Overall, I’d be more cynical. Like RTE economics editor George Lee, I can’t see how we can assume continuing growth in our productivity (we are already up against some walls in that area now) and Ireland has massive pressures on infrastructure — healthcare, housing, roads, education — to manage any of this fruitfully. Plus, we are very much at the mercy of outside forces, such as the US economy, the European economy, the availability and price of oil (as we have virtually no indigenous energy sources) and so on.

This report seems to me to be a bit like predicting your 5 year old will go on to be the next Bill Gates in adulthood, based on her predilection for playing computer games. There’s a long and rocky road ahead and as we should know, people can as readily leave this country as flow into it.

Much of this is pricier than Tesco but that’s to be expected when there are lots of Tescos buying in bulk and one Fresh. But Fresh can seriously differentiate itself with quality European foods, REAL food you’d want to eat not horrible stuff, excellent premade nosh, and a very relaxing environment. Another major advantage is not having to listen to that horrible canned music blasting at Tesco or endure teenage staff leaving pallets of food all over the floor while they chat over in some corner.

Basically Fresh gets a major thumbs up — it’s much larger than Mortons for example, stocks all the same stuff as those southside places, and looks very promising. Check it out, even if only to get a Bretzel pastry and a cup of coffee. Bet you’ll be back.

Basically, Friday is most of the larger dogs while Saturday is the toy breeds — the latter being a bit more silly and entertaining, I think, mainly as they are more primped and styled and in some cases hilariously small. There’s also agility and so on happening outside so hopefully the weather won’t be too vile. It’s a few euro in, pretty cheap at the price for an unusual day out. If watching a bit of Crufts this past week got you into the mood, check out www.ikc.ie for directions and further info. Oh and bring some cash if you own a dog as there’s great shopping to be had at excellent prices; merchants come from all over the island as well as the UK to ply their doggy wares.

On a more general note, we now know where Minister Demspey is during this week’s Flight of the Ministers, when they all flee this rainy isle on St Patrick’s junkets throught the globe. One is always left wondering who is actually running the country… rumours in the past have indicated it’s Dustin, though I’d prefer to imagine it might be Jack from “Lost”.

But, no, says the Oireachtas Communications Committee in a condemning report. Says Reuters:

The committee said it was disappointed that no action has been taken on the 12 recommendations published in its March 2004 report, the biggest-ever public debate on the broadband issue.

“It is safe to conclude that progress has been almost non-existent and where there has been progress it has been in spite of rather than due to proactive management and policies by the stakeholders.”

Oh come on, you nattering nabobs of negativism, it’s only been two years! These things take time! Policies must age first like fine wines, in order to be uncorked at some future date when… hey, vinegar is useful too! Makes great salad dressing. And listen, if dial up access was fine for your mothers and fathers, then it will be fine for you too, children of Ireland!

The SJ-Dublin connection is of course played up at this time of year, as we roll towards St Paddy’s Day. While I was out visiting family in Menlo Park, I heard a radio segment all about the many events planned for the saint’s day in San Jose as part of this celebration of sisterhood. The Big Deal is that Bertie, our beloved taoiseach, is heading out to do his St Patrick’s duty on the 14th at the Spirit of St Patrick dinner there. This is exciting enough to qualify as ‘breaking news’ on the news section of the website! Whaddya mean, what website? Of COURSE there’s a website, this is Silicon Valley!

In other words, my kind of novel. Still, I was a bit apprehensive settling in with it one evening when I thought I’d better dig in so I could get it off the ‘to do’ list. Instead, I found it a very compelling and fun read from a new writer who shows great promise in this first venture. Anyone who worked in or around the tech industry from the 90s to noughties will enjoy this novel and recognise the world Harnett creates — and have a few sniggers too. Harnett captures the atmosphere and the undercurrent of nastiness and paranoia as the boom went bust very well.

I had one specific reason for wanting to attend the launch. Besides wanting to say hello to the mysterious Sean, I was dying to find out who he’d worked for on the tech front as his bio on the cover is coyly vague. The reason I wanted to know who he worked for is to try and see who he’d modelled his egomaniac guru CEO Lawrence Cooley after… if anybody in particular! Well, Sean told me who he’d worked for (several companies with an Irish dotcom profile) and I laughed — that explained some things, for sure. He also told me the central inspiration for Larry — but if I told you, well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it? Have a read of Aisling Ltd and have a guess; I’m not ruining the fun!

In 2004, after a series of particularly horrific raids, the Irish government formed a working group to try and tackle this problem. Many months later, the group submitted a report and a solid series of recommendations, all based on enhancing existing legislation so that action could be taken immediately (taking the primary legislation route could take years).

That was last autumn. Since then, a new Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, has dragged his feet on implementing the report ordered by his predessor in that office, offering a series of excuses that suggest the goal is to do nothing at all about these ‘farms’, not in the lifetime of this government.

So now it’s YOUR chance. A demonstration will be held this Thursday, 23rd February, from 5pm-6pm at the Kildare St gate of Dail Eireann to show that Irish people care about this issue and are sick of this country having the appalling reputation as Europe’s puppy farm capital. Organisers will be asking the Minister to act on the report and will hand in this online petition. Be sure to sign it. If you can, come along on Thursday, bring your dog, and make sure this issue can’t go off the government agenda.

But when theatre is good, especially when theatre is very very good, it is truly an out of body experience. You go somewhere entirely other. It is an experience like no other, far superior to anything film can ever produce at least to my mind, because you are engaging with flesh and voice directly, without celluloid intervention. Your sense of being seated in a bricks and mortar building vanishes, and you disappear into the world being created by words and set onstage. There’s a sense of surrender. A bit of magic. Sometimes, reluctance to believe. And then you cross over, the live experience gels and the bliss that is rivetting theatre happens.

Not unlike a faith healer, healing… as playwright Brian Friel recognised long ago in his play The Faith Healer (surely his best work). The play has just opened at the Gate with an incredible, focused, tight and taut cast of Ralph Fiennes (as Frank, the faith healer — which is why Fiennes is hanging about drinking in the Ely wine bar as remarked upon below), Ian McDiarmuid (he of evilness in Star Wars, here playing the washed out but very funny Teddy, the faith healer’s cockney manager) and Ingrid Craigie (the wife/mistress Grace, in a performance that flays you emotionally by the end of her monologue).

Thanks to a friend of a friend, who had a couple of spare tickets for the night before opening night, I was fortunate to see this production, which is the first show at the venerable Gate to ever sell out before the run actually began. Fiennes is obviously the draw, but his mastery as an actor is such that you become as immersed in his character as Fiennes is himself, to the point where you do indeed become capable of forgetting it is Ralph. Fiennes. Live. On. Stage. The stage itself is dark and bare, demanding even more that the actors each breathe life into the world we are to see over the next two and a half hours, and create it they do.

This is a truly memorable performance, well worth getting there early and queuing for returns, which alas seems the only way to get in to see it on this run. For those in the US, the production transfers to Broadway in the spring (early May), though Craigie sadly will not transfer with it.