Sometimes, when I witness how things are done in this country, I think to myself: ‘Maybe it’s you Anthony, maybe all this stuff is normal and it’s you that’s living in a world divorced from reality.’
That’s certainly what I was thinking yesterday as I read about the latest developments in the Cllr. Fahy case.
Fahy was convicted last March on seven counts under the Larceny Act and the Theft and Fraud Offences Act, including false accounting and attempting to make a gain by deception. He also, in a ruthless attempt to escape punishment, tried to implicate others in his crimes. This is some of what Judge Raymond Groarke had to say;
“Your bombast, bluster and bluff may well have been seen as such by those who witnessed your performance in the witness box, namely the jury, but all the while you gambled with the reputations of honest men in seeking an escape from the consequences of your delinquency.”
The judge addressed Fahy as an “arrogant, greedy and determined fraudster”, who had “knowingly implicated” Thomas Byrne, “a totally innocent man”; leaving him open to “vilification and ruin” if the truth had not emerged.
Fellow councillors, however, did not agree with the judge’s assessment because in order to ensure he kept his seat on the council they all agreed to pretend that Fahy wasn’t really in jail at all but was merely ‘ill in Dublin’.
The criminal, released from jail pending a retrial, received a hero’s welcome at Galway County Council and promptly made a strident speech in which he lectured everybody about his worries on the increasing crime rate.
Noting that crime had risen in the last few months (while he was in jail) the criminal blustered;
“It is just not good enough that people who are out at the shops or at Mass come home to find their houses ransacked. The people who do this sort of crime need to be caught and punished.”
He continued;
“I am proposing that we write to the Garda Commissioner and the Chief Superintendent demanding that every effort is made to bring these culprits to justice.”
His speech was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
Sometimes, when I witness how things are done in this country, I think to myself: ‘Anthony, if all this stuff is normal, perhaps it actually is better to live in a world divorced from reality’.
Anthony your not completely alone in the world. A sense of outrage is good.There are others who feel that way too.! Be not afraid.The world is not permanent.
“Corruption is endemic in all living things. Look to your own salvation with diligence..” (The Buddha)
By the way, if the hospitalization of hundreds of Galwegians, and the infection by the Cryptosporidium bug of thousands more, did not persuade the people there to get rid of Fahy´s cronies during the last election-nothing ever will!!
The Buddha? Yes, that could be the answer!
Life seems to consist of parallel universes; political, real and virtual, to name but three.
The political universe is populated (naturally !) by politicians who when they say something believe it to be true also in the real universe. When questioned (by real universe people) about a shortfall in some measure they usually answer that “its planned” or “a review group is being set up to look at it”. They seem to genuinely believe that saying something is going to happen will actually make it happen without further action on their part. Conversely they also seem to believe that when they say something never happened that patently obvious facts can be erased. In other words they (politicians) are either deluded or inveterate liars or have contempt for those of us living in the real universe.
The real universe is where the rest of us have to live.
The virtual universe is television/celebrity/MTV land
We all (mostly) live in a world of ‘wish it were better’, only politicians live in a world of ‘that’s the way it works! (and always will)’