The reason I was reminded of that conversation is this. On The Frontline last night it became very clear that there was no semblance of a masterplan to deal with the flooding we’ve seen hit the land in the past week. And no one will take any responsibility for the lack of foresight and the even greater lack of a plan to cope with it once it had happened. The ESB blame someone else. Likewise the Dept of the Environment. As do the IFA. No one has the balls to say we fucked up, let’s deal with it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. And it’s hugely disconcerting because it’s the same for everything that has gone wrong in recent times in Irish society. From the banks to the church but most of all our political leaders. Nobody has a plan. Nobody’s in charge. The country is crumbling and nobody has the strength of character or vision to step up and say I know where we’ve been and I know where we’re going.

Today the new-fangled Lisbon Treaty came into force, redefining the future of the European Union. And it can’t come a day too soon because here in Ireland we’re clearly not capable of governing ourselves. We need a plan. And I can only hope Europe can provide it because under the stewardship of Brian Cowen, Mary Coughlan et al (oh and not forgetting our merry band of unions) we’re sinking fast.

For fuck’s sake John Delaney. It was never gonna happen but at least the world was on our side. But then you go and make us look like fucking eejits again and it’s on CNN, BBC, SKY etc. Dammit.

And you make Roy Keane’s views seem almost rational, credible even. That’s some feat.

As I say some weeks are telling, while others just coast on by. This week has been the former. And it feels good. You see I’m not one for being passive. I like when change happens, when things move forward. And this week has been all that.

And today, hungover, with strawberries in my belly and bundles of sport on the telly, I lie contented on the couch of life.

I hope you do too.

We are. Says he.

But I think we were once upon a time, ie, in the not too distant past. But not now.

Really, now we’re more clueless and badly led. By people who don’t know the first thing about governance. People who were democratically elected unfortunately. So maybe we, as a whole, are to blame on that front alone.

But to my mind, corruption requires great knowledge of the systems you’re corrupting and a certain mastery of those very systems. Our social leaders (TD’s, bankers, etc) and those who oversaw the boom, and the subsequent bust, don’t have that mastery. They’re too stupid to be corrupt. And thus they have made us the laughing stock of Europe. We’re gambling our grandchildren’s future due to their ineptitude and incompetence, not because of corruption and the nod and a wink culture.

As an aside, an article in the Irish Times yesterday states that there’s ‘little corruption’ in Ireland. In fact we’re on a par with the Germans on the world corruption table. Make of that what you will.

And I’m not a religious man. Not at all. But today I’m calling on God. All the Gods. Allah. Buddha. Anyone who’ll listen. Everyone.

Please, please let us beat the Frenchies. Just this once.

Allez les verts.

UPDATE:

So it wasn’t to be. Just didn’t have enough to edge ahead or keep them at nil all. But there’s always Paris right?

At half time this song was played over the loudspeakers in Croke Park. Kinda sums it all up.

Then it struck me that it’s almost exactly 3 months on from that trip.

“Jaysus there must’ve been something in the air in Slovakia”, says I to the cousin.

And quick as a flash, without so much as a breath…

“Yeah, legs” says he.

As I say, sharp, so very sharp.

Awkward pause. And then eventually…

“Happy anniversary my dear!”

You see the pause is what fucked me up. And the fact that I had neglected to remember the date until I heard the tone of the question. That way women have of asking such questions. It’s all about the tone and the delivery.

And my lame attempt at getting out of it didn’t help either…

“I thought it was the 30th”

And in so doing I joined that stereotypical male, idiot grouping who forget anniversaries and birthdays. And I’m genuinely annoyed at myself for doing so. I didn’t think I would ever be that fucking eejit but today I’ve helped further denigrate the status of mankind.

And now there’s no chance I’ll get to see the Arsenal – Liverpool match this evening.

Nor this…

Seriously. People got paid lots of money to come up with those ideas and to implement them. And that’s the best they could do to promote eggs?

C’mon, “an egg a day is ok”? What a slogan, what copy. For fuck’s sake. Mad Men they ain’t. They’re practically saying eggs are mediocre at best. And they’re supported by An Bord Bia channelling our taxpayers money for this shitty campaign.

And the gas thing is at the bottom of the promo website it has this… © Irish Egg Marketing Limited 2008. They needn’t worry, I don’t think anyone’s gonna nick those slogans any time soon so they may hold off on the patents.

Radge specifically did not or does not intend this to be a meme but fuck it, it set me to thinking of my own. So here goes nothing.

1. Six words is not a lot.
2. Red beachball sales go through roof.
3. Jamie Oliver continues to annoy me.
4. Andy should have listened to Giovanni.
5. The leaves will surely grow back.
6. Ernest Hemingway I certainly am not.
7. Six sixty a pint? Cunting Gogartys.
8. Pissing off balconies is quite dangerous.
9. Ciarán Mullooly sounds like his name.
10. Pay cuts are better than unemployment.
11. Fuck me this is quite hard.
12. Ribery makes Tevez look like Clooney.
13. It’s 2009. Why can’t we fly?

That’s about the height of it.

What a prick is the real truth. A petty, bitter man with no sense of shame. A product of the Fianna Fáil corruption line. He practically said, “I didn’t even enjoy all the fillet steaks, I only ate them for the good of Ireland”.

Fuck off John. Shame on you.