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 Clare Daly’s bill, the Jobstown arrests and 50 Shades of Grey.
So here, in no particular order, are the standout comments from the week that was.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. Original Cynic was impressed with Greece after it asked Germany to pay back €162 billion it “owed” since WWII. He got 3,243 green thumbs.
Gotta give it to Greece – they’ve got balls!
2. Another international story – about Ireland telling Russia not to fly in its airspace – got John Quill into second place with 2,581 thumbs up.
I’d say Vladimir Putin is quaking in his boots.
3. Niall Waters got 2,027 green thumbs for his summation of Clare Daly’s fatal foetal abnormalities bill this week.
Clare Daly is not putting forward anything radical here. The bill is something any humane and reasonable person should support.
4. This idea from Peter McGlynn got support from 1,913 of our readers.
Any more election manifestos should be read out under oath.
5. And, finally, Coddle Mooney made this observation about those Jobstown arrests and got 1,597 thumbs up.
In fairness, the Gardai deserve some measure of credit here for guaranteeing the reelection of most/all of the Anti Austerity Alliance representatives in Dublin SW.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Paul Murphy released from garda custody, says he didn’t answer questions about Jobstown (848 comments)
2. ‘They took me, a 16-year-old, out of my bed and put me in a prison cell’ (425 comments)
3. “I’m not some sort of master criminal that deserves to have six gardaí at my door” (354 comments)
4. Jobstown: Four, including 14-year-old boy, arrested (327 comments)
5. Four arrested over Jobstown protest released without charge (321 comments)
Debate of the week
Senator Gerard Craughwell came into the comments section and it made for a good debate between Niall Power, himself and Al Ca.
Niall Power: There should be warnings on ballot papers: Warning these candidates could be lying to get elected and will not represent your interests after election!
Craughwell:
Perhaps you are correct. However this was a serious attempt to highlight a very serious problem in society. Families are left broken by gambling debt. Careers are destroyed though gambling addiction. Friendships are destroyed through gambling. I am happy to take stick on any action of the political class and their broken promises as much if not all of it is deserved. But those with the silent addiction of gambling can wake in the middle of the night and use their smartphone to gamble away fortunes. If placing warnings stop just one in ten from starting it would be worth it. Thank you Gerard Craughwell
Al Ca: Senator Craughwell, most people are feeling very let down by our political system and I dare say that most commenters are just venting their frustration in satire, so don’t take it to heart, most understand what you aiming to do.
But I will thank you most for posting on this topic, it’s nice to know that some people in politics do read such media as this to get an idea of how people feel and nicer to see you actually post a reply and engage with commenters.
If only more such as yourself would put themselves out there a bit more people wouldn’t feel so isolated and forgotten.
So thank you. :)
Joke of the week
We were the joke of the week.
Other standout comments of the week
We heard this week from parents of children with Down Syndrome. Hereford Bull shared his family’s experience.
I have a brother who is downs. He is full of love. He sees the world in a different light. It makes me sad that the educational system is set up for anything but the special nature of Down’s syndrome. It’s just established by civil servants and the level of school work placed on young children is too much. Taught to remember, not use the love and human association of helping one another that people with downs do. Sometimes I wish that some people saw love in a way that downs people see it. It would change the world.
We were all in the same boat as Dennis Collins on the penguins, the ones that get knitted jumpers by the oldest man in Australia.
I’m tired. So, it took me about thirty seconds to realise that the penguins in the top photo are not real. Time for bed, I think.
A lovely tribute from robby rottenest following the death of Steve Strange.
As a new romantic or ‘futurist’ in London during the 80′s I lived and breathed this music. Steve and his band were an essential element of that movement and made cool but also very melodic music. I’ll treasure the original vinyl even more now. Thanks Steve, sleep well.
And, for the day that’s in it, Paul Furey on Valentine’s Day.
Friday the 13th followed by Valentines Day. Arrrrrgggggghhhh!!!! Hurry up Sunday the 15th.
See any good comments? Send them on to sinead@thejournal.ie
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