Newspaper's Letters Section

[jebus]

Does anyone else skip straight to the letters section in whatever newspaper they read? I used to turn to the sports section first, but unless there has been a big game or major transfer I generally skip to the letters and analysis page in the Irish Times and Guardian these days. I also read the morning metro's letters, but thats more of a guilty pleasure in the Joe Duffy stylee :D Personally I find the Guradian letters to be far and away inferior to the Irish Times section, where proper debate actually goes on and I generally feel that you get a broad sense of what that elusive man on the street thinks, and so I'm setting up a thread on these and other letter sections to see if it will open up these issues on here :)

The letter that caught my eye today is Terri Murray's in the Times, where she bemoans the hypocrisy of Irish government oppression of free speech whilst the Proclamation of Independence was being read aloud at the recent Easter Rising ceremony. I don't have an online Irish Times password so I can't link from their website, but if you have a copy of today's edition I'd recommend you look it up

Kindly supplied by a board member
Not sure what I am allowed post without a link, but here's a portion of this letter, if it's not allowed then I'll take it down



A barrier over six feet high and covered in black heavy plastic over steel fencing prevented most members of the public from seeing anything of the ceremonies.
The small number of people who did get through to the area near the GPO did so only by submitting to being searched by the gardaí at the entrance to a corral-type system of fencing.
I don't think this is what the aforementioned signatories had in mind somehow!
However, the ironies don't stop there. I went along to the commemorations and had a banner with me which called for the protection of the Tara/Skryne Valley.
I stood, like most other people, outside the cordon, on the Clerys side of O'Connell Street.
The cordon was a lot taller than I am, so I couldn't see anything, but I held the Tara banner over my head and it could be seen inside the cordon.
I was there only a short time when three gardaí and a plainclothes policeman came over to me, looked at the banner and demanded that I put it down.
I stated my objection that I wasn't doing anything unlawful but he continued insisting that I put down the banner or move along off O'Connell Street.
When I asked what would happen if I stayed holding the banner, I was told I would be forcibly removed ie, arrested. I could not believe this was happening. While this was occurring, the Proclamation was read out and the National Anthem sung from the podium.
It would be funny if it wasn't so frightening, undemocratic and farcical

[paul_oshea]

No. :)

[Pike B]

Ah no :)

[jebus]

Dammit :)

[Wolfie]

. I also read the morning metro's letters, but thats more of a guilty pleasure in the Joe Duffy stylee :D

As outlined above, a few years ago I went through a bout of reading the Evening Heralds letters pages. Some of the greatest works of comedy ever produced.

Grumpy oul dears penning letters about the failings of the local council along the lines of "My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus growing in it" :D

[pete]

I do not skip directly to but would always have a glance through the IT Letters page.

Interestingly enough there is a letter in there today complaining about kids football jerseys with alcohol logo on the front. Liverpool was mentioned & apparently the Minister responsible said she could not ban because they come foreign country. Caught my interest as Cork City are sponsored by Beamish but do not put the logo on childrens jerseys.

[kingdom hoop]

Does anyone else skip straight to the letters section in whatever newspaper they read?

Yes. :) I read the Irish Times, and more often than not have a peak at the titles of the opinion pieces before reading the letters. Not sure why I do, but I do do.


Must write a letter to Geraldine telling her about it. :D


Anyone ever get letters published? Or even submit one?

[tetsujin1979]

Caught my interest as Cork City are sponsored by Beamish but do not put the logo on childrens jerseys.Celtic and Rangers do the same. Or at least they used to.

[osarusan]

Anyone ever get letters published? Or even submit one?

I (or my voice at least) was on Mailbag about 10 years ago, complaining about something RTE had done. I didn't see it though.

[jebus]

Celtic and Rangers do the same. Or at least they used to.

It's now illegal in Britain to put alcohol companies logos on kids jerseys. The same should be adopted over here

[Schumi]

It's now illegal in Britain to put alcohol companies logos on kids jerseys. The same should be adopted over hereIt has been. UCD had to put a different logo on our kids' jersies instead of Budweiser.

[jebus]

It has been. UCD had to put a different logo on our kids' jersies instead of Budweiser.

Sports stores still sell kids jerseys with Carlsberg, Carling etc. on them though so I'm not sure it's illegal, maybe it was UCD having better morals than most?

[Block G Raptor]

It's now illegal in Britain to put alcohol companies logos on kids jerseys. The same should be adopted over here

Dont think thats correct. I bought mini raptor2 a liverpool kit yesterday 0-3 months and it has Carlsberg on the front

[jebus]

Dont think thats correct. I bought mini raptor2 a liverpool kit yesterday 0-3 months and it has Carlsberg on the front

But you bought it over here didn't you? It's just in Britain that it's illegal to sell it, it's not illegal to produce it

[citizenerased]

Got a letter printed in the nme a few years ago, also submitted a couple of joke ones to the metro in repsonse to a foreign girl at work who wrote a letter complaining about how crap ireland was...

[Schumi]

maybe it was UCD having better morals than most?Don't think so, we were kind of put out about it as I remember. It might be an FAI decision maybe.

[Block G Raptor]

But you bought it over here didn't you? It's just in Britain that it's illegal to sell it, it's not illegal to produce it

I doubt addidas would be producing one version for the British market and another for the rest of the world though surely it would be more cost effective to leave it off all kids shirts in that case. also I bought it from a British retailer so I'd imagine that they have centralised distribution of stock for UK and Ireland

[jebus]

I doubt addidas would be producing one version for the British market and another for the rest of the world though surely it would be more cost effective to leave it off all kids shirts in that case. also I bought it from a British retailer so I'd imagine that they have centralised distribution of stock for UK and Ireland

It was in the Irish Times yesterday that it has been made illegal in Britain yesterday, they brought it because of growing calls to do the same here


Got a letter printed in the nme a few years ago, also submitted a couple of joke ones to the metro in repsonse to a foreign girl at work who wrote a letter complaining about how crap ireland was...

I was printed in the Metro as well, it was an insulting letter about the Gardai in response to a foreign girl who asked if the Gardai were directly racist to anyone else when dealing with her case. I replied that they were just as incompetent with Irish as they were with anyone else

[Lim till i die]

It's now illegal in Britain to put alcohol companies logos on kids jerseys. The same should be adopted over here

Why??

Anyone who takes up drinking because the name of a drink is on a shirt.......


On the newspapers thing my order of reading is sport, Dr. Miriam, news, 3am girls :p

[Block G Raptor]

Ah I see I didn't realise that the legislation was as recent as that. I suppose it doesn't come into effect whilst stocks last
suppose that means that Mini Raptors kit could be something of a collectors item in years to come

[jebus]

Why??


Because I'm sick of new drinkers taking up space at the bar, they're a nightmare and need to be brought to the dark side (or SLK's lifestyle as we call it) :)

Honestly I don't think kids should be made to think alcohol is a good thing through advertising, kid thinks Liverpool is great, Liverpool and Carlsberg walk hand in hand, and so kid grows up thinking Carlberg and Liverpool are great, and misleading children in both ways is just plain wrong

[Lim till i die]

Honestly I don't think kids should be made to think alcohol is a good thing through advertising, kid thinks Liverpool is great, Liverpool and Carlsberg walk hand in hand, and so kid grows up thinking Carlberg and Liverpool are great, and misleading children in both ways is just plain wrong

I'm sorry but anyone whos mind works like this is a moron beneath contempt and indeed salvation.

I grew up having Liverpool as my English team and I've never so much as drank a drop of Carlsberg............... or Crown Paint for that matter

[jebus]

I'm sorry but anyone whos mind works like this is a moron beneath contempt and indeed salvation

True, but I remember doing advertising in media in college, and you'd be surprised what works. My favourite is Coca Cola paying to put Pepsi signs in movies, the Pepsi signs would invariably be broken and covered in dirt, half hanging off the wall of some filthy, diseased looking bar :) negative advertising, I just like it

[Lim till i die]

you'd be surprised what works

Not at all.

But yet:


I'm sorry but anyone whos mind works like this is a moron beneath contempt and indeed salvation

So why should shirt companies and football clubs bother??

Would you be in favour of banning all alcohol advertising??

Putting white stickers over all the cans in the off licence section of supermarkets??

What about sweets?? They make kids fat. Ban advertising of them too??

Or washing machines?? I mean a kid could climb into one

Televisions??

Cars??

Coco Pops??

The very white stickers we're going to stick on the cans??

All potentially lethal to children/stupid adults.



Come on now jebus, complete free speech or none at all applies to the ad men aswell you know ;) :)

[jebus]

Football clubs and advertisers aren't bothered, I'm sure they'd happily brand every newborn's forehead with their company logo if allowed, but governments have to adhere to the standards of the hand wringers, have you not listened to Joe Duffy this decade :D

You should all just be happy I don't break about my solution to climate change, and drug lords, they're surprisingly similiar to my solution to boy racers :)

[Lim till i die]

You should all just be happy I don't break about my solution to climate change, and drug lords, they're surprisingly similiar to my solution to boy racers :)

Ah yes yourself, slks and myselfs managed "cull" solution.

Still slightly controversial in this PC world of ours but it has mileage :)

[GavinZac]

No, its usually full of fallacies by incoherent, illogical fools.

At least on Foot.ie i get to point this out to them :)

[OwlsFan]

In my twenties I used to always go first to the letter pages and had quite a few published myself in the IT. One set of correspondence I remember was trying to distinguish between the SS and Waffen SS :eek:

Now I go first to the Obituary column (sign of age) in the Daily Telegraph so I can post in the "So farewell then" column of foot.ie. Great sports section in the DT by the way.

[Pauro 76]

Spotted a funny one in the London Metro. It went along the lines of...

"Why dont they consider moving Easter forward a few weeks? We may get better weather for the long weekend."

Words fail me.

[Jerry The Saint]

No, its usually full of fallacies by incoherent, illogical fools.

At least on Foot.ie i get to point this out to them

Agree 100%.

I never normally look at them but just recently I've been checking occasionally to see how desparately these people feel the need to share whatever deluded notion pops into their head (As GavinZac says - this is fine on foot.ie where you would expect nothing less :)).

The best/worst examples are those who think they've got something funny to say that the whole world needs to hear. You can imagine them thinking to themseves - "Oh that IS good. You know what? I should totally send that to the newspaper."

From the Independent today


- For some years now, I have been trying to figure out how Bertie Ahern's make-up could be so costly. Then my husband came up with the answer. Obviously, the Teflon Taoiseach has himself re-coated at regular intervals


- I was in Croke Park recently and it was a joy to hear everyone singing our national anthem. I always get goose bumps as the 'Soldier's Song' is belted out by all present, and the thrill as the last refrain rises to a climax just before kick-off sends shivers up the spine... "Shovin' Connie around the field..." Great stuff altogether.

No. It's not. You've deliberately pretended to mishear the lyrics for supposedly humourous intent. You're an idiot.


The other type is those who feel they have something IMPORTANT to say.


- On St Patrick's Day, the Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche, represented Ireland in Beijing. Was it pure coincidence that he chose Holy Week to wash his hands of the multifarious brutal human rights abuses of the Chinese regime?

"Hmmm, was it? Was it, Minister? For Shame! :mad:"

[Ash]

I had a letter printed in IoS a year or 2 ago complaining about the lack of
domestic football on RTE. It was in retaliation to a comment made by a
sports correspondent congratulating Villarreal on their rise tio success while
comparing it with the eL clubs failures

[gustavo]

actual funny letters to editor
http://homepage.mac.com/pominoz/iblog/jokes/C1300286185/E20070128095040/index.html

[citizenerased]

Honestly I don't think kids should be made to think alcohol is a good thing through advertising, kid thinks Liverpool is great, Liverpool and Carlsberg walk hand in hand, and so kid grows up thinking Carlberg and Liverpool are great, and misleading children in both ways is just plain wrong

Funnily enough I grew up despising Liverpool and now I think Carlsberg is great!:D

I loved Celtic and thought NTL were a pack of c**ts also

[jebus]

actual funny letters to editor
http://homepage.mac.com/pominoz/iblog/jokes/C1300286185/E20070128095040/index.html

:D:D

First two are the best

[Wolfie]

actual funny letters to editor
http://homepage.mac.com/pominoz/iblog/jokes/C1300286185/E20070128095040/index.html

A few beauts there. The ballooning prisoners and this are class:

"My dog may not be able to count to ten or say "sausages" like the dogs on Esther Rantzen's "That's Life" but it can certainly hold its own in a fight against a badger". :D :D

[Jamjar]

Dont think thats correct. I bought mini raptor2 a liverpool kit yesterday 0-3 months and it has Carlsberg on the front

Did you get a discount for it being shop soiled ?