Messages

America was done long before Obama came to power. It's a bit daft giving much thought to a company like Standard & Poors considering they gave Lehman Brothers a Triple A rating right up to the moment they went bankrupt. explain that Tyrone. The system was rotten to the core long, long ago. America was rotten to the core. Nothing to do with Obama. He was left with a mess that won't be fixed for a long time. Maybe never. America is a country with too many rich white guys playing golf in places like Scottsdale. Living off their wealth and not putting anything back to the system except complaining about taxes and big government. The country has stagnated. There's a few exceptions like the tech sector but that bubble will blow up soon.

heartened by the recent poll that showed that only 16% of catholics would want a united ireland the dup have launched a campaign aimed at catholic voters. what would they need to do to attract your vote?

incidentally what a damning indictment of the fine gael/labour/fianna fail/green administrations that have turned an aspiration/dream of Irish nationalists in their millions throughout the world into what many would now turn their backs on. history IMO will not look kindly on most of the "leaders" elected in the 26 since independence. doubtful if there was a patriot amongst them all.

Hardly the fault of southern pols if northern Catholics are more loyal to the half crown. I like many had to emigrate and despite the corruption I'd never turn my back on my country. It's a sad indictment of so called northern nationalists that a comfortable middle class lifestyle under British rule is preferable to austerity.

Poor form throwing the tricolour by those New York jets fans. Sure wee Rory wouldn't recognise an Irish flag if it hit him in the face.

The greatest literature has been inspired by depression, misfortune and the tragedy of the human condition. It's no surprise the lesser counties are using up vast quantities of bandwidth.

It's proved a life saver for the tourism industry up north.

Have to agree with the journalists on this one. I have noticed this goes on a lot. I was reading Joyce's Ulysses (could have benefited from a good edit) and I noticed that he didn't give any credit to Homer. It has come to my attention that some of the lines such as "we are sailing over a wine dark sea" were taken directly from Homer. But I didn't see any credit given to poor old Homer at all. I have sent my analysis off to some English professors at Trinity and UCD but haven't heard back yet. I might even send it to the journalists at Today FM who noticed Enda didn't credit Obama with his opening remarks. I'd say it would make a good news story and might take Joyce down a peg or two.

Credit has to be given to Garret for taking the steps to move Ireland out of the dark ages. I remember the divorce referendum in the 80s and how the local clergy had painted all the roads in our town in big bold letters: Vote No. The paint was there for years afterwards. Ireland was a narrow minded place back then. The Church wielded huge influence. That referendum was lost. But Garret, while being a religious man himself, was the first leader of the country to take on the church. And remember the uproar when condoms were finally legalised. Yes, that was the Ireland we had back then.

RIP Garret Fitzgerald.

For a pure reading experience the kindle is better. It uses e-ink, ie it is not backlit. So technically it is the same reading experience as print. You'd need the light on to read in bed. The new colour Nook and the iPad are backlit and after a while would burn the eyes out of your head. A lot of books are free on the Kindle, especially public domain books. So you can read a lot of the classics for free. I think the Irish Times is the only Irish newspaper available on the Kindle. The other great thing is no one knows what your reading because they can't see the cover so you don't have people in buses and trains looking at the cover of your book and trying to size you up based on what you are reading. I think it's a great device. It's also starting to do to book publishers what the the likes of iTunes did to the record companies. No harm. It and other devices like it however will also be the death of book shops, unfortunately.

Result makes a mockery of the decision to exclude non test teams like Ireland from the next world cup.

Yes and no - some of the other non test playing teams have made a mockery of the world cup. I think it was Kenya v West Indies, they were all out for 69 and the West Indies had caught their total in 8 overs. I'd be looking for a refund if I was at that match.

Cutting the number of non test playing nations is the way to go and have more stringent qualification competition to sort the really bad nations out from the not so bad

Correct me if I'm wrong but won't the next world cup only have the 10 test teams. A team like Ireland will not even have the option of trying to qualify.

Result makes a mockery of the decision to exclude non test teams like Ireland from the next world cup.

Remember after last election debate Mary O'Rourke saying that Bertie didn't just beat Enda, he "shkelped him!"

He did. Bertie and his party then went on to shkelp the country.

True.

So why doesn't Kenny come out now and admit/assert the truth about the uselessness of debates, instead of hiding behind a "suicide" remark?

Well he is going to participate on two debates - one 5 way and one 3 way. There's only ever been one debate on the past and on one occasion FF (Haughey) refused to take part, and on a second occasion Bertie only agreed to participate near election day when it was too late to have a drastic effect on voting intentions. This year FF and Labour want 3 ways debates all over the place (RTE, SKY, TV3, TG4) because they are the parties with most to gain in three way debates from FG's current lead in the polls, due to the fact that the dogs in the street know Kenny is not a good tV performer. However, FF and Labour would have a lot to lose in five way dates, mostly from Sinn Fein. I think the media - rife with FFers - are running with the Kenny the coward of the county story, however. The Indo will have a field day tomorrow with this.

Remember after last election debate Mary O'Rourke saying that Bertie didn't just beat Enda, he "shkelped him!"

He did. Bertie and his party then went on to shkelp the country.

Country seriously needs an election before any four year budget is put through or before we sign up to any bailout. Right now country is being bullied by the government and Europe annd other large special interests. An election would send out a message that we have no intention of rushing into anything. Plus all those countries rushing to lend us money are doing it to make a few bob, not for "a friend in need" reasons. It's like when you're buying a house, the mortgage companies are all fighting for the business and then the mortgage companies sell off the debt to make more on that debt and then the debt gets sold many times over. So what you have is all these leeches making money on the bailout. UK is borring money to lend to us. And they will profit on that despite what Cameron says. It's a microcosm for what caused the global financial crisis in the first place.

Thank God for the foreign media for telling us what was going on. Fianna Fail and RTE might as well hire Comical Ali to be their spokesman, such was the bullshit they've been spouting and peddaling all week. A disgraceful shower.

Galway very lucky to get out of Gaelic Park alive yesterday. There was only 1 point in it in the second half and all the momentum was with NY when ref sent off the 2 New York lads in quick succession. They also happened to be two of New York's best players. Even then Galway struggled to pull away. In fairness, it was extremely hot and suffocating weather. But only for Joyce's accuracy and class and ability to score from anywhere without using too much energy, Galway would certainly have suffered a shock defeat. They got cleaned in midfield and physically out muscled by the New York lads. The ref was throwing around yellow cards like confetti and Tommy Smyth, with mic in hand, was on the sideline trying to get the crowd going. All in all an entertaining enough game.