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It is no secret that our beloved and now bankrupt island of Ireland has always been associated with Fairies, Banshees, Pookas, Elves and Goblins, but not until last Sunday did I realise that Ireland had recaptured its justifiable first place position, out ranking Denmark which was formally regarded as the real home of the Fairytale. Yes my friends, Denmark is no longer the home of the fairytale and its once resident Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) will now be resigned to our countries recycle bins with immediate effect.
This deceased prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, H.C. Andersen, whose tales previously transcended age and nationality, will be no longer remembered for his short story’s that typically featured folkloric fantasy characters here in Tipperary and Ireland. These Fairy Tales, which had previously become culturally embedded in our collective consciousness and which were always readily accessible to our kids, and which also presented lessons of virtue and strong resilience to our more mature readers, particularly to those involved in our banking sectors, are officially dead.
I remember well sitting on the knee of my dear old Granny, (God be good to Eliza Jane,) as she related the tale of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” from that short story by Andersen.
For those of you unfamiliar with the story, a vain Emperor, who cares for nothing except wearing and displaying fine garments, hires two swindlers. These gentlemen promise him the finest & best of garments manufactured from a new type of fabric that was invisible to anyone who was unfit for position or who was hopelessly stupid. The Emperor’s ministers privately admit they cannot see the clothing themselves but pretend that they can, for fear of appearing unfit for office and indeed the Emperor himself does exactly the same. Finally these swindlers report that their first new garment is finished, they mime as they dress him up in his new invisible finery and the Emperor marches publicly with head held high in a procession before the very eyes of his fawning subjects, playing along with this same pretence, not wanting themselves, as you can imagine, to appear unfit with regard to their own official positions. Then, suddenly, out of the mouth of an innocence child in the crowd, latter too young to understand the desirability of keeping up a pretence, comes the loud shout “But he isn’t wearing anything at all,” and he soon finds his cry is eventually taken up by others.
 Emperor Enda, surrounded by Wexford Councillors & Dignitaries, sets out with the Eternal Flame to ignite the Emigrant Flame in the President J.F. Kennedy family homestead at New Ross. (With apologies to “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by the Late great artist Vilhelm Pedersen 1820-1859.) The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is possibly true, yet he continues on with his procession, while ignoring the now obvious truth.
Now with Ireland having won first place as the fairytale capital of the world, this old outdated tale will be immediately replaced with a more up-to-date & modernised version of this story, latter highlighted by Niamh Horan in the Independent Newspaper on Sunday last.
Continue reading Cost Of A Matchstick €23,000 In Fairy Tale Ireland
 Mayor Ger Darcy, NTCC Rosemary Joyce, Senior Executive Officer, North Tipperary County Councils reports.
The final Annual Meeting of North Tipperary County Council was held in St. Patrick’s College, Thurles, Co Tipperary today. (Monday 24th June 2013.)
At the meeting Councillor Ger Darcy was unanimously selected to be the last Mayor of North Tipperary County Council. (Next year, 2014, will see the amalgamation of North and South Tipperary County Councils, to form a new Tipperary County Council covering the full county of Tipperary.)
Councillor Darcy (Fine Gael) was first elected to North Tipperary County Council in June 1991. His father, the late Jim Darcy, was also a member of the Council and between them they have represented the people of North Tipperary for over 40 years. On the day Ger’s wife Noelle and several other family members were present to mark the historic occasion.
Cllr. Darcy was proposed as Mayor by Cllr. Denis Ryan and jointly seconded by Cllr. John Kennedy and Cllr. Jim Casey. In his initial address to the Council, Cllr. Darcy said that it was a huge honour for him to be unanimously selected as Mayor on what was a special and historic occasion.
He recalled the huge changes that have taken place in the 114 years of local government and the various people who contributed to those changes, starting with the first Chairman of the Council, Cllr. Thomas Corcoran. Local Government had functioned in times of war, times of peace and in times of serious economic difficulties. Every generation had their own difficulties and challenges. However, never had there been as much change as the changes in democracy that are now taking place with the amalgamation of North and South Tipperary County Council, the changes in the Dáil Constituencies, the amalgamation of the VECs to form the Tipperary Education & Training Board, the reduction in the number of regions to three, the abolition of the Town Councils and the establishment of Irish Water. Cllr. Darcy spoke of the need to embrace this change and to be positive about it, so as to ensure the smooth running of the Councils and the delivery of services to the people they represent.
Mayor Darcy went on to stress the need for positivity and to look to the future and job creation in the interests of the young people of the area. The country is turning the corner of economic recovery and Tipperary needs to take advantage of this, by working together to make the changes beneficial. He spoke of the importance of tourism and considered that Tipperary has a lot of untapped potential with a wide range of activities including cycling, golf, walking and equestrian. The changes in relation to Shannon Airport would benefit Tipperary and the region. He also referred to the importance of the rural economy, farming, food production and processing, artisan foods and organic producers.The amalgamation would present opportunities for Tipperary in areas such as Foreign Direct Investment. Tipperary would be the joint third largest local authority in Ireland and had assets in terms of national routes and rail lines. Tipperary would be strategically located and have a strengthened voice at national level.
All the members present congratulated Cllr. Darcy & many tributes were also paid to the outgoing Mayor Cllr. Michael O’Meara. Cllr. Virginia O’ Dowd was unanimously chosen as Deputy Mayor.
Mr. Joe MacGrath, County Manager, congratulated the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor and promised his full support and that of his staff in what would be a busy and most challenging year.
We wish Mayor Darcy every success in his new appointment.
 As was expected, Tipperary Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes has this morning been appointed the new Junior Minister to replace the late Shane McEntee in the Department of Agriculture.
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny informed his Fine Gael cabinet colleagues of his choice this morning, before informing the entire Cabinet at their weekly meeting. A vacancy had arisen in the Department of Agriculture following the untimely death of Mr Shane McEntee just before Christmas.
Mr Tom Hayes, a beef farmer from Golden, in Co Tipperary, has served as a Senator from 1997 to 2001 and as a Tipperary South TD since his election in a by-election in 2001, will now have special responsibility in the areas of forestry, horticulture, the greyhound industry and food safety.
The popular TD has been the most publicly outspoken public representative from Tipperary, in matters regarding unemployment in the county.
 The Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee Report was published today by Environment Minister Phil Hogan. His redrafting of the Irish Republics boundaries, the biggest since 1985, will also bring about the largest shake-up of council boundaries in almost 30 years, with a dramatic increase in the numbers of councillors in Dublin, Louth, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow, following on from next year’s local elections.
Up to 949 councillors will be elected at the 2014 elections for 31 local authorities.
Extra councillors in Dublin city, county and commuter belt will reflect the growth in population but as expected there will be reductions in the number of councillors in most of the Western, Midland, and Border regions. This new report affects almost every part of the country, with the exception of Cork city which has been excluded from any decision, for the time being.
Along with the abolition of town councils, the number of councillors is being reduced from 1627 to 949 and the mergers of councils in Limerick, Waterford and our own Tipperary, indicate that the number of councils will be cut from 114 to 31, with the Tipperary merger loosing 7 public representatives.
In July 2011 the Government announced the establishment of a single new council in Tipperary, with effect from the 2014 local government elections, through the amalgamation of the existing North Tipperary and South Tipperary County Councils. The population of County Tipperary based on the 2011 census stands at 158,754. (Broken Down – North Tipp 70,322, South Tipp 88,432.)
The new number of elected members to be assigned to the about newly merged Tipperary County Council is based on the formula “One member for every 4,830 of the existing population,” i.e. (158,754 ÷ 4,830 = 32.8 or 33. ) Additional members: 1 per town council and 4 per borough council, subject to a maximum of 4 (except in merging councils) grants us a further 7 and an overall total of 40 elected members in total.
Local Electoral Areas and recommendations for the democratic elected 40 posts, up for grabs, are shown hereunder:-
Templemore – Thurles – 9, Carrick-on-Suir – 6, Clonmel – 9, Nenagh – 9, Cashel -Tipperary – 7.
Unlike other well paid employment opportunities on offer, no reference whatsoever is cited with regard to a required education standard or other proven professional ability required, so expect applications from the usual Creeps, Snake-Oil Salesmen, Pothole Fillers, the Sons & Daughters of the latter and the current Spoofers, who condemned our children to negative equity.
“Trains and boats and planes are passing by, They mean a trip to Paris or Rome,
To someone else, but not for me, The trains and boats and planes,
(Lyrics by Hal David 1966.)
The Industrial Development Authority (IDA), smugly and at every possible media opportunity, boasts of its success in achieving strong net job performance, with 11,766 jobs created in client companies, mainly through foreign direct investment.
In first place, with some 54%, or 6,389 jobs created, was Co Dublin, while in second place was Co Cork, achieving some 1,979 similar job replacements during the same twelve month period.
Here in the County of Tipperary, the South of the county saw a mere ten jobs put in place, ( Fifth from bottom of the overall list, ) while in North Tipp (Bottom of this list, ) saw not even one single job created, during this same period.
These figures have not been concocted by me, but were provided courtesy of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mr Richard Bruton, supplied in a written reply to Donegal Fine Gael Deputy Joe McHugh.
Continue reading Trains & Boats & Planes Are Passing By Tipperary
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