This project was also shot by Johnny Gogan in parallel with Padraig Meehan’s own documentary “Uplands”. As having been reared in this environment this is his own guide to the megaliths of Sligo that he has known all his life and a very unique interpretation of their origins and myths. As Padraig is an official OPW guide to the sites he has his own presentation style which is unique and not to be missed. Maybe it comes with a liberal dose of a rock’n roll past (Those Nervous Animals..80s) but I find him compulsive watching and I know him..and that’s rare enough. I personally think that the future for Padraig as a presenter could be bright. When it comes to the Megaliths of the North West then he’s the man. Watch this space.

I got a weird feeling I was looking at something extremely familiar. This was explained today when I was raking around in the big old shed beside the house at home here in Dromahair. The end part of the building lost it’s roof back about ten years ago and I haven’t had the time or need to put it back on yet. What did I see in front of me? A clutch of about eight Orchids..the same ones we had been shooting at Rosses Point. All quite strange. I then went on a hunt around the garden (2 acre jungle) in the wild grass areas and couldn’t find any more anywhere. It seems that the conditions in my shed might have been ideal for them.

I have to point out that I’m not the most educated person on this earth when it comes to wild flowers. I know most of what grows around here in the hedgerows though as I’ve always had a keen interest in in monitoring the environment. I keep an online diary of all seasonal factors and changes as well as details of what is flowering when and the weather at the time so I can compare year to year. It helps to have an accurate record of what’s happening to the stuff I plant..fruit and veg etc. To have Orchids pop up like this to me seems amazing. All I have to do now is research how to seed them out.

There you go. I hear the Orchid people are a kinda fundamentalist cult. That itself fascinates me as I was already looking at cutting a broadcast piece just on the basis of what we got at Rosses Point. The people who are obsessed with Orchids would be as interesting to me as the Orchids themselves.

More later methinks..
Here’s the pics..

You may have heard of the online discount supplier globalmediapro.com who sell everything for professional video. They stock a battery..which appears to be made for them which solves the whole problem. It’s a 8.8Ah 65Wh battery that has not only a level meter inbuilt but also has power output for lights etc. It lists at about €70 and if you order just one carriage brings it up to €93 or so to Ireland..and then you get stung another €26 in VAT and charges when it arrives. However..I would consider that €125 for a battery gives me 3-4 hours shooting time is great value. I bought one to test the system and now we are going back for more as Johnny Gogan of Bandit Films is also running the JVC Gy-HD111e as well and we tend to pool gear.

Information on globalmediapro was hard to find online. I had read in a forum that they deliver pretty quickly but don’t fare so well on the customer service. I can’t vouch for the last point but can for the first. Seeing as they don’t take credit cards or PayPal etc it has to be bank transfer. Here in the EU we can use IBAN. This is how it went. They seem to be based in New Zealand. I faxed my bank the details..they transferred it to them into their bank in Denmark and within 3 days the battery turned up by DHL courier from China! That’s mind-blowing. It came complete with a rake of Customs/Import paperwork too. Once you reclaim the VAT (Which I should have sorted not to pay) €93 is cheap. On that basis I can’t recommend Globalmediapro highly enough.

For anyone who needs one of these..and if you own one of these cameras then boy do you need a few..here’s the link.
Globalmediapro DC488 Battery

Time flies past so quickly. I never even got to finish the blog about shooting last years series and now we’re into the start of shooting TurfNet Goes to Ireland 2010. We’ve started with the Rush course and will be down to Porthmarnock soon as well as the local one at Rosses Point. We had to hold off a bit due to the Arctic air over Ireland causing not only slow grass growth to make the courses look good but also for the benefit of the cameraman’s fingers(mine). It looks now as if the cold snap has moved on and we can get on with a bit of summer..touchwood.

Here’s a pic of the main Award. I know it’s not a great pic considering what the award is for but I like the irony. Might drill some holes in it and hang it around Jim’s neck to go with his Afro wig, tie-dyed T-Shirt and flares..lol.

It’s all been the brainchild of Prin Duignan and Mary Morris who wanted to provide not only a brilliant study aid for Leaving Cert students but also to archive this valuable material. This project is an example of what Prin has done for the Irish language in Co.Leitrim and nationally and why he was recently awarded The Leitrim Guardian’s Person of the Year…see here. and read the complete article here It was certainly a pleasure to work with Prin and Mary and to see Prin’s dedication to, and love for the language in action is quite something.

I have to say that myself and Johnny of Bandit Films had a great time shooting the series. Notable days out included filming Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh well known musician/vocalist/presenter from the band Altan , Cathal O’Searcaigh, Johnny Spillane and Eoin Coughlan, Áine Ní Ghlinn, Louis de Paor, Deirdre Brennan, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and more. Post production was difficult due to the vast amount of quality material to be edited and produced.
You can access the web site and watch all of the videos here at Filí na Gaeilge TV

I’ll start by saying that the comment below is my opinion and the opinion of others…in case they come after me we have to point that out..it’s only opinions and we are still legally entitled to those..just about.

It’s a long story but his some of his proceeds from the Westlife Empire have gone into destroying our local village, which also happens to be the historical seat of the O’Rourkes, of which as you can see and I’m one that carries a particular rare Gene going back over a thousand years (DNA tested..yep..scary). Dromahair was a major property and homeplace for the main branch of the O’Rourkes for more than 800 years. For the last 170 years or so Dromahair, being built by the Landlords the Lanes-Foxes, has also been known as the prettiest village in Ireland, sitting in the picturesque valley of the River Bonet.

I won’t get into the history of, and the details of, the planning permission process here, but in the first wave Shane Filan has somehow managed to concrete over what was probably the medieval Dromahair of the O’Rourkes with nasty naff cheaply built 21st Century cabins. Not sensitively built in areas behind the village..nope..it’s in in your face as you enter the town, downgrading the first impression to that of a classic example of tasteless Celtic Tiger greed for profit. Nasty boxes made from ticky-tacky. I might point out now that Shane Filan and his family are not residents of Dromahair, they are from Sligo so the only attraction of our village is that of lucrative development. This is not a rich pop star doing something useful for the community…far from it.

The latest big shock is that now he has been granted planning permission to redevelop the site of The Breffni Centre, aka Patton’s pub and hall. We are going to get a Crèche, gym and supermarket. OK..the first two it might be argued are needed by some people, although a new crèche has already recently opened. The big problem is the supermarket. In the village we have three shops. Two are small supermarkets and both are run by local families who have been there for years..McGoldricks and Gilmors. I think that Gilmor’s has even been there since the village was built. Both stores have recently spent a fortune upgrading their premises goods and services..with Gilmors reputedly spending maybe over half a million euro on refurbishment. The village now has modern shops with great products and services. So..why the hell have they granted planning permission for Shane Filan to wipe out these two main stores as well as the corner shop which also has been recently re-developed?. That’s the million-euro question.

One other point has just reared it’s head, is about Gilmor’s shop.  It’s not only a supermarket, but also a hardware/animal feed/general store which provides the local lifeline to farmers in the immediate area. If Gilmor’s supermarket is taken down by Shane’s new shop then I doubt if the other business of the general store/farming supplies can stand on its own and will go down as well. Whilst there may be a few people indifferent to the planning decision, it may hit home hard when the next time they need a bag of Beef nuts, or a sledge hammer, or €5 worth of oval nails, a pair of overalls and a wheelbarrow in a hurry they will have to drive the 25 mile round trip to Sligo or Manorhamilton. I can assure you that it will hit a good few people hard having that essential service withdrawn from village life.

I for one would like to see a copy of the economic argument put forward for this new shop…if it even exists. Somehow I doubt if it mentions that the two/three existing shops that have just invested very heavily will be forced out of business by this development. I’d be be obliged if anyone can send me a copy of that document. To make sense an argument for this new shop it has to be either highly misinformed at best or possibly fraudulent at worst.

We don’t know what the building is going to look like yet, but knowing what he’s built in the past and the total disregard for tasteful sensitive architecture in Co.Leitrim generally, it will be a modernist monstrosity sitting in the middle of a classic period village…one of a kind. Development in architecturally sensitive towns and villages is supposed to enhance the local social and physical fabric…not destroy it. Why is it seen by most people that rich pop stars can get the planning authorities to do what they want, when local development for the community can’t get approval? For many people it all smells of something that Ireland is all too used to from the past.

The reality of this planning decision is that the traditional shops and their families are certainly going to be bankrupt because of a millionaire pop star. There’s only one person that will make money from this misery..Shane Filan and his company.

Of course, there are the other factors in the equation. When all development in Ireland has ground to a halt why does Shane’s company want to keep building where it’s not wanted or needed. It’s the opinion of most here that it’s something to do with his tax affairs, and the only reason that makes sense to me anyway.

There are many questions to be asked about the development by Shafin Developments (Shane’s company) in Dromahair, but it seems that no-one is prepared to ask them. I won’t ask them…if I met him and even touched on the subject he’d probably end up floating down the river Bonet as I’d lose it. In fairness I remember him as a young kid and he is a nice guy actually and I’d hope this is all driven by his advisers and family.

I’ll finish by saying that many people in the village are raging and very depressed over the latest planning decision on the Supermarket. We can’t trust planners and their decisions or developers. The Lanes-Foxes built the Dromahair you see not for themselves, but for their grandchildren and beyond and their communities…not for instant profit. That’s what determines what is right..and what should and should not be built.

If it comes to lying down in front of bulldozers..then I’ll do it and see if I can rustle up a few more O’Rourkes to fight with me. Traditionally the Clan were never shy of a fight..having caused the Norman Invasion of Ireland. That was over a woman though..according to legend. I’m sure that the great Chiefs of Dromahair would approve of this fight with outside interference though..that was always our way in the O’Rourkes.

OK..back off to find those Westlife albums and see if I can get someone to rip and seed them. After writing this I can’t do it myself eh? It’s a shame they never broke America after all.

If you pay for a TV licence don’t you think that you have an entitlement to watch it in digital as part of that fee? Why should we pay twice for the programming? (I won’t get into here whether it’s worth the price or not. That’s another post.)

RTÉ have it all ways…licence fee, advertising and SKY…greedy. As TV licence payers we should demand that we can get digital reception of our national broadcaster without paying a monthly subscription to Rupert Murdoch’s Empire. Terrestrial reception of RTE is in some places impossible and in all places vastly inferior to Digital.

When they switch off the analogue terrestrial signal in 2012 they are going to introduce a FTA digital set-top box but there’s no way of knowing at this point whether you’ll get a signal through their expensive set-top boxes at all. If it doesn’t work then you’ll only have one option to watch RTE and TG4 etc at all…pay SKY another €20+ a month to watch all the content you have already paid for with your licence and by suffering adverts.

As licence payers we should demand that RTÉ is available free on the Astra28e satellite for all to receive with the appropriate equipment. All BBC, ITV Channel 4 channels in the UK and nearly all other EU national broadcasters are available free on satellite so why not RTÉ?

It’s about time we started a movement of civil disobedience and refuse to pay our TV licences on the basis that RTE are in contempt of Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Please pass on the petition link as a matter of national interest, information and need.
and support Brian Greene who’s doing a brilliant job of getting under their skin http://www.rte2fta.com/
and check out some of his posts such as this one:
http://www.briangreene.com/bhg/2006/rte-fta/

Here’s the wording of the Petition..

To: RTÉ & Irish Government

We call on the Irish Government, RTÉ & its Board & Audience Council to
make all RTÉ transmissions free to air.

With particular focus on digital services the licence payer is funding
the transmission of RTÉ signals that are encrypted and not equally
available to all citizens of Ireland.

Article 21 (2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states
“Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country”

We demand all public service broadcasts be Free To Air.

Sincerely,

The subject now deepens. It seems that possible the Open Source Linuxey kernelbabble speaking Geeks have sussed out how to remotely control balls of light to draw designs in crops. My big question is..if they can do that why can’t they design a Linux OS that would allow people to edit video professionally so we can dump all the Gatesy and Jobs systems and work away free from interference either on the OS front (MS) or being tied to crap hardware (Jobs). Maybe all their resources have been tied up developing the technology for making crop circles and left no time for useful projects. I can just see one of them eating his brown rice admiring his new African tyre sandals exporting the design image from The Gimp (awesome program by the way) into Blender for 3D work and then into the remote control module linked to the ball of light launcher. After getting bored with making crop circles featuring everything from Mayan calender designs to pictures of Indian faces, what does he do? Whoops..his redesign of the Firefox logo for his own version of the popular browser slips into the process while he’s out making his Basil and mint green tea. Some poor old farmer then has to work out what the hell has happened to his field and how much the papers will pay for pics.

There again..it could be a Microsoft or Apple conspiracy to get the Geeks blamed for this stuff. There’s plenty of people with the time and technology sitting in those organisations to do this stuff. However..I suspect that if it was them then the mystery would be over, as the balls of light whizzing around might have to hang on a bit every now and again to download updates before they could go back to work…and get spotted by people coming out of the pub.

I have to admit..I don’t know where I sit on the subject. When I lived in Sussex a crop circle appeared next to my house in a flax field. Seeing as it was June and I was up all night full of Caffeine (ha hum) and working, I could see out of the window and was even walking around the garden in the moonlight. I lived in a pretty isolated spot on farmland and what I can tell you is there’s no chance a bunch of stoned students made it..as I defo would have seen and heard them. If it’s down to balls of light then that was possible when I was in the loo or something. I did hear low humming noises but put that down to my tinnitus I was suffering from. That was in the ’80s and long before Firefox or any other intricate design..just a boring old circle.

There we go. What do you reckon?