26th April, 2001
As I’m writing this piece on Tuesday night/Wednesday
morning at 12.40am the TV is on and I glance towards the screen.
Something’s wrong, nobody’s moving. I flick through the
other channels, but like figures from the ice-age, they’re
frozen in time. About half an hour later CBS anchorman Dan Rather
still hasn’t moved, so I switch off. We were promised a
better service from Irish Multi-Channell, if this is it what more
can I say?
Speaking of television, have you noticed that sometimes at prime
time, 8pm to 12 midnight, there’s absolutely nothing on,
then just as the viewer decides to go to bed the powers that be
put on a good movie. It happened this week with the classic
western, “Will Penney”, starring Charleton Heston. I
think it began around midnight. Just glance at the TV guide and
check the times of the movies shown, 12.30am, 1.20am, 3.45am. Do
people actually get paid for deciding on those hours?
Continuing on the subject of television, on Monday night I was
flicking through the channels and I came upon something called
‘Podge and Rodge’, or is it ‘Rodge and Podge’?
I don’t know and I don’t care. What caught my eye was a
cartoon scene of a Garda squad car after being involved in a
crash, with Garda strewn all over the place. I looked over at my
daughter, we were both speechless. I said, “This is not
real, we must be dreaming it. Nobody would show something like
this.” But we were not dreaming, this so called comedy
sketch was being shown two days after that terrible accident
which cost the lives of the two Gardai. A terrible, stupid and
insensitive piece of rubbish. There is not, and never will be,
anything funny about a crash, and to think that RTE is looking
for an extra £50 on top of the present £70 to make our TV
licence costs us £120, they must be mad, or joking, or both!!
On Monday morning I called down to the South County lounge for
the press launch of local man Billy O’Callaghan’s book,
“Tales of Douglas”. I read it that night and I must say
I enjoyed it. I wonder how many of the characters were real or
fictional? Reading through the book one gets a feeling of what
Douglas was like during the 50’s and 60’s. The
illustrations in the book were done by Billy’s brother
Martin, another very talented man. The Douglas Weekly has used
his drawings a couple of times, so well done Billy, we wish you
every success and the good news is that copies of “Tales of
Old Douglas” will be available in Douglas Book in Douglas
Village Shopping Centre. Does anybody know if we have a writers
club in Douglas?
The collectors were around during the week collecting the grass
cutting money in the Shamrock Lawn area. The sum was £15 per
year (or 28p a week). Some people paid, some said that £15 was
too much, some did not pay, and some never pay. Some are angry
because they feel they are paying for their neighbour. If
everybody paid it would cost each household only £7 a year (or
13p a week). I’ll say no more, only well done to the
collectors and the residents who contribute to our estate.
This Friday night is the night when a Cork Rose is selected to
represent the final us in the final in Tralee. Douglas Rose Carol
McSweeney is our representative on the night in Jurys. Carol was
the St. Columba’s Hall Rose on the local selection night at
Rochestown Park Hotel and she came through on the night.
Well done to everybody in the ‘Hall who put so much effort
into the event. They’ve had nights to sponsor the event and
I know a lot of local business people sponsored the events. What
more can I say except well done to you all, especially Brendan
and Rose Heffernan, whose boundless energy and enthusiasm knows
no limits. Keep the faith Brendan.
Finally, good luck to Carol on the night, I know she’s do us
all proud!
Bye for now,
Michael O’Hanlon
