Author: admin

Books that I have read – The Yank by John Crawley.

A small Dog called Tiny.

This little dog was called Tiny, he was a Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix but he really looked like a Chihuahua. He got accidentally ran over .

Tiny was my dog for nearly eight years. He was a very loyal dog though quiet possessive, he wouldn’t make friends easily but you would have to laugh at the way he carried himself especially if you gave him something.

I’m sad to have lost him but life goes on.

Forever sleep my little friend.

Virgin Media & “Royal Ascot”.

Seeing a snippet of Virgin media Tv coverage of “Royal Ascot”. I was dismayed to find Irish people dressing up in hats and coat-tails to honour the British King.  England/Britain has a long history of oppression in Erin/Ireland, eight centuries of rape and pillage to be more precise.

We have over hundred years of so called “Independence” and this is how we end up “aping” the English. The “horsey crowd” are know as wanna be “West Brits” buts its a shame to see this “shoneenism” being encouraged by Virgin media. We are Irish not English maybe Virgin media would take that fact on board.

Empty Houses/ Housing crisis.

Here’s a topic that has been discused of late. Its a burning issue for many youngsters who can’t afford to buy themselves a home.Many are still living with their parents or paying expensive rents for one or two bed apartments.

According to the Limerick post newspaper there is some 20,000 adults in the Limerick area living with their parents. They are approximately 60% male (home to roost basically) and only 5% were looking after a elderly realtive.

You can read then story here –

Cenus shows over 20,000 Adults living with their parents

What’s to be done ? Build more houses is the 0bvious answer but it’s not solving the problem with only 30.000 homes being built and demand for at least 50,000 or possibly 80,000 homes required. Thats a lot of houses to be built. Why so many ?

Booming economy  they say.

A lot of inward migration to fill the jobs and an increasing population and a fact that few houses were built after the economic depression that followed the “Bertie bubble”. Particularly council houses or is now called social or affordable  homes for those on low or medium incomes. There is no control on house prices much to many peoples horror. Once I attended a meeting some years ago where it was stated that the average house price in Dublin  in 1996 was €82,000 and in 2006m it was €384,000.

Inflation these days !

Average house price in Dublin (2024) is €435,000 for a 3 bed semi detached- 2 bedrooms and a box room, down the country it is am average price of €335,000.

People need salaries of upward €80,000 – €100,000 plus to buy a house with some taking out 35 year mortgages, paying it till you drop basically.

For this sum of money they get badly landscaped housing with few amenities. No parks or. playgrounds, little or no green space and no trees either. Concrete jungle more or less. Some purchase agricultural land to develop it as a building site but there are no services especially sewerage.

There is little landscaping and most houses stick out like a sore thumb in the countryside. We really don’t need more one off homes in the country. Turning every country road into a street is not good for planning or good for anything really.. One asks Why is the planning is so bad in this country ?

Everything  to make a fast buck for the wealthy few.

What are the odds of all these houses being worth less than what people paid for them – in a depression or a glut of houses is built. People will sell at a loss them or possibly not at all. This situation should never been allowed to happen. Bad management by various governments has allowed this to happen, they are all landlords anyway.

Changing the subject well not exactly lets discuss empty homes.

According to Uplift (people powered change) there is about 155,000 empty homes in the country. Thats quite a amount, better management of this would do much to alleviate the housing crisis. Stick a tax on empty houses, development or zoned land , more grants for run down properties so as to be fit for human habitation. Encourage old people/ transient populations  to sell or at least rent out their houses. Compulsory purchase if need be. Rathkeale is full of empty houses for 10/11 months of the year, reclaiming some houses would  be a bold step.

 

Good Friday Agreement, a Border Poll and Sinn féin sellout.

Here’s a topic i meant to write about on the anniversary of the Good friday agreement in April last year.

There has been other developments particularly the Sinn Féin ard fheis (party conference ) in November where they seem to have abandoned the principle of a United Ireland.

Well the leadership have anyway.

A United Ireland was once the main plank of the party but not since they signed up to Good Friday agreement… partition stays in so many words.  I have heard the Good Friday Agreement described as a “False Peace” a agreement made by bribing one side to accept unacceptable conditions lies and half truths.

The bribery seems to be more recent now . They say a border poll within  10 years but they said that in 2014, who believes them now ?

“Plum ” jobs in the British administration seem to be order of the day.

Back to Irish times poll which says most protestants would reject a United Ireland (79%) while only 55% of Catholics would support it. There is no campaigning at this stage.

Despite this poll the British administration will not allow a vote and run a country mile from one.

One could debate whether a six county vote is valid anyway ! It’s a gerrymander of the highest order leaving the most northerly part of Ireland in the “south” and ejecting the counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan cos they would be too many Catholics.

Its a fact that Ireland didn’t join this union of its own free will. William Pitt then British prime minster (in 1801)bribed Irish parliament members to vote for it thus abolishing their parliament which has to be said was pretty unrepresented of the Irish people anyway.

Bribery is not new isn’t it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Cars Bad Roads.

 

Decided to splash out on a new car just before Christmas. Got a good deal on a demo car with just 67 km on the clock. So i was happy with my purchase but have to note the state of the roads especially secondary and back roads are absolutely terrible.

The roads especially those that don’t connect to Dublin are too narrow for the amount for the amount of traffic thats on them and are full of dangerous bends and basically “corners”. To be honest there wasn’t too many potholes which is good.

I find that the bends on roads particularly on roads I travel infrequently pretty dangerous, you need to be driving pretty handy to take them. One wonders why the back roads are so bad, were people drunk when they were built or just are they tarred over dirt tracks.

So what needs to be done ? Significant funding needs to be given for roads and rail through out Ireland/Erin and not just Dublin which is always the case. Maybe it would be better for private contactors to do it, county councils depend to be inefficient.

The Government collects tax on road use (they  are some tolls as well) -motor tax, fuel tax on petrol and diesel as well as VAT and VRT on new cars.

There’s little excuse to have the roads in the state they are.

So get to it Government !!