It is early in the morning, I have yet to encounter, or even read about an academic, and yet I am in a foul, foul mood about Ireland. Where to begin? The latest MRBI (basically, the big Irishing polling company) poll came out, showing a small gain for Sinn Fein in Ireland, up from a consistent 9% to 10%. 10% for the killers of Sinn Fein. What is wrong with people? The Labour Party, Ireland's longstanding left-wing party, stands at only 19%. Apparently their tiresome habit of not winning support by killing people or even using bats on them has made them just too dull for the lunatics.
What next? The Irish Examiner (registration required) reports the government is changing over speed signs to the metric system, all 35,000 of them. So all the 30 zones will have new signs that say 50. Goody. The cars that currently drive down the road past my house at only 30 mph over the speed limit will drive even faster in the years it takes their drivers to figure out the crazy new metric system. No problem, you say, because the police will fix it with speeding ticket. No one on my road has seen a policeman watching for speeders here in years. No doubt the metric supporters will quote Robespierre to the effect that you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Okay, so he only probably said it, but it might as well have been the motto of the butchers of the French Revolution. The French Revolution gave us the metric system as well. Coincidence? I think not. No blood for the metric system.
Finally, the Irish Independent (registration required) reports that Clare County Council has decided to ban dogs from the beaches.
