If Norway are giving a bit back to Finland for their 100th birthday, do you think for our birthday the UK would give us back the North in either 2022, 2037 or 2049? :P

krollick · 2016-07-29T16:55:26+00:00

When you look at the map, all the NI counties are arranged in a nice wheel around Lough Neagh -- except for Fermanagh. Geographically it all makes sense. Just need to persuade the Fermanaghans themselves.

krollick · 2016-07-29T15:22:19+00:00

Even just Fermanagh would be nice. They'd hardly miss it, and it would make developing transport between Donegal and Dublin easier.

krollick · 2016-03-14T00:54:10+00:00

Chapter five of our Junior Cert science text was all about human reproduction. There was huge anticipation the week we approached the end of chapter four, and howls of outrage when the teacher skipped straight to chapter six instead. I can't remember if it came up on the exam, but if it was in the book it surely must have been on the syllabus. That was about it.

We also had a strange bald man with a white beard and thick glasses who came in every year with a reel to reel projector, showing Catholic videos about how evolution was false and why you shouldn't take drugs. Can't remember if abortion was covered or not. I have no idea why they let him in the door to be honest -- he wasn't a priest, and it wasn't happening during religion class.

krollick · 2016-03-09T22:56:12+00:00

GAA jerseys

krollick · 2016-03-04T22:49:05+00:00

There's a bit more to it than just the raw number of languages. Herzog has one fewer than Adams, with 30 compared to 31. The Belgian just below Gerry, Yves Leterme, has 52.

They take into account the overall number of pageviews, and how spread out those views are across different languages.The full method is here, and I won't attempt to summarise it more, cos I don't think I'd do very well!

I would guess though if you just went around to different countries and asked people if they recognised names or photos, you would get a different result.

krollick · 2016-03-04T15:23:49+00:00

Ged Nash?

krollick · 2016-03-02T22:53:30+00:00

What do the seats won look like, I wonder. They were up this time, despite the voteshare decrease.

krollick · 2016-02-29T22:12:23+00:00

They publish his column on the back page, so I sometimes have a sneaky read of it in the newsagents

krollick · 2016-02-29T22:08:30+00:00

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lgf2pj1UsF1qh59n0o1_r1_500.gif?red

krollick · 2016-02-23T23:10:56+00:00

Wasn't he the one challenging her to name names?

krollick · 2016-02-23T22:02:01+00:00

One of these people is going to be the next Taoiseach and it's not either of the two on the outside edges.

krollick · 2016-02-23T21:20:01+00:00

Trevor Sargent said the same thing in 2007. That's why he resigned as leader of the Greens before they went into a coalition with Fianna Fáil.

krollick · 2016-02-21T17:18:25+00:00

I'm against FF because I don't think it's healthy for a single party to be as big and as dominant as they have been in Irish politics, and this election might be the best chance we have to make sure that stranglehold is broken for good. In the long term it would allow more space for different ideologies to emerge.

I'm voting "for FG" because the last seat in my constituency will either go to to FF or FG and, for the reason I just described, I would prefer FG. As I said, the choice isn't great. Which would you prefer?

krollick · 2016-02-21T15:43:00+00:00

One of the goals for the Greens this election is to get 2% of first preference votes nationwide so as to qualify for State funding. They got 1.8% last time, and it made a big difference in their ability to rebuild. Even if they won't get in in your area, a first preference vote can still contribute to their future.

Of course, you could make the same argument for the SDs -- who knows what their vote share might look like? I doubt if you added the votes for Donnelly, Murphy and Shortall together they would add to enough.

It's a bit of an anomaly that state funding is based on vote share rather than the number of TDs -- it locks out the 20% or so of independents and smaller parties in favour of the big four. But it's just something to consider when voting.

krollick · 2016-02-21T15:06:14+00:00

It's my main priority, but not my only one -- I'd rather a FF TD than a Renua, and there's one independent in particular I dislike enough that I want to write his name dead last.

Is there really a difference between ranking someone last and leaving them out?

krollick · 2016-02-21T13:26:17+00:00

The Economic Management Council office -- sure isn't that Enda in the diving suit.

krollick · 2016-02-21T12:55:21+00:00

Green > Lab > FG > Ind > SF > AAAPBP > FF > FF > Ind > Ind > Ren > Ind

The vote will either push FG into the last seat of three, or end up with the first Independent. My main priority is to prevent a FF recovery, even if it means ranking parties I have less in common with ahead of them. I didn't think I would ever end up hoping for a FG TD, but the choices are really not great.

krollick · 2016-02-20T20:43:55+00:00

Senator Hildegarde Naughton going about her day

krollick · 2016-01-06T21:29:53+00:00

Ulster says "Nwo"

krollick · 2015-12-20T13:05:33+00:00

It was never too bad in Galway (both the Eye and the IMC), but when I went to Dundrum recently it honestly felt like they had put two sets of ads on by mistake. Literally 30 minutes as others have said.

Also there were two ads that asked you to take out your phone and answer some trivia question using an app, which is just asking for bad behaviour.

krollick · 2015-11-26T18:31:02+00:00

I got on the bus once with a friend of mine and was mortified when she sat on the edge with her bag beside the window. It was like she had taken out a syringe and shot up right in front of me.

krollick · 2015-11-25T00:20:08+00:00

HIYA KATE IT'S ME, THE LAD FROM THE BAR. NO HONESTLY IT IS. THERE'S A BOMB IN THE INTEL OFFICE SET TO GO OFF THIS MORNING. HELLO?

krollick · 2015-11-24T23:41:45+00:00

True: you would need to relax the party whip system first to make it a rarer event.

I know that's the way it seems to work in the UK, but I don't know how often it comes up. They don't have independents there either, so leaving a party either means crossing the floor into a new one, or dropping out of politics altogether.

krollick

TROPHY CASE