Prominent Irish politician in social media slip with "MILFS of the Day"

Fianna Fail TD Michael McGrath makes risque Facebook gaffe.

Prominent Irish politician and opposition finance spokesperson Michael McGrath was lighting up Twitter over the weekend after a status update announced his fondness for an adult Facebook page was inadvertently posted through his own official social networking account.

McGrath's Facebook page posted an update announcing his like of the 'MILFS of the Day' account shortly.

The page has over 83,000 likes on the social networking platform and features softcore pictures of older women in erotic poses.

The story was covered on popular Irish news website Broadsheet.ie shortly after it was broad to their attention.

The news also prompted a thread on popular political discussion forum Politics.ie where one user speculated whether the Cork TD would blame the mishap on "a passing comet interfering with his computer."

Reaction on Twitter ranged from amusement at McGrath's extra-political interests to outrage that the status had been posted through a Facebook page he reserves for dealing with constituent matters and other political affairs.

McGrath is particularly active on Facebook and other forms of social networking, but the only remaining evidence of that presence this afternoon was a saved cache after the page was hastily pulled down following the slip.

No reaction has been forthcoming from the senior Fianna Fáil spokesperson this afternoon.

The embarrassing ordeal will likely give other Irish politicians pause for thought about their engagement with constituents through the ever-growing social media channels, where minute changes to privacy settings can mean the difference between broadcasting an update to tens of thousands of 'fans' or keeping it quietly to yourself.

Research published this summer showed that 146 of the parliament's deputies were active on Twitter to varying extents, with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams emerging as the surprise top-dog, commanding a following of over 37,000 users on the network.

The research also found that the incumbent Fine Gael party was the leading user of the platform, with 100 percent of its TDs maintaining an active account.

Half of Irish 30 somethings have tried marijuana but disapprove of drunk driving

Half of all respondents used
soft drugs

Almost half of Irish thirty somethings have tried marijuana and other soft drugs, a new survey has revealed, although numbers were far lower for harder illicit substances such as heroin and cocaine.

The 'Ireland's Thirty Somethings - Living on the Edge' poll also surveyed approval ratings for a number of traditionally frowned-upon behaviors such as drunk driving and pre-marital sex, as well as current issues such as same sex marriage and gay rights to adoption.

In a sign of changed times, drunk driving was found to provoke the strongest moral disapproval rating, with an average disapproval rating of 9.1 (out of a maximum ten), while pre-marital sex was the least offensive to those surveyed.

While almost half of all respondents said that they had 'dabbled' in soft drugs, such as marijuana, only 14% had experimented with harder substances, such as heroin and cocaine.

There was little support for the decriminalization of all drugs, a proposition which just 18% of those polled said they would support.

Strong support was also evident for gay marriage with three quarters of respondents responding affirmatively when asked if the institution of marriage should be extended to same sex couples. However, only 66% of respondents were supportive of affording such couples the right to adopt children.

More than 40% of respondents believed that there were currently too many immigrants coming into the country.

On religion, only 55% of those surveyed said that there were members of the Catholic Church and two thirds of those asked would have their children baptized. However, almost one third of respondents - 28% - said that they had never attended a religious ceremony in their lives.

Despite soaring rents, 84% of those polled said that they expected to own their own house or apartment if they didn't already do so.

The poll was carried out by market research firm Behavious and Attitudes on behalf of the national radio station Today FM and the Sunday and Irish Independents and surveyed approximately 1,000 randomly sampled individuals between the ages of 30 and 39, according to a report in the Kildare Nationalist.

Further installments of results from the survey will be published during the week.

Dublin Web Summit puts Ireland at center of the tech map

Fourth Dublin Web Summit sees throngs of tech glitterati and power
brokers in Ireland's capital

Few events, or glossy Enterprise Ireland brochures, could have sold Ireland as well as last week's Dublin Web Summit.

This year's show was amazingly only the fourth installation of the event – now regarded as among Europe's leading technology conferences – but that would have been almost impossible to tell judging by the throngs of tech glitterati and power brokers dotting the floors of the RDS.

The project is the brainchild of the dynamic Paddy Cosgrave, who at 27 has achieved what others can probably only dream of doing in a life-time.

Cosgrave took center stage to join Prime Minister Enda Kenny on stage Wednesday to open the NASDAQ stock exchange from Ireland for the first time in history, but otherwise remained fairly well-hidden during the event, orchestrating a massive operation that involved dozens of paid workers and volunteers.

The speakers' list read like a "Who's Who" of the tech and investment worlds, and was the perfect opportunity for Kenny to wax lyrical about the massive potential of Ireland's vaunted startup scene, which now stands up to comparison with other major tech clusters such as London, Silicon Valley and Israel.

The fitting conclusions to the event saw Kenny discussing with billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk -- one in a business suit, the other, tellingly in leather jacket and jeans -- which saw the young Musk advise Kenny that the time for third levels feels, at least in certain disciplines, had drawn to a close.

"For technological companies, you need engineers," Musk said, articulating as pithily as possible the crux of Ireland's knowledge economy problem.

"[So] maybe engineering could be tuition free or something like that," he proposed.

Beyond the center stage, hundreds gathered to see the vast array of startup companies that had traveled from the four corners of the world just to get a glimpse of the action in Dublin.

Multimillionaire investors rubbed shoulders with young startup founders barely finished their time in college, with an untold amount of investment deals (and free coffee drinking) going on everywhere. The atmosphere was electrifying.

Never ones to miss a chance to plug the Emerald Isle, Bord Bía, the primary financial power behind Good Food Ireland, an industry group representing Irish food producers, wowed attendees with a vast tarpaulin-full of free, local delights, with the best of local cheeses, hams and other delicacies on offer for attendees hungry for a free lunch.

For three to four days in Dublin (depending on how many pre and post Summit festivities attendees deigned to cram in to their trip), all notions of a recession or brain drain were cast out of the equation.

Buoyant positivity – the inevitable follow-on from hours spent listening to inspirational speakers and tech-geeks delighted to share their next game-changing idea – was the order of the day, with a healthy dose of belief in all things Ireland and Irish thrown in there for good mix.

What started as a "crazy" idea in a young techie's mind four years ago blossomed into something extraordinary.

Perhaps the same process of self-belief coupled with hard work can rub off the tech industry's glittering wings on to the broader economy.