A Day of great historic Importance

Of all days in the year, September 1st is one of the most significant, if not the most important in history.
I am of course referring to the outbreak of World War II, which happened on this day exactly 70 years ago.

It is amazing how fast time passes, and how much we know of events we have not even experienced ourselves. I am meanwhile over fifty, but I cannot remember even one year of my life when there were not new books about World War II published, and new films about it produced.
Many of them are quite informative, but there is also a lot of rubbish, especially the sick and brainless attempts to make the war look 'funny'. For some strange reason the British are most eager on that (e.g. Hallo, Hallo or Dad's Army), which seems to appeal especially to the lesser educated elements of their society (and even to some people here in Ireland).

The British were the cause for many laughs of a different kind on the battlefields, where their poorly trained soldiers and their inferior equipment were rarely a match for enemies, especially the Germans and Japanese. (Only when the British used ever more American equipment, their performance improved slightly.) But this was not only the case during World War II. In fact, there was in the last three centuries not one major war Britain fought or won on its own, and it always had the same problems: poorly trained soldiers, with bad weapons and equipment, and not enough of either.

On a day like this, one is likely to reflect: on history, the world and on oneself. Had I been born just one generation earlier, I would most likely have fought in World War II. My father, who was five weeks away from his 13th birthday when the war began, was drafted for military training at the age of 17 and served - as an 18-year-old - for the last year of the war with an anti-aircraft artillery regiment.

My paternal grandfather, who was born in 1889, had fought already in World War I as a cavalry officer, from the first to the last day, and ended that war as a Captain with the highest decoration for bravery and several other medals.
After 1918 he lived a quiet life as a civilian, running the family estate in Bohemia (which had been Austrian for centuries, but was by then part of the first Czechoslovak republic).
When Hitler annexed the Sudetenland in 1938, my grandfather and his family became over night German citizens. It was neither their choice, nor had anyone bothered asking them for their opinion. It just happened, and both Britain and France sanctioned it.
A few months later my grandfather - at the age of 49 - was "re-activated" for military service, because of his "excellent war record from 1914 to 1918".

70 years ago he was one of the oldest Majors - perhaps even the oldest - in the German Army and in charge of a light squadron of (still mounted) cavalry in East Prussia.

His regiment was among the first German troops ordered to cross the border and advance into Poland (photo above left), where they met - and defeated - a regiment of Polish cavalry. This was one of the last battles in history with mounted cavalry on both sides.*

Earlier that day - beginning at 4.45 am - the German Airforce had started bombing raids on Polish towns and military positions (photo right), and shortly after daybreak the old German pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein (photo below left), which had been launched in 1906 and was a veteran of World War I as well, fired the first shots of World War II at the Polish garrison on the Westerplatte, an area at the outskirts of Danzig (Gdansk), an old Hanseatic city on the Baltic Sea which had been German for centuries, but was then a 'free city' under the neutral administration of the League of Nations.

Hitler had only days before signed a secret pact with Stalin, which brought the two worst dictators of the 20th century into an unexpected alliance against Poland, on whose territory both Russia and Germany had historic demands.
Poland had earlier received diplomatic guarantees from both Britain and France, but neither country was in a position to give any real - and especially military - support in case of war. They knew that only too well, but Poland believed that it had allies.
In fact, it was an isolated country, surrounded by potential enemies. The Polish army was quite strong and highly motivated, but on the technical level of World War I and thus no match for the well-equipped modern forces Germany and the Soviet Union sent against it.

Knowing that Britain and France were in no position to assist Poland militarily, Hitler - well known to be a political gambler - took the risk and invaded Poland, against the advice of many of his political aides and senior generals. And being also a life-long Anglophile (a fact that is often ignored by historians and commentators), Hitler did not believe that Britain would declare war on Germany "over a small and unimportant Eastern province like Poland".

He was wrong, of course, as we now know. And hindsight is always easier than making decisions on the day and under pressure.

When the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (right), who had tried long and hard to come to terms with Hitler and accommodate his various demands (the return of the Rhineland and the Saar province to Germany and later the annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland), eventually declared war on the morning of September 3rd, he felt that he had no other choice left.
With hindsight, he was wrong as well. But this is of course only an academic point.

Neither the British Army, nor the Royal Air Force (RAF) were ready for a war. Their numbers were low, and most of their equipment was either old and obsolete, or of inferior quality when compared with the German forces. Only the Royal Navy was of a superior strength and able to go to war at a moment's notice. But even in Britain's 'senior service' there were shortfalls (in particular a lack of modern submarines) that became soon only too visible.

The French army was much stronger than the British, and better equipped. But France had the problem that its - mostly elderly - generals were still thinking in a 19th century way and their strategy was at best of World War I vintage.

None of the French strategists - with one single exception - could see the tank as a modern offensive weapon. They used it mostly as fire support for the infantry.
The one exception was a young and bright Colonel called Charles de Gaulle (left).
He had written a book about modern armoured warfare in the 1920s, but was widely ignored by his superiors. Ironically, this book was read by the German General Heinz Guderian (below right), who agreed with de Gaulle's ideas and made them the core of his own 'Blitzkrieg' (lightning warfare) strategy.

September 1st, 1939 was the first day this strategy was used for real (and not just for exercise), and it worked even better than all optimists in the German General Staff had expected.

By September 17th most of the Polish forces were beaten, destroyed or in retreat, and the Germans controlled much of Poland's territory. On that day, seeing that all went according to their secret plan, Stalin ordered his 'Red Army' to invade Poland from the East and to occupy the areas Hitler had conceded to him previously.

The rest, as the often used phrase tells us, is history. This weblog is not the place (and has not enough space) to list all events of the war, not even those of September 1939. And most of them are well-enough known anyway, perhaps with the exception that the war ended on this day as well, after exactly six years, with the official surrender of Japan on September 1st, 1945.

But I like to mention a number of other historic events that also took place on this day, making it even more significant than it would be if only World War II had begun on this date.

• Way back in the year 69 (CE) Jerusalem was - after a long siege - finally captured and destroyed by Roman legions.
• In 1482 a Tatar army from the Crimea captured and plundered Kiev.
• On September 1st, 1661 the first recorded yacht race took place in English waters. The only two competitors were King Charles and his brother James.
• Five years later, in 1666, the Great Fire of London began on this day in Pudding Lane. When then flames were put out eventually some days later, 80% of London was in ruins.
• On September 1st, 1715 King Louis XIV of France died after a reign of 72 years - the longest time any European monarch was ever in power.
• In 1752 the famous 'Liberty Bell' arrived in the city of Philadelphia.
• In 1859 the first Pullman (railway) sleeping car was put into service.
• In the USA a federal tax on tobacco was introduced for the first time on September 1st, 1862.
• In 1870 - during the Franco-Prussian War - the famous Battle of Sedan took place. It ended with a spectacular defeat of the French main army, and Emperor Napoleon III was captured by Prussian troops. (From 1871 to 1918 the day was subsequently celebrated in Germany as 'Sedan Day', a public holiday in commemoration of the great victory. It is quite possible that Hitler was influenced by the 1870 victory at Sedan when he chose the day for the invasion of Poland in 1939.)
• In 1918 US troops landed in the Russian city of Vladivostok, on the Pacific coast of Siberia. (They stayed there until 1920.)
• The modern state of Lebanon was created by France on this day in 1920 as a mandate territory.
• In 1923 a major earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale, devastated parts of Japan. In Tokyo and Yokohama alone 142,000 people were killed, and many more injured.
• In 1961 the 'War of Independence' in Eritrea began on this day as well.
• And in 1969 - 40 years ago - a bloodless coup d'etat, led by Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, overthrew and deposed the ageing King Idris of Libya. (The day is a national holiday in Libya ever since, and today a special celebration - including a major military parade - takes place in Tripoli to commemorate the revolution.)

This is only a selection, of course, and there are many more minor events that happened on this day. As they happen almost every day, all year round. But I think the information above will show you that September 1st is indeed special and perhaps the most significant single day in the modern calender of the Western world.

The Emerald Islander


* Later my grandfather was transferred to a regiment of mechanised cavalry, which was equipped with light tanks and armoured cars. With them he took part in the campaigns in France, North Africa (photo), Italy and eventually Russia.
He was wounded several times, but - amazingly - he survived and ended the war as a Colonel, commanding a regimental task force.
Neither he, nor anyone in our family, ever liked or supported Hitler, or joined his party. In fact, since 1942 my grandfather was part of the Anti-Nazi dissident group within the German officers' corps. Only the fact that he was in a frontline position in 1944 - when Hitler's assassination by staff officers failed - prevented him from being discovered and shot by the SS.

But my family has paid a heavy price for Hitler's ambitions and adventures. In 1946 we lost our estate in Bohemia (where the family had lived for 300 years) and everything in it, were expelled from there (then the second Czechoslovak republic) and became penniless refugees.
It was only shortly before I was born that the family had managed to gain a proper house and farm again. But the war with all its terror, and also the day when it began, are engraved forever in the memory of every family member.
And even though I am too young to have lived through World War II, it has shaped - in a distant and indirect way - my own life and will always be there in the background. Without it, I would perhaps not even exist in the way I do. And I would most certainly not live and work in Ireland.

Motorways by Name only

Many countries in Europe, as well as on other continents, have an excellent system of roads. But Ireland does not. Many countries also have a network of motorways, and - again - Ireland is not among them. What we have on this island of ours is a patchwork of national, regional and local roads, interspersed with roadlets and paths that have not changed much over the past two or three centuries.

When most of Ireland's roads were designed and built, it was predominantly the (then British) military that was doing it, and for obvious reasons.
Thousands of years ago the ancient Egyptians, the Persians and other great empires had built roads to move their soldiers around faster, and the Romans became the true masters of strategic road building. Every major country in the world has learned from them and given attention to important roads.

However, Ireland is not a major country, and it was never touched by Roman civilisation.

This one can still notice here today. Most of our roads were built between the late 18th and early 20th century, and they were built for the usual traffic of the time: people on horseback, horse-drawn coaches and carriages, carts drawn by horses, oxen or donkeys, and people on foot.
And even though most of Irish roads are meanwhile covered with tarmac, they are still winded, quite narrow (especially when one compares them with roads in other countries) and often in need of maintenance we cannot afford.

Until about 30 years ago Ireland did not have any motorway at all. And it did not need one. Then some of the wider national roads around Dublin were designated as 'motorways', in order to give us a more modern look and impress a number of foreign visitors. We still had no real motorways, but pretence is a great thing for the Irish. And if one does it well here and pretends things long enough, people will actually believe that they exist. (Just think of leprechauns and the faireys...)

During the years of pretended economic boom, the period of the - once worshipped and now cursed - 'Celtic Tiger', a few new motorways have been constructed in Ireland. Most of them are in and around Dublin, and some of them were built with private money and are now operated as toll roads. They have the same traffic jams and congestions as all other roads, but their greedy operators charge motorists an arm and a leg for the privilege to crawl over their piece of tarmac instead of some other, a mile or two away.

But even with the new additions to the system, Ireland still has a very bad road network, and almost no motorways. If you want to see the real thing, you have to travel to Germany, where the motorway was invented in the 1930s. There most of them have six lanes as a rule, with some major sections being even wider and providing eight or even ten lanes.

What we have here in Ireland are mostly modernised national roads, in some sections widened to four lanes. But to make us look a little bigger and more important than we actually are, Noel Dempsey (right), currently Minister for Transport, has now "re-classified" 294.3 km of national roads as "motorways".

They are really motorways by name only, and nothing has changed on these roads, except that the speed limit has been increased from 100 km/h (the standard for national roads) to 120 km/h.
Under general traffic laws the new 'motorways' cannot be used by any learner-drivers, motorcycles and "certain types of agricultural vehicles".

One can understand the ban of agricultural vehicles. It makes sense and is the same in most other countries. As there are no 'learner-drivers' elsewhere - with exception of the UK - the question of them using motorways does not arise in other nations. But why ban motorcycles from our 'motorways'? Motorcyclists can use all roads in other countries, and there seem to be no problems with them, as long as they obey the rules of the road like everyone else.

This whole 're-classification' of roads is another example for the confusion and incomptence of our government in general, and for the specific incompetence of Noel Dempsey in particular. The man is useless and clueless, and has demonstrated this in several government departments he was in charge of. And Transport makes no difference to 'the bouncer' from Co. Meath.

The real joke - unfortunately not a good one - is the list of roads that are now 're-classified' as 'motorways'. If you expect a number of lengthy and well-developed sections of overland roads, you will be disappointed.

But then again, this is Ireland, so what can you really expect?

To begin with, of the 294.3 km of national roads that Noel Dempsey has pompously "re-classified as motorways" yesterday, less than half actually exist at present!
Only 42.6% (125.5 km) exist and are 'open for traffic', while 47.9% (140.8 km) are still 'under construction' and 9.5% (the 28 km section of the N 18 from Oranmore to Gort in Co. Galway) is only 'in planning'.

The longest part of newly re-classified 'motorway' that is actually open for traffic is a 21 km section of the N 11 between Arklow in Co. Wicklow and Gorey in Co. Wexford.
The rest is nothing but a higgledy-piggledy patchwork of small to medium-sized pieces all over the country, with the shortest being a section of the N 3 (from Dublin to Cavan) between Littlepace and Loughsallagh, which is just 2.1 km long.

This means that motorists driving on Ireland's national roads in future will constantly have to watch if they are on a stretch of official 'motorway' with 120 km/h speed limit, or on a normal national road with only 100 km/h limit. It will lead to even more confusion than there is now, and most likely to more speeding tickets for drivers who think that they are still on a 'motorway', while they have in fact passed it already.

The whole thing is nothing but a farce, another sick joke from an utterly clueless minister in an incompetent government that is simply not capable of doing anything right.

The Emerald Islander

It all began with Eamon de Valera

As the day sets and the weekend approaches, Ireland is still in deep shock over the revelations of the report on long-time organised child abuse in Catholic institutions. This 3000-page document is the result of more than ten years of investigation, was compiled by a State Commission chaired by Judge Seán Ryan and published in Dublin on Wednesday. (for details see yesterday's entry below)

Many people are very angry, others say they "just feel numb" as they never expected that such things could happen, and certainly not in 'Holy Ireland', where priests and religious were put on pedestals for centuries and worshipped almost as much as God and Jesus Christ.

Perhaps this over-reverend, sycophantic and almost slavish attitude towards people in cassocks and habits was one of the contributing factors to the terrible crimes Irish priests and religious committed against Irish children for more than five decades. Anyone who is treated by others like a demi-god may after a while begin to believe that he actually is a demi-god and behave accordingly. (And there are many examples for that in history.)

Or, as the famous Lord Acton wrote in the 19th century: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The first 'industrial schools' for "neglected, orphaned and abandoned children" in Ireland were established by the British colonial administration in the second half of the 19th century under the Industrial Schools Act of 1868. (A similar Act of Parliament was passed already for England in 1857.) The Act was intended to "solve problems of juvenile delinquency, by removing poor and neglected children from their home environment to a boarding school". It allowed magistrates to send "disorderly children" to a residential 'industrial school'.
A further Act of 1876 led to the establishment of non-residential day schools of a similar kind.

It is however worth to point out that the number of children sent to these special schools was not very large in the early years of their existence. Then the size and purpose of Ireland's 'industrial schools' was significantly increased, at the same time that Fianna Fáil - which had until 1927 refused to sit in the Dáil (because they were required to swear an oath of allegiance) or take part in normal parliamentary business - gained power in Ireland for the first time in 1932.

The party's founder and first leader Eamon de Valera (photo) was not only a very pious and old-fashioned Catholic (in the Spanish tradition of his Cuban father) who contemplated at least for some time to become a priest himself, he was also a very strict and authoritarian man who demanded blind and uncritical loyalty from all his followers. (Although the present party leader - Taoiseach Brian Cowen - is the seventh man in charge of Fianna Fáil, the party's demand for blind loyalty, regardless of facts and common sense, is still the same as under de Valera.)

The year that saw Fianna Fáil taking control of the 'Irish Free State' was a time of great upheaval in Spain, where the conflict between different social and political groups would eventually lead to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
De Valera had Spanish as well as Irish roots, and during the first years of the (second) Spanish Republic, which had been established in April 1931, he and many other traditional Catholics all over Europe were very upset by the reports they received from Spain.
Representatives and supporters of the left-wing republican movement turned their anger not only against aristocrats and land owners, but also against Catholic priests and religious, who were seen by many (and with good reason) as backbones of the conservative and reactionary system that had ruled Spain for centuries and ruined her economy. Some Catholic clerics were killed by mobs, others were put on trial in courts and sentenced to death or imprisonment. A number of churches and monasteries were closed or confiscated, and in general life was hard and dangerous for anyone openly supporting the Catholic Church in Spain at that time.

During the 1930s Ireland was still a very young State without a solid base, strong economy or developed infrastructure. And the scars of the Irish Civil War, which ended in 1923, were only too visible everywhere. Old comrades had stood on opposite sides in this short, stupid and totally unnecessary conflict which literally pitched brother against brother and divided families for ever. There was also still a very large and poverty-stricken underclass in Ireland at the time, and who could say if these people might not behave in similar fashion as the poor working classes in Spain, if they got a chance to revolt against the authorities of State and Church.

Parallel to the events in Spain, Benito Mussolini was celebrating ten years of Fascist rule in Italy, and in Germany Adolf Hitler had increased his support so much that it was only a question of time when he would be in power, too. (He got there on January 30th, 1933.)

Unfortunately there has never been any deeper historical research into the personal and political motives of Eamon de Valera and his closest advisers in these early years. I hope that someone will undertake this work and provide us with more insights at some stage.
But for the time being one can only speculate about de Valera's thoughts and feelings during the first few years he was back in charge of the country. (He had been already the head of state and head of government of the unilaterally declared Irish Republic from 1919 to 1922, but resigned over the Anglo-Irish Treaty and stormed out of the Dáil, followed by his supporters. This split led to the Irish Civil War, but even after hostilities had ceased, de Valera and his new political party Fianna Fáil - founded in 1926 - remained refuseniks until 1927, when they decided to join the democratic system of the State.)

It is quite possible and more than likely that between Eamon de Valera and the conservative Irish bishops a strategy was agreed to prevent any left-wing and anti-Catholic revolution in this country.
Every Catholic theologian is familiar with the famous words of Ignatius de Loyola (founder of the Jesuits), who said: "Give me a boy of seven, and I will give you the man."
And even though the Jesuits were never involved in the running of the 'industrial schools', their extensive use under the Fianna Fáil government of Eamon de Valera was most likely inspired by Jesuit thinking and teaching.

The idea of having special schools for the poor (and not just for 'juvenile deliquents'), run and controlled by the Church, would have been very appealing to an authoritarian and conservative Catholic like de Valera. In these schools "the lesser skilled children from the lower classes" could learn a trade that would give them a chance of employment, and they would also receive strict religious instructions and conservative indoctrination to keep them "on the right side of the track".

The same kind of thinking is also evident in the new Irish Constitution, which Eamon de Valera introduced in 1937, and in the new structure of Seanad Éireann, which was re-organised by him according to different social groups in society, and thus along the lines of Catholic social theory of the time. (see my entry of March 23rd)

Neither Eamon de Valera, nor his close friend and spiritual adviser John Charles McQuaid, CSSp (who was later Archbishop of Dublin from 1940 to 1972), were particularly mercantile-minded. So it is unlikely that they saw the huge potential for making massive profits with the 'industrial schools'.
This only dawned on the religious orders after running them for a while on the new enlarged scale, and they then tried to expand the size of their institutions even further and thus maximise their profits as well.

Whatever one might think of Eamon de Valera, he was not a child molester and would certainly never have imagined that the institutions he wanted to use to stabilise the social structure and system of the State would become places of organised child abuse by priests and religious.

But - like anyone else who has held political office in Ireland between the 1930s and the 1980s - Eamon de Valera carries a share of responsibility for the horrible crimes now revealed and documented. Not so much for increasing the use of the 'industrial schools', but more for the ignorance and disinterest he and his ministers displayed when they received complaints from the abuse victims, their parents and relatives, or even from some concerned civil servants of their own administration.
They simply did not care what happened to "brats from the lower classes". They could not even be bothered to have a good look at the institutions, to establish what conditions they - and their inmates - were in.

In the same era that saw Ireland's 'industrial schools' enlarged, the ordinary and 'law-abiding' people of Germany did and said nothing when they saw their Jewish neighbours rounded up by Police and SS. Jews were marched to the local railway station, put on a train and disappeared, never to be heard of again.
Research has established that most Germans did not know in detail what was actually done to them. But they all knew that their former neighbours were not going away on holidays, and not moving house in the normal way (as they were only allowed hand luggage and all their furniture and major possessions were left behind). Some may have guessed, others imagined the truth, as there was of course a massive Nazi propaganda campaign against Jews for many years. But even those who did not think much about Jews knew that they were forced to go, and that they would not come back. This did not bother them in any way, but it made them co-responsible for crimes against humanity.

The same attitude existed in Ireland, where everyone knew at least some of the sinister Catholic institutions, and knew that there was 'something wrong' with them. But no-one cared, bothered to have a closer look, or asked questions.
Which means that as a nation we are collectively guilty as well. People over the age of forty who lived in Ireland during those decades should ask themselves how much they knew, and what they might have been able to do, if they had been more courageous. All those who were in any kind of authority in Ireland participated and collaborated with the system of collective cruelty and neglect. They must now bear their share of responsibility for the horrible crimes Catholic perverts committed against three generations of our children.

Had Fianna Fáil not joined the democratic system in 1927 and not won the general elections of 1932, would we have had such a large network of 'industrial schools' in Ireland, with so many thousands of children in them for half a century? Probably - or most likely - not.

And without the bleak institutions, we might not have had the widespread subculture of violence, sadism and child abuse. But then again, there was more than enough violence against children in normal day schools as well, and the brothers and sisters abused children also in orphanages, homes for the handicapped and all kinds of schools.

In my opinion the roots of the endemic physical and sexual abuse of children grew within the Catholic Church. The unnatural way of life that is forced upon priests and religious pushes many of them over the edge of normal behaviour.
Especially the demand of celibacy (for secular priests) and chastidy (for all religious) is a major problem and causes all kinds of frictions and conflicts of interest. As sexuality is one of the most natural things for any living creature, it makes neither sense to ban people from it, nor does it actually work. (For example, many Catholic priests in Brazil, the Philippines and other parts of the co-called 'Third World' have unofficial wives and children. This is no secret, and they live openly in their parishes as happy family men. The Vatican knows it as well and does officially not approve of it. But since the Church has increasing difficulties finding enough celebate priests, the Catholic hierarchy is closing their eyes on this matter, pretending not to know. It is the same attitude that made them ignore the crimes against Irish children for decades.)

The demand of celebacy has also led to an over-proportional amount of homosexual men being attracted into the Catholic priesthood. And as soon as they find out that their sexual orientation is shared by other priests or brothers, Nature does the rest. There are widespread homosexual networks within the Catholic priesthood, and there were even a number of seminaries in Ireland where the percentage of practising homosexuals - students as well as teachers - was between 80% and 90%. Some were quite discreet, while others made no secret of it and could be seen walking around Irish towns holding hands, or sitting in pubs, drinking and kissing.

Over the past ten years much of this 'camp' behaviour has disappeared from the 'public radar' and gone back underground, where it has existed for centuries.
And although Pope Benedict XVI has meanwhile issued a brave decree, stating that he will no longer tolerate practising homosexuals in the priesthood, I have not heard of any resignations or sackings of priests. At least all of the homosexual Irish clerics I happen to know personally are still here, and still Catholic priests.

If the Catholic Church wants to survive as a world-wide institution, the rule of celebacy will have to go sooner or later. And as it is not one of the divine (or Biblical) laws, but a man-made rule introduced only in the 12th century, it should not cause any theological problem to remove it again. All it needs is the right Pope, and it will disappear over night.

As long as the Catholic Church demands an unnatural lifestyle from her priests and religious, there will be cases of sexual misbehaviour, paedophilia and child abuse among the clergy. And there have been known cases in almost every country in the world where there are Catholics.

What makes the Irish situation so different - and in fact unique - is the dimension. There is no other country - large or small - that has seen such an organised and systematic reign of terror with cruelty and child abuse, perpetrated by Catholic priests and religious, over more than half a century.

The reason is that since the 1930s Ireland's 'industrial schools' provided a unique environment for sadism, exploitation and child abuse on a colossal scale, which did not exist elsewhere. The bleak and deliberately unfriendly conditions of the institutions created plenty of tensions and distress, among the staff as well as among the children sent there.
Who on Earth would be happy living and working in hell holes with no culture and no decency?

Studies into the structure of the US Army have established that soldiers and officers posted for lengthy periods to bleak, inhospitable or boring stations often develop behavioural symptoms they did not show while serving in other commands. These symptoms include the development of strange hobbies, serious alcoholism, increased brutality, sadistic behaviour (towards animals as well as people) and sexual perversions.

It can be concluded that the same conditions applied to Catholic religious did produce the same behavioural symptoms in them as they have done in US military personnel.
So even though sexual misbehaviour is not unusual within the Catholic clergy world-wide, what happened in Ireland was a direct result of the unique environment of 'industrial schools' and other bleak institutions, enlarged to truly industrial dimensions by Eamon de Valera in order to subdue potential revolutionaries from the 'lower classes'.

Over the coming decades historians and psychologists will certainly look more closely at all the available documents, facts and details of this period. They will surely provide more answers than I can give here to the questions that are on almost everyone's mind in Ireland today: Why did this happen? And how could it happen for so long and on such a massive scale?

The Emerald Islander

EU Commission imposes biggest ever Anti-Trust Fine on the Computer Chip Maker INTEL

Today the EU Commission in Brussels has imposed a fine of € 1.06 billion on the computer chip manufacturer Intel "for abuse of a dominant position" and ordered it to cease illegal practices.
This sum is by far the biggest anti-trust fine ever imposed on a single company (and makes the € 500 million fine Microsoft received a couple of years ago for similar misbehaviour look rather small).

Intel has already an 80% share of the global processor market, but was trying to increase its share even further, using illegal methods.

The EU Commission says that Intel "broke competition law by offering rebates to computer manufacturers that encouraged them to use its products and not those of rival manufacturer AMD".

Eight years ago AMD complained to the EU about Intel's rebate schemes, and the Commission has been investigating the matter ever since.
Two years ago it started investigating a claim by AMD that Intel was paying large retail chains - like Germany's Media Markt - not to stock devices containing AMD chips.

Intel has said it rejects the allegations and will appeal the ruling. However, the fine must be paid up-front. It will be kept in a special bank account, and should the company's appeal be successful then either the whole sum, or a part of it (depending on the Court's orders) would be returned.

In relation to Ireland, a spokeswoman for Intel said that the company was in the early stages of considering the EU's ruling and would evaluate its impact. She added that "the Irish business continues to be an asset for the company".

Taxi Drivers protest against idiotic Regulation

More than 1500 taxi drivers have protested in Dublin this afternoon over the issue of taxi licences.

The protesting drivers assembled at Merrion Square, after making their way from three separate meeting points at the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, the Stillorgan Shopping Centre and the Airside Retail Park

This was the fifth public protest by the pressure group Taxi Drivers for Change.

The drivers claim that - since the deregulation of licensing in the year 2000 - the number of taxis in Dublin has risen from originally 2000 to now 25000 (!) and say that too many taxis are currently in operation. As a result it is impossible for drivers to make a decent living.

Taxi Drivers for Change wants the taxi industry to be restructured and the issuing of new licences to be suspended.

The Department of Transport acknowledged that "taxi drivers are facing genuine difficulties". However, a spokesperson said that the Minister for Transport is "waiting for the Commission on Taxi Regulation to report before he makes any further comment".

This is another typical example of the government dragging its feet while a serious problem is appearing on their doorstep. Noel Dempsey (right), the Minister for Transport, has no interest in doing anything, as he has not a clue about the situation on the streets. He also has the reputation of being one of the most messy and least efficient Fianna Fáil ministers.

Neither he nor anyone else in government is willing to acknowledge that the whole idea of 'independent' regulation is a complete failure and responsible for the shambles we can see now every day.

Ireland is a small country with only about 4 million population. But it has a 'Commission on Taxi Regulation' which is "an independent public body, the principal function of which is the development and maintenance of a regulatory framework for the control and operation of small public service vehicles (SPSVs) which comprise taxis, wheelchair accessible taxis, hackneys and limousines". (The author of this definition should be nominated for a hogwash jargon award...)
It is housed in a splendid office building in Dublin and employs 22 people full-time (and some more part-time).
The 22 permanent staff are the Commissioner Kathleen Doyle, and under her two directors, three department heads and a technical advisor. Below management level there are

• one 'customer services manager',
• two 'customer services administrators',
• one 'information officer',
• one 'enforcement executive',
• one 'enforcement administrator'
• and nine 'enforcement officers'.

What all these people with their pompous and meaningless job titles are actually doing all day is anyone's guess. But they are very well paid, for sure.
I asked many taxi drivers about them, and the overwhelming opinion is that they are "a total nuisance", "completely useless", "a waste of space" and "a waste of taxpayers' money".

But that is not enough. The 'Commission on Taxi Regulation' has also a part-time 'Advisory Council' with no less than 17 members! What they do is even more nebulous than the purpose of the commission itself.

In contrast to the Irish situation let's have a brief look at Germany, the largest of the 27 EU countries, with a population of over 82 million (more than twenty times the size of Ireland) and many more taxis than we have.
Germany has neither a commission on taxi regulation, nor any advisory council. The legislation on how to operate a taxi is very clear, and anything that needs to be changed or regulated is done by two civil servants in the German Federal Ministry of Transport. That is it. Two people, for a population of over 82 million, while we have a total of at least 39 people for a population of little more than 4 million.

I think that speaks for itself and needs no further comment.

If the government were really serious with their plans to save money, they would simply abolish the whole bureaucratic apparatus and let the matter of taxis be handled by a civil servant in the Department of Transport. That was good enough until the year 2000, and it worked fine.
But then Bertie Ahern began his mad and irresponsible spending spree, which coincided with a massive programme to create cosy public service jobs for his friends and supporters.

Within a couple of years countless 'regulators' were created out of nothing, and they all got lavish offices with plenty of staff. None of these 'regulators' - from the 'Financial Regulator' over the 'Energy Regulator' and the 'Communications Regulator' to the 'Commission on Taxi Regulation' - has done anything worth doing. In fact, they have made the situation in Ireland a lot worse and cost the taxpayers vast sums of money.

We should scrap the whole lot at once. It would save us hundreds of millions immediately and make life in many areas a lot less complicated.
But going by previous experience, I do not expect this to happen. The cosy cartel of government, TDs, civil servants and corporate bosses is not willing to make the sacrifices the Taoiseach and his Minister for Finance have in mind for the rest of us.

Perhaps some more, and some more direct action is called for to wake them up. I salute the 1500 taxi drivers who made their fifth contribution to this process today, and I was myself among the 120,000 who recently demonstrated in Dublin. We will have to keep this up, and - if necessary - increase the pressure. Otherwise we are settled with this incompetent government for another three years, and by then Ireland would certainly be bankrupt and a failed state.

The Emerald Islander

RTÉ transmits misleading Radio Ads again

In my opinion there is generally way too much advertisement in this world, but especially here in Ireland, which is highly over-commercialised in every possible way.

This goes so far that public service vehicles used by Waterford City Council carry stickers advertising the private company they are leased from. Ornamental standing stones with the names of town lands and housing estates always carry the name of a private company that paid for it, and there are - believe it or not - even public rubbish bins in our parks and on the streets that sport a small plaque, saying "sponsored by..." followed by the name of a local business.

One of my regular annoyances is that Radio Telefis Éireann (RTÉ), which is the sole recipient of the compulsory national TV licence money (currently € 160 per household per annum), also fills its programmes on both Radio and TV with a large amount of advertisement.
The whole purpose of having a TV licence is to give a broadcaster financial independence from vested interests, in order to make proper and independent programmes free of advertisement.

The BBC does that very well, but RTÉ does not. It takes the licence money, whose payment is actually enforced with drastic measures, including the arcane and almost Dickensian 'TV Licence Inspectors' who apparently "visit 18,000 premises every month". (That alone is a ridiculous and outrageous waste of money, energy and resources and deserves a separate article at some other time.) Watching TV in Ireland without having a TV licence is actually a criminal offence, and each month there are numerous people dragged into court rooms and fined for it. And a few, who do simply not have the money to pay either the licence or the fine, end up in prison, for nothing else than watching television.

Despite all this, the complete output of RTÉ - on both Radio and TV - is heavily commercialised and filled with constant advertisements. On top of that many programmes are also specifically sponsored by a company or product which is mentioned in extra trailers several time throughout the transmission of this programme.

I have turned my back on TV many years ago and only listen to Radio, so I cannot say in detail how much worse it is with RTÉ's TV programmes. But the advertisement content on RTÉ Radio is bad enough and higher than that of some commercial stations, which have no other income than advertisement.

Not enough that listeners are constantly bombarded with unwanted commercials which are even used to interrupt news bulletins, many of the ads transmitted by RTÉ are strictly speaking in breach of broadcasting rules as they are peddling clear lies or make incorrect statements about a company or product. But no-one (except me) seems to care or feel bothered.
Actually, as things are here, anyone can broadcast a complete tissue of lies and get away with it, as long as the last words of the ad are "terms and conditions apply". And it is quite telling that this phrase is the most common in Irish advertising, appearing in about two thirds of all adds I hear on RTÉ Radio. Most significantly they close all ads for banks, insurance companies and all sorts of other financial services.

But the crooks in the big multi-national companies and their henchmen (and women) in the large lying factories known as 'advertisement agencies' do not stop there. Now they even produce ads with clear and plain lies without attaching any verbal safety net at the end.
Not that this is the first time RTÉ has transmitted misleading ads. It happens ever so often, and one wonders if there is any control of the content at all before it goes out on air. Or perhaps it is all the same for RTÉ, as long as they get paid for peddling rubbish and spreading lies.

The latest example of that is a new ad for Opel cars, which I have heard on RTÉ Radio 1 today for the third time. It indicates that at least some US companies have by now realised that their uncritical support of the criminal Bush administration over the past eight years and their overall imperialist approach to marketing are doing some damage to their international sales figures, especially in Asia and Europe.
So now they have decided to use even obvious lies to win over the uninformed and truly gullible elements of the Irish population, which are quite significant in numbers.

This new ad opens with introducing Opel as "a German company", and that is a clear and plain lie. But for many it sounds alright nevertheless, because Opel started as a German company.

Let us look at the facts: The Opel GmbH was indeed founded in Germany 146 years ago, on January 21st, 1863. It first produced various household goods, but soon specialised in sewing machines. By 1895, the year company founder Adam Opel died, they were the largest maker of sewing machines in Europe and also produced each year 2000 bicycles, then a novelty form of transport that was gaining popularity.
Three years later Opel began also building cars, first in partnership with a German inventor and then with a French engineering company. In 1906 they developed their first own model, and by 1913 Opel was the largest car manufacturer in Germany.

After World War I things looked more dire, even though Opel was still the leading car brand in a devastated Germany. But the economic crisis of the late 1920s with hyper-inflation and political instability ruined many a German business forever.
In 1929 Opel was taken over by General Motors of Detroit, USA, the largest car maker in the world then and now.

So even though Opel began as a German company and still has production facilities there, it is actually a 100% American firm and has been for the past 80 years. To call it now "a German company" in an ad for the Irish market is at best misleading, at worst a plain lie. It has not been done in the past, as long as US cars were seen as somehow desireable here. But now, that many people have turned their backs on the USA and anything American for various reasons, suddenly General Motors declares Opel "a German company", hoping to cash in on the fact that Germany has a long, unbroken and exceptional reputation for engineering excellence.

Well, I do not wish to influence anyone here, and I believe that people make up their own minds in any way they see fit. Personally I would never buy or drive an Opel car, nor any other US car, knowing of the way General Motors runs its business (and has been supporting George W. Bush and other leading Republicans for many years with vast sums of money). And though GM is the worst of the lot, Ford and Chrysler are not much better than their larger rival. However, it is not for me to tell you what car to buy and drive. I just hope you know what you are doing and whom you support with your money.

But I strongly resent the fact that RTÉ, our national broadcaster, is offering itself as a willing accomplice to another deliberate tissue of American lies. I am certain that before this current crisis is over we will see many changes in many areas, including broadcasting. And I can assure you - and RTÉ - that I have an excellent memory.

The Emerald Islander

A special Day in German History

Since I was born abroad and grew up in foreign countries, I never got to 'enjoy' the Irish school system. And from what I know of it by now - as an adult who has been a part-time teacher and lecturer both in secondary schools and third-level colleges - I am rather glad that I got my education in countries that take the matter more serious than Ireland.

As a historian I was surprised and quite shocked when I first found out that European History in Irish secondary schools begins only in 1870, with the Franco-Prussian War. This means that Irish children are denied the knowledge of nearly two millennia of mainstream history, which includes many major events, great political, social and intellectual developments, crucial wars and important leaders and thinkers from many nations.

The Roman and Byzantine Empire, the Crusades, the Hanseatic League, the Age of Reformation, the Thirty-Years War, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars - to name only the most significant periods - are not introduced to Irish children in secondary school. Thus they have no real notion about people like Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Charlemagne, Godfrey de Bouillon, Charles the Bold, Emperor Maximilian, Jan Hus, Erasmus, Wallenstein, Louis XIV, Prince Eugene of Savoy, Frederick the Great or even Napoleon - to name but a few.

In my opinion this is a sad and irresponsible shortfall, which has implications on everyone who ever went through the Irish school system. Their view on the world as a whole and on history in particular is very limited.
But I suppose this is the conditioning one needs to be able to be strongly interested in various players of Football, Golf or other pointless sports, which take a lot of time, attention and money from many Irish people, especially men.

However, since European History begins for Irish people in 1870, most of my readers will be familiar with the significance of this day - January 18th - in German history. Having defeated the much larger French army in several decisive battles during the second half of 1870, Prussia - supported by other German states (especially Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden) - emerged as the surprise victor from this war, which marked the end-point of a seven-year period of short wars (the first one in 1864 against Denmark) and ever stronger domination of Prussia inside the German Union (the lose confederation that had replaced the old Holy Roman Empire of German Nation in 1806).

Inspired by the total defeat of France, the various German kingdoms and principalities, which had been brought even closer to Prussia through the war, decided to form a new unified national state called the German Empire (Deutsches Reich). It began its official existence on January 18th, 1871 with the proclamation of Prussia's King William as Emperor William I of Germany.

This proclamation (pictured above) took place in the famous palace of Versailles on the outskirts of Paris, once the home of the French kings. Paris itself surrendered ten days later, but France had lost the war already by September 1870, when after the battle of Sedan the main field force under Marshal MacMahon surrendered to the Germans. Among the 83,000 prisoners of war was Emperor Napoleon III himself.

France, then the second Napoleonic empire, declared war on Prussia alone on July 19th, 1870, in the - as it turned out wrong - assumption that its stronger and superior army could beat the Prussians and re-establish French domination on the continent (as well as restore the fading popularity of the emperor at home). The French army had just finished equipping all its units with the new Chassepot rifle, which had a clear technical superiority over the Dreyse rifle used by Prussia, and also a greater range. On top of that France employed a new invention called the 'mitrailleuse', a multi-barrelled salvo gun which was a fore-runner of the modern machine gun.
The Prussians and the other German armies had no such salvo guns, but instead new Krupp steel cannons, the most advanced artillery in the world at that time. This superior artillery, together with the better training and organisation of Prussian and German troops, crippled the French army within a few weeks. Having started the war with invading Germany and trying to occupy a major German city near the border, the French army was soon forced to retreat to its fortress Metz, where 140,000 troops under the command of Marshal Bazaine were sitting idle until they surrendered as well shortly before the end of hostilities.

The traditional rivalry between the French and the Germans goes back to the year 843 (two dozen years before my own family appeared on the scene) when - after the death of Emperor Charlemagne - his lands were divided between his three sons.
This laid the foundations of modern France and modern Germany as national states. The buffer state between them was Burgundy (home of my ancestors), which established the traditions that are today carried on by Belgium and Luxembourg. Only after World War II, more than eleven centuries later, the two nations of France and Germany developed a new and friendly relationship, which became the core element of the EU.

But for the Germans, and especially Prussians, the 18th of January has an even deeper meaning than being the day when the second German empire was proclaimed, just 18 weeks after the second French empire had collapsed with the capture of Napoleon III. The date of the 1871 proclamation was chosen by Prussia's Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck very carefully and deliberately.
January 18th, 1871 marked the 170th anniversary of the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia. By selecting the same day for the foundation of the second empire, Bismarck created an emotional and historical bond of great strength between the two events.

Way back - on January 18th, 1701 - Prince-Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg (pictured left) stood in the great castle of Königsberg in East-Prussia (since 1944 occupied by Russia and called Kaliningrad), which had been the headquarters of the Teutonic Order of Knights since 1457 and seat of the secular Duchy of Prussia since 1525.
Ignoring the local bishop, who had been summoned for a ceremony, the Prince took a newly created crown, put it on his head and thus became King Frederick I of Prussia, remembered for his love of the arts and music.
His son, Frederick-William I, was more interested in the military and thus gained the nick name 'the soldier king'. With great energy and a lot of money he created a large and strong army and enjoyed watching his regiments on the drill ground and on parades. But he would hardly ever send them to war, as he did not like damage done to his 'favourite toy'.

Prussia's third king - Frederick II (pictured right) - combined the passions and interests of his father and grandfather and added to them great courage and high strategic and administrative skills. Under his rule there was little time for the drill and parade grounds, as Prussia fought a number of major wars, including the Seven-Years War, and every last man - the king included - was needed in the field.

Between winning battles, Frederick II loved to play music, especially the flute, and he composed a large number of musical pieces, many of which are still played today. He reformed and modernised the structure of his state, created the modern civil service with a special loyalty ethos, and found the time to oversee the construction of some of the finest buildings in central Europe, including the palace of Sanssouci (photo below), which he modelled on Versailles.

Frederick II was also an active philosopher, who was in regular discussion (by correspondence as well as through personal meetings) with Voltaire, the greatest French philosopher of the 18th century. We still know and remember the man as Frederick the Great.

Due to the low standards of our history teaching, today few people know of these great people and events, and of the double significance of January 18th for Germany, the largest of our EU partners. So I thought I will bring them back to common memory, on a day when nothing much is happening in Ireland, except that it is a rather cold, wet and unpleasant day with high winds up to storm force 10 and 11. In other words, a day to stay at home, keep the fire burning and spend the time with plenty of tea, a pipe, a good book and some history.

The Emerald Islander

Irish Pensions System in Need of Reform

IBEC - the Irish Business & Employers' Confederation - has warned that a number of defined benefit pension funds in Ireland "could collapse, unless urgent action is taken by the government and the pensions board".

The organisation says that "draconian funding rules are placing huge burdens on employers and could threaten jobs".

Such a statement is not really a surprise, as the people represented by IBEC - Irish employers of all kinds, but including the most greedy and ruthless capitalists we have in the country - are always looking for ways to pay their people less and squeeze more profit out of people, the state and the system of social partnership.

In a defined benefit scheme a person's pension is a guaranteed amount and is based on a final salary.
These schemes have become less popular with employers over recent years. Instead employers have implemented defined contribution schemes, which use pension funds and do not have a guaranteed final amount.

Last week the Irish Association of Pension Funds said that a number of private company schemes were in real danger of collapsing over the coming months.

These statements highlight a problem I have been raising in articles and in conversations with various politicians for years. But so far without any success or positive response.

The fact that - apart from the basic state pension - the whole pesions system in Ireland is in private hands is the sole reason for the potential danger of collapses and failures.

When Ireland achieved independence from Britain, we inherited many British institutions and kept them going just as they were, without ever looking into the possibility of replacing them with better alternatives. The way our parliament is run, our legal system, the banks and insurance companies, and even driving cars on the left side of the road are some examples for this. And the private pension funds are another.

If we want to avoid that money reserved to pay pensions is put in danger and used for the greedy speculations and gambling by private fund managers, there is only one way: to put the whole system of pensions under the direct control of the state.

This is done in various other countries with great success. Take for example Germany, where two state-controlled public agencies run the entire pension system. They collect the regular contributions from the people - often that money is automatically deducted from wages, just like taxes - and keep the records for everyone. And when one reaches pensionable age, they pay the pension, based on the amount of contributions one has accumulated over a lifetime.

There is no speculation, or exposure of pensions money to risly international finance schemes and scams. All is safe and sound, with no risks to pensioners. The system is perhaps a bit bureaucratic in its structure, and not unlike the civil service. But that is a condition people are very happy to accept, as they know it guarantees them their pensions, regardless what happens to the economy.

Ireland could adopt the same system, which would do three things at the same time:
1) Make sure that all pensions and pension funds are safe and not used for speculation and gambling.
2) Make sure that everyone who works also contributes to the pension fund, and that all employers do the same (and in the appropriate amount).
3) Create a secure fund worth billions, which is under state control and thus an addition to national stability.

As Brian Lenihan is currently looking into various option to change and reform the financial industry, he would be well advised to look at a long overdue reform of the Irish pensions system as well.

The Emerald Islander

2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine

Two French scientists who discovered the HIV virus, and a German who found the virus that causes cervical cancer, have been awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Prof. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Institute Pasteur and Dr. Luc Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, receive half the prize of 10 million Swedish Kronor (€ 1,024,427) for discovering the HIV virus.

Dr. Harald zur Hausen of Düsseldorf University in Germany was awarded the other half of the prize for his unconventional research into the cause of cervical cancer, clinical work that went against the dogma of established school medicine for quite some time.

"The three laureates have discovered two new viruses of great importance and the result of that has led to an improvement of global health," said Jan Andersson, a member of the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute.









When Dr. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi (left) and Dr. Luc Montagnier (right) began their research in the early 1980s, a hitherto undocumented immune deficiency syndrome began striking down victims throughout the western world. The French researchers isolated and cultured cells from patients with swollen lymph nodes characteristic of the early stage of acquired immune deficiency.

By 1984, they had obtained samples of the retrovirus from a variety of people. These included people who had been infected from sexual contact, haemophiliacs, patients who had received blood transfusions and infants who had contracted the disease from their mothers. The researchers found the virus infected and killed lymphocytes from both diseased and healthy donors and reacted with antibodies from infected patients. Their findings also helped explain how HIV impaired the immune system.

Dr. Harald zur Hausen (right) was recognised for research based on his idea that oncogenic human papilloma virus, or HPV, caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.

The German scientist, who began his research in the 1970s, assumed that if HPV was causing the cancer it should be possible to detect it by searching tumour cells for a specific viral DNA. For ten years he searched for different human papilloma virus types, detecting them in cervix cancer biopsies. The virus types he found, and later cloned, are found in about 70% of cervical cancer biopsies around the world.

"More than 5% of all cancers worldwide are caused by persistent infection with this virus," the Nobel assembly stated during the announcement of the prize.
An estimated 500,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year and about 300,000 die from it, mostly in the developing world.

Medicine is traditionally the first category of the Nobel Prizes awarded each year. The prizes for achievements in Science, Literature and Peace were first awarded in 1901, in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel. An Economics prize was established in 1968. This year's other Nobel laureates will be announced throughout this week, taking one category each day.

My own little private Oktoberfest

In Munich, capital of the Bavarian Free State in Germany, this is the second weekend of the annual Oktoberfest, the world's oldest and largest beer festival, which is celebrated this year for the 175th time. (see my entry from September 21st)

It is a long time now that I lived there, but I still have good memories of those years.
Even though I have never been a fan of crowds, noise and large celebrations, I did visit the Oktoberfest while I was living literally on its doorstep. There were always friends who would go anyway, and so I went along with them, drinking a few beers, eating traditional food and then having a congenial Virginier cigar with another beer or a coffee.

I haven't been back since I moved to Ireland, and I really don't miss it. But even a serious man like me who is not very emotional has his sentimental moments. I am a human being after all...

So when I encountered - quite unexpectedly - the stall of a traditional German bakery on the annual French Market here in Waterford today (see my earlier entry below), I was touched in a rare and positive way. For the first time in nearly two decades I saw Brezn and Salzweckerln (traditional Bavarian glazed bread roles, sprinkled with large salt crystals) right in front of me, and I could hardly believe my eyes and my luck.

There was no possibility to pass the stall without buying some of them. Sentimental feelings and old memories were much too strong. So I bought a couple of each and went home a happy man.
But on the way it dawned on me that this was only one element of the traditional Bavarian meal, known as a Brotzeit. To make it complete, I would also need some Weisswurst (white sausage), a Radi (large white radish, also known as Muli, as depicted here) and some Bavarian beer, preferrably from Munich. Sweet Bavarian mustard, which is the final ingredient to make it perfect, I have at home anyway.

So I made a little detour and stopped at ALDI, a German supermarket nearby, which has all the traditonal German food, as well as the usual Irish items. I found what I was looking for, including original Spaten beer from Munich, the very same that is served in the Schottenhamel beer hall at the Oktoberfest. (The Schottenhamel is traditionally the place where the Mayor of Munich declares the festival open by tapping the very first keg of beer himself.)

I should mention that I am a vegetarian for more than ten years now, and that I seldom drink alcoholic beverages. But I am not a fanatic and there is no ideology behind my choice to live on a vegetarian diet. And as much as I abstain from meat and meat products normally, an authentic Munich Brotzeit simply needs Weisswurst. It wouldn't be the same without it.

So this is a very special day for me, and earlier this evening I sat down and had my Brotzeit with everything one would have in Munich. I even put a CD with traditional Bavarian music into my player, to make it a perfect experience and celebrate my very own little private Oktoberfest here in the heart of Waterford, the oldest city in Ireland.

The Emerald Islander