Nothin’ to
laugh about
Every other day I turn on the radio or read the paper, they’re going on about the bankers, the church, the priests, the education system, and how they have failed and abused so many. We know it’s true and the only mystery is how they’ve nearly all got away with it. Sure there’s our own Mr Holian below in the graveyard and didn’t he beat seven shades out of us for years. And sure what harm did it do us, divil a bit we all say over a few pints and comment on his fondness of the drink. In the silence of our own four walls it’s a different story trying to deal with the anger that won’t go away. Anyway he’s not the only one who got away with it, aren’t the majority of them getting away with it and them all ready with their denials and poor ability to remember. Sure I suppose it’s the drink that must have fecked our memory over time, or maybe it was the Brits, did they steal our ability to remember? Sure all us poor Irish people are still victims so how could anyone blame us for anything we do: it has to be someone else’s fault!
It’s amusing the way people talk these days: they talk as if abuse was a thing of the past and that none of it is happening now. Well it’s a lie, don’t believe them, institutions, bodies, organisations still protect their own and lengthy policy statements on paper are a poor substitute for a change in attitude and behaviour.
Anyway I best stick to the simpler examples or I’ll be accused of depressin’ ye all and that wouldn’t be fair with everyone lookin’ forward to the weekend and Mayo still in the hunt for Sam and all that.
Ok, here’s a simple one. Every day you and me are being ripped off by greedy bastards, you must know that already. Isn’t it amazing how the supermarkets managed to reduce their prices by around 25 per cent or so overnight on a range of items? So for all the days before the price reduction they were screwin’ us for that extra 25 per cent. Where is people’s rage about that? Nothin’ to laugh about!
Letter to Larry
Dear Larry,
I wish to write to you on a very serious matter. I was travelling to a Mayo town last week when I noticed a number of signs on the roadside advertising the distance to a local crèche. And before you say it, no, it was not a temporary advertisement, I have since found out that that sign has been there for a few weeks. The advert in fact gave both the distance and direction to the crèche. Why would anyone put up such a sign on the side of a road, I mean for whose benefit does such a sign exist? Presumably anyone with children in the crèche knows where it is already. Most passing traffic are hardly going to be interested in the location of a crèche. I needn’t remind you, Larry, or your readers of the range of undesirables and weirdos travelling our roads these days. So Larry, through your column I am asking you to highlight this and my request is that the person remove the sign so as not to put children at risk. What in the name of God was this person thinking about when they placed such a sign there?
Yours sincerely,
Name and address with column.
Thought for the week
“Is laughter, satire and the resultant cynicism a way of preventing change and maintaining the status quo?”
Wally ‘the wart’ Walsh.
You can contact the column at [email protected]
