The great mystery of our time
By Meadbh Gallagher
Sometime close to the end of the 20th century a small
island nation sited off the coast of mainland Europe
disappeared.
Its black box was recovered later from the banks of the
Thames along with a number of its national flags. There
has since been no reported sightings of the island or
the recovered items.
However, it is believed that the island vanished in
what one survivor - the owner of a small boat and a
smaller island - described as Grotesque, Unprecedented,
Bizarre and Unbelievable circumstances.
While details are sketchy and the survivor is regarded
as an unreliable witness , it is understood that the
sequence of events which led to the tragedy was as
follows:
A large section of the island's population were
persuaded that `for the sake of peace' they must vote
the island as a nation out of existence.
already Absolutely Pissed Off minority who were not
allowed to vote in the main part of the island were
then informed by the majority that they no longer
existed. A section of that minority, who called
themselves The Greater Number, remained.
The majority then became conscious that the Greater
Number were still not happy. They reassured the Greater
Number that they really loved them and would do
anything for them.
The Greater Number rejected all foolish advances and
used unpleasant language to show their feelings.
They also refused to recognise the majority, who they
said clearly no longer existed either de facto or de
jure and words to that effect.
No longer sure of their own identity and terrified
they'd put a foot wrong outside their own territory,
the majority wandered aimlessly, eventually
disappearing into a padded limbo.
The Greater Number remained for a while watching them
vanish without trace. But then they too disappeared as
well, victims of being a figment of their own
imagination that, without support from others, were
unable to survive by themselves.
At the time, sources at Westminster played down the
incident, though they were widely credited with having
pulled off the whole extraordinary event.
Weather records suggest that a balmy, bright forecast
had been made prior to the fatal time by both British
and Irish national met offices.
Widespread warnings from several alternative
forecasters were ignored.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)