Everything Ireland thread

[Trollheart]

Be the hokay! If Shhon can have a China thread, why not one about me own fair country, loike? Faith and begorrah, tis fit an' well ye're lookin', soft day thank God etc.

Ask any questions about Ireland here (no, for the last time, there are NO more Leprechaun hunts: they live happily in concentration camps ghettos on reservations in specialised housing districts now) and I'll throw Irish-related news at you, and any snippets of interesting information that may occur from time to time.

Oh and yes, crude Irish jokes are fine too. We're well used to it.

The blessin's of God on ye. May the road rise afore ye and keep ye safe from joyriders, and may ye be in Heaven half an hour before the Divil checks his feed and updates your status!

[innerspaceboy]

I have a dear friend in a neighboring city who moved to the States from Ireland. He's a phenomenal painter, (he painted James Joyce and Miles Davis which I've shared previously), and he has a predilection for Irish landscapes.

At a public library sale this past weekend I grabbed a massive oversized hardcover photo book of Ireland which I'm going to gift him when I see him for Halloween. If he finds inspiration for even a single painting from the book, it will have been worth the price.

If you have any additional Irish photography resources to share, I'd welcome them.

[Trollheart]

OY VEY, MARIA! IRELAND TAKES ON ISRAEL!

Okay not quite, but relations between the "Little Satan" and the "Land of Saints and Scholars" have been seriously deteriorating over the past few months, mostly, you'll not be surprised to hear, over our support for the Palestinian state, which Israel don't like at all, divil a man if they don't. I mean, our government (such as it is) have been very careful not to antagonise the Israelis, but apparently just admitting and affirming a people has a right to exist is being anti-semetic. Who knew? So that was the first burr we inadvertently (or perhaps not) put under Netanyahu's saddle. This was followed by our president (a figurehead if ever there was one) having the temerity to send a standard congratulation letter to the new leader of Iran, after the previous lost his argument with a mountain and a helicopter. The letter was, as I say, standard, but Israel, touchy fucks, took it as a direct insult, as if we should run all our policy decisions past them. Didn't we fight to become a republic so that we wouldn't have to kowtow to any country? Oh yeah, and then ratified the Maastricht treaty and gave all our sovereignty away. Oops! But more to the point, wasn't it a short seventy-odd years since the Jews were being told what to do by a beliggerent power? And they didn't like it. Well, who would? But now they're almost copying the Nazis by ordering everyone about and telling them how to think, and finding new and inventive ways to cry and wail about how put-upon they are and how Europe hates them.

Look, like any normal person, I have the greatest sympathy for the Jews. For the Second World War Jews, anyway. I've watched multiple programmes on how horrible it was for them, the murder perpetrated against them, and I've often been moved to tears at the stark reality of man's inhumanity to man, so I hope I can count myself as anything but an anti-semite. But the Jews today seem to me to be like abused children who have grown up to become abusers themselves, and I think it's not far from the truth to call what the State of Israel is doing now, in first Gaza and now Lebanon and Iran, as fascism, indeed, terrorism. It amazes me how subservient the US remains. Why do they fear Israel so much? They operate almost as a vassal state. Maybe someone can explain that to me?

Anyway, enough rambling. Our latest head-butt with Israel is the threat today from the IDF to move our UN peacekeeping forces out of Lebanon "for our own safety". They're clearly saying, "It's all right lads, the real men have arrived. We'll take it from here now. Off yiz go to the pub. Actually, go anywhere, we don't give a fuck. Just get out of our way. How dare you protect these Lebanese? What are you: anti-semites?" An UN-mandated peacekeeping programme, supported by 149 countries, should step aside because the Israelis want to kill innocent people (who of course will be said to have been sheltering or used by HAMAS or Hezbollah or whoever, take your pick), bomb hospitals, destroy schools and target residential blocks, kill mothers and children? As we say here, ye wide or wot? Trouble is, our PK forces aren't exactly armed to the teeth, so unless international pressure can be brought to bear (and we've seen how that's worked with Israel so far) I think some of our lads are going to get killed before this gets any better.

So, what's next? Can we expect Israeli warplanes overhead? Israeli tanks rumbling through Darndale? Well, if so, they can expect to return to Tel Aviv a few parts short - it's just like that here, and they only have themselves to blame. In reality, of course, Israel is not going to attack a NATO country, even one as piss-useless as us, because then they will really be in the shit. But the sniping goes on, the accusations fly, and I wouldn't be too surprised if some day in the near future the Israeli embassy closes down here.

Sure, wouldn't Hitler have been proud, and yelling, with spittle flying from his lips "I told you so!" Ah yeah, but there's one point, one important point to remember there, and it's this: Hitler was a cunt.

Links provided if you want to read them.
Irish ambassador reprimanded over recognition of Palestinian State
President Higgins accuses Israel embassy of circulating letter to Iran
Irish Peacekeepers threatened in Lebanon

[Trollheart]

Well, ISB, if you know Irish art (and I don't) you'll be aware of the beautiful and phenomenal work of our own Jim Fitzpatrick, some of which appears on the almost-unavailable-but-damn-worth-hunting-down album Erinsaga. It also can be found on Thin Lizzy's albums.





His art is very distinctive, and of course he also made that famous photograph of Che into an iconic art image.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Fitzpatrick_(artist)

[Trollheart]

Tá deartháir mór ag faire ort

or



Ah, it's always fun to read a new scandal story about the people whose main claim to service seems to be that they'll put you down "somewhere close" to where you actually want to go, i.e., anywhere within a few hundred miles! Oh, and don't worry that the aircraft seems to be straining at the seams: these are the very latest Boeing 737s, winner of the Small Airliner of the Year Award. Yeah, for 1964, but sure, these dependable workhorses are as reliable now as they ever were - what? The sound of popping rivets? Ah here, now! Ye're causin' a scene, sir! I'll have to ask you to leave.

Yeah, it's the ever-popular, never boring, cheap as chips airline, the bane of Aer Lingus and self-respecting air travellers everywhere, the one, the only...

(Is there something ominous about an airline carrying on its tail a representation of a musical instrument usually associated with clouds and angels? No? Just me then.)

The latest reason for "Ireland's Second Airline" (we don't have a third) to  hit the news is their insistence that your own ID is not enough to gain access to their mighty emporia in the sky, and they now demand that they carry out their own hilarious form of facial recognition before you can board. Oh yes. It seems intending passengers now have to prove they are who they are by, um, taking a photograph and then carrying out what the techies at Ryanair call "a liveness check" (is that even a word? Liveness?) which apparently involves making various gestures and movements to show that it is you. I know what kind of gesture they'd get from me! Actually though, to be serious for a moment, I don't even understand how this works! You give them your passport, then take a photo to confirm it matches the one in the passport, but if it doesn't, how does dancing around like someone who has inadvertently ingested some MDMA help prove you are who you are? Oh, and just to add insult to injury, you have to PAY for this public humiliation! Yes, it's only 59 cents but it's the principle of the thing. Would you not be outraged if someone, I don't know, tweaked your nose in public and then held out their hand for a few coins? Fifty-nine fucking cents? The least the bastards could do is eat that!

Anyway, they're under investigation now by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) to see if these frankly ludicrous and unnecessary measures contravene passenger's personal data rights under GDPR. Oh and now I see their game! It's only passengers who book through "third-party travel agents" who get subjected to this degrading pony show! So what Ryanair are saying, reading between the lines on the small print, is that if you don't want your family and friends and strangers laughing at you as you perform your best impression of Rowan Atkinson before they let you on the plane, book through OUR agent! Canny fuckers. Let's hope the DPC serves a notice on them. Unbelievable.

DPC to investigate Ryanair "verification" methods

[Trollheart]

Ah, Jaysus! Would yiz go back to school, there's a good bunch o' lads!

Got to love the government! Well, you don't really, especially when they're being intentionally thick as the proverbial two planks of whatever length you prefer yourself. With a 14 Billion (that's Billion, with a B, like the TV programme) windfall from Sir Isaac Newton's favourite falling fruit, in recognition of the fact that the late Mr. Jobs' company had been avoiding its tax bill like Trump avoiding explaining his policies, and the wagging finger warning that we won't be seeing any of it in the new budget (which we did not), what did the badly-underfunded and desperately crying out for cash education system need most, do you think? More teachers, better paid? Better facilities? A computer or tablet for every student? A HD TV in every teachers' lounge? More up-to-date textbooks? Better infrastructure?

Nah, nah, nah mate: ye've got it all wrong, so ye have. Sure, any man with half a brain in 'is noggin knows that the one thing every school needs, before anything else, is....

pouches for the kids' mobile phones.

No, I am being serious! Every school will now have the option of having pouches installed where the kids can leave their phones in the morning and collect them in the evening. So they don't get distracted in class, y'know? And the price of this bold new initiative? Well, at 20 Euro per phone and multiplying that out over 700 schools we get the round figure of .... 9 million Euro!

Nine. Fucking. Million. Euro.

How many teachers could have a raise from that? How many books could be bought? How many heating systems repaired? How much equipment could be bought? But no, the kids can now happily (hardly) deposit their phones at the school limits, like gunslingers in the Old West surrendering their shootin' irons to the sheriff when they enter town - don't worry boys: ye'll get them back when you ride on out.

I mean, these are not just cases, but some sort of self-sealing pouch that prevents access to the phone by the kids until it's presumably opened by the teacher or on some sort of a time lock. Can anyone see the point in this? Is it not going to be a case of most/all of the kids just not dropping their phones in the pouches and hiding them in class, using them when teacher isn't looking?

Is there to be, in addition to the pouches, some sort of hi-tech scanning system, as kids become skeletons walking across a screen till the tell-tale shape of a mobile phone is picked out and alarm bells go off, armed guards appearing from nowhere screaming "DROP THE PHONE! DROP IT IN THE POUCH NOW! SLOWLY! THIS IS YOUR FIRST AND FINAL WARNING!"

And what about those kids who, after a long day spent learning probably little anyway, leg it out of school (who ever wanted to hang around, really?) and forget their precious phone? Are they going to be able to get it back? What if phones get mixed up? What's the legal liability if someone's phone gets broken, and who's taking responsibility for their care while not in the possession of their owners?

More to the point, how exactly is this massive windfall to be spent? Eh? I bet we won't hear much about that!


Answers on a postcard please, and if you don't know what that means, then maybe you should have paid more attention in class, instead of checking your Instagram!

Apple funds cannot be used for day-to-day spending
Pouches for Phones in Schools "unfathomable" decision

[Trollheart]

Air Marshals on Buses? Only in Ireland!

Yeah, seems the level of "anti-social behaviour" (read, thuggery and intimidation plus drunkeness and just general shitheadness) has risen to such a worrying level that we are now, I think, the first country to employ dedicated security guards on our buses! They're not armed, they have no powers, but still, I kind of applaud the move (while still deploring the necessity for it) as it will hopefully make these arseholes think twice before kicking off. It should provide protection for drivers and passengers, and that can only be a good thing.

Until...

The word gets around that these guys are basically powerless and are not stationed on every bus, but rather, jumping from one to another like some sort of demented platform game characters, and either some guy or group of guys decides to show their hardness by taking them on ("Yeah? Whatcha gonna do?" etc) or just waits till they've moved on to another bus to start trouble. Still, I reckon it's something, but it certainly shows, not only the world we're living in, but how dangerous a simple event like taking the bus has become in Ireland.

Security Guards begin operating on Dublin bus services

[Trollheart]

Suffer the Children...  

I can't even. There's a special place in Hell for these people. Read at your own risk. Recommend you have hanky at the ready.

Man jailed for abuse and death of young child

[Lucem Ferre]

I've watched The Banshees of Inisherin so I'm well educated on Irish culture.

[Trollheart]

Come on, man! You know where to get the real story about us Irish!

[QuantumSync]

[QuantumSync]

A Irish historian I follow online all over social media is now living in NYC and he posted this the other day.

Th IRA were ambushed in NYC?

[QuantumSync]

https://x.com/sinnfeinireland/status/1846891390673809700

[QuantumSync]

he explained it this morning

[QuantumSync]

Oct 22, 2024
On Monday, the Dublin City task force announced its proposals to clean up the city centre of our capital. But how bad is anti-social behaviour in Dublin and right across the country? Katie Hannon discusses the issue with her studio audience.