UnLaoised

FaceTheBall - Week Two

GerryOS — 2009-02-15T22:44:44+00:00

Week Two of FaceTheBall can be summed up thus - solid performance in the rugby and as for the GAA, well the less said about that the better…

I got all three winners in the rugby (not too difficult, I will readily concede), but lost points by overestimating France’s winning margin over Scotland and underestimating Ireland’s margin over Italy. I’m now 24th in the overall standings (down from sixth last week), out of a field of 231 players.

Rugby results:

As for the GAA, all I can offer in my defence is that I know shag-all about it, and my predictions are pure pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey guesswork. Also, Willie Joe assures me that NFL results were all over the shop this weekend, and no-one scored well. Nonetheless, I am 29th out of 29 in the Green and Red mini-league, and 240th out of 329 in the overall competition. Must do better next round.

Italy 9 - 38 Ireland

GerryOS — 2009-02-15T21:16:25+00:00

I always think it’s the mark of a good team to be able to win even when you’re not playing well. Ireland did that today in Rome, in a tough physical encounter with the Azzuri. Perhaps the final score flattered them a bit, but if you had offered Declan Kidney a 29-point, five tries to nil win on Sunday morning, he would have snapped it out of your hand.

The tone for the match was set after 46 seconds, when Rob Kearney was felled with a clothesline tackle worthy of a Hanna Barbera cartoon. The culprit, Kearney’s opposite number Andrea Masi was yellow carded on the spot. But the incident showed that for all the beauty that Rome has to offer, precious little would be on show for the duration of this match. This was an ugly encounter, and nothing like the enthralling show of free-flowing rugby we had seen in Croke Park last weekend. Three players were yellow-carded - along with the aforementioned Masi, Ronan O’Gara and Salvatore Perugini also spent ten minutes in the sin-bin.

To be fair to the Italians, they did their level best to disrupt the Irish game plan. They slowed ball up at the ruck and never let Ireland develop a rhythm. The match was littered with indiscipline on both sides, and the pea in Chris White’s whistle must have been a lot smaller by the end of the proceedings. The scrum was a mess all through the game, the two front rows unable to bind effectively enough to ensure a steady scrum. Why Chris White allowed this to go on, I don’t know. Normally the ref calls the two front rows out and gives them a stern talking to and threatens cards, and if that doesn’t work, carries out that threat. But today, he just allowed the messing to continue.

Ireland took their tries well. The first came from an intercept by Tommy Bowe,

who ran through a tackle on his own 22 all the way to the Italian line. He was hauled down just short of the line, but his strength and momentum got him over. It was well taken, and he could easily have lost control of the ball before grounding it. Number two was the result of a patient, multi-phase build-up in the Italian 22 which sapped the energy of the Italian defenders. Once they were sufficiently softened up, Jamie Heaslip offloaded to Luke Fitzgerald who scampered over for his first international try.

Six minutes into the second half, and Ireland had registered another seven pointer. Jamie Heaslip barged through the Italian line and almost got over by himself. The ball was recycled until it found its way into the arms of David Wallace, five metres out. Nothing was going to stop him from this distance, and indeed nothing did. The half wore on with Ireland making precious little progress. But at least they held their defensive composure and improved their discipline, and Italy didn’t have any opportunity to register points at all in the second half. Try number four came from a lost lineout in the Italian 22. An attempt to clear Italian lines gave Luke Fitzgerald the opportunity to take a quick throw in. An exchange of passes with Gordon D’Arcy ensued and Fitgerald doubled his international try tally. A couple of minutes later, Brian O’Driscoll was in under the posts, after having intercepted a wayward Italian pass just outside the 22, and running in inopposed. Bryan Habana would be proud of such a try.

The doom and gloom merchants will have plenty to say about Ireland’s shortcomings in the next few days, but I think we should remind ourselves about the positives from today’s match:

We scored five tries and conceded none.
Our defence was rock-solid.
Discipline in the second half was excellent, with no opportunity offered to Italy to score from penalties.
ROG was wearing his kicking boots.
Our winning margin, away, was better than England’s at home. And they were playing an Italian team with a flanker playing scrum-half.
We finish round two on top of the table.

To expect Ireland to be able to play exhibition rugby every time they take the field is unreasonable. Good teams often find themselves dragged down to the level of inferior opposition, as that opposition has nothing to offer except infringement and disruption. So it was today. Ireland struggled to find their rhythm against an Italian side that more than likely knew before the match had even started that they were not going to win today. All they could hope to do was disrupt Ireland’s game plan.

England next in Croker. Bring ‘em on.

What's In A Name?

GerryOS — 2009-02-12T21:57:44+00:00

They can call it the Aviva Stadium all they like, but to me and many others, it will always be Lansdowne Road.

Face the Ball

GerryOS — 2009-02-12T21:21:41+00:00

I should have blogged about this before now, but anyway.

I was introduced to FaceTheBall.com by my good friend Willie Joe of Green and Red.

FTB is a site where users can predict the winning margins of teams in matches in various GAA and rugby competitions. Each prediction is awarded points based on whether the user got the winning team right (or indeed called a draw), and by how closely they predicted the winning margin. Once the round of matches is completed a league table of users is published on the site. Groups of users can create their own mini-league, and WJ invited me to join his Green and Red mini-league.

The first round of predictions was for the opening games in Divisions One and Two of the NFL. I’m no GAA expert, so I only managed 79 points and finished up in 213th place in a field of 224. In the Green & Red Mini-League, I’m 27th out of 29. My predictions and the actual results were as follows:

Division One
Tyrone to beat Dublin by four points (they won by two) - 28 points
Mayo to beat Derry by one point (they lost by two) - no points
Galway to beat Westmeath by three points (they won by five) - 28 points
Donegal to beat Kerry by two points (they lost by eight) - no points

Division Two
Wexford and Armagh to draw (Armagh won by 13) - no points
Fermanagh to beat Monaghan by two (they lost by five) - no points
Cork to beat Meath by two (they won by nine) - 23 points
Laois to beak Kildare by one (they lost by seven) - no points

I had better luck in the rugby last weekend. Mind you there were only three matches and two of those were odds-on, sure-fire predictable.

I had:

England by 23 over Italy (they won by 25) - 48 points
Ireland by four over France (they won by nine) - 45 points
Wales by 17 over Scotland (they won by 13) - 46 points

That gave me 139 points, and sixth place in a field of 224. There are another eight matches in the NFL Divisions 1 and 2 this weekend, as well as three more Six Nations game.

If you’re signed up for FaceTheBall, my handle there is Tommy Joe, the name I use on Green and Red

It's As You Were For Italy

GerryOS — 2009-02-11T21:26:29+00:00

Declan Kidney announced his starting fifteen and replacements for Sunday’s match against Italy in Rome, and it’s the same as that which started against France in Croke Park last Saturday.

Team is as follows: 15 Kearney, 14 Bowe, 13 O’Driscoll, 12 P Wallace, 11 Fitzgerald, 10 O’Gara, 9 O’Leary. 1 Horan, 2 Flannery, 3 Hayes, 4 O’Callaghan, 5 O’Connell, 6 Ferris, 7 D Wallace, 8 Heaslip. Replacements: 16 Best, 17 Court, 18 O’Kelly, 19 Leamy, 20 Stringer, 21 D’Arcy, 22 Murphy.

This is a match that Ireland should win quite comfortably. Italy lost to a very poor England team last Saturday, going down 36-11 at Twickenham. A lot of that defeat can be attributed to Italian coach Nick Mallet’s bizarre decision to play flanker Mauro Bergamasco as scrum-half. Last year, still suffering from the post-World Cup hangover, a very cagey Ireland huffed and puffed to a 16-11 win over Italy in Croke Park. The year before, Ireland ran in eight tries en route to 51-24 win. Unfortunately, they let Roland de Marigny in for a late Italian try, which handed the Championship to France on points difference. (Of course, this wasn’t really the reason we lost the Championship to France that year, it was because we lost to France in Croke Park.)

This is the tenth season that Italy have competed in the Six Nations. Ireland have beaten them in the nine previous meetings:

2000 60-13, Dublin
2001 41-22, Rome
2002 32-17, Dublin
2003 37-13, Rome
2004 19-3, Dublin
2005 28-17, Rome
2006 26-16, Dublin
2007 51-24, Rome
2008 16-11, Dublin

Italy beat Ireland three times between 1995 and 1997, and came uncomfortably close to doing so again at Ravenhill in 2007 in a World Cup warm-up.

Some interesting factettes about Italy’s Six Nations participation:

Italy won their first ever Six Nations match, beating Scotland 34 - 20 in Rome.
In their nine seasons in the Six Nations, Italy have ended up with the wooden spoon six times.
Three of those wooden spoons saw them lose all their matches.
Their best ever finish was fourth in 2007.
They have only ever beaten two other teams in the competition, Scotland (4 times) and Wales (twice + one draw).
2007 was the only season where they managed more than one win, when they beat both Scotland and Wales.
Their biggest ever win was against Scotland in 2007, by 37 points to 17.
Their biggest ever loss was to England in 2001, scoring 23 points and conceding 80.
Ireland’s biggest winning margin over Italy was 60-13 in 2000.
The first time they ever avoided an away defeat was in 2006, when they drew 18-18 with Wales in Cardiff.
The following year, they bettered that, beating Scotland at Murrayfield, 37-17.
They have only once suffered a whitewash. In 2004, they lost 25-0 to France in Paris.

As Father Ted might have said: “The Italians - a great bunch of lads.”

Emo Court, Today

GerryOS — 2009-02-07T22:51:45+00:00

Some photos from Emo Court today (click on the individual photos for the full sized ones):

Snowdrops:

More snowdrops:

The house through the trees:

A robin that was following us around (couldn’t get a clear shot of him):

Aoife:

And finally, a red squirrel. This is the first time I have seen a a red squirrel at Emo.

Ireland 30 - 21 France

GerryOS — 2009-02-07T21:32:28+00:00

We owed them that one. Big time.

How many times have Ireland left the field, their heads drooped in disappointment, knowing that they had lost to a French team they should have beaten? The really satisfying thing about today’s result was that they beat a very, very good French side. I said in my preview that Ireland had a chance to beat France because they often are somewhat off-colour on the first day of the campaign, especially away from home. Not so today. The French were on fire. Their back play was mesmerising. Harinordoquy’s try started way back in their own half, and the ball went through several pairs of hands before the big Number 8 touched down. Speaking of whom, Harinordoquy was immense in the French lineout. This was no second rate French team, this was the real deal, and Ireland beat them.

This was a superb Irish performance. They soaked up a huge amount of pressure, and even when they went behind to Harinordoquy’s try in the fourteenth minute, they didn’t panic. They kept their discipline, and only conceded three points to penalties. I can’t find the full stats, but from what I remember, Ireland gave away very few penalties. Then when the opportunities came, they took them.

All three Irish tries were brilliantly finished. Heaslip took his like he as a centre. In the RTE studio, George Hook claimed that Heaslip was the only Irish forward that could score like that. He’s obviously forgotten Munster’s recent matches, as David Wallace is a specialist in scoring from a standing start on the 22 as well. BOD’s try was a throwback to his early form, when he sliced through the opposition defence to score. It was good to see Gordon D’Arcy score, after all the problems he’s had in the last year. He took it well, with three Frenchmen hanging off him as he went over. Credit must be given to the forwards who did a fair amount of softening up of the French defence before Darce dotted down.

In games like these, I often feel that a Man of the Match award is pointless.

Rugby is a team game, and the best teams are the ones where there are Man of the Match performances from all players. This was the case today. No Irish player left anything behind on the Croke Park turf this evening. Jamie Heaslip was awarded the glassware, but every player in green was worthy of the award.

There were some frustrating moments too. Like in the All Blacks match last November, possession was often cheaply given away with pointless punts down the field. Medard’s try came from one of these.

In all the excitement about the win, it could be forgotten that a significant milestone was passed today.

John Hayes played his 90th game for Ireland this evening, and something like his 45th match in succession in the Six Nations. He has only ever scored two tries for Ireland, and never gets Man of the Match. Yet, if we didn’t have him, we wouldn’t have a hope. He scrummages like a man possessed. He hoists Paul O’Connell into the air at lineout time singlehandedly. He secures rucks and makes a menace of himself in the loose. John Hayes, a real living “lidgind” of both Munster and Ireland rugby, and by all accounts, a true gentleman, I salute you, even if many in the Leinster-obsessed media would not.

Today’s win was the start we all wanted. Italy are next. We should win that one, but it is essential that our players are focused on that match and not the next one against England in Croke Park. For too long, Ireland have promised much and delivered little. Let this season be different.

Come on Ireland, let’s go win the Six Nations.

Springcleaning For The Mac - Part 2

GerryOS — 2009-02-05T22:01:02+00:00

Decluttering your Hard Drive

Hard drive sizes have increased enormously in recent years.

Having so much space available on a hard drive is like having extra space in your house - you will fill it eventually. It means that we can end up being careless about what we keep on our hard drive. A cluttered hard drive can slow your system down considerably. Therefore it makes sense to show your hard drive some tlc every now and then, and get rid of the junk you have accumulated on it.

Before you start to delete anything off your hard drive, you should first make a cloned copy of it to a back-up drive. (I realise that that piece of advice is superfluous, because of course you have a regular back-up regime in place anyway. You do, don’t you?) That way if you somehow manage to delete an essential system file, you have a bootable copy of your hard drive available to restart your machine and restore it back to where it was. If you are running Leopard, this couldn't be easier. Simply plug in a back up drive, open Time Machine, switch it on and back up your entire system.

If you aren't running Leopard, get a copy of SuperDuper and off you go. I am paranoid about backing up, so I run both SuperDuper and Time Machine.

Once you have backed up your hard drive, you can go about chucking things out.

The best way to start is to identify the really big files and decide what to keep. The easiest way to do this is to use OmniDiskSweeper from the Omni Group. This allows you to browse your system and easily identify the space hogs. It will tell you if a file is an essential system file, so that you don't accidentally delete it. It won't, however, tell you if you are about to nuke the 5GB movie of your child's first day at school, so be careful how you use it.

If you're like me and are continuously downloading freeware you will rarely use,

or 30-day-trials of apps you will never end up buying, it's a good idea to go through your Application folder every now and then and clear them out. Uninstalling apps is easy in OS X, just drag them to the Trash. However, most apps will create Library files and .plists, which will still be hanging around your system even after you delete them. AppZapper is a useful tool to get rid of all the detritus created by unwanted apps.

Speaking of downloading apps and updates, when I got my first Mac, I used to keep the disk image of anything I installed or updated, just in case I had to reinstall it. I eventually realised that I was taking up valuable space on my 40GB hard drive. Once you have installed a new app or an update, get rid of the .dmg file. If you need to reinstall it, just download it again.

You can regain some space by taking a long hard look at your iPhoto library and culling the less than perfect photos. Digital cameras of 8 or 10 megapixels are the norm now, and at full quality these photos take up three or four megs each. If you can't bear to completely get rid of them, burn them onto a DVD instead. Likewise your iTunes library. If there is music on there that you never listen to, or you have built up a back catalogue of old episodes of favourite podcasts, locate the files in the Finder (Ctrl-click on the name of the track in the iTunes window and select "Show in Finder"), and delete them or move them elsewhere.

Conventional wisdom has it that Macs don't need to be defragmented, as OS X is basically a Unix-based system. While it's true that files don't need to be defragged, the drive itself does benefit from regular defragging. There is no defrag utility in OS X,

so you will need to go and get one. iDefrag from Coriolis Software is generally accepted as the defragger of choice for the Mac. It does a thorough job, and on the occasions when I have used it, it has made a noticeable difference to system performance. I find that the best way to use it is to boot from the back up clone, and then defrag the system drive.

Finally, two more free apps are worth a look. Mac Janitor runs a series of Unix maintenance files that would ordinarily run if your Mac wasn't shut off or asleep. OnyX is a multi-function

maintenance program which repairs permissions, clears caches, deletes temporary items, and clears out the junk.

So there you have it. If you have any other tips or tricks, please leave a comment below.

Springcleaning For The Mac - Part 1

GerryOS — 2009-02-04T22:55:57+00:00

It's five years since I bought my first Mac, an iBook with a 933MHz PowerPC processor, a 40Gb hard drive and 256MB of RAM (I expanded the RAM to 640MB six months later.) By the time it was approaching its third birthday, it was clear that it no longer had the grunt required to do the things I wanted it to do. My siblings gave me a pile of O2 vouchers for my 40th birthday, and I put these towards the purchase of a new iMac, the machine I am using now.

This has a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 250GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM. Compared to the iBook, it was like putting a Ferrari alongside a Ford Fiesta. Apps leapt to life after one or two bounces of the icon on the dock. I could edit photos and music without constantly being held back by the "spinning beachball of death".

But, after several months, I noticed the machine starting to slow down. Processes that previously took an instant to complete were now taking much longer. The beachball was back!

I set about researching system maintenance in order to put the oomph back in my Mac, and now I have a pretty decent regime at my disposal in order to keep my machine running like a top. In this article and Part 2 tomorrow, I will go through the free and paid-for apps and utilities that I use to keep my Mac ship shape.

Processor Activity

All Macs now have at least Core 2 Duo processors, so they are reasonably fast machines. However, we're throwing ever-more complex applications and tasks at them nowadays, and this can lead to processors getting overworked. In addition, it's very easy to leave an app on in the background, and one or more of these supposedly idle apps could be sapping power from the processor. Take a look at your dock icons. Any that have the little blue light (if you are running Leopard),

or the little black triangle (Tiger) on underneath them are on standby. Cmd - Click on the icon of any unwanted apps and quit them.

Mac OS X includes a tool that allows you to look at the processes that are in use at any given time. It's called Activity Monitor and it's located at /Applications/Utilities. Included in this is a handy little graphical indicator

that you can keep on your desktop to keep an eye on the load on your processor. If your processor is going full throttle for a sustained period, it is a good idea to open up the Activity Monitor and looking through the processes to see if anything is hogging the system. A non-responding app might be the culprit, and if so you can stop it from within the Activity Monitor, or you can force quit (Ctrl-click its dock icon and select Force Quit, or press Alt-Cmd-Esc and quit from there.)

I like to keep a more detailed eye on my processors, so I have installed MenuMeters in my System Preferences. This installs a handy little meter in my menu bar

which monitors CPU usage and also allocation of memory. If it looks like there is an issue with the processor, I can click on the MenuMeter in the menu bar and open the Activity Monitor from the drop-down and see what the problem is.

Part 2 tomorrow - Decluttering Your Hard Drive.

The Six Nations

GerryOS — 2009-02-03T21:44:36+00:00

I posted my first Six Nations preview in 2005, and have done one every year since. My overall prediction for each year can be summed up as follows: 05 - positive; 06 - negative; 07 - positive; 08 - negative. You can see a pattern emerging here, so this year I should be quite positive again about our chances.

But I’m not sure that I am.

On the plus side: We have a new coach. Munster and Leinster are both qualified for the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup. Ulster seem to have found some form this season. We are relatively untouched by injury. We are starting to see strength in depth in the squad and genuine competition for places.

On the minus side: We had a shaky Autumn series and were badly beaten by the All Blacks. Previous campaigns have shown us that good provincial form doesn’t necessarily translate into national form. There is no doubt that we have a very talented bunch of players in our national squad, but they seem to have difficulty gelling together as a team.

Our first match is home to France this Saturday. It’s probably just as well that we have this one first, as it has the potential to define the campaign for us. Our record against France is woeful, and over the years we have lost to them when we should have won. 2007 is a case in point. Two minutes to go and four points up, and one millisecond of lapsed concentration lets that serial breaker of Irish hearts Vincent Clerc in for a try. I was at that match, and to this day, I’m still pissed off about it. That lapse cost us not just the Championship, but a Grand Slam.

This one could go either way. The best time to get France is when they’re cold and away from home (if you’re anyone but Ireland, that is.)

I think one of the problems over the last number of years was that Eddie O’Sullivan simply couldn’t work out how to beat France, and ended up just writing off the possibility. In Declan Kidney, we have a coach who has no fear of French teams, and in his Munster days used to lead his men into the badlands of the Languedoc and the southwest and come home with the spoils.

Kidney named the starting 22 today as follows: Kearney, Bowe, O’Driscoll, P Wallace, Fitzgerald, O’Gara, O’Leary. Horan, Flannery, Hayes, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, Ferris, D Wallace, Heaslip. Replacements: Best, Court, O’Kelly, Leamy, Stringer, D’Arcy, Murphy.

There is strength throughout that team. The pack is 75% Munster, one of the most effective forward units in world rugby. The two non-Munster players are no slouches either. At half-back it’s all Munster, and this pair have been in scintillating form for their province. Hopefully ROG will remember to pack his kicking boots this Saturday, as this has been a weakness in his international game of late. ROG in a green shirt kicks a lot more from hand than ROG in a red shirt, and he has to be sure that his kicking for field position is effective.

Behind them, it is a back line that has the three sharpest arrows in the Leinster quiver, along with two Ulster natives (one of whom has now departed for foreign shores.) What’s important here is that these guys actually get their hands on the ball and get to attack the opposition. This is the area that worries me most. If the backs don’t fire, we won’t win, simple as that. However, if we can get fast ruck ball coming back to them, then these guys can do some damage.

Elsewhere, defending champions Wales start their defence of the title on Sunday, away to Scotland. Wales are a confidence team, and once their tails are up and they have a few wins under their belts, they become virtually unbeatable. However, if they get tripped up early on, they can lose their way and implode. England are in transition, as they have been since 2003. There seems to be little faith that Martin Johnson can lift the former World Champions from their current ennui. France are trying another new half-back pairing this season, and their squad is a mix of youth and wise old heads. Thankfully, Ireland’s tormentor Vincent Clerc won’t be playing this weekend. I honestly can’t comment about Scotland, and Italy are Italy.

There is an added ingredient this season in that it’s a Lions year, and players from the four unions involved will be keen to impress the watching Lions brass and the media commentators. Personally, I couldn’t give a shit about the Lions and would be happier if Ireland withdrew from it. But I understand that for the players involved, selection for the Lions is seen as a great honour and a testament to their reputation as a world-class player, so the Irish lads will be looking to be as much in contention as the English, Welsh and Scots.

So overall, I should be positive. A win this weekend would set us up nicely, as the following fixture is away to Italy, and then it’s back to Croker to face England. We would not want to lose that one as it is the last Six Nations game to be played at GAA HQ. Then it’s away to Scotland, and who knows, maybe a Grand Slam showdown against Wales in Cardiff. But there’s an awful lot of rugby to be played before then, and anything can happen in the meantime.

Update: I have changed the background colour of the site to green for the duration of the Six Nations.

New Theme

GerryOS — 2009-01-29T23:52:36+00:00

I just discovered this new theme, called Aqua, from Elixir Graphics. It’s easy to customise, and I think it looks quite smart.

Warwick redux

GerryOS — 2009-01-28T22:43:17+00:00

There would appear to be more to the Paul Warwick story (see below) than originally thought. After London Irish came out last night and made a statement that they had signed him, it would appear that Munster moved quickly to deny it, and claim that he is a Munster player for the foreseeable future. (There is no statement on the Munster site, just this report in the Limerick Leader and this on BreakingNews.ie.)

It’s a hot topic of conversation at Munsterfans.com.

I’ll update if I hear any more.

Rugby Roundup

GerryOS — 2009-01-27T20:55:54+00:00

Is it really that long since I last wrote about rugby?

Since then, Munster lost away to Connacht and got whipped at home by Ulster

in the Magners. Following these setbacks, they won away to Ospreys (Magners again); romped into the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup, having dished out a six-try spanking to Sale at Thomond; and last weekend thrashed Montauban five tries to one to set up a home quarter final against Ospreys. (Whipping? Romping? Spanking? Thrashing? This post is beginning to resemble something you might read in the memoirs of a British cabinet minister of the Thatcher era.)

Not wanting to tempt fate or anything, but we should be able to get past the Ospreys at Thomond on Easter Sunday. In some ways I would have preferred if we had drawn Toulouse at this point, just so that we could have a better chance to neutralise them on our patch, rather than have to face them later on. As it happens, if we get to the semi, we will face either Harlequins or The Goys. This will be a home match for Munster, even though it can’t be played in Thomond. That raises a problem - where could this match take place?

Lansdowne Road won’t be available and none of the other provincial grounds is big enough. There is Croke Park, of course, but given that the agreement between the IRFU and the GAA is for international matches only, that might not be an option. The GAA work to their own agenda and don’t like being pressured into anything. However, a Munster-Leinster semi-final would guarantee a full house at GAA HQ, and the prospect of all that lovely lolly flowing into cash-strapped GAA coffers might help sway things. Also the fact that the fanbases of Munster rugby and the various Munster counties’ GAA teams overlap so much could influence a decision in favour of opening the ground up. We’ll wait and see.

Sad news today from the Munster camp, in that Paul Warwick is

to decamp to London Irish at the end of the season. Since arriving from Connacht two seasons ago, he has added a valuable extra dimension to Munster’s backs. We saw that on Sunday against Montauban, where he and ROG were able to mix things up very effectively between one another. Also, we will never forget his superb display against the All Blacks back in November.

In the Irish camp, Brian O’Driscoll has been retained as captain of the national squad. I would like to have seen Paul O’Connell take on the captain’s armband this season, but by all accounts Declan Kidney made his decision having consulted with the senior members of the squad, who strongly favoured retaining BOD in the role. So that’s that then.

I’ll get around to a Six Nations preview before too long.

I Am Not Worthy, Etc., Etc.

GerryOS — 2009-01-23T22:56:30+00:00

Like nearly ever other Irish person who has clicked the “Publish” button on a blog publishing platform in the last 12 months, I have been nominated in the first round of the Irish Blog Awards. I’m in the Best Personal Blog category, along with 83 others.

Thanks to whoever it was that nominated me.

Speaking of the blog awards, I see that the winner of Best Blog for the least few years, Twenty Major, has returned from his self-imposed exile with a redesigned site. The space on my blogroll page, left empty since he retired has been filled once more. Sweary is back in her rightful place too.

“IBA nominated” logo above by Eolai

Dublin Airport Parking Woes

GerryOS — 2009-01-23T22:03:55+00:00

I have to do a good bit of to-ing and fro-ing over to London and other foreign parts on foot of my job. I like to be fully prepared before I set out, and so will have checked-in online and have bought my ticket for the Gatwick Express.

Recently, I heard ads on the radio offering discounted parking at Dublin Airport’s car parks, available by pre-booking on their website. I gave it a go for the first time back in December when I was going over to Edinburgh for the day. Everything went fine until I went to exit the car park on my return. Neither my car nor my Laser card were recognised, and I ended up having to get three cars behind me to back up so that I could get out of the

lane and try the next one along, as suggested by the attendant in the carpark office. That didn’t work either, but eventually, the attendant just lifted the barrier. I reckoned that it was just a glitch in the system and thought no more of it.

Last week, I was due to go to London for an overnight stay, and so I booked my place in the long-term car park. This time, it didn’t recognise my reg number and Laser card on the way in. I had to take a ticket to get in, and then when I was coming out, had to call the attendant to arrange payment of the agreed lower charge. He reckoned that there was something wrong with my Laser card. I assured him that the card was in good working order, a fact of which I am painfully aware. When I got home, I noticed that my front reg plate was a bit grubby, so reckoned that could have been it.

Wednesday this week, I was flying again, and I said I’d give it one last shot. I had the car washed in the meantime, and at 05.00 I presented my gleaming reg plate in front of the beady eye of the camera at the red zone of the long term car park. And once again it didn’t work. Same story as last week.

I wonder is it just me, or has anyone else had these problems?

So Long!

GerryOS — 2009-01-20T07:44:09+00:00

This Modern World bids a fond farewell to its hero, the great misunderestimated George W Bush. (Click on the image to see the whole cartoon.)

PC Alert In The Night Garden

GerryOS — 2009-01-13T22:13:35+00:00

Normally I don’t take much notice of political correctness, but every now and then, I feel the urge to reach for my pipe and walking stick and splutter out “Why… it’s-it’s… political correctness…gone mad!!”

Like today, when I saw this story on the BBC website about a doll based on a character from the hugely popular children’s TV show “In The Night Garden…”

Like many other parents of toddlers, I have become well acquainted with Upsy Daisy, Igglepiggle and the Tombliboos, among others. These are all characters in the show, made by Ragdoll Productions for the BBC’s CBeebies channel. “In The Night Garden…” was created by the same people that brought us the Teletubbies. Of course, as night follows day, the show has spawned a large range of merchandise from dolls to bubble bath to clothes and bedspreads, etc. Given that our little one is a big fan, this stuff makes up a fair chunk of our household’s trade deficit with China.

So anyway, what’s all the fuss about? Apparently there have been complaints (by whom we do not know) that the skin tone on the Upsy Daisy doll is paler than the character in the show.

From the BBC report:

Ragdoll Productions, the company behind the show, said the character had not been "intended to represent a specific race or culture".
"The characters are toys, not representations of people," it added.

I suppose if you go out of your way to look for offence, then you can find it in the most unlikely places. Would a two-year old notice if her Upsy Daisy doll was lighter in colour than the Upsy Daisy on the screen? Of course not. No more than if her Igglepiggle doll was a lighter shade of blue.

The Lesser Spotted '09 Reg

GerryOS — 2009-01-13T21:33:41+00:00

Back in February 2000, I was coming home from work one evening and was stopped at traffic lights somewhere around Blackrock in South Dublin. In front of me was a car with the reg 00-D-20000. I remember thinking to myself “Wow! Twenty thousand new cars sold in Dublin the first eight weeks of the year.” That was the year that Dublin registrations went over 100,000 for the first and only time, topping out somewhere around 108,000.

Normally by now, with nearly two weeks of the new year gone, you would expect to see a fair smattering of new year registrations on the road. I have driven around 1500 km since the turn of the year, and so far have only seen three. One was a waste-collection truck, another was a van, and yesterday I spotted a Ford Mondeo with 09 plates.

Now if that isn’t a barometer of the current economic downturn, I don’t know what is.

FriendFace

GerryOS — 2009-01-11T22:57:55+00:00

Speaking of catching up on things over Christmas, I

had three episodes of The IT Crowd canned in the Sky+ box and watched them all in one go one night. Best of the lot was Friendface. Here’s a clip from C4. Can’t embed it, unfortunately.

Ahead In The Cloud

GerryOS — 2009-01-11T21:23:14+00:00

I have been a subscriber to Don McAllister’s excellent ScreenCasts Online for ages, but over the last few months, I haven’t been as diligent at watching the weekly episodes as I once was. So over the Christmas, I made it one of my goals to get myself up to speed.

Two highlights from the recent SCO back catalogue concern the issue of cloud computing. For those not familiar with the idea, cloud computing involves saving files to a remote server, either instead of or in addition to saving a local copy on your hard drive. You can then sync your data with another machine or access it off the server via a web browser.

The first of these is Evernote. Evernote is an information management system rather than a full-blown folders and files structure. This is useful if you need to save a snippet of information and store it somewhere handy, rather than have to root around for it within your files and folders. In my old job, I had a Mac on my desk and used to synch my Yojimbo information and notes between home and work via .Mac (or MobileMe as it’s known now). There is a web service for Yojimbo called Webjimbo, but it’s a paid service and looks a bit complicated to set up.

Evernote offers clients for Mac and Windows (and smartphones) and access via any standard browser. Simply download the client for your machine, sign up and away you go. I have to use the web-based service on my work PC as it is firewalled like a medieval maiden’s chastity belt. But you still get all of the functionality on the web.

One of the really cool features of Evernote is its ability to search for text within images. Here’s an example of a photo that I uploaded to Evernote just now:

Now if I search for the word Sullivan, it can find it within the image.

Pretty darn neat, I reckon.

The other app that was featured recently on SCO was Dropbox. This is a “files and folders” system, where you can sync whole files and folders across multiple machines and also access them form the net.

Like Evernote, it has clients for Mac and Windows, where you can manage your files and folders on your desktop. Once installed on the Mac, it sits as a folder on the sidebar of the Finder like so.

It behaves as any other folder would, and you can drag and drop items into or out of it. If you use Dropbox on another machine, and update any of the files within your Dropbox folder, they will be automatically updated as soon as you save your changes. Similarly you can choose to share folders with other Dropbox users, and again any changes made to files within the shared folder will sync pretty much immediately once saved on any machine within the share. I find this really useful for work, as I have apps on my Mac at home that I sometimes need to use for work (like Acrobat and Photoshop). I can just save the files I need to work on to my Dropbox folder, and pull them out when I’m on the Mac. Once I’m done, I can save them and retrieve them on the PC.

I found out recently that Microsoft are running a beta of a similar service, called Mesh.

Finally, if you aren’t signed up to ScreenCasts Online, have a look at some of the free shows that Don publishes on a regular basis. It really is a fantastic resource and I have learned an awful lot from Don’s work.

iPhone Killers

GerryOS — 2009-01-10T23:42:20+00:00

Since its release only 18 months ago, the iPhone has become a phenomenon in itself. It is a classic Apple product - take an existing product form (in this case the smartphone), and produce a version that just blows everything else out of the water.

There have been many smartphones on the market before the iPhone, but few of them came even close to the elegance, style or ease of use that Apple’s phone has. There were user-unfriendly UIs, clunky keyboards, poor browsers, crappy video or music players, etc. The iPhone came along and showed how a real convergence device could be done. Crucially, it did this by using its own operating system, and also by focusing on the user.

That’s not to say that the iPhone is perfect. The camera is still a measly 2MP, there is no video capture, and the actual phone function itself comes in for criticism.

Every now and then, rival companies release a new model in competition to the iPhone, and they are immediately dubbed “iPhone Killers”.

The BlackBerry Storm was one. This week, Palm announced the arrival of the Pre. Now both of these phones are significant steps forward for their manufacturers, and may well be as good overall as the iPhone.

Some of their features may be better that those available on the iPhone. For example, I would expect the camera technology on an equivalent Sony Ericsson to be superior to an iPhone simply because Sony makes cameras.

For a phone to be called an iPhone killer, it has to push the boundary out the way the iPhone did. It has to make the iPhone look like yesterday’s technology and be so far ahead of the game that Apple can’t even catch up with its next revision of the iPhone. None of them have done that yet, but that’s not to say that it can’t be done.

What If?

GerryOS — 2009-01-01T22:36:54+00:00

Every now and then, whenever a prominent businessman like Michael O’Leary or Bill Cullen is interviewed on one of the drivetime news shows, texts flood in with comments like “Now that’s the man that should be running the country” or “Michael O’Leary for Taoiseach” and so on and so forth.

So, let’s imagine that one or other of them did become Taoiseach. How would they run the country?

Micko first:

- Enforce a ban on all public sector unions.
- Change the tricolour to blue, white and yellow.
- Introduce a national ID card scheme, funded by a scratch-panel on each card, which would cost €1.
- Relaunch the Seanad as an independent body in competition with the Dáil.
- Reduce income tax to zero, but charge for every public service availed of.
- Close all Irish embassies in capital cities, and move them to small towns 50km away.
- By 2030, Micko’s policies should see the size of the Irish economy overtake that of the UK’s.
- Once that happens, launch a takeover bid for the UK.

Bill:

- Cabinet posts to be filled by applicants to a reality TV show to be called “The Government”
- Tasks to include selling fleet deals on Renaults to fellow EU governments. Bonus points if you can sell one to the French.
- Under-performing ministers would be voted off by text vote (€1 per text, proceeds to fund the health service).

OK, I’m struggling now. Any more ideas?

Signing Off For The Christmas

GerryOS — 2008-12-24T15:55:25+00:00

A very Merry Christmas to one and all! I hope that Santa brings everything you wished for.

We’re spending the day at home, and head off to Cork on Stephens’s Day (There’s a thing: why do we say The Christmas, and Stephens’s Day? We don’t say The Easter or Patricks’s Day.) Back sometime before New Years Eve.

But before I go, a letter in the Irish Times today asked: “One wonders what the collective noun for a group of bankers is. A shower, perhaps?”

Nope. It’s a wunch.

Strictly Season Over

GerryOS — 2008-12-21T21:29:06+00:00

With the finale of Strictly Come Dancing last night, men all over Ireland and the UK now know the relief their wives feel when the football season ends.

Caption Required

GerryOS — 2008-12-20T23:16:01+00:00

A rather odd photo of Richard Corrigan on the front cover of this month’s Food & Wine Magazine:

It sort of begs a caption competition, doesn’t it?

Buying Wine For Christmas

GerryOS — 2008-12-20T22:12:08+00:00

During the boom years, the wine business made serious hay in the month of December. One company I worked for did anything up to 40% of its annual turnover in the last six weeks of the year. This year is different. Everyone is saying how quiet it is. Surely we haven’t given up on wine drinking?

Like everything else, purchasing patterns have changed dramatically for wine. Wines that sold happily at €20 a pop are now gathering dust on wine-shop shelves. It’s all about value these days.

But what exactly constitutes good value? You might see two wines side by side on a shelf, from the same region and made with the same grape varieties, yet one is €10 cheaper than the other. Surely the cheaper one is better value? It might well be, but it might also be very ordinary, whereas the more expensive one might cause you to throw open your window, thrust out your chest and sing an aria in its honour.

Any bottle of wine on any shelf in any wine shop will have fixed costs. Even if you are given a bottle of wine free from a shop, it will have cost someone a minimum of €2.99 to get it into your hand. That’s if it came free from the producer and cost nothing to transport. €2.99 is the minimum amount of tax payable on a bottle of wine, consisting of €2.46 excise duty and 53c VAT.

If you decide to spend less on a bottle of wine that you normally would, you are paying proportionally more in tax the lower you go.

Here’s a quick ready reckoner:

Spending a couple of euros more on a bottle means that you will be paying proportionally more for the wine in the bottle and less for the tax due on it.

A few more dos and don’ts:

- Don’t just buy your wines from the supermarket with your weekly shopping. You will get little or no advice on what to buy, and so you will probably find yourself buying on price alone. There are dozens of very good independent wine shops and off-licences all over the country, most of which are owned and run by dedicated enthusiasts. (See this excellent collaborative map of wine shops in Ireland.) They will be able to point you in the direction of the really interesting, good-value wines. They will also be much more amenable to doing a deal on volume, but don’t expect them to give you a discount for two or three bottles. Your opening gambit should be a case of 12.

- Do look beyond the obvious and be prepared to step out of your comfort zone. Again, look for advice from a good wine retailer. Let them know what you like and they will help you broaden your horizons.

- Avoid wines you see advertised in newspapers and magazines and on the radio. Wine production is a notoriously low-profit business. If a producer is spending money on advertising rather than leaving it up to the retailer to promote their wines, that’s money that they should be putting into their winemaking.

- Good glassware makes a difference. Spending a few bob on nice glasses will enhance your enjoyment of your wines. Look for brands like Riedel, Schott and Speigelau.

- If you know someone in the trade, pick their brains on what is good and what isn’t.

- Decant a big full-bodied red (especially one from a recent year) to open up the flavours. You don’t even need a decanter to do this. Just slosh it into a jug and pour it back into the bottle.

Sláinte!

Monday Miscellany

GerryOS — 2008-12-15T21:55:31+00:00

One thing I hate is when the RSS feed of a blog or other site is timestamped ahead by several hours, so that it always appears at the top of a page of feed results.

Here’s one:

1: The time I took the screenshot
2: Feed from Gadgetrepublic.com, timestamped to 6.00 a.m. tomorrow morning
3: Feed from TUAW, showing the correct time

I was going to do a post about the horrendous new X-Factor version of Hallelujah, but Bock pretty much nails it.

Speaking of Bock, he’s not impressed with Munster’s performance last Saturday.

Joy to the world, Sweary is back! Hopefully this time, someone in one of the papers will snap her up. Talent like hers deserves a bigger audience.

More Munster Escapology

GerryOS — 2008-12-14T22:27:57+00:00

I reckon the cardiac unit at Limerick Regional was working to absolute capacity yesterday evening. Why do Munster do this to us? They take us to the edge of the cliff, dangle us over it and then just when we think we’re about to plummet into the abyss, haul us back to safety.

I wasn’t at the match yesterday. Mr & Mrs Munstermad had tickets and they dropped off their little ‘un to us en route to Limerick. Watching a high-stakes rugby match while looking after a toddler is often a recipe for disaster, but when we had the two of them yesterday, by full-time the house looked like it had been burgled. Mr & Mrs M stayed with us last night, so this is the first opportunity I have had to write about the match.

One thing is for sure, Clermont came to Limerick with a completely different mindset from the last time they were here. Having beaten Munster in France last week, they were looking for the double on the champions. And there were long periods throughout the match yesterday when they looked like they were going to do just that.

The turning point was when Jamie Cudmore was sent off

half way through the first half for repeatedly punching Paul O’Connell. O’Connell himself got a yellow for his troubles. You might expect Munster to run riot from that point on, having numerical advantage, but Clermont dug their heels in and refused to lie down. David Wallace got in for a late try just before half-time, but when the teams re-emerged, it was all Clermont.

The French side held Munster scoreless for almost the entire second half, but the introduction of veteran scrum-half Peter Stringer seven minutes from the end completely turned the tables on the visitors. At that point 14-man Clermont were leading Munster 13-11, and the men in red were facing the real prospect of not only their second ever home defeat in the Heineken Cup, but also the possibility of having the destiny of their qualification from Pool One taken from their hands. With Stringer on the field, straight away Munster’s ruck ball was fast and the passing was crisp. Having been pinned in their own half of the field for so long, suddenly they were in Clermont’s 22. A delicious flip pass from Lifeimi Mafi to Marcus Horan saw the fleet-footed prop barge over in the corner. ROG missed the conversion, and Munster led 16-13. (All afternoon, Sky’s stats-obsessed commentators kept going on about O’Gara’s imminent passing of the 1000 points mark in Heineken Cup games. It seemed like it was a monkey on his back, as his place-kicking game yesterday was poor.) Had it stayed like this, Clermont would have claimed a losing bonus point, and the two sides would have been even-stevens over their two matches.

But this is Munster. The next time they secured possession, flanker Niall Ronan chipped ahead and ran onto the ball to score. That put Munster eight points ahead, keeping Clemont out of range for a losing bonus point. ROG nailed the conversion this time, taking his personal tally of Heineken Cup points to 1001.

Further good news came Munster’s way later yesterday evening, when Sale went down to defeat away to Montauban. If Munster can win their remaining two matches (home to Sale and away to Montauban) they are through to the quarter-finals.

No doubt Munster will provide some more nail-biting moments before the pool stages are over, but hopefully we won’t have to sweat like we did yesterday.

The UnLaoised Oldfartometer, End Of Year Special

GerryOS — 2008-12-12T22:18:37+00:00

I haven’t done an Oldfartometer for ages, but Jim has posted his Top 20 albums of the year, so here goes:

(1) No Age “Nouns” (Sub Pop)
(2) Vampire Weekend “Vampire Weekend” (XL)
(3) Lykke Li “Youth Novels” (LL)
(4) TV On The Radio “Dear Science” (4AD)
(5) Bon Iver “For Emma Forever Ago” (4AD)
(6) Lisa Hannigan “Sea Sew” (Self-release)
(7) Fleet Foxes “Fleet Foxes” (Bella Union)
(8) RSAG “Organic Sampler” (Psychonavigation)
(9) The Gaslight Anthem “The ‘59 Sound” (Side One Dummy)
(10) Hercules & Love Affair “Hercules & Love Affair” (DFA)
(11) Santogold “Santogold” (Atlantic) (Diplo and Santogold’s “Top Ranking” mix also deserves a mention here)
(12) Lil Wayne “The Carter III” (Cash Money)
(13) David Holmes “The Holy Pictures” (Canderblinks)
(14) Our Brother The Native “Make Amends For We Are Merely Vessels” (Fat Cat)
(15) Spook of the Thirteenth Lock “Spook of the Thirteenth Lock” (Transduction)
(16) Kanye West “808s & Heartbreaks” (Roc-A-Fella)
(17) Katie Kim “Twelve” (Granny It’s OK Recordings)
(18) White Denim “Workout Holiday” (Full Time Hobby)
(19) She & Him “Volume One” (Domino)
(20) Chequerboard “Penny Black” (Lazybird)

I have heard of Lisa Hannigan, Fleet Foxes and Kayne West, but I wouldn’t recognise anything of theirs if it jumped up and smacked me in the mouth, so that’s one point each.

Err… that’s it. 3 points.

Hugh’s just done his list too. Applying Oldfartometer criteria to that one, I score 13. (I have heard of Kayne West, Ani DiFranco and Fleet Foxes, and I’m sure I have an album or two by Randy Newman stashed away somewhere.)

Contradictions

GerryOS — 2008-12-10T22:33:48+00:00

There’s lots of talk these days about a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The No side is none too pleased, and wants the result of last June’s vote cast in stone.

Listening to some of the debate over the last few weeks, several contradictions have arisen. Declan Ganely of Libertas wants to halt the march towards a federal Europe and have the Lisbon Treaty replaced by a more concise 15-20 page document, more like the US constitution. However the US constitution is concise precisely because it is for a single, federal, sovereign country. The EU is a collection of sovereign states, which has evolved over the last fifty years or thereabouts.

The No side bemoan the “unelected beureaucrats” of the European Commission, yet are appalled at the idea of “losing our commissioner.” Lisbon proposed maintaining a 15-member commission, with each state appointing a commissioner for two five-year terms out of every three. If we keep the “one member state, one commissioner” model, we will have twenty-seven commissioners. Doing what exactly? The extra twelve commissioners will have to have offices and staff, thus increasing the number of unelected bureaucrats in Brussels poking their noses into our business.

The No side say that a new referendum would fly in the face of democratic principles. “What part of No do you not understand?” being their stunningly unoriginal mantra. Does democracy mean that you can never change your mind? We have precedents for this. The Nice Treaty had two goes before it made it through. Believe it or not, I voted No to Nice first time around. I can’t even remember why I did, but by the time the second referendum came around, I realised that I had made a mistake and I was glad to get the opportunity to put it right. We have had three referenda on abortion, and two on divorce in the last twenty-five years. Bear in mind also that a good chunk of the No vote last June was in protest at the overall policies of the government, which had been elected into office in May 2007. Many of these voters would have voted for Fianna Fáil in May 2007, and were using their ballots as a way of expressing their change of mind.

New M8

GerryOS — 2008-12-10T21:56:12+00:00

The new section of the M8 from Cullahill in Co Laois to Cashel in Co Tipperary opened on Monday, and I had my first spin on it today.

It links up with the Cashel bypass, and in all it forms part of a 100km or so stretch from south Laois to north Cork. Bypassing Johnstown, Urlingford, Turnpike, Littleton and Horse &

Jockey, it reportedly shaves twenty minutes off the journey from Dublin to Cork. From our point of view, we should be able to do the journey from Portarlington to my wife’s parents’ place in Cork in under two hours.

When I first started going to Cork regularly over ten years ago, it used to take the best part of four hours from our flat in Dublin 8. On Friday night, you would be guaranteed a traffic jam in Kildare and Monasterevin, and often in Abbeyleix as well. We used to turn off down the M9 and go through Athy, Castlecomer and Ballyragget, rejoining the N8 at either Durrow or Urlingford. Further on, Cashel could be a bit sticky every now and then, and we often crawled through Mitchelstown and Fermoy.

Now, almost all of that is gone. The only blackspot left is Abbeyleix, and we can get around that. Two parts of the jigsaw remain to be put into place - the Portlaoise to Cullahill stretch and the 16km between Mitchelstown and Fermoy. Once these are in place sometime around 2010, it will be non-stop motorway or dual carriageway all the way from Newlands Cross in Dublin to the Dunkettle Interchange in Cork.

Maintaining a steady average speed of 100-120km/h all the way would mean that Newlands-Dunkettle could be done in a little over two hours.

Losing Bonus Point For Munster

GerryOS — 2008-12-07T22:10:17+00:00

I didn’t get to see the Clermont - Munster match today, as I was at a family get-together. I have it canned in the Sky+, but my better half had also recorded Strictly Come Dancing. So I’ll have to wait to get to see the match.

Although we were hoping for a win, this was always going to be hard to come by. Even for a team with an away record like Munster’s, we can never take a French team for granted on their home ground. Crucially, by staying within seven points of Clermont, Munster got a losing bonus point, which would have been the minimum required from their travels.

The return fixture is next Saturday, and Munster must win this one. Not only that, but they must prevent Clermont from getting the losing bonus point, thus keeping their noses ahead.

Hopefully, Munster will put on a better show that they did against Montauban back in October.

Pig Out

GerryOS — 2008-12-07T22:00:20+00:00

The pork scandal that broke last night here in Ireland looks like a complete over-reaction. (What word will be used as a prefix to “-gate” to describe this, I wonder? Will it be known as “Porkergate” or “Sausagegate”?)

From the Food Safety Authority of Ireland website:

Even though it is illegal for dioxins to be present in foodstuffs, any possible risk to consumer health is extremely low and consumers should not be concerned.

So if there is an extremely low risk to consumer health, why risk destroying an entire industry upon which thousands of jobs depend, not to mention millions of euros in exports?

We have several pork products in our freezer. We’re not throwing a single one of them out.

World Cup Draw

GerryOS — 2008-12-01T22:38:45+00:00

The draw for the 2011 World Cup was made this afternoon, and Ireland have been drawn with Australia and Italy.

Being a second seed team meant that there was never going to be an easy draw. We have beaten Australia in the past (though never at the World Cup, but we came close twice), so we should be reasonably happy with the outcome. At least we didn’t get hosts New Zealand.

We were unlucky to be in the Pool of Death last time with France and Argentina. This came about because Argentina were third seeds going into that draw, and the French were in the top rank. Last time around the seedings were determined by where you finished in the previous World Cup, and because we beat Argentina in the pool match in 2003, we got to the quarter final and they exited at the pool stage. This time around the seedings were done on world ranking position, and our beating of Argentina last Saturday week meant that we maintained our eighth place in the rankings. Had we lost, we would have slipped to ninth, and if ROG had converted Tommy Bowe’s try, Argentina would have been in the second tier with us.

We should get out of that group, even if we lose to the Wallabies. Declan Kidney now has the best part of three years to prepare, and we will play Italy at least three times before the tournament, so barring a crash in confidence like we had in 2007, we should be able to see them off handily enough.

The rest of the groups are quite interesting. Current World Champions South Africa were drawn with current Six Nations Champions Wales. Also in that group are Fiji, who dispatched the Taffies last time around. 2011 hosts New Zealand and 2007 hosts France are in the same group, setting up the mother of all grudge matches. The only potential Pool of Death is the one with Argentina, England and Scotland.

Still, it’s all a good way off yet. We have Six Nations business to deal with first.

) .

GerryOS — 2008-12-01T22:30:07+00:00

The moon and Venus, this evening:

I didn’t get home in time to get a good photo myself and found the above one on boards.ie

So Close, Yet So Far Away

GerryOS — 2008-11-27T21:24:51+00:00

A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece about the generally crappy state of roadsigns in Ireland. Yesterday, I spotted a gem.

Travelling towards Galway on the N6, a sign just at the junction with the N65 states that Galway is 39km away.

But then a few km further on, at the beginning of the Loughrea bypass, another sign advises that Galway is in fact 41km away.

These guys again, obviously:

The Death of Irish Retail

GerryOS — 2008-11-24T23:13:21+00:00

Graphic created using Google Sketchup

It’s bad enough having the country in a recession. But what’s worse is that we have a government which appears to want to stop us spending money within our economy altogether.

Ask Irish retailers what business is like and nearly every one will say that they are well down on last year. Those that are within an hour’s drive to the border will tell you that trade this year is a disaster. Go to Newry and look at the car park at Sainsbury’s - it will be full of southern reg cars.

Now you can easily point the finger at the retailers themselves and say “Good enough for them. They have been ripping us off for years.” While this may be true to an extent, it is by no means the full story. The cost of doing business in the Republic is much higher than in Northern Ireland. Staff costs, logistics, utilities, local authority charges, etc. are a much bigger share of a southern retail business’s cost base compared to a northern one.

Now that the downturn is upon us, the focus for shoppers is to spend less. With bargains to be had in Northern Ireland (and a Euro that is 27% stronger against Sterling than it was eighteen months ago) it’s no wonder shoppers are flocking over the border in their thousands. Any sensible government would by now have put in place measures to keep these shoppers’ euros on our side of the border, but what has happened is that they have done the opposite.

In October’s Budget, Brian Lenihan raised VAT to 21.5%, applicable from 1 December. So rather than encouraging shoppers to spend in this economy, he is actually enticing them to look elsewhere - i.e. in the North. And then today, Alistair Darling, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer has brought UK VAT down to 15%, making Northern Ireland even more attractive for southern shoppers.

The other factor that is slowly strangling retail in the Republic is the banking crisis. Banks have stopped lending to small businesses, which has completely messed up the cash flow of thousands of retailers. At this time of year, cash flow management is crucial, and if the banks turn off the tap and cancel the overdrafts, then there will be a huge number of retailers in big trouble in the coming weeks. There is potential for a vast number of perfectly viable businesses going to the wall, with thousands of jobs lost. Meanwhile, the government dithers about what to do to stabilise the banks. Answer: look at what others have done, and do something similar.

Brians Cowen and Lenihan have made an almighty hames of this recession so far. They can’t seem to make any timely decisions, and when they do, invariably make the wrong one. But we’re stuck with them for another four years, unless the Greens decide enough is enough and walk out.

Complete, utter, epic FAIL.

Accentuating The Negative

GerryOS — 2008-11-23T21:44:29+00:00

You’d be forgiven for getting the impression that Ireland had lost to Argentina yesterday, given the amount of negative commentary in the wake of the game. OK, it was a dreary match to watch, but there was a lot at stake. Ireland had to win it in order to stay in eighth place in the rankings. If they lost, they would have dropped to ninth and into the third seeds for the World Cup draw. Argentina would have climbed into fourth place and would have claimed a top seeding. The way these things work out, we would probably have ended up in the same pool again in the World Cup.

Against this background, it was never going to be a free-flowing game. There was never going to be any of that fancy-Dan sort of play from the backs. Both teams are strong in defence, and that showed yesterday. Throughout the match, RTE commentators Ryle Nugent and Tony Ward claimed that Argentina were winning the defensive battle, but I cannot recall a single time that Ireland’s line was broken, or that Irish defenders had to scramble back. There was only one genuine try-scoring opportunity in the match, and it was taken by Tommy Bowe, who collected Ronan O’Gara’s exquisite cross-field kick to run in unopposed. (Incidentally, one or other of RTE’s commentators referred to ROG’s kick as if he had learned the manouevre from Dan Carter. Sorry, but ROG has had that one in his arsenal for a long, long time.)

The Irish rugby team is still in transition. They are still getting over the trauma of the 2007 World Cup when their confidence imploded. Decaln Kidney has had three games in charge so far and won two of them. Add to this the ELVs, which have forced Ireland to radically rethink the way they approach the game.

Even though we won yesterday, Kidney still has some way to go to get his charges into the sort of form that is capable of competing at the top table. Last week’s result emphasised that. If it’s any small comfort, Scotland and Wales were also thumped by New Zealand during this Autumn series, and England suffered a record home defeat to South Africa yesterday. As Ronan O’Gara said, the national team needs to show a bit of the spirit Munster’s second strings displayed in their Herculean display against the All Blacks last Tuesday night. There needs to be genuine competition for every place on the team.

The next test come in the New Year, when the Six Nations comes around. Once that’s over and done, we will be in a better position to see how Declan Kidney’s new regime is shaping up.

Video Footage From Last Night's Match

GerryOS — 2008-11-19T23:35:44+00:00

As promised, video footage from the match last night:

1. The match ball arrives

2. The teams emerge

3. The Munster Haka

4. The All Blacks Haka

5. Kick Off

6. 3-0 Munster

7. A promising move

8. 6 - 3 Munster

9. Barry Murphy’s try

Four Minutes From Immortality

GerryOS — 2008-11-19T00:27:04+00:00

Just back from Limerick, having witnessed one of the most breathtaking games of rugby in my life. The standard of the game certainly lived up to the occasion, with full-blooded commitment from both teams.

Munster led for almost the entire game. We were 16-13 up with four minutes to go, when the heart inside every red-clad chest was broken by a Joe Rokococko try that the All Blacks two points ahead.

Every Munster supporter should be proud of their team tonight. They put in a heroic performance and left nothing on the field. And this team was lacking almost all its internationals.

I had the video camera with me as well as the still camera, and got some good footage. I was on the West Terrace, just at the 10 metre line, which was perfect for capturing the event. I’ll trawl through the tape to see what’s useable and horse it up onto YouTube over the next few days or so.

Off To Thomond Tomorrow

GerryOS — 2008-11-17T22:02:05+00:00

After the abject disappointment of Saturday’s defeat to the All Blacks, attention now turns to the encounter between the Men in Red and the Men in Black. International duty and the garnering of vital world ranking points mean that both sides are shorn of most of their first choice players, but this should not take in any way from the sense of occasion at Thomond Park tomorrow evening.

There’s nothing shabby about either side. In red, former All Black Doug Howlett starts at full back, with fellow Kiwis Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi in the centre. Veteran international scrum-half Peter Stringer will start, as will fellow Irish caps Frank Sheahan at hooker and Mick O’Driscoll in the second row. O’Driscoll has the honour of captaining the side. Denis Leamy eases himself back into the swing of things following several months out due to injury with a gentle workout at No 8.

In the black corner, scrum-half Piri Weepu captains the team. Joe Rokocoko starts on the wing, and is the only member of the starting XV from Saturday’s game. In the replacements, Mils Muliaina and Brad Thorn were also in Saturday’s match day 22.

Hopefully, we’ll see more creativity from Munster than we did from Ireland on Saturday. I’m not going to predict anything, but here’s hoping we give their cage a bloody good rattle.

Blackout

GerryOS — 2008-11-16T22:17:28+00:00

So much for my prediction of a narrow Irish win over New Zealand. Next time, I’ll just keep my big mouth shut. Twenty-two games played over 103 years and we have yet to register a single win. Twenty seconds into yesterday evening’s game and it was clear that the record was not going to change.

What went wrong? First up, Ireland showed too much respect. They knew that New Zealand were going to come at them with all guns blazing, and they just let them for the first twenty minutes or so. Secondly, they didn’t put any faith in their own ability to attack. Possession was hoofed away aimlessly all throughout the game.

A good kicking game has two aims. The first is to get the ball to touch in order to get a foothold in opposition territory. Even if it is an opposition lineout, there is the opportunity to disrupt and get both possession and field position. The second aim is to get the ball into open space behind the opposing three quarter line, in order to force them to turn back and secure possession, by which time your forwards will be in their faces forcing them to clear their lines. Ireland did neither yesterday. They had possession in their own half, got it back to Ronan O’Gara who just wellied it down the field, straight down the throats of the All Black three-quarters. Five seconds later, play was back at the point where ROG had kicked, except this time New Zealand had the ball. Utterly pointless play. He may as well have just taken the ball and passed it over to the other side of the ruck.

There was no creativity in Ireland’s play yesterday, mainly because they spent most of the match in defensive mode. If you don’t have the ball, you can’t attack. And if you keep giving possession away, you have no-one to blame but yourself.

Hopefully, Ireland will have learned something from yesterday’s match. Next weekend, we face Argentina, who have twice put us on the plane home from the World Cup.

In the meantime, next Tuesday evening, Munster face New Zealand at Thomond Park. This match is to commemorate the famous Munster win over the All Blacks in 1978, and is also the official opening of the new Thomond Park stadium. My old mucker Munstermad has secured the necessaries, and I will be there. Report to follow.

Ireland Team For Saturday Named

GerryOS — 2008-11-11T22:11:06+00:00

Earlier today, Declan Kidney named the Irish squad to face New Zealand this coming Saturday in Croke Park, in the second of the Autumn internationals.

The personnel line up is virtually identical to that which wiped the floor with Canada last Saturday, the only selection changes being Girvan Dempsey taking the place of Leinster team mate Shane Horgan; and Tomás O’Leary coming in for Peter Stringer. The rest of the changes are all swaps between starting XV and the bench.

Despite a confident performance in his full international debut last week, young Keith Earls has to be content with a place on the bench for the upcoming match. I will admit to arching an eyebrow when I saw the name of Girvan Dempsey at the top of the list that was published this lunchtime. But, thinking about it, it is the correct choice. The All Blacks are starting Dan Carter at outhalf, and he has the potential to torment a relatively inexperienced full back in a match like this. Best to put in a solid and experienced man in this role, even if he is at the twilight stage of his international career.

Elsewhere in the back line, it’s as you were last week. Ireland’s back five all played well last week, in atrocious conditions and against poor opposition, so all those that are starting this weekend have won their places on merit.

It’s all-Munster in the half-backs. No surprise to see ROG reacquaint himself with Carter, McCaw & Co., and you can be sure that the Kiwis will try to exploit his channel, as they have done in the past. Tomás O’Leary comes in at scrum-half in favour of Eoin Reddan, who drops to the bench. This is a good call, as I feel that Reddan has been somewhat ponderous about his recycling. O’Leary is a fast recycler of the ball, kicks well and isn’t afraid to break if need be.

Up front, it’s wise old heads all round, almost without exception. Hayes and Horan prop, either side of Rory Best. My personal preference at hooker would be Flannery, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I? Best generally does little wrong, is reasonably accurate with his darts, and scrummages well. He will give way to Flannery late in the game. The second row consists of DOC and POC as usual, but it’s in the back row that Kidney has played his best hand.

Stephen Ferris might feel somewhat aggrieved to only have a place on the bench, given his man of the match performance against Canada last weekend. But this encounter needs a special type of player at 6, and that player is Alan Quinlan. Opposing teams hate him, because he causes havoc at the breakdown. This is where the match will be won or lost, and where New Zealand traditionally dominate, so we need the best, most experienced players at 6,7 and 8. Alongside Quinlan, Munster team mate David Wallace starts at 7 and Jamie Heaslip is at No 8.

Add to this a strong bench, most of whom started last week, and this is a formidable Irish side. It mixes the wisdom of experience with the zeal of youth and it demonstrates one thing about the dawn of the Declan Kidney era. The Corkman means to win these matches.

When Eddie O’Sullivan was coach, he simply couldn’t work out a way to pick the lock of either New Zealand or France. He seemed to be content with “moral victories” and “running them close this time.” Kidney doesn’t do that shtick. Look back at his CV and you will see winning teams all over it, from

schools to underage to Munster. Declan Kidney has put out the team that he believes will beat the All Blacks, the first Irish international team ever to do so. He knows that New Zealand can be felled, that they are mere mortals like his men. Remember that the All Blacks under Graham Henry were beaten by France in Cardiff in the quarter-final of the World Cup, a tournament they should have walked away with.

This is a relatively inexperienced All Blacks side at the end of their season facing a very experienced Ireland side at the beginning of theirs. This crop of players want to lay the All Black hoodoo to rest, and this is probably their best opportunity to do so. They are not going to Croke Park on Saturday to make up the numbers.

I’m sticking my neck out on this one. Ireland to win by a very tight margin.

November Lights

GerryOS — 2008-11-10T22:22:05+00:00

My first ever blog post, way back in November 2004, was a rant about the misuse of headlights and foglights in winter. Just looking back over the archives, I realise that I revisit this subject quite frequently, usually around this time of year.

In summary, my main bugbears are as follows:

- Use of fog lights (front or rear) when there is no fog.

- Driving on full beams on a motorway. This is especially a problem on the new M8, which has a concrete central barrier. Some drivers seem to think that this shields oncoming traffic from their full beams. It does not, nor does it prevent the drivers of cars in front from being dazzled by the full beams in their rear-view mirror.

- Not dipping headlights until the very last moment.

- Faulty brakelights, or no brakelights at all.

One more, which seems to be more prevalent this winter is the incidence of faulty headlights. It’s a fact of lights that bulbs blow, otherwise bulb manufacturers wouldn’t be able to make a living and their children would starve. When this happens, the ideal course of action is to replace the blown bulb as quickly as possible. But what a lot of drivers do is drive with their front fogs on instead. So you have one dipped headlight, the other one with a faint glimmer, and fogs on full blast. The worst, though, is when one headlight is completely dead. Driving against this is very dangerous, as you don’t know what’s coming at you, a motorbike or a four wheeled vehicle with a dodgy headlight.

I’ll have to think of another one for next year’s rant.

But Gavin Sheridan Got It Right

GerryOS — 2008-11-05T22:44:19+00:00

I don’t wear a hat, but if I did, I would take it off to Gavin, who called it for Obama back in January of this year (twice), and again in April.

02 January: In a piece entitled “Predictions for 2008”

I’m not going to make any, yet anyway. Dan Drezner does. The biggest surprise? Obama for president. I have a funny feeling he may be right.

Two days later:

Obama, I think, will be in the White House in 2009.

And then on 22 April:

My two cents: Obama will win the primary. He will then go on to win in November. I am considering going to Washington for the result. Though it will be an eventful night no matter who wins.

Well done, sir!

Gil Scott Heron Got It Wrong

GerryOS — 2008-11-05T21:54:21+00:00

The revolution was televised. It was also reported in print, broadcast on radio, live-blogged, vlogged, YouTubed and Twittered.

In your lifetime, you see events unfold in the news that you know will be recorded as turning points when the history books are written. Some are horrific, such as the events of September 11, 2001. Others are joyful, like the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990.

The events of 4/5 November 2008 will be remembered in the latter category. The USA has turned to Senator Barack Obama to repair America’s battered economy and society, and to restore her tarnished reputation in the wider world.

His task will not be easy. Promises are easily made on the stump, but implementing them may not be so easy. A phrase I heard more than once today on radio was “You campaign with poetry and you govern with prose.”

After 9/11, the USA had the goodwill of the rest of the world to count on as it tried to come to terms with what had happened and what it would do in response. President Bush and his neo-con goons ended up squandering that goodwill.

Messages of congratulation are pouring in to the US from all across the world, and this renewed goodwill for America’s new president will give all of us hope for the future.

President-Elect Barack Obama. Dammit, but those words sound good. They will sound better when the “-Elect” bit no longer applies.

If The Economic Downturn Means…

GerryOS — 2008-11-04T22:31:48+00:00

… fewer of these vulgar, ostentatious monstrosities on our roads …

… then it mightn’t be all bad!

Dawning Of A New Era

GerryOS — 2008-11-04T22:21:15+00:00

Declan Kidney named the starting 15 and replacements today for his first game in charge of the Irish team. They take on Canada at Thomond Park on Saturday, in the first of three matches in the Guinness International Series.

The big news is the start for Munster full-back Keith Earls, making his Irish debut in the No 15 shirt. This is a richly deserved start for Keith, as he has been outstanding for the European Champions so far this season. Confident under the high ball, incisive in his running and blessed with a fine kicking game, he has great potential both in the red shirt of Munster and the green of Ireland.

Earls is joined in the back line by Leinster youngsters Luke FitzGerald and Rob Kearney, both of whom were bright lights in an otherwise gloomy Six Nations 2008 campaign. Brian O'Driscoll retains the captaincy and partners his Leinster team-mate FitzGerald in the centre, while The Ospreys' Tommy Bowe starts on the opposite wing to Kearney.

ROG is at 10 as normal, understudied by Ulster's Paddy Wallace, while Eoin Reddan continues his stint as first choice scrum half, with back up from Peter Stringer.

In the forwards, Tony Buckley starts in the front row alongside his Munster colleagues Jerry Flannery and Marcus Horan. It's good to see Buckley get the start, as Ireland have to start preparing for the eventual retirement of the great John Hayes, who's on the bench. Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell make up an all-Munster tight five. The starting back row is remarkably Munsterless, and it must be the first time in years that an Irish starting XV hasn't had at least one Munster player at 6,7 or 8. Fear not, as David Wallace and Alan Quinlan will be prowling the touchline, ready to come on and cause mayhem to the Canadians if need be. Ulster's Stephen Ferris is at 6, and Leinster duo Shane Jennings and Jamie Heaslip are at 7 and 8 respectively.

In the subs, alongside those already mentioned above, are Ulstermen Rory Best and Ryan Caldwell, and veteran winger Shane Horgan.

This is a well-chosen team, with a good balance of youth and experience. Under a new coach (and also being one with a proven track record in actually winning things that matter), the players should be well up for it. What I hope to see is an efficient performance from Ireland, with good set pieces and discipline, and minimum handling errors. How many times in the last fourteen months have we seen promising passages of play lost because of a knock-on, or a crooked throw, or a touch-finder missed, or a stupid penalty conceded?

This is a new start for the Irish rugby team, and one that hopefully will bring tangible results. Triple Crowns are all well and good, but Irish rugby supporters deserve more. We need to win the Six Nations, preferably with a Grand Slam, and we need to start putting to rights our completely one-sided record against the All Blacks.

The future starts here!

Emo In Autumn

GerryOS — 2008-11-02T23:17:03+00:00

We took the camera with us on our weekly constitutional at Emo Court earlier today. Late autumn provides some lovely colours in woodland environments, and Emo in particular is glorious at this time of year.

I have posted a gallery here.

Some Hallowe'en Fun

GerryOS — 2008-10-31T22:11:23+00:00

Nice bit of viral marketing by The Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co Waterford. Take out your frustrations on the Budget, the recession and the “We told you so” economists, in an interactive zombie-shooting game. Enter your top score to win an overnight stay at The Cliff House. Competition closes on 9 November.

(Disclaimer: The company I work for is a supplier to The Cliff House Hotel, and I am the salesman who looks after their account. That fact notwithstanding, it really is a great place to spend a night or two.)

How Wingnuts Interpret Polls

GerryOS — 2008-10-27T22:03:35+00:00

Take this poll: Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Friday through Sunday finds Barack Obama with a five percentage point lead over John McCain, 50% to 45%, in the presidential preferences of likely voters using Gallup's traditional model.

Look further down, and you’ll find that the margin of error is +/- 2%. So that means that in reality, Obama is no more than 1% ahead of McCain, which is in itself within the margin of error. And that’s before the Bradley Effect is taken into account. Go McCain!!

Believe it or not, Matt Drudge of The Drudge Report makes a living peddling this sort of crap.

Abbeyleix Again

GerryOS — 2008-10-24T22:34:12+01:00

A while back I published a guide to the Unofficial Abbeyleix Bypass. This being Jazz Weekend, I feel I should draw your attention to it again in case you missed it first time round.

What I didn’t do back in July was detail the northbound route. I have now rectified this.

I travelled the N8 to Cork on Wednesday last and there were roadworks north of Abbeyleix and also in Durrow. I hope to Jaysus that these have been suspended. We’re off to Cork in the morning.

If you haven’t travelled the route for a while, be aware that the M8 from Cashel to Mitchelstown is now open, and it is the biz. We can now do Portarlington to Cork in two hours fifteen minutes without breaking sweat.

Have a great Bank Holiday Weekend.

Revisiting London

GerryOS — 2008-10-21T21:33:11+01:00

Earlier this year, I started a new job with a company that does business both in Ireland and the UK. As a result, I have been back and forth to London several times this year.

I’m very fond of London, as I lived almost all of my twenties there, so going back every now and then is no hardship. But could I ever live there again? Not a chance!

London is a great place to live when you are in your twenties. It’s fast, it’s exciting, and it goes on 24/7. If you’re young, foot-loose and fancy-free, you’ll never be bored in London because there is always something happening. It is often described as an impersonal place, where people would rather die than talk to the person sitting next to them on the tube, or make eye contact with the person sitting opposite. But it’s the sort of place where you will find a great sense of community at a local level. I used to run an off-licence in Leadenhall Market in the City, and it seemed that everyone knew everyone else there. Yet in the evening, you would walk out of the market, into the throng of commuters and you were anonymous again.

For the first couple of years of my time in London, like many young Irish people in the 80s, I worked in pubs. Most of the other staff were transient as well, and at any one time, it was like being in the United Nations, except we were pulling pints instead of preventing wars. Friendships were intense and brief, and people were always coming and going. Needless to say, I have lost touch with almost everyone I worked with during those times, though I exchange e-mails once or twice a year with a couple of old colleagues.

As I make my way through London these days, I see throngs of early-twenty-somethings on the tube or walking down the streets with their iPod headphones glued to their ears. Twenty years ago that was me, except that my hearing was being irreparably damaged by a Sony Walkman.

I’m still quite nifty at finding my way around by tube, but the volume of people and the pace at which they move is quite daunting if you haven’t been used to it for a while. Trying to cross a stream of pedestrians is like trying to cross a busy street. Once I was buying a tube ticket from a machine at Victoria, and as I was foostering for the change in my pocket, the machine unilaterally cancelled the transaction, as I was taking too long. I felt old.

But the main reason I could not live there again is because I could never imagine bringing up kids there. It’s just too big, and there isn’t enough open space to allow kids to run around without being paranoid about who’s watching them.

So the situation as it stands now is about right. I get my short hit of London every now and then, enough to bring back pleasant memories of the days when I was a Londoner myself, but with the satisfaction that I’m not stuck there.

This is one of the songs that was ever present on the mix-tapes I used to play on my Walkman - Lullaby of London by The Pogues.

Just Asking, Like…

GerryOS — 2008-10-21T21:25:22+01:00

If a government does two policy U-turns in the same day, can they be said to have done a W-turn?

It's The Economy, Stupid

GerryOS — 2008-10-16T22:09:47+01:00

Paddy Power have already paid out on Obama.

This may well be a bit early to call the whole thing. If a week is a long time in politics, three weeks is three times a long time. Anything can still happen. The Republicans will throw as much shit as possible at Obama in the hope that some of it will stick, and some of it just might. Osama bin Laden might appear in a new video wearing an “Osama 4 Obama ‘08” t-shirt.

But the balance of probability is that Obama will close out the deal. The Republicans are trying to keep the focus off the issues that concern Middle America, and on what they see as the flaws in Obama’s character. Sarah Palin has been doing what she does best, and has the rednecks a-whoopin’ and a-hollerin’ and a-death-threatenin’ whenever she mentions the name of Barack HUSSEIN Obama. But the rednecks aren’t going to be the game breakers in this election. Any Republican who fails to get the redneck vote, especially when the Democrat candidate is black, shouldn’t even bother getting out of bed in the morning.

The issue exercising Middle America these days is not that Obama once stood next to some former 60s radical in a mens’ room in Chicago, exchanging small talk while they both took a piss. People are afraid that they will lose their jobs, their homes and their savings, and will elect the guy most likely to assuage that fear. At the moment, that guy is Barack Obama, who has appeared the more presidential of the two candidates.

Eight years of President Stupidhead W. Idiot has left the USA in a terrible mess. Mired in two seemingly impossible wars, and with a failing economy and a huge budget deficit, it is a huge ask for any single person to sort it out. But can you imagine if a year into a McCain presidency, he becomes incapacitated and Hockey Mom has to take over? It doesn’t even bear thinking about.

Here’s an interesting snippet from the New York Times (Yes, I know. Part of the latte-sippin’, gun-controllin’, creationism-suppressin’, abortion-promotin’, troops-not-supportin’, tax-raisin’, terrorist-appeasin’ East-coast liberal media elite.) If you invested $10,000 in the S&P stock market index in the periods under either Democratic or Republican presidents exclusively since 1929, your investment would have been six times better off under Democrats than Republicans. And that excludes Hoover’s Depression presidency. If you include Hoover, you would have made nearly 30 times the gains under Democrat presidents. [Spotted at Daring Fireball, where John Gruber commented “Facts continue to hold a liberal bias.”]

Your Duty Unto The State

GerryOS — 2008-10-16T20:56:30+01:00

Enough outrage and indignation about the Budget has been aired on the blogosphere without me going on about it too, but there is one element of it that I feel I should raise.

In recent years, the so-called “old reliables” (booze, tobacco, petrol) haven’t been hit as hard as usual in the budget. During the boom years, inflation was always ready to raise its ugly head, and it was felt that too much of an increase in excise duty would stoke it. The ciggies would get hit every now and then on health grounds, and spirits got whacked with a big increase about five years ago, again as a result of social concerns about excessive drinking.

Wine escaped an increase in duty for twelve years, but that run came to an end on Tuesday, when Brian Lenihan added 50 cents (including VAT) to a standard bottle of wine. Other wine styles (fortified, sparkling, etc.) have been increased pro-rata. Taking VAT out of it for now, this adds 41c onto the pre-budget duty rate of €2.05, an increase of 25%-ish.

This is going to cause problems for a number of small to medium sized wine importers and distributors, who are already feeling the pinch because of the credit crunch. This sector relies heavily on availability of credit from banks, simply because it is obliged to offer credit facilities to its own customers. Any new dispensation that upsets this sector’s credit limits will cause big problems for the viability of several small businesses, and as a result hundreds of jobs.

Whenever a consignment of wine arrives in Ireland from abroad, the importer must do one of two things. They can pay the excise duty up front (along with the VAT on the invoiced cost of the wine), or they can divert the shipment to a bonded warehouse. They can leave the wine there for as long as they like, but once they release it from bond, the duty and VAT become payable. Most importers avail of a facility called duty deferment, where they pay their duty and VAT to the Revenue on a 30-day-end-of-month basis. To avail of this, they have to apply for a limit to the amount of duty they are allowed per month, and the Revenue require a guarantee from the importer’s bank that not only can this be honoured, but that double that value can be honoured. So if an importer had a duty deferment limit of €100k per month, they would have to be able to show that they were able to pay €200k if need be. If they exceed the €100k during the month, any extra duty would have to be paid up front, or else the importer could lodge a prepayment with the Revenue.

This is where the problem arises. Importers are now going to have to go to their banks to renegotiate their overdrafts to cover the 25% increase in their duty deferment limit. Given the mood of the banks these days, this will not be easy. If they can’t get that extra credit from the bank, they will either have to scale back their business, or reduce the credit terms they offer their customers. Whatever way they go about it, they are cornered. I think that this will lead to several smaller operators going out of business in the next six months.

The other implication of the increase in duty is the loss of business due to cross-border shopping. Excise duty in the UK is £1.46 (€1.88), and VAT is 17.5%. In the Republic of Ireland the equivalent rates are €2.46 (£1.92) and 21.5% (from 1 December). Draw a line from Dublin to Sligo, and every wine retailer in the Republic north of that line will have to compete with that. Sainsbury’s in Newry is already the single biggest retail outlet of alcohol in the UK and on the island of Ireland. It’s about to have an even bigger bumper Christmas than normal.

Scary People

GerryOS — 2008-10-09T22:30:24+01:00

Yup. Osama - I mean Obama (heh!) - is a terrorist alright. It’s his name, see.

[via 23/6]

Also, read this from Bock

Heineken Cup 2008/09

GerryOS — 2008-10-09T21:11:16+01:00

Tomorrow night sees the return of European Rugby’s premier club/province tournament - the Heineken Cup. Now in its fourteenth season, it has had its ups and downs. I was at the 2003 final between Toulouse and Perpignan in a half-empty Lansdowne Road. At the end of the 2007 season, the French and English clubs were threatening to pull out of the competition altogether, which would have doomed it.

But the downs are nothing compared to the ups. The quality of the rugby on display is awesome. The rivalries are intense. This is a very competitive tournament, and of all the teams taking part at least half of them could be touted as potential winners. All-Ireland Hurling Championship it ain’t. And of course, Munster are the current champions, and have won it twice.

From this Munster fan’s point of view, the Heineken Cup is very special. Only in the Heineken Cup has a team I actively support actually won something meaningful.

Apart from the wins in 2006 and 2008, who can forget that amazing match against Gloucester in 2003? Or the semi-final against Leinster in 2006? Or Rob Henderson of Munster running through Austin Healy of Leicester in 2003? On the flip side, there was the agony of losing to Wasps in the semi of 2004, a game cited by many as one of the finest games of rugby ever played. The Back-Hander that robbed us in the final of 2002. John O’Neill’s perfectly good try being disallowed in the semi against Stade in 2001 (the day after my wedding.)

Having won the tournament twice, Munster are now one of the most feared sides in Europe. Since 1995, they have been beaten only once at Thomond Park. They have qualified for the quarter-final stage for ten seasons on the trot, contesting four finals (winning twice) and seven semis along the way. This year they have a new head coach and have had a good start to the Magners League with five wins from five. Alongside their many veterans, they have some really exciting talent coming through the ranks, most notably Keith Earls. In addition, there appears to be genuine strength in depth in key positions.

As champions, Munster are also the team that everyone will want to beat, so you can be sure that every match will be high-octane stuff. Munster didn’t like very much losing their 100% record at Thomond Park to Leicester in 2007, and will be keen to re-establish their newly-revamped home as the impregnable fortress it once was. Like last season, Munster are again in a tough group. Last season, they won all their home matches, picking up a bonus point against Clermont, and denying all three visitors the opportunity to pick up losing bonus points. On the road, they beat the Scarlets, and picked up losing bonus points at Clermont and Wasps. They will need to emulate that performance if they hope to get to their eleventh successive quarter-final.

Their pool opponents this season are Clermont, Sale and debutants Montauban. Tomorrow’s match is against the newbies at home. It should be a comfortable win, hopefully with a bonus point for good measure, but to borrow a cliché from the round-ball game, it is a potential banana skin. Montauban are an unknown quantity and have nothing to lose coming to Thomond. An even mildly complacent Munster could have difficulty putting them to the sword, but I don’t believe that this will happen. Munster don’t do complacency, and the team selection for tomorrow night shows that Tony McGahan is taking the opposition seriously.

Elsewhere, Leinster find themselves with their perennial nemesis, Edinburgh, as well as Wasps and Castres. If they can get over their Murrayfield hoodoo this weekend, then they will have a good chance of qualifying from the group. If they don’t (and remember that they are coming off the back of two Magners League defeats to Munster and Connacht), they are sunk.

In Pool Four, Ulster are in with Stade, the Scarlets and Harlequins. The group page on the Heineken Cup website lists the four clubs alphabetically in the table with no games played. By virtue of the initial letter in their name, Ulster are bottom of the table. Expect them to stay there. They shouldn’t even be in the competition and have their place by virtue of being only marginally less useless than Connacht were last season.

I will know in the morning if I am going to be making the journey down the N7 tomorrow afternoon. Me old mucker Munstermad (who used to be one of the contributors at The Fear of God) texted me this evening to tell me that he might be able to get his hands on a spare ticket.

Here’s hoping.

On Twenty's Retirement

GerryOS — 2008-10-02T22:22:53+01:00

So, out of the blue, Twenty Major has folded up his tent and sneaked off into the night.

I suppose it was inevitable that the day would come, and it’s best that Twenty should quit blogging while he was still on top of his game. (Unlike, say U2, who should have split years ago and haven’t made a decent album in 21 years.)

I think it would be fair to say that 20M was Ireland’s first blogging celebrity. By that I mean he was the first blogger that achieved a degree of fame, not just within the blogging community, but also on the wider media scene. (Hmmm… Celebrity Blogger, now there’s another one of those ideas.) There are other Irish bloggers that have a huge readership, like Mulley or Arseblogger, but the unique nature of Twenty’s blog made it stand out from the crowd. Go back into the early archives and you’ll find a lot of the ”Do you know what I think is funny/strange/fucked up…” type of posts that a lot of Irish blogs start with, but it soon became clear that he was defining a style for himself. It wasn’t long before the stock of characters like Stinking Pete, Ron, Dirty Dave and Jimmy the Bollix had become fully formed. (Incidentally, I have often wondered of Jimmy’s name came about as a result of The Commitments. During auditions for the band, Jimmy Rabbitte meets Joey Fagan, who introduces himself as “Joey ‘The Lips’ Fagan”, to which Jimmy replies “And I’m Jimmy ‘The Bollix’ Rabbitte.” )

What was clear from the start was that Twenty couldn’t give a shite about what anybody thought of what he wrote. In that sense, he was probably one of the first Irish bloggers to completely understand the freedom that the blogging platform gave to a writer. He could swear, rant, abuse or rail against whatever he wanted, safe in the knowledge that his alter ego separated the guy at the keyboard from his readership. So far so good, but what made Twenty stand out from the crowd was the fact that he is a very, very good writer. It’s easy to start a blog up and start calling all and sundry a bunch of cunts, but you need a certain style or panache to blog like Twenty did.

For three years on the trot, Twenty Major won best blog at the Irish Blog Awards. He did this because he kept his standards up. I remember remarking before that it must be a serious effort to come up with something original and worthwhile to post every day. But that’s what he did. That’s not to say that everything he wrote was brilliant - you simply can’t come up with a masterpiece every day of the week. Most of his posts were definitely worth reading to the end, and among them were works of absolute genius.

Some people didn’t get him, and others didn’t care too much for all the swearing. But for those of us who did appreciate his style and humour, Twenty was a vital voice, and one who wasn’t afraid to forego the laughs and have a go at the great and the good of society, as he did in his open letter to Bertie Ahern in May 2006.

Every now and then, there would appear a rather long short story, if you see what I mean. As it unfolded, characters would be developed beautifully, and the narrative would follow a logical path. But you knew what was coming - the most groan-inducing pun imaginable, usually based on the title of a hit song from the 1980s. Like this one. Or indeed this one.

It came as no surprise really when 20M got his book deal. (I offered to do the artwork for the cover, but sadly someone had beaten me to it.)

So best of luck in your retirement, Twenty. It only remains for me to move your link from my Blogroll page to the Resting page. No doubt the lads in Ron’s will be able to breathe a sigh of relief, now that they know their every exploit won’t end up on your blog to be read by a sad bunch of cunts like us.

Search Like It's 2001

GerryOS — 2008-10-01T07:43:19+01:00

To mark their 10th birthday, Google have published a special search page that allows you to search the January 2001 index.

Go back in time and you’ll find this fresh-faced young fellow, or this exciting digital device, or this online encyclopedia thingie.

It’s only going to be up for another couple of weeks, though.

(Spotted on DF)

Munster Whitewash Leinster

GerryOS — 2008-09-28T23:21:41+01:00

Sky+ is feckin’ brilliant. I don’t watch much telly at the best of times, but it often happens that what I want to watch is shown at times that don’t suit. Like tonight, when the Leinster-Munster clash coincided with bath ‘n’ bedtime for the little ‘un. Where once upon a time, we were able to dunk her in the bath, get her into her PJs and Grobag, read the bedtime stories and have her off to the land of nod in under half an hour, these days it’s at least an hour or more. Being an independent little Miss, she insists on dressing herself. A parental attempt to put on a vest or PJ top elicits a sharp cry of “I self!”, followed by a ten minute process of actually getting the garment on, usually with parental intervention.

So it was 9.30 by the time I got to sit down and watch the match. I could think about little else today. Opening up the Turbine this morning and reading Neil Francis’s preview almost brought out the Kevin Keegan in me. I was seconds away from donning the headphones, stabbing my forefinger and declaring “I will LUV IT if we beat them” with my voice cracking and tears in my eyes.

Why, oh why, oh why, oh why do the Irish media have such a hard-on about Leinster? OK, Franno is Leinster to his bone marrow, so it is natural for him to talk them up. But tonight, watching the match on Setanta, the commentary was all about Leinster. If a Munster player broke three tackles and was hauled down by the fourth, it was all about the tackle that brought him down, not about the way he skinned the three players en route. Even Donal Lenihan, a Munsterman through and through was commentating on this game like it was Ireland (Leinster) v. Anyone Else (Munster). In case you haven’t noticed, lads, Munster are the current Heineken Cup Champions. They have won it twice in three seasons. They are a decent outfit. Give them some credit, will yiz?

But, anyway, on to the match. Leinster should have been up 9-0 (or maybe 9-3 if ROG’s attempted drop goal had gone over) by the end of the first quarter. But Dr Felipe had obviously left his kicking boots elsewhere, as he missed three penalties on the trot. He never got another shot at goal for the rest of the match. Munster’s lineout was a weak point for the whole match, and Leo Cullen in particular made hay on Munster’s throw. But it was Munster’s tenacity that showed through. They defended like their lives depended on it. From the second quarter on, they gave away no penalties within kicking range (not that it would have made much difference, as Contepomi couldn’t hit a pig’s arse with a banjo tonight.) ROG nailed the two penalties he was offered, and Munster took their chances to score two tries.

Even though the one-eyed commentary was constantly talking up Leinster’s defence tonight (and it was good, save for the two tries they conceded), there was precious little comment for Munster’s defence. Leinster never looked like scoring tonight. Any promising-looking move was snuffed out well before the line. Munster put in some monster tackles and turned over a huge amount of ball.

This was a very satisfying win for Munster for several reasons. First up, it was a whitewash. On Leinster’s patch. For all their huffing and puffing, and their great pack and their brilliant backs, Leinster failed to score, on their own patch. It was also a big two fingers to the Irish media, who need to be reminded that Munster are still officially the best team in Europe.

Lookalike

GerryOS — 2008-09-27T23:21:46+01:00

What’s the difference between Roy Keane and Mahmoud Ahmedinijad? One is a ruthless autocrat who strikes fear into the hearts of his opponents, and the other is a Muslim.

The Big Rivalry - Part One

GerryOS — 2008-09-27T22:21:10+01:00

After a few seasons establishing itself, the Magners League is shaping up into a fine competition. Tomorrow sees the first clash between the two Irish heavyweights, defending champions Leinster versus Heineken Cup Champions Munster.

Traditionally, this match has been seen as the clash between the brawn of the Munster pack and the flair of the Leinster backs. How that has changed. Leinster now possess a pack capable of beating up any opposition up front, while Munster’s fleet-footed backs have the capability to mix it up behind the pack.

The Irish media, being mostly Dublin-based, is drooling over Leinster. The arrival of prop CJ van der Linde and flanker Rocky Elsom has only added to this. This is something of a make or break season for Michael Cheika. The Magners, even though its stature is growing every season, is still very much a lesser prize than the Heineken Cup. Bragging rights among the Celtic nations of These Islands™ is all fine and dandy, but coming top of the pile in a competition that includes the best of England and France is the gold standard for Irish rugby. Cheika and his charges do not need reminding that their opponents tomorrow have reached the European summit twice in the last three years. Leinster’s best Heineken Cup finish was in 2006, when they got to the semi-final (beaten by guess who?), whereas Munster have been to the final four times, winning twice.

Both teams have had good starts to the Magners and remain unbeaten. Munster have won all three of their matches so far, picking up two bonus points. Leinster were held to a draw in their opening match against Cardiff, and won the next two, picking up a bonus point in their thumping of Edinburgh.

Tomorrow is very difficult to call, because there are too many variables in play. It’s a home game for Leinster, and a noisy, partisan crowd at the RDS will help lift the man in blue. (Not that hostile away matches faze Munster all that much.) Leinster will be keen to maintain the domestic superiority of last season, when they won home and away against Munster. The men in red will want to put that right. Munster have a new coaching line-up in Tony McGahan and Laurie Fisher, who will be eager to best their fellow Aussies Cheika and Alan Gaffney.

What I can predict with a degree of certainty is that it will be a tough match, it will be close, and that one of these two teams will be the eventual winner of the Magners League.

Arsenal 6-0 Sheffield United

GerryOS — 2008-09-23T22:45:21+01:00

Blimey! An Arsenal team with an average age of 19 canes Sheffield United in the Carling Cup. 16-year-old Jack Wilshere was among the scorers.

Imagine what would have happened if they had sent out the senior squad…

The Hunger

GerryOS — 2008-09-21T21:58:17+01:00

Click here for full-fat version.

What’s the Irish for “schadenfreude”?

Some Winey Stuff

GerryOS — 2008-09-19T22:06:53+01:00

There was an interesting Dispatches documentary on Channel 4 last Monday called “What’s In Your Wine?” It was a bit up and down, and it didn’t reveal much that I didn’t know already, but then I have been working in the wine business for nearly 18 years.

The big issue was about “additives” in wine and how they aren’t declared on the label. Fair enough, the programme made a case for a more comprehensive labelling of what is used in the making of wine, but many of those “additives” are simply vectors that convert the grape juice into a palatable wine. These include yeast (which converts grape sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide) and malolactic bacteria (which convert harsh malic acid into softer lactic acid, a process that is almost universally used in the making of red wine and occasionally in whites.) Sugar is sometimes added before fermentation in order to boost the final alcohol level (a process called chaptalisation), and tartaric acid is sometimes added in exceptionally hot years. Both of these occur naturally in grapes anyway. Oak chips are occasionally used to give a woody flavour to wines, mainly because the market demands it but is reluctant to pay for the cost of ageing in an oak barrel. Powdered egg white is a natural product that is used to fine wines (i.e. remove a haze caused by a naturally occurring protein deposit.) Sulphur dioxide is usually declared on labels, and without it there would be no wine at all, as the grape juice would have gone off before it got a chance to ferment.

The conclusion arrived at was that the big corporations (mostly in the New World) are the ones most likely to have all the hidden additives in their wine, and that consumers should seek out more naturally-made wines from small producers. That’s all very fine and dandy, but as something like 95% of the wine purchased for off-premise consumption in the UK is bought in either supermarkets or off-licence multiples, choice is limited. Also, the mass market actually prefers the confected, tutti-fruity wines of the big New World corporations, and your average punter who is used to supermarket wines would find most small-estate wines too complex for their palates.

Here in Ireland, we have the all-encompassing embrace of the supermarkets as well, but given that our home-grown supermarkets are that bit smaller than their UK counterparts, it is possible to pick up a nice bottle or two from Dunnes, SuperValu or Superquinn. However, we have a wonderful array of independent wine shops, mostly owned and run by serious and knowledgeable wine enthusiasts. A wine blog called Sour Grapes has started a collaborative Google map which pinpoints the good wine shops of the country. This is an invaluable resource for the Irish wine enthusiast.

Last Saturday, Pat Carroll wrote an article in the Irish Times all about alternative closures to cork. Cork taint now accounts for something like one bottle of wine in seven being out of condition. I am a vocal advocate of the screwcap as the closure of choice. The main argument in favour of corks is that they preserve “the romance” of wine. I would much prefer if the closure would preserve the flavours and aromas of the wine, but maybe that’s just me.

The best argument I have ever heard against corks goes like this. Imagine for a moment that screwcaps were the accepted closure for wines since time don’t-know-when. Then someone comes along and says “Hey! I have a great idea. Why don’t we seal bottles of wine using the bark of an endangered species of tree that is only grown in one part of the world? We harvest the bark, boil it, bleach it and cut it into plugs that are then forced into the bottle in such a way that you will need a special tool to remove it. And as a special bonus, it will render one bottle in seven undrinkable! C’mon, what about this?”

Finally, this week saw the death of Didier Dagueneau, one of the great mavericks of the wine world. His Pouilly Fumé wines were without parallel, especially his cuvées Silex and Pur Sang. His reputation went before him, and legend had it that his arguments with his neighbours about their approach to growing grapes and making wines sometimes ended up in fist fights. He refused to use the formal “vous” in conversation, even once, it is said, addressing the former French president Jacques Chirac using the informal “tu”.

The Politics Of Personality

GerryOS — 2008-09-13T23:43:21+01:00

There is a great quote from Bob Herbert in yesterday’s New York Times regarding the cult of personality that has grown around Sarah Palin:

"For those who haven't noticed, we're electing a president and vice-president, not selecting a winner on 'American Idol'."

Ever since she burst into the world’s consciousness a fortnight ago, Sarah Palin has done exactly what she was supposed to do - keep the focus on the personalities in the race, and away from the issues.

The media love her, even the Eastern Media Elite. Entire forests have been consumed whole to supply the newspapers full of the latest details about her family, her dress sense, her love of guns, etc. And as long as the media continues to concentrate its focus on her, it means that there is less time to talk about the issues facing the USA. This is precisely what the Republicans want to do, because when it comes to policies, the GOP’s cupboard is bare. Up until Palin made her debut, Barack Obama was all over the media and making the poll numbers. He was doing this without having to denigrate his opponent. (Of course, there is a cult of personality around Obama too, but it has almost vanished in the last fortnight.)

During the week, Obama made use of the expression “lipstick on a pig”. At the time, he was talking about the policies of the Republican ticket, and how little they differ from the failed policies of George W Bush. The Reps immediately picked up the “lipstick” reference and spun it as an insult to Palin, thus bring the focus back from issues to personalities - and in particular, that of Sarah Palin - and thus back onto firmer ground for their campaign.

With just under seven weeks to go until polling day, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have a big fight on their hands. Right now, the Republicans are winning the media war hands down, and this all comes down to Sarah Palin. The airtime and column inches she is getting are keeping the Dems off the airwaves and out of the papers, and brings to mind one of Oscar Wilde’s famous sayings:

“The only thing worse that being talked about is not being talked about.”

Immigration And Language

GerryOS — 2008-09-10T22:37:44+01:00

Immigration is a touchy subject at the best of times, and it doesn’t take all that much to have people jumping up and down, pointing fingers and screaming “Racist!!” at political opponents.

It is a serious issue that merits a wide-ranging and open debate, but sadly this has little prospect of happening, because of the tendency for hysteria to drown out rational discussion. It is only in the last ten years or so that we have seen a shift from net emigration to net immigration, and in that time, the number of so-called “non-nationals” (or “foreigners” in the old money) living here is now roughly 10% of the population. Anyone who says that this isn’t an issue for Irish society clearly has their head in the clouds.

A poll published in detail in De Paper today (and touched upon in others) shows that people have concerns about the issue of immigration, with 66% wanting a clampdown on future immigration. Now does that make us a nation of racists? Hardly, given that 54% believe that the immigration experience for Ireland so far has been a largely positive one.

Fine Gael TDs Brian Hayes and Leo Varadkar have both found themselves in hot water recently by airing opinions on the issue. I’m not going to comment much either way on the merits or otherwise of their proposals. The mistake both men made was to use clumsy language. They both used words that have such negative connotations that it immediately brought opprobrium upon both their heads. For Hayes, the offending word was “segregation” and for Varadkar it was “repatriation.”

Segregation is a word that is associated with apartheid in South Africa or with the open racism of the southern states of the US up until the 1960s. But what Hayes was suggesting was that children of immigrants who arrive in a new school in Ireland with little or no English, should initially be given intensive and exclusive teaching of English before they join the mainstream school curriculum.

The word “repatriation” conjures up images of the National Front or the BNP in the UK, demanding that immigrants and even British-born children of immigrants be forcibly sent back to the country of their birth. Leo Varadkar’s proposal was a voluntary scheme for unemployed non-nationals, similar to the one in operation in Spain. Fianna Fáil have jumped upon it and have accused the Dublin TD of racism. Mary Hanafin came to the conclusion that Varadkar had it in for “the Africans.” Her logic was that as it could not apply to immigrants from the EU, then the target had to be “the Africans” and therefore, it was racist.

If we can’t allow ourselves to have a mature and open debate about immigration, without the attendant hysteria, then the issue will fester, as it has done in several European countries already. Here in Ireland, we have the luxury of being able to learn from the mistakes of our EU partners. However if we choose to ignore the lessons that are there to be learned, then we risk making the very same mistakes ourselves. This will benefit nobody, not least the immigrants living among us, and those who will come here in the future.

New Look

GerryOS — 2008-09-08T23:30:12+01:00

This blog is long overdue a bit of a freshen-up, so I have tweaked the theme a bit, added in a new header image, etc. I think it brightens it up a bit. I’ll probably be sick of it again in a month’s time.

Something Is Rotten In The State Of Hurling

GerryOS — 2008-09-07T21:29:45+01:00

Environmentalists all over the world have a neat turn of phrase to encapsulate their campaign - “Ten years to save the world.” After today’s farce of an All-Ireland final, the GAA have a task of their own - ten years to save hurling.

Today, Kilkenny annihilated Waterford by 3-30 to 1-13, a winning margin of 23 points. I had a quick look at the list of All-Ireland Final results on Wikipedia, and you have to go back to 1941 to find a bigger margin (Cork put Dublin to the sword that day, 5-11 to 0-6.) Today was Kilkenny’s third All-Ireland in a row, and their sixth in the last ten years. Overall, this is their 31st All-Ireland title, the most won by any county.

Hurling is often described as Ireland’s national game, and the GAA themselves claim that hurling in some form or other has been played in Ireland for 2,000 years. But what we are seeing now is a decline in the game as a national sport, as it becomes more entrenched within its heartland of the south/south-east of the country. Unlike gaelic football, there are only a handful of counties that are competitive in the championship (i.e. have a chance to get to the All-Ireland final to be cannon fodder to Kilkenny.) All of them, with the exception of Galway are in Munster or south Leinster. The Ulster championship is Antrim v. Down (although a couple of years ago, New York made it to the Ulster final, but they couldn’t play the final in Ireland, because they were afraid that several of the New York team wouldn’t be able to get back into the US.) There is no Connacht championship anymore. It could be argued that neither is there a meaningful Leinster championship - Kilkenny have won it every year since 1998, with the exception of 2004 (though they did make it to the All-Ireland that year, losing to Cork.)

Waterford were the lambs to the slaughter today, but in truth fans of Tipperary, Limerick, Cork, Wexford, Clare and Galway needn’t feel too smug. Such is the power of the hurling machine that is Kilkenny, any of those other teams would have been on the end of a comparable hiding. I feel really sorry for the Waterford fans, as they have been there or thereabouts for the last few years, and this was their first shot at the All-Ireland in 45 years. They haven’t won it since 1959. They have nothing to take from today’s match. A bad refereeing decision or an unlucky bounce of the ball would at least have provided some succour if the game had been tight, hope that next year they could come back and finish the job. But the brutality of their defeat today will have the hearts of the Déise’s followers in their boots. I should know something about this. After all I am a Mayoman, and we have been to the All-Ireland football final five times in the last twenty years, with nothing to show for it. Three of those defeats were to the football equivalent of Kilkenny (Kerry) and two of those encounters with the Kingdom were hidings (2004 and 2006.) And I’m not even a serious follower of the game. This lad will tell you a thing or two about what it’s like to lose five All-Irelands in twenty years.

At the moment Kilkenny are unassailable. But for a neutral’s point of view the future is not rosy. Not only did the senior team win the All-Ireland today, but the minors also beat Galway. There will be wild celebrations all over the county of Kilkenny tonight. The festivities will go on to the wee small hours in such places as Grangemockler, Callan and Mullinavat. But deep down, even the most ardent of Kilkenny fans must realise that each passing year and each facile All-Ireland won, the victory is going to get hollower and hollower. Unless the GAA do something to stem the decline of hurling as a national game, it will be practically gone within a generation.

Well, He Would Say That, Wouldn't He?

GerryOS — 2008-09-07T21:23:02+01:00

Neil Francis writes in today’s Turbine on who should be Declan Kidney’s choice for Irish captain. His Leinster bias shows when he contemplates the possibility of Munster captain Paul O’Connell taking the armband.

Munster coach, Munster captain and majority of the side from Munster – Ireland might as well play in red.

Indeed, Franno. We might win something then, mightn’t we?

172 Is Your Friend

GerryOS — 2008-09-05T22:24:05+01:00

As a salesman, I depend on my mobile as an essential tool for business. Naturally, I try to answer every incoming call, but sometimes it just isn’t possible. If I get a missed call, and whoever it was that called didn’t leave a message, my first reaction is to dial my own number from a landline and make sure that my divert to voicemail is working OK.

But it still amazes me how many people in business haven’t grasped the concept of voicemail. When you call someone on their mobile, you might be a bit annoyed if your call is diverted to voicemail, but it’s understandable. The person at the other end could be in a meeting, or having lunch, or in the jacks, or in a hotel room with someone who is not their spouse, or whatever. No matter what the reason is for your call not being answered, you should have the opportunity to leave a message.

I phoned a customer the other day on his mobile. He’s the MD of a fairly big company, and a guy who would be in demand from customers and suppliers alike. Instead of a voicemail message, I got “The customer you are calling is out of reach at present. Please try again later.”

That, to me, is the pits. If you’re out of reach, your phone should divert to voicemail.

Another customer I phoned this week had obviously left his phone on the kitchen table that morning before he left for work. It rang out without going to voicemail. As bad as the above.

Somewhat better, but still not good enough is when you phone someone and you get the default service provider voicemail message. “You have reached the Vodafone voicemail box of… Oh. Eight. Seven. Two. [pause] Three. Two. Nine. Five. Four. Oh. Please leave a message for the person you are calling, after the tone. [beep].” Whenever I get this, I often think that I have dialled a wrong number, as I expect the person I have called to be savvy enough to have actually recorded their own voicemail message. So I go “Shit! Shit! Shit!” and redial the number.

But there is a crucial coda to this rant. You can set you voicemail up perfectly and make sure it diverts as intended. You can even do what one guy I worked with some years ago does and record a new message each day - “Hello this is John Smith on Friday, 5 September, etc.” But of you don’t respond to the messages on your voicemail, you’re as bad as the person who doesn’t bother to set up their voicemail in the first place.

Next rant: Out of Office Assistants.

Random Stuff

GerryOS — 2008-09-04T22:31:15+01:00

I had a quick look at my Technorati reactions page this evening, and it was showing a new referral:

14126 days ago? Using the method I discovered a while back, I calculate 14126 days ago to be 1 January 1970. Good Lord, have I been blogging for 38 years?

You may have seen this already, but if not, enjoy.

Guy “Mr Madonna” Ritchie has a new movie out soon, which by all accounts is the same as his last two. This classic Fast Show sketch sums it up.

Was in Lidl the other day, and they had a display on the wall by the checkouts of their own brand logos. They seem to be following a pattern for quite a few of them. Goes like this:

Draw an oval, and fill it red. Choose a three-syllable name, preferably ending in a vowel. Type that name in white text into your red oval. Use a font like Optima and italicise it. Hey, presto! Your own low-cost, discount supermarket brand.

Apply to packs of pasta, boxes of washing powder, tins of sauerkraut or packs of incontinence pads. Hordes of recession-maddened punters will queue up to buy them.

Mo Léathanta Saoire

GerryOS — 2008-09-03T23:43:41+01:00

Long, long ago, back in the 1970s, when recession was the default economic condition in Ireland, I was in national school. When we came back to school after the summer holidays in September, we were almost always tasked with writing an essay (or “composition” as it was known) in Irish, entitled “Cad a rinne mé í rith mo léathanta saoire.” It being 25 years since I last studied Irish, my recollection of the exact title might be suspect, but the gist of it was “What I did during my summer holidays.”

This being 2008, and with digital photography, Web 2.0 and all that, here’s my “composition” for this year.

It's Too Early To Even Attempt To Call It

GerryOS — 2008-09-01T22:03:39+01:00

For observers of the Presidential race in the US, last week was the real high point so far. We had Barack Obama’s coronation at the Democratic convention in Denver, topped off with a fine acceptance speech by the candidate himself. But you can always depend on the GOP to try to steal the Dems’ thunder, and they did just that with the announcement that Sarah Palin was to be John McCain’s running mate.

Straight away, the pundits, amateur and professional were on hand to call the election. Those of a Republican bent were quick to claim that the selection of Palin for VP was a masterstroke and that the McCain/Palin ticket will hoover up swathes of disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters. Democratic-minded analysts pointed out that Palin’s lack of experience, coupled with McCain’s age, would be the Achilles Heel of the Republican campaign. A VP who two years ago was mayor of a town of 6000 people would be a heartbeat away from the most powerful political job on earth, and a 72-year-old heartbeat at that.

This is all too simplistic by far. The Republicans’ hopes of converting hordes of Clintonistas meets one considerable obstacle - Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin may have their gender in common, but they have precious little else. Clinton is a blue-state liberal and Democratic Party royalty, while Palin is a red-state conservative and was hardly known outside of Alaska until last Friday. Equally, the Democrats would be wise not to point too much at Palin’s lack of experience, as it might reflect unkindly upon the lightweight CV of their own main candidate.

But the main reason that this election cannot yet be called with any certainty is because there are nine weeks to go and anything can happen. Revelations can come to light that could undermine either of the camps. We saw that today, with the news that Mrs Palin’s 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. (She is, we are told, going to marry her boyfriend. Mommy’s lifetime membership of the NRA presumably makes access to the necessary shotgun somewhat easier.) You can be sure that the attack dogs in the right-wing media and blogs will be sniffing around for anything that could knock the wheels off the Obama chariot. Expect to see wingnut pols and hacks being interviewed and making slips like “Well, according to Senator Osama - I mean Senator Obama (heh) himself…” etc.

One thing’s for sure. It’s going to be a dirty fight.

Rip Off!

GerryOS — 2008-08-31T23:32:47+01:00

We’re all used to the phenomenon of lazy journalists copying and pasting content from blogs and then passing it off as their own, but this is taking it to another level.

Thieveing feckers at The Herald (Pricewatch - Conor Pope at The Irish Times.)

Ryanair - Liars Or Incompetents?

GerryOS — 2008-08-31T22:30:33+01:00

OK, OK, this will be my last Ryanair post for a while. Folks might think I’m getting obsessed with them, but this is just too good to pass up.

Last week, Ryanair announced that they planned to cut two of their seven routes out of Cork airport, claiming that the Airport Authority had unilaterally imposed increased charges on them. All the main talk shows on national radio had this on Wednesday, and a Ryanair spokesman was on hand to peddle the company line - greedy airport authority trying to profiteer, Ryanair valiantly doing their bit to keep fares low, as this is what the public want, etc. etc.

It would appear that the reality is a bit different. Last Friday’s Times had a story on the front page of its business section, which implied that Ryanair not only knew about these charges for almost a year, and had actually signed a contract agreeing to them. Initially, Ryanair’s deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley denied that Ryanair had signed anything of the sort with Cork Airport Authority.

The document seen by The Irish Times , however, clearly states that a sliding scale of supports would apply over the five years under the Cork Airport European Route Support Scheme 2007.
"After the five-year period, all airport charges will be charged at the standard rates applicable at the time of operation, as published by Cork Airport," it adds.
Ryanair's application summarises its plan to operate daily services on both routes with aircraft carrying up to 189 passengers.
When contacted by The Irish Times about the application form, Mr Cawley said: "This is an interesting breach of confidence. I'm not going to indulge in this."

If Cork Airport unilaterally leaked details about a contract between itself and Ryanair, without Ryanair’s prior knowledge or consent, then it might be, as Mr Cawley calls it “an interesting breach of confidence.” However in this case, all the CAA have done is to present their copy of a signed contract between themselves and Ryanair as evidence to prove that that they have not been acting in bad faith, and to correct the misleading picture being painted of them by Ryanair. And anyway, if as My Cawley claims, Ryanair signed no such contract with the CAA, how are they breaching confidence?

This throws up a couple of scenarios. Either (a) Ryanair are trying to throw their weight around and bully the CAA into rolling over on an agreement made between the two parties, or (b) Ryanair’s senior management are unaware of the contracts they have themselves signed.

My guess is (a).

In an interesting side note, Cawley was on The Last Word on Thursday (audio link here, interview starts about four minutes in) trying to justify his company’s position in the matter. He compared Cork Airport to the other regional airports Ryanair fly to around Europe, and suggested that the new terminal building at Cork had cost ten times the market value. Well I suppose, when it’s compared to a strip of tarmac and a shed or a tent, then it might look a bit extravagant, but then Cork is the second most important urban centre in the State and its airport is the gateway to the whole south and south west, the most important tourist destination in Ireland after Dublin.

The Bus With Wings

GerryOS — 2008-08-28T22:29:05+01:00

Like many Irish people, I have mixed feelings about Ryanair. On the one hand, I am glad to see an Irish company being the leading player in its sector across Europe. On the other hand, having flown with them on numerous occasions and experienced their version of customer service up close many times, I am not their biggest fan.

Another Irishman, Paul Kilduff, has written a book about his own relationship with Ryanair, or Ruinair as he calls it (and with the low-cost airline sector in general), which I read recently. The idea for the book came about after Kilduff was stranded for ten hours in Malaga, waiting for a Ryanair flight that had been delayed by technical problems. While he seethed and fumed at the lack of information or assistance, he hatched a cunning plan - he would fly to every country in the then 15-state EU with Ryanair and record his experiences.

What came out of this idea is partly a critique of Ryanair’s business model and approach to customer service, and partly a jaundiced travel guide to the various destinations to which Ryanair and other low-cost carriers fly. Sadly, it’s something of a dog’s dinner of a book, as I got the impression that Kilduff couldn’t quite make up his mind what exactly he was trying to achieve with it. He is critical - sometimes savagely - of the way the airline treats its customers and staff, but he obviously admires it enough to buy shares in the company. He states towards the end of the book that the stake he purchased has roughly doubled in value since he bought it. I only hope that he sold at the crest of the market, because Ryanair’s shares haven’t been doing so well of late.

There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments in the book, especially when he discusses the theory and practice of selecting a seat and discouraging fellow passengers from sitting in the next seat. (The best technique I reckon is the one he describes whereby he catches the eye of whoever is heading for the seat - man or woman, it doesn’t matter - winks at them and pats the vacant seat.) Overall, though the book suffers from a smug, smart-arse writing style that got on my nerves after a while. Why did he have to refer to Euros as “yo-yos” all the way through the book?

But back to my own love-hate relationship with the alternative national carrier. Working in the wine business, I have to fly to various locations around Europe to visit suppliers, and as it happens Ryanair’s policy of flying to former military airbases in the middle of nowhere can actually be quite handy sometimes. If I need to go to Verona, I can fly into Brescia (via Stansted). If my visit is to the Languedoc, I can fly directly to Carcassonne from Dublin. Karlsruhe/Baden is a short skip across the Rhine into the heart of my beloved Alsace.

What I hate most about Ryanair is the deception. Ryanair calls itself “The Low Fares Airline”. In the strictest sense, that is true, but it depends on how you define what exactly the “fare” is. To me the fare is the total cost of the journey, i.e. what Ryanair charge my credit card at the end of the transaction. They say that the “fare” is the headline price they quote before any taxes and charges, but you have to remember that Ryanair (and every other airline that operates a similar price structure) makes a profit on those taxes and charges. You can be damned sure that Ryanair do not pay Servisair (or whoever it is that does their baggage handling) €20 to get your bag from the check-in desk to the plane. Nor do they pay the airport €10 per passenger for the use of their check-in area. Nor do they pay €5 per passenger per flight to their credit card services provider.

Imagine for a moment walking into a wine shop and seeing a stack of wines on offer for 1c per 75cl (with small print advising “Plus taxes and charges”.) You grab a dozen and head for the till. The assistant rings it up, and charges you €2 for each bottle in which to transport your 75cl of wine, €10 for the box, €40 for excise duty (even though it should be no more than €24.57) and a fiver for paying by card (they don’t take any other method of payment.) You can take it to your car straight away for another tenner, or else wait until all the “priority” customers have loaded theirs. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like such good value, does it? Yet this is exactly what Ryainair (and others) are doing in their approach to fare structure.

By peddling the bullshit line that the “fare” element of the total cost of the flight is low, they try to endear themselves to the travelling public. You hear it time and time again on the radio, either O’Leary or one of his goons spouting some nonsense like “The people of Ireland are demanding lower fares and this is what Ryanair are giving them.” If this bullshit is repeated often enough it will eventually auto-install itself on the consciousness. Like the irritating jingle played over and over again as the “self-loading cargo” boards Ryanair’s planes, selling us scratchcards, hangover cures and some weird concoction called “Whiskeycognac.”

New Ideas For RTE Programmes

GerryOS — 2008-08-25T22:31:07+01:00

Autumn is almost upon us, so that means that RTÉ will soon start airing their new schedule of original programming. I use the word “original” hesitantly, as it really is a long time since the national broadcaster ever came up with anything remotely innovative.

There seems to be a trend in Montrose to do an Irish version of successful UK series. So we have makeover programmes for both houses and women; turgid hospital drama crops up every now and then; and there are various food-themed shows, all pretty much cloned from originals from across the water.

But there’s one particular rut that RTÉ seems to be stuck in - celebrity reality TV. Fáilte Towers was on while I was away on holiday, but in truth, I doubt if I would have been able to sit through more than five minutes of it anyway. The problem with these programmes is that we don’t have a deep enough pool of willing or desperate celebrities to feature in these shows, and before long you can hear the distinct tone of a barrel being scraped. Whatever about the celebs, it’s the ideas that seem to be getting more desperate.

So here are a couple that might be of interest:

Celebrity Confessor - the public are invited to phone in (on a premium rate line, natch) in order to unburden themselves on a celebrity who will listen to their trials and tribulations with a sympathetic ear. But going “Yeh! Yeh! That’s desperate, altogether!” won’t be good enough. The celeb will have to get as much salacious background info as possible, the quality of which will be analysed and rated by an expert panel to include Joe Duffy, Brenda Power and Fr Brian D’Arcy.

Prison Food - Just as Jamie Oliver revolutionised school dinners in the UK, one of Ireland’s celebrity chefs would be invited to come into Mountjoy prison and bring the menu there up to the 21st century. Out would go the grey slop and in would come the rocket salads and crushed potatoes, and what have you. The cells would be miked up, so that the chef gets to hear the reaction from the inmates. It could also test the supervisory skills of a team of celebrity prison officers, as one prisoner would be involved in the kitchen and would have access to a supply of mobile phones, weapons and drugs, which he has to try to conceal in the food for passing on to his fellow prisoners. The public could place bets as to how long it would take till a riot starts, with all the proceeds going to charity.

They could be runners, I reckon.

Brian McFadden: Misunderstood Artist?

GerryOS — 2008-08-21T23:22:57+01:00

Former Westlife member Brian McFadden has been in the wars recently, with his homophobic remarks in a radio interview in New Zealand. The Sun reported on the controversy (no, I don’t have the Currant Bun in my RSS reader, I just followed a link posted by Damien Mulley), and it turned up a gem of a quote (my emphasis added):

Meanwhile Brian revealed the moment he wanted to quit his former boyband was when they were asked to record a cover of Barry Manilow's Mandy.

The Irish singer announced his departure just months later and started making plans for a solo career.

He said: "We never got any respect as artists because we didn't write all the songs and we weren't a self-producing product. We were being controlled more like puppets than anything else."

The last four words of Damien’s piece sums up where he’s at.

So We're Back

GerryOS — 2008-08-19T20:47:54+01:00

Got back on Saturday, having enjoyed a séjour very agréable in Bretagne.

I’ll probably do a few in-depth posts about “Mo Léathanta Saoire” when I get time (500-odd photos to arrange, tag and back up first), but the highlights were as follows:

The beaches, especially Carantec. Even though we had pretty awful weather for a lot of the time, we were still able to spend several hours paddling and building sandcastles when the rain stayed away.

Locronan. A beautiful, almost perfectly preserved medieval village.

Our gite. Spacious, comfortable, well-equipped and very quiet. It was located in a sleepy little village and owned by a lovely elderly couple.

The ferry. Lots to do to pass the fourteen hours of a crossing. Surprisingly good food, too. And the passage from Ringaskiddy out through Cork harbour to Roches Point is magnificent. Sod flying, this is the way to do it.

The parish closes. Extraordinarily complex church architecture and decor in a cluster of small villages near Morlaix.

Cidre de Bretagne. Yum!

The coastline. Cliffs, inlets, lighthouses, islands… you name it, it’s there.

But Before I Go…

GerryOS — 2008-07-31T23:52:02+01:00

Giles Coren, restaurant critic of The Sunday Times really needs to lighten up. A sub-editor at the paper had the temerity to remove an ‘a’ from one of his reviews, prompting The Great Man to fire off an email to all of the subs.

The subs reply.

Choice quotes below the fold.

Holliers

GerryOS — 2008-07-31T23:18:32+01:00

Off on me holliers tomorrow (Friday). We’re stuffing everything into the car and going to Brittany for two weeks, renting a gite. First proper holiday in three years, and the first ever with Aoife.

I’m going to turn comment moderation on, just in case any ne’er-do-wells stop by and decide to treat the comment facility as a toilet wall.

Many thanks to Brittany expert Treasa for her advice on where to stay and what to see.

Unlike my good friend Willie Joe, I will not be sending bloggy postcards while I’m away.

And for good measure, ‘tis my birthday tomorrow too.

See yiz in a fortnight.

Abbeyleix

GerryOS — 2008-07-31T22:53:18+01:00

Tomorrow is Bank Holiday Friday in Ireland, which means that most of the population of the country will be on the move. As more and more of these new motorways open up (two alone in the last fortnight - the N6 from Kilbeggan to Athlone and the N8/M8 from Cashel to Mitchelstown), the familiar old bottlenecks are being bypassed.

Some remain, and the longer they remain un-bypassed, the more their notoriety grows. As time passes, the big bottleneck on the road from Dublin to Cork has moved through Kildare and now lives here in lovely Laois. Abbeyleix is a nightmare on a Friday and Sunday, as the traffic moves at snail’s pace through its long main street. On bank holiday weekends, it’s a disaster.

If you drive from Dublin to Cork on a Friday evening and are approaching Abbeyleix, you may notice a number of cars turning right about a kilometre before the town. These aren’t local cars, and few of them sport LS reg plates. No, these drivers have discovered the Unofficial Abbeyleix Bypass, and I’m going to tell you where it is.

View Larger Map

Directions (going south):

About 1km before Abbeyleix, the road sweeps round to the left, and a ghost island allows a turn to the right. Go right here. Go over a bridge and take the first left. Follow this road until you reach a staggered crossroads, where you go straight through. Follow this road to the end and then turn left. After 300 metres or so, you will see the gates of a Georgian house on your right. Take the right just after these (warning: it’s a really shitty little road). Follow to the end and turn right, back onto the N8 south of Abbeyleix.

You might be asking yourself why I’m publishing this and letting people in on the secret. To be honest, the 50 or so readers I get here each day are hardly going to cause a tailback even if they all decided to use the route at the same time. It might be a different story if someone like Damien Mulley published it.

Adds 24 October: Northbound directions:

As you approach Abbeyleix from Durrow, you will see a place that sells garden ornaments and sheds and such like on your left. Take the next left turn after this (it’s signposted.) Follow that road to the end and turn left. After about 300 metres, you will come to junction with two roads leading off to the right in quick succession. Take the second one. Follow all the way to the end, when you will come to a staggered crossroads. Go through this and follow the road to the end. Turn right, follow the road to the end and turn left to rejoin the N8.

Some B & W

GerryOS — 2008-07-25T22:17:25+01:00

I have hardly ever explored black and white photography. Any B&W photos that I have are ones that I have converted from colour in iPhoto. Up to yesterday, I had never actually shot anything in black and white.

Yesterday evening, Aoife was playing with her watering can in the garden. I did a few shots in B&W, just to see how they would come out.

Results below the fold.

The Shame Of the Name

GerryOS — 2008-07-25T21:50:19+01:00

I was sent a link to this bizarre story on the BBC the other day. A nine-year-old girl was made ward of court in the town of New Plymouth, New Zealand so that she could have her name changed. What was the name her parents gave her?

Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.

I honestly can’t understand why any parent would burden their child with such a ridiculous name. It’s natural that parents might have nicknames for a small child, and I am one of the worst offenders in that regard. There must be a couple of dozen nicknames that I have used for my daughter since she was born, but none of them appear on her birth certificate.

This isn’t a new phenomenon, as we are well used to celebs giving their kids daft names. Frank Zappa famously called his son Dweezil and his daughter Moon Unit. Nicole Kidman has called her new baby Sunday Roast or something like that. There used to be joke about the late Paula Yates, whose three daughters all sport very silly names. The drugs squad call to her house and when she asks them what they want, they say they are looking for magic mushrooms. Paula replies that she’s not home from school yet.

Another one I don’t understand is when parents with the surname O’Brien call their newborn son Brian. Or Cormac McCormack. Or Patrick FitzPatrick. There must be a good reason for that, and as yet, I haven’t heard it.

Another joke regarding names

Johnny Cash performing A Boy Named Sue:

The Low Fares Airline?

GerryOS — 2008-07-21T22:32:00+01:00

This popped up as I booked a Ryanair flight for the family this evening:

None of these apply. The little one will be past her second birthday by then and will be classed as a child (2-16 years), as opposed to an infant (0-2 years).

They must have forgotten to include the fifth condition, so I have done it for them:

Deja Vu

GerryOS — 2008-07-15T23:21:06+01:00

It’s often said that what happens in Britain will happen in Ireland some years later. Could it be that Ireland is now becoming Eurosceptic on a par with Britain? Could we see a headline like the one below in one of the “Oirish” tabloids in the coming days, echoing a famous front page of The Sun from the 1980s?

(Click to enlarge)

3G iPhone At O2 (redux)

GerryOS — 2008-07-08T23:06:06+01:00

The worldwide launch of the 3G iPhone this Friday has given O2 Ireland an opportunity to redeem themselves, which predictably, they have failed to take. Once again they propose charges and tariffs on potential Irish iPhone customers which are way over the odds compared to those being offered to iPhone buyers in the UK.

Here’s the proposed Irish tariff (just in case the relevant page moves, here’s a screen grab, click to enlarge):

And here’s the UK one:

Ah yes, the Irish love to chat, don’t they? Highest ARPU of all the European mobile markets, the gift of the gab, kiss of the Blarney Stone and all the rest of the patronising, condescending shite.

I would love to get an iPhone, and I am sure that there are many like me. But there is no way on this earth that I would be prepared to pay those tarrifs to O2 Ireland, while consumers just across the water (and of course, just up the road in Northern Ireland) get such a better deal.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - Apple should take the iPhone away from O2 Ireland.

Never, Ever, Trust Your Spellchecker...

GerryOS — 2008-07-08T22:29:18+01:00

...or you could end up with something like this, as spotted in today’s Irish Times:

Good WP skills required too, it would appear.

Away For A Few Days

GerryOS — 2008-06-30T23:11:20+01:00

Off to Tuscany tomorrow.

And before anyone goes “Lucky sod!”, it’s work, OK?

Back Saturday night.

Macro Mode

GerryOS — 2008-06-28T23:25:55+01:00

The camera that I bought a while back, a Ricoh Caplio R7, has a great lens. As well as a really good wide-angle option, it can capture some fantastic detail up close in Macro mode.

I have been playing around with it over the last while, mostly with the produce of my wife’s flower beds, pots and hanging baskets.

A few shots after the jump, and a gallery here.

¡Fiesta!

GerryOS — 2008-06-29T23:24:57+01:00

In honour of Spain’s deserved win in Euro 2008 - The Pogues.

Ryanair Talking Bollocks (Again)

GerryOS — 2008-06-28T21:40:47+01:00

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary was on The Last Word on Thursday evening, arguing against the provision of the Dublin North Metro project. This is a pet topic of Ryanair, and one that I noted their opinions on before. (Download an MP3 of the interview here.)

But this time O’Leary excelled himself as the arrogant, pompous, “Look at me, I’m on the side of the consumer” little gobshite that he is. His schtick is that because the majority of passengers come to airports in cars, therefore they are not interested in any other form of transport to get them to and from Dublin Airport. During the debate, his views were challenged by Sean Murphy, Director of Policy at Chambers Ireland. Whenever Murphy spoke, O’Leary could be heard making derisory snoring noises.

What he failed to say is that Ryanair have a commercial interest in maintaining the status quo. They have a deal with Hertz at the airport, and earn commission on referrals to Hertz from the Ryanair website. In addition, car parking is a valuable revenue stream to the DAA, and any reduction in that would doubtless lead to higher landing charges for airlines like Ryanair.

Still, expecting them to come clean would be futile. This is after all the airline that tried to pull a fast one on Munster fans earlier this year. Predicting as far back as January that their team would reach the final in Cardiff in May, fans booked the 6.50am flight on Ryanair to Bristol for fares in in the region of €50 or so. Once Munster won the semi-final, Ryanair ‘rescheduled’ the flight to 3pm (which would have been too tight to make the 5pm kick-off time), and offered fans a full refund if the new time didn’t suit. But a few days later, the 6.50am flight miraculously reappeared, this time priced at €229.

The Times They Are No Longer A-Chargin'

GerryOS — 2008-06-28T21:30:26+01:00

Excellent news comes today from the Irish Times, who will open up their online service free to read from Monday. The paper has its faults (pomposity, Dublin-centric, oh-so-fluffy Weekend Magazine), but compared to the competition, it’s streets ahead.

The new service will also have a new url: irishtimes.com, and the existing one, ireland.com will continue life as a portal for everything Irish. (A portal site? How very Web 1.0!)

Passwords

GerryOS — 2008-06-27T22:27:51+01:00

I have an app here on my Mac called Yojimbo, which is a repsoitory for various bits ‘n’ bobs. I use it a lot for things

like licence keys of purchased software, PDFs of online receipts, etc. But it also stores all the username and password combinations I use. If ever I find myself looking blankly at a login page, I just consult Yojimbo and find the relevant username and password, having first unlocked it with a password I keep in my brain.

Mac OS X has a utility that addresses this need and more, called Keychain.

Whenever you visit a site and enter a username and password, you get the option to save for future use. This is handy if you only ever have one user, but if you have two or more users, it doesn’t work so well. My wife and I both have Gmail accounts (I have at least four), so relying on Keychain doesn’t work so well in this case. Keychain also keeps a record of usernames and passwords for system functions like wireless networks, etc.

I have another utility installed called 1Password, which gets over this. This installs a

button on your browsers, which when you click it, lists all the user accounts available for the relevant service. If you think that sounds a bit too risky, it can be locked off so that it can’t be accessed by unauthorised users.

Setting effective and memorable passwords can be tricky. We are always told to use letters and numbers and mix lower case and upper case. For some reason that I cannot explain, I have an unnatural memory for car registrations. I can remember the reg numbers of my parents’ cars back to the early 1970s, so combinations of two or more can make a good strong password. Also, and again for reasons unexplained, I have ingrained on my memory postcodes of addresses I lived at in London. Add in the house number and capitalise the first lot of letters, and there’s another one.

One of the big temptations is to use the same username and password combination across everything. This is a serious no-no, because if your cover gets blown, you could be in serious trouble.

Time Machine

GerryOS — 2008-06-24T23:52:30+01:00

When Mac OS X Leopard was released a few months ago, one of the major features being promoted was Time Machine. This was Apple’s revolutionary approach to backing up, which creates incremental versions of files and documents that can be accessed by going “back in time.” So if you create a file on a Monday and amend it on Wednesday, and then on Thursday decide you actually wanted Monday’s version to work on, you can restore your current version of the file to the state it was in on Monday. When I upgraded, I set Time Machine up to back up to an external hard drive, even though I was already using SuperDuper! as a backup solution (and Mozy too. And Flickr for my photos. As you can see, I’m paranoid about data loss.)

I never had occasion to actually restore anything from any of my back-up sets till last week. I was writing a piece on this site about the death of Esbjörn Svensson, and was trying to embed an MP3 of one of his tunes into the post. Whatever happened, the page file got corrupted and threw up an error message when I tried to publish. I deleted the post, rewrote it without the MP3 and tried again. Same story. It was late and I was heading for France the following day, so I decided to leave it till I came back to sort out.

The whole site is contained as a single Rapidweaver file (called a sandwich), which is stored on the hard drive of my iMac, and backed up to my three back-up systems daily. So by the time I came back home, the corrupt file was now the backed up one. Normally, this would cause a problem, but because I have Time Machine, I was able to fix it quite easily. I just went back through Time Machine to the day before I started writing the post that caused all the problems, and brought that copy forward to the present, replacing the corrupt one. I then rewrote the post and voilà, it worked.

Using Music In Ads

GerryOS — 2008-06-23T22:45:27+01:00

The new Bulmers TV ad for summer 2008 is out, and as usual, they have chosen a great song to accompany it. This time it’s ‘Lazy Day’ by The Byrds (or maybe The Flying Burrito Brothers). It’s a good example of how to do music in an ad like this. Take a classic song that most people will just about know, and don’t mess with it. They have done this several times in the past, including this one from a few years ago, featuring ‘Sunny Afternoon’ by The Kinks.

A good example of how not to do it comes via the Corona beer radio ad. It takes the 1979 hit “My Sharona” by The Knack and alters the lyrics to “My Corona.” Another line becomes “Ooh, you taste so good, like you should, like I knew you would” or something like that. My ears bleed every time I hear it. Whoever came up with it deserves to be cast into the wilderness wearing sackcloth and ashes, to feed off locusts. Here’s the original:

Esbjörn Svensson

GerryOS — 2008-06-18T23:20:47+01:00

I was very sorry to hear of the death last weekend of the Swedish jazz pianist Esbjörn Svensson. He was 44, and died as a result of a scuba diving accident.

I discovered him about four years ago, and saw him in concert in Vicar Street in May 2005. This was my first "real” jazz concert, and it was an incredible experience. Even though the piano was the lead intrument in the trio, the bass and drums were also to the fore. Although the main focus of his work was on his own compositions, he was also a fine interpreter of standards, as this version of Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight” shows.

Losing The Run Of One's Self

GerryOS — 2008-06-20T23:12:01+01:00

Over at Irish Election, in a comment from some dude called ‘Future Taoiseach’:

A once democraric union of cooperating nation states has crossed the line into coercion and dictatorship. As in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, your vote is not respected unless you vote ‘the right way’.

Indeed. Why, only this evening, I saw a marauding gang of veterans of the Maastricht and Nice campaigns burn a family of “No” voters out of their home in Bracklone Street here in Portarlington.

Happy Fathers Day

GerryOS — 2008-06-14T23:35:56+01:00

Sunday, 15 June is Fathers Day. Best wishes to all the Dads, Dads-to-be, Grandads, etc., out there.

The Lies Have It

GerryOS — 2008-06-13T21:51:15+01:00

The result of the referendum was not unexpected, but it is still depressing all the same.

The usual clichés were being trotted out on the airwaves all day:

“The people have spoken and we must respect their decision…”
“Now is not the time for recriminations or assigning blame…”
“We must now reflect on what the people have said…”

Blah, blah, blah.

Two things swung this referendum result - ineptitude on the Yes side and lies on the No side.

The No campaign was well under way before the political establishment got its act together. By the time they shook off their ennui, the best the Yes crowd could do was to try to fight an EU referendum campaign assuming that Ireland’s enthusiasm for the EU from times past was still intact. How wrong they were. Their posters were crap, ranging from bland platitudes to “get to know you” opportunities for the candidates in next year’s local and Euro elections. In debates they were forced onto the back foot by a No campaign that had no compunction about lying repeatedly. Then there was the infighting, with public squabbles between the various pro-Lisbon parties.

What they should have done from the outset was pool their resources and establish one strong Yes campaign, with the focus on the issues and not the personalities. The treaty was always going to be a difficult sell, as the issues involved didn’t resonate with people’s everyday lives. The Yes campaign failed to make the treaty relevant enough to the electorate to motivate them to vote for it.

In contrast, all the No campaign had to do was to raise as many spectres as it could to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of the electorate. It didn’t matter how they did this, as the end justified the means. So they presented a campaign that ranged from what could be called “creative interpretation” of the treaty to outright lies. Tax, neutrality, abortion, worker’s rights, etc., it didn’t matter - just keep spreading the shit and some of it would eventually stick.

What’s disappointing is that no-one on the Yes side had the balls to nail these lies at source. Rather than getting bogged down in technical arguments with sloganeering opponents, it might have been more productive to just call the lies as they emerged. Rather than trying to explain the ins and outs of QMV, or the Maastricht protocol or whatever, it might have been more productive to just say to the naysayer: “We have explained time and time again that the concerns you raise have been addressed. Why do you persist in repeating these unfounded misrepresentations/lies?” Forcing them on to the defensive and making them justify their point of view would have stopped their lies in their tracks.

But that’s all the realm of “what if” now. The referendum has been lost and we must move on to salvage something from the wreckage. Ireland’s political capital in the EU has plummetted in value, and it is now up to Brian Cowen and the rest of the government to restore our reputation as an enthusiastic member of the EU club. It won’t be easy. Neither will it be easy to explain to our EU partners why Ireland rejected the treaty. A lot of the critical detail of the treaty was actually won by the doggedness of the Irish negotiators on behalf of the smaller states, such as the rotating commission arrangement. Originally, the bigger states would have a permanent place on the commission, with the smaller states rotating. Irish intervention changed that to all states regardless of size having to share and concede time on the commission. (Not that it really matters anyway, as commissioners represent their portfolios within the EU, not the states from which they come.)

Still, we can always look on the bright side. At least the threat of the New World Order as outlined by Jim Corr has been averted. (YouTube audio link.)

More Thoughts On Renegotiating The Lisbon Treaty

GerryOS — 2008-06-10T22:45:05+01:00

Last night, I posted my reasons for voting Yes to the Lisbon Treaty this Thursday.

Since then the issue of renegotiating the Treaty has come up again, so I’m going to hammer a few more nails into this one.

As I said last night, if Ireland rejects the Treaty and is forced to go back to renegotiate it, this will have to be done by the very people who negotiated it in the first place. Some naysayers seem to think that we will be in a position of strength in this situation, given our requirement for a referendum in order to pass the Treaty into Irish law.

This is utter horseshit. If we do that, we will be sending our representatives back into the negotiating chamber on their knees. As far as our EU partners are concerned, our negotiators were satisfied with what they got last time round, especially given the fact that the bulk of the negotiations were done on our patch, during our presidency of the EU in 2004. Those opt-outs, protocols and clauses that we gained in the original round of negotiations were the result of hard bargaining, and not everyone was happy that we got them. So if we go back looking for more, we would more than likely end up with less than we had originally.

What is this “better deal” that Libertas, Sinn Féin, Kathy SInnott MEP, et al seem to think we can extract from our EU partners? The simple fact is that it doesn’t exist. The lake of goodwill in today’s EU is not particulaly deep and if we think we can send our horses to drink from it having first let them trample over everyoines else’s flowerbeds, we’ll soon find out that it has dried up.

Even in the best case scenario, whereby we actually come through a renegotiating process with a treaty that is no worse than the one we have now (we will not get a better one, remember), there is every likelihood that the very same hurlers in the ditch will come out and oppose that one too.

In simple terms - this is the best deal we’re going to get. Let’s take it and move on.

New Apple Goodies

GerryOS — 2008-06-09T23:11:41+01:00

If it’s early June, then it must be Apple World Wide Developer Conference time. That means a keynote from Steve Jobs, which usually means new goodies. Not always mind, as the WWDC, as its name suggests, is aimed at third-party software developers, so the shiny new kit doesn’t always materialise at this time of year.

But this year it did. The 3G iPhone is on the way, and just looking at it now, it really is a magnificent piece of work. It looks like they overcame the initial problems of getting 3G the iPhone, such as battery performance, and then some. The only price we know of so far is the US$ one, and it starts at €199 for an 8GB model. This is half the current price for an original iPhone, and a third of the initial price of the 4GB model released just under a year ago.

Hopefully, O2 will launch it in Ireland with a decent price and contract, but based on their past form, I won’t be holding my breath.

The other announcement of note is MobileMe, or .Mac 2.0. This is a long overdue upgrade to Apple’s online suite of apps and utilities, and as a subscriber, I am delighted to see this one coming down the tracks.

Yes

GerryOS — 2008-06-09T22:29:34+01:00

On Thursday, I will get up at some ungodly hour and make my way to Dublin Airport to catch a 6.30am flight to the UK for a meeting. I should be back in Dublin about 12 hours later, so there will still be plenty of time before the polling stations close to go and cast my vote.

And if you hadn’t worked it out by now, that vote will be a Yes. I’m voting Yes for several reasons:

I believe that this treaty is a positive step forward for the EU.
It brings reform to where it is needed.
Ireland’s specific concerns have been addressed (even though I’m not bothered about one or two of them.)
I am satisfied that Ireland’s sovereignty will not be compromised by this treaty.

Furthermore, I simply don’t believe the arguments put about by the various No campaigners. The tax issue is one. We retain a veto on the issue of Corporation Tax. It won’t change unless we agree to it.

The commissioner issue is nonsense. You would swear listening to the arguments that Ireland was the only state that was due to lose a commissioner in the rotation. It will affect every member state. Furthermore, commissioners do not represent their own states’ interests at the commission table. They are there to manage a portfolio without fear or favour to any member state, their own included. To say that each member state has to have a representative commissioner at all times is like saying that every constituency in Ireland has to have a representative minister in the Cabinet. Ireland’s interests will be represented by the Council of Ministers, The European Council (Heads of Government), and the European Parliament. All of these bodies are made up of people who have either been elected to their national parliaments, or directly to the European Parliament itself. Unlike commissioners, who are appointed.

Finally, there is the notion going around that if we reject the Lisbon Treaty, we can somehow negotiate a better deal for Ireland. This gibberish is being peddled by Sinn Féin and also by Kathy Sinnott MEP. So let’s say we do reject it. Who is going to have to go back to our EU partners to renegotiate it? One thing’s for sure, it won’t be the Shinners, or Kathy Sinnott, or any of the other naysayers. It will be the government, the very people who negotiated this deal in the first place, and who are trying to convince the electorate that this deal is the best Ireland can get.

If you can’t make up your mind, or if you feel you don’t understand what it’s all about, I would recommend that you read the Referendum Commission booklet that was delivered to every household in the State. If you can’t get hold of that, they have a website lisbontreaty2008.ie

Lisbon Explained

GerryOS — 2008-06-08T23:01:35+01:00

This is class - The Treaty Of Lisbon, A Spoofer’s Guide To How Not To Vote No.

via Conor.

Can No-one In The Yes Campaign Use Photoshop?

GerryOS — 2008-06-06T00:06:56+01:00

This sort of stuff is a piece of piss to do.

Just A Thought…

GerryOS — 2008-06-06T00:01:26+01:00

…is Bertie deliberately spinning completely bullshit stories to demonstrate his contempt for the Mahon Tribunal? I mean, come on - winning eight grand on some bag of bones in the 2.30 at Chepstow?

Double you tea eff, like?

Yes Campaign - Unable To Organise Piss-Up In Brewery (Official)

GerryOS — 2008-06-05T22:48:58+01:00

Over the last week or so, I got the distinct impression that the tide has been turning in favour of the anti-Lisbon point of view. This evening that hunch has been confirmed, as a poll in tomorrow’s Irish Times shows that the No vote is five points ahead of the Yes vote.

If this follows through to polling day, it will be a disaster for both the government and the main opposition parties. So far they have allowed the No campaign to gain the upper hand and instil the necessary FUD into the minds of the electorate (well, those voters who are going to bother their arses to vote, at least.)

So where has it all gone wrong? They say that a lie gets half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on, and this is true in this case. The Yes campaign have not had a chance to fight this campaign on their own terms, as they have been forced to spend their time and resources denying the claims of the No side. Whatever the issue, be it taxation, neutrality, workers’ rights, the democratic deficit or abortion, the Yes campaign were forced to firefight. But it didn’t matter, because the seed of doubt has already been sown.

The treaty is a difficult sell for the Yes campaign, as it falls foul of the old maxim that all politics are local. The beneficiary of this treaty is the EU as a whole, and is is difficult to point to any aspect within it that is of direct benefit to Ireland specifically. But it is easy to spin a negative interpretation of it, and point to aspects of it that could possibly be to Ireland’s detriment.

To add to the Yes side’s woes is the general sense of apathy among the electorate. A common reaction is to claim not to understand the treaty (a seam well-mined by the No side), and thus not to bother voting at all. Given that the No side probably have a more motivated constituency, this will work in their favour.

Even taking into account the the difficulty in selling the positives of the treaty, the Yes campaign has been very wishy-washy. “Good for Ireland, Good for Europe” claim Fianna Fáil. Bland, bland, bland. Fine Gael and Labour used the campaign as an opportunity to introduce their candidates for the 2009 local and European elections. Labour’s campaign especially was a disgrace, as you really had to look closely for their message regarding this campaign. Where a lamp post had one poster with a photo of Eamon Gilmore making a profound political point, and another one claiming that we are going to pay more tax because of the Lisbon Treaty, there was only ever going to be one winner.

The Yes campaign have six days to turn this around. They need to promote this as a way of showing that Ireland is a team player in Europe. They need to definitively nail the lies from Libertas, Coir and the rest of the FUD-merchants.

I’m voting Yes and I hope that it passes, but my hopes are below my expectations.

See also Bock and Irish Election

Rapidweaver 4.0

GerryOS — 2008-06-01T21:57:28+01:00

Realmac Software have released the latest version of Rapidweaver, the app I use to publish this site.

The overall usability of the interface has improved hugely. Basic editing tasks, such as font selection, text alignment, links and HTML are now available from buttons under the main text pane, instead of having to go to the Format menu.

Themes and inspectors are now available as buttons as well. Overall it has a “native OS X” feel to it, and would not look out of place in either iWork or iLife.

There’s also a very slick Cover Flow-style effect to show publishing progress, and the overall speed of publishing seems to have improved immensely.

I think a new theme for UnLaoised will have to be deployed to mark this auspicious occasion!

Rapidweaver 4.0 is available as a free upgrade for registered users of version 3.6. Upgrades from version 3.5 or earlier costs €20.49, and a completely new licence costs €40.28.

Awash With Greatness!

GerryOS — 2008-05-24T20:36:58+01:00

Well, what can I say after that? Me nerves!!!

After a pulsating, nerve-wracking, tightly-fought contest, Munster prevailed over the might of Stade Toulousain to claim their second Heineken Cup title in three years, and can now truly be known as one of the world's greatest rugby teams. Whatever critics may say of their style, they know how to win, and that's what counts.

After an opening period of Toulouse domination, Munster were on the back foot, but managed to keep the damage down to a single drop goal. The fact that Ellisalde chose to take on the role of sniper possibly showed that Tououlse realised from early on that they were going to get little change from the Munster defence. Once Munster managed to get hold of the ball, they made ground and started to control the game, and after a sustained ten-minute period of pressure were 10-3 to the good. They conceded a penalty on the stroke of half time, which allowed the French to get back to within four.

The turning point in the second half was Fabien Pelous getting sin-binned. ROG slotted the penalty, but in the ten minute period when they had numerical advantage, they conceded a try. It was a work of genius conceived by full-back Heymans, who ran like a train down the left touchline, and slotted the ball in-field .Jauzion ran on to it to give it another poke, allowing wing Donguy to fall onto it.

Minutes beforehand, we were treated to the genius of Doug Howlett, who ran onto a pass from fellow Kiwi Rui Tipoki and then shredded the Toulouse defence. Sadly, the pass from Tipoki was adjudged to be forward and it didn't count.

A further penalty from O'Gara nudged Munster in front again, and they controlled the ball through the forwards for most of the last quarter to run down the clock and keep the French on the back foot. In the end, Toulouse ran out of time and Munster prevailed.

There were some immense performances from the Munster men, particualrly in the pack. Alan Quinlan rightly won Man of the Match for a barnstorming performance in the back row. He made a menace of himself all day and was instrumental in several turnovers. Captain Paul O'Connell kept the line-out ship steady and even managed to nick a few off the French. He was off for a blood injury for a short period in the second half, and in that time Munster shipped two line outs. Donncha O'Callaghan was superb, driving, tackling, and assisting, especially when he added his muscle to Denis Leamy's lunge for the line for Munster's try. Similarly Jerry Flannery, who picked and drove magnificently. And never forget John Hayes, who's scrummaging was magnificent.

A nice touch came at the presentation of the trophy. Instead of just hoisting it over his own head, Paul O'Connell shared the lifting duty with Ronan O'Gara, who captained the side throughout the treacherous pool campaign.

There can be no doubt now as to Munster's standing at the top of the pile of European rugby. To get to where they are tonight, they had to get past last year's champions, last year's Challenge Cup champions, the side that knocked them out last season, two of the top sides in the English Premiership (both away), and then today overcome the aristocrats of French and European rugby.

Declan Kidney now goes on to the national set up. Two things he has brought to Munster which he hopefully will bring to Ireland will be: always winning tight games, and knowing how to beat French teams.

Flannery

GerryOS — 2008-05-23T22:34:37+01:00

OK, everyone in Ireland has heard this one by now. I was in London on Tuesday, and so missed the debut on Gift Grub.

Whatever about Jerry Flannery's reaction to hearing it for the first time, I'd love to know what his girlfriend thought of it!

Here We Go Again

GerryOS — 2008-05-22T22:07:38+01:00

I missed the Heineken Cup Final in 2006. You know, the one that Munster won. As in Munster, the team I regularly write about. Here's what happened.

Back in January of that year, I was asked to take a group of customers to Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain on a wine trip in the middle of May. Not wearing a rugby hat that day, I agreed. As the season panned out, it became apparent that I was going to miss the final due to the trip, but by that stage it was too late to back out.

We arrived on the Tuesday and were due to leave on Saturday afternoon. We were flying out of Seville, so we had an hour's bus journey to the airport, and that hour was right splat in the middle of the match. I had my laptop with me, and managed to get the first 20 minutes in the lobby of the hotel, listening to the great Michael Corcoran on RTE's streaming web coverage. Back home, my wife, six months pregnant, was watching the match live and sending me updates by text. Being a proud Cork woman and Munster supporter, she naturally got caught up in the emotions of the day, and as the match wore on, her missives to me on the bus between Jerez and Seville became more cryptic.

But then one came through loud and clear. "STRNGR TRY!!!!!!!"

When we got to the airport, she rang me. It was all over. She was speechless, but eventually managed to squeak out "We won!" between sobs of joy. She still maintains that if she had been a few weeks further along the pregnancy that day, she would have been in The Coombe that night.

So here we are again. Munster stand on the cusp of glory once more, and if they make it to the top of the hill this time, it will be even better than '06. (Apologies for the mixed metaphors.) Two years ago, they had a home quarter final and to all intents and purposes, a home quarter final against Leinster. This time, they had to practically tunnel out of the worst possible pool draw, and then face two away knock-out draws. And once that was over, face the only side that has contested more Heineken Cup Finals than they have, a side who have won three so far. As Sheryl Crow sang, no-one said it would be easy.

On the plus side, this is a more complete Munster side than in 2006. Alongside the well-established pack, there is a back line that any opposition would fear. The two Kiwi centres, Mafi and Tipoki have been awesome for Munster this season. Once Trevor Halstead left, I was afraid that our back line would miss that line-smashing element he brought to the game. Thankfully Tipoki has it, and his partnership with his fellow New Zealander means that we have a mean centre partnership. Plus the fact that these guys can run. I remember Mafi's first appearance in a Munster shirt. Can't remember the opposition, but I think it was a Welsh team in the Celtic League. He got hold of the ball, saw a gap, slid through it and put on the afterburners. He didn't score, but he really showed that he had pace.

Then we have Doug Howlett on the wing. Everyone thinks that Decaln Kidney signed him just for his try-scoring ability, but it's his defensive work that has more than repaid the fee laid out for him. On the other wing, Ian Dowling is maturing into a fine player, with a keen eye on the break and also on keeping his channel secure. Likewise, Denis Hurley will most likely secure the full-back berth, having done well in the position in recent matches.

So, how's it going to go? I'm not as confident going into this final as I was back in 2006, but I still think Munster can win it. There will be no more than a score between the teams, and it will either be won by an act of genius or lost by a cruel mistake.

The cake would be a Munster win. The icing would be seeing the "Man of the Match" award going to Munster's most faithful servant. The man the commentators never see securing the rucks, steadying the scrum and launching Paul O'Connell single-handedly into the sky at the line-out. The man known as "The Bull". Munster's unsung hero, John Hayes.

Another Jammy Champions League Win For Man Yoo

GerryOS — 2008-05-21T23:43:11+01:00

Like in 1999, Man Yoo had to rely on luck to win the Champions League trophy tonight. Chelsea equalised on the stroke of half time through Frank Lampard and controlled the game from then on. They struck the woodwork twice (as did Bayern Munich in the '99 final), but eventually lost on penalties.

Naturally the Glory Glories will be filling their scrapbooks from tomorrow on, but this victory is a hollow one. At least nine years ago they managed to win in normal time. This time their win came about as a result of John Terry's misfortune in losing his footing as he took his penalty.

Just in case anyone thinks that I am an embittered Chelski fan, think otherwise. I can't stand either of them. It's just that my dislike of United has deeper roots.

There were two highlights for me, though: Drogba's sending-off and Ronaldo missing the penalty. If Ronaldo's miss had cost them the title, that would have been the icing on the cake, but, hey, you can't have it all.

(Unless you're a United fan, that is.)

Robert Mondavi Dies

GerryOS — 2008-05-16T22:02:04+01:00

Robert Mondavi, one of the wine industry's legendary figures, has died aged 94. As well as building up his own eponymous empire in the Napa Valley, he also collaborated with the Rothschild dynasty of Bordeaux to create the iconic Opus One.

Decanter have an obituary here.

Incoming FUD

GerryOS — 2008-05-15T22:47:27+01:00

The current Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign is turning out to be one of the dirtiest in years. On the one side we have all of the mainstream political parties, IBEC, Alliance for Europe, etc. On the other side we have all the perennial anti-EU treaty stalwarts like Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party, various trade unions; alongside newer and slicker organisations such as Libertas.

Whichever side of the argument you are on, it's going to be a hard sell. Few people are going to go to the trouble of actually reading the treaty itself, and those that attempt to do so will probably give up after page 2 or 3. It's not a page turner, it's a complex legal text, that is also an amending treaty to other already established treaties.

Now that the campaign proper has gotten underway, it would appear that both sides are trying to use FUD as a tactic to get their message

across. The Yes campaign is trying to frighten us into believing that a No vote will isolate us from the EU beltway. their themes include threats to jobs and investment. All utter crap. If we reject it, the worst we will face is having to vote on it again, à la Nice.

The No side are tripping over themselves to paint the Doomsday scenario of an Ireland at the heel of a Euro superstate. There are posters and leaflets out there that are frankly disgraceful. Here's a selection, collated by blogging solicitor Simon McGarr. (The one used to illustrate this page is from that stream, published under a Cretive Commons licence.) Why bother trying to argue against what's in the treaty, when it's so much easier to spread the FUD with what's not in the treaty?

It's going to be a long few weeks, I think.

Abusing Democracy

GerryOS — 2008-05-13T22:09:52+01:00

It had to happen. A local protest group has hitched their trailer to the anti-Lisbon Treaty wagon. Activists in Roscommon campaigning for the retention of hospital services in the county town have urged their supporters to reject the Lisbon Treaty as a way of getting the government's attention.

Now I am glad that Ireland has a written constitution, even when it means holding a referendum on something or other almost every year. However, it does leave us vulnerable to political gobshitery such as this. We are the only electorate in the 27-member EU who will have the privilege of voting on whether or not we approve of the Lisbon Treaty. Therefore we should cast our vote based on our opinion of the treaty, and that alone. Using it as a proxy to highlight a completely separate issue is immature and an abuse of the democratic right we are privileged to possess.

DK Has A Pop At DK

GerryOS — 2008-05-13T07:53:21+01:00

From today's Indo:

David Knox, The Goys' backs coach is perplexed by Declan Kidney's appointment as Irish national coach.

"The Irish international team badly needed a foreign coach."

Like an Aussie, maybe? One with blond hair?

"Kidney's methods, like making the team train in the away strip they'd be wearing at Gloucester in the Heineken Cup and playing them a tape of the crowd noise at Kingsholm to get them used to the conditions, are bizarre. I would be embarrassed as a coach for people to know that."

Lemme see, who won that quarter-final? Oh yes, it was Munster, wasn't it?

Knox was also heavily critical of Munster's playing style under Kidney. He acknowledges their successes in the Heineken Cup but maintains they have achieved glory in that competition at the expense of any style or flair.

In a straight choice between "glory" and "style or flair", I think I'll pick…hmmm…tough one this…

He also has a go at Ronan O'Gara:

"I have been here, coaching in Ireland for three years, and I have never seen that guy create space for anybody. I've never seen him put anyone into a hole."

And that's the be-all and end-all of everything, is it? Controlling the pace and tempo of the game, gaining field position, etc., means nothing?

"Munster's record is fantastic but you can't tell me they play anything but 10- man rugby."

Come on Dave! Admit it. You're going for the Munster job, aren't you?

"Munster get 30 points on the board by grinding away and when the other team is shot, they try and throw the ball around a bit. Then people say, what a great team. It's rubbish."

Eh, which Irish team is in the final of the Heineken Cup? The only one to get out of their pool this season?

"If Doug Howlett had played for Leinster this season, he would have ended up scoring 30 tries."

And if your Auntie had bollocks, she'd be your uncle. What about your own Galacticos? Any of them score 30 tries this season?

"He's seen as the greatest buy of the year but how often has he touched the ball? Maybe 10 times in a real attacking sense? I'm talking about serious attacking play, not chasing kick-aheads. Yet this is one of the world's premier wings. They have no idea how to use him."

If anything, Howlett's defensive work alone has more than justified what it cost to sign him.

"And the two other guys they brought in from the southern hemisphere, Rua Tipoki and Lifeimi Mafi, hardly ever played Super 14 rugby I think Tipoki made a couple of appearances off the bench. They are both steppers, they never pass the ball."

But they're playing Heineken Cup Rugby at the highest level and will start in the final on Sunday week, while your charges will be sitting on their orses in Kiely's, roysh, necking the Heinos and watching the game.

He goes on to rail against "the paranoid world of Irish [international] rugby", and I actually agree with most of what he says there.

Excuse Me While I Stifle A Yawn

GerryOS — 2008-05-12T21:45:11+01:00

So yesterday, one obscenely wealthy football club managed to beat another obscenely wealthy football club to the Premiership title. And if that wasn't enough, next week the same two obscenely wealthy football clubs will battle it out for the Champions' League title in Moscow.

I have noticed over the last month or so, a sudden reappearance of replica Manchester United shirts in the cities, towns and villages of our fair isle. They had been conspicuously absent for the last couple of years, but now that Man Yoo are back in their pomp, it's time to break the piggy bank and splash out on the merchandise again.

The Glory Glory days are back with a vengeance.

Aoife Gardener

GerryOS — 2008-05-08T22:13:56+01:00

The wee one is showing signs of having green fingers. These particular genes come from the other side of the house, I can confirm with some confidence.

Peak Profit

GerryOS — 2008-05-07T22:20:58+01:00

Another good 'un from The Joy of Tech (click for the full cartoon)

Average price at the pumps today for a litre of unleaded, according to Pumps.ie, is €1.22

All Hail The New Leader

GerryOS — 2008-05-07T21:45:36+01:00

Today will go down in history as an historic day for Ireland. A new leader has been chosen and a new era dawns. An era of hope and opportunity, one where Ireland potential will be realised. This era will see Ireland become a power across Europe and hopefully across the world.

Yes, people, Wednesday, 7 May will go down in history as the day that Declan Kidney was officially announced as the new coach of the Irish national rugby team.

Oh, yeah. This guy from Clara started a new job today too.

Close Call For Munster

GerryOS — 2008-04-27T22:17:43+01:00

It was never going to be easy. Munster went into today's semi-final against Saracens in the knowledge that this was not going to be the cakewalk that some were predicting. Saracens are a tough, competitive team, and it showed today.

Saracens started the brighter of the two teams and were the first to score, with a brilliant move that started in their own 22. With that, Munster came back into the game and ran in 15 points without reply, 12 of which came from two well-taken tries.

Indiscipline costed both sides in the second half, with Munster shipping a worrying number of penalties, and Rua Tipoki spent ten minutes in the sin bin. But then, over the space of two minutes, Sarries lost both of their props to yellow cards. By the time they were restored to their full compliment of players, the score was 18-13. Glen Jackson added another penalty to finish the match 18-16 to the men in red.

This was as tough a match as Munster could have hoped for, and their defence was tested severely. Doug Howlett showed today just what he is

worth to Munster, with some fine breaks and at least one try-saving tackle. But he wasn't the only one putting in the savage hits. All across the board, Munster were defending as if their lives depended on it.

It could so easily have gone the other way. As the clock inched towards the eightieth minute mark, Saracens were making the hard yards in the Munster half. Eventually, the move broke down and Munster were awarded a penalty, the last kick of the game. Had Saracens kept it going for one more phase, Glen Jackson would probably have had a pop at a drop goal.

But one thing Munster have learned over the years is how to win tight matches. They held out to win by two points, and go on to face Toulouse in the final on 24 May. For a season that had thrown out some of the oddest results, it seems somewhat fitting that the two most aristocratic of regular Heineken Cup teams should contest the decider.

It should be a right old ding-dong.

Tabloid Shame

GerryOS — 2008-04-27T21:50:47+01:00

Another house fire tragedy claims the lives of a family, and once again the tabloid press cover themselves in glory. Not. It was as if they were competing with one another to run the most sensationalist front page headline today.

This happened before, of course, when the McElhill family perished in a fire at their home in Omagh last November. Back then, the red-tops didn't even wait until the bodies had been removed before hoisting the lurid headlines on their front pages.

Now, I know that this story merited its front page billing, but did the News of the World really need to scream "DAD SHOOTS WIFE AND BURNS KIDS ALIVE" from their front page? Do they not realise that the families, friends, neighbours, work colleagues, school pals, etc. of the Flood family are trying to come to terms with the enormity of this tragedy? Are they not allowed to grieve in peace and privacy? Do they not realise the effect a headline like that would have on friends of the children, already traumatised by the loss of their little pals, but now being told in graphic detail how they died? (Not that the official cause of death had been released by the time the papers reached the news stands, but in the world of the tabloids, that's by the by.)

The tabloid press is an utter disgrace.

Expectation

GerryOS — 2008-04-26T22:55:26+01:00

Tomorrow's Heineken Cup semi-final clash between Munster and Saracens brings about all the usual pre-big-match emotions and apprehensiveness. We know that the Munster should prevail, but it can never be taken for granted.

All this week, Declan Kidney has been bigging up Saracens in an effort to deflect from the general media consensus that Munster go into this match as favourites. They came out of a group that included Biarritz, perennial HC heavyweights. they dispatched the Ospreys, several of whom had won the Grand Slam in Welsh shirts a few weeks earlier. They are coached by Alan Gaffney, a coach who, more than most, knows what makes Munster tick.

Much has been made of the fact that the Munster branch returned a portion of their ticket allocation for this match. This has been interpreted as the fans taking the Kerry approach, and choosing not to travel until the final. This may or may not be the prevailing attitude (and I don't believe it is, as Munster fans take nothing for granted), but if there is complacency among the support, it is not there in the team. This is cup rugby, and as such you only have one chance to get it right.

Munster have worked very hard to get this far. They had the shittiest pool draw imaginable, yet won it in style. This was followed by an away quarter-final to Gloucester. Kingsholm is never a venue to look forward to, but Munster went there and won comfortably.

Saracens have never competed at this level of the Heineken Cup before. This is Munster's seventh HC semi-final. They have won three of the last six, and of course, won the competition itself in 2006. Declan Kidney was able to deal from a full deck when he named his team during the week. Alan Gaffney is missing some key players like Andy Farrell and Chris Jack.

Predicting the outcome of a sporting encounter is not particularly scientific. Relying on statistics alone is never a definitive route to making a call. As the man said, statistics are like lamp posts, there to illuminate but not to lean to heavily upon. You look at past performances, take into account mitigating factors like injuries and so on. But there are also the intangibles, the unknown unknowns as Donald Rumsfeld might say.

Saracens may surprise Munster, as they did the Ospreys in the quarter final. But we also have to look at their form in the Guinness Premiership. This is their bread and butter, and they are mid-table at present. They lost to both Gloucester and Wasps in the GP since their win over the Ospreys. Big deal, you might say, Munster lost to Leinster in the Magners League the week after winning at Gloucester. But there is a difference. Even though they will deny it publicly, deep down, as long as they are still in the Heineken Cup, Munster couldn't give a shit about the Magners League. For Saracens, the Guinness Premiership matters hugely.

Munster should win tomorrow, but it will not be easy. Saracens will put up a good fight, but it won't be enough.

A Munster-Toulouse final should be in the offing by tomorrow evening. Now that would be something to look forward to.

Heineken Cup Semi-Final

GerryOS — 2008-04-25T22:10:45+01:00

Monday, 7 April. I arrive home at about 10.30pm from Vinitaly. My wife is away at a work do. The wee one is with her Granny and Grandad. There is a beer in the fridge. Munster's quarter-final against Gloucester is on the Sky+ box.

All of the above is true, just until you pass the bit about the beer. Somehow, we managed to record the London Irish - Perpignan match, but miss the Munster - Gloucester one. Oh well.

This Sunday, Munster face Saracens in the semi-final at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. I'm at home this time, so there should be no repeat of the Sky+ debacle this time around.

The starting lineup is as follows:

15 Hurley
14 Howlett
13 Mafi
12 Tipoki
11 Dowling
10 O'Gara
11 O'Leary
1 Horan
2 Flannery
3 Hayes
4 O'Callaghan
5 O'Connell
6 Quinlan
7 Wallace
8 Leamy

Replacements: Sheahan, Pucciarello, O'Driscoll, Ryan, Stringer, Warwick, Murphy

That's a strong team in anyone's language. I'll say no more, except COME ON MUNSTER!!!

Winning Friends, etc.

GerryOS — 2008-04-25T21:57:11+01:00

The latest edition of Hospitality Ireland has an interview with Marco Pierre White, the latest British gastro-celeb to cross the Irish Sea. His new venture, Hell's Brasserie, will open at Harry Crosbie's Point Village in 2009.

Eager to learn from the mistakes of his peers, he wants to be sure that he doesn't offend local sensitivities by only having a token presence in his Irish emporium:

"I'm not going to go to Ireland with that attitude, like certain people do who come from the mainland."

Yup. That's a great way to start.

Curry Chips Back On The Menu

GerryOS — 2008-04-17T21:21:52+01:00

He's back!

Nat King Coleslaw, author of Curry Chips walks among us again after a brief I Ate Us. And not only is he back, but he's in cracking form too. Check out his take on Gormleychinatibetgate.

The iPhone Should Be Taken Away From O2 Ireland

GerryOS — 2008-04-15T21:24:06+01:00

Apple have a justifiable reputation as a company with a talent for marketing. Which is why I find it strange that they persist with O2 as their exclusive retail partner for the iPhone in Ireland.

An 8GB iPhone in Ireland will set you back €399 for the handset. The basic calls/text/data package for the iPhone costs €45 per month, and for that you get 175 minutes of calls, 100 texts and 1GB of data.

O2 are also the exclusive retail partner for the iPhone in the UK. There you can pick up an 8GB model for £269 (€334), with a basic monthly tariff costing £35 (€43.50). This tariff includes 600 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited data. Also O2 UK supports visual voicemail, while O2 Ireland does not.

It's been announced today that if you buy an 8GB model in the UK before 1 June, it will only cost €169 (€210).

I cannot understand for a moment why anyone in Ireland would buy an iPhone from O2 Ireland. Compared to the UK, the 8GB phone is almost 20% more expensive at normal prices (90% more expensive during the £100 off promotion). For a similarly priced tariff, our neighbours get 242% more minutes, 250% more text and ∞% more data.

As Pat Phelan calls it: the Paddy Tax.

I'd love to know how many iPhones have been sold in Ireland since it was launched just over a month ago. Surely if they priced the device in line with the UK and offered similarly priced tariffs, the iPhone would be a smash hit. As it is, the only incentive is to take a trip to Northern Ireland, buy one there and jailbreak it.

Come on Apple! Your "partners" are holding back the potential of your device!

Obeying Traffic Lights Is Actually Compulsory…

GerryOS — 2008-04-15T21:03:45+01:00

Driving around as much as I do, you really get to realise the cavalier approach so many Irish road users have to traffic lights. For cyclists, the code is "Green: Go; Amber: Go; Red: Go." Pedestrians seem to think that they are there just to add some colour to the streetscape.

But it is the motorist who is often the worst offender. Frequently I pull up at lights just gone red and one or two vehicles in the neighbouring lanes will go through the red light. Lads, there's only one shade of red! Another is the left or right turn filter. Some junctions have specific signals for left or right turns, and when you approach the junction the signal may be green to go forward and red to go left or right. But to some drivers, these red lights are discretionary. I have seen cars, vans, taxis and even buses break these lights, often crossing a green pedestrian light in the process.

Speaking of pedestrian lights, some drivers seem to be of the opinion that these don't actually count as traffic lights at all. Just this morning, I was on my way into Dublin, when I stopped at the red light of a pedestrian crossing. A woman and her two kids were just about to set foot on the road to cross when a truck sailed through the red light. A second later and they would have been run over.

A Game For Font Geeks

GerryOS — 2008-04-14T21:24:37+01:00

I did a graphic design course a few years ago and during it developed an interest in typography. Since then I have become a font geek of sorts. (Just as I can tell the difference between an Australian and a New Zealand accent, so too do I know the difference between Helvetica and Arial.)

Which brings me to the point of this post. Found, via the excellent Daring Fireball (whose author, John Gruber is a font uber-geek), The Rather Difficult Font Game.

The server upon which it is hosted seems to be getting something of a caning at the moment. It flaked out on me on round 22, by which time I was enjoying a score of 19.

(Disclosure: I only cheated a teeny-tiny bit, and referred to Font Book once or twice, but only to confirm my suspicion.)

Days Like These

GerryOS — 2008-04-14T21:04:49+01:00

Anyone that reads my ramblings on a regular basis will know that I am an advocate of the Mac platform. In my last job I had a fair degree of autonomy and so when I went computer shopping, I was free to pick my platform of choice. Not so in my current employment, and when I started in January, I was given a standard-issue Dell laptop.

It's quite a good machine, in all honesty. It has a 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 gigs of RAM and a 120 GB hard disk. Windows XP SP2 came pre-installed, and even though it's a big improvement on my last experience with Windows (W98), it's very frustrating to use at times.

There are days, like today, when everything you run crashes. Open an Excel spreadsheet. Crash. Try to extract an e-mail address from a message in Outlook. Crash. Try to drop an image into a Word document. Crash.

However, when I was in Dublin earlier today, I saw the electronic billboard at the top of Grafton Street and realised that I wasn't the only one having problems with Windows today. (I took the photo on my phone, so sorry for the poor quality.)

This Could Just As Easily Apply To Ireland

GerryOS — 2008-04-10T22:19:44+01:00

Tom Tomorrow's "This Modern World" on the crisis in the US housing market:

(click to see the whole cartoon)

Vinitaly

GerryOS — 2008-04-08T22:01:19+01:00

I arrived back from Vinitaly last night, absolutely exhausted. I was away for five nights, so it was nice to be back in my own leaba again.

To those outside the wine business, the idea of going to Verona to taste wine for five days sounds like a cushy number. Of course, it is an enjoyable and educational experience, and for a first-time visitor like myself, a real eye-opener as to the breadth and depth of wine available from Italy. Up to now my area of specialism has generally been French wine, but my new employer majors big time on Italy, so Vinitaly was a great opportunity to get myself up to speed.

But this was a work trip, and it was five days of hard work. I had to meet all of our suppliers and taste all of their wines, writing meaningful tasting notes that I can refer to in the future as I sell these wines to my customers. Happily, our buyers are experts who have a deep understanding of what Italian wine is all about, so it was no hardship to meet some fascinating winemakers and taste some great wines.

Conventional wisdom dictates that you should taste white wines first and then reds. We decided to do the opposite and taste the big, full bodied reds first thing in the morning. The rationale behind this was that by the afternoon, our palates would be knackered and unable to tackle the reds, and the fresh crisp whites would give us a lift from the late afternoon slump. Happily this worked, and we got through prodigious amounts in the first three days.

Italy is a treasure trove for the wine lover. If you are a fan of international varieties like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir, etc., you'll find plenty to please you. If you like to try indigenous varieties, you won't have to look too hard to find something to pique your interest, whether it's a Nebbiolo, Barbera or Dolcetto from Piemonte; a Teroldego, Marzemina or Lagrein from Trentino; a Montepulciano from Abruzzo; an Aglianico from Campania; a Primitivo, Negramaro or Malvasia Nera from Puglia; or a Nero d'Avola from Sicily.

I have neglected Italian wine for too long, because in my last job it was something of an afterthought. As a result, I never kept up with the advances made in certain areas. Two of the most famous wines from Veneto, Soave and Valpolicella, I had overlooked for years. In my opinion, they were dull, overcropped rubbish. But while that may have been the case when I

started in the trade nearly twenty years ago, it certainly is not the case today. I tasted some magnificent Soaves in the last week, ranging from the fresh and fruity to some that were very complex and minerally. Similarly, the Valpolicellas I tasted were a revelation, with lovely ripe fruit, clean acidity and the right amount of tannin. The best of Valpolicella, the Ripassos and Amarones were just stunning. Demand is high for these wines and prices are going up.

But for me the biggest eye-opener was the standard of the white wines. Again, in my ignorance, I dismissed Italian whites as neutral and insipid. But how wrong I was. Again it was a mixture of both international and local varieties. I tasted some gorgeous Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from Friuli Venezia Giulia, alongside local varieties like Ribolla Giallo and Friulano. Even Pinot Grigio, derided as the blandest of the bland, in the hands of a good winemaker can be very special. I especially enjoyed some Lugana, a Lombardian white wine from the shores of Lake Garda. From further south, Campania came up trumps with Fiano de Avellina, Sannio Falanghino, and Greco di Tufo.

Like any trade fair, glamour is sometimes used to compensate for lack of quality. There were several stands with dolly birds out front to tempt the punters in. Some of our party decided to put a mathematical theory to the test, that the amount of flesh on display is inversely proportional to the quality of the wine. And so it turned out to be. If the stunna on the stand has big knockers and is wearing a very short skirt, chances are the wine will be shite.

Evenings were taken up mostly with visits to producers. I love visiting a producer's vineyard as opposed to his cellar, as I think you can tell a lot more about a winemaker from how he tends his vines. Good wine starts in the vineyard, and if a producer gets that right, then the job in the cellar is that much easier.

So in summary, Vinitaly was vast. I was there for five days and tasted about 300 or so wines. That's maybe 0.02% of all the wines in the fair. It was an amazing experience, and I hope to do it again some day.

So I Turn My Back For Five Minutes…

GerryOS — 2008-04-08T21:43:36+01:00

I got the news of Bertie's falling on his sword as I queued up for the Ryanair flight to Verona from Stansted. As a result I missed all the fall-out, as I had no internet connectivity except for my Nokia E65, and I wasn't planning on paying outrageous data roaming rates.

It was the right thing for Ahern to do, of course. But he should have done it ages ago and sorted out his dealings with the Tribunal away from the pressures of the office of Taoiseach. But it seems that he thought he could brazen it out, and if he kept stonewalling or running to the High Court to try to stymie the Tribunal's work, then it might leave him alone. But it was the evidence of Grainne Carruth that brought him down in the end.

So now, assuming I'm still living in Laois in 2012, and that the county will still be spliced to Offaly for electoral purposes, I'll once again have the opportunity to cast my vote for an outgoing Taoiseach in a general election, as I had in 2002. And didn't take up.

Away For A While

GerryOS — 2008-04-01T21:18:38+01:00

Off to Verona in the morning, to visit Vinitaly for the first time.

Back next Monday.

Ahern Should Go Now

GerryOS — 2008-03-31T08:27:16+01:00

The longer Bertie Ahern allows his difficulties with the Mahon Tribunal to continue, the worse it becomes for everyone involved.

The by now familiar dance goes like this:

- Tribunal uncovers new evidence that appears to contradict previous evidence given by Ahern.
- Opposition parties, media commentators, etc. call for clarification of previous evidence.
- Cabinet colleague sent out to bat for Taoiseach, attacking Tribunal.
- Useful fools like Jackie Healey-Rae (Audio link to Morning Ireland interview) and Eoghan Harris offer their tuppenceworth in support.
- Ahern says he will clarify evidence the next time he attends to give evidence.
- A legal challenge to the Tribunal may feature at some point in the process.

This time it's more serious for Bertie, as now we are hearing the calls for clarification coming from his coalition partners as well as the opposition. We're also hearing more trenchant calls for his resignation, or at least for him to set a date, as the Irish Times did last Saturday.

Given that he won't be before the Tribunal again until May, waiting until his next appearance for clarification simply isn't good enough. What will show up next?

Des O'Neill: So, Mr Ahern, can you explain this substantial lodgement to your account on 14 June 1993?
Bertie Ahern: Well, you see, I won de-de-de-de-de Lotto around dat, eh, time…
O'Neill: And this one here a week later?
Bertie: …twice.

By allowing this charade to drag on, Ahern is undermining the office of Taoiseach, his government, his own party, the credibility of his ministers, and his own legacy. The referendum of the Lisbon Treaty is also in danger of being undermined, as it could easily end up as a referendum on Bertie. (We had an opportunity to vote in that particular referendum last year. It was called the General Election, and we fluffed it.)

He should go, so that this matter no longer distracts from the business of being Taoiseach. He's been in the job for almost eleven years. If he thinks he can present entirely innocent explanations for his varied transactions, then he should do it and get all of this sorted out. If he can manage to wriggle his way out of all of this, then he can be sure that a plum job in the European Commission or elsewhere will await him. If he can't, well that's his own doing. He should stop taking us for fools and move to sort his difficulties with the Tribunal as a matter of urgency.

By the way, if you didn't see the Late Late Show last Friday night, there was a wonderful moment when Eamon Dunphy nailed Eoghan Harris to the wall. I'm not a fan of Eamo by any means, but this was great.

I Can Has Influenz?

GerryOS — 2008-03-25T22:58:04+00:00

Speaking of the Observer, a few weeks ago they ran a feature entitled "The 50 Most Powerful Blogs". It featured mostly the influential American political sites like Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, etc; as well as the gossipy ones like Perez Hilton and Gawker.

But up there at No 8 was none other than "I Can Has Cheezburger?", the world-famous Lolcat site. Now I can understand it being in a list of popular sites, or it being recognised as an internet publishing phenomenon, but as a "powerful blog"?

If by powerful, you mean ability to set the narrative or break a story of national or international importance, then ICHC is anything but.

moar funny pictures

Mixed Messages

GerryOS — 2008-03-25T21:55:49+00:00

It's for the magazine that I buy the Observer most Sundays. Often the main part of the paper ends up in the green bin having been hardly read at all. I enjoy Jay Rayner's restaurant reviews, particularly the delightfully bitchy ones; and Tim Atkin is to my mind the best wine writer in any newspaper across These Islands™ today.

However, the publishers of the Observer sometimes allow one or two conceits to creep in. The first is the themed issue, like The Gardening Issue or The Fashion Issue. The other is the Guest Editor, usually some pompous celeb. Last Sunday, they did both, and Thom Yorke of Radiohead was in the editor's chair for The Climate Change Issue.

Now, I know that climate change is a pressing issue, but self-indulgent nonsense like this just annoys me. Is Thom Yorke a respected climatologist? No, he's a rock musician, and as such has about as much claim to the editorship of the Observer's Climate Change Issue as any other punter with an opinion on the subject. The least they could have done was get someone with a contrarian viewpoint - a climate-change sceptic, or maybe someone that sees the problem but disagrees with how we are combating it.

The one thing I found amusing among all this po-facedness was the fact that thirteen full pages of the magazine were given over to advertising cars, five of which were double page spreads.

Sole Man

GerryOS — 2008-03-20T22:09:13+00:00

Living in the Midlands means that we don't have the same access to good fishmongers that we had when we lived in de Shmoke. If you like fish, the only way to buy it is from a fishmonger. (I remember a cartoon, years ago, in The Phoenix with two guys behind a fish stall. One says to the other "Well, don't just stand there - mong, for God's sake!")

I don't buy fish in supermarkets, as I find that it usually has at least a day more out of the sea than I would like. If fish isn't absolutely spanking fresh, it's not good.

These days, what we tend to do is to buy in bulk from a fishmonger, have it vacuum packed and then freeze it. Normally, we do this when we go to Cork, where there are several good fishmongers. The best known of them is Kay O'Connell's in the English Market, who have a magnificent display of fish at their stall. If we're in town and want some fish for dinner that night, we usually get it there.

However, if we're buying in bulk, we head for Carrigaline and stock up at Denis Good's. The main business here is fish processing and wholesale, but they have a retail outlet at the front of the building in the industrial estate on the Crosshaven Road. Our regular order is €100 worth of whatever is on offer on the day. Along with staples like salmon and cod, we include things like John Dory, ray, hake, turbot, scallops and lemon sole in the selection. As soon as we get back to my wife's folks' place, the lot goes in the freezer, and when we're going home, it goes in a coolbag with some freezer blocks.

Some purists will say that freezing ruins fish, and that it has to be eaten fresh. In an ideal world, I might agree, but freezing is a compromise I am willing to make, as the end result is far superior to what I have available to me otherwise.

The other consideration is how to cook it. I look on it two ways. If it's big and chunky like a fillet of cod or salmon, roast it. If its thin and flat like sole or plaice, then coat it in seasoned flour and fry it. Some people don't like fish because they think it's bland. Most fish needs something acidic to complement it and bring out the flavour. It can be something as simple as lemon juice, or maybe a salsa verde (lemon juice, capers, garlic and parsley). But best of the lot is a glass of crisp, dry white wine.

Eddie Walks

GerryOS — 2008-03-20T07:59:32+00:00

Finally, Eddie O'Sullivan has done the decent thing and stepped down as coach of the Irish rugby team. Statements from both himself and the IRFU following the disastrous World Cup last year indicated that he was going to brazen it out, but a fourth place finish in the Six Nations sealed his fate.

Lest anyone think I have it in for E O'S, I don't think he's a bad coach, but as his tenure went on, it was clear that he was running out of ideas. To have such a talented group of players and win nothing in seven years (and by that I mean nothing, Triple Crowns don't count as "anything") is a failure that speaks for itself.

The new coach, whoever he will be, will have to shake up the system in a big way. He will need to develop new talent, especially in such key areas as prop and half back, so that we have strength in depth, and also genuine competition for places. He will have to rebuild the shattered confidence of the players and make them fearless of any team they face. He will have to develop a varied game plan capable of overcoming our serial tormentors like France and New Zealand.

The IRFU needs to cast its net widely in its search for a new coach, and a genuine world-class coach won't come cheap. Does anyone have Tony O'Reilly's phone number, by any chance? :)

And finally, I would like to wish Eddie O'Sullivan all the best in whatever he does in his future career.

New Camera

GerryOS — 2008-03-16T22:35:54+00:00

Six years ago, I purchased my first digital camera. It was an Olympus C-200 Zoom, which I bought in Jersey for £200 (about €330 at the time.) It was the size of a sod of turf, had 2.1 megapixels and ran on AA batteries.

I remember feeling smug, seeing it in a camera store in Dublin soon after my purchase, with a price tag of €500 on it. It served me very well over three years, and once I upgraded, I gave it to my Dad, who made good use of it for another while. It finally packed in last summer. I took some very good pictures with it, including this one, which I have framed on my wall at home.

The next camera in my life was a Nikon Coolpix 5200, a very compact point-and-shoot job. At 5.1 megapixels, it was a significant step up from the Olympus. I paid €259 for it, buying it from the Apple Store online.

I realised soon after buying it that it had some serious shortcomings. It was hopeless for use in dark indoor settings, as I discovered at my sister's wedding. Even though it had a red-eye-reduction feature, it still plagued the photos I took, especially those of children. Kids tend to look straight at a camera when a photo is being taken, which leads to red-eye. Last years at a family event, I took a photo of my parents with all of their grandchildren. Nearly everyone of the kids had red-eye. Still, it served us well for three years, recording about 3,500 photos, including many our little darling Aoife.

I had been thinking about upgrading for a while, and for a good while had more or less made up my mind to take the step up to DSLR. It was going to be a Canon EOS400D or a Nikon D40x. Not being able to afford either, the decision was left on the long finger. Over the last few months, the Coolpix was starting to bug us badly, so the issue came to the fore again. The more I thought about it, I realised that a DSLR wouldn't be the right choice this time around. Apart from the money factor, the other main reason was the way that we use our camera. We tend to have it at the ready and take photos on the fly. It slips into the pocket when we're going to Emo for a walk. Neither my wife nor I is serious enough about photography as a hobby to warrant buying a DSLR.

So then, what to buy? In the three years since the last purchase, digital compact cameras have moved on a lot. There is a huge increase in the megapixel count, with compacts available now boasting 12 MP. However, some experts have stated that this doesn't necessarily lead to better photos, as the form factor of a compact negates the benefit of the extra pixels.

Reading many online reviews, one name kept cropping up - Ricoh, and in particular the Ricoh Caplio R7. It has 8.2 MP, and a really good lens.

It has a good few of the features that you see in modern compacts like face recognition, but it's not packed with unnecessary, gimicky features. It has a good 2.7" screen, and the controls are laid out well. Retail in Ireland is about €220-€250. I was in London last week and spotted one in a camera shop in the West End for £154, including a free 1GB SD card. Sold.

It's a nice camera and a definite improvement on the Nikon. I'm still getting used to the various modes and settings, and am having some minor problems with under-exposure, but overall it's taking some really nice shots. Here's a small selection that I have taken in the last couple of days. Click on them to go see full resolution versions.

Aoife looking straight at the camera. Flash used but no red-eye reduction.

Back facade of the house at Emo Court. Good definition, even though conditions were dull.

A daffy up close, using the Macro mode.

A plant in the grounds of Emo Court. The colours came out well on this.

Taking Stock After The Six Nations

GerryOS — 2008-03-16T20:58:42+00:00

Six Nations 2008 will be one that Irish rugby supporters will want to forget in a hurry. Finishing fourth meant that we had our worst final table placing since before Five became Six back in 2000.

Several truths were laid bare during the campaign. The first was that Ireland's dismal World Cup was more than just a 'blip', as had been claimed by the team's coach and the IRFU. Secondly, it proved beyond doubt that Eddie O'Sullivan's position was untenable, and that the IRFU's decision to award him a new four-year contract before the World Cup last September was a big mistake. Thirdly, it demonstrated our shocking lack of strength in depth in key positions. And fourthly, it showed that if you take an average side with a few world class players, under the right coach they can actually win the Grand Slam. In fact, they can even do it twice in the space of four seasons.

Despite a good start at Twickenham yesterday, once England got into their stride, Ireland had no answer. Poor defending let England in for three tries, while a lack of creativity meant that Ireland's last score of the game was registered at seven minutes. Our midfield, lacking talismanic captain Brian O'Driscoll, had a torrid time. We were unlucky to lose Denis Leamy so early in the game, and also to see Geordan Murphy coming off early in the second half. But this didn't lose the game for us. England were just too good and their outhalf and centres made hay.

So where do we go from here? First up, Eddie just has to walk. Someone has to take responsibility for Ireland's dismal form over the last twelve months, and as he is the man in charge of player selection, coaching and motivating the players, then he has to be the one that takes the blame when things go wrong. That's what Wales did after the World Cup, when they - like us - failed to qualify from the pool stage. Gareth Jenkins got the boot, Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards took over and reinvigorated the team, who went on to win their second Six Nations Grand Slam in four years. Hopefully the IRFU will have the balls to do it, bearing in mind the new contract was signed only six months ago. If they choose not to, expect them to present the Genesis Report as their fig-leaf.

Whoever is the Irish coach going forward has to start looking for new talent. The IRFU needs to facilitate the development of up and coming players by giving them as much opportunity as possible to play their non-international rugby at home with the provinces. If this isn't possible, then the union needs to have someone keeping an eye on Irish-qualified players plying their trade overseas, to make sure that no potential international players go unnoticed. There needs to be genuine competition for places so that the established players don't get complacent. A player that gets dropped has to be assured that he can get back into the team, but will have to earn his place.

Brian O'Driscoll has been captain for several seasons now, and in my opinion, it is time to hand the armband over to someone else. He has done his due, and freedom from the burden of captaincy might help him to concentrate on his game. ROG would be the natural contender for the position, but given his age, we should be looking for another candidate for the longer term.

After this campaign, and the World Cup before it, will have left Ireland's international players with their confidence at a very low ebb. Whoever takes over will have to be able to re-instill the confidence that was once there. He will have to enable them to rediscover their winning mentality, and also to convince them that it really is possible to beat France and to win the Six Nations.

The bottom line is this - Wales have done it, so can we.

England v. Ireland

GerryOS — 2008-03-14T22:33:44+00:00

In the normal scheme of things, a St Patrick's weekend England-Ireland clash would be something to savour, especially if there had just been a good week for the Irish in "Chiltnim." There might be a championship up for grabs, or at least a Triple Crown. But not this time.

Both Ireland and England are in the doldrums, both having lost two games in the championship so far. Whoever wins tomorrow will finish third in the final shake-up, and the loser will finish fourth. It's a dead rubber in other words.

For the second time in two weeks, Eddie O'Sullivan faces a team coached by one of his predecessors. This time however, that predecessor is under more pressure than O'Sullivan, and neither is he carrying any baggage into the fixture. If England lose tomorrow, Brian Ashton may well lose his job. If Ireland lose, Eddie will more than likely keep his.

There is little point in analysing the Irish team. Losing BOD is a big blow, but one upside is that it finally gives Ronan O'Gara the captain's armband. ROG has been the de facto captain this season so far, so it is good to see him get the job de jure. Murphy is back at full-back, which should add an extra attacking edge. But all of this is irrelevant, because as we have seen for several months now, the Irish team as a whole adds up to a lot less than the sum of its parts.

Ireland's record against England has been very good in recent years. We have won the last four encounters against them, and a win tomorrow would be a three-in-a-row for Ireland at Twickenham. However, I don't think it's going to happen. The creative juice has been squeezed out of this team, and they can be read like an open book. Watch Danny Cipriani tomorrow. He's going to cause us problems.

England by a score, I reckon.

Plan B? There Is No Plan B!

GerryOS — 2008-03-08T21:46:14+00:00

Well, we're back to square one again, aren't we? Ireland were deservedly beaten today by Wales in a really poor match. In the end they were flattered by the scoreline, as opportunities aplenty were squandered by the men in red.

It seemed as if Ireland simply had no game plan whatsoever. The limit of their ambition seemed to be to deny the Welsh any possession, but sadly, they had no idea of what to do with that possession. Half an hour in, the Welsh had them sussed, and as a result Ireland were left chasing shadows. The only Irish players that seemed to have any creative nous were Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip, but whenever they got a head of steam going, they were let down by the support players.

Looking forward to next week, I expect Wales to close out the deal by beating France in Cardiff. Unlike Ireland, Wales aren't scared of their shite of France, and also unlike Ireland, they can actually go all the way, as they did three years ago. Ironically, I wouldn't be surprised if Ireland were to beat England, as this seems to be the sum total of Eddie O'Sullivan's ambitions.

This will not be remembered as a vintage Six Nations year (except in the Valleys, of course.) No team has stood out, and to be honest, Wales, even though they will probably land the Slam next week, are no great shakes. A good three-quarter line, decent half-backs and Martyn Williams, and that's about it. Let's face it, any team with Gavin Henson in it can hardly be considered great.

Currently, Ireland are second in the table, but will fall to third tomorrow once France beat Italy. If we lose to England next week, we will finish fourth, our worst ever finish in the Six Nations. In one way, it might be a good thing as then it would be further impetus for the IRFU to say "Adios" to Eddie O'S.

Ireland v. Wales

GerryOS — 2008-03-06T21:18:30+00:00

This weekend sees the first ever visit of the Welsh rugby team to Croke Park. They're not the first Welsh team to run out onto the hallowed ground though - the football team came here last year, and Stephen Ireland scored the first soccer goal in Croker in a 1-0 win for the home side.

Eddie O'Sullivan would take the rugby equivalent of a 1-0 win next Saturday. His charges won unconvincingly against Italy in the opening match of the Six Nations, followed by the customary defeat to an ordinary French side the following week. Then last Saturday week, Ireland notched up a five tries to one win over a hapless Scotland.

On the other side of the draw, Wales shook off their 20-year Twickenham hoodoo with a win over England in their opening match, followed by solid home wins against Scotland and Italy. They remain the only unbeaten team in the competition.

Both teams go into Saturday's match on the back of wins and good performances, and on paper there is little to separate them. Ireland have a relatively settled team (although Eddie has made a few changes, some by choice, others forced upon him.) Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards are finding their feet in the Principality, and so are using each game that comes along to test new combinations of players.

Wales are a confidence team. When they play well and string together a few wins they become unbeatable, like in 2005, when they won the Grand Slam. But when they are lacking confidence, they are dreadful. This season their tails are up, the passes are sticking, the breaks are working, and they are getting the benefit of the doubt in the refereeing decisions. They will come to Croke Park on Saturday expecting nothing less than another notch on the 2008 Grand Slam belt.

Ireland have been dealt a blow by losing both their first and second choice full-back to injury. It means that Rob Kearney will have to start at international full-back for the first time, with Tommy Bowe switching wings and Shane Horgan coming in. Having a rookie at full-back is always a worry, particularly with as wily an out-half as Stephen Jones in the Welsh team. Hopefully Kearney will have as assured a performance at full-back as he has had at wing so far. My worry is Horgan's fitness. He's not had a happy season so far, blighted by injury and struggling to find form. He'll have Shane Williams to contend with on Saturday, and will need to be on top of his game to contain the Taffy Twister.

The restoration of Paul O'Connell to the second row means that we have leadership in the pack for the first time this season. The leader of the front eight is normally either the hooker, a second row or the No 8. Jackman and Best have had mares at the lineout, and in all we have coughed up roughly one in four. Jamie Heaslip is too inexperienced at this level to be a true leader yet. So it's good to see POC back, as hopefully he will be able to keep things steady upfront and ensure that we manage to get and retain possession.

I'm not going to call it. It's too close. However Ireland have the experience, the capacity and the home advantage to prevail on Saturday. Let's hope they do.

N8 Numpty

GerryOS — 2008-03-05T22:10:43+00:00

I drive a lot in the course of my job, and while I would never consider myself to be the best driver on the roads, I come up against a lot of idiot drivers on the highways and byways of our fair isle.

Like the one I encountered this morning as I drove to Cork. I overtook a few slow-moving vehicles just south of Urlingford, and as often happens, the overtaking lane ended before I had a chance to get past one particular truck. This was a big artic, carrying ESB poles or something like that. It couldn't go much above 60 km/h. However, I wasn't the only one in this position, as there was a Nissan Primera in front of me and behind the truck.

The truck driver obviously knew that there was traffic building up behind him, and did what he could to allow it to overtake him. But our friend in the Primera made such a meal of the manoeuvre that it wasn't until we were beyond Horse and Jockey that he finally got past him.

For the first mile or so, it wasn't feasible to try to overtake as there was too much traffic coming against us. Then when it cleared, Numpty in the Primera puts on his right indicator and promptly hits the brakes. So I hung back, as this would normally be an indication that he was going to turn right. But he didn't, he just went on for another mile or so with his indicator on. The truck moves over to the hard shoulder to let him go, and Numpty starts to overtake. Some traffic appears from the other direction, and yer man panics and slams on the brakes. He could have gone safely, having not crossed the central line, but instead aborted the manoeuvre. Then we get to Turnpike, so the truck has to pull out of the hard shoulder. Between Turnpike and H&J Numpty thinks about it once or twice again, but decides to stay put.

Then after Horse & Jockey, the truck practically goes into the ditch to give him enough room. He hesitates for a while, but finally makes his move, out way over the central line (even though his own lane was completely clear, the truck having all its wheels in the hard shoulder), and forcing an oncoming car into the hard shoulder on the opposite side. I got out past the truck right after him, but of course he's now right up against the white line. Eventually I got past him.

Today it was announced that penalty points will be dished out to car owners who allow their registration plates to become illegibly dirty. Surely they could put in a category for idiocy too?

Health Service - Same Old Same Old

GerryOS — 2008-03-05T21:46:13+00:00

Today, the third report in to the breast cancer misdiagnosis scandal at the Midlands Hospital in Portlaoise was published. The best Mary Harney (Health Minister) and Brendan Drumm (head honcho of the Health Service Executive) could do was say "Sorry". (When I heard that it reminded me of an episode of Father Ted, when Father Jack is ordered to apologise to Bishop Brennan for exclaiming "arse biscuits!" in his episcopal presence.)

The big problem with or health service is that it is a power struggle between competing vested interests, but the sector that relies upon it - the patients - are the ones with no power at all. The medical and administrative staff can withdraw their labour if they can't get what they want. The government and HSE can withdraw funding or close down services if they don't get their way. But what can the patients do? Sod all, in truth. They can't withdraw their illnesses and injuries. About the only thing they can do is try to shame the system and its people into doing what is right. But only so many people can talk to Joe. So for every misdiagnosed cancer patient that manages to scramble onto the radar of the national consciousness, there are dozens more whose voices remain unheard and whose health, or even lives, are at risk.

So sorry, Mary, I don't buy your act of contrition. You and your buddies in FF have had eleven years to sort this mess out. The only thing of significance that you have done is to create the HSE, whose only function seems to be as a convenient target of blame for shortcomings within the service.

Biffo's Bizarre Logic

GerryOS — 2008-02-28T22:51:00+00:00

In recent weeks, Tánaiste Brian Cowen (of this parish, sorta) has been sent out several times to bat in defence of Don Bertione. When answering opposition criticism of the Taoiseach, especially from Enda Kenny, he describes Fine Gael as a party that was "rejected by the electorate."

Let's examine this claim. In 2007, Fine Gael won 51 seats, up 20 from 31. Fianna Fáil won 78 seats, down three from 81.

What are Biffo's criteria for defining "rejected"? On the face of it, it looks like being simply unable to cobble together the numbers to form a government. So does that mean that the government parties have been decisively endorsed by the electorate? The PDs still have a cabinet minister, even though they only have two TDs now, having lost six of the eight that were elected to the 29th Dáil. Even the Greens didn't manage to increase their representation in the 30th Dáil, flatlining with six TDs.

The reality is that no one party was either decisively endorsed or rejected. Due to the fractured nature of our party political system, parties that have seemingly been endorsed by the electorate can end up in opposition; while those that have been rejected can end up in government.

Dad Stuff

GerryOS — 2008-02-24T22:50:17+00:00

This article caught my eye in today's Observer Magazine. Two men, both around my age, both first-time dads of daughters around Aoife's age, record their experiences.

Eighteen months into the job myself, I can't say that it hasn't been demanding, tiring and sometimes frustrating. But whenever I look into those gorgeous little brown eyes, and see that sweet little smile, I appreciate the honour of being her Daddy.

That's Amazing!

GerryOS — 2008-02-24T22:47:05+00:00

…as Carl Hooper might say.

This optical illusion tricks your brain into seeing a black and white photograph as colour.

Classic "Fast Show"

GerryOS — 2008-02-23T23:20:41+00:00

(NSFW, I should add)

Go, Dustin!

GerryOS — 2008-02-23T22:59:41+00:00

The people have spoken. Ireland's representative at this year's Eurovision Song Contest is to be Dustin the Turkey, with the song "Irlande, Douze Points."

Back in May, after Dervish were sent home from last year's Eurovision with just five points, I opined:

"If Ireland is ever to have notions of winning the Eurovision again, the strategy involved must change dramatically. Forget the idea of meaningful songs. Eurovision is as gay as Christmas, so to do well, Ireland's entry needs to camp it up. Two and a half minutes of fizzy Europop, that kids can remember just long enough to vote for it, performed by a pop starlet or a boyband/girlband. Skimpily clad dancers swishing their hair around, all that sort of stuff. Nothing deep and serious, as that just scares the votes away."

And this is exactly what Dustin is doing. The song is hi-NRG Europop nonsense with a catchy chorus. A very appropriate chorus too - "Irlande, douze points" is after all selling a message. The backing singers and dancers are as camp as they come. It's Eurovision gold, I reckon.

Martin Taylor Should Be Charged With Assault

GerryOS — 2008-02-23T22:47:23+00:00

Taylor shouldn't have just been sent off. He should have been arrested as well.

And to add insult to injury, Birmingham scored from an ill-deserved penalty deep in second-half time added on, to draw the match 2-2.

Fuckers.

Solid Irish See Off Sorry Scots

GerryOS — 2008-02-23T22:17:47+00:00

Ireland's rugby rehabilitation continued today, with a comprehensive five-tries-to-one demolition of Scotland at Croke Park.

There was a dazzling performance by the backs, with full-back Geordan Murphy putting in a man-of-the-match performance. Bearing in mind that he wasn't even in the matchday 22 on Tuesday, this was a two-fingered display for Eddie O'Sullivan's benefit. Murphy is and out-and-out full-back, and you can be sure that if he was qualified to play for any other Six Nation team, the team sheet coming out of the coach's printer on a Monday would have the name "G Murphy" pre-printed on the No 15 spot.

Andrew Trimble played one of his best games in an Ireland shirt so far. Rob Kearney got his first international try, while Tommy Bowe bagged two. The Munster forwards showed that they were no slouches either, with David Wallace and Marcus Horan claiming a score apiece.

There are still some areas of concern. Ireland got off to a very slow start and allowed Scotland a lot of possession early on. Caledonian ineptness ensured that this possession did not translate to points on the board, but you would think that if this had been England or Wales in Croke Park today, we would have been playing catch-up after 20 minutes or so. The line-out was poor. This is a dilemma for O'Sullivan. Jackman is effective around the park, but his throwing is not up to scratch. Rory Best simply isn't international standard. Jerry Flannery is the best hooker in Ireland at the moment, and hopefully he will be available for our last two matches. However, even if he is fit, it's no guarantee that O'Sullivan will pick him.

Elsewhere, Wales had a slow start against a feisty Italian side, but once Tom Shanklin ran in a try from an intercepted pass, they just ran riot from then on. England had a magnificent win against France in Paris this evening, demonstrating once again that Ireland's extended run of losses to Les Bleus remains unexplained.

Some Geek Humour

GerryOS — 2008-02-20T21:56:08+00:00

A new typographic expression is born - keming.

"Someone is wrong on the internet"

(both via Daring Fireball)

An old Joy of Tech, but a good 'un.

Some Links

GerryOS — 2008-02-18T23:50:03+00:00

A couple of readers have been in touch with links that might be of interest to my readers (all three of them), so here goes:

Tim Kelly from Concert Travel first:

"I am contacting you as I thought you might be interested to know Concert Travel are now servicing Portlaoise (and Laois in general).
We are a Limerick based company running dedicated bus services to concerts and events in Dublin and around the country.
We want to enable small groups of people, couples, children etc to travel to events without the worry of driving and having to park etc.
If you would like to know more please dont hesitate to contact us on the email above or on 061 384422."

Also, Ronan O'Keeffe of Mediacontact.ie asked me for a shout-out.

Speed Cameras To Be Shelved?

GerryOS — 2008-02-18T23:26:14+00:00

The Irish Times motoring section led with a piece last week about the failure of the the Government and the Road Safety Authority to implement their much-vaunted speed camera project. Under the original plan, 600 speed cameras would have been installed on the country's roads. The installation and maintenance of the camera network was to have been contracted out to the private sector. However, it is believed now that the initial costs envisaged were radically underestimated, and so the prospect is much less tempting for any putative operator.

Needless to say, there has been great wringing of hands by the great and the good as a result. But to me, this is a victory for common sense. As evidence from other jurisdictions has shown, speed cameras are far more limited in their effectiveness at reducing road fatalities than we are led to believe.

"Speeding" can take one of two forms. It can mean (a) driving at a speed that is too fast for the road or the prevailing conditions (fog, ice, etc.), or (b) exceeding an arbitrary speed limit on a stretch of road. In some cases, an instance of speeding might be both of these combined, but usually it is one or the other. Situation (a) above is obviously dangerous, whereas situation (b) may not necessarily be. Yet speeding detection and prosecution is carried out pretty much exclusively on the basis of the latter scenario.

To implement a credible speed control regime on the national roads, the authorities must first sort out the speed limits themselves. They had the opportunity to do this in 2005, when we changed from miles-per-hour to kilometres-per-hour speed limits, but this was botched. Uniform speed limits are applied to non-uniform roads. If you drive from Cahir to Portlaoise on the N8, you will see what I mean. From Cahir to just north of Cashel, you have a dual carriageway, built to motorway standards. From then on, it is mostly a wide single carriageway, with hard shoulders. But once you get past Abbeyleix it is a narrow, twisting road, the sort you might expect to be designated as an "R" road. Yet for the entire length of that journey (stretches through towns, villages and roadworks excepted), the speed limit is a standard 100 km/h. Now, for some of that road, the speed limit is too low, and for other parts of it, it is too high. On the dual carriageway part, it is arguably safe to drive at 120 km/h (the arbitrary speed limit for a motorway in Ireland.) On the narrow, twisty part, driving at 100km/h is arguably too fast. However, you risk prosecution for the former, even though the latter is more dangerous.

Consider also, regional roads and their speed limits. Once again, we have a one-size-fits-all policy. There are a number of "R" roads that are former national routes, and are good wide roads and would be safe for 100 km/h. One that springs to mind is the dual carriageway between Naas and Newbridge, or long stretches of the old N1. Then we have roads that are little better than goat-tracks, some of which cannot accommodate two cars passing one another without one having to pull in. Whereas it is safe to drive on the former in excess of the prescribed 80km/h, it would be an act of unbridled lunacy to attempt the same speed on the latter. (The original version of the image above can be seen at IrishSpeedTraps.com)

Speed limits on all roads are fixed, irrespective of the prevailing driving conditions. 120km/h on a motorway with clear visibility may be safe, but in fog or torrential rain it is not. Last March, there was a multiple vehicle pile-up on the M7 in Kildare in which a young woman lost her life. Eyewitness reports told of drivers tearing along the motorway at speeds well in excess of what was safe, yet most of them would probably have been under the speed limit.

The other question that needs to be asked is how much exactly does excessive speed contribute exclusively to accidents. I would guess that it is a lot less than we are led to believe. Yes it is a factor, but it is often in addition to another factor, like intoxication or inexperience or fatigue. Several fatal accidents involve a single vehicle, late at night, with a young driver. Yes, he may have been going too fast, but he could have been drunk or on drugs, or have fallen asleep at the wheel, or just not have the experience to handle the speed he was doing.

Speed detection is done on the basis of whatever the prescribed limit is for the road in question. Whether the driver is driving safely or not is not considered. So you could happily drive at 120km/h on the Fermoy bypass (a motorway) without fear of prosecution, yet if you drive at that speed on the stretch of the N8 between Watergrasshill and the Dunkettle interchange you risk prosecution, even though the standard of the road is exactly the same as the M8.

The other major problem I have with the speed camera initiative is that it was to be installed and run by a private company. Private companies have two motives - to make a profit, and to have that profit grow each year. I'm not criticising that, as that is what private companies do. But the purpose of speed cameras is to reduce the number of people "speeding". So if fewer people are speeding, that means that revenues should be decreasing each year. To counteract this the company operating the cameras would have to install cameras at "softer" locations (like the aforementioned stretch of the N8 in north Cork, or on the N6 between Kinnegad and Kilbeggan, or on the N11 between the Glen of the Downs and Wicklow, or on the Gorey bypass, etc., etc.) in order to keep revenues up. Instead of prosecuting unsafe driving, they would be persecuting drivers who happened to be exceeding an artificially low limit, but were still driving safely. It would lose credibility very quickly.

The issue of speed and road safety is a lot more complex than is often presented. It requires a fine balance between credible speed limits and effective enforcement. Speed cameras, particularly privatised ones, are a blunt instrument, and we are better off without them.

The Most Sensational, Inspirational, Celebrational, Muppetational…

GerryOS — 2008-02-17T22:13:21+00:00

Leinster House is to undergo some renovation work shortly, and to facilitate this, Seanad Éireann is to temporarily relocate to the Natural History Museum. The Dáil is to stay put, but if it happens that it is required to move, then I reckon its temporary home should be the Gaiety Theatre.

The Gaiety is a very traditional style of theatre, and I always think that it bears a striking resemblance to the theatre of The Muppet Show.

Which begs the question - which politician best matches the various characters in the show?

Kermit - Bertie (or possibly John Gormley, being Green and all that.)
Miss Piggy - Mary Harney
Sam the Eagle - Enda Kenny
Animal - Conor Lenihan
Gonzo - Willie O'Dea
Scooter - Pat Rabbitte
Beaker - John O'Donoghue
Thog - Brian Cowen

Any more suggestions?

In the meantime:

Donie, Your Time Has Come!

GerryOS — 2008-02-17T21:58:37+00:00

This was a headline in the news digest of Saturday's Irish Times:

What a brilliant idea! Build a new network of roads especially for non-nationals. Then they can drive on the right hand side to their hearts' content and it won't affect Irish drivers one little bit.

Oh. Hang on. Maybe not…

Apple Store To Open In Belfast

GerryOS — 2008-02-11T21:58:56+00:00

via MacUser

The Apple Store is finally coming to Ireland. Apple have announced that they are now recruiting for a new store in Victoria Square in Belfast, "North Ireland."

No dates yet as to when it's going to open. Or indeed any indication if there is to be any move to open a shop in "South Ireland."

In other Mac news, Apple have released an update to OS X Leopard, bringing up to version 10.5.2. Is it just me, or are these updates getting bigger and bigger? This baby weighs in at 343MB. Those DSL speed enhancements can't come a minute too soon!

We'll Never Have Paris

GerryOS — 2008-02-08T21:29:39+00:00

In my preview of today's match I stated: " I can't see another match like the extraordinary one of 2006, when Ireland came back from 43-3 down to finish 43-31." Well, I got that wrong! Like 2006, today's match, as anyone called Trevor might say, was a game of two 'alves.

It can be summed up thus - France were lucky, but Ireland weren't smart enough.

The bounce of the ball favoured France today. Indeed the bounce off the balls favoured them too. David Skrela put through a little grubber early in the second half that bounced off the O'Driscoll family jewels, and popped up perfectly for Cederic Heymans to collect and run in under the posts.

One thing I did get right was that Vincent Clerc is usually good for a try or two against us. Today, he went one better and got three before half-time.

All in all it was a vastly improved performance by Ireland, and much closer to the form they showed in last year's Six Nations than what was on offer at the World Cup. Several players showed up today. Our back row was excellent. This should be the starting 6.7 and 8 for the rest of the tournament, with Gleeson on the bench. I thought Reddan was a bit ponderous in the first half, but he improved after the break. The scrum did very well, and unlike last week, our lineout was interested in poaching French ball.

During the week, ROG gave an interview to RTE radio that showed his leadership credentials. He said that Ireland shouldn't keep trying too many power plays, but should be patient, keep chipping away, and as the game develops, the chances will come. It's exactly how Munster managed to prevail in the Pool of Sharks of this year's Heineken Cup. It seems to me that Brian O'Driscoll is Captain in name only these days. He does the press conferences and all the other shite that captains have to do.

But there is one leader on the pitch, and on his back is the number 10.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

GerryOS — 2008-02-08T08:39:29+00:00

It's a cliché that gets thrown out at manys the post-match press conference - you can only play what's in front of you. When it comes to analysis and prediction, you can only go on what's behind you.

So, looking forward to Ireland's Six Nation clash with France tomorrow, I find little solace in studying the recent results. We have to go back ten matches and eight years to find our last win in Paris, and a further 29 years to find the one before that! Since 2000, we have overcome the French twice at home, in 2001 and 2003.

So here's the numbers (since 2000, including RWC):

P 10; W 3; D 0; L7; F 177; A 288

Our biggest win was 22-15 in 2001, and our heaviest loss came the following year, 44-5. The average score in the last then games has been 18-29. France have won the last six games on the trot, with an average score of 18-32.

(Incidentally, of the Irish team that started in our last win in Paris, five will start on tomorrow, and another two will be on the bench. None of the French team of that day will feature tomorrow.)

So looking at those stats, I cannot see anything other than a defeat for Ireland tomorrow. Add in a few more observations:

- Ireland haven't played well since last year's Six Nations, and struggled against a poor Italian side at home last week.
- France showed none of their frequent first-day jitters last Sunday with a convincing win away to Scotland.
- Vincent Clerc is playing, and he's normally good for a try or two against us.
- Eddie O'Sullivan is still our coach.

There are a few chinks of light, though:

- Three players will be making their Paris débuts, and you'd never know, Rob Kearney might repeat Brian O'Driscoll's hat-trick feat of 2000. (This, I readily concede, is a long shot.)
- Ronan O'Gara is back on form, and would appear to have put the nightmare of the World Cup behind him.
- The French might see Bernard Jackman's bald head at hooker and think that Keith Wood is back.

But I don't think that will be enough to save us. I can't see another match like the extraordinary one of 2006, when Ireland came back from 43-3 down to finish 43-31. I can't see where Ireland's tries will come from. Our line is too flat. Guys are taking ball on and going into a tackle one millisecond later. There is no opportunity to generate any momentum to break the tackle or to offload before the tackle goes in. It also allows the opposition line to stay on the right side of the ref's offside radar and get the tackles in early and legally. So what happens is that we lose field position, as rucks form further and further back. We need strong ball carriers to pick and go, and break the gain line, so hopefully our rejigged backrow might be able to do this.

Alternatively, ROG will use the boot, but to what effect? We got nothing from the Italian line-out last week (and coughed up a few of our own), so how are we going to turn his darts to the corner to our advantage? Those lovely cross-field kicks he put up for the winger to run on to are a joy to watch, but that's a weapon to be used sparingly.

Much as I love France as a country, I cannot stand their sodding rugby team. They are to Irish rugby what the Kerry footballers are to Mayo. You might admire their skill and their flair, but you'll never get me to like them.

More On Donie's Brilliant Idea

GerryOS — 2008-02-07T21:45:08+00:00

I was up in the Cavan/Monaghan area today, and after I heard of Senator Donie Cassidy's moment of brilliance, realised that it would have a fundamental effect on a stretch of road I drove today. How would we manage border crossings? Would we lobby the British Government to have Northern Ireland adopt the same side of the road as the Republic? Or just nip across to the other side whenever we crossed the border?

The N54 between Cavan and Clones crosses the border four times.

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No, Today's Not April 1st…

GerryOS — 2008-02-07T17:55:08+00:00

The rubbish some people come out with sometimes…

Fianna Fáil leader in the Seanad, Donie Cassidy suggests that non-national drivers should be subject to a lower speed limit on N-roads. Instead of the usual 100 km/h, he suggests they should adhere to an 80 km/h limit. What happens then of course is that queues of traffic will form behind these restricted drivers, leading to frustration and dangerous overtaking. Way to go. But that's not the best of it. Senator Cassidy also reckons we should look at switching to driving on the right hand side of the road (like they did in Sweden in 1967), so as to facilitate tourists and immigrants. Maybe we should do it on a phased basis, just so that we can all get used to the idea. Trucks and buses only for the first six months, and then cars.

And then on the other side of the wather, comes this nonsense from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, that Sharia Law could operate alongside civil law in the UK to help ease Muslim alienation. For the love of God/Allah/The Flying Spaghetti Monster, where do these ideas come from??

How One 'S' Became '$$$'

GerryOS — 2008-02-06T22:39:09+00:00

via MacUser:

A UK based cruise company, who already owned the domain name cruise.co.uk, have just paid £560,000 (€668,000) to buy cruises.co.uk.

The new owner said that the the plural always came ahead of the singular in Google searches, and that they wanted their site to be "the first port of call" for searches.

Boom, boom!

Damned If You Do, Etc.

GerryOS — 2008-02-06T22:29:31+00:00

The FAI come in for a lot of criticism, a lot of it is justified. A couple of years ago, everyone threw their hands up in horror as the Association hastily appointed the inexperienced Steve Staunton as national team coach.

Stan got the boot last October, and the FAI were keen not to make the same mistake again. So they set up a three-man committee to find suitable candidates to recommend to the FAI board. Bear in mind that the next competitive international for Ireland isn't until September, so it's not as if an appointment has to be made urgently.

Once again, the chatterati are in despair. "Why is it taking so long?", they ask.

Because they appointed in haste last time and made a balls of it!

Let them take their time and find the right man for the job.

Well, It's A Start

GerryOS — 2008-02-06T08:14:15+00:00

Eddie has named his starting line-up for the French match, with three changes in personnel and two positional switches from the side that started in Croke Park last Saturday.

Andrew Trimble goes into the centre to take the place of Gordon D'Arcy, who fractured his wrist in last Saturday's game. Rob Kearney starts on the wing. Jamie Heaslip takes the No.8 shirt from Denis Leamy, who moves over to the blindside. The previous incumbent at 6, Simon Easterby, is on the bench. Bernard Jackman and Rory Best swap the No 2 and No 16 jerseys from last Saturday.

In the replacements, Shane Horgan comes back to the senior squad after his stint with the "A"s.

It's better than last week, but it should be borne in mind that one of those changes was brought about by injury. I still think that Easterby shouldn't even be in the squad, and his place on the bench would be put to better use by picking Alan Quinlan or Keith Gleeson in the replacements. Similarly, Shane Horgan isn't fully fit yet, and this would have been an opportunity to see if Tommy Bowe's recent run of good form for Ulster could come through when he's wearing a green shirt. His last appearance for Ireland wasn't a happy one, but there should be an opportunity for him to redeem himself, given the shocking performances by several more senior and regular internationals over the course of this season.

I didn't get to see the Scotland-France match, but by all accounts, Les Bleus look like a formidable outfit under their new coach. Given that we couldn't beat them under Laporte, probably the worst French coach in a generation, we have little hope of overcoming them under the nouvelle régime. Especially as the match is in Paris, where we have one just once since 1972.

There is an interesting parallel with the 2006 season here. Back then, Ireland struggled to overcome Italy in their opener at home. They went to Paris the next week, and got shat on from a great height for the first 50 minutes or so, conceding six tries. But then they decided to start playing as they knew they could, and ran in four unanswered converted tries and finishing 12 points behind the French.

It's good to see that O'Sullivan is prepared to make some changes for Saturday, but I don't think there is enough team spirit in the squad to do the business.

France with 20+ to spare.

Spare A Thought

GerryOS — 2008-02-02T23:18:01+00:00

Tonight, four families from Limerick, Poland and Italy are mourning the loss of loved ones as a result of an horrific road accident here in Co Laois today.

I only heard about it this evening on the news. The poor performance of the Irish rugby team doesn't seem so important any more, does it?

At Last…

GerryOS — 2008-02-02T23:07:13+00:00

I am paranoid about backing up. I use SuperDuper to back up my entire hard drive to an external HDD. I have complete copy of all my 4000-odd photos on a Flickr Pro account. And last month, I signed up to Mozy.

Mozy is an online backup system. It costs $100 for two years, and you back up all your data and media files to a server somewhere in California. If you have a lot of data to back up, this can take some time, given the pathetic upload speeds offered by Irish broadband providers.

I signed up exactly a month ago, and today the last of my 37GB of files got backed up.

From now on, it runs in the background. It also slowed my connection something chronic.