69 thoughts on “De Sunday Papers

  1. baz

    Michael D Higgins worship of the personally enriching Fidel Castro suddenly has a new clarity

    Higgins has certainly fooled a lot of people

    Will they still be fools on polling day?

  2. Dermie

    WOW. What a country. To give over half million to a child that falls of a LUAS whilst in transit. I’m embarrassed and ashamed to be Irish. Shame on her.shame to the courts of Ireland.

    1. Ollie Cromwell

      More importantly the taxpayer foots the gimp’s DIY projects and a jet up to Belfast while his car is driven there to meet him on the tarmac.
      He’s like Haughey Lite.
      But the boggers will still vote him in.
      Never let anyone tell you a gay,Indian prime minister and same sex marriage has dragged this country into the 21st century.
      Modern Irish politics still stinks of the farmyard.

      1. realPolithicks

        As always you are so right pollie, if only Ireland could produce politicians of the caliber of a theresa may, boris johnson or jacob ree smogg….you brits are just so much cleverer than the rest of us I don’t know how you do it I really don’t…tally-ho old boy tally-ho…pip pip

      1. Ollie Cromwell

        I agree.
        Ireland is a wonderful country full of decent people,incredible countryside,great cities,vibrant culture and absolutely top-notch pubs and restaurants.
        As a dual-nationality citizen with a strong London accent I’ve never experienced anything other than warm hospitality,great friendship and overwhelming positivity.
        My best chums are Paddies,the best memories of life have been in Ireland and I’ll always have one of my homes here.
        Why anyone Irish person would be ashamed to be Irish is beyond me.

          1. Ollie Cromwell

            ” Shut it you slaag ” was actually a line uttered by Roger Daltrey in the film McVicar shortly after he’d escaped from jail and just before he got a nosh off his missus played by Cheryl Campbell.
            I remember useless trivia like that.

        1. Shayna

          There you go now, you’re in a safe space – no judging – Ireland, the grass has maybe 40 shades of a certain colour. Wow – it’s not Southern California dude – it’s Ireland!

    2. small ads

      The money was given because the Luas tram didn’t have mirrors that would allow the driver to see the offside of the tram, surely? The child’s injury could have been prevented if the driver had been able to see her.

      1. Cian

        The child’s injury could have been prevented if she didn’t hang on to the outside of a moving tram.

      2. MaryLou's ArmaLite

        personal responsibility seems to have been completely abandoned, stupid is always someone else’s fault

        1. Lilly

          Children and young people are often reckless and oblivious to danger. Many of us owe our health and longevity as adults to the fact that someone with more sense was looking out for us when we had none.

          1. johnny

            Hi Lilly,completly agree I haven’t really followed this case, was referring to the constant stream of stupid comments, the stupid name, above from stupid :)

          2. MaryLou's ArmaLite

            I hadn’t realised she was only 13 years old at the time, so blame and personal responsibility become somewhat irrelevant.

  3. Ollie Cromwell

    Quite extraordinary.
    After 8 years in power in the UK,incredibly draconian austerity measures,the worst general election campaign in living memory and the ongoing shambolic Brexit negotiations the Tories still lead Labour by 5% in mid-term opinion polls when traditionally opposition parties are 10-15 points ahead of the government of the day.
    We live in strange times.
    https://twitter.com/NCPoliticsUK/status/1053658635551887362

        1. Ollie Cromwell

          Heh,heh,heh.
          You couldn’t get a spiced pumpkin latte for love nor money in Westminster yesterday.
          There was tumbleweed blowing down the streets of Islington.
          Meanwhile the rest of the country just got on with their usual Saturday.
          George Soros wasted a lot of money.

        2. giggidygoo

          The transport system couldn’t handle that amount of people in a short space of time to one location.

  4. SOQ

    Listen to Ireland not the DUP sez the placard in the picture on The Independent front page. Too right, they do not hold the majority view in NI let alone all of Ireland.

    The march yesterday was the largest demonstration in the UK since the 2003 protest over the Iraq war. The Government is divided, Parliament is gridlocked and Brexit is an unmitigated disaster. Democracy did not end in June 2016, it is not an immovable thing that is fixed.

    Will it do any good? Yes I think it will because there is strength in numbers. The more people on the streets the better. The rich right wingers shouting everyone else down are not the ones who will suffer. Next time there should be marches all over the UK, not just in London.

    1. Martco

      you’re bang on about numbers & momentum of mass protest @SOQ fair play to them, it was no papal mass that’s for sure, impressive but now they need to take heed of the water protests over here & run them often & in the likes of Liverpool & Newcastle.
      time to put Little Britain back in its box!

  5. Clampers Outside!

    Edith Eger’s rejection of victimhood is an inspiration in these days of wallowing and near glorification of victim status.
    Fair dues to her! :)

    . . . .

    ‘I don’t have time to be a victim, I was victimised. It’s not who I am, it’s not my identity, it’s what was done to me’.

    The incredibly inspiring Edith Eger who is an Auschwitz survivor speaks to Ray.

    #RayDarcyShow https://t.co/ARb9VaVLDK

    The full interview is worth watching.

    1. SOQ

      That is fair enough when it is in the past Clamps where you have the luxury of philosophical refection but when it is in the present, anger is a normal and natural reaction.

      I heard a story recently of a guy who came out in his work place up north and was immediately surplus to requirements. He sat in his flat for months not even opening his post until he was pulled out of it by friends. He internalised the hate when in fact he should have been very angry at what had happened to him.

      1. Clampers Outside!

        Being angry is not an unhealthy reaction, nor an impoverished emotion, to an issue in one’s life.

        It’s expression is important as any other emotion. When it becomes the only emotion expressed, or, in the case you mention, the lack of expression of it, it can be a problem.

        I know personally what it is like to internalise hate. I had to be told at one point “it is OK to hate”.

        Having a persistent view of oneself as a victim means that you give yourself to the thing that caused your victimhood, you succumb to it… then you lose yourself in it.
        One loses self esteem, self worth, self reliance, becomes infantalised and so much more… one becomes fragile.

        Rejection of the idea of seeing oneself as a victim gives oneself back all those things like self esteem, self worth, resilience…. you can become anti-fragile.

        I hope that guy did bounce back.

        1. SOQ

          Yes thanks for asking, he did. A lot of prep talks before interviews I believe but he is back on the saddle. I take your point about victim-hood and how some become a self defeating prophesy but, everyone’s experience is different. Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes etc.

          I use the gay example because I have been an activist and somewhat knowledgeable on the subject. In some cases it is not comparing like with like because American campus culture is a world away from gay people lives here. The stereotype of gays being fluffy lightweights or ‘victims’ is as far from the truth as it is possible to get. We are as tough as old boots because we all attended the school of hard knocks at some stage or other.

          1. Clampers Outside!

            I hear you SOQ, and under no circumstances am I comparing any one situation or experience with another.
            Fair dues to you for your activism. “Tough as old boots” is exactly the kind of resilience I’m talking of… and I do doff my cap to you and those who’ve been through it.

            The route out is largely the same, by taking the power away from that which caused one pain.
            That route will be harder or easier for the individual depending on them as a person and the level of the experience.

            Ms Eger’s level is up there in the harshest, and why I believe she is an inspiration to all for the resilience of the human ‘spirit’.

            Respect to you, my good man!

          2. SOQ

            Al I am saying there Clamps is to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The term ‘victim-hood’ has replaced political correctness as one of the new derogatory labels to attack people with. History has a habit of repeating itself.

            Clare Short, the British MP once said: Political correctness is a concept invented by hard-rightwing forces to defend their right to be racist, to treat women in a degrading way and to be truly vile about gay people. They invent this idea of people who are politically correct, with a rigid, monstrous attitude to life so they can attack. But we have all had to learn to modify our language. That’s all part of being a decent human being.

          3. Clampers Outside!

            True, to a point.

            Nothing is black and white, whether far Left/Right, everything and anything is mostly full of shades of greys.

            And yet, PC has been embraced wholesale by the Left. And when it is pointed out that it is an authoritarian and often anti-democratic stance when taken to the extremes as it is often done today, the response is usually to call the person pointing it out a fascist / Nazi / far-right apologist.

            The lack of self awareness in the so-called “progressives” who push it is jaw dropping.

            Even if PC is a product of the far-Right, it has been a long ball game, that has fooled the Left into hardening into an authoritarian hard Left and divided the Left as a consequence. That division has been noted by many, many Left leaning academics who have warned against political correctness in the form of identity politics, of which, victimhood is an element currently in play.

            Believe me when I say this, I despair the devolving of the Left to the point of dissolution of what it used to stand for, workers.
            Workers as a whole, not a broken body of different competing parts.

          4. Ollie Cromwell

            All admirable stuff but hard to have any sympathy when you repeatedly demand that the mods on here ban someone because you don’t like their views.
            Classic liberal intolerance.
            You can see it on university campuses in the US and UK where people have been forced out and lost their jobs simply because their views don’t chime with the rest.
            You saw it this week when Nicola Sturgeon pulled out of a BBC event because they had the temerity to invite Steve Bannon on.
            You saw it yesterday when Alastair Campbell insisted the UK government take notice of the big loser’s march when he ignored an anti-Iraq War demo twice the size and lied to send Britain to war.
            I’m a big fan of Peter Tatchell,one of the bravest LGBT campaigners there is.
            Mainly because while he opposes people like Nigel Farage over Brexit he defends their right to support it.
            Clean out your own stable before you pontificate on other people’s shortcomings.

          5. Cú Chulainn

            Here, OC stop this being reasonable thing.. you’re here for pantomime baddie duties.. back to baiting..

        2. Brother Barnabas

          @ Clampers

          “Having a persistent view of oneself as a victim means that you give yourself to the thing that caused your victimhood, you succumb to it… then you lose yourself in it.
          One loses self esteem, self worth, self reliance, becomes infantalised and so much more… one becomes fragile.”

          is this not attributing shame to victimhood? surely there’s no shame or disgrace in being a victim… those things belong to the perpetrator of whatever it is. no?

          1. Clampers Outside!

            No, it is not attributing shame to victimhood. It’s saying, ‘you don’t have to see yourself that way. There is a better way’.

            It’s not an easy thing to do, but it is the best thing for a healthy recovery.

          2. Clampers Outside!

            Just to clarify further.

            One is a victim of a crime or other experience at the time of that experience.
            As Edith says, she was victimised then, at the time of her experience, but she does not identify as a victim now. She became more than it.

            And no, there is no shame in one having been a victim, none at all. But seeing oneself as a perpetual victim is not healthy recovery, it’s not even recovery and is a horrid and terrible place to find oneself stuck in.

            SOQ’s example of the guy who locked himself away is an example (from the little info provided) of someone stuck there.
            And he got help and encouragement from friends to lift himself out of that view of himself. More power to him, literally.

            What I speak of is how one can move on from that state of mind and not let the experience define one’s identity, as Edith has.

          3. Nigel

            It’s a way of attacking and undermining people who are speaking up about their experiences and trying to enact meaningful change, accusing them of becoming defined by the things that were done to them, and of course anyone who supports them become enablers. It’s an ugly, vicious insidious tactic that appeals to anyone who thinks being a victims accords a person privileged status. Very much what Casey was trying to get at about Travellers. Right wing evil.

            (This was a reply to BB not The Clamp )

          4. SOQ

            +1 Nigel. It is the insidious framing of these things which is then used to attack people who are just trying to be respectful of each other.

            I get the point Clamps in making, in that when you are a victim of hate you should tie a bow on it and hand it back to them, that it should not define you afterwards and to not let it eat away at you. But that is quite different to this current propaganda that all young people are being brainwashed into being precious little darlings.

            At its core, it is right wing reactionaries like Katie Hopkins who think they should have the right to say and do what they dammed well like. Until they get a push back and then there is howls of indignation about how their own rights are being infringed on. Double standards writ large. If you can’t take it then don’t give it etc.

          5. SOQ

            The one thing I think we would both agree on Clamps is that the lack of accountability of lecturers in Universities is shocking. Even in the rigid sciences which I studied, in more than one university so well qualified (pun) to say that the freedom they have is disgraceful.

            In one case, a lecturer had a reputation for having hands on approach to female students in the labs. Except this time he picked on the wrong girl but, she got nowhere with her complaint. Then daddy, a barrister, and mummy, a solicitor, fired a couple of warning shorts across the bow. She had refused to return to his classes so she was given an average across all of her other subjects. Even that wasn’t fair mind because it was a subject she had a keen interest in.

            But the really annoying part was that nothing was done about him, nothing at all. This was a university with a very good academic reputation but yet they were quite prepared to dismiss a claim of sexual assault until the parents loaded up the rifles. He also had a habit of calling gay men the female equivalent of their names in front of a room of people on occasion. No surprise really as the two are connected.

        3. johnny

          Clare Short is infamous for trying downplay/smear whistleblowers at Oxfam who exposed exploitation and sexual abuse,she was the Minister in charge……
          Her judgement shall we say has been questioned,very odd and strange choice to quote,bit like that pervert Molyneux.

          …“I’m not in any way trying to belittle taking it seriously, but I did think the hysterical response to the Times reporting – as though everyone working in development was morally disgusting and everyone was sexually abusing everyone – was way exaggerated and disproportionate.”..

          https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/08/clare-short-wrong-sexual-abuse-aid-sector-oxfam-whistleblower

  6. Ollie Cromwell

    Can we re-run the Irish abortion referendum ?
    I don’t think all the facts were made clear even though both sides debated it for many months and anyway I don’t agree with the result even though the government said they would abide by whatever the people decided.
    I know,sounds ridiculous doesn’t it ?

    1. Brother Barnabas

      we’ve re-run the Irish abortion referendum on several occasions

      society’s views change

      the democratic process is there to facilitate and reflect that

      it’s not that complicated

  7. Ron

    More mistruths and waffle from Higgins. His whole election strategy has been based on a campaign of carefully planned debates and minimal campaigning and it’s all about keeping people from digging deep behind the outrageous taxpayer waste of money he is so fond of spending.

    Is it any wonder that the Irish people are a laughing stock when they think he is an acceptable President. Irish people need a good dose of intelligence and cop on if we are to ever try reform this kip of a country.

    Meanwhile Higgins flys off into the sunset on the tax payer funded Government jet with his pockets bulging with tax payer cash and expenses.

    It’s actually laughable at this stage. They are actually skitting themselves laughing at all of you thinking wow, what a dumb electorate that we can get away with this.

    Past performance is a great predictor of future performance. Higgins past performance has been nothing but waffle bluster and austerity policies.

    Anyone that votes for him probably needs mental help. The chances of the electorate getting that mental help are non existent in this third world health service that we pay 15 billion a year for. 15 billion and we put a little boy who has never completed a third level education and has never worked in the real world in charge of that. That’s how much they regard you. They laugh at you and you all think that’s ok.

    7 more years of waffle and inappropriate expenses and waste. Well done Ireland

  8. Daisy Chainsaw

    Nice to see the Murdoch scutter press have exposed the Irish child at risk of deportation as a criminal forger.

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