by Grania Spingies
I pity you Americans, I do. You’re trapped in an endless cycle of campaigning where battling politicians (and the occasional clown) slug it out day after day, week after week, month after month.
Here in Ireland, the Dáil (Irish parliament) was dissolved on the 3rd of February by Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, and the election is to be held a whopping three weeks later—on February 26th.
Politicians are forced to canvass door-to-door here, as robo-calls are illegal in Ireland (so far Ireland 2, USA 0. I’m so, so sorry). But even this is not good enough for your average irritable voter, and many an office laser printer has surreptitiously spat out amateur signs bearing the legend NO CANVASSING HERE PLEASE or something a little less polite—ranging from mild expressions of discontent with The Body Politic in general, to more specific and possibly anatomically impossible exhortations. And then someone spotted this beauty:
This post has reached over 200,000 people on the BBC Radio Foyle Facebook page 😂 pic.twitter.com/AyXAq71CoK
— Barry Whyte (@BarryWhyte85) February 19, 2016
Pronunciation Guide:
(this is more of an art form, less of a science)
- Dáil = doyle
- Taoiseach = tea shuck
[JAC: In America, this sign could read “Do you have a few minutes to hear the good news about ME?”]
Blasphemy laws?
Sympathy for Hitler?
There really needs to be a prize for the most gratuitous attempt at Godwinning the thread ever.
Well said Grania! 🙂
I thought “Sympathy for Hitler” was a new song’n’dance show being brought out by The Producers?
I believe it was ‘Springtime for Hitler’. Which they conceived as a sure-fire loss-making scam but, to their dismay, it turned into a runaway hit.
cr
I sometimes think that having to perform in a run of “Springtime” would be a suitable punishment for real hate crimes.
You may well be witnessing the beginning of the fall of the American Empire. It is not that we have ‘a’ clown, there are a tiny automobile full of them, much like you might see at a circus. The Republican Clowns have not a clue as to the way to run a republic and the Democratic Clowns have not the foggiest understanding of democracy. They are two parties with virtually indistinguishable characteristics; they have in common solely a desperate grasp for POWER. Power is the only thing they understand; neither of them represent the American populace, except as that populace is represented by the most ignorant, even stupid, of our nation’s inhabitants. Pity the rest of us, who must abide this farce and what it portends.
We deserve the pity.
The Dail was dissolved by President Michael Higgins on the advice of the Taoiseach.
I should explain and emphasise that my correction is not intended to be a piece of oneupmanship. I simply thought that surely there must be something that the President of the Republic does to earn his living. Lo and behold, when I checked I found that this was indeed one of his functions!!!
S/He may also refer bills to the supreme court to check constitutionality and can turn lead into gold on the 5th sunday of lent
I love it.
Do they allow other forms of advertising? TV and radio spots? Standing outside grocery stores handing out leaflets?
How does anyone get to know the candidates and decide who to vote for in a mere 3 weeks? Are the Irish happy with the current election method?
All of the above.
Honestly, it’s plenty of time, especially in the days of the Internet, TV and radio. The only way you could live in this country and not know what politicians are for or against is if you make a point of ignoring it.
It’s a small country. You could fit the whole population into New York City and still have room for a spare million or three.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjl8OIZijjY
It’s very simple to decide on who to vote for 🙂
So simple. Can I become a citizen? My mother’s mother was born in Ireland.
Yes,if one of your grandparents was an Irish citizen who was born in Ireland, but none of your parents was born in Ireland, you may become an Irish citizen. You will need to have your birth registered in the Foreign Births Register. You will require birth and death certificates and marriage certificates for your grandparent.
I agree with Peter ; you’ve got enough ancestry. Getting the documentation together may be a challenge though.
If one of your grandparents is an Irish citizen who was born in Ireland, but none of your parents was born in Ireland, you may become an Irish citizen. You will need to have your birth registered in the Foreign Births Register.
If you are entitled to register, your Irish citizenship is effective from the date of registration. The Irish citizenship of successive generations may be maintained in this way by each generation ensuring their registration in the Foreign Births Register before the birth of the next generation.
Since 1 July 1986, a person registered in the Foreign Births Entry Book after 1986 is deemed to be an Irish citizen only from the date of his/her entry in the Register and not from the date of birth. This means that children born to that person before his/her date of entry in the Register are not entitled to citizenship.
People registered before July 1986 are deemed Irish citizens either from the date the original Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act came into force, that is, 17 July 1956, or their date of birth, whichever is later. Only children born after 17 July 1956 can claim citizenship in such cases.
Yes, I’ve considered getting dual-nationality myself on a number of occasions. There are (well, were) times at work when not having a US or British passport could have been a life saver, at least in terms of not getting picked to spend two years chained to a wall in a cellar in Mogadishu.
I don’t know the rules in Ireland, but in the UK the candidates in each constituency are allowed one mail-shot (within specified weights and sizes) to every voter’s address. This practice goes back to the 19-teens, IIRC, so there’s a good chance that it was transferred into Eire/ IFS after the War of Independence.
When I did this in the 1970s-90s, we stuffed tens of thousands of envelopes and addressed them manually, then delivered the resulting boxes to the local main post office who did some crude checks to make sure that the numbers were about right, and then fed them into the general postal stream.
TV advertising is only allowed in government-paid slots on both advertising TV and non-advertising TV. I think it’s about 20 minutes/candidate/campaign. They’re some of the lowest-watched programmes of all time. Open university programms on the calculus of kipper ties probably got more, and more-attentive, viewers.
The liar-in-chief from #10 was flapping his gums on TV earlier, which I assume means he’s trying to destroy the country, again.
That’s a good point and it’s important to keep relative size in mind:
Irish GDP < GDP of greater Miami
On that metric Irish elections are about as globally consequential as Miami city council elections. Given that I'd say 3 weeks is too long.
Thankfully I don’t live in a caucus or primary election state so I am free from the incessant ads/calls/signage etc.
Once the general election starts, I’ll reread your post and nod in agreement.
Unless you live under a rock, you must be kidding. Two long years of this shit on TV and every other media. Primaries that go on forever and that is after 10 months of crap and so-called debates. I am for moving to Ireland.
I love the sign!
Whatever happened to vote early, vote often? And the the good owld sectarian Derry tradition of exporting electoral fraud to Chicago and New York?
Cheesus, Mary and Joseph, nowadays we’re too lazy to get off our lazy, fat arses to answer the feckin’ door. x
I’m currently busy neutering my grumpy Pit Bull, but go ahead and ring the doorbell.
Ha Ha Ha!
Well, other differences aside, Ireland is about the size of West Virginia, with a legislature of roughly the same size.
love it!
With that sign, the wee Derry man has discovered “the nuclear option.”
He’s threatening to engage any canvasser in a fail-safe talk session, ending in mutually assured destruction.