Dick Miles in IrishTimes

Subject: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 03:32 PM

Photograph of Mudcat member, playing his concertina, in Irish Times Weekend Review Sat30july Plus article discussing culture and integration in Ireland for English people

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: Noreen
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 08:31 PM

Here you go, Dick.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 Jul 16 - 08:42 PM



WELL DONE....Captain Birds-Eye



Sincerely,
Gargoyle

....you do fine work....may this season find you prosperity.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 09:43 AM

thank you,Noreen

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 08:10 PM

yes, Noreen Thank You -- really edifying

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: michaelr
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 01:33 AM

No DM photo to be seen at that link.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 01:56 AM

You need to click the right-pointing arrow on the photo at the top of the article. Dick is about the third photo in.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 12:17 PM

I said a number of other things mainly positive about the subject, which were not reported, so some of the points are out of context.I have to say that 99 per cent of irish people in the area are welcoming and friendly.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 01 Aug 16 - 03:40 PM

Well done Dick, I missed this article but know you've made a great impression down there & I know are a respected member of the community.
Myself & Francie had many happy years in West Cork, and agree with all you say, especially about the local population.

However, the traditional music scene there 20 years ago was pretty poor... it must have been if a blow-in Geordie like me was able to make a living at the music for several years?
I noticed on my recent visits to your excellent festival in Ballydehob that the situation has improved a lot since then, and some of that is down to you & Cathy I'm quite sure.
Folk ask me why I left the area & I really think it was because we didn't want to live with so many non-Irish people in Ireland! So we moved to southern Spain & it was even more pronounced there- likewise in SW Scotland. We've now settled in an area of Ireland where there are few tourists, plenty of excellent music, and I really feel we are living in Ireland again, and Irish people are not an endangered
species.
Anyway, well done about your contribution to the interesting article & keep up the good work.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Aug 16 - 07:10 AM

Thanks,Jim.
I feel a certain amount of tourism is fine, a question of balance and not over saturating the infra structure.
With Irelands depressed economy,it seems necessary to help local business and services continue,particularly as many young people are still forced to emigrate, and rural ireland seems to be facing an exodus of permanent residents.
However there are plenty of examples in ireland and elsewhere where    tourists in large numbers ends up inadvertenly destroying the character of an area, the infra structure[mains sewage, roads public transport etc] has to be able to cope with vast numbers suddenly descending for a few weeks.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: Will Fly
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 03:36 AM

The tourist dichotomy exists in many places.

An area depends on tourism as its main economy. Tourism fosters change in the area. Locals need the economic consequences of tourism but are unhappy with the changes it brings about.

A difficult circle to break out of.

I'm always amused when English people, for whatever reason, feel the need to live in a non-English environment, then complain because other like-minded English people do exactly the same!

Just harking back to the article about Dick and other non-Irish residents of the Cork area, I was also amused, and slightly contemptuous, I have to say, of the couple who'd lived in France for almost 20 years and then moved to Ireland because, as the woman said, "I couldn't have a conversation as I didn't speak French" (or words to that effect).

For fuck's sake - you make the decision to move to a foreign country, you stay there for nearly 20 years - and you don't bother to have a decent stab at learning the language! Some people...

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 05:19 AM

That struck me too Will, twenty years and still unable to have a conversation.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 08:57 AM

I agree, Will, and in my opinion very unfortunate that they were the first people featured in the article.
However during the interview the journalist said to me I am looking for honesty not a PR job,
I was being honest but also being positive, trying to say how the whole community[locals and blow ins] come together to run festivals, this was unreported, I believe she had an agenda, and its possible quoted some of the others may have been quoted out of context.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: Will Fly
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 09:04 AM

It was unfortunate, Dick - and I'm sure you're right about press/media bias. When you get in the mass media, you're the product!

Nevertheless, Ballydehob and its area sounds a nice place to be.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 10:54 AM

well its far less touristy than dingle or killarney, or doolin, or the cliffs of moher.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: Raggytash
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 11:10 AM

Could be worse Dick, I know you have visited Whitby on occasion. Recently it has almost become a caricature of itself. At weekends in particular it is nigh on impossible to drive in the town for the tourists walking in the road and the volume of noise in the pubs is unbelievable.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 11:33 AM

Raggy, when we rent a cottage for a week in the North York Moors area, the one place we avoid now is Whitby - we used to love it but, in recent years, it's become Blackpool minus the tower and funfair. We also avoid RH Bay now, for similar reasons (although it's not as bad). If we want to run the dog on the beach, we head for Skinningrove.

The problem with tourism is the bloody tourists.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 01:41 PM

Wasn't there once a woman who stood for a Dáil election on the platform of 'Brits out' in West Cork?

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 02:37 PM

not quite, her name was Ní Chonaill,she is a school teacher in County Cork but for the last decade or more she has been PRO for ICP] Her political background is largely unknown but she was involved in the early days of the Progressive Democrats. Aine Ni Chonaill said she started her campaign because she was concerned about the numbers of immigrants arriving in Ireland and about asylum abuse., the sun newspaper described her ironically as the face of hate.
I have come across her and heard her sing the bonny bunch of roses, i preferred nic jones version

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 02:44 PM

bloody hell... look at that bicep...

is that the concertina playing, or the cans of spinach... or.. 😜

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 02:50 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVjDRnqHy5c

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: keberoxu
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 03:18 PM

Oh, punkfolkrocker, you made me laugh -- I'm too cowardly to say it, but the bicep in the photograph evoked the same response in me!

Sorry if this sounds like a complete change of subject, but about twenty years of my adult life were spent a few hundred miles north of the city of El Paso. My Spanish is not very good but I have studied it and I can at least read it; Spanish-speaking communities can trace back three hundred years in that part of the US. And everybody's remarks about tourism in Ireland remind me strikingly of the tensions amongst the English-speakers, the Spanish-speakers, and the Plains and Pueblo Native-American descendants where I used to live: it sounds so familiar, and of course I have never set foot in Ireland!

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 03 Aug 16 - 04:34 PM

The Bicep,
when I was a young man,I did a lot of boxing, then I spent years doing manual work.
I have kept myself fit,I still work on a small holding, so as a result of continual physical work, I have strong biceps, nothing to do with concertina playing or anything else.
I might stress, contrary to what one member of this forum , has suggested, I am not a violent man,The Biceps are used for non violent activities.
it's life Jim but not as we know it

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 01:16 PM

Strange that there's no mention of Ian Bailey in that article. What kind of welcome would he give to visitors?

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 02:31 PM

Ian Bailey? why do you ask about him?

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 05:29 PM

Just trolling down the street...

Regards

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Aug 16 - 08:48 PM

LOL mister Ryan!

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Aug 16 - 05:57 AM

or even "trolling along the miles"

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,Modette
Date: 05 Aug 16 - 01:10 PM

Nope,

I wasn't trolling, but wondering how many tourists may have been deterred from visiting the area, especially those from France.

Michelle

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 Aug 16 - 03:53 PM

Ian Bailey is innocent.
West Cork is one of the safest plces in Europe,look at and compare crime statistics throughout europe
Ní Chonaill is not particularly anti English,just generally anti anyone who is not irish entering the island

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 07 Aug 16 - 05:25 AM

ian Bailey is English, IIRC.

Regards

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Aug 16 - 07:51 AM

Correct, and Innocent until proved guilty, his reputationand life has been destroyed, he should never ha ve been named if there was insufficent evidence to prosecute.
FRENCH LAW is different and civil cases require even less evidence of guilt to obtain a conviction.
I doubt if many tourists have been deterred. now can we leave the subject of Ian Bailey please.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: Felipa
Date: 07 Aug 16 - 03:07 PM

we could leave it, except I didnt know who you were talking about and had to look for info.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/france-set-to-charge-ian-bailey-with-murder-of-sophie-toscan-du-plantier-1.2745098

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Aug 16 - 04:04 PM

Change of subject:

that's a lovely first-person account by the widower who went to his late wife's bank and got a hug from an employee who didn't otherwise know him from Adam. I'm more used to the kind of bank he described in England.

Subject: RE: Dick Miles in IrishTimes
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Aug 16 - 12:05 PM

I liked this comment.
Forty-six years in Ireland: Jenny Pyburn, Schull
My parents moved here in 1970. My mum would say west Cork was 50 years behind England. You could buy a property at the edge of the water here that you couldn't afford any more in England.
We were here when Bloody Sunday happened. That was a very difficult time for the English community. The rector and priest went together to every family in the parish. They came and talked to all of us, and they were amazing.
I have seen a lot of English people come and go. They have unrealistic expectations, and expect things to be cheaper, and don't realise that hospitals have to be paid for and are two hours away.
The biggest mistake English people make is not understanding the Irish ways. If you're coming to another country, you have to learn their ways. Ireland is not England