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2013-06-18 16:47:38 (19 comments, 4 reshares, 58 +1s)

Michelle Obama meets Bono for lunch in my Dalkey local   #MichelleObama #ObamaIreland #Dalkey
Well it’s not every day the First Lady drops in for lunch in Finnnegans my local in Dalkey :-D 

2013-06-17 11:06:33 (17 comments, 3 reshares, 46 +1s)

The Obamas arrive in Ireland    #WhatTheFliuch   #ObamaIreland
Oh dear, the weather isn’t great….

(pic from dailyedge.ie on Facebook)

2013-06-16 21:09:56 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 26 +1s)

Bloomsday in Sandycove #Bloomsday

2013-06-16 10:32:16 (9 comments, 3 reshares, 35 +1s)

Memory of My Father   #FathersDay   #IrishPoetry  #PatrickKavanagh
Every old man I see
Reminds me of my father
When he had fallen in love with death
One time when sheaves were gathered.
That man I saw in Gardiner Street
Stumble on the kerb was one,
He stared at me half-eyed,
I might have been his son. 
And I remember the musician
Faltering over his fiddle
In Bayswater, London.
He too set me the riddle. 
Every old man I see
In October-coloured weather
Seems to say to me
"I was once your father."
-Patrick Kavanagh
Copyright © Estate of Katherine Kavanagh

2013-06-14 18:12:14 (14 comments, 8 reshares, 57 +1s)

Let there be insults  #Shakespeare  #TGIF
It’s Friday, long week time to shout insults! 
Shakespeare’s  Insult generator http://insult.dream40.org/

h/t  +Nico Gerrits  a withered cat :-D

2013-06-13 21:41:45 (12 comments, 4 reshares, 33 +1s)

Dalkey Book Festival 14-16 June 2013  #IrishLiterature #DalkeyBookFestival
Dalkey has been home to many Irish writers including James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Hugh Leonard, Flann O’Brien, Maeve Binchy, John Millington Synge, George Bernard Shaw, Van Morrison, Neil Jordan, and Joseph O’Connor. Dalkey Book Festival was founded to celebrate the literary heritage of Dalkey.
The festival opens this year with an ode to the celebrated and much-loved author. the late Maeve Binchy one of the festival's most avid supporters. The line-up this year includes Robert Fisk (seven-times International Journalist of the Year),  Edna O’Brien (“the doyenne of Irish literature”) Ann Enright (Man Booker prize winner for The Gathering), John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas), Stuart Carolan (crime writer Love Hate) and Roddy Doyle (The Commitments)
The festival finishes on Sunday evening withrenowned Wa... more »

2013-06-12 20:31:11 (20 comments, 1 reshares, 72 +1s)

Telegraph Castle on Dalkey Hill and Dalkey Quarry  #MyHomeTown #Dalkey
This is right behind my house but I had to ask my big tall brother +pat o'duffy  to take the photo :-D
During the 19th century, granite blocks from the quarry on Dalkey Hill were used to build Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Nowadays, the quarry is used by local rock climbers to practice climbing. On top of the hill stands the Telegraph Castle which used to send signals to the boats coming into Dublin Bay. 

2013-06-11 15:54:48 (49 comments, 0 reshares, 19 +1s)

#Hashtags #WhatTheFliuch ? 
Can anybody care to enlighten me and explain what is going on now with #Hashtags on G+ with the latest update? 
• #Hashtags no longer show previous posts when you click on them
• #Hashtags no longer work in G+ search
• #Hashtags are now auto hashtagged by G+, how do I turn this off? Can I only choose one hashtag? Are other #hashtags ignored? Why do G+ choose dumb generic #hashtags e.g. #Ireland #Photography ? (Are there any generic #America hashtags? No, so why label us Irish all under one #hashtag ? )
• Is the #hashtag now only functional when I choose ‘flip through related posts/? (top right box, dropdown under #hashtag , not very intuitive and hard to find) 
• +M Sinclair Stevens  posted a long while ago about #rain in Texas and how it is unique and very special. It is not unique or specialin Ireland, we ha... more »

2013-06-06 18:19:50 (46 comments, 3 reshares, 75 +1s)

Dipping my toes in the water….   #Seapoint #Dublin
I’m loving the new sunny Ireland and the temperatures are still rising :-) 

2013-06-04 09:40:47 (10 comments, 6 reshares, 64 +1s)

Make hay while the sun shines     #IrishArt #Ireland
We’ve had a long long winter and the sun is finally shining. Time to get out and about before it disappears again…..

(Original painting Tossing Hay near the Mournes oil on board by Gregory Moore)

2013-05-31 13:24:47 (45 comments, 3 reshares, 20 +1s)

Why do so many Irish ignore G+?    #SocialMedia  #Ireland  #Sockies13 
I attended the annual Irish Social Media Awards #Sockies13 last night organised by +Bord Gáis Energy  and  +Eoin O Suilleabhain  Many thanks for the invite, it was a fantastic evening. I got to meet several hundred people all interested in social media in Ireland. Now I’ve been baffled for a while but was astounded to meet absolutely Nobody using G+ 
+karlin lillington  had recently written a superb article about how “Chris Hadfield’s use of social media made space seem less alien” (Thursday 18 May 2013) and had mentioned Hadfield’s 940,118 Twitter followers and his 333,000 Facebook followers but omitted his 316,179 Google Plus followers. Google Plus is less than two years old and these numbers are surely significant? 
I set up the  +Ireland   page here on G+ as Tourism Ireland ( +Ireland ) are not ve... more »

2013-05-30 09:19:24 (20 comments, 1 reshares, 45 +1s)

Summer has arrived     #MyHomeTown #Dalkey
The sun was shining brightly to welcome  +Michael McGlynn  and Dodi to Dalkey yesterday :-)

2013-05-28 22:03:58 (19 comments, 5 reshares, 40 +1s)

I own the +Ireland  community here on G+. I think we are all so bombarded with irrelevant invitations to irrelevant communities, I rarely send out any invites at all. No, don’t bother joining if you’ve no interest in Ireland and Irish culture you’ll be bored stiff! Communities are not about ‘numbers’, they’re not about broadcasting and mindless reshares, they’re about real people and real conversations. I love my Ireland community, it’s a bit like my local where I drop in every so often and the regulars are always at the bar:-) We’re mainly a group of Irish people, living and working in Ireland. We share the best of Irish culture and we’re careful to make sure it is authentic and the real Ireland we live in and we love. Everybody with an interest in Ireland and all about Ireland is welcome. 
#Ireland  #IrelandCommunity #IrelandOnG+

2013-05-28 09:55:30 (19 comments, 1 reshares, 53 +1s)

{ Walking in a Pissarro dream's }
all the series is here http://www.claudinedefayartist.com/2013/05/walking-in-pissarro-dream.html
+French Friday  #frenchfriday  @ +MuMa Le Havre 

2013-05-27 20:13:16 (11 comments, 8 reshares, 32 +1s)

“Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.”

W.B Yeats  The Circus Animals Desertion
#WBYeats #IrishPoets

(The Circus Animals Desertion http://ireland.wlu.edu/landscape/Group5/poem.htm 
Image source:  abstract.desktopnexus.com  )

2013-05-31 04:53:16 (31 comments, 4 reshares, 20 +1s)

In 2006, the National Geographic Traveller magazine described the Dingle Peninsula as "the most beautiful place on Earth" Join us for #PhotowalkDingle, everybody is welcome. 
11am Meet at The Stone House Cafe & Restaurant adjacent to Dún Beag Fort. 
 (Directions: From Dingle town take the Slea Head Drive (R559), past Ventry Village and straight on for approx. 6km, until you reach the village of Fahan. You will see signs for Dún Beag Fort Visitor Centre on your right. When numbers are confirmed we can look at car sharing from Dingle town) 

Walk this particularly spectacular part of the Dingle Way as the trail skirts the base of Mount Eagle and at 160m above sea-level, the view over the Atlantic gradually starts to include the Blasket Islands. The trail rounds the shrine at Slea Head and continues on to Coumeenole Beach  Return walking by road . 
Total... more »

2013-05-26 10:26:53 (18 comments, 1 reshares, 66 +1s)

2013-05-25 11:12:00 (13 comments, 6 reshares, 65 +1s)

Classiebawn Castle,
Mullaghmore...
Ireland is too beautiful.... :)

2013-05-25 10:21:45 (16 comments, 2 reshares, 14 +1s)

#PhotowalkDingle  Saturday 29 June 11am  Any interest?  #Dingle  #AnDaingean #SleaHead
I’m just checking who might be interested in a #PhotowalkDingle on Saturday 29 June 11 am -4pm? Suggest starting at Coumeenole Beach on the Slea Head drive and walking for about 5 miles or so, the scenery is absolutely stunning. If the weather lets us down, Dingle town itself has many indoor fantastic pub scenes and photo ops. Can you let me know who might be interested?  If we have a group I’ll fire ahead and set up an event. 
c/c +Philip Daly +Kai Bergmann +Nuala O'Duffy +Gillian Mills +Paul O' Hanlon +Michelle Ross 

2013-05-24 08:50:39 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 26 +1s)

I’m calling it a day/night, depending on where you are  
  #NewLook #GoogleIO13 #SensoryOverload  

Too much hard work trying to scroll /back scroll my stream. I just tried to check the +Ireland  notifications (I am the page owner) and they keep loading as I try to read them. It’s like trying to walk UP the DOWN escalator… 

(Image source: recordsetter.com  )

2013-05-20 11:29:44 (9 comments, 3 reshares, 72 +1s)

2013-05-19 13:20:36 (247 comments, 6 reshares, 75 +1s)

War on Words   #WordSmiths #NewLook #GoogleIO13 #SensoryOverload
I love art and photography and regularly share images from my own beautiful Ireland.  However I joined G+ initially for the beta testing because it was the first network that enabled me to have in depth debates and discussions without the character limitations and the superficial engagements of Twitter/Facebook and this is why I am still here two years later. 
Much has been written over the last week ( e.g. +Max Huijgen , +M Sinclair Stevens , +Giselle Minoli +Able Lawrence +Dieter Mueller ) about how the new G+ interface with its cluttered visuals is discouraging writers. I think +Mike Elgan  sums it up very well:
“Google isn't causing this. They're responding to a shift that's happening organically”  
The average span of attention has dwindled to seconds, multi-tasking has nowbecome manic h... more »

2013-05-16 20:54:40 (11 comments, 2 reshares, 55 +1s)

Ship Ahoy   #QueenMary2  #DunLaoghaire
The little boat took me out to say hello to the big boat :-)
 Now I finally know what the word Awesome means.

Huge thank you to DublinBayCruises.com , the boats were all fully booked out and they had us on standby. Two people never showed, look what you missed you two! 

2013-05-15 22:45:32 (51 comments, 1 reshares, 30 +1s)

Eeek DoubleVision, G+ looks like Facebook now  #SensoryOverload  #io13
I’m a multi tasker, I’ve 3-6 tabs open all the time but I don’t want 6-12 open.I hated the Facebook Timeline redesign from day one where the two split columns were vying for my attention. Now tonight there are multiple columns here on G+ all screaming at me, my personal profile is split in two and my pages are also split in two. Too much information screaming at me all at once…

(Image source: jimsmarketingblog.com )

2013-05-15 09:15:17 (25 comments, 2 reshares, 73 +1s)

The view when you have a picnic at Glendalough, +Ireland 

2013-05-14 16:53:32 (21 comments, 1 reshares, 27 +1s)

Queen Mary 2 Cruise Liner is coming to Dun Laoghaire    #DunLaoghaire #QM2

The impressive Cunard Line 'flagship' all of 151,400 tonnes, is due to anchor offshore of Dun Laoghaire Harbour on Thursday morning, at around 07.00hrs.She has a 2,600 passenger capacity and a crew of 1,200.
The image shows the grand size of the Queen Mary 2 Cruise Liner compared to an airbus A380, the Titanic and Liberty Hall.
Some other interesting facts:
• QM2 cost approx. 659million euros to build
• QM2 is 147 feet longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall (984 ft.) 
• QM2 is only 117 feet shorter than the Empire State Building is tall (1248 ft.) 
• QM2 is as long as 41 double-decker London buses (31 ½ ft. each)
• QM2's whistle is audible for 10 miles 


(Afloat articlehttp://afloat.i... more »

2013-05-13 16:41:00 (62 comments, 1 reshares, 50 +1s)

Google, Please fix my stream back the way it was  #Algorithm #Update #GoogleIO

I’m lying low and hiding until all the glitches get sorted. I’m hoping this is not a new ‘relevance’ algorithm where Google are selecting posts to show me in my main stream. I know how to use the sliders. I am very picky about who I follow in the first place and when I select to see all their posts, I want to see them all.  
Roll on Google IO Wednesday, maybe there are new updates on the way and this is just a glitch!

(Image source: ww.psychologies.co.uk )

2013-05-10 08:16:39 (260 comments, 50 reshares, 447 +1s)

So how do you know when somebody is really ‘real’ on the Internet? #SocialMedia #Scammers #Nyms

I’ve hardly been on G+ recently as over the last few weeks I’ve finally got to meet so many G+ people in real life for the first time. A big group of us from the +Ireland  community finally got to meet in Donegal a month ago. I’d been friendly with the whole group online for months and everybody turned out to be just as nice as they had appeared to be online:-) Then +nomad dimitri  travelled over from Mountain View in California and I asked him was he a bit nervous meeting an online stranger, I could be a thug in disguise! “No, you look real, your profile is real”, he replied. I also got to meet +Mick Fealty in Ballsbridge last week and we just continued the conversation we have been having online for the last few months. 
Yes, I am real :-D But what makes a profile‘real’? How do w... more »

2013-05-09 10:08:46 (17 comments, 5 reshares, 56 +1s)

2013-05-08 20:13:19 (19 comments, 3 reshares, 13 +1s)

Philadelphia, Here I Come!   #IrishEmigration #IrishLiterature #BrianFriel

Philadelphia, Here I Come! is a 1964 play by Irish dramatist Brian Friel and set in the fictional town of Ballybeg, Co Donegal. (Baile beag is the Irish for ‘small town’) 
The play centres on a young Irish man, Gar O'Donnell, on the eve of his departure for Philadelphia. Gar is presented as two individual characters, played by two different actors, representing his Public and Private selves. Public Gar is the man who is seen and who interacts with the other characters in the play, while Private Gar, Gar's inner thoughts and feelings, is unseen and unheard by the rest of the cast and he can interact only with Public Gar.
As the evening unfolds, and through a series of flashbacks, memories and present action, we learn of his conflicting feelings about leaving Ballybeg, which represents for him boththat ... more »

2013-05-07 07:49:18 (18 comments, 9 reshares, 52 +1s)

Guaranteed Irish   #Ireland  
I own and manage the verified +Ireland  page and community here on G+. We set up the page because the official Tourism Ireland  +Ireland  are not very active here and we wanted to see Ireland represented. 
We are focusing on quality Irish content, the trusted source for Ireland and all about Ireland and  have a  team of Irish people looking after various sections:
Irish history and heritage +Neil Jackman 
Irish music +Kevin Moore 
Photos of Ireland  +Philip Daly +Dave McDaniel 
Irish Literature, Irish Poetry  +Eileen O'Duffy  Me! 
Irish Genealogy  +Michael Kennedy 
Irish Science and Health  +Eamonn O'Raghallaigh 
Irish Food and beverages +Nuala O'Duffy 
Irish Sports  +Denis Hickey 
Hillwalking in Ireland: +Nicky McBride 
Irish Marine and Maritime: +Gillian Mills 
Nowover the last while, I s... more »

2013-05-05 17:30:16 (16 comments, 2 reshares, 54 +1s)

I'm a tourist today ! Dun Laoghaire Howth cruise #bankholiday

2013-05-03 11:19:27 (0 comments, 5 reshares, 28 +1s)

Earlier this week, I mentioned on Google+ that I had discovered that all my books are now being pirated on torrent sites. And, +Visnja Zeljeznjak  asked me:

"What are your thoughts on your own stuff being pirated?"

That is a great question. So let's talk about it.

http://www.baekdal.com/opinion/the-real-problem-with-piracy/

2013-05-01 09:37:29 (31 comments, 24 reshares, 120 +1s)

Lá Bealtaine shona , Happy May day   #Mayday  #LáBealtaine

Mayday corresponds with the Irish festival of La Bealtaine, which officially heralded the beginning of the summer   In Irish mythology, the beginning of the summer season started with the Fire Festival at Beltane. Great bonfires would mark a time of purification and transition, heralding in the season in the hope of a good harvest later in the year, and were accompanied with rituals to protect the people from any harm by otherworldly spirits.
At the Beltany Stone Circle in the North West of Ireland, the sunrise at Beltane is aligned with the only decorated stone in the circle. The Beltany Stone Circle gets its name from Beltane which is associated with the lighting of hilltop fires in a rekindling of the sun.


(Image source: photographer Ken Williams http://www.newgrange.com/beltane.htm )

2013-04-30 20:33:31 (46 comments, 1 reshares, 26 +1s)

G+ pages starting to plague communities   #AntiSocialMedia #SocialMediaInterns

Looks like a new influx of G+ pages are now barging in unannounced to the communities and plying their wares. Would anybody storm into their local and start shouting they have special offers, “like me  +1 me and re share?”
Why do people behave like this on the internet….
(Image source: ww.fileboard.com ) 

2013-04-29 10:18:00 (38 comments, 1 reshares, 55 +1s)

New clothes for the rainy Irish weather   #WhatTheFliuch #Offset2013
h/t +Brian Herron 

(Image source: Photographer Clíona O’Flaherty  http://iloveoffset.com/news/the-offset-creative-project-2013/?utm_source=journal&utm_medium=creative&utm_campaign=offset2013 )

2013-04-27 22:12:28 (21 comments, 1 reshares, 40 +1s)

Google, please don’t lose the run of yourself   #Google #Spam #Search

I love Google and have been the biggest fan for more than 15 years now. In the last month I’ve seen more Spam in Gmail than ever before. Search results are now almost totally irrelevant with ‘empty vessels making the most noise’….. 
Google, stop messing around with Google Glass, please focus on the basics, your core products are the best. We love you, don’t abandon us. 

(Image source: blogoscoped.com )

2013-04-26 20:47:24 (26 comments, 2 reshares, 47 +1s)

Nomad visits me in Ireland   #Ireland  #Dalkey #HIRL #nomadimitritravel
G+ Hangouts are great but it is sooooooo much more exciting when somebody travels several thousand miles to meet me in real life.
Yesterday I met +nomad dimitri  for the first time. There wasn’t a tourist trap in sight, well just Nomad with his camera :-D And the sun was shining :-)
(Nomad’s expectations of Ireland https://plus.google.com/113953592758896789108/posts/cgDocnaBC3o )
Now we will have to wait to see how we measured up to his expectations….

2013-04-25 09:15:17 (24 comments, 2 reshares, 26 +1s)

Ireland: simplistic brushstrokes for my first visit

Basic thoughts in my head as I prepare myself for Irish culture:
- islanders
- small country
- powerful neighbor
- sense of having been badly wronged by neighbor
- internal strife: religious & geographic
- old country: history & tradition
- culture of poverty, struggle & immigration
- disproportionately talented: literature, music, poetry, theater etc
- diversity: not much
- tension: proud insularity vs post-modern openness
- recent: bubble, crash, effective response, rebuilding
- expected problems: alcohol, pride, stubbornness, disenfranchisement
- expected pleasures: people friendly, jovial, fun-loving, red hair/freckles, humor, black hair/blue eyes,curious, hospitable, playful...

... kind of like, which other people?

Nomad is... more »