Sunday, January 30, 2011

The most popular Irish newspaper on facebook is...

The evening Echo is Ireland's most popular newspaper on facebook. The Cork-based paper tops the list with nearly 9,000 fans. I'm also happy to say that the Cork Independent is the second most popular newspaper in Ireland, with 8,349 fans. They both are easily more popular than any national newspaper on the social networking website. They are also more popular than any Irish politician on facebook.
Despite social media's relevance in modern Ireland, many newspapers haven't engaged in the medium, with community pages with wikipedia extracts comprising their facebook pages.


Below are all Irish newspapers on facebook and the amount of fans that they have.




National Press:


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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 7:35 AM 8 comments
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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Study abroad - Weather

Remember how a little bit of snow and ice brought Dublin to a standstill a few months ago. If that much snow landed in Newfoundland, people would still be out in shorts and t-shirts. When it comes to weather, these people are some of the toughest I’ve ever seen.
In my first few days here, the weather was fine. There was no snow, no ice and certainly no wind.  This was surprising, because one month before I left Ireland, Newfoundland was hit by a major hurricane. The hurricane closed down the campus for a few days, but nothing that these hardy Newfies couldn’t shrug off.  However, it was the winter season they were dreading, and winter is only just starting here.
The first major snowstorm came out of nowhere and covered the city within minutes. I’m around 5foot6 and the snow easily engulfed my feel and, in parts, nearly reached my knees. I learned very fast to use the university’s underground tunnels.
I can deal with the major snow. It’s still a novelty to me and makes the city look stunning. What I hate is the icy snow. You see, when heavy amounts of snow gets trampled on, rained on and then frozen, it turns into this evil, horribly slippery substance. I’ve fell over multiple times on it and it doesn’t cushion a fall like snow.
The wind here is also the strongest I’ve ever felt. It’s like walking straight into a tornado. The only benefit to it is how nice it is to listen to when wrapped up in bed. Trying to get to class in strong winds, and -24 degrees chill does not make a particularly enjoyable experience.
It’s all something I have to get used to. The winter season isn’t over here by a long shot. Global warming, my arse!

As printed in An Focal

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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 9:14 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Getting to know you


The first thing I learned about journalism is that it’s a dog-eat-dog, cutthroat business, but I wonder does that lesson stem to college journalism. Take a look at twitter and you’ll see great banter between journalists from all different kinds of newspaper. A journalist from the Star might be having a laugh with someone from the Indo. But where are all the student journalists?
There doesn’t seem to be a sense of camaraderie between student paper journalists.
I’m wondering whether it be possible to organize a meeting of journalists, photographers, designers and editors from student newspapers across Ireland later this year. Gather some guest speakers and some social activities and really get to know each other. If anything, it would create contacts in Ireland’s student media.
Would people go to it? Would it be worth doing? If possible, what would be the best way to go about doing it? Your thoughts would be very much appreciated in this. 

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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 2:27 AM 2 comments
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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Under Construction

In an attempt to get as many people to read through callingshotgun.ie I’m making a few experimental HTML and Java additions. In the past day I’ve added a flag counter to the side and a facebook like box to each post that I’ve already put up. 
Over the next few days I hope to have more exciting changes made to the site. I’ve been looking through more mature, more sexy blogs over the past few weeks and I think it’s time to bring this blog up to that level. A categories sidebar, proper search bar and more exciting header may sound simple, but the basics are going way over my head. I’m quite proud of how I’ve been doing so far. 

Here’s hoping that I don’t accidentally delete the basic template.
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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 6:56 PM 2 comments
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Monday, January 24, 2011

The most popular TD on facebook is...



Independent North Tipperary TD, Michael Lowry is the most popular TD on facebook, with Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty in 2nd place and Fianna Fail's Micheal Martin in third. At the time of blogging, Lowry has 5,001 facebook friends, while Dohery has 4,267 and Martin has 4,070.
The least popular TD's on facebook are Michael Finneran, Sean Fleming, Thomas McEllistrim, James McDaid, Denis Naughten, John O’Mahony, Tom Sheahan and Sean Sherlock who have no fans on facebook.
Many TDs are very active on facebook, while some don't put any work into it, but are automatically given their wikipedia entry as a facebook page.
Here is a full list of the TDs who are on facebook and just how active they are.



Barry Andrews
Chris Andrews
Sean Ardagh
Bobby Aylward
James Bannon
Joe Behan
Niall Blaney
Aíne Brady
Cyprian Brady
Johnny Brady
Pat Breen
Tommy Broughan
Richard Bruton
Ulick Burke
Joan Burton
Thomas Byrne
Dara Calleary
Joe Carey
Deirdre Clune
Niall Collins
Margaret Conlon
Paul Connaughton
Sean Connick
Noel Coonan
Joe Costello
Mary Coughlan
Simon Coveney
Brian Cowen
Seymour Crawford
Michael Creed
John Cregan
Lucinda Creighton
Ciarán Cuffe
John Deasy
Jimmy Deenihan
Jimmy Devins
Pearse Doherty
Timmy Dooley
Andrew Doyle
Bernard Durkan
Damien English
Frank Fahey
Frank Feighan
Martin Ferris
Michael Finneran
Charles Flanagan
Terence Flanagan
Sean Fleming
Beverley Flynn
Eamon Gilmore
Paul Gogarty
John Gormley
Noel Grealish
Mary Hanafin
Sean Haughey
Brian Hayes
Tom Hayes
Jackie Healy-Rae
Michael D. Higgins
Maire Hoctor
Phil Hogan
Brendan Howlin
Paul Kehoe
Billy Kelleher
Brendan Kenneally
Michael Kennedy
Enda Kenny
Tony Killeen
Séamus Kirk
Brian Lenihan
Conor Lenihan
Michael Lowry
Kathleen Lynch
Ciarán Lynch
Martin Mansergh
Micheal Martin
Padraic McCormack
James McDaid
Thomas McEllistrim
Shane McEntee
Dinny McGinley
Mattie McGrath
Michael McGrath
Finian McGrath
John McGuinness
Liz McManus
Olivia Mitchell
John Moloney
Arthur Morgan
Michael Mulcahy
Denis Naughten
Dan Neville
M. J. Nolan
Michael Noonan
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
Éamon Ó Cuív
Seán Ó Fearghaíl
Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Darragh O’Brien
Charlie O’Connor
Willie O’Dea
Kieran O’Donnell
John O’Donohue
Fergus O’Dowd
Noel O’Flynn
Rory O’Hanlon
Batt O’Keeffe
Jim O’Keeffe
John O’Mahony
Mary O'Rourke
Brian O’Shea
Maureen O’Sullivan
Christy O’Sullivan
Jan O’Sullivan
Willie Penrose
Sean Power
Peter Power
Ruairi Quinn
Pat Rabbitte
James Reilly
Michael Ring
Dick Roche
Eamon Ryan
Trevor Sargent
Eamon Scanlon
Alan Shatter
Tom Sheahan
Sean Sherlock
Róisín Shortall
Brendan Smith
Emmet Stagg
David Stanton
Billy Timmins
Noel Treacy
Joanna Tuffy
Mary Upton
Leo Varadkar
Jack Wall
Mary Wallace
Mary Alexandra White
Michael Woods
1128 fans
753 friends
290 fans
6 fans (wiki page)
4 fans
12 fans (no picture)
388 friends
4 fans (wiki page)
34 fans
1 fan (wiki page)
Doesn't share
7 fans (wiki page)
1,168 fans
379 fans
2,071 fans
doesn't share
964 fans
doesn't share
224 fans
doesn't share
398 fans
3 fans (wiki page)
doesn't share
doesn't share
383 fans
15 fans
1,188 fans
1,699 fans
27 fans (wiki page)
348 fans
430 fans
1307 friends
641 fans
5 fans (wiki page)
171 fans
76 fans
4,267 fans
doesn't share
547 fans
doesn't share
27 fans (wiki page)
492 fans
754 fans
3,855 fans
0 fans (wiki page)
1,700 fans
437 fans
0 fans (wiki page)
doesn't share
1,448 fans
doesn't share
508 fans
589 fans
671 friends
645 fans
934 friends
1,797 friends
25 fans (wiki page)
1,319 fans
doesn't share
1,069 friends
8 fans (wiki page)
1,574 friends
14 fans (wiki page)
418 friends
491 friends
2,548 fans
28 fans (wiki page)
7 fans (wiki page)
23 fans (wiki page)
25 fans (wiki page)
5,001 friends
953 friends
654 friends
18 fans (wiki page)
4,070 friends
doesn't share
0 fans (wiki page)
0 fans (wiki page)
442 fans
21 fans (wiki page)
1,103 friends
279 friends
22 fans (wiki page)
1,634 friends
9 fans (wiki page)
244 fans
149 friends
10 fans (wiki page)
138 fans
0 fans (wiki page)
454 friends
1 fan (wiki page)
2 fans (wiki page)
8 fans (wiki page)
1 fan (wiki page)
6 fans (wiki page)
2,142 friends
402 fans
400 fans
3,999 fans
13 fans (wiki page)
1 fan (wiki page)
892 friends
740 friends
367 fans
10 fans (wiki page)
2 fans (wiki page
0 fans (wiki page)
9 fans (wiki page)
5 fans (wiki page)
17 fans (wiki page)
220 fans
567 fans
64 friends
11 fans (wiki page)
216 fans
32 fans (wiki page)
117 fans (wiki page)
17 fans (wiki page)
20 fans (wiki page)
2617 fans
15 fans (wiki page)
15 fans (wiki page)
4 fans (wiki page)
29 fans (wiki page)
0 fans (wiki page)
0 fans (wiki page)
8 fans (wiki page)
6 fans
12 fans (wiki page)
doesn't share
2,493 fans
27 fans (wiki page)
97 fans
6 fans wiki page)
258 fans (wiki page)
4 fans (wiki page)
883 friends
6 fans (wiki page)
3 fans (wiki page)

Picture source


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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 4:09 PM 4 comments
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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Basic voting right denied

For three weeks now I have been avidly following the decline of Fianna Fail. I watched as Cowen tried to hold on to his position before giving up. I’ve noticed what TDs have made it public that they want to take his place and I’ve shrugged with indifference as Enda Kenny tries to make Fine Gael more accessible to people my age. But I, an Irish citizen, cannot vote on March 11.
For the last three weeks I have been living in Newfoundland, Canada, on mandatory study abroad placement from the University of Limerick. I’ve called my local TDs to see if I can vote from Canada and, alas, I cannot. I will only be gone four months in total and one of my basic rights as a citizen has been taken away from me.
It seems that people can vote from various places around the world, but Newfoundland, which is home to many Irish citizens with dual citizenship, is not one of them. I was contemplating for a while on whether it was at all possible to return for polling day, but it really isn’t. As a fan of the drama that is Irish politics, I am absolutely disgusted that the Government hasn’t made exceptions to help people in my situation vote. I just hope that people who are luckily enough to vote in this important election make the most of it.
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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 4:27 PM 1 comments
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Monday, January 17, 2011

Insight into: Scientology in Ireland




It's a dreary Saturday morning and I was just buzzed into the Church of Scientology in Dublin. I'm physically shaking after the stories I've been told outside by former scientologist, Peter Griffiths. He tells me that they call all journalists `merchants of chaos', and make up rumours about those that write negative stories about their `Religion'. Today probably wasn't the best day to be wearing my Journalism and New Media class hoody. I could picture naive people being led up these stairs by scientologists to complete their free personality test, the first step in joining the church, which is widely regarded as a dangerous cult. Next thing I heard a voice from the top of the stairs boom down at me: "Stop, stay there. I saw you outside with the protestors."

Earlier that morning I head met with members of Anonymous, a group who make it their mission to warn people of the dangers of Scientology. After seven years as a Scientologist, Peter is now more than aware of the true nature of the group. Sitting on a chair right across the street from the Church, Peter tells me that his brother has been a Scientologist for the past 20 years and, by rule of the Church, is not permitted to communicate with him.

"When I left staff I got declared a suppressive person, which in Scientology is the worst thing you can be. It means you are anti-scientology, so there must be something wrong with you. The reality is that anyone who leaves the church and speaks out against the Church is called a suppressive person. Psychiatry is called a suppressive group. Medicine is a suppressive group. The French Judicial system will undoubtedly be dubbed suppressive, because they're on trial in France."

Despite the Church's new opinion on Peter, his brother is still planning to meet him this September. Peter admits that he does try and talk his brother out of the religion, but claims you cannot talk a person out of Scientology.

"You can never convince them that you're right and they're wrong. You ask them to honestly look at what they have observed in Scientology and do they actually see that anyone has these powers that they are supposed to have, like an improved memory.

"In fact, one thing you are supposed to do if you take part in the Scientology Dianetics course is stop wearing glasses. If you take a look it the Scientology office, you will see that most of the wear glasses. It's just crazy." At this point, Peter noticed a number of Scientologists staring out the window at us, including the woman who I would later encounter. While I got nervous, because of all the stories I have heard, the protestors waved, many of them with their identities safe and secure behind V for Vendetta masks. "Look at them Scilons staring down at us. That's just a nickname we have for the Scientologists. We also call them Ronbots and Rondroids [after Scientology creator, L. Ron Hubbard]. They probably don't even know we give them nicknames." After the Scientologists got back to their day's activities, Peter told me about his exit from the Church of Scientology.

"I was an active Scientologist for seven years and then another 13 years went by where I didn't actively participate in any Scientology, but I still thought that they were the good guys.

"Then a friend of mine came to a protest outside the Church in 2008. I asked him why he was doing that because they are the good guys. He said that they are not the good guys and told me to go online and see for myself. I started to do that and found out that all the things that I thought were true about Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard were all lies."

The Anonymous group come equipped to every protest with some of the very equipment Scientologists use to lure in naive candidates. One such gadget is the Electrometer, which looks like a device from an early episode of Doctor Who. Peter instructed me to sit down in front of the device and hold onto two grips, which resembles tin cans, which were connected to the Electrometer by crocodile clips. When the machine was turned on, Peter pinched me on my right arm, and the meter jumped forward, then settled down again.

I was then instructed to think about being pinched, which led to the meter jumping again.

"Scientologists prey on peoples' emotions. During a stress test the Scientologist asks `what were you thinking of?' and the candidate says `my dead father' and starts crying and they have yet another member to get cash out of."

At this point, I think it's fair to get the right of reply from the scientologists, after all, once a month Anonymous get all the attention.

So, I'm buzzed in, shaking and climbing up the steps when a short, angry lady calls down to me: "Stop, stay there. I saw you outside with the protestors." It is very clear I have already gotten on the wrong side of Scientologists. I start to go on the charm offensive, saying I got their side of the story and would like get theirs. She makes a scowling face at me and tells me that the PR man is out and will not be back for the day. She does, however, give me a Dianetics leaflet with the contact number, before telling me to get out. I am later told that this individual is a member of the Sea Org, an international group of leading Scientologists that devote their lives to their religion.

On my way back, I walk by the protestors and thank them. Peter shakes my hand and says: "Scientology is on its way out. People are realising it's a very dangerous cult, and it's only a matter of time before the whole thing falls apart." For more information on Anonymous visit: www.anoneire.ning.com
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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 1:48 PM 0 comments
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Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Newfoundland snow

Here are just a few of the pictures I took of Newfoundland's first snow storm of the winter season. I'm told they're just going to get worse. I'll be there with my camera!










So today was the first big snowstorm in St. John's, Newfoundland. A journey that normally only takes me five minutes took me around 15 and I was absolutely saturated from head to toe. Here are some of the pictures I took on my iPhone.
You think you know snow, Ireland. THIS is snow...
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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 11:02 AM 0 comments
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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Study Abroad - Moving

THERE are some things that you pray will never happen to you when you move country. You pray that the flights will be peaceful and that everything will run smoothly. Well, that’s what I did, but it seems the fates had different plans for me. My four month stay in Newfoundland, Canada, where I am currently studying arts kicked off with proving Murphy’s Law correct. Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Well, the start was actually quite pleasant. Continental Airlines managed to accidentally book me into first class, where I enjoyed an eight hour flight with delicious food, new movies and reclining seats. That’s where the daydream stopped.
Once we arrived in Newark, I found that my connecting flight kept getting delayed, until it was ultimately cancelled. I rushed over to get in front of the line for free accommodation in New York for the night, so I could wake up fresh for the new flight in the morning.
Luckily, the rescheduled flight went ahead. Unluckily, all my bags and the bags of all the flyers, were left in Newark. It took four days to get all my bags sent to me, and I was in first class.. Then the worst thing happened. I got stopped at customs and questioned over the validity of my stay.
I was hauled into interrogation, where I was locked into a room with a policewoman, who asked for proof of my intention to study. Thank God for my iPhone. I managed to email all I needed to her from my phone and went on my less-than-merry way.
They say that bad things come in threes, and with cancelled flights, lost luggage and angry guards, I’m inclined to believe them. But things can only get better, right?

Printed in An Focal - January 2011
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Posted by Jason Kennedy at 3:35 PM 0 comments
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