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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 an anti-bullying workshop, water protesters and fluoride really gets you riled up.
So here, in no particular order, are the standout comments from the week that was.
The 5 most popular comments this week
1. In top spot with 3,487 thumbs up is Hal Pacino who asks a question about Coláiste Eoin’s decision to postpone an anti-bullying workshop over fears about balance.
So there’s an argument for bullying gay people?
2. Gary O Leary got 2,937 for showing his sympathy to the dog, pictured above, who died after being severely abused.
The poor thing, on the verge of tears having read that.. Would make you loose faith in humanity.
3. Footage of the President being heckled by water protesters caused a storm this week. Francis Fakeman got 2,493 thumbs up for this:
There is a video. It’s pretty clear to see the protesters discredit themselves. The video made its way to the public domain because it was uploaded by those same protesters, not by the media. I’m no fan of of the gutter media but this video only shows ignorant people acting disgracefully and damaging the wider cause.
4. Gráinne O’Leary takes issue with the USC (which the Tánaiste said this week could not be abolished overnight). She got 1,959 green thumbs.
But it was fine to bring it in over night! With promises that it will be removed! Grrrrrrr
5. This week, we heard about the Limerick farmer who tackled a fellow airline passenger trying to open the plane’s door mid-flight. Jimmy Murphy got 1,850 thumbs up for this:
Only an Irishman could compare the threat of an impending aviation disaster to an All Ireland final!
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week
1. Poll: Are you in favour of water fluoridation? (453 comments)
2. Students to protest over school’s cancellation of homophobic bullying workshop (440 comments)
3. Wide condemnation of ‘midget parasite’ abuse of President Higgins (420 comments)
4. Man who called the President “midget parasite” is main organiser of mass anti-charges rally (415 comments)
5. ‘Yes’ side enjoys massive lead in same-sex marriage debate, but how secure is it? – Poll (294 comments)
Debate of the week
On a piece about compulsory PE, Aislinn Walsh argues:
The workload related to the curriculum in primary schools is already stretched to its limit. Government and parents already want more literacy and maths taught. Parents have to take some responsibility for their children’s health.Teachers aren’t making the breakfasts or lunches. Teachers already address healthy eating through the SPHE curriculum and all children do receive physical education, however, realistically what can they do when parents don’t provide healthy food at home?
Most schools have teachers that voluntarily give up their time after school to train students in different sports.
People can’t keep passing accountability onto other people for their child’s nutrition. The children aren’t making the dinners or buying the shopping.
We talk about childhood obesity all the time but if a doctor even brings up the subject about a child’s weight I’ve heard of parents getting annoyed with said doctor and that’s a health professional. I’d love to be a fly on the wall if a teacher dared mention a child’s weight.
While Chris Steele says:
I think some of you are missing the point. The subject is called Physical EDUCATION. As teachers we educate young children in each of the different subjects, so why cant we educate the children in physical education. Yes there are time restraints and in some cases physical restraints to teaching Physical Education, however there are ways round it. Also in order to educate a child in this subject you dont just do soccer or GAA, you teach them health related fitness, you teach them HOW to play a game, you teach them how to take their heart rate, you teach them how to execute a skill. Within Physical Education you can also get children to describe, explain, analyse, demonstrate and apply aspects of what they are learning. For example a scheme of learning, after all the child is learning, in health related fitness is about educating the child in how they can be fit, how they can be fitter, what sorts of exercise they can do and at what level, what practical testing they can do to know that they are making improvements, what dietary requirements are needed to help them stay fit to name but a few. Within games educate the child to work together as a team member as well as introduce them to skills, within athletics get them to perform to the best that they can to demonstrate that personal goals can be achieved. Yes there are those of you who will like this and those of you who wont, however for those of you who dont, answer this question. What other subject can promote physical, social and mental development for every child in the classroom, allowing them to challenge themselves at their own level and prepare them for continual life long learning in exercise?
Thought of the week
Ignoreland asked the big question on discovering that scientists can no unboil an egg.
This is cool, but can they un-chicken an egg?
Other standout comments of the week
Last weekend marked the second anniversary of garda Adrian Donohoe’s death. There were lovely tributes left for him and his family.
From Nathan Conroy:
RIP Adrian, my thoughts are with Caroline, Kids, your family and colleagues!! I pray to god justice is served for your families and societies sake. Sleep well fallen Hero.
And aurilton
Adrian left for work, closing the door behind him …… never to open it againThis is what all Gardai and emergency services have to deal with ….. will they return to their families after their shift
…….. Or will the door never reopen
steve cummins had a lovely Christmas story for us. Just 327 days to go!
The week before Christmas I had DHL deliver an electric guitar as a Santa present. I missed the delivery but noticed a missed call. I rang the driver who promptly turned around and came back to my house. He guessed that the gift was a surprise and as it was in an obviously guitar shaped box he went to great lengths to help me sneak it into my home.
During his busiest week of the year he showed amazing customer service.
I contacted DHL directly to tell his managers and a week later the guy sent me a lovely text thanking me for making the effort.
Finally, we’re just going to leave this here.
See any good comments? Send them on to sinead@thejournal.ie
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Be back on the agenda after the election. Watch this space.
Not in my backyard
Cork to Kildale. That’s a lot of back yards
I wonder how much Eirgrid spent on the “planning phase” of the project before they decided to scrap it.
Compared to Eirgrid, Irish Water would be considered a highly efficient organisation.
Mmm, controversial plan scrapped before election! As far as high voltage lines under or over the ground, I’d move before I’d live near one. EMF has been shown to elevate significantly incidences of childhood leukaemia. A bit more than mere nimbyism I would say.
It’s never be proved that high voltage electricity causes cancer or increases the chances of cancer
hasn’t been disproven either. would you take the chance with your children’s health
For every paper that says it doesn’t, there’s another one that says it does. Prefer not to be a guinea pig!
it hasn’t been disproved that magic trees don’t exist either…
Then you should cut the power to your home entirely Michelle. There’s just as much electricity buzzing around in the walls as there is in a power line.
Sunshine, such evidence as exists in relation to possible linkages between high voltages power lines and illness suggests that you would need to be living very close indeed to them for any potential ill effect to occur. Most opposition appears to have arisen not from this fear but because of concerns that they would devalue property, interfere with property rights and their exercise and give rise to a blight on the landscape in terms of tourism.
Now Eirgrid appear to be using new technology to run more energy through existing high voltage power lines. A good solution I would have thought assuming it is applicable in every circumstance which it may not be. I presume they have tested the new technology and are satisfied that it will work. Eirgrid is run by engineers so I am pretty confident that know that it will work. A good result. And money saved all around.
There is a huge difference between the electricity buzzing around a house than a 400kv powerline.
You swiped Avina Laaf’s Cat.
There are English studies where villages have been proved to have unusual percentages of leukaemia in and around a certain radius.
The gift lowered the distances that were considered safe before the announcement of proceeding with this project. This did cause concern.
Plus there are legitimate causes for being ‘a blot on the landscape’ for just about all that is left in the south now is tourism and there is a real struggle to keep the little of that going never mind adding to it in order to bring some incomes in down here.
It seems that most of Ireland is closed. It is one of the reasons we have thought to add benefits to many by doing up housing that is empty and adding to it, bringing refugees all over the place to integrate, add skills and try to build up the tiny villages again so that they do not become completely deserted in the nearer rather than further future.
Great news.
People Power Rocks.
This is pathetic spinning. From the get go ex esb employees stated that there was no need for the new pylons. Now aparently they have listened to the people…….The cost to the people was extremely costly and they will rear up their heads again when needed. This is fantastic news but it took allot to get this far.
They just realised that they can raise the voltage on the existing lines, so they now don’t need to spend hundreds of millions of our money to upgrade our network for British wind companies. investing hundreds of millions to stabilise our grid because of problems that are caused by unpredictable wind turbines.
whomever got the brown envelope from the pylon company might have to give it back!
Now why don’t they start protesting about all the ugly electricity poles which blight the whole region?
Or all the ugly fences and roads and road signs and indeed all the ugly bungalows and towns?
Next up…all the ugly TV and radio and internet and phone transmitters.
(Must be great to live back during pre-famine times when Ireland was so untouched and pure).
you forgetting the 90 year old woman and the hassle over her sky dish !!!! dont fall off your high horse sir !!
The poles are wooden and blend In with the trees along the lanes. The ugly (they are) television discs are mostly at back at houses and face inwards in land, they are not noticeable from the lanes and so not by tourists and others going by.
So now we have more electricity going through the one channnel and an extra reliance on that one part of the grid. What happens when that one part of the grid suffers an issue or a shutdown? How resilient is the system to shocks when one channel is so overexposed? Emf = pure bulls**t there is no proof in the world that it causes anything (cue some gobsh*te posting a link to ONE study when there are hundreds against) , eyesore argument = pure bulls**t, there isn’t a country in the world without an electrical network of some standard including pylons. You don’t even notice they’re there. Pure nimby bullsh*t. They’ll love it when esb announce now that the route will be undeserved by their broadband product because the infrastructure wasn’t built thanks to their complaints.
Here here! Someone with sense!
Isn’t it strange how the FG trolls rally in support of expensive and unnecessary capital projects which are abandoned. One might almost suspect they are miffed at vested interests losing out on gravy.
Am I supposed to be an fg troll? Cos that’s laughable mate. Not all of us live our lives based on what a political party tells us to believe. also list of things deserving of capital expenditure in order to build an economy into the future 1: a decent electricity grid. 2:broadband. Two things this thing would have delivered, see above list.
..you mean Not Here, Not Here surely. … ?
Pure politician cowardice more like
@bazhealy Typical bottom line verdict from someone who isn’t going to have a 45 metre pylon built on an elevated site behind the family home; as long as you benefit then to hell with those who have to suffer.
When every single TD has a huge pylon In their faces only a few yards from their homes I will believe they are aesthetically pleasing and, no risk at all to health.
Seems the future is underground cabling. Yet, when something goes wrong with an underground cable it can take a lot longer to find it, dig it up, and repair it,
Yeah, but there’s much less likelihood of problems with underground cables as they’re not exposed to inclement weather conditions.
My brother in law cut off the electricity to his whole village digging a hole with a JCB. He was working to maps provided by the ESB, which purported to showed where the underground cables were, but they were incorrect. He was very lucky he was completely unhurt.
Buy yeah, underground seems to be better all round – apart from the usual cost issue.
There are huge pipes u see ground that have a sort of manhole every so,often that gives access via a ladder into pipe. The pipe is big enough to stand in or at least sit and roll. All pipes, gas. Electric, water, broadband etc. Go down this one route and so is accessible and all, services pay the same for maintenance etc..
Future is underground cabling? My arse. All well and good until there’s a fault & they have to dig to find it. Restore service in days not hours. Also, how do you know where there’s national electric cable near your newly purchased home? You really think the cosmic cancer rays (or whatever the crazies claim the power cables bring) go away when you bury it?
Shower of f*cking nimbys!!!
what difference does it make if they can do the same job without destroying the countryside with unnecessary pylons. sometimes the world needs NIMBYs to stop big business riding roughshod over Joe public!
I’m sure the government managed to spend at least 30 million lining some pockets before scrapping this. That’s what friends are for!
Delighted this is not going ahead. This would of been disastrous for the wildlife
How?
Explain?
Should we ban domestic cats as well? They kill way more birds per year!
Them birds should learn to watch where they’re going like the rest of us.
What about the number of birds that are killed by wind turbines? Never a mention of that by the renewable energy nature fans!
The cats still win Martin
There is no longer a demand for extra capacity in the network because subsidies for wind power in UK are no longer available, this was always about wind subsidy, Esb networks were happy with construction of unnecessary pylons at the tax payer so they could reap the cash reward in their tax free shares. Nimby too Fcking right I am
Remind us how much was spent on this plan before it was “shelved”?
I suspect the Eirgrid ruse was about to be revealed. Eirgrid proposed to build a very expensive and unnecessary piece of infrastructure which would in time have handsomely paid them by through transmission use of system charges. Akin to NRA building toll roads and forcing use to use them.
We should ban donestic cats. It’s amazing how much cats do kill
Until after the election…
Over the moon thanks to this news!
have your say