If you’re not Irish or living in Ireland, can you name an Irish blogger that you read on a regular basis? (Besides me of course!) And more importantly, why? Is it because of their niche, or is it their witty and insightful commentary?
I ask this because Kathy Foley blasted Irish blogger Twenty Major’s new book and proceeded to question whether the Irish blogosphere had anything to offer the world. Has the land of saints and scholars become a land of consumers without giving anything worthwhile back?
I haven’t read Twenty’s book so I can’t comment on that but I do not agree with her assertions regarding the Irish blogosphere. If you’d like to find out for yourself, here’s an easy way to immerse yourself:
- The Technorati top 100 Irish blogs as maintained by Justin Mason.
- Irishblogs.ie aggregates almost all the Irish bloggers out there.
- Gastronom.ie is a food blog aggregator for all you foody types.
- The Irish Blog Awards blog links to all the nominated blogs and winners each year.
- And finally for the photographers there’s Pix.ie’s explore page and of course the Ireland and irishblogs tags on Flickr.
Happy reading!
17 Comments
Michele (27 comments.) on March 27, 2008 at 6:58 pm.
And don’t forget the 900+ Irish blogs being tracked on http://www.irishblogs.info
Michele
Keola Donaghy (1 comments.) on March 27, 2008 at 9:10 pm.
I live in Hawai‘i but currently am in New Zealand doing Ph.d. work. My GoogleReader is full of Irish bloggers:
Bernie Goldbach
Conn Ó MuÃneacháin
Alexia Golez
Damien Mulley
Tom Raftery
Will Knott
Jame Corbett
Ken McGuire
Paul Walsh
I find the commentary on these blogs (and yours) as valuable and insightful, particularly regarding social networking, as any written in the US or elsewhere. If I had time I’d find more.
Sorin Mocanu (1 comments.) on March 27, 2008 at 11:12 pm.
irishtaxi.blogspot.com – I’m new to Ireland and the guy is quite good if you want to get a glimpse of Dublin’s nightlife while having a peaceful evening at home
DaveP (19 comments.) on March 28, 2008 at 12:47 am.
Do you count an Irish expat living in Barcelona and not writing very often as an Irish blog? If not, it’s just you.
John Pozadzides (26 comments.) on March 28, 2008 at 5:42 am.
Donncha,
Personally, I don’t pay any attention to where any of the bloggers in my regular feed are actually from. I find the whole concept of the Web liberating in the fact that it just doesn’t matter any more.
So, if some bimbo wants to take a pot shot at the entire Irish population because one freakin guy writes something she doesn’t like… I think you should all tell her to piss off!
John
John McCormac (1 comments.) on March 28, 2008 at 11:44 am.
Does anyone even bother to read what most Irish journalists write? After all, very few of them could carry a publication on their own. Blogs are generally written by one person. And some of them do get readers – more readers perhaps than the average Irish journalist. Blogs tend to unsettle journalists because they often demonstrate that writing is just a skill that can be learned and that journalists often do not have any specialist knowledge or insight. They must be really unsettling for “opinion” columnists because they provide a wealth of opinions.
Roland Hesz (5 comments.) on March 29, 2008 at 10:43 am.
Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist. I like his writings. And follow him on Twitter.
Chris Dary (1 comments.) on March 31, 2008 at 4:55 pm.
“and proceeded to question whether the Irish blogosphere had anything to offer the world.”
I think this is interesting. By and large, many of the blogs I read are completely divorced from any concept of nationality. If I’m reading a blog (usually about tech-related things), I don’t really know or need to know where the author is from.
And I think that’s important when saying that Kathy Foley must be seriously mistaken to make such a widely-swathed statement. How are Irish bloggers different from Canadian or Japanese bloggers, for example? I see no difference, and that’s the way it should be.
Matty (5 comments.) on April 1, 2008 at 6:45 pm.
“Certainly, we have blogs. There are an estimated 2,000-3,000 based in Ireland, but the standard and scope of blogging here still lags far behind that of Britain and America”
Wrong. She is wrong.
Pat Kenny (1 comments.) on April 10, 2008 at 5:11 pm.
I read loads of Blogs.
They’re like shoes but wooden, aren’t they?
ary (1 comments.) on April 13, 2008 at 2:20 am.
Why irish bloggers do not writes them blogs in native language (irish)?
Roland Hesz (5 comments.) on April 13, 2008 at 11:41 am.
@art1y: I think that would be hard on the people who don’t read Irish.
Like me. Or half of Ireland for example.
Although, I think if you dig deep, you can find Irish language blogs.
Gemma (1 comments.) on April 17, 2008 at 9:08 pm.
As I am Irish I can’t speak for international readers but I know that I am on the blogrolls of two non-Irish blogs (two because I’m still quite a young blogger!) due to simple networking. As somebody said previously, on the net it doesn’t always matter where people are from. Saying that, I can see that some Irish blogs may hold more interest for the Irish reader particularly when the article focuses on Irish politics or current affairs.
Thanks btw for the technorati top 100 link…why I just can’t believe I’m not on it!
stephen on August 11, 2008 at 6:47 pm.
regular reader of these:
Corrupt Éire : ireland.corrupt.org
Jazz Biscuit : jazzbiscuit.com
Hibernia Girl : hiberniagirl.blogspot.com
All of these I think are on irishblogs.ie
Paddy (1 comments.) on February 14, 2009 at 12:40 pm.
I have been blogging about corruption in Ireland for 5 years or more with no one taking much notice. And now they all have to pay for their lack of attention.
eirbiz.com
Mary Burnham (1 comments.) on July 5, 2009 at 8:41 pm.
Have a look at our Irish blog on Ravenbooks.ie. It’s about books, books and more books!
New Irish Dad (1 comments.) on November 8, 2009 at 3:58 pm.
I’m a new Irish dad now living in England. Not sure if I’m an Irish blogger or an English one? If your interested my blog is http://newirishdad.blogspot.com I talk about what its like to be a new dad, music and life in the UK.