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Ah, St. Paddy’s Day, when everyone tries to claim “green” and it has nothing to do with ecopolitics. (Except most of the folks wearing green have no Irish ancestry – Elizabeth Warren with peat bogs?\u00a0 and you will never hear the words ‘Saint Paddy’ in Ireland due to some peculiarities in Irish pronunciation.) But any day that encourages drinking quantities of Guinness can’t be all bad, right?<\/p>\n
Seems there was a major drug bust off the southern coast of T’Auld Sod last weekend.<\/p>\n
Police believe they shut down a major drugs smuggling pipeline on Friday after making 10 arrests, including of several divers, in south-west Ireland.<\/p>\n
The men were suspected of planning to pick up waterproof containers of South American cartel cocaine, worth tens of millions of euros, thrown overboard with tracking devices off the coast of Cork.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Cork, by the way, is the home of Murphy’s Stout, a fine alternative to Guinness with a bit less burned aftertaste. So I am told;\u00a0 I of course am teatotal and never let alcohol touch my lips (right. Unh huh. You bet.) Actually, if you push the bottle back in yer mouth a bit you won’t dribble and occasionally your taste buds get a wee taste as the booze or beer goes shooting by, past your lips and down your throat.<\/p>\n
L\u00c9 George Bernard Shaw was the only active ship because of a combination of a manpower crisis, which has led to crew shortages and mechanical problems.<\/p>\n
Gardai (the cops – ed.) investigating a suspected attempt to land the illegal drugs near Skibbereen made a formal request to the Irish Naval Service for help.<\/p>\n
But the sole available ship was on its way to D\u00fan Laoghaire to take part in the St Patrick\u2019s Day celebrations in the County Dublin town, the Irish Times reported.<\/p>\n
That meant it could not help in the massive search of the huge expanses of water where the cocaine, some of it thought to be destined for the UK and European markets, is thought to be hidden.<\/p>\n
Defence Forces told the Irish Times they had received the request. Because it was an inshore coastal operation, the Naval Service Diving Section was deployed instead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The sole ship available of their entire Navy (such as it is) unavailable due to a holiday celebration. Wow.<\/p>\n
The active fleet was reduced to just two ships last year due to the personnel crisis. Military sources said the Shaw had been the only available ship for the last three weeks.\u00a0\u00a0 The Telegraph<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And we thought our Navy had a recruiting problem (at least until they can reduce their goals to equal the number of recruits.) Two ships… and only one available. At least it makes reporting statistics easier… 100%, 50%, or none.<\/p>\n
Btw, the castle pictured is the birthplace of William Penn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"