Christmas 1914 to Christmas 2014

So we arrive at Christmas 2014.

100 years since the outbreak of World war one.
If some opinions are right it was 100 years since the outbreak of peace in Flanders fields.
In the middle of the battle they played football.
When the same thing happened in 1915 they were arrested and courtmartiled 



I hope that wherever you are that you have a peaceful Christmas

Irving Berlin also wrote a song which has become the biggest hit song of all time.




Have a great one

Happy Christmas

Here we are the big day is almost here.
Looking back the year had its ups and downs it is best to dwell on the ups.


The amount of people coming home for Christmas is amazing, I suppose it reflects what happened after the boom, so many had to go away.
I met a guy who is from Latvia (I hope thats right) who is coming back to Dublin to spend Christmas with his wife and daughter. He worked in construction here and when that stopped he had to go like so many others. His daughter is at school here so he has to keep two homes going. But he has a greedy landlord in Dublin who puts up the rent by €250 a month every year on year.
Imagine if your rent went up at that speed ?.
So this summer when his daughter is finished her exams they will pack up and go to live in London together..
Yesterday I brought an English family to the airport. They are going to Toronto but they were amazed at the cost from London. So they came to Dublin and crossed over from here. I suppose the traffic from Canada to here would be high with few Irish crossing back to Canada for Christmas.
Its a bit like the World cup, there was great deals to Europe on the empty planes coming back.

So to you all, drunk or sober



Remember John ?

I caught a big cold

Working cheek to jowl with greater public puts your health in danger.
So last week I picked up a cold which went to my chest.
The cough was so strong that I saw sparks when I coughed.
Nothing for it but to park up and go to bed for 24 hours.
The chemist gave me an elixir which only made me poorer.
But I am back again.


There was a story way back about a couple who went to the Galway races together and when they got there the guy who ran the guest house turned them away. They slept in doorways for the duration of the races and bought Arran sweaters sweaters to stay warm. The man told me that they were partners long ago and had fallen into drugs.Then recently they had met up again and found that there was still a spark of romance still alive after all those years.
As the journey continued I learned about their destructive lives, and how they blamed no one but themselves.
As the trip progressed they told me that they had a son in Wales who found a great job for himself.

He clears out houses where people have died leaving no known relations. He keeps what he finds and sells the goods in his second hand shops.

Well the other day I had the son in the car (I didn't tell him I had met his parents)
He was going to Ballyfermot and had met a young girl on the boat. He took her under his wing and we dropped her off at the bus station. This is a mecca fore homeless people as it opens at around 6.30 and it is warm. The other place to go to is to the airport.
But I digress.
As she was getting out he told her that she could stay at his sisters house and have breakfast and then she she could contact her boyfriend later on in the morning.
He lamented to me about how dangerous it is for a young innocent girl to be traveling alone in this city.

So we headed for Ballyfermot.

"What do you do for a living yourself?" I said.

"I clear out empty houses and sell the contents in my second hand shops" He said.

I just knew that he was the son.

I never charged his parents for the trip all those years ago and I was impressed by the concern he showed toward his fellow human being.
It was great to meet him, but I couldn't tell him about the day I met his mother and father.

Stop the water meters

A TV investigative group went into a state run home for people with intellectual difficulties.
What was shown has shocked everyone. Patients being slapped, kicked and punched.
They were  shouted at. Staff shouting at them that they were useless. "No one wants you you're useless"

Where are the safety nets to protect the most vulnerable people in our society?
Where were the whistle blowers?

The fear from parents with profoundly handicapped children is that there will not be good care for these children when the parents get old.

Remember in most cases the parents have put in many years of changing wet sheets and soiled clothes, with little help from society..
Lets hope in this instance a change will come.

God knows Irish society are not great in looking after the homeless, the orphans, the illegitimate and the mentally handicapped. 

Well,
Yesterday I took a few hours off to let our elected leaders know that what they are doing with regard to the water tax is not all right by me.

There are fat cat business people putting in water meters around the country.
The plan is not to fix leaks or improve the infrastructure but to establish a right to collect taxes from each house. Water is now paid from extra VAT charges and other taxes which were introduced for many years ago.
Public Taxes are now to be collected and to be paid to private individual fat cat speculators.

There were a lot of Garda present. My group were hemmed in on Nassau St. After a wait I walked up to Molesworth St. where barriers were erected to keep the protesters back. For me the plan worked.
I walked for home to get my bus.
Later on there was trouble in Nassau st when protesters started throwing missiles at the Garda and a Garda was hit in the eye.
This is the modern way of controlling protesters, you hem them in, you divide them into groups so they are in smaller pockets.. The word used is "Kettleing"  Split them up and hem them in.
The other aspect of the protest march was that the Garda just left scores of cars stuck in the middle of the protesters.
When I went back home I went for the ferry only to find a poor unfortunate stranded passenger looking for a taxi, I could help her.  So we edged out way out to Stillorgan...Then when she got out the ball really starting hopping as hundreds of commuters tried to go home..
Both Luas lines had problems.
But you can only pick up one person at a time.
Still it beats sitting at a taxi rank.

A second from death

Justice came foe a Dublin bus driver the other day.
The driver came across the scene of an accident and the Garda told him that he could not proceed along his route. He told the Garda that he would have to contact his base to find out which route he was to follow. While he was waiting for instructions the Garda stormed the bus and put him in handcuffs then they drove him to Sundrive Rd. Garda station where he was charged with loads of offenses.
Well the judge sided with the driver, passingers on the bus came to court with videos to support their testimony.
The driver was awarded almost €50,000 compensation.

Perhaps young Hitler will behave himself in future.... Click here

More and more cctv footage are catching out rouge operators.
Many years ago on Parnell st there was an off license.
In the early hours of the morning there was a ram raid, the ramming car was abandoned and they drove away loaded up with beer and spirits in another car.
The boys in blue turned up and the owner arrived 1/2 hour later
"Lets see what we have on the video" said the shop owner.
On replaying the tape they identified well known criminals, then as it played on the Garda arrive and they steal even more than the robbers.

Red faces all round.

This morning I was wrecked and started work later than usual. I was driving along the Clontarf road in the bus lane when a girl waring a hood stepped out between a van and a car the van blocked my view of her.. One second later she would have been dead. She never looked and was probably listening to music through her headset.
She was in another world, one second later she would have been there for all time.

We are all living in the hands of our Gods one way or the other. (I said thanks)

The other night Andre Reau was on in the 3 Arena. I got a Hailo alert and headed down to collect my fare.
I rang him 3 times to make contact, no reply, I was besieged by people, so I abandoned the call and took 4 people from Cork down to Heuston station. No way to proceed along by the river so I turned to go down Sheriff St. No go either.
So I turned down East wall Rd. Down past the five lamps, right into Buckingham St down Parnell St. over through Blackhall Place.. Just then I heard the words.
"You should have gone straight down the river"
All I could say was "We would not even be at O'Connell bridge yet"
The father just said that they had made the train on time which was the only important thing.
The strange thing in this equation is that if I had not picked them up there is no way in hell that they would have made the train on time.

You do your best and get complaints.

So I headed back and got a run out to Swords,
"Please go through the tunnel we are frozen"
Paid in good humor with a €4.00 tip

Swings and roundabouts all the time.

3 homeless men die on the streets

                                     The crow on the dice Solomon fine art

                The Christmas tree in the Westbury hotel

       Fine threads for the big night out..Westbury mall

                              These 2 cars were at Dublin port..Perhaps they need directions home.

Heroin is a massive scourge here in Ireland  hundreds upon hundreds  have given their lives to the needle.
I believe that we are the only City in the world to have erected a monument to our dead victims.
It can be seen at the end of Killarney St. It is in memory of the hundreds who died from drugs in the north inner city.
A flaming torch, dancing, first communion and running medals were added to the mix when the torch was cast in the foundry. 
A man called Jonathan Corie  died while sleeping in a doorway, the doorway was in view of our houses of parliament where our leaders sit and tell us all that we must give more.
A heroin addict he was married in America and had 2 children, his parents had bought him 2 houses to live in but time after time he returned to his addiction.
He lived in hostels but after being bullied and had his money stolen he lived on the streets.
I don't know how any healthy person would feel to sleep on the streets in this freezing weather, never mind being in poor health into the bargain.

In Cork 2 homeless men died from Heroin overdoses.

It is a complete heartbreak to see a life so full of potential spiral into the depths of squalor and despair.

Your thoughts and prayers to their parents and family's.

Peace at last RIP

1/12/2014

                  Christmas decorations in the Pebble beach pub

                                    Big shoes and little shoes

 Our latest project is a fuel efficient stove, It really puts out the heat.


Well it won't belong now until the big day.
On Monday we had our special Christmas dinner....It went well.
You see we are expecting a new baby into the family and the baby is due just after Christmas,so that there would be no excitement on the 24th we moved the day forward.

Christmas might come early for 2 Filipino women who worked for the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates.They worked 15 hours a day for €2 an hour or €170 per month, no days off.
They got 2 breaks per day 15 minutes for breakfast and 45 minutes for dinner..
Starting at 6.30 and finishing at 12.30 am they have not seen their family for more than 2 years.
Passports taken away, they were locked in.
They have been awarded €240,000

but the ambassador claims

 "Diplomatic immunity"

Guess what ?
He has been called into the headmasters office for a quiet word back home..

Alas this kind of thing happens more often than you might think.

It is getting colder by the day though the sun in the morning is terrific.

People are getting resigned to the fact that they cannot stop Christmas happening so they are getting on with life..
Unfortunately on Monday a homeless man died in a doorway right beside our parliament buildings which brings the whole topic of drugs people on the streets and the desperate plight of our homeless..

I am sure that all the people who are homeless never were involved in property speculation,you would find it hard to find one on the streets who was dealing in stocks and shares and fiddling the odds.
Few if any people living on the streets caused this economic downfall.

Yet the bankers are living the high life in the Bahamas..

I will let this guy speak again