Monthly Archives: June 2012

What do you mean you didn’t ‘order them’?

Summary of recommendations for Dáil constituencies

1. The number of members of Dáil Éireann should be 158.

2. There should be 40 constituencies of which 11 will be 5-seat, 16 will be 4-seat and 13 will be 3-seat.

3. The county of Cork, including Cork city, should form the five constituencies of Cork East (4-seat, unchanged), Cork North-Central (4-seat), Cork North-West (3-seat), Cork South-Central (4-seat) and Cork South-West (3-seat, unchanged).

4. The counties of Sligo and Leitrim with some population from south Donegal and from west Cavan should form a 4-seat constituency called Sligo-Leitrim.

5. The rest of the county of Donegal should form a 5-seat constituency.

6. The rest of the county of Cavan with the county of Monaghan should become a 4-seat constituency.

 7. Dublin city should largely form the five constituencies of Dublin Bay North (5-seat),
Dublin North-West (3-seat), Dublin Central (3-seat), Dublin South-Central (4-seat) and Dublin BaySouth (4-seat).
Dublin outside the city should largely form the six constituencies of Dublin
Fingal (5-seat) and Dublin West (4-seat); Dublin Mid-West (4-seat, unchanged) and Dublin South-West (5-seat); Dublin Rathdown (3-seat) and Dún Laoghaire (4-seat).

8. Galway West with some population from south Mayo should remain a 5-seat constituency.

9. The rest of the county of Mayo should form a 4-seat constituency.

10. The county of Roscommon with population from east Galway should form a 3-seat constituency called Roscommon Galway.

11. The rest of the Galway East constituency should form a 3-seat constituency.

12. The county of Kerry should form a 5-seat constituency. The county of Limerick should form a 4-seat Limerick City constituency and a 3-seat constituency to be called Limerick County.

13. The county of Waterford, including Waterford city, should form a 4-seat constituency.

14. The county of Offaly with some population from north west Tipperary should form a 3-seat constituency.

15. The rest of the county of Tipperary should form a 5-seat constituency. The
county of Laois with some population from Kildare should form a 3-seat constituency.

16. The rest of the county of Kildare should form a 4-seat and a 3-seat constituency.

17. Eight other constituencies should remain unchanged
Carlow-Kilkenny (5-seat), Clare (4-seat),
Longford-Westmeath (4-seat),
Louth (5-seat),
Meath East (3-seat),
Meath West (3-seat),
Wexford (5-seat), Wicklow (5-seat).

Dail Constituency Report (PDF)

There was a stand off between 100 turf-cutters and gardai and national parks and wildlife service officials in Portumna, Galway.

The protest was carried out to prevent any machinery being seized at Clonmoylan Bog.

At around 3.30am this morning one seized digger (above) was burned to the ground.

There are also reports the owner of the digger Michael Darcy was hospitalised over night.

The stand-off continues as bus loads of supporters arrived at the scene of the protest this morning.

(Pic; Ming)

 

 

Widespread Rain And Thundery Downpours Forecast (Met Eireann)

Thanks Bibi Baskin Robbins

But…

Wafflewaitress writes:

Am a ‘long time’ reader (i.e. a year or whatever it is) and odd time commenter.. I was having a cuppa with a friend yesterday and as I crossed the road back to my bike I noticed a guy standing at the bike rack, just standing there..When I got to my bike he asked me was it mine and told me it had fallen over as it wasn’t locked to the stand (bloody idiot yes) and then said that he’d picked it up and been guarding it til I came back! I was really taken aback by this kindness and thanked him, he smiled and said something about being a fellow bike owner so didn’t want to leave it there etc ..

Anyway, long story short (too late) while I was thanking him we kind of locked eyes for a moment and apart from him being really cute and having guarded my bike like a bloody hero, I really felt unusually tongue tied and very interested in this virtual stranger for some reason. We said bye and I thanked him again, I wanted to ask him out (or are you married/gay/psychotic) etc..but couldn’t find the courage. He went off on his way with a smile and I almost called after him, but didn’t. Obviously.

Anyway, like I said, I know this is a looooooooooooooong shot but what they hey- I kicked myself all the way home (which is hard on a bike) for not saying something to him other than “ah thanks”.

So if there’s ANY way you could ask your readers (all of whom are lovely and nice and won’t take the piss out of this if it IS printed) if they are, or know who could be, the (roughly) 5’11 sandy haired (slightly thinning) cute dude in a wine coloured hoodie/top at the bike stand on the corner of Leeson Street and Hatch Street [Dublin] at almost exaaaactly 2 p.m who guarded a dopey redhead’s unlocked bike…I’d be forever grateful..and you’d save me a trip to the Ray D’arcy show. Pleeaase save me that trip. :) p.s. Did I mention he was cute?

Anyone?

Button via Geekcrafts

 

Fears that their larynxes might give up come show-time proved to be unfounded. Truth be told I was determined to slip out of the ground early before it dawned on me that something very special was taking place. We were four-nil down and the penny had well and truly dropped that the 11 men on the pitch, with the best will in the world could not match the craft of Spain, no more than the rebels on the streets of Dublin in 1916 could hold out against the might of the British army.

DENIS MCCLEAN,
Chemin Briquet,
Geneva, Switzerland

 

Translating the commentary as I watched, I suddenly recognised the English words “fair play” being used over and over again. The Portuguese could not stop congratulating the Irish fans on their sense of “fair play” and they were quite blown away by the cheerful and good-humoured singing coming from the Irish stands. Talk about positivity. If we could bottle it . . . we would see the tiger rise again!

CATHY CHAMBINO,
Travessa Da Encosta,
Sao Romao, Leiria,
Portugal.

 

The Spirit Of Euro 2012 (Irish Times letters)

Inspired by the Liffey, Ulysses and featuring a Grecian cyclops.

By Stephen Maurice Graham who sez:

When I was in Dublin last weekend I noticed that the Liffey was called An Life in Irish and it gave me this strange image of literally living in the river, surrounded by furniture.  I had also popped into the National Gallery and saw a small show of artwork which was relating to James Joyce which in turn made me think on Ulysses and along with Bloomsday that weekend it gave rise to the Grecian cyclops figure steering her way through her belongings!


Le Cool Dublin