Nothing much to report today I'm afraid. Hungover after last night - I blame the Bulmers.

Eh? Did you say money's too tight to mention?

Looks like it's turning into a nightmare week for the Gardai. First we have the savage display of brutality which some members of the force engaged in and which was fortuitously caught on camera. Then the allegations in court that two officers had planted incriminating material in order to obtain convictions and procure promotions. Finally and potentially most disturbing of all, it now seems that the Gardai may have withheld information that could have prevented the Omagh bombing.

Just a stray thought on the anti-globalisation movement. If Dev was alive today would he be part of it? His economic policies where those of self-sufficiency and economic protectionism and he had a vision of Ireland which he famously described thus:-

"The Ireland which we would desire of would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as the basis of a right living, of a people who were satisfied with frugal comfort and devoted their leisure to the things of the soul; a land whose countryside would be bright with cosy homesteads, whose fields and valleys would be joyous with the sounds of industry, with the romping of sturdy children, the contests of athletic youth, the laughter of happy maidens; whose firesides would be forums for the wisdom of old age."

No automobiles, no foreign industries ....add the face painting and the neo-electro street beats and we have the quintessential eco-socialist utopia.

Looks like the Irish anti-Globalisation movement now have their own little Genoa and Seattle, what with monday's Reclaim The Streets march in Dublin being broken up by the Gardai (Irish police) with excessive force. The pictures on the news yesterday were shocking - some members of the Gardai were clearly shown flailing wildly with their batons and deliberately trying to "crack skulls". Whats worse it appears that these policemen also removed their identifying badges to prevent subsequent identification. Naturally there's been an national outcry. I'm sure the offenders will get punished and hopefully it will result in a positive measures to install some sort of independent monitor of Garda activity.

That said, I've no doubt that there was some provocation of the police - not that that mitigates their actions. And furthermore the media coverage of this demonstration is a god send of publicity for the rag-bag of organisations and causes which gravitate around and/or constitute the anti-globalisation movement. It may well be that aggravation of the police is a definite tactic of the militant tendancy within the movement.

As far as I tell the main groups involved here are the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party, the Globalise Resistance movement and the aforementioned Reclaim The Streets group. Already it appears that tensions exist between these disparate groups over the decision to hold a protest against police brutality in Dublin tomorrow.
Lets see what happens then - there is a strong possibility that it will do nothing to garner additional public sympathy and will be hijacked by Joe Carolan and the loony left.

Incidentally here's irony for you - what do you think the first questions are on the application form for the UK arm of Globalise Resistance? Of course its your Bank branch and sort code. Make of that what you will.....

Is there no end to these simple but addictive flash games? Here's one where you attempt fly a helicopter as far as possible. In this age of x-boxes, PS2's and incredibly complex PC games it appears that the average desk bound 'information worker' is happy with variations of 'pong' and 'breakout' to while away the time they should be working.

Sky Sports are running Premiership goalkeeper of the year – here's your chance to make sure that Shay Given (Ireland goalie) gets it!!

It being a long weekend in Ireland, I didn't get around to doing any postings yesterday. I'm pretty tired at the moment, I drove 400 miles and drank maybe 40 drinks over the last few days. And I'm back at work now with my brain not fully engaged...... to get the week off to a fine start, here's a review of my blog by Kathy from the Peer to Peer review project. While it's pretty negative, I have to say that it's quite fair. I've been meaning to implement a new template and add some personal details and stuff. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time on my hands to do this and at the moment I guess I'm just using this blog as a place to record interesting links and the occasional stray opinion...this of course being something which a weblog is the perfect medium for.

I came across this interesting article yesterday. In it the author demonstrates how our concepts of race are entirely arbitrary and that the pale skin mutation (i.e. "white people") probably first evolved in northern Europe relatively recently. He suggests that this probably happened 5000 years ago....which raises the possibility that the first residents of Ireland and indeed the occupants of sites like the Ceide fields in North Mayo where actually black. Indeed the climate change which initiated the growth of the Irish bogs may have reduced the level of sunlight and thus made it difficult for dark skinned peoples to live on agriculture alone.

11 year old girl's doodle is interpreted as a 'terrorist death threat' by her teachers. Read the story on CNN. Is this another blow for the 'War Against Terrorism' ??

James Lileks has a typically wonderful piece today on how we are now in the golden age of children's illustration:- (LILEKS) James :: the Bleat

Here's an interesting and deeply moving article on the cultural transformation of the New York Irish population in the nineteenth century. Within a generation the New York Irish moved from being the dregs of society to become influentual and important players within the American mainstream. The catalyst for this change was a man called John Joseph Hughes. Via linkfilter.net.

Mr. Tuncay Ozcan's night of shame - read today's story in The Sun.

He hung his head in shame as the city’s Crown Court heard the three-year-old Welsh pony called Rose was good natured before that attack, but was now “nervous and skittish”.

I love the way they altered the photo of the pony to protect it's identity!

I first encountered it in a toy store in Texas in August 2000. It seemed cute and funny at the time. Since then they seem to be everywhere - allegedly even the Queen has one. Yes I'm talking about the singing billy bass toy - this site pretty much sums up what I think about it now.

Last night I went along to the Evan Dando gig in the Roisin. It was great. Although it was quite sad to see the toll that drink and drugs had taken on the ex-Lemonheads singer, he delivered a sparkling, crowd pleasing set of old favourites with four or five new tunes thrown into the mix. In my opinion, most of the new songs were unremarkable with the exception of "Hard Drive" and "The Same Thing You Thought Hard About Is the Same Thing I Can Live Without" a song obviously about his battle with the drink. He is now teetotal and like Georgie Best uses medication to combat the urge to drink. He made a point of explaining that the word in the song chorus was "can" not "can't".

At the end of the set, before the encore he set-up an impromptu Q and A session with the audience. Apparently he missed a gig a few years back cos he was busy gettin' it on with two lesbian junkies . He would have made the show only for the crowds of people he had to get through to get to the stage. He reckons it was a close run thing but wasn't worth it in the end ..

What really made the night for me however were the support acts. Playing guitar for Evan and doing a short set of his own was Chris Brokaw the guitar player from Come and Pullman. He also played on Thalia Zedeks solo album from last year.

And best of all we had a set from the ex-Vaselines singer and guitar player Eugene Kelly. You may remember that Scottish band for their songs which Nirvana covered - "Molly's lips" and "Jesus doesn't want me for a sunbeam":-

Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam,
Cause sunbeams are not made like me,
And don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die,
Don't ever ask your love of me.

Don't expect me to lie,
Don't expect me to cry,
Don't expect me to die for thee

Eugene joined Evan on stage for the encore which I think was "River Clyde Song". Two fine masters of the craft of the Pop Song who have failed to reach the audience they deserve. Proof if any were needed that popular music is the most fickle of the modern arts.

Do you drive? Are you subject to road rage? - take the test here.

Yet another Irish Election website - election2002.p45.net focuses on the big issues - the humour.

Here's another Irish Election website - www.Dail-Eireann.com. This one seems more geared to soliciting candidates comments and debate. However the absence of any constituency profile for Mayo is disappointing. Hopefully this is not indicative of a Dublin (or Leinster) centric bias on the part of the administrators.

Good to see our old friend 'Ming the Merciless' is still in politics. He's running in the Irish general election in the Rocommon/Longford constituency. Best of luck to him I say. Although I have my suspicions that his notoriety as a campaigner for the legalisation of Marijuana will endear him to the conservative Roscommon electorate.

Maybe Dunnes Stores should set up a branch in Korea to sell 'St. Bernard' branded juice?