@David Corrigan: that is impressive, tried it one and made it through half the second… never thought it was possible after that.

@Forest Hump: How long was it in total with the extended cut?

@Forest Hump: By God. It just gets better and better. :-)

@Pól Ó’hAodha: 11 or 12 hours. No mean feat.

@Pól Ó’hAodha: 11ish hours, I’d trained for it for a few year binge watching stuff on Netflix though

@Clifford Brennan: Jesus fair play. Forrest Hump for Taoiseach!

@Pól Ó’hAodha: seconded, Forest you’ve got my vote. Probably as good a reason to vote for someone as most politicians can muster.

@Forest Hump: tip of the hat sir!! I once watched 11hours of Heroes back to back I was extremely hungover and had no kids at that stage so only left the sofa for water refills!! Good times

@Forest Hump: Never seen it. Is it a true story Forest ?

@Forest Hump: take a bow son. Her achievement pales in significance next to this

@Forest Hump: m

@Forest Hump: lol, fair play :-)

@Trevor W: or just fresh ideas – it doesn’t bother me what age the fresh thinking and new ideas come from …no harm in respecting the older wiser experienced people as has been the way since democracies began – but Ireland needs a complete reform…all depts are not fit for purpose at this stage

@Darren Byrne: And Arlene Foster is also in her 40’s!!! Simon Harris only 33, wow he’s only a nipper

@Darren Byrne: Yea? And how did that work out with Bertie Cowan and Enda and Noonan?
Oh yes – 200 Billion in debt.

Talent, character and above all – dedication to the job are what matter. Not experience.

@Shazam37: all those you list were career politicians. Never stuck their head outside the bubble

@Darren Byrne: Eh What? What has that got to do with it?

Does that somehow absolve them of responsibility?

Your point was life experience counts for more. And I pointed to succession of guys with life experience who were grossely incompetent.

Would you like for me to continue? Martin Callinan Head Of Gardai. Scandal. Corruption. Retired in disgrace. John Delaney – over 50, 20 years in the job – Irish football and FAI destroyed. Pat Hickey in his 70s – Olympic Ireland scandal – national embarrassment. Sean Fitzpatrick and David Drumm – ran Anglo – helped devastate the country.

On and on and on and on. Life experience doesn’t matter a damn. Ethics. Talent. And above all a dedication to doing the job right. These are what count.

@Shazam37: So you don’t think experience of working within industry, within health, within education, with disadvantaged groups and the ups and downs that come with that are necessary to running a state and ensuring it’s citizens are looked after. The only talent these young career politicians have shown is for picking the right groups to get in with.

@Darren Byrne: You’re conflating issues. You’re using THESE politicians as a bench mark. THESE young politicians are useless to the country. But so were there old predecessors.

You said experience is the most important factor. You continually ignore my point that all of the experience held by other politicians and important figures was of no use.

I’ll also point out that most of the great achievements are made by people in their youth. Spielberg made Laws when he was 26. Gates and Microsoft. Zuckerberf and Facebook. Tiger woods. Stripe. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in his 30s Day Lewis won the Oscar for Left Foot.

“Experience” is what old people use to justify their position irrespective of talent.

@Shazam37: your example gates woods and zuckerberg are some of the worst you can choose when you previously mentioned ethics. And trying suggest the arts of Shakespeare or Lewis are comparable to running a company is laughable

@Darren Byrne: They weren’t an example of ethics – they were an example of accomplishment at an early age. Do try to keep up.

Ethics and dedication are what’s required in political leadership. Which we don’t have.

I’m merely pointing out to you that the majority of great accomplishments are achieved by young men and women. Not “experienced” men and women.

Experienced men have run this country into the ground which you seem perfectly happy to ignore. Given the mess the country is in where’s the evidence experience is of any use whatsoever?

@Shazam37: You have a very narrow view of great achievements citing things like sport or arts. Even the average age of a best Oscar winner is 44. How about real achievements like Newton and calculus or Einstein and relativity, Marie Currie sand radiation. People developing cures for cancer and pioneering transplant surgeries, raising children with special needs or sacrificing everything to care for sick people in their lives.. a bit of time and you may come to see that great achievements aren’t just the ones that bring you fame

@Darren Byrne: Staggering STAGGERING missing of the point there Darren.

But since you brought it up – Einstein was 26 when he first posited E=MC2. Curie was 34 when she won the Nobel Prize – 30 when she discovered Pollonium. Newton is believed to have built the fundamentals of his understanding of calculus in his 20s.

Sad thing is you trotted out your silly virtue signalling examples without even giving them 5 minutes of research. Sloppy. Zero Marks.

@Darren Byrne: agreed – voting on political Manifesto is what makes sense. Voting on a candidate’s age defies logic.

@UCC Social Democrats Society: Why would you vote on a Political Manifesto that is part pack of lies part dispensable once in coalition?

The Labour Party manifesto committed to no 3rd level fees as I recall before the election when Rabbit knew it was a lie. Admitted as much afterward.

The FG manifesto promised universal health insurance and to “end the scandal
Of patients on trolleys” – how did that work out?

No. While a manifesto will give some indication of where a party’s interest might lie of far more
Importance is the character as defined by the actions of those IN the party.

The FG manifesto is sure to have lots of goodies in it for example. But we KNOW Leo Varadkar is quite happy for the Dara Murphy to rip off the tax payer, happy with 4000 homeless children and happy with a disastrous HSE. Not to mention the children’s hospitals

So no soc Dems sorry. The manifesto is often not a great way to judge a party. Their track record is a far better guide. Not what they SAY they’ll do. What they ACTUALLY do.

@Darren Byrne: cop on age nothing to do with who’s better we had to much older politicians for long enough too and it was accepted

@Gisbert Bayertz: your doubts are unfounded. Look up the stats for Norway Sweden Denmark Switzerland etc. under all of the headings the previous poster listed.
You will even find that these social democratic countries produce more millionaires per capita than the extreme capitalist USA

@UCC Social Democrats Society: nope look at the mess multi cultural Sweden has become

@Jessie Ginger: I doubt that as well

@john doe: Switzerland is governed by social democrats? I urge you to double check your information

@Joey Byrne: The Social Democrats have and always will celebrate a diverse & inclusive society; and will never apologise for that.

@Billy Nomates: Maybe you’ll find the 50% of SF councillors who lost their seats after the local elections under your own bed, William? The facts terrified you into thinking you were funny. My condolences. :)

@John O’Connor: Gender is irrelevant – talent and a dedication to the job are what matters

@Clifford Brennan: Sorry to disappoint Cliff, but I have no affiliation with Sinn Féin so no condolences necessary. I just laugh when I see people try and connect every article to Sinn Féin. ‘Sinn Féin ate my hamster!’

@Billy Nomates: I know, it was madness of me to illustrate a ‘women couldnt do any worse’ with an example of how McDonalds SF have been in freefall since she took charge. Don’t know where you got that I said, or implied, you had an affiliation to any party. SF have officially denied consuming any hamsters, and I for one believe them.

@Shazam37: yes I agree that talent and dedication are important but gender is far from irrelevant. men and women think differently. women are more cautious and men are risk takers.

@Gisbert Bayertz: you have no concept what that means Finland is not a neo liberal country compared to others and don’t think she is neo liberal