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Government wasters!

What a shower of absolute wasters have been the Fianna Fáil-led administrations of the past few years. The government this week admitted that it has been wasting taxpayers’ money for years, claiming it would save €440 million in the next six months and €1 billion in the next year without damaging frontline services. If this is the case why didn’t they do that years ago?

This week’s government announcement is a shocking admission of how Irish taxpayers’ money was wasted. Those who made a mess of the public finances have had the cheek over the years to lecture other political parties on their lack of understanding of  economic realities. Well, now we see that for the absolute nonsense that it was. And who was the man at the helm of the public finances for the latter part of the Celtic Tiger? – current Taoiseach Brian Cowen. Maybe the darling of the establishment media wasn’t such a smart guy after all!
SEOSAIMH
Ó TUATHAIL
Baile Átha Cliath 3.

They call this liberation?

THOUGH I never knew anyone who seriously believed it, when the US and Britain invaded Iraq in 2003 they claimed they were doing it to liberate the people of Iraq, as well as to find non-existent weapons of mass destruction.
This week the National Security Advisor of ‘liberated’ Iraq said that they would not accept any security agreement with the United States unless that agreement included dates for the withdrawal of occupying forces. The response from the US was to refuse to name any date by when they might leave. McCain has suggested a couple of hundred years. Obama keeps changing his deadline.
When even your tottering puppet government is asking you to go and you’re refusing to, we call that an occupation.
DAVID CONROY,
County Kildare.

 

Matt Treacy – jackeen guttersnipe!

WITH the championship season in full flow, Gaels might be allowed to ask when we will be given adequate reportage of Our Games by your esteemed correspondent Matt Treacy.
Apart from not knowing that there are any other teams involved other than the Dublin football and hurling team (May the Good Lord preserve us if that is not the shocking joke of all time) he has lately imported more of the ways of the Jackeen Guttersnipe.
And in case you wonder what I’m talking about, I am talking about gambling. What in the name of all that is good does betting have to do with Our Games?
What’s next? Advertisements for drink? And by the cut of your man in the photo he’s no stranger to it I would say. Or smut? To hell with that. Talk about hurling and football for heaven’s sake or throw your hat at it.
GAEL GAN NÁIRE

 

Captain James Kelly

The 1916-’21 Club is to unveil a plaque to the late Captain Kelly at the library in Bailieboro - Captain Kelly’s hometown - County Cavan at 2.30pm on Saturday 19 July. Captain Kelly was President of the club for several years.
Captain Kelly was a prominent figure in recent Irish history. In 1969 while visiting his brother in Belfast the pogroms started when the RUC and B-Specials followed by loyalist, fascist thugs went into Catholic streets and terrorised thousands of people and burned their homes.
Captain Kelly contacted his superior officer who instructed him to remain there and report on how the situation might “develop” as he saw it and report back urgently. Later he was instructed to participate in preparations by the army for a possible emergency situation.
For carrying out his duties he was put on trial by the State and found “not guilty.”
However a stigma followed his name, which the State has not adequately allayed.
GERRY CONCAGH,
Carrick Road,
Dundalk.