The Irish

He's a very good talker and a relatively good writer, in a way that seems particular to some (not all; maybe just a minority) Irish people. Heaney was a relevant comparison.

His TV performance sounds odd though.

I would read the book but I suspect that somehow it will undermine and ironise the music, which is not what it needs.

The Sinn Francisco gig moment was dire. It's OK for Bono to say 'I do embarrassing things' but in that particular case he also attacked someone else who didn't deserve it.

Ah yes, the Bob Geldof book. The Gideon Bible of late Eighties Irish homes.

I would imagine the Bono book is more intelligent and better written than most rock star autobiogs, he is still a tit though.

It was written with more ties to intelligence.

Heaney was a relevant comparison.

BREAKING: Former British soldier David Holden (52) found guilty of manslaughter of Aidan McAnespie in Tyrone 34 years ago. He’s the first British veteran to be convicted of a historical offence in Northern Ireland since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. pic.twitter.com/e5k5cGLn6C

— David Blevins (@skydavidblevins) November 25, 2022

Liberals will tell you there's no invasion. You're not being replaced. Open your eyes! pic.twitter.com/I5g4kfcf2b

— Joe (@JoePostingg) November 29, 2022

Happy birthday baby

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Free State, the direct precursor to what is now known as (the Republic of) Ireland, and the date to which Ireland as an independent country is dated.

Making it also 100 years since the UK lost ~30% of its territory.

— Chris Barrett-Molloy (@cr15b) December 6, 2022

Good.

Is there a lot of stuff happening in Ireland to mark the occasion?

Doubt it, I haven’t seen anything about it on the news though.

No jig?

There’s a lot Roy Keane can learn from fun-loving Brazilians who dance to express their emotions like *checks notes* Joao Bolsanaro. https://t.co/qNc2A5te9e pic.twitter.com/U90hZJLULP

— Pádraig Mac Oscair (@PMacoscair) December 6, 2022

Pinefox, I doubt you have ever seen this ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVudFaYSjq0

A classic! But now there’s an article about how everyone is doing Joyce wrong that you might like: https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/christmas-ad-5952178-Dec2022/

The snow at the end of The Dead is the culmination of this paralysis as the entire Ireland becomes frozen stiff, unable to move. Joyce’s characters were not looking at the snowfall from the warm side of a double-glazed window, holding a hot chocolate with a dropeen of Baileys in it, delighted at the opportunity to cancel plans.

I don't think I've ever seen that ad - is there really a connection to The Dead beyond "snow at Christmas time" or is that something the article writer put in to juice it a bit?

No, everyone is making it up and only you can see it.

Journalism of the year, this.

Both brands of Tayto are marketed by an anthropomorphic potato mascot named Mr Tayto, though the two differ noticeably in style. The Republic of Ireland Mr Tayto wears a red suit, a black hat and yellow pinstripe pants, whereas his Northern counterpart wears an entirely red suit and hat. There is also a marked difference in the facial features of the Northern Mr Tayto, who possesses a larger, rounder jaw, and tends to smile with his mouth open, while Mr Tayto (Republic) is more stoic in demeanour. Both creatures typically wear a blue tie.

Tayto reunification when??

Silby, it’s not even legal to sell south of the border Tayto outside Ireland! The Nordie Tayto are the ones with a license! We’ll get a reunified country before this!

I've probably posted this before but it's a sick boast and I'm repetitive af. My mum was a childhood friend of Ray Coyle and she claims his family wanted to adopt her. One of her biggest regrets is it didn't happen and she ended up one of the many industrial school orphans!

Just want to point out NI Tayto never made (and quickly deleted) a sad Mr Tayto to commemorate the death of a national treasure!
https://0-i2--prod-irishmirror-ie-0.cdn.ampproject.org/ii/w820/s/i2-prod.irishmirror.ie/incoming/article20812609.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_EIjbkvQXUAAqXrn.jpg

So the NI Mr Tayto isn't orange with a bowler hat?

I think we are all aware of that creature’s sympathies

Tayto divided will never be at peace

https://i.imgur.com/fLTWA02.jpg

I was going to say that will have made Van Morrison happy but nothing makes him happy.

There's an episode of Peppa Pig where the family go to a theme park called 'Potato City' - "where the magic of vegetables comes alive" - when they get there they are surprised to find it has a dinosaur park, and much is made of how incongruous this is. This episode was on one of the few kids DVDs we had in China, so I've seen it many times.

Last year I was surprised to discover that this was a surprisingly accurate parody of Tayto Park, a real theme park in Ireland, sponsored by Tayto.

It is quite accurate, if a little short of tigers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=955TOoGSe4w

I’ve never been to Tayto Park but the one thing that was big about it was that they sold, for a time, a Tayto chocolate bar. They stopped selling these a few years back iirc, I have a picture of user Sharivari holding one of these bars from around 2012?

https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ay_109445356.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=480%2C317

Anyway, they were supposed to be that classic sweet-salty combo that you remember from shoving both into your face at childhood trips to the cinema and at birthday parties but they were strangely bland. However, someone on YouTube did a video for one you make at home which I’ve never tried but on the face of it seems like it’d be much better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYBCTBwpUiY

Also, while googling this I found out that Orange Lodge Tayto also produces their own version. I doubt it’s any good though.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0271/0955/6326/products/image_1000x1000.jpg?v=1653382002

i had reports during a meal out last night that tayto park is, in fact, surprisingly good for a park that on the face of it would be about tayto

the Tayto bars were vile. Mainly cos of the quality of the chocolate though

the park is/was fine, but the zoo bit is depressing

Looking for Tayto Park? You are in the right place! We have rebranded to Emerald Park. Our theme park and zoo reopens in March 2023 under our new name.

Ominous for the best bit of the park (the free bag of Tayto when you leave)

Maybe they'll give everyone a free emerald when they leave?

https://www.planetcandy.ie/image/cache/data/Mini%20Packs/oatfield-emerald-150g-planetcandy-550x550h.jpg

My sister gets a load of those every Xmas from a friend of hers who lives in Ireland.

actually made in the UK these days 😬

Emeralds are absolute shit these days, I think the original company sold to some other company years ago and they were terrible even when they were in Ireland. Used to be guaranteed pulling a tooth out as a child, good times.

Yeah, the old Oatfield factory was in my hometown. Demolished in the early 2010s sometime

I was at my mum's house earlier and she was going through old photos from the 50's + other stuff and showed me a letter from Ray Coyle, the Tayto crisps magnate, that he had sent to her just about a year before he died. It was thanking her for the Christmas card and saying it would be nice to have a meet up and talk about the good old days of their childhood in Kilbrew if she was ever returning to Ireland. It's funny and sad because she was almost adopted by his family, but ended up one of the industrial school orphans instead.

Mattie McGrath 🤦

Making the Healy-Raes look normal!

“How could we build houses then and can’t build them now?... It’s f**king Thatcherism, Reaganism, the neoliberals and the trickle-down economy that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael both bought into, [the idea] that the market will sort everything out. B***ocks.” https://t.co/mYdquIxhPQ

— Shane Beatty 🎙️ (@ShaneBeattyNews) July 8, 2023

Promising.

pretty sure we are building houses at a pretty good rate historically at present, to a far higher standard than previously (building lobby still hasnt gotten over the regs introduced c. 2013 or so)

his sentiment may be welcome, granted

thought this bump would be about the oireachtas committee proposal to make the glorious twelfth a holiday tbh

i guess to address both the general point and the specific point re are we building *enough* housing then the answer is certainly no but the (FF, let it be noted) historical solution of building large social housing estates -creating, say a new dublin 5, etc- isnt a solution that any of the parties with an interest in forming a govt are signed up to, because the ethos around such a step has changed utterly and delivery of new housing of any sort has become very much a planning and skills minefield, none of which any of the parties who might form the next government have any proposals for solving that actually look like they would work

id note that despite my antipathy for the shinners, o'broin is certainly the pick of td's with ideas you'd like to see at least attempted, but could any combo of SF and others remove height restrictions for dublin, for instance?

could any such combo penstroke through the planning, objection, margin and skills issues that currently block - on the face of it- the building of 75k units a year or whatever?

could they do so and remain electable if those units were built and inhabited? another conversation entirely I think- the answer to that one is "perhaps, if they hadnt managed to break everything else" which ofc ofc ofc is a hurdle which many will argue FF/FG have fallen at themselves enough times to maken it moot

conclusion: move to vote in general support of meaney for president

"pretty sure we are building houses at a pretty good rate historically at present"

Quite an interesting graph. Building rates are significantly lower than mainland Europe. Ireland is in a pattern with the UK.

Massive differences in the development of housing supply and house prices across advanced economies. Housing supply grew more strongly in EU countries than in the Anglosaxon world.

Real house prices in Italy are today significantly lower than in 2013. pic.twitter.com/pBNtBlhzdU

— Philipp Heimberger (@heimbergecon) July 16, 2023

President of Ireland speaks movingly on the 50th anniversary of the military coup in Chile.

El Presidente de Irlanda, Michael D. Higgins (@PresidentIRL), se suma a la conmemoración de los #50AñosdelGolpe y espera que la conversación por #DemocraciaSiempre llegue desde Chile a todos los continentes. Un abrazo y gracias por demostrar su compromiso con la democracia una… pic.twitter.com/g93q0UHOnT

— Gabriel Boric Font (@GabrielBoric) September 9, 2023

Unthinkable from the UK head of state or government.

Yes, especially considering Thatcher was friends with Pinochet and the bill to legalise murdering Irish civilians passed last week.