Friday, February 25, 2011

Study Abroad - Interesting Characters

You meet all kinds of people when your abroad. I came across a lovely bunch of folk soon after I arrived in St John’s. They’re just about as quirky as my chums in UL and nearly as fond of drink. I knew I’d fallen in with a pretty decent crowd. It’s not until recently that I found out just how quirky they are.
They’re all member of Memorial University Oxfam, which is a society that helps promote women’s rights and global equality. I bumped into them randomly when exploring all the societies that MUN has to offer. I’ve decided that MUN Anarchists (organised chaos?) probably isn’t my thing nor was the Christian Youth society, but the bunch of people I met in the Oxfam office were warm, inviting, energetic and good fun.
During the week, I found out one of my new buddies, Meaggy, is in face descended from a piracy and royalty. A gand of pirates kidnapped royalty and made them slaves. Of course, one of the pirates fell in love with a slave. He started a mutiny and escaped with the princess slave. They escaped to Newfoundland and got married. I told her she’s like Johnny Depp and Kiera Knightley. I started calling her Johnny Knightley, before I realised it sounds like a 70s porn star name.
Another new buddy, Jeremy, is a quite the Newfoundland hero. He’s a  human rights champion and came to a lot of people’s attention last year, when he refused to shake hands with Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Jeremy is no fan of most of Harper’s policies. This was a big deal in St John’s, and Jeremy was declared a local hero.
In other news, I’ve been pretty vocal lately about not being able to vote in the general election. I was in a few newspapers and on TV3. At the time I write this, I’m not sure of the result, but I hope when I return to Ireland, it will be a better place than when I left it.


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Thursday, February 24, 2011

The most popular candidate?


Sinn Fein Leader, Gerry Adams is the most popular candidate on thejournal.ie’s General Election section, according to the website’s visitors., but is also ranked the second most unpopular The website contains a full list of candidates and allows visitors to learn more about each candidate and to either ‘like’ them or ‘unlike’ them. Below are top five most popular and most unpopular, with Mr Adams ranking in both.






















Blogged with permission from thejournal.ie


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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The most popular political party on Facebook is...

With three days to go until Election Day, it’s time to see which party has the most Facebook fans.

Although Fine Gael are ahead in the polls, if it were all about social media, Labour would clinch it.


2,618
4,007
4,949
425
1,064


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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Facebook relationships allow 'civil partnerships'

Facebook have today allowed people to change they're relationship status to 'in a civil partnership'. In Ireland, this comes after the Civil Partnership Act came into action. It will be interesting to note how many same-sex couples will choose 'civil partnership' to 'married'.


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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Campaign songs. Are they a bad idea?

At this stage, people have already heard some of our political candidates' attempts at campaign songs. We have Mannix Flynn and his Dublin rap song, but since then I've come across these two beauties. Independent candidate for Limerick, John Dillon has one, while Maman Poulet discovered Dublin South Central candidate, Michael Conaghan, was ripping off the Rubberbandits' hit 'Horse Outside'.



Rest Outside - Michael Conaghan by Maman Poulet



Although most of the campaign songs haven't been met well, especially in Conaghan's case, could they do serious damage to a campaign? Once a dodgy tune comes into the equation, does policy and enthusiasm go out the window?
Perhaps candidates would have been better off to adopt the American style of campaign song and use an already popular song, with the artist's consent, of course.


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Monday, February 14, 2011

Airing voting frustrations on TV3


I was on the main evening news on TV3 today talking about being denied the right to vote from Newfoundland. If you missed it or would like to see it, it's available to view here.
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CallingShotgun.ie makes it into Blog Awards shortlist

I just noticed that CallingShotgun.ie has made it into the Irish Blog Awards Newcomers shortlist. I'm absolutely delighted with the news. I looked through the other blogs shortlisted and I wish them (especially Cian O'Regan) the best in the competition.


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Saturday, February 12, 2011

Paul Gogarty no fan of FF voters



I wonder did he ever live up to his twitter oath of not saying anything controversial.
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Friday, February 11, 2011

UL does Come Dine with Me

Students in UL have kicked off their own version of come dine with me. Fairplay to ULTV for teaching freshers how to shoot and edit the videos. I really enjoyed this one and shows just what's the come for the society.

 


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Thursday, February 10, 2011

Rappin' Mannix Flynn


I'm not sure what came over Independent Dublin candidate, Mannix Flynn. In some attempt to get down with the kids, Flynn performs a little rap on Balcony TV to entice his constituents to give him their number one vote. Flynn, who does come across as a genuinely lovely and hard working man, his rap will definitely meet so disapproving clucks.


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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Contribution to Irish Election


I contributed to a piece in Irish Election along with Cian O’Flaherty, John Handelaar, David Cochrane, Alexia Golez, Suzy Byrne and Christine Bohan. I wrote on Enda Kenny's speech while Gilmore and Martin debated on TV3. You can read it here.


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Monday, February 7, 2011

CallingShotgun.ie makes it into Evening Echo


The Evening Echo covered one of my blog post's which marked them as the most popular Irish newspaper on Facebook. You can follow the author on twitter by clicking here.


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Study Abroad - Irish abroad

After spending some time in a foreign land, people start to develop the native accent. To my horror, it happened to me after my co-op placement in Cork, but it’s not going to happen in Newfoundland. I’m going to come home from here with the strongest, most exaggerated Irish accent imaginable. It really is a joy being a proper Paddy in an Island full of fifth and sixth generation Irish.
My big culchie accent, which is mocked by friends in Dublin and Cork, is cooed at over here. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been asked to talk more during nights out.  It’s a great talking point. Most of the people go on to say that they’re part Ireland and how they’d love to go back to Ireland, talking as if they’re bona fide Irish. I’m still getting a kick out of it and I don’t think the novelty value will go any time soon.
One night I met a lad who claims he’s a proud Limerick man, despite the fact he never left Newfoundland in his life. He almost cried when I told him that I study in Limerick and demanded I tell him every detail about the Treaty City. He told me that his father moved from Limerick because it was too dangerous, which I didn’t buy for a second. I chatted to him for a total of five minutes before he asked me if I wanted to buy some Grade A drugs. It was around that time that I faked a call and left him. Every proper Irish person I’ve met since has offered me the same. It’s slightly suspicious.
The best thing I’ve encountered so far is, of course, in the pubs around St John’s. In my first month here, I’ve been given four free double whiskeys from friendly bartenders, just because I’m a proper Irish person. This is something that I could get used to.  It’s all part of some of the bizarre initiation ceremonies that take place in Newfoundland.

All I can say is roll on Paddy’s Day!

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