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THE EDITOR of a popular gaelic games website and discussion forum, An Fear Rua, has decided to close the site after 12 years – saying he no longer believes anonymous online forums are a viable prospect.
Liam Cahill announced the immediate closure of the website with a post this morning, saying he had decided to end his “labour of love” due to financial and legal constraints.
“An anonymous internet forum is an anachronism. It has been overtaken by the arrival of ‘open identity’ forums such as Twitter and Facebook,” Cahill wrote.
“This model of internet comment is no longer viable, if the comment is to be within the law at all times as well as the bounds of good taste.”
He added that he was no longer prepared “to walk the tight rope between an open, anonymous forum like this and the libel laws” – commenting that the comments of some users had “sailed far too close to the wire” in recent times and this could not be continued.
He also criticised the attitude of a ‘growing minority’ of the site’s users, which he argued were unappreciative of the legal requirements placed on online publishers:
There is a sense that they can just register under a pseudonym, pay nothing towards the upkeep of the site or towards an insurance against libel matched by a total lack of any attempt to even understand – let alone accept – that I have a right, and a duty, to administer this site in accordance with the law and in the interests of everyone who used it.
Cahill also cited financial constraints in his decision to shut the site, saying it had made a loss every year since its inception and that sustained attempts to find advertising had been unsuccessful.
The site, founded in 2000, was a well-known online hangout for discussion of gaelic games at all levels, and content from the site’s columnists had become an occasional feature in official GAA match programmes over the last decade. The site was also a member of the Press Council of Ireland.
Cahill, a former journalist who now works as a communications and media consultant, was unavailable for additional comment this morning.
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You take a life. you should be sentenced to LIFE. No parole no early releases. You should be kept there until you die of old age.
Mike you got that right man.
unless one knows the why, the what and the relationship between the victim and the perb., how can any one have a comment that makes sense ?
loss of life is always sad but one needs the background before rational comment can be made.
What if it was in self defense?
What if the guy had a hammer and he was going to hit a friend of yours, maybe your spouse, in the head to kill them and you used whatever you had at hand to stop them?
What if theyed broken into your house and were about to walk into your kids bedroom? Is it still always life?
My niece was murdered and her killer got 3yrs .. Great message that sends out , u can kick someones head in and get off easy cause ur sorry !! The courts in this country make me sick ..
What were the extenuating circumstances pleaded for that one? Sorry for your lose.
every day now.RIP.Something has to be done.Judges are far too lenient on offenders
Yea and p
On late night drinking
Your dead right. Crime must be addressed at grassroots level by Gardai with the backing of judges.
Obviously, saying this isn’t going to make me any friends around here, but what the hell. I’m a sucker for punishment.
First problem here is the tacit assumption that longer jail terms will mean less violent crime. This doesn’t follow. Easiest example to cite is the United States – 743 per 100,000 in jail, 1 in 33 either in jail or on probation supervision. That’s an imprisonment rate 7 or 8 times higher than ours.
So they must have less violent crime, you’d think? Nope, they’ve got roughly 10 times as much violent crime as we do.
Second, people seem to think that non-custodial sentences are “lenient” or “getting away with it”, when in fact they’re more effective in preventing reoffending – the old line about prison being “an expensive way of making bad people worse”. Don’t get me wrong, prison has its place, but it should be used only as a last resort, otherwise it causes more harm than good.
Third, judges aren’t actually as lenient as people think – in my experience, having attended a fair number of criminal trials, they aren’t lenient at all. It’s quite common worldwide for the public to think that sentencing is lenient, which often comes down to a lack of information about the criminal justice system and how cases are reported. For example, one Canadian study found that people asked to come up with a sentence based on real case reports took more punitive views after reading a short summary, but tended to come out with roughly the same verdict as the judge when they had more or less the same information as he had.
For sure, there are serious problems in the criminal justice system, but the kneejerk “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” stuff isn’t going to solve them.
Why can’t we bring in a 3 strikes and you’re out law? Mandatory 10 yrs for third offence. Am fed up reading court reports about people with 30+ previous convictions getting light or suspended sentences then out on the street to commit more and more serious crime.
We can bring in a 3 strikes law now or we can wait until some innocent person is publically beheaded in O’Connell St in Dublin and bring it in then. Because that’s where we’re headed.
A lot to be said for Sharia Law. They nail you so hard for the small stuff that you never progress to the big stuff. No career criminals in the Arab Emirates !
The three strikes rubbish has people doing fifteen year stretches for the equivalent of parking on a double yellow line.
In reality, usually unless there’s serious mitigating circumstances the law will had down substantial sentences for murder. We need to mirror that with suitable sentences for other non-fatal assaults however the usual hang ‘em high crowd of morons on this and other topics screeching for some kind of Irish sharia law need to get a grip. We’re not going to be executing people in Kilmanham again and we’re not setting up a US-style justice system either.
The sharia law comment is unbelievably cretinous.
There already is a 3 strike approach to the law but it is only for the same offence AFAIK. For instance if you get caught driving with no tax you get a fine the first time, a larger fine the second time and jail the third time. If you got caught for a public order offence you would still only get a fine even though you had 2 previous convictions for no tax. I think that’s how it works anyway although that’s not much use when some guy with 30+ “minor” convictions goes out and kills someone. If you have that amount of convictions even for unrelated offences you should be locked up at some point because you clearly have an issue being part of a civilized society.
While the US 3 strikes rule has issues that doesn’t mean the concept is wrong. Continuous repeat offenders need to be removed from society for a longer period of time. I believe we should develop our own version here to tackle these repeat offenders. There was a girl raped and murdered here a few years ago by a man with 132 previous convictions. He should never have been walking the streets.
Agreed, mike. The US system has put all kinds of people in prison who shouldn’t be there at all however 132 previous convictions and still walking about is outrageous. There’s definitely a balance to be found however we’re a long way from the kind of reasoned, non-hysterical debate that’s needed to bring that about.
Just so we’re all clear on the US three strikes system – someone in their teens or early twenties can find themselves doing ten or fifteen years for two minor marijuana possession charges and a small theft. So if you double park, dodge the odd bill, have driven a car after two pints or not paid your TV licence you need to think twice about mouthing off regarding three strikes.
get a grip will ya!!
Sharia Law encourages murder and promotes barbarism; it does the opposite when it comes to crime and promotes superiority. Beheading, mutilating, and stoning people to death is ok. Blasphemy against the “Prophet” is the ultimate “evil”. Makes perfect sense.
No its Donaghmede! ya snob. Jesus a young man just died, more concerned with your status…..pity you didn’t get the chance to move the body across the road…ps, donaghmede’s a kip, Rip.
Tony since the man hasn’t been identified yet it is probably important to know the correct area is was found in! The article could even put Kilbarrack/Donaghmede since they are always mixed up!
Donaghmedes not a kip tony. The areas a lot better than it used to be. Few bad apples and it gets dragged down. I’m from there myself and the vast majority of people are great.
How about a system of three strikes and no more free legal aid? On your own there kid. That might sort out the skobies.
And instead of cutting funds to respite centers and the elderly, cut the free legal aid cahs cow.
re Ronan
every one should have legal rep., otherwise we might as well ‘just hang em high’ back to the Wild West !!
why is every one so reactive and emotional , what happened to logic ?
Patricia, why are social parasites entitled to free legal aid? While funding gets cut everywhere else?
Seeing as you brought up logic, that is a fairly logical question.
I wouldn’t qualify for legal aid. Yet, if I were charged with a crime, the costs would cripple me financially, even if a jury found me not guilty. Maybe we need a system where guilty people are forced to pay when convicted and innocent people are refunded.
No more free legal aid? And what happens to cases where someone’s accused of doing something they didn’t do but they don’t have money to defend themselves? So you want to say your guilt is totally commensurate to your financial ability to defend yourself. Lots of money? Maybe not guilty. No money at all? Oh, they’re going down. Nice.
@Ronan because if you put people before a court with no legal representation you’d have a lot more innocent people in jail. It’s possible to deal with the issue without needing to become a police state. Justice has been seen to be for sale enough of late – what you’re suggesting would lead to an obvious scenario where those without money for a defence would be essentially convicted by default.
I agree we’ve an issue that needs to be addressed but eroding or abolishing fundamental rights won’t make one jot of a difference to the crime rates – in all likelihood it will make them worse.
Is that right lenore? If you read what I said, I said if you have three previous convictions, you are on your own after that. I hardly would consider anyone innocent would be before the court again for assault or burglary after that. Jesus, softly softly has these skobies running around the place with no fear of consequenses for their bolloxology.
Unfortunately in the real world, away from mob mentality and knee jerk reaction, every case has to be judged on its own specifics, and mitigating circumstances taken into account.
…unfortunately!
like what!
so so sad
St Donagh’s is in Donaghmede Orla!
Rest In Peace to the young man who has died . Condolences to his family and friends. How tragic this is , to just be stabbed and left to die on the street. It is shocking.
Orla without dwelling on the location too much st.donaghs is in donaghmede the clue is in the donagh im from donaghmede the kilbarrack road separates both areas…..anyways things are getting way out of hand around this way recently too many people carrying weapons on nights out etc…..r.i.p to whoever this turns out to be
it’s becoming so common in this country of late and there’s seems to be nothing done apart from investigate the crime.. something really needs to be done to stop this happening in the first place.. that thoughts that someone going out can put his wallet in one pocket and casually put a knife in another with intent to use it on some individual is a very chilling thought.. Gardai and indeed security personnel need to gave greater powers to search people for weapons and anyone caught in possession of should automatically receive a fixed sentence and criminal record for intent to use a dangerous weapon and to commit g.b.h.. the majority of decent law abiding citizens won’t have any issues with being searched if it means the streets of our cities and towns are a safer place to walk round..
may run a bit deeper than that a lot of knives are carried out of fear and for protection , and Gardai have the power to search anyone under existing laws
I agree,judges way too lenient with law breakers!!! Jeez in America they’d put u in for life with no parole nothing!! I love my country but it’s just too easy the punishments!!! It’s a joke
Not that it matters in the least but St Donaghs is Donaghmede but what does matter is that a life has been lost.
Amazing . 26 comments so far at mid day and only two offer condolences ! says it all really .
What does it say? This int a book of condolences, and offering kinds words pointlessly to other readers isn’t a prerequisite to airing your opinion on the story. If you meet the family, offer them your condolences.
What does it say? This isn’t a book of condolences, and offering kinds words pointlessly to other readers isn’t a prerequisite to airing your opinion on the story. If you meet the family, offer them your condolences.
Like you ,what is it ? GoGo99 ? I too am making an observation and entitled to make my fair comment .
I made a relevant comment at the top of the story. You made a comment which was simply chastising anyone who didn’t offer condolences, hence my commenting on your foolish comment.
In your opinion GoGo99. That is all it is. Hardly releveant when a boys life has been taken ,
”Unfortunately in the real world, away from mob mentality and knee jerk reaction, every case has to be judged on its own specifics, and mitigating circumstances taken into account.”
This comment ?
Huh ! Yeah right .
As I said I am entitled to express myself too .
Condolences and sorrow at the death of a 20 year old boy.
If you do not like my comment – report it !
Eileen, remove the twist from your knickers! Your comment is not offensive and worthy of reporting, just stupid! Have a nice day, you’ve made me smile!
The fact that I offered condolences to the family of a young lad who was probably murdered has made you smile? I am afraid your comment says a lot more about you than it does about me . Horrid person. Not to mention the vulgarity of your comment !
Story needs to be corrected, st Donaghs is Kilbarrack not Donaghmede
Ridiculous comment!!!!
Sorry St Donaghs is Donaghmede Dublin 13, not Kilbarrack
while the person who committed this murder should be locked up , the prison system is expensive and in effective , should we be looking at alternates such as tagging and curfews before it hits this late stage.
keeping younger criminals away from their peers before the point of no return
Should add to that since the man has not been identified yet the correct area he was found in could be important to people looking for him, comment previously sounded quite heartless!
Ronan sorry it has taken so long to reply;
Logic, its not logical to lock up all offenders and throw away the key. where would we put them??
logic, we the public, have very few ideas about why things happen or how they happen.
logic, over the few weeks that I have been posting no one has been protesting against domestic violence.
logic. comments which are made are passionate, fight first ask why later?
logic, over reaction, passionate response etc., is a response not, I say again not a solution to the social issues and issues of violence and unemployment, poverty, drugs!!! do I need to go on?
please feel free to reply Ronan passionately or other wise
@GoGo99 very well said and thank you! We will reach a stage very soon on here that we’ll need to sift through all the condolences before we can read topical comments. Eileen, there
are books of condolences online were the numbers are more to your suiting .
have your say