Friday, September 21, 2007
Top 20 Irish blogs, maybe…
Iain Dale has come back from his holiday and has published a list of the top twenty political blogs in Ireland. Let me put my hand up and say: guilty as charged. Trying to trap something as etherial as the best politics blogs on an island with two polities that for the most part have quite separate obsessions. Also, there are some blogs not on the list that probably do deserve to be there. I’d be glad to hear who your think has been missed (sorry Sharon, it was very tight!). Time to update Slugger’s ancient blogroll.
PS: I wondered whether to exclude Slugger completely, but decided in the end that it would probably have been construed as a false modesty considering that our traffic levels puts us at number one.
And a hat tip to the ghost of Banquo at the Irish Blogger’s feast, to Politics.ie.
Mick Fealty @ 12:50 PM
Congratulations Mick. Well deserved
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 01:28 PMMick
Congratulations and well deserved.
Conall
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 03:33 PMI’ll go along with Ulster-man, it’s easier to claim awards under the Irish banner than the Ulster one. Ulster is the more challenging, but with Irish it’s almost presented to you on a plate, you can’t go far wrong, it’s the easy way out.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 04:19 PMMy thoughts, for what they’re worth:
Slugger deserves to be Number One, for producing a consistently great product and for providing a cross community platform that simply did not exist before it came to be
ATW, despite any faults, also is a unique voice, and is by far the best of the Unionist political blogs in Ireland. I’d place it higher than Number Four.
United Irelander deserves to be marked vastly higher than Number 17. It should be in anyone’s top three. Agree or disagree with UI’s politics, the man has done some important work. More power to him.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 04:35 PMSlight correction:
ATW is a unique creature and is not just Unionist.
I give it good marks for articulating the Unionist position, as well as for fearlessly tackling the War on Terror, the threat of jihadi Islam, the deterioration of British and World society, and whatever else comes to mind.
Were it to dissapear, I’d miss it, as would some of those who pretend to be horrified by it.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 04:40 PMSean said,: “I’ll go along with Ulster-man, it’s easier to claim awards under the Irish banner than the Ulster one. Ulster is the more challenging, but with Irish it’s almost presented to you on a plate, you can’t go far wrong, it’s the easy way out.”
Sean, Ireland and Irish is synonymous with each other. This has always been the case since people lived on this island 7000 years ago, it’s people have ruled under one jurisdiction and it’s people have always resisted anti-Gaelic, Anglo-saxon forces. Don’t be selling out all that Gaelic history because you think your an Ulsterman.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 04:47 PM“..fearlessly tackling the War on Terror”
Bollocks. Its priorities can be forever judged by a Google search on:
“David Vance” and “nigger”
‘Nuff said.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 05:20 PMI wonder,
“David Vance” and “nigger”
Jeeze, and there I was thinking he was a white boy! David: respect, brother.
As a quondam ATW commenter I’m pleased it’s high on the list of Irish blogs. I have to say though that I stopped visiting for two reasons: the unfortunate Andrew McCann and the utter predictability of the contributors.
Those who visit frequently will know what I mean:
Right good, left bad
America good, EU bad
Israel good, Arabs bad
Little England good, multiculturalism bad
Evangelism good, atheism badAnd so on. I’m glad to see Mr. McCann has folded his tent. I suggested a couple of times that he was bringing an otherwise excellent blog into disrepute. It can only get better now, but David should perhaps consider adding one or two alternative voices. For the balance, dontya know.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 07:54 PMDawkins
Another voice has indeed been added, that of the excellent mahons, from New York City yet.
I share your view on the unfortunate McCann individual. But why waste keystrokes talking about that life form?
The predominant west European worldview, esp from the media would be:
Left good, right bad
EU good, America bad
Palestinians good, Israel and “Zionists” bad
Multiculturalism good, Englishness bad
Watered-down phony Christianity sorta good, Fundamentalism scary and stupidMy apologies if Vance chooses not to follow along. He likes to give the sock in the jaw to the same old conventional European bullshit. Kind of refreshing if you ask me.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 09:27 PMDawkins,
when you present an articulate leftwing viewpoint on ATW, you get banned.
When the opposing view is from a bisexual female, the banning has Biblical weight.
When the inconsistency between internet views and BBC-expresed views is highlighted, you get banned.
When a Google search turns up embarrassing results, you edit the posts.
When you criticise ATW’s hatred of the family of a republican, you get banned.
All from a defender of *Freedom of speech*
Someone who believes Roman Catholics voting SDLP or SF are unfit for government” Does he express these views publicly? Does he subject them to the democratic vote? No.
I will oppose people who hate democracy and who hate the elected government of this country and who..hate..
It is all I can do to share the air that they breathe. I undertand Bob McCartney has left here for Australia. I think David Vance should do the same.
His site incites hatred - McCann’s “departure” should not be taken as a change as there is evidence that Vance utterly and compleely supprts this views - and this will be the subject of a court case shortly.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 09:47 PMDawkins,
‘Preciate the respect, man. And as Phantom says, we now have an East Coast voice as well as a West Coast voice!
Jo,
Google “Yoko Ono” and “Nigger” - maybe then you’ll get the point? Do try harder.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 09:47 PM[On Slugger, the rule is - keep to the ball and keep it civil - edited moderator]
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 09:57 PMJust to note.
Don’t bring arguments and disagreements from other blogs onto Slugger.
We have enough moderating to do.
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 10:35 PMSome other thoughts…
I think that every good blog has an owner with the last word. It can only be that way.
[the last word - edited moderator]
Posted by on Sep 22, 2007 @ 10:45 PMI’d prefer to give the last word to the public. But let me just add a couple of things.
- One, I wish the list were longer. We need more diversity and more independence of thought, and blogs is the way forward.
- Two, this choice was mine, and not intended as definitive, but I tried to encompass: quality; degree of focus; size of audience (important, but I didn’t have even information on that across the piste); length time going (there are some v promising new blogs that will no doubt feature in future lists); and regularity of posting.
- My focus was Irish politics, north and south. I felt I could not credibly have left ATW out (regardless of the feelings of the author ;-)) UI would have come much higher, but he hasn’t been regular in his updates for some time now.
Posted by on Sep 23, 2007 @ 05:10 PMWell said
--UI would have come much higher, but he hasn’t been regular in his updates for some time now--
Fair point. Hopefully, UI is getting stronger day by day, and, should he choose to return to blogging, he’ll rock ‘em next time.
Your site is one of the best to be found anywhere. Fair play to you.
Posted by on Sep 23, 2007 @ 10:06 PMMick,
“UI ... hasn’t been regular in his updates for some time now.”
He’s not the only one who hasn’t updated for some time, more’s the pity :0)
Posted by on Sep 23, 2007 @ 11:41 PMSarah Carey’s blog should definitely be up there at the top.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 02:33 PMOkay… Hands up… That was a glaring omission… She’s good… tends to shoot from the hip, but she is good…
Posted by on Sep 25, 2007 @ 06:39 AMLooking through the list, there are certainly some great ones there but there are also several glaring omissions, like http://notesonthefront.typepad.com to name one.
I realise it could be hard to pick a top 20 but there are many good ones left out.
Posted by on Sep 26, 2007 @ 06:46 PM
