Ballybrit and the stream of unconsciousness

Thu, Jul 30, 2009

alarm beeps at ate o clock... grand place to stay great breakfast... i'd say the landlady was a fine piece in her day what d'ya say lads... rashers puddins sausages and lashins of tay... drink juice straight from the jug then out get the post the Racing Post not the Limerick Post and the papers... down the square check out paddys ladbrokes boyles muls get the odds... and ends... too early to go out yet... sit on bench and look at Volvo flowers still there still rare... light up brighten up... wink at young wan get scowl but scowl back at her... she don't know what's she missing... light another... hand shakes but 'twould by now anyways Wednesday... phone dying just two bars head dying just twenty five bars...need cash... act fast ...shaky fingers dance on vomit-splattered keypad at hole in wall...good job don't need numbers 3, 8, 2 as they're splashed pretty bad... cash comes out crisp clean only gives 300 so go to other machine... clean pad, thick wad jammed in arse pocket but switch to front... can't be too sure... cute hoor watching ya catching ya but not me. I'm wide out me so I am, sham. Taxi rank hop in stinks of air freshener and stale conversation emigrants women jobs horses crawl out past smart lights get out fork out...sham says ‘anywan want to try the three card trick the three card trick, watch out Char-less the shades are lamping the scene’... don't fall for that not after last year not me cos I'm wide out... in gate get the beers in... fiver formguide and free biro sticking from arse pocket ... meet yer man from home he waves and says he knows a fella who knows Weld is the man...but don’t rule out Ballyholland cos George said so... free biro marks his nods as he mouths numbers at me... rip page from card and jam in raffle drum there... always been lucky mother said when I won the teddy bear at the sale of work but she didn't know I stole it then sold it. Wide out that's me. Guard nods at me I nod back howya guard what does he know the happy head on him another beer in. Push through crowd...see Mul say 'Mul pony on him' and he smiles at me...wide out..takes the cash..more beers...chips...see yer man Daithi what's his name he says howye lads sound out dressed like me jeans jacket and shirt hanging out my kind of man with his kind of tan wimmen mad into him ya can tell by the smell of his expensive after shave. Lads shout yahoo at Ted Walsh and some other twenty years since he rode her mother Ted scowls we laugh.. we’re hards out hardy bucks lepping in the stand when the horse comes home flyin' ...roars, slaps, back broken, back to Mul to cash the token. Mul's not laughin’ now. Front pocket bulges arse pocket spits out free biro...more beer...tuna melt with extra dolphin...plastic pints spilt down new Next shirt, it’ll live up to its name tomorrow...into town internet printout with quare wans' mobile numbers wants 200 notes for an hour of the bould thing lads laugh when I ask for group discount...an hour I laugh, an hour of drinking time wasted... I'd rather stay here with ye and get wasted... beer's worst thing that I’ve tasted..give grief to Mayo lad we're after matin' tells us to stall the jets now take your batin' and he scampers down Quay Street the happy head on him...spewed up dolphin into Volvo flowers at one of those godforsaken hours...better out than in...more beers and then 4am staring at a kebab outside a chipper thinking it's a turd in a slipper...pillow smells of lavender, kipper and then alarm beeps ate o clock..still only Thursday morning...

The white flag has been raised....

Thu, Jul 23, 2009

Good evening punters and welcome to Ballybrit for the inaugural running of this evening’s feature race

Ray Rooney — the type of hero every city needs

Thu, Jul 02, 2009

Ray Rooney was a remarkable man. Tall, distinguished, elegant, articulate, he was the kind of person you’d want on your team batting for your side. The people you want standing on the wall, someone to look over you. As an ambassador, he was most impressive, and although officially the Honorary Norwegian Consul in Ireland, it was for his native Galway that he was most often on diplomatic duties. When he passed away last weekend after a short illness, there was tremendous shock at his death, not least because he was still very much part of what is happening around Galway city and county.

Boston injection masks the reality of struggling businesses

Thu, Jun 25, 2009

It was like the good old days yesterday when the Tanaiste and her entourage came to Galway to make an announcement. It was your typical IDA announcement — The faithful were gathered, the usual suits turned up, the details would have been leaked, the photos were taken, the visiting dignitary and the flying-visit US-based head honcho would make small talk. It could have been 1995 all over, when these things were ten-a-penny.

Anyone for the Pigshaving comm-a-tee? And something for the wimmen

Thu, Jun 11, 2009

Anyone for the Pigshaving Committeee. Any takers there? Johnny, You’re grand for that. You spend most of your life up to your oxters in sh, sh, shurpluses anyway. I’ll put ya down for that. Yeah, there’ll be a few trips. To Borris on Ossory and the like. Good mileage, not just down the road, like.

Brutal killing takes shine off feelgood factor

Thu, Jun 04, 2009

There is nobody in this city or county who is not horrified by the senseless killing of young Kieran Cunningham just 100 yards from this office in the early hours of yesterday morning. Shocked by the needless rubbing out of the life of a man who by all accounts was a decent sort. His colleagues in Hughes Supermarket in Claregalway where he had worked on the deli counter for the past 18 months were shocked to the core at the news of his death and were sincere in their praise of him.

Now what for the Church?

Thu, May 28, 2009

We’ve had a week now to come to terms with The Ryan Report. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin warned us to expect the worst, but even so, the scale of the cruelty, neglect, and abuse - physical, emotional, and sexual - documented in the pages of this report will change forever the way the Church is viewed in this country. That those in a position of care to the most vulnerable members of society - those whom the Irish Constitution singled out for particular concern - could have inflicted the immediate pain and suffering, not to mention the long-term emotional consequences that those abused have carried with them into maturity, is terrible enough. That they acted as they did in the name of the Christian faith, whose founder took the child’s trust as a metaphor for humanity’s trust in God, can only be described as blasphemy.

By accident and design, Irish sailors are on top of the world

Thu, May 28, 2009

On Monday the public will have a rare opportunity to hear some of the Volvo Ocean sailors’ life stories.

Ta siad ag teacht — they’re on their way

Thu, May 14, 2009

Thousands are sailing
Across the western ocean

Is it time to rethink the issue of rates?

Thu, May 07, 2009

When the Volvo Ocean Race departs Boston next week the countdown to the Galway stopover begins in earnest.

Let’s hope Hannon case doesn’t lead to real abusers getting away

Thu, Apr 30, 2009

If crimes are ever scaled on the amount of horror and anger they provoke, then the sexual assault of children is one that is often near the top. There are few offences that cause this sort of outrage in a community, that go to the heart of every family, that cause such division. It is the fear of such an allegation that has sadly led to a reluctance by many people to become involved in activities that bring them into contact with children in intimate situations, for fear that such an allegation may be made in these increasingly litigious times.

The Cruel Sea

Thu, Apr 23, 2009

“No man at all can be living forever and we must be satisfied.”

Tanks for the memories — now the race countdown begins

Thu, Apr 16, 2009

It was only from the ignition of the first metal cutter at the docks on Tuesday that local people could fully engage with the fact that the Volvo Ocean Race is to land on these shores in a little over a month. Only when the first metal was cut to dismantle the massive oil storage tanks, could we fully imagine the enormity of the event that is to visit these shores at the end of next month.

Time for a toxic town for those toxic people

Thu, Apr 09, 2009

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the opening of the first new town in Ireland since Shannon and Craigavon. Yes, its time to throw open the gates of Baile an Táicsigh (Toxic Town), the town where we promise to bring you the best of the worst, where you are guaranteed to get the worst service, where the roads will be the worst, the pint will be terrible, where the spittoons will never be emptied and where in order to make the rest of the country look great, we are going to feck everything bad. In demographic terms, it will be like the child in the back room of the olden days. The motto for this town will be ‘Hors de la vue, hors de l'esprit‘ (out of sight, out of mind) and by doing this, everywhere else in the country can feel good about itself.

Let’s be honest now. We’re all a bit down about everything these days and anything that make us feel better has to be considered. We all have parts of our communities that w e could do without. And fair play to Fianna Fail for coming up with the idea of the toxic bank and the toxic loans.

CF sufferers are unlucky to be born Irish

Thu, Apr 02, 2009

Is there anything more this Government has left to do that can shock us? Is there much they can introduce next Tuesday that will horrify us as much as the heartless decision this week to kill the little bit of hope that lay in the hearts of cystic fibrosis sufferers and their families? For such people, life is a constant struggle against death. Every shower of rain, every dark cloud, every sneeze, every shared waiting room is a potential killer.

When closure is just the beginning...

Thu, Mar 26, 2009

And now it’s over. When they turn the key and step in, the house seems emptier. It was quiet before they left for Ireland, but now, if it was at all possible, it seems to have lost even more of its heartbeat. The clock ticks in the background — its tick hitting a false note of optimism, its tock emphasising the silence. They look at the door, and sob inside and wish that for just one more time, it would swing open and their bouncy happy daughter would come back in through it. Closure is sometimes seen as the end of a journey, but often it is just a mythical void. The pain in their chests that comes with every waking moment of the horrific realisation has not abated, as they thought it might. Now, alone together for the first time in weeks, they realise that often closure is the beginning of the journey and not an imagined end. Now, the hard work begins. The bit where the desire for justice has left them unfulfilled, the hole in their hearts just too large.

Pucker up the lips, and get down on those knees

Thu, Mar 19, 2009

Pucker up those lips lads and lassies and get out the lip balm. Yes, make those lips as big as our leader’s. Now, get down on one knee, and then the others. And get practising at something we haven’t done for a while. Ass-kissing is back. In a big way.

Brace yerself for the crazy taxes

Thu, Mar 05, 2009

Brace yerselves. Tie down everything because when next month comes and April Fool’s Day flies through faster than a flasher in a turnstile, we are set to be royally shafted by the Government in a whole series of crazy new taxes designed to make sure that we keep filling the giant hole in our finances with a watering can.

Students lose sight of Rag Week’s traditional values

Thu, Feb 26, 2009

You’d have to be deaf and blind not to have noticed the revelry in Galway this week – an antithesis of a low spirited January in which the population was getting to grips with our economic collapse.

A punnet of Golden Circles, please, and a Government to go

Thu, Feb 19, 2009

When the great Chinese philosopher Hu Flung Dung penned the immortal line “may ye live in interesting times,” surely he was thinking about days such as this. Days when the news brings unprecedented details of the unthinkable happening to all the institutions that we all previously thought were solid. Days when the squeaky bum times of footballing parlance have well and truly been transferred to politics.

E-paper

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