5 posts tagged “irish”

Well it's general election day in Ireland. I'll be heading off to cast my vote in a little while -  the first time outside of a Dublin constituency.

I have to admit that while I knew roughly who was who in my old constituency, I don't even know who the current representatives are here in Leitrim. Whoever they are I am fairly sure I'll be voting against them.

In fact, feeling a little embarrassed by my lack of knowledge there, I've just used the power of the internet to discover that:

1. My constituency is actually called "Roscommon Leitrim South"
2. The people I can choose to vote for number 2 x Fianna Fail, 2 x Fine Gael, 1 x Labour, 1 x Green, 1 x Sinn Fein, 2 x Independent
3. There are 3 seats available
4. Currently those seats are divided into 2 x Fianna Fail, 1 x Fine Gael

These discoveries amuse me somewhat. The main reason being that this is exactly what I had assumed would be the case. Despite Leitrim's attraction to the artistic type due to low cost of living etc, it's probably still a very Fianna Fail dominated region and there would be a lot of old ties in that direction.

If you're interested in finding out a little more about your constituency (and I mean a little, as there is a limited amount of info here), check out mycandidate.ie

This is a little piece of genius. Jinx Lennon is an Irish troubadour, a poet of the streets, he's raw and he really believes what he's singing about.

He's best seen playing live, where his passion shines through. He bursts onto the stage and leaves you reeling.

I recommend checking him out.

Further Reading

http://www.jinxlennon.com/

Lyrics

I pissed around for years, was a dead loss,
I ended up in a place called Fas learning about fork lifts and inventory.
On the last day the instructors told us they'd take us out for a feed of drink.
"You're on the brink of success" they said "now lads" in a patronising voice.
I knew I was going to be back in hole yeah, back on the dole yeah,
I turned the keys in the ignition.
It was a beautiful blue and yellow winter's evening
I went up to the city of Styrofoam cups yeah

Jinx Lennon

The city of Styrofoam cups:
from faraway the city is a great big chandelier
but when you get near
the light begins to separate, and you see a different landscape yeah, a different landscape.
What's that over there? Is it Casper the friendly ghost
with a white sheet?
No it's a blanket to put over somebody's knees,

an empty cola cup staring on genuflection staring on looking up
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah.

I crashed my car in a place called Ormonde quay -
to my best recollection the person that crashed into me had a smig on his chin
not unlike that of a goat.
He was from Navan.
I knew right well when he heard a damage quote
the same individual would not be able to help but gloat.
We took each others details and went our separate ways.
My head was in a mess,
I went looking round for the bibles of pink flesh,
needed some erotic images to help me pass the test
in the city of Styrofoam cups yeah.

The city of Styrofoam cups yeah:
from faraway the city looks a great big chandelier
but when you get near
the light begins to separate, and you see a different landscape yeah, a different landscape.
What's that over there? Is it Casper the friendly ghost
with a white sheet?
No it's a blanket to put over somebody's knees an empty cola cup staring on genuflection staring on looking up
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah.

I round the corner, without warning, I looked down on the ground,
there was a young thing about 7 or 8 years of age.
She had a Elgin marble pale face.
I threw her a few coins to keep my conscience at bay hoping they would go away.
Across the street I could smell Neapolitan and Italian food.
Through transparent glass a young man had his hand on his girlfriends ass,
they looked like an ad for British Airways.
Where are you going on holidays in the city of Styrofoam cups yeah?
And they can see all the big buildings like the spire standing straight and proud
but they should be the shape of bent bananas.
There's a lot of people out there should be wearing bananas

in the city of
the city of
the city
the city
the city
the city of

The city of Styrofoam cups yeah:
from faraway the city looks like a great big chandelier
but when you get near
the light begins to separate, you see a different landscape
a different landscape.
What's that over there? Is it Casper the friendly ghost
with a white sheet?
No it's a blanket to put over somebody's knees an empty cola cup staring on genuflection staring on looking up

What were you doing?
You were standing at the old grey silver bridge.
You were moved along by a man in a blue uniform who looked like he was just fresh out of nappies.
He was doing anything to keep the government happy.
They saw you as a potential form of infection.
“We don't want transients” they said “coming up to the European presidential election” yeah.
The war is in a rut but you're no cigarette butt
you know in your heart from the start.

The city of Styrofoam cups yeah:
from faraway the city is a great big chandelier
but when you get near
the light begins to separate, and you see a different landscape.
What's that over there? Is it Casper the friendly ghost
with a white sheet?
No it's a blanket to put over somebody's empty knees yeah

moving on running on staring on looking up
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah
the city
the city of Styrofoam cups
staring on, staring out, looking on, looking round, looking down,
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah
the city
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah
the city
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah
the city of Styrofoam cups yeah

Al Iguana has written a good post about the Save Tara campaign and I advise you all to wander over to:

http://aliguana.vox.com/library/post/save-tara.html

and check it out.

The campaign needs as much support as possible. If you like Irish heritage, then please have a read of it. Suggest it as a "this is good" and have a follow-up read of the links. And spread the word.

I wish I could claim credit for this, but I can't. My new banner image is "borrowed" from Deviant Art - borogove13. You can view borogove's page here:

http://borogove13.deviantart.com/

After putting up one of the St. Patrick's day themes, I quite liked the Irish link going in there (for the moment at least), however I felt a little hypocritical what with the large pint of Guinness and me being a non-drinker ;)

So, I went looking for a slightly evil looking leprechaun and as per usual the wonderful Deviant Art did not fail me!

I couldn't resist posting this up (after seeing Eric's post on the Odometer of the Beast).

The Irish police force, known in Ireland as the Garda Siochana (Gaelic), have a fairly unique set of phone numbers for their stations. I think someone was having a laugh when they assigned those phone numbers.

If you don't believe me, check out their website

http://www.garda.ie/angarda/statlinks/dma.html

(The site doesn't work very efficiently in Firefox - and it's absolutely awful looking)