It Occurs to Me: Greenway protests and the Trump postmortem

For a few years past, it was nothing short of a nightmare travelling from Stranorlar to Lifford. The roadworks didn’t seem to be co-ordinated and occasionally one would encounter three sets of temporary lights…not in harmony…not even close!

When it was all (seemingly) done and dusted, the result was the squeezing of the road size to facilitate (allegedly) walkers, runners and cyclists. What is this obsession with pavements and greenways?

Do budgets have to be spent within a certain time frame and to hell with the increasingly put upon motorists! On the last occasion I travelled from Castlefinn to Lifford, there were no cyclists or walkers!

There was one jogger/runner in the whole stretch! I kid you not. Now before the usual suspects get on to me ‘nyamming’ about eco-friendly necessity, I actually champion alternatives to road usage, but in a county where Letterkenny has managed to win first prize for ‘Most Clogged Town in Ireland’ and where public transport delays are a daily nightmare, what choice do we have?

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The recent protests by the Lifford Carrigans Landowners and Residents Committee are absolutely understandable. A proposed 18km walkway between Lifford and Carrigans costing €18million (and then some, knowing Irish budgets) may make the planners all giddy with excitement as they peruse maps etc., but what of the practicalities? Like the Castlefinn to Lifford experiment, will it only facilitate an odd burst of Lycra or a sweaty dander?

The chairperson of the opposition group, Cathal McGowan, is a very reasonable man…he’s not against greenways per se, and sounded rational albeit concerned when I heard him on Highland Radio. If that particular road gets squeezed any more, big trucks will have bother passing one another.

The farmers are rightly concerned about CPOs. Whatever about occasional compulsory purchase orders for land if a major and necessary motorway was being constructed, in this instance, it is just pure politically correct puffery!

Also, I spent the first few years of my life in Carrigans. I may not have many memories as I was very young when dad was transferred to Carrigart, but the Laggan is a region for which I have great affection.

Also, crucially, the opposition is a cross-community one, as befits the mix of religion in the area and consequently, should be treated with due respect.

Council needs to listen and they need to heed. I have a notion that this ‘green’ can may be kicked down the road eventually…if there’s any road left!

60 million! Loose change, Michéal?

As you read this, Ireland will spend some €30 million on security in Dublin for the EU summit. Also, Niall Horan has a few gigs in Dublin, so the capital is best avoided currently. You may be interested to know that Ireland will most probably spend more than three times as much as Cyprus and Denmark on its Presidency of the Council of the EU, with the estimated cost of chairing the bloc’s policy agenda between July 1 and December 31 nearing €300 million.

As reported by Politico, “Almost half of the projected €293 million budget produced by Ireland’s public expenditure department — €125 million — is being allocated to policing and security, as the neutral country, long viewed as Europe’s defense blind spot, scrambles to ramp up security capacity for a series of high-profile visits. By contrast, Cyprus, which currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU, expects costs to total about €95 million. Denmark, which preceded Cyprus in the six-month presidency rotation, spent an estimated €80 million.”

Obviously, the recent cyber attacks in Europe and Ireland (Is Putin acting the ‘horlicks’ again?) cannot be blamed on us in the first instance but I was alarmed to see this from former Army Officer and Senator, Tom Clonan: “We’re manifestly not in a position to secure the environment, we don’t have any meaningful air, or maritime, or cyber defenses — we just don’t have them,” Clonan said. “Basically what’s happening is that Ireland has been caught with its pants down.”

What was truly reprehensible in September was the Garda operation to protect Donald Trump's two-day visit to Dublin and Clare cost the force an estimated €30 million. Jesus wept!

So, another €30 million this week, and using the Children's Hospital analogy, that’s probably conservative.

In a country where road carnage, gangsterism, murder and mayhem dominate our headlines, imagine…just imagine, that Michéal, Justice MInister Big Jim, and the Commissioner dedicated a 3 or 4 day anti-crime blitz costing €30 million. I, for one, would be shouting Alleluia!

The rank-and-file are doing their best…is it too much to ask that the best is done for them?

Finding Jesus…going to hell

The sign outside Southwark Crown Court read, “Russell Brand, we stand with you. Christ was crucified for telling the truth. Russell is the Truth!” What planet do these so-called Christians morons inhabit? Brand suddenly found Jesus some time ago…it reminded me of a friend from Antrim who once said of an obnoxious and hypocritical Holy Joe, known to both of us: “The last refuge of the scoundrel is finding Jesus…after he exhausts wine, women and song!” I don’t mean that lightly as Brand was a dedicated misogynistic rapist.

His defence barrister, Ian Winter KC (who lost the plot with a journalist last week) said Brand’s wife Laura Gallacher is “standing by him”. He added: “Words are completely inadequate… to convey the total devastation she’s experiencing. They are wrestling with how to explain to a child who’s just turned 10 what has just happened here and the consequences of this conduct to totally innocent people who have been caught up in it.”

What about the total devastation of his young female victims? God give me strength!

The Trump postmortem

I received this e-mail from a friend in the US…an eminent journalist and former Pulitzer winner.

“Hi Frank. The results were reassuring in the sense that so many Americans awoke from their slumber and realized how bad Trump is, at everything, and for everything this country should stand for.

“But there is nothing more dangerous than a cornered rat. Especially a fat one.

I hope the Democrats focus more on governing initially. Holding Trump accountable is necessary, but not immediately, as I think it will turn off a lot of Americans who gave the Democrats a mandate to fix a lot of the stuff he's broken.

“Given the Supreme Court has handed Trump a blank check to avoid criminal charges related to anything he does as president, I'm wary of calls for impeachment, as the Senate still has enough Republicans to kill it. We don't need futile gestures right now.

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“We need mature, responsible people to take control of a country that has been untethered for two years, headed for the rocks. As Kenny Rogers said, there'll be time enough for counting, when the dealing's done. Hope you're well.”

I’m grand, thanks, old friend, and totally agree with you. Seeing this from Nigel Farage really lifted my mood too: “I don’t go with the consensus that Donald Trump is going to get absolutely smashed. I think this Republican Party is way better than it was 10 years ago when he first became president. And Elon Musk hasn’t chucked in $450 million dollars of his own money for fun. He’s helping.”

Remembering Johnny McEvoy

During my first summer holidays from St Eunan’s College in 1967, I worked in Boyce’s supermarket in Carrigart. Patrick and Columba were thorough gentlemen and great employers …and thankfully are still with us. I saved up enough to buy my first vinyl single, The Boston Burglar, by Johnny McEvoy. Younger readers may not realise that Johnny was a one man Boyband of his day…he had the looks and the undoubted talent.

Thirty years later, I was awestruck when I interviewed him in BBC Radio Foyle, and although he was quite a shy individual, he opened up to me about his lifelong fight with depression, resulting in a kind of terror when it came to performance.

I recall the hush in studio from researchers and producers and the reaction of listeners thereafter. Johnny was originally from Banagher in Offaly and there’s an old saying: "That beats Banagher, and Banagher beats the devil!”

In Johnny’s case, depression was the devil, and although he didn’t totally beat it, his bravery and determination ensured that he brought much joy to many of us…and especially to a 12-year old counting his pennies in the mouth of Mulroy Bay.