Glimmer Man
A glimmer man (sometimes rendered as "glimmerman") was a name unofficially, but universally, applied to inspectors who were employed by coal gas manufacturers in Ireland to detect the use of gas in breach of rationing restrictioons during the Emergency (ie. WW2) from March 1942 and in some places as late as 1947.
The term is now used as a metaphor for bureaucratic intrusion into privacy.
The term is now used as a metaphor for bureaucratic intrusion into privacy.
"Rattled by the glimmer man, the boogie man, the holy man" - lyric from "Faithful Departed" by Phil Chevron.
"Gas could be used only on certain hours of the day and hence the arrival of the Glimmer man."
"Gas could be used only on certain hours of the day and hence the arrival of the Glimmer man."
Glimmer Man by Alberto Rosso June 9, 2009
