Duffys Circus in town

The old property developers are dropping like dominoes.
Bernard McNamara is in the news again. He was one of the high flyer's in the property boom. Now he is being forced to sell trophy properties on Ailesbury rd. at more than a 2/3 discount, if he can indeed get that price at all.
Then there is a house in the UK called Uptown Court. It was put on the market for £70 million. Now our NAMA is going to sell it. The Irish Nationwide has a £50 mil mortgage on it.
The house has 11 acres of gardens,46 acres of woodland.
It has 24 en-suite bedrooms. 5 swimming pools,stables. Tennis and Squash courts, a bowling alley, a panic room, a cinema and garage space for 8 cars.
Enough marble to cover 3 football pitches went into its construction.
Just to give you an idea of what such a house costs to run, heat clean etc £500,000 a year.
He claims to be talking to 3 possible buyers as I write.

Still Someone in the UK bought the winning Euromillions ticket.
€185 Million prize !
Well done, with this amount of money,the secret of your success is complete silence.
Become a secret million are, helping people as you go.
Remember three people can only keep a secret when the other two are dead.

All that money! and 12 millions starve in Africa.

Well a lady from Boston stopped me, she was going to the US embassy trying to get her visa renewed.
I asked her to find out if my old taxi plate 2473 is still hanging up in the Crossroads bar on Beacon St. When the numbering system changed I brought them over to America. One side is in Boston the other in New York. I didn't want to throw them out so I gave them away.

Her roots are in Wexford, so I told her about a great book I have about the Wexford people who settled in Nova Scotia and we had a great conversation about the Irish when they work abroad. The are sometimes inclined to stick to their own people. Drink in Irish pubs, play Gaelic games and go to Irish clubs.. Well not her or her husband. They just love the mix of cultures in Boston and they spend their time with their friends regardless of race ,color or creed.

THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE.

I also told her about the Irish girl going to Poland a few years ago now. She was also a civil engineer, she had a company with her brothers building roads etc. he Celtic Tiger slowed down and the funding stopped.
She told me that they had a staff meeting and the Polish workers begged them not to liquidate the company. So they went to Poland and they are building roads there. Their staff rose to the challenge and it is a great success. Whether you know it or not, that Polish girl making your coffee is really well educated, the trades people are very good too they turn up on time and work to a finish.
On that trip I told her about a customer who was being bullied at work.
She had brought over an Irish engineer, and he in turn started to bully 2 Lithuanian lads.
He was called in to the office and warned twice. Then he got a written warning.
Then he got the boot.
"He is sitting on his arse at home in Limerick now with no job, saying he did nothing wrong"

I would say that her ship is well run.

Things are going from bad to worse in the taxi game.
I seemed that a few feathers were ruffled when the Prime time on the taxi industry was shown, now the industry has started to Delcine further.
The taxi rank at Jamese's St. hospital has been taken over by a private taxi company, Global taxis.
Private company taxis park in front of the D4 hotel which means that the customers do not walk out on to the rank at the road.

Some of this has been caused by bad manners and rudeness by certain drivers. But it is very drastic to close access to work for the other honest and well behaved taxi drivers.
The taxi council which has been brought together has not got one taxi driver on it. Instead it has fleet owners and radio taxi companies on it.
Ireland's taxi industry will be like New York's. The Russian Italian and Irish Mafia will own all the plates. They will pay bribes to officials. If you want to work you pay your days rental, regardless whether you have a good day or not.

SO IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE.

contact joecostellotd@gmail.com

pat.rabbitte@oreachtas.ie

or Leo Varadkar our minister of transport.

minister@dttas.ie

There will be a blitz on illegal taxis for the next 4 weeks, or so I hear.

Lets hope it happens.

They were on the Sackville place rank today.

Why they do not follow the guys who pull off the rank when the garda appear defeats all logic.
Instead they go through the paperwork of the guys who remain on the rank.

Talking about bad manners.
Irish manners has become so bad.
I had a shouting match with a guy who would not pull back and let me into traffic. So I got out of the car, the traffic was stopped anyhow. After a few more insults were thrown I reminded him that the penalty for talking on his fone while driving was €80 plus 2 penalty points. Since he was still talking on the fone at the time I told him he should go to the circus, as they are always looking for clowns.

I did feel a bit better after that.

But perhaps I had sunk down to his level.