Great words

"The only man I shall take from the number, an whose name strangely stirs me now, is the brave, the gallant, the glorious and upright Éamonn Ceannt." (Father Augustine on Éamonn Ceannt)

"Yes. He was an angel - an angel. He was a fantastic, beautiful person. A wonderful human being. He was one of the most wonderful men I ever met in my life. I can say that honestly and openly. He was a gentleman as in the words gentle man, you know." (Mark Feltham on Rory Gallagher)

Sources

Supreme Sacrifice: The Story of Éamonn Ceannt 1881-1916, William Henry.

http://users.tkk.fi/~khagelbe/rory/articles/feltham5.html
An interview (September 13, 1998) with Mark Feltham, conducted by Shiv Cariappa. The interview appeared in the Rory fanzine Stagestruck, issue No. 5, edited by Dino McGartland.

Hey mister, can you spare some time?

Come one, come all (into 1984) to view my notebook. I contains essay-like things, that are really nothing like essays but moderately long posts. Same person, same sort of style, same world view, same bat-channel (blogger, that is).

Do be clicking here.

The blog stared out as the failed "Master of Limericks" and has mutated into another place for me to type. "Yay" says all involved. "Fuck off and do something worthwhile" say all others. Thanks.

Read This Book!

This is a fine book. Read it. Now.

Just pretending...

Lots.

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Plea for reverence

Dear Mass-going people,

I don't think I'm asking for much. When entering a church, attending Mass or otherwise, please turn off your mobile phone. I was at half-seven Mass this evening and I heard two phones with incoming calls with two silly ring tones.

If I have my phone with me, before I go into the church, I put it on "silent" and then I turn it off. I put it on silent just in case I've any alarms that could sound even if the phone is off.

I hope you agree that a certain amount of reverence is to be shown in a church, before the tabernacle. As it is a place of worship I wouldn't want to disturb others by having my phone start ringing. So, again, I ask, please turn off your phone before entering a church.

Yours sincerely,
Liam.

The Cock Tavern

The licenced premises at the address of 31, Main Street Swords, Co. Dublin, has became the regular local for us, to a certain extent. We used to go a little more when Dave wasn't as bogged down having to go to Rathmines and Chatham Row most days of the week.

But, we were there on Thursdays night after the St. Finian's annual awards night. Mr. O'Shea was given Student of the Year, the school's highest and most prestigious award. Apart from a stupid bit of paper for being a prefect and for being involved in the production of the yearbook, I, along with Mr. G. Scott and MS. Y. Rahman were awarded with "Positive Contribution" award. So, whatever, at least they recognised that we're deadly! Ha. A €10 voucher for the Pavillions S.C. came with it, so, fair play.

Anyway, we went Cock afterwards. 'Twas myself, Dave, Lee-Anne and Maria. So, good times, just having a laugh and all. Unfortunately, the two girls live in Donabate and had to catch the bus home early. I'm not by any means saying that it's unfortunate that they live in Donabate, there's nothing wrong with the area at all, in fact, it's lovely. I mean to say that it was unfortunate that they had to go. I just want to have that clear, in case someone would get offended.

So, the girls head off and we had asked Clark to come down, so we stuck around. A while before Clark arrived, a woman asked could she sit at the table where myself and Dave were. Ah yeah, sure. So, as things happen, we started yapping away and soon the fella arrives too from the bar. They hadn't been let into Wright's and had come down to the Cock. I can't remember their names, but she was from Raheny and he was from Blackrock. They're now living in Lusk with their little baby, Suzanna, or something like that. They were very nice and all that. Yer man bought a round of drinks for us, so fair dues and fair play is due to him. This grand couple seemed, to me, to be in their late 20s maybe, which leads nicely into the next paragraph.

Some folk don't appreciate the Cock. A certain Mr. X, upon the mention of the Cock, referred to its clientele as middle-aged men watching the football. Mr. Y commented that he only ever saw scumbags coming out of it and also passed comment on the elder customers. I don't care who else is in a pub when I'm there with mates. I'm there to my friends, not the other people, regardless of what age they are. I suppose I can understand if you want to go out on the pull, but if you're just out with friends, it doesn't matter.

The grub in the Cock is great too. There's deadly combo plates with chips and chicken wings/chicken goujons and there's some other choice too. The steaks are good too. Good and filling. You'll get a good pint more importantly.

The ways of referring to The Cock Tavern are numerous. So, ya pullin' a Cock? Cockin' up your beaver? Stallin' it Cock? That's only a few that have come to mind, but you can imagine what come out with, ya know, being smart people.

So, fair play to the Cock.

Identity & Belonging

At this particular point in history, I'm almost finished the module named "Identity & Belonging." Awh. On this very night, I finished the assessment, which I outlined quickly in my post College Things Going On.

I worked with Claire for the first part, picking a topic and writing the questionnaire. We had some good discussions. All respect to her, Claire wrote the questionnaire. I then forgot about it for a while. I wrote up the report of working as a team with some posh words scattered in it. I'm happy enough with that, as far as one can be. Again, I conveniently forgot about it for another while. I was beginning to feel bogged down on Saturday last (through all the fault of my own) with the interview and essay left. On Sunday afternoon, I sussed out my interviewee and planned to meet that evening. So, I got that out of the way. I then spent an hour transcribing half of the interview. I did the other half the following night, Monday. It's been said that a start, even a shit start, is a start and it's important to just get something down and get into the writing frame of mind. I gave the essay a good bash that night too, with that in mind. I indeed got started and did about half, however rubbish it seemed.

Tuesday came with little desire to stir from bed. But, I had class at 10am in HG03. Vera showed us a video about Amish kids and the choice they have to make, to join the church or not. Anyway (that was relevant because it was I&B class), afterwards, I went to the library and got a computer downstairs immediately. Fantastic. I did a little more of the essay, using Moodle and lecture slides and other things. I thought I'd try to do essay for CM107, but I concentrated on HSS100. I had intended to, at least, start reading for CM107, but the lads went off to the cafeteria for grub and how can one resist a break from back-breaking labour?

After the last lecture of the day, I ventured back to the library to do the intended reading. I wanted to stay an hour. I met Greg and Kerrie just inside the gate. So, I wasn't going to be rude and not stop to say hello and unintentionally talk for about half an hour. I did get upstairs and I did read about four pages of "A Sociology of Ireland." I had to bring it back then (I had it out on a 24 hour loan since Monday evening) and thankfully I found another copy. I took the other copy out tonight, not that I've used it, but I will tomorrow morning (if my planned early rise works) and after LC150 class in the afternoon.

That last paragraph was a deviant one with nothing to do with I&B. Later yesterday evening (for it is now Wednesday) I began working, slaving on the essay at hand. I changed some things around, adding stuff, taking stuff away. So, it's in a finished state at this time. but, I may delete a particular paragraph, of no more than forty words. It's a little skimpy. I added in headings as a last minute edit. I'm sure if I'll keep them; I think I will. Now, all that's to be done is to print the cover page thing and all my work and present it to Dr. Sheridan on Thursday, during class I presume.

Thursday will be the last HSS100 class ever. I've enjoyed the module. It was the core module and it worth ten credits, where everything else is worth five. Its broad range of issues and the many disciplines used to look at them has made it deadly. The guest lecturers and their lectures (on immigration, trade unionism and multicultural Spain) also gave a little variety and their studies were relevant and interesting. So, fair play to HSS100 and so say all of us, probably.

High aspirations

Ya know, I'd love to have something to type about right now...

Tendancy to get "mad ouv it"

What is it about us here in Ireland, in Britain too, and our love of the bottle? We're globally reknowned for the amount of alcohol we consume. I think we're forth in Europe for the amount we drink per head, or something like that.

A night out for the inhabitants of this island means getting sloshed, shit-faced, pissed, intoxicated, jarred, drunk, mad ouv it, inebriated, plastered, legless or wasted, depending on personal preference and/or dialect. I like sloshed, personally.

It's a concern. I was talking to a college colleage today about a possible night out for the class. The first thing I thought of was being drunk and how I'd get home, or in some shape or form, find a bed. I said something like, "just can't get too wasted, which is hard to do."

There's a humanities school Christmas party on in Temple Bar somewhere on Tuesday. It would be a miracle if there was one person there not sloshed with all the cheap drinks promotions going on. Now, I'm sure it'll be a great night if I get going, but I'm just making the point.

Is it inherent in us here to be drawn to the drink? Is it the culture? Is it to fit in? Or is it simply for the fun? I don't know. Just thinking around this subject. Good luck anyway.

Musical Musings

My title sounds very smart doesn't it? I like it. I have no proper musical knowledge, but I surely love it, and although I have a personal attitude to music (I'm not sure what I mean there, or, rather, I don't know how to phrase it, I know how I feel), I just want to babble on about CDs by various artists that I want to purchase.

Mundy is great. Recently I bought "Raining Down Arrows," and I really like it. It takes a second listen, but the true-to-life lyrics will hit you. His voice is easy to listen to too. I must say, I'd name "Carpound" and "By Her Side" as the album's highlights. So, I must get some more Mundy, and I know he was in TempleBar in September, but, maybe get to a gig.

Rory. One word describes what I indulge in daily. A quick "Fuel to the Fire" here and a "Let Me In" there. "Lost At Sea" and "At the Bottom," both from "Against the Grain," are beautifully melancholy and get a lot of air time in my room. It's Rory's darker songs that I like more. For example, "Lonesome Highway" and "A Million Miles Away" (although, I'd imagine, any Rory fan adores my latter example). I'm going to pick up "Defender" next. Released in 1987 (I think), he returns to the Blues apparently.

Sarah Jane Morris is an artist I had never heard of before I met Simone Lisino. He stayed here with us for a few days not too many years ago, maybe two or three, I can't remember, it's late. Well, anyway, he had a celebrated selection of CDs that he brought away with him. I burned the music from these gold-mine CDs onto the pc. I left most of them alone for quite a while, but thankfully, I've listened to most of them. Stevie Ray Vaughan (how I first heard him and Double Trouble) was among them, as was Sarah Jane Morris. So, maybe I'll try to pick up some more SJM too. This is beginning to sound like a shopping spree list.

Finally, I'll end finish with Harry. Unfortunately, most of Nilsson's records were commercial flops and are difficult to get in high street record shops, HMV and the like. I might go to Rhythm Records, or easier yet, amazon.co.uk.

So, I'll stop here and end my wishful thinking. It'll probably be a few years until I get around to actually buying these things, but that's ok too. Aspirations to widen one's tastes and all that.

College things going on

Things come hard and fast these days. Well, in reality, they've been moving reasonably slowly for ages, but now near end of semester, they speed up.

I had a presentation on globalisation last week for CM107, Intro to Social Studies. So that's 30% dealt with. Oh no, wait, I still have to do the report, and post it up on Moodle. Ooops. Must get on to Amy again. The main body of marks for CM107 is for the 3,000 word essay to be done in a group of three. I'm with Andy and Neil (sorry Claire!) so, that's the organisation done. I'm going to have to choose a topic and get back to the lads. Gulp.

For LC110, Language, Culture and International Communication, it's much the same format. A presentation is due in two weeks for 30%, and then an essay, that one does by oneself, is also due to gain that last 70pc. This will be considerably more difficult.

HSS1oo, Identity and Belonging, is almost half done, with thanks due to Claire. A topic relating to identity, a questionnaire on the topic, a report on working with the other person, an interview based on questionnaire, a transcription of interview and finally, an essay linking ideas given in interview to theory learned in lectures and reading. Phew, sin é, at last. I have the first and second parts covered, with part three started this very evening. But then I fecked off to Eddie Rockets with Clark.

LC150, Intro to the Study of Language, is nice, I think. We got an assignment few weeks ago, which went well. Another one came last week, due for this Thursday. It wasn't as bad as I thought at first. But that question six is a bitch. I think I cracked half of it though. Hopefully it'll go nicely too. Morphology was nice enough, or what we did was ok, syntax was more difficult, but bearable up to a point, when it got difficult. Then came a mix of syntax and semantics, which was bit tricky, an introduction to real semantics, that seemed interesting at first, but is just hard-ish.

LG116, Intro to Politics, is the module that I'm not particularly happy with. The lecture is long, can be boring, I was frequently lost during early lectures (and still am) and I haven't a clue what the essay titles will be. All this collective action stuff isn't registering with me, "or what have you." But, I'm reading through some of the chapters of that big expensive book that we had to buy, "Power & Choice." I was reading on the bus last week, in and out from campus.

HSS102, Information and Study Skills, is going well... I've only missed one of these classes, so I'm moderately proud. They are on of a Friday evening at three. Bad scheduling. I've been keeping my reflective journal, making entries reasonably regularly. I wrote in it yesterday about all of last week. The library test in week four was good, and I have done some ECDL parts, not much mind you, but three sections of module one shows that I'm interested, in my opinion.

So, that's the low-down on CCS1 assignments for me to this day. I should be shitting it big time, but I'm not, thankfully. Or maybe not. It's late at this stage, so goodnight, God bless.

The Story of Eddie Rockets

I started this in June of this year. I now presume, that at the time, I only meant it to be a little thing. Five months and 1,500+ words later, here it is. A memoir of the Eddie Rockets days.


Eddie Rockets (a.k.a. Eddie's & to a lesser extent Edwardo's; Dave called it that.) in general is cool. But in particular, I have a certain connection with the Swords outlet. Several things contribute to this feeling of closeness to the establishment.

I think I was first in Eddie's about four years ago. Either Dave Fitzgerald or Anna O'Sullivan brought me in for a shake and chicken wings. Can't quite remember. But I thought it was cool anyway. We (not sure who the other person was, more likely to be Anna) had a milkshake drinking race. It's a difficult thing. One has to drink fast enough to win but slow enough not to torture oneself with brain freeze. So, it was a tactical thing. Eat, take a sup, munch on chicken wing, take sup etc. You get the idea. After the three or four visits in a reasonably short amount of time with Mr. Fitzgerald and Ms. O'Sullivan, I didn't venture back until...

The Night of the Junior Certificate Results 2005

Yes, this gets a heading! This was the night, the night that started off lots and lots of other night in the same fashion, but with little differences. I'm not sure (about anything these days) how we came to the decision that we'd go to Eddie's. But somebody must have thought of it. Let's just say it was either myself or Bailey or Dave. But we went there anyway. It was pretty legend. Lotsa people came with us. From memory now, (which you know isn't great) Ross Clooney, Cian Bailey, Graham Scott, Finn, Dave O'Shea, Yombo Rahman, Dan Burke and me, Liam Maloney. 'Twas grand craic, we had a good laugh so we did altogether. We were all in two booths, or whatever they call them, in on the left as you go in the door. I can't remember what time we arrived, or I can't remember what time we left. But I do remember that we saw Ms. O'Gorman walking by the window. We waved and she came in and...well, I can't remember what she was saying, but it was something nice anyway.

So, that was the first time Eddie's was used as a gathering point. Over the coming year and a half it was to be used frequently (weekly) for three young lads, although occasionally, they were accompanied by a scattering of others.

As far as I remember, there was a brief period before the Eddie's period, when the three young lads started going to Pizza Hut in the Omni Shopping Centre on Friday evenings. Others were invited along and the origins of the idea were generally unknown by the invited ones, and called into question. They got it wrong, so the founding members discarded the whole thing. Out of this need for a meeting place, of an honourable degree, the three decided on Eddie Rockets as the new sacred place of assembly. I suppose, it was a hell of a lot closer too. That was probably the main reason. Also, not having a get a bus was also a factor. Anyway, the first part is more dramatic and can be made sound cool.

So, Eddie's became the new place that myself, Finn and Dave (I mean, the three gallant fellows) went on a Friday night. Again, I can't remember when we started going there, but the main thing is that we did. It was some stage in early fifth year though, I suppose. At one stage, we went there every Friday night, for God knows how long! 'Twas great. We'd go at about half nine at night, so that we could go down through Highfields. Then, we'd leave about half eleven or twelve, and walk up the Forrest Road. Good times, good times.

One of the great things about Eddie's was the doorman. Well, there are many doormen, but one guy in particular stood out as being "the sound doorman." He got to know us to see, well, we did go in every Friday for three or four consecutive weeks. So, at the start, we'd nod to him on the way in. But as the weeks and months went on, we'd give him an enthusiastic greeting or even a wave of sorts. Or even that little salute thing that I do all the time. Eventually, we got onto such good terms with him, that he started giving me handshakes and high-fives. Strangely enough, it was just me, to the best of my knowledge. Maybe it was just that I was the first one in the door most of the time, or maybe he just thought that I was cool and that the others were a bit shit. That's to be debated. After a certain time, we stopped going to Eddie's. It was a good while afterwards that we went back for a once-off thing. But, there he was, at the door, with his Bluetooth ear yolk in. He gave us a big smile, and said that he hadn't seen us for a while! Obviously he was just talking to me, because of one of the reasons mentioned above. Then on the way out, I had a real friendly handshake. So, all I can say is fair play to The Sound Doorman.

If there was one slightly eerie thing to be connected with Eddie's, it was the traffic lights. It started one night when just Dave and myself went down. Therefore, nobody else really got it. We never really explained it, so there's the real reason. So, now is the time. During the night, any time Dave looked out across the road, the traffic lights at the Lord Mayors were orange!! Or amber or whatever they are. So, this kept happening, he would just look up and the orange would catch his eye, he'd point outside, and, it'd be orange. So there you are folks, that's the story.

Finn's gone to Russia. Grammatically speaking, there's nothing wrong with this sentence. But, of course, Finn has never been to Russia. Well, I don't know what sort of dreams he has, but not physically. We were in Eddie's one evening, just myself and Dave. Finn was in the Millbank Theatre in Rush. One the waiters came over to take our order. He recognised us for obvious reasons. He's the guy who bleached his hair once, not to our approval, but that's none of our business, really. So, he noticed that there was only the two of us. He asked where my brother was, Finn as he thought. First we set him straight about the mistaken fraternal bond and then informed him that he was in Rush. "He's in Russia?" says he. I know it's not very funny, but it was an Eddie's moment and I'm sticking by it.

"Under-the-table-banging" somehow became a frequently preformed (and frequently sore) action in Eddie's. It's not that we banged under the table. It simply meant that we hit our knee off the underside table to create a thud. I have no idea where it started, or why, for that matter. Although I may have a little idea. It was funny and regularly executed for comic effect when speaking of certain matters.

Two sayings that originated inside the premises of Mr. Rockets are "you made my laugh" and "you whacked me off." The first was a mess-up of Mr. O'Shea, obviously meaning, you're making me laugh. The second is more complex, and I'll have to think back to the evening in question. I remember Mr. Cian Bailey was present among others, if memory serves me right. We were messing on the seats and I think I was slowly nudging Finn off the side and he came in contact with the side of the table or the edge of the seat (that occasionally had screws sticking out). So he starts, "you whacked me off...". The sentence hung there, unfinished. Then, Mr. Bailey begins the sniggering and we cop on. These phrases have no meaning, but are repeated every now and again, for the laugh.

Ronan (arrange the fadas how you wish, I'm not sure), a mate of Cian, joined us a few times. Good laugh, no doubts. One of us had fries (small, shit, expensive chips) and as customers of Eddie's know, there's a pepper sort of thing on the "fries." Ronan didn't quite understand what this strange substance was, and gave it name, "sprinkly stuff," accordingly. Ya know, de sprinkly stuff! Although we know what he meant, Finn turns to him and says, in a nice demeaning tone, "eh, salt." Only the guys will know what I mean on that one!

Eddie's has bred some great characters. One such character is the Protective Father. On a raunchy evening, we were sitting about, talking about bold things, with "penis" and such words flying around repeatedly. In the next set of seats sat a father with his two children, presumably. The poor chap was trying desperately to block out our foul talk with equally frequent loud questions to his kids such as "ARE YEZ ENJOYIN' THE CHIPS, KIDS??"

To conclude, I'd like to quote the Eddie's song.

We're goin' out tonight and you know we're gonna have some fun. Eddie Rockets!

Them and those were the days of the Leaving Cert Friday nights of Eddie's. They were surely fun. All we really ever consumed were malts, the occasional Fanta, and as for Dave, well, that's another story. He had veggie burgers every now and then, and even ordered those doritos yokes, even though he hated them and complained about the price. In fairness, prices are high, but not when all you're having is a malt of a Friday evening. So, fairwell to the days of folly in Eddie's, they will forever represent youth and stupidity to a certain extent. But they were good times. Nice one. This article is long over-due and hopefully it's accurate (lads, feel free to correct me on anything). Oíche mhaith dóibh.

Oh, my first published article!

I'm ever so proud! My article! Oh! Put in the Parish 25th anniversary book! I'm, I'm going to cry! Apparently it almost made someone tearful. It was, in a way, thrown together, on the date on the deadline. But, I think I pulled it off, whatever it is.


I have lived in Rivervalley my entire life, and I recognise nowhere else as home. I’ve gone to school here, I’ve made my friends here, I’ve played sports on the pitches and hall in Rivervalley and I’ve gotten on a countless number of buses coming through this area.

I remember the stage at which I wasn’t allowed to come home from school, Holy Family, by myself. I’d wait for one of my parents somewhere between the school gate and the church. I thought that was far. But that was my world, from school and back. As I’ve grown up I’ve watched new development after new development spring up around Rivervalley, and around Swords. Our community has spread at the speed of a virus, you could say.

We’ve heard that Swords is the fastest growing town in Western Europe , with an ever-growing population of approx 40,000. Yet, recently, I’ve read that Swords has fewer facilities than Waterford , a town of equal inhabitants.

Somehow, we’ve managed not to collapse as a community here. But we can see cracks, seemingly evident in education. Our schools are good schools, but demand is high and supply can’t cope. The queue across from the community centre every year proves this. I’d like to see an end to education troubles in our town and country.

St. Finian’s parish is 25 years old this year. The church there is, in my humble opinion, the nicest I’ve ever set foot in, and as long as I live, I hope it remains there for me to visit.
I’ve seen much change within the last few years in Rivervalley. The redevelopment of the Millennium (it’s lovely, so I hear), the appearance of Tesco and apartments in Ridgewood and the opening of the road through Boroimhe have all changed the area. Of course, there is much more going on that has enhanced Rivervalley, such as the planned soccer pitches near Rathingle.
All I can hope is that Rivervalley continues its development in a safe manner, with the right resources being given to its residents.

Update anyone? (talking about college, words, Rory & Incubus)

Just what it says on the tin, updates of goings-on. Compound plural there, to the best of my knowledge, fair play. Spot the mistake: "BEST MENS WEAR." Anyway, what's been going on, ey?

It's now week four, coming to the end of week four in college. Things are surely happening around the place. I got my first assignment today from CM105, intro to study of language, a.k.a. linguistics. It's a whole 25% of overall marks. It's on morphology and things of the like. One part is an extract from "A Clockwork Orange," which I recognised as the opening paragraph because of my many half contemplations of buying the book. I still haven't bought it and probably never will. The film will do me fine. Anyway, all the makey-uppy words in it have to be put into its proper category or part of speech, with a reason why. Sounds weird, yeah. This is a that because that is preceeded by a thing. That's the sort of answer that 's needed. Should be ok.

While I was reading the morphology chapter of the textbook earlier this evening, I came across something of (mild) interest. The word "unlockable" has two meanings.

Take the root of the word, the verb, "lock." Add the suffice -able, to form adjective, lockable (able to be locked). Add prefix un- to form adjective unlockable (not able to be locked).

Take the root, the verb, "lock." Add prefix un- to form verb unlock. Add the suffix -able, to form the adjective unlockable (able to be unlocked).

Isn't this amazing? Depending on what way you structure the morphemes in the word, the word takes on two meanings. Fantastic.

I'm sitting here listening to Rory Gallagher. I had a Rory evening earlier before I started reading, and now I return. I bought two Rory CDs recently. I bought "Against The Grain" and his debut solo album, "Rory Gallagher." Not too long ago, I also picked up "Wheels Within Wheels" too. So, having a real Rory stage at the moment, justifiably.

I've been entering thoughts into my reflective journal. What a notion! For HSS102, information and study skills, we have to keep a reflective journal of our learning across our whole programme. I thought it's be rightly shit, but I've gotten used to just writing about the lectures and seminars I go to and whether they're interesting, or what have you, as Alex would say. Vera says "visit" it twice a week. This evening I made my third entry for this week. I think I'm doing well. I better fuckin' pass that module (even though there's no credits for it!).

Oh yeah, it was a while ago, but Incubus were here in fair Dublin on the fifth of this month in the National Stadium. Lorna and I went out (all by ourselves) on the 16 and found it, independent of any grown-up, well, apart from the fella on the bus that we asked. But the concert was legend altogether. Good mixture of songs from many albums. We got "Favo(u)ite Things" from "SCIENCE," "Drive" from "Make Yourself," "Circles" from "Morning View," "Sick Sad Little World" from "A Crow Left of the Murder" and "Anna Molly" from "Light Grenades." There was obviously more songs on the set list than these few, but you see the point I'm making. Good night overall, had pint or two in ringside bar. Good buzz around stadium, with everyone's voice being absorbed into the coalescent voice of the crowd.

Nice one, I think that'll do for now. I'll do this again...soon...when I feel like it, righ'?! Yeah.

This is where I am, politically, apparently.

You are a Social Liberal (60% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (28% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat (28e/60s) Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Give it a go yourself.

Isn't DCU bleedin' deadly!?

I'm there, what, four days, and I'll liking it, surely. The college that has it all, the campus with all your need, under the tree at Spar, yes, there's a Spar on campus.

Although at this present moment, I don't know my timetable yet, it's all good and that is because DCU is deadly. I'll have to check my student portal page for it tomorrow. It's an Electronic University shall we say? They advise students to check their DCU e-mail at least daily! How more frequently do they want, hourly? Oh well, it's all part of student life! Ha.

DCU is full of deadly places to go. The Nu-bar is pretty cool, I was in it last night for the "Dis-Orientation Ball." It got real packed after a while. Unfortunately the bar had no Guinness. If you know me, you'll know that I drink Guinness. The bastards. There was two taps, but no sweet Guinness! This is the second time this has happened to me in a week, a bar with no Guinness! What's the world coming to!? Anyway, I had a pint o' Smithwick's first, then some Heineken. Smithwick's is Ireland best selling ale, apparently. It's got a rich taste, maybe a bit too rich for me. Heineken is nicer after the Killkenny ale, but in the end, it's still Heino.

Sorry, this is meant to be about Dublin City University, not about different booze. I haven't been in yet, but the Inter-Faith Centre sounds cool too. You can go in and make yourself some tea/coffee and relax or chat to anybody. There's a piano there too if you want to lay down some tinkling jazz, or whatever, ya know the way. Good meeting place so they say.

There's about 40million clubs and societies in DCU too. Or maybe there only 90, but that's enough, I think. Every student will be shot at from every angle with flyers and people trying ot recruit new members for their respective club/soc next week or some time in week two of semester. I'll probably join a few societies. There's a Home & Away club, not that I like it, just thought it's interesting to note. I think everyone how has talked to us has said to join something. So, it seems that it's mildly important to do so. They STRONGLY advise it. Good way to meet folks and make mates and the like.

So, roll on week one and another as being a student. I might even get one of those hoodies with DCU on them.

The Second Contract

During the moment of magic, half the pint , at least, must be consumed by the undersigned.

Liam ÓMhaoldomhnaigh

Clark Griffin

8/9/'07

Glendalough

Long Dubai Weekend

Running Jokes
-The Safety Deposit
-Tom & Margaret (puke)

Misc. Stuff

-Vulgarity
-Guinness Glasses
-Clark's Bed
-Soon Fatt (Bray)
-Michelle's Favourite Graveyard
-Dublinese X-Men
-English Stain
-Harry Nilsson
-Cow Pissing
-Sheep
-Biscuits
-The Moment(s) of Magic
-Gar Drinking the Fly
-Clark Drinking the Dregs
-Senakot
-Photos
-Headless Joe
-Fat Bottomed Woman
-Throwing Stones At Flowers
-The Lads Falling Down the Mountain
-Nice Soup
-Clarkey Boy's Cooking
-Euh, Don't Rub My Back!
-Clark Falling in the River
-The Contract
-Stained Beds
-Gar switching beds
-Sleeping During the Day
-"Angel" the Waitress
-Kicking the Walls
-Powerwanking
-Gar & Clark walking 28km
-Cheese&Onion VS. Salt&Vinegar
-Hostel staff woman-scowl
-Going Graveyard Late
-The Bus
-Walking in the Dark
-The Bar

Decree of Goodliness

We, the undersigned, declare that Glendalough is legend. The craic was had by all.
L. Maloney D. O' Shea
Lorna Christie Garreth Quinn
Clark Griffin

The Contract

LEGAL CONTRACT
If one of the undersigned pukes, the other(s) must also puke.
L. Maloney Clark Griffin
D. O'Shea Garreth Quinn
Lorna Christie III

"...So fuck you!"

I've recently uncovered a remarkable artist. Unfortunately, I was a bit late, since he's been dead since 1995. But, he left a wealth of recording behind him for me to enjoy. He went by the name of Harry Nilsson. The first time a heard Nilsson was in an old friend's house. His Da had the "Resevoir Dogs" soundtrack. As you may know, his song "Coconut," a novelty calypso, is played during the end credits. It's a funny song and I liked it.

Years later, I purchased that same sountrack and had the song myself. I thought nothing of it for another few years. But a few weeks, Lorna and I were talking and she reminded me of the song and I played it. That night I had a look on YouTube to see if I could find a video for the song and possibly more Harry. I found what I was looking for, and more. There's a video for "Coconut" and when I first watched a solo acoustic BBC performance of "1941," I knew I had to look for more Harry.


~

"Well the years were passing quickly
But not fast enough for him
So he close his eyes through '55
And he opened them up again."

Unfortunately, HMV only had one Harry CD "The best of Harry Nilsson." But, it doesn't have "1941," so, when buying R. Wainwright CDs for a certain person, I got "Nilsson Greatest Hits" for myself.

Asked the name their favo(u)rite American musician at a Beatles press conference, John Lennon and Paul McCartney answered "Nilsson." It is easy to see why they were so impressed. Nilsson's three-and-a-half octave voice, catchy melodies, witty lyrics, and baroque arrangements, branded him as one of the most exciting new talents of the late 60s. Nilsson was equally well-versed as a songwriter and a sensitive interpreter of the other people's material.

That's the blurb on the back of "Nilsson Greatest Hits." Sounds great doesn't it? Surely promising anyway. To my delight, "1941" was the first track. It's the studio version with string arrangments and the like. It's also faster paced than the solo version I heard first, but it's still absolutely wonderful. Pianist/guitarist and talented singer, Harry's music spans over as many genres as you care to think of. As far as I know, most is put under general pop. But, "Jump Into the Fire" dived among rock anthems, for example. Another song, "Joy," sounds very country. The vocals are quite J. Cash, and the slide guitar finishes the yee-hah sort of tone.

The people that knew and loved him describe Harry as "reclusive," "gregarious," "shy and diffident," "wild," "endlessly fun," "innocent," "a complete lunatic," and "a pussycat."

At first, I could kinda divide the songs on the greatest hits album into two categories. One being depressing ("1941," "Without Her," "One," "Without You," "Don't Forget Me") and the other being not depressing sounding, but still depressing ("Cuddly Toy," "The Puppy Song," "Good Old Desk").

Two Nilsson songs played a big part in our recent trip to Glendalough, and also featured in another night down the Cock Tavern. These song are "The Puppy Song" and "You're Breakin' My Heart." The latter is the best example of Nilsson's tendancy to use scatological lyrics in the most genius places.

"You're breakin' my heart, you're tearing it apart, so fuck you!"

"The Puppy Song," which fits into the not depressing sounding, but still depressing category, displays the singers wish to have a puppy as a companion. Sounds harmless enough.

"Dreams are nothing more than wishes,
And a wish is just a dream, you wish to come true"

But the above line makes you realise that the desire is really for a friend and not just for a cuddly dog. "Good Old Desk" has the same connotations. His best friend, his favourite guest, his desk, seems to be his only riend. Harry once answered that the acronym GOD showed the true meaning of the song. But, he later declared that he was bullshitting. But just going on the words, it seems a recluse has lost sight of reality and has found comfort in seemingly happy words and cheerfully-toned music, and of course, the reliability of his "Good Old Desk."

The blurb talks about Nilsson's "catchy melodies." I must say that this is true. Examples of this: "Daybreak," "Spaceman," "1941," "The Puppy Song," (explains why we sang it so much) "You're Breakin' My Heart" etc. etc.

Harry was good friends with the Beatles, and as I've already said, they liked his music. It is possible that he was better friends with John Lennon because of their lost weekend of shananigans. Lennon also produced Nilsson's album "Pussy Cats." But Ringo Starr was also a mate, and together, they starred in a 1974 musical comedy, "Son of Dracula."



So, if you wish you could call this my review of Mr. H. Nilsson. I have surely enjoyed listening to all the songs that I have at present. I'm not sure if I have a favourite song yet. Could be "Good Old Desk." I love all his yadda-di-di yadda-da-da-dum stuff, especially in "Good Old Desk" and "1941." If you'd like to hear some good music, pick up a Nilsson CD. Smile now! CLICK. There y'are now. Enjoy.

The Cats Turn Out Trumps Again At Croke Park

The first Sunday of September, the day hurling fans and two panels of hurlers wait for, came today. The venue was Croke Park and the weather was dismal, misty, then sunny, and then rainy. All the excitement of All-Ireland day and all the weather of all the seasons.

So, I'm sure you know at this stage, the Liam McCarthy cup is going back to Killkenny for the thirtieth time and for the second year running. I was recently in Killkenny town and I am now imagining those narrow streets absolutley exploding with people wanting to catch a glimpse of Henry Shefflin or Eddie Brennan.

The Cats overcame the poor Shannonsiders. Awh! What can a Dub like me do? Well, we can wait and watch the football.

Time does tend to roll on doesn't it?

The so-called Summer is officially over and it's now Autumn. Next thing you'll see is red and yellow leaves. Maybe some rain too, but that's no suprise at this stage. Was it 50+ days of consistent rain at one stage? I think so. As the papers liked to point out, Noah and Co. had less precipitation than that.

And now the news. I have a nice new phone! The Nokia 5300. It's nifty and cool, if I may say so. Got the radio, mp3 and camera sorta stuff (as standard) and other things I'll never use, like, the internet.

I had a crazy outa-da-blue rash thing from Thursday through the weekend, bank holiday weekend may I add. It was either a late reaction to Italian mosquito bites, new insect bites from the area around polluted Jacko or Guinness. Now, you can imagine what I don't want to blame. But it was scary anyway. But, don't fret, I'm no longer infected. Phew sez you.

I'm still an employee of SDCU somehow. They're a nice bunch and haven't (yet) come to the conclusion that I'm too shit to work for them. I've been behind the counter dealing directly with the good members. It's been nightmarish at times and rarely nice. But I'm alive and still employed. I'm off for a few days now, thanks be to God.

Now, some truths that don't take people long to learn as we grow up.
1. Women are harder workers than men. (And are probably better, just in general)
2. Having cool gadgets isn't all that important.
3. There are seven days in a week for a good reason.
4.Things are too expensive.
5. If you drink too much, you'll puke.
That is all.

I'm now off to get the bus. I've also got a paper to read. So, now that you've poked around my brain, I must leave, immediately. You are the weakest link...goodbye.

The Hard Times of the Working Man

Jobs, important things? Employment, necessary? If you want to get anywhere in life, of course. Unless you're Paris Hilton or some fucker like that. If you didn't realise that having a job was even mildly compulsory for the average Joe, you've just failed life, and you should exit through the door with the "can't cope" sign stuck with on blue-tac.

I've a little job in Swords & District Credit Union. For now, I'm in the Swords Manor office. It's so desperately handy. All I have to do is walk for about eight minute through the Jacko and I'm at work. Usually I don't like crossing the bridge just behind the playground but, it's just so easy. I can get up at nine and can be in for half-nine no bother. If I'm ever put in the North Street office, it won't be quite as simple. The walk is longer but I'd go down Jacko also. It would remind me too much of going to school!

So, I'm now in employment. Unfortunately I don't know whether I call it full or part time. I'll be working nine to five for the next two weeks. in basic terms this means that I'll have a nice amount of dosh. After the next two weeks, I won't be in everyday. I'll have to look at the roster of who's in and seee when I get a day off.

I've only been in three days so far. I know very little about the workings of the place. I also know very little about the operating system on the computers. I have been doing the same task for the three days, and I will be doing the same thing for the next two weeks too. Woop-di-doo! I'll probably be dreaming of account numbers or addresses in Swords by Wednesday.

That's one thing that I have to do when I'm looking at the accounts to be reviewed; check if the addresses are right. It just showed me how big Swords actually is, and how much of it I don't know. There's housing estates I've never been in, and there are housing estates that I didn't know existed let alone knowing the name. But, now I know some of the names. Don't ask me where they are, I'll look at you funny.

At some stage, and I'll a little weary of it, I'll be put on the counter. Yes, dealing with people, and people's accounts and their saving etc. - gulp.

Me
"Hi, good morning."

Member (placing book and money on the counter)
"Howaya, I'd like €40 taken from my saving account and put into my son's account. Then can you put €25 off the loan and the rest there from the interest too there please."

Me (sweating now)
"Eh, sure, no problem. Em, what date is it?"

Members I would imagine can and will be a bit impatient with the new trainee. I suppose I wouldn't blame them if they do. "What's this little stupid fucker doin' on the cash for if he doesn't know wha' he's doin'?" Oh well, I'll give it a go. It's all about the money in the end. I'll have money to buy stuff and go places. I bought Pearl Jam's newest album, named Pearl Jam, there on Thursday. Ooops, I still owe Finn the €13.99. Ah, he'll get it. I'll probably buy few cds with wages. Maybe something mad someday, like a ant farm. Or some high-tech gizmo gadget that'd make me look cool. Ooooh, idea! Laptop? Hmmm, keep that in mind.

Anyway, if you want to my Credit Union, fair play to you. Look for me, I'll have one of those slightly bad (naff) purple shirts. I'll have my name tag on if you don't recognise me behind the computer! Talk to yez.

Lord, it's July!

I don't have much to say, good thing too, coz nobody's gonna bother reading this apart from me. Actually, just typing that ("gonna") reminds me of something. I think that it's acceptable to use that word, if I can call it that, here on a blog thing. But is it decent to use it in a daily publication? Take the Irish Independent for example. Occasionally it has tabloid-style headlines, with puns as shit as you might find in The Sun. But that's neither here nor there. Mr. Ian O'Doherty had it in one of his articles there last week. I've nothing better to do, and I've tracked it down.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/ispy-wee-willie-and-the-boys-ready-to-rock-again-742881.html

I just didn't think it very suitable to have such "words" in a daily newspaper, that's all, I'm not giving out or anything.

July in Ireland usually brings sunshine with it. Oh no, not this time. All we've seen these last two weeks are clouds and rain showers. There was thunder & lightning one night too. I think it was the night before my economics test, the 20th. Most days, if not everyday, have seen rain. There is a permanent cloud shield sitting over all of Dublin, letting in little direct sunshine, keeping the morning and evenings darker than they should be, but at the same time, maintaining a bleedin' hot, clammy atmosphere. Well, that's how it goes.

The day after my exams finished, I made a great purchase. 11CDs and 1DVD for €49.99. Can you believe that? You better. Blue Guitars, Chris Rea's momentus collection of 137 songs is surely something else. So far I've only listened to four of the CDs, so seven left. Great value I have to say. Obviously it's not just because of the price, Chris' slide guitar, the use of so many different insruments, and Gerry O'Connor's banjo playing all aid to make the music deadly. You'd think you were buying an LP at first because of the presentation book that the CDs are held in. I'm terribly impressed with the colour and art in the book. All the paintings were done by Chris, and I think they're lovely. I like the one on the front cover and the one that goes with "Louisiana & New Orleans." The Wikipedia article has some of the paintings, so have a gawk.

Having been listening to Chris Rea and the bleedin' legend slide that he does be playing, I thought what the heck, I'll give it a shot. I never got how they do it, y'kno, use a bottleneck, (not cut themselves,) or bronze/nickel slide and make a sound that's so raw, so filthy and yet so damn powerful. Chris is a master of it. Rory Gallagher is another. Duane Allman had it too, Derek Trunks, Bonnie Raitt, they're all there too. But anyway, I gave it a go with a open-G tuning and it's great craic altogether. It even encouraged me to clean up the acoustic with a bit of a polish up and a new stringing. Sounds a dream now again. I tried slide banjo too. 'Twas fun, maybe I'll have it over-dubbed somewhere in a song that I don't have.




So, that's all the news at this time. Join us again for the nine o'clock news on RTÉ1 at nine o'clock obviously, to hear how we won the libel case and we take money someone doesn't have. Cheers. Enjoy the shit weather while we have it now folks! God bless.

The end of life as a leaving certificate student

Oh, surely today is a good day. Bit windy, bit it's unfair to judge the day on weather alone. Today, as you may have guessed by the title or have just known, was the day of my last leaving cert exam. As it turned out, it was economics, y'kno.

Two weeks of unmissable, insurmountable, un-get-out-of-able exams, or summer tests as one optimistic student called them, dominated the lives of sixth year students all over this fair isle (and that weird other country that does a form of the Leaving). In sooth, I pity the poor sods that aren't finished yet. For example, the music heads, but it's their own fault for being music heads, nobody forced them to be. But seriously folks, two years doing senior cycle for two weeks of show off knowledge time is all it boils down to. I know that's not aparticularly revolutionary notion, but, eh, the fact o' de matter is dat dere over now, well, for me anyway!

English I, English II, Maths I, Gaeilge I, Gaeilge II, Maths II, French, History, Chemistry and Economics. Seven subjects, ten papers. That's what's expected of us, young ones and young fellas. It's strange to think, most people older than us, present Leavin' students, have sat the same exams. Parents, teachers, shopkeepers, Jacko park warden (well?). But nobody seems to have any good advice on how to keep sane or not to drive yourself loopy. "You'll do fine" doesn't help. There's dozens of those silly little phrases that don't actually mean anything. Clarke's words of wisedom were ok. Now, I don't know the exact words used. But they came to the conclusion that the leaving isn't as big as it's made out to be. And, now that I can take a objective look at it, I'd agree. But, by far the best advice I was even given in the face of exams came from a Swords woman presently living in the state of Italy. Before sitting the Junior Cert she told me to just go in there and puke all over dem bleedin' exam papers!

I tried to stay clear of the media during the whole thing. Of course, with the 'lection and all the hype about the Greens and the crap proformance of the PDs, I couldn't really. Newspapers were ok because you can choose not to read an article. But a mistake I made was listening to Gerry Ryan, for about three minutes on the morning of the fifth. This young one called up and was saying that she was gonna study all day and get up at half six the following morning to look at final things for English. Bitch. What made it worse, was that Gerry, owner of the Ryan-Line, was like, "oh yeah, well that's about right, yeah".....slurp...shite. So, officially that day, I ruled out 2fm for morning radio (apart from the odd Colm&JimJim). Anyway, Ray Darcy is much better. There's no coin flippin' to be done between Ray, the cool former The Den presenter, slick, but small, deadly Darcy and Gerry, with the puke invoking voice, old-timer, low ratings, shite loving, (apparently) Ryan. Sorry Gerry.

I think this will be my concluding paragraph, not that I'm bothered with concluding paragraphs or have ever been bothered with them. The day that began on June sixth has ran its course and the sun has set over the horizon of Exam Centre 3981.

End of School...

At this stage it's 2nd June. Fuck. That is, the second day of the sixth month of the year. We usually call it June. "Y'kno Juno, you shudda been called Juno!" Thanks to Ms. Hartnet for that one. The school year was neatly tied up there during the week, later for some than others, y'kno how it is. Graduation was on the 21st of May, of a Thursday it was. Very terribly emotional as you can only imagine. The yearbook was ready. (I had my doubts.) It turned out very nice altogether.

One interesting part of the evening was just as people began to leave and we were having a signing session. The buzz about was cool. I hadn't a breeze what to write for individuals, so I wrote "Fair play to you," or "Nice one," on most of them, and my name. I thought it appropriate, that's what I've been saying these part 2 years. I could hardly write, "fuck da'," that'd just be rude. Although that didn't stop Jamie, say no more.

Unfortunately, all the signing (including our beloved cleaner from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath) held us up at the school. Poor Lorna and Grace were stranded, well stuck, outside my house for half an hour. God love them, hearts of gold and the patience of saints they have. But after a quick change out of that bloody uniform, we were ready for out. By "we" I mean meself and the Graham man. The four of us were heading down to Eddie's for a malt or something along those lines. So a malt was had by all (except Graham, you see, he's weird) and it was especially enjoyed by Ms. Kelly. She wouldn't give any to Graham, fair play to her. She had a wonderfully serene look on her face as she slowly consumed Eddie's speciality.

After the auld Eddie's experience, we went down to the place where everyone else was livin' it up. That was deadly actually. It was interesting to see everyone in a different light. We were finished school, no uniforms, (and in little more than a tea towel in some cases, say nothing) in our own time, and mostly with a drink in hand.

I've been in that place for five years, and I'm glad to be moving on, no doubt. But I'm sorry that I didn't make more lasting friendships, if you know what I mean. The lads are sound (Adam, Rob, Steven etc.) yeah, and the girlies are good craic (Lee-Anne, Erica again etc.) and all, but, it's quite unlikely that I'll ever see them much again. I think I've seen the lads down in HMV once, but apart from that, I don't see these people anywhere else apart from that school place. Leaving the exams aside, losing touch is inevitable. They're good craic that's the only thing.

This last term, I've had a good couple laughs, and I think that I've talked to more of the people a bit more and had a laugh in class. Funny how it goes. At Ciarán's party, in his house, (whenever that was) meself and Finn talked about something like that. Just saying something funny if you can in school, come out of your shell if you will. I suppose I did that a bit.

So, my secondary schooling is over at last. It's been a long time coming, but I got there. ("Little Help From My Friends" plays in the background) I'm not going to get sentimental or anything don't worry. But, let's just say goodnight. Sin thart anois, slán libh.

Odd sort of dream

Last night I had, as the title suggests, an odd sort of dream. Now, I don't remember it all, but I remember the main points. I decided that I wouldn't bother coming in for religion class this morning, so I got about an hour extra in bed, yippee! But I really didn't want to get up, I wanted to know where it was going with the strangness. Oh well. I got a listen to Colm&JimJim and then a bit of Gerry Ryan, and then Ray Darcy. Ray is cool.

Anyway, the dream. I was in hospital in Cork. I think it was University Hospital Cork in the dream. I can't remember if that actually exists or not, but it's all good. It's a dream, it doesn't matter. I was in there anyway, in a bed, no thanks to our past health minister, Ms. Harney! I was visited by woman, and I presume that she was a wife figure or something like that. But, her most striking feature was that she had six breasts. Two heads are better than one, but six tits, I'm not sure. They were in three rows of two. Only one of them were "real" so to speak. The others were made of various chemical compounds of sorts. I think one was water. I think there was a sulphate there too. So that I knew which one was which, I wrote the formulas' compounds on the corresponding breast with a pen. The middle one in the left column was the "real" one, made of flesh and booby material. I think I had difficulty finding a pen at one stage, and I might have used a pencil. Poor girl, I wouldn't fancy somebody writing out Sodium Dichromate on my breast with a pencil!


It was quite dark in this dream, if I remember correctly. But there was a large blue tower yolk, that kept appearing. It was a bit like that bleedin' French thing in Paris, y'kno the one, yeah? But it was blue, well, lit by blue lights anyway. I think the hospital was also being rebuilt or under construction or something. Ooh, maybe it was a crane!?

This woman at one stage was going off home. She said that she was going to check her breast, to see if she was preggers, I mean pregnant. So, ladies, you now no longer have to use a test yolk, you just have to look at your boobs to see if you're pregnant. I don't know what you're meant to look for, or whatever, but if you ever come across a woman with six breasts, ask her.

So, what does it all mean? Ask Bricky?! Probably an aspiration for a family life. But, with some weird mutations...six tits. Well, the baby wouldn't be thirsty anyway! Sure, I don't really care what it means, it's just funny. Well, slán libh!

What do I look like at all?

Maybe the title is ambiguous. What I mean is, what would someone think of me if they just took a quick gawk at this page? They'd probably think I'm a big 'RA head or something! I do like the tri-colour at the side (apparently it's the one on the Customs House) but is it a bit suggestive? I don't really care, I'm not taking it down, coz it's pretty!

The last post, Pearse's poem, might have people wondering what I'm about too. "Hmmm...I wonder does this guy think blood sacrifice is good too?" I dunno. The principes of the Rising were commendable. Even against rediculous odds, the Volunteers and Connolly's Citizen Army fought against the army of the mightiest empire of the time for the right of freedom. Right, I'm not doing myself any favours here if I go off on tangents like that. Even so, that last statement doesn't make me a Provo does it? Yeah, I think I'm safe. It's perfectly ok for us to embrace our history and not be sympathizers of modern hard liners. Even if you don't embrace, it aint going anywhere folks. It happened and so, up the Wolfies for singing about it, I say!

Graham seems to think that I'm a republican. I was gonna give that a capital letter first, then I thought, no, no, then that would be the Yankee Republican Party. So wee little letters will do. But of course, he's being a little silly there. Even more amusing was that he thought Mr. David O'Shea was also a staunch republican. But anyway, folks, I hope yez don't think that I've a stash of weaponry out my back garden or anything. I like Irish history, (correction, love) and of course, I'm of the thinking that the Irish are bleedin' deadly. So, I can do no harm, but again, of course I'm going to be a tad biased in favour of the Volunteers, IRA under Brugha, etc. etc. But, I'm no criminal, I'll buu-rst yeh, righ'?

State o' chasis!!

My Lord, this country's political standing is surely in shreds! The election is looming over the heads of candidates and present TDs alike. It's 19 days away or something. But, even without the election, things are sickly.

Possibly the greatest example is the happenings concerning the new M3 motorway. It's planned to cost €850million. Holy Fuck Batman!! This controversial motorway is planned to run through the Tara Skyrne Valley, only 2km from the Hill of Tara, the seat of the High King of Ireland in bygone days. There has been protests against this road, with hippies and the like, camping up there for weeks on end. They feared that the road was going through an area where the probability of finding something of historical value was great. This turned out to be true. The location of a ritualistic site has been found, right in the way of the northbound route of the proposed M3. How fucking convienent.

But what makes this a real cracker is the Government's response, or lack of, in regard to the find. Oh, it's good. Dick Roche, Minister for the Environment was told about the site. He then gave the National Museum a buzz to see what they thought. But, Mr. Roche didn't think of telling his fellow FF fella, and cabinet buddy, Martin Cullen, Minister for Transport. Maybe Dickie didn't think Mr. Cullen needed to know that the state's biggest road plan ever was to be stopped. Twelve days later, Mr Cullen went to Navan to turn the sod ignorant of the development. He started the building of a road that was to be halted about 3 metres down. Oh silly Dickie. Why did you not tell Martin that his class project was facing troubles? Do you have some other agenda? "Heh heh, I don't like you Martin, I'll make you look shit!"

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1824720&issue_id=15587

So, as this example shows, not even the fuckin cabinet can talk to each other, or bother their bollocks to do so. My, my. The poor cabinet sure have seen some tough days this term.

Bertie: Well, he's had his fair share of shit. Manchester...finances...businessmen...payments etc. It's come back into the public arena about 14 times now. Answer the questions Taoiseach!

Harney: Well, I'm sure half the country is sick of her face at this stage. It takes up half the page in the broadsheets! That funny video that was on the six one news sums it all up. Destroying a health service for the benefit of the wealthy. Just like the PDs should!

McDowell: Where to begin. He seems to be a right gimp. I was listening to him one day in the Dáil, and I thought to myself, what a gobshite! He wasn't handling Opposition comments too well. I think it was Richard Bruton. Or was it Pat (the Baker) Rabitte? Doesn't matter. Mick was replying with devious little comments that make you wanna say, gimp! Two words....Garda Reserve. What's the deal?! Nowadays, it's the mobiles in Portlaois...will it end?!

Dermot Ahern: Looks like a rat. He also officially owns my passport. Who does he think he is?

Willie O'Dea: This little fella seems to want more power than he has...hmmm. Pointing his guns...He wants to be the big gun.

Decentralisation. It's a big word for the government. They're sticking to their guns (especially Willie) on this one. But, nobody wants to move. Do you blame them? Nope. I don't think I'd want to move to Enda-Kenny-Land, or anywhere like that. If you're interested, here's the website, but I highly doubt you give two shits.

http://www.decentralisation.gov.ie/

So, the country is in a state o' chasis! I didn't think I'd ever be writing something of this nature, but that's the way it goes. It sucks not having a vote for the coming election. Bollock the register and it February-ness! C'est la vie! Slán leat.

Éamonn Ceannt essay

Due to poplar demand (one request, but whisht) I am giving you a link to my Éamo essay. It's the kinda half cut down one. It may be missing some of the nice details, but hopefully not loads of them. It includes the beautiful story of Cathal Brugha's courage, so it's all good. Enjoy. Long live the memory of "the brave sons of '16."

http://www.freewebs.com/swinginghippos/eamonnceannt.htm

For further info, pictures, Éamonn's Rising statement and one of his touching letters to Áine, his beloved wife, visit this nice place. It's a bleedin' Adobe yolk, but it's good apart from that. The second link tells of the goings on in the South Dublin Union, where Ceannt was stationed with his 4th Batallion.

http://www.nli.ie/1916/pdf/4.5.pdf

http://www.nli.ie/1916/pdf/7.6.pdf

And if you're interested, I've finished my Bricky post. I've updated it a few times since its birth. I've done my closing paragraph, bringing all my points together. Scano would be pleased. I think that's more than 17 points fully explained.

An Oddity

Ladles and jellyspoons, tá scéal a rá agam anocht. It's strange, and not for those with weak hearts that might seize after hearing this story. Today was a Monday, just like last Monday was also a Monday. I'll led to believe that all Mondays from now on, will be Mondays, due to the successful Peace Process following Sinn Féin's agreement to support the PSNI. So, today was Monday. The first day of a long week of tortourous school going and all the tasks that are associated with it. For example, getting up and actually bothering our arses to go to school. But that's all negative, which isn't to be the outlook of this post. Oh, no no no. Ooh-la-la, a Frenchie might say. For, today (a Monday, with thanks to Sinn Féin) I was in good humour for le plupart du temps in school. This is drop-jaw* sort of stuff my fine friends. Now is the time to restart your pace makers.

*I think a pulled a Kavanagh there, with the makey-uppy adjective. Maybe I'm just a little obsessed.

This morning I did get up, with difficulty, at exactly eight. Well, according to my clock anyway. I had me brekkie, obviously Coco Pops agus away liom. I walked down in the agreeable morning weather. 'Twas lovely, and stayed thus most of the day. Bhuail mé le Dáithí (spelling?) ag an ndroichead. If I left out the "le" there, Ms. Conway would surely laugh or something like that. Anyway, first class was Religion with, the one, the only, Holy Healy. She gave us photocopies out of her "How to Survive Marrying a Catholic" or something to that effect. It has funny pictures with silly captions. She thought that I could get the tone right for them, maybe because she thinks I have "dry wit!" I read them, or rather I laughed them. I don't know why, but I just thought they were funny. They weren't but they were in the particular moment. Y'kno the way. Everyone must have thought I had taken a turn down Loopy Lane in my old age. Especially Lee-Anne (Oh fuck, I can't remember if that's the right spelling of her name or not!!) as she mentioned it later.

The rest of the day was good. I wasn't pissed off or cranky as I usually can be. Usually I don't really want to say much during the day and this doesn't really help un-dig me out of an unfavourable mood. But, none of that mattered today! Hoo-rah. History was bleedin' funny too. A single word, "Piskov," sent us all, Ms. Atkins inc., into a short fit of the giggles. The list of attempted plots to kill Rasputin got me laughing out loud too. "The nobles didn't like Rasputin and his hockus-pockus and decided to kill him. But he used his magical powers to revive himself. They stabbed him, poisoned him, shot him, gassed him, used Mr. Power's ultra-radiation gun on him, gorged out his lungs with a spoon and then finally pulled off the deed by simply throwing the stupid bastard into a cold river." That's my slightly edited version, just to be clear. Again, we all had a good laugh (again, Atkins inc.). Brill.

Lunch was nice. Up to Bernie in Centra. Got a coffee and a Cadbury's Dairy Milk. Nothing too exciting. Back to lunch room and a chat with the locals. After lunch was boring, but hey, it's school. Nothing funny to report.

But once school ends, it's all to play for. We were down changing books from locker, and Erica pops her head in the door and shouts "Bitch!" to Lee-Anne (again, with the spelling?!). Funny, but I don't hear what else see says. But I hear what sounds like "I'll use my defibulator." But apparently that wasn't said. Oh well. It'd be cool if Erica had a defibulator. "Hey Erica, can I come over later and look at your defibulator?" Or maybe even: "Yo Eri-ceh, giz a go o' yer defib-u-yolker!" Moving on. Off we go down the corridors to extra EO'B maths. Little Dermo (IRA agent in Juno) appears behind us. We laugh and I raise my hands in the air, as I knew he had a pistol about twice the size of his head. Lee-Anne(?) asks what I'm doing. I tell her that the IRA had found out that I'd informed on them. At this stage I'm only on the brink of laughter. She says something like "Right...I'm worried about you." To which I reply that she should be because they were going to have me shot for informing. I don't think this sentence was finished before I started my fit of laughing. Then that defibulator came to mind, and I really couldn't stop. I was rightly in stitches!! Yes, that merited two factorials, ehh, I mean exclamation marks. (level 5 maybe) It all happened in about half a minute but it was the funniest moment for me in school for a good long time. Well, actually, the yearbook meeting on Friday was good too, with my "The Realm" game. That also involved me laughing my balls off.

So, that was my story of a nice school day. A true rarity. That rare descent or whatever Sylvia says of her bloody Rook. Of course, I've pondered, why was today such a cheerful day? Of all the days, surely Monday shouldn't be a good day. But, it was. Why? Only one logical reason comes to mind. What was I doing on Saturday/Sunday...? I was with me own, me darlin' (Juno) Lorna. And because she's so bleedin' deadly, my mirthful and cheery side is charged up and can actually be seen. In really long, completely ridiculous maths (big sums) questions, I do often drift off, and of her I think. Better than bleedin' integration! Integration by parts is ok, but only because you have to differentiate stuff too. Like, get dee b'dee x of x is a zed, in relation to y, flip it and get dee b'dee deeta over dee b'dee tee. That's equal to zero, coz it's a max. But anyway (or "moreover" as the culchies would say) she's the reason I guess.

Sin é. Tá tuirse orm anois. Bhuel, tá sé déanach. Ceathrú chun a haon. Táim chomh tuirseach leis an ...fear ....ehh...tuirseach. That's it really, can't be more simple. That was my day. I hope you enjoyed reading about it. It's very good. I hope you have a nice funny day every now and again too. We need them to keep us alive. I'd like to thanks Sinn Féin again for giving us back our Mondays. Respect. Slán libh.

Picture Mad!

As you can clearly see, I've gone picture mad, and put pictures to supplement my posties! Yay!

General update of recent happenings.

It's been kindly brought to my attention that I haven't posted up a post for a while. So, I suppose for the good of humanity in general I better put up a bit of type.

Since the last post, Holy Week has come and gone, and Easter Sunday has come and gone. So, I survived Lent without a dropín of coffee. Well, apart from the ONE on Ash Wednesday, but that was only because I had forgotten to start, so therefore it doesn't count. I have done nothing wrong here... Anyway, I'm reasonably proud of my meagre achievement. I kinda half cheated. I had hot chocolate as a direct substitute. Although, I didn't have even half as much hot chocolate as I would have had of coffee, so, I didn't really cheat all that much. But it was all in the name of Jay-sus anyway. But I'm back on the stuff at this stage. Bíonn cupán agam ag am lón. Not every day, but couple of days. Not today; I had Cidona. Cider is gack, but Cidona is nice.

I suppose the other BIG THING these days are the bleedin' oral exams, An Bhéaltriail agus the French shite. Tá an scrúdú cainte thart anois, buíochas le Dia! It was all very lán le bhrú for the few days. We knew they started on the Monday 16ú Aibreáin, but we weren't sure when or in what order we'd be tested. So, I went in on Monday, half expecting the exam to be that day. Ach, ní raibh sé. So, the day crawled by at snail's pace, with my stomach turning all day with the fear of being called out. Half three came and nothing. So, day one over. "It'll surely be tomorrow," I told myself. Ach, arís, ní raibh sé, in ainm Dé! Or, as we'd say it here, for fuck's sake! Another agonising day past as I sat in classes like a man awaiting execution. (I'm not trying to liken myself to Ceannt here or anyone else of the sort. Maybe the image was distasteful on second thought. Oh well.) What made the day worse was that I thought I was going to be examined during the last class, and I was preparing myself and all, so I was. "Just listen for the tenses," I thought. But then, that wasn't to be either. I had to wait until the morning. At the end of the day, I was sitting in the front hall, talking to Da on the phone, and Ms. Shovlin was talking to the examiner woman at the office door. I saw her pointing over at me and saying something. It was probably "yeah, he's one of the poor sods that are still waiting," or something to that effect, but obviously in Northern Gaeilge. I smiled and gave a little wave. So, another night had to pass before I finally went in. I was first to enter on Wednesday morning. I must say, she was very nice. She was saying "an bhfuil tú reidh?" She asked me about 38 times. I replied "táim." I went in and signed the register, as one does. She got me to read Sliocht a hAon. It went well. "Caithfear ithe. Sceallóga inniú. Is aoibhinn...." Nuair a chríochnaigh mé an píosa, I sighed a big sigh! Then, it really began. She asked me about Swords, my lovely town. I got to use a phrase I thought was nice. Deirtear go raibh Brian Ború i gcaisleáin riomh an gCogadh Cluain Tarbh. I'm not sure if that úrú is right there, but oh well, they probably put it in there in Con na Mara. God bless the Galway boys! So, it went well, I think. Níor theip mé, gan amhras. And I surely was relieved after it, like I just had a nice piss. Ahhhhhh!

The French is to come still. Teanga shit is ea é. Ceapaim go bhfuil sé an-dheacair dhá theanga a fhoglaim ag an am cheanna. But, that's ár gCoras Oideachais for ya! French is just so bloody European that it's sickening. But, we have an oral exam anyway. Apparently it's going to be a French fella doing them. So it'll all be ooh-la-la this and ooh-la-la that. There'll be plenty of queations that'll throw me right off. And he'll find all of them probably. I can speak French with a bit of a French tongue on me, like, an accent. But, we've made such fun of the French that it's now just about over exaggerating it and slagging French and the poor French race, tous les jours. Sin an-ghreannmhar uaireanta. Je suis de bonne humeur le plupart de temp. J'aime rire. It's all shite really. "The French Oral - a play in three acts." Oh oui Mr. Examiner I really think it's important that we learn a modern European language, and it's equally important that we're in the EU and follow Germany with undying loyalty. I know they really don't care what you say, but I feel like a right gimp, an dtuigeann tú? Oh well, they're only words. But I suppose dominion status are just words too. But I'm not going down that road right now.

I saw the movie "300" over the Easter holliers. I'm kinda using this as an excuse to experiment with putting up a picture, but it's all good. Scannán foreigeaneach ab ea é agus tá sé go maith.



I went with Finn and Clarke down in the new Pavo cinema. So, it was all good. And, do you see, do you see my picture?? It's not me, obviously, but I put it there!! Yer man, the Spartan King, is just about to die big time in the last stand of the remaining group of 300 Spartans. I think that's the part of the movie that this pic is from. Fuck it if it's not!

Well, that's it for another day. Slán go foill!

Desktop Analysis

How do we learn about somebody? We can listen to what they say or what is said about them. We can look at their appearance and attire. These obsevations will tell us something about the person. But I've thought of something else reasonably interesting. By noting the objects on one's workbench or desk, it seems possible to see what somebody is up to recently also can highlight preoccupations and aspects of that person's daily life.

I'll give you an example. Obviously I don't know what's on anybody else's desk (apart from schoolbooks) because I don't really take heed. So, the only example I can give is my own desk.

Although there are (too) many schholbooks on my desk, I'm going to leave them out, because they go without saying. So currently there are many items on my desk. They include:
"Collected Poems" Patrick Kavanagh (collected and edited by Antoinnette Quinn),
"The Literacy Works of Patrick Pearse" (Collected and edited by Séamus ÓBuachalla),
a box of sweets, a clock, "From the Cradle"-Eric Clapton, mp3 players, a C.D. player, my wallet, my keys, a dictionary, a Gidgeon's New Testament and a badge with "18" on it. There is also a Garfield teddy, a candy cane, some ribbon and a can of deodorant.

These are all normal (banal?) items to me. But to some big phycho-analysist, they could be be very interesting altogether. I doubt. But it was fun making the list. Try it yourself. After a normal day, have a look at the things that you've been using. If you have a desk, realise what you're spending your time doing at the desk. We study and work at a desk, but not just for school, but yourself too. Give it a go.

If you want to try this in someone else's house, try not to make it so obvious. I doubt they'd like you going through their stuff for no reason!

I'm an adult now.

As I've pointed out in the title, I'm now an adult. One would wonder who let me get such a title. I suppose God did. Well, I'm 18 now and I'm all growed up, so I am. (I'm aware I put "growed" in the last sentence, I did it on purpose. Just in case you didn't get that already. I'm trying to be funny.) Speaking of that, I'm of the belief that as one gets older, one's sense of humour simply disappears. I'm not saying that I'm not funny anymore. Then again, I'm not saying that I'm funny now either. But, as a person goes through the stages of life, the ability to be funny, or to think of a funny comment on the spot dimishes, and one relies on stupid, un-funny puns more and more. But that has nothing to with the original intent of this post. I'm losing my focus and going off the point on a nice tangent. What's the perpendicular distance formula again? Sorry, that's another tangent. Gotta stop having tangents. Chords are ok, but not tangents...

Anyway, they've made me an adult. But they also made Bono a Knight, so I wouldn't trust them. I'm not trying to imply that the Brits are the ones responsible for making me an adult. But, it happened anyway. So now, according to law, I've fallen into some responsibilities and privileges. I'm allowed to vote and drink, legally. Which is wonderful, isn't it? Well, if I'm on the bleedin' register. As for the gargle, this Leaving Cert is still to do done. Maybe it's not wise just yet. Yes, I'm very boring, but that's me I suppose. Sure we'll see how it goes.

Another handy thing I can do now is get a nice 10-year passport for all the travelling and gargling needs. I had a temporary one. I think it's out of date at this stage. It's deadly because it's green. Only thing is that it gets dodgey looks from passport control officers abroad. It's Dermot Ahern's fault, it's not mine! It's also his property apparently. He's not getting it back the prick. Who does he think he is? Knob. Anyway, I'll get a purple one even though it's a crapper colour. Sure I suppose it doesn't really matter what bleedin' colour it is, once it does its job.

Well, I'm pretty much finished now. The world surely hasn't benefited from my turn of age. But at least it's no worse either. Phew. It seems that I'll make a career for myself in politics according ot my classmates. So, I've lots to look forward to. I think I'll go and throw myself in the canal and save myself the bother. Nah, not my style. So, in conclusion...I don't have one. Bye.

Nothing to type...see how much I can drag out.

Well, it's Sunday morning. As the title says, I've nothing to say, and therefore even less to type. I'd like to thank AJ Edwards, from Illinois somewhere, for her kind words. I bet she'd like Capel Street. I didn't think that post was very "twirdy," but it got branded so. Although, at this stage, I'm not sure if the word "twirdy" is an adjective or a proper noun, my (nick?)name. I've never really had a nickname. Hmmm...Twirdy. Note the capital letter there. Whichever works best in a situation.

The most exciting thing I did today was probably changing guitar strings. The D'addario stings are pretty because they've got the different coloured ends. They're all new and clean and crisp with tone. Next on the exciting list might be going to Mass. I don't usually go to the Vigil Mass of a Saturday, but it was somebody's brother's month mind Mass, so we went to see the people. Next would be eating din-dins. Yum. Last is chemistry study coz it's shit. Free radical shite.

So, now I'm kicking it back up here, listening to The Frames. Their newest album is a bit shite, so I'm listening to "Burn The Maps" instead because it's all quite deadly. It's a tell your friends album if they're stupid enough not to know about it already. I saw them in the Olympia Theatre two years ago? I can't really remember. They were fuckin deadly. Glen told his stories, as he does, they played a good gig. Actually speaking of the Olympia, Incubus are coming to the Olympia, or maybe they've come and come and gone already. Oh well. Their new est album is rather interesting. Quite a change in direction for them as far as I can see. They've made lotsa those turns already. There's a big difference between "S.C.I.E.N.C.E." and "Make Yourself" for example. Well, there's a considerable difference between the work on each of the albums. They don't sit still. I suppsoe that's a good thing. Rolling stone gathers no moss, but let's not go down the Bob Dylan road tonight. I might need to make that reference elsewhere.

Today felt a bit like a Sunday. It now feels like a Sunday. The main reason for this might be that it now is a Sunday. But I mean taht it feels like it should be mid-Sunday now. Maybe it's because I stayed in bed until 12 this morning. It's more likely to be because I went to Mass earlier. The ticking clock in my head is out of order. Not my body clock. Only aging women care about that. Until that word happens. The meno....moving on.

Now, isn't that something? I had nothing to say, but I made stuff that I could say. Glorious waffle. I suppose that 's what this thing is for. Now it's time for me to say goodbye. Goodbye. Goodnight ladies. Goodnight.
Slán go foill.

Places in Dublin that I like Part Four (Capel Street)

Let me tell you now folks, despite what the others might say, Capel Street is a great part of town. They will tell you that it's horrible and that they don't like it. But that's only because they're posh Brits. The small, somewhat pokey, street gives the Dubliner (or visitors too I suppose) a nice quaint, old-fashioned sort of feeling and the atmosphere of the street compliments this.

I've always seen the street as a place you go when you want something practical, and no, I'm not talking about the filthy shops. It's got all the hardware shops. It's handy-man heaven, and again, I'm not talking about the dirty shops. It's got all the fitting shops, such as knobs and knockers, not the dirty ones, and similar outlets with similar stock. I f you need a particular type of handles for your door or wardrobe, well, you'll find it on Capel Street somewhere. That huge place is there too, Lenihans or something like that. It's a big hardware shop with everything. Finn's (ex-) friend from Rush says that they sell JCBs and the like from their yard at the back, but we've learned not to trust his every word. But it may be possible that they do.

When I was young, we always used to go into the Ilac centre. We used to go up Parnell Street to the old "Peat's" and go down to Arnott's occasionally. But we'd always end up on Capel Street for one reason or another. I have a few memories of being there and it being dark, so it was obviously the last place we went to on our day in town. With all our links with Scouting, we were frequently in and out of the Scout shop there. We'd be replacing lost waggles or buying new neckerchieves or my Mam would buy badges for her little beavers, awh. The campling shops were up on Capel Street too. So, if we wanted camping stuff of any description, we'd head up that direction. I remember getting me first pair of combats up on Capel Street. It was Hallowe'en 199_. Whatever year it was. I think I also got a toy set of tools that day in addition to my deadly trousers, so I mustn't have been very old. I thought I surely was the bee's knees. I could go to war against the Brits or just do some light DIY with my plastic hammer and monkey wrentch.

Goodwin's is a deadly little music shop there on Capel Street. Come on to Capel Street from Mary Street and it's just there on the left on the opposite side of the road. Wonderful little place. They've got some great guitars in there. They've got Martin's and some lovely Fenders. There's one particular Strat that they had, and have recently sold, and I was drooling as a result of seeing it. Finn will probably remember the one I mean. They had the Tele equivalent too. The Strat was gorgeous. It was one of those with the button on the tone knob, not the dirty one, so that you can get different pickup combinations. I think they call it the S-1 System, correct me if I'm wrong. Goodwin's also stocks loads of music books. They've got some nice little ones filled with Irish tunes. I think I'll pick one up some day, and I'll give them a lash on me auld banjo. On one the days I was in Goodwin's with Finn, I think 'twas the day Finn bought a kazoo, I was having a pick of a nice acoustic there, when some nice fella came over and said that he was happy to hear that I was playing "Hideaway" by Freddie King. He was really nice, and I was quite content with myself altogether.

The auld ones on Capel Street are an integral part of the street. They sell their raspberries and their strawberries from the prams for €2 a bag or whatever they charge. Although I've never bought from the auld ones, it's still good to hear them calling for custom. "Ras-be-rees, two fohr a YOUUU-row!!" You get the idea.