The Rusty Wire Service

Some hoary and perhaps whorey old readers may well recall that yours truly will happily admit to being a former altar boy (what can I say? I was young and I needed the money). But joshing aside, I was indeed an altar boy as a youngster and what's more, I even read at Mass, but only on week days; you had to work your way up to a reading at Sunday Mass you see. One day, the priest came into the school. It was around the time that the Soviets had first got themselves embroiled in Afghanistan at the end of the 70s/early 80s. Solidarity was just kicking off in Poland as well – so when the Canon swept imperiously unannounced into the classroom, we all dutifully got to our feet and chorused 'Fáilte romhat a Athair' (Welcome Father). Once he'd magnanimously motioned us back to our seats, he waited a moment or two to let the fidgeting and foostering to die down and then he asked. 'Children, do any of ye know what a communist is?' Now, it may or...

With the vote almost upon us, there isn't a great deal that we in Croppy Towers can really add to the acres of print that have already covered the subject. Others, with greater eloquence and more at stake, have made the arguments under both constitutional and compassionate headings and they have been well made. In a modern progressive society, no rights available to the majority of citizens should be arbitrarily withheld from a section of society on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation. A re-framing of the definition of marriage to reflect evolving family structures is just that, a reflection of an emerging reality. Arguably, t he rights of children are further protected by this proposed amendment rather than being put at risk.  That to me (in my rather naïve and perhaps overly formalistic way) would seem to be the end of the argument; or at least that would conclude the part of the debate that relies on constitutional argument and appeals to higher principle...

For those among you considering a career in contract killing, the recent release of a paper entitled ' Becoming a Hitman ' by the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University, could provide some handy hacks... The paper, which is published in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 'discusses what might motivate someone to become a hitman'. But before we get into any trouble with those nice Birmingham criminologists, we feel honour-bound to say that we're just kidding. We would in fact like to point out that this paper would be very little use to anyone looking to embark on such a questionable enterprise. It will probably come as disappointment to some people therefore that the paper's conclusions, at least according to the release highlighting its publishing, are altogether prosaic. Hitmen apparently succeed in contract killing where they successfully bury any feelings or emotions. To anyone who's ever watched 'The Sop...

Parnell Street. Picture courtesy of Justice for the Forgotten   On May 17, it will be 41 years  since I visited Dublin as a boy of three going on four. We were there as a young family on a day out, having driven up in my father's little sky blue beetle. I remember my father singing The Battle Of New Orleans  as we barrelled into the capital but  I don't remember hearing the explosions in the city centre as we were leaving but my mother and father both did.  What I do remember is fear, my parents' fear for their children as they left the bombed city behind. They talked in the low serious tones that grown-ups use when they don't want children to interrupt but I knew something was up even if my two year old sister didn't. We passed through a final Garda checkpoint on the western outskirts of Dublin and the news on the radio was reporting another bomb in Monaghan town. I knelt on the back seat beside my sleeping little sister, watching the dusky ...

It's been a while... Lots of reasons for that but most of them in no way germane to the kind of schtick we normally purvey up here in Croppy Towers. And as we're on the subject, exactly what kind of schtick was this questionable organ peddling in any event? Looking back, a lot of it was probably sub-Brand polemic at best, based on the warm but woolly notion that somehow, there was still cause for optimism when it came to relying on the human capacity for empathy. But of course, as Nick Cave has rightly pointed out (and not today nor yesterday); ' People ain't no good '. But that of course is no reason stop giving a damn. You're all a bunch of wankers but I'd never see you in trouble if I could help it. Misanthropic philanthropy; probably more common than you'd imagine. Looking down the barrel of another five years of the Tories without even the ineffectual sandbag of the Liberals to temper their excesses, I got to thinking......