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 the Rose of Tralee and the Eighth Amendment.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. After a woman whose Dublin home featured on the RTÉ programme Room to Improve settled her damages claim against presenter and architect Dermot Bannon, along with the show’s producers and the firm that carried out the work, David Dickenson got 1,319 green thumbs for this:
A few before and after photos wouldn’t have killed anyone.
2. International Boxing Association (AIBA) President Ching-Kuo Wu hit out at the behaviour of Michael Conlan at the Rio Olympics, where he called the AIBA “f*****g cheats”.
Wu said: “A lot of disciplinary action will follow. You should show proper behavior.”
Kieran Woods got 1,178 likes for this comment:
Mr. Wu your organisation is a complete joke
3. Jarrett moon got 1,166 likes for this comment on remarks made by Sydney Rose Brianna Parkins about abortion at the Rose of Tralee, where she said: “I would love to see a referendum on the Eighth [Amendment] coming up soon.”
One way or another she is entitled to her view.
4. Police in Sussex reported media commentator Katie Hopkins to Twitter over a post which made light of the deaths of five men in a seaside tragedy.
Diarmuid Lenihan got 1,093 seals of approval for this input:
Idiotic woman.
5. The fifth most popular comment comes from Titus Groan, who had this to say about the abortion comments at the Rose of Tralee:
The Rose is right. Voicing any opinion is better than not. Are they literally supposed to stand there and look pretty? They’re actual women with thoughts. Jeez.
That one got 1,016 likes.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Two Irish women live-tweet UK abortion journey to Enda Kenny (437 comments)
2. Photos have emerged of armed French police telling a woman to remove a ‘burkini’ (346 comments)
3. Health Minister thanks two women who live-tweeted their abortion journey (319 comments)
4. “I never imagined the State would use such underhanded tactics to try and shame a private citizen” (266 comments)
5. Health Minister says it was “important” to respond to women who live-tweeted their abortion journey (264 comments)
Standout comments of the week
Last weekend two Irish women live-tweeted their journey to England, where one of them was having an abortion.
Laura Grimes had this to say:
No woman wants to have an abortion but at times they are making the best choice for them. Not all ‘Pro Life’ are religious nuts, Pro Choice aren’t Baby Killers. People this a very emotive topic , stop the childish name calling as it distracts from the issue. I have no doubt that this is the hardest journey this woman, will ever make, she will be taking no joy in these tweets, she is highlighting that woman do not have access to safe abortions in Ireland. Sad day but brave women
Annalise Murphy got a hero’s welcome as she arrived home in Ireland with her silver medal from the Rio Olympics.
There was a touching moment when she met her grandmother Betty Murphy at Dublin Airport.
Kerry Blake wrote:
“Nan I did it” says it all Annalise congratulations and well done Ireland and your family is proud of you.
Our reporter Daragh Brophy recently spent a day in Knock, Co Mayo. Under his article about his time at the pilgrimage site, Garreth Byrne wrote:
I have had the pleasant experience, twenty years ago, of flying home for a holiday from Blantyre in Malawi to Heathrow and then from Stanstead to Knock. Seeing the stonewalled farms, the bogs and the patches of planted forest as the plane made its landing approach, and then getting the strong whiff of furze blossom and wild hedges as my taxi left the airport surrounds, was a miracle of nature. Msgr. James Horan was a man of strong faith and a Mayoman of practical vision. James Horan liberated Mayo and the West from geographical isolation in the 1980s, just as the Land League leader Michael Davitt in the 1870s liberated tenant farmers from rack-renting slavery. Horan and Davitt – two great names from Mayo. And Knock is a miracle.
This week marked the one year anniversary of a US firefighter receiving a full face transplant. Patrick Hardison (42) from Senatobia, Mississippi, was disfigured when the roof of a burning home collapsed on top of him in 2001.
He spoke about his new lease of life since the transplant, and his happiness at being able to drive and swim again.
Joey_Westland commented:
Unimaginable what trauma this man has been through.
Great to see him smiling again with his family there beside him.
A real hero.
Under a poll asking if readers would donate their body to medical science (about half of voters would), Joan Brennan shared this experience:
My aunt, who had no children, donated her body. There was a funeral but instead of being buried her body was taken away. It all happened quickly as embalming is not possible. Two years later we received a call to say she would be buried, by the college of surgeons and we were invited to attend. A priest officiated at the burial at the college’s mass grave in Glasnevin. It was really a beautiful ceremony. And cost her relatives nothing, which was part of her plan. I believe that bodies donated to science are not studied in their own country to avoid the danger of a relative coming across the body. Some time later, at, I presume an annual event, a ceremony of remembrance was held which included a representative of all religions of students. It included Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, as well as Muslin, Jehovah Witness and of course, the different parts of Christianity. To anyone seriously considering this, I say Go for it.
Darren Tully added:
Yes, but my first preference would be for my organs to be donated to people who need transplants.
During the week, up to 1,400 people – and plenty of protesters – turned up to see a controversial South African pastor, Angus Buchan, give a talk in Kilkenny. He claims prayer can ‘cure’ gay people.
We’ll leave the final word to Blind Faith, who wrote:
Can he not cure his own delusional notions? . . . I bet he couldn’t even cure a ham.
See any good comments? Send them to orla@thejournal.ie.
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