This is what I do.

This actually made me cry, big wuss that I am.

2010-03-02T12:19:00.002Z

Anyone who's read some of my writing (back when I used to share things) will know that I'm a sucker for a good family story. The XBox4NappyRash story is one of those that I've long been a fan of.

So, two things happened recently. One, Sanne was born on Saturday 20 February 2010.

Martin has more photos over here

and the second was Martin sent me this video with no warning of what it was about - except that it's Dan singing "Yes" by McAlmont & Butler:

and so I probably shouldn't tell you - except to say fair play to Dan over on All That Comes With It for getting it put together.

So so lovely. So so happy for Martin and ET. Hello Sanne :)

An interview with Eleanor McEvoy

2010-01-26T13:51:00.002Z

It was a distinct pleasure to sit with Eleanor McEvoy recently to discuss her career, her adoption to the internet, the start of her career and her change from classical music to becoming one of the most popular singer-songwriters in the country.

We also discussed the Irish music industry, the labels and media and her involvement in IMRO. We talked about the upcoming Tradfest in Temple Bar (on this coming weekend) and her upcoming Australian tour.

We also discussed her charity work - the background of her "Oh Uganda" video with Oxfam Unwrapped, her massively popular online, but commercially poor single "Sophie" and her anger at society and where she finds her inspiration.

The video is 35 mins long - you can minimise and listen if that's easier. It was, genuinely one of the most interesting and candid interviews I've had the pleasure to do, and it's Eleanor's only media engagement before her trip to Australia.

It was a genuine pleasure and I'd like to thank Eleanor for her time and honesty and Good Seed PR for helping arrange it.

Eleanor is doing one more gig in Ireland before Australia, according to her website - the New Music Club in Brazil’s Cafe Clonmel, Co. Tipperary on Wednesday 17 February and then her Australia dates kick off on Feb 26 with the Nannup Folk Festival.

You can follow Eleanor on twitter here, find her new YouTube channel her and visit her website here.

She'll be appearing at the Temple Bar Tradfest 2010 this coming Saturday giving an IMRO masterclass. Tickets are selling quickly so I'd suggest you be quick!

News just in: We love Sharon Ní Bheoláin - a RTÉ ballad of injustice.

2010-01-22T11:35:00.002Z

The press release re Boards.ie being hacked today

2010-01-21T18:19:00.000Z

Not a post I'm happy about posting (major deal internally, obviously) but here's the press release we sent out today regarding the incident we've had:

Today, Thursday 21 Jan 2010 at 11:20 GMT the Boards.ie database was attacked by source from outside the country. This breach was discovered during routine security monitoring. We discovered this intrusion and took the site offline.

In the attack, part of the database which includes our members usernames, email addresses and obfuscated passwords was accessed. We are currently working with independent security consultants to ensure our systems are secure.

We are advising all members to check the passwords they use with any online services and to change it if it's the same one they used on Boards.ie

Our initial belief is that this attack was intended as a disruption to our service rather than to get member data. It may be possible for the attackers to read passwords and other data. At this early stage of the incident, members security is our primary concern.

Our basic message to members is:

If you have used the same password you used on Boards.ie on any other service, we urgently advise you to change it on these services. This includes any social networking account you may have.

Data stored by Boards.ie on members included only their email addresses, passwords, usernames and profile data. We did not store or have any record of home addresses, credit card details, online payment details or other personal financial data.

Boards.ie passwords are NOT stored in plain text, they are obscured with the standard vBulletin "Hash". While this provides strong protection, we have altered all passwords on Boards as a precaution and suggest you take this time to allter other similar passwords.

Like all large websites, we are regularly the target for disruption and take continual actions to proactively protect our member data. This particular attack was completely unprecedented despite our rigorous security measures.

We will keep you updated with any information you have about this, primarily for now via our twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/boards_ie. You do not need to be a member of twitter to read this.

We are extremely sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Members can contact us at hello@boards.ie

Review: Little Gem at the Peacock Theatre, Dublin

2010-01-21T01:30:00.000Z

"Love, sex, birth, death and salsa classes. Three generations of women. One extraordinary year"

I'm delighted I took the opportunity to go to tonight's opening performance of Little Gem, the award winning play by Elaine Murphy, running at the Peacock Theatre until February 27.

Starring Anita Reeves, Hilda Fay and Sarah Greene, Little Gem is a wonderfully touching, sentimental and - though I dislike the word for its maudlin overtones - heartwarming story of a year in the life of three women, three generations in the one family, told by each of them in turn.

"I loved this play, i went from laughing out loud to wiping a tear from my eye! The characters are so real, you end up wanting to be part of their family!"
(Review by Norma Quinsey from the Abbey website)

The Peacock Theatre really is an ideal venue for a play like this. Its intimate size means that you're close to the actors, close to the stage and quite part of the story, and indeed, the audience play a part in this by just listening. What do I mean?

Well, each character, first Amber, the 19 year old on her way to the debs, then Lorraine, her mother who works in retail on Mary St and then Kay, Lorraine's mother and Amber's grandmother all tell us their stories directly, stories of their days and their memories, which weaves itself into a very ordinary story told in what seems an extraordinary way - there's no interaction or dialogue shared between the actors.

The set is simple. Three chairs on a stage, one lamp, one tartan effect plastic shopping bag, the backdrop of a sitting room. It struck me while waiting for the play to begin that the three chairs were all very different, but put it down to a simple mismatch, rather than design. That assumption I made followed me throughout the play and surprised me in so many pleasant ways that at the end of the play I was giving a solo standing ovation.

"She drags me out. Haul Dean and his mate Lee onto the middle of the dance floor and gyrate like a pair of lezzers in between them. The lads are all over us like a cheap pair of jocks from Japan - Henry Street, not the country"

When Amber starts her monologue of debs preparation, we're immediately transported to the front room of a Dublin home - it's probably northside, definitely not D4. I loved listening to Sarah Greene, despite her accent slipping ever so slightly the odd time, because her mannerisms and her presence conveyed that certain energy that girls the age of her character tend to have.

The audience, all probably invited guests, chuckled along to some of the funnier lines but when Hilda Fay started her story of her day working in the shop is when the script really kicked into gear and the laughter resounded around the theatre.

"Is there anything you want to share with us, Lorraine?" He says. Afraid to say anything, don't want to stretch my mouth open wider to fit my other foot in. "Are you sacking me, Mr Grant?" Looks at HR bird and then back at me. Wonder if he's riding her?"

Stories written in a Dublin accent tend to be a bit hit and miss. While there's no denying the success of stories like Brendan O' Carrolls 'The Mammy' and Paul Howards Ross O'Carroll Kelly saga, there's also what I'd term the Sunday World version of Dooblin, where situations, personalities and especially use of language are exaggerated and you're left with a sense of knowing what the author is trying to convey, but being unconvinced because you've only heard of people like the characters, never actually experienced them.

Not so with Murphy's creations. While Amber and Lorraine are both wonderful characters, it was Kay, the granny, played by Anita Reeves that I adored. Reeves' performance is excellent, but the script shines through bringing this lovely, aging woman to life and delivering us laughter and loneliness time and time again. Telling us about her recuperating husband, she says

"He's not the easiest of patients. In fact, to put it mildly, he's a cantankerous oul' fuck. I don't mean to go down this road but sire I've started so I'll finish. I'm dyin' for me bit. We've always been very compatible in that department, which is a miracle by itself, because by the time you get to our age you'd normally be lacing the cocoa with arsenic not Viagra."

and by the time she described her journey on the 42B to Ann Summers to buy a certain object recommended to her by Marjorie Burke, not only was everyone in the audience laughing, but I could see the smiles of the actresses on stage, all who had no doubt heard the script hundreds of times, smiling at the audience reaction and knowing there was more to come.

Scribbling notes throughout, I scribbled one to Niamh beside me "This is VERY good" while a woman behind me whispered to her companion "She's great" as Hilda Fay took her seat after another brilliant delivery. Tonight's audience were a delight to experience - they laughed in the right places, were silent in the poignant moments and I'm sure more than me had a tear in their eyes at the particularly emotional and personal points.

There-in lies the charm of Little Gem - there's no high dramatic ideals here, no allegories or inaccessible language, no moral or intellectual lessons being delivered - it's a story of an ordinary family and what happens there, and that's why it has the power to affect people the way it did.

The applause at the end of tonight's performance was loud, sustained, well deserved and full of appreciation. While I'm sure the cast must be tired after their recent return from the run in New York, they put in a marvellous performance, one which, by the end, we wanted to continue, and to find out more about. "That was brilliant" I heard one person say on the way out, "Really surprised by how funny it was." Another woman was wiping her eyes, tears streaming down as she assured her male companion "I'm fine, love, it's just with dad passing, well, it's all so real".

In her author's note, Elaine Murphy, herself an actress (Prosperity, The Clinic, Pure Mule), whose playwriting debut was Little Gem, says

"When you start out writing, people always say: 'Write about what you know.' being an actress for the last couple of years, I always had a yearning to write something myself. Decent parts are thin on the ground and I rarely recognised any of the women portrayed on the stage in front of me.

I work part-time in a women's health organisation. Little Gem grew from there. It's a mishmash of all the women I've met over the years: hardworking, not particularly rich or poor, ignored by the Celtic Tiger, and the recession probably won't make much of a difference to them either, you know women like us, getting on with it."

Her play, staged in conjunction with the Civic Theatre Tallaght (21 years old this year!) by the multi award winning independent Gúna Nua Theatre Company, founded in 1998 by Paul Meade (who directs this production) and David Parnell has won the Fishamble award for best New Irish Writing and the Best Female Performance at the Dublin Fringe Festival, 2008. It also featured in last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won the Carol Tamber Best of Edinburgh Award and has just completed (on Jan 16) an 11 day run in the Flea Theatre in Tribeca, New York.

If I could offer you five reasons to see the play, they are, in no particular order:

It will make you laugh long and hard because it's a great script.
It will make you want to hug someone after, because it's a story you'll recognise
Anita Reeves as Kay
Sarah Greene as Amber
Hilda Fay as Lorraine

I'll be back to see it. Genuinely. I'll be bringing my parents. I'll be going with my friends.

It plays at the Peacock, as above, until February 27. Tickets are from €20 and can be booked online or from the Abbey Box office at +353 (0)1 87 87 222.

Following its run in the Peacock Little Gem will tour to 5 venues around Ireland: Draíocht in Blanchardstown; The George Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow; The Belltable in Limerick; The Axis, Ballymun and back to the Civic Theatre, Tallaght.

Thanks as always to David in the Abbey Press Office for the tickets. I owe you a pint.

Nominees for 2010 Meteor Irish Music Awards announced today

2010-01-07T13:01:00.008Z

I've been invited along to the launch of the 2010 Meteor Music Awards (Facebook link here) and here, as I've just posted on Boards.ie, is the list of the nominees as I have in front of me:

(EDIT: To vote in each category, just click on the category headline below)

Best Radio DJ - National (vote here)

Ian Dempsey - Today FM
Damien Farrelly - 2FM
Tony Fenton - Today FM
Ray Foley - Today FM
Larry Gogan - 2FM
Dan Hegarty - 2FM

Radio DJ - Regional (vote here)

Leigh Doyle - BEAT
Jim & Niamh - FM 104
KC & Lenny - Red FM
Michelle McMahon - Spin SW
Jon Richards - Galway Bay FM
Shona Ryan - Spin 1038

Best Irish Band (vote here)

Bell X1
The Coronas
Delorentos
Snow Patrol
U2

Best Irish Male (vote here)

Colin Devlin
Jerry Fish
Jack L
Christy Moore
Mundy

Best Irish Female (vote here)

Wallis Bird
Julie Feeney
Valerie Francis
Laura Izibor
Dolores O' Riordan

Best Irish Pop Act (vote here)

Delorentos
Laura Izibor
The Blizzards
The Script
Westlife

Best Irish Album (vote here)

Blue Lights on the Runway - Bell X1
Tony was an Ex-Con - The Coronas
The Duckworth-Lewis Method - The Duckworth-Lewis Method
Up to Now - Snow Patrol
No Line On The Horizon - U2

Best Irish Live Performance (vote here)

Bell X1
Christy Moore
The Script
Snow Patrol
U2

NON VOTING CATEGORIES

Best Folk/Traditional

Kathleen Loughnane
Kila with Bruno Coulais
Christy Moore
Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh
Sharon Shannon

Best International Band

Black Eyed Peas
Florence & The Machine
Green Day
Kasabian
Muse

Best International Male

Michael Buble
Jay-Z
Morrissey
Paolo Nutini
Bruce Springsteen

Best International Female

Lily Allen
Lady Ga Ga
Little Boots
Pixie Lotts
Taylor Swift

Best International Album

Lunatic Asylum - Kasabian
Lungs - Florence & The Machine
Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons
Sunny Side Up - Paolo Nutini
The Fame Monster - Lady Ga Ga

Best International Live

Leonard Cohen
Coldplay
Florence & The Machine
Bruce Springsteen
Take That

Awards will be held at the RDS Friday February 19 2010, presented by Amanda Byram. Performing on the night will be Westlife, Snow Patrol, the Script, Florence and the Machine, Paolo Nutini, The Coronas, Pixie Lott and "many more to be announced".

Voting goes live from today apparently with Most Promising New Artist for 2010 going live from January 15. All details over on the Meteor Music Awards website.

This year, 2010 and ME

2009-12-31T14:00:00.002Z

Last year I wrote about how I'd been living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgia Encepthalomyelitis, which I think is a lovely sounding name to describe a right bastid of an illness. While it had affected me badly in 2008, I thought it worthwhile to think about what I'd done in 2009 and how I am now.

Since I arrived home last Thursday I've slept approximately 17 hours a day. I had always said coming up to Christmas that I'd be taking time off and that the holidays were going to be about eating, reading and sleeping. These I have done, sleep being the priority. I'm revelling in its reparative powers, allowing thoughts to process and ideas for the new year to form.

The ME has been quite bad in the last year. The brain fog continues to affect simple memory and linguistic functions - at worse I lose the thread of a sentence mid flow and have little idea of what I was talking about (perhaps a good thing) while at other times simple words or phrases will just not appear in my mind to be said (ironically, I'm not sure of the proper way to say that).

The pain - fibromyalgia - has continued unabated, a constant presence with some days much worse than others, nightime being less about sleep and more about finding a position where my joints don't hurt. The fatigue hasn't been too bad - Sundays tend to be a literal day of rest - and hasn't prevented me from doing too much but my moods have been quite often manky and I'm surprised that certain people have been able to put up with me.

Despite all that, 2009 has been an exciting and productive one, and one I'm proud of and not ashamed to celebrate - many many festivals and events attended and volunteered on, a new job, new friends, lots of opportunities, lots of memories and experiences.

It's presented many challenges - no better or worse than those faced by others - friends lost, opportunities missed, promises not kept, lessons learned the hard way - but overall I feel I took it head on - simply because that's the only thing I could do. Whatever the downsides, the brilliant people I met in 2009 were by far the bes thing about it.

It was a year I became a real media whore - contributing to 4FM, i105107, Newstalk, Morning Ireland with Radio One and being caught on TV cameras on a couple of occasions. I've been in a lot of newspapers and some magazines. I've spoken at conferences and masterclasses.

The position with Boards.ie has widened many of the doors I had opened and moving from Community Manager to Communications Manager was a sensible and mutually beneficial move for all concerned. It teaches me a lot but I bring as much to the table. 2010 will be, in may ways, the make or break year for Boards.ie and it will be interesting to see how the input of management, of employees, of volunteers and of members will shape it and bring it closer to failure or success.

2009 also saw me work and volunteer with the Irish Blog Awards, with the Abbey Theatre, with Barnardos, with the National Campaign for the Arts, with the National Gallery, with Cinemagic, with Darklight, with the St Patrick's Festival, with the Street Performance World Championships, with the Carlsberg Cat Laughs and Comedy Carnival festivals, with Eircom, with Bórd Gáis, with the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, with the Dublin Writers Festival, the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and the Dublin Theatre Festival, with the Science Gallery, with Culch.ie, with the Labour Party, with the National College of Ireland and Metro, with Arthur's Day and the Guinness 250 Celebrations, with ABSOLUT Fringe for the first time, with the Cork Jazz Festival, With Sony Ireland, with Toys 4 Big Boys, with ReachOut.com and more.

I got to interview and chat with many different people who do really interesting things. This in itself has inspired me in at least one project for the new year that I'll definitely be asking for help with.

I've had lots of cups of coffee with lots of people talking and advising on social media. I've had lots of invitations to events and previews. I've worked hard and benefitted from it. Laziness was never an option. Enough of that done in the past.

2010 then will be an interesting one - a busy one. I'll be launching at least two websites and podcasts and involved in the launch and implementation of more - including at least one very high profile site. I'll be event blogging and tweeting.

Most of all though I'll be working. There are a number of tourism and charity initiatives I want to assist on, as well as continuing to support the arts. As smarmy as it sounds (and belive me, I know how smarmy it sounds) I continue to appreciate the opportunities and rise to the challenges. I continue to look forward to getting to know people.

No new year resolutions for 2010. I don't need them - the to do list is long enough without them.

Happy New Year to you and yours. Hope you enjoy it. Coffee soon? :)

Interview with Donal Skehan, author, musician and blogger

2009-12-10T17:23:00.006Z

It's not that I forget. Honestly, it's not. It's that I promise myself I'll do things tomorrow and then, of course, there's something else to do. I need to be more organised!

Anyhow, I'm slowly but surely catching up with things here and so I finally get around to publishing this interview with Donal Skehan, the Good Mood Food blog blogger and recently published author.

It's actually quite scary to think I filmed this on Wednesday, October 21, the day of his book launch in Dubray Books on Grafton St but am only publishing it now.

It was great though to sit down with Donal, whose blog I read and who I follow on twitter and find out more about the new book - Good Mood Food - where the inspiration came from and how he manages to fit in Industry, due to release their new single "My Mistake" on Ruth Scott's 2FM show tonight.

I've been reading Donal's book since I bought it and have promised myself to set aside time in the new year to learn how to cook properly!

In case you're interested in the launch, Donal's speech and brilliant introduction by Eoin Purcell and by Niamh Hatton of Mercier Press, are below:

Thanks Donal for your time - hope it's all going well and good luck with the new single!!

Carrying a fan for AIDA at the O2 and Odyssey this weekend

2009-12-01T09:43:00.003Z

I'm fulfilling yet another "would love to do that" this weekend - stepping out on stage at the O2 in Dublin and Odyssey Arena in Belfast as part of the ensemble of Verdi's AIDA.

This production will be one of the most spectacular versions of Aida ever to be staged and will appeal to both opera connoisseurs and novices curious to experience the delights of the opera for the first time.

When I say "part of the ensemble", I mean part of the triumphal march in Act II, when the Pharaoh takes to the stage to meet his princess. I'll be one of the two fan bearers following him out and standing behind the throne. Oh, the glamour. Steph and Niamho are also taking part, thanks in part to taking the audition. Okay, okay, we just showed up.

Still though, great way to spend a Friday and Saturday night - on stage at two of the country's biggest venues, listening to live performances from the stage in a spectacular production - "very much a first for Ireland as this production of Aida is larger than any ever done before."

The production brings new meaning to ‘grand opera’ as The O2 will be transformed with spectacular sets and scenery and a cast of over 200, including 20 ballet dancers, will take to the stage in lavish costumes to perform one of the greatest operas ever written accompanied by a full orchestra and a choir of 75 singers.

The O2 will be unrecognisable when the stunning sets are built for the show. A 12 metre high pyramid will dominate the stage, along with the throne of Pharaoh, and statues of Egyptian figures as well as eight palm trees.

With principals including Rosella Redoglia as AIDA (previously Abigaille in Nabucco), Stefania Scolastici as Amneris, Ernesto Grisales, the Colombian tenor as Radames, Camilla Corsi as the Priestess and the Coro Lirico Italiano and the Sinfonica Nova Amadeus Orchestra conducted by Stefano Seghedoni, this is sure to be one of those experiences none of us will forget.

I just need to work out how to stick the phone in the costume for a sneaky twitpic.

I doubt it will be as grand as this, but here's a version of what we'll be doing:

Aida is set in ancient Egypt and tells the tale of Aida, an Ethiopian princess who is captured and taken into slavery in Egypt.

While there she meets with Radames, the Captain of the Egyptian Guards, who falls in love with her.

Radames becomes torn between his love for Aida and his loyalty to his leader the Pharaoh whose own daughter, Amneris, is in love with him.

The story reaches a climax when Radames is asked to lead the Egyptian army into battle against the Ethiopian army headed by his beloved Aida’s own father, the King of Ethiopia.

It's THE EMERGENCY of the year - Brain Cowen is kidnapped!

2009-11-27T16:10:00.005Z

Funny the stuff that ends up in your inbox from some people, especially if it's a marketing ploy just to promote their very funny and topical new CD "Use Democracy Sensibly" available as a perfect christmas stocking filler now.

I'm giving some away that I, er, found, on Boards.ie here.

Use Democracy Sensibly is written and performed by The Emergency - Morgan C Jones, Eoin Byrne, Joe Taylor, Dermot Carmody, Karen Ardiff and Nick McGiveny.

I know someone who LOVES this clip from them:

Training Eircom's new online customer support team

2009-11-25T18:36:00.007Z

I spent some time with Eircom's new online customer support team yesterday and Monday. Yes, that's right, Eircom are heading out into the big bad world of online and "engaging" in "conversations" with their customers on a new site to be launched, on twitter, on Boards.ie and wherever else is appropriate. Eventually.

It's a brave move for the company because let's face it, they're going to open themselves up even more to criticism and venting than they ever have before. It's very "easy" not to answer the phone but this is different. The whole organisation needs to be aware of that and I'm not sure that they are.

Now, when I say I'm "training", I don't mean I'm giving them the top 10 tips to be a customer service ninja or giving handouts drawn on posts by Godin, et al. Nor do I mean I'm advocating high fives when a query is solved, or recruiting advocates to ensure that only good stuff is said about you online. Because that sort of stuff is ultimately bullshit and there's far too much of that going on already.

This is about customer service, pure and simple. In real world terms it's someone coming into your shop with a problem and you solving it with a minimum of fuss and bother. Exciting the customer. One of the best books on customer service I've read was by Feargal Quinn about Superquinn - Crowning the Customer - and even then he just talks about how a good shop is well laid out with staff who are helpful, who anticipate the customer need and ensure it happens. Sounds simple, but a bitch to implement. Every part of the organisation needs to be bought into it.

I'm not saying either though that it's difficult to find the problems. A quick search on twitter yesterday morning brought us to Leo's tweets - and a quick reply and some fortuitous circumstances completely independent of us had the problem for Leo solved - but a valuable lesson taught. This isn't rocket science - it's just saying "Hello, I'm here to help, can I?"

I've really enjoyed watching the evolution of the Boards.ie talk to... forums, especially since Vodafone got involved (0ver 1,500 posts since September 20). Because I get emailed with every post as well as them, I get to see what's coming through. Some of it is quite harsh. Some of it fixable, some not. It is, however, valuable customer advice.

I watch how the feedback we receive on Boards.ie is - or isn't - implemented and I guess I'm lucky to be on at what I consider to be still the start-up stage of this company. Unlike massive companies like Eircom or Vodafone, I don't have a press office, a marketing team or a legal department to get things signed off by - that's me and Tom and Dav doing that between us. If something's wrong, we'll try fix it, if we can and it's fixable. If it's wrong but can't be fixed now, and isn't urgent (which is not the same as isn't "important") it gets added to the (long) list of stuff to be actioned. That's a really good position to be in. Enviable.

Will it be the same in Eircom? I don't really know how it operates at a management level. Do they know what people are complaining about? Do they look at the call centre logs, the emailed queries and say "Okay, we have a problem in this area, this needs to be fixed" and then go and actually use their authority in the company to fix it? My hope is that it's so, my gut feeling is it's not. I think people get tied up in call volumes reached, in tickets closed, in cutting call centre resources, in just answering the call and letting that be. This won't work for Eircom.

The moment someone in there starts looking at this exercise in terms of number of posts answered rather than how long it took to resolve an issue and why; the moment they're talking about standardised, templated answers, quick wins and not telling the whole truth, the whole project might as well be scrapped.

Certainly, if I were part of the management team over this effort, I'd be looking closely at the processes. How is a query received? How is it answered? What steps does someone have to take to get there? Are there unnecessary steps that can be removed? Where are the problems talking longest to resolve? Does my team have the necessary authority and buy in from the organisation to make sure that what they do, they do well, first time and every time?

I'd nearly have the people answering the queries and dealing with them and then one person looking at the issues that caused the query in the first case and how that could be resolved and feeding that back into the system. Would that work? Yes, I believe so. Would a company pay someone to do it? No. Why? Because you'd only get results after a year. That's a pity.

There's no easy win for Eircom. It's going to take a lot of hard work, determination, apologising and trial and error. It's going to cause a lot of disruption internally - if it's done right.

Rather than end on this sort of downer on a blog post, I wanted to just share some thoughts for anyone in Eircom who ends up reading this far:

Once you start, there's no going back. No half measures, no shortcuts, no easy answers. DO it right from the beginning. If you can't do it alone, get help. Ask for advice. Get support. This is important and you have a great chance here to do something pretty damn good.
While you're not in "control" of the conversation, you have no influence over what people say and you don't know what someone could come at you with, act like you do. Be calm, be friendly, be honest but above all find out what their problem/issue is and fix that as quickly and as best as possible. Easier than it sounds.

It's the usual yaddah yaddah of how to talk online - don't jump in, listen first, be helpful with the advice, don't pimp your own stuff. Be the experts you are supposed to be - the experts you're paid to be.
Trust the guys you've hired, Eircom. From what I know of them, they seem like decent chaps. They'll need support but ultimately they're the guys you've put on your online frontline. You've hired them to do a job, let them do it.
Be honest. Be transparent. That will stand much better to you than just the brand guidelines. As lovely as your marketing and press people are, their message isn't what I want to hear - it's the truth about my problem and what you're going to do about it.
Realise you're going to learn a lot that you don't know about. Realise you're going to have to change things. Realise that this will be a measure of you as a company.
Don't take negative feedback personally. This is probably the biggest mistake people make online - assuming that what's written about them, their online work or the company they work for reflects on them personally. It doesn't. Not really. Not ultimately. Ignore the trouble-makers. If you can't ignore them, pity them. Their other problems are not yours. Solve what you can, when you can and be happy with the work you've done.
Remember - a little goes a long way. One tweet yesterday, though it didn't solve any problems, didn't fix anything or wasn't really that helpful did cause one person, previously having an awful experience with that company to react favourably to an offer of help. Don't discount that. Build on it.

It's a long road ahead. It's going to be really interesting to watch the journey.

Interview for the Visually Impaired Computer Society of Ireland

2009-11-24T15:32:00.003Z

I was delighted to be asked by Digital Darragh to contribute to a podcast for the Visually Impaired Computer Society of Ireland recently. We sat down in the Westbury and had a good chat. It's just gone live and can be heard below.

We discussed what exactly social networking is, what I get from the whole thing (that was a long segment), what people should be scared of, if anything, about blogging and about Boards.ie.

I quite like that you can hear the buzz of people, the chatter of the place, the clatter of the cups and so on around us. I wish I'd been a better speaker but it had been a long day.

The interview starts at around 30:52.

(You'll need to let it (down)load)

I'm particularly impressed to see organisations like VICs Ireland using tools like podcasts to communicate with their members. I hope those listening learned something small at least!

Good morning to you #2

2009-11-24T11:11:00.004Z

Hey Jude:

How to make a baby:

It could only be the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra:

This is a panda, born in Chiamg Mai zoo in Thailand last June, at eight days old.

4 June 2009: The cub, now eight days old, tries to stand on its feet, though it won't be able to crawl until it is about 75 days old. The panda's distinctive colouring is starting to form on the eyes, ears and paws

and then another eight days later.

I'm listening to Spamalot this morning. Love this track:

Sometimes not even English means anything

Stop motion sand sculptures:

From Japan - there's a right place for everyone:

2 fingers from a Shaolin monk - one of only two people in the world who can do this

It costs €20m to build 1 km of road in modern Ireland

2009-11-23T20:03:00.006Z

I interviewed Fergus Finlay, the CEO of Barnardos Ireland on Friday about their current YES/NO campaign and how cuts in the upcoming budget would affect their work and the people that they work with.

Some shocking (to me) statistics emerged in our chat, including how Thornton Hall, the new prison currently being built will cost €1,000 million in the first 10 years of operation and how it costs €20 million to build 1km of road in "modern" Ireland.

Via the Boards.ie blog:

You can read more about the campaign in this PDF download and sign the petition here.

You might also like to see what exactly Barnardos are recommending to the Government - that presentation is below:
Barnardos Key Recommendations for Budget 2010

I've arranged advertising for Barnardos on Boards.ie to help them reach their target of signatures. I hope it has an impact. Given that interview, if it doesn't, we're all in a lot of trouble. Preventing that is worth at least a signature.

The day I interviewed Dustin the Turkey

2009-11-19T20:19:00.005Z

From the Boards.ie blog:

Given the fact I talk to people a lot professionally, it's rare that I'm completely speechless in someone's presence. In fact, it's happened only twice recently - one when Terry Pratchett joined us for soup in Clare and the other was yesterday when Dustin started talking to me.

One of the cool things about my job with Boards.ie is what it allows me to do interviews like this. I find other people's questions are always much better than what I could come up with - especially if they have an emotional connection to the subject - it's how the soccer forum members came up with such great questions for John O' Shea and Damien Duff.

Setting up an interview with someone as busy as Dustin is a difficult one. Not content with everything he's done on TV, on the Eurovision, musically or politically, he's also just completed a trip to South Africa with UNICEF to entertain children affected by HIV/AIDS, unemployment and poverty and been in the recent RTÉ show "Dustin: Twenty Years A-Pluckin'" celebrating his own 20 years on Television. So, yes, it was a bit of an ordeal.

However I got to meet Dustin in Kite Entertainment's offices yesterday. I was nervous - I knew he'd go for me but it wasn't until he popped up from under the desk and started talking that I was completely awestruck.

There's me, as part of my job, getting to sit in an office, to look at Dustin, to see his beak, his eyes, to hear the click of his lower beak on his upper beak, the Louis Copeland suit, to just be in the presence of someone who has been on my screen on in my ears so much - magical.

The interview itself went as well as any of mine do - I'm trying hard not to laugh, I'm reading the next question to make sure I neither stammer nor stutter and I'm trying to act professional, rather than just laughing along. Poor Niamh had to hold the camera and put up with his amorous advances. It was a brilliant experience.

You know, there's times that I feel very very lucky. As does the lovely Niamho.

You can follow Dustin on Twitter here.

You can see what Boards.ie members are saying about the interview here.

You can hear Dustin's entire back catalogue of albums (and buy them) here.

A huge thanks to all the Boards.ie members, to Darren in Kite Entertainment and of course to Dustin. You legend :)

The Cork Flashmob from Saturday for the National Campaign for the Arts

2009-11-16T11:34:00.002Z

In support of what the National Campaign for the Arts is campaigning for. Have you signed the petition yet?

(Yep, so good I blogged it twice).

Shooting Beauty - take a few minutes and just watch this trailer.

2009-11-13T17:43:00.003Z

Awesome. Literally awesome. The website is here.

The Charter for Compassion - http://charterforcompassion.org

2009-11-12T18:44:00.003Z

This site - http://charterforcompassion.org - landed in my inbox today. It's a TED initiative from TED prize winner Karen Armstrong.

This is a document created by thousands of people around the world. It is capable of enabling a new dialog between the major religions and between religious and nonreligious people.

Please take out two minutes to read it. It's just one page. If it speaks to you, please add your name.

Here's the text of the charter.

Have a look at the acts of compassion here.

It's quite a worthwhile idea. I hope it succeeds.

"The next word is Mother Flippa" - rap and dance classes for the elderly

2009-11-12T15:21:00.002Z

Meet Marian, aka DJ Hip Op.

I LOVE this video for Age Action Ireland, created by Richard Doyle over at Creative Productions. One of the funniest I've seen in ages - fo' shizzle!

A podcast about Irish blogging, bloggers and events

2009-11-11T18:46:00.002Z

I've been thinking and talking about the idea of doing a podcast around blogging, blogs and the people involved in Ireland. It will be a lot more of the latter than the former but it's certainly something I'd be interested in trying at least.

There's a lot that could be done there - interviews, readings, highlights, regular slots from contributors, advice on starting up, comedy sketches and talking about upcoming events that those listening might want to know about.

My idea would be a fortnightly "show", with presenters, contributors and segments. There's such a wealth of talent from the various people interacting on blogs, on twitter and generally online that I'm sure that something interesting can be found there.

I wouldn't even say it's purely "business" or "entertainment" or anything as focussed - perhaps a mixture or perhaps themed shows. I've liked how the Boards.ie podcasts went (I need to get to doing those as well) and it would be hugely open to collaboration, input and suggestions - just structured and regular.

I've had a few people express interest to me via twitter already but if you have any suggestions, ideas, requests or indeed think it's an awful idea, please do let me know.

People have their say about the Get Up Stand Up National Day of Protest

2009-11-11T10:04:00.003Z

I was sent this by Paula Geraghty, the filmmaker who made this short film (5:18) about the ICTU National Day of Protest and the Get Up Stand Up campaign on November 6.

Lots of people on the streets being asked for their views on the matter. The next question apparently is "What do we do next?"

The new Beta Twitter Retweet feature

2009-11-10T19:53:00.006Z

This just popped up on my screen:

Click for bigger

So it's a symbol instead of an RT and a handy way of seeing how popular a link is - kind of like the Facebook "Like" feature...

There's also a new button beside the "Reply" one:

Vote for your favourite Irish social networking site

2009-11-02T12:21:00.010Z

That's what the Golden Spiders want you to do. They've just announced their shortlist for the Best Social Networking site and now it's up to the public to vote.

They are:

From the press release:

Members of the public are invited to cast their vote for one of the shortlisted websites by 6pm on Wednesday, 18th November 2009.

Votes can be made by sending details of your chosen website to info@goldenspiders.ie.

The winner of the “Best Social Networking Website” will be announced at the eircom Golden Spider Awards Ceremony in the Burlington on Thursday, 19th November 2009.

What should you think about before voting for your favourite social networking site?

INFORMATION/CONTENT – Does the site provide users with entertaining, informative and gripping content? In addition to the user-generated content does the site make the most of externally developed add-on applications which further encourage communication between members?

USABILITY – Does the site make efforts to accommodate non-standard visitors, for example: mobile visitors, visitors with text-only browsers, touchscreen visitors, users with screen readers and other alternative devices and a variety of screen resolutions.

DESIGN – Does the site make the best use of graphics, animations and interactive elements? Is the site designed to enable users to interact with the content and information in an easy and enjoyable manner?

RELEVANCE – Does the site clearly understand the needs and aspirations of the communities it supports? Does the site provide specific tools and services to meet those ends?

INNOVATION – Does the site provide new and interesting ways for users to collaborate and communicate?

I'm particularly delighted to see Thumped.com and Politics.ie in the list, as well as Pix.ie. Well done :)

Golden Spiders 2009 shortlist announced today...

2009-10-27T14:15:00.003Z

The shortlist for the 2000 Golden Spiders Awards was announced today.

All available on a Google Spreadsheet right here.

Congratulations to everyone nominated. The awards are on November 19.

Seats are €300 and table of 10 costs €2,900. Ex VAT.

For the win.

All Together Now stop frame animation - Budweiser tribute

2009-10-22T17:20:00.005+01:00

Because I was one of the people at the Budweiser Lyrics preview evening in Dublin earlier this year thanks to the lovely (and I mean lovely!) people at WHPR, and uploaded the ad to YouTube, I still get the odd notification of new videos being made as a tribute to the ad.

Like this new one by You Tube user ijbellehy1981, which I adore. The creativity is astounding.

The original ad:

And all for http://www.alltogethernow.ie. Lovely stuff.

Sometimes a press release says it all: the mysterydates.ie twitter singles night

2009-10-22T14:32:00.006+01:00

Subject line: "A complimentary Invitation to Ireland first Singles 'Twitter' party with mysterydates.ie"

Saturday October 31st will see the official launch of mysterydates.ie in a twitterparty. Ireland’s premier events dating company will launch Ireland’s first twitter party in Kobra Bar, Leeson Street at 8 pm.

Daters will be given twitter addresses if they do not have their own so their personal identities will not be revealed to other daters.

Daters can then flirt virtually on large television screens in the bar via their twitter accounts with other daters. If the flirting on screen goes well a pair of dates may want to take the flirting offline. And if both parties agree mysterydates.ie will release their names so that the daters can flirt face to face at the party.

Seriously now, what could I add to that?

Oh wait, this:

“Twitter offers a great new way for single people to have fun at our party and flirt virtually,” said Hugh Redmond from mysterydates.ie. “Daters want to have fun and remain a bit mysterious initially and Twitter is ideal for this.”

So yeah.

Log on to www.mysterydates.ie to pre-register for the unique dating event which costs just 20 euro or ring 087-939-5381.

Halloween seems like the perfect time for it too.

Good morning to you #1

2009-10-22T09:00:00.002+01:00

For Stephanie.

Take on me:

Stained glass window, Kilkenny

Starlings on Ot Moor

A comic by Seán

I took this photo around this time last year

I searched for "smile of the day" for you and found this:

Via Joice Maduka

Blogging the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2009

2009-10-19T14:17:00.006+01:00

This weekend I'm heading south with Steph to blog, tweet, twitpix and otherwise record and experience the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2009.

It's an event running over 30 years but this is the first time I'll have been down for it - in fact it's my first major jazz event!

Having been all souled up at this year's Dublin City Soul Festival I'm looking forward to hearing a different type of music and experiencing a different vibe. Huge thanks to Guinness for the invitation and opportunity!

This year's festival features over 1,000 musicians from 29 countries, so I'm sure there'll be some interesting choices for me. Having gone through the programme diligently and repeatedly, I'm hoping I get to experience the following (and here's where you'll find me to buy me a pint/slap me for all the bad jokes):

Friday:

First off it's to Jazz at the College lunchtime concert at UCC's Aula Maxima with Grace McMahon and the Paul O'Donnell Group.

Heading on then at 3pm to see a jazz group called The Club Men in the Festival club

The group above are called The Bad Plus - comprised of Ethan Iverson on piano/keyboard, Reid Anderson on electric bass and Dave King on drums - and I love the description -

The Bad Plus has undoubtedly exploded all notions of what a jazz piano trio should sound like – whether at rock festivals, jazz clubs or symphony halls. According to Rolling Stone, 'By any standard, jazz or otherwise, this is mighty, moving music … hot players with hard-rock hearts.'

They'll be doing a double bill with Sun Ra Arkestra in the Everyman Theatre on Friday evening from 20:30.

Finally then off to watch the superb Hypnotic Brass Ensemble in the Pavillion from 23:30.

SATURDAY

Saturday starts a trip to CIT and the Cork School of Music for a Family Jazz Big Band Concert with musical director John O' Connor conducting the band, made up of senior degree and post-graduate students of the School who will play "popular and exciting big band favourites."

Yurodny is one of my "don't want to miss" events.

Featuring guest musicians from around the world, this group apparently have a a repertoire that ranges from gypsy melodies to experimental electronica, crossing the tundra of jazz along the way. The line up looks like a great list of musicians including Cora Venus Lunny, Ben Davis, Kate Ellis, Oleg Ponomarov and Tom Arthurs .

They're in the Everyman Theatre at 2pm as part of a double bill with Al Di Meola.

This (well the dancing part) could well be us after our Swing Dance Lesson on Saturday afternoon, if we don't go to the Jazz Poetry session (daddio) instead.

We'll then be heading on to see the Garda Siochana Band performing with Togetherness Gadjo Jazz at the Festival club at 15:30 before a break for the Cork Tweetup where it'll be nice to put names to faces.

Then we go to a concert I'm greatly anticipating - Mr Kurt Elling, singing Coltraine and Hartman.

Described by the New York Times as ‘the standout male jazz vocalist of our times’, Kurt’s rich voice displays an astonishing technical facility and emotional depth. He celebrates in Cork the launch of his latest album ‘Dedicated to You’, his stunning interpretation of the classic Coltrane/Hartman album.

Special guest is Grammy winner Ernie Watts, one of the most versatile sax players on the world scene in the past 40 years.

Elling is in the Everyman Theatre at 8pm.

Also on that evening that I'd love to have seen is the already SOLD OUT Imelda May gig at 20:30 in The Savoy of Patrick St over in The Pavilion is Fionn Regan at 8pm.

SUNDAY

We'll be starting Sunday with mass. As it should be. A Jazz mass.

Join this truly celebratory and spiritual Harvest Jazz service at Cork’s most historic church - a morning of jazz joy featuring the Bla Mondag (Blue Monday) Jazz Band from Copenhagen and the African Irish Gospel Choir from Cork with guests Music commences at 10.45am.

From there it's back to the Everyman Theatre to see Jack de Johnette and the Ripple Effect

Jack DeJohnette is widely regarded as one of jazz music's greatest drummers. From Chicago, he has collaborated with most of the major figures in jazz history, most notably John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny.

DeJohnette is also skilled at nearly every musical style and is no stranger to leading innovative bands of his own. The Ripple Effect is DeJohnette's latest collaborative project. The Ripple Effect blends shades of world music, drum and bass and electronica to create a fresh taste of rhythmic jazz for the 21st century. Phenomenal.

After that, at 15:30, there's a Mystery Session at the Festival Club. Very exciting altogether. No idea who it could be!

Having a break in the afternoon will be welcome, because we're heading to a 1930s Harlem night in the Firkin Crane.

Come and experience the hot house atmosphere of Harlem’s most flamboyant period - the jazz age at its zenith with glamourous guys and gals, plus great music. And expect the unexpected it was a sellout last year.

Music from the 16 piece Tuxedo Junction Big Band playing the hits of Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller and more.

After that, it's possibly the gig that I'm most looking forward to (and that I'm hoping to post about tomorrow - the beautiful and wonderfully talented Ms YolanDa Brown in the Firkin Crane.

And then it's dancing the night away at the Festival Club in anticipation of our trip home on Monday.

So, short version - lots of music, seeing friends, having a dance, a pray, a walk and a great time. Woot :)

You can check out the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, on October 23 to 26 on their website and download the snazzy brochure (which is where I got most of the info and images above from) right here.

eircom are recruiting a Community Manager

2009-10-16T14:45:00.004+01:00

I got dropped an email today with the job spec for the new Community Manager Role in eircom.

Role Purpose and Vision

eircom is seeking a Community Manager to help build strong online communities throughout the Social Network environment with an initial focus on online Service and Content operations.

Job Description

This new position will have responsibility for the development and delivery of eircom’s emerging Social Media strategy.

Responsibilities will range from, actively posting to customers through the forum, liaising with and development of the CSR team, managing complex stakeholder relationships, providing regular reports and updates to senior management, through to championing the concept of Social Media within the eircom organisation.

Ideal candidates will be highly organised, self-motivated, resourceful, innovative, thick skinned, and have excellent verbal and written communication skills. Candidates should have a strong Customer Experience background, and a demonstrable understanding of online Social Media.

I've uploaded the full job spec to Scribd here.

If you're interested, contact Emer MacShane, the Eircom HR Manager at emacshane@eircom.ie. I'd be grateful if you'd let her know where you heard it from - not that I'm being paid or anything!

Best of luck with it :)

No, I'm not teary eyed - the follow up to Darraghchute

2009-10-07T17:35:00.003+01:00

Just received this - completely unexpected - by email:

Dear Darragh,

Through your heroic efforts of jumping out of the plane, we did have a wonderful outing with 50 older people on the 30th of September. Please view the attached video of the participants showing their appreciation.

Regards,

Linda

Linda Desmond
CARELOCAL
The Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups
North Brunswick Street
Dublin 7

http://www.carelocal.com

I never fail to be surprised by the things people do. What a wonderfully generous and appropriate thing for a charity with limited resources and - they'd admit themselves - limed tech savviness to do for me. Humbling is what it is.

Google Wave is coming and it looks extremely interesting

2009-10-01T07:52:00.002+01:00

Don't know what Google Wave is? This might help:

However, what it means more is that instant messaging, email, chat, collaboration, publishing, sharing, blogging, tweeting, social networking and especially bringing someone in to a conversation is all going to take a massive leap forward into real time.

This isn't something that is going to happen one day. It's happening and it's coming soon. It will change the way we talk online.

The Morning News posts

2009-09-21T09:48:00.004+01:00

When you were in primary school, did you have to write your "Morning News" every morning?

I remember this being one of the standard things we did in the Boys School in Graiguenamanagh every morning - both in the old building and in the hall while the school was being done up. However, I'm off digressing. It was a page in your copybook about what happened the evening before and anything else you had to share, designed to keep us quiet for the first half an hour, to exercise our writing skills and possibly (though I'd never say it) for the teachers to have something to talk about at breaktime.

I don't know if my parents have kept any of my old copies (I almost hope not) but I have fond memories of scribbling down exciting news like "We have a new dog" or "My aunty Mary is coming from Galway" or "I saw the turtles on the telly yesterday" or "I went to the library and they have new Asterix books!"

Not a lot happened of note, thankfully, though a memory comes unbidden to my mind of a classmate being worried about the teacher's reaction that he hadn't got his homework or copybooks with him even though his house had burned down the night before. But there I go digressing again.

I've been thinking about The Morning News a lot recently, not only as a way of communicating what's been happening but also a reminder of what has happened. Someone asked recently if I ever stay in of an evening, take an evening off, don't do something online or off and while I might protest and say "Of course!" it's probably not that in reality. Looking at that list of companies I've worked with in the past while is quite revealing, showing, as it does, the kind of stuff I've been doing and also how much of it.

So, I'm going to try get back into the routine of blogging with a Morning News post at the least. Partly to engage the creative braincells, party for routine and partly as a record for myself. You never know. It may be entertaining too. Basically, as I said, getting back to telling you "what I do", like.

This is what I do now

2009-09-20T20:09:00.000+01:00

I did a favour for a company during the week. It wasn't a company I've ever had dealings with previously other than reading their weekly newsletter, but I completed a survey and at the end spotted an issue that I emailed them about. They replied almost immediately saying thanks and asking for my address to send me "something nice". I told them it was no bother, that I was glad to help and the long and short of it was the girl behind the email address sent me "a nice photo", as above.

So I thought I'd share that. It made me laugh but it also made me think that something I haven't done in quite a while is blog about things like that. I used to. I used to blog about what it is I do, and between doing all the things I do and and trying what I try, I just never have the time to sit down and update this blog.

So I'm going to try and do that at least once a day from now on. I'm also going to try keep it to the things I do or am involved in, rather than just what I like, funny stuff from the interwebs or letting people know about things. Because I'm doing that over on Culch.ie, over on Boards.ie, over on my Tumblr (which is really just a bookmarking facility for me) and keeping photos up to date on Pix.ie.

While the break from obsessive posting (here at least) has been good, it hasn't really kept people up to date with what I've been at or who with, so I wanted to let you know a bit of that too.

Work

I'm working full time (still) as a Community Manager with Boards.ie - one of the two. The last six month with the site have been challenging, and I'm glad to have taken the opportunity, not only to work in such a solid team as I do, but to help drive the site in some small way.

There are some big developments happening with Boards.ie to bring it kicking and screaming to the starting line of online discussion in Ireland. There's quite a ways to go yet, but some of the contacts I've made are proving most useful and receptive.

Play

Well, counting "play" as the stuff I'm not paid a salary to do, I guess I've been doing a lot of playing recently.

Some of the groups I've been involved with over the last while include Temple Bar Cultural Trust and Culture Night 2009, RTÉ Performing Groups, The National Concert Hall, The Darklight Festival, St Patricks' Festival, The ABSOLUT FRINGE Festival, the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit, The Guinness 250 Celebrations, WHPR, Kate Bowe PR, COnway Communications, The Abbey Theatre, The International Puppet Festival, Good Seed PR, Edelman, The Carlsberg Comedy Carnival, Entertainment Architects, The Science Gallery, The Street Performance World Championships and Emergent Events; The Cinemagic Festival; The Dublin Playhouse project and more.

I've been busy and it's been fun.

Health:

My health's not bad at all. Still a lot of pain and some fatigue but I'm getting through it.

The other stuff:

Well, sure if I start talking about that now, I'd have nothing else to say in the weeks and months ahead, would I?

Talk to you tomorrow :)

Taking some time out. Suspended from Twitter. Laughing hard

2009-07-15T19:13:00.007+01:00

This was too good not to blog, despite my self imposed break from it while I contribute to Culch.ie, the new Boards blog and the drain and source of energy and creativity that is the wonderful twitter.

But about 20 minutes ago...

I've been suspended from Twitter. Yep, my crimes of bad jokes, being anti-spam, anti BS and general mischivousness has finally caught up with me.

Click for bigger version

I swear, I haven't laughed so hard for ages, simply because I had been marking spammers as spam, ranting about retweeting and telling the usual very bad jokes.

How do all my followers react? Same way I did. Laughing hard!

Click for bigger version

So it's over to the Contesting account suspension page on twitter.com with me to fill in the details.

From the email I received:

If you are suspended, it's most likely for one or more of these reasons::
User Abuse
a large number of people block the profile or write in with spam complaints
aggressive following
imbalanced ratio: the number of followers is small compared to number of people following
misuse of the reply feature
updates consist of duplicate links and/or text
updates consist mainly of links and not personal updates
updates consist of updates poached from others' timelines, passed off as one's own
Technical Abuse
updates consist of links pointing to phishing sites, malware, or other harmful material
a large number of accounts is created in a short amount of time
an account is identified as belonging to a spam cluster
When this happens, we suspend the account for investigation and hide the contents from the public view in order to remove the cause of complaint.

Anyways, I *will* be back to blogging here soon. Promise. Got some stories for you. Stuff that's in my head, my notebooks and my soul.

EDIT: I'm back... http://www.twitter.com/darraghdoyle - that was quick!

US expert in M.E, C.F.S and Fibromyalgia speaks in Dublin this Thursday

2009-06-16T09:40:00.004+01:00

Via the comments:

The Irish ME/CFS Association is delighted to announce that US ME Expert, Dr Derek Enlander, has agreed to speak in Dublin.

Title of talk: "Current treatment of ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome".

Venue: Mount Herbert Hotel, Herbert Road, Dublin 4

Time and date: 7.45pm, Thursday June 18

Admission: €5. All are welcome.

Dr Enlander grew up in Northern Ireland and studied medicine in Dublin in the 1960s before obtaining a fellowship to Stanford University; he has lived and worked in the US ever since.

Dr Enlander’s practice in New York is devoted to ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia. He has co-authored numerous research papers on the illness and is principal investigator of a US$900,000 study investigating the use of hyperbaric oxygen in ME/CFS.

Around 12,000 people in Ireland are thought to suffer from ME, now often diagnosed under the name Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). The exact cause of ME/CFS remains unknown, but most patients experience a flu-like illness before the onset of ME/CFS.

Patients experience symptoms such as sore throats, concentration problems, sleep problems, muscle pain, and flu-like weakness and exhaustion especially after activity. There is no known cure at the moment, though some sufferers do improve over time.

Further details and a free information pack can be obtained from the Irish ME/CFS Association, PO Box 3075, Dublin 2.

E-mail: info@irishmecfs.org
Tel: 01-235 0965

I'll certainly be there. Suffering badly at the moment.

"I'm going to twitter!!" - the #darraghchute movie

2009-06-12T17:00:00.005+01:00

Well, I did it. €2129.99 so far.

Niamh and I made a very cheesy video of the day, which is below. Will try to do a higher quality version later. Also used footage from the Irish Parachute Club.

I was nervous. VERY nervous. Of course it wasn't "the first live tweet ever from an aircraft". I love the "I'm GOING TO TWITTER" yell!

There's so many DO NOT WANT expressions on my face, especially as the parachute opens, and basically, I was in bits for a while afterwards.

But I did it.

Once again, thanks to everyone who donated, blogged, tweeted and wished me well. As embarrassing as this video is, this one is for you :)

There's a far more professional documentary about the day right here:

What you've done

2009-05-29T15:00:00.002+01:00

Here's what you've done.

You've put a smile on their faces:

The lady on the left? 102 years old. Beside her? Her Carelocal volunteer.

You've got this woman up singing with a band:

She lives in a nursing home. Loves to sing - sang all the time to her family as she got them ready for work and school, went out with her friends to dances and gigs and sang along with the band. Her voice may not be as strong but she still loves getting up and blasting out a bit of Joe Dolan.

You've got these people up dancing:

They don't get out as much as they used to. Either stuck in their houses or the nursing home, they haven't been out for a good dance in ages. Quite the Hucklebuckers in their day, they love having the chance to get up and have a bit of fun, or being worried about how they're going to get home safely.

You've got these people talking:

They don't get to talk to others that much any more. It's lonely at home waiting for someone to call, if they do. In the nursing home they're looked aftr, but people are busy, some get more visitors than most and quite often it's easier just to switch off the mind and watch TV. Sometimes you don't feel up to date or know what to talk about. Sometimes you don't feel relevant.

You've entertained all these people:

They're all over in Finnstown House Hotel, having had a great, free meal served to them, having a laugh along with the entertainment and the band. They've been driven to the door, welcomed, fed, watered and looked after for the first time in ages.

That's what your donations to Carelocal will have done for these people - helped an outing like this for Summer 2009 happen. As I write, the donations are up to €1733.33, which is fantastic.

Fair play to you all. All I'm doing is getting someone else carrying me to jump out of a plane...

Thank you. Sincerely. You rock.

Where the bad jokes come from...

2009-05-28T13:06:00.002+01:00

Bill had been getting progressively more bald at a very young age, and it was depressing him quite a bit.

Eventually, he decided to get a wig, and the following evening he came into the pub looking 10 years younger, with a full head of jet black hair. The locals admired his new look, and complimented him on how realistic it looked.

Eventually, Joe asked him for a closer look, and, though slightly embarrassed, he slipped the wig off and handed it over.

However, as soon as Joe took the wig, he began to complain about everything: the weather, his job, the quality of the pint, anything and everything you could think of.

Puzzled by this irresistable urge to moan, he handed the wig to Tom to give back to Bill, and suddenly his normal good humour re-asserted itself.

Tom, however, even in the few seconds he had the wig in his hands, had already announced to the pub that his wife was useless: couldn't cook, and was ferociously dirty around the house, but not, unfortunately, when she got to bed. Again, as soon as he had handed the wig back to Bill, the torrent of complaints dried up, and he was his old cheerful self again.

The three friends, completely confused and puzzled, were starting to discuss what on earth had happened, when the barman leant across the counter towards them, and told them not to worry about it.

"Why?" they asked.

"Ah, 'tis perfectly natural, lads!" he said. "Sure doesn't everybody complain when they have Bill's toupee?"

Have a look at the Boards.ie Pun appreciation thread. There's loads there. The whole humour forum is a gold mine!

Energizer Bunny arrested; charged with battery.
A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
A pessimist's blood type is always b-negative.
My wife really likes to make pottery, but to me it's just kiln time.
Dijon vu: the same mustard as before.
Practice safe eating: always use condiments.
I fired my masseuse today. She just rubbed me the wrong way.
A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.
Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.
I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.
I used to be a lumberjack, but I just couldn't hack it, so they gave me the ax.
If electricity comes from electrons, does that mean that morality comes from morons?
A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.
Marriage is the mourning after the knot before.
A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
Corduroy pillows are making headlines.
Is a book on voyeurism a peeping tome.
Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.
Banning the bra was a big flop.
Sea captains don't like crew cuts.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.
Without geometry, life is pointless.
When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.
Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.
Reading whilst sunbathing makes you well-red.
When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.

Where your skydive donation is going: Carelocal say thanks

2009-05-26T07:24:00.007+01:00

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated money, awareness and good wishes to the Skydive for Carelocal.ie

I visited the office yesterday to say hello and find out more about them. Sheila Desmond, the Volunteer Coordinator is in a unique position with the charity, as she meets all the older people they help and also all the volunteers that work with them.

Brazenly, I stuck the camera in front of poor Sheila and asked her to tell you where the money you have donated is going and what the difference your help will make to the charity and to the life of an older person. It's a rough and ready take but was loads of fun to do:

Interviewed by Cian and Liz from ViewFromTheQuad.com

2009-05-24T10:33:00.002+01:00

Cian and Liz have had me on the brilliant podcast that is View From the Quad - a podcast about technology, sci-fi and life. I think I fall into the latter category, though listening to it, I'm not sure where it sits.

The 30 minute interview is about the skydive, about Boards.ie, about twitter, about Star Trek, downloading files in 1997, bloggers, newspapers vs blogs and twitter, about Irish politics and politicians online, about Schwarzenegger, about the 4DayMovie project, about English muggings, about being from Kilkenny, about a manga messiah, Wallace and Gromit, Neil Gaiman, bad jokes and loads of stuff. We talked lots.

You can hear the podcast over on View from the Quad.

There's a lot of me rambling, a lot of me sucking air through my teeth (sorry!), of Cian and Liz waiting politely for me to stop talking (bless you) and random chatter. We recorded it in a city centre studio on Friday afternoon after a long day of work so excuse the waffle. It was a great chat though, so thanks to them both for the plug :)

How many switches are in the Bord Gáis ad? Win €200!

2009-05-22T11:21:00.004+01:00

Bord Gais are running a competition through twitter and IGO people:

If you can spot all the switches in our new TV ad then you could win a €200 shopping voucher.

All you have to do is submit your guess on here or on twitter (making sure to @TheBigSwitchIRL so we pick it up). All correct answers will be entered in to a draw for the first prize of €200!!

First correct answer drawn will win a €200 shopping voucher but we also have a runners up prize of a €50 shopping voucher for the the next 4 correct answers to drawn!!

Closing date is this Friday the 22nd of May at 12:00 noon.

How many are there? Well, let's count:

1:

2:

3:

4, 5 and 6:

7 and 8:

9, 10, 11, 12 and 12 and a half or 13...

Assuming the half switch counts as one, here's 14, 15 and 16

and then not counting duplicates, here's another 7 bringing it up to 23 (or 22 and a half)...

Get your answer in quick!! Just tweet Eoin at @TheBigSwitchIRL - best of luck!

Fancy volunteering at The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival this year?

2009-05-22T00:50:00.006+01:00

(Yes, that is me, Anto and Darren performing live. Really. Kinda.)

It was one of the best events I've ever volunteered at. I had so much fun with comedians, fellow volunteers and friends and it's happening again this year. Next weekend in fact!

Yep, it's the Carlsberg Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny and they're looking for volunteers.

There are OOODLES of comedians performing this year - Tommy Tiernan, Des Bishop, Dermot Whelan, Andrew Maxwell, Barry Murphy, David O'Doherty, Karl Spain, Jarlath Regan, Andrew Lawrence, Lee Mack, Ricky Grover, PJ Gallagher, Dom Irrera, Maeve Higgins, Dave Gorman, Ian Coppinger, Neil Delamere, Otis Lee Crenshaw... so yes, there's loads.

The full list and programme is over on their website - http://carlsbergcatlaughs.com

Last year I met the comedians, I met some really cool people (that I'm still in touch with) and got to see a good few shows, all for showing people to their seats, getting the place ready and clearing it after it was done.

Yes, it's a bit of manual work; no, it's not uber glamorous but it's worthwhile for something that brings as much money to Kilkenny as the Festival does and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it lots. I blogged about it here last year.

So yes, they're looking for volunteers older than 18 to come help. As well as the cool and funky t-shirt and lanyard, you get show passes, festival club passes and drinks vouchers. Well, we did last year...

All you gotta do is click here or email volunteers@carlsbergcatlaughs.com for more info. The volunteer manager is Deirdre. Tell her I said hello :)

If you're in the area or free over the Bank Holiday weekend and want to do something really worthwhile, I can't recommend it enough :) Truly an epic weekend.

My Skydive - it's all about the 130mph freefall really

2009-05-21T15:42:00.011+01:00

Doyle, I do not have the time nor inclination or energy or patience to read your extremely long (and inane) post about some charity thing, so, what are you doing? Treat your sentences like twitter messages. Keep them simple!

Right so!

In 140 characters or less:
"I'm jumping out of a plane in a skydive from a height of 13,000 ft at a speed of 130mph to raise awareness for charity www.carelocal.ie"

What I'm doing - and yes, I'm genuinely committed to doing this:

I'm doing a tandem sky-dive on Saturday May 30 at the Irish Parachute club in a place called Clonbollogue near Edenderry in Offaly.

There'll be 60 people doing it as part of a thing called MediaDive.

We'll be jumping from a little plane like this:

and obviously, since I'm strapped to the person that is doing pretty much everything (like pulling the parachute cord (hopefully) all I have to do is lie there and try not to pass out/wet myself/get sick with fear or excitement.

So what is a tandem sky-dive? Well, according to SkyDive.ie:

On a tandem skydive you are secured to an instructor and skydive up to 13,000 feet. Freefall will last approximately 30 secs before the giant canopy made for two is opened at 5,000ft.

It will be a 15 minute flight to an altitude of about 13,000ft. The moment of truth arrives all too fast, as your tandem master shouts in your ear "are you ready to skydive?".

You will leave the aircraft with your heart thumping. Here goes! The wind' rushes past you as you plummet ground-ward accelerating to 'terminal velocity', a speed of 130mph.

So that's 8,000 feet at 130 miles per hour. 190.666 feet per second. Just over a mile and a half. Jaysis.

According to the FAQ's, that's 30 seconds freefall and 5 to 6 mins under the parachute.

What I'm doing it for:

I'm doing it for a charity called Carelocal, who work with elderly people in Dublin. You can find out about them here.

Why I'm doing it:

I'm primarily doing it because people want to see me jumping out of a plane.

I'm doing it to help raise awareness for Carelocal and all the other charities that don't have huge marketing or advertising budgets; I'm doing it because I was asked and most of all I'm doing it because I've never got the opportunity before and it will be fun.

Things like this help too.

What you can do to help:

Spread the word! Tweet, blog or tell people about it. If you can afford to, Carelocal could really use your help in raising funds for a day out for the people they help. You can find out more and donate here:

http://short.ie/endthebadjokes/

What I'll be doing on the day:

Other than panicking, you mean? Tweeting it and perhaps interviewing the other people who are doing the jump with me. Hopefully.

Is that any better? Here. Enjoy this photo. I certainly did.

All photos taken from the SkyDive.ie galleries

That's about it. As Miley Byrne would say: Well Holy God.

Damien Mulley wants me to jump out of a plane. Do you?

2009-05-20T12:36:00.008+01:00

Mediacontact.ie are organising a MediaDive. They're getting brave souls to go up in a plane and do a tandem skydive from 13,000 feet. That's just off four kilometers. Apparently it's the distance from Dublin city centre to UCD Village.

Let's look at that on Google Maps. It's what me father would call a good walk. I'd get the number 10.

The idea behind it is to get people who work in the media to jump out of a plane. You know, journalists, PR, advertising, design, and marketing consultants. There are also a number of charities signed up, who see it as a chance to raise funds. Some have nominated a journalist to dive on their behalf and raise awareness that way.

Damien Mulley was asked to do it recently - you know, to step out into the big blue yonder, strapped to someone and fly to the ground praying the equipment will work, hoping you won't wet yourself in terror or excitement and somehow praying that you'll enjoy the whole thing. I'm the same at Funderland. On the waltzers.

Mulley politely declined, but decided to spice up the proceedings...

Yeah, thanks Damien. Even after I attempted a clarification on why he'd subject me to something like that, he came back with

Rick O' Shea, every helpful in these matters wanted to know:

And while the lovely Sinéad Cochrane was rosemantic

Red Mum was less gentle

While Mulley, ever the commercial head, thought about the opportunity

Jack from MediaContact was on to me...

and I started for a while to consider it. Two big things stood in my way though - one, the date, Saturday 30 May, slap bang in the middle of my volunteering with the Cat Laughs Festival in Kilkenny and two, I don't like heights.

Seriously, while I'm not phobic, but I like having my feet on the ground (and head in the clouds).

The cost for the event is €260, a 20% discount on the €320, subsidised by MediaContact. While it's a great idea, I don't have that money to hand and I'm rubbish at fundraising and it's next week and ... well, I found my own excuses not to apply.

Enter the lovely Hilda Carroll from Carelocal.ie, a Dublin based voluntary organisation that has been befriending older people living alone in Dublin since 1974.

Carelocal recruits, trains and matches volunteers with an older person living in their area. Following the initial introduction, the volunteer then visits the older person in their home over a year and real and lasting friendships are formed.

The priority of Carelocal is to identify frail and housebound older people who are experiencing social isolation, as these are one of the most invisible and neglected groups of vulnerable people in our community.

As well as the one-to-one visitation in the person's home, they provide day trips and social outings, live musical entertainment in Community centres and residential homes and information and advocacy.

I'd never heard of them. That in itself is hardly surprising - the smaller organisations with limited resources and budgets can't afford the advertising that is needed to raise profile. Limited budgets too mean the social networking savvy people often can't be hired. It's a vicious circle.

Hilda and I are twitter contacts. She knows I like to tell people about charities and events. She knows too that thanks to some pretty awful jokes - I started a parachute course then I fell out with my instructor - there are people who, like Rick and Damien to pay to throw me out of a plane. And to live tweet it.

The last Carelocal outing was in December. The outings cost €3,000 and CareLocal simply don't have the funding to host one. Linda Desmond, CEO of Carelocal says "All fund raised will go towards the next day trip. For the last two years we were able to provide five outings a year thanks to a grant. However we do not currently have fundings for outings and we haven't organised a day out since Christmas. We have been receiving enquiries from older people as to when the next trip will be and we're hoping that this event will raise the funds to cover at least one trip over the summer."

So, following Hilda's request and that news, I'm going to do it. I'm going to jump from the plane.

Yes, from 4KM in the air, I'm going to raise awareness for Carelocal (who are sponsoring my jump in return for the awareness)

I'm not promising to raise money for them. Instead, I'm taking this opportunity to raise awareness for them, to tell people about the work that they do and to use this blog and my presence on twitter to give their need to fundraise a shout.

Not that I'd refuse your money, mind. To that end, I've set up a MyCharity page at

http://short.ie/endthebadjokes

to allow people who wish to donate to do so. I'll be doing the jump anyway - it would be great though if you could spread the word about Carelocal's need in a blog post, a tweet or on Facebook - every little helps and will help some of the most vulnerable and deserving people in Dublin to have a bit of fun.

I've never ever done something like this before. Never looked for sponsorship, never contemplated being brave enough. Good god, I'm nervous.

Last year I did the Spencer Tunick thing because of blog comments. This year I jump from a plane because of twitter. Start laying the bets folks, next time should be epic. Space walk perhaps?

That'd be me

2009-05-20T12:24:00.003+01:00

As drawn by Eoin Coveney, the illustrator behind Energy Guy.

Something Happens - Parachute

2009-05-20T08:44:00.001+01:00

This one is appropriate today. Enough said for now.

(You'll need to let it (down)load)

Norway's Eurovision Winner Alexander Rybak takes a lovely photo

2009-05-16T23:20:00.003+01:00

He may be "in love with a fairy tale" but via the live blog on Culch.ie this evening, I learned that Alexander Rybak has had some lovely photos of himself taken...

and the best photo of any Eurovision Song Contest winner EVER!!!:

If you haven't seen the song already - well, it's not bad... here it is:

The lyrics are:

Years ago when I was younger, I kinda liked a girl I knew.
She was mine, and we were sweethearts, That was then, but then it's true

I'm in love with a fairytale, Even though it hurts.
Cause I don't care if I lose my mind; I'm already cursed

Every day we started fighting, Every night we fell in love.
No one else could make me sadder, But no one else could lift me high above

I don't know what I was doing, but suddenly we fell apart.
Nowadays I cannot find her. But when I do well get a brand new start

I'm in love with a fairytale, even though it hurts.
Cause I don't care if I lose my mind; I'm already cursed

I am not at war with anyone - Luka Bloom and the Gardiner Street Gospel Choir

2009-05-16T16:05:00.003+01:00

Steph sent me this yesterday. Food for the soul.

Luka is on YouTube here. The Gardiner Street Gospel Choir can be found online here.

Entrepreneurs can do anything - a cute video

2009-05-15T18:29:00.003+01:00

Found via lecraic's posterous:

This is from Grasshopper.com who want you to join the entrepreneur movement and stimulate the economy. I love the music by Carly Comando. Fair play too to writer Sonja Jacob. Great job.

Thursday tune: I heart you online

2009-05-14T17:08:00.003+01:00

The lyrics to this are quite cute:

"I want to be in your profile picture, I want to be a permanent fixture on your wall, you're so beautiful..."

From two lovely girls called Hannah Rockcliffe and Sophie Madeleine Ball, both from Bath in England. You'll find their YouTube channel here and they're on Facebook here. They're on MySpace here: Hannah and here: Sophie.

Found via Today's Big Thing.

Twitter as seen through the eyes of B3TA users

2009-05-14T16:21:00.006+01:00

I love their image challenges. Always creative, always irreverend and never ever appropriate, the latest round of images from B3TA users really made me laugh.

Apologies for any offence, etc...

Before there was twitter:

from Zac Flimby

http://twitter.com/marcelmarceau

From Virulent

Spitter

From drboon

This is awful...

from Squid Ink

Possibly just as bad:

From Clagnut

Well if that's what you're doing...

From M3essential (with a nod to this sketch...)

Quitter

From Puromycin

Stan

From Half of Stephen Fry's left buttock

And my personal favourite, Splitter...

A visit to Leinster House to meet the Green Party

2009-05-14T11:47:00.005+01:00

Yesterday evening a group of us were the guest of the Irish Green Party at Leinster House. Organised via Damien Mulley through Ciaran Cuffe's office, we were invited to talk to the politicians and take a look at the inner workings of one of the most important buildings in the country.

It was an interesting mix of bloggers, members of the boards.ie political forum and journalists. We were welcomed by Ciaran Cuffe and Damien Connon, the Communications Manager for the Party. After a brief orientation we were brought on a tour of the offices in Leinster House - more modern perhaps than the exterior suggests but hardly luxurious. I was struck by the juxtaposition between the architectural beauty of the building and the function aspects of how this was built.

Ciaran Cuffe's office was a perfect example of a busy and well used workspace. Maps adorned the walls, particularly of his own consituency of Dun Laoighre and evidence of both his past in architecture and town planning and his current role as Party Whip and spokesperson on Transport and Marine; Justice, Equality and Law Reform; Foreign Affairs.

His openness and frankness in discussing the pressures of his job was refreshing, as he explained how, despite how it might appear, his day was filled with meetings, hearings, emails and the simple matter of getting things done.

A wordle on his noticeboard reveals a lot about him and his commitment to the job

while his desk, though admittedly tidier than either of mine, shows a hectic workload

Following this tour - taken in two segments due to the size of the group - John Gormley, party leader, joined us to discuss some of the issues he faces in his role, in how Leinster House operates and how the requirements of his role can be both frustrating and, in the current climate, more important than ever.

With probing questions from Mark Coughlan, Ciara Brennan, Gav Reilly and Cian O' Flaherty among others, they handled all questions frankly, with fairness and a certain amount of resignation to the fact that the only answers were the honest ones.

We were joined briefly by Senator Deirdre de Burca as talk turned to online engagement, what parties can do (and shouldn't do) and just what people do and realistically should expect from a politician online.

I feel honesty was the main thrust of the feedback and while the conversation was brief, it signified a need for more of this dialogue to take place. Our presence and their invitation indicated a willingness to talk, listen and learn, which in itself is an important development and indication.

We then were invited to the public gallery to watch a vote take place. It was a pretty full house - all of the main labour faces I'd recognise were there, though I didn't spot Brian Cowen. The photos (very sneakily (and illegally) taken were at 20:55 which shows that it's not all holidays and expenses...

Leaving, politicians like Joan Burton, Jackie Healy Ray, Mary White and others greeted us, some aware of who we were and why we were there, others just friendly.

One of the striking things about Leinster House is the side that many people don't get to see - the amazing art, sculpture and building decoration in the building. I was particularly impressed with some of the sculptures and the care that is taken in placing them. Some shots below:

Leaving Leinster House after a drink in the bar and a chat with some friends and twitter acquaintances, we took the chance to strike a pose. Who knows when the next time the opportunity will come?

Overall, an interesting introduction into the workings of the building and some of what goes on there. There is a change in how politics is run and how politicians communicate both online and off, and I firmly believe that parties interested in engaging with "new media" (a phrase I detest but will have to do) will be the ones to succeed. It's a learning curve for everyone but talking to those who talk to others is always a good thing.

My thanks to Damien for arranging, to Damian, Tim, Ciaran and all in the Green Party office for the welcome and hospitality and to everyone else for providing good company and interesting conversation. Very impressed.

Music on the mind, music on the body

2009-05-14T09:48:00.003+01:00

There are times like this morning where, iPodless on the bus, listening to the foreigners chattering loudly, the texter in the seat opposite who has the button tones switched on loudly so every key reverberates around the bus, the skanger berating her fella over the phone and then ringing her ma to tell her what happened and then ringing him back and then... well, you get the idea ... that I really miss music.

I need it like a drug. To dissolve into, escape the world with and to switch the brain off with. The louder the better sometimes. The more noise it blocks out, the more focussed I can be on what I need to do.

These days I'm lucky enough to be going back to live music events more and more. There's something about that raw energy from committed musicians that brings the vitality of the melody alive, makes it that much more real. I've always, ironically, preferred live albums for that same reason.

If I could get music beamed directly into my brain, I would. I may not go as far as this video shows, but would relish the experience.

Earphones firmly in the ears today. Music is on loud.

The Governator is on Twitter!

2009-05-13T16:53:00.005+01:00

It's Arnold Schwarzenegger in his role as Governor of California and he really seems to have gotten a handle on how this thing works...

Michele Neylon has made a very good point last night...

I really want this to be not photoshopped

2009-05-13T15:44:00.001+01:00

A real notebook laptop - I know people who will love this

2009-05-12T16:14:00.005+01:00

Bow if I could buy one piece of technology - something like the notebook that Dutch art student Evelien Lohbeck has created would be it. I absolutely love the simplicity of his site as well.

Wonder if it comes in a Moleskin version?

Found via the wonderful Very Short List.

That Samsung viral video - yes, it was not a mirror

2009-05-12T11:34:00.003+01:00

just in case you were wondering about the trick posed in this...

The answer is here.

There you go now. I particularly loved the suggestion though that "The guy is a witch. Burn him!"

EDITED: due to the extremely clever offthemeatrack pointing out my error. Oops!

Tuesday Tune: Stand by me - the street musician version

2009-05-12T10:43:00.004+01:00

It's a favourite song of mine but this version really got me today. It's a simple collaboration between street musicians all around the world performing the Ben E. King classic. What I love is how they all added their own little bits as the song travelled. Let it build. It's worth it.

This is taken from the playingforchange.com project, a multimedia movement created to

"... inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race. And with this truth firmly fixed in our minds, we set out to share it with the world."

This version started with the vocal and guitar talent of Roger Ridley, a street musician in Santa Monica, California. It then travelled to New Orleans to have vocals and harmonica added by one Grandpa Elliott as he listened to Ridley's base track on headphones.

From there it went through Africa, South America and Europe with more and more instruments and vocals resulting in the final version above. Rather inspiringly, it was all done with a simple laptop and some microphones.

You'll find much more details on the Playing for Change website. There's a CD you can buy, they have a YouTube channel and more. Really inspiring stuff.

Barack Obama's standup at the White House Correspondents Dinner last night

2009-05-10T16:34:00.003+01:00

Funny guy. Loved the Dick Cheney reference.

Chat with John Spillane plus live performance at Tower Records

2009-05-09T23:10:00.005+01:00

I've just published my Culch.ie interview with John Spillane in Tower Records this morning. It was a brilliant chat - over 20 minutes! Spoke about everything from Cork to accents to Óró se do bheatha abhaile to Senegal to RnaG to ballet to more!

He was in Dublin to promote his new album So Far So Good, Like - The best of. It's a fantastic Irish album - I hadn't really known much about his music before I bought it yesterday (HMV, €14.99) but the authentic sound from the songs and the lyrics is quite something.

Some of the videos I shot of his performances today are songs from the album:

The Dunnes Stores Girl:

Passage West:

The Dance of the Cherry Trees:

Johnny don't go to Ballincollig:

There was a Man:

Will we be brilliant or what?

John's album is available in all good record stores now. The track listing is as follows: 1. Passage West, 2. The Dance of the Cherry Trees, 3. Lovers Leap, 4. All the Ways you Wander, 5. Johnny don't go to Ballincollig, 6. Everything’s Turning to Gold Cathy, 7. Will We Be Brilliant or What?, 8. Magic Nights in the Lobby Bar, 9. Hey Dreamer, 10. The Dunnes Stores Girl, 11. Buile mo Chroí (Beat of my Heart), 12. The Wounded Hero (Iníon Deichtine), 13. There was a Man, 14. Rise up Lovely Molly, 15. Beidh Aonach Amárach 16. Óró Sé do Bheatha Abhaile

The full, unedited interview can be seen on Vimeo here.

A huge thank you to Paula from EMI Music and Lorcan, John's manager, for helping arrange the interview, to Tower Records for the space and of course to John himself for being so great to talk with and listen to.

Barbecue, Odessa Club, Dublin 2, Monday 11 May

2009-05-08T15:50:00.003+01:00

What are you doing after work on Monday? Fancy coming to an evening barbecue in the Odessa Club, Dublin 2?

Jane Russell from Jane Russell’s Original Irish Handmade Sausages is kicking off the summer in style with a bit of food, chat, drink and of course some sausage samples from 7.30pm in the roof garden of the Odessa Club.

She'd like to invite bloggers, online people and anyone who'd like to come along and have a bite to eat. She's one of many companies engaging in social media at the moment to get the company name out there and would love to get the chance to talk to you - and for you to try her food!

The company, going since 1994, uses only prime cuts for their sausages. According to the website:

Being the 5th generation of a prize-winning pork & bacon curing family Jane trawled through her grand-father’s diary of recipes to create her Original Irish sausage.

Forays to French markets allowed Jane to develop her Toulouse sausages while memories of sausages eaten in London inspired the magnificent Beef and Guinness sausages.

It is this ability to create new and traditional flavours that sets Jane Russell’s sausages apart and assures her that her products will always be in demand.

Why am I involved? Well, a friend of a friend asked me to invite people so here I am, inviting you. Apparently Jane's "straight sausages" (the company name) are sausages you can trust. Something to do on a Monday night?

That's the Odessa Club, 7.30 pm, Monday 11 May. See you there?

Who has time to destroy a creme egg?

2009-05-08T10:23:00.003+01:00

This guy, apparently.

It took six months to make the Rube Goldberg machine and three days (around 200 hours) to film. This is an entry in Cadbury's "Unleash The Goo" competition, in which entrants must find the most creative way to break a creme egg.

All for a viral ad? Jaysis. Brings how do you destroy yours to a whole new level.

Irish Spencer Tunick photos to be exhibited online in June

2009-05-07T10:44:00.003+01:00

People who got naked for Spencer Tunick, the wait to see yourself in a photo is finally coming to an end. News today is that from June 8, the photos will be available online.

For Dublin participants, the lovely people at the Dublin Docklands Authority will be posting the limited edition photos out to participants. Those who participated in the Cork installations will be able to pick up their artworks at the Cork Midsummer Festival Box Office based at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork City.

Each participant will receive one photograph as their personal memento, chosen by the artist, from the day they participated. People who took part at both the South Wall and Treasury Holdings Altro Vetro Building in Dublin will receive two prints, as will the people who took part in the Blarney Castle and White Street Car Park installations at the Cork Midsummer Festival.

Each photograph measures 8 x 10 inches and is printed on the same high quality photographic paper that Spencer Tunick uses for his larger artworks.

In addition, they'll also be up on a website. The DDDA and Cork Midsummer Festival have jointly commissioned artist Spencer Tunick to create a website exhibition of the Spencer Tunick Ireland Installations. This is set to be a "visual documentary" of the installations, featuring artworks from each city and video works made by the artist.

Apparently it's the first time Tunick's work will be available exclusively through a website. It will of course allow participants to be proud of being naked on the internet.

Right? Right. Something to tell the parents about...

Good luck to all in the Cinemagic Festival

2009-05-06T10:11:00.003+01:00

Today sees the start of the second Cinemagic Festival in Dublin, or, to give it the full title : The Coca-Cola Cinemagic Film and Television Festival for Young People in association with AIB.

This is a not-for-profit festival and charity that brings the magic of film, tv and all sorts of moving images ‘to entertain, educate and inspire’ young people.

Established in 1989, Cinemagic has developed a worldwide reputation for excellence in children’s programming. Over the last 18 years the festival has grown in stature, gained international recognition and we are now the largest festival of our kind in the UK and Ireland.

Having volunteered with them last year and done a bit of promotion for them this year, I know how much work goes into the festival and how much it is enjoyed by the young people attending films, masterclasses and workshops.

I wish I'd had something like this when I was younger - at that age access to the people (Ray D'Arcy, Don Conroy, Rachel Kavanagh, David Caffrey, Aidan Power) or workshops (a news journalism workshop, one that is a pauper's guide to film making and classes in Storyboarding and Claymation for 7 to 11 year olds) would have been invaluable and inspiring.

The festival caters for all young people (aged between 4 and 25) with any range of film and television interest – whether they want to watch and enjoy, create their own work or take things a stage further and find out more about a possible career in the film or television industries.

I've posted on Culch.ie about the festival. It's also worth pointing out you can win tickets to films both on Culch.ie and over on Boards.ie.

Best of luck to all those helping, volunteering and above all participating. I hope you all have fun and enjoy it as much as I have.

Download Julie Feeney's Love is a tricky thing for free

2009-05-05T16:36:00.003+01:00

Julie Feeney is due to release her new album pages on May 29 this year. The lead single is called Love Is A Tricky Thing and you can download the MP3 here.

Choice Music Prize winning singer, composer, multi instrumentalist and windsurfing enthusiast Julie Feeney returns with her second album, pages, on May 29th, 2009.

The album kicks off with the release of the lead single Love Is A Tricky Thing, on May 22. A nationwide tour will be announced shortly.

Darren has it up over on Culch.ie where you can have a listen.

A story about a big squirrel and a baby squirrel.

2009-05-01T09:59:00.002+01:00

It may be a miserable day out there, but have a look at this. UCLA students helping squirrels. Strangely compelling four minutes. Aww

Culch.ie can feck off

2009-04-30T16:11:00.002+01:00

This?

Never going to happen. Despite what he says. Or she does.

Get back up

2009-04-29T18:02:00.003+01:00

Meet Nick Vujicic. he's 25 and he wants you to get back up.

Honestly had a video that made me think like this in quite a while. He's some guy. Inspiring doesn't seem like it's a strong enough word.

I spotted this over on Sean's blog.

Enterprise Ireland Masterclass: Enabling eBusiness: Best Practice and Future Trends

2009-04-28T06:01:00.003+01:00

I've been invited to speak at a Masterclass this morning at Enterprise Ireland. Though not something I've done much of, the opportunity has come at a great time, as I'm mid way through a couple of big projects with Boards.ie

The Enterprise Ireland eBusiness and High Potential Start Up Units are organising an advanced eBusiness Masterclass for clients who operate in the online space. The Masterclass, entitled "Enabling eBusiness: Best Practice and Future Trends", will feature presentations on international best practice from leading industry figures on the following topics: blogging and the law; online advertising; virtualisation; and online payments. The presentations will feature indepth analysis of the current best practice in the topic areas, as well as outlining future trends and developments.

Rather than waffle on alone for 40 minutes, I've invited a panel of expert speakers to contribute to the conversation. My intention was to give a broad mix of experiences, backgrounds and skillsets while still maintaining a connection with the audience, all of whom already occupy the online space.

On the panel will be:

Eamonn Fallon, CEO of Daft.ie - http://www.daft.ie
Brendan Hughes, ecommerce manager of FBD Insurance - http://www.fbd.ie, http://www.nononsense.ie
Carolyn Fisher, Senior Press Officer, RTÉ News and Current Affairs - http://www.rte.ie
Jason Roe, lunatic blogger, http://www.jason-roe.com/
Thomas Brunkard, Bvisible Communications - http://www.bvisible.ie
Eoin Kennedy - Slattery Communications - http://www.scomms.ie
Stewart Curry, Design Director with XCommunications - http://www.xcommunications.ie
Stiofain MacDhaibhead and/or Eoin ó Suilleabhaín - Bórd Gáis - responsible for the Big Switch Campaign - http://www.thebigswitch.ie

In my own presentation will be some statistics about Boards.ie, including that in March 2009 we had over 1.49 million individuals visiting Boards.ie with over 22 million pages served and the average time on site was just under 9 minutes. We are working on facilitating conversations between companies and Boards.ie members, so the opportunity to present this morning comes at an interesting point in the project.

Other speakers today include Roger Galligan, CEO of Cognotent who runs irishblogs.ie on Website promotion and Social Media, Simon McGarr of McGarr Solicitors on Legal Questions arising from Cloud Computing and Keith McCabe from Realex Payments on How to do business online securely.

Am I nervous? Hell yes. Will I enjoy it? Time will tell but sure I'll give it a go. A huge thanks in advance to all the speakers and to David Scanlon for arranging.

500 people queue for Londis jobs in Dublin yesterday

2009-04-23T13:42:00.003+01:00

EDIT: It was for numerous stores, not just that one. Ahh, that makes sense.

500 people queueing in front of Londis, St Stephen's Green to apply for sales assistant positions.

Is this genuine? Is this Ireland now?

I don't know how they did it but I want that phone!

2009-04-17T12:54:00.003+01:00

Yep, another commercial post!

So Vincenzo from the Viral Factory was in touch again with the new Samsung viral. I've had a look and while the video looks interesting, my goodness the phone looks great. The quality of that camera looks amazing!

You have to guess how it's done - they did it all in one take, no special effects etc - the comments say twins, a different room and so on. Watching in HD seems to be an advantage.

I am in the market for a HD camera that will help me with interviews, filming and the like. Hermione's recent experiment with the Flip Mino HD had me really interested though Niamh is suggesting the Kodak Zi6 based on this review.

All I know is I want a camera that can take in great quality, with good sound and range and allow me to edit in a simple way and upload directly. Still haven't found it... But that phone looks good.

Anyone got recommendations for a camera?

The twitter truth about Alan's hair. #alanshair

2009-04-09T16:34:00.003+01:00

It's very much an in-joke on twitter and perhaps a little bit evilly over on Culch.ie but Alan Costello's new hairstyle became a topic of debate when he announced on Twitter that the locks were going...

Speculation was rife but Alan remained steadfast not releasing the new hairstyle to his adoring fans until today.

Alan's hair before:

Photo by John Williams, taken from Pix.ie

And Alan's hair as featured exclusively by meself:

Reaction on Twitter has been quick - from the complimentary:

to the surprised

to the speechless

to the questioning:

and, before you all chastise the poor guy even further, thanks to the lovely ladies in RTÉ make-up... during:

He's a legend. And his new hair is grand. Honestly.

Why she does what she does

2009-04-08T14:29:00.002+01:00

"I believe I achieve an existential pleasure, a reward and validation if my effort for other people helps further their own happiness, and I feel more realised, if my work results in an improvement, achievement or advance... then I am real."

From a Gmail conversation I'm having at the moment. She continually impresses and surprises me in the best possible ways.

Irish women work six weeks for free: video interview about women and politics

2009-04-02T16:45:00.004+01:00

More from the Labour Party Conference, my interview with Sinéad Ní Chúlachain, Chair of Labour Women about pay differences, Irish women, Labour women and why we should care about politics.

The day was windy so the sound in all parts isn't ideal but it was definitely one of the most interesting talks I had all day.

Comment spam happening at the moment...

2009-04-02T16:30:00.003+01:00

Just like poor Manuel recently, I've spent today chasing a comment spammer from post to post. So I turned on moderation, put comments in a pop-up and implemented a captcha for the moment until they get the point and go away.

Sorry for any inconvenience!

Domestic abuse - isn't it time someone called cut?

2009-04-02T15:34:00.002+01:00

Keira Knightley stars in the new UK campaign for Women's Aid against domestic abuse. The video is pretty shocking. Full of foreboding and really gets the message across.

Women's Aid Ireland can be found online here.

Why should I care about politics? Video interviews from the Labour Party Conference

2009-04-02T11:41:00.003+01:00

I was at the 2009 Labour Party Conference held last Saturday.

It was my first political party Conference/Ard Fheis/Meeting. I'd never have considered myself interested in politics but something Suzy said - along the lines of "if you're interested in things changing or improving, you're interested in politics" - struck a chord and so I took the Labour Press Office invitation to attend the event as a blogger and went along for a look, not knowing what, if anything, I could contribute.

I'll do a longer post on this soon - Simon McGarr's is well worth a read - but I wanted to upload the videos I have ready to show of interviews I was lucky enough to get.

How? I asked for them.
Why? Well, I just wanted to know two things - why I should be interested in politics and why should I be interested in the Labour Party.

I knew of course that they were simple leading questions, designed to help party members talk with passion about the Labour Party, but passion is important too.

Here's some of what people told me:

Eamon Gilmore, Labour Party leader

Pat Rabitte TD, Spokesperson for Justice (be warned, we were in a very noisy place)

Emmet Stagg TD tells me about his political career and why I should care about politics. He was a gentleman, we had a great chat.

Senator Ivana Bacik:

I'll be blogging more about this - I have more interviews to come - but I sit here now, looking at them again, impressed by the passion and the hunger for change with not just those I interviewed, but practically everyone I spoke to.

Huge thanks and props to Stephanie who was a brilliant camera person and partner in crime.

Obviously it's something I said...

2009-04-02T10:05:00.005+01:00

I was wondering when this would happen...

There's almost 60 Qwitter emails all in one go.

I recently went through all the people I follow on Twitter and wondered - who are they? Do I speak with them regularly? Do I engage with them or they with me?

I was up over 950 people and not really properly engaging with anyone. So I decided to just unfollow everyone. Every single person.

Then I went through my followers list to see who I recognised, who I spoke with, who made me laugh, who had interesting links and who I knew in real life and followed all of them back, seeing as they're the people I wanted to talk to.

All 350 odd of them. :-/

Then I added all the gurus, the moguls, the idea merchants, the event twitters and those services I liked.

I expected mass unfollows. I never mind someone who unfollows - God knows I don't tweet much of use anyways - I use it more to stay in touch with people than as a "promotion" service. I thought if twitter really works on conversation, on connection and on following, I should have dropped down to below the number I follow.

Strangely I didn't. There are therefore people whose twitterstream features my inane ramblings who I never interact with or never interact with me, yet they keep me there. Is it because they don't know how to delete? Are they just shy? I'm fascinated.

This fits in though with Sinéád's recent research on Irish bloggers. Part of her thesis which I'm particularly interested in was her finding that

" ...some blogs are more connected to a blogosphere than others, with some bloggers not being connected to any blogosphere at all. Over 65% of bloggers indicated that they were listed on an Irish planet aggregator, and almost 64% consider themselves a member of the Irish blogosphere. The remaining bloggers indicated that they were not listed and did not consider themselves part of the Irish blogosphere.

This highlights the 35% of bloggers unconnected from the Irish blogosphere, and this could suggest that there are far more Irish people blogging than is known.

It sparks off a lot of questions in my mind about the use of the word "community" in an online sense. Boards.ie for example isn't really one community, it's very very many in the over 700 forums we have. Equally just because one is a "blogger", one isn't expected to engage with other blogs or bloggers - though Sinéad's research shows that those who do benefit from the Social Capital:

"35.5% of bloggers believed blogging had a positive effect on their social lives, with 19.9% saying it had a “very positive” effect... Additional questions revealed that blogging has had an especially positive effect on the development of weak tie relationships with 81.3% of bloggers indicating that they have made friends that they communicate with online because of blogging.

Conclusions then? I don't know. The medium has me as interested and as passionate as it ever has. The opportunity to talk to people you wouldn't meet ordinarily - possibly you wouldn't have access to - is the biggest advantage, the one that keeps me going back for more...

For Twitter, I just repeatedly quote Ivor Tossel from his Twitter article on Globe and Mail:

Brian Cowen nude - the video

2009-04-01T09:59:00.002+01:00

Gotta love the stuff coming from Doris/Magee these days - here they tackle Picturegate (or Cowengate if that be your preference!)

Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors at the Abbey Theatre

2009-03-30T12:44:00.003+01:00

You'll already have seen the chance to win tickets to see Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors at Dublin's Abbey Theatre over on Culch.ie. Here's the new promo video for it.

...two sets of identical twins are separated in childhood. Years later, they all show up in the same place at the same time. The Comedy of Errors tells the story of a father, mother, brothers, sisters, masters and servants, all of whom find themselves confused, baffled and bewildered by the events of a single day.

I'm off to see it tomorrow night. From what I'm hearing, it should be great.

Kill Bill 1 and 2 and Forrest Gump in one minute, one take, with titles

2009-03-27T15:35:00.004Z

I really loved these - for everyone who likes watching films in one minute and one take:

Kill Bill 1 and 2:

Forrest Gump:

From director Will who you can find on YouTube.

No more My Little Piebald newsletter?

2009-03-27T13:22:00.004Z

Ah boo. Just as it was getting interesting (i.e. less personal), another satirical look at Ireland is put to rest.

Email below (formatting mine):

Dear readers,

Due to one of our editors dying, and another being called up to play for the Lions in South Africa, MLP will be appearing in a different format from now on.

Starting on May 1, My Little Piebald will publish a monthly edition on our website.

The format will be slightly different but we will maintain the low standards and unfinished feel that has been perfected in the weekly mailout.

In the meantime, we are leaving you with a selection of the worst articles which have appeared in My Little Piebald since it started last May.

We will let you know by email when there is new content available on the site.

Kind regards,

MLP

I found it funny that the link to their worst articles didn't work when I got this due to a mistake in the URL. That's just my sense of humour though.

Who will rise to take their place?

The Dublin Event Guide for Free Events has a website!

2009-03-27T10:54:00.002Z

Well done Joerg!

The weekly email I source a lot of what I'll be doing for the week in Dublin, written by Joerg Steemuller and with more stuff in it than you could shake a stick at has found a new home online with a great URL to boot:

http://www.dublineventguide.com/

It's up to email 93 with 3622 subscribers, with 3,230 in the Facebook Group. Go have a look. It's a great way for any arts and cultural groups or events to get the word out there too.
To subscribe to the email, send an email to dublineventguide@gmail.com with the Subject "Subscribe".

Summoning the Fail Whale - the twouble with twitters

2009-03-26T10:09:00.003Z

One of the better takes on Twitter I've seen in a while from the folk over on Current TV.

Loving lamps, lints and Loki tonight in a love triangle

2009-03-20T17:54:00.004Z

It's not as bad as it sounds.

Lampsy - the genius behind the I love lamp stickers around Dublin - was in touch to let me know about the new exhibition featuring themself, LadYLoKibeE and Lints in the All City Gallery - downstairs at All City Records on Crow Street in Temple Bar, Dublin - opening tonight.

The exhibition runs from March 21 to 28 from 12 to 6pm each day and you'll find them at the directions below:

Go to Dublin's Temple Bar Area. Over the Square, past Urban Outfitters, round the corner is Crow St. Walk up to Foggy Dew / Dame St end. Alternatively turn off Dame St and walk down - we're on the right hand side.

Get your house into the history books of Trinity College

2009-03-20T17:46:00.003Z

At least.. that's what I think this means...

So if you'd like to help the Ents hold the largest house party that Trinity has ever seen, maybe get in touch with Nick? I'm sure they'd only be drinking tea and the like and would do the washing up afterwards... wouldn't they?

It's viral advertising but still pretty damn cool for the F1 fans

2009-03-20T17:31:00.003Z

I got sent this via email today from Vincenzo who works for "viral videos production company from London" asking if I'd embed it, it being a Vodafone viral.

My initial reaction was no thanks, but after watching what they've done with a Blackberry Storm and a McLaren Formula One car, I have to admit to being impressed - looks pretty cool...

I'm not sure if I'm more impressed by them getting Lewis Hamilton to do it or that office racing track. That looks pretty funky, eh?

Harry's lost his lost kitten poster

2009-03-20T17:24:00.002Z

Harry seems to be getting around the city... This was on George's Street on Wednesday:

If you can't make it out, it reads: Have lost my *lost kitten* poster. It was stuck to this pole about a week ago. Have you seen it? It it exactly the same size as A4 paper, is made of white paper and has a picture of a kitten and the words *lost kitten* on it. If you have my poster, meet me here on Sunday at 5.30pm. No photocopies. I can offer you a lift on my bike wherever you want to go after you've given me the poster. - Harry

The red lemonade girls have been poster spotting too. Jack and Marian, eh?

Someone must have done a good job then

2009-03-20T17:20:00.003Z

I spotted this on the quays this morning:

Always nice to get good feedback, eh?

Daffodil Day volunteers out on Dublin streets today

2009-03-20T10:51:00.006Z

It's Daffodil Day! Like himself says - buy a daffodil today. You can also plant a daff online!

From their website's Did You Know:
One in three people in Ireland will be affected by cancer at some point in their life

Just one box of daffodils covers the cost of one night of nursing

The Irish Cancer Society provided over 5,700 nights of care to 1,600 families in 2008. This is a 10% increase on the number of nights and people cared for in 2007.

Over 25,000 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed this year, and there will be approximately 8,400 cancer deaths

By 2020, the number of people in Ireland being diagnosed with cancer is expected to rise by almost two-thirds.

I went wandering again from O' Connell Street to work today to talk to some of the volunteers and buy some flowers. It was quite inspiring to see faces I remembered from last year as well as meet some new people.

James Gilleran and Anna Dunne are back at the end of O' Connell Street. I stood watching for a while as people came over to get photos with him in the suit or greeted them saying "Great to see you back!" I walked over specifically to have a word. Lovely people, great ambassadors.

Ann Murphy and Anna Dunne on Westmoreland Street have been selling daffodils for 18 years now. 18 years - 13 now in the same spot! Incredible commitment.

Claire was outside the Bank of Ireland on College Green. It's her first year doing it.

Here's Valerie Robinson, Ann Roberts and Jackie Byrne - Jackie who's been doing this for nine years now tells me that all her friends are roped in - Valerie and Ann being so for five years now.

Lillian, Barbara and Daphne were outside of Trinity. Lillian is in her second year of volunteering while Barbara has been helping out on Daffodil Day for 12 years and Daphne for 10.

Here's Gillian who is volunteering for the first time with Alison and Donna from the Irish Cancer Society. Alison told me it's been a hugely busy day this year with 480 volunteers out selling, with 244 of those being new volunteers - not counting the Transition Year students.

Speaking of Transition year students, here's Eugene Kyne and Zack Lennon from Coláiste Mhuir out on Dame Street doing their bit.

Finally I met Anna and Patricia on George's Street. This is Anna's second year and Patricia's first. They seemed in fine form this morning.

In terms of what the support you give to the Society by helping them today:

The funds raised during the event are used in these vital areas:
Patient care: Thanks to your support, around 1,600 families in Ireland will receive free care from a night nurse this year and 19 oncology liaison nurses in hospitals around the country will be on hand to give practical and emotional assistance to people with cancer.

Information: We produce some of the latest advice and support on cancer, and free information that can really help someone who's in the dark and feeling frightened.

WELL DONE to every volunteer who went to raise money and awareness for the Irish Cancer Society this year, and to everyone who bought a daffodil or any of their products!

The Irish Cancer Society's Cancer Information Service is available Monday to Thursday 9am to 7pm (5pm on a Friday) on Freefone 1800 200 700, while their email service is helpline@irishcancer.ie.

Using simple social media tools to capture an event

2009-03-19T20:04:00.006Z

(This post is an update to an earlier post I did...)

How could a cultural event, a charity or an organisation get extra free coverage for their event? Very simply it turns out.

I worked/volunteered on this year's St Patrick's Festival parade. I carried a camera and a Nokia N95 and just used twitter and photos to try capture what I was looking at.

Some of the Twitter reactions were

These are great photos - makes me feel like I'm there with you all!!

Thanks for those cool photos - looks excellent and no rain, who knew it could be like this? ;-))

http://twitpic.com/26f7o - Love the accent!! Thanks for posting these pics...I always get a little homesick on this day :( ...

Thanks for those pics Darragh, I'm there in spirit. Enjoy the remainder of the big day.

Doesn't that sound like something you'd like to hear people saying about your event?

The challenge is somehow, using text and images, to convey to someone what's going on from a different angle. While there's great TV coverage and press photographers will capture the spectacular shots, for me it's also about the experience of the people in crowds, the performers and the tourists, so I made an effort to talk to as many as I could yesterday.

Imagine that recent twitter attempts like @MIMA2009 - the Meteor Irish Music Awards and RTE's @IrlTalentShow - All Ireland Talent Show had planned it out so they could do similar, properly? This sort of stuff isn't huge budget expense, it's using simple (free) tools to connect with and engage people in a rather cool way. Those two accounts could have been very very cool but weren't.

Today FM's Ray Foley was twitpiccing like a mad yoke at last night's event which was great, except that because of his seat he looks like he was far back. Imagine someone was given press clearance to do it officially? It's something that event and marketing people need to wake up to - "Oh that looks like fun, I'll go to that when it's on again".

No one is expecting perfection - which is not the same as professionalism anyway - but it is opening the event up to a larger audience and putting a human face/name behind it. That's why I'm really looking forward to the photos from Darren Greene and Hazel Coonagh who were wandering around the route with full access yesterday.

It was brilliant too to see Denise - @stpatricksfest - tweeting and keeping people updated as well. We worked well together, me posting, she retweeting and it helped give people who weren't just following my twitter channel some flavour of the day.

In short, what St Patrick's Festival did this year was, as far as I can see, unique, and their partnership with Pix.ie was something no amount of marketing and advertising through "conventional" channels could equal. There's a record there of how people enjoyed the day, what they saw and how it was received that they can go to their sponsors with and say "Here, this is what your money did." That's different. That's special.

So how can you do that? Whatever your event or charity or organisation or campaign, how do you get people talking about what you do before, during and after the event?

Here's a few suggestions:

Register a Twitter account. Start tweeting. Follow me - http://twitter.com/darraghdoyle and I'll tell people who you are. Not sure what Twitter is? Check out this video from Niall Harbison.
Talk to Pix.ie about creating a group. Here people can upload photos of your event, share what they've seen and you can direct people and sponsors towards it to see what's happening.
Get yourself a YouTube channel. For example, mine is here. You can see a wide spectrum of some of my interests and what I like to do. Look at the Performance Corporation's one - they keep a record of what they do that they can share with everyone.
Get onto Facebook and create an event page for a date specific event and a group page for an organisation. Here's what the Peacock did for Ages of the Moon. Ben & Jerry's Ireland have 789 people they can message about their Free Cone Day in April. Here's the Independent Youth Theatre group and an event page for their Cooped Up production.
Get a blog. Don't DARE tell me that a blog takes too much time and that you couldn't update it. Do you write press releases? Do you email people about what you do? Do you have to give your web designer copy for the website? All these can go on your blog.

It doesn't have to be just written by a marketing person. Get anyone who knows what a blog is to get involved. That's what No Nonsense Insurance did.

The 4DayMovie blog was done in 4 days. Seriously folks, it's easy to do with a little bit of creativity and time. A photo here, a video there, an interview, what's been said about you in the papers, what's happening - it's all there for the taking.
Do you need a Bebo and a MySpace just because everyone else has them? Perhaps. If you're going to use them though make sure you have the right resources in place to be able to deal with them - to respond to the questions, to interact with those who follow you and to keep them updated on what's going on. There's no point in having a channel if you're not going to use it and it doesn't give anything to those watching it.
Finally, talk to people! The names that spring to mind straight away for me are Niamh, who pretty much manages everything I do, Emily Tully on the PR side, Aisling Ryan on the event management side, Denise Rushe on Arts Management and the superlative Kathy Kinsella for volunteer coordination. Ronan Flynn and Cian McKenna are great designers to work with.

You can connect with people on Twitter, on IGOpeople, LinkedIn and good old fashioned email.

Ask for help and advice. People are there and happy to do what they can to help. If you don't take advantage, they'll be happy to oblige.

Think about it - what do you want people saying about your event? What results do you want? Ask St Patrick's Festival who now can go with photos like these to their sponsors and say "This is what you were part of. You can be part of it again." That's worth something, isn't it?

Photo by smugairle

Irish charities - get your story featured on 4FM

2009-03-19T16:45:00.003Z

This is Michael Comyn and he presents the weekend show on 4FM - the radio station two floors above where I'm sitting now - which broadcasts to counties Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Clare.

One of the interesting things he does is feature the work of an Irish charity every Sunday morning between 7.30am and 8.00am. He's very open to being contacted so if you'd like some coverage for your charity, drop Michael a line at michael@4fm.ie

Great way to get some coverage for you!

Photos from the Dublin St Patrick's Day Parade 2009

2009-03-18T16:03:00.006Z

(EDIT: I've changed this post from the original to lose some stuff)

I have finally uploaded many of my photos from yesterday to Pix.ie and have included some below. I spent much of the day tweeting and twitpiccing the parade while on the route interacting with people, answering queries and helping if and where I could. I had the camera with me and swapped between N95 and camera as necessary.

I really need to thank three people in particular who were working on the Festival team and really helped me so much.

Catherine Egan with the Press Office was fantastic and obliging and really gets why online is so important in the promotion of an event.
Denise Rushe was an eternal font of knowledge, good humour and support and made my involvement this year that much easier
Kathy Kinsella is *the* volunteer coordinator in Ireland and it's been a pleasure to work with her again. Super organised and efficient, she understood what I was trying to do and let me get on with it. Super stuff indeed.

The other people to thank are Marcus, Niamh, Will, Grannymar, Elly and Phil who all made the day that bit better and more fun. Also all the performers who posed for photos and put on such a great show!

Anyway - I tried hard to cut this down to only a few photos - you'll see the rest here - so hope you enjoy:

With parade Grand Marshalls Cathriona Foley, Cork Camogie Captain, Henry Shefflin of Kilkenny and Angela Walsh, Cork Football Captain

I'll have more to come. In the meantime check out FionnTime's AMAZING bird's eye pics over O' Connell Bridge - they're quite something!

Flash mob dancing outside Dublin's Central Bank

2009-03-18T11:28:00.005Z

Can you spot Ellybabes, Niamho, Ian or me dancing outside of Central Bank on Monday afternoon last?

It was brilliant fun and fair play to the Performance Corporation for organising it. Thanks also to Liana who was a wonderful dancing partner and instructor!

Extreme Sheep LED art by the BaaaStuds

2009-03-18T10:14:00.004Z

Just look at this. Seriously. It's absolutely amazing. I want to know if it's real.

We took to the hills of Wales armed to the teeth with sheep, LEDs and a camera, to create a huge amazing LED display.

Yep, another ad, but wasn't it worth it?

Lá Fhéile Pádraig shona daoibh - Happy St Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T09:13:00.004Z

Today I am mostly doing

(Recognise the scarf, CA?)

and have watched the Grand Marshalls, Brian Dooher Tyrone Football Captain, Henry Shefflin, Kilkenny Hurling representative, Angela Walsh, Cork Football Captain and Cathriona Foley, Cork Camogie Captain being interviewed

and am looking at performers like

while waiting for the 2009 St Patrick's Day Parade in Dublin to start.

So as you can imagine, blogging will be light. In the meantime, keep an eye on Twitter - You can see all tweets using the #SPF09 tag here - to give you an idea of what twitterers are talking about.

I'll be uploading photos on the go there too - http://twitter.com/darraghdoyle

I added this to Culch.ie a couple of days ago but in case you haven't seen it:

Don't forget to upload any photos you have to the Pix.ie St Patrick's Festival Group. Yes, Marcus does pay me every time I mention them :-P

Enjoy the day whatever you get up to, wherever you are!

The new look Facebook homepage

2009-03-13T17:34:00.002Z

Well, my Facebook homepage changed this afternoon and I assume everyone else's did too. What do you think of it?

Sneak preview photos of the Spheres event this weekend

2009-03-13T16:55:00.003Z

Stu left me this link in a comment - tis handy like that, don't ya know! Some shots of the Strange Fruit people at the Spheres event.

Photos from irishstu's Flickr stream

This one IS a conspiracy theory

2009-03-13T16:38:00.003Z

This one came in via email. I know who yis are!

I didn't want to go anyway, so there!! :-P

Be part of something special in Dublin next Monday

2009-03-13T16:09:00.005Z

Do you remember I blogged about flash mob kissing in the Ilac Centre last year?

Well, the people behind that - Ireland's Performance Corporation - are looking for participants for what they're calling Theatrical Expression as part of the St Patrick's Festival.

Their Facebook Group Page is here.

If you're available to be in Dublin's City Centre from 4 - 7pm on Monday March 16, all you need to do to get involved is to
text YES, plus your name to 087 050 7840 or send an email to info@theperformancecorporation.com.

You could be part of something as beautiful as this was.

You never know, you may even get a snog out of it. (Snog not guaranteed!)