Related to an article about Conor Cruise O’Brien’s red bias in RTE. Perhaps the letter was a deliberate fake if they are quoting from the address on the letter. Some of the passages are hilarious in which case, if it was taken seriously, geography lessons should have been required much further up the line.
Writing on March 20, 1978, Joseph O’Reilly of Achill Island, Co Galway, wrote that he wished “to draw [the taoiseach’s] attention to the news coverage by RTÉ particularly on television, of the French elections”.
I just got an email forwarded on about an Irish person from Achill who has been missing since November 2008.
Dear All,
Happy New Year to all and apologies for not sending any Christmas cards this year, my family and I are going through a tough time as my brother, JP, is missing in the Netherlands.
I have a favour to ask, could you please pass on this mail with the information below – I know it’s a long shot but it may reach someone that has seen him in the past few weeks, we will try anything at this stage. We have been doing everything we can to find JP with the Police and the Embassy and also my sisters, Mani, my brother-in laws and JP’s friends have searched various places in the Netherlands but there appears to be no trace of him since he was seen in Eindhoven during the 1st week of November. It seems unlikely but he may have travelled outside of the Netherlands so we are also searching in
Belgium/Spain/Germany etc.
Thank you,
Clare
Nationality: Irish
Name: James Patrick Grealis, known as JP
Date of Birth: 14/03/1984 (24 years old)
Hair: Red (curly/wavy)
Height: approx.1.75 meter/ approx 5′ 9”
Build: Slim build with broad shoulders
Clothes: Generally wears T-shirts, jeans, hoodies etc (he has a habit of walking with his sleeves pulled down over his hands)
General Information: Smoker, works in building trade, likes to socialize
JP was last seen in Eindhoven (1 st week of Nov) and last called home from Breda (23 rd of Oct). He may have travelled to Rotterdam in November. Any information please contact me (00 353 (0)87 2393993) or the Irish Police on 00 353 (0)98 20830 or the Dutch Police on 00 31 79-345 8882 ( case number 08261250 for Dutch Police)
From the Irish Times today, it seems like Obesity is now affecting one in five pregnant women. This is absolutely crazy. For a government running out of ideas, how about a tax proposal that would target obesity in the same way that alcohol and tobacco addition is targeted. How about a huge tax increase on all foods that have a fat proportion of over a certain level and then a sliding scale below that. One of the most laughable things I found on my last trip to Ireland was on the back of a pack of Tayto crips was a statistic that 2500 calories were the standing level for a man. Since I’ve been using Gyminee to track diet and exercise, the figure is close to 1700 for me. When is misleading packaging like that on Tayto (which I love by the way) going to be tackled in Ireland?
FT reports on a rural broadband initiative in the UK. I’d love to see something like this being adopted in Ireland.
Not yet two years old, it is estimated to have brought in hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment by enabling entrepreneurs to thrive in areas that would have once been off limits, with 50,000 rural businesses now in reach of a fast internet connection.
Infrastructure investment is a mantra that has been heard from too long from the current Irish government. However, when it has come to prescient action, the efforts so far have look flat-footed and slow.
“We are levelling the playing field with urban areas,†said Andy Lister, marketing director of NYnet. Private companies have little incentive to build networks in sparsely populated areas and the costs for businesses increase the further they are from the exchange.
First it was Fake Steve Jobs, now it’s Real Dan Lyons.
A frustrated Dan Lyons told me this afternoon that he is hanging up his personal blog at RealDanLyons.com after his Newsweek bosses made him yank a blog post where Lyons (rightfully) called Yahoo’s PR staff “lying sacks of shit.”
Did anyone at Newsweek actually read Fake Steve? Those viciously funny barbs were the main attraction of the blog.
