I haven’t done one of these for a while, so for longstanding readers forgive the explanation again.
This item is occasional and irregular and will contain information which I believe to be true, but which is either to short too make an item on its own, or isn’t authored by a person who wishes necessarily to be identified to the general public. However, I am aware of the source of any information wich appears and am prepared to take responsibility for publishing it, so you can be sure it is at least as reliable as anything you are told in the bar or on the road.
I am always glad to receive information for these items from any island or coastal community and if I don’t include anything you tell me, it may be that I felt unhappy to do so, or I might have forgotten by the time a gleaning emerged. Please don’t be insulted either way.
Cape Clear: There is a rumour that the “Atlantic Pirates” are likely to be playing in Club Cleire tomorrow evening, but I haven’t been down to the Club recently and there is another very strong rumour that an individual often on,but not infrequently off, and definitely from, the island put a stop to the Club advertising music events outside the building. This is correct according to the law of the land, but readers will have to judge for themselves the level of harm such a practice might have caused and the kind of person who might feel it in their interest to do this.
There is too apparently a talk on the building of stone walls in the same premises tonight at 8.00 p.m.
The most intriguing rumour about Cape Clear though, is that a new Dept. Of Transport certificated “Cat” boat is plying between the mainland, the island, and the “Area of the Fastnet Rock”. This presumably means that it does not have the class of certificate which would allow it to round the Rock Lighthouse.
I haven’t done one of these for a while, so for longstanding readers forgive the explanation again.
This item is occasional and irregular and will contain information which I believe to be true, but which is either to short too make an item on its own, or isn’t authored by a person who wishes necessarily to be identified to the general public. However, I am aware of the source of any information wich appears and am prepared to take responsibility for publishing it, so you can be sure it is at least as reliable as anything you are told in the bar or on the road.
I am always glad to receive information for these items from any island or coastal community and if I don’t include anything you tell me, it may be that I felt unhappy to do so, or I might have forgotten by the time a gleaning emerged. Please don’t be insulted either way.
Cape Clear: There is a rumour that the “Atlantic Pirates” are likely to be playing in Club Cleire tomorrow evening, but I haven’t been down to the Club recently and there is another very strong rumour that an individual often on,but not infrequently off, and definitely from, the island put a stop to the Club advertising music events outside the building. This is correct according to the law of the land, but readers will have to judge for themselves the level of harm such a practice might have caused and the kind of person who might feel it in their interest to do this.
There is too apparently a talk on the building of stone walls in the same premises tonight at 8.00 p.m.
The most intriguing rumour about Cape Clear though, is that a new Dept. Of Transport certificated “Cat” boat is plying between the mainland, the island, and the “Area of the Fastnet Rock”. This presumably means that it does not have the class of certificate which would allow it to round the Rock Lighthouse.
I, of course am not in a position to express an opinion on the visibility of this vessel, but nobody I have spoken to has any visual, or other, evidence of it ever passing through these waters, still less tying up in Cape.
Various theories have been evinced for the invisibility of this boon to marine tourism: It is the case that Cloaking technology, based on bending the path of photons is now a reality, but so far in the boring real world this has only been done in the lab and for very small objects. An unkind suggestion put to me was that the putative owner of this vessel is clearly a romulan, which will mean something to Star Trek fans, but not much to anyone else. The people of Romulus were empire building aggressive individuals, who were a threat to their planetary neighbours and a constant problem to the “Federation”, and had cloaked ships which were invisible to all scans.
There seem to be two other schools of thought on this miraculous vessel: the mass hypnosisists and the traditionalists. The mass hypnosis theorists believe that since the boat has been passed by the M.S.O. it must exist. If islanders can’t see it then we are all the subject of some kind of general delusion.
The Traditionalists base their theory on the work of continental traditional tale tellers. They believe that given its certified existence and seaworthiness and additionally given the fact that it was foretold by an oft repeated story from the Galway district that such a boat would, or some say, did, exist serving Cape Clear in the summer, and also that there is a version of the same folk tale in Antrim, it is very likely to be made of the same material of which the cloth of the fabled Emperor’s clothes was made.
The emperor paid large sums of money to have this cloth woven and then made up into a suit by the best tailors of his empire. It is well known that it was the most beautiful suit ever made but that some fools claimed to be unable to see it and a young boy even had the audacity to suggest that the emperor was naked when he was wearing it.
Obviously a boat made of a marine development of this material would be both beautiful and swift and would have no problem in meeting all and every requirement of the Dept. Of Transport.
If there were any doubts it could be registered in the North as the MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) have a very understanding attitude to tiresome bureaucratic rules as witnessed by the recent answer obtained by Lord Laird in the British House of Lords. (See below for details).
Finally for now: a matter which crucially effects a lot of island farmers. The FF Government, who seem to have forgotten the purpose of elections as the basis of the legitimacy of the Irish State, are cutting the Disadvantaged Areas payments and refusing to allow any further entrants to REPS4.
These payments which apply to the poorest land, in a conventional farming sense, and which are designed to enlist the farmer in managing his land responsibly in the interests of the landscape and environment of the country, are the backstop for many island small farmers, as well as their mainland compatriots throughout the south and west.
For those with time and transport in the West Cork area, there will be a protest rally at the office of Christy O’Sullivan T.D. FF, in Clonakilty tomorrow morning at 11.00. If you can’t make it, don’t worry, this is only the first shot in what will undoubtedly be a hard fought battle to protect the countryside and its people’s livelihoods, led by the IFA.
The Oireachtas only recently received a report on the rural south and west,ably researched and promoted by Donegal Senator Doherty SF, which seems a bit of a waste of time if the actual policy to be carried out is to empty it.
It is I suppose congruent with energy saving policies designed to reduce expensive fossil fuel imports which run in tandem with cuts in public transport and giving away gas reserves and guaranteeing to by them back as fuel at parr with world market prices.
No fishing No farming No transport, at least they will justify the disappearance of Bantry hospital and other rural medical facilities, as there will be a rapidly decreasing population in the countryside to be served. More work for the depopulated areas programme, the brainchild of Minister O’Cuiv, which was beginning to make the remote rural areas more liveable again.
Oh Such Jolly Folly!
We are paying the wages of politicians to sit in the Dail and enact this kind of drivel! I gather that by fiddling the voting system, yesterday, our betters just scraped through a law, which as far as I can see, allows God to sue us for deformation of character if we speak or write injudiciously. What happened to the good old bolt of lightning – in the event of a severe thunder storm over Cape Clear tonight I probably should apologise to my neighbours for the noise and ask for a traditional funeral – but seriously, to have the hubris to assume that it is in the gift of the parliament of the Republic to pass or not pass such a law and that it makes any difference to the supreme being of the universe, in which this shower of time and money wasting time servers claim to believe, boggles my mind even more than the degree of inconsistency and impotence in the face of a real crisis for almost all the citizens of the country, which these people demonstrate.
When will we stop this. Up the People’s Republic of Cork.
UK House of Lords Question and Answer:
Lord Laird (Crossbench)
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Adonis on 29 June (WA 23), what action the Maritime and Coastguard Agency took when it became aware that the MV "CANNA"(Rathlin Island Ferries Ltd. Ro-ro) did not have a valid passenger certificate between 1 September and 11 September 2008.
Lord Adonis (Secretary of State, Department for Transport; Labour)
Further to my Answer of 29 June (Official Report, cols. WA23) the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) investigated why the MV "CANNA" did not hold a valid passenger certificate between 1 and 11 September 2008. In this case, prosecution action was not considered necessary. The vessel had been satisfactorily surveyed within the previous year and the MCA accepted that there had been reasonable cause for misunderstanding about the period of validity of the previous passenger certificate. The MCA instructed the vessel owners to review their company safety management system to incorporate procedures and safeguards to ensure that all future statutory survey range dates are checked and that the related paperwork issued to them is correct.
I wonder if the MV INVISIBLE will be accompanied by mermaids sporting red flags to warn approaching vessels of her whereabouts.
Ed - Editor
