14th February, 2002
Noel O’Flynn is correct!! We have to get rid
of the spongers and freeloaders. They’re all over the
country, as a matter of fact they are in every county in Ireland.
Always bickering and fighting, and when we let them in they
create a ghetto situation, and then the inevitable happens, they
bring their families in. A lot of them are taking money from the
state under false pretences, and quite a few of them are double
jobbing. We all know a number of them have been involved in
fraud, credit card irregularities, and I know one who is
constantly in jail. Noel, you’re damn right, we have to
clean up the DAIL!!!
On a serious note, could you live on €19.10 a week? Not
allowed to work, spend most days walking the streets in the rain,
people mumbling as you pass, “another freeloader”. It’s
a depressing concept, isn’t it? Hotels and catering
establishments are crying for workers. The summer season is only
a few months away, but don’t let them work, they might go
back to where they came from, and things will be ‘grand’
again. Our country’s history is littered with emigration,
famine, racism, “No dogs, no blacks, no Irish”, but how
quickly we forget. Recently I spoke to a man who had worked in
London during the sixties and seventies. He told me that at least
6 or 7 out of every 10 Irishmen, who called into his local Irish
owned pub, were on the social welfare and working on a building
site at the same time. Fraudsters? Yes, but they were our
fraudsters. Now people in Cork hear that the refugees are getting
free nappies for their babies, buying cars with their health
board cheques, watching our women, spreading Aids, “Soon it
will be like Brixton, race riots”. The seeds of racism are
being planted. How long before the white sheets and the burning
crosses in the gardens? Here in Douglas I’ve met people from
Lituania, Latvia, Russia, Romania, Poland, Cameroon, Egypt,
China, Japan, India, Pakistan, America, Canada, and they all seem
to be decent people, doing what the rest of us are doing, trying
to earn a living for ourselves and our families. Do not listen to
stories such as, “A friend of mine told me that he heard ...”,
etc... These are the subtle planters of the racism seed. Judge a
person on his deeds, not the colour of his skin, you might
discover there is no difference. All it takes for evil to triumph
is for good men to do nothing. Lets go back to what we were, a
kind and caring race.
Going back to the piece I wrote about the Beach Boys concert in
1967. So far I have met two people who were on that flight from
Cork to Dublin in May of 1967. This year will be the 35th
anniversary. The two people I met were Terry Murphy, from
Springmount, Glanmire, and Paul Gibbons, from Turners Cross. Last
week Rockin’ Gerry called into the office to tell me that
the Brian Wilson concert in Dublin was absolutely fantastic, with
Brian and the band doing the whole classic album, “Pet
Sounds” in the second half. And of course Gerry has a
photograph of himself with Brian (how does he do it?). The next
day Terry Murphy dropped in to tell me her story. Terry and her
husband Austin were seated, and just before the show started the
manager of the Point Depot asked them if they would mind moving
as Brian Wilson’s wife pleaded for the seats. How could they
say no? They obliged, and after the show they were invited
backstage to meet Brian. Terry, God bless her, got Brian’s
autograph for me, signed “To Michael, Brian Wilson”.
Thanks Terry, it’s safely in a 1964 Beach Boys LP sleeve. I’m
still trying to track down anybody else who was on that flight in
1967. Although a little bird told me that another one is to be
found working at the Information Desk in Wilton Shopping Centre.
If Douglas resident and Wilton Shopping Centre manager Ambrose
Guilfoyle reads this, perhaps he can help me to track down one
more passenger on the 1967 flight.
All of a sudden, street violence has become a big politician
issue. Not just street violence, but crimes against the most
vunerable, the elderly. Last week we read in all the national
papers about the killing of the old man. By now most of you have
forgotten his name, where he lived and died (violently). He was
an eccentric recluse, who used to collect his weekly shopping in
a wheelbarrow. He lived alone, then they came, beat him up, tied
him to a chair and left him to die on his own. Last week one of
the culprits was sentenced to 6 years for manslaughter. He’ll
probably be out in 3 years. His mother said that he was always a
good boy. The old man had nobody to speak for him, no family, no
children, no votes for the politician to seek out. And now I,
like many others (shame on me), have forgotten his name. A few
years ago a nephew of Albert Reynolds has his car stereo stolen.
The culprit got three years in jail. Lucky for him it wasn’t
a CD player, he’d have probably have got life!!
Another two court cases I read about last week made me wonder
about these learned men who sit on benches. One case involved a
young man found in possession of a knife, about to enter a
nightclub. In court he told the judge, “I was expected
trouble”. The defendant was fined €50. On the same
paper a man caught attempting to cash forged cheques was
sentenced to 3 months in jail. Readers, one question? Going
through town at 2am in the morning, which of the following would
you prefer to meet, a man with a knife ‘expecting trouble’,
or a man with a dud cheque? I thought so, I rest my case, m’lud!
Finally, was that a Garda Superintendent outside the Dail waiting
to escort Liam Lawlor back to Mountjoy, or perhaps he just
happened to be there when the photographer clicked his camera, or
were Westlife on a Dail visit?
Bye for now,
Michael O’Hanlon.
