Anyone unfortunate enough to know what it is like to live with an alcoholic might see a parallel between coping with the insanity of addiction and the dysfunctional Irish political system. In an alcoholic household, the alcoholic is often the last person to admit there is a problem. He or she engages in grandiose thinking. They fail to listen. They act unreasonably. Their behaviour affects the entire household. They fool themselves. They bully. They are unaccountable. They are remarkably self-forgiving. While I am explicitly not stating nor suggesting nor implying that any member of Government is an alcoholic, the parallels are striking. The family is thrown into dysfunction and nobody knows from day to day what will happen next. The only predictable thing is that nothing can be predicted. Eventually, something like sanity is restored when healthy (non-addicted) family members say ‘Enough is enough. We’re not taking this anymore.’ They detach from the alcoholic and sanity can be restored.
Author Archives: Joe Armstrong
Greens should pull the plug on discredited Government today
The Greens will almost certainly be decimated in the next election but they could at least go with a tinge of integrity by pulling the plug today on this discredited Government. What other regime in the world would tolerate the multiple resignations of Cabinet members weeks before a General Election and their cynical replacement? What the country needs is a new Government, not a cynical window-dressing exercise by Fianna Fail. For every day the Greens extends the life of this government, they will face another decade in electoral oblivion. The Irish electorate has a long memory, despite what Harney once said, as the routing of a previous Labour coalition records. Will being in Government stop the Greens from doing the conscientious thing? They promised us an election by the end of January. Will they, instead, facilitate this cynical ploy by Cowen? He’s running rings around you, Greens. Be adults. Enough is enough. Resign today so ye can live with yourselves.
Mary Hanafin’s GUBU reasoning
‘Unmitigated horseshit’ is the politest term that came to my mind upon hearing Mary Hanafin’s so-called reasoning for not saying before the Fianna Fail parliamentary party vote last night which way she was voting. To hear her say on the RTE News at One just now that she didn’t want to ‘influence’ her parliamentary colleagues is staggering in its abject dearth of leadership. Leadership, dear Mary, is all about influencing others. And her Jesuitical thinking that she can remain in Cabinet although she has no confidence in Brian Cowen as Leader of Fianna Fail but she has confidence in him as Taoiseach is potty, illogical, spineless shite. Let’s call it what it is, Mary. Thank goodness we now know of this bizarre instance of the labyrinthine tangles of her thinking because, Jaysus boys, now we know that not only was the so-called dream ticket of Micheal Martin and Mary Hanafin a mirage but hopefully Hanafin will be back at the chalkface come September and good riddance to her. And as for the honourable Micheal Martin, now you know you won’t be laboured with a ‘friend’ in Mary Hanafin in the next Dail or whenever, if ever, you, Micheal Martin, become Leader of Fianna Fail or Taoiseach.
Cowen and Fianna Fail in Denial
We deserve the leaders we get. If Fianna Fail vote confidence in Brian Cowen tonight, its opponents will be delighted and FiannaFail will not deserve to survive. Period. Listening to Cowen, the subtext to his every utterance is ‘denial’. How anyone with an ounce of sense could believe that Cowen is the best man for the job beggars belief. And he tells Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 just now that the way he handled the IMF bailout was grand. Even though his stooges Ministers Dermot Ahern and Noel Dempsey were haplessly televised together shaking their head denying the IMF were about to move in one week before the IMF bailout. Well might Dempsey and Ahern grab their pensions and run. Neither would be re-elected. But if FF vote Cowen back in tonight, voting confidence in their ‘leader’ who has led Ireland to such ignominy and distress (denied by Cowen, of course), then FF deserves to go the way of tyrannosaurus rex. Voting for Cowen tonight is nothing other than lemmings sauntering over cliffs and turkeys voting for Christmas. If they do so, they cannot blame Cowen for their demise but themselves. Will De Valera turn in his grave if Sinn Fein leads the Opposition in the next Dail ahead of the rump of FF?
Is Cowen about to resign at last?
Few people will lament the resignation of Brian Cowen as Taoiseach/Irish prime minister if, as the rumour mill has it, he is about to resign. How can a man who presided over the IMF bailout, and who has dragged Fianna Fail to its lowest level in the opinion polls, have any doubt but that the sooner we see the back of him the better? Could he be so self-deluded as to believe that Ireland is better with him as leader than without him? Truth comes dripping slow…
Greed and Need
The cost of medical consultants in Ireland is outrageous. Recently my son had a ten-minute consultation with a medical consultant. The bill was €180 and it will be a further €120 for a follow-up visit, which I expect to last another ten minutes. That’s €300 for twenty minutes’ work. Or €900 an hour. (Yes, the waiting room was full.) So for let’s say a gentle seven-hour day that would be €6,300 in one day! Let’s say he only did that four days a week, you’re looking at €25,200 per week! A 48-week (four-day week) working year would pull in a cool €1,209,600.
What alternative do people have? To wait a year on the public health system? Parents need the reassurance of knowing if their children are alright. Thankfully, my son was fine. But I cannot help but wonder if the fees charged by medical consultants are a case of greed versus need. Patients’ need meets human greed.
A Sad Day for Ireland
It’s a sad day for Ireland. Maybe I’ll just leave it at that. Let it hover. And not mention our hapless prime minister Brian Cowen who insisted for the past several days that we were not in negotiations with the IMF et al. At least the governor of the Irish Central Bank was candid this morning. But what kind of imbeciles does Cowen think we are, hiding behind jargon, patronising the people who – perish the thought – put him in power. And what kind of prime minister holds on to power knowing that if he went to the country his party would be decimated? This goverment sold themselves to the electorate last time on the grounds that the economy would only be safe in their hands. As jokes go, it’s a howler. This government has no moral right to govern. A short three-week campaign could see a new government installed which had a mandate from the people to lead us through the next four years. But those in power will never willingly cede it. Do they honestly believe that were they to leave power that Ireland would be in a worse state than it is in today? ‘Shite and onions!’ as James Joyce once said.
Chile miners
The rescue of those Chile miners sent a shiver up my back. Sometimes, hope prevails. And no victory was every yet won in the absence of hope. This day, hope that your work will bear good fruit. Fight the good fight. Persevere. Live this day, this moment, to the full. Believe in yourself. And in a harmony in the universe which sometimes delivers us from the very depths of the earth.
Keep Going!
Life is short
It can be sweet
So keep going my friend
Bum off seat!