Following the news that €105m worth of cocaine was recovered from the waters off West Cork over the last 2 days it appears that some people have been down to the beaches helping Gardai with their investigation..
Thanks Derek for the image, anyone know where it came from originally?
Kathy Foley is right on the ball with her article, You’re all just jealous of Cork from last weekend’s Sunday Times! I was going to post this tomorrow but as Damien beat me to the punch here it is for everyone else to enjoy too.
Life as a Corkonian in Dublin often seemed like one long session as a judge at a terrible talent show. You had to smile through gritted teeth at the impressionists: “So you’re going to do a terrible version of a Cork accent? Great, go on then. It’s only the 12th time today.” You had to laugh at the jokes, or should I say the joke, as it was almost always the same one. Had I heard the one about the Cork mother who says, “My son, the solicitor, is drowning”? Yes, very good. It gets funnier every time.
Justin tagged me for the latest blog meme. Link to Irish charities to improve their pagerank. Looking through the list I see a lot of non-Irish charities and foundations, but I guess they all do good work.
The list of charities so far is:
I’ve added a link to the ISPCC above. Seems like the obvious choice given that my brother has gone to Africa to raise funds for them, it’s the least I could do!
Who will I pass it on to? Ken, Mel and Donal can carry the baton now.
There’s another thing to consider now that this list of links is doing the rounds on Irish blogs. Google is fairly smart. They may very well spot the same text and links, and penalise sites. I don’t know for sure, but they do discount “link exchange programs” so it’s highly likely they’ll notice this meme too.
They may also discount links if many links are seen with the same anchor text. Does this happen if you link with the name of the charity and that name is in the page title or domain? I don’t know, but there be smart boys and girls working at Google!
The Government of Ireland is split into two houses. The first House is the Dail where politicians make important and not so important decisions and talk endlessly on matters of State. The second House is the Seanad. This is a little known and secretive group of people who are elected in a complicated election by a small subset of the Irish public.
Who can vote for the Seanad? If you went to University you can, so my wife Jacinta can. She filled in her ballot sheet this morning and while she was wondering who to give her No. 1 vote to I read the newspaper and came across Kathy Foley’s article in the Sunday Times, So what is the Seand for? It’s a very entertaining and cutting look at the Seanad and if you’ve wondered about them you should go read it in full. Here’s a taster for you on this Saturday afternoon:
What happens in the Seanad?
Very little. Senators sit about on comfy leather seats and engage in witty badinage. Unlike the upper houses of parliament in other countries, our senate cannot veto bills from the lower house. It can merely delay them a little. If the Dail passed a bill forcing all citizens to wear yellow hats and blue shoes, the Seanad could object in the strongest possible terms and put the whole plan off for a few weeks. That would give us just enough time to dye our hats and spray paint our shoes.
…..
Sometimes our senators go to America, where they are celebrated everywhere they go. This is because Americans confuse their sort of senators, who are very influential, with our sort, who aren’t.
So there you have it folks. Don’t feel too bad if you can’t vote, but do feel bad if you can’t get a nomination to stand for a €60,000 a year, 2 day a week job.
It’s not often that the Gardai are caught on Youtube, or so I thought …
Reclaim the streets – Gardai take a heavy handed approach to clearing the streets.
Yes, it’s bonfire night again. Driving past the Blackpool Shopping Centre I counted at least 3 thick plumes of black oily and dirty smoke rising from close by. I hope nobody lighting fires around the city objected to the incinerator in Ringaskiddy, those fires probably released more toxins and chemicals than a year of incineration.
Thankfully this year there wasn’t a fire locally. Last year’s bonfire was quite a spectacle but I’d hate to think of baby Adam breathing in all the crap released from burning tires and sofas. Anyway, the good people over at PROC are discussing the night and reminded me that I had researched the origin of the night a while back.
Driving down the Commons Road also proved to me the futility of yet another road safety campaign. At one end of the road a crashed car is displayed for all to see. It doesn’t seem to make a blind bit of difference to drivers as they speed along at 60 to 80kph in a 50kph zone. Granted, the road is long and straight and served by two lanes in either direction but that’s not the point. There are always some pedestrians walking along there. I do admit a certain amount of satisfaction when I inevitably catch up with the offenders at the numerous traffic lights. I bet this busy road will be the location of at least one speed camera when the 600 are introduced in the future.
I need to read and absorb 5 Powerful Reasons to Drive Slower, and How to Do It, driving with speeding maniacs on the road has never been a serene experience for me. (via Dave’s Picks)
Later .. Niall rants about the bad driving he sees on Irish roads. Crazy stuff!
This weekend will be a busy one in Cork but I think we’re going to try to take it easy and not stress ourselves too much trying to enjoy it too much!
This weekend a Capoeira festival will be held in the city. On Saturday morning there will be a demonstration at 10:30 in front of Brown Thomas on St. Patrick Street, followed by workshops in Blackrock GAA club. Looks like a latin party on Saturday night and a BBQ will follow the workshop on Sunday! Not sure if I can make it but I’ll try to be there. I must dig up some more of my Capoeira photos next week.
In Blackpool The Festival of the Bulls will be held from 12pm to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday. There’s more info on the Whazon website but I’ll copy it here because they don’t have any archives unfortunately.
THE FESTIVAL OF the BULLS – Community Carnival
Saturday and Sunday 12pm – 6pm
STREET PERFORMANCES
Be Your Own Banana Company, That Man, Amani Acrobats, The Svetlana show, Bui Bolg, Mr.Cro, The Incredible Bull Circus and Cork CircusMUSICIANS
The spectacular Burundi Drummers, Filipino dancers and drummers chorus, The 40 piece Youghal Ceile House band with dancers, Southern Brigade Army Brass band, The Mayfield Brass band, The Cork City String Quartet The Clubmen Swing band , The award winning Polyphonic Barbershop Chorus, The Christ Restoration Life Ministries Gospel Choir, Traditional musicians doing walkabouts, Blackpool Youth Club song and dance show, Isis Youth bandCOMMUNITY EVENTS
Duck races , Blackpool Treasure hunt, Pub Quiz
Food Market, Arts & Crafts Stalls, Massage area, Balloon modellers, Face painters, Penalty Shoot outs Community Art exhibition, Programme of local film documentaries, Programme of Award winning Irish films , Exhibition of original drawings by Seamus Murphy, Amateur Photography exhibition, Re-dedication of the Grotto, Dublin Hill, Planet gym health club demonstration and Children’s gamesThe Bulls Mart
The market will feature over 40 local producers and slow food promoting traders along with local craft and jewelry stalls.Sunday 3rd June at 4.30pm
BULL RUN
The climax of the festival will be the inaugural Blackpoll Bull Run. Although the bulls have long since left the streets of Blackpool the Carnival bulls will be out in force, creating havoc, making noise, inciting madness and generating excitement. It will be a riot of Brazilian carnival, freaky metallic bull bikes and puppet bulls, along with dancers, drummers, butchers, witchdoctors and warriors. All of them painted head to toe, shouting, singing and dancing crazy.The public will be invited to participate in the event which promises to be an incredible sight and a fitting remembrance of what once was, of what built this city, this area, this people and this culture.
Sunday 3rd June
Bull puppet workshops
Dowtcha puppets will be holding puppet making workshopsTICKETS:
BOOKING/INFO:
VENUE: Blackpool Retail Park
I have a feeling you’ll find us at the beach if the weather is nice or even mildly ok. It’s been a while, before Adam was born even, and the pull of the ocean is strong!
While posting yesterday’s photo I used Google Maps to find the name of the quay where it was taken. Unfortunately, the map wasn’t exactly correct.
Google Maps put Patrick’s Hill down by the River Lee where Camden Place should be. Also, since when did Merchants Quay go across Christy Ring Bridge? Yahoo Maps have it right however so it’s best to double check before you plan your journeys!
The Weekend section of the Irish Examiner has a lengthy piece on blogging. Unfortunately it starts out interviewing Perez Hilton but the second part concerns itself with Irish bloggers. The usual suspects are represented there plus a few you may not have heard of. Good read!
Thanks Celine for taking care of Adam while we went and voted! I can’t remember who I gave all my votes to but the first two went to:
I didn’t vote for the Worker’s Party, Socialist Party (same thing?), Sinn Fein or the Greens.
Around the Irish blogosphere:
My dad texted me to ask if I was registered to vote in Blarney because he checked the electoral register and neither Jacinta or I were found there. I know we’re registered because we filled in and sent off the forms months ago and we’re receiving junk mail from politicians to prove it! Nevertheless I went to checktheregister.ie to check the electoral lists and sure enough we’re there. You have to scroll down quite a bit because the list of place names similar to our address is quite long. It’s still got an awful interface btw.
Like Michele, both of us can vote in two places. So much for the famous cleanup of the lists last year. They obviously weren’t that careful checking. Would I be commiting a crime if I voted twice? I wonder what the penalty for doing so is? What about a spoiled vote? Does that count?