Animal Farm, Irish-style
Deaglán de Bréadún
The country went to bed last night and woke up this morning, to a background of news reports that our rashers and sausages were a potential danger to health and well-being. Contaminated meal had been fed to pigs as long ago as September 1st and now we should be throwing out any pork and pork by-products as a precaution.At the same time as telling us to throw the bangers in the bin we were being advised that the danger was no greater than smoking the odd cigarette. But nobody said to throw our ciggies in the garbage.
When I heard the news last night, I got up out of bed and stuck a note on the fridge-door advising all family-members not to eat the pork-chops, etc., therein. It was only by morning that it became fully clear to me that the stuff should be actually thrown out.
The question arises as to why it took so long for the warning to be issued. September 1st until now is over three months. We still don’t know the name of the suppliers who provided the allegedly-contaminated pigfeed.
The samples had to be sent to the UK for testing. After 86 years of independence we cannot even look after ourselves in this life-and-death area.
Recently it emerged that bottled-water supplies were also contaminated. There was, to put it bluntly, sh*t in the bottles. But this was not made known to the public at the time. And none of the guilty suppliers were named.
Already there is concern – quite rightly – about the pig-farmers. But very little about the long-suffering consumer. What about people who stocked-up their fridges with ham and pork for Christmas?
I sure hope nobody is telling “porkies”. Meanwhile, the Joe Duffy programme should be pretty raucous tomorrow.
Deaglán de Bréadún
