For our daughters and sons

Change Agent

Saturday December 15, 2012

Dear Mr. President,

As I write this, my daughter is asleep in the next room. She’s in the second grade. Tomorrow we’re going to a performance of The Nutcracker. She has a new dress, hat and shoes that her grandma bought just for this occasion. She sleeps tonight in safety and security, anticipating the joy and wonder that tomorrow will bring. And I know that tomorrow when I wake her up, she will never have looked more beautiful to me, never more precious. Her eyes will never be more blue, because of what happened.

My heart breaks for those parents in Connecticut who will not wake their daughters and sons this morning. To borrow from Abraham Lincoln’s famous letter to Mrs. Bixby, how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile them from the grief of a loss so overwhelming…

View original post 352 more words

9 Ways a Theatre Degree Trumps a Business Degree

Change Agent

Some of you may know this about me, some may not. Despite having spent the last 15 years as a PR & communications professional, my college degree is in theatre. I have never in my life taken a marketing class, or a journalism class, or a business class. Yet, by most measures, I’m enjoying a successful career in business.  “So what?” you ask… read on.

I was having a conversation with my friend Sara this week. She’s an actress. Like most actresses, she also has a Day Job that she works to pay the bills between acting jobs. This is the reality for most working actors in LA, New York and the other major centers of the entertainment industry. She was pointing out to me that she viewed her theatre background as a weakness in her Day Job career field, and that it was holding her back. She asked for…

View original post 556 more words

Vocal impressionist sings ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ as 19 different divas — VIDEO

Im thinking of voting to retain the Seanad

Brian M. Lucey

Its strange to find oneself on the same side of a political argument as Fianna Fail. That’s now where I find myself with regard to the referendum to abolish the Seanad.

As an exercise in sheer political cynicism this referendum is hard to beat. Conceived by all accounts in a rush of political blood to the head to fill an empty season it sees parties engaging in volte face after volt face, playing ducks and drakes with the constitution for momentary political gain.

Fianna Fail say no to abolition. Having been in power since approximately the Jurassic period, they have over the years stuffed the Seanad with more political dinosaurs than one would find in a box set of Jurassic park but they now profess a desire for reform.

Sinn Fein were in favour of reform but are now against. I think.

Labour were also in favour of reform as…

View original post 1,014 more words

Sean O’Rourke vs Pat Kenny

English: An RTÉ Radio microphone in Dublin, waiting for Bill Clinton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Breakdown of where the licence fee goes amongst RTÉ services. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Broadcasters Sean O’Rourke and Pat Kenny went head to head for the first time on RTÉ Radio 1 and Newstalk this week and which of them – if either – you listened to – and would now choose to continue to listen to.

Pat Kenny and Seán O’Rourke

Sean O’Rourke has already said he won’t get a chance to listen back to old colleague and new rival Kenny.

In his first day  O’Rourke program was extended to cover semus Henany fureral he an interview with   and he covered Ariel Castro’s death on wednesday

In an interview with RTÉ TEN, the station’s online entertainment news service, he said he will be concentrating on his own show and he also talks about his “lighter side”, revealing his tastes in music, movies and TV… and his skills as a golfer.

Meanwhile, Pat Kenny has played down any suggestions that he will be making a return to TV presenting soon, insisting that he wants to give his new show on the Communicorp owned station time to ‘bed in’.

He also queried the decision by O’Rourke to include an Oliver Callan skit on the battle of the airwaves, saying“I don’t see why RTÉ would want to remind people I’m on another station.”

Related articles

• News | Pat Kenny leaving RTÉ to join Newstalk (thejournalist.ie)
• ‘Plenty more to come from here . . . none of it news’ (irishtimes.com)
• P.J. O’Rourke: Boomers ‘Improved Everything When We Took Over’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• P.J. O’Rourke: Boomers ‘Improved Everything When We Took Over’ (stunningguidance.wordpress.com)
• Censorship of the Aras affair (politics.ie)
• The National Concert Hall, Dublin – RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and The John Murray Show, RTÉ Radio 1 present The Three Sopranos Christmas Gala (workingholidayireland.wordpress.com)
• Radio: Money talk is taxing, but happy talk doesn’t come cheap (irishtimes.com)
• Seán O’Rourke keen for more phone-ins with politicians (irishtimes.com)

The Marathon

The Life of [Reilly]

Hey folks! I had a great travel experience and am currently in my Galway apartment. The balcony door is open, the breeze is flowing in, and the city looks great. How did I get here? Well, let’s just say it’s been a long day.

Now when I say “day” I guess I really mean two days since I haven’t slept in about 30 hours. Is that even possible? I think I’m delusional. All I know is that I’m extremely sleep deprived. From 9:00 AM eastern standard time in Cranston, Rhode Island to 9:00 PM in Galway, Ireland, I have not really slept a wink. My flight was comfortable, it was a fairly easy flight, but it was LOUD. People were having conversations, babies were screaming, it was pretty bad. I tried to sleep but that didn’t really work out (however, to drown out the noise I listened to NPR’s Pop…

View original post 334 more words

Remembering

The Life of [Reilly]

Hello folks, I hope you are doing well. I haven’t promoted this post in any way so if you are reading this post, thanks for checking the blog.

September 11, 2001 has struck me more and more as I’ve grown older. This year in particular I think back with more emotion than I ever have before. When it happened I was a third grader at Eden Park. Back then I knew it was something big, but I never really gauged the scope of the attacks until this year.

It all started with Zero Dark Thirty, the Kathryn Bigelow movie. I saw it twice in two days….so I guess you can say that I liked it. At school towards the end of second semester, I was also watching it just about every night (in my defense, it was the only movie I had on my laptop). But that movie got me…

View original post 506 more words

Beginning of my introduction to language technology.

rossoconnor1994

When I heard that we were going to be doing “Language Technology”, I was very excited. ‘Blogging’, Facebook, Twitter etc. These are all things that I have been using for so long and finally are going to become part of my studies. How can ” Facebook” help with language learning, you might ask? Something so simple as changing the language of your page can in fact improve your knowledge of a language without you even realising. 

Who am I as a ‘Blogger’? I am a language enthusiast with a keen interest in technology and its benefits to language learning. On this ‘Blog’ site,I am here as a learner,I will be posting my ideas on things with the hope that people will comment back and help me to improve my knowledge of this subject. 

My main objectives for this ‘Blog’ and for this course of study is to primarily improve my…

View original post 212 more words

Farewell dinner for Fr Dick Lyng

A farewell dinner will take place next month for one of Galway city’s leading and most popular Roman Catholic clerics and history tutors, Fr Dick Lyng of St Augustine’s Church.

The dinner will take place in the Ardilaun House hotel, Taylor’s Hill, on Friday October 11. The evening will begin with a reception with a glass of punch on arrival at 7.30pm, followed by dinner.

A gift will be presented on the night to Fr Dick on behalf of the people. Those who would like to donate can do so by picking up an envelope for this purpose either from the shop or at the back of the Augustianian church after weekend masses. Donations must be returned to the shop.

There will also be a message book for those who would like to leave a parting message to Fr Dick. This will also be presented to him on the night of the dinner. The book will also be left in the shop and be available after the weekend masses.

Tickets cost €25 which covers the welcome drink, a four course dinner, and a glass of house wine. Tickets can be purchased from the Augustianian Priory Office and will be available after weekend masses.

Happy 40th Birthday Sunday World!

he legendary newspaper The Sunday World turned 40 this week and Oliver Callan was there to celebrate at the party of the year. The RTE mimic performed an exclusive gig at the star-studded bash, which included Louis Walsh, Niall Quinn, Glenda Gilson, Jimmy Magee and Sunday World stars like Amanda Brunker, Pat Spillane and Fr Brian Darcy. The iconic Irish newspaper is still top of the pile every Sunday and marked its birthday by launching its new website http://www.thesundayworld.com. Congrats to all the team at the real Irish Sunday.