The recent spell of rain was quite trying in Dysart Parish and the members of the coven looked out at the sodden paths and the fields covered with water.  The  skies were grey and the air thick with suspended rain drops which gave way every now and then, and drenched them whenever they ventured forth on  their brooms.  There was a real danger that the wet weather would extinguish the very last vestige of magic in their souls.  Yet Miss Muriel knew there was work to be done and maybe this was the most opportune time to get started.

    Muriel was amused at the great dissatisfaction expressed by so many people about the state of the health service.  “Let’s hope that corporation tax holds,” she thought, “ people must have forgotten what things were like back in the 1980’s. Not a bob in the country!  No jobs!  Hospital bed closures!  Rampant emigration!  And the 2008 crash wasn’t a whole lot better either!  Oh, for he glory days of the Celtic Tiger, when everyone talked about their ‘Portfolio’s’ and  Mary Harney planned a private hospital next to every public one- what hubris!”

        Muriel thought that it was wise of the Government to get the state funded broadcaster to remind us about ‘climate change’ at every possible opportunity, lest we ever forget it for a  second and start   to question the policy of taxing fossil fuel to death, and subsidising renewals with taxpayer money where-ever possible. When the Taoiseach used the term ‘price gouging’ about forecourt operators while advising us all to ‘shop around, Miss Muriel immediately smelled a rat.  “Aha. That old political trick, deflect and distract, hasn’t died yet. The only gougers here are the Government —more than 60% of the price of diesel goes directly to the Government and VAT on the retailer in addition, and with every cent rise in price, their proportion take increases!  No wonder they need to use the deflect and distract technique! It’s incredible they use it so openly on the very week that the RTE documentary about Larry Goodman and the beef industry scandal was aired!  Politicians were brilliant at the technique back then too.  

     At times like these, Miss Muriel reached for her hawthorn tincture to give her strength and courage to face the daily barrage of bad news.  Of course she grew up with all the myths and legends about the sacred hawthorn, how it guarded the threshold between the other world  and ourselves.  Never was its magic more needed. She  decided to plant another one near her cottage for added protection.