EVERY SATURDAY MORNING we like to take a look at all the best comments left on the site by you lot over the past week.
This week there was a lot of talk about the new Croke Park pay agreement, Pope Benedict XVI’s departure and Pat Rabbitte’s plan to introduce a public broadcasting charge – as well as Joan Burton on hecklers, the landmark right-to-die case in the Supreme Court, and things girls like, according to the internet.
So here, in no particular order, are the standout comments from the week that was.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. First female president of Ógra Fianna Fáil elected (338 comments)
2. INMO, CPSU, Unite and IMO leave Croke Park extension talks (304 comments)
3. Burton says hecklers gave Dundalk a ‘bad image’ following shopping centre protest (299 comments)
4. Rabbitte plans to introduce public broadcasting charge (253 comments)
5. Pro-life group condemns attack on office as ‘grotesque and vile’ (243 comments)
Some of the best comments left on the site this week
We asked readers this week to share their mortifying childhood memories and commenters obliged in their droves with stories of supreme awkwardness.
(Image: Tumblr)
Tommy Harper‘s one was pretty bad…:
Thought I was being cool at a packed mass, left it to the last to head up for communion…….behind a 6 foot giant!!!
Got to the top of the aisle, priest serves big foot and turns toward the alter and walks away…cringe!!
Tommy stands there begging that the priest will come back… He didn’t, cue a red faced tommy turning around and having to walk past everyone again!!!
… as was Anne Marie Cahalane’s:
Walking to Mass on a dark Sunday morning with my Mam and her mentioning casually that the elastic in her knickers wasn’t too steady. I was about 10 years old and passed no remarks. Mass was in Latin then it seemed there was lots of kneeling and standing and kneeling again. She knelt at once stage and couldn’t stand back up because the pants had landed right above her knees! We were packed like sardines in the seats so fair play to her, she wriggled out of them and stuffed then in her pocket! I was mortified, not sure what mortified me more, her losing them or traipsing home wearing none! God bless her, she still laughs about it!
So Morgan Freeman left this comment beneath an article about Guinness trucks being moved through Dublin city. Sure, some would say that this doesn’t have much to do with anything. But those people clearly don’t appreciate a good anecdote read in a Morgan Freeman voice:
A glass of nice cold Guinness sure would get me through today, just like in the summer of 83 when I was courting a young Offaly girl by the name of Mary-May. That summer sure was hot and the only thing that near gone cooled me down was a nice glass of Guinness. Of course Mary-May disappeared with the heat and then Autumn come around and I was alone again. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone. I guess I just miss my friend.
A study this week found volunteering is good for both your physical health and your mind. Some people were sceptical but Heather Sinnott shared her own experiences:
Really taken aback at some of the negative comments on here. I work for a volunteer based organisation and my job is brilliant. I have interested motivated people giving there time and energy to try help other individuals who are struggling. We give great training and support and experience for volunteers who need to get experience for cv’s, so what, it shouldn’t be one way beneficiary. Through support, on-going training and volunteers knowing they are valued helps you retain your volunteers. I have people going on 6 years now when we only asked for 2, they stay because they are making a difference and why the hell shouldn’t that make them feel good!
Do you still use phone boxes? One of the polls this week found most people don’t anymore – but still had stories about them. Here’s Brian McGuinness:
Ah phone memories….I remember being in the Ventry Gaelteacht in 1988 and having to turn a feckin handle on the side of the pay phone to get through to an operator…then reversing the charges to ring home. Sometimes neighbours would call in to use the phone at home and leave a lovely shiny gold 20p for the call. I also remember people waiting outside the phone box while you were talking to the girlfriend and knocking on the window to get you to hurry up….”yeah, yeah just a minute! Here listen, I’ve gotta go, some fat Boll1x wants to use the phone”
Meanwhile Damien Chaney uses them for just one specific purpose:
Only to change into my superman uniform
Irish mammies. You can’t beat them but you can imitate them to death. This video – Shite Irish Mammies Say – inspired some other suggestions from commenters, including this from Brid DeFaoite and Carmel Smyth:
Missing the classic conversation starter, “Do you know who died?”
Usually preceded a week earlier by “d’you know who isn’t well”
(Video: Clisare/YouTube)
5 of the comments which received the most thumbs up
The most popular comment this week was from David Murphy which got 955 thumbs up for empathising with Twitter user Margaret Harrington and her list on austerity.
That list makes me feel a little better because at least I know it’s not just me.
Also on the podium was Julie-Anne Dunne with 833 thumbs up for this “rant” (her words, not ours) on an article about Croke Park II.
2 working parents in my household we seem to pay more tax than take home pay! We have nothin left 2 give! Why are honest working taxpayers constantly being hit with all cuts etc! I think €100,000 is more than enough for any top gov minister to be earning – With this they should be more than able to afford accommodation and travel etc like the rest of us would have to pay! If they were cut to this (r lower better still) the amount of money that would be saved would easily feed the hungry! They actually choose not to cut their own – any cuts they do take they get back in some way or other with different loop holes in their own system! Its a disgrace! If the household payment i paid or the extortionate car tax I pay was actually used for its purpose and difference was seen it wouldn’t be as frustrating but we keep giving and have nothing to show for it from what I see anyway! Leave us alone and give us a break, this would if nothin else increase morale and get this country moving again! Rant over
Making the top comments was TheClothesline.ie who appreciated this personal column about living with Asperger’s. It got 794 thumbs up.
Fantastic article- really informative and really well written
Oliver Walker got 756 green thumbs for asking this question:
When is the breathing tax coming into affect?
It was on an article about Minister Rabbitte’s broadcasting charge.
And finally, Michael Russell‘s pun on an article ’7 sounds you’ll probably never hear again’ was shown some love with 743 green thumbs.
Reeling in the Ears
-Additional reporting by Sinéad O’Carroll
Spot any good comments? Let us know: mail christine@thejournal.ie with any suggestions for comments of the week.
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