An Opinion Perhaps Only Safe for a Blog. The London bombings continue to be the source of debate in the blogosphere. Some new light was shed by the author of Bluire.com, a thought rarely heard above a whisper in Ireland: "It's weird. My reaction was, thank God it isn't the IRA.... Time was, Irish Republicans were blowing up London in my name and the name of every other Irish person. The problem with that was I didn't ask them to, I condemned what they did and it made me feel ashamed. So, when the news broke that it was group linked to al-Qaeda, I breathed a sigh of relief, that it's not the IRA. Terrorism is terrorism, no justification for it, but I was glad that Republicans weren't involved. They caused enough damage to London."

Architects Seek a Row with Examiner. An odd row has blown up between The Irish Examiner and a handful of bloggers about a story relating to Archiseek--a website about Irish architecture. The Examiner used quotes from the website's forum.

Archiseek honcho Paul Clerkin, on his own blog, Chateau Pquarantecinq, charges, "The Irish Examiner has published an article (7 July) which takes seven quotes from the forums on Archiseek.com out of context and uses them to back up its claim that Archiseek.com is anti-OAP."

The complaint was picked up by Blog Snorkeller and Damien Mulley.

We don't have the space for all the details, but two things are worth noting. First, it is interesting to see Irish subjects of newspaper articles offering rebuttals online. Second, none of the blog entries actually link to or quote the allegedly offending Examiner article, which deprives the bloggers of their key weapoins of context--and just makes them sound like whingers.

Curiously, we were unable to locate the article on the Examiner's own website.

Slugger's Lament. Slugger O'Toole is one of the Irish blogoshere's genuine stars, a credible, balanced source for both news and opinion about Northern Ireland.

So as 12 July came and Belfast's Ardoyne flared into violence, thousands from Belfast to Brighton to Brooklyn turned their browsers to Slugger in hope of detailed coverage beyond the Wire or Sky News.

Instead, they got a message suggesting Sluggers didn't exist, prompting some creative conspiracy theories about why the site would go down on that day.

Laura -- "London bombings"
Paul Clerkin -- "Examiner takes cheap shot at Archiseek.com"
Mick Cunningham -- "Lazy gutter-raking journalism by The Examiner"
Damien Mulley -- "Irish Examiner acting the bollox over Archiseek"
Pete Baker -- "Normal service resumes soon"

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