http://www.tubeeireann.ie/view/2/alco-in-red-square-waterford-very-funny/

Just casting my ear over Ray Darcy on the Today FM as I “work” here today.  They’re discussing religion in Ireland and what it now means to the people.  Its a topic that I have often considered myself.  What does it mean to us, what does it mean to me.  I can’t speak for everyone out there, though I will defend till the day I die the right of people to differ from me in their opinion and I value the opinion of everyone out there.  And, I’d like to know all of your opinions.

I can only offer my own take on it:

I was born into a Roman Catholic family.  I still remember all of us in our living room saying the rosary on certain nights, led my my Granny (R.I.P.).  I remember attending all of the religious ceremonies at Easter time, including the Good Friday service.  I served as an altar boy, I did mass readings for a long time, and I even remember when I was very small, watching mass on RTE1, pretending that I was the priest, using cut out circles from a Brennan’s sliced pan as communion wafers.  All of my Aunts thought that I too would one day end up being a priest.  Later in life in times of extreme strife and worry I turned to prayer and to reading the Bible, and I found it helpful and therapeutic.

Fast forward many years.

I now consider myself an “a-la-carte Roman Catholic”.  That is to say that I still consider myself to be a Roman Catholic, and I still practice in my own way, but I now only take what I deem to be relevant from the practice.  I know that to most followers of the “one true faith” that this makes me a non-believer.  And, believe me, I do believe, and furthermore I wish I did now believe to the extent that I once did.  But, now, I find it difficult to take the Church seriously.  Their hypocrisy has turned me and I feel that they are more of a group of chancers and hangers on that the vessels through which God travels.  My opinions sometimes differ from theirs, so why am I automatically wrong as a consequence of this?  Why are they always right?

I think that eventually we will all meet God/our God, in a better place.  Hang on to your beliefs they may someday be all that you have, and hopefully someday I’ll get mine back.

Non-censorial claustrophobic, idiotic questionings of all of those who don’t care either way what happens, despite the constant reminders of those who know why it isn’t worth the while of those involved to issue any statements disregarding what has happened, in spite of the issues arising from not doing what is inconsequentially a non-issue regarding what happened earlier in the case therein, never minding the fact that when it was/is over there will be no issues outstanding either, leading to a double standard of massive proportions vis-a-vis constitutional revelations which even the High Court cannot ramify, nor can the Attorney General know what has happened as a general meaning of the issue.

I rest my case!!

BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was
missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on
everything, and then leaves.

ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and
advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than by working hard.

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only
to get screwed and die in the end.

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm,
and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.

MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation’s answer to the couch potato.

STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you
find yourself unable to stop watching them.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device
to get it to work again.

ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file.
Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant
to the problems they were designed to solve.

404: Someone who is completely clueless. From the World Wide Web error message ‘404 Not
Found’ (meaning that the requested document, like the person’s brain, could not be located.)

OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake.

CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing wind while passing through a cube farm, then enjoying
the sounds of dismay and disgust.

Finally, the madness of the revolving yes/no roundabout of a referendum regarding the Lisbon Treaty is over!!  We don’t know exactly what we (Ireland) as a nation rejected, but boy did we reject it good!!  My post may seem a little premature as counting of the votes has yet to finish, but to be fair the result is all but academic at this  stage.

I personally don’t view this though as a victory for the “no” campaign, or at least not as simplistic as that.  I view the result as more of a result for ignorance.  Not the ignorance of people who can’t understand or don’t want to understand, but the ignorance of people who haven’t been given the information in a manner that will facilitate their understanding of it.

I don’t know where we’ll go from here, but I’ll be watching and waiting with baited breath, anxious to see what the rest of Europe makes of us, and anxious to see where this nation will go from here.

For the record, I may sound like a “yes” campaigner but I actually voted No.  I just didnt’ get it, despite repeatedly trying to, and as a consequence didn’t trust it.

Well, Ireland bombed out at the Eurovision Song Contest last night, oh the fake, I couldn’t give a damn shame of it all!!!

For those of you who are uninitiated in the ways of the Eurovision, here’s the downlow:

All the countries of Europe, even the makie up ones like San Marino, nominate a song to take part in a huge song contest between all of the “countries”. It is a cheese fest the like of which hasn’t been seen this side of Cape Town

Now Ireland used to be very very good at this! A dubious claim to fame I know, but we have won it an unprecedented 7 times!!

So, this year we sent a turkey. Or to be precise, Dustin the Turkey

We didnt’ get past the semi-final stage!

But, anyway, the point is. Who cares!! Its a stupid competition with stupid songs. God, we’re lucky to be out of it! No-one really cares, outside of Dana and Linda Martin

God help us!!!!

We played our second match in the Junior Football Championship.  The second of my managerial career!  We won by 3-10 to 1-08.  Probably the first time in about five years that we’ve won two games in a row!  We started well, but went out of the game at the ends of both halves, scoring a goal in the last minute to put a bit of a gloss on the score.  Though it was a vastly improved performance on the last day.  I’m still not sure that I’m cut out for this management lark though.  I really wanted to give as many of the substitutes a run as possible last night but I  ended up using just one.  I just don’t have the strength in depth to make the changes that I’d like.  I guess I need to become less concerned with the feelings of others to make the tough decisions!!

Well, the English Premiership title race will go to the last weekend.  Chelsea and Manchester United are tied on 84 points, United having the better goal difference by a margin of 17.  Their final games are against Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic respectively.  I can see them both winning their games and as a consequence United will win the title on goal difference.  But, perhaps we will get lucky and there will be another twist in this saga.  United have slipped up before, most noticeably against West Ham in the 1994-95 season when Blackburn Rovers won the title.  However, I can’t see them slipping up against Wigan, a team managed by United old boy Steve Bruce.  Chelsea have never had to come from behind to win the title and really can only win their game and hope that Wigan do them a favour.  One thing we do know is that neither team can afford to put out a weakened team before the Champion’s League Final, not if they are seriously chasing the title.  Should make good view, so lets hope it lives up to expectations!!

Will he pay up? He hasn’t to date. If he does, fair play Eammo, you’re a true legend. If not…….