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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, , ,

Luas Driver Strike – Outrageous or heroic?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Luas Driver Strike – Outrageous or heroic?

The Luas drivers have decided that the compromise offer negotiated with the help of the Workplace Relations Commission is not acceptable by them and that they will continue with their threatened strike action and will not work on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, the two main days of 1916 Commemorations.

Because they stand up for their rights, the trade union supporters and left organisations have them declared to be heroes and someone even dared comparing their action with the workers that were involved in the 1913 lockout in Dublin.

The vast majority, however, is outraged about their demands and the fact that the upset the Easter Rising commemorations for 10s of thousands of people.

We all have a certain opinion about the Luas drivers and most would agree that they are not in the slightest oppressed and also are not working under terrible conditions, so a comparison to 193 conditions is laughable. But they do have the right to ask for more money. However, do they have a right to FORCE any arbitrary claim through and at the same time upset all the people that pay their salary? Well, that is where the opinions differ.

Surprisingly the Anti Austerity Alliance – People Before Profit issued a very strong statement in support of the striking Luas drivers. Why is it surprising? Well, Richard Boyd-Barrett, the leader of PBP tells us that he is only taking EUR 29,000 of his TD salary and he seems to imply that a) that is enough and b) all TDs should be happy with that. (Unfortunately, he still keeps the rest of the 92k salary, just not for his personal use, but he gives it to his party. So we (i.e. the State) don’t really benefit from his frugality.)

Now, if 29k should be enough for everyone and considering that the Luas drivers currently get between 32,000 and 42,000 plus bonus for an average of less than 36 hours per week, is the AAA-PBP support for the drivers then not a little surprising?

By the way, I said that the Luas drivers have a right to ask for more money and they also have a right to strike if they are not happy and reject an offer if they think it is not fair. But based on the law of human society “The liberty of one citizen ends where the liberty of another citizen begins.” their strike tactics is highly questionable.

Odd, 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

Spring does NOT start in February!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Spring does NOT start in February!

Badly educated event organisers and media outlets will tell you about the “Start of Spring” this week, but don’t fall for that! Together with your primary school teachers they are just badly educated. ;-) Met Eireann points out year after year that Spring starts in Ireland on 01 March and NOT on 01 February. But the misinformation is is persistent. Met Eireann is using the meteorological start of spring and that is definitely not in February but in March as you can read here.

In the rest of Europe, Spring starts – based on the astronomical calendar – even later, on 21 March. Only Ireland is different in whole Europe and how did that happen? Well, the “mistake” in Ireland goes back to the ancient celts, who ignored meteorology and astronomy and had a completely different way of looking at things. The year for example started on 01 November and the day started and ended at sunset. So they were not really wrong, but they used different definitions.

If your day still starts at sunset and your year starts on 01 November, then it’s perfectly fine to start Spring on 01 February in your world. But if you have modernised your views and start your year on 01 January and start the day at midnight, then it is time to update your view of the seasons as well! ;-)

General, Irish, Odd, Society, , , ,

The Randomness of Life…and Religion!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The Randomness of Life…and Religion!

Due to some random coincidences, you were created by your parents. It could have easily happened that no child or a different child had been created at that time, but it was you! Wherever you are born/grew up is also random! Sure, there might be logical or explainable conditions that influenced it, but in the bigger picture it was a coincidence and that’s why I would call “random”.

Depending where you grew up, you might or might not celebrate Christmas and even if you celebrate Christmas, depending on where you (or your parents) grew up, you might or might not believe that there is a Santa Claus.

I never knew about Santa Claus until I was at least 15 years of age and he never brought me any presents. Instead it was the Christchild (Christkindel) that brought the presents! Like most of you I celebrate the start of the new year on 01 January and the next year is the 2016th in my world. But if you are Chinese or Russian or many other nationalities, then the year starts on a completely different day or has a different number. How random!

They are all relatively harmless randomnesses, but think about this:

Due to coincidences both of my parents are catholic and as a consequence of them, I also became a catholic. Neither me not my parents decided to chose one religion over another because we thought it is “better” or “righter”, no, it was total randomness. If I had been born to Indian parents, I might be Hindu or if I had been born to Arab parents, I probably would be a Muslim.

So with that in mind, it is a total coincidence what religion you belong to (if you still “belong” to the religion of your parents and haven’t changed it on the way). Yet, people of some religions feel superior or “righter” when they compare themselves to people of another religion. We even judge other human beings based on such a random coincidence? For example: “Christian good? Muslim bad?”

For 2016, we should all become more aware of the randomness in life and base our judgement on acts/deeds/decisions that a person takes, not on the coincidental religion of their parents or grandparents!

Odd, Other, Society
 
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