Removefiannafail

May 2006.Funny story.
I was travelling from Australia to Dublin via Singapore 3 days ago, and as I sat in the transit departure lounge,awaiting a flight to Amsterdam/Dublin I observed a serious altercation between a big ugly brute of a passport control official,and a quite attractive black woman,(nigerian I believe) well dressed with designer clothes,bags etc.He was scrutinizing her passport with a watchmakers magnifying glass.This went on for about 10, minutes, after which he told her she could not board the flight to Amsterdam,and she would have to get a letter from the irish embassy before continuing her journey.She stood her ground and after another 10 minutes he relented and allowed her to continue her journey.
I met her afterwards and she told me that she had been in China ,where her Irish passport was stolen and the Irish Embassy in Hong Kong had given her a temporary one-hence the scrutiny in the transit lounge in Singapore.Funny thing is she had never actually entered Singapore but the official was trying to force her to remain there to obtain further documentation.�
I laughed (only to myself of course) at the sight of a coal black Irish passport holder ,on her way from China, having an altercation with a Singapore passport control officer about the validity of her� documents.
How Ireland has changed.
Time was , (when Charlie Haughey was dishing them out ) ,one had to lodge a few million pounds in the country in some bank account or other-preferably to subsidise the activities of a favoured soldier of destiny.,like Albert Reynolds.�Now they are a little easier to come by.

Who coined the famous phrase:

"You lot make the Mafia look like monks ? "