'Paddy's Day' paddywhackery

'An auld sod' for you Mr President

BRIAN COWEN'S reluctance for pre-March elections might have had something to do with shaking Barack Obama's hand.
With everything else slipping from his grasp, Brian must have hoped he'd have one last 'shindig' at The White House handing over a bowl of shamrock on March 17th.

The Maghreb's Citizen Kanes

THE Maghreb's Citizen Kanes have facilitated street protesters demands for societal freedoms already experienced by those who have internet access.

The virtual anonymity of social media facilitates a kind of free-flow of comment and opinion for citizen journalists without fear of peer group censure or any requirement to conform to social norms.

The disjointed story told by a reading of such frenzied uploads by cyber hacks, out of context and out of sequence, has wrong footed the region's dinosaur leaders as technology enabled agitation outpaces their ability to control dissent.

The diffusion of raw, unedited, mobile phone images to our TV screens is a mix of political and social dissent mixed in with public spectacle.

The street killings and recent hanging by Iranian authorities of 'dissidents' for alleged involvement in street protests three years previously indicates a personal sacrifice paid by demonstrators.

The ownership or control of cyber comment in western democracies will challenge their citizens tolerance for freedom and liberty when such countries are already engaged in an aggressive campaign to close down comment or viewpoints framed as 'politically incorrect' or perceived as being out of step with societal norms.

What's that on your head?

Jackie Healy Rae, Kerry's golden boy

JACKIE Healy Rae doesn't do Peter Marks or Toni&Guy for male grooming.
The handsome devil of '58 swaped his GAA jersey for a cloth cap long ago and has come up smelling of roses, not cow pats, after ringing concessions from Fianna Fail before voting on the Finance Bill.
He's pure 'Kerry Gold' with not so much as a price on his head but something that looks suspiciously like bull shit.

Occupation? Dissident

'That's where they shot
Sam Marshall"

WORDS can take on different meanings from the one intended.

Some of our northern 'cousins' believe occupation has something to do with the British Army roaming the six counties whereas others just answer 'dissident'.
With Sinn Fein travelling down the rocky road to Dublin, the Belfast dissident republicans have simply closed down that city's Antrim Road for more than 48 hours.

MM to lead FF into opposition

Martin replaces Cowan
as Fianna Fail party leader

MICHAEL Martin seccured his election as eight leader of Fianna Fail yesterday.

With less than five weeks to go until polling day, there is little prospect that his party will form a fourth successive coalition government.

Most likely the only 'bounce' from Martin's election will be a hop, skip and a jump across the floor of the Dail to the opposition benches.

TV3's Midday 'yap flaps'

Midday's Elaine Crowley hosts
another panel of female 'yap flaps'

TV3's Midday show affords Ireland's 'gobby' female guests a platform to air their opinions on anything.
The 'Blood on the Streets' hysteria about Ireland's economic mess from this morning's 'yap flaps' was amusing.
Their concerns about Sky Sports sexism missed the 'offside' banter completely.
Soccer lads use the 'offside rule/playing offside' expression as a euphemism for getting sex 'on the side' off someone other than their partner.

Ireland's PapaDoc agus BabyDoc Dohertys

PapaDoc Pat Doherty, British MP

BabyDoc Pearse Doherty, Irish TD

Fianna Fail's 'best in show' affair

FIANNA Fail's four way 'leadership' tussle is very much a best in show affair.
Des 'no no' Hanafin's daughter Mary goes head to head against Brian 'dead as a dodo' Lenihan senior's boy, Brian, the bedeviled era's Eaomon O'Cuiv and Cork's finest, Michael Martin.
Although Martin is without a traditional FF pedigree, he might, if he can box cleverly, secure most from a ballot box encounter with those who feel they were born to lead us not into damnation.
Whatever the outcome, there is a need for leadership and not just another 'leader'.
Good governance, not merely the formulation of a 'good' government is essential if Ireland is to chart a course away from financial fecklessness.

Robbing paupers to pay 'peelers'

SINN Fein's proposal to raid Ireland's pension reserve fund of €7 billion to pay inflated police salaries smacks of financial fecklessness.
Reducing overall public sector salary costs at source is far more efficient and prudent.
Suspension of pension contributions by the Irish State for younger public sector employees could create a 'holiday window' and reduce overall borrowing requirements.
Sinn Fein's proposal to reduce professional fees by 25% is welcomed but could be greater.
Reducing the cost of public administration coupled to increased taxation might accelerate the Sovereign debt repayment schedule.

Boil your 'Greens'

MOTHER'S wise words should unsettle Ireland's Green party sextet in the run up to parliamentary elections February 25th.
The cabbage patch kids have survived a harsh winter of their own discontent but now seem unaware of an Irish preference for boiling greens to oblivion.
Savoy cabbage is somewhat regal in Italy but it's a muddy furrow being ploughed in an Irish field before St Paddy's day.
They played 'real politik' with the big boys for three years and are about to return from whence they came.
OMG ;-0  ... in txt msg speak.

Sinn Fein's 'big guns'?

Pearse Doherty's 'pop's, Pat, Gerry Adams
with Mary Lou McDonald

SINN Fein's 'big guns' have yet to wade into the debate about the south's unravelling economy.

Pearse 'poster boy' Doherty is as slick as hair oil 'waxing' on about finance but the party's minders have yet to unleash heavy assests from their republican arsenal.

When will 'el presidente' Gerry Adams and his red rouged sidekick, Mary 'who?' McDonald yap on about the state of the 'nation'.

Caoimhín O'Caoláin has rightly milked 'Cowan-gate' this past fortnight, notably, some 30 months after his 'I spy' trip to Druid's Glen, summer 2008.

Then, he had 'bumped' into Brian Cowan playing a four ball with Anglo Irish Bank's disgraced head honcho, Sean Fitzpatrick, five months prior to that bank's implosion and whose debts are now unconditionally guaranteed by Ireland's compliant taxpayers.

I hope Sinn Fein's financial planning includes something more concrete than a bunker beneath a barn or a balaclava raid on Donegal Square.