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EVERY SATURDAY MORNING we take a look at all the best comments left on the site by our readers over the past seven days.
This week there was a lot of talk about the general election, water charges and Electric Picnic.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. The most-liked comment (1,751 votes) this week comes from Kevin Carroll, who had this to say about our election coverage:
Great election coverage journal. Top notch. Less of the click baity stuff and more of this. Great stuff
2. In the aftermath of the election, Tom Buckley got 1,750 green thumbs for this comment:
Excuse me for the crude analogy
Irish politics is like possessing two pairs of underpants
You put up with the first pair until they become unbearable
You then switch to the second pair
Enduring them until they too become unbearable
So unbearable in fact the first and still unwashed pair are starting to look like an attractive alternative again
FF and FG
3. Taking third spot is trashbaby, who got 1,680 likes for this input under an article about striking Luas drivers:
Taking the piss at this stage. Haven’t met a single person who believes they deserve the pay hike they’re demanding.
Talks on averting Easter weekend strikes are expected to begin on Monday at the Workplace Relations Commission. Siptu has insisted the dispute is about more than pay rises.
4. Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night, Agriculture and Defence Minister Simon Coveney said Fine Gael would be “willing to talk about water” in government negotiations.
Some 1,248 people liked Dave Sherman‘s comment:
If that’s not a U turn I don’t know what is.
Health Minister Leo Varadkar later said his colleague’s comments were taken out of context, and he never said water charges would be scrapped.
5. When an asylum seeker was jailed for five years for raping a woman after offering her a lift home, selfsustainable wrote:
5 years???? 5 bloody years???? shame on judicial system in this country. those poor women have a life sentence before them because of what this animal did.
Some 1,387 of you agreed.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. The Catholic Church still doesn’t get the horror of child abuse (333 comments)
2. Enda Kenny says people should keep paying their water charges (298 comments)
3. Poll: Should we abolish water charges? (268 comments)
4. Sinn Féin will try to go into government – but is on high alert for another election (248 comments)
5. Why Sinn Féin had a good election – but not a great election (238 comments)
Standout comments
During the week thousands of homes were left without power due to Storm Jake, leading Mandy Seiler to comment:
Haven’t we become so dependent on everything electric? When we had power outage in our old house we had at least an Aga. We had our own well, meaning no water. That was inconvenient but you could work around it as you were out of the house for most of the day anyway. We could still cook, wash and stay warm. Now most houses don’t have the solid fuel option anymore; it’s terrible for the elderly and families with small kids. All the oil in the tank is of no use then. One can only hope they have families to go to, or someone calling by till power is restored.
Under an article about virtual reality house viewings possibly becoming the norm in Ireland, An Observer had this, er, observation:
Virtual reality viewing of rental properties in Ireland right now. Close your eyes. There you are.
When LCD Soundsystem was announced as one of the Electric Picnic headline acts, Gareth Stewart wrote:
‘You spend the first 5 years trying to get with the plan and the next 5 years trying to be with your friends again.’ Sums up my twenties perfectly.
Any excuse to play this.
On foot of Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton’s success on Super Tuesday, Tweed Cap commented:
Rumour has it Putin now prefers to watch the American presidential campaign instead of the Simpsons
When news broke that Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden were forming a duo called ‘Boyzlife’ (Boyzone and Westlife, geddit?), you guys had some suggestions for what they should be called instead.
Ted Murray suggested:
S Club 2.
While Floodzie favoured this:
“Take What”
Michael Kenny added:
Or new men on the block
And Jimbo Byrne went for:
Midlife?
We can safely assume they’re rethinking the name on foot of these.
The Central Statistics Office released some fascinating stats during the week comparing modern-day Ireland to the country in and around 1916.
The figures – released to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising – look at topics such as population, marriages, death rates, emigration, and the most popular baby names of both eras.
Motherofdivinejebus had this remark:
You mean there were no little girls born in 1916 with the name Beyoncé or little lads with the name Maximillian?
Surprisingly, no.
Meanwhile, a lot of you were happy with the news that a massive €223 million Center Parcs resort is on its way to Longford – pointing to the boost it will give the county. Although Alan Tormey asked a a valid question:
Ok who’s going to bring the Sun?
On foot of watching an incredible music instrument made from 2,000 marbles in action, john had this to say:
the human mind is truly amazing.
Finally, after his comment was the most liked on the site last week, Niall Duffy pondered:
Comment of the week! Made my day. Can I put on my CV
Yes you can, Niall – it’s one of the top ten pieces of information potential employers look for.
See any good comments? Email them to orla@thejournal.ie.
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Any chance of an update on concerned citizen millionaire banker brother of FG TD who you claimed yesterday was a non political small business owner? No didn’t think so.
Good aul Hugh deleted my comment yesterday as I outed him. Good man Hugh.
*yawn*
Neal what’s yawn about this story, it was plastered all over the media yesterday that’s he was a small business man who was apolitical. He was lying about both these issues, he was the CEO for a banking fund and he is the brother of ex FG TD, Seymour Crawford.
Nothing yawn about it. Downright deceitful!!
I am outraged!
Can we have additional reporting done on your article regarding Mary Lou and this concerned citizen from yeaterday please. This is what you need to be covering not some elitist boarding school in the US.
Exactly.
What we need is a witch hunt against the private citizen who dared to criticise SF.
We need to know his name, his family history, his occupation and as many details of his personal life as possible.
We need to show people that dissent will not be tolerated.
We need to print his name as often as possible to try to intimidate others into silence.
WE NEED TO SHOW – IN CAPS LOCK – THAT WE ARE A BUNCH OF SCREAMING WHINGING BABIES WHO ARE CHRONICALLY INCAPABLE OF RESPONDING TO CRITICISM WITHOUT ASSASSINATING THE CHARACTER OF THE PERSON CRITICISING OUR POLICIES.
That’ll show ‘em.
Calm down ffs you will give yourself an ulcer. Politics is a dirty game and this was up there in the top five but SF are no strangers to doing the odd dirty trick.
A private citizen expressing an opinion publicly is not a dirty trick, Donna.
Printing his name, occupation, background and – most disgustingly – family details online IS a dirty trick.
It sends a very clear message of intimidation. “Dare to criticise us, and our fanatics will expose you”.
Shameful.
Are you saying he just happened to be walking by at that time? Did he not seek her out to confront her? Is he a FG supporter? Connected to FG?
I’ve no idea, Donna.
He could be the worst ***** in all of Christendom for all I know.
But what I do know is shooting the messenger, playing the man and not the ball and refusing to engage in any discussions or debates with someone who disagrees with you paints SF supporters in a very bad light.
Ad hominem attacks make SF supporters look like whinging toddlers.
Why not point out where he was wrong?
Try to convince us where his argument was weak?
Show us that there is a better way?
Spot on Brinster. A knee-capping will be next.
Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t vote SF no matter what they promised. Your man was a bit of a knobend. Mary loo is like Adams all talk and nothing else just the same old mantra.
Btinster , do you really think that Hugh would report the truth , that Concerned Citizen is actually Concerned Hedgefund Manager and FG TD’s brother ? It’s above his (FG) pay grade.
two weeks in a row, I won’t get my head out the door
3 in a row and you qualify to write articles on here.
Lucinda Creighton will be watching you next week. Locked up for life if you get three!
a whole article, now I’m really going to try
Richard , it’s a trick to quiten you down.They did the same to Captain Adebayor , haven’t heard from him since. Time to change your moniker from Richard Cynical to Richard Compliant.
Ah Captain A had some great comments , very witty .
That “concerned citizen” was a dirty trick by fg,labour. They will pay for it in GE.
Yeah – and hijacking every other story because someone dared to criticise Mary Lou doesn’t make you look like a whinging, screaming toddler at all.
Maybe you could try to defend the policies, rather than attack the messenger?
His Brown Thomas leather gloves and blue scarf kind of gave it away for me.
Id like to see the journo covering that fake FG supporter who went on the attack at Mary Lou ….come on Hugh
I will not be voting FG after that episode yesterday. If you can’t get votes fairly then you don’t deserve them.
If he was a plant,it’s another own goal by FG..but in fairness to ML..she engaged with him once he said he wasn’t a journalist..
Mary Lou engaged and fair play to her. It’s the SF activists who screamed blue must and immediately started the witch hunt that I have the issue with. Demanding to know who he was, what’s his family history, publishing his name for dating to speak his mind. Whinging toddlers the lot of them.
*Blue murder
The shinnerbots don’t like it up ‘em! Been a bad few days on the campaign trail, Jorry making a fool of himself with Sean Duignan….sounds like an email went out from IRA HQ this morning saying “Attack every comments board you can find”. It’s actually very funny to see.
I notice Eugene hasn’t commented so he must be still sleeping off his hangover !
have your say