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First find a woman then start your drink driving ban – Legal System in Ireland

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
First find a woman then start your drink driving ban – Legal System in Ireland

The legal system in Ireland, of which judges are a cornerstone, keeps puzzling me. I haven’t checked yet how judges are chosen, but whoever does the choosing must be some odd ball or alternatively these judges become odd balls themselves only AFTER they are appointed.

The Irish Times reported about the case of a bachelor farmer in County Kerry and the Irish Examiner had a slightly different interpretation of the story. The guy is called John O’Shea and he is 60 years of age. In July 2014 he went from Mastergeeha to Waterville (approx. 9km) to get food for his cows and drank too much when discussing football. On the way home, he drove into a ditch and was found to have nearly four (!!) times the legal alcohol limit in his blood (198mg). The penalty for that will be a a 3-year driving ban and luckily, the judge didn’t indicate that he plans to deviate from that.

The solicitor asked for the driving ban to be delayed until after the summer and here starts the oddness. It seems that the solicitor asked for the delay so that the farmer can look after the cows, but the judge seemed to have suggested the 60 year old never-married farmer should find a “nice woman” that will drive him around and – possibly seeing the opportunity – the solicitor quickly suggested that he could go to Lisdoonvarna to the matchmaking festival if he still had a car for the summer.

It seems that there is a lot of stupid-talk in court rooms in Ireland and it also could be that the solicitor just saw the opportunity that the judge provided and jumped on it without having planned to go for the “find a woman” reason for the delay.

But it really makes you wonder about the ability of Irish judges to do their job. This farmer had FOUR times the amount of alcohol in himself than he should have, so he didn’t just drink a little bit more than he knew he should have, but he filled himself up. Luckily nobody got hurt, but is it really the right message a judge should send??

Odd!!

Elsewhere, Justice, Odd, Society, , ,

Food Fads or Food Trends or just unexplainable crazes? – The Doughnut and more

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Food Fads or Food Trends or just unexplainable crazes? – The Doughnut and more

A “fad” is “an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived”. A “trend” is a “general direction in which something is developing or changing” and a “craze” is quite similar to a “fad”, but craze has also a level of insanity or out of control-ness to it.

I would call the food fads in Dublin “crazes” and definitely not trends, but what am I talking about?

Well it is the appearance of a “new” food that everyone raves about, which then leads to the sudden opening of a mad amount of restaurants and eateries, followed by a short period of “being everyhwere” and then the similarly sudden disappearance of nearly all of these eateries again.

A good few years ago it was ….. Sushi! It started with one or two restaurants and suddenly lots of places appeared like mushrooms over night. Some restaurants are still there today, but many are long gone. After Sushi followed Burritos. From one day to another, every corner of Dublin had a burrito take away. Interestingly a surprisingly large amount of them are still there. But are people still mad about Burritos? I haven’t heard anybody talking about them. Maybe they just became normal food like many many decades ago the Fish & Chips.

The next food craze was Milkshakes! At one point there were at least 5 or 6 milk shake places in the City Centre. One of them even got money on Dragon’s Den. I loved the Oreo milkshakes and Nutella milkshakes etc. Today? Not a single one of the five places is still open. For milk shake enthusiasts there is however still Eddie Rockets where in some restaurants a dedicated milk shake bar has been added (for example in Stillorgan).

After the milkshakes came the “shredded pork”. I know, it is still around, but, boy, was that a craze at some point. And for “meat for people with no teeth” it is a surprising craze. In other words, it is not that amazing!! But for some reason you HAD to have it.

And the newest madness? That seems to be doughnuts! Not the ones for 5 for 1 Euro that you get in Tescos. Oh no! They have to be different and special doughnuts. For example with crunchy bits on the outside, called Cronuts. Or with different flavours, not just the “cheap old” raspberry jam, no the fancy models come with icing and cherries on top, or with banoffee or with a salted caramel flavour or crispy cream. And one other important feature must be present: The doughnuts have to be totally overpriced!! Only if you pay a crazy price is is really happening! ;-)

This weekend even sees a Doughnut Festival in Camden Street!!! :-O

What will follow? A total wipeout of Doughnut places and a new craze! Definitely! Mad people these Dubliners! ;-)

Odd, Society, ,

Just ruin it for everybody! – Nonsensical Compensation Case

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Just ruin it for everybody! – Nonsensical Compensation Case

Ireland has a serious compensation problem and NOTHING is done about it. But hopefully shocking cases like this one will EVENTUALLY get a government to fix this stupid situation. But what happened?

A 59-year old woman (Teresa Wall from Swords) went for a hill walk on the Wicklow Way in August 2013. Because she wasn’t careful enough, she tripped and fell on her knee. It seemingly was a bad fall that required a few stitches, but nothing was broken and no long-term pain or damage has been reported. Similar situations have happened MANY times before and if you go hillwalking or mountain climbing or do any other rough-ish outdoor sport/exercise, you should know that you can get injured.

The Irish Independent reported here.

In this case, the woman was walking on a “board walk” that is made up of old railway sleepers. The board walk is there to protect the flora and fauna on the mountain, but also to help walkers get over boggy/marshy/wet stretches. The railway sleepers are made of wood and they suffer from the wet and wind and were “badly rotted”. Well, what would normal people do? Be EXTRA careful in the same way as you would be extra careful on bad ground. And if they fall? They get up again and sort out the damage, but they are NOT running to the courts!

Teresa Wall wanted money! She sued the National Parks and Wildlife Service and unfortunately she wasn’t told to get lost, but instead judge Jacqueline Linnane outrageously awarded her EUR 40,000….for a few stitches on the knee! Unbelievable!

The woman claimed that she walked “all around the world” for 40 years, that she ran half-marathons on a weekly basis and that she had climbed in the Himalayas to the base camp on Mount Everest. She also claimed that the injury meant that she now could no longer hill climb or run marathons.

What do you think mountain climbers get who get injured or even killed on Mount Everest? Do they sue Nepal? Or maybe the creator of the mountain? They sure won’t! And if something bad had happened on her climb in the Himalayas she wouldn’t have received a cent.

And what is the ridiculous amount of 40k for that judge Linnane so generously gave away of not-her-own-money?

Now, accidents and compensations happen all the time, but why is this one such a significant case? See, the result of it is that anybody else who gets a little scratch on a walk in the Wicklow Mountains or any other outdoor activity area in Ireland on private or public ground will be able to sue for the most ridiculous reasons. And for that reason we will see more “DO NOT ENTER” signs and wonderful walks like the Wicklow Way might be closed for the public.

The negative follow-on effect thanks to Teresa Wall and Jacqueline Linnane’s actions is not yet comprehensible, but will most likely be HUGE!!

This has to be changed! Crazy claims like this should be thrown out of court and even where compensation is paid, it should be based on a predetermined compensation “price list” as it is done already in many other countries to take this total randomness our of judges decisions.

An example for leg-related injuries from the German claims table is here. If you translate it with Google Translate or something similar or if you are able to read German, you will be able to see that the money paid for a light injury (dog bite with car to thigh fracture) is EUR 450-5900. For a middle severity injury which results in a severe disability and reduction in earning capability of 60% (That’s quite serious!!) is up to EUR 65,000, but that is FAR FAR worse than what happened on Wicklow Way.

Justice, Odd, Society, , , ,

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
 
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