07.31.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:13 pm by Sarah
Richard better watch out…Free Stater is onto him and went to the trouble of checking his blog policies to see that Richard felt quite free to disobey them. It all ends in tears when a poor sap gets fired from his job. What I’d like to know is how the woman at Udaras found out so quickly that the employee emailed Waghorne in the first place…Did Richard ring Udaras to enquire (he very carefully says he “took” a call from an Udaras woman – is she following all web links to their website on a daily basis?)
In any event poor old Ultan will be grand and Richard creates an enemy.
Can’t help but notice he calls Ms Manhattan Notes “excellent” on the 16th of July. She lobbies for his appearance on Radio 1 on July 26th. A bit slow in returning the compliment really Ms Manhattan…
Update: A little bird got in touch with me: As per Adam’s comment below Richard did indeed feel aggrieved enough to call Udaras to complain about Ultan’s horrid email (it appears they both acted in anger..we must all learn to count to 10) and Udaras took the severest view of it. Sigh – a lesson for us all. Indulging our emotions backfires in the most severe way…
Upate again: Double sigh. I don’t like this disturbance in the force. Maybe Ultan should REALLY apologise. His email was mean. And then Richard should apologise too for ringing Ultan’s employers. And publishing the email and then publishing the apology. I am sure everyone regrets their actions. At least I hope they do.
OK more updates time to let this one go Sarah: I’ve been re-reading the Sunday Independent Article. There are two points of confusion. One is did Ultan actually lose his job over the incident? The SINDO article kicks off with “A WORK-experience employee in a State agency is to leave his job after being reprimanded for sending an offensive email from a company address to an internet blog website which had criticised the use of the Irish language. ”
Which makes you believe that he got fired. But later in the article Udaras says that he was due to leave anyway…”She stated that Mr O hAoadha is to leave Udaras within the next few weeks, but insisted his departure is “nothing to do with this incident”. Udaras confirmed that the matter was brought to the attention of the body’s CEO, Padraig O hAolain, and he ordered the apology”
However, the article propagates the implication on Richard’s blog that he “took” a call rather than made one “Within hours of the mail being sent, Mr Waghorne received a phone call from a spokeswoman for Udaras, apologising for the incident and saying that he could expect an email from Mr O hAoadha in the coming hours. ”
I think Ultan should chip in somewhere and let us know if he was due to leave his job anyway. Richard should state clearly if he made the call or took the call. And he should have stated that for the paper. If he felt entitled to complain then he shouldn’t have let the SINDO article go forward implying that he hadn’t complained but that Udaras had spontaneously acted.
Final definite update: I talked to Richard. He did complain. He is sure that Ultan wasn’t actually fired for the incident. He acknowledged that he broke his own policy – that this was not conscious but an act of haste. He says that he probably wouldn’t do it again, but it’s done now.  I asked him did he want to make a new post but he doesn’t want to comment further and stands by his “the matter is closed” stance…
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Posted in Irish Politics at 9:42 am by Sarah
It’s just back to my original post. Forget the nuanced compromising political analysis. The Israelis are total bastards, end of story. And I know that there have been some criticisms of Tom McGurk recently but his show this morning has covered the Cana bombing amazingly well. Tom Clonan told the Israeli ambassador that they were engaged in ethnic cleansing. I am so glad someone said it. The ambassador’s logic was that if the people had left they wouldn’t be dying. He never managed to explain how the poor, the young and the old are supposed to leave an area where everything is being bombed.
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07.30.06
Posted in Sunday Times Columns at 10:34 am by Sarah
My occasional doubts about the wisdom of moving back to the country have vanished. The fine weather has left the young trees thirsty, but we can water guilt-free from our own well. The sun means the making of hay and early harvest are a joy for the women and children, if hard work for the men. Sandwiches are brought to the fields with flasks of tea; I proudly produce gooseberry tarts each evening. The children are ecstatic with all the activity.My businessman father can’t be got off his vintage tractors. “Old tractor as hobby” is temporarily replaced by “old tractor doing important work”. He is revitalised and filled with nostalgia for his childhood (and mine) when saving hay and harvesting crops brought a sense of achievement and relief.
Of course this flurry of farming activity is just a large-scale hobby in itself. Small farms like ours stopped paying their way a long time ago. The pretence was maintained for a while, when cheques in the post were linked to production and “headage”.
It seems such a quaint concept now. Produce sheep, cattle, milk or grain and sell it. You didn’t get an economic price at the market, but the EU topped you up depending on the numbers. The link has now been broken and the cheque in the post bears no relation to production or activity on the land. Instead it is linked to acreage. So you can go for broke and farm intensively, or take the cheque and try your hand at something else. Depending on who you believe either 40% (Central Statistics Office) or 68% (Teagasc) of farmers are ” earning “off-farm income”. In other words, a job that pays.
As well as the single-payment system there is the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme. This is 75% funded by the EU and 25% by the Irish taxpayer and its purpose is to reward those who farm in an environmentally friendly manner. Being in REPS gets you another cheque for working in a way that is at odds with economic practice.
So, herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers are banned around hedgerows and water sources and the “visual appearance” of the farm must be improved.
Since us Careys were messy farmers (you know, gates tied up with twine) improving our visual appearance has been an effort. But the results are pleasing, both to the wildlife and to us: it’s easier to open gates that hang properly. The hope is that endangered species such as the corncrake will make a comeback.
The last thing governments want farmers to do is produce something. Instead their role has become custodians of the countryside.
Last week Michael Love, a friend of my father’s and a proper farmer, harvested his oats and left a few strips for the vintage-tractor enthusiasts. My father and his friends cut the oats and bound them into sheaves with their old machines. The rest of us went for the spectacle and since the men who keep up these practices are of considerable vintage themselves, I suspect there won’t be many more opportunities.
The real farmer who facilitates this play-acting is trying to do things on an economic basis. You wonder how long he can keep it up. He asked my father to make sure the sheaves were removed quickly because the field will be ploughed up and a second crop planted next week. It’s high-risk and hard work, and while he’ll keep it going, his children hardly will. The Teagasc farm income report for 2004 showed that only 10% of farms in Ireland had an income of more than €40,000, while 40% had an income of €6,500 or less.
With numbers like this, what will the future look like? Will a big rancher buy up all the little farms when the current generation dies out? There will be efficiency and best practice and plenty of fertiliser, but no hedgerows. Maybe nobody will care. City slickers keep complaining about the farmers being paid to “do nothing” and talk about the consumer demand for organic produce. Maybe giving birds a place to nest is doing nothing, but it’s a shame not to.
Nor do we see much of this demand for organic produce. People may like organic food, but they also want it cheap. They want carrots that look big, plump and are all the same size – not skinny with the sizes mixed up. Consumers have also lost the concept of seasonality. If you want locally produced food, then you have to accept that at certain times of the year you can’t get certain products. May and June were always disastrous for potatoes. You had to wait till Easter to get the rhubarb and July to get the berries.
But people want all food all year. So supermarkets secure contracts for asparagus from Peru, where it grows all year, rather than from the local farmer who can provide it from April to June. The herbs come from Israel. The potatoes from Italy. Food production is globalised because that’s what people want. They may say it’s the result of evil governments and greedy corporations, but it’s merely supply meeting demand.
Health and safety regulations tend to be the final straw for optimistic farmers who dream of selling their produce locally. Our local black market in eggs has so far evaded the clutches of whatever agency is in charge of ensuring “safe” eggs. We buy ours in a shop where they are literally kept under the counter. They are deposited by an industrious farmer’s wife with ne’er a “best before” date in sight. My city-based in-laws are horrified and insist that we will get salmonella.
The urban-rural divide extends beyond location and psychology to food. Eventually, the hobby farmers and the people in REPS will die out. The likes of us can hold onto our large gardens or small plot of land and grow our own fruit and vegetable and swap produce between ourselves. The urban masses will buy their food in supermarkets cheap and utterly lacking in nutrition. Some farmers will earn a few quid from selling fruit and veg in markets around the country while their wives bring in real money from real jobs. In the meantime, the big guys will have to get bigger or sell up.
You just wonder how long it will take and what Ireland will look like when the hedges are gone. It won’t cost the taxpayer any money any more, but there will be a cost. I hope we are ready to pay it.
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Posted in Sunday Times Columns at 10:32 am by Sarah
So here’s the credit card bill post back. Paddy doesn’t approve 
but I will bow to popular acclaim (well, 2 or 3 comments). I posted it originally because when I read down through it I realised that everything on it was really positive (for me) and I felt very happy about my purchases. Which isn’t always the case…sometimes you resent or regret the purchases. But these were all happy. The day I wore the cheap pashmina in town was great fun. And I’d had a nice lunch the day I got the bus home. And the train ticket was to go to Inchydoney where I was treated to a long promised weekend away. And I like having a card to give someone. And the hair worked out really well. I’ve been getting it done locally for ages and it was starting to show. Anyway, you get get the drift….I am not miserable stay-at-home-down-the-cul-de-sac deprived mother. I am girl about town again. Hurrah!
Not bad this month
Tie Rack 32.95 (emergency purchase of pashmina thingy when in town on sunny but actually cold day)
Foundation 171.50 (hair salon, cut, colour and purchase of shampoo and conditioner, dear, I know but feckit. That’s for me.)
Amazon 16.73 (the nanny diaries – unread – but for research purposes)
Travel agency REFUND!! Hurrah!!! 700 (from hotel where we complained about health and safety issues)
O2 – Mobile phone bill 49.11 (have normally cut back to around 25 but some roaming charges on this one – bastards)
Bus Eireann 6.30 (Enfield to Dublin one way – bought from efficient machine in Busarus instead of queuing)
Iarnrod Eireann Heuston 90 (Dublin Cork return – City Gold on way back (no City Gold on way down – not available)
Prontaprint 133.10 Business cards! Happy purchase. I now have nice cards to hand to people with my contact details. I have no title. I am “Sarah Carey”. I didn’t know what title to put down and I said, feckit, I am me, I don’t have to be called something in addition to my name.
02 Retail – 139 – New mobile phone. Other one abused by children (my own fault) and eventually broke. I had cancelled the insurance on the bill ( SUCH a ripoff) but don’t mind new outlay. Even when you have the insurance they put you through such administrative torture to collect that it simply isn’t worth it. I have switched from motorola to Nokia tho and am having some adjusting to do with the menus..the Motorola menus were easier I think…
Superquinn – online shop 123 – again fine. Includes 8.95 delivery charge. So handy getting it delivered. Saves hours of hassle.
Sky 30.50 – yuck. Still, its the telly, what can you do…
note btw that I have the mobile and telly coming off the credit card – no charges for bill paying from a credit card…
All in all, a not unpainful bill.
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07.26.06
Posted in Feminism, Uncategorized at 3:43 pm by Sarah
Good news..
 I love that the crew who bashed the US planes got off….I used to know one of the accused, Deirdre Clancy, in college. She seemd so quiet. I love the bit of civil disobedience and the fact that the jury approved of it…I liked this detail of the plane bashing
“Evidence was given that they were shouting “some words of God” and went to the front, side and rear of the aircraft, using the items to hit the plane. They then knelt in a circle and prayed until gardaà arrived to arrest them.”
Bad news (well actually don’t really care news but observation to be made anyway)
A link from an anonymous critic. I presume this is a criticism (she/he is talking about getting new talent on the radio)
“judging by Sarah Carey, it’s not like you need any special training or anything.”
This could mean that I don’t NEED any special training cos I am inherently talented, but somehow I doubt it. It never ceases to amaze me that the critics are cowards who hide behind anonymity…so sure of themselves and their righteous views…and yet not. The most abusive comments on the blog are always made by people who to great lengths to hide their identities. The funny thing is, sometimes I get bored and would quite happily stop blogging, but then I can’t because I don’t want to please the assholes who abuse me…
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07.24.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:37 am by Sarah
A rare, rare treat on RTE Radio 1 – a wonderful and very moving interview with Roger Dowds – who won €250k on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. A half hour programme – but well worth it.
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07.23.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:54 pm by Sarah
The brother got a big job a few years back with an American company. Before the contracts were signed he presented himself for the obligatory health check-up. Being both Irish and a young man, he hadn’t the slightest concern about the procedure. He knew he was in perfect health.By the time the doctors were finished with him he’d been diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a serious disease affecting the lungs and lymph nodes. A chest x-ray showing sinister shadows on the lung also caused panic for a few days while the sometimes-fatal illness was frantically researched on the internet. Then things settled down as one fact became blindingly obvious — he wasn’t sick. His sarcoidosis hadn’t resulted in one single symptom and most likely never will.
Officially he’s diseased, but he isn’t remotely unwell. If he hadn’t gone for screening he never would have known about it.
This is the start of my column this week. I’m not printing the rest. It’s recycled stuff about prostate cancer. No point in boring my blog readers. But the sarcoidosus story is good. He thought he had Hodgkins Disease or something for a fortnight…
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07.21.06
Posted in Irish Politics at 8:41 pm by Sarah
Some conditions, but they are not in jail.
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Posted in Sunday Times Columns at 8:20 pm by Sarah
Reasonable creature linked to this article from the NYT on women who fall for the contractor. I really get this. Last week, when my painter and landscaper were here – the house was so contented. These highly capable men skillfully worked away, in relative silence, except when to respectfully seek my opinion on a matter pertaining to the project in hand. I offered refreshments frequently which they occasionally accepted or politely refused, but always very grateful. There was courtesy, productivity and mutual respect. And the painter is really cute (as the NYT writer observes: the recommendation for a contractor invariably comes with this comment).
However, the creature didn’t like the article about applying animal training practices to men. Shame on me, but I loved that article. I suppose one’s attitude to the writer’s methods depends very much on the man in your life. The creature’s husband may have arrived better trained than others….
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Posted in Sunday Times Columns at 7:07 pm by Sarah
For the last week I’ve been looking at the calendar on the wall thinking it was last week. I thought today was the 15th. I just found out its the 21st. eeek.
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