64 thoughts on “De Thursday Papers”

  1. Diddles

    John O’Shea was one of the good guys. I’m surprised he’s continuing to play club football

  2. Frilly Keane

    No siders now claiming bias
    (Google YouTube ad bans)

    Ara’ GTF would ye

    Shur’ twas only days ago they were insisting they know nothing about all the bullspit ads, posters and guerilla banner holders

    Is it any wonder I’m off me rocker wi’ it all

    1. newsjustin

      Ah fair play to Google for stepping in to support Repeal. With the Yes vote continuing to slide with every poll, it could be an important intervention. Every little helps as they say.

      Anyway, obviously a little start-up like Google couldn’t be expected to verify the location of it’s advertising clients in Ireland. They’re not Facebook!

      2. Frilly Nation : The Rupture is real

        Shur’ what are ya getting snarky for
        These block ads are the ads the Níl ers were saying they knew nothing about
        Nothing to do with them

        So, Google etc
        If ya tink about it like
        Are doing the No- Siders Official a favour

        1. newsjustin

          I’m not sure you understand Google’s discision. Google are blocking all ads from all sources (not just dodgy foreign one’s like Facebook did).

          T4Y welcome this because they are less dependent on online advertisements than LoveBoat and Savethe8th.

          Just imagine what T4Y would say if e.g. The Journal or the Times Ireland said they wouldn’t be covering the referendum from now on.

          1. Nigel

            You mean if they said they wouldn’t be running more ads by them. Ads aren’t news or reports. If foreign money and foreign ads had been flooding through social media many filled with false information in support of the Yes side they would also be affected. After all, they painted over that mural didn’t they?

          2. Listrade

            I’d hope T4Y would say that there is a massive difference between unregulated advertising online that is deliberately misleading and occasionally false and legitimate regulated media coverage of a referendum.

          3. SOQ

            Google’s decision was a business one. All of their ads were for retain so they were being associated with one side of this referendum which was harmful to their brand, especially when all indications are that Yes is set to win.

          4. Listrade

            pretty much. Look at the flack Facebook has been getting over the US election. Google want to avoid that.

            But it also says that Google can not control the content of ads except to stop them all.

            I don’t know if it’s a play to avoid being brought into election campaign regulation. But I think it inevitable that there will be rules applying to ads and social media similar to existing ones.

            That way you could make unsupported statements on a poster like 97% of abortions in England are healthy babies. Oh wait, the bastards don’t care and will say anything online or on a poster.

      3. Starina

        the more you shriek about the Yes side sliding in the polls, the more obvious it becomes that you’re freaked out that most of the populace disagrees with you.

    1. Nigel

      I agree. They are cowards. They should have done something about this kind of thing years ago.

      1. Sentient Won

        You’re a coward too Nigel, arguing for the deliberate destruction of human life by proxy. You want the option to terminate humans under the colour of medicine. Why? Because it seems edgy, cool fashionable; The Yes side have no valid argument, their only tactic is Peer Pressure and incoherent wailing.

        Quick, lets raise a two minute hate against any and all those who would deny us our murderous agenda.

        Let’s make that two minute hate last all day.

        1. Nigel

          I want the 8th repealed because it doesn’t fulfill it’s supposed function and it is a deadly danger to women. After that I want women to have access to abortion services because since the X Case I have believed women must have the legally protected right to decide whether they should go through with a pregnancy or not. I think the real cowardice is the refusal to acknowledge that this is something women can and should be able to do regardless of your feelings on the matter.

          1. Sentient Won

            So women should be able to murder their own babies because “feelings”

            That, dear Nigel, is the act and character of a coward.

            (Yes, Women can be cowards too).

    2. SOQ

      They would have been (rightly) accused of allowing foreign interference in a national referendum, which after Trump and Brexit is a very sensitive subject. Whether they should have banned Irish ones is another story but I for one am glad not to have John Waters scaring my cat.

  5. Sheik Yahbouti

    There should be NO advertising or posters at this stage in the coming referendum. People must know how they are going to vote – if they don’t know they are undeserving of the vote. As I have mentioned many times I’m 67 years old – I look forward to repairing this blemish on the Constitution – second time lucky? :-)

    1. Sentient Won

      A clause that protects the right to life of the unborn and the equal right to life of their mother is a “blemish” on the constitution?

      So destroying human life is now an honorable act?

        1. Sentient Won

          You too Listrade? You think terminating unborn life is honorable?

          What about terminating the life of the mother? After all if you repeal the 8th you repeal that protection too.

          1. Listrade

            Ha ha ha ha. Did you come up with that one yourself?

            Sure, the only thing in law that stops me or anyone killing a mother is the 8th Amendment. ZING! You played me and won with your superb logic and deduction skills.

            You’re right, it is honourable. Isn’t that what all us baby murderers are saying? My abortion franchise is going to have a loyalty card. Money off for twins and your 5th abortion is free. Each abortion comes with a pin badge of a baby sucking its thumb overlaid with a pair of knitting needles in a cross.

            I’ve got the business plan and everything drawn up, the bank is just waiting on the referendum to give me the go ahead. It’ll be O’Connell Street. It’s called Sucks to be U with a picture of a crying baby as the logo.

            Because you’re onto us, just you have solved the hidden conspiracy that all we want is to murder babies with honour. I nearly got away with it too.

          2. Sentient Won

            Well if you remove the protection for the right to life of the mother you’re also removing the right of a woman to be a mother outside of state sanction/control. So it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility – under your new Post 8th regime – to consider the termination of all unapproved pregnancies with extreme prejudice.

            After all, the dark secret of all abortionists is they are also eugenicists.

            (Even you Listrade, with your FFA stalking horse).

          3. Janet, I ate my Avatar

            eugenics? dark secret of all abortionists ( is that even a word ?) you’ve lost the plot

          4. Listrade

            Extreme prejudice!! You’re right, 100%. We missed it in the Lisburn vote that there would be an EU special force for abortion. There’ll be abortion drone attacks once we reach our population quota. I’ve already signed up for the training programme to be an abortive ninja.

            But unfortunately repealing the 8th does nothing and that makes me sad. Because even when we repeal the 8th abortion will still be illegal and so will my attempts and abortion with extreme prejudice. Stupidly we have existing laws that mean you have to specifically introduce legislation to allow abortion.

            I guess I’ll just have to wait a bit longer before I’m kicking in doors waving my vacuum

          5. Nigel

            Where is this currently happening under a regime that permits abortion? Forced terminations would be as much a denial of choice as forced pregnancy.

      2. SOQ

        Get real. Since when is leaving a woman with serious and possibly fatal health issues protecting the life of the unborn? Have you ever sat down with a woman, her partner and possibly her children and told them there is nothing you can do to prevent her from being at death’s door before you can intervene?

          1. Cian

            woosh.
            That was SOQ’s point. The woman must be at death’s door before the doctors can intervene.

  6. Shayna

    Cannes film festival, means it’s Summer, went there in ’87. Admittedly, I was staying a tad down the road in a tent in Menton. Penelope Cruz looks great, I would altogether doubt that she’s staying in a tent?

    1. Lilly

      She looks amazing! Hard to imagine her with Tom Cruise. Javier Berdem seems a better fit. Cannes seems to involve a lot of dressing up to the nines so I could see why a tent might not be ideal.

      That poor woman Emma, on Morning Ireland who has just found out she’s dying. How can Tony O’Brien sleep at night.

        1. Lilly

          I felt sorry for Audrey Carville too, trying not to cry. It’s so tragic. The program must go on I suppose but it’s hard to listen to blather about the Champions League after that. Silence would be preferable until someone is held accountable for this travesty.

          2. Lilly

            She did well Nigel. I burst into tears sitting here having a cup of tea. (I don’t cry easily.) I can’t imagine what it would be like trying to conduct an interview, compose myself and respond in a compassionate way. Audrey is a pro.

            Let’s have resignations – or firings – today.

          3. Nigel

            It was the humanity of the response that made it even more harrowing. The whole thing is awful beyond words.

  8. SOQ

    What a deliberately bad picture of Barbara Windsor. Could they not have left the poor woman with some dignity and just printed a normal one?

      1. scottser

        the boobs, and sid james’ filthy laugh. you’d never get away with that kind of comedy nowadays..

    2. Shayna

      I’m not altogether great about the public being aware of Barbara Windsor’s diagnosis. My mom had Alzheimer’s, R.I.P. Maybe it’ll bring Dementia/Alzheimer’s to the forefront of health? I have two uncles, brothers of my mom who are sadly Alzheimer’s types. It’s apparently not hereditary, the dementia gene, but I do wonder if I’ve lost it?

      1. SOQ

        I would assume the diagnosis was with the family’s permission. It would only be a matter of time before someone noticed something wrong with her.

        It is a weird illness. Some people are tortured and can’t sit still while others are happy in their own world. There is a lot to be said for a quick heart attack, but not just yet, obviously.

  9. Cian

    In England at the moment, 90% of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted.
    Vs
    In Ireland at the moment, 50% of babies diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted.

  10. Frilly Keane

    Dear Tony

    I’d take your job
    No problem

    like I couldn’t do any worse
    Yours faithfully
    etc

    1. Lilly

      When awarding the screening contract to the cheapest tender, did he consider the fact that American women have annual smear tests, not one every three years as is the practice here? A woman in his position would know that, but presumably he did plenty of background research and didn’t just glom onto the price tag.

        1. Lilly

          Once every three years is fine Janet, but if you’re going to export a crucial step in the process, you need to ensure other aspects are in alignment. Clearly in this instance, they are not.

          1. Janet, I ate my Avatar

            I have always gone yearly in France
            3 sounds like a long time before catching some dodgy cells

          2. Lilly

            If the French have yearly tests, it’s likely best practice. Maybe we could get the head of their health system to take over from Tony O’Brien.

          3. Janet, I ate my Avatar

            I honestly will be continuing my medical care and follow ups there. I’m incredibly privileged to be able to do that and it angers and saddens me wemon cannot get the gynological care they deserve here and I include access to abortion in that care.

      2. Lilly

        And as for this BS of saying they need him to hang around to provide answers, he’s been paid handsomely for how many years? He can be compelled to give answers. Enough of the nonsense.

      3. Lilly

        If Leo doesn’t act quickly and decisively now, he will pay for this come the next election.

        1. Anon

          You can’t just go firing people without going through procedures, that’s modern employment law. OBrien might ultimately be responsible but he’s on his way out already and I don’t see what firing him prematurely is supposed to achieve.

          Someone posted a picture of Mary Harney and Bertie suggesting they were the ones who pushed for this bit of misguided privatization. In any case even with higher accuracy from a more expensive service provider there is a high rate of false positives in the system and there will always be tragically missed cases. Cancer sucks.

          1. Lilly

            Maybe you’re right about the firings. But no one in Ireland ever stands up and says mea culpa, or even forfeits a pension. They just sneak away and show up later on some quango or other. Bertie and Harney? Wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

          2. Cian

            you mean apart from Dr Gráinne Flannelly?


            The Clinical Director of CervicalCheck, Dr Gráinne Flannelly has stood down from her position tonight, in the wake of the controversy over smear test results.

            She informed the HSE of her intention to stand aside saying she was sorry that recent events caused distress and worry to women.

            Dr Flannelly said she had decided to step aside to allow the Programme to continue its important work.

            Dr Flannelly informed the HSE of her intention to stand aside saying:

            “I would like this evening to announce that I have taken a decision to stand aside from my role as Clinical Director of CervicalCheck with immediate effect.

            I am sorry that recent events caused distress and worry to women. I have decided to step aside to allow the Programme to continue it’s important work.

            I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of the doctors, nurses and programme staff of CervicalCheck for their continued hard work and commitment towards delivering a first-class service for the women of Ireland.

            It has been a privilege to work with them during the last twelve years.

            I will not be making any further comment at this time” she concluded.

            In a statement the HSE said it wished to acknowledge Professor Flannelly and to formally thank her for the enormous dedication, contribution and expert knowledge that she brought to the CervicalCheck Programme over the past 12 years.

            The statement said that during that time she had helped to introduce a programme that has saved the lives of countless women in Ireland through screening and early intervention and who would otherwise have died from cervical cancer.

          3. Lilly

            Apart from Gráinne Flannelly. But fear not, Cian, give it a few months and she’ll be appointed head of Tusla.

  11. Charlie

    John O’Shea was one of the best central defenders in Europe. That was a lonnng lonnnng time ago.

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