Spot On, No Bother

F*** the train

spotonnobother — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:56:35 +0000

Was disappointed to see that one of my favourite pieces of vandalism has been removed recently. I couldn’t agree more with the graffiti I noticed while peering out the train window towards the sea at Balbriggan. “F**k the train” read the scrawl on the little electricity substation. The little miscreant who decided to write this actually must have a brain in his head. He (or she, but probably he) knew that only the people on the train would be reading it. Inspired. And they were capturing the mood of most commuters as they make the treck to Dublin for work every day.

I’m half tempted to do something similar, but aim it at the train driver. A couple of ideas spring to mind : “Turn on the bloody heat, just because the heat is on in the drivers cabin doesn’t mean the passengers aren’t freezing!”

The spooks are everywhere…

spotonnobother — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:15:19 +0000

So we have another name to add to the list of unfortunates who, for whatever reason, turned on their Republican colleagues and started working for British intelligence. Roy McShane, a former driver for Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, is in protective custody, presumably with his Mi5 handlers, having said goodbye to his family in Belfast.

He joins the likes of Freddie Scappaticci and Denis Donaldson, other top-level Republican’s who were exposed as spies. Donaldson, of course, died in mysterious circumstances in his Donegal cottage on April 4th 2006, months after his exposure. Of course nobody has been found responsible and nobody will. While many will point to disgruntled former IRA people, his former security service handlers must also be suspects.

It is the unfortunate reality for spies, that when they are exposed their own communities shun them and they are no longer useful to their masters, who might rather see them ‘disappear’.
The level of infiltration by British security services into both Republican and Loyalist groups is staggering. It is a murky world with so many unanswered questions. Who else is a British spy? Who carried out the Northern Bank robbery? Who bombed Omagh? Who knew it was going to happen?

An unholy row

spotonnobother — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:59:23 +0000

For those of you who may be thinking of returning to the fold, the recent revelations in the Catholic Church should serve as a reminder that it is an organisation like no other. Cardinal Connell is refusing to hand over documents to the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation into the handling by the cardinal and others of complaints of child abuse against Catholic clergy in the Dublin Archdiocese.

It emerged today in the Irish Independent that the cardinal would rather go to jail than hand over the documents, while the Conservative attack dogs in the Irish Catholic are out defending their man against the more reasonable face of the Church, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. (The archbishop expressed surprise when the cardinal went to court to have the handing over of the documents stopped)

An editorial in the latest edition of the Irish Catholic paper said: “For the last week, Cardinal Connell has been painted as the bad old face of the church versus the new ‘can do’ persona of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Cardinal Connell has remained silent, Archbishop Martin has not,” it said.

“In fact, he went as far as implying that Cardinal Connell (right) was interfering in his ministry and that the Cardinal was not well. The Cardinal is quite well, having suffered a slight fracture after a fall on some steps in Rome. And he is not interfering but standing behind what he sees as what is right, legal and just.”

Legal and just for whom? Christian behaviour? I think not.

There must be something really damning in those papers.

Fighting on the web

spotonnobother — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:37:11 +0000

You got to hand it to the Travelling community. While us settled folk spend hundreds of euros down in Temple Bar or down the local before we go fighting our friends and neighbours on the streets after dark, these lads have done some serious organising.

There’s at least two referees and any number of commentators. (e.g. “She wawzent woman enough, she’s a cowardly woman” etc….). Hell, the damn thing is even videoed. Check it out. The guy in the white t-shirt is genuinely unsettling.

Has he gone away?

spotonnobother — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:33:47 +0000

“They haven’t gone away you know”, SF president Gerry Adams famously said. And the quote still holds true. Some of them are up in Stormont frolicking with “the other side of the community” and others have gone back to their day jobs, including smuggling fuel around the leaky Border. But where has Wee Gerry gone.

There was a time when you couldn’t turn on the Telly and Gerry would be pontificating on the “sittee ayshu” and not going “down the road of condemnation” and even a bit of criticism for “Mr Blur”. Even Section 31 couldn’t shut Gerry up!!

But the last time I think I saw the bearded one was the Great Debate on RTE during the General Election. Besides the odd comment on the Lisbon Treaty, Gerry hasn’t been seen anywhere. If anyone knows where he is at please let us know. In the meantime, check out Gerry on the Late Late Show in 1994. Vintage Adams….