Mart tales wing their way along electronic route from Singapore to Skibbereen

You can thank the man from Singapore this week that you have a mart report to peruse. But for the man from Singapore, you could well be looking at a blank page.

And the cause of this near calamity was due, not to the flooding, but that other bone of contention here in rural Ireland, namely the lack of reliable broadband.

Normally in the hills of Kilmichael our broadband is frustratingly slow, like an old mule carrying a drunk fat man up a stony incline, the pace can be anything but brisk.