What is culture
Hiding behind PR

Sunday Tribune on Irish Blogs

TRIBUNE -- The Sunday Tribune's weekly review of on 24 April 2005 includes clippings from Blog Snorkeller, Efferal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind (sic), Colm Bracken, and IrishEyes. Extracts follow.

From "Blogosphere" in the Sunday Tribune:

Habemus Bogger. The papal election riveted attention from around the world and the blogosphere was no exception--though many hearts sank when the Blog Snorkeller reported, "Papal Election to Use Irish E-Vote Syste". Martin Cullen could not be reached for comment, though the conspiracy minded might be tempted to find an explanation here.

But Blog Snorkeller had an excellent, detailed write-up of the actual vote-counting procedures.

Reactions to the election of Benedict XVI were varied, but the funniest might be this (satirical) one from Efferal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind (sic): "The new pope held a press conference later in the evening. He was asked about rumours that he was a right-wing bigot. He replied, 'I know you are but what am I?' This went back and forth for 10 minutes before another reporter told them to stop, they were being childish. To which the pope replied, "OOOOH, smell you Nancy Drew" and stormed out of the room.

Welcoming the election, the Irish government announced new measures to fall in line with the new totalitarian regime. Attendance at Mass will be compulsory and all intrinsically evil bars will be shut down. The raid on The George happened just after 9PM. The patrons were forcibly removed before the windows and doors were boarded up. A lone blonde Galwegian sat sobbing at the side of the road, asking over and over again, 'Where will I go now?' Indeed a question we're all asking ourselves.

Musings from Dublin. Colm Bracken had already had enough: "No, not going to discuss anything Papal. There's an overload at the moment and I reckon newspapers, the internet and televisions will blow up pretty soon."

When Irish Eyes Are Censored. Irish tech journo, lectuer and blogger Bernie Goldbach found something disturbing this week. "Some second level schools in Ireland block students from reading parts of this website. Specifically, because I have written about the controversial website RateMyTeachers.ie, the post I made is restricted and cannot be viewed through some school filters.

"It seems that the schools have banned students from viewing any web page where the address includes the words 'rate' or 'teacher'.

"It is never a good idea to block curious minds from investigating issues related to their culture. Rate My Teachers may not be the flavour of the moment for Irish teachers or their unions, but blocking access to sites that discuss the site by using softrware purchased with my taxes is misappropriation of assets, in my opinion. There are valudable discussions underway concerning anonymity, league tables, online decorum and other elements of citizenship arising in the Rate My Teachers discussion forum. Some Irish blogs have pointed out that the give-and-take between anonymous students and named teachers is a valid testimony to the effectiveness of the online community. Blocking access to that community dynamic fails to capitalise on current talking points highly relevant to the development of informed citizens."


Joe Bloggs -- "Blogosphere" in the Sunday Tribune, April 24, 2005.
Mick Cunningham -- "Papal Election to Use Irish E-Vote System" is the blog entry that attracted two comment spammers within three days of its posting.
GNN semi-true news.
Colm Bracken -- "Papem ad infinitum"
Seen by IrishEyes -- most commonly rated Irish schools.

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