Feb 27
I sent in this article to several newspapers last week, but none published it. So I’m publishing it here for the record. A sample examination test for trainee primary teachers taking religion as a subject includes questions which require the student to agree that ‘atheist humanism produced the worst horrors history has ever witnessed.’ Another …
Feb 20
I want facts. And that means that often, some of my most productive reading is on blogs. Bloggers (unpaid, writing in their spare time, dismissed as hobbyists by “proper” journalists) produce the goods often enough to keep me coming back. Whether its Tony Humphreys‘ views on autism, a questionable advertising claim, or alleged social welfare …
Feb 14
Yesterday, I asked the twitter machine for examples of Valentine’s Day themed press releases, just to see what the public relations industry was up to. The results are laid out below. A postal campaign by SPARK, sending letters containing matchsticks to welfare minister Joan Burton, who “ignited the spark” in single parents across Ireland. They …
Feb 13
A week back, I wondered about the contradiction between two items I came across online. On the one hand, Kerry TD Brendan Griffin was reported as saying he had handed back half his salary, and would continue to do so. It took just five minutes to do so, he told the Irish Times. On the …
Feb 08
Tuesday, John Murray held a phone-in to find a listener with the lowest bass singing voice in Ireland. As a throwaway remark, voice coach Paul Moussoulides said research showed listeners of both sexes preferred male voices on the radio. What research? WomenOnAir founder Margaret E Ward spent some time looking for this frequently cited research. …
Feb 06
A barman, a TV repairman, four trade union officials, five solicitors, a salesman, a stockbroker, a publican, a post office clerk, two postmasters, a political advisor, four political party officials, an operations manager, a plant hire company owner, a painter/decorator, a newsagent, a management consultant, a fisherman, a FAS community employment scheme supervisor, fourteen farmers, …
Feb 04
As has been reported at length elsewhere, an interview with a Polish woman identified as ‘Magda’, which was reported in Wednesday’s Irish Independent, was “badly mistranslated“. ‘Magda’ – now known to be Gaia Kowalik – first went public on the John Murray show, 24 hours after he first raised questions about the article, and went …
Feb 04
For a while, I’ve been toying with an column idea. Call it The Raised Eyebrow. Part Flat Earth News, part questioning conventional wisdom. Last week, an editor agreed to a column. Depending on how it worked out, more might follow. One idea came from a throwaway Prime Time line. “Sean Sherlock’s website was hacked”, apparently …
