April fool's day in Ireland with a car and driver

The famous Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary

This photo, taken on a rather gloomy overcast day, shows that wonderful historic castle in the town of Cashel. It has a great history and its connections with the high kings of Munster, and also the ruins of the old abbey within its walls make it a magical place to visit. If you do get there, do not forget to have lunch in the "Ryan's Daughter" restaurant which is quiet close to the castle.That is where you will get wonderful home cooked food. If you like your desserts , like me, then you cannot leave without having their wonderful "Bread and butter" pudding. Mmmmm.


I am sure that we all know the feeling when someone say's, "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?" . Well in a way that is the case with me today. I will give you the bad news first so that you will have something to look forward to, maybe.
The stress tests on our banks, which have been ongoing now for some time, revealed their findings yesterday. In order to stock our banks up with enough money to get them up and running and "Safe" again we are going to have to inject another Euro 24 billion into them, and that brings the total of refunding now to Euro 70 billion. What an abomination, that the taxpayer, who had nothing to do with any of this, has now got to fund this massive debt to bail out these irresponsible idiots. The unfortunate thing is that we seem to have little choice. If we do not, then we go bust. If we go bust then nobody will lend us any money and we will really be up to our necks in it. China?.....help!!!!!!
The good news.....and this is not new news,......is that President Obama is coming to Ireland. Is it Obama or O' Bama? I suppose we will find that out when he gets to his hometown in Offaly in Ireland. I know that in the USA this man is either popular or unpopular, and it depends on which side of the divide you are on, but in Ireland we have always loved the idea of the President of the USA coming to visit us. We really do not care what party he represents as long as he has some Irish blood in his veins. I suppose that this is a little silly really as nearly all Americans have. I remain neutral on the politics, but when it comes to a President of that great country coming to our humble little country, and especially at this time, we are all truly happy about it. It nearly feels like he is coming with a blank check which he will fill in when we give him the figures. Any chance? From what i hear from many of my friends over there i think not. You are finding it tough also, and for many of the same reasons. Have we all learned a lesson? Hardly.
As soon things swing around again, whenever that may be, and it will happen, we will be off again enjoying the good life believing that tomorrow can look after itself. Right now we all know that tomorrow will not look after itself, we have to look after tomorrow, and how.
Enough of that. I feel better having got that off my chest though. It is the Irish in me, now i am picking myself up, once again full of optimism, knowing quiet well that when the going gets tough there is nobody better than us Irish. Tell us that we have no chance and we love it. We cannot wait for that day when we will confront you once again, slap you up against the wall and say, " WHAT WAS THAT YOU WERE SAYING?"
I am in hiding today, not answering the door or the phone, ignoring the post and waiting patiently for April fool's day to pass. If you need me really badly then your message will be dealt with by someone.
Talk to you soon.