2007 July archive at Tims Times

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Archive for July, 2007

Wexford Win

Published July 29, 2007 in Sport, Hurling and Wexford. 0 Comments

Wexford Logo
Tipperary will be wondering what happened yesterday in Croke Park but Wexford showed that they have some powder left in their arsenal. Damian Fitz with that huge boss on his hurl buried the ball in the Tipp net from a free and the Munster boys couldn’t make it back again. After being beaten badly by Kilkenny it isn’t any surprise that Wexford came out gunning for glory against Tipp.

The celebrations in Wexford were loud and even though it was lashing rain you couldn’t stop the fans from screaming and shouting, I heard every song from “Rhinestone Cowboy” to “Swing Low Sweet Chariots” and the inevitable “Boolavogue” and “The Boys of Wexford” all murdered by the same gang of Purple and Gold clad fans, it all descended into a pseudo rebel song session with a few Elvis and Abba numbers thrown in and “The Fields of Athenry” and “The Green Fields of France” chorus sung over and over and whatever other songs they could remember, I don’t recall hearing the “Sash” however!

I’m still unsure about the Pikeman logo on the jersey, all very well and good evoking the fighting spirit of the past, and all that, it may be better than the old one, I don’t know if I like it yet. Maybe if we win a few more matches I’ll like it better, it could grow on me!

However not to put a dampener on it like the rain tried last night Kilkenny made no mistakes in the last 10 minutes of their game against Galway . Kilkenny crippled Galway with a give away goal from Eddie Brennan, jaysus lads you can’t be doing that sort of thing, leaving Eddie Brennan un-marked, you know he will ruin your day. From then on then it was all Kilkenny. Hopefully there will be no repeat of our last outing against Kilkenny when we meet them in the All-Ireland semi.

Up Wexford.

Hyper Gaelicization

Published July 27, 2007 in Ireland, Irish and Politics. 1 Comment

Roadsign from early on in the history of the state of Ireland. English versions of place names and their re-gaelicized or gaelicized versions.

I have even seen an angicized version of a name which was gaelicized into the literal version of the already anglicized Irish name, completely mental, a bit like ” an raibh sé tobair?” as the Irish for “was he well?”

From Wikipedia
“Today, Gaelicization is more often a pro active or deliberate process, particularly present in Ireland, whereby placenames, surnames and given names are Gaelicized, or more often, re-Gaelicized, in order to prevent the further decline of the modern language.”

From Douglas Hyde
“how it continues to apparently hate the English, and at the same time continues to imitate them”
and also from Douglas Hyde
“If Irishmen only went a little farther they would become good Englishmen in sentiment also.”

You might think that the 2 statements from Douglas Hyde were recent but Douglas Hyde was the first President of Ireland, he delivered his speech about “The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland” in 1895, he would surely be stunned at the development of modern 21st century Ireland, I read in the Indo the other day that an MP was calling for an invitation for Ireland to rejoin the Commonwealth

Where will it all end?

Bullring Wexford

Published July 22, 2007 in Stout and Wexford. 4 Comments

Back in Wexford for a few days, the first of which we went for a stroll along the narrow main street in the town. In the Bullring stands the Pike Man as a memorial to the failed 1798 rebellion of the United Irishmen, in Wexford there was some success at the time but in the end the whole rebellion was crushed. This statue was erected in 1905, in 1998 they redecorated the place, they weren’t finished in time, as one of the lads said at the time, “it’s not as if they didn’t know it was coming 200 years after the event should have been enough time” but hey it’s Ireland. These days the Bullring has a steady trade of alcoholics and is usually decorated with empty Dutch Gold cans until they get cleaned up. The punters in the Cape bar amuse themselves by superglueing a €2 coin on the footpath and watch passers by try and pick it up, eventually some one smart comes with a sharp instrument and removes it. But it is funny to watch some poor unfortunate bend down and try to pick up a coin that won’t come up, then the loud shouts from the bar and banging on the window, you’ve been framed and candid camera have nothing on this crack! The pub features in Lenny Henry’s documentary “Lenny’s Britain”, wrong country Lenny.

A real live pike from 1798, the Bullring was used as an armaments factory for the rebels and this pike head lives in the vicinity still. I had the thing in my hand, a fair weapon but fairly useless against cannons and muskets. The Swiss Guard that swan around the Vatican have something similar, hopefully they have a plain clothes unit with more modern weaponry.

The pints of Guinness (€3.70)were good in the Cape bar too, if you feel poorly you’re in the right place, the Undertaker can come and measure you up for a coffin while you slake your thirst. Vertical Bones has a better discussion on Guinness than I can manage also a trek around pubs with prices in his previous posts.

In the Cape bar the problems of the day were being discussed in lively tone, the M50 roundabout residents were being debated, I reckon the boys in the pub could solve the whole problem with a few pints of stout and a large group of men with hurley sticks, not the most politically correct solution maybe, but politically correct is a bit of an oxymoron anyway. Fortunately for the M50 roundabout residents the drinkers don’t have much political clout or sense for that matter but it was fun to hear….

Alan Hansen

Published July 17, 2007 in football, BBC, Liverpool, Sport, Scottish and Scotland. 4 Comments

On my way out of the country the other day I observed the above Liverpool & Scotland football great Alan Hansen. I was not going to make a gobshite of myself and ask him if I could take his photograph but a divil inside of me spoke up ” can I take your photo” at the same time the other thought was circulating. He said “sure” in that distinctive accent so well known from the BBC, I even complimented him on his youthful looks, then turn on my heel and away I went.
He was able to move around quite freely in the public area without any hassle apart from me and a few other men of my age group around the 40 bracket, who commented something to him. He took it all in his stride, fair play to him. I expect that Dublin airport with the very high number of foreigners both working and travelling is the ideal place to go unnoticed with the obvious exception of tours truly!

Club Orange

Published July 13, 2007 in Ireland, Irish and from Erin. 5 Comments

Club Orange

Mary mac had a bash at the Áras today to celebrate the glorious twelfth and the shared culture of our island, members of diverse organisations were present by all accounts. I wonder did the invites have “the former Vice-Regal Lodge” for the non-Irish speakers.
This is 10th annual bash in the Park, however I don’t think they will be pulling crowds like JPII managed back in ‘79 in the near future, although it is a new approach if you can’t beat them join them, or if you can’t beat them, beat them at their own game and so on.
Judging by the piles of tyres and pallets being shown on Flickr prior to burning

KAT pyre

bedecked with tricolours and the initials KAT which means “Kill all taigs” or all Catholics the organisers are trying to broaden the appeal of the twelfth of July celebrations. To whom they are trying to broaden the appeal to is anyones guess the KKK or former Rhodesian Army officers perhaps. I guess I won’t be going up there anytime soon not with a name like Tim, which is the english version of Taig, I also happen to be Catholic by birth as it happens you don’t choose such things at the time, your life usually decides that, or you stick with the crowd that aren’t threatening to kill you and burn flags representing your country at the same time their politicians are signing peace treaties to the beat of the band, ah yes the Orange band and the Lambeg drum.

Hard to see compromise here. Send in the Greens, all that tyre burning can’t be healthy, maybe they should change their name though first.

Price of a Pint of Guinness Stout

Published July 11, 2007 in Beer, Dublin, Ireland and from Erin. 4 Comments

According to the internet research I had done, the price of Guinness was about €4.20 a pint in Dublin with local variations.
Armed with this info and having the fortune of paying off (leaving) the ship in Dublin I decided to show my fellow off signers a few pubs and compare the prices as an excuse to drink in more than one establishment.

On leaving our hotel (Jury’s Inn on the Quay very nice which seemed to be staffed completely by non-Irish, there were a few lads in suits looking extremely not busy who could have been Irish though.) we proceeded in the rain towards an lár but had to take a treo eile because it started bucketing down with rain, our nearest refuge was “The Flowing Tide” on Lower Abbey Street, price of Guinness €4.10 quality very good, atmosphere good, we had the one there and headed for O’Connell Street, I spied an old pub that I had not been in for years “The Sackville Lounge” and it was our next spot for a pint, 4 Euros for top quality Guinness and friendly atmosphere we stayed for 2!

Then we headed over the Ha’penny Bridge to Crown Alley and Temple Bar, the price of beer jumped by over a Euro just by being on the other side of the Liffey, and the quality was poor in comparison to our first two stops. The barman laughed at me when I complained about the price difference, saying something along the lines of “drink in the other pub then…” arrogant bastard I thought, he was Irish. The pub was full of tourists and I even started a conversation with a Danish couple in my mixture of Swedish and Danish, who seemed to understand what I was saying, I suppose the Scandinavian language is no stranger to Dublin pubs. Still though Flannerys of the Temple Bar €5.25 for a pint of Guinness is too much when it is poured badly and you get lip form the barman into the deal, just what the customers want.
Back in Jury’s Inn the pints were €4.25 after a taxi tour back from town with a Polish driver and a radio show about how black taxi drivers are being victimized and or sexually harassing female passengers, some listening, New Ireland old problems.

Advice to tourists, Dublin is more than Temple Bar, have a look around, you could save a fortune.

Wind up’s

Published July 9, 2007 in practical jokes, deck and engine room and From the ship. 4 Comments

On the long voyages on big VLCC’s where you have 3 or 4 weeks of a voyage between the Persian Gulf and Aruba around the cape things tended to get a bit monotonous, this was in the days before internet connections and mobile phones, so once you left port that was it for communication, you were incommunicado.
Some say that necessity is the mother of invention, but boredom is mother of inventiveness especially when it come to devious wind ups to be played out on fellow shipmates, the more elaborate and well planned the better, and usually deck versus engine room but not always, it might be the whole ships compliment against the old man and if he was an auld bastard he got double rations!
Some of the pranks were simple, and usually done on the spur of the moment, like for example leaving your camera in the bar then you were guaranteed to have plenty photos of mooning backsides and more, before in the days of non digital cameras, these days you can just delete the unwanted shots, back then you got a nasty surprise when you collected your prints from the photo shop.
Another simple one was to pierce a hole with a dart just below the lip of the beer can of the guy who has just gone to the jacks, on his return he will take a swig of beer and usually the first time not notice the tiny stream of beer going onto his t-shirt, the second or third time he will!
One of the most elaborate ones I heard about involved a ball bearing and welding gear, one of the engineers cut out section of railing by the old mans deck, and placed a ball bearing inside the railing which was a long tube, then welded it closed, and had it painted up not to arouse the old man’s suspicions, of course when the ship started rolling so did the ball bearing, inside th tube and crashed against the end with a thunk, then roll back again dunk, and no matter how much he searched he could not figure out what was making the racket.
Another good one also involves a tube a ball bearing and an electromagnet. You place the tube in the deckhead (ceiling) above the victims bunk and connect the electromagnet to the light switch, you’ll need engineers and or electricians if you can’t fix it yourself.
So when the light is on the magnet is working normally and stops the ball bearing in the magnetic field, switch off and the ball is released.
When the lights go off all the poor sailor hears is dunk……. dunk……dunk as the ball rolls back and forth, then when he gets out of the bunk to inspect, he puts the light on to see if he can find the source of the noise…….no sound…..you have to tell the guy about this soon or he will go mental, unless that is your plan!

All I need is the air that I breathe….

Published July 8, 2007 in U-boat. 2 Comments

Just watched the film “Hunt for the Red October” again, I read the book when I was working in the US on a summer student visa in 1989 and loved it of course. It is my second favourite U-boat film, the favourite is of course Das Boot and having seen in real life the U-boat pens at Lorient and St. Nazaire, makes the film all the more real.

One of the cadets was in Submarines during his military service, it was his job to take care of the oxygen content of the air on board when the boat was submerged, they had liquid oxygen in pressure bottles which was vapourised to create breathable oxygen, they also had to get rid of the carbon dioxide in the air with lime, 1kg lime may absorb approximately 14 hours of expired CO2. But the downside is that once the lime is used up, the CO2 levels rise again. He told me about a Chinese sub that had been found drifting all of the crew at their stations dead…lack of oxygen but a peaceful death….. One of the instructions the U-boat commander had was that in the event that all the crew were going to die, he was to reduce the Oxygen level to give everyone an easy death. Apparently death by CO2 poisoning is a horrible way to go.

I felt the need for fresh air after hearing that story.

ABBA

Published July 7, 2007 in Seafood, Swedish, Sweden and Music & Arts. 0 Comments

Swedish mega group and a brand of Seafood in Sweden.

Sill, a type of pickled herring very popular in Sweden at midsummer, Christmas, Easter, and any other big occasion. This variation is dill flavoured.

Abba

Abba the band, it is said that BAAB, BABA, ABAB, AABB and BBAA were thought of as names of the group before ABBA.
However the seafood is probably more well known these days in Sweden. Abba is the Aramaic word for “father”, also……..

The Importance of being Irish

Published July 7, 2007 in Irishness, Dublin, Ireland, Irish and On the ship. 2 Comments

The alternative title should be “or unimportance of being Irish as the case may be”

The ship has now wound it’s way out of the harbours of Rotterdam, flares, oil tanks and the rest left behind below the horizon. The destination for our present voyage is Dublin.
A surge of pride grips my psyche and I am close to crocodile tears as I think about the city of my birth and it’s significance to me. I don’t really know Dublin anymore, I was born there and lived there, moved away as a child to be tormented by my classmates in Wexford “You thinks you’re great”, I didn’t think I was great, I didn’t think anything, I had been uprooted, I wanted to go back to Dublin. I did but it took 15 years, by then I had become something else, and when I returned to the city of my birth I was greeted with “bleedin’ culchie, red neck, fuck off back down da coontree”.
The joy of return, the soft landing and my accent took another turn of tuning in to the mid atlantic style of Atlantic 252, so by the time I was back in Dublin another 15 years later on a ship the surveyor asked me what part of England I was from.
I replied Dublin, he looked shocked. But what was the correct answer, Wexford, Dublin, Cork, do you have to belong to somewhere, can you make a choice?
Now of course I live in Sweden, and the question asked is, “Do you miss Ireland?”
being sarcastic I say -at every oppurtunity, but it only gets puzzled faces in return, so I say yes of course I miss Ireland, but it is an Ireland that’s gone, I don’t know if I want it back. I can’t get it back anyway even if I want it. I have lived away from Ireland so much that part of me is not Irish anymore, I get surprised by the chaos and the traffic, but I can fit in quickly, nobody notices at first glance that I’m not quick enough with the Euro shrapnel for change when I buy something, and seeing as how most shop assistants aren’t Irish anymore nobody cares.

We received notice of our arrival berth by e-mail from Zbigniew, then I spoke to him on the phone, his Dublin accent and my mid Atlantic ship voice, reserved for VHF radio communication and dealing with European surveyors. Spot the Irish guy.

So what is the importance of being Irish? Every small Irish town has a retail park with Halfords, Tesco, BHS, and a Boots chemist, is everyone happy with this? Maybe this is how to entice the Unionists into a United Ireland….look we are practically Britain anyway, you have all the shops and sports clothes and newspapers, you can get BT telephone accounts, come on down and join the fun, and the orange bit in the flag is for you, and always has been.
Maybe it isn’t so important anymore to be so Irish, or maybe it’s just changing into something new that I haven’t been able to see yet. Maybe the change is that we are becoming more European by accident or design, and does anyone really understand or care? Maybe in the greater Europe of the future Ireland will once again be a province in the north west of Europe, and the less than 100 years of Independence will be seen as an aberration in the grand scheme of things when Britain, France and Germany slug it out for control of power of the United States of Europe.

Come on Ireland!

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