atoast2toast.com

The Irish Times own both Ireland.com and myhome.ie – They paid 50 million for the latter.

I read with interest

There are hopes that renewed activity may be taking place in the property market after website MyHome.ie said the number of second-hand properties that were “sale agreed” in January rose significantly.

The property site, which is owned by The Irish Times, said the figures had increased threefold compared to a year earlier.

MyHome.ie said it had observed a consistent month-on-month increase in the numbers of “sale agreed” secondhand residential properties since September of last year, going against traditional trends in the selling cycle.

The increase is being seen as evidence of a pick up in the residential market. However, it is not known how many of these sales were completed.

It is not hard to see how this could happen when you see their crude sale agreed chart which shows just over 200 houses sold in Dublin in Sep 2009.

Read more…

IDA Ireland has enlisted the support of Bono, the U2 singer, and the artist Louis le Brocquy in a 4 million drive to market Ireland as a prime business location for US multinationals.

In language far removed from IDA Ireland’s typical investment parlance, the body said “le Brocquy aimed to make a recognisable image of Bono’s outward appearance while attempting to portray what he conceives to be the wavelengths of his inner dynamism”.

The text of the advert itself is in a similar mode, stating that the flexible attitude of the Irish pervades the ecosystem. “The Irish mind. An abundant supply of that rare commodity you’ll need to bring your business to peak performance,” it says.

“The Irish. Creative. Imaginative. And flexible. Agile minds with a unique capacity to initiate, and innovate, without being directed. Always thinking on their feet. Adapting and improving. Generating new knowledge and new ideas. Working together to find new ways of getting things done. Better and faster.”

This contrasts nicely with the children who have thrown their toys out of the pram: Read more…

Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?

Yeats in Easter 1916.

Brian Cowen wants economic sacrifice and needs the place looking great as if 2016 is some sort of tidy towns parade:

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen last night invoked the centenary of the Easter Rising in five years’ time as he made a “rallying cry” urging people to make short-term sacrifices to allow a return to prosperity by 2016.

“Yes, we were a generation that lived at a time and place of prosperity, but when challenged we looked to the future and looked beyond our own self-interest and said that, yes, this is a country that is worth working for and building.

“Yes, we can say in 2016 when we get to O’Connell Street and look up at those men and women of idealism that gave us the chance to be the country we are that: ‘Yes, we did not fail our children, but we did not fail our country either,’” he said.

irishtimes.com

The original proclamation of 1916 was very idealistic in its goals. It can have my allegiance once it comes up with its side of the bargain. Read more…

O stony grey soil of Monaghan The laugh from my love you thieved; You took the gay child of my passion And gave me your clod-conceived.

You clogged the feet of my boyhood And I believed that my stumble Had the poise and stride of Apollo And his voice my thick-tongued mumble.

You told me the plough was immortal! O green-life-conquering plough! Your mandril strained, your coulter blunted In the smooth lea-field of my brow.

You sang on steaming dunghills A song of cowards’ brood, You perfumed my clothes with weasel itch, You fed me on swinish food.

The plough may still be immortal and the swinish food all gone but the Benz and the Beamer are managing to sneak a look in. Some cars I have seen lately are an astouding sight on the road. I never thought I would see a Mercedes 500 clk with Leitrim plates (covered in shit too). I hope I never do again. If it was like Thailand they would be white elephants and the King would collect them and give them protection, the amazing rarity they are. I think he has 8 at the moment.

Read more…

I watched with amazement at tonight’s primetime program talking about the legal highs available in headshops in Ireland. They first mentioned mushrooms and then interviewed drug addicts on the street who prefer Mephedrone to Cocaine.

According to skanger Jim:

“they say they are bath salts and you put them into water but after taking it you are on a mad one “

I investigated the claim that Mephedrone is illegal in the UK. As of the guardian on dec 5th it is not:

Martin Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope, the national drugs information charity, says “we should avoid panicky, knee-jerk responses. To respond that the law should ban [mephedrone] is a blunt instrument. The important issue is education; people need to have access to reliable information. At the moment, it is all word-of-mouth and what people read on internet chat rooms.”

As for the suppliers, the feeling appears to be that a ban is inevitable. “I think mephedrone will be made illegal within a year

The government were there too and I could’nt help but get the feeling they wheeled out this non issue at the time when lots of really bad things are happening.

Read more…

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Irish times poll

Lots of whining on the Irish Times Poll on whether it constitutes a national emergency:

It is only an emergency because as usual there was no planning and no materials in storage to deal with the problem. In the Scandinavian countries farmers are contracted by local authorities to grit the roads in rural areas…the local authorities provide the machinery which is kept on the farms and the salt and grit is kept in large heated silo’s. Once they start spreading the salt and grit it is very effective because it is warm. But we do it the Irish way…sure it’ll never happen…and even if it does..shure it’ll only be for a few days. In Scandinavian countries they dont have 5 cm of snow they can have up to 3 metres of snow and yet the roads always remain open…even in the most northern areas which are truly inhospitable. Roros in Norway yesterday registered – 42 degrees but the roads are open. By the way where is Gormley, Ryan, DeBurca and of course the Scarlet Pimpernel of FF …and Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey. Absent…missing in action (or in this case lack of action or official response). We are not governed at all. All we hear are reasons, excuses but no damn action.

Read more…

but the rock road is not it

Celtic Tiger, he’s a strange kinda cat, why am I so skinny and he is so fat?

- Rats from the Flats in TV show “Paths to Freedom” in his band sperm dot com.

While reading a ship of fools there was one part O’Toole mentions that sticks out as something that sums up many of the abusurdities of the last decade. It is Michael Flatleys dance show “Celtic Tiger”.

The extravagant ludicrousness of The Celtic Tiger did not make it any less authentic an expression of its subject matter. Indeed it probably made it more so. One of the fascinations of the show was its high kitsch presentation of Irish history as a pure pastiche in which whole eras melt into each other.
…
Horny headed Vikings dance chastely with Irish maidens. An Irish garden of Eden blossoms.

After Flatley has beaten the Red Coated Brits in 1916 everyone sings a nation once again:

Ireland is free and triumphant. But there’s not much to do in Ireland now that it’s free, so everyone goes to New York. They dance with homeboys and Spaniards and Michael dances dressed as a gangsgter with nifty spats and Tommy Gun, so he’s clearly doing well. But what of Ireland back home? It’s struggling to become modern: here’s Kathleen ni Houlihan as an Aer Lingus stewardess in a green uniform, dancin a jig in high heels – modernity and tradition. Then Michael and his crew of sun-glassed beefcake boys in Pan Am uniforms fly her over New York. She sees Ireland’s destiny. She does a striptease act, peeling off her green Irish uniform to reveal underneath a bra and panties imprinted with the Stars and Stripes. Ireland was really America all along and now the Celtic Tiger has allowed itself to reveal its true identity. All that suffering – the Famine, the evictions, the murder of Saint Michael Flatley by the redcoat bastard Brits – has been repaid at last

Here is the video: Read more…

Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell
And your trip begins

Seven downward slopes
Seven bloodied hopes
Seven are your burning fires,
Seven your desires *

I was told lately that pride I took in something was one of the deadly sins. I wondered how many of other ones would get me killed.

I started thinking more about it this week when I saw primetime investigates and some of the people involved in the destruction of Ireland’s economy.

herald.ie:

Running for cover. That was banking poster boy Seanie Fitzpatrick when confronted by a reporter about his role in the collapse of our financial system.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief Fitzpatrick scurried into an underground car park rather than offer any apology for the billions of taxpayers’ money now being pumped into the banking system.

He owes 400k a month on his 100 million of loans, some of which ironically went into a bankrupt Casino in Macau. One commentator said: ‘If he is unable to pay it back, the bank takes a big hit. Ultimately, the way things are going, that means the taxpayers would pick up the tab’.

According to Ghandi the seven deadly sins are

Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Politics without principle

We have all of those in abundance in ‘Catholic Ireland’. Read more…

toast is in bad condition owing to the boozing that comes at this time of year. I was at the depeche mode concert on thursday in the old point depot. There was a huge crowd and it looked like a lot of couples but the guys were a lot more interested than the girls.

I go to a lot of concerts in other countries and found it odd that only in Dublin do the security guards stand outside any event shouting their heads off like the people selling tickets, programs and colours of the match. As we approached the gate one guy was screaming “entrance 1 to the left, 2 and 3 to the right”. I shouted back “get a sign”. Then another guy shouted the same as the first guy so I responded “all this shouting is a bit wierd”. He said in a thick dublin accent “maybe its cos yir hungover”. I could see he had big teeth so the way he was laughing was only reserved for times he was delighted with “how bleedin smart he is”. Smart being pronounced with the t silent.

I had a few extortionate beers at 6 euros and a barman went to take the piss. He filled the glass up near the top leaving a half an inch at the top of the glass empty. I said to him “I paid you for 2 pints”. He replied “the mark is at the top of the crown” and it being a carlsberg glass had a crown. I couldnt see the mark so I said “that is actually embarassing for you to have to say”. He made it worse by grabbing 3 cups looking for the line that marks a pint. The mark actually said 500 ml. I made a membership enquiry for the Audi club area and I included that information in my application. I wonder if they will get back to me, doubt it.