A "normal" day in Temple Bar - what with the black leprechaun 'n all.

Trad music, donkeys, sheep, tourists ... and a black leprechaun (of course).

Cold New Year surfing at Strandhill, Co.Sligo

The water is cold but the surf is great. I am not much of a surfer but I have a body and love the surge from the even waves at Strandhill.

A nice little village too overlooked by the impressive lump of Queen Maedbh's Knocknaree.



Rate Strandhill in Co.Sligo.

Carlingford voted best place to live in Ireland in 2011 - Dublin City is the worst!

With over 6,000 ratings in the pot, we now know that the best place to live in 2011 was Carlingford in Co.Louth with a brilliant score of 4.5-out-of-5.

Dear old Dublin City was the worst, with a terrible score of 2.8-out-of-5.

And the best and worst counties? Donegal (again) was the the best. Meath was the worst - & as a Dublin man I have to agree with that!

To see the full results go to LikePlace Zeitgeist 2011.

Are the ASYLUMS being emptied?

Yes, that is Marilyn Monroe and Barack Obama dancing to some painful fiddling.

This pothole looks like Ireland & just about sums up our situation

Bagpiping in Knightstown, Valentia Island.

I spent a long weekend in Knightstown (Co.Kerry) doing some diving and spotted this bagpipe group in Sunday morning. Knightstown is a great little town - very clean and well kept.

Video of dramatic seas in DOOLIN at the weekend.

Excuse my profane language in this - but I was nearly washed away into the Atlantic!

Doolin looked great though.

Occupy Dame St ... vegans, ex-bankers, crusties & me together at last.

Just as well they didn't realise I am currently on a contract for a big US bank. I'd be torn to pieces!

This plaque sums up everything you'll ever need to know about Irish taxi drivers.

There grammar and speling makes my eye's water.

Photo credit: Ecardo Baader.

At last!! Now you can REPLY to comments that wind you up.

So, if someone slags your hometown - let 'em have it by clicking "reply"!

1. First search above for your hometown, e.g. Drogheda.
2. Click the Comments tab.
3. Find the comment you want to reply to & click "Reply" (example below).

A great new tradition emerging on Ha-penny bridge.

People are leaving padlocks to indicate their lurrve for each other. I think it was started by Poles or Lithuanians.

Hopefully Dublin City Council won't do their usual knee-jerk & stamp it out for health & safety or something (like they did for plectrums on Phil Lynotts statue.)

FILTHIEST places in Ireland named & shamed by IBAL.

God bless Irish Business Against Litter!

Each year they deliver a shillelagh-blow to Fáilte Ireland's soft-focus propaganda about how 'beautiful' Ireland is.

We all know that Ireland is filthy.

Litter is thrown everywhere. Our country side and woodlands are strewn with old fridges, washing machines and broken cars.

But where is worst? Well, we have our own list here. But as IBAL's is based on a quantitative survey ... I'll go with that.

The filthiest places are...

• Inner City Dublin
• Knocknaheeny
• Dublin Airport
• Tipperary
• Wicklow

The tidiest places are...

• Killarney
• Trim
• Cavan
• Swords (surprising !)
• Monaghan

More PAIN!! Video from Gaelforce West 2011.

I keep returning.

Why? God knows. Maybe I like pain & mud.

I was in the 8.00am wave, so if you were there you might be on the attached video. It shows some views from the beach start thru to the kayak crossing. (I put my phone away after that.)

If GAY BYRNE becomes president - I am leaving.

Watch trends for "Quality of Life" as they change over time.

We're introducing a new way to show TRENDS for QUALITY OF LIFE. See the chart on the Zeitgeist page.

We're showing average-scores per-quarter since 2009. For example, you can see that since 2009, ECONOMY has a strong downwards trend. Whereas, COMMUNITY is fairly steady.

Let us know what you think.

C19th Unionists were probably always right ... 'ROME Rule' triumphed over 'HOME Rule'.

At last, we might be starting to stand up for ourselves.

They're taking over!! ROBOT ST. spotted where Clanwilliam Place used to be.

(OR else it is just because Dublin City Council uses children's stencils from Easons to create street signs that can be easily peeled-off.)

"Yay!" to Chatham Brasserie for passing on the VAT reduction.

"Boo!" to Butler's Coffee across the road for not.

(See Butler's response.)

"Hello again" - a video stroll through Athlone town.

I lived here for a while about 15 years ago. At the time, I had mixed feelings about the place.

The things I liked were the history and location on the Shannon - however, I really abhorred the local people's careless attitude. I never saw a place with so much litter.

I was glad when passing thru recently to see it has tidied up its act.

Athlone could be one of the great towns of Ireland. It has the river, the castle, the lake, it is near Clonmacnoise ... it has it all!

If it was in England or Scotland it would be a mecca for tourists. In Ireland it is a forgotten child.

(As Athlone is a cross-border place it can be rated in either Roscommon or Westmeath.)

“Gross Domestic Happiness” in Ireland falls over first 6-months of 2011.

LikePlace.ie collects ratings & opinions on life in Ireland from people all over the country. So far we have gathered nearly 5,000 ratings on 8 factors that contribute to “quality of life”.

By putting all our scores together, we can calculate an overall score for “Gross Domestic Happiness”.

As of today, Ireland scores 3.7 out-of 5 as a place to live:

• This represents a fall from 3.8 out of 5 from December 2010 (6 months ago).
• The biggest fall was for Cost of Living … from 3.4 to 2.9 out-of 5.
• Every other indicator also experienced a fall.
• The only indicator to stay the same was ‘Quality of Services’.

HINT: Use Advanced Search to see the best places in Ireland for each indicator.