SUPERHERO

Cllr Red Mick was tickled pink at the Corpo’s endorsement of Cllr Gary O’Flynn’s (who he?) Tour of Ireland after learning that the intrepid traveller had embarked on a dizzying series of junkets in the past two months  -all in the interest of his local authority duties, of course:  a rural tourist conference in Kilkee, a local authorities conference in Greystones, a planning seminar in Tralee, and a climate change conference in Killarney. 

He needed the energy of Batman to fit in all those conferences, Mick commented, before adding that it was a pity he wasn’t seen a bit more around North Central. Ouch!

COBH GOING TO DOGS

It’s the mystery of the disappearing cats in the seaside town of Cobh.  Around forty moggies have disappeared in recent weeks -which has caused some concern to feline loving friends.  It seems a group of gougers have been cat-napping the animals, taking them to a nearby beach and letting them loose so that their pit bull terriers can tear them to pieces. The purpose is to ‘blood’ the dogs to make them into better fighters.

Presumably the birds (ornithological) are as happy as Winston Churchill would have been.  He didn’t like cats, preferring pigs.  Cats, he said, look down on us.  Dogs look up to us but pigs treat us as equals.  Kittens are nice though, he said, and children love them.  The problem is that a kitten eventually becomes a cat!

SAVING THE WORLD

Congrats to the ossifer commanding Collins Barracks, Paddy Nash. Promoted to the rank of a half general (lieutenant general) he’s off to head the EU force in  Chad and the Central African Republic where the Janjaweed Islamists have polished off about half a million people.  Accompanying him is Comdt Dan Harvey and 350 soldiers.

Not everybody is happy with the Army’s new adventure.  Sinn Fein certainly isn’t, pointing out that although agreed by the UN, the mission is NOT an EU peace-keeping one but is part of an EU Battle Group expedition that will cost E60 million annually -which the EU will not reimburse.

Added to that, they say there is very little information on the mission. Nothing much is known about the mandate, and that concerns are growing about its real aim, particularly since Chad and the Central African Republic are traditionally  French spheres of influence.

Sinn Fein says involvement in EU Battle-Groups undermines and diminishes the neutrality of the state.  They’re also worried at the lack of progress towards a political solution to the conflict.