not me.. IrishElection.com stole the top polblog honours at the 2008 Irish Blog Awards. Well done it was in fine company.
Cedar Lounge revolution was my own personal polblog favourite for sheer academic quality content and of course the boys are all P.ie gene pool, not that we’d be nepotists or anything like that of course. Slugger O’Toole I remarked upon for incredibly high interaction levels although I guess it’s been around a while. The event was a fun night which turned into a late one although I now remember why I don’t go to nightclubs any more (more anon).
Was an odd crowd. Most eclectic. As I mingled and said my hellos, was strange how people (whom I’d never met before nor had even read my blog) started off not liking me (it’s an FF thing – with us or against us – you get used to it) and ended up apologising and trying to be nice by the time I was leaving. One guy for example had setup his blog specifically ‘to bring down Bertie’ so we were on a sticky wicket there from the start. Turned out he was an ex-FG candidate (they’re all Regan wannabes now). Anyway despite initial skirmishes we parted on good terms and moved onto the next table. Amazing how much networking and speed dating have in common.
There were some nice folk of course such as Clockwork Rob who joined me in a grumbling session at the bar after neither of us won although Evil Bob his sidekick didn’t appear as affable, muttering something about me being a Fauler (which I took as a reference to Monsignor Faul making a mental note to fact check my Ed Molony books later). And a nice chap from Kilkeny told me all about the cats answer to John Peel. Earlier I had ended up writing an acceptance speech on the back of my nametag when I realised I could be in front of 400 people with a microphone in mere moments but alas my superlatives proved superflous.
Anyway cheers to the organisers and sponsors for a good bash, is a great industry gig if nothing else, and a special thanks to the judge who early on in the night revealed how highly rated I’d scored under quality, frequency and interaction (so why didn’t I win then? But I’m not bitter) and later after many wines and several stouts confessed to being a closet Fianna Failer.. so at least there’s a happy ending 🙂
Don’t worry James I will not hold it against you for being a FF, well not that much 😉 You cannot be that bad if you like Cieran’s excellent blog CLR. The reason I believe it is so good is that it posses questions for the left beyond we are right and the rest are wrong.
I was a bit disappointed with the winner of best political blog and not because Organized Rage did not win, as I did not deserve to, although I have learnt a great deal over the last few months, much of which I hope is filtering thru on to the blog.
No the reason I was disappointed was not because Irish Election is not a great blog,it is, but since the election it has not published a great deal, and a successful blog to my mind is all about stamina.
Still congrats to IE all the same.
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Mick, IE is a great site and a fantastic resource but is it a blog, or a collection of blog post that might have been posted elsewhere? It’s kinda of like a compilation album winning best Album. I’ve posted a good few times and comment frequently. It might be sensible if the sole efforts are separated from the group efforts in some areas so as to encourage people to contribute to both.
Why am I his sidekick? How do you know he’s not mine?
Don’t remember calling you anything at all so I’m afraid I’m buggered if I can tell you what a “Fauler” is.
Unless I was callind you a “Fáiler”. I dunno. I have little to no interest in politics so I doubt I would have taken the time to make that an insult.
Oh and I only “aff” from time to time. Its the Evil part of me.