Conor's Bandon Blog

Running, Food and Local stuff from a blow-in

How Pirate Bay could be the next News Corp

Those of us who are watching much less broadcast TV and more time-shifted or downloaded programmes are starting to become very uncomfortable with the monthly Sky tax just to get some intermittent BBC2/Ch4 etc. Media companies everywhere try to stop piracy and block those outside of their borders from watching programming online on sites like Hulu. This is a battle they cannot win. The problem they have at the moment is licensing.

Tis Bloomin'

The Bloom Gardening Event is back and it looks fantastic. On in the Phoenix Park from 28th May to 1st June, it seems to have something for everyone. bloom Presented by Bord Bia, there are show gardens, craft centre, artisan food market and a family fun and learning zone. If you are on Facebook, follow em here. On Twitter, they hang out here. I wish I was in Dublin to check it all out.

New Competition For Amateur Cooks, Growers, Bakers and Smallholder

This is just a superb idea, well done to everyone involved! Why not enter? The inaugural Grow Bake Cook Awards Ceremony honours and celebrates the skills of amateur cooks, growers, bakers and preservers - in fact anyone with a talent for creating good food! Supporting local communities throughout Cork city and county, these awards aim to give our hidden food heroes the opportunity, tools and encouragement to sell their wares through farmer’s markets,country markets, local supermarkets and food fairs.

Relief For What Ails You

My old college buddy Eoghan Whelan has more metal in him due to sports injuries than the average Terminator. As a result, he knows more about pain and injury than most. For the past while he has run a Pain Relief and Injury Rehabilitation Clinic in Dundalk and he now has the beginnings of a blog to go with it. Eoghan Whelan You can expect to see a lot of information about the treatments in which he specialises (particularly Frequency Specific Microcurrent) appearing on the site in the coming weeks.

Fenn's Quay is a gem

This won’t be a long review, it doesn’t need to be. Fenn’s Quay gave us a fantastic meal last Saturday night with wonderful service in a lovely room. You can’t ask for more than that. My lovely parents were down in Cork for the weekend for the GAA thingy and offered to bring Catherine and me out for a meal. We’d heard great things about Fenn’s Quay from my sister and Julian Alubaidy and, wanting somewhere new to us, booked it.

A thriving democracy

relies on an informed electorate. Now you can be informed. Kildare Street What John Handelaar has done over at kildarestreet.com with the help of some other great people is deeply important. Quite simply, the Dáil record is now properly accessible rather than just available. The site enables you to do the following: Read a dramatically-more-legible version of the Dáil Record going back to January 2004 Search that record by speeches or written questions, or by speaker, or by date or date range Sign up for email alerts for when a search query you’re interested changes Sign up for email alerts whenever a TD of your choosing says something or asks a question which generated a written reply Subscribe to RSS feeds for individual TDs or for search queries This isn’t just important for the content you find but also for the content that you don’t find.

C103 loses the plot

You don’t need to be an economist to know that media companies are suffering hugely in this recession. Their reliance on advertising makes them incredibly sensitive to downturns. When you have a radio show that addresses a focused engaged specific audience, you would think that it would be a gift both for the broadcaster and those advertising to that audience. Thus C103’s decision to axe David Young’s “West Cork Today” programme frankly boggles the mind.

alphaomega Breads in Bandon

I love bread. Can’t put it any more simply than that. So when I hear that someone who lives just up the road from me is now making craft and organic breads and they are selling them at the Bandon Farmer’s Market every Saturday, well that make me very very happy. Check out the alphaomega blog for a list of their current products. I’ll be checking out the bread.

Launch of 'Bandon - Working Together' group

The ‘Bandon - Working Together’ group seeks to promote the strengths of the town through communication and activities. Their first activity is the creation of a ‘What’s on in Bandon’ newsletter. If you want to get a mention in it, head on over to the Bandon.ie blog for all the details. I’m shooting them a quick email now about doing a blog and email list.

Don't mess with the Irish

I was enraged on Thursday whilst listening to the latest Restaurant Guys' podcast. They were interviewing a New York restaurateur who is being picketed by fois gras protestors. These ugg-boot-wearing idiots think they can intimidate a small business owner and effectively put him out of business. These cowards don’t have the balls to go after large fast-food chains who sell industrially produced chicken and figure they’ll go for easy marks instead.