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We read in our local newspaper, “The Tipperary Star”, that our Director of Services Mr Matt Shortt, (Director of Roads, Transportation and Health & Safety), recently informed the members of our local authority that it was the excellence of their presentation and other proposals submitted, which had guaranteed that the Liberty Square redevelopment project received some €1.35 million from “Project Ireland 2040”. This ‘snail paced’ Liberty Square redevelopment project is expected to begin in 2019 or some other year, not far into our misty future.
Alas, unfortunately similar earlier presentations and accepted planning have proven less than excellent when the actual construction work had been finally concluded.
See the junction of the Clongower / Slievenamon Road today, (Pictures 1 & 2 above), then focus on (Picture 3 above) the pedestrian crossing lights outside Thurles Cathedral also today, latter which every three weeks have to be readjusted, due to the actions of large high sided, vehicles knocking against it, in their attempts to pass other oncoming lorries. [Again, no mention of the long awaited Thurles Ring Road.]
On February 1st 2018, we highlighted the fact that these pedestrian crossing lights were pointed in the wrong direction and did nothing to protect, in particular, elderly pedestrians.
Again, on July 16th 2018, we highlighted the fact that these same pedestrian crossing lights were pointed in the wrong direction. We further pointed out that this same Cathedral Street pedestrian crossing, will see some 1,500 crossings per day, servicing Mass goers, shoppers and secondary school pupils, all of whom currently must remain blind in their efforts to cross a busy Cathedral Street.
It would be interesting to find out, in the interests of “Municipal District transparency”, how much money was wasted on the continuous repair of these same lights, in 2018. Then again people could be undertaking this work for nothing.
This self-congratulatory back slapping in relation to the long-awaited Liberty Square, project, reminds me of a story recounted by a former US president, possibly 38th US President Gerald Rudolph Ford. I may stand corrected, but I believe it was he that requested Canadian-born economist, public official, diplomat, and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism, Mr John Kenneth Galbraith, to write formers upcoming economic ‘State of The Nation’ address. Mr Galbraith turned up sometime later in the oval office and invited the US President, to read his submission.
Always proud of his work, and having been dismissed, Mr Galbraith halted before asking the President as to what he thought of his submitted presentation. The President replied in words to the effect that, “It’s like pissing down your own leg, Mr Galbraith, to you it’s hot”.
Here in Thurles we now wait patiently and watch as the 18-wheeler trucks manoeuvre through our 18 century streets, and once thriving businesses fold their tents and vanish.
Dáil Éireann operates today, following exactly in the ancient footsteps of the days when Irish politics was merely the hobby of the English landed gentry class; all who had time on their hands, and sat in parliament only at convenient times which suited its membership.
Today, as in the more recent past, in line with most others of our workforce, Dáil Éireann should be sitting five days a week from Monday to Friday, to accommodate these full-time politicians. Instead it sits only part-time, with its elected membership excessively paid, well over the rate applicable to the vast majority of all other full-time employees.
From sources close to the government, we learn that Fine Gael have agreed with their Fianna Fáil supporters, that there should be no ‘Live Crib’ in Dáil Éireann this Christmas Season 2018. [Well, to be honest, after their most recent referendum success what parent would trust them with a baby].
On top of all that; we understand from leaks from behind the scenes, that while asses and sheep were everywhere in abundance, not one wise man and not one virgin, could be located anywhere.
Take a look at the allocated holiday schedule 2018 /2019
By the time our elected employees return to Dáil Éireann, (yes, lest we forget, our elected politicians are employees of you the taxpayer), for every other State employee, Christmas 2018 will have been a distant memory, with the pine needles and the withered holly and ivy already disposed of, some 8 days prior to the date they, our politicians, commence their next stint of three-day weeks.
Therefore, to place things in proper perspective, the average five-day week operative will have his/her thoughts focused on that ‘cocks’ stride’ in improved day lights, while our TDs will still remain celebrating Christmas right up to January 15th, 2019.
Then there is that St. Patrick’s Day break 2019, when politicians finish up their two-day week on March 14th for a twelve-day disruption. In keeping with the criterion set by St. Patrick and further obeying the instructions of Jesus Christ as stated in St. Matthews Gospel, (Chapter 28, verses 16-20); senior and junior ministers head abroad, becoming missionaries, to, “Go (ye) into all the world, to preach the gospel to every creature”.
Then cometh the Easter holidays four weeks later, starting April 19th to May 8th, followed by an eleven-day break, beginning 31st May until 10th June.
Latter break of course gives time to plan the Summer holidays, beginning on July 12th, until the middle of September 2019.
And you were wondering why Mary Newman Julian [Fine Gael] (#MaryForTipperary); Sandra Farrell [Fianna Fáil] and Garret Ahearn [Fine Gael], were using their worker bees to push election pamphlets through Thurles letterboxes.
To be honest folks apart from the €94,535 paid to TD’s; the €94,535 plus an additional salaried allowance of €104,601 to our Taoiseach; and the €94,535 plus an additional salaried allowance of €89,211 to our Tánaiste; sure wouldn’t the paid holidays alone be enough to tempt anyone to go for the job.
A group of some 50 General Practitioners (GP’s) walked out of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), held by the Irish College of General Practitioners today, each furious that their voices have not been heard, prior to the introduction of abortion services, latter due to be introduced in January of next year. Some 300 doctors were in attendance at the EGM. The group, understood to be largely made-up of anti-abortion doctors, had wanted to vote on a series of motions, but were refused that right.
 (1) An existing fragment of the Hippocratic Oath & (2) Bust drawing of Hippocrates. As our readers are aware, a General Practitioner led abortion service is expected to be introduced from January 2019, funded by taxpayers, once the legislation is passed in Dáil Éireann.
From January next, patients are most certainly going to be asking their current GP whether or not they support and participate in a General Practitioner led abortion service. Those, like myself, who condemn the introduction of abortion, will most certainly be requesting their medical records and moving on to an anti-abortion GP. County Councillors, Politicians and their respective Political Parties who were known to support the removal of the 8th Amendment from our Constitution, can also expect to see a reduction in their Dáil membership.
Doctors and the Hippocratic Oath.
To be honest I remain unsure of just how many doctors take the Hippocratic Oath in the Ireland of the 21st century.
Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is often referred to as the “Father of Medicine”, and a physician of experience and common sense, when recognised for his founding of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. This intellectual school revolutionized medicine in ancient Greece, establishing it as a discipline distinct from other occupations, with which it had traditionally been associated, thus establishing medicine as a profession. By ‘profession’ I mean an occupation or career that demands specialized educational training, unlike Dáil Éireann type politics.
Very little is known about Hippocrates, but he is portrayed as being a paragon of the ancient physician, and credited with having coined the Hippocratic Oath, which is still relevant and in use today. Some 60 medical documents associated with his name, including the famous Hippocratic oath, have survived to this day. The Hippocratic oath, is an ancient code of ethics for doctors, which states:- “I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God“.
Alas, in current times this oath is valued as more of a historic example of medical ethics and principles, rather than one to be taken completely literally.
Ireland’s minority Government today approved the text of the Health Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill; same being the legislation that will give effect to the result of the Referendum on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution which was held earlier this year. This bill is expected to be introduced and debated by all representatives in our Irish Parliment next week.
The present Minister for Health Mr Simon Harris has described today as a very important one for the women of Ireland, with the Government now acting on the instruction of the Irish people. This new legislation that will go before the Dáil next week will provide for access to abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
Same new legislation will also provide for access to terminations in a case of where a mother’s life or health is at risk and where there is a diagnosis of a potentially fatal foetal abnormality. There will be a pause of just a 3 day period between the first meeting between patient and doctor and any future termination. Terminations are expected to be paid for at the taxpayers expense and free of charge to the patient.
It is expected that the Government is aiming to have this termination service in place and available on a national basis by the beginning of next year; following meetings with medical representative groups taking place over the coming weeks, latter who will argue on the future of such services and how will operate. There will also be a separate legislation enacted to introduce safe access zones to prevent women from being intimidated or harassed in the course of seeking such services.
 An abortion flyer in South Africa. – Courtesy wikipedia.org However this present minority government have forgotten one small fact, namely Article 6 of our present Irish Constitution.
Article 6 of the Irish Constitution currently and unchanged to date, states: “All powers of Government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive under God from the people.” Thus this same unchanged as yet, Article 6 of the Irish Constitution currently debars the Dáil from passing laws authorising abortion, i.e., the killing of the unborn. Article 6 seem to have been somewhat overlooked in the rush by certain individuals to break the 5th commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”
The law of God which clearly states that “Thou shall not kill” , thus must surely prevail over Minister Simon Harris’s proposed abortion law. The present Government is therefore very mistaken in their thinking that the May 25th Referendum result, now grants them the right to legislate for abortion as proposed in Minister Harris’s general scheme of a Bill to Regulate Termination of Pregnancy.
Perhaps I am not making myself fully clear to all readers; so do allow me to further simplify my statement.
The people may be the supreme legislators in any Referendum to change the Constitution, but they, as well as our political leaders e.g. TD’s and Senators, are limited by what the Irish Constitution already states, regarding the source of parliamentary power. They cannot contradict or ignore what is said in the Irish Constitution’s preamble or introduction, which begins by stating that the Constitution is enacted “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority …” . Nor can they ignore what is said in Article 6 which states that “All powers of Government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive under God from the people.” (Scroll, if you will, down to Article 6.)
The words “under God” are significant. If God has said “Thou shalt not kill”, Simon Harris’s proposed law, which says that you may kill unborn babies, is therefore unconstitutional and beyond his or the Oireachtas’s legislative powers. Though many may be reluctant to accept it, the fact is that according to Article 6 of the Irish Constitution, the Oireachtas is not supreme, and the people who gave TDs and Senators their legislative powers are not supreme either. Only God is supreme, and he has given the Oireachtas no authority whatsoever to override the fifth commandment; “Thou shalt not kill”.
We as a nation may have recently paganised our laws by some 66.4% on the 25th of May last, by trying to delete the human right to life of the unborn, which the 8th Amendment previously acknowledged and protected, but until the people paganise our laws even more fully, by deleting the “Most Holy Trinity”, from the first sentence of the Irish Constitution’s introduction, and by deleting “God”, from Article 6; the Government and Oireachtas have absolutely no constitutional power, whatsoever, to legalise the killing of even one unborn baby by abortion.
“But, isn’t our Parliament Supreme”, I hear you all shout? The answer is simply “No”.
At one time, kings claimed a divine right to make whatever laws they wished. Nowadays democratic theory and most constitutions would say that the power to make laws comes to the legislature from the people. “Democracy” after all is the Greek word for “people power”. But are there limits to the powers the people may grant to their Parliament to make laws? Our minority Government seems to believe in the theory of absolute parliamentary supremacy, so that there is no higher authority to limit their authority to make any laws they wish.
Over a century ago, the ethician (a person who specializes in or writes on ethics or who is devoted to ethical principles), Sir Leslie Stephen, famously showed the absurdity of the theory of absolute parliamentary supremacy, explaining that; “If a legislature decided that all blue-eyed babies should be murdered, the preservation of blue-eyed babies would be illegal; … but legislators must go mad before they could pass such a law, and subjects be idiotic before they could submit to it.” [1] Now, you our readers, please substitute “unborn” for “blue-eyed” and Sir Leslie Stephen’s argument will still very much apply.
[1]Leslie Stephen, The Science of Ethics, (1882), p.145. In logic this argument is described as ‘reductio ad absurdum’, (Latin for “argument to absurdity”) or the appeal to extremes, is a form of argument that attempts either to disprove a statement by showing it inevitably leads to a ridiculous, absurd, or impractical conclusion, hence your argumentation is flawed. The surprise of many at the proposal to allow unrestricted abortion in the first 12 weeks, and their regarding of this as “going too far”, would be in line with this instinctive judgement of the absurdness of our Government’s proposed legislation.
Yet another problem with the theory of absolute parliamentary supremacy surfaced during the trials of the Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg during the years 1945-6. The Nazis claimed that what they did only what was authorised by German law, and in accordance with the theory of absolute parliamentary supremacy, this was a perfect defence. The Nuremberg courts, in deference to the Russian judges, who might be atheists, could not regard the Nazi atrocities as crimes against God, so they adopted the term “crimes against humanity” to justify finding the Nazis guilty.
Differently from many other constitutions, the Irish Constitution unashamedly admits that there is a God from whom all authority is derived, and whose laws are superior to human laws. Article 41.1.1º admits that there are “inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent to and superior to all positive law.” The words “under God” were deliberately added in Article 6 to ensure that the Irish constitution would not be guilty of the absurdity to which the theory of absolute parliamentary supremacy leads. The Government and the Oireachtas do not have omnipotent power and influence, but are subject to the law of God.
The awkward fact for atheists, agnostics, the lapsed, and those in our Dáil, latter who haven’t bothered to read the Irish Constitution, is that those who did write it, and the majority who enacted it, back in 1937, for the most part actually believed in God and gave the Dáil no power to enact laws which are contrary to the law of God. When God said “Thou shalt not kill”, the consequence of Article 6 is that no Teachta Dála, no Seanadóir, no Judge, no Doctor and no Committee of Experts shall kill or authorise the killing of an innocent unborn child.
So, repealing the 8th Amendment has done only 66.4% of the project to introduce abortion to Ireland, and to complete the job of paganising our Irish Constitution; abortion advocates would need to take the words “under God” out of Article 6, and similarly delete the “Most Holy Trinity” and “our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ” from the Preamble. Until then, God remains in the Irish Constitution as a constitutional defence of an unborn child’s right to life, and Minister Simon Harris’s laws authorising abortion of the unborn are, I believe, totally unconstitutional.
Our present Government delayed the Referendum until after the Supreme Court had decided a case in which a Nigerian national had claimed a right not to be deported from Ireland, where he was an illegal immigrant, because of the rights of his unborn child. Judge Humphreys, in the High Court, agreed that there were constitutional rights of the unborn, in addition to the right contained in the 8th Amendment. The State appealed this to the Supreme Court, and the Government awaited the decision of the Supreme Court, before promoting the Referendum to repeal the Eighth. The Supreme Court obliged by overturning the High Court judgement, thereby, in the Government’s view, clearing the way for their intended abortion legislation.
But this is not so, and the way was not cleared, because the High Court decision, and the Supreme Court’s appeal decision, did not concern the constitutional rights of the unborn, if any, which were not dealt with in the Nigerian deportation case.
To sum up, Article 6 of the Irish Constitution still remains a major obstacle to proposed abortion legislation. In effect the Citizens’ Assembly, the Dáil Committee which implemented its findings, and Minister Simon Harris, both have been “firing blanks”, and while the latter blanks may contain gunpowder, projectiles have undoubtedly been found absent since 1937; by the Preamble and Article 6, both contained within our Irish Constitution.
Our RC Church leaders i.e. Bishops have remained silent in drawing attention to the Code of Canon Law, and Canon 1398 to be precise. Those involved in introducing abortion, [Latter word abortion which means the killing of the unborn any time from conception onwards], under the Code of Canon Law, are now automatically excommunicated from the church.
Canon 1398 States clearly; A person who actually procures an abortion, incurs a ‘latae sententiae’ excommunication. [‘latae sententiae’ means a penalty automatically incurred on the committing of such an offence, without the need for the intervention of any Judge or Superior to impose it.]
Finally our present minority Government, supported by Independents, have no money to provide houses for the homeless; no money to provide beds for those lying on trolleys; no money for painful degenerative spinal issues in children; no money for new and necessary pharmaceutical drugs; no money for mental health issues etc. etc. etc., the list is endless. But the irony of it all must be that we do have taxpayer funding for the provision of free abortions, and despite our decision to introduce said abortion, we will provide funding to investigate the scandal that is 796 dead babies found in a septic tank in Tuam Co. Galway, yet one other scandal that can be solely attributed to the lack of government supervision between 1925 and 1961; same being abortion yet again by another name.
—— The Ballad of Reading Gaol ——
“They stripped him of his canvas clothes, and gave him to the flies.
They mocked the swollen purple throat and the stark and staring eyes.
And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud in which their convict lies.
The Chaplain would not kneel to pray by his dishonoured grave,
Nor mark it with that blessed Cross that Christ for sinners gave,
Because the man was one of those whom Christ came down to save.”
[An extract taken from Oscar Wilde’s last work, before his destitute death in Paris at the age of 46, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”, latter published in 1898, under the name C.3.3 (Oscar Wilde’s own prison cell number). ]
Hanging, for the purposes of execution, is the suspension of a person by a ligature tied around their neck, and was a common method of capital punishment since medieval times, while still remaining the official execution method in some countries.
 Oliver Cromwell’s Head In Ireland today, due to a rise in criminal behaviour, media outlets often report on calls by individuals to reintroduce hanging. Indeed, in recent weeks one elected representative and one legal expert in Co. Tipperary, have both supported the idea that gun possession for rural dwellers is now essential, intimating the ridiculous notion that each person in their own right, is entitled to become judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one.
Oscar Wilde’s famous poem, (extract above) when read in full, demonstrates the effect on prisoners of a condemned man waiting in their midst.
Prior to the early 1800’s, the crimes of:- Robbery; Arson; Burglary; Coining; Highway Robbery; Attempted Murder; High Treason; Horse Stealing; Murder; Rape; Sheep Stealing; Sodomy; Theft (including from letter post, boats and dwelling houses); Uttering (latter the crime of passing forgeries, e.g. counterfeit coins and notes) were all punishable by hanging.
Legislation under the ‘Chalking Act’ of 1778, permitted the hanged body of a person who killed or maimed with intent, to be handed over to surgeons for anatomization (separating into fine particles) or basic dissection.
In 1823, British Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) influenced by Quakers Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney, “the angel of prisons”) and her brother Joseph John Gurney; reduced the number of offences for which convicts could be executed, by over 100 previously prescribed offences. Robert Peel who helped to create the modern-day police force, introducing ‘Bobbies’ in England and ‘Peelers’ in Ireland, later served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, first elected MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel, in Co. Tipperary, when he was just 21. Seven years later in 1830, his replacement, Lord John Russell, abolished the death sentence for horse stealing and housebreaking.
On Friday 3rd September 1658, Oliver Cromwell then aged 59, died of septicaemia at Whitehall, in central London. On the 30th January 1661, after the restoration of the monarchy and on the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I, his supposed body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and subjected to a posthumous execution by being hanged at Tyburn. Later taken down from the scaffold and decapitated, his body was thrown into a pit beneath his gallows. What remained of his head was set on a spike above Westminster Hall. This pole with spike attached on which the head was impaled, broke off during a storm, falling into the grounds of Westminster Hall.
It is understood that a sentry found it and hid it in the chimney of his house, ignoring a considerable reward for its whereabouts. In the meanwhile, it reappeared in 1710 on public display in the ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ owned by Claudius Du Puy, a French-Swiss calico printer who also ran a museum of freaks and curiosities. On Du Puy’s death in 1738 the head passed through various hands; including the Hughes Brothers, who put it on public display in Bond Street, charging two shillings and sixpence to view it.
It took until the 25th March 1960, before the head was finally reburied in Sidney Sussex College Chapel in Cambridge, inside an airtight container with just a few witnesses present.
Capital punishment in Ireland was prohibited in statute law in 1990, having been first abolished in 1964 for most offences, including ordinary murder.
Two questions remain for debate; (1) Do we really wish to return to those dark uncivilised days of yore? or (2) Do we feel that those elected to form our laws have let us down with regard to the punishing of those committed to continuous criminal behaviour?
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