Sinn Féins Joan of Arc

I hear the anguished cries of middle Ireland as they watch over the marching Sinn Féin with trepidation. One can almost feel the shudder, how could such a crowd of thugs and bank robber’s rise from the fires of hell—to debate equally with our respectable suited neoliberals, on important matters too like the European fiscal treaty. What is more they send out their Joan of Arc—Mary Lou and she spreads her venomous message across the clothes lines of Ireland, and even Pat Kenny has to take her seriously. The neoliberals present us with a successful business woman who knows how to balance books; she is suitably serious if not a little out of her depth with Joan of Arc eyeing her contemptuously. They also have Eamonn the radical Eamonn that once stood for the Workers party and then Democratic Left, these radical left wing parties that sold their souls and were annexed by the Labour party. Eamonn is not convincing as he constantly gives the impression that the line he is spouting is beyond his comprehension, government politicians are all guilty of this, it is like they are reading from a script but the information is passionless and second hand. Eamonn needs to attend more neoliberal night classes as he has not yet mastered the technique. Declan Ganley that grand warrior of the right who gets to appear on national television because he is wealthy plays a stormer mainly because he agrees with Joan of Arc to a degree, and if you have St. Joan on your side you are on a winner. I wonder why they don’t ask other Declans to go on, like maybe the Declan from the St. Vincent de Paul, or all the Declans or Deirdre's out there in community groups. Back to the poor old middle Irelanders the shuddering wrecks who imagine the Northern Bank funds been divided out at every mention of the shinners. These are the same people mind you who think it was alright for a sovereign government to sit back and allow its citizens be torched out of their homes, and also allow them be systematically cleansed from their traditional areas by sectarian bigots. There were like all wars atrocities committed by all sides during the war in northern Ireland, yet according to middle-Ireland it was the Shinners who were responsible for all of it, these same shinners that were feted by the partitionists during the good Friday agreement—but you see they didn’t see it coming at all, the shinners have a vibrancy and as Joan of Arc said, Sinn Féin have a wealth of experience in tough negotiations unlike our middle –Ireland friends who were more worried about our living standards, than the welfare of their fellow citizens during the war in the north. Personally my only worry about Sinn Féin is that they are not radical enough—and I can see them taking part in future coalitions and perhaps Joan of Arc will have transformed into Joan Burton—a nightmare scenario. If they possess any stealth like plan or suspicious underbelly this is it—the worries as expressed by the neoliberal middle-Irelanders don’t exist. If Sinn Féin are anything they are pragmatists and don’t be surprised if that daft republican party Fianna Fail get very cosy with them in time. So what of the Fiscal treaty itself—I think it will be a narrow yes vote based on the conservative nature of this society, going forward I doubt if it will make any real difference as events are constantly changing. I welcome the election of Hollande in France as some sort of dart in the arse of neoliberalism, and also it gives me some hope that the federated Europe we are heading towards may not be totally dominated by the right. As I have pointed out much of the far right stuff been pushed on the citizens of Europe is based upon ideology that is new to Europe and thus has that distinct second hand feel to it. Politicians this side of the pond don’t understand it fully so they sell it very poorly, and the people will not have continued austerity without a major battle. So folks you heard it here first a future Fianna Fail and Sinn Féin coalition and a United states of Europe I hear lots of sighs, but don’t begin to tell me that we are still a nation. I am afraid our nationality was stolen by outside forces a long time ago and our natural resources were gifted to wealthy interests at a terrible price for our citizens, we as a people have allowed this happen. Remember we don’t do ideology we do personality and we still admire entrepreneurs despite the austerity. But let us not despair as we still have Joan of Arc and that has to be worth something.

Taking the Bollix out of Bollixology

I have sorted it out in my head, and there is no need to worry about austerity or fiscal treaties or politics in general I have it sorted and in the end it was a very simple process. No longer will I need to sit up all night worrying about our future, my nightmares have been replaced by bouts of restful sleep full of twitting birds, and meadows awash with wild flowers. I have found the secret folks and it came upon me at 4.02 am this very morning, in an instant my life has changed, as I have found the key to unlock the madness and mayhem that surrounds me. If I was a mathematical person I would describe it as a simple formula one that can be applied to many things in life, but particularly when it comes to media and spin and our perceptions of same. This formula doesn’t require serious issues it works just as well with ordinary things, such as a visit to the shops. You are probably unable to contain your excitement so I will let you have it people it is the simple awakening that comes to all jaded men and woman at 4.02am after another sleepless night, the dawning realisation as to what is wrong with the world and how does one go about fixing it, well? We start with the very simple term ‘bollix,’ hah I hear, he is resorting to vulgarity not true my friends as when I complete the sentence you will see, ‘Taking the bollix out of bollixology.’ I will allow you a moment to digest the importance of this statement, and I will take a little of your time to explain from where the said term has come from, and how my mental state at 4.02am was just about perfect for this Eureka moment. We could just about take anything you wish but let us start with something ordinary, like do we really believe things like ‘every little helps,’ or that a certain supermarket chain want us to spend less, like why would they want us to spend less? It doesn’t make any sense, yet they actually use this in their advertisement. It is hardly crucial or important but all of this nonsense has to start somewhere, and in the early hours the mind ponders many a small matter and allows them a pride of place they hardly deserve. I guess there is a room somewhere where the practitioners’ of bollix from the school of bollixology make up their routines. These guys are so successful they can more or less make us believe whatever they want. They claim that a two party state which is the natural home of capitalism is an example of true democracy at work—this country fights war after war to inflict its brand of democracy on other societies. These victims are rarely white they are usually Asian,or African—or Arab in ethnicity. Thus they spread the great capitalist virus around the globe and boy are we seeing it now in the Eurozone. These people have managed to put the bollix into the European union also, what started out as an economic and social revolution has been annexed by the power of the capitalist markets to the extent that it has become dangerous. The school of bollixology have gone to great lengths to turn even the most innocuous event into a competition—the recent Tv3 debate on the forthcoming treaty is a classic example. The empire holds its games and in the most recent debate it was Martin and Coveney 2—Higgins and Mary Lou 0. But what were they scored on, certainly not ideology Higgins was berated for not answering a question that he wasn’t allowed answer. Joe Higgins is not great on TV people say, but that’s because he is not a performer Joe deals in ideology—Martin and Coveney deal in spin and rhetoric but according to the public they won—how is this or more importantly why is this? Of course the bollix goes well beyond political debates and it goes into every area of our lives—people just won’t face the truth, the choice is there to be made, do we want to be citizens of a nation or consumers in an economy? Are we willing to allow self serving political parties forge the future for us, or will we as citizens reclaim what is indeed ours—can we take the bollix from the bollixology.