Archive for the ‘Ireland’ Category

like a stone into water

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Been reading Zero History by William Gibson. This quote on page 179 made me want to share it:

She watched as he sank instantly into whatever it was he that he did on the Net, like a stone into water. He was elsewhere, the way people were before their screens, his expression that of someone piloting something, looking into a middle distance that had nothing to do with geography

Fuck Brochures, have a comic

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Instead of doing a traditional brochure for the dayjob I decided to have a bit of fun, at my expense mostly and commissioned Tommie Kelly to make a comic for Mulley Communications. The result is pretty damned good. (Biased) I posted it out to a few people and yesterday there were a good number of tweets about it giving good feedback. I fired some ideas to Tommie, he took them and created the comic. It was a quick and painless process. He’s taking commissions too if you want him to do something as fun for your company.

Mulley Communications Brochure

It gets in my penchant for trains, use of colourful language and that red shirt that so many dislike. Me as Willy Wonka was his idea, really. The cover image comes from this photo by Phil. What I like is that in the digital world where I do most of my business it is very rewarding to create something physical as well that will age, fade, tear, stain and crumple.

The full comic is below but the print version is better. I may have a few left and maybe volume 2 is on the way.

Mulley Communications Comic front page

Mulley Communications Comic page 1

Mulley Communications Comic page 2

Mulley Communications Comic page 3

Des Bishop more fun on a holiday than Tommy Bowe or BOD?

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Via a survey from LastMinute.com

Most popular male celebs to holiday with (Irish):

1. Colin Farrell
2. Des Bishop
3. Tommy Bowe
4. Brian O’Driscoll
5. Any member of Westlife

While Kathryn Thomas beats Grainne Seoige and Sharon Ní Bheolan?

See full survey results here.

Annie’s got her book on

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Annie sent me a picture of a dead deer the other day. Such a flirt. Here it is:

Annie's dead deer
She’s got a new book out. It has nothing to do with cooking and roadkill.
She’s got a new book out. It has to do with her trip through America.

The official blurb says:

“To the Left of the Midwest’ is an exhibition of photography from award-winning blogger Annie Atkins’s first book. Compiled on the railroads from California to Texas, this travelogue chronicles a personal journey through the small towns and backwaters of the United States during Obama’s election in late 2008.”

The launch of it is tomorrow evening from 6pm at the Joinery in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7. Why not go? It’ll be worth it.

Delighted to see Annie do this, she’s a wonderful photographer and an inspiring blogger. Sending that native American to collect her award at the Blog Awards that time was a bit precious though. But she still rocks. Turns out that native American wasn’t even genuine. Still, as I said, she rocks. Bought pigtails in the poundshop, could have made an effort, like. And a plastic axe. Honestly. Twenty has nice things to say too.

Placenames in Ireland that sound dirty but are not

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Want to add any? Leave them in the comments and I’ll amend the post later.

Did this on Facebook a while back and got a lot of replies. Here are some choice places in Ireland:

Muff
Nobber
Sally Gap
Termonfeckin
Tubbercurry
Ringsend
Bastardstown
Dyke Parade
Ballinaboy
Belgooly
Ballsbridge
Letterfinish
Blackbox Theatre, Dyke Rd, Galway
Moll’s Gap
Ring
Laytown
Effin, County Limerick
Sandymount
Strangalowilly, Co Tyrone
Meelick
Freemount
Stillorgan
Naad, Cork
Mount Juliet
Mount Daisy
The Giant’s Ring, Belfast
South Ring Road
Dundonald
Bangor
Ringaskiddy
Skeheenarinky, Tipperary
Gaggin, Cork
Spunkane
Kilcock, Co. Kildare

Are you de face of Barry’s Tea, like?

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Via Barry’s Tea Facebook – Want a picture of you to feature on Barry’s Tea Gold Blend packaging? You have until this evening to send in a pic of yourself which may get featured. You don’t have to be from Cork to enter. Email the pics to: barrystea@thinkhousepr.com Sooo much potential for poses using a tea cosy or two.

cosy tea
Photo owned by tristankenney (cc)

Irish Business Against … Goatse?

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

I notice that the Irish Business Against Litter have an interesting logo:

Irish Business Against Litter Goatse

Here’s SuperGorm getting his Goatse on.
SuperGorm Goatse

Heyday – On April 24th, call for a general election by making noise

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Use of the song approved of my Mic Christopher’s family too:

Facebook Page calling for a General Election. If you support the idea why not blog it, Tweet it and share it with friends on Facebook?

Irish Times iPhone app

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Via JC
Hopefully we’ll something more exciting for the iPad app. Better than viewing it via Safari on iPhone but not by much. €1.59 for the app. Cheap as chips. Offline storing of the stories too. Good!

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Marc Coleman’s letter to the Sunday Tribune

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

An article last week in the Sunday Tribune entitled “The Blame Game” questioned where were the realists during the past few years. Marc Coleman (former Irish Times writer and Newstalk economist) was mentioned in the article in this paragraph:

Outside the political spectrum, former Irish Times writer and Newstalk economist Marc Coleman published a book titled, The Best is Yet to Come. And Bank of Ireland economist Dan McLaughlin slammed negative reporting about the economy. He was adamant that we were in for a “soft landing”.

Note: Profits of said book were donated to the Forgotten Irish fund

Subsequent to this he has sent a letter into the Sunday Tribune and CC’d a copy to a large number of people in the Irish Media, check out the dig at the end too, here’s the letter:

Dear all,

Below is a letter written to the Sunday Tribune by myself in a personal capacity in response to an article published on Sunday 4th April last.

Kind Regards,

Marc Coleman

Dear Editor,

“What did you do in 1916, fight? Cower under the bed? Or side with the Brits?” To distract from their own inaction, sleeveens would asked this question of others after the Easter Rising. On the anniversary of it a similar question is being posed now. “What did you do during the boom, warn us of disaster or hob nob with the bankers?” The loudest answers come from self-promoting “Boys who cried wolf”. Those who did the real fighting don’t feel we need to justify ourselves. Until that is, lies are told about us. Last Sunday you insinuated that I was a “player” (causer, presumably) of the recession because I had written a book entitled “The Best is Yet to Come”. Only fools judge a book by the cover. Here is my war record, of which I am proud:

Only a few days in the media after leaving the ECB to become Economics Editor of the Irish Times, I wrote on 13th July 2005 that lending threatened the economy. On July 29th 2005, I wrote that growth was “not sustainable”. On August 19th 2005 I wrote that construction was “hugely disproportionate” in the economy. On March 31st 2006 in a piece that began “Stop the economy I want to get off” I warned that financial regulation had broken down. On July 6th 2006 I warned of an imminent collapse in public finances. On July 17th 2006 at a Fianna Fail conference I challenged Brian Cowen to draw up contingency plans for a possible recession. In October 2006 I told ISME’s annual conference (chaired by George Lee) that a downturn would start in 2008. In the 2007 election campaign I relentlessly wrote about how all party manifestos were based on illusory growth assumptions.

Later that 2007 – in a book praised by TK Whitaker and others – I warned again of the downturn but added that our population would keep growing. With the right policies we could restore prosperity by 2020, which I still believe. The first two predictions have come true. To offset the books short term pessimism, I called it “The Best is Yet to Come”. Judging by Tribune figures, though, I’m sorry to say it won’t apply to the Tribune unless you restore the paper’s reputation for fact based reporting and analysis.

Sincerely,

Marc Coleman