April 21, 2003
Four legs good, two legs bad…
I'm very tempted to frame the front page of this week's Western People.
The headline story "Satellites keep watch on Mayo sheep habits" reports that 20 sheep are to be fitted with transmitters that will enable their located to be recorded (via GPS). The data will be beamed to the Teagasc centre in Athenry. And why the interest in this coalition of the woolly ? As mentioned previously, sheep are slowly but surely munching their way through the west of Ireland. There is a plan to reduce the number of sheep, and the satellite tracking is intended to give scientists a view of the sheeps grazing patterns.
Better still is the other main story "Barnacoll woman has narrow escape after cow attack". Again, modern radio technology played a key part in the story. The woman in question, a sister-in-law of music mogul, Louis Walsh, found herself cornered by an irate bovine on her farm this week.
I had a mobile phone on me and I tried to ring a few numbers but could get no answer. I managed to get through to my cousin T. J. down the village and he arrived just after Noel came out from the house. Noel got the cow away with the shovel and put her out of the building.
I know that some farmers play music to their cows because it seems to calm them. Maybe she made the mistake of playing Westlife.
Sometimes I think that the country is destined to turn into one giant suburb, with every last vestige of what makes this country unique slowly but surely extinguished. As long as stories like this appear, we're safe…
In a seemingly unrelated story, a bird flew into the engine of a Ryanair plane, knocking out the engine and forcing it to return to Dublin. Evidence that the animal kingdom is turning against us is either a sign of the coming apocalypse or perhaps just coincidence. Just don't turn your back on Daisy or Fluffy…
Posted by Monasette at April 21, 2003 12:37 AM