Armed Gardaí to be deployed to Rathkeale.

In the news of late is Rathkeale, not for good news apparently. Armed police are to be deployed to this small town in the run up/during and after Christmas period. Large numbers of “travellers” come to the town each Christmas and its become quite rowdy time for Rathkeale. Haven’t heard of a lot of trouble happening but the deployment of armed police at Christmas time is becoming a regular event.

These visitors constantly drive up and down the town in swoosh cars which are actually rented for the Christmas period. They are annoying and cause traffic jams, feral children are also a problem. Don’t see why they all come to Rathkeale as they are living their lives elsewhere. Some business in town do well from the influx of “Visitors” but they give a bad image of Rathkeale and many houses are boarded up for the rest of the year.

Rathkeale becomes half a Ghost town. The “Traveller” community is over represented in Rathkeale and more should be done to encourage people to live there and more business/employment attracted to the town.

Gerry Adams steps down as Leader of Sinn fein.

On the news at nine o’ clock is the announcement that Gerry Adams is to step down as leader of Sinn fein. Gerry Adams has held the position since 1983 which is over thirty four years, quite a achievement in a modern political party.

Gerry Adams has led a chequered career in Sinn fein, he ended the “armed struggle” alongside Martin McGuinness who died earlier this year and signed up for the controversial Good friday agreement. He has built up a political organisation with seats at the Dáil, Westminster and Stormont assemblies. The party has become a lot more numerous than during the “armed struggle” as seen during their ard fheis in Dublin. However the movement he leads tends to take one step forward followed by two steps backward. He put in a highly suspicious performance during the 2007 Dáil elections. letting Micheal McDowell land some punches on him about Farc and the sum of twenty five million allegedly obtained from them despite knowing that some PD’s were “ansbachers”. Nobody asked him to explain his showing and he largely lost the election for Sinn fein. Some form of blackmail seemed to have been used. Adams led/leads a movement that is chock full of informers, touts and spies. One wonders what the future holds for Sinn fein and will they get their referendum on Irish unity in the years to come, everybody needs to play for team Ireland to win that one.

History will write on Gerry Adams and his legacy in the fullness of time.

Ireland (ROI) Soccer team disappoints.

Just taking note of Tuesday nights match between Ireland and Denmark (Ireland lost 5-1). Only saw the second half of the match but it was a very disappointing performance from the Republic’s soccer team, they seemed rudderless without a sense of direction and gave away easy goals to Denmark. They held in Copenhagen but why did they go to bits in Dublin ? It was a shocking performance to put on for a home crowd, who were expecting to be booking places for Russia next summer some hope of that now. It looked like the soccer squad hadn’t did their homework and it showed. They had a easy group to qualify from and made a mess of it and left it all to the very end to do. Don’t think one should expect a lot from this soccer squad in the future.

Varadkar says more than 50% plus one needed in united Ireland poll ! Ooh No we don’t

OOH No we don’t !

Our esteemed Taoiseach Leo Varadklar has put his foot in it, by saying on an interview with BBC spotlight that more than 50%+1 wouldn’t be sufficient for there to be an United Ireland and consensus (general agreement according to Google) would be required, Now hold on a minute here when was “consensus” ever required when it came to the north… In the never never more like. Making up my mind on our present taoiseach but its clear he is a blue-shirt of the first order, he is half Indian which means he should know better to come out with this pseudo-unionism. Lord Kilclooney aka John Taylor of the “moderate” OUP thanked Leo Varadkar for his “realism”, no thank his blue-shirt.

The loyalists are full of threats of course but like all bullies don’t amount to much when they are stood up to. One thing they never was a unionist majority in Ireland, Donegal remains the most northern county in Ireland and Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are part of ulster too but where excluded from “Northern Ireland” for the simple reason they would be too many Catholics.

Irish people as a whole were never consulted whether they wanted a border or not it was just forced on them. However one loyalist politician I do agree with is Nelson McCausland when he says that the taoiseach’s comments are “a recognition that the main political parties in the Irish Republic have no real interest in Irish unity“.

Fianna fail and fine gael have little interest in uniting Ireland or providing jobs for their people, they feel they have a god given right to scams and want nothing to rock the boat.

Here are some links of interest:

Poll Varadkar says more than 50% plus one needed in united Ireland poll

A unionist peer has claimed that a small majority vote for a united Ireland in a border poll would lead to civil war

Varadkar faces heat over constitution comments 

 

Thanks to Slugger O’ Toole here is the Leo Vardakar interview

Gazing at the Moon.

Decided to write a few lines on the old blog here. Its been a few weeks since the last blog post, nothing much to write about except that i was on holidays for a week there at the start of august, Costa del sol very nice but was a bit too hot for me. i stayed in the hotel most of the time then the Irish bars all playing English football on there big tv’s. It had been sixteen years since I last took a holiday so it was bit different for me.

Don’t think i will take as long as that again to have my next holiday.

Nothing much happening just those hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean, wouldn’t do to get in the way there. I guess it disapproves the climate change deniers the fact that the vast numbers that make up humanity are having a profound influence  on the climate of the earth. Will be back writing on the blog soon, take care in the meantime.

“Dunkirk” a review of sorts.

Here’s one that hit the cinemas recently the tale of the British evacuation of their expeditionary force from France during the early years of the second world war. Its referred  to as the “Miracle of Dunkirk” by Time magazine. There are explanations for this “miracle” mainly that Hitler lets the brits go. The movie is controversial in that it displays the action as a valiant rearguard operating under a hail of Luftwaffe bombs and strafing. No action is made to stop the evacuation by the  German “panzer” divisions which surrounded the allied forces. This is a mega blunder by the Germans who could have won the war there and then had they captured the British expeditionary force, there would have been no army to defend Britain. Hitler would do this again – stop the tanks and this was on D-day. Some lack of action by the Germans led to decisive events which changed the outcome of the war.

Anyway back to the film. Its well “shot” cinematically with three subplots, the guys on the beaches, the people in the boats and the Raf flying overhead, these gradually come together towards the end of the film. Its well acted with the main character being a soldier trying to escape the mayhem at the beaches. Its worth the ticket price but its not a masterpiece either.