All-Irish Blogs—A St. Paddy's Day Blog Scan

Theme Blog Overview

In honor of the day, I did my blog scan a wee bit early the week, and entered into the hunt with a specific theme in mind: Irish blogs. I was not surprised to find several treasure troves.

POLITICAL: Irish politics get very heated, and 1169 and counting... has a chip that has been shoulder-sitting for centuries.

During the 1798 Rising and later during Robert Emmet's time women often acted as scouts and look-outs for the men; there were cases where they participated in the actual fighting and of course they took care of men who were wounded in the fighting ... [Emphasis sic.]

The United Irelander blog, on the other hand, lets you do a little voting of your own in a light-hearted survey that asks What Kind of Irish Person Are You? Be sure to back up to Young Irelander's home page for some facts (cough) about St. Patrick hisownself.

St. Patrick was not an Irish Republican but he may have been an Irish publican...

NEWS: Back-Seat Driver Dick O'Brien, a freelance journalist based in Dublin, Ireland, has his eye on the world of journalism.

And the [Ambiguous headline of the week] award goes to… The New York Times. "Bush Vows to Hold Course on Terror and Pushing Democracy". Will he be bringing his own teaching materials, such as a white board or hand outs? Or maybe he'll have a PowerPoint presentation?

CELEBRITY: Rosie O'Donnell has a (mostly) poetry blog; it's one of a half-dozen links off her home page. Author Diane Duane has one, too—but she doesn't always like to talk about writing. On the other hand, there's the Alternative Miss Ireland contest web site, documenting 11 years of, um, tilted Irish beauty. "Miss Twirly Chassey" introduced the concept at last year's web page:

Babies! It's me your Craic-Hoor-de-Jour! And this, this is AMI X: your tenth annual Irish beauty pageant just beyond the finish-line of culture.

THE DAY: A squint-eyed look at St. Paddy's Day is provided by letting loose with the leptard, in which PÁDRAIC Ó LEPERCOLONY (The Mental Elf) meets WINNIE-THE-PUKE in the Hundred Anarchist's Wood. And for that nosh at the pub, why not try some Irish Sushi? (I kid you not!) The Irish Times Online asks the holiday's burning question: Well, why not? Ten Good Reasons to Bring Back Snakes.

And long-time Irish blogger Sean McGrath gives us the philosophic wisdom of St. Patrick, freshly translated from the Ogham Stone, so the DeXiderata can now be read in English.

As far as possible, without surrender, accommodate the bizarre tag names and strange attribute naming conventions of others... Avoid loud style sheets and aggressive time scales, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare your schemas with others, you will become vain and bitter for there will always be schemas greater and lesser than yours—even if yours are auto-generated...

So Beannachtam na Femle Padraig! and Sláinte! to you all—check out the collection of Irish Toasts for that genuine lilt of Ireland as you lift your Pota Phadraig today.
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