Protest on Tuesady

The porter with his top hat looks out for customers at the Bank Of Ireland

A pidgeon loft on the 8th floor of a Ballymun tower block.


Well another all night done and I now have enough money to last me for the rest of my life.

That is provided I don't have to buy something.

(Jackie Mason)

Life is hand to mouth for those involved in the taxi trade at present.

I was hitting lucky Sat night and Sunday night I must have pleased the Gods who sent me work.
I wonder who is the patron saint of taxi drivers?

Interesting people some with strange stories.
2 girls and a man get in, were going to Walkinstown then to Lucan, a bit of small talk between them then the couple get out.
Then the girl tells me about the tragic turn her life has taken.
Her boyfriend was murdered a few weeks ago in Ballyfermot!

She told me how it happened.

Lets call her boyfriend Tommy.

Tommy had a friend who had been a drug addict and when he came off drugs Tommy befriended him and tried to help him get his life back on track.
Different people told Tommy that the guy was dangerous, but Tommy said If the lad can stay off the gear I would help him.

Well Tommy and another chap were in our place when the Ex junkie goes berserk and pulls out a knife and stabs Tommy 4 times and the other chap 8 times, the Garda caught him but Tommy bled to death.

You can say nothing when some says something like this.
The flood gates open and all the hurt and grief comes out.
Then they are relieved.
You could see how utterly crushed she is as she spoke of how their wedding plans were at an advanced state,a good man dead for nothing.
She pointed out where the apartment was near City West as we passed.
She is going to a murder victims support group and she is getting a lot of help there.
How do you help a person going through Hell?

And what about the guy who did it is he in Dundrum mental hospital?

No she said..................

They charged him and he is out on bail...

It is totally insane how the law works, a woman was put in Mountjoy prison last week for not paying a fine which was imposed when she put up a satalite dish without permission. While a ruthless crazy killer walks the streets.

Well I hope he is not sitting behind me tomorrow night.

I won't tell you any more for now.

But an interesting one popped up on the Indian rickshaw site with regard to pricing.
This is a problem all over the world.
The income starts to drop and the scammers come out, then the punter who got stung complains how ALL taxi drivers are only a gang of robbers.

Point in case.
She got into my taxi and told me how she got into a taxi late at night at Dublin airport to go to Terenure.

I will go via the the M50.
No the lady said straight through town its only 6 AM.
I am going on the M50 I am the driver he said and he slammed the door and drove on.

"I shouted at him to stop,that I wanted to get out,but he just drove on.
Anyhow when he got to Terenure it was about e20 more than it should have been.
We took down his licence number and the roof sign number. I could not confront him because I was tired and had 6 teenagers with me.
A few days later,after I had calmed down,I rang the carriage office(must have been a few years ago)

I told my story, they said they would get back to me.

Later a Garda rang me to say that the roof sign was an old number and not in use, the reg number was the number of a car,not a people carrier and the licence?
There was no such number.
I showed the Garda the paper where we had written down the information 3 of us took the numbers,

Since then I have herd nothing!!!

I am careful about getting into a taxi and I fear for my kids the way things are going on now.

Now I wonder how many man hours the Garda spent studying cars at the airport late at night?
Not any I would say.

Its a pity that someone might killed in an uninsured car by a driver with no papers.

There are not many checks made late at night, or during the day for that matter.

A couple of weeks ago at Scakville place a taxi pulled up and noticed that the car in front did not give him Last.
(I won't explain here)
He got out and asked him and while he was doing that he noticed he had no meter in the car, or ID or yellow stickes on his windscreen.
So he walked up to a few of the drivers, told his story and asked them to get out and look casual, but be ready to pounce on the driver if he tried to leave.
As he was giving the Garda the car reg the driver tried to drive away, but they caught him.
A car with a stolen roof sign, no taxi insurance,no taxi licence.
God knows where this was going to end.

I had the 2 who were robbing taxi drivers in my taxi a few years ago. One was black and mute I got worried and felt something was wrong so I pointed to the CC TV camera which was pointing at them.

They decided to get out instead of going down to O'Reilly cottages.
Even gave a tip, lucky me.

Good news is that they caught the syringe robbing scumbag who robbed 6 drivers recently. I had noticed the Garda checks but I did not know why they were looking for.
I would say he will get the hiding of his life when he is locked up.

After all its the likes of him that give criminals a bad name.

Thats all for now folks except to say that Tuesday morning will be special in Dublin.
Every taxi is asked to start work and work all morning.

This is to show the Taxi regulator just how many taxis there are in the capital.

I was just correcting a few of the links on my Blogroll, people keep moving on to different hosts and when I make changes some links get knocked off.

When I get more time I will correct them again.