Our gubmint is "looking into" allowing pubs open on Good Friday.

Not only is it about time, but it really shouldn't be any of their fucking business in the first place.

This Good Friday lark harks back to the black days when Ireland was priest ridden, and any law had to be cleared by the Archbishop before it went to the vote.  He demanded that pubs be closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day and so it became the law of the land.

Those days are mercifully gone but some vestiges remain.  It's time the stains of the Bad Old Days were erased.  If pubs want to open every day of the year then that should be up to them.

Another remnant I would love to see abolished is the Bongs at Six.  At six in the evening RTE radio and television suspend normality and subject us to "The Angelus".  This consists of a dreary monotonous bell droning for a minute, supposedly to give us a chance to pray or "reflect".  It is one of the most depressing sounds imaginable, and is a mockery of our claims to be pluralist.

For those who want to see this relic of the past retained, I would ask how they would feel if a mosque were to be built in their neighbourhood and for them to be subjected to the horrible wail of a Muezzin yelling into a microphone at regular intervals.  They would be quick enough to complain, yet there is precious little difference.

Apart from anything else, that Angelus thing fucks up my Sky Box.  The television program before six ends at six, but the News doesn't come on until a minute past, so this leaves a black hole in the schedules which fucks up the programming.  If I switch on the television at six and select RTE it doesn't know what to do and asks me if I want to set a reminder for a programme that according to the on-screen schedule is already running.

If people want to pray at six, then that is fine by me.  Feel free.  I won't object.  Just do it quietly and don't subject me to your tacky little video vignettes and that ghastly sound.

If they wish to abstain from the demon drink on a Good Friday then that is fine by me too.  I just don't see why I should be banished from the pub just to satisfy their cravings for religious relief.

Or could it be that the gubmint is still scared of a belt of the crozier?