Nice coverage for the Blog

There I was last week wondering if in the eyes of the local journo's I had actually been at the Borough Council meeting, let alone lead a few important debates from the chair as acting Mayor for the night. Lo and behold, the roundabout overcame the swings yesterday and today with lovely pics from the opening of the coolest mart in the country at Cillin Hill, about which I shall write again, decent coverage of my raising of the disturbances to local communities, particularly in the Outrath area from so-caled 'Boy Racers', and best of all a smashing article by Katherine Blake in the Kilkenny People about politician's websites.

Katherine, who has her own website, gives me the 'Best Councillor's award' for this here Blog, and brought a few visitors in the past few days.
Giving credit where it's due by the way, hats off to a hugely improved Kilkenny People website. For a long time the doyen of the local media had a pretty difficult to negotiate site, which was often weeks out of date, but now it looks a whole lot brighter, and has all this wekk's contents already. The local free paper, the Kilkenny Advertiser has had a fabulous site since its launch, featuring the Pagesuite digital issue. Of course it makes all its money from advertising, where the People still has good old-fashioned paper sales as part of its revenue stream.

Amhrán an Nóimead-Léimigi thart a phleidhci

Seo amhrán na bliana domsa gan dabht agus clár teilifise na bliana chomh maith. Is brea liom, Deasún Mac an Easpaigh! ar aon nós agus tá a chlár 'In the name of the Fada' i mbéál gach éinne a bhuaileann tú leo.

Without Des Bishop's version of 'Jump Around'is proving to be the hit of the century so far in the teanga Gaeilge. Here he is performing live at the Oireachtas, a long way from the Oireachtas I remember. Lean ort Des, and get this single out soon. It's available as a free download on his website by the way, and here's the lyrics too. Bain sult as agus 'Leim Thart'


Léimigí Thart- Des Bishop

Dún do chlab, dún do bhéal
Éist le mo scéal, má cheapann tú go dtuigeann tú, tá tú ag cur i gcéill,
Tá mé ag dul go nua Eabhrac, ceangal mé le slabhra,
Goile a mhac, ná bí (ag caint anseo???) i lár an tsamhraidh
(súistí búistín buaille beag a phústín???)
ná bí i do phleidhce, nó gheobhaidh tusa léice
Níl mé ag iarraidh a' éisteacht le do chac-bó
damhsa damhsa gan aon stró
buachaillí gránna, cailíní boga dána
Ní thugann mise aird ar na gardaí síochána
Ag an gCeathrú rua, Amach anseo faoin dtuath
léim anois léim anois léim anois go luath
má tá sé mícheart, má tá sé mícheart, is cuma liom, is cuma liom,
léimigí thart!

léim thart! léim thart léim thart! léim thart léim thart! léim thart
Fág seo, éirigh as do pholl is léim thart!

Léim, léim, léim , chuile duine léim, léim, léim, gach duine léim, léim, léim, chuile dhuine léim, léim, léim

freastalóidh mé thú ar nós John McEnroe
má shiúlann do bhean suas, buailfidh mé an hó!
Cá bhfuil do chlann, cá bhfuil do chairde, cá bhfuil an ceol, (suas in airde???)
Agus díreach (ar do thuiscint, tá mé ag rith???)
Má fheiceann tú mise, (b’fhearr duit???) bagairt a rá
Mar tá mé ar nós Tom Cruise sa scannán sin top gun
Ní stopadh tú mise leis an Shotgun!
Má dhéanann tú 's cuí go luath
Agus beidh tú i do staic
Ní éiríonn tú arís go deo, sin an craic
Anois mo stór, éist le mo ghlór,
amach ar an urlár ar nós Peigín leitir mór
má tá sé mícheart, má tá sé mícheart srl

Is mise an fear is fearr, so tá mé thar barr,
Ní fheicfidh tú mise i mo sheasadh (as an lár???)
Ná ag an deireadh ach an oiread an taobh eile don droichid
má thagann siad chomh fada liom, cuireadh mise iad,
amach ar an bportach, agus iad ag baint mhóna,
Déardaoin, De hAoine, De Satharn De Domhnaigh,
Suas suas ‘s síos agus ar ais arís,
Dún do straois, tá sé salach agus clúdaithe le smaois
(Do héadan bheidh caillte , an teallach sin duitse???),
Fainic thú féin nó ní thógfaidh mé uaitse
Má tá sé mícheart, má tá sé mícheart srl

Tá mo homies as Conamara
M'abhailies, m'abhailies as Conamara

Muintir na Gaeltachta, agus muintir na hÉireann freisin, tá an réabhlóid ag teacht go luath

Sin é, sin é, sin é , sin é [TRÉIG]

Samantha explains on Comedy Central-'Sorta'

Here's a great piece of fun from Comedy Central where the great Samantha Power gives her first interview after the 'Monster' controversy. As usual, she comes out shining. Looking forward to the new book.

Cleese offers Obama his talents

John Cleese today offered Barack Obama his talents as a speech writer. Here's his previous major input into politics- a weird and wonderful broadcast forthe SPD/Liberals in 1987. What about drafting him in Eamon?

Time for a decent bus service to Cork-Join the campaign

Since my wife began working in Cork last year and a number of students have contacted me, I have been looking at the public bus service to Cork from Kilkenny and vice versa. Putting it mildly, the service is poor. As a supporter of public transport, I believe it is crazy for our national bus company to effectively make it more difficult to travel by public transport than by car.

Because of our mad radial train service where all lines radiate from Dublin and there are no connections in between, getting from Kilkenny to anywhere except Waterford and Dublin and points in between is not an option. To get to Cork or Kerry for instance you have to find your way to Thurles to the nearest train connection.

Back to the bus service which is the only option to Cork, the timetable is extraordinary. From Monday to Saturday, the fastest bus journey is 2 hours and 50 minutes, and that's only once a day in the morning. It arrives in Cork at 9.50 am, too late for work or for any half-conscienscious students. The other three journeys take between 3 hours and 5 minutes and an extraordinary 3 hours and 50 minutes.

At the weekend it's worse with the fastest journey taking 3 hours and 5 minutes, this the Sunday evening service most likely to be used by students. The reason for much of this is the decision to route the journey through rural South Tipperary. Putting it bluntly, the service is used to provide the people of Clogheen and Ballyporeen with a service. As a long-time rural activist I always support the provision of rural services, but surely it makes no sense to divert what should be an inter-city bus route through a rural hinterland, thus losing business in the process.

The campaign to change this begins now. I have just launched an online petition campaign to support a motion I have placed before Kilkenny Borough Council, calling on Bus Éireann to substantially improve the service. Please sign the petition here, and encourage your friends to do so also. If you're a UCC student, or a CIT student or you travel to work in Cork or from Cork to Kilkenny, please support the campaign. You could take up a petition in your college or workplace. I will begin campaigning amongst existing bus users this weekend. Please spread the word today

Na Maoinigh Ann Aris-On March Munster

Ar aghaidh le fathaigh na Mumhan. Cad é mar bhua nGloucester tráthnóna?Ach go háirithe b'é fear Chill Chainnigh agus iar-scoláire Ghaelscoil Osrai, Ian 'Skinny' Dowling ó Bhóthar Chaisleáin an Chumair a chuir seasmhacht le imirt an fhoireann leis an úd iontach a bhfuair sé sa chéad leath.

Onwards then to the semi-final against Ospreys or Saracens. Any tickets going a begging? Enjoy the night in Gloucester ye lucky Red Army.

He goes at last-Ahern not a corrupt man?

So here's the faces of Christmas past and Christmas present. Bertie Ahern finally called it a day yesterday. I had done the Late Night Live programme on Newstalk the night before which proved to be great fun and a lively debate. Unfortunately it's not podcasted on the Newstalk site. Presenter Declan Carthy opened by telling the nation that Bertie had won another major victory in the highcourt in oreventing the Mahon Tribunal from accessing some of the information about his finances. Having criticised Burke and Haughey previously for impeding and delaying the workings of previous tribunals, he had resorted to the same tactics himself and seemed to have succeeded. Declan's question though was simple. "Why is he doing this-what does he have to hide??"

Looks like Bertie copped this also in the last few days, and finally decided to do the right thing. I called publicly last September for the Taoiseach to resign, as I felt he was not being upfront with us as voters. In fact, I think Ahern got away with murder from the day he did his 'Cry me a river' routing with Brian Dobson on RTÉ television. I don't know what Dodson is like, but I do know that if Olivia O' Leary had conducted that interview, Ahern would hardly have survived till the last election, and we would likely have a different Government by now.

So what's Ahern's legacy? There's no doubt that he did a lot of good, particularly the cmpletion of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations ten years ago. He also presided over a Government in very fortunate economic circumstances. Pointing out that Ruairi Quinn left McCreevy and Ahern the first budget surplus for almost two decades is not taken well by FF's experts on thier 'Economic miracle'. The hard question though is what hos Government chose to do with such riches. The legacy of the self-proclaimed socilaist however has been one of extraordinary wasted opportunity, a growing divide between rich and poor, a third world health system, and now a floundering economy.

There's no doubt he was likeable, and worked hard at projecting the ordinary man image. I for one think he has been a poor Taoiseach, and that history will treat him a lot less kindly than the rose-tinted glasses of the past twenty four hours. Slán abhaile Bertie-bain taitneamh as an ciúnas.