Gremlin’s Fireside Chat

Coming back to Donabate from Swords Co Dublin around 14:00 when just before Newbridge demesne there was a police diversion, loads of blue flashing lights redirecting traffic down to the Turvey road.

A couple of hours later I came across this http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/1010/651435-dublin-donabate-rta/ – which was backed up from chatter down the local supermarket talking about how the Golf Club (which one there are a number here) has been robbed and in the get-away the driver plowed into an oncoming car whilst overtaking some others. Apparently there is a lot of Damage. Both Drivers had to be cut out of their respective cars … a lady had 2 broken legs was hospitalized along-side a baby or young girl. The “Get Away Driver” may have had at least one leg amputated.

Interesting times indeed in rural Ireland.

Today I lost my wallet. Don’t know exactly where, but it is was somewhere between paying for Petrol at Donabate Garage and the Aldi store in Coolock; and I am royally angry – mostly at myself. I remember paying for petrol from the wallet; I remember being in the store in Aldi and thinking “where is my wallet” and being horrified that it wasn’t in my pocket. The real fustrating thing is that it wasn’t in the car either!!! so I either dropped it when getting into the car at the petrol station, getting out of the car at the Aldi shop – or I was pick-pocketed in the Aldi shop when I got there. In any event I have lost the wallet which contained 150 euro, my credit and ATM card, my Library card, my Automobile Association card and a nice picture of my daughter. I don’t really mind loosing the money, its the inconvience of it all and the thought “where the bloody hell did I loose the wallet”.

Naturally neither the Store or the petrol station had the wallet, so its down to the luck of the draw and some one handing it in with at the local police station – not that I am going to hold my breath at that likely hood. Anyway within 90 minutes I had cancelled my ATM and Credit cards, and I don’t keep my PIN numbers in the wallet (just my head) and my driving license in the wallet either; I am not too sure if Automobile Association card had my address on it – which would have been useful for “Identity Theft” reasons. But why does it take 14 working days to get a new card to me? And why do I feel so dumb. Such is life I suppose. It’s not that I havn’t lost my wallet before (twice to my memory), but everything is based around those little bloody pieces of plastic.

Maybe I will finally get an ATM/Laser card that will work in all shops – that will be something worth waiting for.

Crikey!!! Has it been a whole month since I made a post and so much has happened. North Korea has maybe detonated a very small nuclear weapon and we are faced with a US President again with egg on his face since it proved that the Iraq war was all about OIL and little to do with weapons of mass destruction.

Any way by a round about way it brings me to the subject of this blog – the Law. Laws exist to enable a society to exist in a just and harmoneous manner where the transgressors are punished. Laws range from the minor kind – litter dropping – through to the most serious kind: murder. If you want to be part of the society you must abide by its laws or try to get them changed through democratic means.

So why do so many Irish men and women wantonly day in and day out deliberatly break the law because it does not suit them? according to the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Small Business via the Allianz insurance firm who said a total of 100,000 drivers were using the roads illegally by not having insurance!!! That is more than 2% of the population of Ireland or 6% of people driving. That is totally unbelievable. How can they get away with this. Not only is this a kick in the teeth to those of us who pay insurance, but what other crimes are they guilty of? Drink Driving, Paedophilia, Tax Evasion and maybe Murder? I remember some time back reading a book about the mayor of New York who said cracking down on petty crime reduced major crime – small time criminals evolve into major criminals.

The government needs to crack down on petty crime. Drivers who don’t have insurance or motor tax; or deliberately drive the wrong way down a one-way street. Should not only be fined, they should loose their license for a year or two and have their car put through the crusher with them forced to watch.

Schools should teach what it means to be a citizen, ethics and morals – and it should do this from primary schools. Parents must not as they seem to have of late, abdicate responsibility of installing in their children the difference between good and evil and respect for their fellow citizens. If a childs parents do not care for the society and its laws how will a child know? Mom and DAD you must lead by example; if you don’t then don’t whinge when your kids give you the finger and the state takes your liberty.