Friday, December 15, 2006

Beer and Chips.

What is it that would make a gentle weight watching soul such as myself decide lots of pints of Carlsberg and then-horror- salty chips from the 'chuppor' was a veeery good idea?
I blame my brother. Oh yes I do. I also blame various other people. This way I can absolve myself of any responsibility and carry on living a carefree and blameless life. At least I work from home, my dear brother is probably lying across his desk in a puddle of slurm right this moment.
Tee-heee....oh who am I kidding, the back of my head might fall off if I laugh too hard.

Anyhoo on to the news. So Padraig Nally has been set free. I blogged about this at the time, I believe any man has the right to protect himself and his property, but I also believe when Nally followed an already wounded and fleeing John Ward out onto the road to shoot him a second time, he crossed the line.
Last year, the bachelor farmer was handed a six-year sentence for the manslaughter of Mr Ward. But in October the jury verdict was overturned and Mr Nally was freed from jail.
He was freed after the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that Judge Paul Carney, the High Court judge at the original murder trial, had erred in law by failing to allow the jury the opportunity to return a verdict of not guilty.
Well now, he's a free man. It will be interesting to see what precedent this sets for future cases of trepass.

And to the three chaps who refused to be airlifted by a coastguard helicopter after getting into difficulty in rough seas could be facing fines of up to €2,000 each.The three men, who were part of a larger surfing group, got into trouble in dangerous conditions and were washed onto rocks at Aill na Searracht, half a mile north of the Cliffs of Moher.

They had used jet-skis to travel almost three kilometres from Doolin to reach the notorious surf location, which is not accessible from land because of the 100-metre cliffs.

Forty people took part in the rescue effort off the Cliffs of Moher on November 24 after the men's situation was reported.

But when the Shannon-based Irish Coastguard helicopter was scrambled to the scene and a winch man descended to rescue the men, they refused because they did not want to lose their jet-ski and surfboards.
'You're drowning. Hang on lads. I'll have to take you up one at a time.'
'No thank you.'
'What?'
'Were just gonna stay here, with our stuff you know? This board is hand tooled and Bri paid like, you know, a total fortune for his ride. Didn't you Bri?'
'Gurgle gurlgel guegelee?'
'Yo, Diarmid, I totally told you to keep his head above water?'
'I am man, but I totally just nearly hit this rock? And then I had like, to let go?'
'Sucks.'
'Totally.'
'Bri, like swim?'
'Garghgheeegrgllef.'
'Oh no way, hey winch dude, could you just like move? I've gotta get Bri up there before he totally drowns?'
'Idiots! You're all going to be fined.'
'Whoa, neg man, like nobody asked you to come here, right Diar?'
'Right. Oh man, check out Bri, he totally gone down for the third time?'
'barbel....
'Awesome.'

This is an odd one. Is it against the law to refuse to be rescued? If my car breaks down on the side of the road and I refuse all offers of help am I breaking a law? How can they be fined for not being rescued?

11 Comments:

Blogger Kim Ayres said...

It reminds me of when suicide was a hanging offence...

Thought I might just draw your attention to the festive stories going on at Blunt Cogs and Monstee's masterpiece creation.

If you want to pen any scripts then be sure to email them :)

10:41 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Suuuuweeet... those surfer dude type guys who do the North Atlantic waves in the winter are proper hard chaws. What they go out to surf on a 'good' day would make me wet me suit.

I disagreed with your earlier blog on the Nally case, I hope he's left alone now.

12:44 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

I know you did Conan, but that's okay. Man those surfer dudes, hardy all right. But is it illegal to refuse help?

2:37 p.m.  
Blogger Andraste said...

It should be illegal to be an idiot. Those rescue guys put their lives at risk just getting out there and sending a guy down on a wynch. And those rescue operations cost a mint every time - taxpayer money. So they should at least be fined whatever costs were incurred by the rescue team.

Roadside assistance is a different story. Any person who pulls over to help a stranded motorist COULD be a freak/rapist/murderer. If you refuse anyone's help except for the tow truck you called or the friend who's on his way, you're better off.

And I will now drink my coffee and take some cold medicine, and my sense of humor shall return, forthwith.

2:47 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

HOney if it were illegal to be dumb there wouldn't be many folk walking about free. Poor thing, are you still unwell?

2:59 p.m.  
Blogger Andraste said...

Thankfully, Cat, drifting OUT of the arena of the unwell, and getting better as the clock ticks merrily towards 5 o'clock!

5:01 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's all about recovering the cost of the rescue mission.I had the honour of being winched off a boat(non-sinking variety) by that very helo a few years back.The crews practice such ops daily and we knew one the pilots very well.They were delighted to play with live bods and we got a free ride in a jellywopter.
It's an impressive operation they have and it is seriously expensive.The 6K from the fines wouldn't cover the Jet fuel burned.
I don't think it's illegal to refuse rescue but just look what went into getting to the point where someone could hear that refusal.
Those lads went out there intentionally and set in motion a series of events that they have to bear responsibilty for.
Cough the bobs up dudes and be grateful there is a Coast Guard helo close enough to make a difference nowadays.Not so long ago we would have had to call the RAF in (Hat well off to those lads) to do the job.

6:46 p.m.  
Blogger fatmammycat said...

How exciting. I"d quite like a helicopter ride-albeit without the accident/sinking part. You're right of course, they should pay up-morally speaking. But I'm just wondering about the legalities of it all.

7:27 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

seems to me the surfers were not in real danger, - someone presumed they were. There is obviously a huge risk in ride those waves in winter, as their is any wave over 10 feet, but if they were willing to take on that risk, fair play. If I had gone to all that trouble to surf a big wave, and didn't feel I was in danger I wouldn't want to be "rescued" just because someone presumed I was in trouble. They didn't ask for the coastguard to come out, so they shouldn't have to pay for anything.

12:42 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Belatedly agreeing with John Mc. And, presumably, if they didn't avail of the service they either drowned or got home safely under their own steam?

Legalities? If they didn't call out the coastguard rescue themselves then they shouldn't have to fork up

10:12 a.m.  
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2:48 p.m.  

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