Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

Do you ever wonder whether you’re living in a free country or whether the efforts of past generations to attain our freedom were  pointless? It sometimes seems as if the only icons of nationhood we see on a daily basis is the harp on official letters demanding money to support a corrupt and wasteful government. Sure, we have passports, but they’ve long been openly for sale to the highest bidder, and as an Irish passport holder there are many parts of the Middle East I wouldn’t feel safe going. So all of this sovereignty stuff is about as useful as a bowl of cold piss.

 Take recently when the head of a US-based multinational described our education system as “average”. Our education system lacks flexibility, and has traditionally been too much controlled by druids and their acolytes in far-right Catholic lay organisations, but with respect to my friends in the US and UK our education system is better.

 But this comment led to the Minister for Education, Batt O’Keefe, to launch an investigation into whether their had been “award inflation” (in other words, had people been given marks to which they were not entitled). This was but another act of insensitivity by this incompetent government. There are loads of people out there who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs or fear losing them. One of the few things they could feel sure about was their educational awards, but these have been devalued at a stroke. But these people must remember that their awards were earned through their own efforts unlike many of the hangers-on around this government who in spite of not having any awards to be proud of, have managed to crawl into lucrative and safe jobs.

 Minister O’Keefe said nothing about award inflation within Irish universities, particularly for scholarship examination taking place independently of the end of term exams, such as the “Schol” system within my own alma mater Trinity College, In order to get such a scholarship candidates must achieve first class honours. It has long been felt that award inflation has been at work here and that those who have benefited have been sons and daughters of politicians, such as our present cancerous minister for Finance Brian Lenihan Jr and Ms Rachel Hussey, daughter of former education minister Gemma Hussey and “elected” a scholar in 1985, when her mother was serving as minister for education, But all of these people were “smarter than the average bear Boo-Boo” and deserved their awards, whereas the “award inflation” spoken of by Minister O’Keefe only deals with small people.