EVERY SATURDAY MORNING we take a look at all the best comments left on the site by our readers over the past seven days.
The Berkeley tragedy, a potential Greek default and bonfires had you all talking this week.
So here are our top comments from the last seven days…
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. People had a lot to say when State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy said she was surprised by the ‘guilty’ verdict delivered in the Graham Dwyer murder trial.
Some 2,881 of you agreed with mary carey:
My first reaction…. Is she allowed say stuff like that!!!? Given that he has lodged a appeal??
2. Fergal Reid was among those to voice his opinion after a woman was seriously injured in an afternoon attack in St Stephen’s Green.
A busy city park on a sunny afternoon. There’s a location that you’d figure safety in numbers might apply. Nope. It’s no longer our city. Dublin belongs to the underclass.
His comment got 2,319 green thumbs.
3. Shane Russell commended the respect shown by Aer Lingus when assisting the families of the six students who were tragically killed in a balcony collapse in Berkeley.
Apparently on the flight over with the families, there was no newspapers for sale. A tiny detail like that is just common sense, but would’ve been overlooked by many others and compounded the families distress.
R.I.P to the 6 people who passed.
Some 1,913 of you approved.
4. When a woman claimed she was the new girlfriend of convicted killer Graham Dwyer, Mike Cantwell had this reaction:
A complete head the ball!
A lot of you, 1,887, liked his comment.
5. People weren’t impressed by new measures to increase the cost of alcohol, 1,857 of you agreed with Alan Corlett‘s view:
More like a “let’s screw the people for more cash levy”.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Bills burned, Greek flags flown as water charge protests return to Dublin (298 comments)
2. Joan Burton: Syriza has been “lecturing the rest of Europe” (222 comments)
3. Greek minister: Irish people’s feelings of mild superiority are unhelpful (219 comments)
4. Bottles of wine look likely to be set at a minimum of €8, cans of beer at €2 (214 comments)
5. Man decapitated as attacker carrying Islamist flag targets French gas factory (220 comments)
Standout comments of the week
People were rightly impressed by Clodagh Cogley’s inspirational message on Facebook, just a week after surviving the Berkeley balcony collapse.
Carol C. summed up what a lot of people were thinking:
That’s pretty damn courageous. This happened to her only a week ago yet her positivity is quite frankly awe-inspiring. I think everyone our age can take something from this.
We discovered a bit of an urban/rural divide when it comes to bonfire night – with many city dwellers not knowing what the tradition is all about.
Beanstalk still celebrates it, however:
Its still around up here in Donegal. A wee tradition is to wrap spuds in tinfoil, put them in a biscuit tin, and put them straight in the fire. When they come out later the skin is black but once you peel that off to inside the spud…jaypurs get the butter out!
During the week, Ireland’s national suicide prevention strategy for the next five years was launched, leading Dave Nolan to share this advice:
As someone who recently lost a family member to depression, I urge anyone who is thinking about suicide to please talk to a friend, a family member, a colleague or a help line. Suicide is never the answer.
Samaritans 18 50 60 90 90
1 life Freephone (24hrs) 1800 247 100 or text the word HELP to 51444
http://www.yspi.eu/
On an article about Alone’s research that shows one in three people in Irish nursing homes could live at home if they had enough support, Gavin Mc S had this to say:
It’s not all about cuts. We are less family orientated and have less time to look after older relatives. Simple fact is that the day of taking an elderly parent in and looking after them to the end of their days is getting rarer. There were absolutely no supports years ago and it was far more common. The article takes the lazy route of blaming Government for everything and ignoring any sense of individual responsibility or individual choice. My grandmother looked after her aunt and mother till they died and my mother her mother. Not a carers grant in sight. I think we got a commode and a special bed from the HSE and that was it!
Meanwhilte, Alan Ball praised the actions of Martin Neary, a Mayo farmer who won an appeal which will allow him be buried on his own land:
I would like to buy this guy a pint. There is a very simplistic message here for those that care to see…I think.To live and work the land as long as he has would require a love of the land and all that that entails.To be buried on that land is in a sense a continuation of that ‘love affair’….One that should strike home at those who genuinely feel for the land and its importance in aspects of our everyday lives that have far reaching effects on all of society.I do not fully understand the global warming arguments, I do not hug trees or participate in any save the planet schemes…Yet I cannot help but feel that there is something arye.That which we take for granted can disappear from our lives without us noticing so easily….He is protecting this field at least for while…
On a lighter note, people became a bit obsessed with a hunky gorilla – seriously. As Oliver knows, there’s a Zoolander reference appropriate for every moment.
I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really,really ridiculously good looking…
Finally, Justin Devaney had this reaction to a glitch in the Ryanair app:
Access to a strangers boarding pass €5
Priority access to a strangers boarding pass €25
Priceless.
See any good comments? Send them on to orla@thejournal.ie
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