EVERY SATURDAY MORNING we take a look at all the best comments left on the site by our readers over the past seven days.

This week there was a lot of talk about Alan Shatter, Angela Kerins’s salary, the Irish language and Irish sex.

So here are the standout comments from the week that was.

The 5 most popular comments this week

1. Rehab revealed this week that its CEO Angela Kerins earns €240,000 every year. This is how Crocodylus Pontifex responded to the revelations, earning him 2,345 green thumbs.

I donate E15 a month to Rehab Care. It would take 1,333 years of my donations to pay for one year of the CEO’s salary. I think I might cancel it.

2. Mitch garnered 2,039 thumbs up for similar sentiments.

Why should any person donate to an organisation with salaries of that level , it’s a disgrace and a shame !

3. Reader Maurice Riordan took issue with unionists who were angered by the appearance of an Irish rebel song in the UK Top 40 and received 1,951 nods of approval.

The hypocrisy of the Unionist cause in Northern Ireland is simply staggering. They complain about a rebel song, but don’t seem to have a problem with their own lot marching through Catholic areas, calling people Fenians (in my opinion, a compliment) and singing songs glorifying Billy Wright and mocking the hungerstrikers. They seem to think it’s fine to riot when the flying of their fleeeeg is limited to the same days as everywhere else in their beloved UK. But a song? Oh no, we can’t have that.

4. Following GSOC-gate, Insomnia coffee company tried to cash in with this clever advertisement. Someone suggested Alan Shatter should apply for a job, to which Ann Mangan replied:

no he couldn’t get a job there cause he’s a solicitor not a “barista”

She got 1,763 green thumbs for her troubles.

5. The fifth most thumbed up comment was a reply to Crocodylus Pontifex above in the top spot. Zozzy Zozimus had 1,710 of you agreeing when he said:

You _think_ you might cancel it?!

I just caught my flatmate cleaning the jacks with my toothbrush. I think I might get a new one. Maybe.

The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week

1. Students taped together by wrists in sex education talk by Catholic group (442 comments)

2. Thousands attend protest calling for increased support of Irish language (316 comments)

3. Gay people don’t play sport because it is too manly – Neil Francis (298 comments)

4. Rehab’s Angela Kerins is paid €240,000 a year (281 comments)

5. Column: I need my daughter to know I didn’t sit back and watch our language die (261 comments)

Some of the best comments left on the site this week

For what felt like the first time since the Big Bang, or when Adam met Eve, there was no rain falling from the grey skies on Tuesday. We marked the occasion with this (almost) precipitation-free map from 8.15am on 18 February. The entire comments thread that ensued was very funny. Here’s a few examples:

Barry O’Shea: It’s too hot!!

Chief: BBQ at the ready.

Paul Doyle: In me jocks (can’t find me shorts) in the back garden with a bottle of factor 50.

James Murphy: Christ there’s great drying out

Patrick Lyons: Grand stretch in the evening too

Fergal Reid: DON’T JINX IT

New research, published this week, found that about one quarter of miscarriages could be prevented by ‘potentially modifiable’ lifestyle factors.  molly coddled shared her personal experience:

I have had 8 miscarriages all lost at 12 weeks.

I do not blame myself, never have, never will.

The doctors couldn’t tell me why, probably due to genetics they said.

My first loss was nearly 30 years ago, back then it was a taboo subject, you never talked about miscarriage which resulted in total isolation and very low self esteem.

The up side is I have 2 wonderful lads born 10 years apart, and my way of dealing with all the losses is I believe all those babies are rolled into my two boys.

There was a great debate held under a column by Deirdre Nic Gabhann about participating in the demonstration for Irish language rights. Many queried the way Irish is taught in schools and Phyllis Murphy had this to say, which many found particularly interesting.

My son is dyslexic, he has been taken out of the Irish class because it was too difficult for him yet he is doing quite well in French. Change the way they teach it.

Another strong debate got underway under an article about a Catholic group’s sex education talks in schools. Although many were critical of Pure in Heart, Geraldine Joyce argued:

There is no harm what so ever in encouraging school kids to hold off on having sex until they get older. There is no harm in saying the more sexual partners you have the more you are exposing yourselves to the risk of STDS and pregnancy. Secular health organistions say it all the time. And saying so in schools helps balance or counter the incessant pressure from the media which is increasingly sexualisisng media content. Selling sex is very profitable so it is probably no harm to see groups making the effort to promote more cautious attitudes to sex.

To which Miss Filed responded:

Of course there is no harm in those messages Geraldine, as you say. What a shame then that so many schools, while taking money from the state to provide our public education system, have been found not to be implementing the state’s Relationships and Sexuality curriculum as part of SPHE, despite the fact that they are required to do so. They are even allowed to adjust it to suit their own ethos, which in my view is a shame as they are taking the money to deliver our state education curriculum.

So would schools not be better to deliver that curriculum, which is evidence-based and underpinned by sound child development principles… The fact also is that, while the state’s thoughtful and moral Relationships and Sex Education curriculum covers all the things you say, it will not be doing so from a purely Catholic point of view, advocating only chastity. You act as though this purity group encourages young people to explore sexuality, relationships, respectful relationships and morality in some kind of open way, thinking for themselves, when in fact it does not. And I bet there is no mention of contraception, which is just not realistic in this day and age.

We asked you on Thursday about things that make you happy. Aoife McCarrick answered:

My little family which consists of my husband of seven years and our two and three year old children. I am also looking forward to turning 40 next month as 7 years ago I was recovering from a total oesophagectomy for oesophageal cancer – it gives you a stark wake up call that I have never forgotten.

Do you know what wouldn’t make us happy now? If we had to live with the trauma of old SMS text messaging systems. DailyEdge.ie remembered some of the awfulness during the week but lots of you had your own special memories. Roxy Blue recalled:

When you sent a long message but only half of it actually delivered. Cue much confusion and wasted credit

And art vandelay replied very cleverly:

*some text missing*

Finally, Neil Jackman saw this gif

Source: BlogSpot

…and had this thought.

Richard from Keeping Up Appearances is the image of Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan. Have they ever been seen in the same room?

Spot on.

Spot any good comments? Send them through to us by email at sinead@thejournal.ie.