Xmas Message from Barry

 Posted by at 20:54  2 Responses »
Dec 142009
 

What a fantastic, even if funny, year it has been for all of us at Charlie´s Bar!  The fantastic parts of the year for me were seeing so many familiar faces again and again, and watching Charlie´s Bar becoming more and more like a local, despite the fact that so many people are here for a week only – and how many of you know each other from returning again?! I was amazed when we were in Galway
so many people knew each other from back in Lanzarote and decided to meet up together at our Xmas gigs back home.

As I write this in Thailand on a working holiday, I am just thinking of all of those who travelled to Galway from Scotland, England, Wales and all parts of Ireland, and it was great to see everyone together, even those that can´t sing or dance!  It was a very unusual feeling to be playing outside of Charlie´s Bar and to see so many friends.  We all looked so different with four layers of clothing, designer Wellington boots and walking sticks – or were they umbrellas? Now we are looking forward to the Cork gigs (18, 19 & 21 Dec – info HERE), and I know some people that were at the Galway gigs who are going to be in Cork as well.

Another great memory I have from 2009 was welcoming Sharon Shannon, Damien Dempsey, The Wolfe Tones, Jon Kenny and then, just before we closed for the holidays, the great Finbar Fury.  Each time we had special guests over we all got a great buzz from it and enjoyed their company as much as their music.

We were all delighted to have acquired the Craic´n Ceol in June of this year. It´s a bar that fits in very well with what we do and complements Charlie´s Bar as well, and we are very proud to have it.  We were also delighted to have Rory Gallagher joining us at Charlie´s Bar & the Craic with his fantastic talent, and we wish him and his fiancée Cara the very best for their future.  Both of you have only 4 months left to do what you have to do!!

If I made one cock-up this year, it was opening Charlie´s Bar 7 nights a week from May until October.  It was too long playing 7 nights and we should have stayed on 6 nights until the middle of July – but I will learn at my own pace!  I am even contemplating opening 5 nights a week from January with the way things are at the moment, but we will see as we go along.  Unfortunately, there have been quite a few bars that have closed down in Lanzarote over the year, and I know the same is true in Ireland and here in Thailand as well.  Thankfully we have gone from strength to strength, but we have to be on the ball all the time and never let up.  It´s a good job we all love what we are doing and get on so well, or it would be next to impossible to keep going in these times.

One benefit I can see since the Celtic Tiger ran out of borrowed steam is that the arrogance that some of the Irish yahoos had is gone, thank God, and we are back to doing what we do best: drinking a few pints, having the craic, singing a few songs and talking proper shit, not the Celtic Tiger shit.

Looking forward to 2010, we will have quite a few special guests coming over again, and the fantastic Sharon Shannon will be the first on 20th February 2010.  We are currently working on mixing more tunes with songs and we look forward to doing plenty more of that – for me that is what I love the best and to see what kind of concoctions we can come up with.   It´s amazing what can happen when you put 6 thick heads together!

I learn so much about life in Charlie´s with friends and customers telling me so much about their lives.  It´s as if they reflect on life when they get a chance while on holidays, and it´s great to see them a few months or a year later and see how they got on with whatever situation in the meantime.

Like I already said, we are now looking forward to the Cork gigs and then re-opening Charlie´s Bar on 26th December, and getting back to what we do best together.  I won´t talk about what we don´t do best together here, apart from fishing, cooking and skydiving!

We all wish you a very Merry Xmas and a peaceful, prosperous, loving and, above all else, healthy New Year.

“Go raibh mile maith agaimh” which translates as “I hope you get laid soon, have triplets, a crippling mortgage, and never see the light of day again!

Cheers
Barry and all at Charlie´s Bar

P.S. My back is f*cked here in Thailand – and not for the reason you perverts think!  It´s from trying to get under showers that were built for 4´6″ humans and not 6´4″ aliens.  Happy Christmas.


Finbary Furey at Charlie´s Bar

 Posted by at 17:55  No Responses »
Nov 142009
 

Howdy again!

It was a fantastic last week in Charlie´s Bar before we broke up for the holidays.  I really enjoyed the week with Finbar and Sheila Furey.  The one thing that I enjoyed more even than the fantastic performances Finbar gave, was their company.  Finbar reminds me of a great friend of mine who has passed away, but with the same name. They would have really enjoyed each other´s company because the Finbar that sadly passed away was the same, in as much as he had great principle and honour in his bones, and was a mighty character and great craic as well, and always up to devilment.  I would have loved to have had the opportunity to go away with both of them for a weekend – for sure it would be a weekend you wouldn’t forget in a hurry…

Photos of Finbar on stage with Skin & Hide in our Photo Gallery

I will always look forward to welcoming Finbar and Sheila over here to Charlie´s Bar anytime they can make the time to visit our humble little watering hole again.  I know I can speak for all of the staff and musicians at both Charlie´s and the Craic when I simply say “thank you” to Finbar for taking the time to get to know us and giving us the opportunity to  play a few tunes with you.

Now we take a break for a few weeks before we head for Ireland to play the Xmas Gigs, and it’s a true testament to Finbar that he has decided to come along to one of our Irish gigs and join us on stage for a few tunes and a bit of craic.  We look forward to seeing you back in the old sod!  Rumour has it that there might be a very beautiful box player joining us for a few tunes along the road as well…

I would just like to thank all of the customers of Charlie´s and the Craic on behalf of all of us for your custom throughout the year, and we will be looking forward to getting home and firing Charlie´s Bar up again on 26th December.  In the meantime Rory, Jon, Widgeon and (I think) Gally will be playing at different times at the Craic over the next few weeks – so enjoy, and thanks again.

Cheers
Barry Murphy

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Slatterys Travel gone into liquidation…

 Posted by at 13:48  2 Responses »
Sep 172009
 

I read with regret that Slatterys Travel have gone into liquidation.

I met Dave Slattery here in Lanzarote a couple of years ago, and again we held a meeting in Killarney soon afterwards.  I formed the opinion at the time that he was running too fast, but also that he was a damn fine individual and he employed the best of people here in Lanzarote.

I’m sure that this is a dark moment for him, but I’m also sure that he will learn from this and mushroom again.


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Article in the Irish Examiner today… and my thoughts on the state of the economy

 Posted by at 12:18  No Responses »
Sep 172009
 
There is an article in today´s Irish Examiner which is fantastically stupid.  First of all, it took 4 people to write it – which says a lot about Ireland as it is now.

The most imprtant part of this article tells the story that each family in Ireland is taking a risk on NAMA of 34,000€.  Property prices are down 50% and they are taking the gamble with your money that they will rise 10% over the next 10 years.  This is a good bet, and if it doesn’t work out we are totaly f*cked anyway.

Two things cross my mind.  The first is that Brian Cowen got us into this sh*t big time as Minister for Finance, but if his hands were tied by Bertie he should have walked and kept his dignity and gained the respect of the country, instead of trying to hang on to power. F*cking ego.

The second thing that crosses my mind is that, for sure, his proposals are probably the best way out of this situation now, and as I have said, the chances of property rising 10% from where they are now is pretty good over a decade because of the forecasts of population increase, which will lead to demand.  But if each family is taking the risk of 34,000€ over a decade, or 3,400€ per year, will they directly benefit from the upturn?  If you go to a bookies and put money down you get the benefit if you win. How will the government pay the tax payer the benefit of their risk?

This is the wrong time to change government. Let the a**holes sort the mess and then change. The opposition are worse to be knocking the government for what they are doing now, because they are doing the right thing.  A clever opposition would back the government now but keep emphasising that they were the ones that f*cked it up in the past, and then gain the respect of the people for doing the right thing and being honest.

Short-sighted clowns!

Charlies for the craic, the women and the beer!! 


How do we penalise the guilty, and who are they?

 Posted by at 13:11  2 Responses »
Aug 132009
 
I look at the High Court case against Liam Carroll and think to myself this NAMA is unreal, and very unfair.  They want to shove all of the bad debts of these kinds of people on top of the tax payer for a generation ahead.

Here are two very simple facts.  The first is that Brian Lenihan said recently that he wouldn’t interfere in commercial decisions of a bank who wanted to put up interest rates. Think about it – the government let the banks do what they like for 10 years but the minute it went wrong they had to bail them out with tax payers´ money.  If I had to give an insurance to a company, you can be sure that I would want to know exactly what was going on in that company, and if I didn’t like it I would pull the insurance rapido.

It seems to me that the government should never have bailed out the banks and, just like it said, should not have got involved in commercial decisions and let any bank that couldn’t stand up simply go bust.  Sure, it would have created hardship, but at least we would get to the bottom fast and therefore could start to rebuild on solid ground.  Now we are prolonging the agony for nearly a generation.

The second fact is that the property developers, bankers (is bankers spelled with a B?!) and politicians who stood to gain the world, with only others´ money to lose, should be stripped of their cars, homes and all assets for putting a generation of Irish citizens at such risk.  There are good balanced property developers out there too, and they are the ones who kept a sense of reality over the last 10 years, and despite the fact that they are also hurting now, they are simply not hurting others for their own gain.

We have no choice now, only to continue with NAMA and bail out the greedy and stupid over time – but maybe along with the government having shares in these mismanaged institutions, there should also be a higher rate of tax applied to them when they return to profit to compensate the tax payer.  Of course, there is another catch in this because they will make the profit by rising interest rates and charges on the very same tax payer who bailed them out in the first place.  So therefore, as far as I can see, we have to pay the debts of these greedy, immoral, irresponsable a**holes for years – or else simply let them sink and pull all state guarantees.

Fine Geal and Labour are knocking anything the government are doing, and whether they are right or not is irrelevant, but what is relevant is that they are only knocking and not coming up with any positive alternatives of substance, which means a change of government ain’t going to help either.

One alternative that I can think of would be to tax the profit of exporting companies only, which means we would get other nations to compensate the Irish tax payer.  However, this is also immoral and it would further turn manufacturing exporting companies to relocate elsewhere.

The bottom line is that we are simply f*cked for a while, and we might as well accept it with a smile, a song and a pint in Charlies, and do the best we can to make the whores that put us in this position pay for it personally.  I would love to hear others´ opinions or solutions here on this blog that my simple brain can’t see. Ah, just a few thoughts, sure, ya know yourself.

Drink sex feck arse & fags!!! ;)


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Ryanair

 Posted by at 09:37  No Responses »
Jul 302009
 
So now Ryanair are after discovering Charlie´s Bar and will start to fly to Lanzarote from November!

I knew you would wake up some time, Mike! Charlie´s Bar customers don’t mind standing in a tin can for 4 hours, or holding on to their bladder with vicegrips until they reach the airport terminal, and baggage allowances don’t really concern them either, because Charlies customers usually don’t wear a lot of clothes anyway!

Jasus Mike, it would be very unfriendly of you not to come down yourself and say hello if you can afford the extra charges.  If not, we can have a whip around some night in our “Asylum”!

I know Ryanair probably don’t do Christmas parties, but some of the staff might like to get together and join us at one of our Christmas parties in Cork, Dublin or Galway, with FREE TOILET FACILITIES AND SEATS FOR ALL THOSE OVER SIXTEEN YEARS OLD (at their own expense of course).  Relax and take a deep breath!

See you soon Mike.
Tog é bog é a chara!!


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Skin & Hide touring

 Posted by at 08:26  2 Responses »
Jul 172009
 

Hello to all. We take annual holidays every May, and next year we, “Skin & Hide” have been thinking of going travelling and gigging for 3 or 4 weeks.

There have been suggestions of going to the United States to play a few festivals and a few other countries, but I decided to put it up here on my blog and see if anyone comes up with some brain waves, or have any suggestions…

Where is the best place to get Thai food?


Questions

 Posted by at 17:24  2 Responses »
Jul 062009
 
Every night I am asked loads of questions, and a lot of the time they are the same ones, and I don’t mind them at all… sometimes people are using these questions as a way of opening a conversation, which is fine by me – “how long have you been here”, “how did you end up here”, etc.  It’s like opening a conversation at home by talking about the weather, but when it comes to the weather here we don’t usually have a lot to talk about!

Then there are the other type of questions from the *other* type of people. “How much do the band get paid a night?”, “how much do the staff get as a salary?”, and the first answer I come up with will always be something smart like “you really didn’t mean to ask that, sure you didn’t”, or “relax man, you’re on holidays”, or “the band are trading in their porches for Lamborghinis”.  Then some persist and say “ah but seriously, how much do they get a night?” 

That’s it, time up, finish your drink and f*ck off.  They look at me thinking I’m joking, and when there is no smile they realise that I’m serious, and if they are clever (which is unusual!) they will realise what a prick they have been.  Some will apologise and I say “fine, enjoy your night”, and others simply leave.

I often ask myself “am I right in this approach?”, but think to myself, Jesus, suppose I was going around asking customers, or anyone for that matter, how much their salary was at home, or how much their mortgage is.  First of all, I have no interest, but I would expect a smack in the gob if I was so stupid.  I meet loads and loads of lovely people coming and going from Charlies all of the time, and sometimes I wonder if I am expected to have so much tolerance to put up with these a*seholes whose god is money, and can’t talk or think about anything else.  If I am expected to, someone is going to have to find me tolerance tablets fast, and until that happens, please be careful and I will let you know when I have received delivery of same in due course!

This same type of people are the type to walk into the Charlie´s and announce within 30 seconds that there are 80 of them over for a wedding, looking directly into your eyes, implying that we should give them special attention. HELLO!  We give *every one* of our customers as much respect and attention as possible, regardless of whether they are a wedding group or not, and we give a little extra attention to those who are very genuine and don’t expect anything.  There are nice wedding groups that come and go all of the time which we are delighted to welcome, and there are some that we don’t want: the ones who kind of make a statement between the lines, saying we are 80 people and we will be here for the week and we are going to take over the bar for the week.  There are bars on this island that will take any group of 80 and do what ever they have to to get them in, and then let them do what they like when they have them in, regardless of what type of people they are – and we are delighted with these bars because if we didn’t have somewhere else for these people to go to, it would be more of a problem for us!  I accept that in any group of 80 there are bound to be one or two who are a sandwich short of a picnic, and usually I will find someone sound in the group and ask them to look after their acquaintance, which they usually do without any problems.

One benefit that I notice with the recession is that a lot of the “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” brigade are gone, thank God – because in Charlie´s we clear out this type of human being – the genuine decent folk have a much better time with us where everyone is enjoying the atmosphere, the drink, the music and the craic, and nobody cares how much money you have or not unless you are going to leave it to all of us in your Will. Then we care and you will get very special treatment!!!! ;)

Cheers,
Barry Murphy


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Christian Brothers…

 Posted by at 12:24  No Responses »
May 282009
 
I am in Ireland for a few days and the news here is covered by the scandals of the way the Church treated kids in their care, throughout the 40s, 50s and 60s mainly. Now, you have a situation where the Bishops are telling the different congregations to provide more money to the children that were abused in so many ways. They are very wealthy organisations and they have been shifting assets from one company to another to avoid paying out.

As far as I can make out, the *total* of the Catholic Church should have *all* of their assets confiscated and the proceeds of the sale of such assets should be divided between those unfortunate people who were abused.

The Catholic Church should also be labeled an illegal organisation, and it should be an offence to be found to be a member or to support such an organisation.  I accept that there are some good priests etc., but if they had any respect for themselves they would resign and create some new mechanism for moving forward, and I still don’t believe that even the *good* ones didn’t know what was going on and are guilty by not coming forward.

Can you imagine what would happen if these kinds of activities were found in some kind of cult religion (and what is or isn’t a cult religion)?  As far as I’m concerned, the Catholic religion is as much a cult religion as any, and maybe more so, the way they kept denying, hiding, telling lies and playing a hand to try to hang on to what they could.

They are LIARS, RAPISTS, ABUSERS AND COVER-UP MERCHANTS of an organisation that should be banned from operating in Ireland, and at least the victims would feel that they got juctice.


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A short post about Ireland´s economy and politics

 Posted by at 09:26  No Responses »
Apr 032009
 

A true leader cools things when they start getting too hot, and warms things when they are too cool. You are on your own, going against the grain all the time.

While Bertie Ahern was fantastic on the international stage and worked so hard to bring peace to Northern Ireland, domestically, he was a complete f*cking disaster. A terribly nice, well meaning man, who f*cked up the Irish economy by not controlling the boom. He never controlled the spending during the Celtic pussy, and now we have Brian Cowan cutting the sh*t out of everything, when a leader should be positive and moving forward.

Just think what it would be like if Bertie had kept things cool during the boom, and Brian was pushing things forward and giving hope to people in the difficult times.  That’s why they are politicians and not leaders. Unfortunately, true leaders would never go into politics.

Very sad, but very true, and f*ck them all… we will drive on at Charlie´s Bar because we know nothing else!! ;)


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Adios Johny

 Posted by at 23:56  2 Responses »
Mar 112009
 
A real good friend of mine passed away last Saturday week, and I will sorely miss him.

His story is a very hot and cold one, very happy and very sad.  He was born in 1945 and his dad passed away when Johny was young. He used to work in his early married years in the Sunbeam factory in Cork, and I have met people who knew him then and they all say he was full of devilment.  He started playing music and could play 6 instruments, but more imporant than his music was the atmosphere he created any time he was on or off stage.  He played with Finnigan’s Wake for about 12 years or so, and any of the lads could spend a week telling stories of the fantastic crazy things that he pulled off.

I didn’t get to know Johny until about 8 or 9 years ago and nobody ever made me laugh like he did, and I don’t expect anyone will again either.  Whether it was walking around Shanghai asking the Chinese where China Town was, or pretending to be a doctor while talking to 5 or 6 other doctors for an hour, and knowing more about medicine than pigs do about holidays.  I could go on forever.  He was a seriously intelligent man, and we used to have long conversations when we were together which were always very interesting.  He was a very original character who never missed an opportunity to have a laugh, and never at others´ expense – unless they deserved it!

His life was centered around music, and up to a few years ago there were very few nights that he wasn’t either playing a session or a gig somewhere.  Unfortunately, he became very depressed and paranoid about 3 years ago, and despite all the help he got from his friends and family he made an attempt at suicide 20 months ago, and was pulled out of the river Lee, barely alive.  He spent the last 20 months of his life in a coma in hospital in Cork, and sadly passed away last Saturday week.  Again unfortunately, it wasn’t my first experience of suicide, having lost my great friend Kevin, who also happened to be my brother, and a musician as well, to the same fate 12 years ago.

In Johny’s case, there were a few things which contributed to his depression, but I am only going to talk about one of them here.  There is a man in Cork who contributed greatly to Johny’s demise, and I’m sure many others´ as well.  We had a great culture of music, craic and socialising in Ireland, and we used to draw tourists by the thousands to Ireland because of the fantastic atmosphere we used to create in our pubs.  Then this Cork gentleman came along and destroyed the whole lot in a matter of days, single-handedly.  His name is Micheál Martin.  This poor ejet got carried away with the EU and the Celtic Tiger and forgot that all we have in Ireland is agricultural land and tourism.  He killed the pub culture with the stroke of a pen and contributed to the deaths of many others like Johny, and people who were used to mixing in pubs and found there was no one to mix with anymore, closing off their social outlet.  I smoke, and I wouldn’t want non-smokers to have to inhale my smoke, but with proper extraction systems and smoking areas *in* bars, there would have been no problem.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the bold Micheál also oversaw the Health Board that discharged Johny from the psychiatric hospital he was admitted to without even informing his family.  Johny was standing outside the hospital on the street with his bag telephoning his wife Margret to come and get him, and a very unwell man.  It was only a matter of weeks before he was pulled out of the river. 

People like Johny, who made more of a difference to Irish tourism than any Bord Failte spending millions, should have been treated far better than he was by our state.  These a*sholes were messing with something that brought millions to Ireland, and at the same time they lost the big picture as you all can see now, with billions lent to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back, etc etc.

Since Johny became unwell I seldom go out in Cork now.  I have missed his company big time over the past 2 years and the long conversations and the craic we used to have.  I am convinced that Micheál Martin has killed more with his stupid laws by closing off the social outlet of people living on their own in Ireland, and those who made their living from music, which in turn is a contributing factor to the rise in suicides all across our country.  Maybe these a*sholes could be tried for murder!

Anyway, I just want to offer my condolences to Johny’s wife Margret, and two daughters Shirley and Siobhan, who were with him every day practically for the past 20 months, and to thank the fantastic nurses who kept him as comfortable as possible during this time.  May you rest in peace, me old buddy, and the next pint is on you, when I catch up with you again!


Just some random thoughts about the World Economy… and other things

 Posted by at 10:06  No Responses »
Feb 132009
 

1. How many hectares of agricultural land is there left in the World today?  And how many tonnes of food can they produce?

2. What are the World population trends over the last few hundred years?

3. Ireland´s boom was on the back of a high tech industry, which we are no longer competitive in, and therefore there will be no building or advancement in any way until we are competitive again.

As an example, the boss of a high tech company that employs 2,000 people has the following options:

Ireland 2,000 people x Average 40K p.a. = €80,000,000
Abroad 2,000 people x Average 10K p.a. = €20,000,000
Annual saving on labour alone = €60,000,000

There was a time when the Polish, Indians etc. weren´t educated well enough in English and modern tech systems, but that day is over, and I know of two girls working here in Lanzarote as doctor´s receptionists & secretaries for some doctors in the United States.  When you go to the surgery in the States you are greeted by these Secretaries *on a screen* – from Lanzarote!

And now to the *Options* I suggest we have:

1. We control imports, and therefore stop these cheaper manufacturing companies exporting their produce. 

2. We become as competitive as them, and work for the same salaries, which will in turn drop the price of everything we buy, be it food, houses, holidays, cars, etc.

3.  We try to come up with new manufacturing ideas and produce products nobody else is manufacturing.

The young people today will have to pull off a massive stroke of genius if they want to hold on to the living standards they have had until recently, or else simply settle for an awful lot less than they were used to.

My own two sons and all their friends finishing college this year are going out into a very different world to the one they grew up in.  It´s been changing so fast in the last couple of years, I don´t think any of them fully understand it.

It´s one thing to start out your career when everything is still going down and will continue to do so for a good few years yet.  Then you are in a situation where your expectations are constantly changing downwards, and that is very demoralising.  There is nothing wrong with starting at the bottom, and even better when everything is climbing, but there is also nothing worse than watching everything going down around you.

The positive side to all of this is that any of these young fellows starting off in life will either accept a much lower standard of income, which will mean cycling to work instead of driving, not going out socialising, not going on foreign holidays etc., etc., or those who will find a way to get ahead but using a different way of thinking completely, will be fine.

My fear is for those who cannot accept the world as it is changing and will not or cannot do anything about it, but I also know that those that do survive by either accepting the change or doing something about it will be far stronger people than those of us who survived the 80s recession, and will live much better lives after we get to the bottom of this cycle.

Just as sure as the highs of the late 90s and early years of this decade were never higher, its my opinion the lows over hte next few years will be worse than anything seen in the 80s.

There are always fantastic opportunities in recession times, but it´s a hell of a lot more difficult to find them.  Most of the serious wealth was created in recessions, but you have to think in a completely different way during a recession.

I have loads and loads of grat ideas which would work during recessions, but I am too busy and happy making sure that Charlie´s Bar is, and stays, the best bar in Lanzarote, and keeping the hide & skin business in Ireland competitive, to have time to do much else.  And funny as it may seem, for a “clown” who left school at 14 years of age, most of my ideas are based around technology, simplicity and hard work.  I would love to see somebody else making some of these ideas work.  Sometimes all you have to do is look at the exact opposite of what others are doing!

As regards Charlie´s Bar and its competitiveness in recession times, I have seen people in Ireland paying €30 per head to watch a lot worse acts than us at Charlies.  I feel we would be offering really good value by charging €10 entry on the door and then we could sell drink cheaper – but that simply wouldn´t work.  We are all very conscious at Charlies of making sure we offer people value for money.  We work extremely hard to make sure we are the best, and we all live fantastic, but simple lives.  We are very lucky that we love what we do, because you simply couldn´t do it if you didn´t…

So far in 2009 and looking forwards into the year, Skin & Hide spent 3 days a week in January learning & rehearsing Damien Dempsey´s songs, and it was well worth it!  Now they are straight into the same for Sharon Shannon in two weeks´ time.  This is, of course, as well as playing 6 nights a week.  Then we will have one or two meetings after Sharon´s gigs and we will thrash around ideas between us all for making & arranging approx. 10 new songs.  We will rehearse them once a week through March and April.  We are lucky to have Jon Kenny over for the last week of April.  Then we close for the middle two weeks in May for annual holidays.  From 1st June through to the third week of September, we will have no rehearsals and will play 7 nights a week at Charlies, and one early wedding gig as well.  Also in September, a great band from Cork “Bog the Donkey” will give Skin & Hide a week off, and then Skin & Hide will play again 6 nights a week through October and November, and we will put another couple of new songs together during those months. 

2010 will be much the same, except I am working on one or two extra interesting projects, which we might just pull off with a bit of luck.

Hard work, competitiveness, a belief in what you are doing and a lack of greed will pull any business through any recession.  I HOPE!!!

Cheers.
Murphy


Blog post about the recession etc.

 Posted by at 22:56  No Responses »
Feb 082009
 

The truth about why we are so deep in recession is simply because we haven’t had a leader since Haughey.  Like or dislike him, and I would have serious issues with him, but he understood one thing – and that was that when things are bad, a leader must be positive and drive and push forwards, and when things are good a leader must try to slow the ship down, especially when the good is based on false foundations and expectations.

Since he has gone, Bertie fuelled the hype, or at least did nothing to slow it, and now that the bubble has burst Cowen is slowing things, just as he should be driving forward.  To be fair to Bertie, he brought peace to the North and was very popular on the World stage, which helped us a lot, but he was too nice to some of the wrong people – which is costing us now.

The letter that Ben Dunne wrote in the Independent is fantastic, simply because it’s so real, and it’s he should be Taoiseach. One of the things that he wrote was that we should ask ourselves: “What’s the worst that can happen here? How do we deal with that eventuality, and how do move forward knowing the answers to the first two questions?” I have always made my business decisions based on those very same questions.  What he is saying is that instead of dribbling bad news everyday as it comes out, we should throw it out hard and fast so that everyone knows where we stand.  And believe me, regardless of how bad that is, people respect and feel much more comfortable when they know the truth.  Now everyone is wondering how bad it is instead of how we fix it.  Give people the bottom line and get on with whatever we have to deal with – with a smile…

Article from the Independent.ie

 Posted by at 20:31  No Responses »
Feb 082009
 

Check this out.  The closest bit of realism I have read in a long time…

Click here to read the article “FitzPatrick ‘addicted to money’ says Ben Dunne”

3 more Damien Dempsey videos from last night

 Posted by at 09:53  No Responses »
Feb 072009
 

Just added!

A great rendition of Damo doing “The Irish Rover” together with Barry Murphy and Skin & Hide, plus “Bad Time Garda” and “Seize the Day”, all here:

www.youtube.com/charlieslanzarote

Enjoy!

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