Ah here.
Terry Rickard writes:
Local Enniscorthy [Co Wexford] papers agree to differ (slightly) on flood headline….
Category Archives: Misc
A fallen tree spotted in Kilmashogue Woods, Co. Dublin.
Ronan Kelly writes:
“When it fell, it impaled itself on a post for a sign. The tree has 49 rings. If you look down the hollow post you can see wood from the tree rammed down there.”
Pic: Padraig Dunne
From top: Michael Taft; Dr Julien Mercille
The state of progressive media in Ireland is gloomy.
But that all may be about to change (a little).
Dr Julien Mercille writes:
I am informed by ‘sheet editors that a “beefed up” Broadsheet will evolve over the next few weeks boasting a slightly modified design, new columnists/writers and more cats other “exciting stuff”. This will help fill an immense gap, especially as election 2016 approaches.
The state of Irish progressive media reflects the state of progressive independents in politics. There are projects here and there, individuals trying to do good things, but with a lack of unity resulting in scattered and dispersed endeavours that often go nowhere, or at least never reach their full potential.
The consequence is cynicism, frustration and apathy. It all looks so disjointed that people don’t know where to go, what to do and who to talk to in order to get organised to change things. Projects are started but often don’t move beyond a Facebook page.
Indeed, because of the weakness of progressive media, people too often end up on Facebook and social media. There you can read scattered commentary and see pictures of this and that and read people vent and argue and complain.
It’s clear that some feel very satisfied and excited at debating others and insulting politicians on Facebook. If you’ve spent five hours building graphics and pictures saying Joan Burton is an idiot, that must have been useful, no?
The truth is that this stuff leads nowhere. The only effect is to make the complainers feel good about themselves and actually spread cynicism further and more deeply.
Sure social media is effective to circulate ideas and organise meetings. But in terms of providing a regular source of analysis and opinion on current affairs, we’ve seen better.
One thing that never fails to amaze me is the quality and effectiveness of the progressive media in the United States compared to the appalling state of affairs here.
Broadsheet tries and will try harder to combine two things that are very difficult to achieve in any setting: 1) provide quality content that is 2) actually read and popular. Many other platforms do well on one of those, but not the other. A good quality blog that’s read by 14 people is a failure. And a website that has a million readers but contains only jokes is a failure as well. I think that combining Broadsheet’s reach with quality content might nail it.
It will be a necessary counter-weight to the mainstream media. Some of the latter is good, but much of it is either too uncritical of government or vacuous. The result is that progressive viewpoints have had a hard time making it through.
One thing that strikes me on a daily basis is how much commentary and reporting in the Irish press is simply empty. The problem is not even that I disagree with a viewpoint, it is that there simply is no viewpoint presented, or no point made, with articles completely lacking direction, or angle, or content. The result is that readers are just staring at the television or newspaper but getting nothing out of it.
Broadsheet may even be useful to journalists and producers working in the mainstream media. As a one-stop shop for progressive views, it will be an important resource to find quotes or interviewees or individuals who can appear on radio and television from among the cast of ‘sheet contributors.
For example, Michael Taft will have a weekly column on Tuesdays, starting tomorrow and focusing on the economy in plain and accessible language. I will stay on for Mondays, and look forward to reading all the congratulatory comments from my detractors.
And there will be other writers joining. The goal is to provide a broad range of progressive viewpoints.
Hopefully, the project will snowball and get people interested and talking together. So watch this space.
Julien Mercille is a lecturer at University College Dublin. Follow him on Twitter: @JulienMercille
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton launching the Programme for Government 2016 earlier
Tanaiste says the process of looking at whether there should be a referendum on the 8th amendment would take a year and a half #rtenews
— Martina Fitzgerald (@MartinaFitzg) January 11, 2016
Taoiseach doesn’t want to be presumptuous but expects a ref on abortion in the lifetime of next govt adding in the next few yrs #rtenews — Martina Fitzgerald (@MartinaFitzg) January 11, 2016
Meanwhile…
Here’s how political parties are responding to our #repealthe8th #GE16 Candidate’s Pledge. pic.twitter.com/IV0Z2DhsOC
— RepealEight (@repealeight) January 10, 2016
Earlier: The X-iles
Previously: Tactical Voting
Programme for Government 2016 Year 5: Shared Vision for Stability,Jobs and Inclusive Prosperity
Pic: Merrion Street
Doggone
at
Union of Students in Ireland members Daniel Waugh, Molly Kenny, Kevin Donoghue (USI President), Trish O’Beirne and Jack Leahy outside the Dáil earlier today
Fiona O’Malley, of the USI, writes:
“Today the Union of Students in Ireland launched their General Election Manifesto 2016 outside the Dáil, focusing on how young people will have a deciding impact on the next government, in areas like higher education funding, repealing the 8th amendment and accommodation. USI have registered 80,000 students to vote in the last two years.”
Earlier: My Generation
Pic: Conor McCabe
Bugging Out
at
A neatly mounted volkswagonis vulgaris spotted by Redditor Muppaphone while visiting the Cleveland Museum of Natural History last week.
Apparantly, a gag beloved of natural history curators, if comments on the post are to be believed.
The X-iles
at
Had an abortion abroad?
The founders of X-ile Project write:
“X-ile project is an ongoing online gallery of women and trans-men who have accessed abortion services outside of Ireland. Our objective is to give a much-needed face to women who have effectively been exiled from Ireland and ignored due to unduly strict abortion laws.”
“We aim to demonstrate that those who choose to travel to have an abortion are responsible, ordinary women and are our neighbours, friends, colleagues, mothers, daughters and partners. X-ile Project contributes to and bolsters pro-choice campaigning that aims to break down the overwhelming stigma around women who travel from Ireland for the purpose of having an abortion.”
“In recent times several women have come forward through various media outlets to share their abortion stories. X-ile Project builds on the important work undertaken by such women. We believe that it is vital to strengthen links between women who have travelled for abortion services, and to present such women as one cohesive group. Our website launched on 10 December 2015 with our first batch of 11 photographs. We will continue to seek participants for our online gallery into the foreseeable future.”
“It is the time to confront the abortion issue in Ireland and to build toward a more progressive future where women are heard, respected and trusted. We are committed to the destigmatisation of abortion in Ireland. We stand firmly in support of the 170,000-plus women who have left Ireland to avail of abortion services.”
Anyone who wishes to can contact the X-ile Project, in confidence, here.
It Begins
at
“My generation can’t afford houses, my generation can’t afford to have children, my generation are either leaving the country or jumping in rivers, that’s my generation, man. My generation is dealing with neo-liberalism, economic policies that are similar enough to the economic liberalism at the time of the famine. It’s a laissez-faire system where the resources of the country are being sold for private interests and our generation, my generation, is screwed.”
“The lads that were in 1916, they were the same age as my generation, they were from the ages of 18 up to their mid-thirties, do you know what I’m saying? So my generation is looking at them, going, ‘yeah they had it incredibly hard’ and obviously we have it hard as well, is that what we don’t have, my generation, we don’t have the idealism that they had because that was a time of idealism.”
“At the time of 1916, with World War 1, you just had the industrial revolution, you had the enlightenment, you had all of that, that was a time of idealism, we don’t have that, we’re gone past postmodernism, we’ve just got despair and confusion.”
Blindboy Boatclub, from The Rubberbandits, speaking on The Late Late Show last Friday – striking a chord with many on social media.
Further to Blindboy’s appearance (above), Denise McGrath, from Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, wrote into The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTÉ Radio One this morning praising Blindboy’s observations.
The 24-year-old, who’s been working in the local SuperValu since she was 16, then spoke with Ryan on the show this morning.
She said:
“[Blindboy] just cut straight to it. A lot of people fluff around and, as he said, my generation, they’re either jumping on planes or jumping off bridges. It’s true, it’s grim. But it is the life of the younger generation at the minute…I would love to have my dream job…I would love to be an English teacher. There’s a glass ceiling that we can’t get through…Our generation, we’re sidled with the USC charge, you’re sidled with extra taxes – to chip away at the debt that was incurred by the generation above us, the politicians who are supposed to be in charge of our country…They’re the ones who are going ‘oh we need the younger generation to vote for us’ but what are they going to do for the younger generation?“
Listen back to The Ryan Tubridy Show here
Thanks Lynne
Meanwhile…
David O’Carroll, at Temple Bar-based design agency Miller87, writes:
Blind boy’s mini speech about our generation struck a chord with us as everyone in our office is between 24 – 30…We were talking about it for quite a while so we said we’d create a little Illustration (above) as we were inspired by Blindboy’s honesty and directness.