An Seanchai says yes to Lisbon

Yes. Because Europe has been good for us and will continue to be so, except where we've been just too greedy in the past. My take on the treaty: -- Social legislation, Europe can tell us what to do, except on abortion, which was excluded by a string of treaties. Europe twisted our arm to get us to introduce civil divorce in 1996 and equal pay for women in 1973. Now we're a modern country baby! (Nose-rings and tongue-piercings are still banned by the constitution, for obvious sound reasons.) -- Economic legislation, its a mixed bag. We can't introduce anti-integrated market legislation (tariffs etc); we do control our own tax rates (which pisses Europe off because we're kind of a tax haven); we also have a veto on any EU-wide tax measures, which we will use to protect our tax haven status. For example, Microsoft claims that 90% of its revenues are generated in Ireland. I can hardly move in my office, for the stacks and stacks of MS Office that I buy every day. Ten for every man woman and child on the island. Every month. But it's bonafied bona fide! -- Foreign Policy: The EU wants to develop a common foreign policy. Some fear that this will drag us into NATO or some 21st Century Operation Barbarossa. Sovereignty nuts in this country claim that we're a non-aligned neutral country and that IRA men fought and died for this status back in 1921. Rameis! Neutrality isn't in the constitution, it was introduced so that we wouldn't have our mud cabins bombed by the Luftwaffe in WWII and is only institutionalised cowardice. Al Qaeda does not recognise our neturality. Our European neighbours just roll their eyes. And the only people who died to defend our right to vote were British, Canadian, Soviet and American troops in WWII, while we were skulking in our mud cabins. Neutrality pisses me off, although when Mac an Seanchai is 18 I'll probably take a liking to it for a few years. -- Mobility: We can go and live in Italy or Spain and they can't stop us. We can smoke weed in Amsterdam and not get deported. Or we can stay at home in the rain and abuse alcohol in our mud cabins. Vote yes.

Fashion Trip Back to the 1970s

Ah, the 1970s, don't you miss them.

Educational Changes in the Talibanana Republic

School Originally uploaded by Derry Oates.

I can't believe that this country is about to open its first ever state-run school. What kind of a Talibanana Republic are we living in? From today's Irish Times: Call for social diversity to be respected Seán Flynn, Education Editor in Cork The education system must work out a new approach to the teaching of religion in schools that recognises the increasing diversity in Irish society, INTO general secretary John Carr said yesterday. The union favours a new system in which schools teach a broad programme of religious education (RE) alongside instruction in specific faiths, in response to parental wishes. In practice, a broad RE programme could be taught on three to four days of the week but on other days, the different faiths could come into schools, he explained. The issue of religion in schools has been brought into focus by developments in west Dublin, where some 15 per cent of primary school children are newcomers to the State. In a very significant move, the first State-run primary school will open at Diswellstown next year. The school will be run on a "faith neutral" basis by the local Vocational Education Committee (VEC). Currently, schools are built by the Department of Education and then handed over to the patron. More than 90 per cent of the 3,200 primary schools in the Republic are under the patronage of the Catholic Church.

Kids - Sure they're only borrowed

06-09-03_14-08
Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

Kids want your full attention, the whole time you're in the room.

They drag out of you, they cling to you, they even pinch you or stick their nails into your lips if you aren't giving them your undivided attention. Which means that you spend a lot of time saying "Don't do that Inion, that hurts Daddy." And every now and then, if you're not paying attention when somebody digs their nails into your lips or eyes, you howl and drop them. At these times they scurry off to look for mommy, terrified that the big placid mountain that used to be their daddy actually turned out to be a a sleeping volcano.

But yesterday, for the first time, Inion an Seanchai just wanted to hang out.

I was stretched out on the couch with a book and she figured that my protruding legs would make a good jungle gym. She climbed my legs, swung out of them and settled on my ankles, playing with a pink laminated koala bear bookmark that she used alternatively as spaceship, mobile phone and card-key.

When I realised that she was playing a game and that I wasn't directly included, I put down my book down on my chest and looked at her. She looked back at me and said "Daddy you read your book daddy." Summarily dismissed, I picked up my book again and she resumed her game.


Someday she's going to do something without me and I'm going to sadly conclude she's growing up and doesn't need me anymore. In the meantime, any social development that means that I can read my book in peace is just fine with me.

Labour: Bus Fares should be Cheap as Happy Meals

Image: Labour is muscling in on the counterfeit currency market, attempting to break The Workers Party's traditional domination of this sector. Pictured from left to right, Ruairi Quinn, some woman and Dominic Hannigan, fleeing from gardai in their getaway bus.

Labour's Dominic Hannigan was canvassing commuters from The Pale yesterday, handing out leaflets with his proposal to reduce the return bus fare to Dublin to just €2. Dommo, who has built up a strong support base in the new estates in Dunboyne, Ashbourne, Ratoath and Dunshaughlin is more than just a clean-cut all-American politician. It's a clever initiative and would be even better if he is able to deliver on the provision of lots more buses to service these areas. If the government provided a proper public transport system then it would improve commuter quality of life; reduce traffic congestion; reduce carbon emissions; reduce the need for further road infrastructure; and would make us sexy and continental, kind of like Denmark.

Arthur Morgan, your future lies in Fine Gael

arthurmorgan
Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

I was struck by this comment from Arthur Morgan, posted on http://unitedirelander.blogspot.com/:


"At last year’s 1916 commemorations – the Government were falling over themselves to honour our Patriot dead. Even Fine Gael are trying to present themselves as Republicans!"


A quick history lesson for you Morgan, followed by a prophecy.


-- The founders of Sinn Fein, Arthur Griffith and WT Cosgrave, ended their political journey in Cumman na nGaedheal/Fine Gael (CnG/FG). I watched "your" centenary celebrations to see if you were going to airbrush them out of the party history, but I guess even you couldn't manage that.

-- CnG took over the 26 counties from British rule, under a treaty that was endorsed on multiple occasions by the Dail and by the electorate. Even if the six counties had been included in these elections, the Treaty would still have been endorsed. No, the Treaty wasn't ideal, but that's democracy my friend. The rejectionist wing of Sinn Fein spent 10 years in the political wilderness, because they refused to accept a pretty decent treaty. If it hadn't been for the Labour Party during those years, we wouldn't have had a political opposition of any kind.

-- CnG dismantled the Anglo-Irish Treaty between 1921 and 1932, so that by 1932, the Irish state was free to leave the British Commonwealth.

-- Fianna Fail arranged for the return of the Treaty Ports in Cork and Donegal in 1939. Not a square inch of Ireland has been handed over since. Or to put it another way, PSF hasn't gained a square inch of territory from the UK.

-- Fine Gael established the Republic of Ireland in 1948 and left the Commonwealth.

-- Fine Gael negotiated the Sunningdale Agreement, the first power-sharing agreement in Northern Ireland -- "The Good Friday Agreement is Sunningdale for slow learners."

-- When the founder of the civil rights movement, Austin Currie, joined a southern political party, he joined Fine Gael, not PSF.

-- Fine Gael negotiated the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which made the unionists realise that, one way or another, power-sharing couldn't be avoided.

-- Fine Gael led the campaign to introduce civil divorce in Ireland, one of the leading issues to establish a truly non-sectarian republic in the south of Ireland.


Here's my prophecy. Provisional Sinn Fein (the splinter group of a splinter group of a splinter group of a splinter group of Sinn Fein that has enjoyed a huge growth in popularity since the beginning of the beginning of the peace process) will continue to grow in popularity, because they put a lot of energy into grassroots issues and because they were instrumental in the peace process. Good for them.

Just as the Good Friday Agreement is Sunningdale for slow learners, Fine Gael is politics for political firebrands who've grown up and gotten sense. PSF has already embraced power-sharing and the principle of consent, acknowledging the reality that 1,000,000 unionists aren't going to disappear and even if they did, we'd kind of miss them. Over the next few years PSF will embrace free trade and the EU. They will abandon their 1970s-style socialist social and economic policies and embrace the slightly left-of-centre/slightly right-of-centre policies of Fianna Fail. And Fianna Fail is Fine Gael for slow learners. So, welcome to The Party.

Film Review: Once

once
Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

This film won a prize a Sundance apparently. A down-and-out Irish singer-songwriter meets a struggling Czech pianist immigrant in Dublin. It's the old story, boy with emotional baggage meets girl with emotional baggage. They have good times, they fall out, they make music and well, I won't spoil the rest.

The star, Glen Hansard, has been around since the 1980s, with his band, The Frames. The film has the feel of 1980s Dublin, the crumbling buildings, the squalid apartments, the sense that the only way to succeed in life is to play music and move to London. Yet the co-star, Marketa Irglova, represents the new Dublin, shiny and prosperous where only Slavs live in squalid crumbling apartments.

Our Czech correspondent writes that the film shows Hansard's Czech influences:

"Hansard is very fond of Czecho. He bought a recording studio in Moravia apparently and a flat in Nusle. He has appeared on a fairly well known chat show here (via interpreter) where he claims the Czechs and Irish have a lot in common spiritually and musically and tells stories about how he bought one of his girlfriends a grave for her birthday so they could be bruried romantically together. Seems to be a affable chap who has made a few quid from playing run-of-the-mill music with great enthusiasm. Czechs love grainy gritty movies due to their cynical attitude to life. Top hits here are about depressed single mothers with bawling kids in which they'll calmly have a five minute sequence of her cleaning up the flat after her drunk boyfriend, while he snores with his mouth open on the couch after giving her a few belts and theres no sound except her whimpering and the clink of plates."

Definitely go see Once, for the music if nothing else.

Pope Boosts Irish Property Speculation in Hell?

PopeBenedict Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

From RTE: Pope Says Hell does Exist OK, so he's telling us that demand for accommodation in hell is likely to grow over the next few decades. It's warm there, right? That's all very well, but what I want to know is, how much does a two-bedroom apartment cost in Hades and what sort of rental yields are we talking? Any properties overlooking the River Styx? Will Ryanair be flying direct? (I have no doubt but that they will.)

Bertie Succeeds in Saying Nothing in Irish

chubby legs Originally uploaded by Ikue..

From today's Irish Times: Berties policy on the promotion of the Gaelic language. We should be proud of a leader who can successfully say nothing in two different languages.

'We have proven that we can lead and transform this country'

Beo Agus mar Éirinnigh, táimid fíor bhródúil as an muinín nua a bhfuil ag muintir na hÉireann - anseo sa bhaile, san Eoraip agus ar fud an domhain. Anois, tá Fianna Fáil ag iarraidh leanúint ar aghaidh, agus gan filleadh ar na sean laethanta. Táimid ag iarraidh cur leis an muinín nua as ár gcultúr féin agus an meas nua atá ar ár dteanga náisiúnta. Ar fud na tíre tá glúin óg ag foghlaim Gaeilge sna Gaelscoileanna.

"As Irish people, we are very proud of the new-found confidence of the Irish people -- here at home, in Europe and around the world. Now, Fianna Fail wishes to build on this and not to return to the old days. We are trying to add to the new confidence in our own culture and the new respect that the national language has. All around the country, a new generation is learning Irish Gaelic in the Gaelic schools.

Any policies to go with that Taoiseach?

Image: Ó gluin go gluin

Irish Times: Paisley is no longer a Dissenter

OK, the Irish Times has dished up a logically tortured headline. This kind of stuff can only happen in Northern Ireland. Paisley set to face down DUP dissenters A number of senior DUP MPs are still resisting moves by party leader the Rev Ian Paisley to conclude a powersharing deal by the March 26th deadline. However, there is an expectation among some of the dissenters that Dr Paisley will force the issue to a positive outcome at a crucial meeting of the DUP executive scheduled for tomorrow week ... Wacky headline. "Dissenter" is another name for a Presbyterian, presumably because they were Protestant, but weren't members of the Established Church. Plus Paisley has been dissenting his whole life. He set up the Free Presbyterian church to dissent against the Presbyterian Church. He set up the Independent Orange Order to dissent against the Orange Order. The Free Presbyterian Church and the Independent Orange Order is the bedrock of his political party, the DUP, which was set up to dissent against the Ulster Unionist Party. So what is a DUP dissenter? And aren't they all dissenters, by definition? And if you dissent against dissent, aren't you a consentor? Yep, it should be "Paisley set to face down DUP consenter." Or has the Irish Times decided that the Very Reverend Doctor Ian Paisley is no longer a dissenter? Link: Rugby Union decides that Belfast isn't in Ireland

Clerical Influence Delaying Construction of Schools?

06-08-24_13-23 Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

A clip from RTE about the continuing delays in building a school in Laytown, on the coast of Meath: Laytown row as temporary classrooms plan falls through -- Shane McEntee TD (FG) says classrooms are badly needed at Scoil Oilibhéar Naofa for the next school year in September I was speaking to a Meath county councillor recently about the situation in Laytown. He said that, more than two years ago, he was on the proposed site for the school. At that time, the board of management were told to apply for planning permission and that funding had been approved. Since that time they have screwed around and achieved nothing, proving only that they have no business running a board of management. The councillor -- from one of the opposition parties, which as a group are in favour of a secular republic -- said that Bishop Michael Smith has been a nuisance when it comes to setting up new schools, because he's angling to maintain Catholic Church control, even when the church has no right, or ability, to control these schools. Of course, you're free to discount these assertions because of the fact that I haven't named the source.

Being Right-On about the Irish Republic

I liked this piece by Fintan O'Toole so much that I've decided to violate the copyright and publish it right here. Providing a real republic We love republicanism, writes Fintan O'Toole . We will stand up for it, applaud it, salute it, weep for it, shout for it, and some of us will kill and die for it. We will do anything, indeed, except understand it. Nowhere is the intellectual barrenness of Irish politics more obvious than in the absence of even a minimal understanding of the history and meaning of the republican ideal to which all of our largest political parties subscribe. In the debate sparked by the Taoiseach's recent attack on "aggressive secularism", the one thing that is clear is that a lot of people, including the Taoiseach, don't get one of the key concepts of republican democracy - what Thomas Jefferson called the "wall of separation between church and state". What they don't get is that the wall was built, not to keep religious people out of public life, but to protect the freedom of conscience of all citizens. In his speech to the elegantly-titled Structured Dialogue with Churches, Faith Communities and Non-Confessional Bodies (the tortured language a reflection of the intellectual contortions surrounding it), the Taoiseach twice attacked the idea of secularism. One was a typical exercise in empty rhetoric, setting up a straw man so he could knock it down again. "There is," he warned, "a form of aggressive secularism which would have the State and State institutions ignore the importance of this religious dimension. "They argue that the State and public policy should become intolerant of religious belief and preference, and confine it, at best, to the purely private and personal, without rights or a role within the public domain. Such illiberal voices would diminish our democracy. They would deny a crucial dimension of the dignity of every person and their rights to live out their spiritual code within a framework of lawful practice, which is respectful of the dignity and rights of all citizens." Language often gives the game away, and it is worth noting the linguistic sleight of hand at work here. In the first sentence, we are dealing with an abstract concept - aggressive secularism. In the subsequent sentence, this abstract concept is referred to as "they". The bad grammar is good spinning. The "they" who are intent on persecuting religion and denying people's rights to live according to their beliefs, are a free-floating, undefined entity. This is, of course, because they don't exist. There is no one in Irish public life arguing for freedom of religion to be restricted. So Bertie Ahern's "aggressive secularism" is a rhetorical invention designed to make secularism itself into an aggressive, repressive philosophy. The Taoiseach's other reference to secularism was: "It would be an irony of history if Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, having each experienced exclusion at some phase in our history, should now be bound together in a shared feeling of indifference from a secularised state." The real irony is that, for centuries, the struggle of Catholics and Dissenters - of everyone who was not a member of the established church - was precisely for a state that would be indifferent to religious persuasion. The United Irishmen, of whom the Taoiseach may have vaguely heard, struggled for a republic in which citizenship, not religion, would be the basis of a person's rights. This indifference is at the core of republican democracy. It is not an abstract concept. I lived for much of last year in China, where the greatest desire of many religious people - Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Muslim - is precisely for Jefferson's wall of separation between church and state. They would be delighted if the state became indifferent to their spiritual lives. They would recognise - as the Irish Catholic bishops of 19th century America did when they argued for secularism - Jefferson's argument that "state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion". We should recognise it too. We know only too well that when Christ and Caesar are hand-in-glove, religion suffers almost as much as democracy does. If you want to see Jefferson's "corruption within religion" at work, look no further than the Ireland from which we are only now emerging. For centuries, the Church of Ireland was thoroughly corrupted by its position as a state church, which turned it into an instrument for repression. Then the intertwining of church and State gave us a society in which women were incarcerated for life without trial in Magdalen homes, children were enslaved in industrial schools and church leaders lost the ability to put morality ahead of power. Irish Catholicism has paid a fearful price for the absence of a secular democracy. Instead of attacking a non-existent campaign against religious freedom, the Taoiseach should be facing up to the real challenges of governing a pluralist democracy. Our church-based education and health systems are in crisis, partly because the State has used religious control as a way of avoiding its own responsibilities to provide essential public services to all citizens. With the churches unable to run those services and the State still scared of embracing secular democracy, we get the worst of both worlds. A republic might be a good idea. Link: Fight for the Irish Republic in your Local Primary School http://bloganseanchai.blogspot.com/2007/01/fight-for-irish-republic-in-your-local.html

Gerry Adams Broadens Definition of "Death by Natural Causes"

I'm not highlighting this as a Shinner-bashing exercise, it's purely for the black humour of it. Seriously Gerry, what are the chances that they died of "natural causes." From the Irish Times: Dissident republicans may be linked to two murders Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor Dissident republicans may be linked to the murders of two men in west and north Belfast yesterday, according to sources. The body of the first man, said to be in his 30s, was discovered between 3am and 4am yesterday in the Bog Meadows area of west Belfast. He was found shot dead in a car park off the Falls Road near St Gall's GAA club. The man's name was not released last night. He is understood to be originally from the Ardoyne area of north Belfast. The second dead man was found in an alleyway at the rear of Elmfield Street in north Belfast at about 8am yesterday. It was unclear whether he was beaten to death or shot dead. Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said people should assist the PSNI with its murder investigations. "If they did not die of natural causes, if they were killed, then anyone with any information should bring that information to the police and should co-operate to bring the perpetrators to justice," he said yesterday. Link: Willie O'Dea offers the dumbest excuse ever.

The Etiquette of Cute Kids who need Hankies

06-09-03_14-08
Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

I have a fifteen minute walk to work after I get off the bus in the morning . I see the same people every morning, scurrying to work, going my way or coming against me. I see the freesheet distributors from Lithuania, the tall twenty-something year old women in blue anoraks who look like they belong in a Nordic pop group rather than on cheerful minimum wage. They are cheerful, that's for sure.

There's one particular guy, a skinny scrubbed twenty-something year old guy who has a baby strapped to his chest in a papoose. He faces the baby outwards, in the way that kids like, because it means that they can see what's going on. (I heard of some study that mothers automatically face their kids in toward them, but fathers automatically face them outwards. Deep, huh?)

So anyway.

The kid, who can't be more than three or four months old, always has a look of smiling breathless excitement, as though seeing the world for the first time. Which I suppose he is. Except that it's not the world, it's grimy old Pearse St.

This morning I saw the guy approaching with the baby strapped to its chest and its right nostril streaming yellow mucus. My instinct was to tap him on the arm as we scurried past and give him the news in a threeword phrase, which is as much as you could intelligibly communicate at that speed. "Needs a hanky!"

"Nose is running!" Of course, this would probably freak him out. It might freak him out that some guy, who considers himself to look like a skinny twenty-something year young father, (but who appears older, more stern and patrician) taps him on the arm and mumbles something incoherent and out of context before scurries off down the road. It could lead to awkwardness the next time that we face each other as total strangers on Pearse St. It could ruin our relationship.

So I let it go.

Women Need to Chill Out on Housework

2007February15barns 023
Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

This is from the Irish Times grumpy-old-man column, An Irishman's Diary. Bottom line, if women want to share domestic responsibilties they're going to have to share domestic power. And women's glossy magazines have a lot to answer for.

Comedian Andrew Byrne (whose main theme is hyper-aggressive materialistic wives) talks about the fact that, in today's affluent Ireland, women have the arbitrary right to declare a 3-year-old kitchen "old" and "unhygienic" and to declare that a two-year-old washing machine "isn't getting things really white," even though it looks white to male eyes.

This means that somebody -- more often than not the man -- has to go off to find more money to pay for the "necessary" domestic upgrades, degrading family life even further. Not to mention the allergies that children get from living in a sterile environment.

It's a subscription article, so I'll just violate the copyright.

An Irishman's Diary, March 1, 2007

As I hope your boss has told you, today is National Work-Life Balance Day. This is an initiative designed to encourage our places of employment - still, let's be honest, mostly male-controlled - to adopt healthier, family-friendly policies, even at the cost of short-term productivity. A worthy goal, we all agree, writes Frank McNally .

In view of the shock findings highlighted in this paper's second Editorial yesterday, however, I believe we now need a similar initiative in the domestic sphere.

It was a British survey that showed women in couples spending three times longer on housework than their men. But as our Editorial stated, we know that the situation here is, if anything, worse. So my proposed National Housework-Life Balance Day would encourage places of domesticity - still, let's be honest, mostly female-controlled - to adopt healthier, family-friendly policies, even at the cost of short-term hygiene.

One of the aims of National Housework-Life Balance Day, certainly, would be to encourage men to rebalance their contribution, where necessary. But the main thrust of the initiative would be to re-educate women. The message would be that they must stop sacrificing their health and well-being to impossibly high standards of personal and household cleanliness, and instead spend more quality time with their families.

This is a fraught issue, I know. The different priorities of the sexes have been a touchy subject ever since man was a neanderthal hunter and woman first fantasised about her ideal cave. Even today, most women cannot understand the primal urge that makes men want to buy the largest flat-screen television in the shop.

But if there is to be any hope of a civilised debate between our warring communities, we must first of all avoid using such culturally loaded terms as "the housework". That's half the problem right there. We know that, generally speaking, only one of the sexes decides what constitutes "the housework" and the standard to which it must be done, and it's not the sex that insisted on the 40-inch Panasonic. If women want to devolve the work, they must also devolve control, and for the house-proud female that may be too high a price. When men and women live alone, as most of us do for a time, their different priorities are given free expression. We don't need surveys to tell us that single men spend less time on housework than single women. Again, it's important not to use value-laden terms here, such as "living like slobs". But the fact is men can and will endure worse conditions than women, and hardly notice.

The problems arise when they decide to share a living-space. Typically, the woman will assume control of the space (with the exception of the TV remote) and the man, bowing to her female housework ethic, will not even contest this.

Soon, however, the tensions inherent in all imperialist situations will surface. At best, women will be frustrated at the apparent unwillingness of their partners to embrace civilisation. At worst, they will come to resemble white settlers, constantly complaining about the laziness and squalor of the indigenous people.

The most striking thing about the British survey was the contrasting results when a single man and a single woman pool their resources. Living alone, the woman spends 10 hours a week on housework, the man seven (which sounds high to me). Once they become a couple, the man's workload drops to five hours - more or less what you would expect, given the economies of scale in a merger situation. But the woman's workload suddenly increases to 15 hours. And the implication is that the man is to blame.

Is this interpretation justified? Could the woman's new workload not be at least partly due to the fact that she is now implementing a long-cherished plan to create the perfect home, free from her mother's meddling? Are magazines like Hello , with their endless parade of beautiful celebrities posing on beautiful sofas in beautiful homes, as pernicious an influence on impressionable females as we suspect? These are just some of the issues on which National Housework-Life Balance Day will encourage discussion.

The debate should also consider the pressures women place on each other in the pursuit of unrealistic standards. I can't quote statistics here, but there is strong anecdotal evidence to suggest that the visit of another female produces higher stress levels in a domestic hostess than the visit of any number of males. National Housework-Life Balance Day might look at this issue and the strain it places on families.

On a global level, there is also the question of climate change. I'm not saying men are on the side of the angels here. But it would be remiss of any debate on the rights and wrongs of housework-sharing not to note the disastrous effects of bleach and other cleaning products on the environment.

The good news for Irish women, of course, is that the men in their lives will die sooner. Whether this is a result of lack of hygiene during their single years, or massively increased exposure to it afterwards, I don't know. Perhaps it has more to do with the career pressures that this special day is designed to discourage. Whatever the reasons, in the long term, women can look forward to an average of five years during which they will have the house exactly the way they want it, with no increased labour.

In the meantime, all reasonable men will be happy to work towards a situation in which they do their fair share of the necessary chores. On their behalf, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment to the UN interim target of 35 per cent; and to achieving this by an unspecified date, if not sooner.

© 2007 The Irish Times

The Problem with Green Energy: Plumbers and Grants

etahack2090kw
Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

The first problem with green energy is that I have my doubts about the installing plumber.

First of all he told us that we would need a a three-phase electricity connection from the ESB. So we wondered why a heating system that is meant to produce 70KwH of heat was actually going to consume 70KwH of electricity in the process. What's it going to do with the wood chips, blast them with a laser-beam? There are small manufacturing plants out there that don't need three-phase electricity.

Of course, nobody wanted to risk being wrong. Our own electrician couldn't figure out why we'd need three-phase electricity, but neither did he want to stick out his neck by assuring us that we didn't need it.

Then when the plumber was installing the boiler, he asked the site foreman whether he could speak technical German.

The answer was no, as it happened. He never learned that in construction operative school. The installer only asked, because he couldn't read the instructions provided by the boiler's Austrian manufacturers. So I'm wondering, aren't you the Irish agent for these boilers? Didn't they give you a quick demonstration before you signed the agency agreement?

I'm also beginning to wonder if we'll get our grant, for being good green citizens. The people at Sustainable Energy Ireland are nice, but they want us to produce a feasibility study before they will approve our grant. How on earth are we meant to calculate our carbon footprint and potential carbon savings?

Blogh an Seanchai is Moving

Because Blogger Upgrade has left me stranded halfway between Old Blogger and New Blogger. Because I can only log on to Old Blogger sporadically and can never log on to New Blogger. Because Blogger doesn't offer technical support. Because Old Blogger has limited functionality and despite the fact that I can't import my entries to my new blog, Blogh an Seanchai will shortly be moving to http://www.anseachai.com.

Catholic Fascist Peasant Grandparent Introduces Five-Year-Old to Crushing Guilt

2007February15barns 020 Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

Mac an Seanchai is getting along just fine in school. He even seems to enjoy his religion lessons, which are of the supportive nurturing kind, throwing in the odd be-good-to-your-neighbour-and-obey-your-parents morality lessons. He seemed to get a particular big kick out of singing hymns, rewritten for children and modernity. Our God is a great God He's higher than a skyscraper And deeper than a submarine. He asks me questions each evening before he falls asleep. -- Is God the most important thing of all? What's a skyscraper? Is Easter the greatest thing that ever happened? -- It's complicated, I say. -- What does complicated mean? The first problem cropped up on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. One grandparent told him that he'd have to give up sweets for Lent and that if he broken his fast then The Authorities would not be pleased. Another grandparent gave him a box of Smarties, because that's what grandparents do. That night he asked me whether he'd be banned from the seaside if he ate the Smarties that he was given. I assured him that he was exempt from any negative consequences on the grounds that: a) he's below the age of reason b) Lenten sacrifice is meant to be voluntary c) You don't have to give up sweets, that's a theological error promoted by facist peasant parents and grandparents d) There is no God e) Facist peasant parents and grandparents will only succeed in turning you into a commie, like your old man. Link: Fight for the Irish Republic in your Local Primary School

My Kids have Irish Accents

2007February15barns 023 Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

My kids have developed Irish accents. Of course they have, they're Irish, aren't they? Yes. But for the first few years they speak in a stilted shorthand. They also don't waste words. It's only since Mac an Seanchai started going to school that he's taking Hiberno-English for a test-drive. "I went to school today, so I did, and shur, you'll never guess, wasn't the teacher sick!" Begorrah and begob.

Link: Playing Inside on a Rainy May Day

How to get rid of a burned-out stolen car - II

2007February15barns 028 Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

The burned-out stolen car, having sat in the laneway for six weeks without a sign of the county council or the Gardai, was removed from the side of the public road yesterday. Moral of the story: if you have a problem, don't show civic spirit. Just make it somebody else's problem. Link: How to get rid of a burned out stolen car

NTR Introduces Killer Barrier on Drogheda Bypass

boynevalleybridge2 Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

You don't expect traffic hazards at 7:20 on a Saturday morning. Because there's no traffic on the motorway you just cruise along, watching for anything that might be 500 of 700 metres ahead. Plenty of time to identify a hazard, slow down and stop. We were still probably 500 metres from the Drogheda Bypass toll booth when the lanes started funneling us into a lane, towards either the cash toll booth or the electronic Eazipass booths. I was going to pay cash, but couldn't figure out which lane I should be in, because hey, I was 500 metres from the toll booth. This shouldn't have been a problem, because I'd be able to change lane once I got up to the toll booth, by wriggling across a lane. Why not; after all, there was nobody else on the road. Out of nowhere, a dot matrix board flashed up "YOU ARE NOT AN EAZIPASS CUSTOMER." Very true, couldn't argue with that. But so what? The next second a barrier crashed down in front of me, out of nowhere. In one second I had gone from having no hazards within 20 seconds of me to having a lethal hazard 4.5 seconds away. I spent 3.3 seconds slowing down gradually. Then I hit the brake hard for the final 1.2 seconds. The car stopped inches from the barrier. I was a fraction of a second from either (a) being dead of (b) introducing barrier free tolling on the M1. Luckily, I have new tyres. What I want to know is, is this really necessary? If I get to the Eazipass reader and I don't have an RFID tag, surely I can just change lanes? Or take the cash option? That's what people do on the M50 every day. Is it really necessary to introduce the death penalty on the Drogheda Bypass? Image: Drogheda Bypass Bridge at night

How to get rid of a burned-out stolen car

hedgecutting Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

The hedgecutter came to top and breast the hedges along the lane last week. Presumably he also gave one of the landowners advice on how to get rid of the stolen car that was burned out and abandoned on the lane shortly before Christmas. (You can kind of see the burned out car, a rectangular shape outlined in white, on the left hand side of the hedgecutter.) In a normal country you could call the police or the local authorities and they would investigate the scene before removing the car. Not in The Pale. The Gardai don't want to know about stolen cars that no longer have registration plates. Meath County Council only collect rubbish that has been dumped along a public road in clear view. The landowners had erected a gate across the laneway to stop illegal dumping, but it was stolen by either (a) a common criminal (b) a freedom-to-roam zealot. More likely (a) than (b). A few weeks later we got our burned out car. So presumably the hedge cutter advised one of the neighbours to drag the burned out car out to the public road and present it as a "new" burned out stolen car. It's perched in clear view of the public road and hard for the County Council to ignore. Although, they have amazing powers of non-perception. We'll see. Link: Dumping Case Thrown out of Court

Religious Involvement with State Schools: Not Good for Either Party

Here's a piece where one teacher discusses the issues, problems and utter inconsistencies of a secular republic sponsoring religious involvement in schools: Buying in to a wholly Catholic and apostolic education. Breda O'Brien Irish Times In other countries, there is a sharp divide between state and denominational schooling, with the latter usually privately funded. In Ireland, it is increasingly difficult to see where the divide between church and State lies. In our denominational voluntary secondary schools, the State is the paymaster, albeit with substantial "voluntary" contributions directly from parents. Yet our allegedly State-run community and comprehensive sector has paid chaplains as a right, which the voluntary secondary sector does not. We even have trouble drawing a line between public and private, because in our private schools, the teachers are mostly paid by the State. At a conference run by the Irish Catholic Bishops and Cori (the representative body of religious congregations) in February 2005, a Canadian archbishop proposed that as a minimum, all teachers in Catholic schools should be "practising Catholics committed to the Church and living her sacramental life". All you could say to that would be: "Too late for that, baby".

Link: Fight for the Irish Republic in your local Primary School

Gene Patents: Another Step towards the Capitalist Heart of Darkness

Twenty percent of human genes have been patented by individuals or corporations, according to Jurassic Park and ER creator Michael Crichton, in a New York Times article entitled Patenting Life. Crichton argues that the patenting of genes is different from other forms of privatisation, that it introduces concepts that are materially different from the private ownership of land, water, banks, transport networks energy or non-gene related patents. "Ordinarily, we imagine patents promote innovation, but that’s because most patents are granted for human inventions. Genes aren’t human inventions, they are features of the natural world. As a result these patents can be used to block innovation, and hurt patient care." But how are gene patents different from patents in general? Or private property in general? For example, how about the unfettered private ownership of coal mines in Pennsylvania in the 19th Century, as portrayed in this documentary on The Molly Maguires. The mine owners used their property rights to control every aspect of their workers' lives, effectively enslaving them. Everything -- even the judiciary -- were subservient to the absolute property rights of the mine owners. Enclosure, privatisation, patent, copyright. It's all about the somewhat arbitrary awarding of private property to a set of individuals who are expected to take account of the greater good of society. Sometimes it works that way. Very often, it doesn't. The patenting of the human genome isn't something new. It's just another step down the road into capitalism's Heart of Darkness. What do I think they should do? Grant the patents. Examine the applications and therapies that emerge. Then regulate the hell out of them so that they'll have to share it around. That's what I think, Comrade Crichton.

Blogger Upgrade Sucks

bloggerupgradesucks
Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

I tried to upgrade this blog to the New Blogger about two months ago. It performed half of the upgrade, then it got stuck.

Since then it has been increasingly difficult to log on to the Old Blogger, because Blogger keeps forcing me to log into my Gmail account to upgrade to New Blogger, despite the fact that it is unable to upgrade me.

So I've fallen between two stools. The only way to use my blog is to send posts from Flickr. How stupid is that?

I have e-mailed Blogger support, but they have never replied to me. So I am going to put this slogan into every blog posting from now until the time that they fix my blog.

Enjoy.

London Times thinks up Funny Bloody Sunday Joke

snowdrop Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

This came through on e-mail on Friday. The sender said that it was on the thetimes.co.uk web site and also in the printed version. It refers to the upcoming Ireland-England rugby match in Croke Park and to Bloody Sunday 1920 (which was recreated fictionally in the film Michael Collins.) "Scotland weren't much better than a Guinness Premiership or Magners League team, but you can only beat what is put in front of you, and Saturday represents a very good start. Ireland may well be missing Brian O'Driscoll as well as Shane Horgan and don't have the resources in depth to overcome such losses. However neither will England have the armoured cars and machine guns they had the last time they entered Croke Park!" Me, I thought it was funny, in a blackly humourous way. Plus it was an acknowledgement by a high Tory newspaper that there are reasons why they haven't been invited before this and an acknowledgement of the fact that the Ireland-England rugby match in Croke Park will be a momentous occasion. We should be big enough to laugh, after all, we won that war. However, it also seemed like an urban legend. I checked thetimes.co.uk site and couldn't find it. Then I found on MunsterFans.com that it had been on thetimes.co.uk web site briefly and was taken down. It was never in the printed version -- here's the post. Anyway, it's funniest when you read it aloud in a snooty Brit accent. "Snooty Brit accent" being a technical term.

Superwomen: They do exist

They say it's a myth that woman can have it all, can do it all. Well, here's the proof - From Spaceflight to Attempted Murder Charge Here's a woman who flys a space shuttle, looks after a house and three kids and still has the energy and motivation to drive 900 miles to intimidate a rival in a love triangle. And now I know the over-achievers' secret: astronaut diapers. It's no lie. I read it in the New York Times. Technorati Tags: Beyond the Pale, Law and Order, humour

Capsized Sheep just can't get up

100_0364 Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

People ask about this all of the time. If a sheep keels over in a field, there's a good chance that they won't be able to get up again, because their bodies are so heavy and their legs are so spindly. A couple of seconds after I took this picture, I walked over to 428 and tipped her back upright. 428 makes a habit of tipping over. It's actually kind of dangerous, because it means that she's vulnerable to vermin and carrion. Don't think about it too much, it's an apalling way to die. Link: Black Sheep Movie

Microsoft Chooses Meath School for Tech Programme

Séamus Ryan, Principal, Dunshaughlin Community College, explains what new technology will be used at the school, one of 12 chosen by Microsoft for its Innovative Schools Programme. Dunshaughlin Community School, once known pejoratively as "The Tech," seems to have made huge strides over the past 20 years. There was a time, not even a generation ago, when anybody in this area who had resources and ambition sent their kids to parochial schools, like St Patricks in Navan, St Declan's in Cabra, Dominicans in Cabra or even into the city centre, to Belvedere, Colaiste Mhuire or Loreto Stephen's Green. Now the community schools are able to attract and retain the best teachers and the brightest students. Link: Fight for the Irish Republic in your local Primary School Technorati Tags: The Pale, technology, ireland,

The Brits invented Concentration Camps, Didn't They?

Hitler's Irish Movies Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

Katie Holmquist -- an earnest liberal of the type that only the Irish Times can produce -- wrote a good piece on the Hidden History documentary called Hitler's Irish Movies. The documentary covered a number of anti-British movies that Goebbels produced in the first few years of the Second World War. These romantic melodramas depicted heroic Irish rebels fighting against perfidious English imperialists. Well, that's no variation on the movie scripts produced by Hollywood or the British left. But Holmquist got a bit hot under the collar at the Nazi assertion, in a film of the same genre about the Boer War, that the British invented concentration camps. "The Germans, who invented concentration camps, created the fiction that it was actually a British invention during the Boer War," she wrote. It's a measure of the respect I have for the Irish Times, its columnists and sub-editors, that one of the pillars of my nationalist credo began to wobble. Didn't the Brits invent them, to pen up disaffected Boer civilians? Or was it another nationalist myth that -- with time, maturity and the historical reassessment required for peace, progress and prosperity -- we can safely let go? But then I thought of the time when I worked in a London office, with an Afrikaaner by the name of John Roth. A middle-Englander by the name of Fred was reading the international section of the paper and blamed some atrocity in India on the pernicious effects of religion. "That's all religion's fault that is," said Fred. "No it's not religion's fault," howled Roth. "It's England's fault."

He then told everybody how the villainous Brits had tossed his God-fearing (Boer) law-abiding grandmother into a concentration camp, to facilitate their imperial ambitions. I would have weighed in, but for the fact that an IRA bomb had just gone off down the street, in a bin outside John Lewis's, only twenty minutes previously. Plus, I needed to keep my jobs, whereas John Roth was staff and could say whatever he darn well liked. I also kind of felt sorry for Fred, who was only trying to disrupt the pregnant ominous silence that fell in the office after the bomb went off. It's not that people were looking at me, it was more that they were not looking at me, if you get my drift. So anyway. That recollection made me think that yes, in fact, the British did invent concentration camps. They didn't introduce them in Ireland, although they did intern people without trial, shoot them on the slightest pretext and burn down towns to teach the locals a lesson. And then -- shades of US policy in Iraq -- they held an election and asked people to vote for them. Too weird. But this letter to the Irish Times today straightened things out for me, for good and all.

During the Boer War, in what is modern South Africa, Britain's General Kitchener used "concentration camps" to contain hostile civilians. These were mainly Boers, whites of Dutch origin. Blacks were also subjected to this treatment. Some 28,000 whites and 14,000 blacks died in Kitchener's camps. The tactic played a major part in winning the war for the empire ... For those "concentrated": their mortality rates rose sharply due to being confined in large numbers in ill-prepared quarters. Even within the past year there have been a number of instances in the British broadsheet press where commentators or editorial writers have referred to the concentration camp as being invented by the British during the Boer war.

The Brits did invent concentration camps. They didn't invent extermination camps, or gulags, but they did implement the penal systems that the rulers of any great power require for the purposes of subjugating their fellow man. If you get a chance to watch the documentary then I'd definitely recommend it. The most interesting thing is the fact that the films were made as propaganda for a German audience, so the Irish are very Teutonic. As one German put it, "if the Germans saw red-faced people in the film, drinking beer all of the time, then they wouldn't have identified with it." So ... what are you suggesting?

Fight for the Irish Republic in your local Primary School

I rarely have anything good to say about the Bishop Michael Smith, the Catholic bishop of Meath. Having said that, I've only met him once, when he shook my hand at a function and congratulated me for my work in the community. He seemed like a civil oul' divil on that particular occasion. But here's the thing. When I was signing Mac an Seanchai up for primary school, I was asked to fill out a form, which included a line asking my religion. Because the school is funded by both the state and through fundraising by the parents, I saw no reason to tick the box. In fact, on a point of republican principal, I refused to tick the box. Now I don't mean republican in a "Brits out" kind of way. I mean republican in a "liberty, egality and fraternity" kind of a way. In a secular republic kind of a way. I received an unpleasant call from a (non-Catholic) school administrator a few months later, who told me that I had to tick the box, otherwise my child might not be accepted to the school. He might be assigned to the new school, or to the satellite school, which is a few miles away. I said that religion shouldn't a selection criteria for a publicly funded school. The militant school administrator (militant about data compliance rather than religious observance, I suspect) said that the school belonged to the Diocese of Meath; it was only funded by the state. I was just wondering where they get the word "only." The administrator said that Bishop Smith didn't approve of non-religious people taking advantage of church schools. I heard since heard from other sources that this is, in fact, a fair characterisation of his attitude to the whole issue. However, it's not that he resents Protestants, Jews and Muslims going to "his" schools; he seems to feel that they can't help being who they are and shouldn't be obliged to drive 10, 20 or 100 miles to find a suitable school for their children. The real object of his campaign are post-Catholics, who don't participate fully in the activities of the Catholic church and the school. I called the Irish Council of Civil Liberties and they hummed sympathetically and said that there wasn't much they could do. They agreed that the church's and the state's position would make an interesting case for the Supreme Court, but that they don't currently have any plans to take such a suit. At that point I pulled my child's name from the list and signed up for the brand new school in the village. It was also a Catholic school, but has a more enlightened administration. They admitted that it was scandalous that the church could grab control of these schools simply by donating the land upon which the school is to be built. The capital cost of construction and the operating costs of the school are paid by the state, supported by the taxes of Papist, Protestant, Freemason, Dissenter, Mohammedan and Jew. This shows purely laziness and complacency on the part of the state. It should bite the bullet and buy sites for schools, rather than relying on the worst instincts of the Catholic church. However, in a statement last year, Bertie Ahern, Irish Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fail -- the self-styled republican party -- said that he supported church involvement in schools. (After all, it's the easy way out and Fianna Fail is always in favour of the easy way out.) The situation demonstrates the civic apathy of the people in the village. According to the principal of the new primary school, one parent in the school has objected to church involvement in state schools. (I'm assuming that was me.) People ask me why I don't drive five miles down the road to the Educate Together school. Because I want my kids to go to school with their neighbours. Because there's a publicly-funded school a couple of hundred yards down the road and I have a right to send my children to it. Because nobody tells you that you should build your own hospital if you don't like the ethos of the local hospital. Medical staff have to comply with the law of the land, not with the ethos of their hospital. So why am I now so supportive of Bishop Michael Smith? Because he is trying to scale back the Department of Education's plans to build a 60-room school on the site. He has, through some calculation method of his own, decided that 40 classrooms would be sufficient to support the Catholic population of the village. If the Department of Education wants another school for non-Catholics, they should buy a site, appoint a board of management and build a proper republican school. So do it. Buy the land. Build the school. Appoint a board of management. Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Link: Report on Irish Education from Educate Together Link: A right of reply for the Christian Brothers Link: Paedophilia no impediment to promotion among Braithre Criostaí Link: Amanda Marcotte from "Nuts and Mutton" Technorati Tags: The Pale, ireland, Books and Films, Law and Order,

Irish Jewish Algerian Pensioner Acquitted after Biting neo-Nazi

From today's Irish Times: Victims of Holocaust remembered at the Annual Holocaust Memorial Day. "We will always remember." These words were invoked at a moving ceremony in Dublin last night as six candles were lit by the children of Holocaust survivors to remember the six million Jews who perished during the second World War."We will always remember," was repeatedly invoked by master of ceremonies Yanky Fachler as two candles were lit for each of the other communities who fell victim to the Nazis - hundreds of thousands of gypsies, disabled people, the gay community, "Blacks, Poles, Slavs" and other ethnic groups, and Christians. Some 800 people participated in the annual Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in the Mansion House. Minister for Justice Michael McDowell apologised again on behalf of the State for Ireland's less-than-generous response to Jewish refugees after the war. Which is fine. However, Derek Scally wrote a fantastic story for the Irish Times from Germany, where he interviewed Dennis Mulholland, the Algerian-Irish-Jewish holocaust survivor and so much more: Victim of neo-Nazi attack lands in court as perpetrator. Following his acquittal by a German court over an 'Aids bite' on a neo-Nazi thug, Dennis Milholland tells Derek Scally about his extraordinary life Dennis Milholland's bark is worse than his bite. But his provocative personality and disrespect for authority have a habit of getting him into - and out of - trouble. The 57-year-old author and translator, from an Irish-Algerian Jewish family, appeared in a German court last week after being attacked by a neo-Nazi thug nearly two years ago. The thug ran off after Milholland bit him. Because Milholland is HIV positive - and told his attacker as much - he was put on trial as perpetrator not victim. "My Irish father told me never to be a victim," says the bearded Milholland in his Berlin apartment. "But there's a history of turning victims into perpetrators in this country. I couldn't help thinking of the Nazi newspaper headline: 'Jew bites German Shepherd dog'." On May night in 2005, Milholland and two friends were accosted by three men as they walked through Potsdam to catch a train back to Berlin. One of the men, Oliver Kleinow (26), followed them into their train carriage, shouted obscenities and punched one of Milholland's friends. Milholland lunged for the younger man and a short scuffle ended when he bit down hard on the tip of the finger Kleinow had stuck in his mouth. "Are you blind?" shouted Kleinow, clutching his bleeding finger. "Yes I am," replied Milholland who, following an Aids-related illness, is fully blind in one eye and 70 per cent blind in the other. "And I have Aids and now you do too," he added. Kleinow ran off and returned with police officers. The chances of HIV transmission through a bite are considered negligible and Kleinow has not contracted the virus. "They took him off for medical treatment and us to the police station," says Milholland. "Meanwhile, I sat on a bench for two hours holding tissues to my bleeding ear." The case is another unlikely episode in an extraordinary family history. Milholland's father was born in Dublin but left in 1919 after finding the doors of Irish universities closed to Jews. He moved to Weimar Berlin where he met a Jewish woman from Algeria, or, as Milholland puts it, "a communist revolutionary bellydancer". The couple married and in 1938 fled the country with their children to the US, where Milholland was born. His older brother Fred stayed behind in Paris as a student, but was murdered in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. In the US, Milholland says his physicist father worked on the "Manhattan" project to develop the atom bomb. However, his mother's communist background attracted unwelcome attention during the McCarthy era and eventually the family emigrated to France. In 1961 Milholland moved to Germany to study and in 1972 was drafted for the Vietnam War. Although he didn't hold US citizenship, he says his Kansas city birthplace was good enough for the drafters. In Vietnam he was shot, captured by the North Vietnamese army and ended up in a POW camp in Hanoi. Later returning to Germany, he worked in the US embassy in east Berlin until a love affair with a Soviet military attaché was uncovered and he was sacked. Milholland moved to Ireland in 1991 and discovered he was HIV positive after a 1987 blood transfusion. Despite developing full-blown Aids, he survived thanks to pioneering drug therapy and worked for Gay Community News. His journalism and fiction work, mocking the Orange Order, Irish politics and the Catholic Church, resulted in several death threats and, he says, a discreet suggestion to leave the country. Meeting him, it's clear how, with ease, he can and does infuriate figures of authority. Asked by the judge in court why he bit Kleinow, Milholland replied: "It was self defence. I'm almost a pensioner, I don't slither around the alleyways of Potsdam biting children's fingers." The case was acquitted, to cheers from his transvestite supporters in the public gallery. A day later, in his Berlin apartment, he was more reflective. "It was obvious there was homophobia and a couple of other phobias at play," he says. "It only came to court because nobody could stop the legal wheels turning. Those wheels have been turning all of my life." Technorati Tags: Beyond the Pale, ireland, Law and Order

How to Work in Ireland if you're American

20061215refurb 010 Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

I get asked about this all of the time. People who want to work abroad. People who want to find their roots. People want to follow a boyfriend or girlfriend. The good news for US citizens who want to work in Ireland is that the Irish economy is extremely buoyant. The usual way for US students to come to Ireland is through this reciprocal student working visa programme.

You can avail of it as a student, or within six months of graduating. If you're outside the system, don't despair. As a general rule, they don't give US citizens a hard time over work permits, because Ireland gets so much foreign direct investment from the US. The other way to get a work permit is to be sponsored by an employer. This involves a certain amount of paperwork for the employer and they're only likely to do it if you have unique skills and if you will stick around for a couple of years. Actually, useful skills would probably be sufficient. But specific skills like "I can make websites" rather than soft skills "I am good with people." Here's the best link in this respect. Most of the big employers in Ireland are multi-nationals, many of which are US-based, including Google, Dell, Intel, Oracle and Pfizer. Another way is to sign up for a one-year educational course, which will allow you to work a certain number of hours each week. You could also do seasonal/casual work, in tourism or agriculture. In this area you'll be competing with the migrant workforce, who work very hard for pretty low wages. It could be fun, but it won't be cushy. You wouldn't be eligible for a work permit for this kind of work. However, I wouldn't worry about getting into trouble, Irish immigration (if its exists) couldn't care less about undocumented Americans. You could also come to Ireland on a visitor visa and set up as a freelancer/contractor/consultant. Your business would be officially employed in the US and would be in Ireland "on business." Or you could be lucky and find somebody who likes Americans and who says ""Hell, come and work for me, no need for a work permit." Those kind of opportunities tend to be luck rather than by design, so don't bank on it.

Hunt clashes with "Dulchies" in Meath

wardunionhunt Originally uploaded by iomhanna.

There was an article in today's Irish Examiner -- Children Terrified as Injured Stag Flees Hunt Hounds, 25/1/07 -- about a stag hunt that went wrong. The stag, the dogs and some of the riders ended up in the yard of a primary school in Kildalkey, near Navan. It doesn't appear to be online and I'm too lazy to retype it. The article presented a scene where some parents rushed to the rescue (of the kids or the stag, it's not clear) with tyre irons. Some parents described a deer being torn limb from limb in front of their small children. But a representative of the hunt said that the stag was unhurt and was back in the Ward Union's deer park, grazing happily. Who knows? But it is an illustration of how the hunt is hemmed in by former Dublin suburbanites (so-called "Dulchies") who have a less sympathetic (or less indifferent) view of hunting that is true of the people who are local to these rural areas.

Image: The Ward Union Hunt, 1873, William Osborne

Link: Irish Farmers Association Rounds on Fox Hunt

Dubya comes around to renewable energy

From the New York Times - Bush Seeks Vast, Mandatory Increase in Alternative Fuels and Greater Vehicle Efficiency WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 — Vowing to reduce the nation’s thirst for foreign oil, President Bush called on Tuesday for a huge government-mandated increase in renewable fuels — mainly ethanol — and tougher mileage standards for cars and light trucks. He's come a long way since he wanted to wipe out the polar bears, caribou and Inuit so that his pals in the oil industry could get their mitts on the oil in Alaska. "Say, has anybody here tasted Inuit? What does it taste like? Tastes kinda like chicken?" Ethanol good, George. Octane bad. Technorati Tags: Beyond the Pale, agriculture