50 thoughts on “De Saturday Papers

  1. Shayna

    Troops at the border? I wonder how many of the readership recall the border pre- Good Friday Agreement? The troops at the border were British. Now, it’s Irish troops? Who’s paying – The Irish Government/tax-payers/EU? Sangers re-erected – 1 step forward, 20 years backwards. I’ve mustered most of the O’Neills I know, some O’Donnells are with us – I mean the yacht is big enough, we should be able to make it to Spain?

    1. SOQ

      IMO the Irish media are following a British agenda here which is to pressure the Irish government into committing to policing the border. This is what the DUP have been pushing for all along.

      On one hand the EU will want to protect its only land border with the UK while on the other, one of the main reasons for GB leaving was to reduce immigration. So upon a no deal Brexit, the truth is that for self interests both will be forced to police it which in turn will turbo charge the unification process, because people just won’t put up with it.

      One thing not mentioned so far is how the cost of food in UK is already rising. It makes sense because as the EU supplier’s contacts end, they are not renewing them. Already, there is a noticeable rise in northern food shoppers in southern towns and that is despite the recent falls in sterling.

  2. Giggidygoo

    Kenny had his ‘We all partied’ moment. Kenny had his ATM moment, Varadkar now outdoing Kenny in the stupidity stakes. He really misses his spin folk when in a real question session. Kenny’s earpiece i’m sure is currently being dusted down.

      1. Giggidygoo

        The rest of the panel basically laughing at the waffle and lies that Daffy was trying to spin. Notice his socks….Varadkar cast-offs?

      1. GiggidyGoo

        Thanks for the correction. Kenny’s was ‘we went mad borrowing’ in order to try ingratiate himself with his betters.

    1. ReproBertie

      It’s an offence to stop on the motorway except in an emergency. It’s an offence to use a mobile phone while driving. Are there any other offences you’d like the gardaí to ignore?

      1. Giggidygoo

        More than likely as a result of the collision traffic would be stop/go. And passengers could be doing the recording on mobile. Neither of those are an offense.
        Having said that, it’s some measure of society that it has come to this. And all aided and abetted by the twitters, googles, instagrams of this world. From which we always seem to accept the ‘We didn’t cover ourselves in glory but are working to…..and will employ more…..’ line as an excuse for them supplying the platform for this carry-on and then able to walk away from their responsibilities.

        1. ReproBertie

          The facts of “More than likely” and “passengers could be” can be determined by reviewing CCTV which is what the gardaí are doing.

          Nothing will come of it. It’s really just to be seen to do something to try and counter the sharing of images.

      2. Mickey Twopints

        My comment was directed at what the Independent consider to be journalism.

        That aside, if you believe the Guards really have nothing better to do than trawl through social media posts in an effort track down motorists who may or may not have committed minor traffic offences, with little more than the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence to go on, you may need to press your reset button.

        We’ve heard various elected representatives (and unelected senators) baying for curbs and censorship of social media. Crowd of self-serving halfwits think they have the power to silence the internet.

        1. gerry

          It was an emergency and weren’t the images circulated on Whatsapp? That’s not social media. It’s a private messaging service. It could just as easily have been email.

        2. shortforBob

          Naughton needs to get her priorities in order. The amount of death on the roads is unacceptable. Horrible pictures are an avoidable side effect. Make the roads safer.

          1. millie st murderlark

            By that measure, anything less than perfect success is a failure, and if that’s the case, then we are all collosal fupp ups.

    2. Listrade

      And naturally there were calls to regulate social media when the Guards released footage of Dara on Whatsapp.

  3. Eoin

    Remember December 2017 when the EU/UK inked the agreement (the “joint report”) which stated

    Art 49 ” In the absence of agreed solutions [ie a no-deal Brexit], the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment [on the part of Northern Ireland] with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the allisland economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement.”

    Art 52 “The people of Northern Ireland who are Irish citizens will continue to enjoy rights as EU citizens, including where they reside in Northern Ireland.”

    Remember Leo at the time crowing afterwards that everyone born in the North “will continue to have the right to Irish and therefore EU citizenship.”

    Remember Leo stating the joint report was “rock solid, cast iron and politically bullet proof”.

    Remember Leo, shortly afterwards, in response to a letter signed by representatives of civic nationalism in Northern Ireland, promising the Irish government protected their interests. Remember him stating “your birth right as Irish citizens, and therefore as EU citizens, will be protected”. Remember him stating “you will never again be left behind by an Irish Government.”

    And now, in January 2019, he says a no-deal Brexit will herald the return of checkpoints and the army or “other officials in uniform”. That’s what you get with these boys pretending to do a man’s job. FG is the party that will bring a hard border back on the island of Ireland in 2019.

    1. Cian

      What is your point?
      He said they are EU citizens. All EU citizens that live outside the EU[1] have to go through custom and border control when they want to come into the EU.

      [1] and/or the Schengen Area.

  4. Eoin

    So, you’re an anti-semite and a hypocrite now Ted, (not to mention a disgrace).

    Israel throws a hissy fit at the proposed legislation to ban trade with the (illegally, the UN says so) occupied territories of Israel/Palestine.

    “Israel is outraged over the legislation against it in the Dail which is indicative of hypocrisy and anti-Semitism.Instead of Ireland condemning Syria for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of civilians, Turkey for the occupation of northern Cyprus and the terrorist organizations for murdering thousands of Israelis, it attacks Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. What a disgrace” says Israel’s Netanyahu who is facing bribery and corruption charges at home.

    Of course if the BDS movement really wanted to hurt Israel, it could do it in a eye blink on social media. Just identify goods and services exported and imported to Israel and the internet will do the rest.

  5. Eoin

    What’s the latest on the Irish/English travellers wrecking havoc in New Zealand?

    They crashed the battered people carrier they were using on their rampage Hobbit sight-seeing tour claiming they were distracted by the locals threatening them. The car has been graffittied, I wonder who wrote “Pikeys” on it, was it the locals or…

    Seems four of the group have left NZ, were they deported? The remaining 10 or so remain. When did they arrive in NZ? They say 11 January 2019, locals seem to think they’ve been there since the end of November. When are they leaving? Hard to say because they claim one of the group is 7.5 months pregnant and can’t fly!

    They’re considering taking their grievances to the European Court of Human Rights and they’ve been contacted by a London solicitor offering support.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/01/rowdy-tourists-car-vandalised-after-being-ditched-following-auckland-crash.html

    The video on this article is hilarious.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/01/rowdy-tourists-uk-media-claims-family-known-for-copulating-defecating-and-urinating.html

        1. Gabby

          Maybe they are Hiberno-British. Whatever their ethnicity they are in deep need of moral rehabilitation. They should never be allowed on an international flight again; they damage international relations wherever they go.

    1. SOQ

      Well it is certainly a twitter account, albeit one that never attended a course on managing humorous expectations.

      A bit like the oul Father Ted character. Forgotten his name already. Probably due to the German dental implants I had ten years ago.

  6. Catherine costelloe

    I thought Leo Varadkars comments, that it was UK who caused “the problem” very weak. The democratic vote was to leave . It would have been far more productive to tackle this disillusionment , possibly concede/ negotiate to make EU more attractive to the Leave campaign. The border should be about sorting out the economics of the situation. If there are persons ready to plant bombs at a patrolled border, be it customs, garda, PSNI be in no doubt Leo , a democratic vote , North & South would strongly condemn these acts of carnage. Quit sowing seeds as if “it’s understandable”…..it isn’t and zero tolerance with mandatory life sentences should be your strong message.

    1. Martco

      yeah but see this is what HE does

      its some sort of politics v2.0 (beta)..it’s borrowed from a management style I’ve noted in my own work life which has become more pervasive in the last 10 years:

      he & his team get through by taking the challenge faced and (instead of having some vision, courage & contributing to solving that challenge as-is) re-frame the challenge & dumb it down (the actual challenge itself will just drift along getting worse & worse….ring any bells??) by creating a marketing dialog which promotes the normalising of the related bad outcome. They alter the expectation….not so much moving the goalposts, more hiding them or distracting you from them. It’s utter fakery. Snake oil. And it seems to work for him & his team on challenges like Housing, Hospitals etc. BUT now we have a game where they’re waaay out of their depth, this management style means nothing here, they’re simply not equipped. thus the panicpants badly chosen words when the team don’t get a chance to have a comms meeting first to calculate the response to a simple question.

      I personally believe its a style of management that he’d never have gotten away with 20 years ago, I think its aided, abetted, made possible by social media, the dumbing down of the population & the death/control of investigative journalism….aah lookit I’m not well enough equipped to disect the whole show but I know I’m being conned!

      the best way I can describe is via a song “Television the Drug of the Nation” by Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy…substitute Social Media for TV and you’re there…

      https://youtu.be/hD9pJzZ1XGI

      1. Otis Blue

        Nicely said and an apt reference in which these lines seem apposite..

        “It’s the perpetuation of the two party system
        Where image takes precedence over wisdom
        Where sound bite politics are served to
        The fastfood culture
        Where straight teeth in your mouth
        Are more important than the words
        That come out of it.”

  7. Eoin

    Remember that article by “bona fide” journalist Nicola Anderson in the Indo (editor: Fionnan Sheahan) last November which was blamed for the collapse of a rape trial?

    Were you wondering if there would be consequences for the article?

    You mightn’t have much longer to wonder!

    1. SOQ

      If what I think what you are referring is what you are referring to, I sincerely hope not. It is not the first time this has happened, and not just to females either.

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