Fleet Week San Francisco 1st Week of October


Every year fleet week occurs in San francisco bay.
Fleet Week is a United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard tradition in which active military ships recently deployed in overseas operations dock in a variety of major cities for one week. Once the ships dock, the crew can enter the city and visit its tourist attractions. At certain hours, the public can take a guided tour of the ships. Often, Fleet Week is accompanied by military demonstrations and airshows such as the Blue AngelsThere are Navy ships and a huge airshow with the blue angels. These f18s fly in formation doing unbelievable accrobatics and screaming flying passes. The excitement is incredible.

Don Figures out how to sail by himself!
well done!!!!

Sailing in San Francisco not as easy as it looks !

Last Wednesday Don and I headed over the golden gate bridge for my first sailing lesson and dons first time on a sailboat.

A fairly determined look stayed on my face the whole time as the captain steve johnston was not happy with my jibbing skills. This was my second sailing lesson?



The tides in the bay can run up to six knots which means in a light wind you can end up going in a wrong direction!

One month latter

There was not any wind the charter company advised that the weather may be too cold to go, i said naww, it was freezing, one week later the coldest in San Francisco in ten years.

In a surprising result the internet is responsible for some amazing discoveries!

Distance from Dublin to San Francisco

Distance is 8194 kilometers or 5091 miles or 4424 nautical miles

The distance is the theoretical air distance (great circle distance). Flying between the two locations can be longer or shorter, depending on airport location and actual route chosen.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distanceresult.html?p1=78&p2=224

Distance from Dublin to Johannesburg

Distance is 9412 kilometers or 5848 miles or 5082 nautical miles

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distanceresult.html?p1=78&p2=111

The Earth: Shape, Size, and State of Rotation

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Contents:

The Shape of the Earth
The Size of the Earth
Degrees of Correctness
The Rotation of the Earth

Note: this section of the notes was most recently edited on 29 Oct 2000, undergoing minor changes only.

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The Shape of the Earth

It is common mythology that until the time of Columbus "everyone thought that the world was flat." The falsity of this is shown by a figure I presented in class, a representation of a real globe which represented the state of European knowledge before Columbus sailed. Although Columbus -- and everyone else! -- was right about the shape, however, he was quite lucky in a different respect. He thought that he would have to cross a western ocean of only moderate size before reaching China. Of course, if the Americas had not been in the way, he would have faced an impossibly long journey of more than 15,000 miles! So he was wrong about the size, but not about the shape. (By the way, I have read speculations to the effect that Columbus purposely underestimated the likely length of the crossing in order to persuade Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to fund his daring expedition.)

You may be surprised to learn that a correct understanding of the Earth's shape was current even two millennia before Columbus. Moreover, as we will see, even the size had been pretty well estimated, although that bit of information did not get reliably handed down. But how did such things come to be known?

As usual, we begin by asking how you yourself would demonstrate that the surface of the Earth is curved. If the world were much smaller, of course, it would be easy. Suppose for instance you were standing on top of a gigantic beach ball, looking at the surface on which you stand. You would certainly see a conspicuous "dropoff" on all sides. Unfortunately, the Earth is much too big to show that effect.

Still, there are alternatives. Indeed, by combining arguments of the following sort, Aristotle was able to conclude quite persuasively that the Earth is indeed spherical. You could:

1. Travel long distances north-south and watch the stars. Suppose you see a star low on the southern horizon, and then walk or sail many hundred miles south. The star will now appear to be higher in the sky, well above the horizon, as Aristotle knew from the accounts of sailors. If the Earth were flat, this would not happen; a star which was low on the horizon would remain so as you travelled.
   
   
   
   (You have to observe the star at the same time of night, of course, rather than at some earlier hour when the star has not yet risen into the sky. The diurnal effects of rotation have to be correctly compensated for.)

   To take an extreme example, a person on the equator sees the North Star low on the northern horizon. As she travels north, the Pole Star is seen at higher altitude until, when she is right at the North Pole, it is overhead. For the same reasons, people living in Australia see constellations invisible from here in Canada (and vice versa: they cannot see the Big Dipper).
   
   

2. Watch a boat sail away from shore. Of course, it gets smaller in appearance by virtue of its increasing distance, but it also seems to disappear over the horizon as though it is going down the far side of a hill. The hull disappears first, and soon only the tops of the masts and flags are visible.
   
   
   
   This would not happen on a flat Earth; the ancients recognized and correctly explained the phenomenon as due to the curvature of the Earth.



3. Rely on analogy. There is a semi-philosophical argument based on the fact that the sun and moon are seen to be round. It might seem plausible, therefore, to suggest that the Earth must be spherical as well, on the grounds that this seems to be a favoured shape in the heavens. (This is actually a weak argument, of course: the sun and moon are `up there' in the heavens, while the Earth is `down here' and may be something quite different.)



4. Watch eclipses: One can notice, as did Aristotle, that whenever there is a lunar eclipse, the edge of the Earth's shadow (which we see projected onto the lunar surface) always looks like the arc of a perfect circle. (By the way, the Earth's shadow is not responsible for the changing phases of the moon, as we will learn in the next section. Only during eclipses, which are very rare, do we notice the effects of the Earth's shadow at all - or at least that part of it which is projected onto the Moon's surface.)
   
   
   
   Aristotle concluded, rightly, that the inevitable circularity of the shadow is because the Earth itself is a sphere, reasoning that a sphere is the only shape that always casts a circular shadow. It is certainly true that a flat object (like a coin) can cast a circular shadow, if correctly oriented, but you would expect at least sometimes to see a shadow which looks flattened or ellipsoidal.

For all four of these reasons, Aristotle (probably quoting other thinkers as well) concluded, rightly, that the Earth is a large nearly-spherical ball. This knowledge was not lost in the succeeding millennia, despite the mythology surrounding the expeditions of Christopher Columbus. You should not necessarily believe everything you read!-- except for what I am writing here, of course.

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The Size of the Earth

How would you measure the size of the Earth? The obvious way is to travel all the way around it, keeping track of how many miles you have covered. But why go that far? Why not travel, say, a quarter of the way around it, and multiply your answer by four? (If you need to put a fence around a square field, you need to pace out only one side of the field to find out what length of fencing you need in total.)

The problem is to work out when you have covered exactly a quarter of the Earth's circumference, but there is in fact a very simple way! All you have to do is start at the Earth's equator (the place from which the sun shines from directly overhead on March 21), and then travel North until the Pole Star is directly overhead, proving that you are right 'on top of the world.' When you first set off on your journey, the Pole Star is right down on your northern horizon; your journey of 10,000 kilometers changes that and proves to you that the Earth is about 40,000 km in circumference.

In other words, you can tell from the different altitude of various stars how far North or South you are on the globe. Although the principle is quite clear-cut, the notion of travelling thousands of kilometers is a bit daunting, but there are a couple of practical simplifications one can imagine adopting:

• don't travel quite so far; and
  
  
• use a particularly conspicuous star as a reference object to make the observations easy.

Indeed, to make the measurements really straightforward, let's observe the sun itself! - it's by far the brightest star in the sky. In a modern analogy, we are relying on the obvious fact that if we travel south (say, by flying down to Miami in December) we will see the sun at higher elevation (and lie out on the beach to sun-bathe). By quantifying that effect, we will determine the size of the Earth.

The procedure is quite straightforward (and some of you may even wish to try this experiment if you travel south during the Winter Break):

• at one location on the globe, perhaps here in Kingston, work out how high the sun gets in the sky at the middle of the day, using the shadow of a vertical stick in the ground to measure the angles; and
  
  
• from some other location due South of the first, make the equivalent determination on the same day (or as soon thereafter as can possibly be managed). Note that you must make the two observations as close together in time as possible because the sun's altitude changes significantly as the seasons progress, even at a fixed location, thanks to our orbit around the sun. (For this reason, using a prominent bright star is better, since its altitude will not vary with the seasons and it won't matter if you get held up a few days or weeks until you make the second set of observations. The trouble is that no star is bright enough to cast shadows. Still, there are other ways of measuring angles.) Then:
  
  
• later, at your leisure, measure the distance between the two locations. Comparing the angles measured at the two sites tells you how far around the globe they are from one another, as a fraction of the full circle, and combining this with the distance between them in kilometers gives you the size of the Earth itself.

This is the logic which went into the important calculations made by Eratosthenes, as described on page 88 of your text. He knew that on June 22 the light of the Sun shone straight down a well at mid-day in the city of Syene, implying that the Sun was directly overhead then. Meanwhile, in Alexandria, which is about 500 miles north of Syene, a vertical stick cast a shadow at mid-day, which he accounted for by realising that the Earth was curved. (The stick is made vertical by comparing it to a plumb bob or hanging weight, so that it points straight down to the centre of the Earth.)

Eratosthenes hired people to pace out the distance, and in this way he was able to get a very good value for the size of the Earth -- long before Columbus! As it happens, he made a few small mistakes which more or less cancelled out. For instance, the distance which was paced out was not very precise, and Syene is not due south of Alexandria. But the cleverness of the idea is undeniable.

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Degrees of Correctness

At this stage, I would like to emphasise a thought which will recur in other contexts later. Eratosthenes was roughly correct about the size of the Earth -- at least, that's what modern historians of science have concluded, although there is apparently some lingering doubt about the exact size of the units of measurement which he was using. But to me it would not matter a great deal if he had gotten an answer which was only half as large as the true circumference, or three times as big. The critical point is that Eratosthenes recognised the nature of the problem, found a method, and was able to derive an answer which was correct in spirit in the sense that he correctly deduced that the Earth was an immense body which was very much larger in extent than the then-known lands of the Mediterranean basin, the home of Greek civilisation at the time. The sense of the discovery is the wonderful thing, not the mere accident that the numerical value was also correct.

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The Rotation of the Earth

The ancients assumed, naturally enough, that the Earth is at rest, with the whole cosmos rotating about us once a day, just as it appears. Part of the motivation was no doubt religious. They must have felt that we are in a divinely ordained place, at the centre of the universe, with everything else dancing around us in attendance. But there is also the practical consideration that you might expect to feel the motion if it is true that this large solid body is spinning like a top. Shouldn't it rumble and bounce like a fast-moving chariot, for example? And would we not feel a wind blowing in our faces if we were truly being carried towards the East in some unceasing diurnal motion? (Of course, we now recognize that the atmosphere is simply being carried along with the rotational motion.)

You may be surprised to learn that there are direct ways of proving that the Earth rotates - that it is we who are spinning, rather than the cosmos around us - and that it would still be possible for you to measure the Earth's rotation even if we were completely shrouded in clouds so that you could never see out to the stars and sun! (These are the objects which indicate to us that something is moving.) Even the ancients could, in principle, have reached the correct conclusion, although it requires a fairly deep physics understanding and, in one case, the ability to make some fairly difficult measurements.

How is this possible? There are three methods:

1. Study the "figure" of the Earth:
   
   The Earth is not a perfect sphere: it is about 25 miles (40 km) thicker across the middle than it is from North pole to South pole. This arises from the rotation of the Earth (just as a thrown piece of spinning pizza dough flattens out). Despite its obvious rigidity, at least here at the surface, the Earth's materials are elastic enough [remember our discussion in earlier lectures] to deform under the influence of the spin. If you somehow stopped the spin, the Earth would relax into a perfectly spherical shape under its own enormous self-gravity. The material would not have enough structural rigidity to maintain the body of the Earth in its present flattened shape.

   By the way, Jupiter is gaseous rather than rocky, and consequently much less rigid in the outer parts. It also rotates very fast, once every 10 hours. As a consequence, it is noticeably flattened, even to the eye when seen through a telescope. By contrast, the Earth looks perfectly spherical, whether seen from space or as a scale model under casual inspection. The flattening is simply not very pronounced, but careful surveying of the Earth does show it.

   This would have been a hard test for the ancients to employ. They would have needed to carry out elaborate and precise surveying over very large distances - not easy. Moreover, they would have needed a deep understanding of the strengths of materials and so on, so as to interpret the discovery of the Earth's flattened figure. Little wonder that they did not make the discovery!
   
   

2. Study a Foucault Pendulum:

   Imagine constructing a pendulum at the North Pole, hanging from a free-turning "universal joint". With a good push, set the pendulum swinging in a particular direction - say, towards the star Sirius. As the day progresses after that initial push, the Earth turns "underneath" the pendulum, which continues to swing back and forth in the same direction in space since there is no sideways force to make it turn. In effect, the "platform" on which you are standing (the Earth itself) turns beneath the pendulum. From your point of view, however, the pendulum's swing appears to be shifting in direction, one full rotation in every twenty-four hours.

   The behaviour of a Foucault pendulum is slightly more complex at lower latitudes, such as here at Kingston, but the principle is the same. Indeed we have one in the middle of Stirling Hall! As an experiment, take a look at it before a lecture one day, taking note of the direction in which the pendulum is swinging; then look again before the next lecture a couple of days later. You will see that the direction has indeed changed from our point of view.

   Note that the pendulum has to be suspended on a special universal joint so that it is free to turn (or rather not to turn: the hypothetical pendulum at the North Pole keeps the same orientation in space). If I put my child into a swing and give her a big push to start, so that she is swinging (say) in the direction of Lake Ontario, I will not find her swinging parallel to the shoreline a few hours later! Her swing is mounted at a couple of points on a rigid framework which turns with the Earth, which therefore carries the swing with it.
   
   

3. Study `Coriolis Forces.'

   Visualise yourself standing on a moving "slidewalk," such as you find in an airport terminal. Now imagine tossing something (a set of keys, say) to a friend standing beside the slidewalk. The sideways motion imparted to you by the slidewalk, coupled with your outward toss, carries the keys at an angle so that you will miss your friend unless you `lead' him with the toss.

   In like fashion, objects on the Earth close to the equator are being carried to the East at about 1000 miles per hour (the Earth is about 25,000 miles in circumference, and spins once around every 24 hours: see the figure on page 48). Things farther north are moving less rapidly, and something at the North Pole doesn't move through any distance at all - it merely turns around, on the spot, once a day.

   Now, suppose someone fires a rocket from the equator towards a target due north of them (say, the people of Ecuador decide to attack Ottawa). The rocket would seem to veer off to the East, just as the keys missed our friend. This is a real effect which has to be considered by rocketry experts and even by naval gunners shooting at targets tens of miles away. This effect is a manifestation of the so-called `Coriolis force.' (See pages 286-289 of your text.)

   These considerations explain the familiar spiral of hurricanes. If a big low-pressure region forms in the Earth's atmosphere somewhere just north of the equator, you might expect the air around it simply to move directly into the low-pressure center. But the air moving up from the equator has an excess component of sideways motion compared to the air which was originally located on the north side of the new-formed hurricane. This makes the air spiral or swirl in, in a counter-clockwise direction. In the southern hemisphere, hurricanes spiral the other way!

   By the way, this effect is much too feeble to affect day-to-day small-scale phenomena like water flowing out of sinks and tubs, despite the fact that it is commonly believed that "sinks drain the opposite direction in the Southern hemisphere." In fact, the way sinks drain out (or bathtubs empty, or toilets flush) depends on their shape, how you pull the plug, etc. It is true that in the Northern hemisphere the water on the south side of the tub is moving eastward faster than the water on the north side, but the difference is extremely small. Very carefully controlled experiments, with specially designed basins, can show the effect, but in real life the 'Coriolis forces' arising from the Earth's rotation are not important - unless you live in hurricane country, or expect a naval bombardment!

International Monetary Fund warns of Property Bubble Tension in Ireland

Background

Ireland's economic performance remains strong. In recent years, real GNP growth was one of the highest among industrial countries; the unemployment rate was among the lowest; and HICP inflation declined to close to the euro area average. Employment growth was rapid, reflecting strong immigration and rising labor force participation. This remarkable performance reflected both good policies and fortunate circumstances. Prudent government spending led to declining government debt; low taxes on labor and business income encouraged labor supply and investment; and flexible labor and product markets helped growth. At the same time, favorable demographics boosted the working-age population, and participation in EMU lowered interest rates.

However, economic activity has become reliant on building investment and competitiveness has eroded. The share of the construction sector in economic activity has increased and is now one of the highest in Europe. Bank credit to property-related sectors has grown rapidly and now accounts for more than half of total bank lending. Household debt as a share of household disposable income rose to about 130 percent in 2005, among the highest in Europe. Reflecting the expansion of the labor-intensive construction and services sectors, labor productivity growth has declined. The combination of the slowdown in productivity growth, faster wage growth in Ireland compared to its trading partners, and the appreciation of the euro, has led to an appreciation of the ULC-based real effective exchange rate. Partly as a result, the contribution of net exports to growth has fallen steadily since 2001. After being in balance for several years, the external current account registered a deficit of about 2½ percent of GDP in 2005.

Executive Board Assessment

The Executive Directors commended Ireland's continued impressive economic performance, which has been supported by sound policies, including prudent fiscal policy, low taxes on labor and business income, and labor market flexibility. Economic growth is strong, unemployment is low and labor participation rising, and government debt has been reduced dramatically over the past two decades. Nevertheless, Directors observed that growth has become increasingly unbalanced in recent years, with heavy reliance on building investment, sharp increases in house prices, and rapid credit growth, especially to property-related sectors. At the same time, competitiveness has eroded, reflecting the combination of faster wage growth in Ireland compared to its trading partners, declining productivity growth, and the appreciation of the euro against the U.S. dollar. Directors observed that Ireland's small, highly open economy is also vulnerable to external shocks.

Directors expected economic growth in 2006-07 to remain strong, driven by domestic demand and accompanied by a widening current account deficit and continued rapid credit growth. While the contraction of the construction sector to a more sustainable size over the medium term is likely to be smooth, Directors noted that an abrupt correction cannot be ruled out.

Directors welcomed the Financial System Stability Assessment Update, which finds that Ireland's financial sector soundness indicators are generally strong and that the major lenders have adequate buffers to cover a range of shocks. The recent increase in the risk-weighting on high loan-to-value residential mortgages is an important signal of the need for banks to differentiate between higher- and lower-risk lending within an asset class. Directors suggested that the Financial Regulator continue to monitor banks' risk management practices, including for commercial property lending. Going forward, they called for continued updating of the stress-testing framework, and further strengthening of the regulatory and supervisory framework, especially for insurance.

While recognizing that Ireland's fiscal position is sound, most Directors considered that a modest fiscal tightening would be desirable in 2007, given the strength of domestic demand, potential risks of a hard landing, and the need to prepare for population aging. Slowing the growth of current spending to slightly below nominal GDP growth would also help prevent inefficiencies that could otherwise emerge given the rapid increases in spending in recent years. A number of Directors, however, saw less merit in fiscal tightening at the current juncture, pointing to the need for further increases in spending to achieve social goals, as well as to the recent tightening of euro area monetary policy. Directors agreed that improvements in public services remain a key priority, and, in this context, encouraged the authorities to focus on value for money, including by monitoring government outputs and extending multi-year envelopes to current spending. They welcomed the authorities' plans to further deepen the public debate on fiscal priorities.

Directors considered that continued wage moderation and labor market flexibility are essential to support competitiveness. The implementation of the new social partnership agreement should continue to allow flexibility in wage increases at the firm level and minimize the increase in the restrictiveness of employment protection legislation.

Ireland: Selected Economic Indicators
		2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	1/
Real Economy (change in percent)
	Real GDP Real GNP Domestic demand Exports of goods and services Imports of goods and services HICP Unemployment rate (in percent)	6.0 2.8 4.3 4.5 2.4 4.7 4.4	4.3 5.5 4.5 0.5 -1.2 4.0 4.7	4.3 3.9 3.6 7.3 8.6 2.3 4.5	5.5 5.4 8.0 3.9 6.5 2.2 4.3	5.8 6.2 6.7 6.4 7.5 2.8 4.3
Public Finances (percent of GDP)
	General government balance Structural balance 2/ General government debt	-0.4 -1.3 32.2	0.2 0.4 31.1	1.5 1.9 29.6	1.0 1.0 27.4	0.7 0.5 25.9
Money and Credit (end-period, percent change)
	M3 3/ Private sector credit 4/	9.3 15.0	... 17.9	22.5 26.6	19.8 28.8	20.8 29.8	5/ 5/
Interest Rates (end-period)
	Three-month 10-year government bond yield	2.9 4.3	2.1 4.6	2.2 3.7	2.5 3.3	2.9 4.1	5/ 6/
Balance of Payments (percent of GDP)
	Trade balance (goods and services) Current account Reserves (gold valued at SDR 35 per ounce end of period, in billions of SDRs)	17.1 -1.0 4.0	16.0 0.0 2.8	14.9 -0.6 1.9	12.7 -2.6 0.6	11.5 -3.0 ...
Exchange Rate
	Exchange rate regime Present rate (July 17, 2006)	Member of euro area US$ per euro 1.2541
	Nominal effective rate (1995=100) Real effective rate (1995=100, CPI based)	89.7 98.0	97.4 107.9	102.6 113.7	98.3 109.2	99.8 112.0	7/ 7/
Sources: Central Statistics Office; Department of Finance, Datastream and IMF International Financial Statistics. 1/ Staff projections, except where noted. 2/ In percent of potential GDP. 3/ The methodology used to compile M3 has been amended in line with Eurosystem requirements. Therefore, there is a break in the series. 4/ Adjusted change, which includes the effects of transactions between credit institutions and non- bank international financial companies and valuation effects arising from exchange rate movements. 5/ As of May 2006. 6/ As of June 2006. 7/ As of April 2006.

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¹ Under Article IV of the IMF's Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country's economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board. At the conclusion of the discussion, the Managing Director, as Chairman of the Board, summarizes the views of Executive Directors, and this summary is transmitted to the country's authorities.

Super Golf Rebel opens Cork Golf course

Golf superstar John Daly today opened the new €50m Blarney Golf Resort — the first course he has designed in Europe.

The golfer, nicknamed ‘Wild Thing’, said he was delighted with the progress made by the golf course.

“I have no doubt that we will tweak it as we get to know it better,” he said. “All significant golf courses tend to be work in progress. We have laid solid foundations for what I believe, will become a must-play Irish course.”

The US golfer arrived in Cork on Saturday night after failing to make the cut at the British Open.

The two-time Major winner also had the clubs out yesterday when playing 18 holes at Blarney.

Blarney Golf Resort is the brainchild of local developer John Kelly and his partner Frank McCarthy. It consists of the 62-bedroom Ramada Hotel, 56 luxury golf lodges and the Sentosa Spa.


About the Ryder Cup:
The Ryder Cup takes place at The k club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland, Sept 22 -24 206.

The Ryder Cup is a golf trophy contested biennially in an event officially called the Ryder Cup Matches by teams from Europe and the United States. The Ryder Cup was born in 1926, with the US competing against Great Britain on the East Course, Wentworth Club, Virginia Water, Surrey, Great Britain. After more than 45 years of US dominance (Britain won only once between 1935 and 1973) it was extended to Britain and Ireland in 1973 and then Europe in 1979, which made the Cup considerably more competitive. Currently, the Ryder Cup Matches are jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour.

Ma calls from Ireland (Boondock Saints Deleted Scene)

this is brilliant

Baywatch 2006

if your from cork this is funny, if not forget it langer.

President & Taoiseach to attend Somme ceremony



President Mary McAleese and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern are to attend ceremonies in Dublin at noon to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

More than 3,500 Irish men were among the half a million soldiers who died in the battle in north eastern France which began on 1 July, 1916.

The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, will represent the Government at the ceremonies taking place in Thiepval and Guillemont.

There are several controversial schools of thought on this cermony.

On Easter 1916 those who took part in the 1916 rising unfurled a banner
saying, “We serve neither King nor Kaiser”. This was a statement that their
revolt was part of the resistance to the 1st World War, a war between the
imperial powers of the day, as well as a blow for Ireland’s independence and
for an end of the oppression and occupation of Ireland by the British
Empire.

The 1916 rising was the first in a series of revolts that swept across
Europe against war and the empires. Kings were deposed and the carnage of
the war was brought to an end by mutinies in the armies and rebellions
against governments.

From the Sovereign Nation (with permission)

Quote: Commemorating With Deceit

In commemorating the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising we are actually reminding ourselves of our collective failure to use those ninety years to realise the rebellions objectives. One of the more salient reasons for this failure, and an explanation for the ninety years, rests with the fact that a political entity on the island, parented by a British Act of Parliament eighty four years ago, argues that it is representative of what the insurgents strove to create. In making this claim, and more so in defending it, that entity has proven to be the greatest political obstacle to realising the establishment of a thirty two county sovereign republic as envisaged by the Proclamation. This is why the British created it. When the hypocrisy of a State commemorating an historical event, whose very existence is an anathema to that event, is lost on the general body politic concerned one wonders have the revisionists prevailed. When the State commemorates the event for party political gain one wonders have the British finally succeeded in convincing the Irish body politic that our history is only relevant to our political and democratic development so long as it does not question the present constitutional status quo. Indeed given the motives behind the commemoration one wonders have the British appointed themselves to the stewardship of that development. Although it is depressing in both witnessing and analysing these events a grain of comfort, and a basis for forward movement, can be found in the undeniable fact that 1916 cannot be ignored. This makes the event uncomfortably relevant for the present status quo.

In relegating the events of 1916 to the role of Opinion Poll influencer, good to support one day, bad for another, clear indicators emerge as to just how uncomfortable 1916 is for constitutional nationalism. In its long and continued occupation of Ireland the British have always insisted that the constitutional status of the island must be fabricated on a British template and it was within this framework that constitutional nationalism practised its politics. A British presence and or influence were seen as intrinsic for the governance of Ireland. 1916 rejected this approach. When Pearse read aloud the Proclamation from the steps of the GPO he expressed, to both the British Empire and Irish constitutional nationalism, the totality of our sovereignty and the rights which that sovereignty afforded us. The Rising was initiated to defend that sovereignty and not, as the State would erroneously contend, to give to the Irish people sovereignty which they did not already possess. The conflict arose from the British violation of Irish sovereignty. As Commander in Chief of the Irish armed forces, raised to defend Irish sovereignty, Pearse was legitimately in the field during Easter Week. Constitutional nationalism, during the same week, condemned fifty thousand Irishmen to a foreign field fighting for the very same power which violated their sovereignty and conspired to undo the political arrangement, Home Rule, which motivated them to that conflict.

What demonstrates the contention that Constitutional Nationalism views a British dimension to its practice as intrinsic are the calls being made from several of its quarters for the commemoration of 1916 to be organically linked with a commemoration of those who fought in the Somme and by extension the First World War itself. These calls are not new nor indeed are efforts to have it realised. We can remember PSF personnel laying wreaths at cenotaphs in the occupied area honouring the army which effects that occupation. We can equally remember other PSF personnel sitting bewildered at Islandbridge War Memorial Gardens in Dublin only to see the same person waltzing through the white crosses in France hand in hand with a member of a Loyalist political grouping. Bewildering indeed. We are told that these acts and others are to honour the Irish who died in that conflagration and are not per se an honouring of the war itself. This is untrue. When you don the uniform of a given army you become de facto a representative of that army’s government. Nationality is set aside as you become an armed instrument of that government’s policy. That policy in relation to Ireland was to deny us that which the ‘Great War’ was supposedly fought to achieve, namely ‘the freedom of small nations’. Citing and exploiting the undoubted bravery and sincerity of those Irishmen cannot mask the fact that they were instruments of British Imperial Conquest. The true honour that can be afforded these men is to expose their actions to historical truth and demonstrate that those actions were as a result of deceit, betrayal and manipulation by the political forces which sent them to that slaughter, the British Government and Irish Constitutional Nationalism.

The 1916 Rising and events at the Somme are polar opposites. Indeed they both represent the protagonists opposing positions in the rebellion. And this represents the clear and unambiguous choice which Pearse recognised had to be made if our sovereignty meant as much to us as their own did to the British; Which uniform should we wear? Which government should we be an instrument of? If we agree with Pearse’s answer that it should be our own then honouring any aspect of the Somme with 1916 is injurious to realising the Irish government envisaged by 1916. Perpetuating the fallacy that there exists common political or ideological ground between either event perpetuates partition. This maybe a fitting memorial to the Somme but it is an obituary for 1916 and all that it stood for.

Along with any political event which involved a military aspect to it a military dimension to its commemoration is both fitting and warranted. This is not to be confused with militarism but with the legitimacy upon which an armed force is founded. A country’s army is an expression of the sovereignty of that country’s people and the use of that army for commemorative purposes is an expression of the legitimacy of the event which it commemorates. This truth holds for 1916. Yet, as we have seen the misrepresentation of 1916 to justify constitutional nationalism’s attempts to legitimise a British dimension to it, we again see such misrepresentation on behalf of the Free State government to afford their armed forces a status concerning 1916 which they patently do not hold. This issue has been reduced to electioneering centred on the soccer style mantra ‘there’s only one Oglaigh Na hEireann’. Whilst this is a factual statement blatant revisionism and untruths have sought to disguise the basic implications and onerous responsibilities inherent in claiming to be that army. Practices define what we are, not titles. Having defined an army’s primary function as defender of the peoples sovereignty in whose name it is raised can we say this of the Free State army? Are its practices synonymous with what ONH was founded to achieve?

As with those who fought in the Somme those who served with the Free State army after the Civil War did so for the highest motives and served worldwide with great effect and distinction. Their peacekeeping role as an Irish military force is to be much commended but none of this gives its political leaders the right to claim that it is something which it is not. Indeed those very same leaders have no right to exploit their forces sacrifices to mask with emotionalism an analysis of that forces constitutional function. Ostensibly the primary function of the Free State army is to defend the terms of the 1922 Anglo Irish Treaty which brought it into existence. The proof of this assertion is to be found in the actions of that army. This is the army, using British supplied weaponry, which suppressed Oglaigh Na hEireann’s efforts to defend the republic ratified by the democratic will of the Irish people. It is also the army that since its inception has defended the border which illegally partitions our country. There are those who claim that in defending the border they are safeguarding an Irish democracy south of it. But this deliberately incomplete analysis fails to recognise the simple fact that when you defend what a border maintains you defend what it maintains on both sides of it. It is not the function of Oglaigh Na hErieann to defend British Parliamentary activity in Ireland nor was it the purpose of 1916 to facilitate to any degree the legitimacy of such activity. To do so maybe a fitting memorial to the Somme but it is an obituary for 1916 and all that it stood for.

There are those in the Free State political hierarchy who assert that republicanism is more than mere separatism and in so doing believe that this in someway absolves them from pursuing the separatist agenda. Republicanism is more than the sum of its parts it is the totality of its pursuit. To remove separatism from republicanism is to remove republicanism from 1916. This is the objective of both the British government and Irish constitutional nationalism. Separatist politics was the politics of 1916 and formed the very foundation for the social inclusiveness of the republicanism expressed in the Proclamation. Our right to national self determination is as inviolate as the right to equality for all within that determination. We cannot cherry pick 1916 to sustain inadequate definitions of it or to justify derogations from its fundamental tenets. Partition cannot be reconciled with the Proclamation.

There are also those in the Free State hierarchy, its ideologues, who equally assert that in order to claim to be a republican one must be first and foremost a democrat. The assertion is made not to enrich republicanism with a self evident truth but to ritually condemn those who have asserted in arms, like Pearse and 1916, the self evident truth that a national democracy is denied to the Irish people. Again we see the deep differences between word and practice of those claiming empathy with 1916 and yet usurp the democratic ideal it strove to establish. Hiding behind the emotive shield of peace they have reduced democracy in Ireland to a position which must be compliant to British pre conditions as to how such a democracy should function. Having surrendered to this British demand the Free State sought to sanitise this position, along with the assistance of former republicans, to have it popularly endorsed by a partitioned Irish electorate. The British now claim that their Parliamentary activity in Ireland has the endorsement of the Irish people. Concluding Agreements which state that Partition can be legitimately permanent maybe a fitting memorial to the Somme but it is an obituary for 1916 and all that it stood for. The only fitting memorial for 1916 is the realisation of its objectives and only when that is achieved can we truly mourn for the Somme.

Non the less we salute all those who fought and died for the liberation of europe, and included below are the words from a fine irish song about Galipoli in which a large group of irish people attended, which sums up the sentimatant of todays 90 year aniversary.

The people of rebel county salute all.
Gallipoli.
I remember the day it stands clear in my mind
We stood down at Dunmurey waving goodbye
Your ma was gently weeping there was a tear in my eye
You were sailing to Gallipoli to die

You looked so young as you stood there that glint in your eye
and you sang rebel songs as the streamers flew high
Your ma turned away and I heard her sigh
He's going to Gallipoli to die

You were all that we had you mommy and me
When you marched head erect you looked proud as could be
But it killed your poor ma and it's slowly killing me
You were blown to kingdom come on the shores of Gallipoli

We got only one letter and we knew right away
It said deepest regrets your son was killed and he was brave
You were only nineteen when your mommy and I
Let you go to Gallipoli to die

You fought for the wrong country you fought for the wrong cause
And your ma often said it was Ireland's sad loss
All those fine young men who marched to foreign lands to fight the war
When the greatest war of all was at home

There will be live coverage of the commemorative ceremonies at the War Memorial at Island Bridge in Dublin and at the Somme in France on RTÉ One Television (Irish tv) beginning at 11.30am this morning.

Keane - A Tribute to ManU

rebel county ledgend

Italia 90

The good ole days!The leaving cert ouch!

Crazy night at Ireland

Take it easy on the guinness girls

DJ Dummy Solo - Ireland

check this out

Charlie Haughey
A fine
Irish Rebel!
1925-2006

click here to listen to on line radio show on cj haughey

click here to watch an rte show on cjh

Not since the Civil War has an Irish politician been the subject of such adulation and execration as Charlie Haughey. Throughout a political career that spanned five decades, Haughey dismissed most of the criticism as the begrudgery of those who could not accept ‘an upstart from Donnycarney’.

He was actually born in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on 16 September 1925. His father was an officer in the IRA, and later the Irish army. Shortly after his death the family moved to Dublin, where the young Haughey had a modest, unremarkable upbringing. But despite his relatively humble origins, ‘The Boss’, as he became known, was a natural aristocrat, utterly dismissive of his detractors.

For years, the questions about Haughey's wealth were whispered from circle to circle. But it was not until Dunne's admission that he had given money to politicians that the tribunals heard publicly about Haughey's wealth and how he spent it.

Even before he became Taoiseach Haughey had become used to living beyond his means. In 1980 he managed to get AIB to write off £400,000 from an overdraft which had climbed to over £1 million.

The McCracken Tribunal heard that Haughey received £1.3 million from Dunne between 1987 and 1992. This confirmed what some had long suspected, but the public was nevertheless deeply shocked.

The tribunals never established whether favours were done in exchange for the many gifts, but Justice McCracken concluded that Haughey had compromised the office of the Taoiseach and had obstructed the tribunal. The Moriarty Tribunal went on to investigate Haughey's finances, including the complex off-shore money trail created by his accountant, Des Traynor.

In 2003, Haughey sold Abbeville, his estate in Kinsealy in north Dublin, for a reported €45 million. In the same year, he agreed to pay €5 million to the Revenue Commissioners to settle his outstanding tax liabilities.

In his last Dáil address Haughey said: 'I have always sought to act solely and exclusively in the best interests of the Irish people.’ Even allowing for his public ignominy in the interim, Charles Haughey remained unflinching and, in his own terms, undefeated.

Anniversary of the Sinking of the Lusitania off the South West Coast of Cork

The Lusitania carried a healthy complement of American passengers when she departed New York for Liverpool on May 1, 1915, despite a published warning from the German authorities that appeared in U.S. newspapers the morning of her departure.

By this time a number of British merchant ships had been sunk by German subs, but the famous liner's speed still seemed the best guarantee of safety. Certainly her captain and crew should have been on high alert. As the Lusitania neared the end of her crossing, a German U-boat sank three British ships in the waters south of Ireland through which she was about to sail, and he received repeated warnings that U-boats were active on his intended course. Yet on May 7, as the Lusitania entered the most dangerous part of her passage, Captain William Turner actually slowed down, apparently worried by patchy fog.

In fact, Turner was ignoring or at least bending every one of the Admiralty's directives for evading German submarines. He was steaming too close to shore, where U-boats loved to lurk, instead of in the relative safety of the open channel. He was sailing at less than top speed, and he wasn't zigzagging (later he claimed to believe that zigzagging was a tactic to be adopted only after a U-boat was sighted). In his defense, it must be stated that Turner was steering the Lusitania farther from shore than had the ship's previous commander on several wartime crossings. And his many years as a merchant captain undoubtedly inclined him to trust his own instincts over bureaucratic directives he didn't fully understand. It can also be argued that so important a ship merited a destroyer escort for the most perilous part of its voyage.
Whether or not Turner's behavior can be justified, it doomed his ship.

When U-20 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Walther Schwieger found a huge four-stacker in its sights just south of Queenstown, Ireland, it was able to kill her with a single torpedo, penetrating the hull just below the waterline. The initial explosion set off a violent secondary blast. The ship sank in 18 minutes, with a lost of 1,195 of the 1,959 on board, including 123 Americans. Captain Turner was washed clear of the bridge as the ship sank, and survived after spending more than three hours in the water.

The lost of the Lusitania provoked great outrage in the United States and helped create the climate of public opinion that would later allow America to join the war. It also marked the end of any delusions that the "civilized" manners of 19th century warfare could survive into the 20th.
Exploring the Lusitania
by robert ballard

We came to the wreck of the Lusitania in the summer of 1993 hoping to solve its greatest mystery: What caused the violent secondary explosion that undoubtedly led the ship to sink so quickly? Some have

argued that it was contraband munitions. Conspiracy theorists have even claimed that the British sank the ship deliberately to hasten America's entry into the war. But even if we found no "smoking gun" on the seafloor off the southern Irish coast, our technology would allow us to bring back a complete visual record of what remains of this great lost liner, preserving her for posterity.

Unfortunately for our investigation, previous visitors had already tampered with the evidence. The wreck lies in just 295 feet of water, making it relatively easy pickings. Reports of blasting and salvaging operations, some apparently conducted by or for the Royal Navy, dated back to 1946. In the 1980s, salvagers had removed two of the bow anchors and three of the four bronze propellers. But nothing prepared us for the actual scene of devastation. The hull is in two torn and twisted pieces, a sad echo of its former glory. It is probable that the bow section tore free of the rest of the ship when it hit bottom. The wreck is pocked with holes that were probably caused by depth charges. The Lusitania lies on her starboard side, obscuring the area where the torpedo hit, but our careful inspection of the port side of the hull revealed no evidence of the gaping hole reported by scuba diver John Light, who made numerous dives to the wreck in the early 1960s. We also discovered that the hull has collapsed to roughly half its original width.

This fact helps explain how the superstructure has become such a chaotic disaster area, where almost nothing is recognizable. The decks have slid down to starboard and much of the upperworks of the ship has collapsed into a heap of rubble on the seafloor. To make matters worse, the forecastle was festooned with fishing nets, making this part of the upperworks extremely dangerous for our vehicles to explore. Only the foremost part of the bow seemed somewhat recognizable as belonging to the famous Blue Riband holder. The bow is upturned to an angle of about 45 degrees, and the outline of the ship's name is visible-one of the biggest highlights of our exploration.

Directing exploration operations on the Lusitania wreck was a little like parading a marching band through a minefield at midnight -- literally as well as metaphorically, since we saw a number of unexploded depth charges, presumably a remnant of Irish naval exercises. I constantly had to worry where each of our three vehicles was. And because the wreck lies close to shore, there are strong tidal currents that can play havoc with underwater positioning and cloud the area with sediment. Despite all our care, we had at least one underwater collision and several near misses. And those nets were hellish. At one point our tiny submarine Delta, with three people onboard, sucked a net into its propeller and had to drop its tail to escape. On another occasion, divers had to cut Jason free of nets in which it had become caught.
In the end, we sailed home with many haunting images of the wreck,

including a single ladies' shoe and a bathtub complete with shower apparatus. But we found nothing to suggest the ship was sabotaged. Nor was there any evidence of an explosion in the area of the ship's magazine, which is presumably where contraband munitions, if any, would have been stowed. The other strong possibility, a boiler explosion, seems highly unlikely since none was reported by any of the survivors from the three boiler rooms in operation. We finally concluded that the only real clues to the cause of the secondary explosion were the many lumps of coal that lay scattered across the seafloor near the ship and must have fallen from her as she sank.

The torpedo likely ripped open the ship at one of the starboard coal bunkers, nearly empty at the end of the transatlantic crossing. The violent impact kicked up clouds of coal dust, which when mixed with oxygen and touched by fire becomes an explosive combination. The resulting blast, the reported second explosion, ripped open the starboard side of the hull and doomed the ship.

So ended the life of the Lusitania. She is now a faint ghost of the ocean greyhound she once was, one of the saddest wrecks I've ever seen. But when I visualize her upturned bow, I can imagine the pride of those who once sailed on the swiftest ship in the world.

Rebelcounty Salutes another great Corkman!





Roy keane signed off from his testimonial in a man united shirt as the red devils beat the current club celtic 1-0 at Old Trafford today.


Fans from both side cheered the corkman as Cristano's Ronaldo's second half goal settled the match.

Sir Alex Ferguson has labelled him the best player he’s ever worked with, while aspiring footballers and United fans worship the ground he walks on.

Whatever your view on Roy Keane, there’s no doubt he is the epitome of the unwavering spirit and desire to succeed that Manchester United stands for.

Few sportsmen lead from the front in the way Keane does, both on and off the pitch.

Images of him rallying his team-mates whilst covering every blade of grass have been, and still are, frequent occurrences on the field. He is also not afraid to speak his mind in front of the media, particularly if he feels his colleagues are not reaching the high standards he expects.

The Cork-born midfielder began his career with Cobh Ramblers after failing to gain an apprenticeship in English football.

Brian Clough later took him to Nottingham Forest before he completed a then record £3.75million switch to Old Trafford in the summer of 1993.

Keane began his United career with two goals on his home debut in a 3-0 win over Sheffield United.

The combative midfielder went on to win the first of his seven Premiership medals in his debut season and has since added a European Cup, an Intercontinental Cup and four FA Cup winners’ medals to his collection.

He took over the United captaincy from Eric Cantona at the start of 97/98 campaign, but his season was cut short by a cruciate knee ligament injury sustained in a tackle with Leeds’ Alf-Inge Haaland at Elland Road in September 1997.

The 1998/99 season saw Keane experience a range of mixed fortunes. On his way to leading United to their historic Treble, a sending-off in the FA Cup semi-final replay victory over Arsenal was followed by a yellow card during arguably his greatest display in a Red shirt in the Champions League semi-final second leg against Juventus, forcing him to miss that unforgettable night in Barcelona when United were crowned European Champions.

Aside from his influential displays for United, Keane - a former winner of both the Footballer of the Year and the Players' Player of the Year awards in 2000 - has also proved an inspiration to his country and he now has over 50 caps for the Republic of Ireland.

A huge bust-up with former Republic boss Mick McCarthy which led to Keane’s premature departure from the 2002 World Cup looked to have put paid to his international career, but he made a shock return to action under Brian Kerr in May 2004. The reunion only lasted until the autumn of 2005, however. Following Ireland's failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals, Keane announced his international retirement.

At the time of his announcement regarding Ireland, Keane was injured, having broken a metatarsal bone in his foot in United's Premiership match against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday 18 September 2005.

He was still out of action on Friday 19 November when a shock announcement to top them all was made. Manchester United issued a statement through ManUtd.com to declare that Keane's Old Trafford career was over. The Reds had reached agreement with Keane to end his contract immediately, enabling him to find a playing contract with a new club.

The news stunned United fans and the football world at large. Keane said in the statement: "Whilst it is a sad day for me to leave such a great Club and Manager I believe that the time has now come for me to move on."

In the same statement, Sir Alex Ferguson described Keane as "the best midfield player in the world of his generation" and "one of the great figures in our Club’s illustrious history."