Why keep taking the pills ?

"Doesn't it make you really f***ing furious to hear everyone being so bloody angry these days? We were always an angry nation. The national psyche had a big pink scar across it, usually in the shape of a Christian Brother's palm. But over the centuries we have learned to channel our deep, seething fury into traditional avenues, such as alcohol problems, violent domestic dysfunction or just legging it to England, never to be seen again.

Today, though, it's acceptable to publicly rage against everything or just anything. The hospitals, the Government, the trains, the roads, the house prices, all prices, the rich, the poor, the greedy, the lazy, the neighbours, the neighbours kids, those f***ing fireworks going off for two months now.

We blame previous generations for the past, blame this generation for the present and hate the next generation for screwing up the future. Meanwhile Justice Minister Michael McDowell recently blamed the media for 'handing out the angry tablets'. Angry tablets? Nobody told me that free angry tablets were being handed out. That makes me so f***ing mad."

Shane Hegarty's Encyclopedia Of Modern Ireland, The Irish Times, Saturday, October 15, 2005