In Reply to: re: re: say it isent so! posted by who was he getting at ? on November 13, 2007 at 06:18:09:

Well done an duine sin. Some years ago,by a fluke, I caught the begining of a speech given by ,the then,President of Eire, our very own Mary Robinson. She was speaking to a group representing the annual Irish festival in the state of Virginia. For all practical purposes,a jovial,and light hearted affair as the local Irish community and friends celebrated all things gaelic. From soda bread,craftmanship,porter,music and their heritage. I was stopped dead in my tracks as the sound of her voice emanating from the television pierced my ears,as she lambasted her countrymen, to a foreign audience in a foreign country.I quote; "The Irish people due to their recent affluence and their love of conviviality,have abused alcohol and it's first cousin drugs, and we will not tolerate it any more!." Francis Byrne suffered from the disease of alcoholism,and it's spirit killing side effect, depression.The late Tom Brennan reffered to alcohol as the curse of the Irish people. George Bernard Shaw quotes from one of his own created characters; "Oh the dreaming! the dreaming!the torturing, heartscalding, never satisfying dreaming......An Irishman's imagination never lets him alone,never convinces him,never satisfies him,but it makes him that he cannot face reality nor deal with it nor handle it nor conquer it; he can only sneer at them that do....and imagination's such a torture that you can't bear it without whiskey...........You nag and squabble at home becuase your wife isn't an angel,and she despises you because you're not a hero." I'm not sure that the partaker abuses the alcohol, rather the other way around!.It is, a spiritual malady. Francis Byrne and Frank Hall,made a lot of people feel good .She, dolling out advice by the ton and he, dishing out laughter by the belly full.