Management of both the Cork school of music and the CIT should hang their collective heads in shame, to deny even one Cork child a chance to learn a musical instrument is a dereliction of duty, to slash entry for kids by 50% is downright despicable to say the least.

I recently visited Cuba and for all its so-called communist faults it at least entitles every single child a right to first, second and third level education, the right to learn to play an instrument and dance. They cherish and nurture their youth , we seem to regard them as a bit of a nusiance.

Look at the state of some of our primary schools and then talk about the celtic tiger era. Its hard to believe that at a cost of nearly €60 million to build the new school of music the first thing they decide to do is axe student places amoung the most important sector of its student population, its youth. Where in the name of God are the musicians of tommorow going to come from if they axe piano and violin, the two most popular instruments? The school is owned by the people of Cork, those that run it are only minding it, nothing more. Its been so for over 130 years, generation upon generation learned there. My mother had a path beaten in and out with all of us, my wife and I do the same now with our kids, as do hundreds of others.

For years parents, students and teachers alike put up with the grotty temporary loation at the old Moores hotel happy in the knowledge that what was to come was to be a state of the art facility for all the people of Cork. Is this budget tightening the real reason for the axing strategy?, surely it can't be all that hard to find €150,000 in savings. I personally thinks it's a red herring. The real strategy is to eventually eradicate all part time students from the CSM system in an effort to Posh it up and make it more "elitist". The behaviour of management is made even more scurrilous by their continued refusal to give press interviews, hiding behind one feeble excuse after the next. Mark my words, this is the start of the end, because what they axe they will never replace. Who's gonna play their 57 new Steinway pianos now?

There is an awful sense of anti-climax attached to the Euro 2008 championships, no buzz, no examples of the country coming to a stand still, a nation holding its sporting breath. No Ireland and no England has left us kinda looking on from the bench and its hard to get excited watching the rest of Europe play. Trying to ask Paddy to support the Polish team just isn't washing. It was the same for the World Cup.