THE Oxegen Festival is part of the Irish summer, like the rain that often washes it out.

It attracts the world's biggest acts to our shores, with Beyonce and Coldplay playing last weekend.

For our young, it's a rite of passage, a first trip from home for many.

And with such large crowds there are always some public order and other problems, but it was reassuring to see arrests down this year.

Oxegen, like everywhere else in Ireland, is not immune to a violent incident, there's no denying that.

But this year's festival was a resounding success -- judging by the filthy, tired and happy faces returning from it at least.

Well done Gay -- he has refused to blame others for his misery

YOU CAN get mad or you can get back to work. That's what occurred to me as I read a new interview with Gay Byrne, in which he told of his financial travails.

The broadcaster, now 77, has spoken with great honesty of the straits he has found himself in, following the collapse in bank share prices that affected his pension investment.

He revealed the true extent of his worries, compounded by property investments that are now in tatters.

To some extent, Gay is the representative of the large numbers of people who invested as he did, and are now exposed to huge losses in their later years.

Honesty

Like most of them, I'm sure he would be the first to admit that he is no Rothschild or George Soros, but just an ordinary investor. In his case it was through a pension fund, but many others held personal share portfolios.

One thing that struck me about Gay's comments is his stoical acceptance of his plight, his lack of bitterness and his resignation to his fate. Surprisingly he does not engage in the blame game.

He went into bank investments with his eyes wide open, he admits.

Would that some other investors displayed the same acceptance and honesty. Because that's the difference between Gay and many others.

Gay is back at work, hosting a new TV show and that's hugely welcome. After all this man is one of the nation's greatest broadcasters, whose ground-breaking work on The Late Late Show led to important debates on abortion, contraception and other matters over the years.

The reason for his TV comeback now is, quite simply, that he is on the financial ropes again.

To his further credit, the broadcaster also battled through a bout of ill health to make the TV show. He is doing his best to get on with things, and not looking for sympathy from others.

The time has come for those who were happy to invest money in bank shares to take some responsibility for their actions, like Gay Byrne has.

They may have had idiot managers, but as shareholders they were the owners of the banks. They may complain of being powerless, but they knew that this was the case when they bought shares.

I'm not one to even defend a banker, and I have been a vociferous critic of the way senior executives behaved before and during the banking crash.

The execs at these crippled institutions have rightly attracted public opprobrium, and we're waiting for a number of individuals at different banks to be charged before the courts.

But the case remains -- and it's not popular to say it -- that investors went in with their eyes open.

Beware

In the good times they were happy to reap the benefits of their invest-ments, establishing their nest eggs.

My heart goes out to those who face ruination. But at least we live in a welfare state where people will not die of starvation on the side of a road.

The warning of caveat emptor -- 'buyer beware' -- has resounded down the ages and has never been disproved.

In the end, we must take responsibility for our own actions. We have to deal with them and try to move on -- or we will never emerge from this mess and spend the rest of our days flinging insults -- and eggs -- at one another.

I applaud Gay Byrne for taking a tough and difficult lead.

How does a convict become top priority for treatment?

WHAT'S the best way to get a bed in one of Dublin's busiest hospitals?

How about getting yourself mixed up in a feud and then shot? Because if you're a convicted criminal hospitalised after rivals try to kill you you'll have no difficulty getting a bed, it appears.

I'm talking about the case of Anthony 'The Mole' McDonagh, pictured. The Herald recently reported how this man had run up a €515,000 medical and security bill over the past 12 months.

As people lie -- and die -- on trolleys on corridors in Dublin hospitals, and others are waiting on a bed for surgery, Mr McDonagh is recovering in a bed, with garda protection at his door to vet his visitors.

His family say he may be there for another six months. And a cousin -- who called himself John -- issued a death threat against rivals on a radio show last week.

I'm not suggesting that Mr McDonagh isn't entitled, as a citizen, to treatment. He is. But, as a convicted criminal who shot another man, are there not more deserving cases for priority treatment?

- Gerry O'Carroll