Every Tuesday morning for the last six, or maybe seven years, I have brought my badly hand-written notes into the long-suffering girls in the offices of the Roscommon People, and I have seen their faces drop as they see the collection of crossed out words, bits inserted here and there, more bits taken out, and, all in all, a nightmare for the poor girl who has to try and get it typed up, ready for the printers.
There has been an occasional hint about the wonderful world of emails, which I have steadfastly ignored, but, on this Monday morning I have set myself a target of getting all the way to the end of the piece without having to cross out a single word – I am well aware that it’s an almost impossible challenge, but I’ll tell you how I got on when all is completed.
Anyway, back to the real world, and on Saturday afternoon approximately 80,000 people attended an Anti Water Charges Demonstration Rally on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, and it is now widely accepted and acknowledged that the water charges will be a major issue in the forthcoming General Election.
I’ve told you many times in the past that I am not, in any way, a political person, and I have never slavishly voted for any party – I vote for the person, regardless of his |(or her) political persuasion, who impresses me the most, and who is most likely to deliver for my area, but I just cannot get myself to agree with, or support, the Anti Water charges demonstrations.
I’m well aware that my apathy for the crusade is probably for purely selfish reasons, because for the last number of years all of us in our area have paid for our water, as members of the Creggs-Glinsk (maybe that should be Glinsk-Creggs) Group Water Scheme, and we have never felt the need to call for any type of rally on either the streets (street) of Glinsk or Creggs.
A couple of years ago the scheme needed badly-required funds to upgrade the system, and, after a couple of well-attended public meetings where the water scheme officials explained what was going on, why the money was needed, and what the effects would be, we the members, unanimously agreed to make a once-off payment of €500 per house to carry out the necessary improvements.
If Irish Water looked for anything similar, I’d say we’d have a wholesale revolution. My feeling is that if the quality of the product is guaranteed, and if we can safely drink what comes out of our taps, there is no real reason why I should have to pay for my supply, and you shouldn’t!
Sticking with water, just for a moment, but this time it’s the stuff that falls out of they sky. On Friday last I was bringing my wife Carol to Knock Airport, from where she was going on the Elphin Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes, and I can never recall driving through such a continuous downpour before in my life.
Usually when the rainfall gets so bad that it’s almost impossible to see out, it will only last for a few minutes or so, but this time it kept on and on, and only that I was following an artic which, as they say, made the road for me, we might well have had to pull up, and might even have missed the flight to Lourdes, where temperatures are currently hitting 34 degrees.
One of the worst thinks about knowing nothing about anything is that it can be hard to figure our why something that appears simple, can, in fact be almost impossible – in case you’ve lost me, I’m wondering, with all the rain that falls how we have never managed to harness it, and turn it into a safe drinkable supply, which would of course, do away with any need for any of us to pay for it at all.
Maybe some of the scientists out there will fill me in!
Croker cracker
Changing subjects entirely, and turning to yesterday’s battle, a word deliberately chosen, between Mayo and The Dubs, I am still buzzing at the almost unbelievable closing 10 or so minutes, during which the wearers of the Green and Red brought off a comeback almost on a par with Lazarus himself, and got a draw in a game that had seemed well gone from them as we headed into those closing minutes.
Listening to the various radio stations, and reading a paper or two this Monday morning, a lot of real GAA analysts seem to be of the opinion that yesterday’s game was dirty, nasty, spiteful, cynical and downright disgusting, and maybe they are right.
But for someone like me who unashamedly, supported the Connaught champions and (by the way, it’s not simply Anti-Dubs bias it’s just that I’ve seen Mayo, and it’s people suffer so much heartache all my life, and I would love to see them get their hands on Sam) I found it totally enthralling, and a credit to both teams.
Lads were prepared to forget all about their own safety in an effort to get their team to the All-Ireland Final.
In the end Mayo could probably have shaded it, but I think a draw was the best result (certainly for the GAA) and I can’t wait till next Saturday when they’ll do it all over again.
Can we have a Western double in Croke Park next weekend?
Just before I leave the senior match, on last night’s Sunday Game, and indeed everywhere today, there was intense analysis on the many untoward incidents that took place, and rightly so, but I wonder is there a policy that in the case of minor players things are to be ignored!
After the final whistle in the minor game between Tipp and Kildare, the No. 24 from the (not so) Lilywhites, jumped on the Tipperary No. 8 Jack Kennedy, who incidentally was the official Man of the Match, and delivered a right-handed haymaker that Mike Tyson himself would have been proud of.
Kennedy appeared to sustain a bad enough injury to his right eye but to my knowledge there hasn’t been a whisper about it! I just wonder why!
And finally…
Finally for this week, last Friday night I made it to The Castlecoote Lodge for Seamus Ward’s 60th Birthday Party, and it was just great! A huge crowd, good food, good music and good craic and all for a good guy.
Well done Seamus and we wish you a long, happy life and also retirement. I have got all the way to the end (Thank God says you) with only two major mistakes in the writing – not too bad, but more improvements required.
‘Till next week, Bye for now
