Blogroll « Ciaran’s Peculier [sic] Blog

Featured

Nollaig shona

Another year is drawing inexorably to its close. I always count as happy and worthwhile any year in which I add to the number of my friends and I consolidate existing friendships. Many of these contacts have sprung from my work and my writing; I believe that such friendships are the most important result of my work. Many have flowed from my contributions to the Cavan Echo, and I am cheered to know that I have a loyal readership many of whom I’m able to reach though I haven’t yet met them.

And then there are the friends I’ve made through the book on Co. Cavan. One friendship stands out; that with artist Jim McPartlin, whom I had not met until we were brought together on such a rewarding journey. Then there are the wonderful people in Cottage Publications in Donaghadea, with whom it was a true joy to work. I will never forget the night the book was launched.

For all my friends, both those I have the pleasure of knowing, as well as the many I have not yet met, I hope you have a really wonderful and peaceful Christmas and New Year marked by enjoyment and contentment, which will be marked by the pleasantest of memories.

For me writing is a pleasure because it is a means of expressing how I feel about things. It is also a medium of communication, for I always see my words and phrases as not being pieces of waste paper thrown into a void but being meant for an audience. It is very frustrating when I try to communicate with people and they are too rude to reply. I use two of the most common forms of communication available today, e-mail and standard mail (often referred to snail-mail), yet nothing can apparently penetrate the indifference of some. Am I to use pigeon post or maybe talking drums? Of course I know it is outrageous to think that important people like county managers or TDs should have the time or inclination to even think of replying to a mere cripple whose father is not a member of even a town council.

I have a special message for them. I hope they have a really miserable Chrimbo, that they get the skitter for three days and that they’re not able to get off the jacks until the New Year.

But remember girls and boys, don’t drink and ride this Christmas; it’s dangerous and it’s far more fun when you’re sober.

Leave a comment

December 19, 2008

Cavan lads with the horn

December was a time when some Cavan lads got the oul’ horn on them. No, this did not mean that they were lustier than usual, or that they had any less fear of approaching the opposite sex when sober. It refers to the practice of some youths who climbed hills from which they sounded horns. This was noted by among other the late Tom Barron, and seemed to be especially prevalent in the Cornafean and Bruise Mountain areas. It was obviously linked to Christmas. The horns used must have been fairly simple, no doubt of the hunting horn variety and the cacophony produced must have been ear-splitting. It would seem that this was somehow linked to the notion of the winter solstice and that the whoops of the horns were an attempt to try and summon the forces of life and light from their dark slumbers.

Leave a comment

December 12, 2008

Where some are more equal than others

The dogs on the street know why the Equality Commission in Ireland has suffered a 43 per cent cut in its funding as a result of Brian oge’s budget. They were obviously doing their work too well and had stood on a couple of rather big, calloused and bunioned toes in the higher echelons of the civil service, especially toes belonging to members of the Knights of St Columbanus and Opus Dei. For fuck’s sake equality! For everyone? women, Jews, queers, cripples, knackers … for Christ’s sake where would it end? Niall Crowley and his pinko secular humanist, lapsed Catholic friends were threatening to undermine the status quo in Ireland. If they had their ways an appalling vista whereby the friends of the great and the good, their sons and very occasionally their daughters and wives would not be able to get the pick of plumb jobs in areas like the Department of Finance or Foreign Affairs.

I think Niall Crowley must be commended on resigning rather than be further implicated in the farce which is the implementation of equality legislation in Ireland.

2 comments

December 9, 2008

Pissed off

I am pissed off. A recent report by the OECD found that there were high levels of poverty amongst the disabled in Ireland – not exactly news to me. It suggested that such poverty was because disabled people didn’t always have adequate access to training and education to gain qualifications. Well I have the highest degree I can get in my chosen area, a PhD in history, from one of Ireland’s most prestigious universities, Trinity College Dublin, and I am still poor, at least financially, and I expect to remain so for the rest of my life. You see, if you’re disabled, you can have all the qualifications you want, but you will still be sidelines or ignored. Public institutions will have nice verbal candy saying that they are “equal opportunities employers’ or that they are committed to the improvement of the lives of the disabled, but in practice this means sweet fu….

One skill that I have, along with the vast majority of people, is literacy. I am able to read and write and I enjoy both activities immensely. There are a small little clique – small in size but alas powerful – who wish I couldn’t write. Let me repeat I enjoy writing, as I feel it’s something I’m tolerably good at; I also love expressing myself. Yet since the onset of Multiple Sclerosis I cannot deny that I find it tiring. So when I write a letter or an e-mail to someone, and they don’t reply, I see it as the height of rudeness. I’m sure there are probably letters out there that I haven’t replied to, but the thought appals me. Anyone who sends me a message by e-mail, which is not rude or offensive, (and in fact it can be as offensive as it likes if it comes from someone I actually know), will receive a reply as quickly as I can write it.

People who read my blog will be aware of how I have talked about the problem of semi-literacy which affects some public officials, especially here In Cavan, and how I have spoken of schemes of intensive tutoring to help them, all paid for by the tax-payer naturally. I know well that these highly-paid mandarins are not semi-literate; they can read and write (and certainly count) as well as anyone; they are just plain bad-mannered with the social graces of a serially randy skunk who believes that they only need communicate with those who are important i.e. “The People”.

Sadly this rudeness also affects members of our legislature. I’m sick and tired of writing to TDs and never getting a reply. I’m tempted to introduce a “name and shame” scheme.

Another great excuse is that “we sent you an e-mail but you mustn’t have seen it.” What they are saying is that “You’re blind and partially sighted aren’t you. It’s a reasonable excuse to give when in fact we haven’t sent an invitation at all.” Let’s name and shame: I was a student of Cavan’s Royal School. I worked hard and got very good exams results. I thought I had brought honour on my school, and I was certainly proud of having attended it, feeling that it had taught me many things. Yet when the school decided to write its history I wasn’t asked to do this; in fact I wasn’t even asked to the launch of the book. My head-master said he had invited me by e-mail (itself not a proper form of invitation). The person whom he had charged with sending this electronic invitation claimed that he had sent it. He furthermore told me that there would be a further event related to the school’s history in September 2008. I waited for an invitation, which never came. To quote the title of one of Pedro Almodovar’s films “What have I done to deserve this?” The Gardai never had to come up to the school to question me. I was revising for my inter-cert when a group of vandals carried out an arson attack on an Orange hall near Bailieborough. It would have been common courtesy to be invited – courtesy was something that was instilled in me by the school’s teachers, but as is so often the case I tink it was more “Do as we say and not as we do.”

I’ve said enough. What’s more I’m getting tired.

Leave a comment

Featured

Drumnamuckagh

Welcome to Drumnamuckagh, the des-res for ireland’s beautiful people, well not really beautiful (most of them are as ugly as shite), more lucky few. The name comes from the Irish Droim na Muice meaning, yes pasti? The pig’s back. In this time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, not seen perhaps since the 1980s or even worse since 1929, it is comforting to know that the inhabitants of Drumnamuck are immune to all this turbulence and can sit back and thumb their snotty noses at the little people who have the misfortune to live in the real world and who lack ties with the movers and shakers. The denizens of Drumnamuckagh are a mixed bag of people from different backgrounds, but they have a few things in common – a lack of any worthwhile abilities except wasting money. Of course they also have pull which means that they will get all the plum jobs before people who are better qualified. You’ll find here politicians from all shades of the political spectrum, many of whom pretend to worry about the nation’s welfare but really have only their own welfare at heart. There are also their family members – sons and daughters, both legitimate and illegitimate. And if anyone as much as raises a whisper about their charmed lives they suffer eternal damnation and victimisation. I am only writing this because, let’s face it, I’m as mad as the proverbial hatter. I’m also a born loser who can’t come to terms with my own incompetence and disability, but instead tries to tarnish the glowing halos of those whom God and nature have installed above me and who is moreover so burned up with anger at being a useless cripple.

Not deterred, I intend to write more about Drumnamuck when I feel like it. For now I’ll just leave you with a taste of what’s to come – 600,000 – that’s six hundred thousand – euro to be precise. Quite a lot of shit. In fact it would be something of a handful even for a FAS director general, but I’m not talking about FAS director generals, even though a former hold of that post is a very honoured denizen of Drumnamuckagh.

Leave a comment

Featured

Presidential visit

I am disappointed that President McAleese, on one of her rare visits to the county, should come here to open an Orange Hall. The Orange Order means very little to the vast majority of inhabitants of this county. Its contribution to the history of Co. Cavan has always been divisive. Having said this I don’t see anything wrong with the Orange Order pursuing peaceful activities, in which it should be left unhindered and its halls and buildings should not be subjected to mindless vandalism. Remember that the Order closes its membership to the vast majority of the citizens of the island of Ireland. It has always espoused narrow sectarian views combined with socially reactionary policies. Maybe this is one of the reasons why the Irish government has suddenly become so generous to it. I don’t believe that it should receive marks of favour from the government of either of the jurisdictions on this island, nor should any other narrowly-based religious group.

Leave a comment

Featured

A week’s pay for an hour’s work?

In Ireland it often seems that those performing tasks fall into three categories; first there are those who do work voluntarily, without pay or renumeration. Sometimes the nature of the work is voluntary; the people doing it feel that the rewards they personally receive, especially if they are helping others, are payment enough. Other tasks have traditionally been unpaid, especially in the home and associated with child-rearing. For other volunteers, their unpaid status is mandatory, because no money has been allocated to what they do, no matter how important and vital it is.
The second group includes people who are paid, but usually not enough. They have been hood-winked into believe that they should look upwards and try to emulate their betters by striving for marks of material respectability, such as a good house and a nice car. They have always been encouraged to look down on the first group. They are among the greatest victims of the current financial mess in the world.

And then there are the people at the top. They receive huge renumerations for whatever they claim they do. This is only just, they complain, because of the amount of knowledge and responsibility they shoulder, and what’s more they complain about having to pay tax. They adorn themselves with trashy and self-important titles and are generally not receptive to criticism or outside inspection. We are told they are “cleverer than the average bear booboo” and they are supremely gifted, but if they’re so bright why is it everywhere’s in such a mess? It’s these people, whether in the public or the private sector that our elected leaders listen to.

They look with contempt on the former groups, possibly because they realise that it is only through luck and favouritism that they have been snatchee from these lower levels, as it is only in their self-praise and that of their cowed sycophants that they are viewed as talented.

One of their few talents seems to be in wasting money. Those who are at the bottom layer of society are often treated to the indignity of being told that their poverty is due to their lack of budgeting skills. But when you have little, you tend to value what little you have and are wary of bad value. I remember, during my cider-drinking days, asking for a bottle of the substance in the bar of a 5-star hotel in Ireland. Being something of a connoisseur of cider I was disappointed to learn that the only brand they had was a very popular brand which I considered should not have been allowed to call itself cider. But then my disappointment turned to shock when I went to pay for it. The price sought was roughly ten times that which would have been asked in an average Irish pub. What is true of cider is true of so much else involving consumption: the price reflects the amount that the customer is viewed as being ready to pay.

Those who really are talented have to suffer in silence and grit their teeth, as they are spat upon and treated with derision. They are never allowed into the loop, and if they live in some out-of-the-way locality they are sidelined.

Leave a comment

Category: Blogroll

Featured

Featured

Featured

Featured

Featured

Follow “Ciaran's Peculier [sic] Blog”