The Last Nigth of the Proms

Suddenly was everything over; the Exams past, the semester is over and my stay in Dublin have come to an end. Even as the two last week have consisted of visits from Norway, rude German student advisors, Ministers taken at gun point and a rather unplanned cold during the mentioned examination period, I haven’t been writing too much here. The cold and the five four exams in four days in a row explains much of that.

However, now I’m free, and now I’m leaving back home to Bergen, which I from time to another have missed. I have not missed the rest of Norway, but Bergen, absolutely. Hence, I can’t really say that I’m home before me and Scaramouch is sitting at my dig sharing a pizza and a couple of bottles of vine talking about the world passing.

I’m really not in mood for a deeper writing now as I’m a bit, quite, very, sad about leaving my new home in Donnybrook, the other guys at UCD, Liffey, the coffee at Starbucks, the GPO, Saint Stephen’s Green, the Bus who never comes, the rain, the food at the Pubs. The breach in the Wall were I have to get through in the mornings to get to the Campus, the pipes overlooking Dublin Bay, Wicklow Mountains in the morning; I could have been writing for hours about everything. As usual I will not do that, and would rather again dedicate a song to the situation without any sentimental speeches and symbolic manifestos over the time that have past and would come in the future. SO, to all of you from UCD, I’m off now, and..yeah..take care. I’ll be back.

My Heart Is In Ireland
By The Wolfe Tones

In the East End of London, I met an old man.
He kept a bar called the Horses and Tram.
My parents were Irish. They loved that dear land
The Cockney, he smiled, then he shook my old hand.

My heart is in Ireland, it's there I long to be.
Her hills and her valleys are calling to me.
Though born here in this land, my heart is in Ireland.
The land of the old folks is calling to me.

Near a coal mine in Wales, by a roadside cafe,
A young girl came smiling, and to me did say,
Well, my folks are from Ireland. My Da', he hopes one day
When he leaves the mines, sure we'll go back to stay.

My heart is in Ireland, it's there I long to be.
Her hills and her valleys are calling to me.
Though born here in this land, my heart is in Ireland.
The land of the old folks is calling to me.

Then I went through the Midlands, through each city and town.
I found there were Irish in each place I roamed.
And I drank and I sang at a pub they call the Crown.
With the Birmingham irish, we sang songs of home.

My heart is in Ireland, it's there I long to be.
Her hills and her valleys are calling to me.
Though born here in this land, my heart is in Ireland.
The land of the old folks is calling to me.

Then I went north to Scotland, to Glasgow on the Clyde.
I met with some young lads. They said, Celtic's our side.
All our folks are from Ireland, the island of the green.
A country we love, but a place we've not seen.

My heart is in Ireland, it's there I long to be.
Her hills and her valleys are calling to me.
Though born here in this land, my heart is in Ireland.
The land of the old folks is calling to me.

Let the People Sing!

While staying here in Dublin I had decided to have as little as possible with News and such from Norway, but from time to time have I just popped by some of the online newspapers to see what’s up back home. Normally, following the headlines, bad have turned worse and the Kingdom is at the edge of collapse into anarchy and it seems like the government knows too many people and speak to too many, that the prices still are too high, that Oslo cares less and less of the remaining 80 % of the population, that the soccer gets even worse and the regular feeling that the Civil War is just around the corner do indeed comes to me. The Defence buys the wrong fighters; Labour continues their treason against the working class without that the class seems to notice, the Conservative politicians are able to ask you to go to Hell in such a manner that you will enjoy the way; suddenly the global warming have made the winter better and it is still somebody who thinks Rosenborg have a possibility against European top-clubs. But, today was different. Today had some of the journalists in Dagbladet had a look across the sea and read a non-Nordic newspaper and made a comment about Dido’s last album. Oh, well, more precisely, the content of her songs(It should be mentioned that the headline were that the manager for the woman handball national team had given the goalkeeper a short instruction during the last match)

She has, as far as I know, quoted a sentence from “Men Behind the Wire” in one of her new songs. The first I noticed in this article were how simple it was written: "A song about Irish people captured by the British". "Captured"; that's sounds odd...what about INTERNED, without trail, judge or jury, that’s more like it. Does that change the story a bit? That the song unfortunately has been captured by the Real IRA (RIRA) and Continuity IRA (CIRA), that’s another storey, but the journalist should not forget that this songs and ballads are rather common here in the Republic. I'm not a extremist, and I seriously doubt that any other of those other 300 who took part at the Wolfe Tone concert at UCD in September are extreme Republicans eighter, nor the people in Galway. Or Carolls Irish Gifts Inc. The people over here has song this songs for decades, and the Barleycorn are just another way for cultural expressionism, footed in quite a serious part of the Irish history. Compared to a lot of other people in Falls Road (lovely place with a quite good view of Central Belfast) they did choose a rather constructive way of express their viewes and frustrations; many others joined the Officals and fought in the streets, which become clear during the Curfew. The English editon of this article was actually shorter I thing, but at least there you got a picture of the Barleycorn, but why it says Tallagh at the cover (why leave West Belfast just to move to Tallagh?), I have no idea, however, they do at least adress the song as a rebel song, which is more correct than Dagbaldets approach.

Gregory Campbell, Democratic Unionist Party , who are one the Protestant hard liners who fight against Irish as a official language in the North (which makes Northern Ireland the only territory in the EU where a official language isn’t able to use at public documents), have said that Dido have acted “thoughtless” and that the song were about people that were murderers and terrorists. My question then: is it less thoughtless to allow UVF continue functioning as a Society, and at the same time refusing to accept that the IRA (Provisionals) are gone? Is it less thoughtless promoting the importance of a public celebration of the British Army as they returns from Afghanistan (and the Remembrance day)or salute John Hermon, who recently passed away, as a great public serviceman, is it less thoughtless of Campbell addressing the All-Ireland Football Cup as an “international event” and stressing the point that Tyrone was a British team? I guess not.

So, to Dagbladet: please do not address Irish Folk songs as “IRA-songs”, it just sound a bit narrow minded and indicated a black/white perspective that the media seems to adapt. May I just remind ye that the new Max Manus movie is about a man who basically did exactly the same against the germans as the IRA did against the Brits, and that we have tendency to embrace the old Norse traditions, just think at the Saint Olav Drama (A tall, blonde Christian guy fighting a pagan army), which indeed are the very same the National Socialists did embrace some 70 years ago.
To Gregory Campbell: you are minister for the ENTIRE North. Not only the protestant part of the population. You have Stormont, the rest of us have the songs. Live with it.

Go Dido! Next time you should sing the entire song!

- Proud we march behind our banner. Firm we stand behind Dido.

Very first, Mik, thanks for leaving a comment! It’s a sham that we didn’t think about this earlier, but, at least we have several lines for communication! Have put a bit extra work in the blog since I’m a hard line anti-Facebook, so every positive feedback is a craic! About the Norwegian part: sorry, just a bit in lack of time to do the English proper, and you know how it is in December, time isn’t what we have enough of. But thanks for reading, and guess I see you at the next breakfast!

To Rick, who thought that I were Irish; apologies, I’m only living here in Dublin, and do some correspondence back home to Norway, hence, the Dublin Correspondent. Anyway thanks for reading my blog, I have been totally lost in work the recent days so it has been rather limited writing at the blog. Anyway, you are right; at this Emerald Isle it is the Irish who is the Catholics and the Protestants in Ulster who has a Scottish heritage, known as Ulster-Scots (it is 12 US presidents who had their ancestors in what is the North of Ireland today). However, it is some 100.000 Irish in the Republic who are Protestants as well, so the ethnical boundaries between them are not that clear-cut as it may look like. When it comes to the NWO I do find it more like an interesting theory, with, what do you say, remarkable many evil coincidences to the real life. My favourite indicator that something is wrong:

In the wake after the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in the referendum the in July this year it was a lot of discussion between the defeated Pro-Treaty campaign about how it was possible that Sinn Féin and Declan Ganley had managed to defeat the overwhelming Pro-Treaty attitude in the Dáil (SF holds 4 seats out of 166). One of the reasons who was pointed out as the most crucial was that the voters where misinformed(Irish Times 10.10.08) and points out that One of the main reasons for the result was that "The internet was almost exclusively used by No campaigners" and that they’re in need for “the creation of a new communications culture in the commission and the need for "misinformation to be targeted by activating a rebuttal function in the member states and/or directly from Brussels”. I think that’s quite interesting that an EU official, the Vice-President of the Commission, blames the judgments of the people for the failure and want to create a mechanism to dictate, or licensing them self, to hold “the Truth”.

At nearly the same time Marianne Mikko, member of the European Commission on Cultural Affairs presents her ideas of how to stop the pollution of the cyberspace and, surprise, surprise, stop misinformation and ensure the “quality” of the interactive media. I call that I rather suspicious coincidence. I do not trust them, neigther if it is a proposal for registration of the bloggers, de facto us, even if they says it is to secure the property rights. So there you go Rick.

Anyway. I'm alive, just wanted to point that out after my abscense the recent week scince people had posted comments here I want to show them the respect by answer the.

What's the Storey in Dublin?

- President Mary McAleese har vært i grenselandet i Cavan og besøkt Orange Ordenen, og med det har hun blitt første irske statsoverhode noen sinne til å sette sin fot i en Orange Hall. Eamon de Valera vrir seg i grava.

- Fás, den irske utgava av NAV, er ute i hardt vær fortiden. Ikke rart når de har kjøpt overheader for et 8 sifferet beløp (€) de siste fem årene. I tillegg har de vært på usedvanelig mange turer til Florida. Enda mer gøy bli det når det kommer fram til at styret på ti personer brukte ca €4500 pr pers på 1. klasse over Atlanteren, det er ikke så alt for ille, men tatt i betrakning at de i ettertid fikk lov til å bruke regjeringas privat jet til €7.000 i timen i drift på den 10 timers turen og at de ble så glade for det at de sitat "glemte" å avbestille billetten på 1. klasse...det blir litt dyrt. Rundt regna blir det €185.000 for en tur det. Og vi klager over dyrt statsapparat?

- Hugh Brady, UCDs enehersker og som i fremtiden vil få levningene sine utstilt i et personelig mausoleum på Belfield Campus har fått ledelsen ved Faculty of Art på nakken etter at han ikke ville øke bevilgningene til fakultetet fordi det var "lack of prospect of economic return" for en investering av den typen. Ser litt hvilken retning universitetet er på mot med tanke på den enorme utvidelsen av the Science Building/Center til faktisk å bli the Science District, for å ikke snakke om the Gateway, som inkluderer et hotell/konferanse senter, av alle ting. Akademia blir bokstavelig satt pris på.

- Samme Brady kan ha klussa med resultata til UCD. Eller, ikke klussa direkte, bare gjort det "alle andre gjør". I oktober viste det seg at UCD har gjort et hopp på verdens rankingen til Times Higher Education over verdens beste universiteter og er pr i dag nr 107 på verdensbasis, og en sterk 34de plass i Europa. I all hovedsak er det forholdet studenter pr. ansatt som virkelig gjør utslaget på denne statestikken og i Bradys tilfelle så har det blitt noen hundre ekstra ansatte her, og 4.000 ferre studenter, og vi har gått opp 70 plasser på 5 år. Tilfeldig? Neppe, dessverre. Uansett, la oss rette fokuset oppover og ikke gi oss før vi i det minste slår Århus, Southampton, Leeds, Uppsala, Helsinki og Warwick. Altså, Warwick? Hva pokker er det for noe? La oss lese ekstra hardt, og få UCD opp der vi hører hjemme, men spar oss for Brady.

- I Derry har for første gang siden Battle of Bogside i 1969 en forballkamp i Belfast vært mer interessang enn en tilsvarende kamp i Dublin. For første gang siden Troubles har en katolsk fotballspiller (Derry City er bortimot eneste irske fotballag i Nord) blitt tatt ut på det Nordirske landslaget. Ikke fordi det har vært snakk om bevist diskriminering, det er jo tilsvarende få protestanter på det All-Irske rugbylandslaget, men det var ført nå en har vært god nok. Gamle skiller forvitrer.

- Andre skiller står vedlike; klasseskillet for eksempel. Striden Dublin Nord (Sinn Féin/Labour/Fás/DCU) mot Dublin South (Dublin 4/TCD/UCD) blusset oppigjenn forrige uke etter at Argentina var knust på Croke Park i rugby. I mangle på nasjonalanlegg i Dublin har den irske Rugby Unionen, sammen med hobbyforbundet FAI (Fotballforbundet) gått sammen om å få Lansdowne Road opp på internasjonal standard som nytt nasjonalanlegg for rugby. Hovedargumentet mot dette er et tall: 68.800. Det er så mange som går for å se Irland spille mot et elendig lag en kald novemberkveld, mot New Zealand litt tidligere var det tett opp mot 80.000. Om et års tid står nye Lansdowne Road ferdig med en kapasitet på hele, hold dere fast: 50.000. De bygger et nytt anlegg som har plass til 18.000 ferre enn det et DÅRLIG lag klarer å trekke. Tenk på neste kamp mot England eller Skotland. Det at billettprisene ser ut til å dobbles og at anlegget blir noen titallsmillioner euro dyrere i tillegg kommer i tillegg. Det at anlegget ligger midt i Dublin 4 (en bedre utgave av Holmenkollåsen) gjør ikke saken bedre når prisene tilsvarer at beboerne der også er de eneste som kan koste på seg å se kampene. At rugby forbundet også har mesteparten av styrelederne sine bosatt i området og har gjort hva de kan for å få statsstøtte ved å ikke nevne behovet for transport til anlegget slik at det å komme seg dit blir en opplevelse i seg selv er omtrent like publikumsvennelig og appelerende for de bosatt nord for Liffey som for den jevne AP/FrP velger når Statsministerfruen begynner å uttale seg om hva som er typiske møbler. Et ytters festelig innlegg skrevet på en blogg hos Irish Times.

- En lottomillionær var riktig så uheldig i går og blei drept av et løpsk vogntog i det han hadde henta den nye bilen han hadde kjøpt for premien. Noen som ser det ironiske?

- Noen som kunne ha trengt slike penger er folket i Donegal som er passe forbannet for tiden etter budsjettkuttet i skolevesnet, som går hardt utover de små Irske (som i gælisk) skolene på Vestkysten. Så for å addressere missnøya med Dublin-styret møttes ikke mindre enn mellom 8-9000 opp i Letterkenny, en by med 6.000 innbyggere for å demonstrere. Det som virkelig gjorde susen var at marsjen ble ledet av et kompani med sekkepiper som spilte for fulle piper. Er det noe rart at Sylvia Brustad får lov til å legge ned alt som kan redde liv utenfor Akershus? Femten-tjue middelaldrene sjukepleiere på Rjukan som står å synger passe ukoordinert på en sang skrevet spontant i pausa dagen før blir på en måte litt...godt å bli kvitt. 8.000 togenes opp Karl Johan med Internasjonalen på sekkepipe hadde vært noe helt anna. Lov og håpe.

Dublin 4, Over og ut.

Siste forelesing på UCD, for denne gang.

Da var siste forelesing unnagjort dette semestret, og den var interessang nok i seg selv, og igjen var det EU-klassa som utmerket seg, ikke bare fordi det var den absolutt siste akademiske avtalen jeg har før kl 18 den 9de Desember, men også innholdet. Som vanlig.

Moro nok var det kritikken mot EU som skulle opp på agendaen, men det var såpass mye som skulle gjennomgås at den delen ble satt til slutt i forelesningen, men ble kuttet helt ut fordi fremtiden til Unionen måtte drøftes i detaljer. Muligens fordi jeg er imot hele prinsippet, men noe som slår meg til stadighet i dette kurset er hvor nedlatende tonen til Unionistene er mot de som ikke er medlemmer. Island fikk i aller høyeste grad passet sitt påskrevet for å være en kjedelig stat med en befolkning som kun tenkte på sin egen fisk og var derfor enkle nok til å vende om til å støtte Unionen. Konklusjonen ble at Island var for liten til å utgjøre noen viktighet for EU. Hvem sier noe slikt fra talerstolen når en skal lære 40 personer om EUs politikk? Prof. Panke var derimot desto mer interessert i Tyrkia som EU medlem, og avfeide absolutt all tvil om gyldigheta for medlemskapet som ikke passet til København Konsensuset, om kriteriene for nye land for å melde seg inn i Unionen, som lite holdbare. Det var midt i denne diskusjonen angående det første punktet: Respekt for menneskerettigheter og minoriteter at det som virkelig fikk meg til å sette kaffen i halsen og lysten til å bryte inn i diskusjonen som klassas eneste Euroskeptiker. Sitat:

People critizize Turkey for their political culture
and the minority rights. Political culture are not included in the Copenhagen Consensus, that's no issue. They do have some problems with human rights...fair enough. That is not a issue. In general there's no major in the political culture in Europe and Turkey.

Hva svarte skal det egentlig bety? Greit nok å gå inn i et naboland og bombe egen minoritet? Ingen forskjell på den politiske kulturen i Europa og Tyrkia? Med all respekt for tyrkerne; men jeg kan ikke huske at den Irske hæren rykket inn i Dublin, besatte regjeringskvartalet og alle offentlige bygninger og tvang Brian Cowen til å gå av fordi han er i utakt med elektoratet og ligger helt i grenselandet for å bryte med grunnloven. Menneskerettigheter ikke noe prinsipp for å slippe inn i "Europa", betyr det at i teorien kan Spania fortsette å ha det gøy i Baskerland, UK i Nord, Finland, om de føler for det, på Åland og Ungarn og Romania mot sigøynerne? Greit nok å kalle et politisk parti, PKK, for "terrorister", hvilket EU faktisk gjør, og så behandle dem der etter. Merker at jeg har gått fra å forakte prinsippet til EU til å virkelig hate opplegget rundt det. Garantist for "Fred, stabilitet og velstand", synes det argumentet blir litt utvannet når velstanden er bassert på konstitusjonell handelsliberalisme (Lisboa Traktaten), Stabilitet gjennom biometri, maktkonsentrasjon i Brüssel, gjensidig avhengighet og Fred samtidig som noen av medlemslandene setter opp amerikanske rakketramper på russergrensa og det stadige nærværet av terrorister innenfor murene. Legg til den europeiske identiteten(Belfast er jo en by hvor europeerne med den største glede omgås hverandre), hva nå enn det er, som det hele tida blir prata på så blir jo dette riktig så fint. Glad for å være ferdig med det; hjem i januar og inn i "Nei til EU".

Concerning Brian Hayes;

Mr Hayes tried to promote himself as a man of the people, which he indeed are if he's graduated from Trinity College, and did therefor answer quite honost to a question, or rather a 5 minute long series of question from a Young Fine Faeler that perhaps had taken his interest abit too fare and had no intention to stop talking and form short question that people that havn't read the entire Budget, Fine Gael and Finna Fáil Manifestos in a comparative way in addition to know the voting history in the Dáil since 1995.

Thank you for asking that question, and I also want to
thank you for actually spending your time to show up and listen to all the rubish in (the Educational) Committee.

Good to know what the middle aged men with black suite and blue tie who tries to rule us really feels about their jobs.

What the University is all about: Learning Education.

I’m back to the normal after a short visit from Norway during the weekend and did celebrate my regained independence by quite spontaneous drop by a political meeting hosted by Brian Hayes, a Fine Gael TD, from Dublin South West who, as most of the Fine Gaels at present time, did what he could to promote himself as a man of the people (Dublin South West are…not like Donnybrook or Belfield, or any other part of D4), and did also make it clear that “either you are a Communist, Socialist, Republican, Nationalist or Christian Democrat you should know that the only major possibility for redistribution in the society are by free education” and that “education are a public responsibility”. That’s heavy words from a representative from a right wing party, especially after describing the Irish School System as “Stalinistic”. Quite a liberal chap that really seeks consensus, especially because he’s the Christ Democrat as referred to above, and it is quite clear that Sinn Féin are the Nationalist, and the Republicans, but Finna Fáil isn’t anything like the socialists and communists he describes them as. Socialists/Communists that cuts the public sector to the bone, listen to the Church in matters of the European Union and rather steals the Health card for those over 70, rather increase the taxation on regular income? Once again, it is this little point named perspectives. Further are Fine Gael quite frustrated by the high number of teachers per pupil, the lack of funding to science, the lack of interest in Maths and physics, the massive administration at the seven universities, want more IT in the education and are not to fund of the quality of the teachers education either. Their answer is 1) increase the spending to a Scandinavian level and 2) formation of a new department of Higher Education. I don’t know, it is something that sounds a bit familiar. New department: better teachers; more teachers; more Mathematics…Djupedal? Solhjell? Aasland? Clemet? Anyone with a new, original policy? And by the way –just for the record- the Norwegian School do in fact crush the Irish. We got internet: and are not segregated across gender or religion.

Speaking about religion: the Republic have after the last Budget turned British anno the 1960s. The system is easy: Protestants enlists to private Protestant Schools and Catholics to the free schools were the Church is responsible. Because of the Irish history this haven’t been any problem because of the traditional upper class in Ireland have been Protestants, and never actually felt any real need of mingling with lower level of the society aka the Catholics. However, 40-50 years later this divide is nearly gone and I can’t really see the difference between a Pro-Irish and a Cath-Irsh. Anyway. These schools, who mostly are the only one available for Protestants, have in the recent decades been treated like other public fee-practicing schools, but in addition received a proportionally large part of a national Service Support grant, because the schools mostly are boarding schools and more expensive to run than the regular one, who by now every financial support from the State has be withdrawn. This leaves the Protestant part of the students/pupils few alternatives to expensive private schools, a declining quality on their remaining schools and rather limited rights on support from the Public. Guess Finna Fáil will get a hell lot to explain and prove that they won’t act like a occupational power if they want the reunification, sorry, don’t want to be unconstitutional…broaden the scope and the depth in the cooperation with the Northern part of the Island. And scary enough: Sinn Féin are remarkable silent even it is less then a month since they proclaimed the importance of free education for ever one.

Hva som skjer i Dáil Eireann etter siste lovforslag er avvist.

Sånn, en kort og grei sammenfatting av festlige hendelser de siste to dager og starter med vår alle hatede, eller i det minste sterkt mislikte, Taoisearch Brian Cowen, som nå gir et innblikk i hvordan de egentlige forhandlingene, strategier og politiske allianser blir planlagt, diskutert og trolig også avstemt. Veldig tillitsvekkende med det bildet også, det må sies.

http://www.herald.ie/national-news/brian-says-he-switches-off-with-a-pint-in-the-dail-bar-1546652.html

Ellers så er stemninga i taket, i allefall på noen områder, etter at jeg igår gikk amokk på HMV Grafton Street og gikk til anskaffelse av første, og trolig siste, sesong av Moonlight, Sophia Myles' amerikanske debutt. Populær; tja. God; for hennes del, ja. Allmennintresse og appell for det brede poplikum; godt nok. Min smak: absolutt. I tillegg på mitt raid av HMV dukket en anna Sophia-film, the Abduction Club, opp for mitt åsyn, og det var på en måte veldig greit. Jeg veit at jeg for litt siden fornektet romantiske komediers eksistens, men velger å deffinere denna som en komedie og avslutter herved muligheten for noen debatt. Enkelt og greit. Grei slutt på uka.

Dagens gullkorn fra UCD og Dublin

Dr Devlin i det hun kommer inn i seminarrommet og ser seg rundt:

-We should indeed had a picture of Stalin here.

Turguide fra Sinn Féin ankommer partibutikken på Parnell Square sammen med ei gruppe. Hva og hvem dette egentlig var om vil forbli et mysterium da de kom inn døra, men suspekt virker det i allefall.

-(...)and later the IRA found him at a Pub not to fare from here, and we know that he fled and that they did shoot after him, but recent research shows that the hat they found later couldn't be his.

Komiker Paul Howard på foredrag på UCD om avstemninga på slutten om debatten.

- This House is of that opinion that Ringsend should be reclaimed by the Sea and the people of Tallagh..sorry..Dublin 24 should be...hm, they are living in Tallagh so what can be a punishment for them? Recall all the Lotto tickets...something.

Samme komiker om løsningen på den økonomiske depressjonen.

- This House is of that opinion that all the unemployed and poor should be chopped up and their proteins given to they who can pay for it and their children...sold. (Folket ler). You laugh. Ha, had I told that one over at Trinity it had been silent..and than someone would have notted their head and sad: "It is perhaps something in what you are saying"

From Cork with mixed feelings.

So, after nearly a week in absence from the post as correspondent in matters concerning Dublin in general, UCD in particular and whatever ell that happens around Ireland, I finally found me some time to write some words. In short I have just spent the weekend in Co. Cork, done the surrounding countryside such as places like the village of Kinsale, Fort Charles, the Blarney Stone and the cathedral ruins at the Rock of Cashel. Quite different from the North of Ireland last week, and made it possible for me to take some 300 pictures, think that something like a new record for me, and some three times more pictures in three days that I did manage in eight days in Scotland in March.

Cork as a city was rather disappointing. Not because of any obvious reason, there were pubs there, there were a lot typical Irish streets there, but there were a lot of things that were missing; it was like the city were completely forgotten by the Tourist board, cause there were nothing special there. And in some way understand a friend of me, who is born there, when he answered me “No” when I asked him if he could give me two arguments for going to Cork. However, the places around are more interesting, but perhaps places such as Kinsale perhaps are a bit more, let us say pleasant, to visit in summer time.

The best place to visit then was the Castle in Blarney. A ruin, with a gothic mansion ruin beside it, and a bunch of crows and ravens living in it. And the stone of course, and I love it, best kiss in 2008 and I could indeed feel the Irish way of speaking build up together with the Luck of the Irish. And it did start pretty good as well, three of us, including the ISS leader, dropped the schedule and took a table at a local cafe and ordered a full Irish breakfast, and let the rest of the group wait for us. However, think about the actual words “Luck of the Irish”, it consist of two main words “Luck” and “Irish”. Luck is something that gives you a number of different benefits that you hadn’t expected; the Irish are a people at Isle just west of England. This sounds just nice, but together? Are we speaking about the same Irish? As I soon did discover, we are talking about the luck of a people that have starved and fled by the millions, that despite some 800 years of fight for independence just manage to gain control over 80 % of the Isle, that just 30 years ago were a agrarian country poorer than an East European country that had been isolated from the world marked for some decades, who still have problems concerning emigration, that basically still have to trust the Church in the development of the society and have a rather traumatic and highly complicated relationship with their British neighbours? That kind of luck are we talking about. Or is it anyother who call themself Irish? After some two hours with the new luck spreading from the lips and around the body I was trapped on the bus with PS I Love You, a way too typical romantic comedy -on which I have a ban and denies their very existence- running. Actually it was running twice, and I can’t see how it may be luck to watch Gerard Butler strip whit all the sounds that implies. That did hurt, and I do herby appeal to the United Nations and European Union to strike down this systematically violation of the Humans Fundamental Rights. Armed actions may be welcomed. Just make it stop. Stop the sounds. Please.