Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated at 1.31am
A COMBINATION OF strong winds and high tides caused waters to break over flood barriers in some areas this morning, leading to a number of road closures and causing problems for householders and businesses.
It follows yet another night of strong winds and thundery downpours. Met Éireann took the step this morning of extending its ‘orange alert’ wind warning — it’s now set to remain in place until 7pm.
High tide in Cork city was just before 9am, with several routes closed to traffic in the aftermath. This was the scene at Wandesford Quay this morning:
[Image: Darren Hayes via Twitter]
Waters have receded since that photo was taken this morning, and the road is now passable for traffic once again.
In Galway, the Promenade was closed between Salthill and Grattan Road after high tide hit this morning. AA Roadwatch reported that flooding at the Spanish Arch had now receded.
The River Corrib bursts its banks at 8.32am [Image: Lynsay Hughes via Twitter]
Galway City Museum at 9.13am [Image: Lynsay Hughes via Twitter]
Salthill, Galway from the vantage point of the Western House apartments at 8.40am [Paul O'Brien]
In Waterford, Park Road was flooded, while Strand Road in Tramore was also closed to traffic. There was also spot flooding in the Ferrybank and Poleberry areas.
Park Road, Waterford [Amy Kirwan]
In Clare, there was also flooding reported on the Lahinch/Lisdoonvarna Road between Lahinch and Liscannor. AA Roadwatch reported debris and rocks had also been washed up on the road.
These dramatic pictures of Lahinch were sent in by professional photographer Alan Place.
First posted at 10.11am
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Can you include an option for, “Yes, under duress, and it was crap”? :P
Damn, I knew we forgot something…
I know a few guys who were forced into reading it by their partners. You really know you’re getting old when your peer pressure issues are about coerced book reading. I wish my friends would pressure me into doing drugs or something.
You look far too young to be reading this kind of thing, duress or no duress
they wont watch porn, but they’ll read the sh*t out of it!!!!
oh… haven’t you worked it out yet??? Men are the visual animals… women need to be stimulated by the mind… :)
OR money Natasha :)
or that too.. but not all of us…. :)
I’m a man, would it be worth reading for me to get some a da tips for da ladies ;) :$ Hubba Hubba ;)
From what my wife has told me the tips you need is to become a multi-billionaire with some fetish’s and make sure you get a girl who is a complete vapid air-head :-)
Hope this helps.
Well I have 1 out of 3 so far :D
My partner went out and bought it. He read the first 100 pages and then declared it was crap and he’s not gonna read the rest. I have no interest in reading it. €6.50 wasted!!!
All the action starts on page 145 :-P
Trying to cut back, so I’m limiting myself to 40 shades of green….
*Obligatory Father Ted Comment*
Down with that sort of thing!
Careful now!
Sure there even coming from Gdansk to see the film
Is it a type of nudie thing Father?
Ah, ye durty fecker!
Honest question, I Have not read it, I don’t plan to, but from what I hear from all the women at work, it’s very poorly written.
So what then is the attraction of it ? Is it just that it makes this type of material more acceptable to read in prudish Ireland ?
You can ask men the same of poor porn!
Yeah that must be it, all these women are reading poorly written erotica in order to shake up our prudish culture. Couldn’t be that they’re into tickling the kitty, oh no no.
great Comment there “Random”. My Question referred to the recent, Let’s say, Uprising, or increase in reading of this type of material by women. Do you have an actual name by the way, or do you just prefer to issue your helpful comments while hiding behind an inconspicuous username.
I’ve read it from an academic perspective…ahem… Yes it’s poorly written, very repetitive, Christian Grey is a bossy, rude, control freak, the female protagonist has massive self esteem issues, and the unremarkable sex involves a contract which I find anything but erotic. To answer your question, I’m baffled at the appeal aside from it possibly being the acceptable face of reading a bit of filth
Tokidoll…….thanks for that! That’s a pretty Damn good summary and answer to my Question !
Happy to oblige ;-)
@tokidoll You nailed it. Picked up a friend’s copy and spent about half an hour reading it – granted flipping though it just to get a sense of the book. I had no wish to continue to reading it in full. The characterisation is very one dimensional, the writing style irritating, the dialogue not believable, it’s just a generally poorly written and constructed book. And I found the image that formed in my mind of Christian Gray repulsive, which didn’t help.
Erotica is grand and all, but I was so distracted by the general awfulness of the novel that it didn’t do anything much for me. There are plenty of less well known but much better written erotic novel or short stories out there.
Thanks Katie :-) The amount of women who state Christian to be their ideal man is quite incredible. The same women will not put up with far less from their own partners. I found I couldn’t even form an image of him in my head he’s that awful.
Geordie Shore in paperback.I dread how us men will have to behave now was just getting over the Sex in the City shite..
only a few women wish to be tortured for sexual gratification.. its a fetish, not the norm. and I know what I’d say to a man who expected me to be kneeling and looking at his feet only!!
Bought into the hype, book 1 was acceptable, book 2 was hard going (s’cuse the pun) and book 3, all those emails, comon!!! Painful (oops, another pun). You want properly written horny material, with a roguish wealthy male character you’ll fall in love with? Meet Rupert Campbell Black in Jilly Coopers “Riders”(no pun). And that was written over 20 yrs ago!!!
I couldn’t finish the third book. I enjoyed the first, its by no means a literary masterpiece, it’s pure trash, but enjoyable trash.
Halfway through the third I said this is enough and pulled out the Jilly Cooper series. Infinitely better.
I hope Jilly Cooper gets a revival on her more deserving books… :)
Yeah I agree, way better story line….good aul Rupe!!! I always wanted to get to off with Dino the Italian American Rider….
have to admit, not a great read l dont know what all the fuss is about
I read it cause everyone was talking about, it’s dire. It’s ok the first book is a best seller but shame on everyone who got the second and third book. Dire…
no ,but from ppl i know who did read it they said it was a load of crap ,got better things to be doing with my money
and your time Marion! You’ll never get that 3 hours back! :-)
I started reading it and about 50 pages in decided that I had already plenty better to be read in my to be read mountain and as I work for the libraries and it was from there with a huge queue I reckoned that giving it back would be better.
I couldn’t stand the two main characters and I just wanted something to come down and wipe them off the face of the planet and start with better characters.
Honestly Mills & Boon Blaze is more readable. There are other writers who didn’t get as much attention that get me more hot and bothered..
And what’s worse this is Twilight Fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, just about.
I bought into the hype, got the first book, I’v read about half of it and just given up its ridiculous!
Im convinced it was written by 13 year old foundation level English student who has spent too much time surfing dodgy sites! Poorly written dosnt even begin to describe it, the same repetitive, unimaginative terms over and over, zero story line and as for Christian Grey, a 20 something year old billionare, who runs this massive corporation but never actually seems to work, plays classical piano, hang-glides, speaks various languages, is drop dead gorgous and hung like a donkey . . . yawn. I did giggle at some of the naughty goings on though, but some of them turned my stomach too like where shes just back from a long run, skips a shower and they get down to it?? Nothing much erotic about soggy socks and smelly runners, and as for the ‘time of the month’ episode … uuggggh
hard to believe that the most poorly written book of all time has become one of the fastest selling!
fifty shades of shite!!!!!!!
I read it…mainly because so many of my friends had read it, and I was curious. You do get kind of caught up in the story, because you do want to see how she (the author) plays it out…I was surprised at how short each book was…but once I got to the end, I was peed off for getting caught up in it. It IS poorly written, and IMO had a poor and unrealistic ending. Take the *porn* out…and you don’t have much of a storyline at all.
In answer to Damien Behan…I don’t think it has anything to do with nationality, it was a bestseller (shockingly so!) in the US and in the UK as well. I think it started out popular as it was loosely based on the Twilight characters (I could be mistaken, but I think this was how it started out) and it just made it easier to purchase. Had it been published the usual route, I can’t say that anyone would have rushed out to buy it.
Most People are just sheep! Go with the masses and what they read quite pathetic! Has anyone a lend of the Davinci code;-)
I loved all three books. There is a great love story behind all the other stuff. Some of the emails are very funny and certainly got a giggle from me. This guy goes from top exec and control freak to mush because he adores Ana so much. So what if there’s lots of “dirt” in it, you’d swear it was the middle ages the way people are giving out about its content. It’s not the first book ever written with incorrect grammar either, I see that as an excuse to avoid the book for other reasons that people won’t admit. I for one think it’s a great read and will be re-reading the trilogy before 2012 is out!!!
I don’t think people are avoiding this book or not ready for its content… I think it’s just badly written, fullstop. If you don’t mind that, that’s your choice.
I for one don’t like forking out money for badly written drivel… This is about as erotic as the first couple of Twilight books :D
Totally disagree on the grammar. If I am reading a novel and there are glaring grammatical errors, poorly constructed sentences, risible dialogue or other major flaws of this type, it destroys the whole experience, because it is so distracting.
I don’t know who edited this book before publication, if anyone did, but they should be fired. It reads like a bad early draft.
There should be a fourth option – “I’ll only be reading the dirty bits”.
Load of drivel.. Will be affording it like the plague… It just shows you that no matter how poorly a book is written as long as it has well marketed, it will sell.
I got it as a joke birthday present and thought “Oh, why not?” Made it about 50 pages before I gave up out of sheer boredom. The writing is terrible, the characters are appalling, and even the only thing going for it – the “erotic” bits – are cringe-worthy. I’ve got nothing against porn (sorry “erotica”), but that’s just bad.
I read the first chapter of the first book but couldn’t push myself to start the second chapter… so so bad…! My cousin in the US was raving about it that’s why I bought it.. Won’t be listening to her again in a hurry!!!!
useless
Why would I want to fantasise about a man who is not my husband? It sounds like a recipe for disaster in marriage to me!!
why the thumbs down? are there soany unhappy women out there?
Thought police
ooh.. someone has been to marriage guidance counselling.. in church! But hang on to that ideal for as long as you can Tracy… life has a way of making marriages/relationships go cold after a while… doesn’t mean you love them any less… but fantasising is part of life.. in all aspects.. .I fantasise about owning an Audi R8 ;0), but unless my circumstances change dramatically, I’m very happy with my golf!!
@ Tricia – funny you should refer to it as “dirt” – no one else has.
It’s not just about poor grammar, in fact, most people think/talk in poor grammar, so sometimes that can make a book great. There are parts that can cause a smile/giggle sure. But overall the book is poor and the storyline weak. And I am sorry, but the ending just isn’t realistic at all. The sex scenes are repetitive, and in fact by the second book, you can pretty much skip through them.
A good writer makes you want to read every word, understand every nuance, so that even if you skip to the end to see what happens, you still want to go back, and see how the characters get to the end. That is what makes a good novel.
*change most people to some :)
I absolutely agree with you. Cant say any more than you have so I’m going back to my Nora Roberts and Sydney Sheldon novels :)
I have no intention of ever buying and reading that book. I saw extracts online and it sounds badly written, and not in the least erotic to me… That’s what some of my friends that have read it said as well! I’d be laughing all the way through that book, I reckon!
Fair play to the author and her publisher – the PR has certainly paid of for them! The amount of people that rushed to buy that book only to find it somewhat disappointing!
Picked it up in the airport, took the metaphorical blue pencil to the grammatical errors on page one, thought if this is the hook how bad can the rest be and put it back on the pile. Did read Justine when I was fourteen and from all the comments and extracts this is a straight rip off of de Sade. Neither the literacy level nor the sex to my taste I’m afraid
It sounds like absolute pop-culture bilge, like all the most famous popular books. The average person on the street wouldn’t know good literature if it sexually assaulted them.
I’m just after eating a baguette. What I miss?
In 2 or 3 yrs if anyone mentions FSOG – nobody will remember. By what I’ve heard about the book that will be no bad thing.
i disagree with u there, i think it will be remembered and in 2 or 3 years time people will be bringing up the children that are here as a result of the book…ha ha
No, and not planning to either. The bits of it I’ve seen on the Net convinced me within about a minute and a half that it’s a depressing waste of perfectly good trees that would have served the human race much better had they been processed into bogroll. An American character from Seattle talking in anglicisms? Seriously? All the clichés of cool there, yet she’s still a virgin at the ripe old age of 21? What? The entire feck knows how many pages of drivel.based on TWILIGHT FANFIC, and bad twilight fanfic to boot? Bitches, please! And don’t even get me started on the thing’s despicable gender policy! That book is wrong more levels than I feel comfortable counting to, and I don’t need to read it to know that!
Bought the trilogy in easons yesterday.
I’ve come across too much badly written fanfic to be suckered into paying for a trilogy full of badly written fanfic. There’s enough free erotica on the internet – some of it well written, most of it sub FSOG, but good for some personal ann summers sponsored funtime 8-D
What does this say about modern women(who are buying this) if Katie Price actually wrote one of her books,can imagine it would be as badly written .
Yes I’ve read all 3 and thoroughly enjoyed them:-)))))
Got through the first chapter and couldn’t read any more . Pure drivel !
It’s no worse than all those shitty soaps most people insist on watching. Each to their own.
If you’re sad enough to read this garbage to spice up your sex life then you’re obviously with the wrong partner ! Jeez get a life all you pathetic sex starved bored housewives !!!
But seriously I think the pr machine behind this obviously worked a fooled alot of silly women into Reading it .
I see women are reading this shyte on the bus at 8am… I’m wondering how those woman behave at work after reading this stupid book:)
I know quite a few people who have read this….i personally dont know what all the fuss is about? As others have already said, raunchy novels have been around for years and year…Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper etc. Why the sudden hype for this “mummy porn” as it’s been dubbed by the press? I havent read it, have bought it….i wondered what all the fuss was about, but after hearing othets and reading here i don’t know if i can be bothered. IF I do though, it certainly won’t be to pep up my sex life so maybe people shouldn’t generalise so much!
Welll I’d rather watch regular “daddy” porn which is freely available on the Internet than waste time Reading this drivel !!
I read Lady Chatterlys Lover in the 1960s, no book could surpass that.
BTW I tried reading 40 shades of Grey, it was flat and uninteresting, seems to be written by an a person who is not wholly comfortable with grammar, syntax and descirptive language. Mediocre at best .
Load of muck! wouldn’t be caught dead reading it
https://plus.google.com/photos/106229672780094983587/albums/5770569287038039809
I was interested to see the book sales and amazon sales statistics for the trilogy. Book one has sold millions but part two and three have not neared those sales figures. Read: I’ll try it because everyone’s talking about it. Then , I’m not paying good money for more of that rubbish.
Got through three chapters before my brain forced me to stop. Bit like trying to force yourself to watch sex and the city.
50 shades of divorce waiting to happen!
In fairness I gave it a good go, got about a third of the way through and gave up. Complete and utter tripe. My sister (the non-reader) is on the second book. There’s no accounting for taste…
50 shades of shite!
Are there vampires with teenage issues in it and a mysterious loaner? I assume there must be if so many women are watching it
Reading it
An other website is asking will these books cause a baby boom, well they haven’t been on the streets as there is already a baby boom this year and as for reading these book, have not and plan not to. All rubbish to me. Prefer my fantasy with Vamps, weres and Witch.
If you wanna read a well written, actually erotic novel with a good story line, ladies, read some of Benoite Groult’s novels, e.g. Salt on our Skin. Now there’s a sexy book ;)
Tell us about it Rita.
Wanna save yourself reading the book? Here’s the audio-version :D
What are you all fussing about? It’s just a book. Get over it. I bought it ‘cos I like buying books, I was curious and I didn’t realise that buying it was making a serious lifetime commitment to its excellence. FFS people it’s only a few euro how tight are you guys?
I also read it. APPALLING editing but it rattles along and it’s over before you know it. I agree with others the sex gets boring after a bit.
The ‘mummy porn’ tag is just the usual sexist crap.
If you want a crime against literature, how about awarding the Booker to that twaddle Sense of an Ending?
Just when I thought women had come so far…
@ Lilanda. Thanks. I’ll tell him that.
have your say