WE MUST be the most subservient race on Mother Earth.
No matter what we are told or what we are told to do, we accept the word of those on high and blindly follow our so-called leaders.
The time may not be right for us to discuss this subject as we are experiencing the pain, fear and trepidation of a pandemic.
But, here goes.
The pandemic is a horror that may just be dulling our minds, thereby providing a nigh comatose effect that means our minds are focused only on the immediate ills that torment us and our families.
We accept that Covid-19 may be enough to be grappling with at any one time.
But we are still shocked that our people seem to be in a kind of drunken-like stupor as we almost daily accept the incompetence and sheer arrogance of politicians and their allies who inflict misery on us through blundering, blustering and protection of their own ilk.
How our people have not reached a breaking point suggests that some if not all of the latter may be what pals of the gravy train of Ireland may describe as utterings of the looney left.
In our view, all politicians are culpable but particularly the Mafia-like alliance of Green, FF and FG that has brought the game of politics to the dirty level of a snake’s belly.
HORROR STORY OF HOMELESSNESS
We think of the hurt and hardship that has been foisted on our people by modern day cruelty such as the Cervical Cancer Scandal, the horror story of homelessness, the housing, or lack of, a blot on our copybook that for decades of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee Governments, aka Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael control freaks, continues to be a festering sore.
There is more, much more, including the real stories of our hospitals and health service which, if the truth were told would probably mean the latter would be chronicled as Third World.
No disrespect, we hasten to add, to the vast majority of medical personnel but to the sheer negligence of Government, lack of care and turning a blind eye to a rundown health system where next door to a million people, many of them in pain, are on waiting lists that last not for weeks or months but for years.
We live in a country where our politicians concentrate more on discussing the price of a pint and a chaser than they put into the wants and needs of special children.
We kid you not.
Look back on the record books and you will find that cheap beer and what to do about it got many an airing in the Dáil at the heart of the pandemic.
An issue certainly to be dealt with.
But at the time of a pandemic?
LUNATICS IN CHARGE OF THE ASYLUM
The latter at a time too as the vicious illness cancer is now attacking a reported one in two of our people.
That the lunatics are in charge of the open air asylum that is Ireland, is very obvious.
If we were a people with a smidgen of bottle and assertiveness, the most recent despicable incineration of babies remains involving Cork University Maternity Hospital should surely be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Sadly, it will be viewed with a mix of anger, sadness and sympathy for the unfortunate families whose loved ones had passed on.
There will be the usual mealy-mouthed apologies, ‘our heartfelt sympathy goes to the families, blah, blah, blah and the headlines that shocked us, not enough to take action mind you, will move on to the next tragedy or dithering disaster where, you can bet your bottom dollar, politicians will be somewhere in the mix.
Our people must be sick and tired of ‘hospitals’, ‘banks’ or the ‘HSE’ apologizing when all such messages should be signed by those directly responsible for causing chaos.
The recent list of our wealthy millionaire politicians, many of them property owners just might be a hint as to why we have major headaches in this country.
Can you imagine property-rich public representatives who rent out premises siding with people who are scourged by sky high rents.
WHAT SIDE BREAD IS BUTTERED ON
Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and our prize ponies who are more akin to Ostriches than to Dustin and his cousins know well what side their bread is buttered on.
They will bury their heads in the sand or sleep through Dáil sessions (wakey, wakey Mr Ryan of the Greens) that involve doing the right thing for families in distress because of savage vultures and cruel banks working to seize their homes.
They will continue to ignore the bodies of dead souls who die on our streets and the pleadings of loving parents who simply want a better deal for their children.
But they will be as bright as buttons (with respect to buttons) when there is any debate about rising the basic wage for hard working people or whether or not they should rise the old age pensions or any other allowances for the real people of Ireland.
Bluntly, politicians, as we know, have no problem in giving themselves generous rises but Jack and Jacinta public may just be confined to a few Euros.
On that score, beware of the coming budget which could be a Greeks Bearing Gifts performance in a bid to pull FF and FG out of the gutter and to keep Sinn Féin in its corner.
There just might be a money for votes lure but, as we know from experience, what is given out with any Government right hand will be taken back by its left.
DIVIDE AND CONQUER IS THE PLOY
Far too many of our politicians are connivers. They will attend funerals, shed a tear with bereaved, they will suggest an extra bank holiday for those who risked their lives to save our lives as Covid continued to attack.
They will then fly the kites as to what workers should get what, if anything, for their part in the Herculean battle to fight off an invisible enemy.
The exercise is called divide and conquer, a ploy that is possibly as old as Methuselah but is still a weapon of choice when cunning folk would prefer to give a round of applause to gallant and courageous medics than to pay them properly and respect their unselfishness.
When it comes to hiking up their own wages, it is open season for politics.
It is well known that trolls who populate Facebook and other social media outlets of literacy those who pat Government on the back for its ‘great efforts’ are fellow members of the Silver Spoon parties of FF, FG and the Greens.
The latter may have the letter ‘L’ on their backs, but are learning quickly how to play the self-serving political game.
The reason we blame all politicians and not only Government for our ills is that among the band of cash rich millionaires and others of wealth in the chambers of power there is not one man or woman of vision and empathy prepared to do the decent thing.
A LIGHT IN A BOG
We long for the day when he or she will be prepared to stand up and say ‘Hold on boys and girls, we badly need to take stock; there is something really stink on our potentially beautiful isle of saints and scholars’.
Perhaps a wonderful lady TD called Catherine Connolly may one day be our Knight in Shining Armour?
She is a light in a bog.
Bless her, she is a rarity who may rock a boat that badly needs a good shaking.
She would appear to be the only possible branch of decency and care amongst a pile of dead wood.
Finally, we stress that we are not encouraging people to torch businesses or to turn to violence, as so often happens in other European countries when citizens are put under pressure.
But we would love to see millions of our people heading to Dublin from all corners of Ireland, gathering outside the Dáil and chanting together, ‘Out, out, out, ye wasters.’
How wonderful it would be to see the members of all parties and some sneaky independents traipsing out with their tails between their legs.
It would bring life to the proverb of Empty house, bad tenant.
The time may just be right to sack our politicians.
As our people continue to suffer mostly in silence, we know that there will be those who may defend our public representatives.
In a democracy, everyone is entitled to have his or her voice aired.
But we caution that the openness, transparency and fair play that we support in modern Ireland may be with O’Leary in the grave.
We now have a culture where those who may not agree with a popular view are branded as looney left or worse.
In the medical profession, we note that there are sackings and resignations of doctors because they may not agree with the Gospel of Dr Whoever.
The Covid debate, in which we are on neither side, may just prove to be an incurable illness that had surfaced long before we heard the word Covid.
Can Medicine Be Cured? Is a book that was written pre-Covid by Professor Seamus O’Mahony, consultant gastroenterologist at Cork University Hospital.
It is worthwhile but worrying read.
Worth studying too is the state of journalism in present day Ireland.
Local and national newspapers are fighting for their lives. Local radios are having it tough while our national broadcaster, radio and Television, has a love, hate relationship with our people.
There is a reason for everything and, sadly, our belief is that a once proud media has at least contributed to its own fall from grace.
There was a time when the Fourth Estate was populated by some of the finest journalists in the world, and indeed it has some who are still proving that the pen is mightier than the sword.
But, unfortunately there are too many writers who simply shovel out Government propaganda as if it were written in stone.
In a desperate fight for survival, the media has sold its soul to the devil, sided shamefully with the powers that be and served the cause of the corporate world, notably the pharmaceutical industry.
Lazy or easily bought journalists have a lot to answer for.
For the sake of democracy we need well written newspapers, local and national radio and television stations that champion the causes of our people.
At Kilkenny Press, we do not claim that we can walk on water.
But we do note that a once noble industry is leaking badly and in real danger of drowning.
The positive that is we do have a survival weapon.
That will mean change, real change.
Hopefully, all journalists will smell the coffee and realize that we have let standards slip as newspapers, radio and television have vital roles to play in our daily lives.
Please share if you agree and feel free to express your views whether or not you agree with our sentiments.
The Kilkenny Press is a forum for all of our people, regardless of colour, class or creed.
