EVERY SATURDAY MORNING here at TheJournal.ie, we like to take a look at all the best comments left on the site by you lot over the past week.

This week has seen some big discussions in the comments sections, particularly about the Irish football team at the Euros (although we won’t dwell on that). There’s also been Mick Wallace and his tax affairs, symphysiotomy survivors, Enda Kenny at the Eucharistic Congress, and George Bush’s head on a stake.

So here, in no particular order, are the standout comments from the week .

Was Roy Keane right to criticise Irish players for focusing too much on how great the fans are instead of the game? Unsurprisingly, the Corkman split opinion on this one. Graham Shanahan argued that Keane had a point:

Roy is dead right. We must be the only country that celebrates when we get hammered. How can we ever be taken seriously in sport as a nation if we jump around like dancing leprechauns when we get slaughtered 4 nil. I think we need to have some respect for ourselves. If fans want to go and have a party then they should go to ibizia or somewhere and leave the football to the real fans who feel pain when we are slaughtered.

But Mark O’Flaherty, a self-professed Keane fan, left a long comment explaining why he found it tough to back the Corkman (slightly abridged but you can read the full comment here):

I agree with his sentiment that we should be there to really compete but how on earth does he ever expect us to compete with a team like Spain? We have an average team and have done incredibly well to get to the competition up against arguably the toughest group.

The Irish players gave their all tonight and at the weekend. They have carried themselves incredibly well and represented the country fantastically. They did their best – Keane should lay off them and grab some perspective.

Regarding the fans, I had goosebumps tonight, the fans were simply unreal. To see them trending on twitter and commended by people all over the world filled me with pride. In a week where several countries were let down by disgraceful acts of violence, racism and ultra nationalism Keane should be worshipping the Irish fans for how they represent us.

It’s now official: Spain is going to follow in Ireland’s footsteps and seek a bailout from the troika. This comment by Daniel Dudek Corrigan got over 400 thumbs up:

Ireland will need another bailout in order to contribute to Spanish one ;)

A new bill to introduce living wills, which will let a person decide what happens at the end of their life, passed in the Dáil last week. Intensive Care nurse fedupandfarfromhome explained why doctors often take control of making crucial decisions about DNR:

I very much hope this will pass the vote. However, I would take issue with the “God-like” status of doctors deciding the fate of their patients. As an Intensive Care Nurse, I see frequently how doctors abdicate the decision on a DNR to the patient’s family, often causing added confusion and distress at an already devastating time. If the family cannot agree, as is common when they are under extreme stress, I have seen at first hand the prolonged intense suffering and complete loss of dignity visited upon the unfortunate patient, usually under the guise of “doing everything we can”. From the doctor’s point of view there is the ever-present fear of litigation should they be accused of “not doing enough”. From the family’s point of view there is the guilt and remorse associated with “not doing enough”. The Living Will can at least reassure the doctor that only what the patient wants is being done, and the family may take comfort from the knowledge that the patient’s wishes are honoured, the last kindness they can do for their loved one.

A new study found that people who prefer to wake earlier in the day are healthier – and happier – than night owls. Ian Breslin pointed out a possible methodological problems:

What time of the day was this study done at? I mean if you conducted it at 8 or 9 in the morning there would be an inherent bias towards morning people…

It’s too long to post the whole comment here but this post by Matt Donovan about what it’s like to be a driver for Dublin Bus while the company brings in a huge cost-cutting plan is worth a read. Here’s a couple of lines from it:

As a driver we will be forced to swallow some very unpalatable medicine but such are the times we find ourselves in. I & the majority of my driving colleagues could live with this except the sheer catalogue of waste by senior & middle management is disgraceful yet no one in authority seems to care or even want to know.

This week we discovered that you can buy pizza from a vending machine in Dun Laoghaire – or lobster, clothes, fruit or flowers from other slightly bizarre vending machines around the world. Declan Mannix had this good suggestion in the thread:

should have vending machines in university’s selling computer mice, memory USB sticks and network cables, laptop memory etc. uni’s have over 14000 students minimum and nearly all look for some of the above. go for it someone. make a Buck.

James was unimpressed with the bad weather this week:

It only rains now between the showers. Typical Irish summer.

Wayne Yore left this comment under an article with the headline ‘Locals in Meath told to keep windows closed and stay indoors following Panda blaze‘:

Poor pandas, can’t be many left

Alan Shatter is to introduce legislation this year to provide an amnesty for Irish men who absented themselves from the Army during WWII to fight for the Allies. Jim Ryan had this to say (slightly abridged for length):

I am all for keeping oaths etc, but branding thses men with the same mantle as those that abscond from the army to avoid dangerous circumstances when they themselves went to actively seek dangerous circumstances is a bit like locking a 17 year old lad up with sex criminals for sleeping with his 16 year old girlfriend, Yes, its a crime, but a bit of perspective please!

The fact that these men could see the need to fight the tide of facism when the government of the time chose to ignore it only speaks volumes for the character and courage of these men, and if anything,  that should be remembered.  Yes the old adage of “englands difficulty” etc was more apparent and more acceptable then, but the fact that hundereds of thousands of Irishmen fought and died for Britian in both world wars, and earlier and later wars, even today, shows that even amidts national need and patriotism, the bigger picture has always been something that Irishmen have always been able to see. Unfortunately many have also been guilty of letting cowardice and hate blind them to what really matters on a bigger scale. It seems to me that alot of the anomosity towards these soldiers is not because they absented themselves to fight for a foreign nation, but because of the nation they chose to fight for.

If you’ve ever thought that the only thing missing from your ice-cream was some bacon, then good news: Burger King is introducing a new Bacon Sundae. Um, yay. P Wurple is already looking forward to it.

Isn’t everything better with Bacon?

I like rashers. I’ll give it a go later. Coupla rashers, a slice of HB on top. Grand. :)

Finally, it’s a few days old but this video by Isabel Fay about the perils of online trolls is well worth a watch if you’ve ever gotten annoyed by a comment on the internet (which pretty much covers anyone with an internet connection). Enjoy.

(Video via cleverpie/YouTube)

Spot any good comments which you think should make it here next week? Mail suggestions to christine@thejournal.ie