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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 Fine Gael, a horrific attack on a referee and the arrival of Irish First Dates.
*Yes, due to a scheduling error, last Saturday’s went awry but we’ve put last week’s top comments below
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. Mark Scott got 2,503 thumbs up for this comment on a piece about a gay couple who wrote about their experiences in a Dublin restaurant.
So what we have here is an unsubstantiated, anonymous complaint about an unnamed restaurant. Outstanding.
2. Last weekend, a volunteer referee was attacked during a football match. Joachin Peiper got 2,073 green thumbs for observing:
An assault is an assault…end of.
3. And on the same story, Doctor Tickled received 1,991 nods.
He has to face the Dublin District Schoolboys League??? He should be facing a judge!!
4. PM1878 said what many of us were thinking about the Young Fine Gael debacle this week. At least 1,763 of you appreciated his point.
They called to his House, that sounds familiar..
5. Richard Cheney is not impressed with the government and neither are 1,716 other readers.
““It’s difficult to fathom,” one TD told us today. Others reported being baffled and surprised at the poll result.” That’s what happens when you are so detached from the electorate and general population, clapping each other on the back at party conferences and having spoiled brats from the plush suburbs in Lab Youth and YFG telling you you are great, meanwhile, back on Planet Reality, everyone else knows you’re just a bunch of self-serving ____s.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Support for Fine Gael just keeps rising and rising (317 comments)
2. Sinn Féin wants a vote pact with other left-wing parties – but not everyone’s up for it (261 comments)
3. ‘We’ll do whatever it takes to change this’ – Abortion pill bus arrives in Dublin (237 comments)
4. Is Labour finished? (230 comments)
5. Gay couple asked to leave Dublin restaurant for holding hands (208 comments)
Last week’s 5 most popular comments
1. On hearing the draw for the Euro 2016 play-offs, Samhain. said:
How come we have to play Bosnia AND Herzegovina…..typical FAI.
And got 1,834 thumbs up.
2. IrishGravyTrain – and at least 1,660 readers – are not OK with door-to-door charity collectors.
This practice should be banned. Should be made illegal to call to someones home.
3. A GAA player’s powerful victim impact statement after losing the sight in one of his eyes led Barry Walsh to comment:
Dirty animal to do that,poor man’s life changed forever,and the gaa are a crowd of tossers who haven’t the common decency to so much as ask the man is he ok
He received 1,622 thumbs up.
4. Uncle Monty‘s reaction to the idea that everybody’s porn browsing history could be revealed got 1,597 green thumbs.
Hard drive just smashed to bits there with the hammer. Phone is next, can’t be too careful. Au revoir.
5. Always controversial, David Norris said last week he wouldn’t mind a whit if same-sex cousins got married. Rehabmeerkat got 1,407 thumbs for this one:
jaysus…. his cousins will be worried
The top 5 articles which received the most comments last week
1. Provisional IRA members leafleting and electioneering for Sinn Féin – report (315 comments)
2. Who runs Sinn Féin? (277 comments)
3. Poll: Should the government ban parents from smacking their children? (245 comments)
4. Pro-choice campaigners take ‘abortion pill bus’ across Ireland (238 comments)
5. Woman arrested after racist rant against Muslims caught on video (222 comments)
Standout comments
We all got some bad (ish) news about our Sunday fry-ups earlier this week. But Phil O’Meara has a solution.
I found it very hard to quit but have been eating e-sausages for some time now and they’re great!
Nicola Lawless reacts to Graham and Helen Linehan’s emotionally raw video about the baby they lost.
Imagine that? Just try and imagine what that would be like for those 2 people (what it is like for people who have this issue) Walking around with a pregnancy bump and being congratulated and asked about due date etc. That would be emotional torture. No nursery to do up. No baby to bring home. No excitement about the due date. Someone I know if a stenographer in a maternity hospital. When they diagnose these conditions in a scan they never see these ladies again. They have to trek to the UK and come home bruised and battered and drained. They can’t (and don’t) present for aftercare. Their husbands and partners helpless and hopeless. It’s a shameful indictment of our care for mothers and fathers who have to go through this. He’s right – grow the f@#k up Ireland.
selfsustainable got a lot of thumbs up for this one:
I give everyone a chance, I’ve worked in retail for 25 years, in every place I worked and managed the same group would come in, I had no problem with them until they robbed some stock one day. I told them not to come back. I then managed another store and they came in again, I told them I’d give them another chance but if they robbed again that would be it. they robbed again. I then barred them from the next two places I managed, however another well known family came into every business I worked in, they were absolute ladies and to this day I’d trust them with anything. I still meet them and a few months ago they came into the store I owned at the time to ask if they could get some dresses sent to my home as they lived on a halting site and couldn’t get them delivered there. I said no problem. they rewarded me with sending their brothers out to clean the whole front of my house including gutterings and driveway. Unfortunately in my 43 years on this earth, this family is the only good experience I have had with travellers but it’s as simple as this, I respect anyone, no matter who they are as long as they respect me. I count these girls as my friends.
We are really looking forward to the Irish version of First Dates – and Abbi Cranky sums up why.
First dates is amazing!
A beautiful hour it tv where no one is out to show anyone in a bad light.The concept does sound cringeworthy. But as mentioned, the reality is something nice and heartwarming nearly all the time.In this brutal world of car crash tv it’s an oasis of niceness that reminds us that humans can be good.
See any good comments? Send them on to sinead@thejournal.ie
Very interesting. When is Dr Reilly or Mick Wallace getting a visit?
The words ‘Pigs’ and ‘Fly’ come to mind
I presume when there is a court order against them due to be enforced. However I think Steve has already dealt with that point.
Thank you for the information Paul.
I can’t wait for the expose(s),
on reckless lending in our banks,
on NAMA,
on explaining how negative equity percentages in Ireland are multiples of other European countries,
and why the Irish government aren’t holding the real culprits (the banks) accountable as the brave Icelandic government have done.
I think I’ll be waiting.
Join the Anti-Eviction Taskforce presently supporting Seamus Sherlock who has been under threat for 3 weeks.Seamus and his young Family will not be Repossessed.http://www.facebook.com/messages/?action=read&tid=id.148766788597225#!/AntiEvictionTaskforce
In some counties, the Sheriff is also the registar. The Registar creates an Order, then puts on his Sheriffs hat and acts out that Order. This sounds illegal to me. Please go to youtube and look up sheriff portlaoise. Best clip on the net!
Typo error. Meant to say’Registrar’!
Great stuff DMC,
It is illegal, it’s a blatant conflict of intrests. most sheriffs operate as county registar, magistrate and sherrif. where is the seperation of powers to ensure no immoral fiancial gains?
This is all legalese !
they only have power over you if you consent to their “subject matter jurisdiction”
People need to get interested in lay litigation. the bar is a private company. you dont need a lawyer (LIAR!) just education on our Crown laws.
Made a claim through small claims court. Won. They wouldn’t pay because they knew there was no sheriff in Wexford area to enforce it. So much for small claims court; the low cost way of getting some commercial justice. And as for the sheriff system…. Both Useless.
Very interesting article however Brian Lenihan Snr became Minister for Justice in 1964 so either he amended the 1945 Act or he had no involvement. Again very good piece.
Hi Brian,
Nice spot. Have updated now.
Cheers,
Paul
if this recession keeps up and the government/banks keep pissing people off the new number 1 song in ireland could be “I Shot the sheriff” if banks and local councils send them out more and more
If TV and film has taught me anything, its that sheriff’s are totally bad-ass with loads of cannon fodder soldiers. With swords and crossbows!
An excellent low down of who the (Dublin City) sheriff is, what he does and what he can’t do, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpOTiWWgYdE
Do they wear a ten gallon hat?
Notice to Sheriff and all members of the BAR (British Accredited Registry)
There are no provisions in the Irish Constition for your offices –
Vacate Now!
there are ordinary and revenue sheriffs. same for Dublin and Cork . ordinary sheriff run by courts services and revenue appointed by gov. normally a solicitor. this week due to Galway races no sheriff were available. great job if u cn get it!
save for Dn and Cork
“For doing this they get a fee, known as ‘poundage’, which is set at 5 per cent of the first €5,500 that they seize and 2.5 per cent of the rest. Expenses are also provided for, as laid down in the Sheriff’s Fees and Expenses Order.”
Here’s the great part. WE are the ones that pay this ‘poundage’. I don’t mean by taxes. We are actually required to pay this fee to the sheriff – it’s there on his piece of paper in black and white. I have a ‘warrant’ here with a nice breakdown of what’s owed and there under it all… fees and expenses, billable to me. So not only have we reached rock bottom and these people can break in and steal stuff from us, using force to cause criminal damage if necessary, we also have to pay them to do it! Sure why not make them a cup of tea while they’re here…before they take the kettle? You couldn’t make it up!
Made a claim through small claims court. Won. They wouldn’t pay because they knew there was no sheriff in Wexford area to enforce it. So much for small claims court; the low cost way of getting some commercial justice. And as for the sheriff system…. Both Useless.
This is a great article, very informative another article explaining Bailiffs and how they are appointed and what their functions are would be very useful too. My particular interest in Sheriffs is their role in the democratic process e.g.
Who funds them in their role as city and county returning officers? who pays for the rent of polling stations and presiding officers and polling station staff? How are the staff for these polls recruited? and how transparent and open is this recruitment process? Is this recruitment process open to all citizens and how fair is it to everyone in the current economic environment especially to the unemployed?
Folks,
The office of Sheriff is indeed a tasty subject and one we here are thrashing out in Dundalk and indeed every corner of this island.
Eugene Dooley (ME) was evicted (now back in) from his “home” last October 16th 2012. We have been busy seeking justice for the action of the Sheriff we believe now was illegal. The following document I think you will find interesting as it points out the Sheriffs guidelines for enforcement when collecting “tax” or business debt (commercial??).
Considering my home is neither a business nor is it an investment and I guess we should look at our constitution further to see how we are “all” protected in our homes why are people being evicted at all???
The actions of “Debtoptions” (see them on facebook) have greatly helped my case. Not only am we seeking justice against the bank s, whom continue to ignore my requests and correspondences relating to information which should be available to me, we are also looking at a Mortgage strike through out Ireland.
Also we are pursuing the Sheriff of Louth with vigour, the information thats now available and the litany of unanswered questions have us all very suspect indeed.
We are growing in confidence every day as our ranks swell with people and their0 ever growing base of knowledge.
Knowledge will set us free after all.
For info on,
1. Revenue Statistical Report – Sheriff and Solicitor Enforcement Section
2. Guidelines for Sheriff Enforcement
3. Sheriff’s Code of Practice
http://www.revenue.ie/revsearch/search.jsp
Michael Skellig wondered how these people get appointed… I’m sure there are some more guidelines somewhere, they are civil servants are they not???
Yours in Life & Living,
Eugene of the ancient clan Dooley
Prerequset is to be psychopath
So there are Revenue Sheriffs too charged with collecting taxes. So where does Customs, also acting as agents of revenue collection come into play?
Really good article Paul. I tend to agree with the majority of the comments though as far as – ok we know how it works but it is only aimed at the normal Joe Soap.
The info above is great though. Would you perhaps do a story on Iceland and how the “Basket Case” country is now in growth and basically debt free?
Sheriff and regresta can not take anything unless you consent. Don’t allow entry ,video everything and he’ll get nothing.
So how are these people appointed? Are the positions advertised to the open market and tendered? It seems like the kind of job that is coveted and handed out to friends.
Powers of the sheriff or regrestrar to Evict where abolished in 2009.
Every sheriff or regrestrar Eviction since has been a crime.
just a monopoly so it is! anyone can be a lay litigator . don’t give them jurisdiction over you!
Nicely explained
They follow a similar role here in Canada, acting as a sheriff/bailiff. But in addition the also handle prisoner transport between jail/prison and the courts.
In some provinces (they fall under Provincial and not Federal administration), they may also have the ability to enforce traffic laws (re: hand out speeding tickets). But this is a new expansion of their use.
Who shot the deputy
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