The ever increasing amount of teenage disco’s in Cork is in itself a good thing, it gives kids the much needed outlet to enjoy good music and the social vehicle needed to mix with kids of their own age.

The downside is the ever increasing overt sexualisation of our young. Girls as young as thirteen are now dressing like young twenty something’s, in many cases with the blessing of their parents.

I accept that a large proportion of parents have no idea what their young ones get up to when they go out, but perhaps they should. On air during the week we had countless stories of very young girls dressing in low tops, short skirts or shorts, high heels and in some cases no knickers.

One excuse is that parents don’t know what their daughters wear if they are staying in a friends house or change when they leave home.

Much of this fashion influence comes from what they see and read, whether it’s their idols in the pop world, the fashion mags they read or the teenage TV programming they are watching from America and to a lesser extent the UK. Fashion trends seem to feel that it’s ok for a girl who’s just hit teens to dress as if she’s in her twenties and for me it looks sad. I had a communion and confirmation magazine delivered to me during the week and some of the photos are disturbing in my mind. Communion girls in make-up and lipstick, eye liner and low cut dress, strapless dress and hair done to the nines. They looked to me like they were mini-brides. How can we condone adults who prey on children when I’m told it’s a battle to find suitable, normal, fashionable clothing for young girls that doesn’t make them look cheap or trashy looking?

I’m worried that very young girls feel they have to push their fashion style to the limit to please the boys or indeed because they are pressurised into what the other girls are wearing.

Some are even performing sexual favours at an ever younger age, thinking it’s the norm, cool or that all the other girls are doing it, which of course they are not. Add all this to the fact that as generations pass young people act and speak in an ever older manner. I was quite shock to hear during the week for instance that the age of consent in Spain is 13.

With the ever burdening influence of the EU on Ireland what is to say that legislations won’t be uniformed all across Europe dropping Ireland’s age of consent from 17 to the same figure.

Many east European counties age is actually 14 including Austria, Hungary, Italy and Lithuania. For me, that’s disgusting. Worrying times ahead as kids rush ever faster to “grow up” and young girls continue their desperate quest to look like Britney, Rihanna, Paris, or Girls Aloud.

Visiting Cuba

What is it with me and my holidays? At Christmas time my wife gave us all a present of a two week holiday in Kenya, then all hell breaks loose there and it’s the last place on the planet anyone would want to visit for a long time, apart from Mogadishu which I’m told is the most dangerous place on the planet. So we changed it to Cuba.

Now Castro is in the news because he says, or someone does on his behalf, that he’s going to stay out of politics and no longer have involvement in running the country. Is he dying? will he die in the next few weeks,?. Has the fact that I’ve picked Cuba for me hols put a curse on the place?

I can’t wait to visit, it sounds like a very exiting and historic place. Remember this tiny Island kept the worlds greatest superpower at bay for over fifty years and to some degree is still stuck in that time warp.

The downside I’m told is poverty. Let’s wait and see. If Castro can hang in there, all the better.

C4 talk

The changing face of the Irish Landscape is also mirrored in the change face of the Irish language, or at least the way we speak it. I came across a quote during the week which described a woman who although born in inner city Dublin had an accent like she’d swallowed a teenager from Dalkey!

Down south on Leeside it’s called “C4 talk”, Cork yuppie talk. Its women who talk like, “has anybody seen moi Cor Keys?” or the younger tykes with their “I’m going doon toon”, “and I’m loike”. A recent addition of course is “Fauntostic” alongside “you must be jeoking”…….”seuper”…. and “eoh moi Gawd”……

Comments (0) »

You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.