Tayto - the proper Irish Stuff

Rarely can there be a group as worthy of support as this (The Tayto appreciation society on Facebook) - I had to join as in an increasingly transient world the continuity and happiness provided by Tayto is important! My life and Tayto have crossed on two occasions, both in a previous life as a VAT inspector in Dublin.



In the early 80's I'd to call on a chipper called "CeeBees" in Parnell Street in Dublin - This was a strange operation as it only opened Monday to Friday from 12 to 2 and from 4 to 7, not the normal trading hours for a central Dublin chippie! It turned out it was owned by the Collins Brothers (CeeBees, geddit?) who had founded King Crisps and having sold it to Tayto for, then. good money, found themselves bored with time on their hands and ran this dilettante chipper just to have something to do. They were two gentlemanly old guys (well late 50's) who told me the story of how they started King Crisps in Inchicore using a chip shop range to do the frying. Here I was in the presence of crisp royalty, the guys who had started doing individual batch fried handmade crisps! Tayto never did much with the King Crisp brand afterwards and when you see the huge success brands such as Kettles (and Tyrells) have made of the same idea it seems to have been a marketing opportunity lost.

Incidentally afterwards I visited the state of the art Tayto plant in Coolock and noticed that their purchases include parsnips. It turned out for 3 months in late winter / early spring potatoes were in short supply and not of good quality so they substituted parsnips instead. I was incredulous and said surely customers noticed? As Tayto had invented the method of flavouring crisps he said there was no real difference in taste and no, they had never received any customer comment!

Considering what an upmarket premium product root vegetable crisps are today I was surprised he told me the second advantage of using parsnip crisps is they were cheaper!

Whilst reviewing the momentous history of crisps it should be remembered that when Mrs. Smith made her crisps in the 1920’s in her garage in North London they were mainly sold from a handcart by her husband Frank Smith (as in Smith’s Crisps) to an Irish Clientele in the pubs on Kilburn High Road.

The Irish and Crisps – they go together like Ham and Cheese, Jordan and Pete, Bread and Butties, St Kevin and Women, ………………………………….


Mr Tayto

Tayto was born in 1954, when Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy invented the first cheese and onion flavour crisp! In those days, Tayto would sell 347 packets per day. Nowadays, Ireland’s favourite crisps sell around three-quarters of a million bags per day. The factory now operates out of Tandragee Castle, where it is possible to take tours. Who wouldn’t want to see crisps being made IN A CASTLE? Plus, there’s a chance you might even get to meet Mr. Tayto himself. Wowzers!

Tours run from Monday to Thursday at 10.30am and 1.30pm, and on Friday at 10.30am. The Tayto Factory is closed on public holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, Bank Holidays etc. The price for adults is £5, students and seniors is £4, and the price for children is £3. The tours are regrettably not suitable for children under 5.

www.tayto.com

Halloween – Another great Irish Pagan Festival!

Hallowe’en seems to have grown around the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, marking the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark half. All Hallows' Eve, has over the years moved from the Celtic Festival of Samhain to trick-or-treat. Samhain was the time of the final harvest of the beasts of the field, and the crops, in preparation of winter provisions, the eve of Winter's first day, and the beginning of the next Wheel of the Year.

Samhain was in part a sort of harvest festival, when the last crops were gathered in for the winter, and livestock killed and stored. But the pagan Celts also believed it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin and porous, allowing spirits to pass through. The practice of wearing spooky costumes may have its roots in that belief: dressing up as a ghost to scare off other ghosts seems to have been the idea.



To the Celts Samhain marked one of the two great doorways of the Pagan Year, the other being Beltane on May 1. They held a 'dumb' or 'silent' supper in remembrance of those who passed over, placing a setting of food and drink for them at the family dinner table, or just simple cakes and wine.


Celtic sites in Ireland

In medieval Ireland, Samhain became the principal festival, celebrated with a great assembly at the royal court in Tara, lasting for three days. After being ritually started on the Hill of Tlachtga, a bonfire was set alight on the Hill of Tara, which served as a beacon, signalling to people gathered atop hills all across Ireland to light their ritual bonfires. The custom has survived to some extent, and recent years have seen resurgence in participation in the festival.


Hill of Tara

The name Hallowe’en is a shortening of All Hallows’ Even, or All Hallows’ Evening. All Hallows is an old term for All Saints’ Day (Hallow, from the Old English “halig”, or holy, compared with Saint, from the Latin “Sanctus”, also meaning holy, or consecrated). In the original Old English, it was known as Eallra Hālgena aefen. This comes from a Christian move by Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV to end the pagan Samhain festivals, by moving the feast of All Saints from May to 1 November.

There is a long tradition of the Christian Church taking other’s iconography and calling it their own! They even took the History of the Jewish People and called it the Old Testament. They took over the Basilicas of the Cult of Mithras which, like Christianity, had at its centre redemption through blood sacrifice. When they took over the Roman Basilicas after Constantine the Great made it the state religion of the Roman Empire they replaced the statues of Jupiter with those of Christos (The anointed one – a title used by the Pharaohs of Egypt as in Ptolemy VI Eucharistos on the Rosetta Stone) and changed the inscription from “J.O.M.” (Jovis Omnia Maximus) to “D.O.M.” (Deo Omnia Maximus). They even kept the gold disc behind Jupiter which represented his position as the Sun God (Helios) and depicted their images with the “Halo” as a sign of sanctity. So the Nazarenes have some form in this area, indeed after celebrating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in early summer for the first 400 years or so they then purloined the Roman Feast of Saturnalia on the 25th December near to the Winter solstice which was associated with feasting and merriment. Clement of Alexandria (d. 215 AD) recorded that some Christians of the time placed his birth date in April (see Stromata I:21). Hippolytus (d. 236 AD) may have believed that Jesus was born on April 2nd.


Halloween in Ireland

The celebration of Halloween survived most strongly in Ireland. It was an end of summer festival, and was often celebrated in each community with a bonfire to ward off the evil spirits. Children would go from door to door in disguise as creatures from the underworld to collect treats, mainly fruit, nuts and the like for the festivities. These were used for playing traditional games like eating an apple on a string or bobbing for apples and other gifts in a basin of water, without using your hands. Salt might be sprinkled on the visiting children to ward off evil spirits. Carving turnips as ghoulish faces to hold candles became a popular part of the festival, which has been adapted to carving pumpkins in America.



The classic Hallowe’en jack-o’-lantern, a carved grinning pumpkin, is both a new and an ancient practice. Originally, it seems to have come from an old Irish legend of a man called Stingy Jack, a miserly farmer who played a trick on the devil and as punishment was cursed to wander the earth, lighting his way with a candle inside a hollowed-out turnip. When the tradition moved to America pumpkins were used instead of turnips, as they were both more available and easier to carve.

So this Halloween, as we Trick and Treat, let us acknowledge the contribution of the Pagans of Ireland to popular culture not to mention 100s of terrible Halloween B Movies!! Watch out for the Ghosties and Ghoulies and ‘tings which go bump in the night!

London’s Wunderground

Though we take it for granted, and frequently curse it to high heaven, the London Underground is a wonder. The Tube network is the oldest and longest underground railway system serving a major city. Its history goes back to 1863, its conception even earlier.

For the full story see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html

The Tube has driven engineering developments and creative design. It has featured in countless books, songs, films and poems. It has been the site of births and deaths, and bombs planted by everyone from pre-war anarchists to suffragettes, the IRA to the Islamist suicide bombers of 2005. Yet this venerable railway system keeps going, keeps growing and keeps enabling more than one billion Londoners a year to make their daily commute.

Here, partly extracted from David Long's The Little Book of London Underground, are some facts to fascinate about the Tube.

A Metropolitan tunnel visionary



In 1845 Charles Pearson, MP and Solicitor to the City of London, proposed alleviating congestion for London's 250,000 commuters by inventing an “arcade railway” underground in the shallow tunnels of what was once the bed of the Fleet River, from Farringdon to King's Cross. Pearson also proposed rehousing 50,000 City slum dwellers in seven new suburbs, and redeveloping the land they vacated to offset the cost of the new railway. Sadly, Pearson died a month before his vision became a reality in 1863.

Earl's Court goes up in the world



The first escalator on the Underground was installed at Earl's Court in 1911. A one-legged man, “Bumper” Harris, was employed to ride on it and demonstrate its safety. There was a certain synergy here as both the leg and the escalator threads were wooden! Afterwards Bumper Harris retired to Gloucester where he made cider. Unlike modern “comb” escalators, the original “shunt” mechanism ended with a diagonal so that the stairway finished sooner for the right foot than for the left. Anyone not wishing to walk on the escalator was therefore asked to stand to the right to allow others to pass, leading to Britain's unique flouting of escalator etiquette which dictates in most countries that escalators tend to match the rules of the road.

No dead ends on the Jubilee

In 1926, “suicide pits” were introduced beneath the tracks because of a rise in numbers of passengers throwing themselves in front of trains. Uniquely, the eastern extension of the Jubilee line — the only one of two lines on the London Underground to connect with all others (The other, since the closure of the East London Line, is the Central) — features glass screens to deter “jumpers”. They also ensure platform edge safety and stop litter being sucked into tunnels, the major cause of tunnel fires on the Underground. Still, approximately 50 passengers a year kill themselves on the Underground.

Where modern tunneling was invented


The Thames Tunnel designed by Marc Brunel father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel constructed in 1840

The East London Line has always been somewhat unique as the only Underground Line which doesn’t go through Central London, having two termini only 600 metres apart and having the oldest tunnel on the system, the Thames Tunnel designed by Marc Brunel, father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel dating from 1840 and which along with the Tower Hill subway was the first sub-aqueous tunnel in modern times. There is reference to a tunnel in Babylon, but no archaeological evidence. More importantly it was the tunnel where modern tunnelling methods were developed and though underground and largely unseen it is a listed building!


Brunel's Thames Tunnel before the East London Line closed for refurbishment

For more on the Thames Tunnel and the East London Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/east-london-line.html

Torture comes full Circle

The Circle line opened in 1884 and was described in The Times as “a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it” – Conservative papers are still pro Public Transport to this day! Conditions haven't improved much in the intervening century or so, with a House of Commons report published in 2004 claiming that commuters face “a daily trauma” and “intolerable conditions” on the Tube.



The Northern's highs and lows

The Northern line includes the deepest tunnel (at Hampstead) and the highest elevation (the Dollis Brook viaduct) on the line to Mill Hill East, the only part of the pre-war extension to Elstree actually built. Its ticket office at Bank was originally situated in the Crypt of St Mary Woolnoth. The first crash on the Tube occurred on the line in 1938 when two trains collided between Waterloo and Charing Cross, injuring 12 passengers.

Early birds catch the Piccadilly

The Tube runs 24 hours a day only at New Year and major events — such as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics — because most lines have only two tracks, one in each direction. It closes at night for cleaning and maintenance. The earliest trains, such as from Osterley to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, start from 4.45am, with the rest operating by 5.30am and continuing until about 1am.
Digging deep for the Victoria



The Victoria line was built to link King's Cross, Victoria and Euston and proposed names included Viking line, for Victoria to King's Cross, and Walvic (Walthamstow to Victoria). Tunnelling close to Buckingham Palace and major government departments, 2,500 miners excavated an estimated one million tons of earth, uncovering fossilised marine molluscs and human bones from an old plague pit along the way.



New arrival on the Bakerloo

In 1924, the first baby was allegedly born on the Underground, on a train at Elephant & Castle on the Bakerloo line. Twenty years later, US TV host Jerry Springer was born at East Finchley station, where his mother had taken shelter from an air raid. The Bakerloo line was the creation of two notorious wheeler-dealers, James Whitaker Wright and an American Charles Tyson Yerkes who ran the Underground from a suite at the Savoy Hotel where he had installed his mistress! Builders working on it suffered from the bends while tunnelling under the Thames. Yerkes owned one of the larger art collections in the United States and was reputed to buy ‘old masters’ as others would buy books. The combination of his mastery of financial manipulation and his love of the arts was instrumental in bringing together this unlikely partnership on a railway network.



London was ripe for the skills of Yerkes at the turn of the century with the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway virtually moribund in 1901 when its own financiers, the London & Globe, went into administration. Yerkes soon formed a holding company, the Underground Electric Railways of London Ltd, and the Bakerloo was soon joined by, what are now, the District and the then unbuilt Piccadilly Line and west end branch of the Northern Line (the Hampstead Tube).



Grand Central passengers



The inaugural journey of the first Central line train in 1900 had the Prince of Wales and Mark Twain on board. The tunnels beneath the City curve dramatically because they follow its medieval street plan to avoid paying building owners for “wayleave rights”. The Central line also introduced the first flat fare: tuppence, hence its nickname the “two penny tube”.

Distance no object for map genius


Harry Beck's original map

Harry Beck produced the first version of his famous diagrammatic Tube map while working as an engineering draughtsman at the London Underground Signals Office, and was paid 10 guineas (£10.50) for his efforts. He believed that once underground, passengers were less bothered about relative distances between stations — the blueprint for the original Tube maps — and more interested in how to get from one station to another and where to change. First submitted in 1931, his map was considered too radical but the public embraced it and it became official in 1933. Beck's design classic has been altered many times since; last month TFL was forced to return the River Thames to a new “decluttered” map after outrage over its removal.



See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/01/great-british-design-quest.html

Ah, look at all the familiar buskers

Busking has been licensed on the Tube since 2003, but before that Sting and Paul McCartney both allegedly plied their trade on the Underground, in disguise as did Cat Stevens before he was famous.

Every tile tells a story


Paolozzi's abstract mosaics at Tottenham Court Road

The tiles at Leicester Square depict film sprockets; Baker Street has Sherlock Holmes, Oval cricketers, while Eduardo Paolozzi's abstract mosaics at Tottenham Court Road celebrate nearby musical Denmark Street. The early Underground companies all faced the same problem - how to maximise the illumination of their gloomy gas-lit platforms. The only answer until then was masses of plain white reflective tiling. However, by the turn of the century, with electric lighting improving all the time, thoughts of something more than functional resulted in stations having unique polychrome tile decorations. The tiling of over 90 tube platforms, and associated passageways, staircases and surface-level booking halls, probably amounted to the largest single creation of decorative art on public display anywhere.

Perchance to Dream .....

One of the most satisfying moments on a crowded Tube Train is when suddenly you stop thinking of the Aussie controlled haversack banging into you every time its owner moves or the blast of sound from the zombie commuter with the ridiculous headphones unconscious of your presence. Between the strap hangers your eyes alight on a Poem on the Underground cab card and as you read you are transported to a different place where there are fields of daffodils, floating clouds and babbling brooks. You have discovered, been delighted and most possibly gone on your way happier because of one of the most successful Public Art programmes, London’s famous “Poems on the Underground.”



Poems on the Underground were launched in 1986. The programme was the brainchild of American writer Judith Chernaik, whose aim was to bring poetry to the wide ranging audience of passengers on the Underground. Judith Chernaik, together with poets Cicely Herbert and Gerard Benson, continue to select poems for inclusion in the programme which provides relief and interest to the commuters who make over 3.5 million journeys on the Underground each weekday.

For more on Poems on the Underground see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/06/poems-on-underground.html

Tragedy stubs out smoking

A discarded match was thought to be the cause of the King's Cross fire in November 1987 which killed 31 people. The blaze started in a shaft by a wooden escalator serving the deep-level Piccadilly line and spread to the ticket hall above. Although smoking had been banned on Tube trains three years earlier a similar ban was not enforced on platforms or within stations. The escalator running track was covered in grease and rubbish, causing flames to spread rapidly. Smoking was then banned throughout the Tube network.



Everyday warning for city folk



The recording of the phrase “Mind the gap” dates from 1968, and is voiced by Peter Lodge, who owned a recording company in Bayswater. He stepped in apparently when the actor hired to record the lines insisted on royalties. There have been several books, a gameshow, two theatre companies, several films and lots of songs called Mind the Gap. While Lodge's recording is still in use, some lines use recordings by Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke, while commuters on the Piccadilly line hear the voice of Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer in The Archers.

For the full story see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/mind-gap.html

Famous logo still doing the rounds



In 1908 the Tube, while not yet a unified service, was officially rebranded as the underground and the “roundel” logo was adopted. The bar-and-circle was used as part of the name boards at stations and the distinctive red and blue design enabled them to be easily identified. By the example it set under Frank Pick the Underground was gradually able to change the public’s attitude to railway stations which had been seen as shabby and inhospitable places. Sir Nicholas Pevsner wrote that Pick saw in every detail a “visual propaganda” and he used this not only to improve the Underground but the environment as a whole. Charles Holden brought the Underground station to the forefront of modern architecture: This achievement is unequalled by any other transport company before or since.

For more on Charles Holden and his unique Underground design legacy see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/give-my-regards-to-55-broadway.html


Lonely outposts south of the river

Less than 10 per cent of Tube stations lie south of the Thames. There are two reasons; The London Clay south of the river made tunnelling more difficult and the Southern railway electrified using third rail to increase service times and frequency to stop the (then) private Tube companies encroaching on their territory. They also built the “Drain” now the Waterloo and City Line to connect their main terminus with the City of London. This line was only transferred to London Underground in 1993. They also co-owned the Baker Street to Waterloo Line (Bakerloo Line) to connect Waterloo Station to the West End of London and later another railway, the LMS from Euston, extended this line over its network to Queen’s Park and Watford Junction.



7/7: London's date with terror

On 7 July 2005 a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks during the morning rush hour killed 56 people and injured 700. Three bombs exploded within 50 seconds of each other at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King's Cross and a fourth exploded an hour later on a bus in Tavistock Square. The attacks by four suicide bombers on the London Transport system on 7th July 2005 were the largest mass murder in Britain in peacetime killing 52 passengers on The Tube and on the No. 30 bus at Tavistock Square and injuring 800 more, many seriously. Injured or not, and serious or not all who lived through the experience carry vivid and unsettling memories. There is a curious obscenity about suicide bombing, about the personal fascism which rationalises killing yourself and complete strangers you have first looked in the eye because you have convinced yourself it is for a greater good. There is a particular perversity, if you have religious faith, in destroying what you believe are God’s creations because you have appointed yourself as God’s representative and indeed have convinced yourself that shortly afterwards you will be personally thanked by Him.




See also:

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/07/london-77-bombings-memorial.html


Just squeaking into the records



An estimated half a million mice live in the Underground system. Unfortunately they are a protected species as they have fast tracked evolution to adapt to the environment – They have done in 50 years what Mr. Darwin said they would do in 500 years. Unfortunately (for their exterminators) they have also become famous giving rise to an animated feature (Tube Mice – 1988) and “Underneath the Underground” a series of books by Anthea Turner (remember her?) and her journalist sister, Wendy.

Camera, lights, action stations



Famous “ghost”(i.e. disused) stations include Aldwych, British Museum, Down Street, King William Street and Lord's and are used many times a month as sets for films or TV programmes, although none featuring vandalism, firearms, fare evasion, smoking, terrorism or nudity. Lots of stations have closed down, but are still sitting there in a strangely unnerving way (unnerving, anyway, for anyone who has seen Quatermass and the Pit).

They are: Aldwych (closed 1994), Blake Hall (1983), British Museum (1933), Brompton Road (1934), City Road (1922), Down Street (1932), Lords (1939), Marlborough Road (1939), Ongar and North Weald (1994)South Acton (1959), South Kentish Town (1924), St Mary's (1938), Uxbridge Road (1947), White City (1959) and York Road (1932).



Bet you Didn't Know This!

Croxley, the first station outside Zone 6 on the Metropolitan Line is the only station to contain the letter 'X'.

The original Jubilee Line extension went from Charing Cross through Aldwych to New Cross on the East London Line. Indeed, 100 metres of tunnel was built at Aldwych for this purpose - then the project was dumped. So the Picadilly isn't the only line to have abandoned tunnel at Aldwych after all.

St. Paul's on the Central Line used to be called 'Post Office'.

The District Line used to run alongside the Piccadilly to Hounslow Central before the Heathrow extension was built and the section diverted to the Central terminus at Ealing Broadway.

Some of the foregoing is taken from;

The Little Book of the London Underground, by David Long, £9.99

The rest is taken from a very dark place!

Republican Criminals Smoked Out

The Anne Scan - "No Smoking"

In the bad old days before the Gerry Adams Gang aka Gerry and the Peacemakers discovered Peace, Love and Understanding one of the more disreputable aspects of the IRA (In Ireland these things are relative) was the euphemistically named “Fundraising Activities.” Indeed these crypto-fascists masquerading as Republicans were the greatest beneficiaries of Partition running numerous rackets in the border areas of Ireland relating to smugglings, fraud on EEC subsidies, diesel rackets etc; Indeed it was never obvious where private gangsterism and “The Cause” began and ended as many fine houses and “businesses” owned by Republican hard men in border areas testify.

Now the group of Neanderthals known as the Real IRA were last night being linked to the largest ever haul of contraband cigarettes in Ireland, in what Gardai described as a significant strike against organised crime. Nine people, including seven Irish nationals, were arrested after a ship “Anne Scan” containing 120 million cigarettes worth €50m was seized in Co Louth following a massive surveillance operation.

The haul, with a potential revenue loss of €40m, was destined for the Irish and UK markets. Regarded as the biggest seizure of its type in Europe and described as organised crime on a global scale, the contraband was uncovered after the chartered ship arrived at 6am on Monday at Greenore Port. Code-named 'Samhna', the operation, which targeted an organised crime group operating on both sides of the Border, involved the Revenue Customs Service, the Naval Service, Air Corps, Gardai, the Criminal Assets Bureau and PSNI officers and HM customs officials.



When customs officers searched the cargo, they found over 1,400 bags containing up to 120 million cigarettes hidden among a consignment of animal feed. While the top quarter of each of the one-tonne bulk bags of feed was genuine, the rest were packets of two brands of cigarettes including Palace, which are sold in Britain. Seven Irish nationals, all male, aged between 19 and mid-40s, one Lithuanian male in his 50s and one Ukrainian male in his 40s were arrested after part of the ship's cargo was loaded early yesterday onto waiting trucks. Gardai and customs officers pounced when the convoy was driven to the importer's premises.


The Anne Scan's cargo of cigarettes

Last night, the men, who included the ship's captain and first officer, were being detained at Garda stations in counties Louth and Monaghan. The Real IRA have funded their terrorist activities partly by smuggling along the Border and by operations bringing material into Ireland. In 2003 a large haul of cigarettes was seized as a Real IRA cigarette smuggling ring was smashed when warehouses in Holland and the Ireland were raided. Six men were arrested after consignments of cigarettes worth millions of euro were found in the searches.

As part of follow-up searches more cigarettes were found in a warehouse in Monaghan. In another incident Gardai and the US authorities investigated links between the terrorists and a major cigarette smuggling ring in the United States. The seizure in Greenore is significant as this port at the end of the Cooley Peninsular (along with Heysham in Lancashire) was built by the LMS Railway based in Euston Station as part of a Rail / Ferry connection to Ireland and Greenore still has Euston and Crewe roads and the remnants of a once fine railway hotel as visible evidence of this connection.


The Greenore Hotel, built by The London and North Western Railway in the 1870s as one of the most imposing railway hotels in Ireland, and one of only a handful to be built of brick.

The Cooley Mountains form the setting for "An Tain Bo Cuailgne" or "The Cattle Raid of Cooley". Recounting the heroic defence of Ulster by the legendary Cuchulainn against Queen Medbh of Connacht and her attempt to seize the prize brown bull of Cooley, the story is at least 1,200 years old and is among the oldest surviving pieces of vernacular literature in Europe. This very beautiful part of the world has suffered greatly from IRA “fundraising” over the years including the murder of a local farmer, Tom Oliver, and the burying of bodies of IRA murder victims. One of these was Jean McConville, a 37 year old Catholic mother of 10, who was abducted from her home, St. Judes Walk, Divis, Belfast, around Xmas 1972 when Gerry Adams was commander of the “West Belfast Brigade”. She was accused of giving water to an injured British soldier. Her remains were eventually recovered, on general instructions from the IRA, buried at Shelling Hill beach, near Carlingford, Co. Louth, on 27 August 2003.


Jean McConville and three of her children

And consider those who suffered from the euphemistically titled “fundraising” which enabled Gerry and the Peacemakers pay for their comic strip patriotism. There was Thomas Niedermayer, the German managing director of Grundig’s Belfast factory where IRA Godfather Brian Keenan once worked who was kidnapped for ransom and whose body has never been found. Of course Brian was not there that wet dark night at Greystones pier in Co. Wicklow some years later when his widow, still consumed with grief, walked off the end of the pier. He was however, in West Belfast when Grundig closed down with a loss of 900 jobs, but he wasn’t at Balinamore Wood in Co. Longford when the Army and Gardai rescued the kidnapped managing director of an Irish Supermarket chain but not before the fleeing IRA gang killed two 19 year olds, a rookie cop and soldier, as they broke out of the cordon. Nor did he know the girlfriend of one of them who worked for me who had a breakdown as her life and future were so cruelly destroyed.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/05/death-of-brian-keenan.html

So let us praise the security services for frustrating the Neanderthals of the so called “Real IRA” in their gangster activities and remember those who did not live to see the discovery of democracy by Gerry and the Peacemakers. They are remembered on the Cain Index of violent deaths caused by the IRA and others who feel it is right to kill for “Freedom”.

http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/index.html


Cooley Peninsular

Mail Rail London

It may well be the Last Post next year for London’s unique other underground which was closed and mothballed in 2003. The Post Office Railway, also known as Mail Rail, was a narrow gauge driverless private underground railway in London built by the Post Office to move mail between sorting offices. This 2 foot gauge 6.5mile railway was opened in 1927 and at its peak run between Paddington Sorting Office and Whitechapel Eastern Delivery Office. The trains are driverless and are controlled by switching the 440 volt DC traction voltage. Inspired by the Chicago Tunnel Company, it was in operation from 1927 until 2003.


Battery Loco

It ran east-west from Paddington Head District Sorting Office in the west to the Eastern Head District Sorting Office at Whitechapel in the east, a distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km). It had eight stations, but by 2003 only three stations remained in use because the sorting offices above the other stations had been relocated.

A Royal Mail press release in April 2003 revealed that the system would be closed and "mothballed" (i.e. removed from active service) at the end of May that year. Royal Mail had earlier stated that using the Post Office Railway was five times more expensive than using road transport for the same task. The Communication Workers Union claimed the actual figure was closer to three times more expensive but argued that this was the result of a deliberate policy of running the system down and using it at only one-third of its capacity. Despite a report by the Greater London Authority in support of the continued use of Mail Rail, the system was taken out of use in the early hours of 31 May 2003.

See also for a full history;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/10/mail-rail-last-post.html

BBC gives fascists a national platform

I'm deeply ashamed that the BBC’s Question Time has given a platform to the BNP's Nick Griffin, a fascist thug with serious form, a holocaust denier and a convicted racist masquerading as a democratic politician. Is that why we pay, under pain of imprisonment, a TV tax out of money which is already taxed? Tonight the BBC lost any moral justification for a licence fee.

I have no problem with debating with the BNP and don't underestimate the common sense of the British people. Indeed history shows they have an adversion to extremism. However I am deeply uncomfortable with that debate being on a publicly funded broadcaster in a context where the BNP are treated as being equivalent to mainstream political parties.




London MPs today led a furious backlash against the BBC for inviting the BNP onto Question Time. Diane Abbott accused the Corporation of "accepting that violent fascism is somehow part of the political mainstream". The Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said it was a "chilling idea" for black, Asian and Jewish communities that the far-Right party could be treated in such a manner. Five other London MPs have launched a Commons campaign condemning the BBC. Pop stars, writers and union members also joined the public outcry.

Jerry Dammers, founder of The Specials, attacked the BBC as naive. His words were echoed by the former children's laureate Michael Rosen who said people had a right not to hear the BNP. They were speaking at an emergency public rally held by Unite Against Fascism in central London. Mr Dammers said: "The BNP are hiding their true identity as Nazis and fascists and the BBC are allowing themselves to be used for that purpose."



Kawsar Zaman, from the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "It's a really sad day for the BBC; it's a sad day in my opinion for this country." They spoke out as BBC director general Mark Thompson defended the decision to have BNP leader Nick Griffin on Question Time. He said that the Corporation had a "central principle of impartiality" which it would only override if the Government demanded a broadcasting ban as Margaret Thatcher did in the Eighties for Sinn Fein. "The case against inviting the BNP to appear on Question Time is a case for censorship," he said. He denied that the decision was based in any way on a wish to appear controversial.

Concerns are only likely to be fuelled by the delight of the BNP at the platform it is being given. "Thank you Auntie," said Mr Griffin in an interview with The Times.

Not in my name.

Sarah Siddons out and about!

These are shots of Sarah Siddons, the oldest working main line electric locomotive in Britain making special trips between Harrow-on-the-Hill, via Rickmansworth to Amersham on Sunday 17 May as part of the Rickmansworth Festival. Engine no. 12, Sarah Siddons, was built in 1922 and is the last operational Metropolitan Railway electric locomotive; the only surviving working engine out of 20 built by Metropolitan Vickers and mostly named after people associated with the area served by the Metropolitan Railway. The engines had a top speed of 65 miles per hour.

For full details see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/05/ride-on-sarah.html



For details of one of the Great Rail Journeys of the World which can be done on London Underground see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html

Going Down the Tube

A Tube worker has been caught on camera abusing an elderly passenger, calling him a “jumped- up little git”. The employee lost his temper when the man politely complained about getting his arm stuck in a door for several seconds as he tried to leave a train. Mayor Boris Johnson said he was appalled by the incident. TfL today suspended the worker while it launched an investigation. In the video posted by a fellow passenger on YouTube, the worker shouts: “Ladies and gentlemen, this train goes nowhere until little man gets off.” Jonathan MacDonald, from Camberley, who works in Covent Garden, filmed the incident yesterday at 2.30pm. He said the well-dressed man's initial complaint was civil. “I saw an elderly man with his arm trapped in the closing door of a faulty train at Holborn station,” he said.

“We all thought the train was heading further east but the train was terminating at Holborn and we were ushered on to the platform by two shouting staff. The elderly man was slow to get off in the mad rush, hence the entrapment. A few people called to staff to open the door again so he could be released. About 30 seconds later the doors opened again and he removed his arm. I watched as he calmly relayed his experience to the staff member. The member of staff didn't think it was a problem — in fact, he was furious that the guy had mentioned it at all, especially as the guy was standing close to the track.

“After a while, he started shouting at the guy to stand back, there is a f***ing train approaching'. The elderly guy quietly questioned why he had to swear, as did several other passengers. That was when I pulled out my video camera.” The video shows the man saying: “Come upstairs and talk to the police upstairs. You are not getting on this train. The train will not move.”


Mayor of London, Boris Johnson responds to scene on Twitter

As the passenger boards the train the member of staff says: “Ladies and gentleman, this train goes nowhere until little man gets off. Because you're a jumped up little git, mate. I'm not holding anyone else's journey up for a little girl like you.” As the train pulls off, with the elderly man on board, the member of staff says: “Sling him under a train.” A TfL spokesman said: “We are appalled by this video and will investigate thoroughly and urgently.”

Stephen Gately

I was so sorry to hear about Stephen Gately's untimely death in Majorca at the age of 33. I had met him a number of times and he was a very endearing, unaffected character. Ar dheis Dé go raibh anam uasal.




Drugs were not a factor in the sudden death of Boyzone star Stephen Gately, a family spokesman has said. Well-known Irish solicitor and family friend Gerald Kean, asked by the family to speak on their behalf, also ruled out suicide. "There's no foul play involved and it's not suicide. It's just a tragic accident is what we've been told and we're happy that that is correct information," Mr Kean said.

"There is nothing untoward, it's not drugs, we don't believe, it's not suicide, it's not murder, it's not a fight. That's what we've been told." Mr Kean said the family was shattered by the shocking news. "They're devastated and they asked me to take calls for the moment. They're just trying to come to terms with it," he said. Mr Kean said a post mortem on Mr Gately's body is expected on Tuesday and attributed the death to natural causes, but declined to give any further detail.

No Expenses Spared?

It is not just in the UK that politicians have been found to have had their snouts firmly in the expenses trough. More details about expenses incurred by Irish Politician John O ‘Donoghue have been disclosed this morning as the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker of the Irish Parliament) gives in to mounting public pressure and outrage and resigns. The news comes after considerable public outrage at an expenses scandal at another Irish Government, FAS, which say the “disgraced” chief executive leave with a Euros 1.1 million pay off and a side deal where a prestige car was secretly given to him as a leaving gift. In addition the Irish Taxpayer has been left holding a Euros 90 Bn. Bill for toxic property loans made by Irish Banks. The construction and property industries in Ireland have virtually collapsed leading to severe economic contraction and the wry joke that the children’s character “Bob the Builder” has to be renamed, he is now just called Bob. Public stoicism at the economic downturn has turned to widespread anger as the lifestyles of now bankrupt property plutocrats are laid bare and by revelations that Sean Fitzpatrick, the MD of the now nationalised Anglo Irish Bank had illegally and covertly borrowed more than 100 m Euros from the bank. He invested this in a whole rag bag of businesses including a bar in Las Vegas. He is now not paying the interest on the loan and like many of the loans made in Boomtown it is now largely irrecoverable.


John "Loadsamoney" O'Donoghue

Against this background the public has been very unforgiving as details of O’Donoghue’s taxpayer funded lifestyle have been exposed by requests under Ireland’s Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. Reports this morning say documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that Horse Racing Ireland picked up bills of more than €20,000 on behalf of ministerial delegations led by Mr O’ Donoghue to nine international race meetings between 2003 and 2007. Horse Racing Ireland is partly funded by a direct grant from the taxpayer. The latest revelation follows several weeks of Sunday newspaper articles detailing lavish expenses claims by Mr O’ Donoghue while he was Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism. The Ceann Comhairle also revealed last Friday that he has claimed more than €100,000 in expenses since taking on his new job in 2007, including more than €90,000 incurred during trips abroad.

The move comes after months of high-profile media coverage of his expenses. A total of €216,334 was claimed for expenses between June 2007 and June 2009, including about €89,000 on foreign travel. On St Patrick’s Day 2008 and 2009, Mr O’ Donoghue attended celebrations in Washington, Houston, New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston in the US at a cost of €27,074. He also spent €13,227 on flights between his constituency in Kerry and Dublin and more than €124,800 was claimed for adverts in local Kerry newspapers, phone calls and secretarial services and miscellaneous expenses. The cost of VIP lounges in Dublin and other airports such as Paris, Lisbon, Hong Kong and Singapore, totalled €4,461.


One of the Irish Government's executive jets - so handy for going to the races!

Mr O’ Donoghue claimed €3,474 for gifts while abroad - a “proportion” of which were used on the official visit, according to his record. More than €2,930 was spent on official entertainment, including €330 for a party of five at the Butte Chaillot bistro in Paris and €705 on a lunch in honour of Tourism Ireland and France Group. In a statement from the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament), a spokesman repeated earlier claims from Mr O’ Donoghue that his office should carry the same privileges as a Government minister. “Similarly, items of expenditure including use of executive facilities or security are the customary courtesies that Ireland provides whenever it hosts an incoming parliamentary delegation,” the statement said.


Butte Chaillot Bistro Paris - Good enough for an Irish Minister?

“When the Ceann Comhairle travels abroad, it is normal that arrangements made are on the recommendation of the host, giving due regard to criteria such as security and proximity to the venues or to accommodate meetings.”

Details of his claims (including reclaiming a £1.00 contribution to UNICEF) are on this excellent Irish Blog.

http://www.gavinsblog.com/

The craw thumping justification on his resignation today issued by the official Parliamentary Press Office is a worthy sick making example of the genre;

“In indicating his intention to step down from the office of Ceann Comhairle, John O’ Donoghue TD, acted in the best interests of Dáil Éireann, and the office of Ceann Comhairle. He has been a most effective and fair Ceann Comhairle who has acted with commitment and integrity to ensure that the members of Dáil Éireann could debate freely and fairly the issues of the day.”

“The Ceann Comhairle has indicated that he wishes to make a statement to the House next week, I respect his right to do that. I thank him for his contribution to this Dáil as Ceann Comhairle and I wish him well for the future.”

Or as the long suffering Irish Taxpayer would summarise it; “Good riddance to bad rubbish!”


John O'Donoghue arriving home in his Kerry constituency after his resignation to count his money.