Tag Archives: Ireland

the bogosphere snapshot on July 6th 2007

  • Gomaith have their own definition of fettish. In a pub of course.
  • Phil has some great photos from a few gigs held during the week.
  • Eoin wants some attention given to Gaelscoil Cluain Meala.

    … at present they are located in a victorian building previously used by South Tipperary County Council Engineering deptartment and deemed by them to be unsuitable for employees to work in so they rent it to the Gaelscoil …

    It’s a familiar story to anyone involved in primary school education unfortunately.

  • Turly says Guinness workers are leading opposition within the trade union movement to mandatory alcohol testing in the workplace. Hic!
  • Donal wants you to go to the Unitarian Church on Sunday night for Máirtin de Cógáin’s one-man show. The first night was sold out the first night so get there early!
  • Both The Swearing Lady and Grandad comment on our prime minister’s suggestion that the naysayers should commit suicide. Bloody stupid and grossly insensitive thing to say.
  • I knew I had forgotten a few blogs. Treasa has two photos in the Aer Lingus inflight magazine. I’m flying to London in a few weeks time, possibly with them so I’ll look out for the pics!
  • Richard rips apart the Independent’s website and discovers some silly JS redirects.
  • Robert can be glimpsed in the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan.

    I was one of 6 out of 300 that got picked for special placements around set because apparently I look like an intelligent American. If you look closely about 30 mins in after the battle you can see me albeit briefly.

There you go, more to come from Irish blogs next week.

News from the beaches of Cork

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..

cork.jpg

Thanks Derek for the image, anyone know where it came from originally?

You're all just jealous of Cork

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.

Pillars of black smoke rise above the city

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!

What to do this weekend?

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 Circus

MUSICIANS
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 band

COMMUNITY 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 games

The 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 workshops

TICKETS:
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!

If the mountain won't come to Google

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-cork.jpg

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!

yahoo-cork.jpg

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!

I voted today in the Irish election

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:

  • John McCarthy, an independent standing on health issues, including mental health. (yes, that is a pony tail!)
  • Noel O’Flynn, a Fianna Fail politician. He helped us a few weeks ago, although in hindsight there was little he could do. I’ll be blogging about that once an appeal is done.

I didn’t vote for the Worker’s Party, Socialist Party (same thing?), Sinn Fein or the Greens.

Around the Irish blogosphere:

  • Mel listed who he voted for.
  • Claire voted for the first time.
  • The Swearing Lady ponders the paradox that the Irish government wanted Sinn Fein to be part of the administration in the North, but nobody will touch them with a barge pole down south.
  • Adam thinks Rock the Vote was a complete failure. As I only became aware of that movement through blogs talking about it and taking the piss out of it I’d have to agree.
  • More coverage from Politics.ie, Irish Election, and of course Damien has plenty to say on the election. I rather enjoyed the grey tigers video he posted!

Can you vote on the 24th?

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?

Take a hint Mary Harney!

I’ve previously written at length about Mary Harney and my distaste for what she’s doing to the health service in Ireland so this image posted to Blogorrah made me smile.

maryout.jpg

There’s a general election on May 24th but I thought Harney would be retiring after her disgraceful stint as Minister for Health. It came as a shock that she’s actually standing in the election!

To see more of Mary Harney be sure to check out the cartoons on Langerland!

Close

Ad-blocker not detected

Consider installing a browser extension that blocks ads and other malicious scripts in your browser to protect your privacy and security. Here are a few options.

  • uBlock Origin is a free, open source, ad blocker for your browser.
  • Use pi-hole if you have a spare Raspberry Pi on your network.
  • Set the private DNS settings on your phone to dns.adguard.com to block adverts and trackers.