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Text only in the first instance please. There is enough phishing and other rubbish in the world already!!
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Irish Jokes - Now these are old!!

Below are as many Irish jokes as I could rustle up.  Feel free to add more in the comments to this.  Enjoy.

My mate Paddy just told me that he robbed a shop last night.

"What did you get?" I asked.

"26 pictures," he smiled, showing me. "The cheapest one is worth over £180,000."

I said, "Paddy, these are from an estate agents."
A spokesman at Ringsend sewage plant in Ireland has announced plans to extend its capacity. "By how much?”, asked the reporter. He replied, "Two turds."
Paddy texts his wife...

“Mary, I’m just having one more pint with the lads.

If I’m not back in 20 minutes, read this message again.” One afternoon Paddy and Mick were having a pint at a pub across from a brothel. For the craic, they sat in the front so they could watch the comings and goings across the street. The two lads were shocked when a Presbyterian minister walked into the brothel.

"Begod," says Paddy, "that's a shame to see a man of th…
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You are a hard bunch to please.

The post on here with the l;argest number of hits is the Irish jokes one, and all I did for it was trawl a few jokes sites.  Even then, it only has about 40 hits.

Other stories on here like the links to our history (WW1, Civil War, love and emigration) of the old Rolex that my Mum was given as a teenager barely got a hit at all, neither did my comments on what I know about Belfast's most famous bar (The Crown).  No comments, no feedback; nothing.  It is difficult to know what to write, but then again, perhaps I should take this as a judgement and just shut up?

Any thoughts?
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Local History of the worst possible kind! The story of Carnage Hill.

This post is shamelessly copied from a local history book, now out of print, that is also available in pdf format on line: http://www.bayburn.com/29128%20Helen's%20Bay%20&%20Crawfordsburn%20History.pdf. It is one section only of a much larger and more broadly based book.  All credit is then due to the book's author, and to the team at bayburn.com.

Those who have travelled the main road between Bangor and Belfast will know the corner known as ‘the Devil’s Elbow’, which is located just before the junction leading to Seahill/ Rockport.On the left side of the road when travelling from Bangor there is a small road leading up into the Holywood hills.It is now called Carney Hill, but according to this article that name derives from Carnage Hill.To see where it got this name read on.

Many thanks are due to Sam, my friend and avid local history buff.It was he who originally showed me a paper copy of this book.Unfortunately it is not a proud episode in our history.





The Ballydavey Massa…
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I bought a vampire motorcycle!

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Those of you with long memories may remember the movie, where a possessed Norton Commando periodically struck down anyone within range.The BMW Funduro mentioned in the last Motorcycle story here developed similar tendencies.I extolled its virtues as bike with decent power and good handling all for the price of a BSA Bantam.But while I was using the bike, a number of design flaws haunted my daily commute, but the last one beat them all.


For those who don’t know, the Funduro was a BMW designed (and branded) motorcycle, built in Italy by Aprilia, using an Austrian Rotax engine.They were made from 1994 to 2000, with a revision in 1996 that addressed the major fault discussed in this story.

The BMW Funduro, as bought
The previous owner of my 1994 Funduro had left it unused under a cover in his garden for a couple of years, so I always knew that it needed work to make it roadworthy.As usual, I completely underestimated what would be involved in fixing a 20 odd year old bike with 30,000 miles …
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Welcome

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Welcome to Old Ireland.
My initial idea for this site was to cover only classic vehicles, but since classicireland.ie was already taken and the best alternative I could find was this one, my thoughts for the site began to broaden.A lot of the inspiration for this comes from the few magazines for which I have written articles.Let’s get these mentioned early, because you should not be surprised to see a little of their influence here.Real Classic is subscription only in print, but also has an excellent site at https://www.real-classic.co.uk/, where Frank, Rowena and a host of writers entertain and inspire.Then there is Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, formerly in print monthly, but now only on line at http://mnmotorcycle.com/.MMM’s archives could keep you reading happily for months, and the like it or not truths told by Thomas Day (Geezer with a grudge: see his own site at http://geezerwithagrudge.blogspot.com/), should make everyone on two wheels pause for thought.If you have time on the …
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For the love of a dog and vampires!

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This memoir of a much loved pet was sent by a friend, Mark McClean.  The hugely strong links formed with family pets never ceases to amaze me, as does the trust that these beautiful animals place in the strange two legged companions that they choose to live with.Dogs can melt the hearts of even the strongest of us.Rest in peace Gracie.


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It all started in 1987. The setting was a small fictional town in northern California called ‘Santa Carla’. The protagonist was a young teenage boy called Sam and his husky-type dog: Nanook. The inciting incident of the film plot unfolds to reveal Sam, along with Nanook and his family have just moved into a small sleepy seaside town stalked by vampires! Have you guessed the film? The Lost Boys. It was a cult-classic of the late ‘80s starring the late Corey Haim, Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland.



In the middle of all the punchy one-liners, guts and gore special effects a typical 80s horror film had and a catchy soundtrack to boot, I happ…
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Buyer Beware!

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Let’s face it, when you are buying second hand it pays to be cautious and to look for faults that the buyer may not have declared.I have no problem with this, although I do try to be as honest as I can when selling anything.What I do have a problem with are undisclosed problems that would be dangerous, but which would be impossible to find on any inspection without both prior knowledge of what to look for, and disassembly of the item being bought. Old and new sprockets from the Funduro.  The gearbox output shaft should be a good fit in the splines shown on the new sprocket on the right.  Instead its splines wore quickly to almost non existence.

If you have read my last two motorcycle related posts here, you will have followed the tale of me buying and fixing up an old 1994 BMW F650 Funduro for winter transport.You will also have read of the numerous faults that these bikes are afflicted with and the ones that I suffered.I have no doubt that if BMW had produced a car that had the number …
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Brexit Revisited

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I still hold to my comments published in my first Brexit post (see: https://oldandireland.blogspot.com/2018/11/brexit-dirty-word-in-any-european.html).But still the debacle rolls on.Frankly, nearly 3 years on from the referendum, the whole shambles is becoming downright embarrassing.I have used the picture below on my first post, but it is worth repeating.



So a few more points.

Good old Teresa is still sticking fast to her no second vote stance, despite the current shambles.I know that a small majority voted leave, but really, how much worse is it to be governed by Brussels than by the current occupants of Westminster, especially after they have proved themselves so incapable of running anything over the last few years?Here in good old ‘Norn Iron’, we have the additional joy of having politicians that have been absent from Stormont for years but who are still getting paid!It’s nice to know that all the important issues they are supposed to deal with are such a priority for them. A quick…
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