A friend of a friend is a known advocate for addiction services / AA in Cork. A successful business man and family man.
Except itās all a cover. He manages to hold it together all year to go on the bender of all benders for 10 days every year. Any form of drink and drugsā¦ He has been locked up and bailed out numerous times so has taken it abroad in recent years. First to Portugal with my friend who barely got him home after he sold his passport. This year he took off to Beirut ā¦ Emptied the business bank account. Had his passport āstolenā againā¦ Hotel staff had locked him into his room as he was gone clane banasa. Then got deported but was not physically put on the plane and didnāt land in Heathrow where a sister was waitingā¦ With the help of irish consolate and garda liaison he was found a week later and landed back yesterday and forgiven by partner who is also his business partner
Heāll be back to preaching sobriety next week but Iām sure heās already planning next yearās trip.
The owners of my local in Leitrim has a foreign lad called Sam living next door to the pub. He is mad to get working and often asked pub owner if he had any work going.
So the owner decides to bring him to the bog to foot turf.
He didnāt hear from him much after that so enquired in a nearby shop if Sam had been around. The shop owner confirmed that he had seen him and that he had placed an advert in the window offering manual labour services.
On closer inspection of the advert, especially the two last words, explained his distance from the pub owner.
Thereās a wall on the hill in Loughrea where the Brazilians would congregate every morning for casual work, like the Irish boys in England once upon a time. A few got the bog scalding. Many were dropped off in the wonderful peatland wilderness for 8 to 12 hours and from there on they had signs saying No Bog.
The Scottie Scheffler story reminds me of a story my first cousin told at a family gathering in Raheny the same evening Sophie Toscan Du Plantier was murdered.
He had been working at that summerās Irish Open Golf tournament at Druidās Glen, possibly in one of the merchandising stalls or something like that. Anyway my cousin had no interest in golf.
One of the days it suddenly starts pissing raining and a man runs into the hut or cabin my cousin was in charge of in order to take cover from the pissing rain. This area was out of bounds to non-staff.
My cousin says to the man āyou canāt come in here, itās out of bounds to the publicā. The man responds āah come on, mate, itās pissing rainingā. My cousin insists that the man has to leave the area and go back out into the rain.
The man goes back out into the rain. A few minutes later when the rain has abated, there are autograph hunters all around the by now quite wet man.
āWhoās that man? Is he important?ā my cousin asks to another member of staff.
āOh, thatās Ernie Els. Heās one of the best golfers in the world.ā
Heard a good one last night about a local character from back in the day. He used to be leaving out nets overnight catching fish, was caught multiple times and eventually got a custodial sentance of 5 days in prison for repeat offending and failure to pay fines.
Walks into his cell and meets his cell mate - cell mate asks what was he in for? āIllegal fishing, what about you?ā
Cell mate says I got in a fight and stabs a man a dozen times, to which me man replies āwas the knife blunt?ā
ā¦ Emptied the business bank account. Had his passport āstolenā againā¦ Hotel staff had locked him into his room as he was gone clane banasa. Then got deported but was not physically put on the plane and didnāt land in Heathrow where a sister was waitingā¦ With the help of irish consolate and garda liaison he was found a week later and landed back yesterday and forgiven by partner who is also his business partner 
