It Occurs to Me: The law and order party

In 2022, more than 280 members of An Garda Siochana suffered injuries in the line of duty - head injuries, open wounds, dislocations and bites, just some of what was reported.

The most common injuries were bites, grazes, and bruises with some 102 members having suffered one of those types of injury.

Did Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Minister for Public Expenditure Pascal Schwarzenegger attend any of the locations of those assaults and do a PR dander in the general area? Answers on a postcard please to the Tough on Crime Party, Leinster House.

Helen from Royal Meath feels “safe” in Dublin … so would I, with an armed Garda escort, a fortified Merc to retreat to and other protectors lurking in the vicinity!

Amazing how everybody’s blood is up because of the horrific assault on poor Mr Fermini … how many other tourists and local citizens have suffered from similar situations? Why have we had no reactions before? Is it because the Law and Order Party want to look good in the biggest tourist market of all … the USA?

Helen McEntee is intent on pushing a very flawed hate bill through both Houses soon. Let me remind her what hate is … when feral youths beat an innocent man unconscious, causing him brain damage and possible loss of an eye. He wasn’t robbed so some form of hate was the motivator. Don’t give me that rubbish about social deprivation! I saw enough of it as a youngster and it didn’t cause individuals or gangs to unleash a form of terrorism on their neighbours.

I pride myself as having an innate sense of justice, compassion and fair play but I have a rule of thumb in life. If some gurrier or gurriers threaten me or my loved ones, I’ll wait until they’re lying in a heap before I ask them if they had a happy childhood.

Last Sunday week, Willie O’Dea wrote the most salient observation: “To compound this crisis it now seems the State is not always willing to stand behind our men and women in uniform when they do their job. Ministers must listen to their backbench colleagues from all across the country when we tell them our inboxes are full of messages from constituents telling us street crime and antisocial behaviour is a real and pressing problem. This is especially true for our Justice Minister Helen McEntee.

The public want her to focus more on delivering safe streets than on playing to the woke gallery. Every minute spent pushing a flawed hate bill or allowing gardaí who pursue criminals to be investigated, is a minute wasted.” Willie wrote this before the attack on Mr. Fermini! Minister, Taoiseach, whomever…forget Task Forces and look after the one Force we have!

CHRISTY’S LOVELY GESTURE
Christy Gillespie has had full houses at his Glen, Kilcar and Ardara launches of the brilliant The Road to Glenlough. Similarly in Letterkenny, during the course of which he alluded to Carl Zigrusser, best friend of artist Rockwell Kent of Glenlough fame, who became Curator of prints and drawings at the Philadelphia Museum of Art between 1940 and 1963.

The accompanying picture shows Carl with Glenveagh’s Henry McIlhenny who was not only famous as an art and antique collector, but was associated with the Philadelphia Art Museum for many years, serving as curator from 1939 to 1964. He became chairman of the museum in 1976.

In any event, Christy paused and said: “I’m particularly delighted to see Henry McIlhenny’s cook here at the launch…Nellie Gallagher!” McIlhinney derived his fortune from the coin-operated gas meter, invented by his Carrigart-born grandfather.
It was one Edmund McIlhenny of Louisiana, also the grandson of a Donegal man, who made a fortune from Tabasco sauce.

NO CUPLA FOCAL…BUT LOADSA WAFFLE!
Some teacher friends were in Brussels a few weeks ago, where they were delighted with the common courtesy and assistance from MEPs, Mairead McGuinness, Sean Kelly, Billy Kelleher and Chris McManus. Clare Daly was a different case entirely…herself and Chris McManus (SF) were asked a question as Gaeilge by a teacher from Connemara. In fairness to McManus, he apologised that he couldn't answer her in Irish and asked her to ask the question in English. Clare Daly refused point blank to answer the question, and went into a rant that she was a product of the Irish education system and that the teaching of Irish was terrible. Who votes for the likes of her and Mick Wallace? As my granny used to say…they have neither field nor house manners!

BORIS AND THE DAILY MAIL
I see where the Daily Mail has wisely not included Boris Johnson’s UK column in their Irish editions. I don’t know what he’s been paid (probably slightly less than Tubs) but his track record is quite simply, appalling. Back in 2002 in his Telegraph column, he referred to Tony Blair’s visit to Africa as being greeted by “watermelon smiles” and “flag-waving piccaninnies”.
He also wrote in the Spectator: “The problem is not that we were once in charge [of Africa], but that we are not in charge any more … If left to their own devices, the natives would rely on nothing but the instant carbohydrate gratification of the plantain”.

In the same Spectator, he suggested that black people had low IQs, and as editor, he allowed a feature inside which described Jamaican immigrants as “ludicrously self-satisfied, macho, lupine-gaited, gold-chained-and-front-toothed predators of the slums, with the bodies of giants and the mind of a pea”. Another writer dismissed the idea of disaffected black youth as politically correct cover for “black thugs, sons of black thugs and grandsons of black thugs”. The piece boasted “...boy, oh boy, was Enoch – God rest his soul – ever right!”

Tory MP Enoch Powell in April 1968 thundered about immigration: “As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'... it subsequently led to his dismissal from the Shadow Cabinet by Conservative Party Leader Edward Heath.”

Ironically, not only did his ‘popular’ remarks contribute to the Tories coming to power in 1970…indeed, Michael Heseltine stated that in the aftermath of the "Rivers of blood" speech, if Enoch Powell had stood for leadership of the Conservative party he would have won "by a landslide" and if he had stood to be prime minister he would have won by a "national landslide". On 10 October 1974, Powell won a seat for the Ulster Unionist Party in South Down, and lost it in 1987.

As regards Boris Johnson, one observer noted: “Far from making him a pariah, his early catalogue of racist waffle, written by or apparently sanctioned by him, helped to propel Johnson to success.”
Jesus wept!

ROARING FOR THE LIONESSES!
God give me strength! Whenever the English men’s soccer team is playing in Euros or World Cup, the jingoism in some media outlets is appalling. As regards the women’s team, they are bitterly disappointed that the Berlin police didn’t capture the real lioness recently, as she would have made a super sub. It turns out that it was in fact a wild boar! Ah well, it’s a change from the wild ‘bores’ we’ll have to listen to if they beat Denmark tomorrow.