It Occurs To Me:   President Humphreys sounds about right!

Some fifty years ago, a character I worked with in Dublin had a friend who was a tour guide in Dublin Castle. 

He’d been at it so long that boredom and badness had set in, and one of his favourite lines, as he opened The Gothic Room door in the Bermingham Tower, was: “This is where many Victorian balls were held!” Everybody, bar American visitors, would dissolve in laughter. He had a wonderful ‘heart of the rowl’ Dublin accent, and once, when he was asked for advice by an apprentice who was hoping for a similar job in the Phoenix Park, simply advised: “Tell them it’s Arse an Uachtarain…the President’s Residence!”

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For those of you interested in the latter tours, they only happen on Saturdays, but I was reminded of your man when I saw the list of possible candidates hoping to take over from Michael D. 

I’m very happy to prophesy that Conor McGregor will not get a nomination…we haven’t sunk that low yet, despite the abomination in the White House. 

As for Cynthia ní Mhurchú, Linda Martin and Frances Black, I have a problem with ‘celeb’ nominations, as do many Irish people. Grainne Seoighe just didn’t cut the mustard for voters in the west in the last election, and while Cynthia may have become an MEP, local politics are different. 

There are far too many has-beens and narcissists hovering around possible presidential candidature and are simply looking for a ‘handy number’. 

Personally, I wouldn’t balk at Mairead McGuinness or Michael McDowell but I think Heather Humphries would be an excellent pick. When she announced her future retirement last October, the Irish Independent’s headline read:  “Heather Humphreys leaves a legacy of inclusion and sound judgment” and she described herself as “a proud Ulsterwoman, a Protestant and an Irish republican”. 

Former minister Heather Humphries on a visit to Donegal

I asked Clones native, former editor of The Ulster Herald and author, Darach McDonald, what the thought of her, and he replied:  “Heather Stewart Humphries is a mould-breaker, an Ulster Presbyterian woman, proud of her loyalist antecedents, but avowedly committed to the Republic she serves. From a unique community in the almost exclusively Protestant village of Drum, Co Monaghan, she has proved time and again that she is there for the entire community and her tenure has brought huge benefits for a border community that was neglected disgracefully since partition.”

                 Discrimination against southern rail passengers

I’ve often had occasion to travel from Belfast to Dublin by train…and vice versa. Since a new hourly service was introduced last October, the number of passengers on the Enterprise trains between Belfast and Dublin has jumped 50%. 

Consequently, it is not surprising to see crowds in the station, but it turns out that one of the factors in the increase in queues is a bizarre and discriminatory policy which discriminates against southern passengers. Train passengers from the Republic are forced to queue separately and have their tickets scanned manually in what has been called a “ridiculous” system upon arrival at Belfast’s Grand Central Station. According to the Irish News, “passengers with tickets issued by Irish Rail cannot scan through the gates themselves to enter the main part of the station and reach the exits, as those with Translink-issued tickets can. Instead they are herded to queue at a separate gate, where a member of Translink staff scans each ticket manually.”

According to SDLP MLA Justin McNulty: “I asked the [Infrastructure] Minister a direct question about the laughable reality that Dublin-bound passengers cannot buy a train ticket in Belfast’s state-of-the-art Grand Central Station. If you throw that into the mix alongside the fact that a passenger with an Irish Rail ticket cannot exit the turnstiles in Belfast on their own, it just becomes ridiculous.” Mr McNulty added that the minister saying the matter was for Translink was “not acceptable”. 

“If your Department has built a £340 million train station that won’t print tickets, then you need to do more than hide under the desk and say it’s someone else’s problem.

“I find it ridiculous that we have a Sinn Féin infrastructure minister who is unable or unwilling to facilitate seamless cross-border train travel. Sinn Féin make grandiose claims that they are the only party who care about uniting Ireland, yet they haven’t delivered unified rail fares across the island, they can’t facilitate the purchase or acceptance of cross-border tickets at Grand Central, and when confronted about it, they do nothing.”

                                  Is the blue worm turning?

I see where Trump’s approval rating of 47% is the lowest of any modern president after two months in office. 

Interestingly, Republicans are panicking and cancelling town hall caucuses due to mounting anger from their own voters. There’s a growing backlash against Trump and Musk and the venues have been called “empty chair” town halls, as GOP elected representatives are too afraid to turn up. 

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, hundreds of people showed up at the Allen County Public Library to denounce Republican senators Todd Young and Jim Banks and Representative Marlin Stutzman for refusing to meet with them.

“They’ve never been here before, why would they be here now? They’re no-shows. They’re interested in Trump and Elon, they’re not interested in us,” one resident told local TV news station WPTA. 

A spokesperson for Banks told the outlet in a statement that: “Attending a fake town hall with a small group of whiny Democrats suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome is not at the top of his priority list.” 

“Trump Derangement Syndrome” is the Republicans’ convenient and cowardly catch-all for dismissing criticism of the president’s policies. 

In New York, voters addressed an empty chair with a photo of Representative Elise Stefanik, demanding to know how she planned to stand up for constituents, Albany’s local CBS affiliate WRGB reported.

In Montana, town hall attendees said they were worried about cuts to social security, Medicare, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the Missoula Current. At events in Alaska, attendees shared their disgust with Trump for picking fights with longtime allies like Canada while treating Russia with kid gloves, the Alaska Current reported.

In Anchorage, Alaska, attendees unloaded on empty chairs with signs reading “Chicken Nick” and “Doormat Dan” for Rep. Nick Begich and Senator Dan Sullivan. Not everyone who attended the event supported the name-calling, but many said the anger was justified.

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One long-time Republican voter said she was done with Sullivan after he voted to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Dan, what were you thinking!?” she said. “Obviously, it’s not the American people, not the defense of the country. 

Maybe you have a little Russian in you, Dan!” “Where the hell are you?” demanded another attendee, who said he’d be fired from his job at the Small Business Administration half a dozen times in the chaos that’s gripped the federal government over the past two months. 

Sullivan told reporters his time was better spent meeting with legislators and smaller groups—including a $100-per-plate fundraiser—and that he wasn’t going to meet with people who would just yell at him, according to the Alaska Current.

A Sunday event protesting Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido was standing room only with an overflow room. Attendees held signs” and chanted “tax the rich,” according to a video posted by organiser Allison Gill.

While hundreds of people also flocked to events in Columbus, Ohio; Little Rock, Kansas; Lexington, Kentucky; Billings, North Dakota; and Missoula, Montana, the only Representatives turning up were Democrats, one being Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. Raskin got sustained applause when he delivered a passionate 30-minute speech that took aim at Republicans' claims that angry voters attending the town halls are really paid actors. “What’s interesting is that the people who are showing up are not paid protesters, but the people who are not showing up are paid politicians.” 

                                          Thought for the day

A fact is objective information. An opinion is a personal belief. Ignorance is a lack of facts. And stupidity is a rejection of facts in favor of opinions.