Saturday 9 June 2012

Silly comments

A friend told me how he was making a railway journey across Ireland. The train was very slow, and stopped at a great many tiny villages in the depths of the countryside, until at one point it halted at a station where there were no houses at all, though in the distance there appeared to be some kind of settlement. My friend asked a fellow-passenger, "I wonder why they built this station such a long way away from the town?"
"Oh", came the reply, "I think that was because they wanted it to be near the railway!"

I suppose we would have to call this "Irish logic". I remember reading of some similar reasoning years ago in a newspaper. An Irish footballer (I forget his name) was revisiting his home town, where the station was famous for having two clocks which always showed different times. He discovered that it was still the case, and asked the station-master why this should be. The reply came, "And what would be the point of having two clocks if they both showed the same time?"

A much more sinister note is struck in the following joke from Ulster, during the recent "troubles" there:-
Stranger: "Can you tell me the quickest way to get to the hospital, please?"
Ulsterman: "Sure: go into the Bogside and shout "Sod the Pope!""

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