Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett is finished; he will be forced to resign. His behaviour since taking up office has been incompetent and biased.
Bias in favour of the party that hands out this plum job is the default position of all appointees to the office.
The current ‘crisis’ involving the Ceann Comhairle is just the latest example of infighting among our corrupt body politic, a further example that the corrupt political system is beginning to fall apart.
The sooner the better.
Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett was on Today with Sean O’Rourke desperately trying to explain the latest scandal involving his office.
Corruption expert Elaine Byrne tweeted the following in response.
Sympathy for the creeping attempt at politicising the position of Ceann Comhairle but manner of response does himself no favours.
This misses the underlying reason for this and other more recent incidents involving the Ceann Comhairle’s office.
The reality is as follows:
The first republic came to a shuddering and ignoble end on 29 September 2008 when the current political regime lost control of the nation’s economy.
Since then, the regime, which is irredeemably corrupt, has been desperately struggling to reclaim its full power and control.
This latest pathetic spat between the various groups that make up that corrupt regime is just the latest indication that they are failing, that the entire system is crumbling.
Meanwhile, the significant numbers of ordinary citizens who have been politically radicalized as a result of the oppressive measures taken by the corrupt regime to maintain its power are patiently, for the moment, waiting in the wings.
I recently wrote a tongue in cheek article in response to one of the many black propaganda articles in Independent Newspapers which are obviously part of a wider media campaign to stop Sinn Fein achieving power.
Sunday Independent ‘journalist’ Eilis O’Hanlon was writing about the misuse of Twitter and Facebook but, in common with all establishment journalists, she just couldn’t help slipping into a rant about the activities of the great evil stalking the land.
My tongue in cheek article featured a recipe for cup cakes midway through which the writer slips into a rant against Sinn Fein in which it is claimed the IRA sent Gerry Adams back to 1939 in a time machine where he threatened Hitler with all kinds of sinister things if he didn’t invade Poland.
While writing the article I thought, maybe a bit strong using Hitler as a vehicle to get my point across but then I thought, sure what the hell, it’s obvious I’m doing tongue in cheek.
But, incredibly, I listened to establishment ‘journalist’ Olivia O’Leary deliver an essay yesterday (RTE Drivetime) in which she uses the same angle as I did with the crucial difference that she wasn’t doing tongue in cheek, she was deadly serious.
Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops and O’Leary obviously thought the event would serve as a great opportunity to link the Holocaust with Sinn Fein.
Her approach was deeply insulting to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust; it was ‘journalism’ at its most crude.
Right in the middle of her essay as she speaks of the horrors of the Nazi death camps she suddenly switches to what the republicans/Sinn Fein did during the Northern Ireland conflict. She selects one victim of the IRA and exploits his death and the suffering of his family to promote her propaganda agenda.
She makes no mention of any other organisation, political party or terrorist group involved in the NI conflict.
It’s blatantly obvious that she’s spouting propaganda, as she makes no attempt whatsoever to compare the Holocaust and the NI conflict by placing the events in any kind of context.
Indeed, to make any connection with the most horrific human outrage in history and the dirty little NI war, bad as it was for those directly involved, is in itself pathetic.
She ends by conflating Sinn Fein’s politics and past with the Holocaust. While rightly warning that the Holocaust must never be forgotten she also warns that people of her generation must defend the values of Irish democracy by making sure the youth of today never forget the role Sinn Fein played in the NI conflict.
As an introduction to her essay O’Leary recalled how she asked a really stupid question (her words) during the 1980 visit to Ireland of the then president of West Germany.
Still clearly embarrassed by the memory O’Leary admitted:
I didn’t do my job as a journalist properly.
Well, she’s still not doing her job as a journalist properly.
Her deliberate exploitation of the victims of the Holocaust as a propaganda device to attack Sinn Fein is disgusting in the extreme.
Copy to:
Drivetime
Olivia O’Leary
Yesterday, the Government in cooperation with its many friends in the media, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Irish Water, launched its first major propaganda campaign of 2015 aimed at defeating those who are refusing to pay water charges.
The message was simple: The water is poisoned, the infrastructure is about to collapse any minute with dire consequences for ‘customers’. The only thing that will prevent the greatest catastrophe since the famine is – investment, lots and lots of investment.
One million homes at significant risk from contaminated drinking water
screamed the Irish Independent headline.
And just in case readers didn’t get the fear message, there’s a picture of two lovely children brushing their teeth, great to get the emotions going.
Other dire warnings included: health risk to babies, e-coli, cryptosporidium, lead poisoning, endless water notices, risk to thousands of jobs.
‘Customers’ were warned that if they wanted a modern water system they would have to pay for it. €500 million per year for ten years – minimum.
Also in the Independent (partly owned by Denis O’Brien) John Tierney, Managing Director of Irish Water, was afforded an article all of his own in which he made this dire revelation:
There are now people in Ireland who cannot drink their water because it will make them ill.
His solution: Slap a bill for €2.3 billion on ‘customers’ to pay up or risk getting sick.
We want to become an organisation trusted by people to deliver every time they turn on their tap.
What he means is, of course – trusted to deliver a bill every time a ‘customer’ turns on a tap?
To be fair to Newstalk’s (fully owned by Denis O’Brien) Breakfast presenters, Ivan Yates and Brendan Donoghue, they didn’t even bother with balance.
They got stuck in right away – 20,000 on boiled water notices, nearly one million at risk. They interviewed a spokesperson from EPA asking him comfortable, leading questions that were very helpful to Irish Water.
Again we had all the dire warnings that the sky was about to fall in unless Irish Water ‘customers’ stumped up a couple of billion. At the end of the piece, in case ‘customers’ still weren’t on song, Ivan Yates hammered home the message:
There’s no avoiding the fact if we want to retain our water quality for almost a million people very significant investment needs to take place.
RTE also played its part in the Government’s propaganda campaign.
Here’s part of the written introduction on the Sean O’Rourke website to an interview with Head of Asset Management at Irish Water Jerry Grant.
In the face of opposition to water charges, the response from government and from Irish Water has remained steady. If we want to ensure a sustainable and clean supply of water into the future, charging for water is the way forward.
In fairness to RTE, this clear and dramatic abandonment of balance in favour of supporting Government policy is courageous. At least listeners now know where the national broadcaster stands on the question of water tax.
On RTE’s Late Debate presenter Cormac O’hEadhra nearly had a heart attack at the sheer horror of what was revealed in the EPA report.
Funny, all this hysteria, because Irish citizens (as opposed to customers) have been aware for decades that the water system is Third World standard, at best.
They know they’re being poisoned, they know political incompetence and corruption is at the root of the problem, they know major investment is required.
They also know, and this is where they depart from the position of the Government and its friends in the media, that this time they are not going to be screwed because of the greed and corruption of politicians.
Copy to:
Dept. of Environment
Irish Water
Environmental Protection Agency
RTE
Newstalk
Irish Independent
It’s 0125hrs on the 21 Jan and I’ve just attempted to access RTEs Drivetime for the 20 Jan.
Disgracefully, it’s not yet available.
RTEs rivals, Newstalk, Today FM, and I’m sure most other stations, provide an excellent and immediate archive service for listeners, researches and journalists.
The failure to provide such a basic service is the latest sign that professional standards at RTE are not what they once were.
Copy to:
Drivetime
I see the Pope is taking advantage of the brutal massacres in France to attack those who would make fun of religion.
‘Generously’ conceding that freedom of expression was a fundamental human right he added the strict condition that any such expression must not give offence to religion.
One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith.
Or, in other words, no religion should ever be the subject of criticism or questioning of any kind because, as we all know, somebody, somewhere, will always take offence.
He goes on to suggest that there was at least some rationality in the minds of the terrorists by saying that people can react violently when offended.
Then, using typically bizarre religious logic he said the attacks were the result of a throwaway culture where people and god are rejected outright.
He finished by revealing he had decided to canonize St. Joseph Vaz, a missionary to Sri Lanka, without going through the usual process of verifying a second miracle by the saint.
Now I don’t know about others but in my book anybody who actually believes in saints and miracles and all that voodoo stuff deserves to be made fun of.
Viva La Charlie Hebdo
I see Fianna Fail ‘leader’ Michéal Martin is still on the lookout for a spine.
When asked if he regretted supporting the motion to expel Dessie O’Malley from the party proposed by his predecessor Haughey, the spineless ‘leader’ replied:
With the greatest of respect, I came here to discuss 2015, not 1985.
I think historically and on reflection, all of those issues could have been handled better or differently but that’s for the history books and I’ll be writing my own memoirs and I’ll deal with all of that then.
When pushed on the matter, he tetchily responded:
Look, I’m not going there.
Martin’s fear of answering a question, any question, has been the defining characteristic of his political career.
During his time as Minister for Health, for example, he infamously initiated over 30 reports into various scandals and problems, all in the name of kicking the ball down the road.
Some of these reports may still be ongoing; you never know when a subversive journalist might sneak in a sinister question.
When asked about the current RTE drama on Haughey’s life, again, this ‘leader’ just couldn’t bring himself to give a simple answer.
I think I’ll withhold judgment until I see the last one.
Personally, I’m delighted the spineless Mr. Martin is still leading Fianna Fail because, as Irish citizens have learned at great cost, what’s bad for the corrupt Fianna Fail party is good for Ireland.
Copy to:
Fianna Fail
Michéal Martin
There’s an absolutely brilliant and heartwarming story in today’s Irish Independent where we see a naval officer, Lieutenant Grace Fanning, propose marriage to her girlfriend, Carol Brady at Fota Wildlife Park.
That a senior officer in the defence forces can openly and comfortably live her life as a lesbian is a very positive indication of how far our country has progressed since the dark days of religious oppression.
It’s certainly a million miles from 1971 when I was a young naval recruit in training.
One particular morning the entire training school was lined up on the parade ground.
Two recruits were then hauled in front of us wearing civilian clothes and carrying their suitcases.
As the two men cowered in fear and humiliation a short speech was delivered to the assembly warning all of what happens to those who engage in homosexual activities.
The two were then literally hounded off the base.
Hopefully, the upcoming referendum on same-sex marriage will not only pass but receive an overwhelming and resounding endorsement from the people of Ireland.
Congratulations to Grace and her partner Carol.
The vast bulk of comment and opinion expressed in response to the current RTE Haughey drama can be described as delusional drivel.
But even delusional drivel can serve a purpose and in this case it serves a very valuable purpose.
It tells us in very clear terms that the current ruling elite and large sections of the media are still frozen in the warped mindset of the Haughey era that enabled him to engage in a decades long career of criminality and betrayal.
In order to differentiate between the drivel and the brutal reality of what Haughey was and what he represented it will be useful to spell out exactly the true nature of this particular individual.
Haughey was a political gangster, pure and simple. He possessed just one talent – the ability to see an opening for profit when it was presented to him.
And that’s what happened when he decided to get involved in politics in the 1950s. Ireland had finally decided to abandon it’s decades long policy of isolation and in particular its idiotic economic war with the UK.
Haughey and his cronies (the men in mohair suits) recognised the opportunities presented by the progressive economic and industrial policies introduced by Lemass.
Ireland could have gone down another road at the time if the criminal had been stopped but tragically for Ireland and its people, he won out and began to infect the governance of the country with the disease of corruption.
For the rest of his career he plundered the resources of the State without fear of ever being brought to account. The diseased culture he created is still alive and thriving today.
Personally he was an obnoxious individual who betrayed his wife and family, a man who robbed the fund collected to save the life of his best friend, a man who threatened and bullied anybody who stood in his way, a man without principle, courage or morals.
But most of all he was a man who inflicted massive damage on his country and its people while all the time fraudulently posing as a man of the people, a great statesman.
In a functional democracy such political scumbags quickly find themselves behind bars. In Ireland he was protected and assisted by all State agencies in his criminality and honoured with a state funeral when he died.
He is still admired by a disturbingly large number of people, particularly those of the ruling elite and their supporters in the media.
We only have to observe the response to the current drama to see how successful the traitor was in corrupting the judgement, principles and integrity of so many people.
I’ll be writing about a number of those responses in the next while.
Did anyone see that great recipe for banana cup cakes in the Irish Independent recently?
Here it is:
Preheat oven to 180°C, 160°C fan, Gas mark 4.
Weigh your eggs. Note the weight and measure the same amount of Flora, sugar and flour. Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon 2–3 minutes until well mixed. Place dessertspoons of the mixture in 10 paper cases or greased bun tins.
And we can now reveal that Adolf Hitler was a leading member of Sinn Fein. A reliable source has provided absolute proof to this newspaper that Hitler’s decision to go to war was triggered after the IRA sent Gerry Adams back in a time machine to 1939 where he threatened Hitler with all kinds of sinister things if he didn’t invade Poland.
Bake for around 20 minutes until soft and springy to touch. Cool on a wire tray.
Mix icing ingredients together and then spread or pipe over the cakes. Decorate with banana chips or popping candy.
Ah no, I’m only joking but here’s a similar article baked (or, more accurately, half-baked) earlier by Sunday Independent ‘journalist’ Eilis O’Hanlon.
Essentially, the article is about the misuse of Twitter and Facebook but, in common with all Independent Newspaper journalists, Ms. O’Hanlon just can’t help engaging in a rant against the evil Sinn Fein party.
Midway through the article Ms. O’Hanlon loses the run of herself as sinister Sinn Fein invades her thoughts.
Far too much of it, however, was cruelly organised by supporters of Sinn Fein/IRA, which, like the hard left in general, have a social media presence hugely out of proportion to its actual support in the country, which it uses to intimidate opponents into silence.
Consider it a lesson in what life will be like if they ever do get an actual, as opposed to a Twitter, majority.
A spokesman for Independent Newspapers denied that their journalists are injected with a mind-altering concoction that triggers an automatic Sinn Fein rant when writing articles, even articles about cup cakes 🙂