It Occurs To Me: Jim McGuinness and the price of Maltesers
‘Just as Donald Trump blames Joe Biden for everything, we are now at a stage when the Glenties man will shortly be blamed for the downturn in the weather, the price of diesel and the fact that a packet of Maltesers is down from 121g to 93g in eight years!’
Travellers from Letterkenny to Dublin, whether driving or going by Express, will be more than familiar with Emyvale in County Monaghan.
Until recently, they could have been forgiven for thinking that they had been transported by Doctor Who’s ‘Tardis’ some 120km further south, as the sign read (see attached) ‘Comhairle Chontae na hIarmhí’, and underneath ‘Monaghan County Council’ It appears that the ‘booboo’ is the fault of TII (Transport Infrastructure Ireland), the organisation that approves national road signage.
Thanks to Mark McHugh, Westmeath has been in the news a lot recently, so perhaps some poor excitable WH supporter in the TII planning department got the headstaggers and lost the run of himself, when doing the translating.
I’m told a new sign is imminent, which will be a huge relief to any midlander who, until recently, thought he was nearly home once he got past Aughnacloy!
In any event, the next phase of the draw has thrown up some crackers. The aforementioned Mark will relish a crack at the other maroon opposition, Galway, and back to McCool Park - thank God - Donegal and Cork.
Continuing my criticism of some sections of the media last week, here’s Colm Keys of the Indo on Monday - “Dublin’s silent treatment felt like a protest at the decision not to ban Jim McGuinness”. And on The Sunday Game, Jacqui Hurley and Paul Flynn of Dublin were also wittering about this.
Where does it end? Dean Rock hadn’t the balls to face the press after the Louth victory and suddenly it’s Jim McGuinness’s fault again! Jimmy may seem to be somewhat defensive on occasions, but could you blame him?
Just as Donald Trump blames Joe Biden for everything, we are now at a stage when the Glenties man will shortly be blamed for the downturn in the weather, the price of diesel and the fact that a packet of Maltesers is down from 121g to 93g in eight years!
To play or not to play?
On the 7th of May, Charlie McConalogue, Minister of State, with responsibility for Sport, said:
“From a political point of view Ireland and the Irish government has led out internationally in relation to the atrocities we have seen happen in Palestine as part of the conflict and in terms of providing leadership and trying to bring about a peaceful settlement to the conflict. We have set the agenda in many ways at European and international levels in relation to the approach and stance we took which subsequently many other countries rallied around as time went on. We continue to play our role internationally to try to ensure there is a sustainable peace settlement in Palestine. As a country, we have also led out on the development of and are assessing the legal challenges around implementing an occupied territories Bill.”
So, he acknowledges the ‘atrocities’, and subsequently states he won’t attend the Israel game. However, I watched him on RTÉ recently and he said that “the place for the government to lead is not through a sports match, it’s through the political arena”. and continued “From a sporting point of view, Uefa and Fifa banned Russia from their competitions. That hasn’t happened in relation to Israel, so the FAI have to make a decision and they’ve made that decision. We, as a government, support that decision and their right to make it. It’s important that we respect that decision.”
Therein lies the massive contradiction here: if, as he says, the government must lead through ‘the political arena’, surely the most political decision would be to tell the FAI to take a running jump? The vast majority of Irish people would agree, as the ‘atrocities’ and obvious genocide in Gaza and Lebanon has gone far beyond the bland obsequious hand wringing of the Coaltion and ‘in terms of’ sound bites. Social Democrats’ Jennifer Whitmore accused them of “talking out of both sides of its mouth”. She neglected to mention the other orifice.
(As an aside, I love the fisherman who responded to Charlie when he first declared he wouldn’t attend the match…”Like the meetings about quotes…he boycotted them as well.” Ouch!
The rise of AI ‘tools’
If the threatened job losses in the tech industry have taught us anything, it’s that not only does profit matter first and foremost, but that the advent of AI has put the dignity of human beings on the back burner. In a major encyclical titled Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), Pope Leo declared AI as one of the defining moral challenges of our time.
He argues that AI must serve human dignity rather than dominate society or concentrate power, and calls for AI to be "disarmed" to free humanity from military, economic, and cognitive competition. It’s no surprise that the tech billionaires and bankers support Trump…to quote Gordon Gecko in the movie Wall Street: “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms. Greed for life, money, love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind…”
I was reminded of this last week when the boss of Standard Chartered had to apologise after describing employees whose jobs are vulnerable to being replaced by AI as "lower value human capital".
Discussing how automation was likely to lead to thousands of job cuts at the bank at a recent conference, Bill Winters said it wasn't about cost cutting but “replacing, in some cases, lower value, human capital, with the financial capital and the investment capital that we're putting in”.
He later sought to contextualise his remarks and said he was sorry for his wording, which had "caused upset to some colleagues".
He said he was committed to helping staff "cope with the accelerating pace of change". Where have we heard that before?
Frankie Boyle nails it!
A few years ago in this column, I laughed at the interview with a woman in Costa Del Sausage, who complained that she didn’t like Spain as the locals spoke Spanish and she couldn’t get a decent English breakfast!
Now, Glasgow comedian Frankie Boyle, whose parents come from Crolly, has added to that casual racism controversy by saying: “Imagine what it's like being an immigrant in Britain at the moment - being told that you need to 'integrate more' by people who spend their holidays pointing at a picture of egg and chips on a menu.”
The original shock ‘jock’
Martin O’Neill has worked miracles this season and has rightfully earned his place in the pantheon of great Celtic managers. The greatest ever, of course, was Jock Stein, who was a Protestant and abhorred sectarianism. He once famously ventured directly into the crowd at a 1972 game against Stirling to confront fans singing sectarian songs and was known for his acerbic wit. When asked by players in 1966 who he would sign if offered a Catholic and Protestant of equal ability, he replied: “The Protestant... Because I know that Rangers would never sign the Catholic.”In 1967, he famously responded to a Rangers fan who claimed Celtic only won the European Cup because they had Protestants on the team by saying:
"Well you've never won it and you've got eleven."
Words to the wise
Writer and philosopher Umberto Eco, author of the brilliant The Name of the Rose, from which emerged a super movie of the same name in 1986, starring Sean Connery, once cautioned:
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms. Greed for life, money, love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind.” Considering that Eco died in 2016, and the ‘idiots’ were only in their infancy, he was eerily prophetic.