Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Dungarvan - "An Ungrateful Town" - An Ungraceful Politician - A Baffling Article


Outgoing TD Labels Dungarvan as "Ungrateful Town"

Whilst I wipe the tears away from my eyes after reading the above Irish Times article about an outgoing local TD (assumed as who it is never quite spelt out for us ;o ) I feel the need to suspend any sarcasm or cheap shots at what is possibly the easiest of targets, the losing team. Which is what it is, not an individual cast aside by his followers, (sounds like some Twitter accounts) and someone easily forgotten by the march of progress or social revolution! Ok the sarcasm is back a little.

The article puts across well the difficulties that transition can place on a person, and in whatever line of life, hopefully a tight social and family environment will be able to support them through these challenges.  However I can't really find the angle here, a cousin of X who states that the meeting between the two was hardly welcomed then proceeds to spill the beans of the Election meltdown and emotional earthquake of heavy defeat upon our candidate to the national press, who willingly oblige. Transition is something the Nation and everybody within it is experiencing right now and the only fact that I garnered from this piece is the rank stench of bitterness towards those that had provided X with a position of public authority within Dungarvan's midst "an ungrateful town....." which he wouldn't be visiting "anytime soon".  Jeysus, we are told there was a bridge near the pub where this discussion took place and it seems someone needs to build one himself fairly quick and get over it! For my part I was amazed X polled at 7,515 first preferences in the first place due to the nature of the political and financial environment, but his cousin steps in to remind him "to go from 23,025 first preferences in 2007 to 7,515 first preferences in 2011 is "some feat of electoral incompetence" with friends like these eh? Maybe he is now a somewhat "removed" cousin!

The Ungrateful (Celtic?) Tiger from Raymond Grady on Vimeo.

I began to think that this wasn't the Irish Times but a satirical piece for The Phoenix when Mrs X put forward her idea of taking 2% out of every workers paypack and re-establishing the double payment at Christmas to encourage spending, the more I think of it it's hilarious and Phoenix would do well to better this, though the drink and emotions that were now flowing may be partly to thank for these pearls of political wisdom.

X may be right when he says the next three years will be hell and that his outgoing party are best out of it, and Mrs X correct when she prompts him to be supportive of the incoming government, as I hope all the people of Dungarvan are and by doing so push some positivity back into the country, but this article from Thomas McCarthy ultimately left me feeling in agreement with X's parting shot,

"We're Better Off!"

Yours
Not Vincent Browne

Slainte Mhath

Updated after Link to Article changed to the Irish Times subscription page. Now corrected.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

A Famous Irish Victory At The Clash Of The.............Willow?

15th Match, Group B: England v Ireland at Bangalore, Mar 2, 2011 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Above is the link for the final scorecard from the historic Cricket World Cup win by the boys in green with willow not ash in their hands.

It's not a sport followed en masse here in Waterford though I am aware of a few hardcore supporters for who this result will stay implanted in their memory forever. There is also a Lismore Cricket Club for any one who may be interested in having a bash.

For following the event if you wish to keep up to date as a newly converted fan then ESPNCRICINFO is really quite hard to beat with hard working staff updating you by text on each and every ball. It's where I will be on Sunday (Ireland v India) and is now my safest bet for any involvement in the game having fractured my skull whilst aspiring to be a player such as Kevin O'Brien many moons ago. A great day for many Irish sports followers with Celtic winning their cup game against Rangers in a really "friendly" atmosphere, a few helmets wouldn't go amiss in future fixtures between these two methinks!!

Slainte Mhath