My Trip to the High Court

  When I was seven years old, I did a bad thing. I defied authority in school and opened a door I was told not to go near. I received a series of punishments for this which had a bad effect on me. I quickly became a burden on my parents, who had fallen on hard times around the same time due to our dairy herd being decimated by disease. They had managed to build a new house before this happened and were rightly proud of it and the comfort it provided - running water and everything.  One of the great joys of my life was to look after them when they were no longer fully able to look after themselves. They stayed living in their home, a place where they were almost always happy.  My mother went into a coma, isolated and extremely distressed (the night nurse's report doesn't make for pleasant reading), on a Covid ward in Mullingar during Christmas 2020. She died a day later. My father's death was not much more natural. Though I had become very close to both of them, they'd h...

How we are played, in five easy lessons.   2. A LITTLE MORE PEE It is 1990 and Ireland is in dire need of a makeover. The West Coast Americans are coming and we're can't stop singing 'ole ole' - for reasons nobody knows. Five things need to happen, and happen fast.  A: the brazen brown envelope corruption has to be seen to be tackled, then replaced by a more restrained and universal corruption.  B: the Troubles have to end.  C: a corporate tax evasion scheme has to be put in place.  D: the raw connection between priest and people has to be severed, without endangering the power and wealth of the corporate Vatican.  E: a secular (neo)liberal priesthood has to be introduced to fill the void.    All the above was done, with un-Irish efficiency, within a decade. For (A), see Scandal 1. (B) was a simple affair, directed from London. (C) was largely the brainchild of Athlone man Feargal O'Rourke, who invented the Double Irish , the largest tax evas...

How we are played, in five easy lessons  1. PEE ''The Judges will decide/ The likes of me provide ...'' - Agnetha Faltskog                                                                             --     Every good scandal, and every profitable tribunal, needs a foundational event. A happy circumstance which grabs the attention of the public and guides it into a holding centre where its mind is blown and pockets emptied.                                                                                                         ...

AUD-20240311-WA0000.m4a I was given this thing a couple of weeks ago.  I'm told that it's a WhatsApp voice note which was uploaded into a group chat. It comes from an unidentified son of John Hayden, who is one of the two directors of Athlone Town AFC CLG.  The word is that the whole town is (or was) talking about this, which is its most obvious point. As long as people are talking about ''the boys'' - which very much includes 'oooooh, aren't they terrible?' - ''the boys'' are controlling the narrative. Donald Trump understands this dynamic better than most.  It is such obvious bullshit (and could be seen as an attempt to put the O'Connor camp back in its place as beneficiaries of same rather than generators) that it is hard to work up the will to reply to it. But these are highly connected people whose bullshit is routinely believed, so I have little choice.  The message was presumably put together in haste as a response to my mo...

    Just one hour ago, a Mr. Pat Keegan (I think) delivered court documents/summons/whatever to me on behalf of Mr. Richard Stapleton, the solicitor of Garda David Dully and, depending on who you talk to, a relative or not of Mr. Michael O'Connor (the man in the video). I have no intention of opening the envelope, but I will continue to fight for justice by whatever means are available to me ... including here. I'm no longer scared of them or their courts.    I don't know how much it cost to travel to the World Cup from Ireland, but the American company Sports Travel Fan was doing an eight night stay and three matches for $11,685 (or E10,636).    Based on the tax returns of Athlone Town AFC CLG and making the surely reasonable assumption that its two directors split their 'remuneration' 50-50, Michael O'Connor paid himself E37,500 in 2019, E37,500 in 2020 and E37,500 in 2021. There is no reason to think he didn't pay himself a further couple of E37,500...

Sometimes the little things are the most revealing. In Court 24 on one of the many days when I believed that there was a point in turning up, three barristers standing at the back of the court were having a conversation. One of them said  ''Nobody ever questions the costs of litigation when the State is paying'' and they laughed.  Two months ago, the High Court ordered the taxpayer to hand over half a million euro to the ex-Athlone Town (the old club) player Michael Sheehan. Sheehan had a bit of a contretemps with the Gardai at closing time in Athlone eleven years ago. It appears that Mr. Sheehan got a bit mouthy after two others in his company were caught acting the maggot in the middle of the street. It was probably an overreaction to charge Sheehan under the Public Order Act. In the cold light of day, feelings might have been hurt but no blood was shed and the incident doesn't sound like it should have been a big deal for anyone involved. But the jury didn't ...