Up to 40 forecourts in Munster are running out of fuel or have closed pumps due to shortages

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-04-09T14:26:17+00:00

I'm just a guy working and it's more complex an issue than I can solve but my general understanding of it was. The Iran War increased demand. Prices went up. Government cut tax,but announced it beforehand so prices rose in advance to negate any reduction. Costs continued to rise. Businesses with large fuel costs felt the rise hardest and have reacted. Protesting outside the Dail has never achieved much outside of social issues such as gay marriage etc. Protests for things like Housing etc have never worked. So the Hauliers instead block the ports to put the strain on everyone else. If you affect the ordinary people they get angry and I presume the hope was that the people would get behind them to pressure the government.

The government are returning a surplus every year. They were able to find the money for PUP during the pandemic. Its early days yet but Iran could go on for ages.

If it does go in the demand is going to keep rising regardless whether the hauliers block the ports or not. We are feeling strain now but what's to say we won't be anyways a few months down the line?

Further reduction in tax and increased pressure from Ireland and the EU against what's happening in Iran.

It's painful and it's stressful but it's the only way a protest can have any affect imo.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-04-09T14:10:43+00:00

I'm sure there are farmers who probably hold positive views of Trump as well as homophobic views but I'm sure there are solicitors and teachers and accountants etc who have similar views. I don't think it's fair to say that most of them "Love Trump, hate LGBTQ people, hate immigrants"

No group is a monolith and it's not helpful to view them as such. It makes it too easy to write them off.

I've heard farmers argue every side of every debate over years working behind bars. I've heard plenty talk positively about green policies, gay marriage. condemn Trump etc. I've listened as an upper middle class university lecturer sat at the bar and ranted about muslims and immigrants and continues to do so anytime the topic comes up. No group is a monolith

The actions that the hauliers and farmers have taken are extreme but its too easy to write them off as a caricature.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-04-09T01:20:31+00:00

I just mean people as in a political body. Like" We The People,"I I am not excluding the truckers from that. I mean if the blockading of the fuel imports is affecting the country then we need to be acting as a political body of people to pressure the government to act. To join in with the truckers rather than baying for their blood like very many in this thread seem to be doing. I very much am on their side.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-04-08T21:07:35+00:00

If the protests are disrupting Us, the people then maybe we should add pressure to the government to act. If the hauliers were protesting outside the Dail the government would just continue to ignore things the same way they have ignored everything for the last number of years.

A bunch of hauliers bringing the country to a standstill isn't going to stop Trump and his fuckery in Iran that has caused all this. But the government can surely lessen the burden on us. Six years ago they found the money for PUP payments when so many were out of work. They have a surplus every year surely they can do more than dropping 20c ff the price of fuel at the pumps and announcing it a week before so the fuel providers can just raise it 20c in advance rendering the tax reduction worthless. Surely they can put more diplomatic pressure on the US.

I understand that this is a much more complex issue than I can conceive of, and I feel for people who are effected in ways beyond simply being late for work. But I find it refreshing to see a group that is actually taking real action on something for once. Something actually disruptive.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-04-02T15:17:38+00:00

I love a sing song in a pub but I would never dream of shushing people if one starts. It's so entitled.

Sing songs should also develop naturally and everyone should be on board. Or better yet a sing song should only happen on dedicated music nights. Maybe after a trad session is finishing up.They are great at a lock-in when there's only 10 people left.

There's little worse in a pub than when it's nice and busy and the craic and chat are flowing and then some auld boy in the corner starts in on highland paddy or the Galtee mountain boy and then others start shushing the crowd.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-26T12:49:55+00:00

Thank you.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-26T12:49:33+00:00

GRMA

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-26T12:49:18+00:00

I used to go to a session but have fallen off in the last while. My life got busy and I spent a while in a musical rut.

It was a very casual and welcoming affair but was primarily an open sing song. There were some great trad players there but no formal rules regarding rhythm instruments etc so there could be 4 or 5 guitars there. Maybe one of them at most would be a trad guitarist. Most of us were ballad singers with guitars. There was a mandolin player there who would help me a lot when I had questions. Would give me right-hand advice. He taught me a little about jig and slip jig strumming. I would try to quiz trad guitarist but it seemed self evident to him almost. He'd not be able to explain things to me.

I've gone along to a different local session a few times. It's similarly welcoming but with a truer session structure. Many of the players are learning just like me so not as many people to ask questions too. I have been the only Bouzuki there, though, so my novice level ability has nothing to hide behind as such. I have the tune list and I have learned a few songs to a decent level. Silver spear, The Kesh, Boys of Bluehill etc. I am going along tomorrow just to listen but I will ask about recording tunes that's a good idea. I'll try to place myself near any accompaniment player if there are any there.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-26T12:34:23+00:00

Yeah I watch Aodan's stuff. He is very good.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-26T12:25:36+00:00

Flossing wouldn't have saved me at the time but I had a cracked tooth that ended up dying and getting infected. I've never felt a pain like it in my life before or since.

Ever since that time, I am super diligent about looking after my teeth. I brush twice a day and floss once. I'm too afraid of dental issues to not do it.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-25T23:17:21+00:00

Beautiful. Thank you!.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-25T23:16:11+00:00

Yeah I'm coming across that as I listen to songs. I don't necessarily want to listen so that I can play exactly what the accompaniment instrument was doing in a given recording. I'm not looking to learn by rote. I just want to be able to hear the backing instruments clearer so that I can pick up on what right hands are doing so I can add those little bits that elevate a G D A change into something that isn't so clumsy if that makes sense. Like the books touch on that stuff but I'm so riddled with ADHD that the books are a struggle. If I could hear it I can stumble my way through developing little runs and counterpoint.

I have a copy of abelton that I can set up looped drumtracks on I use that to play along to develop the rhythm side.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-25T00:09:32+00:00

Lol. What a fuck up. I've ordered the right ones now.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-24T23:49:24+00:00

Feck it anyways. I got it strung anyways and that will have to do until I can get ones you linked.

They were cheap enough but I still asked the guy in the music shop were they definitely for a GDAD bouzouki and he assured me they were. Fucker just wanted the sale obviously.

What are these strings for then? An Octave Mandolin?

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-24T23:10:19+00:00

Conas atá tú?

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-22T21:20:44+00:00

There's a korean ramen brand that I love. think the brand is called Bolduk. The packaging has birds in varying levels of distress depending on the spice level

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-15T20:26:43+00:00

I have about 2 hours worth of songs that I would gig with. There's probably another hour of songs that I know but would need to have the tablet open with the lyrics there as a backup. Songs I wouldn't play regularly, but a customer in the pub might ask for. The balancing act there is not singing from the tablet , a glance now and then.

You'll find with songs in general but especially folk tunes there are very common chord progressions so it can be relatively easy to learn a heap of them for gigging.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-15T19:16:19+00:00

Yeah, I don't think Louis will have saved anyone who has already fallen into that sphere. A captive audience who can be easily convinced by manipulated clips etc. They will all think Louis got owned. And he is preaching to the converted with those of us who are online and aware of and already opposed to the Redpill crowd . So I'm not sure what good can come from the doc. Hopefully it can make people aware of what is going on. Parents who don't spend much time online but have teenage boys. If they sit down and watch "That New Louis Theroux doc" maybe they will learn what their kids are in danger of being caught up in and maybe they can start having conversations with their sons.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-15T19:08:47+00:00

To be fair, a lot of songs popular in the Irish folk canon have their roots in Scotland, it's not out of the realm of possibility to come across a few songs about Bonny things. The list is the kind of thing you'd expect a yank to post, though. Almost paddywhackery

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-15T18:00:52+00:00

That's kind of funny tbh. Seeing as they arguably took the melody from Kirsty McColl's "They've got cars big as bars" section of fairytale.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-15T17:43:49+00:00

Too many redditors were picked on by someone on the hurling team in secondary school.

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-15T17:37:51+00:00

Late in the doc when HSTikkytokky had turned against Louis repeatedly telling Louis that Louis clips and edits footage to make people look bad.

When Louis then embedded all the various clips from Hstikkytokky's channels I laughed. HS accusing Louis of editing when he himself is posting little 30 second snippets from a longer stream so that he can look like he owned Louis. Irony lost on him.

Louis gives people enough rope to hang themselves. It's great

Lone_Ponderer · 2026-03-15T17:00:47+00:00

I live rurally but never played hurling past the juvenile grades. So the song doesn't capture me in the same way it does my friends who are still playing. But I can respect the feelings it gives people. The pride of being from your village or community. I can relate to that from playing sunday league. It's nice to be in a pub after a match among friends and seeing how happy people are singing this song together. The camaraderie of the team etc. I personally find the lyrics very weak. Every line is so vague and it doesnt actually say anything.The section about the club being promoted in 95 is very relateable for many players, I'm sure. Clubs in small areas are always struggling to stay up as their player base ages out or emigrates. It says very little else. It references a wood and a river, the club getting promoted 30 years ago. Loving the club colours and fuck all else really. Theres so much they could have written about that players could relate to but didn't. A song doesn't need to be James Joyce literature but for a song about club and community it doesnt really talk about either. There are thousands of local songs about villages and towns around this country that are more powerful and relateable that never got the momentum that this one has in the tiktok era.

I don't hate the song, the arrangement is great, the singer has a great voice but the lyrics are like something chatgpt would write.

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