Oh Jaysus I read about...
that this morning. Does he not have people to tell him about this kind of thing? The Minister for Science (albeit a junior ministry) attending that ridiculous book launch is just...well, it's just a bit IRISH is what it is.
I don't care if the author is a personal friend! A Minister for Science should not be seen at a book launch for a book that denies evolution. Gahhhhhh! Sometimes I bloody hate Ireland and I'm a bloody native and I've lived here all my bloody life.
(Mediumsizedbear is trying to be littler., Tue 14 Sep 2010, 18:47, 1 reply)

Likewise
But you have to admire their doggedness in sticking to their national stereotype, the whole way to the top, regardless of what the Eurocrats insist upon. Drunkeness, ignorance and fecklessness - it could be Eire's motto!
(Clerk T Hazarde are all the wine, Tue 14 Sep 2010, 23:02, closed)

Indeed..
I suppose the utter refusal to learn from mistakes (or to learn at ALL) is a 'quality' some of our top brass possess in spades. Lest we forget, Calamity Coughlan recently attributed the theory of evolution to Einstein (or was it the theory of relativity to Darwin?).
They're an embarrassment. I wish I had the money to just leave.
(Mediumsizedbear is trying to be littler., Wed 15 Sep 2010, 9:41, closed)

It's probably genetic - small island, isolated, sexually repressed etc. I heard somewhere that Ireland has higher rates of diabetes, coeliac disease and possibly schizophrenia than the rest of Europe. Oh and the Ne Temere decree probably has a macrogenetic effect something like inbreeding.
(Clerk T Hazarde are all the wine, Wed 15 Sep 2010, 12:17, closed)

You're correct about
the genetic isolation, we have a super-high rate of cystic fibrosis here and a South African acquaintance of mine is appalled at the cancer rate (the genetic ones like breast, prostate etc.) We badly need a bit of genetic diversity!
(Mediumsizedbear is trying to be littler., Wed 15 Sep 2010, 14:51, closed)

South Africans, now there's a great bunch of lads!

Personally, I have Gaelic, Norman, English and French ancestry, all in the last few generations, so I'm perfectly British!
(Clerk T Hazarde are all the wine, Wed 15 Sep 2010, 17:50, closed)