Tour Guide

Just spent a week working as a walking tour-guide for South West Walks Ireland. Only two on the walk. another never turned up even though they paid!

As you can see there is always a welcome for dog owners in Ireland. This is on Bear Island off the SW coast of Ireland, Co.Cork. And this is on the Beara Way, a signposted walking route!


Here we have the real MacCarthy's bar which is on the front cover of the book by the same name written by Pete McCarthy. This is in Castletownbere on the Beara Penninsular, Co.Cork



The result of all that publicity means the place is in every guide book going. A must place to visit. (Its pretty ordinary inside and sells the usual Irish offering of G.........ess & H.........n larger)

A rather wet day on our visit (17th June 2008)




And here is just about the most southwesterly village you can get in Europe - Allihies. This place was once a thriving mining town in the 1800's until eventually closing in the 1960's. Many of the miners were from Cornwall in the UK and English names are frequent here.

Walking 14km - 18km on foot each day is a good way to keep fit and often gets me to places I don't normally choose to walk. Being a tour guide is a great way to meet new faces, listen to how other people live and share your knowledge of Ireland. If there is a downside, then it's not particularly well paid, you don't 'clock-off' at 5pm and you may not particularly want to walk six days in a row but .... you get a wonderful hotel room and the same excellent food as your guests. All in all I'm not complaining.

The Lisbon Treaty "no"

Well its done. 820,000 citizens of Ireland told the 400 million who live in the rest of Europe that they don't approve of the Treaty. Some democracy this is that allows so few to dictate to so many. Now it gets even better. There is no plan B, no one now knows what is going to happen both in Ireland or Europe. As I write our politicians are blaming each other and everyone else for the no vote. We are now being told the likely implications are not going to be pleasant. (Where were these people before the election I wonder?). An EU minister was on the radio saying that we need to find out why the Irish didn't vote yes and work from there. This will be difficult as people here voted no for reasons as diverse as not wanting compulsory enlistment into the armed forces or they didn't like the price of petrol. None of these things were in the treaty of course but it didn't stop the masses here from thinking they were.

Oh, and John McCarthy our neighbour voted no because the EU was responsible for one of his cows going down with an infection.

"Jaysus boy that EU lot have introduced soooo... much I'm sure it twas dem wot brought in dat voyrus that moy cow caught. It twas never loyk dis before dem europeans started".

Giving us the vote was like asking children to vote for more school and homework. Even better, only Irish citizens were supposed to vote. They got that wrong too and gave us voting cards!!! (We voted, thanks!)

The Lisbon Treaty

Tomorrow we, the citizens of Ireland are being asked to vote 'yes' or 'no' to the Treaty of Lisbon. We are the only country in the European Union who have to decide whether to ratify the treaty. If we vote no the treaty will not come into effect. It is causing much hot air both in the pubs and on on the airwaves as the citizens of this country decide which way to vote. There is as you would expect a large amount of contrary advice and misinformation. Somewhat suprising given that we've only had 12 years to read the full treaty. Except it appears that only three people in Ireland have actually read the whole 56 page document. (http://www.lisbontreaty2008.ie/).

I tried to read it when it arrived with the Sunday Times. I took one look at and decided it was beyond human comprehension and returned to do something more interesting. Just to give you an idea it goes something like this.

"Section 12, paragraph 8 as amended by section two sub paragraph 8b shall be amended to read, "Where subsection 8b is relevant then paragraph 2b shall be the relevant paragraph for all purposes except when Section 35, sub section 29f applies". And so on.

The Referendum Commission has however kindly given every citizen a helpful booklet outlining the changes in what it calls simple language. It runs to only 14 pages in English and 18 in Irish. I cannot bring myself to understand it even after trying. For example on page 11 it says that one of the changes is in competence and the treaty will give the EU joint competence with member states in a number of areas and these include energy and aspects of the environment and public health. Thats clear then isn't it?

Many people will vote no because they simply don't see why they should vote for something they don't understand and there are those who will vote yes because, "the EU has been good to us and we should trust our polititians". There are those who claim it will allow the EU to force us citizens of Ireland to eat rice or fight on Sundays if the EU goes to war over herring quotas. Some people think that we will have compulsory abortion if the person is born in wales and lives outside Italy. There are those who think that the EU will claim the moon the following week (sub section 24, para 9) and so on.

Me? I'll vote yes for the simple reason that the EU has so far been the only institution that has sprotecting the Irish from destroying their own environment over the last ten or fifteen years.

Driving in Ireland - an update

Last October the Minister for Transport postponed his decision to change the law on learner drivers driving unaccompanied. Next month he's going to try again. (See http://davidwperry.blogspot.com/2008/05/driving-in-ireland.html)

This is another doomed attempt by the Minister to compel learner drivers in Ireland to have a qualified driver with them at all times. Why? Well to start with only 140,000 of the 400,000 unqualified drivers have applied to take their tests so it is unlikely that these drivers will have taken the test by then anyway. So what will happen? One of two things. The Minister will back down again to demands by the unqualified drivers, or the law will be introduced - but like so many laws here, it will not be enforced.

Unfortunately many Irish drivers just don't see the need to be qualified and complain that liviing in the countryside is impossible unless you drive and that it isn't always possible to get a qualified driver to accompany you. Yes I know every other country in the world manages this one, but not here. I was reading the Irish Times this Saturday and an article on this subject by Rosita Boland just goes to demonstrate the Irish desgregard for being qualified. One female, reported Rosita, had decided that she will just "Just dodge the Guards", but more appallingly was the attitude of one mother, who in her own words failed "big time" when she took her test but admitted to driving with her baby in the car. This woman should be locked up. Not for her own good but that of her baby. But then I shouldn't be surprised at this attitude as parents here can often be seen driving around with their little Rug-Rats jumping around in the front or back seats without seat belts. I've even seen babies only able to crawl laid on the back seat waiting to be thrown through the car windscreen when the next idiot crashes into them. The odd thing is that mum can often be seen wearing a belt. Assuming they know what it is for, they feel no need to extend the safety to their offspring.

We'll see what the Minister does next month. Don't hold your breath.

Don't Fly Aer Lingus

Aer Lingus Have a simple but cunning plan in place to deal with customer claims and complaints.

• The 'Customer Care' department will only accept complaints in writing.
• They will not accept telephone calls.
• They do not answer any complaints or correspondence.

It was in March 2008 that my return flight with Aer Lingus from Amsterdam to Cork was cancelled at around 11pm due to bad weather. I was offered the next available flight back to Eire the following day which only went to Dublin rather than Cork. As the next Cork flight was an even longer wait of some 24 hrs I accepted the Dublin flight which was due to leave the next day at around 10am. We were refused any food or any overnight accommodation. "It's not our responsibility as the cancellation was due to the bad weather".

Being rather prudent when I booked on-line I took out Aer Lingus insurance and consequently kept all the receipts for the extra costs. (Elvia travel insurance) Of course they will not allow my claim to proceed without written confirmation from Aer Lingus that my flight was cancelled. Aer Lingus simply do not respond to any request, nor will the switch board put you through to the so called customer care centre. "Only in writing" they say. Meanwhile Aer Lingus travel claims refuse to process any claim without that magic letter from Aer Lingus.

No amount of searching www.aerlingus.com will allow you to contact them other than by letter.

Meanwhile I'll e-mail the insurance company to see whether they will pay out for the hotel, food and travel from Dublin to Cork without that magic letter from the insurers. I'm not holding my breath.

The Melting Ice Cream Van

This is what happens to Mr Whippy Ice cream vans when it gets hot on this Australian beach near Sydney in 2006. (OK so it didn't really melt but was a part of a rather interesting 'art' exhibition)
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Driving In Ireland

If you're used to driving on roads in the UK or Europe there are some interesting differences between those countries and ours. Most people notice how little traffic there is on our roads and how the pace of driving is much more relaxed. This is true, you just don't seem to get the aggressive tailgating, mad overtaking and excessive speeding which occurs in many other european countries - but beware!!

• 400,000 are driving without a full licence here!!
• 20% of Irish drivers on full licences never took a test

Yes thats right. There is such a backlog of learning drivers wanting to take the test that the vast majority simply drive on the roads anyway. There is a requirement to have a qualified driver with you, - but not after your second provisional licence, regardless of how many times you have failed a test. Nor is common to see 'L' plates. An attempt this year to tighten up the regulations regarding unacompanied drivers and to stop people driving on provisional licences failed due to overwhelming complaints from our citizens. This is the only country in Europe, and possibly the world, where you can drive to a test centre unaccompanied, fail the test miserably, and then pop into the car and drive home, again unaccompanied.

And even more remarkable 20% of those people with full driver's licences never took a test because the government took the easy way out and overcame the backlog of people waiting to be tested by simply issueing full driver's licences to any applicants who had held two or more provisional licences in a row. These 'amnesties' happened twice. Yes, its true!

This is one of the few countries where you can set up as a driving instructor without any qualifications or training. I have no doubt that many of the driving instructors currently operating obtained their licences following the two goverment amnesties.

So if you're out and about watch out!!!

Here are some interesting observations on (bad) Irish driving habits with my own personal explanation as to why this happens:-

• Do not indicate. This prevents people from knowing where your going. Its not of their business anyway.
• When going across a roundabout indicate left when you join the round about. This will puzzle drivers who are used to people indicating only when they leave the round about. And if going right, indicate left when you join the round about because this indicates you are making a left turn at the start??................(no I don't understand why either)
• Allows drive too close to the car in front. After all you've got your Paidrig Peo sticker in the window to keep you safe.
• Drive with fog lights on. Especially in good visibility and for extra marks use fog lights only.
• Park on double yellow lines. These indicate good parking places.
• Try parking on junctions. It’ll save you time
• Double park if the double yellow lines are occupied and the nearest junction is more than 10 yards away.
• Drive with fog lights on. Especially in good visibility. Even better, try using only fog lights..
• Never reverse into a parking space – always drive forwards into it. It provides others with lots of amusement when you discover you can't manage it.
• Do not wear a seatbelt or allow others to do so. You know you’ll never have an accident and anyway your kids won't go through the windscreen and if they do you can always make a few more. After all your a good Catholic.
• If you have to stop on the road always park on a bend or blind spot.
• To avoid stopping always use a phone whilst moving.
• Always drive much much slower than the traffic behind you. You didn’t go much faster on a donkey did you? And sure, what’s the hurry?
• When wanting to make a right turn to the leave the road, indicate right, but then pull over to the left even though you are signalling to turn right. Wait until all the confused drivers have stopped crashing, then turn right.
• As a varient to the above indicate left to turn right and right to turn left.

If you think any of these are exagerated then think again. I once saw someone use 14 forward and backwards manouvers to get into a normal sized parking space on our village street!