Field starts to take shape with just a week to go

Thu, Feb 17, 2011

Roll up, roll up, roll up, for the next week you are Willie Wonka, the chocolate maker, and you have it in your power to make someone very very happy indeed. You are the holder of the key to the kingdom, the keeper of the Golden Ticket for nine individuals who after your consideration are set to benefit enormously through your trust of their general capabilities to represent you and your area for the next five years.

There’s no show now that it’s a no-Joe show

Thu, Feb 10, 2011

And so ends the great political career that never was.

No excuses as The Chosen People shun politics

Thu, Feb 03, 2011

The best laid plans of mice and men, Eh? Well, the mice have certainly been to the fore this week with the news that the beautiful people, the chosen ones, those doyens of the media, those apostles of the commentary box, those Ivorians of the ivory tower have decided that after much bleating, beating of chests, gnashing of teeth and scratching of arses, that they could not be bothered to take part in the forthcoming election and save Ireland for the rest of us.

Fianna Fail — The show is over, get off the stage

Thu, Jan 27, 2011

The political drama of the last while is beginning to wear on us now. We’ve seen and heard it all. We don’t want to be lied to anymore. We don’t want to see the likes of Brian Cowen anymore or his lying ministers. We don’t want to see the legal eagle Lenihan spinning us his economics the way he’d spin a defence to get a gurrier off the hook in court. The likes of Dermot Ahern and Noel Dempsey shaking their heads and lying to us, treating us like fools. Jumped up teachers and solicitors and people who never had a real job in the real world, but who were coccooned in a bubble at our expense.

Tomorrow's port announcement is most significant in history of Galway

Thu, Jan 20, 2011

When they come to write the history of Galway 100 years from now, we can be fairly sure that the legacy of an event tomorrow (Friday) will be writ large on those pages.

Michaela’s death brings back memories of the Manuela anguish

Thu, Jan 13, 2011

It has been a tragic week for the entire country, a dark start to the New Year, and for once, the concern is not about wealth or deteriorating economic circumstances. Right from the weekend, when the former Galway student was mauled to death by a dog in Malaysia, from when that joyous hen party turned tragic in Kinsale, from when two bodies were found shot in Limerick, an air of gloom has pervaded the entire country.

A year to look forward to

Thu, Jan 06, 2011

JANUARY — the year gets off to a flying start when the words 'Oh feck' are uttered collectively by two million as the January wage sheets are handed out and the true realisation of the Budget kicks in... Sky Sports reports a massive number of calls to their cancellation centre...sales of lattes are decimated...hair extensions are returned to the rats who sold them during the good times...the lights are turned off...Our working class hero Anglo Avenger Trucker Joe, who hasn't mounted a protest using building equipment for what must be weeks now, attacks Anglo ATMs with an angle grinder. He is arrested again for the usual few hours, but despite his latest effort, Cadbury's say that he is not their man for the new Milk Tray ad...back to the drawing board for the caped crusader. It snows and rains and freezes.

From bailout to baleouts — it’s leak and potato soup

Thu, Dec 30, 2010

Grab hold of your stopcock. Make sure your ballcock is floating. Now relax there in the dark of the attic.

Why can’t we just have boring weather anymore

Thu, Dec 16, 2010

You would think that with all the mess we’re in at the moment, the very least we could get would be a reprieve from the elements. What with us still recovering from the trauma of that few inches of snow last week, but alas, it seems that just as you read these words on this frosty Thursday morning, the first flakes of snow are winding their way down from the heavens above you.

Don’t be too proud to ask for help

Thu, Dec 09, 2010

In all of our communities right now, there are husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, who have lost their jobs and are wondering how they are going to make it through the winter and out the far side. They know that there are but a few weeks to Christmas yet they have never been as badly prepared as they are this year. Thousands of homes will experience a Christmas the likes of which they have not experienced for some years.

Galway feels the love that will help it beat recession

Thu, Dec 02, 2010

Genband cast a strong vote of confidence in Galway yesterday when it announced that it is to invest the guts of eight million euro in its plant which will open early next year. Tomorrow, Friday, the IRFU, although belatedly, will also cast a strong vote of confidence in Connacht rugby when they at last give it the sort of stability and recognition that it has long sought, and long deserved. Last Saturday and Sunday, tens of thousands of shoppers cast their vote of confidence in Galway when they chose this city to be the place where they want to do their Christmas shopping, by flocking to the streets and giving Galway a Christmas atmosphere it has also long sought.

The darkest hour is just before the dawn

Thu, Nov 25, 2010

My mother had an expression uttered each time she saw a pram which went “there’s last year’s fun on wheels.” Well, last night at the publication of the Four Year Plan, we got the bill for the fun that was had by many, though not all in the first seven years of this century. And like a bill in a restaurant when you peruse the columns to make sure you haven’t been charged for something you didn’t order, there are a lot of people in this country this morning who will be mnystified why they have to foot the bill for a party to which they were not invited.

Taking a co-ordinated approach to traffic management

Thu, Nov 18, 2010

Ireland rolled out a key element of its new road safety campaign this week, and, as expected, there was huge interest where the Gardai's new mobile traffic cameras (think emissions), operated by private contractors, were to be posted - so much so the Garda website crashed several times.

Springtime for Ireland and Germany...

Thu, Nov 11, 2010

Hi ho, hi ho, itzoff ze vork ve go...and so rings out the tune floating across Eyre Square and in through my window this week as the German Christmas market takes shape. Vot vit all ze merry German vorkers vit zer hammers and zer lederhosen schlapping their thighs and hammering, ze happy leetle hammer men. Humming Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as zey vork into ze small hours. Unloading zer cuckooo clox vit ze leetle burd saying cuckoo cuckoo. Ze Irish are living in ze cloud cuckoo's land.

Aer Arann approval is great news for the west

Thu, Nov 04, 2010

The decision late last evening in the High Court to approve a plan for the survival of Aer Arann is one that is to be welcomed warmly in the west and indeed in all of the remote locations that it serves along the western seaboard of this country.

From the people who brought you the present, it’s The Future

Thu, Oct 28, 2010

“Well your honour, the defendant was just making his way into the city centre, having disembarked from the Queen of the Seas luxury cruise liner, when he was set upon by the homeless man who proceeded to beat him about the head with his iPad. He then walked past the President Higgins Memorial Theatre, crossed the Conneely pedestrian footbridge over the Corrib, past the former courthouse which is now the virtual artspace, and was enjoying his quadruple shot mocha mocha latte when the attack occurred. The homeless man, obviously addicted to connectivity, came up to him and asked him if he had any spare USBs”

City will pay big price if it runs market out of town

Thu, Oct 21, 2010

Have you ever seen anything that has gone out of style such as the kick in the arse? When I was young, it was all the rage. If you annoyed your brother, you got a kick in the arse. If you fought with your friends, you got a kick in the arse, even in the school I went to, the teachers would send the boot in the direction of your cheeks if they felt you deserved it.

Time to stop whinging about the Christmas market

Thu, Oct 14, 2010

The decision this week by the city council to overwhelmingly endorse the Christmas Market planned for Eyre Square next month is one that should be welcomed by all locals, despite prophecies of doom issued from some quarters that Galway is not a suitable venue in which to hold it.

Manuela’s invaluable legacy to Galway

Thu, Oct 07, 2010

Time has a habit of dulling the images of the past. Remembering the people we love, trying to recall their faces takes a second or so longer as each year goes by, the pictures blur, the sharpness becomes fuzzy; try as we might, the tide of memory ebbs and flows and slowly goes out to the horizons of the mind.

‘Black Thursday’ breaking point can also open our eyes to new opportunities

Fri, Oct 01, 2010

The dizzying scale of Irish debt as finally revealed by the financial and state authorities yesterday will have no doubt left most of us reeling from shock and anger. Already dubbed ‘Black Thursday’, the figure of more than €35 billion now defined as the outer limits of what we must raise in order to pay off government liabilities, is staggering. The news of a further €3 billion bail-out required for AIB, that will effectively nationalise the country’s largest bank with money taken from our own National Reserve Pension Fund, can only be described as sickening. Coming one on top of the other in the face of the international markets deeming Ireland a no-confidence zone, it feels like we are just being socked in the stomach over and over again. How many more body blows can we endure?

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