Is it time to put our house in order?

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Sunday October 01, 2006 19:53 by jim travers

Can we ignore the signals

As two countries enter the EU in 2007 are we nuturing the seeds of racial tension by opening our borders to people who wish to import their ways and culture into our society.Are we ignoring the threat of Islamic terrorism by endeavouring to be politically correct when dealing with asylum seekers, refugees and others entering this country. Is it time for change and a time to take stock of the ways in which we allow people freely enter this country?

Is it time to put our house in order?

Well after writing a nice long article about the Afghan hunger strikers in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, I was surprised to find the piece suddenly withdrawn from publication possibly because I got on someone’s goat, or possibly because the same people found it completely unacceptable to consider another opinion no matter how different it may have been to theirs. Let me get it straight here, I am not a racist, in actual fact I both work and socialise with many people from various ethnic backgrounds and to which I have a fond admiration and likeness. That does not take away the fact that I have an opinions I need to air about issues that affects both myself and the country I live in. We seem to be hell bent on facilitating others with our new found political correctness that compels our people to be silenced of any criticism, discussion or debate that questions anything to do with anybody entering our country. First up are the accusations of racism or biased against non-nationals that in turn forces us to change our opinions, criticisms and concerns to one of keep quiet for fear of the situation being turned onto one’s self. We now have a situation in the United Kingdom where a government minister while attending a community centre in London as recently as Tuesday 19th September was heckled and asked why he was visiting a Muslim area. We now seem to have in England various ethnic groups of people who wish to establish their own state, their own laws and be answerable to their own religious clerics rather than to the rule of law within the country they reside. They fly a flag that symbolises their allegiance to their country of origin, as they import and attempt to force upon people of that country a culture, religion and way of life that is alien to the vast majority of citizens of that country. England has been turned upside down after sowing the seeds many years ago of ethnic and cultural tension that has eventually resulted in conflict. Here in Ireland we are sowing the same seeds without giving any real concern as to the consequences such actions have to both our people and the people who come into the country to make a new life and contribute to the wealth of the country.

England was a colonial power whereby the vast majority of people entering the country did so due to the fact that they held British passports and were citizens of the British commonwealth and who therefore had a right to travel anywhere within that commonwealth .It was also a time when the then Conservative government seized on the opportunity to import cheap labour for the British economy by providing the same people with accommodation and access to British welfare services. It was a God sent for British businesses who could employ human working machines with no trade union representation that was backed up and supported by a conservative government. Listening to the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, I wonder what do conservative supporters see in a party that is hell bent on stripping away everything working people have fought for over many years.
Is Fianna Fail trying to mirror image the old Conservative ideologies of them and us, rich and poor division and divisive. Martin Cullen wants to break up our public transport system instead of improving it. He wants to involve the private sector when it has been proved that the private sector cannot provide the public with a comprehensive transport service that spans all social groups without the heavy burden of extreme financial subvention by the taxpayer. If the government thinks it is paying CIE far too much through state subvention for the provision of public transport then it better be prepared for what the private sector will ask once the state bodies are laid to rest. And this is right across our public services. Politicians have really no interest in people, if this is incorrect, then they should realise that they had over eighty years to fine tune public services for the benefit of the people. It’s as simple as this, let the public service go into disrepair so that the introduction of the private sector can be fully supported by the public, until the day the public realise they were taken for fools but unfortunately the private sector has entwined itself in the public system which makes the restoration of public control of state services an impossibility. Look at England.

If Bertie can secure an alleged 13 year loan and then, when found out offer to pay it back with interest or when numerous politicians can be hauled before the Mahon Tribunal and found guilty of corruption, can we really believe that the actions taken by our political representative are totally and completely in the interest of all the Irish people. Its another Irish joke when the leader of the country can go on state television, write his own agenda, pick his own interviewer and then cry to the nation that he FORGOT, “I am an accountant, I checked it out” safer you get another accountant to balance your books. Is this the same crying Bertie who told Joe Higgins to go away to his little small and insignificant corner of public representation or is it the same Bertie who throws a plastercast smile at everybody as he mutters similar words once caught on microphone of George Bush senior at the people around him. Bertie should go, he was caught doing what his political colleagues have been doing for years and are now being marched into a tribunal. So long as the tribunal is costing the state vast sums of money then all the political representatives will go home with a knowledge that the only punishment they will receive for their corruptive actions against the people will be a slap on the hand, a state pension and welcomed spell out of public life in order to spend their ill gotten gains. The same scum bags and their business friends and colleagues sacked and destroyed the livelihoods of many employees whose only crimes were to take home trinkets from the workplace. Can we really trust our political representatives and has our electoral system been made a laughing stock by the sheer long standing scandals of political corruption that appears to make nonsense of voting the right people to lead our country?

When politicians say they are improving the health service, are we right to ask for who? When they juggle and rejuggle our education system can we really be sure that the people whose interest they say they have at heart are the same people who need and yearn for a better education, free from the financial pressures that deter their chance of a proper education. When our politicians blatantly and without any consideration for the consequences of such action open the flood gates to anybody who wants to enter our country, are they really looking to our people, our children and the overall health of the nation. Is capitalism overcoming our national interests that cherish the wellbeing of all the Irish people over the gains and greed of the few. When a minister says he or she is doing something in the interest of the public and the security of value for money for the taxpayer you can rest assure that his or her own pocket somewhere down the road will be lined with the financial gains provided by the corporate sector for service rendered in the past. In Bertie’s case he took an advanced payment and forgot that it was only a loan. Let’s all forgive him and go back to paying our bin taxes, car taxes and all the other taxes that condemn us all to the boarders of the poverty line. Let us all forgive Bertie and accept that he was in serious financial difficulty at that time. God protect and help the vast majority of the people of this state who rely on a week’s wages just to keep above the bread line. Politicians make me sick to know that despite all the wrong doing they have carried out over many years they get off scot free with their pleas of SORRY as you and I are hauled into courts and subjected to Stalinist treatment by local authority for not paying our bin taxes or other trivial problems that really affect nobody other than the financial gains of authority. So what about our immigration policies, are politicians really doing things in our interests?

While not being a fond supporter of George Bush, one must find some belief in his words and then shudder to think that if the same Islamic doctrine was forced upon the people of the western world through fear, intimidation and the racist card of silencing constructive objection, concern and opposition to the spread of such fascist nonsense then democracy as we know it will cease to exist.

Racism to me is a word that is used and manipulated by people in order to silence opinion and debate. We see it every day of the week when the racist card is used again and again and again. Even the Gardai are subjected to the accusations of being racist because they pulled over a non-national and ask to see some identity. Have you ever encountered a white person use the race card if something is not of their liking? Why does racism seem only to affect the vast majority of people of African origin? Why do they use the same card at every opportunity as if we as Irish people owed them a debt that should be paid by our silence? Why do we not appear to be subjected to the same screams from members of the Chinese community or others who mingle among us but find no reason to take the race card out in defence of their actions? I seen a bus driver being accused of being a racist because he informed the person boarding the bus that the buggy (miniature people carried) she was pushing, was far too big to be allowed onto the bus, compounded by the fact that the lower saloon of the bus was packed with people. It’s gone too far; we are slowly being stripped of our unique Irish identity and a culture that has been our trademark throughout the world. Fianna Fail (the Republican Party) in collaboration with their PD buddies has done for Ireland what the British could not do in over 300 years and the Provisional IRA could not prevent in over 30 years. They have diluted our national identity, condemned our language to extinction and led us to a situation where we will eventually become immigrants within our own country. The true picture of the EU is now being expose for what it is, it is a power hungry, nation swallowing empire which is in continued expansion that will eventually lead to its own destruction. Where nations found conflict with one another the EU will develop itself as a power block that will challenge and nuture conflict with other carved up power blocks in the world.

At the best of times the same people who scream and demonstrate for an individual’s rights and freedom of speech are the same people who stifle the same rights and freedoms of others when some opinion that is aired is not of their liking; this in itself promotes and encourages division. There is only one race on this tiny planet we live on and that’s the human race. Black, white, yellow or red, we all breathe the same air, we all have a life to live, we will die, and the vast majority of us will be forgotten with the passing of time. We are being asked at the best of times to make our opinions known in a manner that dilutes our ability to express our inner thoughts which in itself should be viewed in a far better light than the other extreme option of physical conflict.

When Mohammad was depicted in a French newspaper as carrying a bomb on his head, the whole Muslim world when into a frenzy of rage, threats of destruction on any country or individual who should dare make any comment about their prophet from history. We now find the Pope is entangled in their frenzy of rage and hate because of a quotation he used from a long forgotten era. It appears on the face of it, that if anyone as much as mutters a questioning word about Mohammad then that person runs the risk of cooking up the ingredients that give these Muslim clerics the God given right to declare a Jihad on anybody they feel deserves it. It’s laughable, these people live, work and accept the various advantages of living in an open western society but at the same time are sitting, waiting and slowly nurturing among their own people a sense of conflict that is promoted in the name of Mohammad and packaged under the brand name of Islam. Let us be very clear about this, Islam is not compatible with western society. Western society is everything Islam and the Muslim religion finds direct conflict in the ways in which our society operates. Look at Mohammed Hamza when treatened with deportation from the UK, fought and cried to remain within it. But this same scumbag preached and encouraged others to commit acts of violence against the British people as he queued up to collect his social welfare payments from a people he despised. Hello Ireland, be prepared for the day when the same scum will occupy our land and who will find the support and backing from the do-gooders when an Irish government says enough is enough you have to go. And be prepared for the day when the supporters of these bigoted clerics come out in force on the streets of Dublin or Cork and proclaim the Irish people as racists and infidels.

Muslim women are second class citizens within Islamic states but at the same time intermingle in a western society that enables them to be first class citizens if only their religion allowed it to happen. Religious clerics dominate individual’s lives in their quest for power and authority. The Taliban is clear evidence of the religious fascist control that was held over anybody who came within its grasps. Women denied an education or their right to free speech, as the same religious clerics lived in relative luxury compared to the people they imposed their will upon. But the Muslim women of western societies who stroll around our countries like ghosts devoid of any physical human appearance are the same women who opt for a western society to live, and shrug the thought of returning to a society where they are not even seen as ghosts. Islam is a Twenty First Century version of the Catholic religion of over two hundred years ago and possibly more. When a religion can justify the beheading of an individual because the religious cleric’s decide that the same individual may have offended Mohammad or Islam, it is evidently clear that a religion like this should be got rid of as soon as possible.

Listening to Kevin Myers on Newstalk 106 the other day, I sat in wonder as to why the vast majority of Irish people cannot recognise the direct threat to both themselves and their families by the sheer medieval thinking of people who appear to reject the age of the 21st Century and live for a time when any form of basic humanity was placed in the hands of a God, through the earthly work of his followers, in upholding the nonsense of Islam and the manner in which those followers have interpreted it. Mohammed was illiterate and passed all his words to his alleged loyal followers who then wrote those words on paper which low and behold became the Koran. How could Mohammed be sure that his followers were not including their own thoughts or a combination or all thought that produced a glossy follower’s handbook? If he was illiterate then one thing is sure, he was at a huge disadvantage and most certainly a prophet with a far greater reliance on others than with the help of God. But Islam is only one religion with a questionable dubious background; Catholicism is another whose history seems to hold the age long belief that the maiming and slaughter of God’s children is the best means of pleasing God. When you look at religion throughout the time of human existence, it appears that more innocent people died at the hands of their religion, than were saved for the glory of God.

Heaven be praised, the Islam Council of Ireland accepts the Pope’s apology, but why should they say any different when they can quietly spread their word in a country that is as open to infection as a serious wound is to your health. We must recognise a number of simple truths.

1. Islam to Muslim’s is the true faith, all others are worshipers of false Gods
2. Western ways and ideologies are foreign and harmful to Islam
3. The Koran is the law which is above all other laws of a democratic country.
4. Democracy is a no go word within Islamic countries
5. A country, its people and the people’s government will suffer the wrath of Islamic retaliation should it criticises, questions or spread doubt as to the legitimacy of Islamic
beliefs.
6. Western society abolished beheading, hanging and stoning as a means of punishment or revenge, but Islamic countries carry out these inhumane atrocities as an afternoon leisure pursuit for all the family.

Look at our television pictures every night of the week as Islamic fanatics (in their millions) scorn death and destruction on all of us. Are we safe, are we immune from direct attack, are we helping to bring direct conflict to our people by allowing a religion and its followers who see our presence as not being compatible to their way of life and beliefs, actively mingle among us.

So what do we really want in our western society? George Bush has made his feelings and beliefs clear and for that he go his own tailored made Jihad. Tony Blair made his feelings known and a Jihad befitting him was placed upon his head. And what if our own Taoiseach or President makes a comment that is in the interest of the Irish people but finds offence among bigoted power hungry Islamic clerics and their followers, do we all bow to their sensitivity and start pleading for forgiveness or do we wait for dissatisfied Islam youths to conger up plans to place bombs on buses or in public places because they found offence with our cherished freedom of speech and our way of life?

The Irish people have a clear choice; there is no half way solution to a problem that threatens our very existence. We cannot have a rule of law for one because of their religious teaching and a rule for everybody else. If you or I went into a department store dressed up with only a peephole to see out of, we would be quickly escorted out of the store. If we went to an Islamic country we would be subject to their strict laws and dress code that infringe or basic human rights. When our female citizens land in an Islamic state they automatically become second class citizens and two steps behind their male counterparts. We are forced to comply with Islamic law or face the consequences. There again when a shrouded figure enters a women’s toilet can we really be sure that there is really a woman behind the the cover that obscures a face from the rest of the world. Well can we? On the other hand we have motor cyclists being compelled to wear crash helmets for safety purposes while others are allowed to wear their turbans because of their religious beliefs. There are too many exemptions for individuals allowed in our rules and regulations that in turn make the same rules and regulations questionable and open to criticism as to the logical reasons attached to their enforcement if individuals or groups can avoid compliance. This was also seen with the compulsory use of seat belts as taxis were made exempt from this rule. In other words you and I are safer by using our seat belts but taxi drivers do not have accidents that warrant similar compliance. We now find taxi drivers having to use seat belts by law, with no inconvenience present (despite objections from taxi unions) in the use of such belts. So why the exemption in the first place, why open a debate where other road users seen this exemption as dancing in the face of logic? And it goes on and on and on and on and on.

And then we had Northern Ireland where racial and religious tension brought carnage and hatred between two communities who shared the island of Ireland for such a long time.
Don’t forget, when the Provisional IRA planted bombs their volunteers went home to marvel at the destruction they forced upon innocent people, but Islamic terrorists are a far more deadly force to reckon with because they don’t want to see the carnage they have caused they just want to take as many innocent people with them for their cause. It is this that makes their presence in England or Ireland for that matter, a far more frightening threat than that of the Provisional IRA. And to hell with the do-gooders, I’ll sit and watch and be very wary of a bearded individual with a holdall sitting close in my presence, just in case. I do not want to say hello to God just yet and I most certainly do not want to see innocent people all around me, have their lives cut short because some minority group screams loud enough for politicians to crumble under the pressure of political correctness and allow all these sicko religious fanatics walk among us. Ireland firstly belongs to the Irish people, we welcome people into our country to be part of our country and we do not ask nor do we wish for those people to bring their country to us. If they want to be part of Irish society they should adopt to Irish society and Irish ways and culture. When you think of all those sorry individuals like Pearce and Connolly who gave their lives for the alleged Irish freedom and the break from the old enemy England, it’s laughable to see that Ireland is more English now than it ever was before. Our so called Fianna Fail (the Republican Party) quickly forgot the so called aspirations of the Irish people once the Celtic tiger came and big bucks could be made for those who allegedly had the interests of the Irish people in their hearts and minds.

So as not to appear to be anti anybody or heaven forbid have this article pulled off the air, I will refrain from questioning the representative clout of organisations such as residents against ****** who proclaim that they speak on behalf of the vast majority of people in resident associations or the country for that matter. The vast majority of people know absolutely nothing about this organisation; I don’t, so why do we censor anybody who questions it? We are systematically being silenced in airing our opinion on issues that affect both our short and long term concerns on every aspect of Irish tradition and culture that we have fought over hundreds of years to protect. Our political representatives failed over very many years to resolve the problems in Northern Ireland which has caused so much heartache, pain and a tragic loss of innocent lives. We now find that we are importing into the country vastly different cultural ways and beliefs without first solving our own internal problems, thereby laying the groundwork for tension and conflict in the future. We opened up the country without any consideration or a clear understanding of what we were about to do, the long term implication of such a move combined with no clear and positive procedure in the application processing of those who wished to enter the country.

We have allowed a small minority of do-gooders to voice their demands based on what they think the Irish people want and need. We now find we have people in the country we know absolutely nothing about, their backgrounds or their true objectives in living and working with people who have invited them into their country to become part of it.. We have a massive immigration problem that is slowly feeding like a cancer and spreading itself throughout the country. The problem we have here is that decent and honest people who came into the country to make a new life and contribute to the prosperity of the country are now finding themselves alienated because they are all being tarred with the same brush. The state has failed to protect both the cultural and traditional interests of the Irish people, their way of life and the uniqueness associated with the Irish people and country. The state has allowed an influx of people into the country in order to protect the Celtic Tiger which will eventually, in turn, cause our own people to take the same boats and planes they took many years ago. The government argument is that we need more people in the country in order to keep the economy moving, this is factually correct. It is a problem that bedevils the Capitalist system and just like locusts it moves on when its feeding has left behind it a barren waste. What the state fails to say is that we do not need nor want (wage costs/union memberships) Irish people to come back and keep the machine going, instead it wants low paid, twenty four hour, work under any condition workers from Eastern block, Asian and third world countries. The state is even prepared to house and pay those entering the country that includes the provision of benefits that are means tested for all Irish citizens but handed to those entering the country as refugees, asylum seekers or whatever. If the vast majority entering the country came in as refugees or asylum seekers, they quickly established themselves by displaying their wealth for everyone to see. It’s the same old story, in order to keep wage costs down for employers; the state provides the other necessities that enable an immigrant person to stay in the country. We can see it today where foreign workers are displacing young second and third level students out of summer jobs, right across the economy. Time was, when the same school goers could secure the part-time summer job in order to give them both work experience and a small income to enable them to purchase their books and other school necessities. Bob Dylan was right when he said
“For the times they are a changing”.

So let’s get back to the hunger strike.

We have seen what happened with 9/11 in America and the bombings in London. Does anybody honestly believe that Dublin will be immune from such an attack and does anybody not realise that Ireland could be used in order to launch an attack on our nearest neighbour, which in turn will bring Irish/British relation back to the days when we were all lined up at boat or airport terminals, searched and left to wait for hours before we got our connecting transport. We have people in the country who know nothing about Irish affairs, are not interested in Irish affairs and could not give two damns about Ireland other than what they can take from it. Remember when we were all told to tighten our belts, well now we have credit cards that give us the impression that all is well.

Remember the bad old days when we were taxed to the hilt, suddenly the economy improves and the state is awash with money, but what does our political representatives do, they systematically destroy the public health service, make education a financial headache for all our children, make the cost of life saving drugs for any citizen impossible to purchase and forget to reintroduce for all primary school children a sandwich and milk that was taken away from them during the bad old days of government cuts. Law and order, like speed cameras, will be franchised out to private companies who will make the service available to the public at a price. We see it every day of the week where our government is completely out of contact with the aspirations and needs of the people. Governments do not work in the interest of the people, they serve a state that is an entity onto itself and to which it sustains itself on the sweat and blood of the people it is suppose to be made up of.

The American authorities pay special attention to anybody entering their country and that includes their all loving Uncle Sam Irish travellers who feel such a part of the American dream that they nearly class themselves as belonging to an overseas state that was left off the American flag. But still the Americans take no chances, and rightly so. The French provided the waiting sites for anybody wishing to enter the United Kingdom or make their way to Ireland, but let it be known that asylum seekers and others were not welcome to stay as permanent residents in France. Asylum seekers pass through all the European countries only to claim asylum in a country at the furthest point away in the European Union. And when those who were declared unsuitable to stay in Ireland because of various reasons, are detained and await deportation, once again the people who least represent the vast majority of Irish citizens are out protesting, blockading and attempting to force upon this country, people who were deemed unsuitable to stay.

The Americans are right when they seek information from European governments about people travelling into their country. What we have once again in Europe, is a European Community that is unwilling to impose the same information requirements on the Americans as the Americans have placed on Europeans. There again, you cannot criticise the Americans for their actions, if Europe is unwilling to take similar action then that is Europe’s problem. I would rather stand for five hours in an airport departures lounge rather than step on a plane with a feeling that the authorities have compromised security in an effort to get me in the air as quickly as possible. And then we have the screamers who go on and on and on about the carrying of identification cards. Listen I am obliged to carry identity information at all times, it’s called a driving licence. Young people need to carry Garda identification cards if they want to have a drink. When you book a flight or order something over the internet we indirectly provide information, so what is all this nonsense about. It’s as simple as this, people with something to hide need and wish to hide their identity. Those who oppose the requirement of identification are the same people who indirectly promote and encourage people to enter countries illegally as they use the legal system in that country to prolong their stay. I do not see the religious do-gooders and their fellow conspirators dancing and screaming for the welfare and security of our children in care, our elderly and our people with disabilities. Oh no, they scream and protest about prison camps on the far side of the globe while our political leaders squander the financial resources of the Celtic Tiger that could improve the health and education needs of all our people.

Some people many years ago argued, protested and voiced loud noises in the United Kingdom in support of asylum seekers but the same people can now be found in nice quiet, out of the way Irish country style houses far away from the problems associated with suburbia and multi racial problems. People from Commonwealth countries who move to England had a natural right to travel and reside anywhere they so pleased within the United Kingdom. What we now find is, that Ireland is assuming a role of a colonial power that feels obliged to open its border to whomever wishes to enter it.

The asylum protest in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral has shown us that we are unprepared and completely open to abuse and manipulation by anybody who wishes to use the words democracy, rights, racism, justice and equality for their own personal reasons and purposes that compels others to accept their own desires. It also show us that the same people who made their Patrick’s cathedral protest are the same people who were granted asylum status despite the previous ruling of the immigration authorities. Typical Irish political manoeuvring, push it under the carpet, wait a little while, grant the do-gooders their wish in order to quieten things down and then tell the Irish people the issue was resolve to everybody’s mutual satisfaction. And the illegal’s come into the country in the knowledge that forceful protest works a treat in Ireland. We have areas in Dublin where an Irish person’s presence in certain shops is met with the comment “we do not sell anything you might want”. We have also seen in Dublin where a young girl wearing a mini-skirt was refused to be served because her dress was not acceptable to the religious beliefs of the owner. You have banks and government departments insisting that motor cycle helmets must be removed before one can enter a building but still there are people who enter the same premises shrouded in cloth with nothing more than peephole to see out. Do you honestly believe these people are not capable of carrying out crimes against society? How do you know that the person in the shroud is a man and not a woman? We do not. Think about that the next time you go to the toilet or fit on a new dress. When western citizens go to Middle Eastern countries they are embroiled in rules and regulation that affect their individual freedom and rights. Women stand one step behind the men and are seen more than heard. In western society we compromise our freedom and rights so that we can accommodate other cultures and beliefs but we must conform totally to their ways and beliefs. Could you say a decade of the Rosary in the middle of a street in any Middle Eastern country………fool if you say yes. But Muslim clerics and their followers pray in a show of open religious defiance and insensitivity for the vast majority of the people in the United Kingdom. Do we want to see this on the streets of Dublin, Cork or Galway?
How can you promote integration, if integration when attempting to break cultural barriers finds no religious acceptance within certain cultures?

This is not a cry of war or an effort to encourage racial tension. It is an open opinion that seeks constructive comment on an issue that is around us every day of the week and is being suppressed in every possible way under a banner of racism, incitement to create racial tension or whatever. People in England quietly speak in whispers about their concerns. Political party’s like the British National Party are slowly recruiting into their ranks people who have lived a life of silenced opinion in a politically correct society of what is acceptable to say and what is not. This is a very dangerous development and should not be allowed to develop in Ireland purely because the desire of one small group is to quieten the opinions of a larger one. We must all respect each others opinions no matter how different they may be to our own.

What we have done is that we have sown the seeds of future racial tension by not helping immigrant people to integrate fully and in small groups within our society. We have allowed into the country groups who cannot live with one another never mind within an Irish society. We have not learned from Northern Ireland and we have not learned from the experiences gained from those living in the United Kingdom. We need a multi-cultural society where people can live in peace and harmony with one another and free from fear. We have done absolutely nothing to encourage the transition from a country that was once on its knees to a country awash with money and a haven of opportunity for economic migrants who viewed our welfare system as manna from heaven.

We just opened our gates and let everybody in. No proper controls, no effective border policing. We now find everybody and anybody who met the criteria as refugee or asylum seeker now carrying social welfare cards, free bus passes, health board subsidised accommodation and all the other benefits that native Irish people have to satisfy the authorities under a means test system. People are entering this country with criminal backgrounds that cannot be checked through standard police checks. People are claiming asylum, being granted asylum and then using that status to haul in many others by providing them with accommodation and assistance in order to abuse the system they see as ripe for the picking.

We have all heard and laughed at Irish jokes, English jokes or whatever, but then someone decides to complain that they are offended and suddenly we all have to stop laughing at ourselves because someone in the audience decided he or she wanted to stop jokes. Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. We now cannot tell a black and white cat joke because the owner of a black cat thinks the joke is offensive to owners who own black cats….aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

No wonder we are becoming a race of come and go humourless beings, comedians are afraid to tell jokes for fear of being hauled into court. We sit on the internet for hours passing jokes from one to the other and laughing our heads off with nobody around to share the experience with, except the cat or dog. Brendan Grace, Sil Fox all gone, run out of the country because their kind of humour, that entertained thousands of people over many years was suddenly halted by yet more do-gooders. No wonder anti-social behaviour is on the increase, we have thrown away the relief valve that allowed us to humour ourselves out of the rigours of life. The social interaction of married couples with children is becoming a thing of the past. Local pubs throughout the country were great venues for social gathering where husbands, wives, friends and neighbours could come together for a chat and a sing song. After an afternoon’s GAA match or a soccer match in Bushy park or the 40 acres in the Phoenix Park, young men and women would all gather in their local pub for a chat and a laugh that sometimes ended up in a sing song, as the publican pleaded with the customers to stop singing because he did not have a suitable licence. Remember when the local Gardai walked into the pub and the rush was on to move out as the jokes went flying around and the sergeant grinned and smiled as he ushered everybody to the door. All good harmless fun and all gone by the wayside. Or what about all the non-drinkers who sat in the company of others just for the atmosphere, companionship and friendship, all gone.

We sold green grass to the Americans as a way of enticing them to holiday in Ireland. When we got them here we provided them with our Irish charm and wit. We threw in the Guinness and the shamrock as our symbols of being Irish and we promoted Ireland as being a mystical, peaceful and beautiful land, different to anywhere else in the world. Now we find Ireland has its own little Nigeria, little China, little Pakistan and Turkey, as the uniqueness of Ireland is diluted and swamped in a sea of foreign nationals importing their own cultures that brings their native country to the heart of another.
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What have we got now? Wit is now illegal, it might offend someone. You need to know sign language if you want to order a Guinness in a pub or hotel. The friendly Irish staff has now been replaced in shops, restaurants and hotels by low paid foreign workers who struggle to understand what you are saying. The streets in our capital city and neighbouring areas now look like streets in any other country in the European Union, tacky, glossy and void of identity. The rest are cluttered with shops, which display signage in languages we don’t understand or cannot find someone to explain the meaning of the language. Sure you could go into a shop for a chicken curry and come out with a pair of Pakistani shoes. Irish people don’t want the work so we have to hire foreign workers…..such nonsense. Irish workers are not prepared to work twenty hours a day for two Euro an hour and sleep 10 to 15 at a time in a bedroom provided by very many of our so called proud three, four and five star hotel owners. Enter the foreign workers who are prepared to work for pittance so that they can send something home to their families. So where have all our patriotic Irish employers all gone to, when it comes down to looking after their own fellow citizens and people. Like the potato famine it was not the lack of potatoes that starved our people to death, it was our own bloody capitalist Irish citizens that shipped the other food out of the country so that profit could be made on the backs of our own starving people

Temple Bar is supposed to be styled on traditional Irish bars. This is so far from the truth that one beggars to believe how Irish people prior to the success of the Celtic Tiger managed to accumulate such wit and good nature under the deafening noise of musical instruments that could be heard half way around the country never mind within the walls of the Temple Bar charade. Everybody sitting looking, listening and then during a short break, breathing inwards in order to get some air and possible a quick chat before the noise starts all over again. These are not traditional Irish pubs………..nowhere…….not in Ireland….so what are they promoting?

Again, you would be very privileged to see a coloured person or a foreign national enjoying a pint and a chat in any local pub. They do not want to integrate, well, if there is anything to be gained other than social interaction, well possibly but on the whole the connections are not to be made or promoted. Like the Scots we are a race of people who enjoy social interaction that traditionally involved a drink, a chat and a song. The pubs are being torn down as they make way for apartment blocks where people live and exist in a world of isolation, filled with their own self generating mode of entertainment that is shared with nobody and lost in the noise of electronic sound. Life in Ireland is not the same and possibly will never be the same again. Our young people see entertainment as starting by getting drunk and then being deafened with enough sound so that conversation is not allowed to mature to any reasonable level of interactivity.

Bottles and empty cans of beer now replace the ice pop sticks and chip bags that once made Dublin a dirty city in the 70s and 80s. One wonders have we improved the visual image of the city by replacing the dirt of paper waste with the dirt of drunken louts who use the city as a giant beer can waste recycling bin, as the side streets are used as convenient outdoor urinals by all. Gardai stop vehicles on open empty dual carriageway roads for driving 10kph(6mph) over the speed limit as taxi drivers flout every rule of the road under the sparse but watchful eyes of the Gardai in city centre. Clambrassil Street is a typical example of a street that was bustling with local social interactivity, a host of pubs and clubs where local residents could gather for a drink and a chat. Today we have shops with funny names, kebab shops and Asian takeaways. Internet café’s where the owners struggle to answer simple questions or use the “Don’t understand “in order to shrug you off. Everything is come in “pay up” and get out. No more “how’s it goin” nice day, nice night in the shops, just in out gone.” Jesus that’s a terrible bad day” ye, and by the way twenty Euro for petrol. I think its down for the day, ye looks bad, lets home tomorrow picks up. All gone, pump three, twenty Euro please, ring ring and out you go. I went into a shop in Clondalkin village that sells African foods only to find the owner looked at me as if I had just landed in a space ship from mars. Now in this shop your colour does not warrant your presence in the shop. In a Pakistani or Indian shop beside the Steering Wheel pub you can go in once you are fully prepared to buy but not browse. If you are not prepared to buy then they will do their utmost best to make you buy or a worse follow you around so the discomfort of someone behind you eventually makes you walk out. And this is also present in many other shops throughout the city. The once famous dealer market of Moor Street is now occupied by shops that deter the vast majority of people from entering. It is nice to have a thick creamy soup to enjoy, but once you start adding more and more water to that soup then the quality and flavour of the soup diminishes to point where it becomes unpalatable. This is what we are doing to Irish society and it is what France is trying desperately to avoid and to which England has succumb to.

We have been warned by the bearded religious fanatics in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq that our country is indirectly open to attack from within by those who support Islamic beliefs even onto death. It is time we took stock of the way in which we allow people to enter our country, as it is foolish to believe the myth that when Irish people had to go abroad for a living, they were openly welcomed into the host country under any circumstance When the Irish went to other countries they were not given the luxury of state help that encouraged them to sit at home and read newspapers. They worked for a living and helped build the countries they adopted as their own. When the two new accession countries enter the EU in 2007 we better be prepared for a further dilution of our national identity as once again our welfare system will be swamped with applicants who will find a better life in Ireland using the benefits of that system. And when the Celtic tiger falls and crumbles, the Irish people will be left to pick up the cost of failed political action in helping to stem the tide of asylum, refugee and migrant economic workers who will move like locusts onto greener pastures as Ireland is left barren and void of financial security in order to protect its own people from the scourge of exile.