THE LAST STRAW/Frank McNally: With a general election looming, this seems a good time to gauge the mood in different parts of the country, as reflected in a random selection of recent items in this newspaper.
Co Cavan: The Minister for the Environment's announcement last week that the State's pothole problem is "almost over" marks the end of a long struggle for the people of this border county, already blighted by decades of under-achievement in the Ulster football championship. After the Border itself, the state of the roads was the biggest issue in Co Cavan during the 1990s. Now, as with the peace process in the North, potholes seem to have entered an era of closure (in a very real sense).
Consequently, the anti-pothole movement is defunct although, no doubt, some hardliners will fight on, convinced that the current solution - a mixture of tar and gravel - is not a long-term one. By the way, it's probably no coincidence that the Wolfe Tones have disbanded too. The popular balladeers summed up the close relationship between national self-determination and infrastructure in their signature tune, (We're) On the One Road. And while the issues they raised about inadequate signposting ("it may be the wrong road") remain to be resolved, the band can rightfully feel that its work is done.
Co Clare: The Government's Forum on Europe continued its Irish tour last weekend, in Limerick, but the issue of where it wasn't meeting caused anger. Amid claims that the EU's peripheral areas were being ignored, one speaker asked the platform: "Exactly how do you plan running Europe from Brussels if, in Ireland, you can't make it to Clare?"
Co Clare is a victim of its reputation, I'm afraid. While the county is justly famous for music, some of the best-known songs about it tend to emphasise, and even exaggerate, its remoteness. Ralph McTell, for example, claimed not only that it was a "long long way from Clare to here" but suggested - albeit before Noel Dempsey's road-improvement scheme - that it "gets further day by day". In another famous song, Are Ye Right There, Michael?, Percy French described the difficulties of using public transport in the county. Interestingly, the song was inspired by a real incident in 1898, when the West Clare Railway Company blamed a five-hour stoppage on "weeds in the boiler" and the resultant risk of an "explosion". But I think we've all heard that excuse from CIÉ at one time or another.
Neither of those songwriters was from Co Clare, which only underlines the point. Most of the county's music is instrumental, and although traditional tunes often have expressive titles - like the popular jig, I Buried My Wife and Danced on Her Grave - the absence of lyrics can be a drawback. At the risk of sounding like Terry Prone, I think Co Clare needs to tell its story a bit more.
Co Laois: Responding in the letters page to perceived criticism of the Co Laois town and its discount superstore, a local councillor wrote of the locals' ambition to "bring Rathdowney to a larger audience". This is exactly what the Forum on Europe is trying to achieve. So my suggestion is that Rathdowney should go on a countrywide tour too (starting in Clare).
The councillor also wrote proudly that, with the new motorways, we should "watch out for Co Laois". This is a good suggestion - maybe AA Roadwatch could start by incorporating the warning into bulletins.
Dublin: The proposed partition of Dublin for GAA purposes has sent shockwaves through the capital. For all its history, Dublin is essentially a loose collection of mutually distrustful tribes, a bit like the former Yugoslavia. Dividing it in two for Gaelic games will only raise tensions and encourage further separatism. Dublin 4, the Slovenia of the region, would go it alone at the first opportunity.
In many respects, it already does. In another recent letter, a correspondent suggested that speed-ramps on leafy Ailesbury Road were gentler than in other parts of the city. So I drove over there myself, on a fact-finding mission. And sure enough, in contrast to the ramps in my area, which seem to be designed on the principle that the car you're in is probably stolen, and you must be delayed or, if possible, immobilised until the gardaí arrive, the Dublin 4 "bumps" seem designed only to provide you with a pleasant stimulus while driving. This is the embassy belt, of course, so maybe it's an extension of diplomatic immunity. But road design is a vexed subject in Dublin, where many motorists feel that, while traffic calming is necessary, measures to calm the drivers would also be welcome.
Road-bumps could yet become an election issue. And five years after the pothole crisis, this would be real proof that the level of political debate is rising.