lights were not actually smoke alarms !
The 'bad news' had already been published so Mr Morris either decided himself to try and prevent those that might vote for his Master from reading it or he was dispatched to do that job - either way , he should have known that , despite popular fokelore, politicians and their minions are not actually invisible between elections ! "Caught Rapid..." , as we say in Dublin, but those type of characters are renowned for taking more than copies of free newspapers off you....
Thanks for reading, Sharon.
