Water - protests

Joan Burton the Tánaiste

Two arrested in west Dublin as Tánaiste blocked by protesters

This would not have happened if she stuck to her labour principles instead of being two faced! 

If anybody needs to be arrested it is herself because she caused the trouble in the first place!

An opposition TD Paul Murphy , who participated in the demonstration, said the protest, which began shortly before Ms Burton attended the ceremony at noon, had been peaceful. 

“The protest has been peaceful. Yes she has been delayed here for a number of hours but I think this protest has sent a very clear message to her, a message which the Tánaiste has ignored to date, that that people don’t want to pay these water charges. 

“There is national anger over the changes but particularly in Tallaght and Jobstown in west Dublin...there are a lot of people who simply can’t afford to pay,” he said, adding the protesters were also sending a message to Irish Water that the people of Tallaght would not accept water charges.

Making a Spectacle of Myself

On the 3rd January I had my two yearly eye sight examination. The optician asked if I had noticed any change and I told her that my left eye seems to have deteriorated slightly and sure enough this was confirmed.

There was also a check back into the records for previous history and reference was made to 2009 when they sent a letter to my GP with regards to my High BP & Cholesterol.
Today there is no sign of either and I was pleased to point out that the vanquishing of those two monsters was all down my own efforts, as I had refused to take the doctors medications.
A change of eating habits and a walk of two miles before breakfast was all that was required.
At the end of the examination a photograph of each eyeball was taken. I found them to be very interesting as they showed in great detail all of the small veins and their various pathways.  

Yesterday I re-visited the opticians to collect my new pairs of spectacles needed for driving & reading. The reading ones were immediately fine but when I put on the driving ones they felt quite odd and was informed that I would get used to the variance. On arriving home I tried them again and by using various tests I decided that the left lens was actually a identical copy of the left lens of my reading pair. So today I went back to the opticians where I told them of my suspicions.
After testing I was proved right and now it will be next week before I get the corrected pair - just as well I didn't attempt to drive home wearing them!

One of the Many

A Home for You ?

As many as 35,000 thousand new houses that have never been lived in lie idle in Ireland all since the diabolical bank crash and the imposition of austerity.
The photo above is just one of the many, it was completed during the summer of 2009 and stands on a large site and would be ideal for a keen gardener or even a smallholder.

I think it was built as an investment by the builders, if so it has proved to be a rather costly one, for oil the heating is put on every winter just to keep the place from mouldering.

It is a family sized home with at least four bedrooms and with all of the modern requisites as per a shower on the ground floor. I haven’t been inside or intruded on it’s grounds. Merely gleaned some information by looking in over the hedges which border the property, because at the end of the day I am as nosey as the rest of humanity.

The Headache Stone

Well with token offering of a baby's shoe

Excellent signage

Here the sufferer lays their head & is cured.

On sunny Sunday it was a genuine relief to step outside and feel the warmth of the sun on one's body. So we took the decision to make a short tour to the Headache Stone, a place which we had passed on an inclement winter's day last year.

The sign on the gate depicts it as St Hugh's which is unfortunate because it is actually St. Aedh's (pronounced as 'aeh')

St Hugh or rather St. Aedh who was one of Ireland's primitive saints (The Royal Society of Antiquaries 1896) and his importance is that he reputedly cured St Bridget of a headache.

I had heard that it is best not to put a pain free head on a headache stone, because it is likely that you will then get one ! This advice I related to Mrs H as she set off to take photo's while Toby (dog) & I kept each other company. Not lazy merely cautious because there were sheep & young lambs close by and I like to obey the Countryside code. Mrs H had only been gone a few minutes when there came a loud bellow from a Bull, it is a very distinctive noise; this again reassured me by not taking Toby was the right decision and as I had not heard any screaming ! I guessed that Mrs H was free from harm and I was right as you can see from the photo's !

What I wanted to know was exactly how did St A manage to go from A to H there being no phonetic similarity. Research via Google has revealed :-

Mo-Lua ba hanamchara do Dabid
Dar muir modh-mall,
Is dom Aedhog, is dom Chaemog,
Is do Chomgall.

'My-Lua was soul-friend (= spiritual director) to David over the slow-rolling sea (i.e., in Wales), and to my-little-Aedh, and to my-little-Caem (Kevin), and to Congal.'

This quatrain refers to the time when there was constant and friendly communication between the schools and churches of Ireland and the Welsh and English coasts, when Welsh students came to study in the Irish colleges, and brought back with them to Wales many Irish traditions that can still be recognised in Welsh literature. This was the time when Alfred, a student in Ireland, laid the foundations of that love for learning which afterwards caused him to solicit the aid of his former Irish professors in founding the first University of Oxford. The quatrain also contains the name of one of our saints, a name disguised more effectually than any other, that of St. Aedh, if we may venture to call him so. Aedh is really his name. It is one of the commonest Irish names, and is now represented in English by Hugh, a name with which it has no connection whatever. Ref www.libraryireland.com