40 thoughts on “De Wednesday Papers

  1. shayna

    A hard stare to a sea-gull will save your chips? The size of a sea-gull in Brighton is similar to an albatross – maybe bigger? They swoop down at diners’ tables on the beach – I experienced it – I didn’t immediately think to stare it out as one stole half my tuna sandwich.

  2. eoin

    Toni Morrisson, Nobel Prize for Literature winner is dead.

    Who?

    Who can name one of her works? Or Winston Churchill’s?

    RIP and all that, but she was no Stephen King.

    1. Rob_G

      Seems kind of a mean-spirited point to make on the day of the lady’s death, eoin.

      “Who can name one of her works?”
      – people who have a broader range of interests than you do(?)

      “RIP and all that, but she was no Stephen King.”
      – ah yes – the high-watermark of literary expression…

    2. millie st murderlark

      You’re such an edgelord, eoin.

      But you’re also ignorant and proud of it, if your comment is anything to go by. Beloved is an amazing book. Do yourself a favour and try it.

      RIP Toni Morrison.

    3. Cú Chulainn

      Eoin, your comment is disrespectful, distasteful and ignorant. There is no place for that. Maybe, have a read of one today.

    4. eoin

      The comment above was about the fleeting fame/questionable merit of a Nobel prize.

      Winston Churchill was a white male.

      Anyone care to be a little more precise than offering a generic platitude about “Beloved”?

      1. Listrade

        “Anyone care to be a little more precise than offering a generic platitude about “Beloved”?”

        Why? Nobody has to justify anything. If you haven’t read her works, or never heard of her or didn’t like her, guess what? That’s fine. But you commented as sole arbitrator of what has literary merit. You decided she wasn’t worthy of being recognised or people being sad that she had died. And your response is to say that others have to justify it to you, even though you don’t offer up any rationale for your original comment.

        Here’s something for you. I’m a Stephen King fan. I could give a whole semester worth of lectures on why Chapter 8 of The Stand is the most perfectly written chapter in the whole of literary history. It is, so shut up. But I also like Toni’s stuff. In a different way. The same way I like Lee Child, in a different way. The same way I hate Gore Vidal, but people like him. But it’s like 20 pages before he even starts a new paragraph let alone a chapter.

        Different strokes. It’s good to have a mix of things. It’s good to try a mix of things, even if you end up not liking it. If you haven’t heard of Toni or haven’t got around to reading her stuff, give it a shot, you might like it. If you’ve read it and don’t like it, cool, not for you, but others do, so let them feel sad that she has passed.

      2. V

        Being a Nobel Laureate is not about fame
        fleeting or otherwise Eoin

        It’s about a whole body of work
        It’s about awarding and recognising a single stand out in any one year
        And celebrating their contributions to their respective fields of endeavour

        Tony’s work might not be your cup of tea
        But whether you like it or not the girl was a Nobel Laureate
        How many people do you know with that title to hang their coat off?
        As the Langers would say
        Credit where Credit is due

        I have to wonder if t’was a man or someone with no relationship with Obama etc
        Would you have been so vulgar to measure their work against Stephen King?

        1. eoin

          + 2009

          (the year in which Obama, whom you reference, won the Nobel prize for,err, peace, just before he started a war in Libya, backed the Saudis in Yemen etc, and killed how many thousands of innocents in drone attacks. “fleeting fame/questionable merit”)

          Also, V, you do realise “Winston” is a boy’s name.

          1. millie st murderlark

            So basically you have no rebuttal to ANY of the points raised except for the tenuous link to Obama and to make sure we all know that Winston Churchill was lucky enough to be blessed with a boy’s name.

            Solid answer. Incisive. Your work here is done. Back to the copy and paste so.

  3. eoin

    I wonder is RTE reconsidering the strategy of using free or cheap journalists from the press to plug the holes in its news and current affairs operation.

    A month after Stephen Rae sued RTE and Sunday Times journalist Mark Tighe in the same proceedings, James Mansfield is now suing RTE and John Mooney of the Sunday Times, also in the same proceedings.

    Why wasn’t RTE able to use its own sports journalists or crime journalists on programmes like Prime Time? Why does it need press journalists?

  4. eoin

    Those moaners who claim the Irish Daily Mail has no Irish content take note, just showing generic health scaremongery and stories about British z-list celebs, take note, the British version today shows the rugby player story with the headline “England Rugby star weds….after dating for just two weeks”

    Someone in the Irish operation changed that to “Una Healey [you see, an Irish connection!] ex weds” Despite the 25%+ redundancies in the Irish operation this year, they’re still on the ball enough to crowbar the most tenuous of Irish links onto the front page.

    The Irish Daily Mail is currently selling around 26,000 copies. It will probably continue to be supported by London until circulation drops to 15,000.

  5. eoin

    It is quite depressing to go to the SF online newsroom to search for statements about Harland and Wolff and find none.

    https://www.sinnfein.ie/newsroom/1

    The 125 losing their jobs certainly aren’t in the SF target constituency, they’re mostly blue collar loyalists. But still, it’s sad to see SF not provide some words of support or call for supports for the workers who were made redundant on Monday. “we’re on your side” you’d think might extend to blue collar workers losing their jobs. Not if they’re based in east Belfast and they’re mostly from the other community.

    1. martco

      @eoin

      have a read & take 2 mins out to “google” for some leads…ah here, I’ll get you started:

      https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/harland-and-wolff-workers-hand-letter-to-pm-urging-him-to-nationalise-shipyard-38362693.html

      (there’s a particularly nice pic of McDonald & O’Neill together with the workers & the Irish language activists in a show of solidarity)

      I don’t know the specifics of sinnfein.ie but if you have a brief look online EVERYONE was out last week in support of the H&W workers outside Stormont when Bojo’s circus was in town…it was on every radio show, tv station, newspaper within a 1000km radius of this kip

      a big D- in red ink for you there

      1. eoin

        For those unfamiliar with the SF “newsroom”, it’s a handy source of news because the Shinners are probably the most active political party for issuing statements. You could have 10-20 statements a day which dwarves FF for example, and they frequently link to original sources. Whenever significant job losses are threatened, you’ll find a statement from the Shinners sympathising with the workers and calling for supports for those being made redundant. They’ll also call for the government “to do more”. Fine stuff, I’m not sure how effective it is but it’s what opposition parties do and the Shinners, for their size, punch well above their weight in this respect.

        They haven’t issued any statement about the closure of Harland and Wolff in their “newsroom”. Yes, Mary Lou did have a casual convo with the H&W workers who were protesting at Stormont last week, where all the NI parties were going to visit Boris. It was convivial and all that, but as far as I can tell, that was it.

        SF is facing challenges in the South, that’s clear after the recent elections. In the North, it is on more solid ground for now, though the likes of PBP/Aontu are nibbling at their traditional base and the Alliance is posing a bigger threat to their younger more progressive membership. Doing something for H&W workers, even issuing a press statement would have been a progressive outstretched hand to blue collar workers, even if they’re mostly the other community. I don’t think most H&W workers are going to give SF their #1 any time soon! But, actions have consequences, and positive actions even if they’re counterintuitive sometimes have positive consequences.

        For a variety of reasons, that’s all newsworthy (to some).

        1. V

          Ha
          Eoin
          What are you like
          Neither PBP or Aontú have anyone worried
          Jaysus they couldn’t worry sheep

          Give over
          Even Peadar himself will struggle
          If he has any luck at all he’ll be the Ml Noonan / Joan Burton of the next GE

          Yeah yeah I know
          One of the lads will be along next week or more to tell ye the same thing
          I don’t mind if you prefer to wait to hear it from one of them

          1. eoin

            You do realise V, that analysis above is for Northern Ireland. FFers seem to have that gold/blue dress problem which seems to prevent them seeing “In the North”.

    2. ReproBertie

      I see how eoin operates now. He throws up loads of posts then sits back to see what gets a response. Then he’ll throw up another similar post the next day in the hopes of more responses. I’ve noticed him do it with Katie Taylor, MTK and now SF and the H&W workers.

      1. Papi

        eoin is a valuable contributor and will not be ridiculed.
        Right?!
        (and somebody must owe him a ton of cash or something)

        1. B9Com From No

          all these guys are the same really
          In fact they might even be one person
          I’ve seen so many come and go
          They inhabit one “character” for a while, usually for supposed comic effect, and the site indulges them for a while, sometimes even defends them
          However in time the act always wears thin and the bile seeps through …

  6. Catherine costelloe

    180 jobs were lost in Dundalk “Authentic food company”;150 lost their jobs in Bord na Mona; 75 lost their jobs in Galway —all in past 6 months. It’s possible Hartland & Wolff was simply not viable with loss of 125 jobs and why make a political issue of it?

      1. martco

        hmmm. I spotted that too @bisted
        tis either a) what you just said there or b) there’s something tech is a bit off, maybe content hosting?
        also sometimes seems a different behaviour for posts made to the site via phone vs traditional….meh I better go do some work now

        1. B9Com From No

          I don’t know about racist but misogynist seems like fair comment to me
          Last week eoin observed that Minister Eoghan Murphy’s girlfriend was “plate-faced”
          I pointed this out and that it seems in breach of guidelines for posting and you deleted both my and Eoin’s original post

        2. some old quare

          This place is like The Waltons sometimes- John Boy does his early morning comments and Mary Ellen calls John Boy names- John Sr reprimands Mary Ellen while Grand ma cheers on Brexit because she is a closet republican- JIm-Bob gets bored so becomes radicalised on 4chan and joins the Alt Right.

  7. eoin

    Italy, one of the most corrupt countries in Europe levies a €124 million fine on the Smufit packaging business of Monaco resident “Dr” Michael Smufit.

    Apparently, a rival packaging company has been spilling the beans on price fixing and other cartel-like behaviour in the Italian market, and in return, they’ve received partial immunity.

    Smurfits deny they did anything wrong. They’re still stumping up for the fine mind, even as they appeal it.

    https://www.agcm.it/media/comunicati-stampa/2019/8/Antitrust-cartone%20ondulato-sanzione-per-oltre-287-milioni-di-euro-alle-principali-imprese-produttrici

  8. eoin

    Telegraph reports above that, for the UK, Netflix and Youtube have overtaken BBC 2 and Channel 4 for viewers. What’s the position in Ireland? I wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix, Youtube have overtaken RTE 2, TG4 and the Virgin secondary channels. Could Youtube be threatening RTE 1?

    RTE didn’t include in its 2018 report the share of viewing for its TV channels (the 2017 report showed declines of around 0.4% for RTE1, RTE1+1 and RTE 2 from 25.7% share to 25.3%.

    Did RTE TV fall below the psychological 25% in 2018?

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