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

The news this week was dominated by the death of Savita Halappanavar, with many readers expressing their opinions on Irish law on abortion, the protests and vigils organised after her death, and the inquiries being held to investigate why she died. Other stories which got readers talking this week included the increased tensions between Israel and Palestine,  the high numbers of banking officials at state-owned banks earning six-figure salaries, and er, Georgia Salpa putting her hands on things. Don’t ask.

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

John McAfee, the creator of McAfee anti-virus software, is on the run from police in Belize who want to question him about the murder of his neighbour. Colin Tyrell had a pertinent question:

30 day trial coming up?

Too soon? The Christmas lights were switched on in Dublin and Cork city centres this week – and Dave Hammond correctly predicted a lot of the discussion with this:

Every year they turn on the lights mid November and every year people always say..it’s starting earlier and earlier every year…..

The pilot episode of the Rubbberbandits’ new Channel 4 show is set to air at the end of this month – and Paul had a question:

Will they have to swap those plastic bags for Asda or Sainsburys ones?

A lot of commenters were disparaging about Texas, which this week saw a petition calling for the state to secede from the United States reach more than 60,000 signatures. However Waffler Towers had a different story to tell about the Lone Star state:

Having travelled around the states I found Texas the complete opposite of how I imagined it. It’s the only state where I saw large numbers of inter-racial couples and minority business owners. In New York and California hispanics seemed to be mainly working the lowest paid jobs and I didn’t see any inter-racial couples. Texas is very European in that they have a class system so people tend to mix by class rather than race which is the case in the rest of the country. Austin is probably the most liberal city after San Francisco.

There was a huge number of comments left on articles about Savita Halappanavar this week, and it’s impossible to sum up the depth and breadth of them all. Here are just two which received a lot of support from other readers. This comment from Michael got 850 thumbs up…:

This is the one situation where both sides should be in agreement.

The life of the mother should have been saved.

… while this comment from Katie Does got over 700 thumbs up:

I am so angry right now I could explode. This should NEVER have happened, this poor women could in all likelihood have been saved from a horrible death (and I’ve seen death from septicaemia) were it not for decades of avoiding the issue and failing to legislate to protect women to appease an antidiluvian and increasingly small element of the electorate and save the ass of a bunch of cowards who are more concerned with avoiding controversy which might harm their chance of reelection than doing the right thing.

I’m no lawyer but it seems to me that refusing a termination in this situation is not just inhumane, it is negligence and goes against the current guidelines of the Medical Council, if so there are no excuses for the hospital or the medical people who treated her either. There are NO excuses anyway – sometimes you just do what is the right thing.

If I hear once more about how Ireland is the safest place in the world to have a baby and that there is no situation where an abortion is required to save the life of the mother I won’t be responsible for my actions.

I just hope that Savita’s husband and family can find some peace, though I don’t know how they can – my heart is breaking for them. The least they deserve is that this is properly and thoroughly investigated, no proforma crap which makes excuses and lets people off the hook once again.

A lot of readers agreed with Barry Kennedy‘s assessment of the problems with the cost of public transport rising for commuters:

Increasing the cost of public transport just makes the problem worse, the reason people aren’t using existing services because they are too expensive and crap. Cut the cost and more people will use them

Remember when Chomp bars were 10p? And when it was possible to buy Tangy bars or Woppas? A lot of readers got nostalgic about sweets and chocolate of yore this week – including ponythegringo:

What about the incredible shrinking curlywurlys ? When I was a wee lad they were 3 inches wide and almost as long as your leg, now they just look like a small toffee bar with holes in it.

There was a big debate among readers about whether An Bord Pleanala were right to refuse permission for Liberty Hall in Dublin to be redeveloped. Eoin Ó Nialláin explained why he disagreed with the decision:

A regressive derision if it was based solely on height. The UN hold up Istanbul and Dublin as prime examples of how NOT to plan a city. Decisions like this fuel more and more urban sprawl leading to more and more land being zoned for development, particularly in West Dublin. When are we as a country going to embrace high-rise as a viable and indeed, necessary mode of construction if we are to go down the route of sustainability and green policies on development in this country. This is a backward move by An Bord Pleanála.

Supermac’s unexpectedly got a thumbs up from Fox News this week, with the US news outlet naming the Irish chain as one of the top 10 fast food joints that people may not have heard of but are worth a visit. One reader suggested this would be a good time to open a branch in Times Square – but as Jason Walsh pointed out:

Time Square wouldn’t handle the late night fights like Eyre Square can.

Fungi the Dolphin is still alive – despite being killed off by a Twitter rumour during the week. But what about the conspiracy theories that he actually died years ago and has been replaced by another dolphin? Some readers thrashed it out in the comments this week: here’s Dave Kavanagh…:

Funghi has been in Dingle since the very early 80s so he has been around about 30years. Bottle nose dolphins normally live about 25 years but can survive much longer 40+ years in some cases so it is possible that it has been the same Dolphin in Dingle from day one but if so then he is at the upper limit and is very old by Bottle nose standards.

… and here’s Diarmuid Danger Lenihan providing some relief for Fungi fans:

You have to take into account the fact that Fungi lives a very stress free life so should be at the upper end of life expectancy. All he does all day is swim around boats and gets fed so doesn’t even have to hunt for food, he’ll be around or a while yet .

This rare and flawless diamond sold at a Christie’s auction in Geneva for a cool €16.9 million during the week. Yowza. From Lou Brennan:

I loved that diamond. Was sad to see it go but with budget 2012 just weeks away what can you do.

(AP Photo)

Spot any good comments? Let us know! Mail christine@thejournal.ie with any suggestions.