What
…Another Year!
So…
the race is on and the General Election will take place on Saturday, February 8th.
The first Saturday election they say since 1918. An issue for us in Boyle is getting enthused
by an election which, in the constituency boundary carve-up, has transposed us
into the constituency of Sligo/Leitrim/ North Roscommon/ South Donegal. There
is a bit of ‘sweepings of the floor’ about all that.
We
now have to get to know most of the potential candidates. So here is my very
rough thumbnail sketch-guide to it as of today Thursday January 16.
They
are at the moment Marian Harkin former M.E.P. who topped the poll in the 2002
general election and three sitting T.D.s’ Marc Mc Sharry F.F., Eamon Scanlon F.F.
and Martin Kenny S.F. With those is Frank Feighan F.G. who was impressively
elected in 2007 and 2011 in Roscommon /South Leitrim. A Tony McLoughlin F.G.
has stood down from contesting this time. For a time his daughter was seen as a
strong candidate but also stood down. It is probable that F.G. will add another
candidate while the Greens may do so as well. Other possibles are Ellis, Bree
and some independents. There are some 6000 + votes in the Roscommon section of
the constituency with some 4000 voting last time and the quota will come in
around 12,000 with four seats.
In
Roscommon East Galway the sitting T.D.s’ are Dennis Naughton Ind. …..but formerly F.G. / Ml. Fitzmaurice Ind.
/ Eugene Murphy F.F.
Both
Maura Hopkins and Ivan Connaughton had close runs in recent times. The standing
down of Maura Hopkins for family reasons this time is a big hit for F.G. and
their chances of getting a candidate elected now are minimal. Added to this is a strong second F.F. candidate
in Orla Leyden. Orla, is the daughter of Terry, but is her own lady in politics
and is an impressive presence as a County Councillor. While Sinn Fein with
Claire Kerrane and a possible Green candidate will get decent votes the Sinn
Fein transition from Gerry Adams to Mary Lou McDonald has flat-lined at best. The
Greens will get seats nationally and deservedly so but in Roscommon… not this
time. I was listening to Ml. Fitzmaurice on the ‘Tonight’ T.V. programme last
night with Ivan Yates and he seemed almost bored and boring in answering the
same questions!
Nationally
seeing F.G. have been there since 2011 it would be some coup to continue as the
primary party. A certain arrogance can be seen from time to time with their
party hierarchy. Paschal is seen as an able Minister but is inclined to be
looking down his nose a lot of the time. The one thing that really hits parties
who are in situ for a prolonged period is ARROGANCE and ENTITLEMENT. The Bard
again ‘Pride comes before a fall’. While the country is said to be prospering
that prosperity is very uneven. Rural Ireland is in a constant state of erosion
while Dublin continues to be the magnet despite significant logistical issues
there.
While
Fine Gael will of course point to the country’s prosperity, its Brexit policies
and dealings, and the Northern parties back on track with a devolved Government
there are a number of Premier issues that will hurt them hard and often.
The
two major issues are well flagged in Heath and Housing. The experience of many
who visit hospitals is regularly one of shock. I have been in some accident and
emergency and in simplistic terms I refer to them as like Beirut. It is
impossible to get any understanding of how so much money can be spent but yet for
the core elements within the health system to remain so log-jammed. It seems as
if the crisis is just impossible to influence.
The
housing ‘crisis’ is just an ongoing saga too with huge amounts of blame to go
around. The issues include the
impossibility of young couples to get on the property ladder in the cities
where they work; the homeless who struggle even to get any kind of housing; the
insane rent young workers in the cities are required to pay in rent; the
transposing of families into temporary accommodation in hotels etc. Fine Gael
made a mistake not to remove Eoghan Muphy as if that would help!
Last
night on the ‘Tonight’ the farmers protest in Dublin which was criticised by
some contributors. It is an odd thing that the mainstream representative
organisations are side-lined by those organising these disruptive blockades.
They could be counter-productive cheesing off the communities in the capital.
Though one commentator made the interesting point that; “Dublin is our capital
city it belongs to all of us. It is where power exists and where the message
must be delivered to.” etc.
Salute to Mary Clifford
Congratulations
and best wishes to Mary on being awarded the Roscommon Herald GAA ‘Hall of
Fame’ award on Friday night next in The Abbey Hotel in Roscommon. It is in
recognition of Mary’s work and commitment to Boyle and Roscommon GAA allied to
her continued support for her native county of Donegal.
Sigerson Last Sunday
“Last
night I dreamt I went to Manderley again” is the opening line in Daphne du
Maurier’s Gothic novel. Well last Sunday
I returned to the Sigerson Gaelic football tournament in Galway after a long
time. Four of us, former UCG GAA people, met in up in Salthill with the meeting
being supplemented by attending a Sigerson Cup game between UCG and UCC. I’ve
never adapted to the modern appendage of NUIG which stands for the National
University of Ireland Galway. After meeting up we headed for UCG’s grounds at
Dangan. It was a cold miserable day and the Fitzgibbon hurling game was in
progress between the same two colleges. UCC in the familiar distinctive red
jerseys with black band and skull and crossbones motif were winners in a game
that UCG could have got a draw from. It was a difficult day for skilful hurling
which happened in patches. The 30 man panel of UCG had only two from out of
Galway.
There
was a long break before the football game which was a do- or- die affair. UCG
started brightly with a Robert Finnerty a lively player causing problems for
Cork. However, when Cork settled they got two quick goals which of course were
crucial to the result. Galway fought back and by half time the margin had
narrowed to a couple of points. The introduction of Corofinn star Kieran Molloy
promised good things for Galway but Kerry player Sean O’ Shea was a star turn.
Galway had the chance to draw level and send the game into extra time but their
free-taker missed from close in with the last kick of the game. It was the
trauma that lands on a missed penalty taker in a shoot-out. There was no
Roscommon player participating with just two substitutes Aaron Brady and Padraic Halpin.
Through
the decades Roscommon players have played an integral part of many Sigerson
teams. From our own area, there is a number such as, in the 30s’, Dr. Hugh Gibbons who was a star player with a
UCG team that ruled the roost then as he won on 5 occasions. UCG won 8 in 10
Sigersons in the thirties. Bill McQuillan captained a College team to victory
circa 1950. Paddy Nangle was also part of the winning UCG teams of the early
60s’. John Kelly starred for UCD in the
late sixties. Timmy O’ Dowd was a UCG player in the early 70s’ with Tom Ryan in
the 90s’. Sean Daly and later Niall O’Donohoe featured with Sligo I.T. in their
early days. Around four years ago the Smith brothers and Tadhg Lowe starred
with DCU with a great win in Cork against Cork which a number of Boyle GAA
supporters were happy to witness. Evan
McGrath was on the U.C.G. panel in 2019 when they lost a great game against
UCC. UCC and UCG seem to have a real history which has tiltedin favour of Cork with
23 Sigersons wins, to UCG a creditable 22 wins bolstered by the golden era of
the 30s’ with their 8 wins.
‘It’s the little things that trip you
up’
1.
While it is not a little thing but the story on the radio as I write here is of a
homeless man being seriously injured while some tents were being cleared from
the banks of a Dublin’s Grand Canal. It emerged that underneath one of the
tents that was being removed by a machine was a person. In the process, he was
seriously injured and removed to hospital with life-changing injuries. It of
course highlights again the plight of the homeless particularly in the cities
and how the authorities find it impossible to redress those extreme issues.
Numbers are being quoted as I speak and all that but there can be no confidence
that the situation will get hugely better. An ‘incident’ that brought it into
stark light was the death of a man in a doorway close to Leinster House around
four years ago. There was an outcry then and things improved but they have
regressed.
The
argument from the Government is that; “There is no reason for anyone to sleep
out on the streets as there is emergency accommodation available for everyone”.
The issue- question there is…Why will people choose to sleep on the streets
rather than access this supposed total accommodation? They are saying that it
is safer to sleep in their tents than in the hostels!
From
a political/election point of view this ‘incident’ is a very unwelcome grenade.
2.
While this has gone off the radar the stupidity of the printer for Leinster House
and the remedial work needed to facilitate its location was mind-boggling.
3.
The spiralling cost of the National Children’s Hospital which is being built in
a very contentious restricted site will be a story for a number of years yet.
4.
The decision that was short-circuited to commemorate the R.I.C. at Dublin
Castle championed by the Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan. What a start to at
least 3 years of very sensitive commemoration. Regularly on the high stool, a
person will suggest; “I could have told them that…it wouldn’t fly.” Regarding the assimilation of ‘Black and
Tans’ into the R.I.C. in 1920 it really developed after a considerable number
of RIC members left the organisation for a variety of reasons. A small number
would have supported the emerging Irish Republic after the 1918 General
Election. Others were frightened for their own safety and that of their
families. A number would have emigrated to England and the U.S. The substantial
reduction in numbers was filled by ‘recruits’ from England who were well
remunerated. These were the ‘Black and Tan’ elements most with WW1 experience. So
commemorating the RIC with its ‘Black and Tan’ connection at that particular
period was an “I could have told them that …’ incident.
5.
School Secretaries were in the news last week as they picketed Leinster House too
with issues of pay rate, no summer pay and no pension. Their status when compared to internal
Department of Education secretaries is stark. I know from my previous life that
the work of school secretaries is immeasurable. They are the ‘first responders’
to so many issues in the school environment. They are the glue in the school
framework. Without them, the running of schools would become a tangled web. So
give them respect and their due.
(I’ll
move on to a more positive zone).
56th BT Young Scientist
& Technology Exhibition
There
was a great picture of the winners of the primary award at the above on
Saturday’s Independent. They were Cormac Harris and Alan O’Sullivan from Cork.
Their project looked at; “Stereotyping in young children and how to combat it.”
The reaction of the boys was hugely positive almost expressing the feeling that
they found it hard to believe. They now go forward to a European equivalent of
the exhibition. This initiative has to be a big driver of secondary student
initiatives and many winners have gone on to great success in their lives. I
may be wrong but were the Collison brothers of Strype winners here a decade or
so ago? Good luck to the winners and I imagine there are many fine ideas in the
projects that did not get the primary accolade. One which I saw referred to a drone
delivery of defibrillators! The Roscommon Herald features the Roscommon
entrants. I visited the Young Scientist expo once in the mid-nineties when my
neighbour had a project there. It is such a great initiative.
James Dodd the Hurler
Michael
Caine had a two-part biography decades ago maybe. The first book was titled
‘Not a Lot of People Know That’…the second being ‘Not a Lot of People Know this
Either’. At the launch of hurling in Boyle, I came in contact with Roscommon
hurling official Kieran Farrell from Tremane. We talked a bit about the hurling
teams of the late sixties and told me that they were going to ‘honour’ two
Roscommon teams that had won ‘Special All-Irelands’ fifty years ago in 1969. One was a minor team
and the other was U16. He mentioned about a young Boyle man called James Dodd
and asked if I knew him, which of course I did. ‘Well he was part of the
Roscommon U 16 hurling team, especially in the early games and we’d like to
invite him to the re-union Kieran replied. So I contacted James and got his
take on it and he was pleased to be remembered. He was involved in the early
games being ferried there by Mister Hurling of then, Offaly man Bob Carr. He
missed out, somewhat, subsequently after accompanying his uncle, Father Kieran
Dodd, on a holiday abroad. Holidays had also contributed to his hurling
initiation as they were to relations in Tipperary.
So
in mid-December, James returned to the re-union in Roscommon’s hurling heartland
of Athleague fearing he would know ‘no one’. But no, as a familiar face of
someone from his current native town of Nenagh emerged with ‘What are you doing here?’ he being a member of
the minor team while James had been on the U 16 team.
So
the night turned out to be a nice acknowledgement of a sporting highlight from
50 years ago.
As
a postscript it is well to acknowledge that James played Gaelic football with
distinction for St. Mary’s College; Boyle teams in a series of county finals
and Roscommon minors in the seventies and coached the game in Boyle and in his
adopted town of Nenagh.
Changing Lanes
I
travel to Galway regularly. By tradition, my road was via Frenchpark, Castlerea,
Williamstown and Dunmore and Tuam. That is a challenging route, especially in
darkness. I knew a lady once who in her early driving initiation, on that road
actually, told me that when she passed a cyclist she used to check her rear-
view mirror to ensure that the cyclist was still intact! Why I say that is that
there are times when meeting large vehicles on that the margin of error is
negligible. So now I have changed to Frenchpark, past Ballagaderreen, Swinford,
Knock, Claremorris via Ballindine and Milltown and linking into Tuam. Apart
from a number of miles between Milltown and Ballindine it is a much better
road.
So
I have ‘made the change’ which is something akin to ‘shop around’. It may be
costing me some five or so minutes but the steering wheel grip has relaxed a
little!
Watch what you say, politician!
This
is a given but Heather Humphries a former minister (I presume now) referred to
the Fianna Fáil front bench as a Junior ‘B’ team. I took immediate offence to
that reference as I have a fond attachment to the ‘Jnr. ‘B’ teams for many
years and especially after the Boyle team’s exploits this year. Indeed
Kilteevan St. Joseph’s celebrated their win over Boyle in 2018 as if it meant
the world to them.
Heather
was using the analogy that the Fianna Fáil front bench has not got the
wherewithal to govern. It is hard to be a star when you are consigned to the
subs bench for nine years…something FF would not be used to.
*Michéal
Martin deserves an awful lot of credit for supporting the F.G. Government for
so long with ‘confidence and supply’. I imagine that there were many in F.F.
who had reservations about that and especially its duration.
Anyway, Heather when this note is brought to
your attention ‘Give Respect Get Respect’.
Windows 7
While
I am no techno person I have seen this week that Microsoft are ‘not supporting
Windows 7’ henceforth and the general advice to people is to upgrade or
investigate their security status generally. As I say I’m not qualified in the
elements of all this but a thing I don’t want is infection issues with the
laptop.
Epilogue
There
were a few things I thought I might mention this turn such as some reflection
on the happenings of Christmas, meeting people home for Christmas who I wish
well on their return to x, y, z; the Golden Globes some T.V. programmes good
and bad and so on… but we will adjourn.
Slán
for now
t.c.
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