We don't want marriage, we just want equality.

Posted on February 16, 2011 by leoie

Let me make myself perfectly clear.

I am gay.

I have always been gay.

I did not choose at some point in my life to be gay, it chose me.

I would go as far as to say that I was gay before I was sexually aware. I preferred playing with my best friend Catherine and her dolls rather than kicking a football around with my boy friends, and that when I was just 4 or 5. Gay is not a choice, it is who I am.

I am also not a militant.

I do not want people to feel sorry for me because I am gay.

I do not want to be treated with kid gloves because I am gay.

I do not want any special treatment because I am a minority being gay.

I do not want any rights or benefits above those that any other citizen of my country already enjoys.

I have been in a loving, committed relationship for just under 16 years. When my partner and I met, homosexuality had only just been decriminalised in Ireland. When I came out, technically I was a criminal in the eyes of the law. It took Senator David Norris and the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform over 15 years of campaigning, legal argument and steely determination to eventually get a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights that ruled that Ireland’s law was illegal under European law. This ruling was passed in 1988, however it took the sitting government another 5 years before they passed a statute decriminalising the 5 – 10% of the Irish population that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Taoiseach Albert Reynolds memorably stated when he took office in 1992 that the reform of the Irish statute in relation to the European ruling was

…low on his list of priorities..

This year, after a further 2 decades of campaigning for equal rights, the Irish parliament passed a bill, the Civil Partnership Bill which confers certain rights on couples that do not wish to, or are legally prohibited from, entering into marriage. This act however does NOT confer the same rights as full marriage. It fails on a number of key points. The most divisive of those issues is the failure to confer legal rights of guardianship over children of the relationship. This is a major failing of the bill and is the principal reason that I and a great many of my compatriots feel that this bill is not adequate. Senator Norris has even gone as far as calling the bill a “dog license”.

Marriage however is not what we want; or at least we have no interest in calling it marriage. Religious groups consider marriage to be a sacrament with God and all of the churches have made it very clear that they feel our “lifestyle choices” (their words, NOT mine) make us incompatible with their religious beliefs. I believe that this is not entirely correct as marriage has existed for much longer than any of the existing religions currently popular in the world. Equally civil marriage has been available to male/female couples who do not wish to include religion for many years. Marriage is not a religious convention, although it has certainly been hijacked by religion in this particular argument. If you would prefer that the word marriage is not used that’s fine. Its just a word after all. You can call it whatever you want. Call it Civil Partnership. Call it the poofs permit, call it the lesbian license, whatever you want, but whatever it is, IT MUST CONFER THE SAME CIVIL RIGHTS THAT ARE ENJOYED BY THE REST OF THE POPULATION.

For the government to issue this license which does not confer the same rights as those who get married is predjudiced, bigoted and discriminatory. Why should we not be allowed the same privileges as our neighbours. What possible reason could there be to restrict us from living our lives under the same legal status and protection that the rest of the population enjoy?

The reason that this is currently on my mind is because as some of you may be aware, Ireland is currently in the grip of election fever. The centre right party of Fianna Fail is on the way out, and for many of us, the hope that the bigoted and biased position that they held on many issues, but specifically on this one, would be replaced by a party or parties that would be more sympathetic to our cause.

I am most disappointed to learn that this is most definitely NOT the case.

Last night whilst watching Prime Time on RTÉ a conversation arose between myself and some other tweeters about the position that some of the parties had on the Civil Partnership Act.

Labour are committed to holding a referendum after the election to poll the residents of Ireland as they feel the current status is discriminatory against a minority and should be amended.

When asked Eoin O Broin, Sinn Féin‘s analyst and candidate in Dublin Mid West confirmed that Sinn Féin are for:

@leoie Full legislative equality…

The Greens are probably the most ‘pro’ gay marriage of all of the parties in the country. In fact, without their constant prodding of Fianna Fail it is unlikely that the Civil Partnership Bill, as flawed as it is would ever have been passed. They continue to hold the position that the civil partnership bill should contain all the rights and benefits that marriage provides. This is probably the one thing for which the Greens can be lauded during the tenure in government.

Fianna Fail, not surprisingly, feel that enough has been done and that no further concessions should be made to the gay community, however the position that surprised me the most was from the party that in all likelihood will be the dominant party in the 31st Dáil Fine Gael.

On reading the Fine Gael manifesto there is absolutely no mention whatsoever regarding its policy toward LGBT rights, however individual candidates appear to be a little more forthcoming regarding their opinions.

Sitting T.D. and candidate for Dublin South East Lucinda Creighton was sent a letter by a twitter friend asking her to outline and clarify her position on certain issues that the tweeter was interested in, I have reproduced it in its entirety below:

Dear Lucinda Creighton TD,

I’m writing you these lines as a response to my own concerns as a young person living in Ireland. I have been reading your ‘reinventing the government’ plan for the upcoming years and even though this document refers mostly to the economy and job creation, I’m unable to find information on Fine Gael’s website on policies to tackle anti-social behaviour in our communities; nor I can find anything in relation to your position regarding same-sex couples and their right to marry, adopt children, etc.; or what would Fine Gael do to make Ireland a more inclusive society?

I live in Dublin 12, and despite the area being quite a disadvantaged community for some time, it has improved in the last decade or so. However, I still see kids destroying public and private property every week and not just here but pretty much anywhere in Dublin. What is Fine Gael going to do to teach those children that behaving in a responsible manner is the only way you’re expected to behave? I wouldn’t blame those kids for their behaviour anyway. It all comes down to their parents who don’t pay attention to them or have no rules at home; but the State has also failed when it comes to providing extra-curricular activities outside school hours, so that children and the community in general could spend time doing and learning new things, e.g. arts and sports.

Moreover, I see that Fine Gael has a very conservative attitude towards same sex couples and their right to form a family and be recognised by the State as such. Your party did support the Civil Partnership Bill, however, would you consider that bill a definitive solution for those citizens in same-sex relationships? And if you plan to do anything, what would you do specifically? I am myself in a stable same-sex relationship and I don’t particularly feel protected by your policies. I hope I’m wrong.

Finally, has Fine Gael any social inclusion policies? In such a divided society like Ireland, where despite the Celtic Tiger improving the overall living conditions of many people, we still have a relatively high percentage of people living in poverty, homelessness, etc., what can we do to include those in such position? Because so far the State has behaved like a charity and not like a driving force that can deliver solutions. It’s easier –on the short -term anyway– to pour money into disadvantaged people’s pockets, but they will never get out the poverty trap if we don’t provide them with education and real solutions.

However, it’s not all about the economy and job creation. Yes, we are in an awful mess thanks to FF and the irresponsible bankers, but if we want Ireland to succeed and develop positively we need to do more things at the heart of society. We need to teach people the value of ethical behaviour so that we don’t end up in this position ever again. We need to give people equal opportunities regardless of sex, religion, ethnicity, etc. If you want to become the leading party in the next government, you need to unite people and be clear about what your policies are.

I hope you can read these lines at some point. I look forward to your reply,

Kind regards,

Name and Address of sender withheld in the interests of privacy.


Now as you can see, this correspondent with Ms. Creighton had a couple of different issues that they wanted addressed, issues regarding anti-social behaviour, provision of facilities for youth and extra-curricular activities designed to foster interest and pride in their community, social inclusion and the policy that Fine Gael has for improving the living conditions and prospects for the entire community as well as Fine Gael’s position on gay marriage.
Ms. Creighton was kind enough to reply to her correspondent and I include her reply IN ITS ENTIRETY below:

Subject: Re: Questions from the Community

Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:06:36 +0000

From: Lucinda Creighton

To: xxxxxxx@gmail.com

xxxxxxx,

Fine Gael supported the Civil Partnership Bill, but we have no plans for further legislation.

regards,

Lucinda.

LUCINDA CREIGHTON T.D. (Dublin South East)

FINE GAEL Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01 618 3527

Now, maybe I am reading too much into this, but Ms. Creighton appears to have dodged quite a few of her correspondents queries here, however she quite firmly made her point one one crucial issue. Lucinda, and Fine Gael have absolutely no interest in advancing the issue of equality for those of us who are restricted to cementing our legal rights by way of the Civil Partnership Bill. If this information in this email wasn’t evidence enough, Ms. Creighton further confirmed her position on twitter this morning with the following tweet:

@Clarabel @leoie @campaignforleo I supported the Civil Partnership Bill fully I dont support gay marriage @leoie pls dont misprepresent me (sic)

Another tweeter recounted a conversation that he had with sitting T.D. for Dublin West Dr. Leo Varadkar. Dr. Varadkar appears to share Ms. Creightons views on the civil partnership bill and indicated that

he would make sure that Fine Gael NEVER supported same-sex marriage.

This same tweeter also told me that they had received a ‘very nasty’ email from Dr. Varadkar on the issue, but unfortunately as I have not received a copy of this email I cannot reproduce it here, and I cannot confirm its veracity. If I subsequently receive the email, I will post it as an addendum to this article.

A recent poster on Boards.ie recounted how Fine Gael T.D. and candidate for Kerry North-West Limerick, Jimmy Deenihan was extremely rude to her and her partner when canvassing for their vote. He seemed to think that

…there already is gay marriage….

when he was corrected and told there was no “gay marriage”:

….they have all that they want…

then backtracking:

I have plenty of gay friends, best friends…

and then finally

I hope ye are happy that you have wasted my time…

at which point he stalked off.

Behaviour like this is just unacceptable from the party that is positioning itself to be the leader of the next government.

As Fine Gael are currently polling as though they may well have enough seats to form a government without relying on the support of any other party, this does not bode well for any change in this bill, or the rights that it confers during the lifetime of the 31st Dáil.

As I and most of my compatriots had hoped that the end of Fianna Fail would usher in a more inclusive and less bigoted Dáil Eireann, this comes as a huge disappointment.

I had considered voting Fine Gael in the upcoming election. Now that is definitely out. I can only plead with you, that if you are in Ms. Creighton’s constituency of Dublin South East that you do not give her your vote, the Independent candidate Dylan Haskins or the Labour candidate Ruairi Quinn are much more deserving. Equally if you are in the Dublin West constituency, I would argue that Joan Burton or Patrick Nulty, both candidates for Labour are much more deserving of your vote than Leo Varadkar who has exhibited a serious disdain for equality for everyone in the country. In fact Dr. Varadkar has already courted controversy by indicating his preference for an (albeit paid) repatriation of immigrants from Ireland.

Are these the people that we want running the country? I thought that they were, now I am not so sure.

Addendum: I have just come across this speech given to the Dáil by Deputy Creighton last January. In it, she does express concern at the limitations of the bill in relation to the rights of children, however she does not address the rights of gay couples and adoption. I am also confused as to why if she expressed these opinions last January, why she is now against any further legislation to correct what she herself identified as shortcomings.

Posted in Ireland, Politics, Social Networking, Twitter | Tagged , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

One size definitely does NOT fit all…

Posted on February 15, 2011 by leoie

It is fair to say that I am a big chap. A Brobdingnagian if you will. A giant among men.

I wish that I were a giant among men for some other reason such as financial success, philanthropic endeavour, sporting prowess or adventurous achievement, but no; I am just a big fucker.

Six feet and seven inches to be exact. Two hundred and one centimeters precisely. I tend to tower over my peers. This has its advantages, for example I generally get to see everything happening on the stage at rock concerts no matter where I am in the arena. The fortuitous event that caused my skeleton to grow to such gigantic proportions means that I am always able to see over the person in front of me, and indeed in front of them etc. all the way to the stage. In addition, the fact that I am head and shoulders above everybody else means that I can be found easily in a crowd. During the many festivals that I have attended over the last 15 years, the common refrain among my friends has always been: “If you get lost, just meet at Leo” The ease with which my companions can find me in a crowd means that I am essentially the human equivalent of a meeting point.

A couple of years ago when I was at Glastonbury with a group of friends, I was commenting to an Australian friend of mine on how the fashion that year for groups of people to stay together was for one of their number to carry a large pole with a stuffed animal on top. In earlier years it had been flags, but due, I suppose to the number of Union Flags, Irish flags etc. to be found, groups had decided to instead place something a little more unique on the top of their pole. Members of the group then just had to scan the crowd for the pole with their particular stuffed animal on top in order to find their friends. At the time of our conversation, we were walking behind a group which had chosen a rather attractive monkey as it’s stuffed toy so I turned to my mate and said:

You know, that is such a good idea, with one of those you would never lose your friends…. we need a monkey…

My friend stayed silent for a moment, looked at me quizzically and then replied:

Eh Leo…YOU are our monkey.

So. There it is. Being tall is great for concerts and festivals. For both the person who is tall, and for his or her friends. I can honestly say that despite my uselessness at many things, in this one respect I am the ultimate festival accessory.

Unfortunately this is pretty much the sum total of the benefits of being this tall in a small world.

In statistical terms I am taller than 99.9626% of the population of the entire world.

Now that is great, and it certainly makes for conversation at parties. If I had a €1 for every time someone came up to me and said (with a grin on their face that tells you they think they are the first person EVER to ask this):

What’s the weather like up there?

..I would be a very wealthy man. I usually try and take the wind out of their sails by replying:

It’s great, what’s it like down around my arse?

Being this tall has other benefits. Statistically taller people get paid more than shorter people. Taller people are more likely to be CEO’s of companies than shorter people. Taller people are generally more attractive to the opposite sex (although in my case this doesn’t really apply). There are definite benefits to being tall. There are however numerous downsides.

I should point out that I was always tall. I shot up early in life and by the time that I was 11 years of age, I was the tallest person in my entire school of 1400 kids. When I was in 6th class in primary school, I was taller than anyone in 6th year in secondary school. This presented it’s own problems. I was longer than I was wide, I had early onset horrendous acne and big thick square glasses so I think it would be fair to say that I was a rather large target. Teenagers can be cruel, and there was a period when I was a rather unhappy 11 year old, but experience is the best tutor and in a very short period I had learned how to use my mind, and my not inconsiderable size to counter the sticks and stones being hurled in my direction. In fact, since those days my size has been of inestimable value as a deterrent against any sort of street crime or violence. Prospective muggers or brawlers just take one look and turn on their heel.

But there are many downsides. I spent my entire teenage years and a considerable part of my twenties wearing trousers that were too short. Norman Wisdom short. Despite my cries of anguish, there was little that my long suffering mother could do. Even if she could find a pair of adult trousers that fit me, I had usually outgrown them within a couple of weeks. The budget just didn’t stretch to buying me new pants every couple of weeks, so I endured looking like Forrest Gump with leg attire that had more in common with culottes or plus-fours than trousers. Equally I have rather large feet. A UK size 12, US 13, EU 47 was pretty damned impossible to find in Ireland in the 1980′s and 1990′s. If you could find a pair that would fit, you could be damned sure that they were the most god-awful ugliest pair of grey slip-ons that was ever put on this rock we call home. But I needed something on my feet, and so as disgusting as they were, I wore them. Thankfully kids seem to be getting a little bigger these days and so shoes are now a lot easier to find. Size 12 is no longer the freakish abomination that it used to be, I met a poor unfortunate the other day who although a couple of inches shorter than me takes a size 17. 17!! I can only imagine the difficulty that he has in sourcing footwear.

Shirts are also a nightmare. Shirt manufacturers do not seem to realise that there are people out there who are thin AND tall. If I want to get a shirt that fits me in the collar (15 3/4) there is no way it will have sleeves long enough. If instead I go for a shirt that has sleeves that are long enough, I would literally be able to fit two heads in the space where your neck protrudes.

I have always taken great pride in how I look, and so this inability to find clothing that fits correctly is a constant source of irritation. Ill-fitting clothes look terrible, and also project a persona that I do not wish to project. If you walk into an interview, or any kind of meeting where you want to make an impression you do not want your trousers to be too short, nor your shirt collar to be swimming on you. You want it to fit. Everyone else can buy clothes that fit, why not me.

For years in Ireland, the only casual trousers that I could find in my size were Levi’s 501′s. They were the only jeans or trousers that came in a 32w 36l which are my measurements. Every other brand of trousers stops at a 34l, a full 2 inches too short for my long legs. Even worse, some of the most famous fashion houses in the world such as Diesel whose clothes I absolutely adore but have never been able to wear offer only three sizes for trouser length. S – M – L. Unfortunately the L equates to a 34 inch leg and so any manufacturer that uses this type of measurement is immediately off limits to my ilk and I. I therefore spent an inordinate amount of my youth wearing 501′s.

I used to hate shopping because of the disappointment that I would know was coming everytime I went into a shop and meekly enquired as to whether they had any jeans or trousers in stock in a 36″ leg. The responses I got varied from a polite

No.. I’m sorry, we wouldn’t have anything like that.

to

Hahaha… what are you… a freak?

This last response from a sales assistant in the trendy subsidiary of rather well known Dublin institution located across from each other on Grafton Street.

A couple of years ago I went to a conference in Berlin. I was staying in a hotel just off the Kurfürstendamm in central Berlin and on a free afternoon I decided to go and do a little shopping.

I went into a famous Berliner store KaDeWe and made my way up to the men’s department which occupied an entire floor and with my usual trepidation approached the rather stern looking sales assistant behind the counter and expecting to be told no, or at best directed to a single rack of trousers that I wouldn’t be seen dead in, asked in halting German

Excuse me, I was wondering… I am sure you don’t, but just on the off chance, is there any possibility that you would have any trousers that have a 36″ leg?

The sales assistant looked at me with unconcealed surprise and responded in English (my German being particularly bad she obviously decided to dispense with pleasantries and just got straight to the point)

I beg your pardon Sir? Could you repeat that in English?

Oh.. yes… thank you… em… sorry, I was just wondering, is there any possibility that you would have any trousers in stock in a 36″ leg?

Again I was met with a quizzical look…

But Sir… every pair of trousers we stock comes in a 36″ leg…

After I had recovered from the shock of her response, I spent the best part of that afternoon, and a significant proportion of cash filling my suitcase with every single pair of trousers that I could lay my hands on. KaDeWe did very well out of me that day. Money that could have been spent in the Irish market, enriched an Irish company and trickled into the Irish exchequer was instead spent in Germany. Irish money going to Germany, a sign of things to come perhaps.

Since then, I have made biennial trips to Germany and to the USA (another place where someone of my size can easily find clothes) to stock my wardrobe. I regularly check whether Irish stores have cottoned on to the fact that there are people who don’t fit their idea of standard sizes, but alas as of yet, they have not. So the Irish market loses, the Irish exchequer loses, and any customs officer who ever tries to confiscate any of my trousers on the return trip from Germany or the US may well lose a finger as I slam the lid of my suitcase.

It is a disgrace that Irish retailers continue in this manner. Irish people are getting taller, I know they are, I see them on the street, usually clad in trousers that are way too small, or else in the ultimate go-to garment for the outsized teenager: tracksuit bottoms. I have even stopped tall men on the street who are wearing trousers that fit and asked where they got them. 9 times of of 10 the reply is

Oh I got them last year in New York.

So clothes are a problem, but as I have discovered, if you have the means to get to another country, you will probably be able to pick up something to fit you there.

A more pressing (being the operative word) problem of my stature is that the world around us has been designed for a standard size that we just do not fit.

Planes, trains, buses, theatres, cinemas, restaurant seating were all designed with the standard size of 5’8″ in mind. If you are taller than this height, then you are not going to fit comfortably. If you are much taller than this height, then you are not going to fit at all.

I have taken to arriving up to 3 hours before a flight is due to depart to increase the likelihood that I will be able to get an exit row seat, which is the only seat on a plane that I can fit into. The all-encompassing rage that I feel when I am unable to secure one of those seats and file onto the plane to find somebody of <6' sitting in the exit row has quite frequently driven me to distraction. Some airlines have now taken to charging to book an exit row seat, which is an improvement, but in my opinion these seats should be RESERVED for tall travellers. The fact that I have to pay extra is an annoyance, but if it means that I can fit into the seat, and am not destined to spend the duration of the flight in absolute agony, then I can just about accept it.

The amount of stories that I have regarding the absolute disregard that airlines have for travellers of my size would fill a book, but as this blog post is already way too long I will recount just one.

On a flight back from Rome a couple of years ago on Ireland’s national flag carrier, I was unable to secure an exit row seat and so found myself wedged into a normal seat. I consoled myself with the fact that the flight was only 3 hours long and that very soon it would be over. As soon as the aircraft took off, the ‘lady’ in the seat in front of me immediately attempted to recline her seat. Unfortunately for her, as my knees were firmly wedged against the back of her seat despite her vigourous attempts to push her seat back, there was just no-where for it to go. This ‘lady’ spent a good 5 minutes attempting to recline the seat, but physics as it is, the seat just had nowhere to go.

About an hour into the flight, I realised that I needed to use the lavatory and also more importantly stretch my legs, and with great difficulty managed to unwedge myself from my seat. Literally before I had fully straigtened my legs into a fully upright position, the ‘lady’ in the seat in front took the opportunity to recline her seat fully. Sighing, I leant forward and assuming the sweetest tone I could muster I asked:

Hi, look, I am very sorry, but is there any possibility that you might not recline your seat, I am already wedged in as it is, and if you recline I literally won’t be able to fit into my seat.

Her reply:

Well dats your fucking problem isn’t it.

Realising that this ‘lady’ was not for turning, I trudged off to the bathroom muttering under my breath and dreading the next two hours of the flight.

When I returned to my seat, I attempted as best I could to sit. Unfortunately as her seat was now fully reclined, as soon as I tried to sit, my knees wedged into the back of her seat before the seat of my pants made contact with the seat of the chair. I was now literally suspended above my seat. The ‘lady’ in front of me immediately started to shout

That fucker just kicked me, he just kicked me in the back!

A bell was rung, a steward arrived, explanations were taken from both sides, the attention of the entire plane was now on the events unfolding between myself and the ‘lady’ and eventually the steward turned to me and said:

Sir, I am going to have to ask you to move your legs.

to which I replied (to the amusement of the entire plane)

Eh, where would you like me to move them TO exactly… would you like me to wrap them around my neck?

An argument then ensued that covered such points as from me:

Your airline should provide more legroom, or at least reserve exit row seats for people of larger stature

from the steward:

That is something that you will have to take up with the Airline…

from me:

The airline…?? And who are you exactly?

from the ‘lady’

Move your fucking legs you lanky c**t

The entire incident was only resolved when a passenger who was sitting a couple of rows behind, whose friend was sitting in an exit row seat kindly asked his friend whether he would swap with the poor unfortunate who couldn’t fit in the standard seat.

Since then, I rarely leave my seat during a flight, just in case the person in front of me should attempt to recline. I do not need a rerun of that incident.

A couple of weeks ago I went to see John B. Keane’s The Field in the Olympia. I had tickets for the stalls. I try and attend the theatre as often as I can, and in the Abbey despite their recent multi-million euro revamp I usually cannot endure any play longer than a couple of hours due to the frankly ridiculous amount of space between your seat and the seat in front, the Gate is not much better, but the Olympia which hasn’t been altered since it was originally built over a hundred years ago is by far the worst. Once again, I ended up suspended a good 5 inches above my seat when my knees came in contact with the seat in front of me. Regardless of whether I was going to be comfortable for the duration of the performance, the poor bastards sitting behind this gigantor who was to all intents and purposes in a standing position were going to have somewhat of a ‘restricted view’.

This is however when the most wonderful thing happened. An usher who was standing close by indicated that I should leave my seat and come and have a word.

Sir, I was watching you when you came in, and I was afraid that you would be unable to fit into your seat, so I have taken the liberty of opening a box for you. You and your guests may avail of it when you wish.

Well to say that I nearly hugged the man on the spot would be the understatement of the year. Here was a business that realised that its facilities were not designed for everyone, and was ready and willing to accomodate them in another fashion. This, for anyone reading is the way to run a business.

Now I realise that the world is not going to change overnight, but the next time that you are out and about, in Dublin city centre, or wherever you are, look around and note how many tall people there are. Humans are getting taller. I used to be the tallest person I knew, now I know dozens of people as tall, or taller. Unfortunately businesses are not catering for us, and in the same way I go abroad to buy clothes, these people will too. Irish retailers need to realise that we are here, we have money to spend and we will take it elsewhere if you don’t cater for us.

As for airlines, theatres, cinemas, trains and buses…? Well, that is another fight, although as we have seen, some businesses like The Olympia in Dublin do their very best.

Posted in Everything is shit, Festivals, Height, Ireland, Tall | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Apparently people who live in apartments don't vote.

Posted on February 3, 2011 by leoie

I have lived in apartments in Dublin’s city centre for nearly 20 years now. 4 general elections have passed in Ireland in the time that I have been living in apartments, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007. In addition, the Dublin South Central constituency had a by-election in 1999 after the death of the sitting TD Pat Upton.

This coming election, to decide the makeup of the 31st Dáil will be my 6th election as a resident of a city centre apartment, and the 7th in which I have had a vote.

For the first election I was a resident of Dublin South East as I was living in a 1 bedroom apartment (in those less fashionable days known as a student bedsit) in a large Georgian house on Herbert Street in Dublin 2. My flat had its own bell at the front door, with my name clearly marked beside it. I was registered to vote at that address and received my polling card at that address. Despite this, not one of the 14 candidates running in the Dublin South East constituency during the 1992 election felt that it was necessary to call to my home to solicit my vote.

By 1997 I had moved constituency into my first real home with my partner, a 2 bedroom ground floor apartment just off Francis street in Dublin’s South Central constituency. Again this apartment had its own bell and intercom facing onto the street with my and my partners name clearly marked by the front door. Again during the electioneering period for this election, not one of the 21 candidates running in this election deemed it necessary to canvass my vote, at my door.

This pattern was repeated at the by-election of 1999, and again at the general election of 2002. Not one of the candidates called to canvass.

By 2007, I had moved again to another apartment block in the Dublin South Central constituency. This apartment, where I still live, has its own concierge and access can easily be gained from the main street. Despite this, you guessed it, not one candidate of the 16 running made any attempt to gain access to our building to canvass any of the residents of the 70 apartments contained within that block.

In the 7 elections for the Dáil that I have had a vote, only once have I ever had the experience of a candidate knocking on my door to solicit my vote. That was in the 1989 general election when I was living in my parents house in Dublin South East. During that period of electioneering, every single candidate running called to our house. I know because I spoke at length to each one of them. It was my very first vote, and I was (putting it mildly) rather excited about the prospect of exercising my constitutional right to vote.

During that election, I had the opportunity to pose specific questions regarding the candidates stated manifesto, and remember with much satisfaction the umm-ing and ahh-ing of candidates when I queried certain aspects of their policies. In the end, I was most impressed by the conversation that I had with Ruairi Quinn, and he got my first preference, a vote that despite not having the ability to converse further in 1992 he retained at the next election.

Since then, I have had to rely on electioneering material and what information I can glean from current affairs broadcasting and newspapers to try and identify the manifesto and policies of each candidate. This because not one of them has considered it necessary to solicit my vote at my door.

Over the last few months or so, as it became clear that an election was imminent, I have had a number of conversations with other apartment dwellers in the city and I have yet to meet one who has been doorstepped by a politician. Not one.

Why is this?

Why are the residents of apartments being ignored in this manner?

I posed this question to a number of candidates in the forthcoming election via the medium of twitter over the last few weeks, and received only one reply, from a candidate who is not even running in my constituency. The independent candidate Dylan Haskins, who admittedly is a candidate who is very social media aware and so might be more likely to respond to a twitter query, replied thus:

@leoie I’ve never canvassed before but apparently it’s quite difficult to get access to apartment buildings. Where’s your apartment?

Now, as I have already explained, none of the bedsits, apartments or flats that I have lived in have been difficult to access. Each has had a street located bell or intercom. Contacting me would not have been difficult. Whilst I am glad that Mr. Haskins replied to my tweet, it appears as though (and yes I realise that I am extrapolating here, and would be quite happy to be corrected if Mr. Haskins or any of his team wish to do so) those who are advising him, seem to have told him that apartments are difficult to access, and as such should be ignored. As I have not received any other replies from any of the other candidates in my consitutency, I can only speculate as to their reasons for not canvassing in apartment blocks, but as 5 of the 10 candidates in Dublin South Central also ran in the 2007 election, I am pretty sure that they will once again make no attempt to canvass in my apartment block.

According to the most recent figures that I can find:

Apartments, flats and bed-sits accounted for 31 percent of occupied dwellings in Dublin City with nearly one in four Dublin City dwellers living in this category of accommodation.

…it appears that more than 25% of the eligible voters in Dublin City (and one assumes other areas with high concentrations of apartment dwellers) are not being given the opportunity to meet and question the candidates about their policies and manifestos. Whilst I understand that it is a practical impossibility that a candidate can contact and speak to every single voter in a constituency, it appears as though candidates are making a concious decision to specifically exclude apartments from their rounds for whatever reason.

I am of the opinion that this is a huge mistake in this current election. Politics in Ireland has changed. True, for some of us it has not changed enough, but in my own view, from watching media coverage, and my own twitter feed, young people in Ireland are more politically active and aware in this election. As young people are much more likely to be residents of apartments, it would appear as though candidates are missing an opportunity to reach the very people who may well hold the balance of power.

Excuses like “apparently apartments are difficult to gain access to” just won’t wash. If you are going to canvass, you need to canvass everyone, not just those in suburban housing estates.

Let me make this perfectly clear. If any one of the 10 candidates running for election in the Dublin South Central constituency personally calls to my door over the next 3 weeks, you will automatically gain an advantage over the other candidates for my vote. I am not promising you that I WILL vote for you, but I will give your manifesto serious consideration.

Except you Michael Mulcahy of Fianna Fail, you guys needn’t bother. In fact, if you want to avoid a rather uncomfortable lashing of my tongue, you would be best advised to stay away.

UPDATE: 04/02/2011

Since the publication of this post yesterday I have been contacted by a number of people on twitter indicating that they too have had the same experiences whilst resident in apartments not only in Dublin City Centre, but also in the suburbs.

In addition Fionn Kidney from the Dylan Haskins campaign commented on this post to say that the campaign was aware of the problem and would be attempting to resolve it during the forthcoming campaign.

Joan Burton TD from Labour also replied via twitter this morning with the tweet:

I agree (..that parties need to try harder..). It is something that I am working on for this election & trying my best to get to people living in apartments

In addition, a member of Labour’s canvassing staff for Dublin South East and Dublin North Central  Connor Barry tweeted:

(I) don’t know about dwest (Dublin West) but in DSE and DNC, we’re canvassing any & every accessible home

And we will happily respond to any canvassing queries by email/twitter!

By far the most impressive response however was from a candidate in my own constituency, Fine Gael’s Councillor Ruairi McGinley, who rang me this afternoon and spent a good 20 minutes discussing the issue. He indicated that it was a real problem that he was very anxious to address. He felt that the dynamic had definitely changed in the last few years and that an increasing number of voters were living in apartments and that any candidate would be a fool to ignore them.

He did however feel that access was still sometimes an issue, but that he had previously sought to gain access by contacting management boards of apartment blocks and seeking to either organise a village meeting style meeting for any interested parties, or to gain access to the apartment block on a particular day. He has promised to make an effort to attend my own apartment block in the next few weeks as well as other large apartment blocks in the area such as Heuston South Quarter.

One comment that he did make however was that in certain complexes, residents were not updating the register of electors, or for some other reason there was a serious delay in updating the Register of Electors, meaning that years after a development was complete, the register showed very few eligible voters. In any case, I was very impressed with the contact that he made, and I look forward to grilling him when he comes for a chat later this month.


Posted in Ireland, Politics, Social Networking, Twitter | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

The boom might be dead, greed appears to be alive and kicking.

Posted on January 14, 2011 by leoie

In today’s Irish Times letters page, the owners of two Dublin institutions The Mermaid and Gruel described how the greed of their landlords had regretfully forced them to close their doors. These landlords who despite the economic downturn refused to lower the rent and continued to expect pre-crash revenues have forced two otherwise profitable and successful restaurants out of business and have deprived the citizens and visitors to Dublin of two of the best restaurants in the south inner city. Restaurants that have received glowing reviews from some of the world’s most trusted and respected critics.

Those two properties, one with large windows on the corner of one of the busiest routes for tourists and revellers into Temple Bar will now lie vacant while the landlords attempt to rent the properties for the amount they want. Of course, the market can no longer sustain such rents and so the properties will lie vacant for months, attracting graffiti and vandalism which the landlords will make no attempt to remedy and the properties will quickly become yet another eyesore and visible reminder of the recession and Ireland’s frail economic outlook to everyone, visitors and citizens alike.

Eventually the landlords will be forced to lower their rent in order to attract new tenants, possibly to a level which is lower than that which had been requested by the current tenants. The properties will then be snapped up by yet another fast food outlet, Charlies 6 anyone?

Dublin will have lost two great restaurants. The landlords will have lost a couple of months rent, and the employees of the Mermaid and Gruel will have lost their jobs.

It’s not the bank guarantee that is going to ruin the country. It’s greed like this.

Posted in Business, Economy, Ireland | Leave a comment

Need the use of a car? Here, use ours…

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Leo

A very welcome letter arrived in the post today. It contained a little plastic card with my name on it. No.. not another credit card, one would have thought that 17 maxed out credit cards was enough for anyone, this particular plastic card was my membership to a brand new service that has just hit Dublin. GoCar.

Much like services that have been rolled out all over the United States, Europe and Australia over the last 2 years this service is a welcome addition to the transport options for those that live in the city centre.

Simply put, GoCar is a shared car service whereby members can reserve and use a car for their short term use. Rental is based on a very reasonable hourly rate and an additional charge for km’s travelled. It is the perfect option for city dwellers who do not want to take on the yearly cost of owning a car and its associated costs of tax, insurance, servicing and depreciation but rather to pay a small fee for the use of a car when and if they need it. It is the automotive equivalent of the Dublin Bikes scheme and it is very welcome.

GoCar has a number of different car types available; should you need a small car just to get you and a couple of passengers from A to B and back again you can use their Ford Fiesta, if you need something bigger you could choose the Ford Focus family car. If you need something with a larger load carrying capacity for a house move or a trip to IKEA then they also have a Ford Transit Connect available.

All cars are enabled with Bluetooth phone kits so that you can enjoy hand free telephone calls whilst using the cars, and most also include a connector for your MP3 player so that you can listen to your own tunes when you are driving.

There are currently only three ‘GoCar Bases’ in the city, dedicated parking spots where you pick up and return the car however @GoCarDublin assures me that many more are planned. Currently there are bases in Smithfield, just off Camden Street and Rathmines in Dublin and a further 3 ‘GoCar Bases’ in the city of Cork.

Picking up a car couldn’t be easier. Cars can be booked in 30 minute slots online or on the phone and when you arrive you simply swipe your membership card against the windscreen to gain access to the car. The key is then accessed through a pin controlled lock in the glove box. Fuel is included in the rental cost, if you run low, there is a fuel card in the car that you can use to refill the car, it really couldn’t be simpler.

Very pleased to see this service finally in Dublin, here’s hoping that there will be more bases on the way very soon, the more cars there are, the more people might divest themselves of their own cars. The more people who don’t have their own car means less traffic in the city, realistically this is a win/win situation.

Why not check them out at www.gocar.ie and see if this isn’t a service that mightn’t suit you?

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Why are we waiting? (to the tune of Adeste Fideles)

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Leo

Seriously.

Why are we still waiting for the incompetent fools that the country inexplicably elected last time around to call an election. The whole country seems to be of the opinion that this shower of useless, expenses fiddling, golf playing, vested interest coddling muppets need to be replaced. We have been aware of this fact for a couple of months now, yet they are still hanging on to power.

The party who should be trying to salvage what little remains of their reputation, the Greens, should have pulled the plug long ago and sent Brian Cowen off to the Áras with his tail between his legs, but still they hang on as though waiting for some extraordinary event that will redeem them in the eyes of the electorate.

Let me make this clear. Short of John Gormley single-handedly discovering a cure for cancer in the contents of his underwear, or Dan Boyle winning the Spanish super-lottery ‘El Gordo‘ and donating the entire jackpot to the exchequer, there is more chance of a snowball surviving a hot summer in hell, than the Greens retaining even one seat in the election. The sooner they realise this and force Fianna Fail to call an election, the sooner that they can start rebuilding the party that they have so comprehensively destroyed.

The Green party faithful need look no further than their erstwhile leader Trevor Sargent for a place to start in this process. If I was to put money on it, it will be Sargent who will be the sole survivor of the bloodbath that is to come in the forthcoming elections. He was the single dissenting voice among the elected Greens in 2007, when he refused to join a government with Fianna Fail. He no doubt understood what lay down that path, being a minority partner in government would mean that the Green party would be forced to rubber-stamp all of Fianna Fails shenanigans in order to be able to advance a few of the Green initiatives. He obviously felt that this was a step too far, and resigned the leadership, allowing Gormless Gormley to seize the reins of power (such as it was). Sargent now stands alone as the only Green who had any foresight as to what lay ahead, and therefore as the only Green with any credibility in the eyes of the electorate. If he loses his seat, it will be a huge loss to the Teachta Dála, as he is an intelligent, honest and worthy representative for his constituency and the country as a whole. Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of the rest of his party elected, he may well be tainted by the same brush and have to suffer the ignominy of paying for mistakes that he didn’t make.

Either way, the country needs an election. As someone very eloquently pointed out to me on twitter today, the “mental health of the entire nation is suffering from being trapped in the relentless incompetence/corruption” spiral that the Fianna Fail/Green have foisted upon us. The longer they stay, the worse it will get. We need a new start. A fresh start.

True, thanks to the slim pickings that we have available to us as replacements, we may well find ourselves back here before long, but no matter; anything is better than where we are now. For the love of your country Fianna Fail and the Greens, get out now before you cause any more damage. We need you gone. The rest of the world needs to see you gone. For once, put the country rather than yourself first and get out.

Because if you don’t leave voluntarily, there is a real and rising danger that you might be pushed. And just like the Guards actions when dealing with the student protest last year, we wont be gentle.

Posted in Ireland, Politics, Twitter | 1 Comment

Schadenfreude – A German word embraced by the Irish?

Posted on December 21, 2010 by leothegeek

Scha·den·freu·de

[shahd-n-froi-duh]

–noun

satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune.


I love my country. I really do. I always have. Even back when I was a child growing up in the 1980′s which if you lived in them you will know, was not a great time to be Irish in Ireland, I thought that my country was one of the best places in the world. Admittedly my knowledge of the rest of the world at that time was somewhat limited, but what little I did know, I knew that Ireland came up at the top.

When I was 15 years of age I was sent by my parents on a French exchange to the little town of Autun in Saône-et-Loire and apparently, according to the letter that the family that I was staying with sent to my parents on my return, I was a delightful child, but if any criticism could be levelled it was that I was ‘too’ patriotic. In hindsight, coming from the French this observation would seem a little hypocritical, but I do certainly remember extolling the virtues of Ireland with a determination that would shame even the most committed employee of the IDA. I even remember having a heated exchange with the father of my host family, insisting that the company Yoplait was in fact Irish (all because there was a Yoplait plant in Inch just outside Gorey that I used to pass everytime that I travelled to my grandmothers house) and rejected every argument that he proffered, including the fact that the word Yoplait was in fact a portmanteau of two French words. I loved Ireland, and I was willing to shout it to the world.

This has changed little over the intervening years. I am still willing to extoll the virtues of Ireland, the Irish, the west coast, Kerry, butter, Guinness, Baileys, Irish art, Irish literature, the Irish sense of humour and the achievements of Irish people all over the world to any poor foreigner who happens to stray or wander into my field of vision. The difference now is that I know a little more about the subject matter and have a greater vocabulary to call on in order to sugar coat the delivery.

I find that this is something that I share with quite a few of my compatriots. We as a people are for the most part very proud of our nation, of our achievements on the world stage and are always willing to educate and inform the rest of the world about them.

This is probably in part due to a mild inferiority complex. For years we have been overshadowed by our larger, more successful neighbour to the east, and we jump at any opportunity to point out our achievements. The fact that a country of our size can claim so many achievements and point to so many successful Irish men and women in every strata and sphere of life is something to crow about, and I am sure that long after I, and every member of my generation has passed onto the great pub in the sky this tradition will continue.

It has been with a heavy heart then that I have noticed a new sentiment creeping into the Irish psyche in recent times. Perhaps it always existed; perhaps it is something that has resulted from the shock that we as a nation have shared over the last couple of months, but it has certainly only come to my attention recently. It is an acute case of schadenfreude.

For those who aren’t familiar with the expression, schadenfruede is a delicious German word that roughly translates as ‘taking pleasure or satisfaction at someone else’s misfortune’ It describes perfectly the joy that you get when you see someone fall in a comic (but importantly, not injurious) way such as in this clip from RTÉ last year, or when someone you dislike is shown up to be the irritating and attention seeking idiot that you always maintained that they were in front of all the other people who seemed to like them.

The schadenfreude that has been manifesting itself recently appears to take a more base and malevolent form however, as it is not humour caused by a comic mishap, nor is it the satisfaction that one feels when someone who quite obviously deserves what is coming to them gets their comeuppance served to them on a plate. This schadenfreude is far more general, and appears to be quite widespread among the population. I have heard a number of people pontificating at length on the matter, and always with the smug assurance that they would never have allowed themselves to get trapped in such an obvious way.

It has of course got to do with the age old Irish obsession. Land.

The idea of owning your own house, of having your own front door. Of not being a tenant of some faceless landlord (who may well live in a much bigger house somewhere on the island to our east) and instead being the lord of your own demesne and master of all you survey has long been at the heart of the Irish condition. For years we heard from our parents how it was important to get your foot on the ladder, even if it was only on the lowest rung, and for the majority of Irish people the biggest investment that we will ever make will be in a house or apartment to call our own. Somewhere where we can raise our families, and simply shut out the world when we wish.

This is something that is pretty uncommon in Europe. Germany and Sweden, two of the largest and wealthiest nations in Europe have some of the lowest levels of home-ownership in the world. Yet here in Ireland, and the UK, and incidentally also in some of Europe’s poorest nations, Greece and Hungary, home-ownership, or at least the aspiration of home-ownership is very high.

Historians will tell you that this all stems from the disenfranchisment of the Irish by the English Planters in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the extremely unfair absentee landlord/tenant system that followed. It is a manifestation of our desire never to be beholden to anyone else again in relation to having a roof over our heads. What we all seem to miss about this erroneous belief is that all we have done is replace the landlord with a bank, and that we are all in fact condemning ourselves to a lifetime of economic servitude for a property that may or may not be worth more that what we paid for it when we eventually come to sell it.

Of course between 1990 and 2007, this was all irrelevant as the value of property rose inexorably toward the giddy heights whereby a single Edwardian detached house in need of refurbishment on half an acre on Shrewsbury Road in leafy Dublin 4 was worth €57 million. We all have stories of how people we know bought houses for a pittance and flipped them years later for a multiple of what they paid for them. My own personal favourite involves a family friend who bought a house for €250,000 in 1992 (a not inconsiderable sum for the cash strapped early ’90′s) and sold it in 2008 for €10million.

These stories just helped fuel our desire to be property owners. If they could make all this money, why couldn’t we; and it was this desire combined with the in-built ‘must have your own land’ desire of the Irish psyche, combined with cheap credit from Europe, combined with the imprudent and frankly irresponsible lending habits of our own banks that has brought us now to this unhappy place.

This unhappy place needs no explaining. Unfortunately the entire world is aware of the property bubble and subsequent crash that has befallen our little island nation. We now have a frightening level of public personal debt, and a large contingent of our population are now trapped in negative equity. Saddled with huge debts that they were scarce able to afford when interest rates were rock bottom and personal income was high, many of these borrowers are now swamped by mortgage payments because their personal income has decreased, whether due to salary reductions or income tax hikes and are facing the very real prospect that they will be unable to keep up the repayments, and that the banks that were quite happy to lend ridiculous sums to them when things were good, will now swoop in, repossess their houses and pursue them for the rest of their lives for the balance of the mortgages.

Now, while it was very short-sighted on behalf of the majority of borrowers to pay such huge sums for property in the last years of the boom, and while anyone with half a brain can in hindsight opine that they should have spent a little more time considering the possibilities of an economic downturn rather than which wood finish to get in their new kitchen, it is an unfortunate fact that quite a lot of Irish people got caught in this trap. Banks pushed the money, friends and family failed to offer sage advice when it was most needed, and mistakes were made. Mistakes that people will spend the rest of their lives paying for.

Which rather long-windedly brings me to my point. Laughing at these people, declaring how you never would have made such a stupid mistake, how the writing was on the wall, how insane it was for people to be paying half a million euros for a 2 bedroom apartment, how ‘they’ needed their head examined frankly helps no-one. With a couple of notable exceptions, the majority of these people did not spend insane money on property because of a misplaced sense of entitlement or oneupmanship, but rather to put a roof over their families heads, and as they had been urged to do from early childhood by parents, television property shows, friends and not least banks, get their foot on the first rung of the property ladder.

Sure they were foolish, the majority are only too brutally aware of their own foolishness, but for others to compound their misery by crowing on about how ‘fools and their money are soon parted’ or how they have got their just desserts is just a little unfair. These debts are going to affect the whole country, not just the poor unfortunates whose signature adorns the mortgage agreement. The more people that default, the more property prices will be depressed, the more of our tax money that will be needed to cover the losses of the banks on bad debts. We as a nation need to spend a little less time sitting smugly minding our own corner, and a little more focusing on how we can help the entire nation regain a more secure economic footing so that you and I can go back to boring foreigners about how wonderful we are.

I should point out to anyone who still remains in any doubt about this, re-electing Fianna Fáil is not the way to do this.

Posted in Banks, Economy, Ireland | 3 Comments

What now for Irish Politics?

Posted on December 1, 2010 by leothegeek

It has been a roller-coaster couple of weeks in Ireland.

The party that has almost continuously run the country (with a couple of brief interludes) since the inception of the state lies in ruins, or at least its reputation does. Whether the party itself will actually be made to pay for its failures since 1997 is yet to be revealed. I wouldn’t count them out just yet, Fianna Fail is very clever in the way that it fields its candidates. The people who vote Fianna Fail, are not generally voting for the party, but rather for the candidate, because they were nice to their mother when their father died, or they came to their uncles funeral, or they got the potholes fixed down the end of the street, or simply because they are known to always be willing to buy a couple of pints should you meet them in the local bar. This is unlikely to change just because a couple of Fianna Failers, the cabinet, appear to have let the country down. I think there will be a definite reduction of the number of FF TD’s, but mainly from urban constituencies, and nowhere near the magnitude that some commentators are predicting.

This is an obvious opportunity for the other existing political parties to make gains.

Fine Gael should pick up a couple of extra seats, but again I am not entirely convinced that the forthcoming election is going to reveal a major swing towards them. Fine Gael have unfortunately proved themselves to be pretty inept of late. The leadership heave by Richard Bruton against Enda Kenny, while no doubt required, was extremely badly timed. When Fine Gael should have been ripping the sitting government apart for mismanaging the country, they instead were taking pot shots at each other. The fact that the heave ultimately failed, leaving Fine Gael with a leader that most of the country neither rates nor trusts was the worst possible outcome for the party. They looked like fools, and it is unlikely that the country is going to place their trust in them at a time when steady, and more importantly strong hands will be required to navigate the unsettled waters ahead.

Labour is a more interesting prospect. They have a leader in Gilmore who appears intelligent, able for a scrap, and (probably most importantly) doesn’t come across as rabid or supercilious as Labour’s previous leader Pat Rabbitte, for whom I should point out I have a great deal of respect, but for whom I fear the country did not.

However Labour does not appear to be set up to make serious gains in the number of seats that it holds in Dail Eireann. It does not appear to be fielding enough candidates in all of the constituencies, and more worryingly, it appears that in the consituencies where it has well known TD’s and a safe seat, that these ‘personalities’ within the party are actually stymieing attempts to introduce additional candidates, in case these candidates end up eating into their majority. This is absolutely crazy and will backfire for Labour, as now that additional seats might be up for grabs, they do not have the people in place to take them. That said however, Labour should pick up additional support in the election, and this should mean a couple of extra seats.

The Green Party are in a very precarious position for the next election. The perception is that they went into coalition with Fianna Fail, in order to advance green policies and also to keep Fianna Fail on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately they appear to have failed utterly in both senses. Their achievements seem to be bike lanes that end in the middle of the road, an incinerator that nobody wants and a Fianna Fail that did whatever it wanted, and had all of its bad decisions rubber-stamped by the Green Party. It, I reckon will be the big loser at the next election. If they manage to retain more than two seats, it will come as a surprise to me, and I voted Green at the last election.

Sinn Féin is a more likely beneficiary in the meltdown of the biggest republican party. Sinn Féin has shown itself adept at mobilising grass roots support at short notice, and appears to be able to field candidates within an equally short timeframe. As Sinn Féin have traditionally been very successful in gaining support from the marginalised groups in society, and in the poorer parts of the cities in particular, they should have no difficulty in turning the effects of the additional strain that the economic crisis has inflicted upon the lower paid, and the resulting cuts that the government has made in social welfare and the minimum wage into an increased share of the poll for the party.

I will make no bones about it, this does not fill me with joy. I do not trust Sinn Féin. I do not trust a party that was born out of a terrorist organisation despite how many declarations that they make that they are no longer involved in that particular brand of political activism. This may well be a irrational prejudice on my behalf, I will leave you to judge that for yourselves. They have certainly been very successful in Northern Ireland, and thus far have proven themselves to be willing and capable of sharing power with those that a few short years ago, they were sworn to drive off the island. But I will never vote for them. I think however, that I am in a minority in my views, and that a growing proportion of the population of the Republic view Sinn Féin as a viable alternative to the traditional left wing parties, and more bizarrely to Fianna Fail, who are most definitely not left wing.

What worries me the most however about the upcoming election, is the possibility that there may be new parties vying for our votes. Obviously I am not concerned about the existence of new parties, in fact I would be quite happy to see a new democratic party based on reasonably conservative fiscal strategies and a more liberal social agenda. It is the possibility that Ireland in this time of crisis may turn to politicians with more extreme views, who traditionally pick up support when things aren’t going so well. I have already seen a growing voice in the country complaining about immigration, especially when the immigrants don’t have the same colour skin as the indigenous population and I can only imagine that as economic conditions become more difficult, the cry of “Irish Jobs for Irish People” and “Immigrants go home!” will become more and more prevalent. If, as I fear they will, a certain type of politician crawls out of the woodwork and attempts to try and fuel and then harness some of that sentiment, how will the country react. I would like to say that they will be rejected, and that the Irish who for hundreds of years were on the receiving end of prejudice around the world would refuse to support such a movement, but to tell you the truth after listening to some of the comments on radio shows, and from some incidents that I have personally witnessed in the street my confidence in this outcome has been shaken.

It is no secret that when economic times are tough, and when extra stresses are placed upon a society, that the political movements at the extremes of the spectrum are those that usually garner extra support: Germany in the late 1920′s during the Weimar Regime, the United Kingdom during the late 1960′s and again in the late 1980′s, The Russian Empire in the early years of the 20th century, Hungary and certain other Eastern European countries in the last few years to name but a few were societies that saw rises in extremist views, in particular those that used anti-immigrant or anti-minority rhetoric to whip up support. Ireland is now facing one of the most difficult times in our history, a period of extreme austerity on the back of a period of extraordinary growth and prosperity, and crucially of vastly increased levels of immigration. As the number of jobs decrease, standards of living decrease and levels of poverty and hardship increase, will we see a rush to the fringes of political thought as has happened in so many other countries?

It is all up for grabs in the next couple of weeks/months. It will be very interesting to see in which direction the Irish electorate gravitates. For all our sakes, I hope my worst fears are not realised.

Posted in Economy, Ireland, Politics, Social Welfare | 2 Comments

No! I will not fix your computer.

Posted on November 29, 2010 by leothegeek

Ok, so I am a geek. A nerd. A computery person.

I have been my whole life. When I was growing up, other kids wanted Scalextrics, footballs, space hoppers and bicycles for Christmas, I wanted a computer.

From a Sinclair ZX81 (1kb of RAM people!) to a Commodore Vic 20 (20kbs) to a Commodore 64 (a massive 64kbs of RAM), the whole way through the 1980′s I was computered up, lit by the eerie glow of a cathode ray tube in a darkened room, while my contemporaries played outside. Games that took 45 minutes to load via a magnetic tape, hours spent fiddling with BASIC to get a screen that flashed RED ALERT whilst making a tinny noise, these are all memories from the early days of personal computing.

It comes as no surprise then, that despite entering Trinity College to study modern languages, I eventually ended up working (as my Mother would say) ‘in computers’.

For 15 years I have worked ‘in computers’ which is a catch all term used by the non-enlightened to describe anyone who has more than a passing acquaintance with the technology industry, and if there is one thing that I know as an absolute truth, it is that if you work ‘in computers’, your friends and family will have no compunction in asking you to fix their computer free, gratis and for nothing, whenever they manage to fuck it up.

I have always found this extremely strange. I have never walked up to any of my medical friends at a party and asked them to have a quick look at the funny rash on my genitals. I have never handed a box of receipts to my accountant friends and asked if they would run off my tax return when they get a chance. I have never, ever asked any of my mechanic friends if they would spend their saturday afternoon replacing the gearbox on my car, and expected that they wouldn’t want to be paid for it. Of course, I wouldn’t expect to pay full price for any of their services, but I would expect to pay something, after all this is their job, their career, their way of putting bread on the table; who am I to expect free service?

Unfortunately when it comes to computers, people DO expect you to work for free.

“Would you mind having a quick look at my computer?” is usually how it is couched.

Let me point something out. In the 15 years that I have been working ‘in computers’, I have never had a ‘quick’ look at a computer. Operating systems are incredibly complex beasts, and you can be sure that the way that you have fucked it up is different from the way that the previous person who asked for free support had fucked theirs up.

Even if I am able to identify the cause of the fuck up, short of wiping the whole operating system and starting again (something you never allow us to do, because of course you have neglected to back up any of your documents) usually fixing it, and returning your computer to a working state will normally take hours of laborious fiddling, all of which I am expected to do for free.

Therefore, as a form of prophylactic against having to deal with these requests any more I have come up with the following idiots guide to keeping your computer as healthy as possible. It won’t cover all problems, it won’t even cover all computers, if yours is a Mac, you can stop reading now, but it should mean that you avoid the most common issues that affect windows based pc’s, and so I might get a few more days doing what I want, rather than wrestling with someone elses pc.

1) Update your computer!

Microsoft regularly releases updates designed to plug holes in the security of their operating systems. These are the holes that hackers go after when they create viruses and malware on the internet and it is vital that you ensure that your operating system is fully updated, or patched as we say ‘in computers’

You will know when your computer needs to be updated, because it will tell you.

DO NOT IGNORE IT.

Do not close the pop up dialog because you are too busy, or because you don’t think you need it because it will be the first question that I ask you when you come to me, and if you say “Oh I didn’t think I needed that” I am fully entitled to kick you. Hard.

You can even schedule the updates to happen automatically, although if you do schedule the updates to happen automatically at the default time of 2am, then you need to make sure that you leave your computer ON so that it can do it at that time. If your computer is off when 2am arrives, the updates will not happen. Either leave it on, or schedule it at a time when the computer WILL be on.

2) Install a virus program

You would think this is no-brainer, but you would be astonished at the amount of people who either don’t have a virus checker, or don’t have it turned on, or don’t let it update.

Let me make this clear: If you do not have a virus checker, you ARE GOING TO BE INFECTED BY A VIRUS!

There are plenty of products out on the market, if you are running Windows XP, I recommend something like Kapersky, however if you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, then Microsoft’s Security Essentials is a great lightweight security program that best of all is offered for free. Go and install it now.

3) Don’t be stupid.

Use a bit of common sense. If you go to a website, and you get a pop-up window that says “You MUST install this FREE software as your computer WILL BE AT RISK if you don’t” just take a minute to think about that. Microsoft will never ask you to install software in this way, no matter how well the hacker has managed to make the dialog look like the type of dialog Windows would use, it is very very unlikely to be a Microsoft prompt. Cop the fuck on. If this is the reason I have been called to fix your computer, I will once again be entitled to kick you.

4) Only install software from a trusted source.

If you don’t know what a trusted source is… then either find out, or DON’T install the software. There are plenty of trusted software sources on the internet, find out which ones you can safely install software from, and only use those for any software you want to download and install. If the domain name contains the words ‘warez’ or has the top level domain .ru then chances are you DO NOT want to install any software from it.

5) Un-install any software you do not use.

The more software you have on your PC, the slower it will run. This is just a fact of life. If you have installed hundreds of cute little games and free software from the internet, you can be sure that it will slow your PC down. This is because (here comes the computery bit) the registry of the computer (the database for all software and operating system settings) becomes bloated with entries for all of the software and it takes longer for the operating system to read it. If you are not using it, then uninstall it. Better still, read exactly what it is and what it does BEFORE installing it, and work out whether you need it or not.

6) Defrag your hard drive

If you are running Windows 7 or Windows Vista, then you don’t need to worry about this one, as the Operating System will do it for you. However if you are running Windows XP, you need to defrag your drive a couple of times a year. What is defragging I hear you ask? Well, it all has to do with the way that Windows stores files on the hard disk. Sometimes when you save a file, Windows may not be able to find a space on the hard drive big enough to fit the entire file. As a result, it may have to break the file into two or more pieces and scatter them around the disk. Without getting into the details of how disks work, this means that in order to read back that file, the hard disk has to do a lot more work in order to find the entire file, multiply that by hundreds of thousands of files and you can see how this will slow down how fast your computer responds to your commands.

In Windows Xp, you should right click on the C: drive, then select the tools tab, then select Disk Defragmenter and set it running. DO NOT do this when you about to run out the door and want to shut your laptop down, or if you are busy doing something else, it WILL take time, and it WILL slow down your computer while it is running. Set it running, leave it alone and it will run through the disks, moving files around so that the disk is less fragmented.

7) BACKUP your important files.

Here is a fact of life. Hard drives fail. They just do. They fail pretty regularly too. This is why most high end servers and computer systems have redundant disk systems, ie. two disks that are ‘mirrored’ so that whatever is written to one drive, is simultaneously written to a second drive. If one drive fails, at least you still have all of your data on a second drive.

If you have photos of your kids, your cats, your honeymoon or your favourite aunt that you CANNOT lose, then for fucks sake, make a backup. Put the file onto an external drive, a pen drive, or a CD. You can also upload your most important files into the ‘cloud’ by using a service like dropbox which means that your files are available to you no matter where you are. This is essentially free storage out on the internet where you can store files. If your computer or your hard drive fails, you at least have a copy that you can easily recover the file from. Once the hard drive has failed, recovering the data from it can become very expensive. It has to be cracked open by a specialist and the data recovered manually. This can often cost in excess of €500 – €600 per drive, and there is no guarantee of success. Spend a little money, and a little time and ensure that any file you cannot afford to lose, is copied to a second location.

8) Don’t go messing around with settings that you don’t understand.

This is becoming less of a problem, as Microsoft have finally realised that there really is no reason to make all the available settings available to all of the users, however it is still possible to make changes to your settings that will affect your network, your monitor, etc. that can be extremely annoying to diagnose and rectify. If you are pootling around in the control panel, and you come across a setting that you do not fully understand then please, for the love of God, LEAVE IT ALONE! If you must, at least put the name of the setting, or the text associated with the setting into a search engine such as Google or Bing to find out what it does, BEFORE you change it. Most settings are set by default, and there is very little reason for you to change them, ask yourself why you are changing something before you do, and work out whether you really DO need to change it.

9) There are 100,000′s of resources on the web… USE THEM!

I am regularly asked to resolve problems, that take approximately 20 seconds to find a solution for. Allow me to let you into a little secret: I do not have a enormous brain filled with the answers to all these problems. What I do have, is two hands, a keyboard, a connection to the internet and access to http://www.google.com/ If you get an error message, then put it into google and see what google returns. Chances are that someone has encountered this error before, has spent many hours trying to find a solution, and has posted this solution on the internet. (we geeks are nice like that….) A couple of minutes spent on google BEFORE you call me could mean you may not need to call me at all. How nice would that be?

These are just a couple of tips, housekeeping as such, but if you follow these basic steps, I should hear a lot less from you. It won’t by any means solve all of the problems that you might encounter with your PC, but these few steps will help reduce the easily avoidable ones. I really don’t mind helping my family and friends out when they do run into a serious problem with their PC, but if its just because you haven’t followed these steps, then expect a kick.

And I’ll still expect you to tell me what that nasty rash is..

Posted in Computers, IT | 7 Comments

Angry? We’re not just angry… we are mildly annoyed!

Posted on November 22, 2010 by leothegeek

So the Government is to fall. The Greens, after 3 years of being Fianna Fails ‘Yes’ men, have finally decided that enough is enough. Brian Lenihan this morning, stated he believed that the Greens would continue to support the majority party and that they have been “very, very loyal since 2007″. This is putting it mildly, the Greens have exhibited an almost fanatical SS style loyalty to Fianna Fail during the lifetime of this Government, and rubberstamped all of their decisions, including the controversial bank guarantee scheme that some would argue has brought us to this unhappy place.

I am angry. Pretty damned angry. From reading Twitter, it appears as though there are plenty of other angry people out there in the country. Angry with the Government for mismanaging the country, mismanaging the economy, mismanaging the boom. I am angry for where we find ourself, angry that the reputation of the country that I love so much lies in tatters, and that we are being discussed worldwide as a national basket case.

However, I reserve the most burning sense of anger for myself and my fellow citizens. We allowed this to happen, either by voting for Fianna Fail (not me) or for the Greens (me), or by sitting idly by whilst the Laurel and Hardy parties, stumbled from one bad decision (removing stamp duty, continuing tax exemptions for hotels and developers..etc) and doing nothing about it other than to bitch and moan over pints.

Last night when it became clear that we were applying for the bailout, and that exactly the situation that Fianna Fail have been maintaining would never happen, was about to happen.. what did we do? From reading twitter, most of us watched X Factor.

A handful of people went to Government Buildings on Merrion Street, most of whom were activists from Sinn Fein and the Shell to Sea campaign, both groups who are well used to protesting at every opportunity, but as for the rest of us, we just threw our eyes to heaven, poured another glass of wine, and continued on as though nothing had changed.

Today, Sinn Fein again organised another protest, this time of about 50 people (in a country with a population of over 4 million) which ‘forced’ its way in through the gates of the Government Buildings, before being ‘forced’ back by the combined forces of about 3 Gardaí. In fact, in watching the video (via RTÉ) you get the impression, that once the protesters had ‘forced’ their way through a plainly unlocked front gate, they had no idea what to do. Lots of looking over their shoulders as if they were looking for some guidance on what to do next…

So where are the outraged masses? Where are the marches on Leinster House, the marches on the headquarters of the banks that brought us to the brink, the marches on the houses of the executives of those banks. If this was France, or Greece, or I suspect ANY other European country, the country would have been brought to a standstill by now. Instead, here in Ireland I have received a number of invites to join a Facebook campaign to oust the Government. Are you shitting me? A FACEBOOK campaign? The time for Facebook campaigns is long over, we should be lighting torches and marching. It is bad enough that the rest of the world thinks we are an economic basket case, without them also thinking that we quite obviously don’t give a damn.

Let’s get out there, (just not while X Factor or Fair City is on… or Wednesday, off to see Harry Potter on Wednesday.)

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments