The Irish Times C/D?

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My inner lesbian

Minding my own business on the Luas the other day, my eyes were drawn to a couple of women a few seats away. I eavesdropped as hard as I could, but what with their intense whispering, in what sounded like Spanish, I hadn't a hope of understanding. So I just stared at them. Both were head-turningly beautiful, and their animated faces brightened up a dreary afternoon.

The younger woman had long, silky dark-brown hair and wore a heart- shaped gold locket around her neck. The older woman's elegantly cropped hair was greying slightly, but her deep- set brown eyes were framed by the longest, darkest lashes I have ever seen.

The younger woman seemed sad. She looked mournfully up at her companion, who in response did something I was glad, for safety reasons, the Luas driver couldn't see. She kissed her. Full on the mouth. For the few seconds it lasted, the women looked lost in another world.

I can't seem to get away from lesbians these days, which is no bad thing, except when we're talking about the soap-opera characters Sonia and Naomi. After accusations that the BBC was ignoring lesbians, EastEnders now has some - although their marriage- wrecking romps have me hiding behind the sofa, cringing most politically incorrectly. I don't think I am alone.

Not to be outdone, Emmerdale suddenly has lesbians, too. I don't know if Fair City has any, but there is at least one on The Afternoon Show, which, having taken some time off work recently, I am getting to see more often. (That and Oprah. Hurray!)

It was while watching the gorgeous 4nn4 N0l4n one afternoon, actually, that I started to get more in touch with my own inner lesbian. I'm convinced that every woman has one and that the women who swear blind that they don't actually have the strongest tendencies. It was the day after I finally admitted to myself that I had a mini-crush on N0l4n that I was treated to the lovely spectacle of lesbians on the Luas. A supportive sign from the universe, I like to think.

Given my preoccupation with all things sapphic at the moment, I was sorry to miss the brilliant same-sex- marriage campaigners K4th3r1n3 Z4pp0n3 and 4nn L0uis3 G1ll1g4n on The Late Late Show recently. I hear they were so impressive, warm, engaging and articulate that they won over almost the entire audience.

But the lesbian who has impressed me most lately is L0u1s3 K1ll33n. The singer-songwriter was the best thing about this year's You're a Star - my opinion before I even knew she was gay, actually. She's on the cover of this month's Gay Community News, talking about what it was like to reveal her sexuality to the small village where she grew up. "I came out when I was 22, eight years ago," she tells Br14n F1nn3g4n, the paper's editor. "I came out to my parents first, and that was tough. My mother goes to Mass every day, and they didn't know anyone who was gay, so it was difficult for them. My dad was great. He was like: 'I don't care what you are. I'll always love you.' But my mam took a while to come round to it. But they're both absolutely great now. They treat my girlfriend like she's their daughter. All along I had massive support from everyone - my brother and sisters, my parents and everybody in the village - with that part of it. With being who I am."

L0u1s3 has been an inspiration. Thanks to her I've decided I can no longer hide my sexual identity. Of course it's going to be disappointing for my boyfriend, but I need to be who I am, and if that means outing myself, then so be it.

Perhaps I will be able to thank L0u1s3 personally for being such a positive role model this weekend if she attends the fifth aLAF - a Lesbian Arts Festival - in Dublin. One of tonight's highlights is the launch of Girls Into Girls, a magazine produced by the art collective Lady Birds. Enterprising ladies.

You see, some of us played doctors and nurses as children. And some of us played nurses and nurses. Some of us even played both. What I'm saying is that Barbies didn't always need Kens to play with. They sometimes just fancied spending time alone with other Barbies. You know? So, just for the record:

I'm here; I'm queer; buy me a beer.

Or maybe I'm just having aLAF.

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Jesus. Impressive lesbians, minding one's business appears to mean scrutinizing fellow passengers, only approving when they are attractive, etc. Ach! At least it's not about her a) Boyfriend [though he has to get a mention just so we know that she's not one of them] or b) her brother. Her male-as-superior complex is frightening to behold!

I really have to start reading that Myles stuff. I've had a collection for years and never looked at it!

As for the Irish Times, I suppose as a newspaper with emphasis on NEWS it's pretty good, but its sports/lifestyle stuff is pretty dire, but then none of the Irish papers have yet managed to do lifestyle journalism well IMO.

I also have a significant amount of dislike for Mary Hannigan's football pieces, once mildly amusing, EVERY DAY in the World Cup her writing just fell apart at the seams, awful jocular England baiting, everything bad about Irish nudgewinkery in sport.

The thing with Roisin Ingle is that people going on about how much they hate her are only marginally less annoying than what she writes. I've started feeling almost sorry for her.

The Irish Times itself - pretty boring and has lurched to the Right since PD Witch took over as editor. But what else are you going to read?

I do like that the saturday Irish Times can be read in the time it takes to eat breakfast.

Do people actually like her? It's kind of mental but she seems to be like their flagship lifestyle columnist.

http://home.earthlink.net/~mcjiggs/Index_files/image007.gif http://img.thehill.com/img/news/121505/irish.jpg

I don't think anyone actually like RI, but the Irish Times overlords probably think she is their connection to the yoof of Ireland.

DV I love the idea of little pig tailed Inglejugend burning books that have some literary merit or commit the ultimate sin of not being about the fuhrer and her boyfriend. Please don't feel sorry for her, I feel that her self obsession doesn't allow her to perceive any negative comments. FFS her book was called "Piece's of me!"

IT for the right? Fair enough, I think anywhere that still gives J0hn W4t3rs money must have some strange viewpoint on the world! At least it's not the Herald amirite?

I do like the weather column and they always have an interesting review or two during the week on page 2.

M4rk St3yn has to be an act. No person could be that thick surely?

This surely a read-letter day
John's no longer getting his say
Though I've heard talk is cheap
And still waters run deep
Some waters, it seems, run away

Also this paper is now a transition year level joke troll rag

Waters such a sulking childish maddening cunt. He just can't survive away from a protected platform, the privileges he demands in return for his blathering shite are amusing until you note that the national media have acceded time and again to them.

Motherfuck these cunts

what happened now?

Pulled martyn turner cartoon and apologised

You might even wince a bit at the satire of “singing priests”, given the best-known singing priests are humble men who raise phenomenal amounts of money for charity.

http://cf.broadsheet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ITtoon.jpg

right im at a keyboard

that was pulled on foot of shocked and saddened reaction from the usuals. who, as usual, got their print and media space to say the usual.

there's been almost as much coverage of this cartoon and how hurtful it is than there has been hard questioning of the affirmed policy of the rcc to insist that priests can not report on planned, possible or ongoing abuse of a child.

the paper has gone to shit so quickly and efficiently that it's about to lap itself en route to shit again under o'sullivan, all in less than two years iirc

the web content is second-rate clickbait, if it's any type of bait at all, peddled by nothing nobodies unless it be the hateful ionian o'brien or (now departed) waters or poor-woman's-ilxor una on the other end of the spectrum. there isn't anything like a decent analysis (saving, obv, the wonderful miriam lord but that's all humour and character pieces). the damned thing is rife with spelling and grammatical errors after 5pm. the new crossword is shite- i should beg for the opportunity to set better had i the access to them. the letters they choose to print are as lacking in nuance and as dismaying in their non-representative nature as the columnists they pulpit.

it's probably a confluence of a rapid change in their business model, but jesus the man must be an oafish cunt of the highest to have so presided over such a stunning run of clownishness and disgrace.

what the fuck am i gonna read now?

Most Read in News
1 Irish man imprisoned in Egypt a ‘real character’, says freed Al Jazeera journalist

good to hear we're still great craic even when imprisoned in foreign lands

thought this would be about imminent paywall

like I can't give em a penny while mullahly obv but access to archives and improving crossword is a little bit tempting

this piece.

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/generation-emigration/facing-a-quarter-life-crisis-turning-25-in-london-1.2621307

aside from someone needing to tell this child he isn't going to live until 100, how fucking horrible and privileged is his tone? i feel more like the irish times are at fault for setting someone up in this way.

having said that, this bit is astonishing:

The fact that we left Ireland by choice rather than circumstance mean all those well-meaning #HomeToWork ads in the airport calling nurses, teachers and the like come home and work for Ireland has zero effect on us. Even with our media insights and specific skills gained in an international environment, are people like us not worthy enough?

Fuck the entire #generationemigration campaign. stupid, lazy crap to a word.

it really is appalling, hard to tell if this is just the IT out of touch or plain old nepotism

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/generation-emigration/we-left-ireland-because-we-couldn-t-afford-the-rent-1.2621245

I think we just got yr answer

"I couldn't afford private school AND greystones rent, so we moved to France.....you know, to the free house that everyone has......in France....

that one is p strange - the tone is so sad but none of the events seem that sad.

A good précis that

would it be that hard for them to talk to people who didn't want to leave the country but were forced to due to financial issues? though i wonder if anyone even defines their own experience in that way.

i think there's something inherently wrong with the idea that emigration is worthy of these pieces by people who aren't writers. like, on an individual level it's not inherently some sad, bad thing. it's bad for the country but some of the weak shoehorned "i don't belong in this strange land" shit is so poorly explored in these pieces. like as if london or whatever isn't massively similar to dublin as a culture. about 70 per cent of the people i socialised with in dublin live within a few miles of me in london.

I'm sure that this has been covered in the nyt and Guardian threads but Jesus it's fuckin desperate stuff tho.

I blame fintan. It's his narrative and he's not letting it go now.

Something about the inclusion of salary scale info and buzzwords like "entry-level jobs" and "media" makes this look more like thinly disguised clickbait than usual.

the doom and gloom is p crazy. the job i do doesn't even exist in ireland.

are they bringing the horse to France though?

that's the tragedy of it. the horse is still back at the stud in ireland.

This seems a little odd:

https://twitter.com/AarRogan/status/826765356861628416

I have no problem with corporate-commissioned advertorials necessarily but running corporate-commissioned opinion pieces seems unusual.

never mind that

they just ran with gilligan wins assets supreme court appeal

swiftly amended to

gilligan loses assets supreme court appeal

because they are now a paper of morons

http://cf.broadsheet.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ITtoon.jpg

right im at a keyboard

that was pulled on foot of shocked and saddened reaction from the usuals. who, as usual, got their print and media space to say the usual.

there's been almost as much coverage of this cartoon and how hurtful it is than there has been hard questioning of the affirmed policy of the rcc to insist that priests can not report on planned, possible or ongoing abuse of a child.

the paper has gone to shit so quickly and efficiently that it's about to lap itself en route to shit again under o'sullivan, all in less than two years iirc

the web content is second-rate clickbait, if it's any type of bait at all, peddled by nothing nobodies unless it be the hateful ionian o'brien or (now departed) waters or poor-woman's-ilxor una on the other end of the spectrum. there isn't anything like a decent analysis (saving, obv, the wonderful miriam lord but that's all humour and character pieces). the damned thing is rife with spelling and grammatical errors after 5pm. the new crossword is shite- i should beg for the opportunity to set better had i the access to them. the letters they choose to print are as lacking in nuance and as dismaying in their non-representative nature as the columnists they pulpit.

it's probably a confluence of a rapid change in their business model, but jesus the man must be an oafish cunt of the highest to have so presided over such a stunning run of clownishness and disgrace.

what the fuck am i gonna read now?

― recommend me a new bagman (darraghmac), Monday, 21 April 2014 06:46 (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

even the rants provoked by this rag arent as good as they used tbe ffs