What is the most rubbish Irish county?

Basically all of them that aren't Dublin. You heard.

louth for being louth but for sheer pointlessness surely offaly or leitrim. although offaly do have the hurling. so leitrim.

Cavan seems pretty pointless and shit, agreed. Armagh's a bit rubbish as well.

Ed Ian Paisley is not from Dublin. I rest my case.

d.arraghmac is right about Cork and Galway cities, but few good bands ever go to either, and this is kind of my barometer of cool places to live at the mo.

Donegal has got to be the worst. Cut off from the rest of the country, haemorraghing jobs like there's no tomorrow (and there isn't if you live in Donegal), and woe betide you if you fall ill up there. The health services are appalling.

http://www.monaghantourism.com/images/moncountymap.gif

(DV, did not realise that you are *back*, the postcard was wonderful and such a pleasant surprise).

I think the fact that the Booker nominees live in Leitrim says it all. Nothing to see, nothing to do, no will to go outside for fear of the locals = productive writer.

roscommon's of no worth also

bmbx, you're a fuckin liar, you've never been to leitrim!

No-one I know from Monaghan has a good word to say about Monaghan, though, so it's got to be a contender, surely?

I notice no one is defending Carlow.

did we ever decide between carlow and leitrim? am doing a lot of nationwide travel with work at the moment, and for my money lietrim is still the carbuncle on the otherwise pretty nose of connaught.

Sorry, but you all pay way too much attention to Dustin, Leitrim is really beautiful. At least the rest of Ireland is beautiful countryside and actually Ireland. Dublin is just a second rate version of London, as in, just as expensive as London minus good markets, record shops, galleries. It's a pretty piss poor capital overall, if I was a tourist there, I could fill maybe six hours. It beats Brussels for most homogenised European capital. I mean, it's bigger than Helsinki, but have you been to Helsinki? It's cool! It feels like Helsinki! Dublin just feels like a shopping centre with a lot of british high street chains with the odd phil lynott statue. Also, dubliners talk louder than anyone else in the world srsly, the most self-important residents of the most bland city.

IMMA has to be the worst national modern Art museum I have been in, so embarrassing for such a rich country. They just blow their money on not good exhibitions by big names (Lucian Freud, Michael Craig Martin, Howard Hodgkin) once a year and then try to fill the rest of the time with really bland random shows. Kumu in Tallinn is a really good example of how arts funding can really be put to good use, mental architecture and energetic, interesting shows that mix lesser known estonian artists with clever choices of international loans. I mean, collins barracks is like a local heritage site, the thought of it as a national museum is baffling.

Dublin is just a second rate version of London, as in, just as expensive as London minus good markets, record shops, galleries. It's a pretty piss poor capital overall, if I was a tourist there, I could fill maybe six hours. It beats Brussels for most homogenised European capital. I mean, it's bigger than Helsinki, but have you been to Helsinki? It's cool! It feels like Helsinki! Dublin just feels like a shopping centre with a lot of british high street chains with the odd phil lynott statue. Also, dubliners talk louder than anyone else in the world srsly, the most self-important residents of the most bland city.

Says the man in Galway! There's bugger all there except horribly overpriced twee little pubs and shops. Everyone up their own arses about living in out there away from the resented Dublin. Hating what you want to be = neither cool or original.

We also send all the retards who can't get in to one of our fine universities there. I believe Cork does the same.

I'm not so sure about your Brussels point.

Helsinki would be cool because you were on holiday. That would cloud your judgement.

We talk louder to drown out the bleating accents of our country 'cousins'.

The Lucien Freud exhibition was fantastic! IMMA is a wasted space, true enough.

Heritage is history! Of course it should be in a museum!

THIS IS LIKE THE FRY THREAD ALL OVER AGAIN!

Says the man in Galway! There's bugger all there except horribly overpriced twee little pubs and shops. Everyone up their own arses about living in out there away from the resented Dublin. Hating what you want to be = neither cool or original.

We also send all the retards who can't get in to one of our fine universities there. I believe Cork does the same.

ah now, I don't know anyone living in Galway that wants to live in Dublin. Galway is a cool city. Dublin isn't as bad as we like to pretend, but it's no Achill Island.

also -Galway girls (retarded students or otherwise) are extremely, achingly and confusingly attractive.

also -Galway girls (retarded students or otherwise) are extremely, achingly and confusingly attractive.

How is that confusing? I live in sin with someone from Galway therefore I agree. They are a beautiful people!

My point was they want to be us, not live here!

Galway is a cool city.

Fine. I'll accept that it is pleasant.

I have learnt the word "culchie" this week. ILX, an education.

Mulchie is a good one. It's a combination of mucksavage and culchie.

Wait a minute, Laurel, didn't I introduce you to 'culchie'? Or was that ... no, maybe that was a whole other convo entirely. I remember it coming up recently with JtN and the Vicar; and another occasion with an expert on Joyce and Beckett who had, somewhat absurdly, never heard the world.

I guess maybe it didn't come up in NYC after all. You did tell me about 'Hassids' though. Oh, here are some:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124349973@N01/sets/72057594052986475/

world = word -- call me Martha Clifford

Yes, culchie came up with the Vicar.

I am venturing to somewhere just outside Tralee in a few weeks... Tell me about it.

Tralee is getting a nice little name for itself as the southwest capital of anti social behaviour.

Mulchie is a good one. It's a combination of mucksavage and culchie.

i refuse to rise to this again, don't make me post pictures of the views i enjoy on my way to work every morning just to rub your dirty smoggy thieving jackeen face in it, ok?

mmm galway girls.

http://mnanamara.com/WOMEN_IN_FISHERIES/upload/Image/clew%20bay.jpg

too late. i did it.

Jayzus - where is it you work? Atlantis?

westport. tidy towns stalwart and all round beauty spot.

http://www.independent.ie/multimedia/archive/00180/litter_180893t.jpg

kinda speaks for itself. enjoy dublin, hygelligt. at least your SO comes from a decent shpot, eh?

Goddammit that is beautiful. Civilisation, progress. Better than some geographical sneeze scattering clods of earth all over the place :)

"Come to Mayo- We have Geographical Sneezes." OK, I'm going upstairs to sell that to the bosses. Will let you know.

Make sure I get my cut! IKR can have: "Galway - our people are confusingly attractive" and I'll try "Dublin - at least it's not the countryside."

I don't agree with IKR about Dublin. I have lived in London most of my life and I can assure him / her that Dublin feels a very different place.

i'd go to galway on that pitch.

"Dublin- you might not get stabbed" has a ring to it. even if it's blatantly untrue.

i'm trying to think of somewhere that dublin 'feels' like, but it wouldn't be london.

"Dublin- you might not get stabbed" has a ring to it. even if it's blatantly untrue.

Limerick are trying to use that I believe to boost tourism.

Dublin feels like Paris mixed with New York via Barcelona with a slight touch of Copenhagen. Or it feels like a larger Kilkenny.

yeah, a larger kilkenny, that must have been what i was thinking of.

I notice no one is sticking up for Carlow.

i am, relative to leitrim.

I am too. Why not, there are good people I know in Carlow. That said, it does have the Foundry of which I've heard nothing but OMGWTF;_;

Leitrim... has Carrick on Shannon in it, which passes for country town dinkiness in this godforsaken land. It also has the huge factory on the river, the one that always looks kewl when I see it on the train to Sligo. So I retain a certain fondness for Leitrim.

Ha ha don't tell me we're softening on Leitrim! KEEP THE FAITH! NO SURRENDER!

The Irish side of my family's from Wicklow. What the hell is that?

Anne McCaffrey lives (or used to) in County Wicklow. I wrote to her there once, I had no real address but simple "Dragonhold Estate, County Wicklow, Ireland." I know it got there, though, because some nice assistant wrote me back.

This has cemented my belief that all of Ireland is the kind of place where the mail sorters at the post office already know where you live.

I could probably just send postcards to the lot uv ya using your screen names.

Very true. (xpost)

Go on, give it a try.

Wicklow is on the east Coast. It's not bad at all.

Actually thinking of going there in September to see Kraftwerk if I can scrape together the 89.50 (before handling fee). In Dollar terms that's about the cost of Montana.

Actually, the Glucksman gallery in Cork is a really good example of imaginative exhibitions in a small space. Lucien Freud was badly curated. It didn't work as a retrospective because it was not comprehensive enough and it didn't seem to have any particular point to it. It didn't even feel like random pictures, it felt like the pictures IMMA could get. Seriously, nobody wants to be dubliners. I would like to live in a bigger city, sure. But never that city. It's just really bland. I will give it good restaurants though. I could do with having gruel here right now.

Actually, the Glucksman gallery in Cork is a really good example of imaginative exhibitions in a small space.

See the few times I've been there I've actually found that the space is pretty badly used. Admittedly that could be the fault of the exhibition than the building. The building and it's surroundings are rather wonderful!

Lucien Freud was badly curated. It didn't work as a retrospective because it was not comprehensive enough and it didn't seem to have any particular point to it.

Not being funny (obvious zing about when is that ever not the case?) but I don't see why it needed a point. I felt it worked well as a retrospective being very far reaching, showing his style develop and generally carry the 'viewer' through the series of paintings. It was odd that there wasn't a particular order. Is that what you mean?

Gruel is good. Had my birthday in the basement there oh gosh way too many years ago now :(

Ha ha at seriously nobody wants to be a Dubliner: September every student that comes up seems to lose their accent. Disenchantment sets in shortly after and the old accent comes back in which is a good thing tbh. Allows snobbery to happen quicker.

We get the good gigs (apart from Caribou last year in Roisin Dubh, I would have KILLED to go to that) more often than not so there's a point in our favour.

xps

We don't have postcodes here for that very reason. Mine get to me without having a street name or house number but living in a townland with about 60 other houses over a surprisingly large area of land. Tesco fuck it up by using first name initials (wtf?) since some people even have the same name, this is confusing.

And WTF it didnt work as a retrospective at all, barely hinted at origins in the Camden gang and really was very lacklustre in terms of getting the big famous ones, (aside from brilliant Leigh Bowery ones, which were actually so good they made the trip worth it), poor thematic layout and bad lighting that basically threw most of the good paintings away.

I suppose I can only speak for myself about not wanting to be a dubliner, I chose not to go to NCAD entirely based on not wanting to have to live there. Although I chose Limerick ahead of it, so go figure. That and NCAD's degree shows always being dreadful.

The Glucksman have great curators, all of whom deserve a medal. The Gerhard Richter show was a case in point of how to have a great show without any big name paintings by a famous face. They took a kind of sideways glance at the process and lens based elements of his work and it was really clever and compelling, catalogues was great too.

I genuinely find Cork city a much cooler city in general with a much stronger sense of itself (though that goes without saying, Cork people are the only ones who can compete with Dubliners in terms of blinkered vision wrt their hometowns, albeit a lot less irritating). Gigs in Dublin are painful too. The crowd are universally shit.

And WTF it didnt work as a retrospective at all, barely hinted at origins in the Camden gang and really was very lacklustre in terms of getting the big famous ones, (aside from brilliant Leigh Bowery ones, which were actually so good they made the trip worth it), poor thematic layout and bad lighting that basically threw most of the good paintings away.

The layout was really odd! A pity that the one painting I loved was hidden away in the basement! Leigh Bowery ones v v good.

That and NCAD's degree shows always being dreadful.

I have heard this before. It appears that prententious is definitely the theme :)

The Gerhard Richter show was a case in point of how to have a great show without any big name paintings by a famous face. They took a kind of sideways glance at the process and lens based elements of his work and it was really clever and compelling, catalogues was great too.

I would have loved to see that. The Crawford is a marvellous place as well. I am less than keen on the dark ground floor viewing space (a bit too much like the National Portrait Gallery in London, at least I think that's the one. By St. Martin in the Fields and all the second-hand book shops). There is a savage gallery tucked away off Dame Street here, they recently had Sean Scully's Aran wall pictures. Delightful. Belfast has a surprising set of smaller galleries as well around that leaning tower thing.

though that goes without saying, Cork people are the only ones who can compete with Dubliners in terms of blinkered vision wrt their hometowns, albeit a lot less irritating

I believe that the Corkonians are about a million times worse! Especially as during the summer two thirds of the county's population is made up of wealthy Dubs, new-age Brits and furreners on bicycles.

Gigs in Dublin are painful too. The crowd are universally shit.

Actually no. Every gig I've been to anywhere in Ireland has involved people talking the whole way through and generally acting the maggot. I would make the point here that Northern Irish people are the noisiest and based on experiences recently in Malahide Castle (dire Friday night mope-a-thon that was Radiohead) and the Electric Picnic over the years (cannot believe how good the Oxegen line-up was in comparison to this year. Kraftwerk in September can be festival experience. Fuck buying a couch. Priorities people!) they take too many drugs, speak too loudly and for the most part have really grating accents.

How was course in Limerick?

I meant to emphasise that the layout was really odd in case that's not clear.

I am actually impressed by the amount of wit on this thread, generated fairly consistently by a rather small number of posters. It appears that Irish Humour Wet & Dry is not dead, or not dried up, or drowned.

Dublin is very overpopulated and overpopular compared to other places in Ireland; it is surprising the Eastern coast has not tipped over into the sea as a result. For that reason I am glad to hear people swear against living in Dublin. Nonetheless, as an outsider I like it a lot, and can assure them that going to Dublin is not simply like going to some English city, London or otherwise. Its Irishness is, to an outsider, still unmistakable and welcome. But clearly other Irish places' character remain preferable to some.

It is striking how cultured yous all are, all discussing art exhibitions. In England none of us would have actually gone to any of these.

In late career (1960-1966) Flann O'Brien wrote a column for the Nationalist & Leinster Times in Carlow, under the name George Knowall. Then he died.

As was the fashion at the time.

I am venturing to somewhere just outside Tralee in a few weeks... Tell me about it.

Take a day trip (it's about 30 miles from Tralee) out to the Dingle Peninsula and the surrounding areas (Brandon Point, the Slea Head Drive)... beautiful stuff.

http://www.arvendalstudios.com/eire/photos1993/connorpass280.jpg

Connor Pass, Dingle peninsula. Really is worth taking a full day to have a look.

and we should really narrow this down to a poll between carlow, leitrim and dublin.

Ha ha I don't think it's just those three, sadly...

well, i didn't want to put in carlow but it seemed to be a runner.

Mr spacecadet's father has just moved from Wicklow to a place in the countryside to its south with no running water, no sewage, and no ADSL. Currently thinking of excuses not to visit.

Saw Stars of the Lid in Dublin last year and there was much chattering and glass-clinking all around right through the band, but some kind local spotted us looking miserable and smuggled us into a spot where we could actually see and not be walked into every twenty seconds, so hooray for Dublin crowds after all.

I have been meaning to read some Flann O'Brien, and also to hypnotise mr spacecadet into remembering what his (uncle? grandfather?) who wrote a column for either the Belfast Telegraph or the Irish Times was called and see if there are any archives out there.

Mr spacecadet's father has just moved from Wicklow to a place in the countryside to its south with no running water, no sewage, and no ADSL.

Cork city?

cream with that?

Ah you're a pet. Yes please.

Cork has no sewage? That's not what I heard.

actually, that is one of the criteria upon which Galway must o'erleap or forever fall.

Cork has no sewage? That's not what I heard.

Seriously Pinefox, they're full of shit. It's terrible. "The bunged up plague of the Lee" they're calling it in the press.

this hatred of all things culchie is becoming a real black spot in any fair assessment of your personality, man

Ha ha I know what my role is on this thread. I'm bloody tired of it to be honest. Being snobby Dub for half an hour? Fine. For two bloody days? Ah forget it. Too much like hard work.

It is weird that nobody has mentioned Offaly.

xp Right on the heels of the fry-up thread, too -- it's a lot of work, being superior all the time.

come on, Offaly has the largest telescope (of its kind) IN THE WORLD.

it's also got the largest offaly-shaped wankpit.

xp Right on the heels of the fry-up thread, too -- it's a lot of work, being superior all the time.

So true. Thankfully Dirty Vicar is here so at least I've some Dublin back up. That said, he's an intellectual and therefore will more than likely stab me in the back to vote for somewhere that approves of reading and thngs...

how the hell do i shorten hyggeligt? i'm getting sick and tired of typing it.

anyway, are you a snobby dub or a jackeen?

i assume the former, because of the art gallery wankery, yet the facts that neither you nor any member of your immediate family nor anyone in your street have clean criminal records and that you carry a shank in each sock 'just in case' suggest the latter?

please to explain to dumb culchie, thxbye

Snobby Dub. No criminal records in my family. Unless you count a couple of Aqua albums my sister owns.

how the hell do i shorten hyggeligt? i'm getting sick and tired of typing it.

Shorten it to "sir" and tug your forelock before pressing submit.

arah tis grand day, thur, grand day.

quick test, just so i get my ear right- do you sound like you are forever eating rather runny toffee?

*snigger*

I don't know! Probably not, to be honest. Confused I suppose is best way to describe my awful mongrel accent.

arah tis grand day, thur, grand day.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39124000/jpg/_39124719_fastshow270.jpg

Without the homoerotic thing. Sorry Darraghmac.

*snigger*

Quiet, you :)

I object to the idea that to care about the quality of galleries and museums you have to be from Donnybrook.

what about Ringsend?

Ha ha thinking of Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's father and how one of his election campaign promises was to have Ringsend and Irishtown officially listed as northside.

I agree with IKR. There are plenty of other Dublin areas that like galleries such as Ranelagh, Ballsbridge, Rathmines. Such blinkered vision, darraghmac.

i didn't specify any area of dublin, now did i? my knowledge of dublin goes as far as there are snobby dubs (insufferable) and jackeen dubs (homicidal). at least there's only one type of culchie (uncultured, affable, screwing the EU for farm payments)

i didn't specify any area of dublin, now did i? my knowledge of dublin goes as far as there are snobby dubs (insufferable) and jackeen dubs (homicidal). at least there's only one type of culchie (uncultured, affable, screwing the EU for farm payments)

RONG. Are people from Limerick (homicidal) not culchies? I would put it that all of the Dubs are fairly snobby. At least a pretty serious superiority complex at least... See? I am not being snobby Dub anymore. Too boring.

people from limerick county are culchies, certainly.

people from limerick city defy classification.

I'm interested in hearing an elaboration of this theory

They don't like to be pigeon-holed obviously. Why would you think anything else?

No, I just find the population of Limerick a particularly strange breed. Insanely diverse and cliquey like nowhere else. I just wondered if someone had made the same observation.

I want to believe that darraghmac had made that observation...

I can't remember when I was last in Limerick. I must have been about 10.

Strange place.

Is it now?

i went to college for 18 months in limerick, i couldn't say that they were particularly cliquey, but there was a definite divide between the country and city folks- more so than in any other county i've seen.

the country people work hard all year, but the city folks laugh and play all summer long. but they do go on to die in winter, as i recall, whereas the country folk are fairly comfortable during that time of year..

I've never been anywhere where I could honestly predict at least 50% of the people at a particular bar or club before I walk in so accurately.

LOLOLOL (xpost)

I dunno, I've nearly always been able to identify people at a particular bar or club. Normally as eejits. 90% of the time I'm spot on </misanthrope>

No, I mean, actual particular people, not "types" or whatever.

I don't understand. Like "oh there's someone who looks like Jill. Must be her sister" or something?

No, I mean like, "I bet redhaired guy and girl with afro will be here; oh look, they're by the vending machine"

Going to Galway and Achill Island this weekend so will be able to pass fresh judgement on both your home counties!

wrong weekend to be in achill! weather and storm warnings.

Lies! Sure it was pissing down but I still went surfing and for long walks because I am a real man obv.

Galway I saw nothing so must withhold judgement, Mayo on the other hand is v v pretty.

Apparently Carlow is under four feet of water. I'm just saying.

go Carlow! That's normally Leitrim's deal. How i miss it.
do I need wellies when I get back to Ireland? I have rollerblades.

you need a dinghy

i was in wicklow this weekend, but i was indoors the whole time.

aerlingus will charge too much for dinghy. I'll roll my trousers up and hope for the best.

no, no- bring the wellies at the very least.

waders would be better, mind.

where were you on achill, hggytltlltilitlilolt?

Keel. It was v nice. Two circuses! Walk around there is savage. Some abandoned village and walk around the headland.

o-ess bring flares. Of the "OH SHIT I'M DROWNING SEND HELP" variety.

I have vague plans to spend a couple of days in Dublin in the middle of my imminent fortnight in Kerry, after which I hope to have resolved the Culchie/Dub debate once and for all.

ah, deserted village/slievemore. great stuff.

the end of keel beach, over by the cliffs, is where i'm from. pretty spot.

Kerry/Dublin divide is pretty much bang-on for you to judge alright Stevie!

I spent the wkend w Oirish expats and all they talked about was how no one could get anywhere right now, and Uncle Declan was stuck in some town and how they had such nice weather three weeks ago but only got one game of golf and etc etc.

Also how Aer Lingus isn't going to to fly directly to some smaller city anymore, instead you'll have to fly to Galway and change there for Roscommon and how that'll add two hours AT LEAST.

All I miss is the peaceful silence of Leitrim. I hope that doesn't get replaced by the sound of the nearby creek lapping against my window. are we the first to go under? what happened to the Maldives?

I have vague plans to spend a couple of days in Dublin in the middle of my imminent fortnight in Kerry, after which I hope to have resolved the Culchie/Dub debate once and for all.

FAP? Kerry is lovely iirc.

ah, deserted village/slievemore. great stuff.

Very cool. I think my pictures won't come out. I'm afraid I went a bit snap-happy.

Also how Aer Lingus isn't going to to fly directly to some smaller city anymore, instead you'll have to fly to Galway and change there for Roscommon and how that'll add two hours AT LEAST.

See this is the thing. What the hell gave these savages the sense that they deserved to travel at all? They get a couple of years when it's all gravy and suddenly they expect it to be like that all the time? Ridiculous!

if we had trains, we could live without our regional airports. come on dublin, give us some money, or we don't make with the spuds.

You cad! We need all the money for our totally efficient Luas and proposed Metro that's not going to suffer from Financial Mismanagement or follow a nonsensical route decided by FF/FG constituencies oh no not all...

The trains are pretty appalling. The buses aren't so bad. In fact they're pretty good. Except when the radio is playing. How does Country FM have such a strong signal outside of Dublin.

Yes, I've heard that Irish people love (American) country music. Apparently it appeals to their sense of the maudlin.

maudlin drunkenness = universal language

buses? it's sweaty, bumpy, smelly, uncomfortable 5 1/2 hour trip to dublin. no thanks.

country fm? what band is that on, i'll give it a spin.

irish people prefer irish country music, which is like american country music without the style, sass or quality control.

hey, Declan Nerney is way better than Johnny Cash!

maudlin drunkenness = universal language

OTM!

irish people prefer irish country music, which is like american country music without the style, sass or quality control.

So true. I was in the scariest 'RA bar ever in Keel. The lady who owned it had a t shirt on with "Give it back you thief" showing a hand with the union jack grabbing at Northern Ireland. This fit in perfectly among the decor: H Block pictures, Bobby Sands mirrors and lots of Sinn Fein stuff. Tip jar was for the Sinn Fein election fund. I did not tip.

Sweaty? You've been getting the really good buses. I normally can't feel my feet when I take them. Must learn to drive!

country fm? what band is that on, i'll give it a spin.

106.8 on FM it seems.

country bus music has made me want to end my life more times than I can count. Once I had to sit up front as my companion suffered from 'travel sickness'. I saw the bus driver insert a country cd.
Hell.

Yes, I was treated to some warbly Irish country in the car this wkend. Presumably CD as I was in the US at the time.

So true. I was in the scariest 'RA bar ever in Keel. The lady who owned it had a t shirt on with "Give it back you thief" showing a hand with the union jack grabbing at Northern Ireland. This fit in perfectly among the decor: H Block pictures, Bobby Sands mirrors and lots of Sinn Fein stuff. Tip jar was for the Sinn Fein election fund. I did not tip.

The Minaun. Scary enough place sometimes.

That's the one! What do you know about it? We found some shotgun shells on our walk, we think they were theirs: balclavas and hiace vans of Achill etc etc

o-ess, that's just wrong.

Once in Belgium I ended up in a shouty argument with the ryanair/terravision bus driver due to volume and rubbishness of music. Not my finest hour...

Oh Belgium. so cute

i know everything about it, it's the minaun

it's the local ra bar, run by the fanatical daughters of a ra man, and they ain't shy about it. basically a recruitment centre for dissident republican groups. has been raided in the past for guns n stuff.

stopped going there since i started going out with a girl with an english accent, funnily enough.

Hahaha I spent a dope afternoon in Bundoran once taking my english accent for a walk through all the ra souvenir shops.

hey, Declan Nerney is way better than Johnny Cash!

OMG MY MUM POSTS TO ILE!

stopped going there since i started going out with a girl with an english accent, funnily enough.

Coward! You have to fight intolerance with love.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/FlowerChik/sixties/d5_t25jan_obit.jpg

That was a v v scary bar. It also explains the crowd to be honest.

Noodle Vague that was very bold. Don't be teasing them like that. How would you like it? All trying to not hunt down the blasted English swine that oppressed Bundoran for 700 years only to have said swine come over and haggle for their carefully made handicraft. For shame NV, for shame...

Oh Belgium. so cute

Ha ha In Bruges to thread.

it is! it is so cute. when I went over the border in the bus from France last month everything became about 75% cuter. Though I stay away from Wallonia.

Maybe Carlow should just be left behind, at this stage. There's alot of room elsewhere.

Coward! You have to fight intolerance with love.

i was to engrossed in 'conversation' with a dusky young beauty in the minaun once to notice that we were the only two people not standing for amhrain na bfhiain. the barman, a good friend, let me out the back door for my own safety. i think i'll just avoid the place in future, but thanks for the pep talk... let me know when you plan to take them on though, i'll be there with pocorn.

i've only flown over belgium, but it looks quite dainty

did i pick up some rumour wrong, but are off licences closing earlier now since i left? for why?
now i'll have to buy my drink before work, which always looks bad

well, i don't think it was just since you left, to be fair. they were going to do it anyway.

can't wait

I blame the underemployed oversubsidised culchies drinking and getting in to trouble ruining it for the rest of us...

That pub though, was thinking about it last night when uploading the pictures. Mental.

o-ess, where are you that has you so out of the loop? Do you not know that the Irish Times is free online now?

I thought IKR would be mourning the drowning of Carlow.

I would like to go surfing again.

darraghmac, what had you in Wicklow if I may so bold as to ask?

poker weekend. us culchies like to come upcountry and skin the well off, it helps to subsidise the dole y'know. we'll have to try and catch a few pints in the minaun next time yer down though.

how's your "God Save the Queen", if i bring a guitar?

off licenses close at 10.00 now - to stop Ireland becoming another Booze Britain.

Our off-licences in Booze Britain close at 10.00 already! Doesn't stop us being a nation of alkies and bingers.

o-ess, where are you that has you so out of the loop? Do you not know that the Irish Times is free online now?

France.
I guess I dart too quickly too the 'world news' section. It is far more thrilling.

I can buy alcohol in bakeries here. It's not fair!

poker weekend. us culchies like to come upcountry and skin the well off, it helps to subsidise the dole y'know. we'll have to try and catch a few pints in the minaun next time yer down though.

-- darraghmac, Thursday, 21 August 2008 16:11 (Thursday, 21 August 2008 16:11)

I was thinking of some kind of FAP but didn't really have time. Glad I didn't suggest it only to be knocked back. Next time perhaps. Are you Castlebar based?

how's your "God Save the Queen", if i bring a guitar?

-- darraghmac, Thursday, 21 August 2008 16:12 (Thursday, 21 August 2008 16:12)

Sex Pistols or other?

France is du trop. Personally I like having to work and plan ahead for my booze, it gives me an enormous sense of well being.

Hang on, we're going through a recession, Miriam Lord is writing about it and you still skip straight to 'world news'? U RONG

tbh, i don't tend to get out in castlebar much- it's an awful pit. most of my nights out are in dublin or galway anyway.

sex pistols would go down about as well in the minaun as the english national anthem, i'm not sure which would get you assaulted first.

I like the fact that it doesn't matter what I do, they'll mess me up anyway. Amazed I made it out alive.

Dublin eh... Let us know the next time you're down our way for FAP action. Any excuse for a pint really.

jesus, this is embarrassing.

i really meant, uh, look- the people i meet in dublin for pints, they're all from outside dublin, y'see? uh- you can understand my position here, man...i got a reputation amongst culchies that i got to maintain.

if word ever got around back home that i went for a pint with a jackeen, well, persona non grata wouldn't quite cover it, shall we say

I understand man. It's cool, saves me having to explain to anyone I met that it's not that you're retarded or suffering from some speech impediment but that you're a culchie. They would totally take my doobs off me not to mention my leinster jersey :(

reminds me- did anyone catch either the olympics basketball or the hockey commentary on RTE yet? youtube it if not, genuinely priceless stuff.

Man I watched some of the basketball last week. That ex-GAA fellow gets really in to it. Cue laughter when he said something along the lines of "That's Kobe saying THIS IS MY HOUSE" legend.

Where is Local Garda from and what county does he loathe (can't be Dublin as we have Copperface Jacks!)?

all Irish counties are great! Irish people are the best people in the world, wherever you go the Irish are great craic! Always laughing and joking! Not like them Germans!!!

We are also a very caring religious nation, sending priests to those less educated than ourselves.

(can't be Dublin as we have Copperface Jacks!)?

I was waiting for this joke

i was driving through roscommon today.

i'd quite like to change my vote to roscommon.

Oh my...

Also LOL @ Poshy:

- Im personally not a fan of Barcode , as i live local enough and the cheap drink its why i go but seeing the same people from your old school days really bothers me and most of the clientelle are from the rougher area of Dublin. If you want cheap drink go here but if you want a good night with the nice women avoid here.
Submitted by Daragh, Malahide

not guilty

any of you ever been on the nitelink as it makes a new special stop in Fairview for Barcode clientele?

I'm not gonna speculate on where anyone's from, plenty from Malahide, but either way, if that's what it's like in there then it must be hell.

This=reason upstairs on the bus lacks drug abusing bonhomie of old, twats who are too fearful of travelling ALL THE WAY into the city centre for a night out.

I would not take a Nitelink. Least of all one going north! </snobby eejit>

I'd be a last bus or taxi man. My route doesn't end up in the best place in Dublin (

This=reason upstairs on the bus lacks drug abusing bonhomie of old, twats who are too fearful of travelling ALL THE WAY into the city centre for a night out.

On person's bonhomie is another person's threatening atmosphere. Perhaps it's not the crowd upstairs that have changed so much as you?

People who don't want to travel in to the city centre I understand, with a full bladder an hour's bus ride with a load of eejits can be a real pain.

This thread...

it's a nice little snapshot of the national psyche that this is the default irish thread at this stage.

i was in tullamore yesterday, it seemed nice. i think roscommon still holds the pole position for me.

Cool, I live in the murder capital of europe then. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/limerick-is-now-the-official-murder-capital-of-europe-1353369.html

Last year I lived on a really short street book-ended by burnt out houses, one of which was full of heroin addicts and all my neighbours were drug dealers and nice old ladies.

You're back in college I take it.

Damn man, nice old ladies??? You're lucky to be alive son...

People are really worried in Dublin. I think we're all starting to cop on at how easy it would be for companies to just hop back over the water sort of thing.

Did anyone watch Cromwell thing last night? Interesting and balanced I found.

it's a nice little snapshot of the national psyche that this is the default irish thread at this stage.

I'm treating it as such anyway.

Sorry I meant nice old ladies who were drug dealers. J/k

Ireland needs a recession, I hope the Panini sector is the first to get it.

Who will then buy your paintings IKR? A recession is bad news, ultimately the negatives far outweigh any positives. For example: Fees. They will be reintroduced and who will bear the most burden? The less well off who will again see 3rd level as a needless expense. There will be an increase in funding for vocational degrees, arts (and degrees in the arts) degrees will be badly hit. Students will find drink prices go up, their grants get cut and their parents less able to put them up in the town of their choice. Rents will also increase as people try to get the value out of a property they are no longer able to sell.

To stamp one's foot in such a manner and go "good I'm glad that the rich are getting stuffed" is a little bit shortsighted and childish.

Oh, I was just taking the piss.

I didn't mean the rich though, I meant all of us. We're such arseholes now.

I didn't pick up on that. Apologies. Apologies also for school marm-ish tone. (xpost)

I didn't mean the rich though, I meant all of us. We're such arseholes now.

This is untrue. There are pricks and pussies as well. </Team America speech>

Fees. They will be reintroduced and who will bear the most burden? The less well off who will again see 3rd
level as a needless expense. There will be an increase in funding for vocational degrees, arts (and degrees
in the arts) degrees will be badly hit

oooh, let's have an argument...

who will bear the burden?- those going to college, as opposed to everybody that pays tax.

will there be fewer going to college? good. there's too many going at the moment, judging by the standard of the class I did my business degree with.

and less people in arts degrees? tragic!

It's just that the herd culling will be done on more economic lines than it is now.

My taxes also pay for you don't let that be forgotten!

I think fees being removed makes sense. I think this new halfway rule being discussed (fees for earners over 120k) seems sensible enough if the grants were also brought in to line. There's no point imho paying more money to our government without demanding concrete things in return for a change.

Less people in arts = less teachers. Would you really like such a thing?

will there be fewer going to college? good. there's too many going at the moment, judging by the standard of the class I did my business degree with.

Should have done arts.

That 'you' was to Darraghmac.

i'm going back next year to do a h dip, with the aim of being a teacher.

i always wish i'd done arts, it's a big regret of mine!

I actually don't care about fees at all since, well, I'll be finished before they get going, but reintroducing fees would be okay if they sorted out the grant properly.

reintroducing fees would be okay if they sorted out the grant properly.

And made sure that those that could afford it paid fees. If a grant is means tested so should the fees be. Oh wow, parse that bad boy!

i'm going back next year to do a h dip, with the aim of being a teacher.

Oh yes, you were saying. What subjects are you interested in?

i always wish i'd done arts, it's a big regret of mine!

Great three years in an ugly uni. Arts I <3 u!

One problem with fees is that you can only go to college if your parents want you to. This seems a bit unforutnate.

That is troof. Or there are loans and sure can't we see in the UK and US how successful the student loans have been!?

at 17, you can't really do anything your parents want you to. if your parents didn't want you to go to college under the system as is, then they just had to refuse to co-operate with you when you were filling out the forms, and there's nothing you can do.

i think it's an interesting topic, but trying to mug it so that social inclusion is the most important aspect is goig to make it difficult.

Well, it's gonna happen anyway, probably, so we might as well sit back and see if it turns good or sends the whole third level system down the loo.

i think it's an interesting topic, but trying to mug it so that social inclusion is the most important aspect is goig to make it difficult.

Well, it's gonna happen anyway, probably, so we might as well sit back and see if it turns good or sends the whole third level system down the loo.

I agree that it is probably going to happen. I still think that social inclusion is vital.

the third level sector is vital, the social inclusion is important, but not more so that the ensured viability or quality of the sector as a whole.

not that i think social inclusion has been a problem- people taking advantage of the grants system is the problem.

and i do genuinely believe that too many people are going to college, when it's just not for them.

people taking advantage of the grants system is the problem

I haven't experienced this at all. It seems bloody hard to get a grant and even when you do it seems not to be that much in the end...

I sadly must agree about too many people going because they feel they should. It means that money gets used on general courses (including some arts) that probably might be better placed.

Still though, I believe that 3rd level education must be allowed (and encouraged) to have non-profitmaking courses. There are more benefits than just financial after all!

and don't you think that people should be expected to pay for these largely personal benefits themselves? over a number of years afterwards, if that's the option.

How can you determine that these are personal benefits? Can people give examples of the type of courses they're talking about so we can agree that we're all on the same page here.

i'm not making a distinction, tbh. any of them, all of them.

a 'loss making' course, as described above by hylollit, well i'm not sure that a third level institute run on state funds has any business running such a course in any case.

I don't see how the education of the population, even if it is in a vague non-directional way would not be the responsibility of the state.

this has gotten a bit boards.ie

the education of the population in a vague and non-directional way? i don't think you'll sell anyone on that for a mission statement.

and don't you think that people should be expected to pay for these largely personal benefits themselves? over a number of years afterwards, if that's the option.

Not if I can help it! I don't like paying taxes but because I do I want to make sure that they help as many people as possible. </hippy>

IKR I'm talking the full gamit from Arts/Commerce to Medecine i.e. loose to vocational.

this has gotten a bit boards.ie

Never bothered. Too many avatars and things. Registered once. Wonder if it's still active.

i don't mind paying taxes, but if i do i want to make sure that it's a social investment and not paying for a 4 year course in, oh, i dunno, heritage at gmit castlebar for instance.

I just meant, that I would prefer an educated population, where knowledge in itself was valued above. I think this is much more dynamic than just educating those that are needed to fill a need.

i'd much prefer an educated population that didn't maybe have it's hand out all the time.

education for education's sake is fine for an individual, and should be their choice if they are prepared to pay for it.

if not, i don't think it's reasonable for the taxplayer to foot the bill for however many unproductive/unnecessary degrees every year.

(and i don't mean the degrees or courses themselves are the problem, rather the people doing them.)

it's, nice education there darragh.

i'd much prefer an educated population that didn't maybe have it's hand out all the time.

Fair enough.

education for education's sake is fine for an individual, and should be their choice if they are prepared to pay for it.

I believe that the system in place ('free' undergrad then pay as you go) works.

(and i don't mean the degrees or courses themselves are the problem, rather the people doing them.)

Again, I do agree that perhaps college isn't the be all and end all that the leaving cert makes it out to be but I seriously think that while it can be afforded that education up to a basic 3rd level degree should be free.

I realised that my education left me grammatically clueless a long time ago :( Seriously, there's no spell check on this version of IE which is making me feel v v dumb ;_;

So darraghmac, you think that fees should be brought in for ALL courses?

I believe people that will do nothing to improve society (such as artists, musicians and language graduates) should pay double fees!

This is what I was getting at. Fuckers.

You want to people to sponsor your painting? PAINT MY HOUSE!

LOL I am so funny.

Fuckin' dubliners

I believe that the system in place ('free' undergrad then pay as you go) works.

it works to devalue undergraduate degrees, that's all.

So darraghmac, you think that fees should be brought in for ALL courses?

absolutely, I'm not discriminating between arts/business/technical degrees here at all, no matter what type of philistine the other bollix is trying to paint me as.

going to a third level institution is a really costly thing for the state to have pay for you, and i don't think there's enough onus on students of third level in ireland to face up to this and make adult decisions about what they want to put in to it and the consequences of what they'll take out of it.

i agree with all xposts, however

right so, fair enough

extra points for "bollix"

Fuckin' dubliners

― I know, right?, 17 September 2008 16:33

Not this one. I dig money, not creativity.

it works to devalue undergraduate degrees, that's all.

I don't agree (surprise surprise!) as I feel that any degree has required a certain amount of effort and intelligence. It also shows that someone can stick with something. Not a great way of showing it but still, it's something.

absolutely, I'm not discriminating between arts/business/technical degrees here at all, no matter what type of philistine the other bollix is trying to paint me as.

I work more in video. I can't afford DVD player thanks to recession and four Ballsbridge homes ;_;

extra points for "bollix"

Two?

smartarse

Fuckin' dubliners

― I know, right?, 17 September 2008 16:33

Not this one. I dig money, not creativity.

How is this different from any other dubliners?

feel that any degree has required a certain amount of effort and intelligence. It also shows that someone can stick with something. Not a great way of showing it but still, it's something.

first sentence- next time you're in castlebar we must make an effort to have that pint, i can take you on a tour of my beloved alma mater, possibly even sit in on a class or two. the entire college works at pass leaving cert standard, and i doubt very much that it's the only one in the country.

second sentence? a person can do any number of things to show they have determination and intelligence, but surely the leaving cert is as useful for this as a three year degree that is only killing time and wasting resources in terms of that person's development/education/career/whatever

dubliners 'dig' into the pockets of unconscious tourists, and little else.

really, i'm just bitter that the wheels are gonna fall off this whole 'third level educated' backslapping wankfest before i had a chance to get my masters and tenure somewhere.

Good excuse to flee the country though.

another gripe, i was hoping to get aforementioned masters on the cheap and emigrate! IT'S A PERSONAL CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU

I'd like to get a good masters at some point. Not in this kip. I'm pretty sure I got ripped off so far.

How is this different from any other dubliners?

I don't cry afterwards...

first sentence- next time you're in castlebar we must make an effort to have that pint, i can take you on a tour of my beloved alma mater, possibly even sit in on a class or two. the entire college works at pass leaving cert standard, and i doubt very much that it's the only one in the country.

Pint, yes! Depressing visit? No! The thing is darraghmac, your area has 3rd level where people can give it a go. If it doesn't work? Fine! No one has regrets and you can always pay for the hdip afterwards. I don't see why you feel 3rd level is seen as a waste of money, for me the success of Ireland's economy should involve everyone. There shouldn't be this: "you are from here therefore you will be a plumber" I think that everyone should have the same chances.

Hey now, are we back on against Dubliners? About time! We were all getting along way too well.

really, i'm just bitter that the wheels are gonna fall off this whole 'third level educated' backslapping wankfest before i had a chance to get my masters and tenure somewhere.

Hey now, that's not the way to look at it. Now you know that people like you know how much you were willing to spend. It can be back to the status symbol side of education rather than the accomplishment side.

There shouldn't be this: "you are from here therefore you will be a plumber" I think that everyone should have the same chances

there shouldn't be judgment on plumbing as a living, nor should a degree be a status symbol that people have to get regardless of academic ability.

your area has 3rd level where people can give it a go

i don't think that tertiary education is for everyone, otherwise it becomes meaningless pretty quickly. i also amn't sure that location is really a big issue. and finally, i think that one of my biggest gripes is that 'third level' has just become the new leaving cert, both in standards and something that you 'should' have in order to finally be able to break free of an educational system that you might not necessarily be getting anything out of.

I don't see why you feel 3rd level is seen as a waste of money, for me the success of Ireland's economy should involve everyone

the success of ireland's economy was artificial, and even that had nothing to do with lowering third level standards.

i'm completely lost by your last sentence, for which i blame the appallingly low standards of my degree education

there shouldn't be judgment on plumbing as a living, nor should a degree be a status symbol that people have to get regardless of academic ability.

I also agree with this.

i don't think that tertiary education is for everyone, otherwise it becomes meaningless pretty quickly.

I have also agreed with this upthread.

i think that one of my biggest gripes is that 'third level' has just become the new leaving cert, both in standards and something that you 'should' have in order to finally be able to break free of an educational system that you might not necessarily be getting anything out of.

I can completely understand where you are coming from. I feel much the same (and I think I said it upthread) that the leaving cert etc puts all this pressure on your next step in education rather than "welcome to the future" sort of thing.

i'm completely lost by your last sentence, for which i blame the appallingly low standards of my degree education

I wouldn't! I am fairly bad with the grammar and things so tend to screw up simple sentences. I believe I was ordering a cheeseburger...

you dubliners and your filthy rhyming slang

IKR- you're in Limerick studying? Mary I, UL or LIT?

this shallow excuse for a centre of learning.

take a look at "notable graduates" for a downer

"Pat Shortt"

Oh my.

I hear good things about the graduate shows though!

i think my brother was there last year. he's a pretty good example of what i'm talking about in terms of sponsored self indulgence

Spoken like a true bitter sibling ;)

http://www.sammatthews.com/images/Random%20Illustrations/atlas_shrugged2.jpg

what's his name? this place is tiny

no fuggin way. you know too much already.

It's too late darraghmac, this is the internet. We know all your secrets. We are disgusted btw at your google image search history :(

As this is the general Irish thread (I suppose) and the fact that we have a Mayoite posting how do we all feel about Beverly Flynn? I, for one, am shocked, appalled and completely unsurprised.

you can't be all three.

this isn't what you'd call out of character. she's FF for a reason you know.

oh my god this woman is such a shameless scumbag

she's an improvement on the last generation, but yeah this is the type of person running the country, and there really isn't any hope.

Oh wait, she's given it back! Choice quote from the Irish Times today:

In her Midwest Radio interview yesterday, Ms Flynn told presenter Tommy Marren: "I have been deeply hurt over the last number of days at the manner in which it has been portrayed - as if this is some allowance that I have been grabbing for myself - when in actual fact nothing could be further from the truth.

"I think if anybody analyses my statements of interest in the Dáil from the day I went into politics to where I am today, they will fully realise that I have not gone into politics to make money," she said.

Ah bless...

she's an improvement on the last generation

God yeah. Did you read him talking himself up ahead of this radio documentary. Made the blood boil!

you can't be all three.

Yes I can, it's my right and in the rules. Can I help if I only became shocked and appalled after I was unsurprised? I am allowed hold on to the others to help my constituents!

More important. FUCK A DELL! Bastards.

i gave a lift to a guy yesterday who gave a spirited defence of charlie haughey. i didnt agree with him or anything but it was kind of refreshing.

my brother works at Dell, at least he should get a decent redundancy package.

Glad to hear it. Still though, not fun for the west.

What did he offer in Cj's defence?

A list of laws and acts haughey passed but he rattled them off off at such a pace i cant even remember the specifics. restoration of dublin castle, bulidings that were constructed in his era. even said 'LAST OF THE GREAT CHEIFTANS' at one point!

Dear God. Well it takes all sorts. I have a friend who when he were but a nipper used to help out carrying drinks around for the Haugheys at their parties. Child labour! Must check that out in more detail.

I am still upset at Dell. I suppose it's apocryphal but they say for everyone one job that goes like that 5 supporting jobs disappear. I'm not so sure it's totally accurate but there will be knock on effects.

i'm afraid that the hero worship of haughey is something that latter generations will never fully understand, it must have been the times that were in it cos he never struck me as anything other than a vulturous ugly old crook.

the dell news hardly comes as a shock, but yeah at least they'll get some kind of payoff. rte reckons that for every dell job there were four or five jobs dependent, so there could be a hell of a knock-on effect.

xpost!

my dad was fanatical about haughey, is bitter now but hey that's the story of his life sometimes i think. he let slip lately that he used to 'see' the big fella's daughter for a while in the 70's. good lord. i coulda been part of the establishment if he'd played his cards right.

I have a friend who's 27 and defends Haughey fairly vociferously. I'm sure in the amount of time he was in power he did bring in some effective changes but you'd expect that. When you tell non-Irish people about Charlie Haughey you realise how funny it is.

"Yeah he was taking lots of bungs, but nobody noticed. Erm...despite the fact that he eh...owned an island"

But darraghmac, don't you like spending time here with the little people?

That's mad, he got out just in time. You could have got the Haughey nose!

What an island as well! Mental really...

ooh ooh i forgot, the guy said haughey was a hate figure now because the media despised him and were out to get him. then he asked me at one point did i ever go to college. 'errr yeah, journalism actually..'

yeah the industrial estate that dell is based in has about 5 other factories and warehouses and theyre surely going to go under as well as they are totally dependent on dell. not to mention another two factories on the dock road that supply dell. then theres dell customer services in shannon, bus services....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inishvickillane

"A herd of red deer was also introduced to the island by Haughey"

he might have been the leader we needed at the time, it's hard to analyse after two decades. but garrett fitzgerald! always liked garrett.

would swap my adorable button nose for untold wealth.

yeah, i'd seriously worry about limerick in the wake of this news.

there was talk of former dell execs trying to organise some type of laptop manufacturing facility using the premises and staff and hopefully taking up a lot of the slack.

ooh ooh i forgot, the guy said haughey was a hate figure now because the media despised him and were out to get him. then he asked me at one point did i ever go to college. 'errr yeah, journalism actually..'

Michael B is Darraghmac?!

did darraghmac drop out of college as well?

just the once!

anyway, i never did journalism. maybe this year.

very oirish flavour to the new answers at moment.

Sorry Michael B, I got confused.

lol do any Irish ILXors actually have a job?

no!

well 'part time'....

they do, but ask again in 6 months i guess

out with the flatcaps

Ha! Won't even be that long I'd say. We're all doomed! (xpost)

http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/images/cms/HISTORY/HISTORY265/famine.jpg

l-r every irish ilxor

Who are the midgets? I vote that northern Fir Bolg almost Haughey is the midgets. ALL THREE OF THEM!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Ellis_island_air_photo.jpg

Where we'd be going if they weren't fecked as well :(

wow i've spectacularly failed to understand either of the last two posts.

First post made no sense (plus ca change etc etc) so don't worry.

Second post: Ellis Island

i'm thinking of australia more and more. if i find myself unemployed it's there or the states- luckily enough the auld fella has a green card so i'd be able to move over under that as far as i know.

Does it work that way? The green card I mean. No interest in Australia.

well, he seems to think it does. but then he voted for haughey in 87.

all jokes aside, we probably need to either poll this or make a general paddywhackery thread.

back to county cussing, this threads been very republic based. Not many know of the true grimness of tyrone, home to strabane and the highest unemployment/young males suicide rate combo in europe i believe, got a rinsing on that worst places in britain to live thing on ch4 last year. pretty much the only jobs there were working in the mccolgans meat factory which was still paying £1.50 an hour in the mid nineties (I knew the owners son). Though everyone always hates the county next door and im from derry.

no wonder tyrone are so good at gaa

ticket outta there?

was driving through the north only last weekend. jesus but the roads are dreadful. no other observances, only saw IKEA besides.

yeah theres pretty much the road from derry to belfast, maybe via omagh. and thats about it

same holds true for leitrim/roscommon. failed to convince me.

Mother of God Tyrone sounds bad. I was in Galway this weekend. Oh yeah:

DERE I KNOW, RIGHT?

C4rp3nt3rs (sp?) on Sh0p Street were having a brilliant sale (bought some suits, check me foo' I am gorgeous etc) but there's no way they could have cleared the stock by the Sunday. Worth checking in for shirts and Full Circle jeans (I have been told they were good. At that point I was too skint and traumatised at how much I'd spent to care).

END OF MESSAGE

People, have I cursed Borris-in-Ossory yet? Satan's haemorrhoid. You get off the bus and WALLOP squalor and depression. Also horrible sandwiches. Seriously how the hell do you screw up a ham and cheese sandwich? That is like the ninja of shite catering right there...

wow you managed to get a sandwich there. i remember a few months ago i got a flat tyre coming back from dublin and thought i might get some dinner at a pub there right across from the londis after i put the new tyre on. walked over, it was still closed. this was six in the evening. felt a sudden chill over my bones, got back in the car and hightailed the fuck outta there.

You were lucky. Six o'clock is usually 'eating the stranger' time.

So Anglo-Irish lied to the Government, the head of the Regulator was incompetent (or worse, complicit) and is being paid a large golden handshake with a fine pension, the public service workers are being blamed for everything (worst kind of strawman argument imho) and we are all going to be unemployed and/or working for less than minimum wage sooner rather than later. I believe that the question has been answered: What is the most rubbish Irish County? Well, all of them it would now appear.

lol Borris in Ossory. One of the less scenic parts of purgatory.

OTM! It is hell on earth. The hotel that does the bad sandwiches has been for sale forever. I think knocking it is the only solution then salting the earth so that nothing can grow there again.

guys, i just checked and it seems mayo wins.

https://photos-4.getdropbox.com/i/l/4nvm-spbcaUu44uqYa8At44uQddD8tns7Y66F_jmLXQ#12

respectfully submitted.

oh and i saw this and thought it would sway the jury

https://photos-3.getdropbox.com/i/l/T7Wpkf181AVkNXCPxYJGGOfo-Bx1jqRn8qHttqlej6o#3

just saying. feeling confident about a poll, i could really make a case.

Wait, why so anti-Mayo all of a sudden? This confuses me...

aw tits

forgot it was a worst county poll. mayo wins the other type, of course.

Ha! Your Freudian slip reveals all!

lol I was gonna say Mayo looks pretty sweet on those pics.

How's Sligo for a day out btw? We're coming over next month and maybe Mrs V will be in a driving mood.

i can't think of anything i'd recommend in sligo town itself, tbh. it's not my neck of the woods, but has gotten to be a pretty rough town.

for a drive, heading out through the gap towards enniskillen from the town is beautiful. or out benbulben/drumcliffe way for the scenery.

Cheers dude. Stopping in North Donegal with a car-full so maybe won't come down that far, but at least now I know to skip the town and just head for Inisfree or sump'n if we do.

County Mayo is totally worth visiting. Places I enjoyed on my last visit to Ireland:

Maghera Beach, Glen Gesh Pass, Donegal
Benbulben/Drumcliffe/Rosses Point, Sligo
Ben Wee Head, Ceide Fields, Achill Island, Keem Strand, Mayo (I think that most recent photo is near Keem Strand)
Killary Harbour, Galway City, Galway

Haven't been to any rubbish places, sorry. It seemed like in North Mayo there were signs around protesting Shell Oil?
Sligo Town was good for that Yeats statue, at least.

Not to sound like bot or anything, but Cork or Galway (city and counties; nice places to hang, beautiful countryside)

Sorry didn't see you were coming from Donegal. Sligo is pretty and it has that weird mountain.

City's not bad, better than Limerick at least (not hard, seriously Limerick is just the absolute pits)

i have never heard anyone talk about county laois. is that because it's too dull to be rubbish?

Its very very small, Darina Allen is from there.

Does all Donegal have brown water or is it just Rathmullan? Was a bit unnerving taking a shower in that.

Britishers going to Ireland in these weak-pound days, prepare for a shock to the bank balance... (even more than any other Euro country, I suspect)

yeah amazon.co.uk is amazing these days

(I think that most recent photo is near Keem Strand)

the registered user is correct, mlud

It seemed like in North Mayo there were signs around protesting Shell Oil?

lolololoil.

I'd imagine that there are a few local water schemes dotted around the west where you can take a brown shower, but not too many.

I've been in Laois, I think. I think.

Kilkenny is v nice imo. (Major bonus is it's near Dublin, haha)

Seriously tho a lovely place esp in summer, lots of good pubs and restaurants.

craic at least 88.517 if not 90 on a fine day

FM or MW?

Kilkenny does seem nice, but my exposure to the south east is very limited. waiting for a good summer to do a driving tour, which may just be a tad optimistic.

KK is very nice. Kind of aggro vibe the last time I was there but that was probably a reaction to me (getting that in before anyone else). Bu7l3r house is a great B&B right next to castle. Shares garden with design centre.

I have <3 right now for West Cork. Feelin' it son, feelin' it...

Would that the Noodles were coming via Dublin for scoops...

We are coming via but I think we'll be steaming straight thru. Coincidentally we will then go up to Rathmullan for some brown water.

it's not my neck of the woods, but has gotten to be a pretty rough town.

Sligo Is Surprising (official town motto). I have been there on a number of occasions, never noticed it being rough, but have not been out on a saturday night there in a while either. Shoot the Crows and Hargadons are two characterful local pubs. There are two nice art galleries as well, the Niland Model Art Gallery (or whatever it is called), and the Yeats Gallery thing in the red brick building by the river. The Niland is closed for refurbishment, but they are showing stuff elsewhere.

Niland is pretty great yeah, they've had some pretty great shows including one of the most interesting Warhol one's I've ever seen (there was a rubbish one in Imma at the same time).

BTW, I was feeling a bit reeling in the years today and realised that I couldn't find the video of Phil Lynott Old Town or Mary Black As I leave behind Neidin anywhere on the internet, not even audio.

uh, i think mayo might take a hit nationally with this being broadcast on the news

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0423/newsspecial_av.html?2531315,null,230

poor thing!

for the next week galway

I loved going to Galway Races as a kid. Though as our family summer holidays consisted of visiting June/July's racing festivals this meant the competition involved such alluring destinations as Tralee and Tramore.

Actually, my parents are there right now for the 40-somethingth year in a row.

have been invited up bnut will avoid like the plague until sat evening when i have to attend a birthday party in the city.

but for reals, no thanks horsey set, enjoy yourselves without me.

Heading back to Ardfert, Kerry in a couple of weeks to investigate if it can possibly rain more than it did during our visit a couple of years ago.

late august/september now seem to be about the most reliable times of year to get a bit of sun i think? seem to remember it being june/july/august only a few years ago but the govt and their property boom have ruined all that imo

http://twitpic.com/2n0syd

hitler spotted on the luas...

Heading back to Ardfert, Kerry in a couple of weeks to investigate if it can possibly rain more than it did during our visit a couple of years ago.

― Stevie T, Tuesday, July 27, 2010 10:08 AM (1 month ago)

wonder how this went tbh

heading down to cork city in a couple of weekends for romantic city break. loving the NAMA effect on the hotel sector tbh

JESUS CHRIST IT'S HITLER

eva braun could do with a lick of paint

re-upholstering imo

srsly a+

sehr unheimlich

Ardfert was grand - only one day of torrential rain out of five. Here we are on Barrow Beach, next to Tralee Golf Course.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/4924672470_7d1ba8000f.jpg

I liked the look of Cork as we flew in and out. May have to go back and investigate.

corks a great county and cork city's a great spot. but kerry's not bad!

Cork is nice - the city anyway. The county is so big that you probably cannot generalise it. The city feels old in a way that Dublin does not, maybe because they do not keep demolishing everything and building a load of shite new buildings.

oh wait, no praising in this thread.

think it's fair to cross decent counties off the list DV, all part of the selection process

twould be wrong to speak ill of cork on its day of mourning

well sure this is it

;_;

http://thensaturdaycomes.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/keane-triggs.jpg?w=300&h=234

jesus. News reports today would break your heart.

what sort of thing?

two adults, two kids shot dead in limerick house.

Two kids discovered dead in house in cork after their father died in single vehicle collision.

jesus...ah well at least the economy is in good shape.

will ye have a bankruptcy?

i couldn't possibly, i've just eaten a century of state sponsored child abuse

got to wonder if these things relate to economy when you hear about them, though. Tho i hope it's not a sign of reactionary regression to assume criminal infighting in the limerick one. Kids. Fuckit.

yeah defo you wonder if it's debt or whatever. horrible. i feel unbelievably fortunate these days, god, i'm out of work with parents helping me out financially, no wonder the media is made up of so many people from the same well off backgrounds...

jeez rub it in anyway

haha...i was trying to apologise for this in true irish fashion.

iirc my dad remortgaged a house he held in trust for us then fecked off to meirica. My family is the most rubbish irish county

still think its wherever boris-in-ossory is

like come on

you handed in ur right to an opinion at ellis island 'yank'

excuse me

glad im in "the states" where ur shitty provincialism is a distant memory

still, lonely w/o the barrys tea

only thing kerpin me here, obv.

And i dhrink lyons sher

well i actually dont drink tea i was just tryna give u smthng

never got the obsession with barrys tea etc. i drink earl grey. captain picard would still be an ensign if he'd been stuck with barrys his entire life

well i didnt want to have to say this, but tbh the barrys thing is only actually for real gaels, not earl grey swilling pale queens shilling taking traitors

joycean

i send everything i earn back home via telegram. my taxes will fund the bailout.

just read this thread all the way through...love it

we weren't initially here for yur amusement, but at this stage if you give us 50 quid, it's yours boss

http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2010/11/%C3%ACreland-space-full.jpg

ireland from space, but beneath jimmy page

ran out of change for the meter in mayo, obv

thats cos theyre all at nuig

ul more popular round my way tbh, nuig kinda has a niche for the wannabe teachers and those that considered themselves too bright for any of the gmits.

can see sligo

oh really? ul is kindof its own principality so despite living abt 5 min drive from there for four years all i know of it is *shrouded in mystery.* galway on the other hand is basically full of immigrant communities of mayo ppl who made nuig exodus and then got lost

well can pick out claremorris, tuam, castlebar all alright (clifden extreme left?)

dookinella pretty faint tho

yeah ul very self contained, but sure what mammy would sent a childeen to limerick otherwise?

college in galway is to mayo what a year in injia is to hertfordshire

that just above the green thing next to galway city, that *might* b moycullen?

i believe one of the patchy faint ones up above and left of castlebar is a group of shell-to-sea heads burning with righteous indignation

i believe u

will ye have a bankruptcy?

― buzza, Tuesday, November 16, 2010 3:36 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i couldn't possibly, i've just eaten a century of state sponsored child abuse

― I see what this is (Local Garda), Tuesday, November 16, 2010 3:38 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

LOL bleakly.

Both perps in cork/ Limerick are reported to have been out of work ....

would have guessed that for cork one. two women and the two kids of one of them in the other case. awful.

what's the place north of cork, like is it shannon or something? or is my geography way out of order, one of the bigger lights in the entire country?

limerick? or not that far up?

limerick?

cos i mean shannon is north of limerick

i thought it was too far north to be limerick but i suppose it has to be...

x-post yeah i know!

didn't think limerick was that far north from cork, says person with entire family born in limerick apart from self and one sibling

shame on me

lol ok

midlands really missing a city, looking at that. i know they got the hub of mullingar, athlone, longford, tullamore and what have you, but you'd mistake any of em for standard towns in that pic

cork's aaaages from anywhere tbh. i keep thinking 'ah it's only a hop from limerick if i go down that far' but nope.

well that does skew it, it IS only a hop from limerick, limk is closer to cork than galway

well tbf, i did go round the ring of kerry the lst time i was on the way there, so i suppose that's like 2-3 hours added on

??? isnt that like 5 hours extra. srsly the roads around there

diff between galway/limerick and limerick/cork- 300 metres!

ah but what a drive!

now that limk is bypassed i hope i never have to go back there again. i hate that city so much.

my god

?

well that does skew it, it IS only a hop from limerick, limk is closer to cork than galway

yeah this is what threw me, i've driven from cork to limerick loads of times and it's a short drive, in that pic it looks like a long distance.

i've never been in limerick city as an adult, only ever foynes where my mum is from and rathkeale (traveller capital of ireland) where my dad's mum lived. don't think i've been anywhere i thought was really horrible in ireland, rosslare maybe? was there as a 13 year old and it was great at the time but looking back it was horrible.

and obv dublin of course, rotten.

oh man rathkeale communion day

midlands really missing a city, looking at that. i know they got the hub of a big lake to submerge mullingar, athlone, longford, tullamore and what have you

limerick's got some great features imo, river, castle, some of the buildings and old terraces up the top of o'connell st. i like it, even down to the kinda rundown vibe all around the centre.

plenty of big lakes in the midlads tbf

^^^^
xp to self

Mainly aimed at Athlone to be fair - spent a year there as a child and still shudder when I pass the sign for it on the motorway

i could leave all of those towns listed tho, also tbf

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/818963/road.JPG

galway,

lol where is that it looks really familiar its not near boleybeg or drum or something is it? also haha fuck u

but yeah seriously and thats not just a galway thing tho it is totally insane

connemara is awes

it's around litir mor, only posting cos of the speed limits tbh

ate lunch in the co-op yesterday fyi

http://img1.eyefetch.com/p/de/245732-b82b6cba-a07e-482f-b762-2745e2a8ba46.jpg

those fuckers in the co-op wouldnt give me a job when they opened.

the vegetarian moussaka is better than ud expect tho

bastards

tipped 20% fwiw

they intentionally didnt hire anybody who lived in moycullen for some reason, i know a guy who works there and he says its a nightmare getting to work. idk, p sure they are hemorrhaging money fast.

fell totally in love with redhead waitress. was awkward tbh, ms mac being there and all

v quiet alright, reckon sat nights keep them in business but that's at a passing-thru guess

oi jackeens

Have hours to kill in your terrible city. Might take a drive out dalkey way etc. Anyone got any quick recommends?

mayo getting even more awesome this week, fyi

dl.dropbox.com/u/818963/skatepark.jpg

New skatepark opened on our new 42km dedicated cycle track.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/818963/skatepark.jpg

Try that

oi jackeens

I only answer to 'pal'...

Dublin was transfixingly beautiful today - crossed the Millenium Bridge just after 8am, looked towards Grattan bridge and had to stop for whole minutes to savour the glory of those arches mirrored in the river. And an endless parade of fantastic women took turns to walk in front of me all day.

http://www.westernpeople.ie/news/eysnauauey/

GARDAÍ made a record drugs haul in Co Mayo at the weekend when they uncovered cannabis valued at €300,000 in Swinford.

.....

“The reality of the whole drugs trade is right in our midst. We read about these farms being found in remote houses but this find was right in the centre of a major town. It was a huge operation and it’s frightening to think what the consequences could have been for our youth,” he said.

He praised the local gardaí for their work and urged everyone to be vigilant in case other farms are being operated in the region.

irl lol at 'major town', <3 for my swinford ppl notwithstanding

crossed the Millenium Bridge just after 8am, looked towards Grattan bridge and had to stop for whole minutes to savour the glory of those arches mirrored in the river

one of the few sights that always makes me pause a little in ireland and just think.

and just think "god i'd love a pint of harp."

in dublin i should say...lots of pretty sights around the rest of the country.

that swinford haul was part of an operation against chinese/oriental organised crime throughout the country iirc.

Lot of growing on mid to large scale in mayo imo, maybe even ime tbh. Interview ppl with convictions for it every month or two.

this thread always reminds me i still haven't filled out my foreign birth registration and passport application.

it’s frightening to think what the consequences could have been for our youth

Are they only after the chinese? Can I get away with a small methlab in kiltimagh?

yeah the thought of a world where huge majorities of kids smoke hash is just terrifying. what sort of fucked up place would that be?

x-post if it has county colours outside you can sell heroin to toddlers

terrible people for the heroin are the toddlers

it's the hoors in cbar that had the connaught in a tizzy last month iirc

Estela i will swap visas with you tbh, can we see if it works that way?

it's frightening to think about frightening things. frightening.

i don't need your visa when i can get my own so it wouldn't be much of a swap now would it.

but if it was much of a swap we could look into it i suppose.

oh backwardspaws

anyway if you weren't terrified of forms you'd already have done it. I'm offering an alternative.

maybe i don't want to go to ireland if you're not going to be there.

there's a good reason 'maybe' doesn't feature on the bestselling hallmark cards but awwwwww

after i get my citizenship we can citizen's arrest some drug-addled toddlers with lilting brogues.

i don't live there anymore, sorry guys

we dont do citizen's arrest anyway you just get a few local lads to horsh the shite out of them after dark

that's why our outfit left in the first place.

ronan, if you come back for a visit i will buy you a pint of harp.

that's good, because god knows the boat back will leave me broke and consumed with scurvy.

will ye have somethin to stop that coffin (ship)

guys

i might be moving to dublin

wtf.

will they find this thread and use it against me?

jesus christ

"My mum grew up in a stable like this and there was no bed and no water and they shat in the bushes"

No they didn't you liary fuck!

wtf at this

Btw bbc2 now for dmac country

so

transfer opportunity to dublin might be coming up

lyfe, man

lol i already said that, i see.

Well, in specific, like

what are you waiting for

have to apply, pass muster.

Also, am to the core of me not a dub. Tho all my friends live there and all the jobs my gf could get are there, and basically everything else i suppose

well there are nigerians and bulgarians in dublin, you don't have to commit apostasy to be accepted there

ya i've had this explained to me but i don't have to like it

u need to build yourself your equivalent of a mosque or a bulgarian restaurant where gruff looking old bulgarians drink aniseed spirits and try to stare out passersby

something familiar to call your own in the big city

it's called copper's and it exists

tho not quite in the guise you suggest

http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2009/10/crouchwoodgateREX_450x386.jpg

THE PUB remains the number one attraction for visitors coming to Ireland, according to the latest Lonely Planet guide.

It is still “the best place to discover what makes the country tick” whether it be a “quiet traditional pub with flagstone floors and a peat fire” or a more “modern bar with flashing lights and music”.

The Lonely Planet lists 21 attractions visitors should see when they come to Ireland.

Number two is Dublin, which has all the “baubles of a major international metropolis”, but the real clincher is the people who are “friendlier, more easy-going and welcoming than the burghers of virtually any other European capital”.

The guide is less than complimentary about some of Dublin’s best known attractions. Temple Bar “does have something of a bohemian bent about it – if you ignore the crappy tourist shops and dreadful restaurants serving bland, overpriced food” and at weekends it can get “very sloppy”.

The Guinness Store House, once Ireland’s top tourism attraction, is all “really about marketing and manipulation”, viewing the Book of Kells is an “unsatisfactory pleasure” and the Dublin Writers’ Museum is “something of a damp squib”.

The top 10 includes well-known tourism haunts such as Galway city, Connemara, Glendalough, Dingle, the Rock of Cashel and Newgrange. It also includes Irish traditional music – “Western Europe’s most vibrant folk music” – and walking and hiking.

A somewhat surprising inclusion in the top 21 is the Belfast black taxi tour and it recommends that no visit to Northern Ireland is completed without visiting the republican and loyalist murals of Belfast’s Falls Road and Shankill Road.

Kilkenny is described as an “unmissable stop on journeys to the south and west”.

The Giant’s Causeway, which Samuel Johnson famously described as “worth seeing but not worth going to see”, is also in the top 21 as is, somewhat surprisingly, Derry city, which will become the UK City of Culture next year.

Seeing a football or hurling match also comes highly recommended, although the picture in the guide features an All-Ireland final between Cork and Meath played more than 20 years ago.

Lonely Planet guides claim to give an unvarnished account of places.

The Irish edition is particularly critical of the historic city of Armagh, which has a “bit of a dreary, rundown feel to it, with gap sites, wasteland and boarded-up windows spoiling the streetscape”.

Larne is “lacking in the charm department” and Letterkenny is a “market town run amok”.

“Mindless development has resulted in numerous faceless retail parks lining the roads, traffic problems and a complete lack of soul.”

Visitors are advised that the Irish are friendly, but often reserved and are “deeply mistrustful” of “oversharers” who tell them their whole life story.

Visitors are also advised not to take offence at the Irish propensity to swear like sailors.

“Many Irish unconsciously pepper their speech with curse words, which are intended only to be emphatic.”

The guide also contains advice to travellers who get into a round with an Irish person.

Everyone is expected to take part and the next round “should always be bought before the first round is drunk”.

Drinking remains the country’s number one pastime, “with no sign of letting up”.

The Lonely Planet guides, for which there are 500 titles, are the world’s best-selling travel books.

The authors pride themselves on accepting no “freebies” so they can give an independent appraisal of locations.

They're bang on about Letterkenny i must say

ya

They're bang on about nearly everywhere

Tho i dunno about derry tbh, tho kudos for getting the spelling right

They reckon the whole of cork is the shpot- which ime is otm

Looking forward to reading the Offaly chapter. Should take about 45 seconds.

only if they repeat themselves

Derry city, which will become the UK City of Culture next year.

God Bless the Queen and her United Kingdom

sure we'll allow them that tbh, they take the euro and the drink is cheap as fuck

love Derry tbh

fuckit amn't i thinkin of enniskillen

yeah, if you're just hitting the supermarket for a massive booze run. Derry is while craic though

Donegal, home of champions

know him well

MURDER

It seems that almost every second night when watching the irish news, we find out that a murder has taken place in some place or other and when one of the locals is being interviewed they will almost always say "jeasuz this kinda thing never happens here, this is a very quiet area, never a sign a trouble...." this has happened so often that you'd think the whole country has been covered, yet you can be sure that next week someone somewhere will be on the news saying how they're absolutely horrified that this has happened on their little patch. It's time to stop the lies and find out what places still have a clean slate.
Where in the country has a murder not occured?

meant to post this the last week. it was delicious btw, wexford particularly so iirc

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/818963/irishbeef.jpg

it's shaped like ireland, see?

i'm assuming you cut off the six counties and binned them.

Two-person referendum yielded the result the whole island wanted

Im loving dublin in this weather ffs

the eire steak and the previous MURDER one were both unfairly overlooked

Both slightly overcooked tbh

god irish people are terrible for requesting steaks to be sent back

Donegal (the uninhabited bits) is essentially an earthly paradise when the weather's like this. Dublin does go up a few notches though

can remember one instance in an argentine restaurant when a single steak was sent back twice

Always assumed, witches style, that sending a steak back was asking for a gob on yr second one

irl in a good restaurant probably not but you can be sure some surly rioplatense chef is calling u an english cunt in the kitchen

even if u are irish

none of this would be a problem if irish people were just honest and requested the thing to be incinerated, carbonized, reduced to ether and reminded them they were paying for the privilege

Oh yeah i demand mine destroyed burnt

'Black cloud' damages buildings and uproots trees in east Galway

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/1002/477948-galway-weather/

i wonder if the recession has changed this much

donegal, and listen now it's god's own place to me besides lower achill, and if anything the people are better again than stony islanders, but donegal must be a grim place now these days with the hurt put on them financially and sinn fein grabbing influence and the football never going to recover from the beating we gave them last summer.

but that's purely an aside, only relative to itself tbh, donegal would have to be brung cruel low to approach roscommon or leitrim (and i don't mean on the map, like)

http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2013/09/18/ireland-unaware-leitrim-not-in-the-news-for-3-years-finds-news-report/

I never met a real person from Leitrim til I was 27. I have actually been there but I must admit to not knowing what they do up there. Lakes?

bogs and the shannon

carrick's a grand spot

Was going to say I know a guy from Leitrim but actually he's from Longford.

http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2066073.1421275845!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_460_245/image.jpg

psyched to be flying into shannon on Monday tbh.

Inland, central counties come up trumps again.

Jesus oppet thats a bumpy landing most of time ime, enjoy

Shannon should be fine on Monday if the usually reliable Norwegian weather service is to be trusted.

I'm sure I'll survive, at a bare minimum. Whether I'm cut out for the subsequent days on the kerry coast is another matter. 'Wild Atlantic Way' indeed.

ffs I'm really enjoying dublin ffs

sorry to hear that you're happy

gutted

Definitely not rubbish, oh no, not at all. Well said, Matthew.

Donegal is lovely, wont hear a bad word said against it

Indeed, and I have my good friend Vinny to thank for periodically posting stories on Facebook, like the one above, to remind me of that fact.

If that's the calibre of celebrities they're attracting, i don't think Laois/Offaly, party hub of the international jetset, have much to worry about.

We don't want Donegal turning into some sort of playground for the rich now, do we?

we literally let him get away with murder tbf

dublin is a hole.
louth for being louth but for sheer pointlessness surely offaly or leitrim. although offaly do have the hurling. so leitrim.

― d.arraghmac, Tuesday, September 20, 2005 10:33 AM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ffs I'm really enjoying dublin ffs

― post you had fecund thoughts about (darraghmac), Sunday, March 8, 2015 11:11 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

which one is true

or do you just enjoy holes

The ffs is self reproach obv

he's had his head turned by the metropolis and its world of sin

Ate tapas this evening in the sun then strolled to the cinema, vouchers for each obv, then used a taxsaver luas home, it's a beguiling lifestyle for sure and far from it was I reared

if you live in a small country chances are the biggest city is the best place to be

e.g. scotland

visit family in zurich or get drunk dublin?

What, these are yr options?

Budget and time of year are considerations.

any time of the year

budget not including airfare let's say 1k usd unless dublin is massively expensive

It is but its not in zurichs league either

If that budget is to cover say a week includibg accommodation for one.....tight enough maybe? idk ive not rly looked airbnb

was thinking five days

and yes it's just me

where to stay in city centre tho?

it's pretty central right?

quick airbnb search tells me it's well below $100/night for a good looking room

im in cork now. pretty solid county this, i haven't scraped the surface. too hot (or arsed) to take a 2 hour drive to baltimore atm

Dublin is great. A bit of chip on my shoulder when I hated it, I was so much older then im younger than that now

Is it good to visit though? I've never been sure

It has some interesting things and hotels are inexpensive for a European capital but it's relatively low on my list of favourite places to visit, tbh. I can imagine it's very livable though.

Yeah, I'd definitely venture further afield if you're spending five days

actually i just did some quick math

if i stay at a cheap airbnb room i can pull off 9 days in september (is this low/rainy season?). airfare is like $500 usd roundtrip

i'm open to driving round the country and getting abducted by the danaan

they're all rainy seasons

you might get a good week at the start of September

September is usually reliably warm and dry

9 days driving around sounds about right

xp dont mind the northerner a raincloud got off the last train thru ballyshannon and started breeding

oh it'll remind me of home then

assuming no one cares that i share a surname with a well known irish double agent

xxp

Stakeknife?

way before his time

Devalera

Brosnan

McGeady

Wogan

oooh close darragh

maybe he isn't as well known?

he helped michael collins

don't say it on here if you find out though

Stephen Rea

haha

I know this because I like to read books about the ira

ya i guess most are not well versed in the history of the ira and stuff so no one will notice or care

did this ever happen btw

don't want to get too into it, but a bunch of crappy stuff happened and i had to push it back

i submitted my us citizenship application and i've been advised not to travel outside the us til all that is sorted

so most likely mid next year

ah the vagaries of citizenship and immigration. i ended up stuck in canada for about 18 months when i was waiting on my permanent residence

j1m in vancouver

scotsman in new west

jim in abbotsford

sorry

don't mean to rustle your jimmies

now more than ever i feel we should be boosting the marketing effort

Seeing Ballybunion beach and the mountains in Kerry were two points in my childhood where I felt like my holidays at my grandma's in Tralee was actually pretty good and better than what some of my contemporaries who went to Blackpool and came back with "Rock on Tommy" braces were experiencing - no matter what they told me. And Galtee cheese of course.

jesus man no @ galtee

I like feta and parmesan these days, but in the late 70's Galtee seemed quite luxurious compared to the paucity of edible cheeses in our lil fucking miserable post war style fridge. I swear I'm not trying to do the northern "hoyle in the road" thing here but in my childhood the contents of the fridge usually consisted of totally off greentop milk that smelled sour, putrefied leftovers in a dish, even more putrefied leftovers in another dish below and an opened tin of carnation with green mould on it and hardly ever enough eggs for a family of 5 :p

i kept waiting for something worse than galtee to get a mention in yr post and im still waiting man

I still feel a strong empathy with that brand! In fact my dad used to bring batches back for other family members. Who were not all troubled that this unremarkable processed cheese had travelled from Kerry to Dun Laoghaire and then after the ferry a fair few more road miles, and done this entire journey in a not very fit for purpose type portable camper fridge box from famous army stores.

you coulda made the fuckin container outtve it and come to no more harm imo

concur with deems. galtee is complete filth. must be close to 100% nostalgia sales.

Galtee was great at the time but fuck it there wasnt anything else back then

lol!

I don't think I even see Galtee in shops anymore. Maybe I just tune it out

in other food news, i don't usually agree with the journal since their shocking biscuits list, but...

galtee is just an unfond memory now, like Fine Gael trying to tax children's shoes and the Emergency.

never spice bagged am i completely missing out or

legit never heard of them til like six months ago

can confirm the hype is real

will still eat one of these out of the lamha now and again

http://c3.thejournal.ie/media/2016/04/easi-752x501.jpg

never had a spice bag either

imagine the driest food you've ever eaten...now multiply it by ten. Like eating packing foam coated in hot sand

not bad after eight pints or so tbf

easi singles are grand, i remember them. a lot more fondly than galtee tho tbh theyd never be let in the door of the house now that lidl do five types of sliced actual cheese cheaper

bridie and eamon are good imo not fr ted good or nailing it every time good but good anyway the housewife of the year episode bit where he or she just fucks a load of stillwrapped easi singles on top of a lasagne and throws it in the oven i mean god rest her but my mum definitely was in or around that zone like

thats my most recent thought about easi singles

yr mum used to try and make lasagne hah oooh la de da

nope but twas the zone man the zone

We were pretty lucky because we lived near the institution that is JCs supermarket, so a massive block of JCs own-brand cheddar was always way cheaper than Easi Singles (and far less disgusting. Never liked those things, even as a child). We also never ate Galtee sausages or rashers or pudding, always JCs own.

had a spice bag when home for a funeral earlier in the year. decided to try something new you never know when you're going to go.

in fairness the sausages and rashers were grand

superquinn ftw. but yeah galtee was grand, my granny always had galtee sausages and rashers. maybe denny was more popular for rashers? can barely remember.

spice bag was p good when i had it but i don't think i had a great example of one. i'm definitely getting one at christmas, it's prob more exciting than anything else about christmas.

spice bags depend on the venue like anything else, the ones I saw online have dryish chili salt chicken but the one I had at home had shredded chilli chicken with sauce and it was like crack

if we can edge back towards cheese shame for a minute, himself always makes fun of "orange cheese" BUT IT'S SO GOOD

also, Denny for rashers in our house. Don't think we ever had galtee, we were avonmore all the way

which orange cheese now

cheddar like. Avonmore cheese slices but also like kilmeaden and any cheese you get from a supermarket off the cheese counter and/or wrapped in clingfilm

and what could be wrong with that! like tasty earwax

Well

I was having lunch with a fellow irishlxor and member of this parish earlier today and later we escaped Storm Gerrit via a train station waiting room

Anyway we got to talking about idk GAA maybe and I said something about Offaly being in Leinster

What? says he

What? says I

Is Offaly in Leinster? he says

This is a tedious bit, I say, mindful of our captive audience

No seriously, he insists, I wouldn’t have thought Leinster

What kind of fucking hedge school did you go to, I charmingly say

This then degenerated into a conversation about the vibes based theory of Irish geography.

Should be anonymous ilxor, the floor is yours.

presuming plax tbh?

everyone would be aware offaly is square bang in leinster id have thought

You’d be surprised

tell you what would surprise me

the posters who would say

"lines on a map define a people"

very

interesting

viewpoint

did Connolly die so that the people of edenlondonderry would be forced to cheer on the lødz of lawnstir

Ok but did your school not teach the national curriculum or what

whats nationalist about it

self determination for the border na mona counties i say

Yeah that’s why we’re in Leinster

libelled itt. I would never discuss GAA.

very rude.

look at how they pronounce labelled lol

xp what are your thoughts on the vibe based theory of geography

Leinster I kind of think of as misc.

You would

a very broad 'Other' category that's bigger than any of the actual categories

this is a stock approach i take to being offered any type of list of categories as a rule tbf

What kind of fucking hedge school did you go to, I charmingly say

ye may imagine the spite with which this was hissed btw i couldnt comment

btw dye think is there a mural in edenderry objecting to being associated with eden

Live pic of darragh after I made this highly insightful remark

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVgyvHhWkAg96_Y?format=jpg&name=900x900

Btw I told my dad about the jokes we (me and you know who) make about Mayo GAA and he thought we were hilarious

It was formerly known as King's County, in honour of Philip II of Spain.

So hear me out here..

not wrong

Spain is nice