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 water charges, black actors boycotting the Oscars, and adoption.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. Many readers were shocked when six people ended up in hospital after taking a ‘designer drug’ in Cork. An eyewitness told Red FM it was “hard to describe the levels of blood” in the house when he entered. Damien Larkin wrote:
Respect to the two lads who entered that house and helped out. Brave men
His comment got 2,029 green thumbs.
2. Luke Sarpish, and 1,116 others, didn’t see the point in some people cooking meals in their dishwasher:
For christ sake,would you be bothered like. What not take out the shelves and climb in for a shower while your at it [sic].
3. Michael Mctague got 1,024 likes for this comment under an article about David Cameron saying Muslims who move the UK need to learn English:
If you move to a country and plan to make it your home you need to learn the language and be open to the way of life of that nation.
4. After it emerged some black actors were going to boycott the Oscars Donna Moss wrote:
Let’s just give the awards based on skin colour and not talent !!!!
That comment got 953 green thumbs. The president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Cheryl Boone Isaacs issued a statement promising more diversity after Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee criticised the fact all ten acting nominees again failed to feature any black actors.
5. In last week’s episode of Rebellion the national anthem was sung in English – something some people gave out about before it was confirmed to be factually correct (the Irish version didn’t come until a few years later). An Observer got 921 likes for this, er, observation:
But we’ll give out anyway without looking up the facts first.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Ireland continues to fail girls and young women – and the world is watching (339 comments)
2. Anti-water charges leader promises “biggest protest in Ireland ever” before election (310 comments)
3. Gerry Adams is hopeful he’ll be Taoiseach for the Easter Rising centenary (297 comments)
4. There’s bad news for Fine Gael and Labour in the latest polls (288 comments)
5. Will Smith is boycotting the Oscars in protest at a lack of diversity (230 comments)
Standout comments
Following an Equality Tribunal decision that a woman who was discriminated against by her employer because she was pregnant be paid €47,000, John R noted:
You can’t use health and safety to justify discrimination against a pregnant woman.
Unless we want the human race to die off we need to be practical and accept that women have babies (thank goodness) and find a way to accommodate this basic reality in our workplaces. There may be women who make employer’s lives very difficult at times by taking repeat maternity leave but this is usually only a phase in a woman’s life and it passes like everything else. Making a pregnant woman more stressed by treating her in this fashion is neanderthal.
Women are now very well educated, occupy more and more senior positions and represent an increasingly large proportion of the workforce. This is not going to change. Pregnancy is normal. We need to factor this simple reality into workforce planning. Most working mothers I know are highly organised and work focussed and balance competing demands very well. We should find ways to accommodate this reality for parents (especially in the early years of a child’s life) as this makes them more productive and happy employees. Thankfully, good employers do.
Under the same article, weeya commented:
However Women work a lot more effectively in the hours they are contracted to work, after they have started a family. I now work 4 day week and fit 5 busy days into 4, but I still finish on time as I’m a single parent who not only has to pay all the bills(work) but run my house and take care of my child as well. To be honest I don’t know what I did with my time before I had my little guy, but I know one thing for certain I’m a whole lot more efficient in all areas of my life, most definitely including work!
A story about adoption led Carol Kenny to share her own experience:
As a birth mother, I believe that each person involved in the adoption triangle gains something by openings up their lives and finding out such simple things as where the colour of their eyes come from and it might be important to the child to hug a blood relative for the first time, Knowledge is powerful and for the adoptive person, they deserve answers to their questions, sometimes those questions maybe hard to answer for the birth mother.we were one of the very blessed families that our reunion enriched each other’s lives. We are so thankful that our son wanted to find his birth family and that he just has more people that love him.I know that not everyone is as lucky and blessed as our story however some other adoptive stories can work out for other people. Good luck.
Thanks, Carol.
On foot of news that Kerry is set for a tourism boost following the Star Wars filming, Stade Up and Fight commented:
Drop in for a pint of the Darth stuff
Nice work.
After watching a video of a man struggling to pronounce ‘specifically’, LesBehan had some kind words:
Don’t mind the haters Tommy, they should all be dumped into the Specific ocean.
Upon being described as “a rather hipster looking Francis Sheehy Skeffington” in our Rebellion round-up, Brendan D’Arcy noted:
“The most hipster looking rebel you’re likely to see.” Ha, I’ll put that on my CV. :-D
I was playing the pacifist, feminist Francis Sheehy Skeffington. He was for independence but not by violent means. Skeffington was trying to stop the looting and was captured & murdered by the sadistic Captain Bowen-Colthurst. His wife Hannah Sheehy Skeffington sought justice & Colthurst was found guilty of murder but pleaded insanity & was put up in Broadmore for a few months before retiring on a full pension.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Sheehy-Skeffington
After a nationwide warning from the HSE to stay away from emergency departments if possible, Vinnie_the_yute wrote:
In fairness, if you had a pre-existing illness with a severe viral flu on top, it would be logical to head to a hospital if you were feeling so unwell. Not everyone can afford to have a GP call out. Plenty of people, myself included, at times can’t afford to go to the GP. In fact, there have been times I could afford to go to the GP, but couldn’t afford the prescription afterwards. For me it’s down to be self-employed and having January an exceptionally quiet time and so I’m normally cash strapped for the month. For many other, they have that 12 months of the year every year.
Finally, Caeliv Donnelly had some good advice for people about their online passwords:
A good password should contain at least 8 characters.
I’ve gone for: SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs
See any good comments? Email them to orla@thejournal.ie.
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