You’re a hard man Kirby

‘You’re a hard man Kirby’. The solemn judgement of cop A as with the back up of three other interrogators he expressed his frustration at the direction of progress in his investigation of a crime of astonishing daring under his very nose. For what ten year old tot was being accused of was grand theft from …. the police station itself!! Ye are reading it right. Since that fateful day no less than yourselves I’ve read and heard about a vast array of crimes and criminals but I’m willing to bet small money that none of ye has ever come across a ten year old criminal with the balls of steel required to pull a heist on the 87th precinct itself! The charge was that I had brazenly in the middle of the day walked into the fully manned and operational police station and removed the sergeants sons football. The only weakness in their case so far was that upon arrest by FOUR officers the football was nowhere to be seen. This piece of inconvenience was of no import however to the boys in blue. All I could produce was the poor mans alley-ball (coloured a mousy green you may recall) as opposed to the regular black alley-ball. Two hours in and with no confession admitted, the law officers threw in the towel and tot was released with a warning. If that happened in the Ireland of today tot would be good for a million in compo. In the Ireland of 1964 tot would have been good for a clip around the ear or so he thought. At all events this episode was not relayed to his parents. Recently, BLM (black lives matter) protests in the u.s have found support this side of the pond. In my opinion Irish people would do well to let America sort out its own problems and we see to ours. The inference that Ireland or any other country for that matter are bastions of freedom and tolerance and not a bit like those crazy yanks is it seems to me too smug by half and is usually trotted out by the people born on the right side of the tracks. Old abe Lincoln said it best as usual ,’forget money’ he advised, ‘ if you want to know a mans character, give him power’.