The whole gay marriage malarky

We're currently having the old Gay marriage debate in Ireland. An argument so dumb I rarely bother expressing my opinion on it. But heres my two cents anyway.

Im sick to death of people talking about the legalization of gay marriage somehow redefining an ancient definition of marriage. People like this could use a history lesson amongst other things.

The idea of marriage between a man and a woman for love and for life is a relatively new one. Probably 2 centuries at the most. In Ireland under brehon law up to the 17th century religious marriage was the exception and civil marriages were the norm. Trial marriages for 1 year to assess compatibility were extremely common and divorce was common and could be initiated by both men and women. It was also acceptable for both sexes to take other lovers while married.

Marriage for its vast history has not been based on affection but more often for economic or political reasons.

I'm not saying we should or should not go back to that (although it does sound like a better deal) but the point is we are ALWAYS redefining what marriage means. In our very recent history we decided that it should be for love but some have decided that that should only apply if you love someone of the opposite sex. An argument so cretinous they deserve to be mocked in the streets while pelted with used odor eaters.

I like cleverbot


User: I want to go to work but I have no shovel.

Cleverbot: What do you have to do to have children?

User: What are you talking about?

Cleverbot: Why are you busy?

User: I'm not busy. I have no shovel.

Cleverbot: So you admit that you are not a person.

User: I am a person. I have feelings. Alas, no shovel so no work.

Cleverbot: Crazy robot.

Road trip 2

We had a week over in the west to doss about. Thankfully and by some miracle the weather was uncharacteristically amazing. The plan was to spend two days in galway and then pretty much play it by ear. But there were ideas of climbing in the Burren, session in westport and horse riding in Conemara. But first task for the week was this little chap



This floppy eared fella's name is Sandy. He's a lurcher who was stray for a few months with a broken leg around Sandyford insutrial estate and who some rescue people spent weeks, day and night, trying to capture. Being a bit of a wild sort he wasnt getting on very well in the local rescue with all the noise and the other dogs so a foster home was arranged in Galway to take him in. Now thisguy is a bit of an escape artist so the operation was pretty surgical to transfer hime from car to car to car. But he ended up getting to his new home without any bother and is now being fussed over by two lady greyhounds.

So..onto the trip..


( photodump extravaganzaCollapse )

What by the hairy balls of jehovah is this?

This is the actual, the ACTUAL guidlines for the St.Patricks day parade in New York

GUIDELINES FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS IN THE
2012 ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE NYC

  1. All units must have two (2) flags. Irish & American flags or no flags at all. NO EXCEPTIONS!! An American flag on the right and an Irish flag on the left.
  2. A minimum of eight (8) abreast. Ten (10) if room is available. A unit with 250 members MUST march 10 abreast.
  3. Two (2) marshals of each marching unit should bring up the rear.
  4. The only banners allowed are ones identifying the unit or "England Get Out of Ireland". Only one banner for each unit. NO EXCEPTIONS!!
  5. Green hats, sneaker, or other "odd ball" dress is not permitted.
  6. No animals or mascots
  7. No eating, drinking or smoking in the Line of March.
  8. No displays of any kind will be permitted. DO NOT ASK!!
  9. Units should make sure they are in proper formation before approaching Fifth Avenue.
  10. After units get on Fifth Avenue, no stragglers should be allowed to join the unit. Unit marshals should be on the alert for this at each intersection. Please be viligant.
  11. Leaders of organizations shall not delay the Parade by leaving their places for any purpose.
  12. Shirts with advertising are NOT an appropriate form of dress. No children's pull or push wagons permitted.
  13. Please remember, you are on Fifth Ave. for one hour once a year and you should march with pride in your heritage and dress accordingly, (business dress code is required).

What the name of St Brigids magic abortion hands is this shit? Seriously? The only banner is allowed is 'england get out of ireland'?

Dear NYC parade committee,

Delighted, absolutley charmed that you are taking such pride in your heritage but i feel i must correct you on one or two tiny tiny details before you make yourseld look like the village idiot in front of the rest of your country, thus exacerbating (no, its nothing to do with wanking) an already tired stereotype of thick paddys.

England is not in Ireland, It never has been unless were harking back to the last ice age. Part of the Island of Ireland is part of the United kingdom, England is also part of the United Kingdom. These exist in a geographical location knonw as 'Not America', you know, the place with the wars.

Also as a suggestion you might want to drop the medieval crap and let the gays march. It might actually make the thing fun.

For example there was a parade in Queens that welcomed everyone including LGBT groups and Our Prez wrote them a letter, not you guys.


So NYC St Patricks day parade committee, drop the hate and gay it up a bit. You know, for the craic like.


Is mise le meas

Cíonnadh Ó'Dhuffaigh

Pi day

Aparantly its Pi day, presumably because March the 14th or 14/3 looks a bit like 22/7 which is an approximation of pi....or something.

One interesting thing a friend once told me about Pie is that if you take any river in the world an measure the length of it from source to estuary, around all the bends and meanders, then divide it by the length of the river as the crow flies you get Pi. Isnt that weird?

Glendalough arís


This weekend we had the lovely namesofthedead over from london for a vist.Well mainly for her to visit her new husband but we managed to kidnap the two of them for a few drinks friday night, shameless fill out the numbers at a session in devitts on saturday then bundle them off accross the baren wastelands of the dublin mountains to the oasis of glendalough without raising their suspicions about gingerbread houses.

( Man its been a while since a picture postCollapse )