sea shore in front of baths Dun Laoghaire
Tuesday, May 3, 2005, 07:36 AM

This picture shows what a beautifu sandy sea shore there is in front of the baths, which would be put out of bounds for people for ever if the Co.co. had their way of building a monstrous building on the site of the baths.

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clean sea
Tuesday, May 3, 2005, 07:05 AM
03.05.05
For the past couple of days i have been swimming at Balscadden bay, Howth just outside Dublin bay, which one would expect to be very clean as its so far from the city. However, i fear the opposite is the case and the water there seems laden with lots of debris which is not found in Scotsman's bay. I don't know why this is so but it may be to do with the fact that sewerage might be pumped into the sea from the northern suburbs such as Malahide and Portmarnock; also the sea may not be so deep near to the shore. It could also have to do with the marina nearby pumping shit out of boats. Many people and children come to place on theses beaches during the summer and it is a shame if the water is contaminated and unsuitable for swimming in.
For all these reasons I hope they see reason in Dun Laoghaire and keep their Scotsman's bay free of shit-producing developments including car and boat parks which they like to call marinas here. The water in Scotsman's bay is deep and never seems to carry debris like at many other places.
The squatters at the Fortyfoot know better than the Co.co. what a pristine and rare resource they are exploiting. Hopefully Co.co. will see the light and open up all of this beautiful bay to the people and not sell it off to some seaside grabbing landlord whose single aim is to make rent out of parking of people in beds, cars in yards and boats in the sea.


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sea behind bars
Saturday, April 30, 2005, 03:19 AM
Its been a while now since I made a blog entry but I feel I should record the events of these past few days as far as the sea goes.
On wednesday we had brillant swim around 11.00 oclock in the Fortyfoot but just before i left one of the 'volunteers' came over shouting at me to get the dog out. They went on with a angry tiread of what they would do to me and my dog.
When I came back to my old bike I fund both tyres slashed and this on the day when the Minister was at Sandycove for a cermony to unveil some plaque or other! When the cermony was over and the path clear I left to walk the whole eight miles home - but it was worth it well maybe not worth the E 70 its going to cost me to replace the tyres and tubes. How we suffer for our art!
On thursday, We returned at 11.00 to the scene of the crime and had another lovely swim in the Fortyfoot.Thanks to the weather being bad and the sea rough there was no one else at the Fortyfoot at the time. I was just admiring the natural looking unbleached state of the Fortyfoot and congratulating myself on getting the use of that acid or alkalai they had been using for 30 years to 'clean' the steps, stopped by the council.
Wonder of wonders our bikes were not interfered with this time and I was able to cycle home this time
Friday, being a nice fine day, brought out lots of people to swim at the Fortyfoot but,,to my disappointmen the place had once again being inundated with the acid and all the natural patina had been cut away and the water tasted of the cleaner.The air had been let out of my tyres this time ; however they had been merciful this time , not puncturing them and I was able to pump them up for my return journey.
The only reason i can think of for this unreasonable agression and enforcement of arbitary laws is that the 'volunteers' of the SBA are reaily only interested in privatising this bathing place like they would like to do with all the others so that they could control who uses the sea and charge for its use. They seem intent on making the Fortyfoot into their kind of outdoor swimming pool and hence all the chemicals proper only to a urine-laden indoor stagant pool.They are the same kind of bastards that have taken over harbours and turned them into marinas for their own profit.

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death of the innocents
Monday, April 18, 2005, 12:50 PM
18.04.05
The most aweful news came over the radio this morning - that of the death of a young mother and her two children of only 3 and 4 years by drowning. I could hardly believe my ears when I heard the story in Irish that it was thought that the poor woman had first drowned her infants and then herself in the slaney river in co. Wexford. Does any other act reflect the callousness of our 'tiger' economy. In a country where everyone knows everyone ekse;s business, how could people have turned a blind eye to such depression and cruelty.
Even more depressing is that that news is relegated to the lowest importance in the news behind such things as whether the Gaa will allow anyone else to use their Croke park manger even for a modest 2,000,000 Euros a match
!

Padraic OConaire goes on to describe how the poor woman raged on about the fine clothes the big man had bought for his first wife and which she despised. She tore a silk hat apart and jumped up and down on it on the floor. She screamed at her brothers saying they were a useless bunch and asking how the had lost the courage of their ancestors to defend her honour and not let her be made a laughing stock of the country not knowing whether she was a married woman or a spinster.
She raised her hands to the sky as if to implore them to do something to bring her peace.


The poor woman who drowned her children and herself today may have been in a similar plight as that lady referred to by Padraic OConaire

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what to talk about
Sunday, April 17, 2005, 02:47 PM
17.04.05
Cad a dheanamid fasta gan amaidh?
Is the beginning of a poem we learned in Irish class about the changing of the guard in old Ireland where everything was been turned upside down and destroyed by the new arrivals according to the poet. They were turning out the old people and destroying the woods so as to give them no hiding place as well as to build their new mansions -"what will we do now without timber?" he rhymes.
In our last episode of Padraic OConaire's story, Padraic, according to himself acted very fearlessly, he knows not why to find out what the brutal brothers of the second wife were going to do to the poor big man. He followed them into the big man's house hoping he would have slipped away or if not he feared they would give him aterrible beating with their shillaghs and threats.
When they didn't find him at home they sat down around the table and helped themselves to his poteen downing it a glass at a time as they passed it around. And every round they went they got fiercer and more threatening with vicious eyes. It was lucky for the big man that he had escaped them for the time being at least


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