Raiméis

After their brutal result against Israel Ireland (sorry, Republic of …) bounce back with a win in a friendly over China, thanks to Clinton Morrison again.

There’s been another earthquake just off Indonesia, this time measuring about 8.2 in the Richter scale. Tsunami warnings have been issued but no news yet if there have been any waves. Unconfirmed reports say “dozens” have been killed on the Indonesian island of Nias.
Update 1: Magnitude 8.7. And BBC reports hundreds killed.
Update 2: More than 1000 feared dead, victims await aid.
Update 3: Why did the latest quake not cause a tsunami?

Cian O’Connors and Irelands only 2004 Olympic medal has been taken away. Showjumper O’Connor lost the glad medal yesterday after the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) ruling that his horse had tested positive for banned substances. We seem to be better at losing medals than winning them!

From today signposts in the Gaeltachtaí will only be as Gaeilge. No doubt there will be whingers complaining about this, highlighting the difficulty it will cause for tourists etc. (as discussed on Slugger a while back). But God only knows how these same people manage when they go to France or Spain where they can’t translate the signs there into English.
As far as I know many maps already carry the Irish placenames (which are now the legal version) so I see little difficulty for anyone. Though as Irish Eagle points out it would be a good idea to leave warning signs in both language or use standard visual symbols.

On April 1st the Minuteman Project will start in Arizona, where volunteers from across the US will spend up to one month camped out in the desert armed with night vision goggles, radios and light aircraft, their job – to watch for illegal immigrants coming across the border from Mexico. Don’t be surprised if that’s not all they are armed with. According to founder James Gilchrist it is “a grassroots effort to bring Americans to the defence of their homeland” which is “devoured and plundered by the menace of tens of millions of invading illegal aliens”. They have about 1000 volunteers so far but god only knows what kind of racists and ‘white supremacists’ have signed up. More groups like Humane Borders are needed, they erect water stations in the desert to try to prevent people dying (223 last year, most from dehydration) during the 5 day trek through the desert.

The Policing Board of Northern Ireland has approved a new type of plastic bullet for use by the PSNI. Plastic bullets have had extensive use in the North and resulted in quite a number of deaths over the years. The new version of this “non-lethal” weapon is supposed to be less likely to cause serious harm or fatalities. Assuming they don’t get any faulty ones like they did previously. The decision to approve the new bullets is subject to conditions. One of the conditions should, in my opinion, involve live testing i.e. leading members of the main nationalist & unionist parties dropping their pants and taking one for the team.

Those of you enjoying Firefox as Gaeilge may be interested to hear that Open Office localization is ongoing. Yes, soon this great *free* office suite will be available in Irish. Check out their localization site and if you have the time why not volunteer to help out.

Via Cloudlands by John Breslin I discover (a bit late) that TG4 is now available in Northern Ireland, it just goes from bad to worse there doesn’t it? This following the sale in January of Ros na Rún to WYBE Philadelphia it looks like TG4 is spreading her wings.
I haven’t had much opportunity to watch it in recent years (there’s a surprisingly low demand for Irish language tv here in Finland) but just checking the schedule it seems they still show crappy old movies, movie of the day next Monday is “The Waltons Crisis” (1973), says it all doesn’t it? Well, at least they have Hector, Samuri Jack and Spongebob.

Blogging has been brutally slow here for weeks now, work is shaggin busy. But if you follow the wee link to Irishblogs.ie you’ll get a nice collection of Irish weblogs which, unlike this site, are of a standard actually worth visiting. And don’t forget Slugger, always worth a gander, and where you’ll find me most days fighting my little corner.

Via the Gaelport.com mailing list: Inaugural Report of An Coimisinéir Teanga.
“The State may not be getting an adequate return for the money it invests in the teaching of Irish according to the inaugural report issued by An Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin.”
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