Top comments of the week

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 Paris attacks and the crash in Athy.

So here are the standout comments from the week that was.

The 5 most popular comments this week

Niamh Doyle and Gemma Nolan in family photographs used for death notices on RIP.ie

1. The horrific crash in Athy on Tuesday night claimed the lives of four young women, all close friends since school. Liam Higgins got 4,463 thumbs up for sharing his sympathy.

God love their families and friends. Spare a thought for the emergency services dealing with this tragedy.

2. With 3,005 green thumbs he second most thumbed up comment was a show of solidarity to the Charlie Hebdo victims from Spiderman_Irish.

Je suis Charlie.

3. Dermot McLoughlin got 2,798 thumbs up for this comment about Dr Ali Selim.

“I am a great advocate of freedom of expression,”(But I’ll use your ridiculous blasphemy law to suppress your freedom of expression.)

4. We asked you last Sunday if €2.50 pints should be banned. At least 2,763 of you agreed with Vincent Bickerstaffe.

If you can’t control your intake why should someone who can pay more to enjoy a pint.

5. And the last comment was also about the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Sean Barertt Byrne received 2,530 thumbs up.

Probably 10 ordinary people, mums dads brothers sisters daughters sons etc, who only said good bye to their loved ones before work this morning but little did they know they’d never return home, very sad news

The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week

Michel Euler Michel Euler

1. Manhunt for gunmen in Paris after twelve killed in massacre at satirical magazine offices (671 comments)

2. WATCH LIVE: Charlie Hebdo suspects dead and four hostages killed in Jewish store (362 comments)

3. Irish teen Ibrahim Halawa ‘considering hunger strike’ as trial postponed again (321 comments)

4. Opinion: Let’s grow our democracy – let’s lower the voting age to 16 (298 comments)

5. Hunt continues for brothers suspected over Charlie Hebdo attack (281 comments)

The big issue

Markus Schreiber Markus Schreiber

Sylvain Marinier des Ecluses response was called ‘perfect’ by other commenters after the Paris attacks this week.

Being a French national myself, I today wish to join my heart with all the Muslims around the world. There is a future for all of us, together, on this earth. Peace…

There was also a lot of commentary about whether or not the original Charlie Hebdo and Danish cartoons should be published. Many of you argued that they should be in the name of freedom of speech and solidarity. On the other side of the debate, redmarauder said:

News organisations regularly edit images they deem too harsh or offensive, despite their newsworthiness, such as accident scenes, war casualties or nude photos. Few news outlets, for example, published grisly images of the beheadings of Americans held by Islamic State militants, or the hacked nude photos of Hollywood celebrities, though video and photos of both circulated on the Internet.Neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post has ever published the Danish or French cartoons, and both indicated Wednesday that they don’t intend to.

The Times’ associate managing editor for standards, Philip Corbett, said his paper doesn’t publish material “deliberately intended to offend religious sensibilities.” He said Times editors decided that describing the cartoons rather than showing them “would give readers sufficient information to understand today’s story.”

Similarly, The Post’s executive editor, Martin Baron, said his newspaper avoids publication of material “that is pointedly, deliberately, or needlessly offensive to members of religious groups” and would continue to apply those principles in the wake of the Paris atrocity.

The free expression vs. violent reaction debate was particularly pointed for Stephen Pollard, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, a British publication. In a series of tweets after the Paris killings, Pollard argued for not publishing.

“Easy to attack papers for not showing cartoons,” he tweeted. “But here’s my editor’s dilemma. Every principle I hold tells me to print them . . . what right do I have to risk the lives of my staff to make a point?”

And O Yassoon added:

I’ve seen some of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons depicting Muslims and a lot of them ARE offensive. I don’t think you can ask the Journal to associate themselves with dodgy drawings of evil-looking men in turbans with flies buzzing around them as a protective measure against random psychopaths. These drawings depict Muslims as backward, malicious etc, they’re not just a critique of the religion.

Laugh of the week 

Monday was a tough day. But some of you cheered us up. Especially David Evans.

I arrived back in Cambridge at midnight last night, cycled to work this morning with very little sleep to find out I forgot that I booked the day off.

And Alan Kennedy.

6:30 am flight this morning, chap next to me with no concept of personal space and no indoor voice, was horsing into Sour Cream and Chive Pringles and swigging cans of Magners.For some people letting go of Christmas is harder than for others.

Standout comments of the week

We all said goodbye to friends who live abroad but came home for the Christmas last weekend. molly coddled doesn’t go in for PDAs though.

I stood at the front door in my onesie nightwear at 6am on 28th waving goodbye to my son as he got into the car with hubby to go to Dublin and fly back to Canada.
His attitude is “drop me at departures, I’ll Skype with you tomorrow just so as you know I’m back safe”, and he always does. No public demonstrations of woe, no tears, my tears are held back until I close the door.
Breaks my heart to see him go, but emigrating to Canada four years ago, was, by far, the best thing for him.

Lepree Khan had some words for anti-public sector worker sentiments.

@overthehillprop
It is exactly your type of comment that drives a wedge between public and private sector workers. I wish people would really educate themselves to the facts. I am a public sector worker for over 30 years. I have been paying into a contributory pension all that time. I have another 11 years before I can retire on a full pension. I have taken a 17% pay cut in 5 years, accepted new work practices and have had to read about people losing their lives because of these new practices not working!!! I work 12 hr shifts, half of which are night shifts. I do not receive night shift allowance and I do not have a definitive meal break due to the nature of my employment. Sometimes I am lucky to grab a sandwich and a cuppa on the go! I am not looking for any sympathy here, all I am looking for, is for people to educate themselves before judging the average public sector worker and posting comments online. Bottom line is this, the working man or woman, irrespective of whether public or private, are this country’s new poor. The spongers, fraudsters and benefit cheats are the reason you and I have had pay cuts , no prospect of pay rises and increasing taxes with their levies on carbon, water and the like. Most public sector workers if given the forum would tell you exactly where the inefficiencies and waste in the public service is. Problem lies in that poor management and nepotism is alive and well and Howlin and his cohorts are unwilling to do anything about it. The Government are of the mindset that it is easier to kick a door in than to pick the lock when you’re locked out!! You’ll still get in. By cutting the wages of workers you still haven’t got to the root of the problem.

As January kicked off, we all had such good intentions, including Tony Hickey.

Made the soup last night – lunch for the week – it fell over in the car on the way to work – could have cried – no lunch and a smell in the car for a month

But let’s start on a positive by sharing Daily Edge Emer’s ideas on how to be nice to yourself this year. As Tom Kenny said:

Recently read an article about the importance of hope in a person’s life. It may seem obvious but people with higher levels of hope fair out better right across the board, health, happiness, setting & achieving goals etc etc

See any good comments? Send them on to sinead@thejournal.ie