Itunes Free Musak Saturday on Bebo

Ya know you're on to a good thing when Itunes are following your lead...I also bought the Album during the week on Itunes. Fantastic.

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"Perverts" in Disguise

Image by jgrantmac via Flickr

The Definition of Pervert will be very important in this post:

Pervert: to cause to turn aside or away from what is generally done or accepted
Source: Merriman-Websters

I am not a pervert. I am many many things. I am a son. I am a friend. I am a lover. I am a brother. I am not a Pervert.

Not a typical mantra I have to say to myself everyday of the week but every so often Something appears which makes your blood boil and your bile turn over so that it acidifies the entrails of your body. Tonight such an event has happened. I have been sent a copy of the Mayo Echo's article entitled "Castlebar Lake Attracts Hundreds of Perverts".

Now as you can imagine since I have read the article, I have been told to take a deep breath and calm down. Not my style much. This time I am pretty pissed off . I have a copy of the article below because funnily enough the Actual Article is no longer available on the Mayo Echo's Website.

Published under the title "Castlebar Lake Attracts Hundreds of Perverts"


Hundreds of perverts are descending on Castlebar every week as the town has become the 'cruising' capital of Connaught. The carpark at Lough Lannagh has become a meeting point for so called 'cruising', where gay men walk or drive to a specific place in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, onetime variety.
Hundreds of gay perverts gather at this carpark at Lough Lannagh in Castlebar every week. When they find a partner, most make their way across the bridge and up the pathway to the left. In recent months, the men have begun arriving in the daytime, propositioning passers-by, including teenagers, for casual sex.

Over the past two years, the carpark at Lough Lannagh has become a magnet for men looking for such encounters, and their actions are making the area a nogo area for ordinary visitors and walkers. Many of our readers have contacted the Mayo Echo in recent times to complain about the activities of these perverts, and following an in-depth investigation, it can be revealed that the situation is much more worrying than anyone imagined.

Initially, the practice of cruising by men was confined to night-time, and the area it was taking place was usually quiet enough during these hours. However, over the past six months the practice has now spread to the daytime, when children are around, and many more members of the public are around. The perverts are approaching unaccompanied men and teenage boys who are walking, fishing, or visiting the local graves. Numerous complaints have been made to local Gardai in relation to unsolicited approaches for sex. Complaints have also been made about men having sex in public places, around the Lough Lannagh area. Walkers have come across men in various stages of undress, in different positions.

The Mayo Echo has been carrying out an investigation of the situation at Lough Lannagh over quite some time following complaints from our readers. The first thing to strike any observer is just how busy the area is. Many people visit the area to eat their lunch, read the newspaper, go for a stroll, feed the ducks, or just have a daytime snooze in their car. In fact, it should be stressed that the majority of people who visit Lough Lannagh are doing so for completely innocent reasons. However, as you spend more time in the area, you begin to notice that there is a hidden world. Over the course of the past week, up to fifty men visited the area looking for other gay men, every day. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the busiest, when upwards of one seventy men will visit the area, right throughout the day. The vast majority will arrive by car, although an increasing number are arriving by foot, leaving their vehicles elsewhere in the town. Most of the men do not know their partner before they meet up, and do not stay in touch after the encounter.

The men follow the same sort of procedure to meet other men. They arrive by car or on foot, and walk about the immediate area. They say hello in a casual nature to other passing men , and if the other men engage them in conversation, they make their way to a remote spot and the sexual activity begins. They may also leave the area in one of their cars, although many refuse to do so as this can prove much more dangerous than staying in the locality. Most of the men make their way to one of three spots in the hedge-growth around the area.

The most popular spot is up in a corner alongside the river. Any sounds are drowned out by the noise of the river. The ground at these spots is strewn with discarded condoms and tissues. Worryingly, at the busier spot, there are pages from young boys' magazines strewn in the area. There is a well-worn branch where the men hold onto whilst engaging in their business. The most worrying aspect of the whole situation is that this spot overlooks a children's playground, and the noise of children playing can clearly be heard from just 50 metres away, whilst these man take part in their perversion. Unbeknown to parents who are minding their children playing on the swings or the slide, drooling perverts are getting off whilst watching their children.

Some men visit the area regularly, many times a day. The same faces and vehicles can be seen acting suspiciously almost every day. Men also travel from as far away as Sligo, Galway, Roscommon and even Donegal to visit the area. However, as word has spread about the practice, groups of young men have begun visiting the area to launch attacks on the perverts. Gardai have also been mounting undercover operations to detect the activities, and the Mayo Echo understands that a number of men have been arrested for crimes connected with the scandal over recent weeks. However, the Gardai operation is both ineffective, and barely discreet. Many of the men who use the area are already aware of the vehicles used by the Gardai. The undercover operations tend to be mounted at night, so the men increasingly visit the area in the daytime. Within the first day of watching the area, the Mayo Echo was able to detect the Gardai undercover operation.

On one occasion, the Mayo Echo came across two men in a sexual embrace in a public place, just a few metres from the car park, at 4.30pm in the day. Whilst these men were at this, a number of very young children were feeding the ducks with their parents, only 40 feet away.

The Mayo Echo managed to speak with a small number of the men who are taking part in the practice. Some complained that it was getting more dangerous. Many of the men have been attacked and robbed whilst taking part in the activity. Naturally, they do not report these attacks to the Gardai. They say they carry out the activity for the thrill of it, whilst some say they are married with children.

The Mayo Echo would like to give the men engaged in these practices fair warning. We shall be publishing pictures of the men engaged in these activities. It is completely unacceptable that ordinary decent people cannot enjoy a stroll with their children without coming across such disgusting scenes. These going ons are attracting criminals into the area, and are putting our children at risk. The acts are also putting the men's own health at risk. Innocent teenagers are now being propositioned for sex by older men, and this might lead to sexual attacks in the future. But most worrying of all is that these perverts are engaging in these activities whilst overlooking children playing in the nearby playground, and also looking at images of young boys from magazines strewn about the area. Extremely worrying, a boys' magazine is discarded in the den where the men gather.

Source: Mayo Echo. (Online link unavailable, as article was sent via email after site went down)

Am I pissed off? Yes I am pissed off. I don't care about the cruising. Cruising will happen despite any Garda Operation, effective or ineffective. So long as we live in a society which considers homosexuality as a deviance from the norm and endorses homophobic actions such as the actions of vigilantes which the Mayo Echo has reported on, nothing will ever change and cruising will continue. All any Garda Operation is going to do is to move the problem to another location and all things being equal of course, Will any Garda operation be required to make the same crackdown on heterosexual couples who fornicate in our public parks and upsetting my view from time to time by throwing their heterosexuality in my face all of the time.

No what I care about is the fact that the Mayo Echo has taken it up on themselves to be the Vanguard of the Good People of Mayo and to expose these "perverts" in their Paper. The piece is littered with homophobic bigotry dressed up in the language of "will somebody think of the children". It is completely unacceptable. For the record I am not and will not defend Child Abuse, nor the cruising of Minors. If it is non-consensual sex, then it is Rape & abuse. End of.

I want to know how extensive their research was. I want to know if they in fact interviewed these men to find out why they cruise these areas. I want to know if the Mayo Echo is aware of any services for Gay Men in the West and NW of the island. My own personal opinion is that they don't know and don't necessarily care. This piece is entirely disgraceful and is worthy only to become pulp for concrete in a sewerage drain pipe.


I don't even know if any of that made any sense. I am still quiet Irate about it. I will have to see in the morning how I am feeling to see what else can be done. This time, you will not be let get away with using such homophobic and backward thinking. If you think this is over Mayo Echo, I would not rest on your laurels too much. I can do threats too and It aint over till this queen says it is.

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Celine!

Image via Wikipedia

As I write this I am a little worse for wear: Lets just say Cineoke was great great fun but some mortification occurred!

ANYWAYs moving along. Today is Friday the 30th May 2008 and on this most glorious day, a certain Lady of Leisure who has been working damn hard in Vegas for the last couple of years is appearing on stage in Croke Park. Yes I am going to that Concert and in true Hedgehog style here, we have a Youtube Video-(I really need to stop goring myself on Youtube, its soo distracting, but at least its not Wikipedia :;-) )

So for those of you who Judge me for going to see Celine Dion well lets just say it's gonna be Epic and I don't care what you think. 80,000 people can't be that wrong.

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New Artiste: Johnny Flynn

Whilst scouting the Interweb yesterday, in the middle of finishing off that Bleeding essay(those of you following my Twitter updates will be aware how long it has been taking to get this finished!), I came across an article in the Monday's English Times about an up and coming artiste, Johnny Flyn. Article very well brought together and headlines with:

" Johnny Flynn: the next poster boy of the nu-folk scene"

Well he is pretty! However looks aint everything and it certainly doesn't help to ensure your music will last on and on....in this case however, his debut "Tickle me Pink!" is a great folky/wake me up before you go go type of a song. His Voice is absolutely Fantastic and I have fallen in love with its tone. I expected his Voice to be somewhat of a higher pitch, or perhaps that is just me (I've been listening to too much wailing crap of late). However he has this amazing husky, gruff, melodic voice which just flows over the notes of the music and makes the music work for him rather than having to make his voice work for the music.

Youtube Vid of "Tickle Me Pink" is below. Just have to wait for a Dublin Date now to see him in Concert, though for once I *may* be tempted to actually travel to see this guy play in the UK.

Speaking of Indie nights, I also got a facebook invite for a new Indie night in SPY which is starting this Thursday, called Soundchecks. Looks pretttyyy good!I am hoping to get to it at some stage during the night.

I have, however, to go sing my socks off in the G though that night at a fundraiser, Cineoke, for the Emerald Warriors' Rugby Club. For those of you not in the know, the Warriors will be hosting the Rugby World Cup, the Bingham Cup here over June 13th -15th 2008. That is going to be a fun weekend! Considering everything that has gone on with Munster RFC(*cough*HeinekenCupChampions2008*cough*) in the last couple of days, it is shaping up to be one of the biggest events in the Irish Sporting Calender this year. For more infomation on Bingham Cup just click here.

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Dublin: "Sexual Orientation and Mental Health", June 11th, St. Patricks Hospital

Got the Latest Bulletin from Marie in GLEN this afternoon. I grabbed these two items out of it because they interested me and hopefully somebody else who reads this blog.

• “Sexual Orientation and Mental Health” – Odhrán Allen, Director of Mental Health Strategy at GLEN will be giving a lecture on the topic of Sexual Orientation and Mental Health in the next lecture in the Aware Monthly Lecture Series. The lecture takes place on Wednesday June 11^th at 7.15pm sharp in the Swift Lecture Theatre, St. Patrick’s Hospital, James’s Street, Dublin 8. Admission Free and all are welcome.

• Greenbow Deaf LGBT Karaoke Night with Miss Panti-Date: Sunday 22^nd June 2008, Venue: Pantibar, Capel Street, Dublin 1 at 9pm. ISL/English Interpreters will be provided. Any donations are welcome and in aid of Dublin Pride! Many Spot prizes!! Admission Free.

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Labour Conference: Human Trafficking & the Sex Industry

Image via Wikipedia

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Via Equal-L
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Dear Colleague,

Due to the interest in a Human Trafficking event Labour Women hosted some time ago, Labour Women will again be hosting an Open Event on Human Trafficking & the Sex Industry to highlight and raise awareness about what is really happening in the Sex Industry in Ireland.

Human Trafficking & The Sex Industry

Open event

hosted by

Cllr. Veronica Cawley & Labour Women

Date : Sat 14^th June 2008 12noon

Venue : The Glasshouse Hotel, Swan Point, Sligo (off O’Connell St)

Everyone welcome! For more information and RSVP contact Kirsi Hanifin Labour Party 01-6784721 / 087-6258043 or Kirsi.hanifin@labour.ie. RSVP by 12^th June for us to have an idea of numbers, you are welcome to attend without RSVP.

Kirsi Hanifin

Women and Equality Officer

The Labour Party

17 Ely Place

Dublin 2

Tel. 01-6784700

kirsi.hanifin@labour.ie

www.labour.ie/women

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Dublin Pride's Youtube Channel

Remember how the Hedgehog brought you the news about the Gay Map of Dublin, courtesy of the Gayglers? Well the Boys and Gals were also developing a Youtube Channel for people to upload video during the event to make it a truely interactive event.


You can see the Youtube channel at here. The guys and gals at Dublin Pride have kicked things off with the posing of a challenge of "What does Pride mean to you?".

Currently there is some interesting commentary clips from people at the Launch of Dublin Pride in the Mansion House yesterday. Have a look at the first clip of the girl from the George!-plain simple and to the point. :-)

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Gay Clare Summer Disco.

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From Gay-Clare
=======

Hello,


The Gay Clare Group wishes to let you know that we are holding a Summer disco . It will take place on Saturday 5th July in the Inisheer Suite of the West County Hotel, Clare
Road , Ennis.
Time 10.30 till late. Admission €10.

We are hoping to have a very special guest on the night, details of which will follow once they are confirmed.

More information is available on www.gayclare.com or
www.bebo.com/gayclare.

We also have the photos from our last disco up on the website.

We have accommodation details on our website.


Please spread the word and let anyone you know who
might be interested in coming along.
The night can only be a success with everyone’s support.

Hope to see you on July 5th

Regards & thanks

Diarmuid

Gay Clare Group

www.gayclare.com

www.bebo.com/gayclare

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Cork Pride 2008

Image via Wikipedia

I want to wish all those involved in or going to Cork Pride 2008 a very HAPPY PRIDE! I won't be able to get down this year but I trust that will not hold the Corkonians back from having a fantastic time. Last year was an amazing Pride, between the Gay Olympics, Handbag Competitions, Irish Dancing, Running out of Petrol for the Generator among other things. However lessons learned etc(ie its impossible to find petrol for a generator on a sunday afternoon in cork unless you go to Blackpool so make sure you get it before hand.)

Ar aon nós, I hope y'all have another great Pride Week.


For more Information on Cork Pride, see the following:

• Cork Pride
  
• Cork Pride Event's List:
  

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Obama & Hillary

I found this picture online.....Highly amusing. :-) Unfortunately I never saved the url so I can't credit it but I assume its from a pageant or something. But Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton are still fighting it out as of this morning, with RTE reporting that she is still defiantly confident that she can secure the Party nomination.....

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Public Funding of Political Parties and Ireland

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Has the time come for Public Funding of Irish Political Parties?
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Ok I will not be the first to comment nor will I be the last. I am delighted that Fianna Fáil have dropped their Fundraising tent at the Galway Races. To summarize Mary O Rourke, on the Pat Kenny Show earlier this morning, it was something for the bigwigs and "the fashion was crazy & it was not just the women". She also stated that there was something wrong with arriving in Helicopters to the event, by invitation, and having champers whilst looking out at the world go by.

O'Cuiv this morning was also welcoming the decision, but also made the point that it is time for Fianna Fáil supporters to begin to contribute more to the Party coffers on a more regular basis. I would tend to agree with O'Cuiv and O'Rourke on this one but perhaps now is the time that parties would become publicly funded, to reduce the utter insanity in spending which comes with Campaigning.

Fundraising for any event is a such a tedious, time-consuming but ultimately necessary part of Everyday life. We have all done the bake-sales, the Gala Dinners, the Table-quizes, the Christmas Draws. Whatever we can do to help out whatever cause we are supporting at the time. And Jaysus do we know how to support our causes here in this little Republic.

In 2004, following the wake of the Tsunami in the South Pacific, we contributed €80 million of €100 million of the Irish Contibution towards the rescue effort. The remaining €20 million came from the Irish Government. The 2007 Trocaire Lentan Appeal raised €11.65 million from the generosity of Irish People. All worthy contributions and causes, regardless of some people's apprehension of where the money is being spent, appeal to people altruistic nature.

Whilst not wishing to dictate to Fianna Fáil supporters or Fine Gael supporters or any Irish political party I am curious to know why they have not been contributing to their Party of Choice (ie the one's who elected the 77 of the 166 TD's) in their droves. I know that some branches of Fianna Fáil do not have a membership fee for being a member of the party. Surely this would be a relatively good source of Income for the party. A Card-carrying member of a Political Party. Now that would be a novelty.

No No I think a question needs to be seriously posed. If as O'Cuiv says that "FF needs more money from its members" because "it would be possible given the enormous membership of Fianna Fáil", Then we have to examine the Election spending from last year's General Election. FF spent some €10 million on the General Election. Fine Gael spent €4.3 million in the same campaign. Those are obscene amounts of money. Perhaps then it is now time to consider Public funding of parties and the removal of the need "for more money from..members".


Oh but wait, Frank Connolly, Justine McCarthy & Emma Browne reported that

Fianna Fáil has built up the kitty of €3.5m from its current and accumulated party leader's allowances, paid by the exchequer. According to the Standards in Public Offices Commission's (SIPO) most recent report, the party received €2.473m in 2005 to add to its existing surplus of €994,658. Fine Gael, in contrast, had no money left over from previous allocations.

Source: Village Magazine (September, 2006)

So lets see initially I was going to go and say that perhaps we should scrap Private donations and go with Public funding of Political Parties. Well that what Village found out was Indirect Public Funding of Political Parties. However I think perhaps Direct Public Funding is still a route that we should go down. We can accuse those in power of abusing their position and contributing to a charity ie themselves. However with the Public Funding of Parties, we can at least regulate somewhat how much obscene money is spent on a General Election.

I appreciate that some people will disagree with my sentiments. They will argue that they are over-paid, under-worked, un-representative and now You want to offer more money to run their campaigns when the Elections run around. Fair enough.

Public funding would have to be accompanied by other reforms within the political arena, such as a limitation of terms TDs are allowed to be served to reduce Family Dynasty's (Honestly a Political "career" is a stupid Idea; It is a duty, which one serves not a Career!), a reduction to a relatively OK Salary, Prohibition of getting a Pension until one retires from Work & not from the Dáil etc. Unless those reforms come along, no public will nor should agree with Public Funding of parties; However how many Nurses could €10 million pay for? How many School teachers would €10 million pay for? (€10million divided by €36,000/annum=277). Perhaps Public Funding is worth it in the long run, if it means that more Services become available.

For some more Information on Public Funding see here:

• Germany's Bundestag: - A Hybrid Model:
  
• USA's Federal Election Commission, An Evaluation of Public Funding since the 1960s.

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Limerick's Rental Confusion

Image via WikipediaSo this is Headline One from Todays Limerick Post

Limerick rents rise by 2 per cent:

Limerick City rents have bucked the national downturn by increasing by 2 per cent, in the face of falls as high as 6 per cent in South Dublin. The surprise finding, espicially factored against a doubling of the available rental pool of housing, was in Daft.ie's latest Rent Report.
Source: Limerick Post

And This Is Headline Two from Todays Limerick Independent:

City rents fall by 3%

There is good news for renters of properties in Limerick, according to the latest figures from property website Daft.ie, which shows that rents in Limerick have fallen by 3%
Source: Limerick Independent

Two City Newspapers. The Same Story. Two Completely Different Outcomes. Now I am no expert in Stats, but the old cliché goes that you can make Statistics say whatever you want 95% percent of the time. However both Headlines cannot be right?! So what does Daft Say then? Well Daft's own report says :

Rents falling for first time since 2004:
....The nationwide fall of 2% masks some regional variation - in Limerick city and Dublin city centre rents have fallen by almost 3%, whereas in West Dublin and West Leinster rents rose slightly....
Source: Daft.ie

So the Limerick Post has it wrong then. Time to go back and learn the basics about Checking your facts before you publish a story me thinks. Or at the very least, make sure you read the correct headline before you publish.

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Its too soon.

It's still a little raw yes I know I didnt like the entry but that does not mean I did not want the Turkey to fall on his first hurdle! Right now I cannot bring myself to join this Facebook profile, I may in the next couple of days but we shall see...

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Who Will Buy?

Some of you will be aware of the BBC 1 Production "I'd Do Anything" which takes a relative nobody and selects her to become a leading "Nancy"/leading "Oliver" in the West End production of "Oliver" later this year, produced by Andrew Lloyd Weber. It is a spin off from the 'Maria' and 'Joseph' series last year and the year before and has proven to be hugely popular.

So the semi-final is on this weekend and to get me in the mood before I do my Eurovision post, I figured I would give y'all this to feast on from the original Movie version of Oliver because it is a fantastic day outside!Coupled with not seeing the movie in full in years-I think I still have it on VHS at home!, its a nice one to have. :-)

Also for those of you who don't know who the original Oliver was and in case you get asked in a Trivia quiz, see here for Wikipedia Article on Mark Lester.

For more information on the BBC's "I'd Do Anything" go to the BBC website:

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Barnardos Conference November 2008

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Dublin City centre "Private Car" ban

Image via WikipediaSo let's get this straight. There will not be a "Private car ban" in Dublin City until 2011. Aside from the obvious cycnicism I have right now for that comment from Noel Dempsey I obviously welcome the fact that I may be able to get through Dublin City Center on my bike without the necessity of carrying around a copy of my Last Will and Testament in my back pocket! Well it had to happen sooner or later I guess. They got rid of the HGV's in 2005 and the humble car's days have been numbered since then coupled with the "success" of the congestion charge in London City.

However my cynicism lies in the fact that 2011 is no ordinary date. Have a look below to see the key Governmental events of the next couple of years.

• 2008, Lisbon I and Lisbon II, if it does not get passed the first time.
• 2008, Possibility of the Children's "Rights" Referendum at the end of the year.
  
• 2009, Local and European Elections.
  
• 2009, 90th Anniversary (officially) of the Irish State, with the Declaration of Independence and some Events to mark this will be held.
  
• 2012, Next General Election if this government runs to Full term.

So they will be delaying for a while whilst these events roll out and are forgotten and only then will the construction work on the Metro and Luas Extension begins in 2011 after this private car ban has been introduced. Meanwhile these events will be forgotten about by the time the General Election rolls out and we will trundle along again. Unless those in the opposition finally get into shape. But erm in the meanwhile I will be holding on to that copy of my Will in my back pocket for another couple of years. Just in Case and the War between me and Dublin Bus continues onwards. Watch out Dublin Bus-I am not afraid to cycle in my lane!! Bah.

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A Lil Gay Map of Dublin..online..

Image via WikipediaSo I have a little pressie for those of you who will be attending the Annual Dublin Gay Pride event this June. The wonderful Gayglers of Google's Dublin Office, using that lifesaver which is Google Maps have created a guide for Gay Dublin and you can see it here first on theangryhedgehog.com. :-)

On this map you will find, the route of the Pride Parade, Venues which will be used for Pride Events, Restaurants, Support Services...You name it, it's invariably there. :-) Dublin Pride is celebrating 25 years this year so it is going to be a fantastic event by all accounts. :-) For more information on the Events etc go to the Dublin Pride website.

Congrats to the Guys and Gals in the Gayglers for this one! Once again, Google Maps comes to the Rescue! I'll be adding this embedded map to the side bar for ease of reference so people won't have to trawl through posts to get access to it. (Honestly though it is more so me because despite living here some 10 months now, I still manage to get lost in Dublin!)

Remember you heard it first here and yes I do want the back links! :-)

View Larger Map

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Random Musak Video.

This band has been recommended to me so I'm recommending them to y'all. :-)

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