.
And then the wonderful Liam Meehan, who had this printed in the Irish Times
Madam, – I’m a little confused that the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, is discouraging people from gathering at Knock to witness apparitions which he believes “risk misleading God’s people and undermining faith”.
This is the the same “faith” that believes that a cosmic Jew who was his own father by a virgin can enable you to live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from something invisible called your soul that is present because a woman made from a rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat an apple from a magical tree. – Yours, etc,
LIAM MEEHAN,
La Vista Avenue,
Killester, Dublin 5
Credit where it's due, in this case from Paul Newton's perspective, huge credit to both of them, I'm proud of them both.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
and we wonder why?
Just short note on a strange experience that reinforced big time my idea on why the country is fecked.
I'm in a hospital ward visiting my daughter and there are 3 groups of parents and 3 children in the ward, I'm having difficulty communicating with Joy because the TV is so loud, they are all watching a programme called "around the house" but I say nothing about turning down the telly because it's nearing nine and I'm looking forward to hearing the news.
As soon as the news comes on the sound is turned down to an unhearable volume, I'm watching quietly but still saying nothing, and then prime time comes on, and the telly is turned off.
What's important to most Irish people is obvious, feck the facts, we'd rather watch some gobshite called Duncan give his opinions on a house.
GRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr.
I'm in a hospital ward visiting my daughter and there are 3 groups of parents and 3 children in the ward, I'm having difficulty communicating with Joy because the TV is so loud, they are all watching a programme called "around the house" but I say nothing about turning down the telly because it's nearing nine and I'm looking forward to hearing the news.
As soon as the news comes on the sound is turned down to an unhearable volume, I'm watching quietly but still saying nothing, and then prime time comes on, and the telly is turned off.
What's important to most Irish people is obvious, feck the facts, we'd rather watch some gobshite called Duncan give his opinions on a house.
GRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Still frustrated.......Grrr.
I've created a visual to describe my frustration!
Like children we simply cannot take any pain.
NAMA is a soother for the whingers and moaners in the banking, development, financial services and construction industries.
The public service cannot take any pain... let's protect their interests, imagine of we had to take some of their permanent pensionable sweets off them? Out on the streets lads, let's throw a tantrum.
And now the bloody Taniste is crying that parts of the McCarthy report "make no sense", is she friggin serious, Mary maybe it's time for a little discipline and self sacrifice, you can't manage that?
This country has allowed itself to become spoilt bloody rotten, and now we are behaving like spoilt children, tantrums all over the place and can't take any possible pain.
It's easier to blame blame blame.."it wasn't me"..."Johnny did it"
we live in a blame anybody but me culture.... let's give them all soothers so we can postpose our pain and pass it over to our children and their children's children....
Grrrrrrr.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
A wondering wondering star!
Maybe I was born under a wondering star, but I just can't seem to stop wondering how selfishness has captured society, I mean it always did, there are many simple examples of people fighting selfish self centered groups who controlled society, the french bourgeoise, the british aristocracy, the irish catholic heirarchy, the ulster unionists, the american republican party, I could go on and on, but am starting to wonder "what's the point"?
I enjoyed watching the farmleigh economic forum stuff at the weekend, it was talking about energy, passion, relationships and the drive to move a society forward, but then after reading and researching a lot, I had a look at the new RTE programme "frontline" and was left wondering and wondering and wondering.
Can we as a society really economically crucify our children and our children's children to satisfy the selfish needs of the inhabitants of the tent at the Galway races, yes indeed if this legislation is enacted into law we will indeed appreciate the horse men, and indeed they are horsemen, the politicians, the bankers, the developers and the corrupt media will indeed become the Four horsemen of the Apocalypse, war (the rise and rise of the right wing) famine (socially and impoverishment), pestilence, (our vital health service will be cut cut cut) and death, or more likely DEBT.
The brilliance of Farmleigh last weekend was simple, and Einstein pointed it our 60 years ago.
I was brought up to believe that the four pillars of democracy were
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
Press
but a 5th pillar has been added to our understanding, and I'm wondering what we need to change that.
I am somewhat left thinking, a reader of Marx, and have largely been a supporter of social capitalism, we are all witnesses to what happened the ideological theory of communism under the stewardship of Stalin, but now I feel we have also reached an over the top position on Capitalism, it's unfair to bring individuals to take over this, but it's obvious that the politics of Thatcherism and Reaganism became stronger in the Galway Races tent.
There are new possibilities, new people to take the role of running the country, but just throwing a new party into the Dail is no step forward, perhaps trawling the Farmleigh invitees would give us a chance.
I enjoyed watching the farmleigh economic forum stuff at the weekend, it was talking about energy, passion, relationships and the drive to move a society forward, but then after reading and researching a lot, I had a look at the new RTE programme "frontline" and was left wondering and wondering and wondering.
Can we as a society really economically crucify our children and our children's children to satisfy the selfish needs of the inhabitants of the tent at the Galway races, yes indeed if this legislation is enacted into law we will indeed appreciate the horse men, and indeed they are horsemen, the politicians, the bankers, the developers and the corrupt media will indeed become the Four horsemen of the Apocalypse, war (the rise and rise of the right wing) famine (socially and impoverishment), pestilence, (our vital health service will be cut cut cut) and death, or more likely DEBT.
The brilliance of Farmleigh last weekend was simple, and Einstein pointed it our 60 years ago.
I was brought up to believe that the four pillars of democracy were
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
Press
but a 5th pillar has been added to our understanding, and I'm wondering what we need to change that.
I am somewhat left thinking, a reader of Marx, and have largely been a supporter of social capitalism, we are all witnesses to what happened the ideological theory of communism under the stewardship of Stalin, but now I feel we have also reached an over the top position on Capitalism, it's unfair to bring individuals to take over this, but it's obvious that the politics of Thatcherism and Reaganism became stronger in the Galway Races tent.
There are new possibilities, new people to take the role of running the country, but just throwing a new party into the Dail is no step forward, perhaps trawling the Farmleigh invitees would give us a chance.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Slight guilt.
Ok I have not managed to update this in over a month, I've been absorbed in a project that has taken me over, it's been a month or hopes and dreams, fear and doubt, happiness and serious frustration, but they are the times I enjoy most.
Here's a commercial that I like to think sums me up, I have no idea if my stuff becomes a success or not, but i do know that many people see it as mad and me as slightly crazy, but whatever happens I will not give up, so we'll see which route takes me all the way.
Here's a commercial that I like to think sums me up, I have no idea if my stuff becomes a success or not, but i do know that many people see it as mad and me as slightly crazy, but whatever happens I will not give up, so we'll see which route takes me all the way.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Such a day... Let's hope the delayed verdict goes the right way.
It was fun, but important fun, and the effort put in for the ONE advocacy group was brilliant, so if you want to find out and sign up go to www.one.org
Paul
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Understanding the "recession" from a political perspective.
by NAOMI KLEIN
This article appeared in the February 18, 2008 edition of The Nation.
January 31, 2008
Remember the "ownership society," fixture of major George W. Bush addresses for the first four years of his presidency? "We're creating...an ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property," Bush said in October 2004. Washington think-tanker Grover Norquist predicted that the ownership society would be Bush's greatest legacy, remembered "long after people can no longer pronounce or spell Fallujah." Yet in Bush's final State of the Union address, the once-ubiquitous phrase was conspicuously absent. And little wonder: rather than its proud father, Bush has turned out to be the ownership society's undertaker.
Well before the ownership society had a neat label, its creation was central to the success of the right-wing economic revolution around the world. The idea was simple: if working-class people owned a small piece of the market--a home mortgage, a stock portfolio, a private pension--they would cease to identify as workers and start to see themselves as owners, with the same interests as their bosses. That meant they could vote for politicians promising to improve stock performance rather than job conditions. Class consciousness would be a relic.
It was always tempting to dismiss the ownership society as an empty slogan--"hokum" as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich put it. But the ownership society was quite real. It was the answer to a roadblock long faced by politicians favoring policies to benefit the wealthy. The problem boiled down to this: people tend to vote their economic interests. Even in the wealthy United States, most people earn less than the average income. That means it is in the interest of the majority to vote for politicians promising to redistribute wealth from the top down.
So what to do? It was Margaret Thatcher who pioneered a solution. The effort centered on Britain's public housing, or council estates, which were filled with die-hard Labour Party supporters. In a bold move, Thatcher offered strong incentives to residents to buy their council estate flats at reduced rates (much as Bush did decades later by promoting subprime mortgages). Those who could afford it became homeowners while those who couldn't faced rents almost twice as high as before, leading to an explosion of homelessness.
As a political strategy, it worked: the renters continued to oppose Thatcher, but polls showed that more than half of the newly minted owners did indeed switch their party affiliation to the Tories. The key was a psychological shift: they now thought like owners, and owners tend to vote Tory. The ownership society as a political project was born.
Across the Atlantic, Reagan ushered in a range of policies that similarly convinced the public that class divisions no longer existed. In 1988 only 26 percent of Americans told pollsters that they lived in a society bifurcated into "haves" and "have-nots"--71 percent rejected the whole idea of class. The real breakthrough, however, came in the 1990s, with the "democratization" of stock ownership, eventually leading to nearly half of American households owning stock. Stock watching became a national pastime, with tickers on TV screens becoming more common than weather forecasts. Main Street, we were told, had stormed the elite enclaves of Wall Street.
Once again, the shift was psychological. Stock ownership made up a relatively minor part of the average American's earnings, but in the era of frenetic downsizing and offshoring, this new class of amateur investor had a distinct shift in consciousness. Whenever a new round of layoffs was announced, sending another stock price soaring, many responded not by identifying with those who had lost their jobs, or by protesting the policies that had led to the layoffs, but by calling their brokers with instructions to buy.
Bush came to office determined to take these trends even further, to deliver Social Security accounts to Wall Street and target minority communities--traditionally out of the Republican Party's reach--for easy homeownership. "Under 50 percent of African Americans and Hispanic Americans own a home," Bush observed in 2002. "That's just too few." He called on Fannie Mae and the private sector "to unlock millions of dollars, to make it available for the purchase of a home"--an important reminder that subprime lenders were taking their cue straight from the top.
Today, the basic promises of the ownership society have been broken. First the dot-com bubble burst; then employees watched their stock-heavy pensions melt away with Enron and WorldCom. Now we have the subprime mortgage crisis, with more than 2 million homeowners facing foreclosure on their homes. Many are raiding their 401(k)s--their piece of the stock market--to pay their mortgage. Wall Street, meanwhile, has fallen out of love with Main Street. To avoid regulatory scrutiny, the new trend is away from publicly traded stocks and toward private equity. In November Nasdaq joined forces with several private banks, including Goldman Sachs, to form Portal Alliance, a private equity stock market open only to investors with assets upward of $100 million. In short order yesterday's ownership society has morphed into today's members-only society.
The mass eviction from the ownership society has profound political implications. According to a September Pew Research poll, 48 percent of Americans say they live in a society carved into haves and have-nots--nearly twice the number of 1988. Only 45 percent see themselves as part of the haves. In other words, we are seeing a return of the very class consciousness that the ownership society was supposed to erase. The free-market ideologues have lost an extremely potent psychological tool--and progressives have gained one. Now that John Edwards is out of the presidential race, the question is, will anyone dare to use it?
This article appeared in the February 18, 2008 edition of The Nation.
January 31, 2008
Remember the "ownership society," fixture of major George W. Bush addresses for the first four years of his presidency? "We're creating...an ownership society in this country, where more Americans than ever will be able to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property," Bush said in October 2004. Washington think-tanker Grover Norquist predicted that the ownership society would be Bush's greatest legacy, remembered "long after people can no longer pronounce or spell Fallujah." Yet in Bush's final State of the Union address, the once-ubiquitous phrase was conspicuously absent. And little wonder: rather than its proud father, Bush has turned out to be the ownership society's undertaker.
Well before the ownership society had a neat label, its creation was central to the success of the right-wing economic revolution around the world. The idea was simple: if working-class people owned a small piece of the market--a home mortgage, a stock portfolio, a private pension--they would cease to identify as workers and start to see themselves as owners, with the same interests as their bosses. That meant they could vote for politicians promising to improve stock performance rather than job conditions. Class consciousness would be a relic.
It was always tempting to dismiss the ownership society as an empty slogan--"hokum" as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich put it. But the ownership society was quite real. It was the answer to a roadblock long faced by politicians favoring policies to benefit the wealthy. The problem boiled down to this: people tend to vote their economic interests. Even in the wealthy United States, most people earn less than the average income. That means it is in the interest of the majority to vote for politicians promising to redistribute wealth from the top down.
So what to do? It was Margaret Thatcher who pioneered a solution. The effort centered on Britain's public housing, or council estates, which were filled with die-hard Labour Party supporters. In a bold move, Thatcher offered strong incentives to residents to buy their council estate flats at reduced rates (much as Bush did decades later by promoting subprime mortgages). Those who could afford it became homeowners while those who couldn't faced rents almost twice as high as before, leading to an explosion of homelessness.
As a political strategy, it worked: the renters continued to oppose Thatcher, but polls showed that more than half of the newly minted owners did indeed switch their party affiliation to the Tories. The key was a psychological shift: they now thought like owners, and owners tend to vote Tory. The ownership society as a political project was born.
Across the Atlantic, Reagan ushered in a range of policies that similarly convinced the public that class divisions no longer existed. In 1988 only 26 percent of Americans told pollsters that they lived in a society bifurcated into "haves" and "have-nots"--71 percent rejected the whole idea of class. The real breakthrough, however, came in the 1990s, with the "democratization" of stock ownership, eventually leading to nearly half of American households owning stock. Stock watching became a national pastime, with tickers on TV screens becoming more common than weather forecasts. Main Street, we were told, had stormed the elite enclaves of Wall Street.
Once again, the shift was psychological. Stock ownership made up a relatively minor part of the average American's earnings, but in the era of frenetic downsizing and offshoring, this new class of amateur investor had a distinct shift in consciousness. Whenever a new round of layoffs was announced, sending another stock price soaring, many responded not by identifying with those who had lost their jobs, or by protesting the policies that had led to the layoffs, but by calling their brokers with instructions to buy.
Bush came to office determined to take these trends even further, to deliver Social Security accounts to Wall Street and target minority communities--traditionally out of the Republican Party's reach--for easy homeownership. "Under 50 percent of African Americans and Hispanic Americans own a home," Bush observed in 2002. "That's just too few." He called on Fannie Mae and the private sector "to unlock millions of dollars, to make it available for the purchase of a home"--an important reminder that subprime lenders were taking their cue straight from the top.
Today, the basic promises of the ownership society have been broken. First the dot-com bubble burst; then employees watched their stock-heavy pensions melt away with Enron and WorldCom. Now we have the subprime mortgage crisis, with more than 2 million homeowners facing foreclosure on their homes. Many are raiding their 401(k)s--their piece of the stock market--to pay their mortgage. Wall Street, meanwhile, has fallen out of love with Main Street. To avoid regulatory scrutiny, the new trend is away from publicly traded stocks and toward private equity. In November Nasdaq joined forces with several private banks, including Goldman Sachs, to form Portal Alliance, a private equity stock market open only to investors with assets upward of $100 million. In short order yesterday's ownership society has morphed into today's members-only society.
The mass eviction from the ownership society has profound political implications. According to a September Pew Research poll, 48 percent of Americans say they live in a society carved into haves and have-nots--nearly twice the number of 1988. Only 45 percent see themselves as part of the haves. In other words, we are seeing a return of the very class consciousness that the ownership society was supposed to erase. The free-market ideologues have lost an extremely potent psychological tool--and progressives have gained one. Now that John Edwards is out of the presidential race, the question is, will anyone dare to use it?
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Totally believable!
This is our new pride and joy in Limerick, you gotta hand it to the people behind Knock, Lourdes and Medjourdwhateveryacallit.
This stuff is as good for business as a beach full of Pamela Anderson's in red swimsuits, I'm just a little disappointed that Michael O'Leary has not figured out how to put one close to the funny airports an hour from every European city.
Now here's a few you may not have seen
.
.
The Nun bun.
.
Oh and I can't find the cheese on toast one... I know I left it somewhere.
And the images won't go up right, it must be a sign...... lol
Monday, July 06, 2009
Magnificent Lily!
.
oh pure credit to Lily, I'd love to be seeing her at Oxygen this weekend, but Roscommon are playing and hey... needs must.
This is a brilliant take on all the world had become pre recession, she produced it in April 2008, Lots of interesting things happened that month, but to write and produce this work of art was totally fabulous, she explains how the "fear" had worked and what people wanted in modern society, and how simply fucked up and ridiculous it all was.
So Hat's off to Lily Allen, she was the first artist to explain the consumption bullshit that had taken over society, I was amazed when one day my daughter had 2 friends in the car and I played the song, and the other girls did not know Lily was takin the piss, they thought she really did want those things... I wish people would just pay attention to the lyrics, which is why I've printed them here.
I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny
I want loads of clothes and i want fuckloads of diamonds
I heard people die while they are trying to find them
And i’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless
Cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track yeah I’m on to a winner
[Chorus]
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear
Life’s about film stars and less about mothers -
It’s all about fast cars concussing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
And its not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track yeah we're on to a winner
Chorus
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cuz I’m being taken over by The Fear
[Bridge]
Forget about guns and forget ammunition
Cause I’m killing them all on my own little mission
Now I’m not a saint but I’m not a sinner
Now everything's cool as long as I’m gettin thinner
[Chorus]
I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
When do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cause I’m being taken over by fear
Brilliant!!!!
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
I really did LOL
It's not often I crack up at a joke, but this one I loved, maybe Einstein's theory of Relativity did have common practical applications after all
Sunday, June 28, 2009
A pure favourite.
Those who know me fairly well will know that I have far too many interests in life, too many hobbies, one the tricks in life is to spend time doing things you love, and you have to eat too.
So this winter I'm going to combine many interests in a fun way, philosophy, psychology, comedy and magic should be fun together, it's doubtful if I can be within an asses roar of Steve Martin, but sure you never know
So this winter I'm going to combine many interests in a fun way, philosophy, psychology, comedy and magic should be fun together, it's doubtful if I can be within an asses roar of Steve Martin, but sure you never know
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The only real failure in life is the failure to get back up.
I love this video, it hurts me to think of the way people get treated by society, the lack of understanding that people have for setbacks and dilemmas.
It hurts me because I have experienced setbacks in the last 14 months, I was fortunate enough to be able to get back up, I also had friends who did not get the opportunity to get back up, they had real difficulties which ended in death, mine did not, not because of me, but because fortune shone on me and allowed me to do what was needed to get back on my feet.
It was challenging because I was taken away for a while, my survival was assisted by machines, by the medics, but they also drugged me to the extent that I temporarily ceased to exist, and as Rene Descartes would say, “I think, therefore I am”
In my life for a short while I was not allowed to think. In subsequent setbacks there have been further attempts to “control” my life, inferring that I am not capable of thinking and others should do the thinking for me, perhaps I have interpreted Descartes to mean “I drink, therefore I am”. I don’t think so, but others limited opinions on my life seem to be more important than mine, inferring that the dilemmas were all my fault, and that their opinions can protect me from any sort of setback in the future,
Perhaps we should pay more attention to the philosophy of Winston Churchill.
“When you are going through hell - Keep going”
Social armour can be important, it can protect us from genuine dangers and threats, but society nowadays has embraced fear, control, health and safety to the extent that social armour has grown so cumbersome that it is restrictive, people are not allowed to live their own lives outside the social norms, and are not acceptable unless they don the required social armour. (first time I ever felt the need to adapt a post, but apologies to all concerned)
Well I am not buying it, and I sure as hell am not wearing it.
It hurts me because I have experienced setbacks in the last 14 months, I was fortunate enough to be able to get back up, I also had friends who did not get the opportunity to get back up, they had real difficulties which ended in death, mine did not, not because of me, but because fortune shone on me and allowed me to do what was needed to get back on my feet.
It was challenging because I was taken away for a while, my survival was assisted by machines, by the medics, but they also drugged me to the extent that I temporarily ceased to exist, and as Rene Descartes would say, “I think, therefore I am”
In my life for a short while I was not allowed to think. In subsequent setbacks there have been further attempts to “control” my life, inferring that I am not capable of thinking and others should do the thinking for me, perhaps I have interpreted Descartes to mean “I drink, therefore I am”. I don’t think so, but others limited opinions on my life seem to be more important than mine, inferring that the dilemmas were all my fault, and that their opinions can protect me from any sort of setback in the future,
Perhaps we should pay more attention to the philosophy of Winston Churchill.
“When you are going through hell - Keep going”
Social armour can be important, it can protect us from genuine dangers and threats, but society nowadays has embraced fear, control, health and safety to the extent that social armour has grown so cumbersome that it is restrictive, people are not allowed to live their own lives outside the social norms, and are not acceptable unless they don the required social armour. (first time I ever felt the need to adapt a post, but apologies to all concerned)
Well I am not buying it, and I sure as hell am not wearing it.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
A happy happy Sunday!
Brilliant day, an achievement which has been worked towards for a long time, and by a lot of people, to see the happiness on children's faces is well worth all the time and effort.
But nothing is never totally finished or complete in life, as the Beautiful South so wonderfully explain in this video, and the amazing thing is that the beautiful vocalist Jacqui Abbot was stacking shelves in supermarket in the north of England until Paul Heaton heard her doing Karaoke in a pub and asked her to join up, that was 15 years ago.
She stayed until 2000, and then departed, maybe she did find a man who was not happy to stay married to whoever and wanted to "cluck her"
But nothing is never totally finished or complete in life, as the Beautiful South so wonderfully explain in this video, and the amazing thing is that the beautiful vocalist Jacqui Abbot was stacking shelves in supermarket in the north of England until Paul Heaton heard her doing Karaoke in a pub and asked her to join up, that was 15 years ago.
She stayed until 2000, and then departed, maybe she did find a man who was not happy to stay married to whoever and wanted to "cluck her"
Friday, June 19, 2009
Feck Fridays
I have an old habit of posting quotes and amusing (to me anyway) stuff on a Friday, but today I just don't feel like it, so instead you get something which to me is really bloody important.... so watch this and maybe you can re-evaluate the rubbish that commonly passes for "happiness' in modern society.
Paul
Paul
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
A "slight" interest in sport?
What a brilliant day in Edinburgh, Leinster win and it was unbelievable to be in the in Murrayfield at the finish to savour the moment. There are so many swept up in sport for entertainment, but thanks to my late father I have a huge appreciation for sport as a very important way of life. My dad did not really have a preference for one sport over any other, he was there working with children and adults, at training, at matches, at celebrations and post mortems regardless of whether it was athletics, boxing, rugby, soccer, gaelic, basketball, darts or anything else.
So many people ask for your background in their particular sport, if they are Sligo rovers fans, Munster rugby fans, English cricket fans or many more, but thanks to my father and many experiences in life I'm fortunate to have a background in many sports, my lack of deciding to concentrate on one possibly cost me fame for any of them, so i did not make myself exclusive to athletics, darts, gaelic football, rugby, soccer, basketball or cricket, but what i did get was an enjoyment from them all, and an appreciation of them all, a huge appreciation of them all as part of life.
A few pics from the past will show how many sports and clubs I've fallen for over the years, due to a variety of factors and I have gained so many friends from each one that I consider myself a very fortunate boy.
I have many pics that still need to be scanned in, we had no digital stuff back then except a company in Galway that went bust.
1976, an 11 year old get a national athletics award from Leinster's sponsors.
1981, a fifteen year old (white shirt, no bird) has had a coaching session with his friends and Ollie Campbell and Mike Gibson, organised from our club East Connacht.
1991. A newly married man, now 26, standing in the old paradise, I was there yesterday too, some traditions never leave ya.
1996. a 31 year old and now a dad of 2 beauts (Maggie and baby Cathy are behind the posts) scores for St. Mary's on the way to a county championship, and people wonder why Mary's is so important to me?
I am happy to try to replicate my dad's input by passing on my love of sport, it's brilliant that my gorgeous wife is the manager of the girls under 12 team, that one of the beauts (Joy) is a coach, and the other (Cathy) is a player but is also in the county community games final as a shot putter, which I was in the first picture, some traditions never end.
So many people ask for your background in their particular sport, if they are Sligo rovers fans, Munster rugby fans, English cricket fans or many more, but thanks to my father and many experiences in life I'm fortunate to have a background in many sports, my lack of deciding to concentrate on one possibly cost me fame for any of them, so i did not make myself exclusive to athletics, darts, gaelic football, rugby, soccer, basketball or cricket, but what i did get was an enjoyment from them all, and an appreciation of them all, a huge appreciation of them all as part of life.
A few pics from the past will show how many sports and clubs I've fallen for over the years, due to a variety of factors and I have gained so many friends from each one that I consider myself a very fortunate boy.
I have many pics that still need to be scanned in, we had no digital stuff back then except a company in Galway that went bust.
1976, an 11 year old get a national athletics award from Leinster's sponsors.
1981, a fifteen year old (white shirt, no bird) has had a coaching session with his friends and Ollie Campbell and Mike Gibson, organised from our club East Connacht.
1991. A newly married man, now 26, standing in the old paradise, I was there yesterday too, some traditions never leave ya.
1996. a 31 year old and now a dad of 2 beauts (Maggie and baby Cathy are behind the posts) scores for St. Mary's on the way to a county championship, and people wonder why Mary's is so important to me?
I am happy to try to replicate my dad's input by passing on my love of sport, it's brilliant that my gorgeous wife is the manager of the girls under 12 team, that one of the beauts (Joy) is a coach, and the other (Cathy) is a player but is also in the county community games final as a shot putter, which I was in the first picture, some traditions never end.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
and it's not just Susan Boyle....
Oh I often wonder why sport releases emotions in me that are largely absent most of the time.
There are several causes of nervousness at the moment, first today is a vital day for my club St. Mary's, it's celebrating 125 years of the GAA, but more importantly it gives us a chance to connect those who have played and worked for the club with those younger ones who have never heard of them never mind know them, it's a huge chance to celebrate community which is vital to me, so let's hope it goes well.
Then it's may 9th 2009, the 11th anniversary of the day Celtic stopped the rot and overcame an arrogant and wealthy Rangers to put us back after 9 seasons of being nearly men, and of course today I will often think of my friend Ger, he has now passed on, but our conversations and passion coming up to the day I celebrated in paradise will always be with me.
and I really hope Hull win today, my friend of 32 years was always a bit weird in the 70's by being a Hull City supporter, and for him I hope their win today will avoid a trip away from the arrogant and wealthy Drogba's Renaldo's and Ferguson's of the premiership.
And finally.... Cetic's year will be largely decided by 90 minutes at Ibrox today, so nervousness has been going on all morning, no more than many peoples doubt over Liam supporting Hull all those years ago, I constantly have to put up with ill informed and under educated people who tell me that Scottish football is dire, rank, and a few more adjectives, so let's show them as we did to Leeds Utd, Man United, Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool FC over the years, hey Scotland's got talent.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
So brilliant to see.......
So many young people enjoying themselves and being magic at whatever they choose to do, last night was my daughter Joy's first big night on the stage, and herself, her friends and her classmates put on a great night of entertainment, singing, dancing, acting and generally showing the enthusiasm that I often only experience on the sports field. Maggie was brilliant at this too, and Cathy plays the piano and is starting to write songs.
I'd be proud of them all, with so much moaning in the world, last night I did not hear a word from two hundred people except admiration and encouragement for the efforts of the brilliant next generation.
My daughters tell me I'm too old to use the word, but this was MINT!
Friday, April 24, 2009
So long
Typical of me when life gets really interesting and really busy, have not blogged for weeks and have let the 5th anniversary of this blog pass by without a mention, and still to busy to write anything decent, simple to say a friend of mine, told me about a piece another friend had done for the RTE news, so I watched it and thought..... bloody brilliant Eileen, I always knew you were a serious professional on the broadcast journalism end.... just never realised you were this bloody funny.
so here it is
Another brilliant cat... there are almost too many of them
so here it is
Another brilliant cat... there are almost too many of them
Thursday, April 16, 2009
It's my 5th birthday.......
Strangely Saturday will be my 5th blogging birthday, and I will mark the occasion in Paradise, that's Celtic Park to the uninitiated.
So here's a photo of Maggie and Charlie Nicholas from 1991, Ok I'd been traveling over for 10 years before that, but what type of a man ends up in Paradise on his honeymoon, Ok maybe most do, but not the real paradise!
C'mon the hoops.
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