Messages

Saw them in the NEC Birmingham around 20 years ago. Never saw a band and particularly Stype be as disinterested and just go through the motions. Quite liked them at the time but find them dull enough now looking back.

Do some serious howling on twitter. It would surprise you how quick companies act when they get a bit of bad publicity.

Will there be a puff of white smoke when the decision is made?

Started watching Criminal Record on Apple TV, good show so far.

Decent start alright.

Anyone watch True detective yet?

Watched it last night. Not feeling it so far.

First episode reminded me a lot of Fortitude

There is a great deal of simplistic talk on this thread.
The fact is that 6 billion people in the world cannot all come to this island, that is not a criticism of them as individuals but simply a measure of their aggregate effect.
It is not a question of race, but most of the poor people are not white, and the ability of people to integrate is function of their cultural similarity to start off with.
And while many of the Irish who went to Britain or America were builders, most of those who come here are not and do not increase the ability of the country to house people.

The Irish builders who went to the US in the 90s/00s, hung around with other Irish, drank in Irish bars, ate in Irish restaurants/coffee shops where available and when they couldn't stick it any more, came home.  Not much cultural assimilation there.

Nonsense

I've lived in the States for 30+ years

Irish people (off the boat) are almost culturally identical to Irish Americans to begin with

Many are related to people in the communities they settle in.

They are of the same religion.

They work in the same trades

The number of Irish that spend a few years there and come back vastly outnumber those that stay. I know cos I'm one of them and all the lads I worked with, every single one are back in Ireland now. They regarded the yanks mostly with bemusement, sometimes with scorn. Zero assimilation as far as I could see.

If you are from County Galway and go into a "Galway" pub in Boston you'll probably be in some way related to half the people in there.

 Yes-you'll have more in common with other "off the boat" Irish people, but your cultural DNA is almost identical to first and second generation people

I went into a pub one time and got talking to the bartender. Find out he often gave my mother a lift to a dance on the crossbar of his bike, and the his father played partners with my grandmother in 25 card games. How much "assimilation" would I need to have with his kids or my kids with him. We're essentially family

So you assimilated with the barman who was also from Ireland. Sounds like a great cultural melting pot.

Re read my post

I read it correctly. Your kids and his (second generation) will be culturally similar and hang around with each other.

How does this differ from, for example, lots of Syrians coming to Ireland and associating mainly with each other?

Re read it again

Me and his kids

My kids and him


Re the Syrians-apples and bowling balls

Incoming Syrians would be culturally identical to other Syrians but not the Native Irish

Incoming Irish (in the States) would be culturally identical to BOTH Irish Americans and other Irish people

That's ok. I get it. It can be apples and apples. We just have to wait a generation for the 2nd generation Syrian-Irish to establish and then any further Syrian immigrants can feel comfy chatting to the barman in a Syrian pub.

Oh but wait..the Irish see immigration as a tradition reserved only for themselves. Not for others to come here, only for us to go there.

Those Irish-Americans didn't appear from nowhere. They are the children of immigrants.

If you're Irish and you move to some towns in Metro Boston you're moving to a town that's 50-60% Irish American

While you might not hang out with them, culturally you are very similar if not identical

Putting 1000 Middle Eastern or African Males into a rural Irish village of 500 people is not a recipient for success

Exactly. Wonder would the boys on here crying racist be as keen to move a crowd of the c***ts in next door to them.

The c7nt beside me is from Armagh. What's he doing living in Tyrone? F7cking Armagh w**ker.

Cultural enrichment

Draw
Draw
Galway
Roscommon

Meath
Kildare
Armagh
Donegal

Antrim
Clare
Offaly
Down

Laois
Tipperary
London
Leitrim

Have ordered a rocker plate for zwifting sessions as i cant do more than 45mins without getting "sore". Anyone any experience of them?

Friend of mine bought a lifeline rocker plate. Hated it at the start but swears by it now. He couldnt manage more than 45 mins previous.
   He did say it took a while to get used to the side to side motion particularly when out of the seat. His power was down as well he said but not overly bothered as he dosen't race on zwift.

Like it so far. Bought from a company that makes them called turborocks. Went for The Realplate React Stealth. It takes the rigidity out of the static trainer. Takes a little getting used to and on the set up you just have to make sure the inflatables are equal and level. Feels very stable once you are on it.

Yeah I get that, people wearing headphones and poor awareness of what to do, but I'm only giving you my versions.

My dogs on the toepath are not on a lead, they have great recall and generally never leave my side, they hear me saying bike, and they move in behind me, the worst are people with the long bloody leads and forget about bikes, just ordinary walkers have problems with them!

If the tide is out I walk along the beach away from the path, easier for everyone.. Was out yesterday morning, frosty and ice on path, did that deter runners or cyclists? Nope! I never ran on ice and would never consider cycling when icy.

Black ice and 25c tyres. Forget about it. Local cycling club just auto cancel weekend rides if under 3c

Can someone help me with a pub discussion. Between Gay Sheerin and Cake who would have minded the nets for the rossies ?

Pre pandemic when we used to work in city centre id often cycle in. Road in as it was early and then canal towpath back. Nearly every single jogger on the towpath would have head phones in. So when you caught up with them they would react like you appeared out of nowhere. Bell wasnt much use then and yes i had one.
Saw the other night a flipping deliveroo guy on a bike. All in black no lights nada. Darwin award material.

Have ordered a rocker plate for zwifting sessions as i cant do more than 45mins without getting "sore". Anyone any experience of them?

As a "cyclist" of sorts thing that drives me mad is the petrol heads that will happily put you in a ditch but then you see them coming up on a couple of people on horseback and they are all smiles and waves. What the f**k is that about?

Not sure about the whole price thing on wine and whiskey. I order from naked wines once a year before christmas and the stuff is very nice. Say around £12 a bottle. Now i can taste the difference between £12 bottle and £6 bottle from tesco but i've tried stuff around £40 and i cant tell any difference from that to a £12 bottle. So i suppose that is my cut off point. Similar i've had bottle of £180 middleton. Give me the choice between one of those and 5 bottles of black bush i'll be taking the latter thanks.
Had bit of strange one with wine. Up until about 10 years ago would only drink white. Went on hols to tuscany and have only drank red since. Strange. Anyway whatever you like enjoy it. We all have our own tastes and quirks.

Wtf is going on with the Rwandan scheme that the British government are pushing for. So starmer stands up in parliament today and says that the maximum it can take is one hundred and for this one hundred they take in one hundred from Rwanda? Them tories should be locked up. Never mind the premise of this thing in the first place the sheer lies that go on with them is off the chart.

Smoke and mirrors. Feed the Brit public the line - aren't we great at tackling all these foreign people coming into our country? A large section of the British lap this shite up. Meanwhile, some Tory is pocketing a fortune while they have distracted everyone to look over there.

Rwanda pretty rich in natural resources so wonder if its tied in some way to that. They seemed to talk a lot about it developing etc. Brit public to foot the bill for the first 5 years of anyone deported to rwanda. Its all electioneering shite. There is accommodation for what 2 boat loads ffs. Plus if they committ a crime whilst there they can be deported back from Rwanda. Brexit still killing the tories. Not long now.....

anyone hear anything about Irish ferries? I notice on their website you can only book Holyhead Dublin up as far as the end of January which is very unusual.