Frankie Says……Dear, Not Normal.

I must firstly apologise to you for the tardiness of my reply.

But to be truthful I was so shocked by your letter that I had to reflect for quite some time on how I would respond.

Normal People was the hit show of springtime on RTE1 and has made stars of the young actors, Paul and Daisy.

But it is not ,anything about these two people that has caused your anguish, nor in fact anything ,per se ,about the two characters that they portray, Connell and Marianne if I remember them correctly.

No it is all really about the general publics need for blandness and their wish to suffer from , BH, or as I call it, Bland Hysteria.

It has been known to happen before and many people just like you, have felt the exact same level of isolation and low self esteem. Being unable to either comprehend nor participate in bland hysteria.

But , one thing I do know is, that you are not alone., and that is really what is important, you are not alone in your thoughts nor in your opinions.

But even more importantly, even if you were the only person on this planet with those views on Normal People, you have every right to hold them.

Bland Hysteria is a 21st century phenomenon, and it has travelled the world as quickly as any pandemic. No vaccine has as yet been found and I fear none will be.

It is simply characterised as a persons need to seek out bland people, bland situations, bland opinions and a bland view of life.

That is really why Normal People was such a hit, it featured bland characters, in bland situations, uttering bland inanities and the general public lapped it up.

Sad but true.

So, never worry about feeling isolated in these circumstances, be happy that you are not suffering from Bland Hysteria.

But more importantly, do not keep your opinions to yourself, tell them, shout them from the roof tops. People suffering from Bland Hysteria need to he challenged. To have a mirror put up in front of them to get them to see themselves.

This wont cure them , but it will make you feel better!

You are not normal, you do not suffer from this dreaded disease, Bland Hysteria.

As my friend Frank Sinatra says, Aren’t you glad you’re you.

Yours,
Frankie Byrne
( This piece was inspired by the iconic Frankie Byrne, one of Irelands first broadcasting stars and her response is reimagined for the times we live in)

Dear Frankie…….I feel like I am not Normal!

Dear Frankie,

I wonder if you might help me with a problem that has been on my mind?

I feel like I am not Normal!

In many ways its a little awkward and even just writing it now ,I feel that people will be looking at me and talking about me ,as I admit that I didn’t like nor enjoy, Normal People.

So, I’ve said it now, and I can already feel the tension and dislike building up ,as I hear the general public denounce me from near and far.

They say……

“Normal People and Connell and Marianne were and are wonderful human beings”, “you just have to like and love them” ! “Is there something wrong with you? “ “Have you got notions? You cant say that, people will shun you!” “ You are only asking for trouble!”

Is it so bad Frankie not to like and enjoy Normal People?

Is it awful and nearly unpatriotic not to swoon at Connell and his bambi like eyes as they wait for the car lights to be switched off? To feel nothing for Daisy and her concerns as to how her body parts look?

Is it just me that looked and listened to that show and could only think of having to sit through 30 minutes of Boring People.?

Is it just me that could only see and hear a Modern Day Miley ?at every glance and utterance of Connell? At least Miley in Glenroe had the wonderful Dinny to lift the heart and breath life into him!

But poor Connell, had nothing to redeem him. No not even his chain nor the shorts he wore!

Or am I wrong, ? Was Marianne a cross between Joan of Arc and Mother Teresa? Would she have given the President of the EU Commission no choice but to sack Phil Hogan and appoint Marianne, not Mairead McGuinness?

Frankie, I am seeking your help here, Ireland in 2020 will never forget Normal People, I feel we were put into Lockdown and forced to view it. Am I the only one ?

Am I alone? Am I not a normal person?

Regards,

Not Normal.

Frankie says……Dear, Worried and Perplexed, a concerned citizen of Ireland.

Dear Worried and Perplexed,

My oh my , it does seem like you are in a bit of a precarious state.

Boys will be boys as I always say, but that does not excuse their actions, nor in this case their inaction nor the lunacy of their actions.

Most relationships like this end in disaster and this one may well be no different.

But lets not dwell on the negative and lets see if we can conjure up a bit of positivity!

Firstly , have you spoken to these boys in government, ? what were their names again, Micheal, Leo and Eamonn.

Do try and talk to them, but boys, and I hope you are reading this, you do need to listen to what is being said.

And I dont mean just to listen to each other!

Now I know we have had a recent change of , Head Boy , and a recent addition of Deputy Head Boy and Junior Head Boy and this can create difficulties.

Maybe you are all not really playing as team players, this will have to stop.

We have the boys in NPHET land still calling the shots and those in the HSE worried that their grasp and control of the situation , might see them mired in another disaster, ( God knows they have had enough of them)

It is fraught with difficulties.

I would say this to all those boys, there is an old saying that Doctors differ and patients die!

We have had far to many deaths from Covid 19 already and those who have passed including all the nursing home residents should never be forgotten.

Maybe you boys (all of you) might just reflect on the impact your past decisions had on that vulnerable group , they do seem to have been sacrificed by your decisions to date.

Now lets not forget the two girls up in the far corner of this island, Arlene and Michelle,I think you called them.

One of them has a best friend , living further south and that girl works in the same big house with the three boys, Mary Lou is her name.

I hear that the three boys here have ignored her and taken all the big jobs and perks for themselves.

This is a worry in any relationship, but those two girls up north will have to be included in decisions to benefit the whole island and the boys here might have to include the best friend as well.

I don’t have a solution for you , but all I can say is we need a coherent plan for all of us and these boys and girls wont have a future if they get it wrong.

We leave the final word to Francis Albert Sinatra, ‘ Thats Life’

Yours,

Frankie Byrne

( This piece was inspired by the iconic Frankie Byrne, one of Irelands first broadcasting stars and her response is reimagined for the times we live in)

Dear Frankie……yours, Worried and Perplexed, a concerned citizen of Ireland.

Dear Frankie,

You were once the agony aunt of Ireland, dishing out wonderful solutions to those with problems, mainly of the romantic kind.

I was hoping to conjure up your wisdom of the past in these trying and difficult pandemic times.

You see Frankie , we have packs of boys running the country, Michael, Leo and Eamonn in Government Buildings, while we also have Ronan and his little troop in a place called NPHET calling all the shots and Paul with an army of HSE troops on call.

We do have two girls up in the top corner, Arlene and Michelle who dont seem willing to play.

My worry is simple Frankie, these boys have been in charge since February 2020 after an initial honeymoon with the boys , Ireland and her people are beginning to doubt that they have the solutions to this pandemic.

We have been told that we should work from home but to make sure and go on holiday in Ireland, we are told a plate of chicken and chips and a pint is ok but that a pint on its own is the devils work, we were told masks were unnecessary but now they are mandatory, we were told public transport was safe but not to use it! You can see why I am perplexed.

The decision to fast track the 5 phases announced on the 22nd June by Leo, when he was head boy was a major mistake. He says the NPHET boys told him it was ok!!! But no one takes responsibility!

Frankie its all the same boys who are in charge and I am worried that they don’t have solutions for us.

We have run down blind alleys this past few weeks chasing international travellers, Golfgate, Berlin Bar, etc.

None of these are the reasons why we have seen such an increase in cases.

No cases are linked to bars and restaurants, little or no cases are linked to international travel.

It has just about in most cases arisen in HOUSEHOLDS!

But we give new powers to the Gardai, to close bars, we have idiotic travel restrictions with 14 day quarantine , laterally changed to isolation and now to movement restrictions!

Even our Taoiseach on his travels did not use the 14 day guideline, but then he deemed his travel essential!

We now have people in 14 day restrictions, but with no symptoms and not in close contact with a positive case, some even have negative test results and thats not acceptable.

These are all for optics and actually do nothing to stop the rise the current household transmission.

You see Frankie , we need leadership, but I feel this group of boys are not in control and those two girls up in the corner may not help.

Please let me know your thoughts,

Worried and Perplexed,

A concerned citizen of Ireland.

Being different is all about equality not language nor skin colour.

Language can be used as a weapon, it has been forever so.

It can also serve to educate us and to highlight issues that are current and that need addressing.

I am reminded of that old rhyme “Sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never hurt me”

Sometimes old rhymes and lessons are better to live by rather than try to create a false propriety and politically correct regulations.

Readjusting old text and dialogue from film, books and the written and spoken word seems to be an inappropriate response and could be seen as an attack on creative forces and on free speech.

Words can be hurtful, if we let them hurt us, we should take that power of hurt away.

Words cannot harm us ,but the people that speak them can, so we can ignore them if we wish, or we can call them out and tell them that the problem is actually theirs.

The history of the world is littered with difference being highlighted and used as a weapon on laws and regulations by the victors over the vanquished.

Just look at the decimation of the peoples of the world , their languages, beliefs and systems all wiped out by fellow humans. All gone because of being different

Race is just one issue where inequality is clear, gender can be another, sexual orientation is yet another, disability another, while older people adds to the list, we could go on.

What is at the heart of these inequalities is the nature of human beings as mammals to treat difference as something unwelcome. And for those with power to oppress, obliterate and to suppress any difference and those marginalised by being different.

If the world was full of people of one colour, we would find or create some other difference to oppress and suppress. It could be eye colour, height, north or south of the equator, anything at all!

Language and skin colour are not the issue they are merely symptoms of our flaws , human beings are the problem as we fail to accept difference and fail to demand equality for all.

Being different is all about equality not language and skin colour.

Tweedledee or Tweedledum? Can we even tell the difference?

So it looks like Covid 19 is over , God is in his heaven and we await an new government before the summer holidays!

I would be worried that Covid 19 , as Gerry Adams might say, hasn’t gone away you know! God and heaven are not believable for many but we do need a new government!

We voted on the 8th February and the dance of prospective partners has been slow and torturous from this view point.

With both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail having a disastrous election, they have returned to the Dail with fewer TD’S than they had in the previous Dail under their Confidence and Supply arrangement.

With Sinn Fein and Mary Lou not being on either Leo’s nor Michaels dance card , rejected by the electorate ( yes it was a rejection, the people didn’t want Leo back as Taoiseach nor to replace him with Michael) they now try to create an illusion that they are agents of change.

Strategies and granidose wish lists will not wash ultimately with an electorate in 2024.

With the Greens being tagged on as a mud guard to the big two parties and a few independents in place as glue to put Leo and Michael into their state cars for 4 years, I wouldn’t count on meaningful change for the people of Ireland.

I could be wrong?

So whether its Tweedledee or Tweddledum as Taoiseach, this new government looks a possibility, unless some membership votes of the relevant parties object!

With Michael Martin as Taoiseach , he wont have to go down in history as the first leader of Fianna Fail never to be Taoiseach , Leo will probably travel Europe and the world as Minister of Foreign Affairs, saving us from Brexit hell as the spin will tell us , Eamon Ryan may be in Finance and Catherine Martin in Environment and they will rotate the top role in 2 years time.

So it will be Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and I fear we wont be a able to tell the difference!

A Postcard to Leo- Please do the right thing.

Morning Taoiseach,

Its the first day of June 2020, a year that will be remembered. Sadly many of us will only have memories of those lost during this pandemic.

With all the numbers of phases 1-5 , 2 metres- 1metre, 100,000 tests floating all around us in these Covid – 19 days, please do not forget our family members that are incarcerated in nursing homes and residential settings.

When will they see their families again? As shops reopen, and we travel beyond 5 kms to 20kms and on the 10th August travel to regions beyond just when will these older wonderful people be treated with dignity and equality?

Our school children will return from their summer holidays with their parents, schools will reopen, work places will resume and the old linger on in nursing homes, isolated from their families.

In the next few weeks please give all as much immediate attention to these people and their families to ensure their return to society.

Nursing homes have been reopened in France, why can we not do the same?

I fear its in the numbers and that those nursing home residents are not in the main voters and therefore count for less than all the other citizens clamouring for lockdown freedom.

Please, Leo in the time left before a new government is in place , do the right thing for all our people locked down in nursing homes and residential settings.

Give these wonderful people their dignity and equality.

Regards,

Absoluteblogger.

No hope for Lucinda and the Secret Seven!

Its sort of looking like an Enid Blyton book today with Lucinda and the Famous Five or is it the Secret Seven heading to the RDS to hold a conversation with their “Monster Rally” participants.

The intrepid Lucinda will be busy as they talk about REFORM, economic, political and health reform.

Its been a fairly easy ride so far, with acres and acres of free advertising in the print media and broadcasts to the nation on TV and radio.

Its cheap for the media as well as they dont have to go looking for the news , they dont have to critically analyse politics or they have to do is dial Lucinda and her followers and let them talk.

This is a strange and a not so strange phenomenon, we all love a good row and this split in Fine Gael could be fun.

With an enormous majority in the Dail its kind of pointless talking to the backbenchers who support the government so stick a mike in front of the Secret Seven and hey presto we have a story!!!

But its only a filler as the REFORM ALLIANCE really has no substance longterm.

Lucinda Creighton was a very impressive Minister of State for European Affairs whose stand on the Abortion issue in 2013 was clear cogent and in all probability will be proven correct.

But its an enormous leap to move from this position into leading or fronting another Political Party based on Reform.

Reform is in itself an intangible and can mean what ever you want it to be!

The Irish Political landscape is littered by failed new parties. None have stood the test of time, none have had a long life span none have managed to replace FF FG and Labour.

Those three parties in themselves have changed and reshaped both themselves and their support base.

FG went into a decline after Berties last General Election win but bounced back after Enda promised to electrify them. Admittedly the country had to be bankrupted before the Irish people turned back to him.

FF is suffering the backlash now of that economic disaster with the people who partied with the Celtic Tiger now taking its revenge on them.

They still have support and while it might take two or three General Elections they will return.

Labour of course has its own story, there have been to many Labour parties in the past to mention here but this Democratic Left version could well be in power for a few more years yet.

There is no REFORM in Ireland and no appetite from the general public for it.

All they want is money in their pockets and to be able to duck and dive to see what more they can get and believe they are entitled to!

Thats why they elected Bertie three times, and thats why they wont move to far from the Parish Pump.

There is no hope for Lucinda , the Secret Seven and their Reform Alliance, its all a piece of fiction good to fill the media pages , the public wont support them but they are in the news till they fade away!

Is it not time that we know just where all our charitable donations go?

So just how much has changed since the CRC board and their CEO have resigned? The need to reform the entire charity sector is still the ultimate goal but the frenzy and hysteria that surrounded the CRC issue seems to have created nothing else.

While our charity sector is an important player in a multiplicity of arenas stretching from health, famine, third world development, homelessness, soup kitchens etc. etc. delivering much needed services at home and abroad the funding of it is unclear and its regulation elusive.

The CRC was a headline act with the focus on top up payments a very clear single issue. The idea that these top ranking management were not asked to endure a salary reduction as most near everyone else has been over the past five years is a scandal but hides or masks the bigger issues in the charity sector.

The Irish state has a sad and bad history of allowing “charities” to deliver services which the state does not want to deliver nor take the responsibility for itself.  The industrial schools and magdalene laundries are two such examples where “services” were provided by these charities and payments made by the state.  A blind eye was consistently turned to finances, conditions, treatment and justice for individuals within these services once the state payment was handed over.  Other income streams were ignored within them and how this money was spent and on whom conveniently forgotten.

That same mentality exists today, this country is awash with charities, awash with money sloshing around and no control evident.

A mantra is chanted at us not to give cash, not to support people begging on our streets, we are asked to give to recognised charities, with a sub text that they will use it better!!

But do we know where this money actually goes, how is it spent, what percentage of our donations are used in the services that we want to support.????

Look at the bucket collectors, who shake those buckets under our noses, how much of that money gets into the Charities funds? How many payments are made to the “volunteers”, is it expenses only or a percentage of the collection? Flag sellers, lines sold for prizes, who gets the line money? Who wins the prizes? Look at the recycling units dotted around the country, with a charities name on its side. My belief is that many of these see private companies creaming off the revenue with a small proportion of the funds actually getting into the charities funds. Think of the standing order or Direct Debit that goes out of your account to charities every month, who does this pay? Who is employed in these charities? How are they appointed? Who controls the bank accounts? Who answers to the tax man? How many charities do we have operating? Does anybody control them? I suspect that millions and millions of euro are floating around in this industry, these are the questions that need to be answered.

The legacy of the CRC story should be that every charity should come under scrutiny, that we should have a transparent money flow, that the services provided should take priority but I fear that all of this will be lost as the soundbite and the headline takes precedent.

So please Shane Ross, John McGuinness et al you have the ability to do some lasting good here, please don’t misuse the power that you have.

We need to follow the money trail, we need to stop misusing the publics good nature and the state has to step up and take responsibility for the service itself and those charities delivering these services.