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Easter Rising Commemorations – the oddest one!?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Easter Rising Commemorations – the oddest one!?

The real anniversary of the Easter Rising is on Sun 24 April and the celebrations/commemorations on Easter Monday (28 March) were very much premature.

One thing that surprised me (positively) was that Sinn Fein didn’t feature at all. The commemorations should not be and were not claimed by any political party, but it was an event for the people. At the beginning of the year it looked as if Sinn Fein would try to give themselves a big pat on the shoulder for what “they” had achieved in 1916, but despite the current Major being from Sinn Fein, the party kept a very low profile. Good!

With the REAL anniversary happening nearly a month after the big event, the question was how this “second” anniversary would be celebrated and the answer seems to be: NOT!! A little odd, that there is not at least some small scale official event, but we will get over it.

With surprise though, I found out that on Sunday 24 April a quite odd commemoration will take place: Dublin City Council and Athletics Ireland are hosting a “Dublin Remembers 1915 Run”. I am not even sure why I find this so odd, but reading through the promotional text on Dublin City’s website it just sounds strange when you read:

“With the centenary celebrations of 1916 in full swing, this is an excellent opportunity to put your running shoes on in remembrance.”

And the text continues explaining that the run will pass by “iconic sites … exactly 100 years ago to the day of the Easter Rising.” (Let’s not dwell on the incorrect sentence with the word “ago” not fitting in there at all.) Running a 5km run and passing by the locations where people shot each other 100 years ago does seem to me to be one of the oddest ways to commemorate.

Is any harm done by this “Dublin Remembers 1916 Run”? Not at all! …and I still find it a rather strange way to commemorate a rebellion 100 years ago.

[If you want to participate in this run, you have to register before 20 April and it will cost you EUR 11: www.athleticsireland.ie/news/dublin-remembers-1916-5k/

1916, Dublin, Events, Odd,

Arrive early to avoid disappointment?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Arrive early to avoid disappointment?

Every week, I am checking about 400 events to find the 180-220 free events that then make it into the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events). Where an organiser sells tickets, they know how many tickets they can sell and they stop when the event is sold out.

For organisers of free events, things are a lot more tricky! You have NO idea how many people will come to your event. It could result in an empty room or you could have so many people that you have to send some away. Neither of the two scenarios is ideal, BUT most event organisers understandably rather have a full room than an empty room. When they expect or hope for a busy/full event, they often write “No booking required, however places are limited, so arrive early to avoid disappointment.” or “Places are limited and early arrival is strongly recommended.” or something similar.

Sure we get that if you are there before everyone else, you will get a seat while late comers might be sent away, but if you suggest to EVERYONE to come early, would that not just create the exactly same situation as if everyone came on time or came late?

So in my opinion it is a silly and nonsensical statement. Yes, it should be stated that places are limited because then you know that you might be sent away if the venue is full, but the “come early to avoid disappointment” is totally unnecessary. By the way, you will have never read this unnecessary statement in the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events). ;-) I apply a nonsense filter before I include any information. :-P

Dublin, Events, Odd, Society

Butchering the Thee-shock! – Irish words in radio and TV

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Butchering the Thee-shock! – Irish words in radio and TV

What is wrong with radio and TV broadcasters in Ireland? Where did they learn the pronunciation of Irish words? I don’t speak Irish, but even I know that Thee-shock is NOT the way Taoiseach should be pronounced. Where is that “TH” coming from? I also know that Doyle is a surname (Mrs. Doyle from Father Ted comes to mind. ;-) ), but it is NOT the correct pronunciation for “Dail” (the Irish Parliament) and finally Fine Guayle is not the correct pronunciation for “Fine Gael”.

If a newsreader or radio or TV broadcaster can’t pronounce these relatively simple three words correctly, they should be sent to elocution classes or should be deported to the Gaeltacht until they are able for the most basic pronunciation.

Some might tell me that what I hear is the Dublin 4 way of speaking Irish and that the same people are even challenged by basic English pronunciation (Ross O’Carroll Kelly comes to mind and “Chorles” for “Charles”.) but the newsreaders I am referring to are from City Centre based radio stations. So this (weak) excuse can not be applied.

You might think that it is odd/funny or even rich that a foreigner, who doesn’t speak Irish at all, complains about the pronunciation of Irish words, but is everybody else just ok with that??

Dublin, Irish, Odd, Society, , ,

Easter Rising: Selective Storytelling?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Easter Rising: Selective Storytelling?

“Hagiography” is a biography that idolises its subjects and having written about a LOT of Easter Rising talks and events in the last few weeks, I am wondering lately if there is a bit of “hagiographing” going on in all these talks. The largest amount of talks was about the role of women in the Easter Rising and the other section of talks is about the leaders of the Rising. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go to any of the talks yet, but reading the descriptions, it seems that (nearly) every speaker feels obliged to paint a heroic-ish picture of the participants in the Rising.

For a historic treatment of an event it would be good to look at ALL aspects. And unfortunately, the immediate outcome of the Easter Rising was an unmitigated disaster. The surrender can’t have been the planned or preferred end of the Rising and it can’t have been the intention either to get so many of the leaders killed after the events. So where did they fail and why did they fail and who would have to take the responsibility for the failure of the Easter Rising? Bad planning? Bad execution? Too much idealism? Wrong assessment/expectation of the British reaction? What could have been done differently to successfully achieve the goals that they had? Was it even possible to achieve them?

I know all these questions could criticise the leaders of the Rising and that seems to be inappropriate this year. In hindsight, but only in hindsight!!!, we know that the sacrifice of the volunteers involved in 1916 achieved Ireland’s independence some years later, but that does not turn the Easter Rising itself into a success. The events in 1916 were an important trigger that lead to the the successful separation from Britain and it posthumously justified the Easter Rising, but it was still a failed operation if you look at the events in 1916 only.

Discussing this wouldn’t have to dirty the reputation of the volunteers, but ignoring it unfortunately turns many of the talks into blinkered hagiographies.

1916, Dublin, Society,

Clamping in Dublin has gone down! Good thing, isn’t it? Or maybe not?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Clamping in Dublin has gone down! Good thing, isn’t it? Or maybe not?

The newspapers reported this month that the clamping fees dropped to EUR 4.24 mio and is at a lowest level in 5 years. Since the initial idea behind clamping was to stop people from parking in the wrong place or for too long, then there should be a celebration about the drop. Instead, though, a parking fine appeals officer makes the suggestion to increase the penalty from EUR 80 to EUR 130 because it hasn’t been increased since 1998.

For any normal person, a penalty of EUR 80 hurts!! And it definitely hurts enough to comply with the law as much as possible. I would be VERY surprised if a fee of EUR 130 would increase the compliance with parking rules. Sure, EUR 130 hurts even more than EUR 80, but most of us really do not have so much money that we just happily give it to the clampers. I would say that in 95% of the cases the clamping happens because someone got delayed unintentionally or parked in a place where they read the signs wrong (clear way from 16:00 and you didn’t see that it will at some stage become a clearway).

The tiny amount of people that couldn’t be bothered complying with the rules and just accumulates parking tickets will most likely not change their behaviour either if the fees were increased.The appeals officer mentions a case where one offender was clamped 64 times in 48 months. 64×80 is the significant amount of EUR 5,120 and if that offender doesn’t care about paying EUR 5000, should we really thing that an increased fee to EUR 8,320 will make that offender suddenly pay for his parking? Not a chance.

I got clamped approximately 3 times in my life and I can say that it hurts a LOT to have to pay EUR 80. In two of the three cases I made a genuine mistake, the third case was a little more complicated. But I certainly never intended to or willingly risked to get clamped, so EUR 80 is more than enough!

The Irish Independent wrote about it here, and the Irish Times here.

Dublin, Dublin City Council, Odd, Traffic
 
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