There is a perception amongst some Irish and English people that The Wolfe Tones and their fantastic music are anti-English. This couldn’t be further from the truth.  They are simply anti-oppression.  Remember that the English establishment who oppressed the Irish also oppressed the English working class. The Wolfe Tones simply recorded the history of Ireland with fantastic songwriting and performing talent, and nobody could have possibly achieved that in the manner that they have done.

I remember a time when in the 70s and 80s the ordinary “Joe Soap” in Ireland was completely behind The Wolfe Tones.  We are all grateful that there is peace in the North now, but there are a certain element of the Irish population – God… oh sorry, I mean *Bono* – and the Press, who think The Wolfe Tones should shut up now.  I understand the North is a very sensitive issue and people´s lives are at stake, but it’s ludicrous to think we should be expected to forget the recent and not so recent past, and I can’t understand why some people, both Irish and English, don’t realise that The Wolfe Tones are and have always been singing about peace, equality and freedom, and for all, and those who fought and paid the ultimate price for that equality.

It’s worth remembering that the recent troubles erupted not because the North was under English control, but because the nationalist community were discriminated against in so many terrible ways.  The proof of this is that we now have, thankfully, peace in the North, and it’s still under the control of London, but now there is no discrimination (or very little) if any, I hope, and not just against the nationalist community.

I believe that we should have a 32 county Ireland for the very simple reason that the six counties are simply the North of Ireland, and not the West of England.  They say that it’s about the wishes of the majority, but does that mean if the majority of the population of Kilburn in London are Irish that it should be controlled by Dublin???  I also believe that anybody who is English should be and is welcome and treated equally in Ireland to live and work, but that they should respect the fact that they are in Ireland, just as the Irishman working and living in England must respect the fact and the people around him when he is living in England, and he must also be treated equally.

We should all be thankful that there is peace in the North now and hope it stays that way forever, but we should never forget those who fought for justice and those who told the story through their music.  I am completely convinced that the songs of The Wolfe Tones will live hundreds of years longer than anything God… oh sorry, I mean *Bono*… ever wrote.

Having a quiet few pints with Brian Warfield the other night, he became very emotional and passionate about the images and news coming from Gaza, and rightly so.  Unfortunately it’s another story of oppression, and let’s hope and pray that it comes to an end straight away.

Following on from my blog post yesterday, now it seems that the Irish government has only guaranteed 6 banks and left out the other banks operating in Ireland, which is unfair competition – but nice try.

The truth is if the EU or the UK did the same to any Irish bank abroad, the Irish would have gone mad in Brussels, and rightly so. The opposition in Ireland are trying to dance all over the government, with easy hitting, claiming they (the government) are not sure of what they are doing. They are probably correct to some extent, but we are in uncharted waters here and the government should be supported in every way possible, and for sure they are doing the best they can. Even Cameron said in the UK yesterday that they have to row the boat together with Labour, because this is an unreal situation and there is no room for politics. He will be the next Prime Minister of the UK, and the sooner the better!

As regards the EU, now you can see how important it was to vote “NO” to the Lisbon Treaty. The EU are right to take the government to task about the foreign banks operating in Ireland, and I would hope that whether they had control over us or not, we would support all the banks operating in Ireland equally, just to be right. We should be happy to do what is right regardless, but the thought of having to get permission from the EU to wipe our a*se, well, f*ck that!

This is a classic situation where we are happy to co-operate with our EU neighbours, even at our own cost from time to time, for the benefit of the common good, but if it comes to your a*se or ours, good luck son, and definitely when there are important decisions to be made in a hurry and stupid EU bureaucracy is standing on the fence thinking “too slow Brussels and Adios”, if it comes to it. Brian Cowen, as I said before, should stand up and say:

“We (the Irish nation) are happy to work with Brussels to a point, but if that´s not possible, we will, and are not afraid to, work on our own. We have enough wealth and talent to survive and a great belief in our own best asset (our people, and their strength).”

David Cameron also said today that if the Irish haven’t ratified the Lisbon Treaty before he gets into government, he will also put the Treaty to the English population – and I will bet any man that if that happens the English will vote “NO” as well. The sooner we get Obama and Cameron into office, the better for the world as a whole. Not HOLE!!!

The controversy over the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland is unreal in my eyes.

Adio.

Murphy

There is something on my mind for a long time that I would like to share with anyone who cares to read or listen…

I have travelled a lot over the years and have seen many different cultures. What’s right in one place is completely wrong in another. There are a few basic human traits that I have noticed everywhere, and I can only put them down to human nature, which seems to me to be the common language, and which is stronger than any culture. It’s a higher level of understanding which surpasses all cultures and religions, as I understand it. When you get to this level of understanding, life becomes a little bit easier, or has done so, in my experience. Be very careful of what you read here because this is just my opinion and it could be complete shit, but it’s based on what experience (or lack of it!) I have of life.

The main point which I want to make is that across all cultures and religions greed, selfishness, dishonesty and jealousy are the roots of everything that goes wrong in this world, regardless of one´s intelligence (or lack of it).

If we could only control these conditions in the human being, what a great party we could all have! To control these human conditions takes effort, but it leads to a much better result than not to.

Sometimes greed is expressed through ego, sometimes through material things, but it’s still all greed, whichever way you look at it, same as is jealousy.

Like everyone else, I have been as guilty as hell but I spend a lot of time trying not to be. I can’t stand anything that separates people, and I love anything that brings people together, regardless of nationality, culture or religion. I’m always trying to find the common ground and not the uncommon, but I don’t always succeed.

If you look at capitalism and communism, you quickly understand that communism is fantastic on paper, but capitalism suits human nature much better. I have lived in the former USSR for a period and all of the older folk would much prefer to have communism back. They felt safe. They didn’t have a lot by Western standards (materially), but they had a lot more than the Third World. They didn’t know this as they were kept in the dark, but they will tell you that they went to work, they had their apartment, a Lada car and a holiday every year. They had enough. The truth of it is that this system may well have lasted, only for the fact that the USSR engaged in the Cold War, which cost billions of any currency you wish to choose, and ultimately ended with the fall of the USSR.

One of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in my lifetime was the collapse of the Russian Rubel – not because a currency collapsed, but because there were hard working people who had saved for their pensions all their lives and they lost everything in a week.  When you meet highly educated or intelligent (not always the same) hard working people begging in cold train stations in their 60s +, it makes you sick to the bone.  You listen to their stories and it would kill you.  I have lived with these people in the same house and got to know them.  The lucky ones had sons or daughters who got out to the West and sent money back home so their parents had a comfortable living.  The unlucky ones… you don’t want to know.  Again, the whole lot of this human suffering was caused because of greed or pride/ego.  Will we ever learn?

To be half fair, in the Russian situation they seemed to me to be more on the defensive after the Second World War, after what Germany did to them, and wanted to make sure that it never happened again.  I know there were desperate atrocities carried out by the Russian establishments long before the Second World War against the Russian people as well (which is a different story), but again leads back to the same thing:  control caused by greed, ego etc etc.

I feel that no human being has the right to determine where another lives or not.  Forget communism and capitalism for the moment.  If everybody in this world was able to travel and trade free, we would come to a situation where every human being had at least an equal opportunity to share in the World´s wealth.  Who the f*ck do we think we are to tell another human that he cannot go here or there because of his colour/nationality or culture?  Open your minds and your doors, don’t be afraid and the results will surprise you.

I have today read two things in the papers that caught my attention and are very relevant to this topic.  The first I read was about a tribe of 240 people called the Zoe (I think, I put the magazine in the bin and when I went back to check the name someone had put more waste on top of it and I wasn’t willing to dig through it to get the name right!).  This tribe are and have been living in stone age times and are protected by the Brazilian government.  They have no contact with the World as we know it.  They have been watched and studied, just like wild animals would be for a documentary.  They don’t wear clothes, they kill only what they need to eat, and no more.  They have straw built tents and they sleep in anyone they want to, with whoever they want to.  They have no crazy man invented rules, and they share everything automatically.  Disputes are solved by tickling – whoever laughs the first loses.  They know f*ck all about religion, never mind penalty points or traffic lights, and yet they live in perfect harmony in their ignorance – or maybe it’s our ignorance.  Back to basics, and this is as close as you would get to human nature at its best before we were corrupted by all kinds of rules and sh*t.

The second thing that I read today was that the English government want the English flag displayed much more and have lifted old rules which say that the flag can only be flown at half mast with the consent of the Queen.  So now it is OK to fly the flag at half mast if a local (good person) dies in the community, without the permission of the Queen.  They want to fly the English flag from every government building in the country and they are encouraging people to fly it from their homes as well to get back their identity, regardless of whether it’s England or anywhere else!  Did you ever hear such f*cking bullsh*t in your life?!  Anyone who has to identify themselves with a flag is as insecure a human being as you will meet on any road.

I am Irish (culturally) and I am proud of it, but not nationally.  I see the Irish flag as a sign of “welcome”, whereas the English (and only the English that would support this shit, which is not all English, by any means) see this as a defensive measure.  They feel they are losing their identity and need to get it back in this stupid way.  I also know that there are many Irish that think we should not let any foreigners into Ireland, but they too are the greedy, trying to protect what they have and not share with other fellow human beings because of their own insecurities.

As far as I am concerned, anyone who is willing to pull their weight should be welcome in any society.
If I ever go missing, I will be with the Zoes in North Brazil, but I don’t expect that they would accept me after being so corrupted by all kinds of organisations making rules of how I should and shouldn’t live.  Where will I go then?  I will be simply f*cked if the Zoes don’t accept me!!!!

Murphy

It’s so easy to write a blog post about George Bush – it’s called “Bush Bashing” – and it’s simple because it’s easy to pick on a donkey.  But here are a few of my thoughts.

How responsible is George for the state of the World today? You could say that he fucked the World up economically and humanly better than anyone else could have done, and you would be right.  Was he responsible on his own for this? No way.  But who *was*?

The stupid people of the United States were. Ok, they elected him the first time and it was a mistake, which we are all entitled to make, but not the second time!  Then you will hear folk say that the second election was rigged, but as far as I know, it was only rigged by 1 or 2%. How did he even get that close? You, the people of the United States who voted the moron in the second time are every bit as guilty as him for the huge amount of human suffering that you have caused, and the economic wellbeing of the whole f*cking planet. Your money has been spent on killing innocent human beings and you *voted* for this.

Is an army democratic or is it the case when you sign up to an army you lose the power of your actions?  If there was a secret vote taken by the troops who are in Iraq and Afghanistan, what would the outcome be?  If the outcome was that this was a wrong war to be fighting, would they have the freedom to leave Iraq without losing their jobs as soldiers which they use the income to provide for their families?

Any decent human being, in my opinion, has a right to earn an income as a soldier, to defend their country or fight against right and wrong in the human race, but they were led into battle under the pretence that Sadam had the power to take out England and the States with nuclear power.  The fact is he hadn’t the power to even take out Iraq and when the Allied Forces realised that, should the soldier on the ground not have the power to decide to go home without facing court marshall, or the threat of losing his job?  He was sent there under the pretence of protecting his people, which is why he signed up to the army in the first place.

I remember watching live TV of the invasion of Iraq and thinking to myself “what is going to happen here”? I, like everyone else, thought that the Allies were really up against it and that anything could happen to the whole World, with all this nuclear power.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when, not long into the war, I was watching the US troops pulling down a statue of Sadam in Baghdad and then putting a US flag on top of it, which was the real feeling amongst a lot of the US troops on live television.  Obviously someone realised quickly that this was wrong and the flag only lasted about 30 seconds.  I won’t forget that 30 seconds ever.  It made a huge statment to me.

It’s also my humble opinion that Bush should face a court for his *war crimes* and that he be imprisoned accordingly.  I also feel all those who voted for him should pay the price as well, even though they already are, in as much as US citizens are welcome nowhere now and are looked upon as, at the very least, very stupid, arrogant people.  This of course is not true of all of them as there were an awful lot of them who did not vote for Bush the second time around, or even the first.

The Irish side to this story was highlighted on Paddy’s Day when Bertie Ahern was pictured smiling like a Cheshire Cat giving Bush a bowl of shamrock, which is now flushed down the sewers and has ended up in some waste facility in Washington.  We all know how much the the American economy contributes to the Irish economy and that without that support we are doomed – but let me tell you now (as Ian Paisley used to say) that the companies and their MDs in the States that have manufacturing facilities in Ireland are not stupid, and they know that this war is ridiculous.  When Bertie goes and looks so comfortable with Bush, I hope he knows first of all that he is not representing 99%of the Irish population, and second of all, that he is not fooling the people who really matter in the US, as far as the economy goes.  Bertie, if you smile and mix with a fool, you could very easily become one.

Us Irish have great connections in the States and a lot of good connections with very honourable people.  We should not promote or be seen to endorse the a*seholes over there who believe that this war is justified, because then the decent US citizens won’t have any regard for us – and rightly so.  On the other hand, when we are so reliant on the US, I can understand the way of thinking “let’s stick with Bush, as there are only 9 months of the moron left anyway”.  I think my first point stands up better.  It would be much better for Bertie to say to the citizens of the States that we are 100% behind the States in any way that is correct, but regardless of how much we depend on ye, we will not endorse a stupid war like this.  I feel we would command a lot more respect from the real people that matter in the States just by being honest, and for our honesty long after Bush is gone and hopefully locked up.

Finally, I do believe that Bertie also thinks that this war and Bush are a disaster, but he feels that it would be the wrong thing to come out with it. I could be very very wrong here presuming so much, but I doubt it.

The next piece I want to bore you with has to do with why wars happen anyway, in my opinion, and the human condition that causes them.

Another day.

Murphy

P.S. George, if by any chance you still have that bowl of shamrock, shove it up your anal passage until it reaches your false teeth.
Lots of love from the Irish on Paddy’s Day!