From top: an internet troll; Terry McMahon

If you want insight into the undertow of our poisoned culture then look no further than the comments section of Broadsheet.ie.

A fearless website, Broadsheet also seems to attract the ugliest kind of anonymous cowards.

Soon as the site posted a short personal piece celebrating the courage of [Medicinal cannabis campaigners] Vera Twomey, and her husband Paul, this was the first comment:

Wow man i’m like so real, I get to use bad language in my screeds
I’m the street, man, I’m the life itself
You better recognise

This was followed by the usual litany of insults and sneers from a long line of nameless faceless keyboard warriors waiting in the wings.

I can take their malignancy but is it not disturbing that when these people read about a heroic mother and father protecting their beautiful daughter, their immediate and only response is to ignore that heroism and attack the hack who penned the piece?

Who are you? On the streets, or in bars, or restaurants, or playgrounds, or in any aspect of day to day life, I never seem to meet you. The vast majority of the folks I meet are good people. Fighting to stay afloat. Looking after each other. Being brave. Being kind.

Where are you emotional, psychological, political, intellectual parasites? Where do you go during the day? Or at night? Are the innumerable good people I meet not part of the real word? The real Ireland? Am I just naive?

Are they just a bubble of decent people surrounded by you bilious bastards?

Where does your scorn come from? Your cowardly rage. Your articulate rabies. What might happen if you redirected the cancer of your collective cowardice into positive and pragmatic action?

What might happen if your keyboard-stained sticky-keyboard-stained-fingers were used to build something? What might happen if you used your privileged intelligence to attract rather than attack?

These are genuine questions. An attempt to understand you. To empathise with you. To rehumanise you.

Then again, you’ve probably been too busy composing your next contemptuous comment to have even gotten to the end of this piece.

Terry McMahon is a filmmaker. Twitter:@terrymcmahon69

Behold: the 2019 BMW i8 Roadster – a petrol-electric hybrid that tops out at a pedestrian 120km/h for a 53km range in e-Drive ‘clean’ mode.

With full greenhouse gas blasters engaged, the top speed rises to 155mph and the roadster will accelerate to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds.

Still, it’s awful pretty.

MORE: The New BMW i8 Coupe And Roadster Now Have Longer Range And 374 HP (Jalopnik)

uncrate

Book packets included

Or ‘cushion’ the blow at the very least.

Murraymaker, a “crafter, lapsed academic and bookworm” based in Dublin, writes:

I stock Quentin Blake print cushions with and without a book pocket to keep your latest read safe.

All cushions are handmade by me, Murraymaker, to an impeccable standard.

Never lose your book again, and brighten up your home with classic illustration! For kids and adults alike…

Purchase here

Murraymaker

Irish-made stocking fillers to broadsheet@broadsheet.ie marked ‘Irish-made stocking fillers’. No fee.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy

This morning.

The Public Accounts Committee.

“Eight out of the 100 companies with the highest taxable income had an effective tax rates of zero, including some which had negative rates, ie instead of paying corporation tax, they received rebates.

A further five had an effective rate of less than 1%

These very low effective rates reflected the use by the companies of significant tax credits and reliefs in particular double taxation relief and research and development tax credits.”

Comptroller and Auditor General  Seamus McCarthy, this morning.

Good times.

Apple’s €13 billion won’t be transferred until next year, PAC told (RTÉ)

This morning

Arbour Hill Boxing Club, Dublin 7.

Harlow Kearney sparring with Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross TD as Gold Medalist Michael Carruth and Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin TD look on,

The bout was staged to announce allocations of €56 million to sports clubs and organisations located throughout the country.

Meanwhile…

Ouch.

That’s gotta hurt.

Rollingnews

Kildare farmer Kevin Burke after the attack

Jamie Leonard at the Irish Farmers Journal, writes:

It is occurs like clockwork every year but the issue of sheep attacks in back on the agenda again. A Kildare father and son are counting the cost of a dog attack which left 13 sheep dead.

Pat and Kevin Burke, of Castledermot, County Kildare discovered last Thursday that 10 sheep had been killed in the attack, with the vet having to put down three more after they were found injured. The photo speaks for itself and more are printed inside today’s Irish Farmers Journal.

The Burkes said two dogs were seen roaming on the property…

This is a topic that is of broad interest with so many dog owners in the country and there is an important message to get across – don’t be careless and allow your dog to roam as the consequences can be devastating.

irish Farmers Journal

Irish Farmers Journal (Facebook)

Free at Midday?

Streaming LIVE above, The Patrick Kavanagh Centre & Monaghan County Council present a graveside tribute to poet and writer Patrick Kavanagh.

They write:

To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, at noon on Thursday November 30th, a cast of Ireland’s finest living writers and poets will gather at his graveside to deliver a spine-tingling recital ten of Kavanagh’s best-loved works.

Patrick Kavanagh was born in County Monaghan in 1904. He died on November 30, 1967, and is buried at the former St. Mary’s Church, Inniskeen, now home to the Patrick Kavanagh Resource Centre.

Please join us for this very special tribute at 12pm, which can be accessed live via the link above

Patrick Kavanagh 50th Anniversary Graveside Commemoration (Monaghan County Council)

Do you cycle?

This year has been the deadliest for cycling in almost a decade with 15 people killed while cycling on Irish roads… a 50% increase on 2016.

Kieran Ryan, of the Dublin Cycling Campaign writes:

…As the rate of fatal collisions has increased, so too has the level of hostility faced by people who cycle. Acts of impatience and aggression have become everyday occurrences and contribute to a sense that our roads are becoming less safe.

One factor that adds to this animosity is the hate speech against cyclists that is frequently published and broadcast by various media outlets, without the usual checks and balances that are applied to other minority groups.

Some people might feel that the use of the term “hate speech” is overly dramatic, but I have struggled to find another phrase that accurately describes the vitriol that is hurled at cycling advocates anytime they try to highlight the serious issues facing people who cycle in Ireland.

Hate speech can be defined as anything that incites prejudice or violence towards a targeted group of people. Many media organisations are wantonly publishing articles and opinion pieces about cycling, and cyclists, that meet this definition.

Likewise the radio and TV stations whose “shock jock” hosts spout accusations of widespread law-breaking by people on bikes, and gleefully read out tweets and texts to back up their own biased views.

Every time a cycling advocate appears on TV or radio they are bombarded with claims of misbehaviour and deviance. These defamatory assaults would not be directed at, nor accepted by, representatives of any other minority group, so why is it deemed acceptable to direct hate at people who choose to cycle?

….People on bikes have enough problems negotiating deathtrap junction layouts and cycle lanes that resemble obstacle courses. They do not need the further challenge of dealing with otherwise sane drivers being wound up by what they see and hear in the media.

It is time for Irish media organisations to start taking their responsibility on this topic seriously. If they continue to ferment antagonism towards a group of vulnerable road users like cyclists, it is inevitable that they will be at least partly responsible for someone dying or being seriously injured on our roads.

Cycle-hate is potent, dangerous and ultimately futile. It needs to stop.

Cycling And Hate Speech (Kieran Ryan, Dublin Cycling Campaign)

Pic: Dublin Cycling Campaign

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