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 rain, RTÉ paying compensation over the Panti/Iona/Saturday Night Show affair (again), dating Irish-style and one of Dublin’s most well-known characters.
So here are the standout comments from the week that was.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. Peter Pantsless may be lacking a trouser or two but he wasn’t missing any green thumbs this week. He received 1,669 of them for this offering on a DailyEdge.ie list of the most unacceptable train behaviours.
To the man that read his book out loud, i salute you sir
He was referring to this…
Banned for two years? Shouldn’t she be banned for life!
3. There was a lot of talk about neknomination after the tragic death of a young man in Carlow last weekend. Jenny Miller got nodding approvals from 1,510 readers for this summary:
A bit of common sense goes a long way… Personal responsibility seems to have gone out the window and instead a game is taking the blame. Not that it’s the cleverest game out there but people need to cop on a bit tbh!
4. Readers echoed Derek Hawkeye Byrne‘s thoughts, giving him 1,480 thumbs up, after the body of Patrick Halpin was found in London.
Ah no. Not the news we wanted to hear.
5. Finally, Jason Ebbs made 1,434 people smile (1,435 if you include this author) with this memory of his Dad following a DailyEdge piece last Sunday.
My dad’s best moment was a few years ago when he put his first pizza in the grill. When the topping side was done he turned it over to cook the underneath !!!
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Racist graffiti painted opposite Immigrant Council offices (431 comments)
2. 9/11 conspiracy theorist arrested after interrupting Super Bowl conference (279 comments)
3. Gay rights student protest takes place at Russian Embassy in Dublin (238 comments)
4. Watch Panti’s powerful speech about oppression of gay people (199 comments)
5. RTÉ’s head of television explains Iona payout decision to staff (195 comments)
Some of the best comments left on the site this week
(Video: rory oneill/YouTube)
The Abbey’s Noble Call was given by Rory O’Neill, aka Panti, last weekend. The subsequent video went viral, keeping the spotlight on a debate on homophobia. Chris Kirk noted:
Lets be honest Rory O’Neill stole the show and is an actor like everyone else dressed to play a part on the stage of the Abbey Theatre. Fair play to him for getting his message across and fair play to the Journal for highlighting it. Let us also remember how the Abbey has played its part in shaping this countries history and not be dismissive of the message it sends out.
Helping the video to go viral were Stephen Fry, Graham Norton and Rupaul. It got many people thinking about their own behaviours, as Mike Clinton outlines:
I have to admit that I am guilty of a bit of homophobia as well.
Although we have a few gay friends and we love them to bits.
We attended the most wonderful partnership ceremony & were instrumental in setting up a lgbts gourmet club (the laughs we had with those headbangers lol).
But on reflection I hold my hand up and admit I have displayed a bit of homophobia .
Now into my 50′s I am a wiser man. Thank’s Rory.
On a piece about Amnesty’s major report into discrimination faced by transgender people, Patrick Varley started a good debate with the following suggestion:
Im not terribly well versed in transgender issues but with regards to categories on government forms, official and legal documents, would it make more sense to add 3 more categories.(Male, Female, Transgender-Male, Transgender-Female and Inter-sex)
The criteria for how you fit into any category would have to be determined. I would say you start of in Male/Female and can move into T-M/T-F if you so wish. Inter-sex people can decide to remain inter-sex or identify in either M/F category if they wish.
To which a number of people replied, including King Olaf who explained:
Nice way of thinking about it but it doesn’t make any sense in certain situations. I presume a person who wants to be recognised as a female or male wouldn’t like to be identified as transgender male or female if they have to travel to a less accepting country. Things should be kept as simple as possible and left at the two genders on legal documents. Although I believe Australia has an X option for people who feel like neither gender..so maybe that would work.
Mary Dunne, the famous dancing lady of O’Connell Street, passed away this week. She was 87 years old. A Dublin character, never to be forgotten, as outlined by Tony Moran in this wonderful comment:
Isn’t it mad that so many can be familiar with someone and yet I bet few knew her name until now ? I used to work just off O’Connell St and I saw her many times. I always wondered why she did it, she seemed in a parallel world. I’ll never forget one day how she and a colleague made eye contact and she smiled at him. He got totally freaked out and was always watching out for her afterwards in case it might happen again ! There’s another old guy who sits on a bench outside Supervalu in Churchtown …. you wouldn’t notice him as you walked by but then he lets out this thundering roar at you like William Wallace and makes you completely stumble with alarm and confusion, dropping whatever you’ve got in your hands. Then he completely breaks himself up laughing while you gather yourself up again. It’s not nice when it happens to you but it’ll only ever happen to you once, and then it’s gas to watch when he gets a new victim ! Characters – priceless pieces of culture that make your home town familiar to you. RIP to Mary, I hope you get to dance all the way to the pearly gates and beyond :)
Sad news – this time from London – meant people were sympathising with the family of missing DCU student Patrick Halpin. His body was found in London’s Leicester Square, near where he was last seen after a night out during a college trip. Mother Antoinette Doyle shared her own tragic story.
so sad feel so sorry for his family and friends its so hard to accept one so young sheading a tear as i write as i lost my son 6 months ago and the pain does not get any easier for me or his friends xx
molly coddled had our chins trembling with this beautiful memory of her Dad following the DailyEdge.ie‘s list of ‘10 things only Irish dads love‘.
I’d go for out with my late dad on a Friday night, him for the beer, me for the craic (loved the company of da and his friends).
We’d go home and half cut my da would peel some spuds and make the best round chips that we would sit at the kitchen table and make massive doorstop bread sarnies, all washed down with a steaming hot cup of cocoa.Those were the days, I still miss those sarnies even after 23 years.
On Friday, it was revealed that Dr Gregory House actually saved a life. In real life. German doctors, baffled by a man’s severe hearth failure, came up with the diagnosis after seeing it on the show. Dee4 then made us LOl with this reaction.
I just watched Alien and now I have a pain in my stomach fuuuuuuuuuuuu…..
On Monday, professional matchmaker Rena Maycock gave men a few tips on how not to act on a date. Reader Joe O’Reilly shared this hilarious anecdote with us:
I once laughed so hard on a first date that I farted I thought this is it my life is over. Luckily she never noticed and now where married. But I wouldn’t recommend it go for paying the bill being a gentleman option.
(TJ note: She totally noticed, right?)
The sweet sound of success? What’s it like? Caroline Dunlea nailed it on the article about ‘the most comforting every-day sounds’.
The complete flush of a loo after it looked like it was blocked and the water rose up to the rim!! :-) especially in someone else’s house!
Spot any good comments? Send them through to us by email at sinead@thejournal.ie.
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