Billy’s Gaeilge: ‘Ciúnas bothar cailín bainne’

Bradley Bytes – A sort of political column by Dara Bradley

Picture the scene. Billy Cameron is over in Scotland. He’s chatting to a Scottish Councillor. Hamish starts to speak Scots’ Gaelic. Billy hasn’t a bull’s notion what he’s on about.

He’s embarrassed. But Billy remembers his ‘Ann agus Barry’ schoolbooks and musters up the ‘cúpla focail’ as Gaeilge, enough to get him out of a tight situation.

A bit like the lads in the ‘Sharon Ní Bheoláin’ Carlsberg TV ad from a while back, Billy just about bluffed it.

Billy says ‘slán’ to Hamish and vows to never again get stuck in an awkward linguistic situation.

Ashamed of his lack of native tongue, Comrade Cameron has gone back to school – or college, to be exact. Billy is doing a Diploma in Irish at NUI Galway.

He’s followed a distinguished duo from the City Council, the Connolly sisters, Catherine and Collette, who have taken an Irish Diploma course.

So next time you see him, bí ag caint Gaeilge leis.

Leave Lovely Lorraine alone!

Athenry Senator, Lovely Lorraine Higgins could be accused of many things by political opponents.

But she’s not a prostitute. Nor is she a wh**e.

They’re just some of the nastier slurs levelled at Lovely Lorraine by cowards who hide behind internet anonymity.

Another vile creature suggested Labour’s Lovely Lorraine should have been aborted.

You’d need to have an awful twisted mind to think that. And be full of hate to spurt it out, in a fit of rage, on a social networking site.

No wonder Lovely Lorraine closed down her Facebook account, after pleas from her upset family.

Her former party colleague, Colm Keaveney, the Fianna Fáil Galway East TD, has endured even worse.

Gardaí are investigating a claim that an IRA gang was planning to kidnap his wife and children. What a sinister development.

Politicians of all persuasions get flak. Most of it legitimate, some of it not so much.

You need a thick skin for the rough and tumble of politics. But the sort of disgusting stuff endured by Lovely Lorraine and Colm is a step too far.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.