The Village: The Prisoner Comes To Galway.

"I'm not a number, I'm a free patient"!

‘The Village' is the strange setting of 1967 cult show ‘The Prisoner', which stars Patrick McGoohan. He plays the part of a secret government agent who is drugged and kidnapped after resigning from his job. In this enigmatic, isolated location he is given a new identity, as number 6; by his captors who strive to break him to find out the reason for his resignation. He soon finds out no-one can be trusted. ‘The Village' is populated by a docile, slightly sinister people, who are constantly under surveillance. Sound farfetched? Never could happen?

This is not so, as I read in the Galway Independent this week. In ‘The Village', Galway, it is a 78-bed centre that will offer nursing care for young or old, will be situated in Craughwell. It is the brainchild of Dr. Hussein Bhatti who says," The Village addresses a different stage in someone's life that should be enjoyed to its fullest potential".

What is this sinister place?

Actually it is a state of the art nursing facility that offers bowling, croquet, and a pet corner with a donkey, chickens and a mini farm, as well as wine bar.

And Galway may not be the only location of a ‘Village'.

Dr Bhatti says "The Village is bringing nursing care into the 21st century. We would like to see the facilities and services pioneered in The Village become standard in nursing care in the future".

There will be also be a state-of-the-art ‘wandering system' that will allow patients to walk ‘safely' through the complex.

Sound familiar? Nothing was mentioned in the article about whether ‘patients' would be assigned numbers, but as was often recited by the Villagers in ‘The Prisoner'; "a still tongue makes a happy life".

The Galway Independent »

The Prisoner »

aha! More villages!

http://www.thevillage.ie/

http://www.villagemagazine.ie

of course, I forgot. in the VILLAGE where I'm now sitting - Inari, in Sami Finland - there's a Sami/Nature museum called 'Siida' - Sami for 'village'

The way pensions are going at the moment, I think only the rich are going to have the priveledge of being interned in that prison...