HEART BEAT:Bring back the great chameleon Bertie, socialist, nationalist and capitalist all in one
IT SNOWED in Dublin last night. I wondered if anybody had told God about global warming. If so, I wish He would get His act together because we’re freezing down here.
Looking out at the blanket covering the garden, I saw the bird feeder and felt it needed replenishing. It has attracted mice, squirrels and, on one known occasion, a large grey rat. This did not impress the Highest Authority and somehow it turned out to be my fault.
It has also attracted a large selection of birds. I try to provide a varied menu to suit all sorts but I draw the line at providing anything that will lower their cholesterol and thus prolong their lives.
My late mother, who was known to all as “Bird”, stemming from her claimed ability to predict the weather from the behaviour of our feathered friends, also used to say when faced with some familial discord, that “birds in their nests should all agree”.
She obviously never got to tell it to the crowd around our feeder. There are big pigeons throwing their weight around, aggressive robins and all sorts of belligerent finches, tits, blackbirds and assorted others, all determined to get their share and anybody else’s if they can get away with it. Come to think about it, they are a bit like the “social partners” with their cavalier “devil take the hindmost attitude”.
So it has come to pass. The people do not like hair shirts. They might be suitable for everybody else, but not for me. I work very hard and I deserve a Charvet shirt. This is not negotiable. Bring back the great red/green/blue, chameleon Bertie, socialist, nationalist, capitalist; he’ll sort it out and we’ll get what we want, as of yore.
I don’t like the sound of this new fellow with his “we’re all in this together lads” so-called inspirational speech to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce; standing ovation, grown men weeping, the whole panoply of political spin. Suddenly, we have a saviour and that inspires us to suffer together. Bit too much of the “For tonight we’ll merry, merry be, Tomorrow we’ll be sober” for my liking.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer and one speech doesn’t mean anything has changed in the world. Right now we have little alternative to wallowing in the trough and the last thing we need are inane words.
“By their works ye shall know them” (Matthew, vii, 20) and we didn’t hear of action on that front. There was no reduction in junior ministries mooted or any sign of awareness at the heart of government that there is very real anger in the population who are daily losing their jobs, their pensions and are seeing living standards decrease by the day.
There was no hint of contrition, just nonsense about how we must all stand together in these difficult times. Yes we shall, of course, but I’m genuinely not sure if you’re part of the solution.
Let me tell you a story. Two elderly patients from Monaghan in the last few weeks sustained a Colles fracture. This involves a fracture of both bones of the forearm near the wrist and is often sustained by putting out your arm to break a fall. It is a common injury, easily dealt with, and in times past these patients would have gone to the local hospital and been fixed expeditiously.
But acute service in the local hospital has ended and so the patients were shipped off all the way to Drogheda, where they were briefly admitted and had their fractures reduced and placed in plaster. They were then discharged with follow-up arranged for a subsequent fracture clinic.
How did they get home? They came by ambulance and the ambulances couldn’t wait, nor should they as they have other emergencies to deal with. Well, the answer was pragmatic. They could go home by taxi – fare €100 – and furthermore when coming back to the follow-up clinic, unless they had friend or family to drive, they could use taxis again. They might or might not be able to recover the money.
A small little story but maybe anyone who watched the Prime Time programme on the mid- west would wonder how Limerick can take similar cases from Ennis and Nenagh when local patients lie on trolleys and they have no extra beds. They can’t, considering their budget is being reduced also.
And you know all this gloom and downturn could have been prevented if we had listened to the entrepreneurs and builders and just kept going. To quote again from that old Scottish student song: “If I had more bricks and stones I’d build the chimney higher; It would stop the landlord’s cat from pissing in the fire.” Well, cat or not, somebody quenched the fire and we’re all getting very cold.
* Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon