As you may have noticed, I’ve been winding down That’s Ireland in recent weeks. During that time, I have been working on a new blog, which is now online.
MichaelNugent.com will be mostly about two issues that I’m very passionate about:
Understanding why and how people are happy, because happiness is the underlying reason that anybody wants anything, and
Promoting atheism, because I believe that the idea of gods is bad for society as it makes good people do bad things.
Ironically, my interest in happiness started when I wanted to be a success. I studied what very successful people have in common. Step one: to succeed in anything big, you must start with a passionate desire. So I did an exercise to help ignite that desire. For each aim, I asked ‘why do I want this?’ and for each answer, ‘why do I want that?’ I soon discovered my underlying motivation. Beneath all of the layers of sub-reasons, I wanted anything for exactly the same real reason: because I believed getting it would make me happier. But would it? Many people remain unhappy despite fabulous success. So I shifted my focus from seeking success to the reason I wanted it… happiness.
My interest in atheism is much simpler. I am an atheist because I reject the idea that gods exist, in the same way and for the same reasons that I reject the ideas that that the earth is balanced on the back of a sea turtle, that homeopathy is more useful than a heart transplant, that Rapunzel wove her hair into a ladder or Rumpelstiltskin wove straw into gold, that stepping on a pavement crack will break my mother’s back, that a deposed Nigerian prince wants to email me several million dollars, that Uri Geller can bend spoons with his mind, that I am in danger from vampires or zombies or broken mirrors, or that I am protected by angels or leprechauns or horseshoes.
You’ve probably seen the almost anonymous ‘No to Lisbon’ posters festooning the lamp posts of Dublin and probably elsewhere. If not, here are a couple of them:
Well, If they were anonymous, they would be illegal.
Section 140 of the Electoral Act 1992 makes it illegal to publish any notice, bill or poster promoting an election candidate without including the name and address of the printer and of the publisher. Section 6 of the Referendum Act 1994 applies this provision to referendums.
But these posters scrape into the legal category, because they have a tiny line of text, which is unreadable when the poster is high on a lamppost, that describes the publishers as Coir.
Coir is based at the same address as Youth Defence, and its spokesperson is Richard Greene.
Campaign against Lisbon if you want, but have the courage to let voters know who you are.
As Bertie Ahern’s fate unfolded yesterday, I had this nagging feeling that I had seen it somewhere before. Then I remembered this old episode of Thomas the Tank Engine, in which Ringo Starr’s commentary is a surreally perfect allegory for the morality tale of Thomas the Tribunal versus Bertie the Bluffer.
“The cynics may point to the past but we live in the future.”
“The grass roots, or the rank and file, are now made from fibre optics.”
Number 9: The Drumcondra Mafia
Digout Des Richardson, who gives false invoices to stockbrokers for political donations then gives the money to Bertie Ahern as a personal gift.
Tim Nice-but-Dim Collins, the serial bank-account-opener who uses initials like B/T and D/T for his accounts, and who told the Tribunal that “figures aren’t my forte.”
Joe Burke, who, along with Tim Collins, supposedly lent Ahern’s girlfriend £30,000 of Fianna Fail money, for a house, without Bertie knowing.
Paddy the Plasterer, who Joe Higgins suggested should avoid Ivor Callaly’s house, as Callaly was in enough trouble already with the painters.
Number 8: His ethical philosophies
“We’re not gonna hang anyone on the guillotine.”
“I never condemn wrongdoing in any area.”
“There is a code of ethics whereby those who have been elected to the House try to remain elected. That is the code of ethics in this House.”
Number 7: His most secretly truthful answer ever
When Ahern was first asked about the allegations of receiving between €50,000 and €100,000, he told journalists that a lot of the report was correct but “the figures are off the wall.” This, of course, was true, because he got some of the money “off Michael Wall”.
Number 6: His peacemaking abilities
“There have been disputes between fractions.”
“We shouldn’t upset the apple tart.”
“I don’t think it helps people to start throwing white elephants and red herrings at each other.”
“At present, I have my hand in a whole lot of dykes, trying to keep them in and keep people together.”
Number 5: His tribunal evidence generally
He has a magic briefcase that turns random uncounted bundles of Irish and English money into large exact round-sum dollar and sterling amounts.
He once lodged £50,000, then took it out again, then converted it to Sterling, then kept in his safe for a few months, then converted it back to Irish money, then re-lodged it, in two separate amounts.
He believes that, in 1995, he gave somebody £30,000 to buy sterling with, but he can’t remember who he gave it to.
He bought his house from a philanthropic bus driver who attends dinners but doesn’t eat the dinners, and who had already given Ahern the house in his will anyway.
Number 4: His opinion of Charles Haughey
“I think Charlie Haughey is basically a very good man and unfortunately he got into things like the lifestyle, and the bills caused him to do some things that I feel very strongly about.”
Number 3: His social life
“I’ve never met a socialist in my life, and if I do, I’ll tell you.”
“I can’t say that I have met any homosexuals.”
“I could certainly drink a fair few pints of Bass and be capable of driving.”
Number 2: The quadruple negative
“It is not correct, and if I said so, I was not correct, I cannot recall if I said it, but I did not say, or if I did, I did not mean to say it, that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon tribunal. That is not what Revenue said.”
I’ve just noticed a very clever question from Tribunal barrister Des O’Neill, which exposes yet another plot hole in Bertie Ahern’s fairytale of Drumcondra. This one involves Tim ‘Nice-but-Dim’ Collins, the serial account opener who claims that figures are not his forte, contradicting a key element of Ahern’s sworn evidence. I’m sure this exchange will feature in the Tribunal’s final report. >>>(more…)
Every 10,000 houses less that are built knocks 1 per cent off growth and that takes a fair bit out [of the employment figures]. That’s the rule of thumb. It also takes a considerable amount of revenue out as well. We are not going to see bounce-back in that in the short term.
And I wondered, can this be the same man who said last July that he doesn’t know how people who crib and moan about the economy don’t commit suicide?
With Ian Paisley announcing his retirement, here are a few clips from YouTube of the Big Man in action. First, Paisley calls the Pope the Antichrist at the UN Assembly in 1988. Which is of course funny, but even funnier is the news commentary at the start, which reveals that a display of bronze nudes had been removed from the UN lobby for fear of offending the Papal entourage.
I am surprised that the media has not followed up on the report in Sunday’s Irish Mail that ‘Digout Des’ Richardson and Tim Collins had an account called the ‘D/T’ account in the same branch of the Irish Permanent as Bertie Ahern’s mysterious ‘B/T’ account. If this is true, it seems at least possible that the B/T account stands for ‘Bertie and Tim’ and not, as Ahern told the tribunal, ‘Building/Trust’.
I was at the Tribunal on the day that the Tribunal barrister, Mr O’Neill, was asking Ahern questions about the ‘B/T’ account, into which donations to Fianna Fail were lodged and from which £30,000 was withdrawn to enable Ahern’s girlfriend to buy a house. In light of the emergence of the ‘D/T’ account, Ahern’s evidence on that day makes fascinating reading. >>>(more…)
A property developer telling a court that his brother sprayed him in the face with a water hose during an argument about painting a fence, while the brother counters that he was laughing at his hose.
A community activist telling a tribunal that a property developer kicked another property developer in the shins at a meeting, causing him to respond ‘Jesus, Owen, what are you kicking me for?’
Our Finance Minister telling the Dail that he has confidence in our Prime Minister, who has used political donations to their political party to help buy a house for himself, as has his girlfriend.
I’ve been away from the blog for a few days, because of unavoidable interruptions from real life, so I don’t know if anybody has been wrong on the Internet while I’ve been away (great cartoon found by Damien Mulley). However, after a few days reflection, I’m now thinking much more clearly about Bertie Ahern and the Tribunal.
At this stage, it doesn’t really matter what findings the Tribunal eventually makes about Bertie Ahern taking bribes from Owen O’Callaghan. Because, even on the basis of Ahern’s own evidence, which is the best spin that he and his supporters can put on things, Bertie Ahern is unfit for public office.
Imagine if Owen O’Callaghan never existed, and the Tribunal had never been established, and yet we somehow became aware of the following behaviour by our Prime Minister. Here’s the situation if Ahern is telling the truth:
Our Prime Minister took money from businessmen, and put it towards buying a house for himself. He did not pay tax on at least some of this money, which he has described as ‘a political donation for personal use.’
Our Prime Minister lodged several times his salary into various bank accounts, in his own name, his girlfriend’s name, and his friend Tim Collins name, and he has given varying and unbelievable explanations for these lodgements.
Our Prime Minister accepted money from friends and businessmen who he appointed to state boards.He said that he appointed them not because they gave him money, but because they were his friends.
Our Prime Minister was aware for over a decade that political party funds in his constituency had been given to his girlfriend for her to buy a house. This money was not repaid until the Tribunal found out about it.
Our Prime Minister told our national parliament that he had consulted the tax authorities about certain personal financial transactions of his, when this was not true. He later claimed that ‘the tax authorities’ means his personal tax advisers.
I could go on, but there is more than enough there. Even if he had never met Owen O’Callaghan, Bertie Ahern is unfit for public office. And that is on the basis of Ahern’s own evidence about his personal finances. Bertie Ahern has corrupted the offices of Finance Minister and Taoiseach, and Fianna Fail, the Green Party and the PDs are corrupting Irish politics by allowing Ahern to stay in office.
You know that the credibility of politics has taken something of a battering when a picture of a very honest former Taoiseach appears by accident in an RTE news item about his son being accused of taking a bribe.
Bizarrely, apologists for Cardinal Connell seem to be suggesting that the reason he is trying to hide files from the child abuse Commission is that he wants to protect the confidentiality of the victims of these crimes. However, Connell already has form in concealing knowledge of serious sexual crimes from the police, and the effect of this has been to protect the criminals and the Catholic Church, not the victims.
So what is in the files that Cardinal Connell is trying to hide? Well, the Commission is examining how the Dublin Archdiocese responded to a representative sample of complaints against priests. If those samples are similar to cases we already know about, the files could contain such behaviour as refusing to tell the police that a priest had admitted sexually abusing a sick child in a hospital and photographing the abuse, telling a victim of child sexual abuse that she was trying to ruin the good name of her abuser, lending money to a paedophile priest to settle a legal case against a victim then telling the media that he had not compensated anybody, appointing a paedophile priest as chaplain to a hospital without telling the hospital why, deciding to have a particularly vicious paedophile priest defrocked then letting him continue as a priest while appealing the decision thus enabling him to sexually assault the grandson of a deceased person after a funeral, and generally moving paedophile priests from parish to parish to continue sexually abusing children.
Here are details of five sample cases in which we already know that Cardinal Connell presided over the above responses.
In 1960, Father Paul McGennis, who was chaplain at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, sexually assaulted at least two young girls who were patients in the hospital, and took photographs of the abuse. One of his victims was Marie Collins, who was then thirteen. In the late 1970s, the same priest repeatedly sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl in County Wicklow.
Here is how the Catholic Church dealt with this case. >>>(more…)
Between 1968 and 1987, Father Ivan Payne sexually assaulted an unknown number of children, some of whom were patients in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, and some of whom were altar boys or may have been children who he met while he worked for more than 20 years as a volunteer with Sunshine House, the St Vincent de Paul holiday home for poor children.
Here is how the Catholic Church dealt with this case. >>>(more…)
Father Noel Reynolds admitted sexually abusing more than 100 children in eight Dublin parishes. In 1995, another priest reported concerns about the behaviour of Father Reynolds as parish priest of Glendalough. In 1996, several parents complained to Cardinal Connell that they were worried that Father Reynolds had been sexually abusing their children.
Here is how the Catholic Church dealt with this case. >>>(more…)
Father Tony Walsh was a priest in Coolock and Ballyfermot, who impersonated Elvis Presley as a member of the All Priests Show during the 1980s. He sexually abused an unknown number of children, including masturbating on top of an altar boy who had served at his ordination mass and raping a young boy in the Phoenix Park on his ninth birthday. In 1995, following a funeral, he sexually assaulted the eleven-year-old grandson of the deceased.
Here is how the Catholic Church dealt with this case. >>>(more…)
Between 1983 and 1988, Father Thomas Naughton sexually abused an unknown number of young boys in three different Dublin parishes. During this time, the Archdiocese twice sent him to see psychiatrists for treatment, then returned him to work as a priest thus enabling him to continue to abuse children. In 1995 one of his victims, Mervyn Rundle, took a legal case against Father Naughton.
Here is how the Catholic Church dealt with this case. >>>(more…)
Feebee also has a book out next month, called Trying to Conceive, in which she gives advice to Irish couples who are trying to cope with infertility. Coping, she says, involves about 10% of going through the motions of treatment and 90% of dealing with the emotional side of it, and this advice is reflected in one of the most emotionally engaging personal blogs that I have ever read.
Feebee won the award against some strong competition. The other four blogs on the Digital media Awards shortlist were the appropriately-titled Head Rambles by Grandad, the ironically-titled Humble Housewife by Deborah Hadley, the appetising Ice Cream Ireland by chocoholic Kieran Murphy, and the informative Limerick Blogger by Paddy, Squid and Dead Battery Entertainments.
Here are links to, and summaries of, these four blogs. >>>(more…)
On the day that Martin McGuinness joined Ian Paisley in condemning the Real IRA for threatening a return to violence, Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly struck a blow for traditional Republicanism by winning the overall prize, and best animation, at last night’s Irish Digital Media Awards.
This morning an angry Ding Dong rejected allegations that he had sold out on his principles by attending the €250-a-plate awards dinner. ‘In some ways it wasn’t easy watching a film about the famine being celebrated by people stuffing their faces,’ he admitted. ‘But the British have illegally occupied far too much of cyberspace and, even though cyberspace doesn’t really exist, it is still our duty as Republicans to claim it back for Ireland. Also, it is nice, after so many centuries of struggle, to be able to have both a feast and a famine at the same time.’
Paul Woodfull, creator of the unreconstructed Republican balladeer, was more circumspect about his portrayal in animated form. ‘I’m still getting used to seeing myself represented in photographic form,’ he said. ‘So it was nice that Brown Bag films were able to tweak Ding Dong’s appearance.’
The winning entry was an animated version of Ding Dong explaining the history of Ireland in five minutes to a confused tourist. The animation is by Brown Bag Films in Dublin’s Smithfield Market. It used to be available on YouTube, but it has been removed, presumably by British securicrats. However, you can see it here on Brown Bag’s website. (Warning - this is a very slow connection, so you are probably better off downloading it from the link than watching it on the Brown Bag site.)
Here is the full list of all of the award-winners: >>>(more…)
