Inside View from Ireland: What the Sunday Papers Say

MY SUNDAY READING has ground to a halt due a little person still sleeping (at left), but not before I spotted some interesting things today in the Sunday papers. I bought the Sunday Tribune for Mr. Mulley but couldn't find his words or his face in the Sunday broadsheet today. No worries--plenty of broadband stories there to pass the time. (Comments invited.) I thought the little one would appreciate hearing about things that used to be part of life in 2007 when she gets old enough to type her own review of the Sunday papers. Here are some of those things I have noticed, from berries alongside walking paths, to pay packets, along with petrolheads, texting, cartoons, airliners, eco-living, and pledges that make for perfect living.

Here are some stories I might be telling my daughter when she turns 21.

1. You used to be able to get really good currants and strawberries during the summer, grown in Ireland. And you could eat those berries while gazing at the Irish Sea, on the Cliff Walk between Bray and Greystones. That walk will slide into the sea due to climate change and those strawberries won't be as tasty two decades from now because winter frosts no longer snap as cold as required to fight diseases that can live through the winter in warmer soil.

2. If you did your sums correctly and filed your receipts, you could double your salary as a politician just by adding up your mileage traveled and the days you worked with committees. That's because the Irish government tried to create enough committees so that every politician served on one. In the early 21st century, people often wondered what in the world the well-paid and expert civil servants were doing if politicians were being paid to accomplish much the same work. People used to throw around the phrase "value for money" without it really meaning anything.

3. When you were born, petrol cost just a little more than a euro a litre and the price of crude oil was less than $100 a barrel. It was only rationed during wartime and queues occurred in your hometown only when the boy racers were messing around in the forecourt just before closing time.

4. In 2007, when you sent a text message to a television or radio show, you rarely got anything back. In fact, many of those shows claimed to use text messages as votes but numerous investigations showed they were just fabricated results.

5. When you were one, David Beckham, McFly and Emma Watson were voted children's favourites. The Simpsons was voted best cartoon and Avril Lavigne was named the best female singer.

6. The world's largest airliner, the Airbus A380, took off one month after you were born. Airbus bet on a future scenario that folds hundreds of people into longer flights between continental hubs, not the direct flight model that propelled economy carriers to the forefront of the industry in the late 20th century. Environmentalists actually preferred the big aircraft over many others since they believed the number of flights would actually decrease once the superjumbos started flying. Now think about the flights you've taken during your life and calculate the ratio of superjumbo hours.

7. At one point in Irish history, upset commentators railed against billboards. At another point in Irish history, politicians and government officials lambasted wind turbines. Some considered home owners anti-social when they put up their own turbines to generate power for their homes.

8. Pledges started spreading like wildfire a year or so before Britney graced the tabloids without her knickers. On Age Of Your Arteries your parents pledged you to improve your health. On Quantas, your uncle pledges you to fly carbon neutral. On No Porn Pledge, your half-sister pledged that you would never access tawdry materials. At the time of your pledges (thank your elders), 41 humans have so far sworn to "co-operate in almost any way with any benevolent extraterrestrial intelligence" and 148 have pledged "I will get S Club 8 back together."

9. In offices around Ireland, nothing stopped people from printing out emails to read them and a lot of people did just that--see on screen, print on paper, bin after reading. It was worse in the UK. British officers printed 120 billion sheets of paper in 2006, a careless practise engrained in corporate culture.

10. In 2007, young lads with baseball caps turned backwards used to drive down the streets with noise that could be heard more than a half mile away. Only years later did vehicle registration tax disappear and congestion charges enter the tax system where people were charged by a combination of carbon and noise emissions. Hybrid cars avoided all congestion charges.

1. Isabel Hayes and Sarah McInerney -- "More landslides on the cards for Ireland as climate heats up" in a Sunday Tribune investigation, 21 September 2007.

2. Shane Coleman -- "Oiling the wheels of the Dail gravy train" in "Analysis", The Sunday Tribune, 21 September 2007.

3. Richard Delevan -- "From the bottom of the barrel to the top" in The Sunday Tribune, 21 September 2007.

4. James Robinson -- "Upset Ant and Dec give profits to charity after phone-in scandal" in The Observer, 21 September 2007 and Adrian Weckler writes "Minister wants to tackle rogue telecoms providers" in the Sunday Business Post, 21 September 2007.

5. Anunshka Asthana -- "Children's Favourites" in "News Briefing," The Observer, 21 September 2007.

6. Ned Temko -- "The double-deck superjumbo takes a bold leap into the future", The Observer, 21 September 2007.

7. Niamh Connolly -- "Gormley to introduce lenient new wind turbine legislation" on the front page of The Sunday Business Post, 21 September 2007. The back story runs into Warwick, Scottish Energy, and the need for feasibility studies.

8. See Petition On Line for all the details.

9. Lucy Siegle -- "Ethical Living" in The Observer Magazine, 21 September 2007.

10. Martin Love -- "Peace in our time" in The Observer Magazine, 21 September 2007.