An analysis of the state of affairs in Ireland from a bar stool somewhere in Dublin. Part A.

I have a friend who is gifted at summing up things political/economic and what not in Ireland.

He has said I may share his ´meanderings` as he calls it.

Reading this, I think you will, like I did, quickly grasp the personal consequences of the bank bail out in Ireland. Not always light reading, but it is easy to understand.  

I don´t presume to think I can add anything to Mr. Mystery´s thoughts. This is too good to mess with, so I don´t add any of my own words.   Part b. comes later.

Do let me know if you have any comments.

And enjoy your cup of tea -  you will need it after reading Mystery Man´s opinion!

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….Yes, was following the 'end' of the Anglo-Irish debacle last week and in two minds about it all.  I saw a reference to the fact that the Irish are covering about 42% of all European bad banking debt.  The gas thing is that if we simply let it go back in 2008, and said that private debt is not, nor should it ever be 'sovereign debt', then the German and French banks that lent to the Irish Banks in the first case, would have been in a very sticky position, not least with their own compatriot tax-payers.  Would the Germans/French still have agreed that 'private bank debt' should become 'sovereign debt'.  Highly questionable!

On the face of it, it seems that last week's deal was good, in that it buys us time here in Ireland.  Apparently, we won't have to borrow E20 billions in the next ten years to cover the Anglo debt... this will now be spread out over 40 years - in the bulk, 27 years - at a lower rate of interest 3% as opposed to 8%.  It means though that our children and grandchildren will still be paying for this folly.  Having said that, to have stayed on the original 8%/10 year path was simply not sustainable... Ireland too, like Greece, would have defaulted and where would our children/grandchildren be then?  Having said all that though, I look at Iceland, where they simply let their banks go bust - because they're not in the EU or part of the Euro - and they're doing fine right now.  What madness betook our politicians... Brian Cowen/Brian Lenihan et al?  I will go to my grave without ever fully understanding what happened.

I think that in macro terms, it's good for us... but in micro terms I'm not sure that we shall notice any difference.  Then again, perhaps the water charges and the property taxes will not be as high, now that we've had this change.  We shall never truly know.

Having said all that, I'm also very cautious about adopting a sense of victim hood... We've had enough of that in our country too - And it looks like that's not going to disappear anytime soon, what with the Magdalena laundries etc.  There's an awful lot of 'look what they've done to us' with 'they' ranging from the English, to the British, from the Church to the Banks, from the priests to the nuns, from the absentee landlords to the absentee property developers, from crooked politicians to immoral bishops.  There's very little about what we've actually done to ourselves! Honestly though Ro, is there anything - since Ireland won its independence - that Ireland can be genuinely proud of?  We've one of the most unequal societies in Europe - our choice as we've consistently voted in FF/FG/PDs through out the years - even the 'good' years.  Think about what 'unequal' actually means and it is very quickly, very sobering!!  What of our kinship with each other?  I think that we've a very selfish group of people, no?

Well, at least I've got the start of an Irish stew in the making... and a cup of broth right here beside me to start with!  These are the small things that we need to keep remembering... and valuing!!!  I can hear the pot 'bubbling away'.  Genuinely, that and the broth are making me happy right now

Anyhow, I'm off.  I'm going to dip in to the pot again for some more broth.  Mmm, good, even if I say so myself.  Anyhow, so long, take care and say a prayer that the Irish will at last wake up and value each other like ordinary decent Europeans do elsewhere!
Lots of love to you Ro... and to H. too. 

Fasnacht- When one takes one´s Fun very Seriously!

 These are colouful days indeed by the Bodensee -  even if we are into our 4th day in a row with 100% cloud coverage.  No, nary a sign nor a sight of a sun ray to be seen in the heavens.   But these  days are colourful none the less- because it is Fasnacht! 

Fasnacht is a bit like Mardi Gras in Rio -- only with clothes on!   Most people here love Fasnacht;  it is a time for fun and letting one´s hair (or toupee) down. -   And maybe even a bit more `comes down`but as this is a family friendly blog we won´t go there!  People are very serious about their fun at Fasnacht!  The locals parade around in the streets wearing lovely colorful costumes and playing music;  many of the participants wear beautifully carved but often grotesque masks.  Most of the participants belong to particular vereins or groups.  The  costumes and masks have stories about which often no one knows the origin.  Some of the stories or themes are certainly from the middle ages, but I suspect some go back to before Christianity.   I am including a connection to a website of photos from my first Fasnacht here.  The local verein celebrated its 100th anniversary that year, so it was joined by many other groups from near and far as they say.

https://picasaweb.google.com/100073360914706849194/2009#5581298151356603586

You will see there are 100`s perhaps thousands of participants, and very few viewers, that is because in every village and town they all have their own parade.  Many people from the villages are involved so there is not too many left to look on!

The participants with the masks, are instructed to approach children meekly and stretch a hand out with a sweet for the child, who may or may not take the sweet.  I understand people who don´t approach children gently will be taken to task or even put out of the verein.  What is  wonderful is that children, even when quite young, become used to different or ugly or other or what ever - and noise!  

The down side is people can be insistent with adults that they partake of alcoholic beverages, but in an imperfect world we can deal with this not ideal situation. 

Although I don´t have a great understanding of Fasnacht, or the psyche behind it, I do attend a lot of the parades and some of the Fasnacht Balls.  - I so enjoy seeing kids, babies, teenagers, seniors and all in between having fun together.  Romeo H is, for the most part not a great Fasnacht fan.  There is indeed a solid minority who leave town altogether for Fasnacht, or just stay home and hibernate during Fasnacht.

Today, Ash Wednesday, is the last day of Fasnacht, at least in this area, in more Protestant Switzerland, some areas start their Fasnacht into the first days of Lent.  But now the hard working Germans will put away their Fasnacht masks and costumes and get back to the serious business of working hard again. Until Fasnact next year.

Views of New York....

Looking into my photo file I have put together a collection of not your usual angles on views of New York.   You might have fun working out some of the locations where the photos were taken.

This is Rosa.
Rosa is a WONDERFUL New York Story.  For over 30 years she has been a street vendor on 32st Street, across from Madison Square Garden.  - She is also a great adviser on head wear!
But more.  Her two children would join her after school and do their home work under the table. Clearing a good spot for learning; her son is now a doctor and her daughter a lawyer.... Is that a true New York story or what!

And last but NOT least,  Tyke my ´former` cat.  Now 14 1/2 and still thriving and bossing every one around in the Long Island City Vets - his home since 2008.

The Fine Sport of Wellie Racing finally comes to the Heart of Europe!

Well folks there you have it.  Yes, a momentous start to 2013 indeed, because --- wait for it... YES.... wellie racing can now be experienced right bang in the middle of Europe! YES YES YES!  

Read on for the exciting details...

A Report on the First Ever Wellie Race in the Middle of Europe.  Posted from St. Gallen, Switzerland. 

As President Michael D. himself said, if ye can´t get to the Gathering, bring the Gathering to you!  So on January 1^st. 2013, simultaneous and at the same time as the wellie race in Castlecomer, a wellie event took place under the Santis Mountain in Switzerland,  only a Kazensprung  - not a stone´s throw as ye non-German speakers might say, from St. Gallen  in Switzerland. 

 Now we all know de lads in Powley Vale are very high cultured well read sort of chaps, so they would know all about St. Gallen.  But a lot of the rest you might need to be reminded that St. Gallen was founded by a friend of St. Columbanus way back in 612 A.D.  So it was felt, naturally, a wellie race was the most fitting way to end the year long celebrations of the1400 anniversary of the founding of this UNESCO designated world cultural site.

There was a lot of ´wanna be´participants  in this the First Ever Wellie Race in the Middle of Europe who were automatically eliminated from the race, because their footwear did not comprise of what would be described as the  dictionary definition of a ´wellie`.  For example there were a few who insisted on wearing warm leather boots, but it was made very clear to them if they and their feet were not going to be freezing in wellies like the rest of us, then they could not participate.  Likewise a few smart a-ses wore what appeared to be wellies, but on closer inspection, their footwear was found to comprise of runners and leggings.  A few more turned up with wellies alright, but they wanted to race with their skis on too.  And one boyo had wellies tied onto his snowmobile and caused a great rumpus when he was told he could not participate.  Fortunately a Swiss Ban Garda took him in hand in no time. 

So even if due to the aforementioned ´logistical´ issues the number of participants in the First Ever Wellie Race in the Middle of Europe, in St. Gallen, Switzerland was ´a tad´ lower than the numbers participating in the Castlecomer race, Germany, Switzerland, the county of Clare and the townland of Coolgrange were well represented none the less.  

The winner in the under 50s age group was 5 yr old Martina Kretz age (she of Swiss-Co.Clare origins), closely followed by her sister Mary age 6.  Interestingly the over 50s prize went to their father Guido, mother Ann - who is responsible for the Clare connection in the Kretz-Broggy  family came in not too far behind.   So the Kretz family left their mark indeed on the St. Gallen Wellie Race at  Moos, 9116 Wolfertswil.  The winners all received a bag of Taytos, flown in from Ireland especially for the big event*.  It was felt Guido Kretz looked far too young for a man over 50, so he had to produce his birth cert to prove he was before he got his bag of Taytos. 

 The prizes were presented by Herbert Ehinger of Germany, who it must be acknowledged, took great care to ensure that no harm came to the bags of Taytos before the big prize giving event.

(*Regarding the Taytos; what with Switzerland´s stringent rules on importing foods and all,  nobody knows nothin´ and can´t remember anything either,  about how the bags of Taytos got flown from Ireland and got smuggled into Switzerland).

Roisin Hausfrau January 2, 2013

 

 

What a refreshing response in these days of watered down everything!

In this day of ´watered down´ everything, I hope like me you will be impressed with the clear acknowledgement of error below.  I was so impressed - with my own letter of course to start with. (Hey what can I tell you, I don´t wallow in humility, much as I´d love to say I do!)  But the unambiguous letter of response really had me raising my cup of tea.  
My letter was sent to the Library in Trinity College Dublin, slightly modified out of respect to the addressee.

Dear Sir ,

Allow me to introduce myself.  First let me clarify I am not an Irish scholar, indeed no scholar of any sort.  I am an Irish woman twice blessed however, first because I was born in Kilkenny, and second because I now live in Allensbach a beautiful village in southern Germany that is only a swim away from the island of Reichenau.

Last week I was delighted to visit  the Trinity College Library.  As always the experience was even better than the last time I visited; the display and exhibition`Turning Darkness into Light`around the ancient manuscripts housed in the library was such that one had to be astounded by their beauty and the complexity of their production.  I must thank you and your staff at the library for same.

There is one small issue I would like to draw your attention to.  On the leaflet discussing the Book of Kells, the delightful poem Pangur Bán was printed.  It stated that the poem was written by an Irish monk in St. Gallen,  Switzerland.
 
We can all agree the little poem was written by a monk, possibly Sedulius Scottus sometime in the 9^th century.  Likewise it is accepted by scholar and layman alike that the poem was included in cluster of 9 pages known as the Reichenauer Schulheft or Reichenau Primer.  It is also agreed the pages were found on the German island of Reichenau and for various reasons were moved to different locations over the centuries, and that the folia are now housed in St. Paul´s Abbey in the Lavanttal in the Austrian state of Carinthia.

Being  a Kilkenny woman, who now lives not a Katzensprung from Reichenau Island, I concede  I may not have total objectivity on the provenance of a poem about a cat.  That being said, I do most respectfully opine there is enough evidence to suggest that the poem Pangur Bán was written by a Irish monk in the Island of Reichenau.   Or at least an argument for Reichenau is as feasible as St. Gallen.

Most sincerely,

R.C.

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From: X

Dear Rosaleen

 

Thank you for taking the trouble to write about this. You are correct, of course, and I can offer no explanation for our error. It will be corrected in the next Book of Kells exhibition, though that will not be for a number of years.

........

With best wishes

 

Today I am not so into writing....

It´s a while since I have blogged, and normally I blog happy and good stuff;  I figure most people can get all the misery they want in their own lives without my giving them any more in my blog. 

But I have been sad for sometime.  And angry.  So maybe if I just put it out there, I will be able to go back to my ´happy zone`.  So here it is.

Back in the early 70´s I worked in child care in Ireland.  The idea, which is very good I think, is that one does practical work in the field for two years, and then you go back and study child care. Well I did the practical, but I never could get accepted for training in Ireland, either in child care, or as a social worker.   After several years I gave up and left the child care field altogether.

I am still in occasional touch with some of the children I cared for some 35 years ago. Since then there has been a lot of people held accountable in Ireland for abuse to children in care.  Including in the group home where I worked.  But here is what hurts even more than that.   The woman who replaced me, and who did get trained in childcare,  has been accused by some of the children of abusing them; there is going to be a court hearing over the matter later this month.  I am heart broken, and angry.  If I had been accepted for training, and I never could find out why I was not accepted, I would likely have stayed on in the same group home thus avoiding at least some of the abuse those children suffered.

I don´t know about you, but I just don´t get the $200 dainties thing......

So there I was on my bike meandering along the quiet leafy byways around Allensbach; as I ambled on in this charming pastoral setting by Lake Konstanz, being dazzled by the rays of sunlight dancing on the softly rippling water, against a back drop of the majestic snow covered Alps, an observation of non-world shattering importance occurred to me: I just don’t ‘get’ the expensive lingerie thing!

      Oh the lingerie bit I get; the wearing of nice nearly nothings in the expectation that a romantic liaison, dangerous or otherwise might ensue.  But why expensive.   I mean there you are all dolled up in your nearly nothings in the low light (and unless you are a wife or an ex-wife of Brad Pitt - or Brad Pitt, one should really not be wearing nearly nothings without the ‘assistance’ of low light.  Indeed with six kids under 10, and  not enough sleep by times,  Brad, God bless him, looks like he too might occasionally have need of ‘low light’ these days).  

      So there you are anyway all dolled up in your $200 nearly nothings and the object of your affections cannot keep their hands off you…. And then you shout … “Hey be careful - that’s $200 worth of thong you are groping at there!”…. Well let’s face it, after that, no amount of low light or the Righteous Brothers singing is going to ‘bring back that lovin’ feelin’. The truth is, it’s just ‘gone gone gone’. 

     No, I figure, if  it is a romantic dalliance one is after, one should stick to less costly nearly nothings;  with all that low light and romantic music in tow, whose going to notice/or care if the cut or design of your drawers is ‘designer’ or not.  If one must have La Perla in one’s life, better to enjoy it by one’s self.

       Ah!  Isn’t it just amazing what awareness can present themselves to one as one wanders about in bucolic milieus.

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p.s. 'Someone' in the vicinity ‘who wishes to remain nameless’ opined if woman let the men in their lives buy the underwear, $200 for any ‘under’ item of clothing would not be an issue a woman would ever have to occupy herself with again. 

The alert fans among you will recall this blog posting.  But go on, admit it, it is worth a repeat! R