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 Ian Paisley, the political think ins and scary older neighbours.
So here are the standout comments from the week that was.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. There was much chat over the past fortnight over the queues outside a new housing development in Swords. Laura Byrne – and 1,924 of you – were happy for Megan O’Shaughnessy and Robert Delaney.
Delighted they got the house they wanted… Too many begrudgers in this country! If they wanted to queue out to be sure they got a house which I’m sure they worked & saved very hard to do so then fair play to them.
2. Does Dublin have a drug problem? Dublinguy2013 thinks so. And 1,714 readers agree.
They should clear O’Connell street and surrounding areas of the drug pushers. Never mind sandwich boards
3. Back to number 1 above, Megan herself commented on some criticism that she may have taken four days off work to queue. She managed to get 1,522 of you to give her a green thumb.
No actually I worked nights last week. Happy out with my amazing house thanks :)
4. O Swetenham isn’t too impressed with RTÉ2′s latest schedule. Nor were 1,512 of our readers who agreed with him.
Seven shows. Two about travellers, one about the dole, one about a nightclub, one about getting drunk and and another that follows Vogue Williams investigating ‘psychic abilities’. Rip roaring stuff lads.
5. Following the death of the always controversial Ian Paisley yesterday, Darren claimed:
Get the popcorn ready, these comments will be interesting
…And got 1,332 thumbs up.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Mary Lou hits back at criticism of €4,000 trip Down Under (315 comments)
2. Flight MH17 broke up in the air after being pierced by ‘high-energy objects’ (297 comments)
3. Former DUP leader Ian Paisley has died, aged 88 (285 comments)
4. Russia warns it will “react” against new sanctions from Europe (250 comments)
5. Opinion: We must repeal the eighth amendment (233 comments)
The big issue this week
A hardline Loyalist throughout the decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, many people who grew up at that time do not have fond memories of Ian Paisley. J Hanley remembers a time before he accepted power-sharing and peace, when the DUP leader often spoke viciously about Catholics.
As a child growing up in the south in the 80′s I remember seeing him on tv roaring and shouting and wondering what on earth was wrong with this man. He seemed unusually consumed with hate even from a child’s perspective. Hopefully this kind of blind hatred and bigotry will never be seen again on our island. He is at peace now anyway.
Joke of the week
It seems like ages ago, but Electric Picnic organisers are still trying to get people’s lost items back to them. everlast mccarthy asked
How does one see about getting back their dignity?
Some of our favourite comments
We kind of want to meet this lady, Richard Cynical.
My elderly neighbour is a complete nut job who has tried and failed to kill my cat, has tried to get my dog put down(failed) and drives her car around like a lunatic with no tax or insurance and no licence. Is it wrong that I look forward to winter? she is 92. Yesterday she tried to blame the people fitting the water meter for crashing in to her gate post, the gate post she knocked down 2 years ago and won’t fix
On a more serious note, Age Action got involved in the comment section about the problems facing older people waiting on nursing home places.
The figures hide the scale of the suffering and the waste of public resources.
Where will older people waiting for a nursing home bed for 12-14 weeks wait? All have been deemed in need of full-time nursing care. Those at home will grow progressively frailer and many will be admitted by their GPs to their local A&E and into an acute hospital bed. Not only do they not need acute hospital care (just nursing care) they will deprive others in need of acute care of a bed. This is a problem — not just for older people who may need a nursing home bed — but for everyone who may need an acute hospital bed.
At the core of the problem is the failure of successive governments to plan for our ageing population. This does not just mean funding for nursing home beds, but also includes a much greater investment in community-based care. Supports such as home helps, home care packages, public health nurses, occupational therapists, day care centres, meals on wheels etc can enable more older people to live for longer in their own homes. Likewise, proper funding for home adaptation schemes would be a great help (funding for the scheme has been slashed this year).
The current problem was clear from late last year when the HSE published its service plan. This is our statement issued on December 18, 2013 http://www.ageaction.ie/age-action-concerned-impact-hse-service-plan-sickest-older-people
http://www.ageaction.ie/age-action-concerned-impact-hse-service-plan-sickest-older-people
Tomorrow is the Camogie Association’s big day out with the All-Ireland camogie finals taking place in Croke Park. On Thursday, I tried to ‘turn those angry tweets into bums on seats‘ and Marie Keating made another strong argument in the comments section.
Great article, attendance is such a big factor in improving the plight (and standard) of women’s sports. Attendance equals atmosphere, hype, talk before and after the games, opinions, more in-depth analysis, publicity which in turn leads to awareness, sponsorship and more young girls in primary schools dreaming of being a professional (or at least elite) sportsperson.
Just going to games will get the wheel turning a lot quicker than moaning about coverage. Which we definitely can’t do in Limerick this week with a fantastic spread in the Limerick Leader covering the Intermediate final. Now just to get up there and see a Limerick team win a cup in Croker!
P.s. separately I think camogie/ladies football needs a Brolly/Hook (I’d say Dunphy but I’m not sure he actually has a clue) type figure to make the analysis as interesting as the game, which it is in other sports.
Spot any good comments? Send them through to us by email at sinead@thejournal.ie.
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