by Aine and Grainne

Our day has come.  Today we get to choose who it is that we want to see TRY to put things to rights in this country.  No-one is deluded enough to think it’ll be easy, regardless of who gets in. 

At this stage Fine Gael looks set to be the ruling party.  Whether or not they’ll be on their own or with a coalition partner, or partners, remains to be seen.  Some think single-party rule would be a bad thing, others believe it’s what needed for stability. 

In choosing who to give our votes to we need to consider what option will  give us leadership.  We need courageous leaders of integrity, conviction and vision.  In previous elections, candidate selection could come down to the most arbitrary of things.   This time is different though.  There’s just too much riding on it for us to get it wrong.

We urge you to choose carefully today and then vote for the people who will best serve us.

By Aine

Read an interesting article in the Sunday Times at the weekend.  According to Dr. Nyjon Eccles we need to pack our knickers with magnets to ease the symptoms of menopause.

The good doctor led a pilot study and believes it throws new light on the causes of hot flushes and night sweats. He says his research would seem to indicate that hot flushes and night sweats are caused by imbalances in the nervous system and magnets can rectify this.

Could it really be that simple?  Excuse me if I am a little sceptical. The findings have not yet been published in a medical journal.

The trials were carried out on British policewomen. 35 policewomen in Dorset to be precise – and 70% reported their symptoms eased after wearing a magnetic device called Ladycare attached to their underwear.

Dr. Eccles monitored the impact on the women’s autonomic nervous system – the part that affects heart rate, digestion, rate of breathing, perspiration and wait for it – sexual arousal!     

Dr. Michael Dixon, a GP and Chairman of the College of Medicine, is less enthused believing instead that it is perhaps the placebo effect, but says “There are a lot of things about magnetism that we do not understand. “If 70% of the women studied are getting a seriously good effect from them, then I, as a GP am not too concerned whether it is self-healing effect or whether it is a direct effect on the body of the magnets. It could be a lot of help to a lot of women.”

 While I commend any new approach to easing menopause symptoms, magnetic or otherwise, I’d be wary of giving false hope to women whose lives are made miserable by the on-going symptoms of the menopause.

On the other hand, I know people who wear magnetic bracelets for arthritis and swear by them so maybe, Dr. Eccles is onto something here.

I’m just wondering though, if I do get my hands on one of these new inventions, how will I explain it to airport security? “Ah it’s only the magnet in me knickers that’s setting off yer machine!

By Aine

Watching the horror of Jedward winning the right to represent Ireland in the Eurovision on Friday night was enough to make me want to go and lie down in a dark room. Is there any ray of hope in this country? It’s not enough that financially we are the laughing stock of Europe, now musically we will be too.

These talent-free young siblings, by winning on Friday night, did a huge disservice to the REAL musicians, songwriters, and singers that took part.

Their talent was overlooked, as the regional juries selected the Brothers Grimm to go forward. It makes a mockery of the entire competition to send these gormless idiots to represent us.

Mind you, that said, other European countries have been known to send singers of dubious standard to the competition so Jedward prancing around the stage, trying to sing and dance like 11-year old boys who drank too much coke and ate too many sweets with E numbers, probably won’t faze them.

I cringe every time I hear these boys speak. They seem to speak first and engage their brains a good ten minutes later. Their Dublin 4 accents, coupled with the ‘Americanisms’ they use is nauseating. They are also fond of the American way of using ten words to describe something when one word would suffice. They speak over each other all the time, and must be a nightmare to interview.

I know there are people reading this who will feel that I am a bit harsh, and that it’s only a bit of harmless fun, but I don’t see it like that. I think these boys are being exploited, (it all started with Louis Walsh on X-factor) and they continue to be. Fair enough they have made millions from merchandise but what will happen when their fan base (7-10 year old girls) move on to the next ‘singing’ sensation?

I mean seriously, has nobody told them that people are actually making a laugh of them because of their lack of talent?

These boys will disappear into oblivion and wonder where it all went wrong.

I must also take to task the panel on Tubridy’s Late Late show on Friday night.

Brian Kennedy, Mairead Farrell, Marty Whelan and some woman who used to be in Buck’s Fizz really didn’t contribute much to the overall ‘competition’.

Brian Kennedy promised us he would say what he really thought but then the only thing he found fault with was that the singers all sang in American accents.

Nobody on the panel raised the issue that to vote for Jedward was to ignore the real talent that was showcased on Friday night.

Ryan Tubridy chided the audience for booing the winners, but I think he looked uncomfortable having announced them victorious (he was after all, facing an audience made up of all the song-writers/mentors who had worked hard to produce a song that would represent our country with pride.)

It makes me mad when I think that RTE will use part of the license fee to send Jedward to the Eurovision. If ever there was an argument for scrapping the entire fiasco.

By Aine

Wouldn’t it be very refreshing, for a change, if we could hear people, when asked in the media for an opinion, say what they really mean instead of always trying to be politically correct?

We could learn a lot from the Australians about ‘telling it like it really is’ instead of always adopting the politically correct stance. 

Reading the newspaper ‘Sunday Age’ whilst in that country recently I was surprised to read an article titled ‘Breasts monopolising cancer spotlight.’

The gist of the story was that a doctor, Orla McNally, Director of Gynaecological Oncology at the Royal Women’s hospital, said that the figures in the medical journal ‘The Lancet’ showed that women from Victoria had less chance of survival of ovarian cancer that those in other parts of Australia. Dr. McNally felt that ovarian cancer awareness was ignored while breast cancer was constantly being highlighted.

She went on to say and I quote “You can’t dress up ovarian cancer. Your tits are in your face so it (breast cancer) is a very out there topic. The majority of women with the disease go on to survive and talk about it and lobby for it. The majority of women with ovarian cancer die within five years and usually for the last two years of those years they are too unwell to be out there lobbying for it.”

I found her candour so refreshing!! Imagine an Irish doctor coming out and giving as disarmingly honest a comment as that to the paper?

Likewise in the Dominican Post (another Australia newspaper) there was an article about young drivers speeding on Himatangi Beach.

One 15-year-old boy was issued with a speeding ticket for driving through about 400 beachgoers, including children, at speeds of up to 70kmh. Senior Constable Christ Barclay of Foxton (who was pictured on the beach beside his squad car) said “he was driving like a mad bastard”

When is the last time you heard a member of the Garda Siochana speak like that to the Independent?

It would probably read more like “I issued the offending individual with a speeding ticket for driving the vehicle in a reckless fashion.  He will be prohibited from further use of a mechanically propelled vehicle on a public beach.”

Bill Bryson has written of the Australians’ colourful flowery language in his book ‘Down Under’.  He informs us that the Australian writer Paul Sheehan recorded an exchange in Parliament between a man called Wilson Tuckey and the then Prime Minister Paul Keating which went as follows:

Tuckey: “you are an idiot. You are just a hopeless nong…..”

Keating: “Shut up! Sit down and shut up, you pig, why do you not shut up, you clown?… this man has a criminal intellect, this clown continues to interject in perpetuity”

Imagine that exchange in the Dail chamber? It would certainly liven up Oireachtas report!!!!!!!  Instead we had the Green’s Paul Gogarty apologise for his use of the ‘F’ word almost before he uttered it.

Apparently that was a fairly mild outburst from Mr. Keating who during the course of public debate called various opponents “scumbags, sleazebags, stupid foul-mouthed grubs, piss ants, mangy maggots, perfumed gigolos, gutless spivs, box heads, immoral cheats and stunned mullets!”

What I wouldn’t give to hear Michael Martin call Enda Kenny a perfumed gigolo! Or Eamonn Gilmore a gutless spiv! I can only hazard a guess at what Paul Keating would have called Vincent Browne!

It sure would liven up the boring politically correct election campaign.

By Aine

Television has been almost taken over by cookery shows. We can’t turn on TV these nights without Nigella, Jamie, Gordon or our very own Neven Maguire cajoling us into cooking for our families. All very nice and well-meaning, trying to get the nation cooking healthier and more nourishing meals for our families. Very laudable. But not every night and  every TV station.

I love cooking but I’m finding all these cookery shows on telly a bit much.  If Rachael Allen isn’t demonstrating the art of making the perfect muffin there’s Richard Corrigan on another channel, wrapping some Parma ham round a few sprigs of asparagus. We can bite our nails with the tension of who’s going to win Masterchef or tut-tut at Gordon Ramsey as he lets fly with the expletives at some poor chef of dubious credentials. We can tuck into our own dinner in front of the TV silently wishing that what we are actually eating looks and tastes, even remotely, like what Jamie Oliver is knocking out. And they make it look so easy!

Chop, chop, pour, drizzle, season, and Voila! Something so gorgeous it’s a shame to spoil it by actually eating it!

But wait.  When have we ever actually seen a TV chef wash up?  Tidy the kitchen and put stuff away? Put all the leftovers, unused ingredients and bits and pieces back in the fridge or store cupboard?  Easy to put gourmet meals together when someone else is doing the donkey work!

Our national obsession with all things food related is incongruous when we think that, while a lot of the world is cooking or watching cookery shows, there are others dying of hunger.

In the current recession, when everyone is trying to make their money go that bit further and people are opting for more home-cooking than expensive takeaways, it’s easy to see why cookery shows have become so popular.

I remember a time when a child was taught how to cook by their mother or grandmother and that tradition was passed down through the generations, but today’s kids can glean all their culinary knowledge from TV.

Of course if we do happen to get bored with TV cookery shows then we can always opt to indulge our other obsession, with all things property related; shows such as “Location, Location, Location’,  ‘Escape to the Country’ or ‘Dream Houses By The Sea’

Less genre-laden television I say; bring back the days of quality drama, documentaries and comedy shows instead.

By Aine

While in Australia recently I read an article in the Sunday Life Mail that generated a lot of letters to the editor. The article, written by Dominique Browning, was entitled Great Lengths’ and concerned a woman’s right to wear her hair long after a certain age. Most of the middle-aged women who responded  agreed that if a lady of a certain age wants to wear her hair long then that’s entirely up to her and it’s nobody else’s business.

Reaching a certain age should not automatically relegate you to wearing your hair short. If you want long hair, go for it! If you want long grey hair then that’s ok too!

Here in Ireland we seem to back the trend of short hair for middle aged ladies. There exists today in Ireland a standard ‘look’ for over 50’s – short style, with a bit of body – a style so unflattering it seems to scream “I’ve given up even trying” Why conform to that? Why not wear long hair with confidence?

Why should long hair be worn only by young girls and very old people (who usually wear it tied up in a bun anyway)?

Look at Emmylou Harris for example.

She wears her beautiful grey hair to her shoulders with pride. She looks stunning. Look at Joan Collins; she still wears her hair long though she is well into her seventies. Jerry Hall wears her blonde locks half way down her back! Good on ya girl I say!

Some religions such as Orthodox Judaism and Islam require married or adult women to cover their hair but in the West we have no such constraints other than some unwritten rule that deems long hair in middle age is somehow inappropriate.

What IS inappropriate is other people telling us how we should or shouldn’t wear our hair.