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Sinead O'Connor

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Wednesday, 2 Aug 2023, 09:07

Very sad news regarding the death of Sinead O'Connor. I read her autobiography last year Rememberings and she had a very tough early life. I think her mother was seriously mentally ill with schizophrenia, maybe even paranoid schizophrenia and Sinead and her siblings suffered at her hands.

She also talked about a head injury she received when she was young and blamed it for some of her own mental health problems. She was standing on a train platform one morning and someone opened a door on a train going through the station which hit her on the head. She was hospitalised for it and was lucky she wasn't killed. 

She has had a long struggle in this life and I hope now she is at peace.

This is my favourite Sinead O'Connor song, The Healing Room from the Faith and Courage Album. It also features in the film, Vanilla Sky, another of my favourites.

The Healing Room - YouTube I don't know what is going on with youtube but it won't pick up the url. so I have typed it below, if anyone wants a listen, or you can just search for it yourself. It's a beautiful haunting tune.

If you think of me today

A little prayer for me say.

RIP Sinead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9-0rOuvw4


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Weddin

Back to the Rat Race

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Well, I re-joined the ranks of the gainfully employed a few weeks back and between learning the new job and the allotment, there has hardly been a spare moment.  I'm now doing TECH SUPPORT!!!...that's what I get for watching Vanilla Sky all those times...and of course, the minute you get a job everyone wants you.  I had just about given up on the chance of anything like a 'career' and along with 'world domination' and the chance of meeting a 'mature' male in Ireland, had consigned all such ambitions to the dustbin of maybe, probably not and yeah, right!  But lo and behold, I have now been offered 5 different opportunities in the last few weeks and will probably opt for the public sector one which although is initially only for a year, holds out the chance for progression and also offers the best pay and conditions.

Part of my problem with 'careers', is that any time I found a job I liked, it never lasted for one reason or another.  I worked mostly in factories, everything from machinist to credit control, and administration of one kind or another, but all those factories closed as the owners moved the work abroad to second world, more exploitable economies.  The paradox in this, as I often pointed out, is that although those jobs are gone, we're still expected to support a first world economy by buying the stuff we used to make here.  Then being an old 'commie' at heart, I could never sum up the ambition needed to manipulate and wheedle my way around the bosses in the drive to succeed because as someone once pointed out, even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat!  

So, part of me is now settling, settling for something close to home, not too stressful and reasonably paid which with a bit of luck will see me through now to retirement and which, more importantly, gives me time to pursue the things I really want to do like writing, my allotment, painting, knitting and hopefully a bit of acting again, come September.  


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Weapons, War and Money

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Edited by Aideen Devine, Wednesday, 18 Aug 2021, 20:54

Just sitting watching the news (if it could be called news) on the topic of chemical weapons and Syria, one question comes to mind.  If you bomb a facility which makes and 'stores' chemical weapons as claimed by the West, then surely you will be releasing more toxic chemicals into the surrounding area?

There is so much propaganda and lies, you wouldn't know who or what to believe.  I still go back to Radio 4, (about 3/4 years ago, I think) when an army general announced we would be going to war with Russia within 3 years.  John Humphreys was taken aback, to say the least and basically said, 'you must be insane', or words to that effect.  The general then went on to explain that they had these new nuclear weapons which they wanted to try out.  If that is where we are headed then, I take comfort in the fact that 2 other empires perished on the Russian frontier, France under Napoleon and the Third Reich under Hitler.  So, go for it, they sooner it happens, the sooner it will all be over, and then we might finally get some peace!  Come to think about it, Germany is being very quiet on this, I haven't heard a word from Merkel?

Talking about peace, why can we not just have peace?  Why is Russia our enemy?  Who decided that?  The mentality of those in charge really needs to be looked at.  In the US, they are all paranoid, living with a mind-set that is 60 years out of date and what is all the secrecy about?  Why do we not just share our knowledge and try to find ways to improve the lot of everybody?  Why can't the US and the UK just mind their own business?  If the people of Syria want rid of Assad, then it's up to them to sort that out.  If the West is so concerned with the well being of down-trodden others, will they be bombing Saudi Arabia now over their treatment of the people of Yemen?  Of course, they won't, the hypocrisy is sickening!   Why can't the US and the UK just stay in their own country and take care of their own people! 

But at the end of the day, the buck stops with us too and we have to carry some of the blame for sitting back and shutting our minds to it all, for letting others do our thinking and for not questioning more.  Going out to vote and voting for people who basically don't give a crap about any of us, which is worse here because all they do is vote for their tribe regardless of how competent these people are. 

The media is complicit too, we don't have journalists any more, with the exception of Jon Pilger, all we have are reporters, who merely report what they have been told to say.  Thank God for the internet, at least there, you can find out more and are able to access other opinions.

I watched another good documentary online recently, All Wars are Bankers Wars, (because you'll never get this on Sky or the BBC) worth a look if you have 45 mins to spare.  But when all is said and done, I know the answer to all those questions, and as Tom Cruise says in Vanilla Sky, "What is the answer to 99out of 100 questions? Money."


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