Garda Siochana Ombudsman.

[code twinkle]

Honestly, I haven't a clue what you're saying.

I thought it was just me having that problem.

it's the confident use of smileys that makes me wonder what im missing

[louis bernard]

Honestly, I haven't a clue what you're saying.

That’s the general idea, he’s a troll having a laugh. Just don’t respond to his posts.

[stopthetrain]

Your comment does sums up the entire story since you mind, nothing to declare.

[caulfield-the-yank]

Maybe this is changing the subject -- or maybe not, who knows?

But did you see the public notice by the Garda Siochana in the Irish Times about three weeks ago?

It was the kind of thing your eyes will ordinarily just skip over: A notice in dense legalistic English prose, with the translation into Irish just below it. Routine stuff.

But wait? Since when does "Garda Siochana" need to be translated into Irish??

The eye reverts to the text. Irish my foot! That's Polish! ("Polizei".) And below that is a translation of the notice into Chinese (I think).

Of course, then I had to go back to read the English text.

My conclusion?

It was obvious that the message had originally been composed in Irish -- by a lawyer.

From Irish, it had been translated into Chinese -- in a collaborative effort between a student struggling to get a Pass on the Leaving Cert and one of workers at the local take-away.

From Chinese, it had been translated into Polish -- perhaps by a recent emigre who used to handle diplomatic communiques between Warsaw Pact nations and such Asian allies as North Korea and Vietnam -- but, of course, not China.

And then from Polish it had been rendered into English -- once again by a lawyer -- though not, of course, the same one who had originally composed the message in Irish.

There would simply be no other way to explain the opacity of this legal notice.

Perhaps this also explains the initial post of this thread!