Are you a member of the Unsettled Community?
This was a question I put to a person who was giving me grief recently over Clare County Council’s Traveller Accommodation policy. The person in question is not a member of the Traveller community, but kept referring to me as a member of the Settled community.

Much has been written about the failure nationally to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. However, there are constituencies where the majority voted ‘Yes’ to Lisbon. Clare, for example, stands out in contrast as the only constituency outside of the handful of Leinster constituencies to return a yes vote.

Recently, I saw a creature that I thought had long since become extinct to this Island. I was driving eastwards out of Bandon in Co Cork and, in the distance, I saw it ..at first I couldn’t quite make out what it was .. and it was only when I had driven by, it dawned on me. I had just seen a hitchhiker. A proper hitch-hiker in all it’s glory. Don’t confuse a hitchhiker with a common thumber.. Common thumbers have never gone away and tend to be messy types on their way to getting off of their heads on drink or coming back from getting off of their heads on drink. The common thumber is distinguished by the absence of a ruck or knap sack, has a directionless dishevelled look and if the thumbing action is un-co ordinated is best given a wide berth.