Toys for big boys is an exhibition that runs in Dublin and very successfully too because apparently you can’t take the boy out of many of us men.

While I’m not much of a toy fan myself I have loads of buddies who’re addicted to play station games, X-box, Wii etc, yet I can’t imagine too many grown women playing the games?  I’m more of a real gadget man or an audio-video hi-fi man myself but enough about me and back to the toys for big boy’s exhibition.

This year their biggest seller was a replica toy gun, proving that many men really are no more than boys in grown up clothes.  Would you buy your husband a replica gun for Christmas or would you buy your son a doll if he asked for one irrespective of his age?  To be honest I’d have a problem if I had a son of 7 or 8 who was looking for a doll for Christmas yet it wouldn’t cost my wife a thought. 

I have in the past bought my daughter a racing car set when she asked for one and it seemed perfectly normal to me, my daughter also plays Gaelic football which was traditionally the domain of the boys. What would I do if my son were to say he wanted to join ballet, I’d let him go but reluctantly dropping him off down the road and of course if ever I had to rush off to pick him up from ballet classes, I’d probably make the excuse of having to pick him up from training!!!. 

Well technically he would be training, dance training!  So am I a bit of a hypocrite? probably but who amongst us isn’t from time to time?. 

There was a lot of arguing on my programme on 96FM this week about children and toys and particularly boys and dolls and while the vast majority of men wouldn’t dream of buying a doll for their son most women were more blasé about it. 

(The women would have us believe we have problems with our sexuality and sure maybe they’re right since they’re right about most things!!) A lot of people linked boys playing with dolls with homosexuality but I think it’s about young boys listening to their dads saying “me ol’ doll” and wanting a doll of there own to be like dad  or maybe when they see dad feeding and changing the baby  they just want to be like him too. But back to the toys for big boys it’s  not just all replica guns they’re after many of the very same fella’s who wouldn’t let their sons within an arses roar of a doll are into dollies themselves – the inflatable variety!! 

Last week I was giving out about Scrooge like traders in this city so this week I am happy to talk about Brown Thomas in Cork who’re going all out this Christmas to entertain people shopping in their store. 

Last year I was speaking on the air about a great experience I had in BT Dublin many years ago when my children were small, Santa was in the store where every child got an opportunity to talk to him and got a little gift, something like a complimentary gingerbread man in the shape of a Christmas tree. 

All of this was free while photographs, if you wanted them, were paid for as you’d expect. 

BT contacted me last year to say they were going to run with the same thing in Cork this year and true to their word they have not only produced Santa in store , but a mail box for Santa letters, clowns and face painters etc.  So well done to them for keeping their word and giving something back to their shoppers.  All we’re short now is a Christmas parade similar to the Macy’s parade in New York, BT please take note!!!  

Sad time this, with the run up to Christmas and it got me thinking of those overseas who’d love to visit home from abroad. Illegal Irish in America dare not return for the festive season because of the massive clampdown by the republicans on illegal aliens. If they came home for Christmas (or a funeral or a wedding for that matter) they’d never get back. There are numerous Irish, Cork Couples, with children who’ve still yet to see their Irish, Cork grandparents and only get to speak by telephone.  

The Irish are though returning in their droves to their native shores. Either forced to or choosing a better lifestyle for their kids. I hope it stays fine for them. A thirty something Cork girl in London told me recently that she’d love to return to Cork with her new London Hubby but wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of living here!. How things change. She doesn’t even have an Irish vote which I think is disgracefully lazy of this country.

Every Irish citizen should have a democratic right to vote, no matter where they are on the planet, yet we seem to treat non-Irish better than we do our own and I wonder will it every change.

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