Irish Times

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Yeah it's Connolly books. They've owned it at least since the 50s, and if you've ever wondered how Rory's fishing shop can operate in such a prime location, he bought it in the 60s when they were giving places like that away.

I remember being brought into connolly books in the mid eighties when my dad was taking me for a stroll around dublin, while my mam was doing the big shop for clothes etc. There really wasn't a hell of a lot going on in Temple bar. It's difficult to convey to anyone who didn't see it, but Dublin in the eighties was so utterly and completely fucked.

[Lang Spoon]

It's a really poor bookshop. For a Tankie shop there wasn't even much Marx on sale. Lots of T-shirt's though.

[Duncan Gardner]

@The Awesome Berbaslug is spot on. Dublin city center was bleak through the 80s. Much of it looked like East Berlin

[Lang Spoon]

Ha what was east Berlin is pretty much the nicest looking bits of Berlin these days. By and large the DDR didn't have the cash to put up full scale new districts of tat like West Berlin (also full disclosure I like the bits they did build anew like Karl Marx Allee).

[Wouter D]

Ha what was east Berlin is pretty much the nicest looking bits of Berlin these days.

Eh, bit too broad a statement perhaps.

[Discordant Resonance]

Ha what was east Berlin is pretty much the nicest looking bits of Berlin these days. By and large the DDR didn't have the cash to put up full scale new districts of tat like West Berlin (also full disclosure I like the bits they did build anew like Karl Marx Allee).

We'll draw a veil over the monstrosity that is Potsdamer Platz.

[Lang Spoon]

Eh, bit too broad a statement perhaps.

Ha yeah i meant more central parts like say Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg are the nicest bits.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

LS, Duncan doesn't mean East berlin now, he means in 1945. lots of "The spy who came in from the cold" was shot in smithfield, because no-where in europe had the freshly bombed out feel of dublin in the 1960's.
.
I remember walking into town from the phoenix park on midsummers day in 1988, as we wandered past Smithfield there was a big lorry with Xmas trees written on the side, leaving us to ponder was it to late or too early. I'd estimate that maybe on in two houses on the quays had a roof, and one in three had windows, and sometimes they were the same house. The Commitments is flattering to the state of dublin at the time.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Wouter, the top picture there looks great.

[Wouter D]

Wouter, the top picture there looks great.

We need more of this sort of optimism.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

So, anyway, Ireland's answer to Michael Gove, Eoin O'Broin decided to ignore the fuss that sinn fein made when someone characterised Mary lou as a cartoon witch, and play along with the sinn fein kids and their micheal Martin/Mr Burns memes with disastrous results. Well the first time he tried this he called the man in this picture Waylon Smithers, but then he deleted and replaced it with the correct name. Though someone managed to find the picture I've spent ages looking for to suggest that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

https://twitter.com/BckSeat_QB/status/1485994875438960648

[Bizarre Löw Triangle]

So, anyway, Ireland's answer to Michael Gove, Eoin O'Broin decided to ignore the fuss that sinn fein made when someone characterised Mary lou as a cartoon witch, and play along with the sinn fein kids and their micheal Martin/Mr Burns memes with disastrous results. Well the first time he tried this he called the man in this picture Waylon Smithers, but then he deleted and replaced it with the correct name. Though someone managed to find the picture I've spent ages looking for to suggest that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Wasn't the "fuss" about Mary Lou Mcdonald because portraying women (especially those in elected office) as witches is sexist rather than about portraying people as cartoon characters being inherently problematic?

It doesn't seem to me that portraying Micheál Martin as Mr Burns is particularly offensive.

i don't see the Himmler resemblance at all. they don't even have the same glasses...

[Discordant Resonance]

https://twitter.com/HMcEvansoneya/status/1487181222585548802

1 and 2 are the more gettable pair, I'll admit.

[Lang Spoon]

Number 4 isn't surprising at all really. Especially with Eamon "The business of Ireland is business" Ryan at the helm.

[Discordant Resonance]

Aontú preparing for an anti-immigrant backlash:

[Lang Spoon]

Preparing for? That wee creeping Jesus on out has two policies, one is rosaried ovaries and the other is "economic nationalism" that sounds a lot like the Noel Grealish Legitimate Concerns shite.

[Discordant Resonance]

The circus that is the Trinity Seanad by-election:

https://twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1492156868915085326

[Lang Spoon]

Patricia McKenna?!

[Discordant Resonance]

Yep, that one, it seems.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Tricky to work out just how many green candidates there are in that list. Patricia mckenna is never going to let her swivel eyed dream die. Hazel chu is leveraging some sort of post grad to stand, paular oseingrave was a green candidate at the last election as was sadhb o'neill I think

I will be voting for Michael mcdermott if it's the one I know, rather than some other Michael mc dermott but as to where my meaningful vote (my second preference) goes, I'm not sure

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It is some other Michael mcdermott

[anton pulisov]

Vote blank

[john the revelator]

4 Greens on the list = 0 Greens get elected

Status Quo maintained

[The Bean Counter]

Ursula Quill is the continuity candidate, she's a researcher or assistant or something to Ivana Bacik. She was at school with my sister, so if I bother to vote at all she'll probably get a preference.

That said, what a nonsense the whole thing is. We should put up an OTF candidate next time - I feel the Seanad's proceedings could only be enlivened by the presence of The Awesome Berbaslug.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Her nominators are a pretty impressive bunch, bacik, Mary Henry, Catherine mcguinness, and slightly more obscure David mc connell. Not sure how fiach mac conghail is in there though