Isle of Innisfree

If you sang this song in Australia, New York or Boston you would bring the house down.

This version is a bit slow for me.

It was written by a garda who was on his way to give evidence in a court case.

The words came and he wrote it down. Later on someone put it to music and a big cheque landed in his letterbox. Recorded by Bing Crosby a worldwide hit. Then MORE money came in as it featured in the movie ET. It had a third wad of money, though I forget where.

Paul McCartney woke up one morning with a tune in his head. He asked the others in the studio if they had heard it before. It was a good tune, but no one knew where it came from.

Later he was sleeping in a taxi going to a hotel in Portugal with Jane Asher. When he woke up the song was complete. The music and the words came to him while he was sleep. 

This song was the biggest hit that the Beatles ever had.

Before they were the Beatles on Spotify for it all. 

So when you have a moment listen to those voices, they might be telling you something wonderful.

Isle of Innisfree

Author: words & music by Dick Farrelly
Copyright: Peter Maurice Music/EMI Music

These are the correct words given to me by Dick Farrelly's son Gerard

I've met some folks who say that I'm a dreamer
And I've no doubt there's truth in what they say
But sure a body's bound to be a dreamer
When all the things he loves are far away.
And precious things are dreams onto an exile
They take him o'er the land across the sea
Especially when it happens he's an exile
From that dear lovely Isle of Innisfree.

And when the moonlight peeps across the rooftops
Of this great city wondrous tho' it be
I scarcely feel its wonder or its laughter
I'm once again back home in Innisfree.

I wander o'er green hills thro' dreamy valleys
And find a peace no other land could know
I hear the birds make music fit for angels
And watch the rivers laughing as they flow.
And then into a humble shack I wander
My dear old home, and tenderly behold
The folks I love around the turf fire gathered
On bended knees their rosary is told.

But dreams don't last
Tho' dreams are not forgotten
And soon I'm back to stern reality
But tho' they paved the footways here with gold dust
I still would choose the Isle of Innisfree.

Theme of the film "The Quiet Man"
It is the melody and not the words that feature in the film.

The Million Pound House

 One thing about this job is that your mind keeps putting away stories and then something triggers the memory and it all comes flooding back. There was an ad in the paper for a €1 million house in Malahide the other day. High spec, well insulated etc.

I had a job one day from beyond Malahide into town and the customer wanted to show me something. It was a house among a development of £1 million houses. Worth lot more money back then. One house was bought by a taxi driver!!!!!

Tongues started wagging and every day he was stopped by the police who called him a scumbag. His kids were getting a hard time in school and his front door had Drug dealers out painted on it. He went to the police who almost told him to fuck off as all this was of his own making.

So he employed a top barrister and the investigations started.

Two solicitors who lived in the development had started this hate campaign. They had not investigated and they had gone to the police who had taken them at their word,

So he was a drug dealer, off to court.

Th judge asked all parties how they KNEW that he was a drug dealer and they just said that they heard, but had not investigated.

The local supernatant hung his head in shame.

Big fines were placed on the 2 lawyers who had put their assumptions in print.

The taxi driver presented his tax affairs to the judge. The taxi drivers brother was the managing director of a large successful company in the UK and when he died his assets were transferred to his Irish family. "All this would have been accessible to anyone who looked" said the judge.

The garda supertendant was transferred and the residents committee had to pay the taxi drivers legal cost to move and to make up any loss in the transaction.

Well I hope that they all learned something, the garda are the worst in this story as they had the duty of care instead of believing in rumours.

King George 1803

 I found a coin in a jar the other day it was a penny from the time of King George 1803.I never heard of him. I was showing 2 French guys what we were passing when I said "These houses are Georgian" and it hit me. Mountjoy square and all the other grand houses on Fitzwilliam Sq. and Merrion Square were built at the height of Irish misery when people were being sold into slavery and the Irish potato famine was just around the corner.

Onwards and upwards.

The tourists are back in their droves. I hope that the hotels pull back on their prices or they will kill it off. Hong Kong was THE tourist destination in the 60s and the hotels and restaurants started putting prices up and up. Guess what people go elsewhere now.

I saw a lady the other day and I spoke with her. It turned out that she was coming back through O'Connell St. the other day and was robbed, cash, phone and bank cards, She could not draw cash from the cash point either. I met her in Coolock and she told me that she was waiting for a friend to give her a loan. She worked in Tallagh hospital and she also had a hotel job.

She was still there when I came out from Lidl so I did what I had to do. I gave her €20."No No No I can't take it" What can you do? Sometimes God asks you to do the right thing. I was turning away when she landed a sweet kiss on my cheek, wow! beautiful perfume.

Loosing your bank card is such a pain in the ass. I lost my PTSB card and I tried to ring up to get a replacement, no luck. I went into the Omni centre and she took my driving licence, 2 weeks later no sign of the replacement. So I went into the Raheny branch. No there is not another card on order and the missing card has not been blocked. New card in 4 days DV.

Perhaps I should keep a notebook, time, date location and name. 

It is really hard to get good help.

We had a big birthday and my wife wanted all her family to come. One won't eat this, the other will not eat that and so on. Cleaning the house from top to bottom. "That toilet brush has to be replaced" Shit who looks at the toilet brush? But it went.

Next time everyone is to bring packed lunches!

A good joke about toilet brushes.

I worked in a hardware store and the motto behind the counter was up sell all the time.

A man looking for shot gun cartridges would be sold 3 types of shot and targets.

A woman came in for toilet paper and I suggested that she buy a toilet brush as well, to tidy it up afterwards.

She was in the next say in a rage waving the brush over her head.

"This brush is far too severe, we are going to stick with the toilet paper"

Facebook or Meta was closed up for the last few days. Now comes the word of a massive fine

€1.2 Billion. I reckon that Mr Elon Musk must be as sick as a parrot

It makes you thing that car you once bought with the bad engine was not so bad after all.

Remember Letter from America? and Tales from the lazy acre? I suppose that they were blogs?

6/5/1882

 On that day Lore Cavendish the Viceroy from Britain arrived in Ireland to take over ruling the rebellious Irish.

As he walked in the park close to the Phoenix monument with Thomas Henry Burke head of the Irish civil service, they were set upon by a group of men armed with sharp knives and butchered..

The enormity of must have hit the whole country in a matter of hours, the chase was on and usual suspects were rounded up. Many innocent people were executed and the complete story is in a book called "The Phoenix park murders."

I was once at the spot and an American special agent came over to talk to me. I am not too sure if he suspected me, but it was hard to tell by his demeanour.

Have a look for the book I saw it on Amazon, it is a strange read.

There are many apps for taxis here in Dublin. I was on Bolt, but now I am independent. 

Why?

Well when you have the app turned on you might have to wait for 2 hours for a job from it.

That job would be quite a distance from where you are. You can see that there might be 10 taxis beside the job, yet you are asked to drive 1km for pick up. Then just as you are dropping off another job comes in. Again nearly 2km away. As you are heading over to pick up there 10 or 15 taxis beside that job. 

So they decided to add an extra charge "Technology" Thank God for taxi ranks.

There is  a big birthday coming in our house and family and friends are coming.

Suddenly there is tons of housework.

See you when things are back to normal.

Hail the King !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 A big day for the British today King Charles comes to the throne.

It is amazing how the British have not woken up to the fact that the Royals are not needed any more.

If I was in charge I would be handing out eviction notices and P45s

But then you ask...What would you put on your stamps ?

Last night and tonight we have Bruce Springsteen playing in Dublin, now there's an act worth seeing. He was on in Dublin and I had a car load of beautiful ladies in the taxi. 

It was a long time ago.

As they were getting out the lady that was sitting behind me caught my eye, it was Cynthia Lennon the ex wife of John. I was delighted to see her and she gave me a huge smile.

"Can I give you a hug" I said "Please please do" She said. She wanted to know how I had recognised her and I just said that we had moved through time together.

It turned that the other 3 were celebrity wives, but my thoughts were with Cynthia RIP

Most of the times these people travel by Limo. My lucky day.