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 Aras Attracta, Irish Water and Ray D’Arcy.
So here are the standout comments from the week that was.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. The PrimeTime documentary on Tuesday night about Aras Attracta shocked the nation. Tom Red‘s response got 3,230 green thumbs.
The parents and families of these so called “carers”will be fair proud when they’re named….Name,shame and without a doubt jail the heartless carers who treated the patients in this awful degrading way…… They should never ever be allowed work as carers again..
2. Leo Varadkar expressed his disappointment this week that people were protesting over €3 a week. Linda Whelan was not impressed. And she got 2,862 thumbs up.
Yes Leo 3 euro a week now, but what about in the future you can’t even guarantee it will stay that low that’s what people are worried about.. We cannot believe a word out of your mouths!
3. Charles J Ahern explains why Wednesday’s protest was happening. It’s not all about water, he says, and 2,114 of you agree.
It’s not about “paying twice” it’s about having to fund a super quango and the cronyism that surrounds the set up of this massively flawed company. Its also about a government and political system that is completely out of touch with the general public.
4. And another response to Leo – from Miguel O’Reilly – got 1,801 thumbs.
Leo, live for a year on €188 per week or on minimum wage with no access to your savings, but yet still having to pay your mortgage or rent. Do that. Seriously do it and we might have respect for you. Then come back to is when you finally see for yourself what people are complaining about.You say you’re dealing with more important things like Aras Attracta. The horrifying things that went on there are 100% the fault of the HSE. You’re in charge of the HSE so it is your fault. All you and your ministers do is firefight when things like this are brought to the publics attention. You don’t fix things before they become a problem.We the citizens have had enough. We have decided to fix Irish Water before it becomes a problem. We don’t have to answer to a party whip. We have our own kids and our own intelligence. We don’t have vested interests so we use this intelligence to try out best to make this a better country not just for is but for future generations
5. Connor Savage received 1,592 green thumbs for this summary of Ray D’Arcy’s announcement that he was leaving TodayFM.
As much as I listened to Ray Darcy when I was back at home “it feels like I’m coming home” is pretty disrespectful to a team you have worked with for 15 year. They all had great rapport on his show and it was the group that made the show a success, rather than him alone. I gave less attention after hearing him interview the other Irish UFC fighter at the O2 a few months back, as again his interview was in very poor taste. I wish him the best but fear he’ll get more narky on the airwaves as time passes.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. As it happened: Tens of thousands turn out in Dublin to demand ‘Right2Water’ (460 comments)
2. Leo: It really bothers me that people are protesting about €3 a week, we’ve much bigger problems (368 comments)
3. Poll: Do you have confidence in the Taoiseach? (316 comments)
4. VIDEO: SUV hits pedestrians at anti-water charge protest in Dublin (290 comments)
5. Just how many people protested against water charges yesterday? (274 comments)
The big issue
Search Eagle has a different opinion to most of our commenters.
Leo Varadkar is completely right and it’s always refreshing to hear a politician spell out the situation bluntly and without false platitudes. The reality is that €3 a week *is* affordable for the vast majority of people. There is nothing “arrogant” about that.“when his party cannot guarantee that Irish water will not be privatized the the road. Will not have a referendum to secure that Irish water will not be sold off for a knock down price just like Bord Gais was earlier this year.”You talk about water being privatised and then you bring up Bord Gais, which isn’t an acceptable of a resource being privatised, because the actual gas network is still owned by the state. In fact it was the domestic supply – Bord Gais Energy that was sold off. This is an important distinction. Further, I don’t really see how the liberalisation of the energy sector wasn’t of benefit. Instead of having a semi-state infested with unions as our sole choice, we now have multiple providers. But for some reason there are people want us to go back to a time when we only had Eircom, ESB and Bus Eireann as our choice.
Laugh of the week
On seeing this, Stephen McNulty said:
Had to double check I wasn’t looking at Waterford Whispers News…
And Tony used all the puns in this comment about that cereal café in London.
I can see why the interview is receiving a Frostie reception. I mean, when you Cap’N Crunch those numbers, you’d be a Fruit Loop not to see the amount of Golden Nuggets that can be made off opening a shop like that. Only a Crunchie Nut would pay them kind of prices though. If I walked in and saw the prices on the menu I’d have to say Cheerio, unless I was going Halfsies with my mate Golden Graham. The store owner has every right to Quake in his boots after that video. **i’ll get my coat**
We also enjoyed Ciara McKeever recalling her parent’s craftiness.
I never understood why people hated the fruit cream ones so much, until my mother recently admitted that she had conditioned both of us (my older brother and I) from a young age to only like them, because herself and my Da hated them. Works in our favour though, we get huge bags of them at Christmas from all the relatives who can’t stand orange and strawberry Quality Streets! Thanks Mum!
Standout comments of the week
With Christmas around the corner, we’re already in the thick of preparations. Shane Kelly’s column on Thursday reminded us to care for ALL of those in our neighbourhood, including the elderly and lonely. Ellie Ward had a simple but effective idea.
If there is an older person living close to you and have no family and your cooking a Christmas dinner (or any dinner) throw on an extra potato and veg and make an extra plate. Be warned that not all older people will want the help. My 93 year old neighbour fought with me 3 years ago coz I took her over some hot food, I think she was embarrassed but now I cook a dinner for her and myself when I can.
Something small means the world to some people, its small but effective.
Catherine Mayock‘s husband is making preparations of a different kind.
Hey catherine. My hubby’s not very romantic, 2 years ago he handed me an envelope, said merry christmas, and said i got you a bit of land. I looked at him and said are you for real. Ya said he, its a double. A double what? A double grave. Well you can imagine what gratitude i gave him. Our family were doubled over with laughter. I opened the envelope and there was the deed for a grave in our local graveyard. And we’re not that old.
A fantastic comment from Em Murphy really gets to the heart of the double-edged sword that Skype is. It also encompasses everything that makes us sad about emigration.
So many Christmas’s spent in sunny Australia meant the highlight of our day was the phonecall/Netmeeting/Skype call back home with my entire family in Ireland. Everyone would take a turn to say Merry Christmas and the call would go on for ages. There were Christmas crackers, songs and presents unwrapped during the calls. My family were so wonderful trying to make me feel part of their day. But every year I cried because they were all together and half a planet away. Now we’re back in Ireland we can enjoy a ‘proper’ Christmas again but we’re not all together anymore….two nieces and a nephew are now in Australia and the Skype calls go on. The only difference now is I’m the one taking turns to sit in front of the screen with my paper hat, yelling at everyone to be quiet while bedlam goes on in the background. I find myself putting on a brave face and pretending that we’re all having a fantastic time and saying stupid things like ‘how hot is it?’. During all the years I was devastated missing my family on Christmas day, I never realised that they were devastated too. My heart goes out to all of the families this Christmas that have been torn apart by the scourge of emigration. It’s tough on everyone but remember Skype calls are for smiling. Save the tears until you’re away from the screen. No matter how much fun having Christmas in the sun might seem, rest assured that there’s only one place your son/daughter/brother/sister/niece/nephew wants to be…thats at home with you :)
On Thursday, another maternity scandal emerged out of Portlaoise. But some of the comments were very understanding about how a misdiagnosis can happen. George Salter said:
In fairness, misdiagnosing foetal heartbeat is not rare, primarily because it’s difficult. That’s why the second scans and second opinions.
Contrary to what people seem to think, a lot of medicine is educated guesswork and techniques developed from long experience over the past centuries. Why do you think it takes so long to train doctors? If diagnosis was always obvious, a four year degree and a table of symptoms would be sufficient. Instead, a bit of everything related has to be taught, to give the ability to make educated guesses.
Carmel Dempsey Heffernan then told us about her positive experiences in the same hospital.
I have 5 children and they were all born in portlaoise hospital i cant fault them in anyway they were all fantastic..my eldest is 19 and youngest is 4..i also lost my baby at 21 weeks 8 years ago and the care myself and my husband got was great
See any good comments? Send them on to sinead@thejournal.ie
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