Category Archives: When-in-Ireland

I just caught a few minutes of a report on Radio 1 about the dangers cyclists face on the roads and it reminded me of an almost-incident last night.

As the sun set last night, I was driving down an urban road when a girl on a bike drifted out into the middle of the road in front of me. I wasn’t driving too fast thankfully but still had to press on the brakes hard. When I was only a few feet from her she calmly looked back at us and that’s when I spotted the white buds stuck in her ears and the wire going down to her waist.

Cycling is dangerous enough on our crowded streets but why the hell would someone tempt fate and risk their own life by limiting their awareness of their surroundings?

If I had a “stupid things people do” category..

What would you do without your national tongue? Richard Waghorne argues unconvincingly that we can do without Irish.

My brother Donal provides a very fine rebuttal on his blog. Donal’s reply is startlingly cool and measured, considering how angry I feel after reading Richard’s post. You should definitely read it.

Oscar has just been groomed, washed and clipped to perfection! Leon, who runs Mobile Dog Wash called out this morning and spent the last hour on him in his van. He did a great job, and I definitely recommend him!

I'm just back from the recycling area in Blarney and I'm perplexed. There's a huge sign there saying that effective from the start of this month, papers and plastics won't be collected. The large container for these products is conspicuous by it's absence.
The sign also has "No Dumping!" written on it in pen, and some of the remaining glass containers have the warning, "No plastic bottles if you don't want these to be removed as well!"

On the ground in front of the sign lay five or six white plastic bags full of rubbish. It's more than likely wet waste as well as recyclables and as I left a young man in a hoody approached carrying another white bag. A young woman trailed behind him by a dozen feet with another white bag.

How long more will Cork County Council collect the rubbish that's dumped there before they remove the facility altogether?

Update 24 hours later: The rubbish was cleared up this morning.

Wow, former Taoiseach Charles Haughey is dead. He died about an hour ago at the age of 80, after a long illness fighting prostate cancer. RTE News has more information.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

Instead of spending 10 minutes on hold with your bank, or calling TRS at Revenue at 1890 463626 just go to http://www.revenue.ie/trs1/ where you can enter you PPS number and details of your mortgage and your bank will be informed overnight of any changes such as, oh, like getting married.
10 minutes.. grr.