spirituality

 

 

 I believe that there is something else beyond this life. I simply can’t imagine that there is nothing else beyond what we know now. I can’t bear to think that I would never see my loved ones again, after death. Love is too strong for it to just end, surely. I think we are in this life to learn an that we can’t possibly learn all that we are supposed to in one life. I reckon that we live many lives. But I can’t get my head around it. I am only the person I am and no one else. So if I were to be reborn on a different life, I wouldn’t have the memories I do now. So how can it be me? where do I go? Its all fine and grand to just say that I believe in life after death and rebirth but there has to be logic, I have to make sense of it first before I can fully accept it.

Limerick’s Shannon: A Poem

wrote this one whilst contemplating Limerick’s river and all that it has seen and taken.

                          River Running

 

 

River running like a mighty rush of blood.

Froth the colour of wine bottles

Flushing through this

Lowly town,

Snaking under the bellies of bridges.

 

The river sighs as it flashes past men

Who sit

With drink running through their veins.

They contemplate this vast immortal god

And the coldness of its waters.

 

And I say,

Thank god,

For it is their contemplation of its

Cold

That keeps them from its clutches.

 

Tis those who

do not think

and drink

that               

                        jump

that

 

 

 

 

         fall

swirling down the rabbit hole of

Limerick City’s Bloody Shannon.

 

            One more life a life

                   Too many

                Stop and think

            Stay still and tarry

C

Unchanged Times: The church-State connection

 

 

I was just pondering on the structure of our society and how it has changed. Or not at all.

Firstly, the catholic church dominated social and domestic life. It told people how to behave and what not to do. It dictated people’s thoughts and sexual feelings. Or tried to, at least. Sometimes I think it was a form of cult. Don’t misunderstand me. I am a believer in God and not shy about saying it. But, I can’t help but say that I do not think faith should be forced upon anyone.For an organisation to hold so much sway with entire countries, amazes me. How did that hold come to be? How did the church pull the wool over so many eyes? I just don’t understand it.

Is it as simple as blind faith? or the people’s fear of death, which seemed all the more present in times where vaccinations were almost non-existant.

It is estimated that the catholic church may be worth 1billion US Dollars approx., but who knows, hell, it could be way more. I mean, think of the property they own.                                                                                                              In Ireland, most is now in the hands of the Health Service Executive (hse). Old care homes became modern hostel units. Basically serving the same function they did all those years ago. Take, for instance, Bessborough centre in Cork.It is well known as a past catholic adoption agency and unwed mother-baby home. nuns known for their cruelty still reside in the main house. The rear of the building serves a variety of purposes, such as the job centre,  meditation centre,  creche,  school and, shock-horror! pregnancy and post-partum accomodation.

say what now?

I kid you not. a place that once held  young and older unwed mothers who were, in the majority of cases, sent on to the Magdalene Asylums to endure abuse and hard physical labour, has become a “mother and baby unit” for use by the HSE. Ive seen the website. It looks quite cosy. images of lavender plants cover the screen. Dreamy.

Brightly-lit accommodation rooms.

A main kitchen, where chefs provide meals for the hungry mums and mums-to-be. It must be a welcome respite if you lived on the street previously. Or if you were kicked out of home for becoming pregnant.

Or if it was your last chance to keep your child.

As, in fact, this “home away from home”  is covered upside down with cameras and the womens movements are closely monitored. If prescribed medications by doctors, psychiatric or other wise, they are watched as they swallow them and just in case they take them out after, another “carer” watches on camera. If seen to not take their medications, the woman is confronted and watched even closer. Mail is monitored and there are close ties to social workers and the hse. In fact, the unit and the hse are one and the same. 

Ok, but  these women have chosen to go there and are free to leave.

um, incorrect.

Actually, the majority of these women are social work referrals and are not allowed to leave. It is often a last stop for these women. And if they get it wrong, their baby is immediately taken away into foster care. Many are in the process of legal proceedings and family court cases. They are at the mercy of staff, social workers, doctors and judges.their lives are a whirr of forms and care orders and court dates. sounds heavanly. 

So basically, it could be likened to a modern day Catholic institution.

But, there are no bars, no adoption service, no labour and no on site maternity hospital, just ready to snatch the  babies. No. It is more challenging than that. Women give birth in the hospital and then, once discharged, are whizzed away from their homes and into this “haven,” quite often against their will. Or sometimes they are brought to the unit before the birth. Now, thats traumatic.

sound familiar?

Can you just picture it. Possibly a young mother, in hse care. Young and scared. A first time mother. away from home. then, straight after giving birth, they are taken, against their wishes, to a new place, a different city, possibly. And left their by social workers. their movements are watched by cctv, manned by critical eyes. the care they give their babies is monitored, reports written and actions analyzed, such as the tone of voice they use with their children. Or the way the baby is held, or winded. 

Sure, they can walk out the door.

well, kind of…….

you see, if these women leave, with a child under a child protection order, they are breaking the law. by not wanting to be somewhere they dont know, against their will.The mother would be hunted down by the police and social services and the baby taken from its mothers arms. no matter how well she cared for her child.

So they can’t leave. not because of a high wall with shards of glass on top.

but because of an emotional wall, built by fear.

I always thought that if someone is threatened with a reaction, in response to an action, it is called blackmail.

well, surely, they have done something wrong to be treated this way. 

Not always.

lets say  a girl is in foster care and discovered they are pregnant and it isn’t planned. they aren’t sure what to do or who to tell. so eventually, they unveil their secret to their social worker or care taker. soon, there is talk of adoption or foster care. mental anguish. Or, a unit where, after an assessment period they can leave. Their foster parents don’t want a baby in the house. sure, they didn’t sign up for that. So they won’t be returning there.  they go straight from the hospital.after arriving, they see the cameras and the reports and endure continuous dictation. and they want to leave, so they do. they leave and go back to their native town or city. but thats against the rules. the guards are called, the court is pulled into action and the girl is found and baby taken. so who cares about where the girl goes, even if she is under age. she can have the baby back, but not until she goes back to the unit.

so you see now, don’t you? there is no real choice. there is no true freedom. 

so, lets review: A girl can be hauled away from home, right after birth and emotionally black mailed into staying in this unit. If they leave, the child is taken from her and placed into foster care. Or if the staff find her an unsuitable mother. then, If a person who is registered as a doctor dictates that they should take drugs, such as anti-depressants or mood stabilisers, they have no choice. unless they prefer to have their child taken. sounds like emotional blackmail to me. They are assessed and when a social worker says so, they can leave. possibly on to another unit, or into rented accommodation.

 well here is our health service, taking emotionally vunerable women, threatening them with the removal of their child, forcing them to swallow drugs and removing them from their personal support networks. sounds appalling. 

 a scandal in my eyes. 

It seems to me, in light of these goings-on, that the hse has picked up from where the catholic church left off. church- run institutions have become state-run institutions and babies can be taken, just like in the olden days. 

 

The high walls remain. Fields stretch out around the entrance and the dark, imposing residence stands as it did, all those years ago, when the nuns forced heavily pregnant girls out to pick potatoes. The site is layed out like a fortress with outer walls and inner gates. It is not hard to imagine the fear felt by the girls driven in all those years ago. Forced to stay there against their will.  

It seems that time has not change things. girls are still taken there against their will. babies still taken away. poverty  is still in ongoing existance. maybe, these happenings are history in the making, and in the future, will be made open and examined, where the world may find them unlawful and morally wrong. 

For I am of the opinion that what is happening there in supposedly democratic, modern times, does not feel right. I believe in freedom and the right to choose. 

what do you believe?

Addicts: A Class of their own

 

Justice is supposed to be blind

 

 

There are many in this world who are not pleasing to the eye, and unsavoury in character. Sometimes, these two attributes come seperate and other times, together. What I find disturbing is that addiction, to anything, But namely alcohol and hard drugs, such as heroin, have the ability to make the beautiful ugly, the nice nasty and the rich poor (and the poor even poorer).

Addicts have become entrapped within a class of their own. And I am deeply sorry to say, it is a lower class. 

I am not one for classing people into different categories, but this one time I cannot refrain. Drug dealers and pushers have turned our children into a nation of scumbags- and have given the children of scumbags even less of a chance. Though bock may like to slash the confidence of those on welfare even further, I will do no such thing.

Some people in our world have no chance in life. No education, no money and early motherhood. How could they go anywhere? how can they get a job, even a low paid one, when they were all taken, even when Ireland had them. 

Back to the topic on hand, sorry for my self-righteous wonderings.

These drug dealers are stealing the children of tomorrow and the souls of many.

Nice, sweet boys and girls becoming thieves and low-lives. Ever had a car stolen? probably by a drug addict (or the child of one).

Ever see a sorry sight sitting on a street corner? probably a drug addict.

Ever see a prostitute plying their trade? probably a drug addict

Ever see a man on welfare with a ’09 mercedes? definitely a drug dealer!

Ever hear of  welfare claimants holidaying in their foreign villas? probably a drug dealer!

Ever see a boy racer giving you the finger? probably a drug dealer, or a child throwing rocks at a bus(who will be an addict or a dealer or both)

Children are not born bad and, in my humble opinion, have no capacity for evil. I suppose when their well-paid teachers believe that the children they teach will be scumbags, or the people who pass them on the street, they really have little chance.

 addiction not only ravages the lives of the addicts themselves, but also their entire families. when the dealers have the ability to destroy an entire generation, and the potential to damage more, it is absolute negligence by the justice system to aid and abet them by letting them walk free for giving information on others. 

Ever see an average paid Garda with a fat wallet and a nice, big house?

Addiction not only steals a persons family, it steals their very soul and turns their hearts cold while they search for money and would turn their mind to anything in order to get what they want.

These addicts have no mind, no body and no future unless, by some miracle and strength of character, they pull themselves out of the dirt and get clean. This is harder than it sounds. It means leaving a home, if they still have one. Leaving a family, if they still have one and using their brain, if they still have one. 

these poor people, young and old, less gained and rich, have, through the cold work of dealers inc. created a new class of mindless, health-less, pitiful fools and use them for every dirty deed they need done.

ever hear of heroin addicts pulled in for questioning, and kept for hours, until their bodies squirm for a fix and they have no choice but give up their information? I have. No hard work. job done.

But, that could all be justified, couldn’t it?

If only the information was used and justice was done and dealers locked up where they belong. BUT, this Limerick of ours is run by people who:

                               Know everything, yet DO NOTHING! 

                                                  sickening, isn’t it?

The Baby Snatchers; a modern scandal

 

Mother Mary plays with her baby Jesus

 

As I read about the recent stories from England of  social workers supposedly taking babies and many young children from their mothers and forcibly adopting them, little atoms begin to whizz around my mind. As I read deeper into these allegations, many of the details set alarm bells ringing for me. A friend of min

e living in England told me about her experiences with the social services in England. The similarities to the stories now emerging are striking. Social workers complained if her house was too untidy and then when it was clean, questioned whether she was paying enough attention to her 4 children. This lady also had a drug problem and had recently escaped an abusive relationship. Social services became involved and seemed to criticise her every move. whilst pregnant with her fourth child, she was told that the baby may be taken away, along with her other children. 5 weeks after the birth of that baby, all 4 children were taken into care. Within a mere month the social workers informed the woman that an adoptive family had been located for her two young girls, aged 5 weeks and 20 months. The new family were wealthy bankers. Clearly, from this example, it can be seen that the priority of the social services were not on keeping the family together, or of working on a solution, but of placing the children in homes, away from their mother for good. three of that woman’s four children are adopted now.

This story echoes so many of other womens stories in England today. Her children were taken 7 years ago, the very year that government adoption quotas were put in place in return for financial gain. Since then figures for English infant adoptions have doubled and social workers seem more keen than ever on taking children away from their mothers. Some babies have been taken before their mothers bring them home from hospital.

As a parent I can understand that if a child is neglected or abused or showing signs of same, that the child needs to be protected and cared for in an environment apart from its parent/parents. however, for a newborn child to be taken from its mother at merely days or weeks old, when no harm has come to him or her, is simply outrageous. It echoes the times of the magdalene laundries, where babies were shipped from Ireland to wealthy families in Ireland, England and America. What kind of morality is the Western world displaying when it is abusing the most sacred of its components: the family unit. How can we stand strong as a nation, when our nation is being ripped from the inside out and a government is actually encouraging adoptions to the extent that quotas have been put in place. The children of our society are not a commodity for sale, they are not fish in the sea or meal tickets. If the government wants to hand out incentives to social workers for anything, it should be for keeping families together where called for and not for taking the most holy of things apart all in the name of money, the very root of all and every evil.

Here we go again: economic crisis hits harder

 

 

As if the pension levy  and huge tax hikes weren’t bad enough, now the poorest of the poor are to be targeted by our fretting government. Biffo and Lenihan seem to be more concerned about balancing their books than busying their minds with the welfare of the people.

there have been serious issues raised concerning the recent rent supplement adjustments. It is now to become very hard for people to access this supplement, which, while seems necessary from some perspectives, will make life very difficult for some of the most vunerable within our society, namely women trapped within abusive relationships.

 new guidelines regarding the rent supplement dictate that applicants must be 6 months in rental accommodation before becoming eligible, therefore making it near impossible to flee an abusive home and apply straightaway. Also, the rent-price limits have lowered, making the already unrealistic limits look good. In Limerick, with the price of rented accomm. falling, it has just become possible to find a decent house for 750 euros per calender month. That price is above the price limit allowed by community welfare officers for a couple with 2 children. Now that price will be 675 euro per month, which is completely unreal. People paying 750 euro were already having to hide the real price of their rented homes, now they will have to stretch their budgets even further. Times are very hard and becoming increasingly harder, for both high and low earners, old and young alike.

where does the heart of the government lie when they are forever making it look like people on benefits are escaping the economic crisis, by saying that they are trying to protect “the most vunerable of our society.” In the December budget the gov. upped social welfare by approx. 10 euro, but took 5 euro from rent supplement. these sneaky deductions have to end now, if we are to stop the Irish people falling into an even deeper cycle of poverty and running the risk of making people homeless.

Read all about it: cult of the criminal undergod

Within the media there are plenty of newspaper articles and headlines that delve into the dark and grim goings-on of Limerick city. I read recently that Limerick is being described as Ireland’s “murder capital.” Sorry to those thrill seekers and camera waving journalists, but my Limerick has far less murders and violent incidences than Dublin, yet the paper trail goes on. Limerick is not the only city in Ireland over-run with organized criminal gangs and super rats(whistleblowers). Yet Limerick is concentrated on by the media and always guarantees readability by the general public of Ireland. Limerick is juicy, that is definite. But what about the real people of Limerick? what about when we are wronged by the criminals or the justice system? do we deserve any less of a spotlight by the media? our city is blackened and neighborhoods described as  no-go zones, by a media that indirectly glorifies these criminal families and gives them a platform to glamorize themselves as in the league of  criminal cities all across the world. The murders carried out in this town are not particularly bloody or emotionally charged. they are purely propaganda by criminals to boost their own egos. i can only imagine the pure delight that these crims feel as they read all about their recent activities in local and nation-wide news. through the media these scumbag raping, thieving low-lives have become modern underworld celebrities and d’you know what? no one is doing anything about it- not me, not you and certainly not the guards  feathering their own nests and saving their own arses. Ireland has truly become a ‘me’ republic:

<stay away from me>

<I am minding MY own business>

<give ME money and you will get off in court>

<deal drugs and create poor junkies, but not on MY turf>

<kill other peoples children but not MINE>

you get the idea?  back in the old days the people of Ireland would stand up and march, not sit down and snooze. there are so many reforms needed, that I personally wouldn’t know where to start. but here is a short list of things that need not to exist anymore and shouldn’t have existed ever:

1. A  badly-managed police force

2. A lazy, good- for- nothing filthy rich government

3. A floundering health service run by an over-fed, over-paid idiot

and finally;

4 .people who don’t give a fuck