In Reply to: Smell of silege posted by Cian on June 14, 2005 at 20:03:09:

A smell of slurry in Castlebar?

That smell is not silage - that smell is definitely slurry - i.e. cow or pig shit. Silage is simply fermented grass. But slurry comes to you via the intestine of a cow - the two-stomached variety - or perhaps a simple pig with just one belly. Pig shit is sweeter-smelling than cow-shit. Today's smell is probably badly-fermented cow-shit but it could be one of the big local pig units who spread all around Castlebar. There is a unit located in Ballyheane which spreads its shit on farms as far away as Turlough. God love you if you live in a one-off in that rural idyll! But today the smell penetrated right into the middle of Castlebar - it was puke-making, intestine emptying stuff for sure - BLODDY YUCK!

These boyos deliberately wait for the wind to blow right into the centre of Castlebar and then they open the valves and let rip on the populace with a nice aerosol of faecal bacteria and viruses. Of course rain was forecast but it hasn't come yet and they were caught out - everybody still has their windows open so the smell gets inside and up your nose. How many people had to empty their lunch down the toilets of Castlebar today? Did the sewage works operator notice the change in quality of stuff flowing into the treatment plant as a result?

But apart from the puke-making quality there is a more serious aspect. Puking and turning up your nose and saying that's disgusting is only a safety mechanism to protect you from the disease organisms that go with the smell as sure as night follows day.

No wonder everyone is coming down with colds, flu, sore-throats and stomach bugs?

Did you know that during the foot-and-mouth episode they stopped all slurry spreading in case disease-viruses would be spread to animals? No mention of downwind humans though!! Human health is secondary to that of cows.

The country stopped because our farmers might suffer an economic hit!

You could argue that of course the health industry would get a boost if humans get infected by viruses or bacteria fecked into the air by slurry spreaders. This would boost the economy no doubt as doctors would be earning more than they would if people didn't breathe in cow-shite viruses.

But of course there could be some really peculiar law of physics that says that viruses like foot-and-mouth that infect animals are somehow, magically, transported much further than viruses that are dangerous to humans?

But would you eat a bowl of slurry though? Would you breathe in lung full of slurry pathogens?

Why not complain? The farmers said the proposal to safely treat all cattle and pig slurry in large centralised digesters was a load of cow-shite!

It's time to say I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it any more - on health and safety grounds apart from the impact it must be having on any unfortunate tourists walking around Castlebar today. Will they do the same thing during the four days walks next month - you know that great West of Ireland festival being advertised in the one-million euro advertising campaign on radio and television.

Cutting services please copy..... and here are some key words specially for the cutting services:

The Irish Farmers Association said today.....
Teagasc said today.....
The Department of Environment, Local Government and Heritage said today....
The Environmental Protection Agency said today...
The Department of Agriculture said today....
The Green Party said today....
A Fianna Fail spokesman said today....
A Fine Gael spokeswoman said today....
A labour party spokesperson said today....