Irish Politics

Bertie cartoon on the front page of The Irish Times today

Ireland is apparently the best place to live in the world... or so they tell me. I have been living away from the Emerald Isle for 16 months and 14 days (my exact figure is due to a certain friend of mine, yes you Tawila, who has a great need for exact dates). However, during this time I have been closely monitoring the 'goings on' on the island and I can say that it has not all been rosy! Today the Irish people are voting for the 30th Dáil or parliament, and it seems too close to call. I am deeply shocked at this fact as the current government is more backward and corrupt then any government in many of the 'developing' countries I have lived in.
Ireland today is a different place to the country I visited in the summers of my childhood. Now the streets are filled with people from all corners of the globe, which is wonderful in terms of the cultural awakening of Ireland, but unfortunately this has not translated itself in the hearts of the Irish people. There is no integration and many immigrants and labour migrants suffer greatly. The crime rate has risen dramatically particularly in the area of gun and drug related crime. One main reason for this entry is that I just heard from one of my in-country sources that a 21 year old woman was being sentenced this morning for murdering a 22 year old woman outside a supermarket in Dublin; she stabbed her in the heart with a knife which she picked up in the shop!
So Bertie, I would ask you to step down and let some 'fresh' blood flow into the veins of Irish politics; where this is to come from I don't quite know, but we need a change and we need it now!
A quote from my very wise in-country source, ‘the corridor culture gets wilder as we approach summer and warm weather winds them up’.