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THE GOVERNMENT IS expected to publish legislation later today that will allow for the setting up of a new DNA database in Ireland.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter will set out the details of the new bill, but so far we know that the new law will compel sex offenders, criminals convicted of serious crimes, and those suspected of serious crimes to provide their DNA for the new database.
The database will help to solve crimes and trace missing persons, but civil liberties groups and others may have concerns about the indefinite retention of people’s information if the Garda Commissioner deems it necessary.
But what do you think? Is a DNA database a good idea?
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That’s a shame to hear. I used to love reading Montague’s poetry for the Leaving Cert and sure enough he showed when I needed him on the big day. A dolmen round my childhood. R.I.P.
The light, tarred skin
of the currach rides
and receives the current,
rolls and responds to
the harsh sea swell.
Inside the wooden ribs
a slithering frenzy; a sheen
of black-barred silver-
green and flailing mackerel:
the iridescent hoop
of a gasping sea trout.
As a fish gleams most
fiercely before it dies,
so the scales of the sea-hag
shine with a hectic
putrescent glitter:
luminous, bleached—
white water—
that light in the narrows
before a storm breaks. ………RIP John Montague
Hey diddle diddle The cat did a piddle, All over the kitchen mat, The little dog laughed to see such fun, And piddled all over the cat.
@michael o’brien
“The disappointed cat / Reflected in the glass / Reflects on where it’s at / And that it shall not pass.” I made up that one last week when the cat was trying to get out the kitchen window and I closed it in time. Suppose Poet’s Corner’s safe from us both Michael. RIP Mr Montague filíocht mór. Ar dheish Dé go raibh a anam.
@john o Driscoll,I like your poem John,I always liked poems that rhymed.No harm havin a bit of a sense of humour.
The rhymes the thing for many Michael. And a sense of humour carries us a long way past where we’d otherwise give up always. But beat and rhythm, imagery and sense don’t necessarily need to rhyme though they should always scan imo. Was thinking as I wrote that how the real cat in the kitchen appeared also to be outside on the window ledge at the same time (it being dark outside as in Country dark) as he gazed at his reflection, a photon cat observing a molecular cat or vice Versa.
And thought of calling the insta-ditty “An answer to Schrodinger” but immediately thought it pseud and overly clever-clogs and reading this haven’t changed opinion. That’s why great poets like Montague are great; regardless of rhyme or the absence there of. Their poetry is real, not pretentious or forced. It blows the heart wide open with apols to Mr Heaney.
I always found poetry difficult, until I discovered JOHN Montegue….you Sir, deciphered poetry for me, where others shrouded it in obscure meaning. For that, I THANK YOU. May you Rest In Peace.
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