Sunday Times Article

Let me start off by saying that we were all pretty excited here when we suddenly got contacted by the Sunday Times without doing any kind of advertising or PR of any kind really. We had of course been contacted by Dublin City FM recently and there was an interview done for their Europe Today show which was nice but that was a community radio station with only a couple hundred steady listeners while the Sunday Times has many more readers of their weekly publication as well as possibly millions of readers online. It was a big shock and we all felt pretty good about it.

To start off here is a link to the article

Now having said all that there is one thing in particular that i would like to personally address with the article.

“There is a lot of interest in the party and its stance so we’re
confidant we’ll get 300 members,” said Thomas Burke, one of the group’s
founders. Burke, a 23-year-old IT student from Longford, said the
Pirate Party would field a candidate in the Donegal by-election if it
were able to register as a party before the writ is moved.

That up there says Im from Longford. I am actually currently resident in Athlone. Nothing against Longford but I dont really go there much so Id rather not get peoples hopes up. Sorry but you will rarely see me walking the streets of Longford.

Anyway now that the only real error is sorted lets try and clarify a couple other things about the article shall we?

A group of politicised music lovers is planning to run a candidate in
the Donegal south-west by-election under the banner of the Pirate Party
Ireland.

That opening paragraph could be a bit misleading to some. Although it does state that we would only put forth a candidate if we were able to properly register as an official party before the bye-election this is not a main goal of the party. We would love to bein a position to contest the election but we are currently being a little more realistic and we dont honeslty think we will be in a position to do so before the bye-election goes ahead. It would of course be a nice treat if it were to happen.

“Our support comes from a younger crowd. They are tech-savy people with
a love of music so anyone can relate to what we stand for.”

It kinda seems to jump from tech-savvy music lovers to suddenly saying anyone can relate to us. What was omitted was that while our major support base will be tech-savvy music lovers our main policies revolve heavily around privacy issues with which everyone can relate.

Before I get to the final part which may scar everyone for life I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dick Doyle for his well wishes. While I do respectfully disagree that there will not be a worldwide push to change the face of copyright law I do happen to think that the success of several of our sister parties shows that there is already such a momentum and it is building rapidly. We here at the Pirate Party would of course be more than willing to discuss the issue of copyright law with Mr. Doyle or any member of the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). We welcome any input from such groups. Though our opinions may differ we are always willing to listen to opposing views.

Now to the end. I would like to say that I am very sorry Mr. Photographer. Im sorry I forgot your name but Im also sorry that your journey to Athlone was wasted. It does of course mean that everyone was spared the shocking visage that is my face and of course since the photographer was not freelance he gets paid either way but I do feel sorry for him having to drive all the way. I do realise that space is an issue with newspapers and as such Im not really put out by the fact that it wasnt used. Now just to cheer you guys up after hearing that you will now get a chance to see such an image. Its a bit old but below is a pic of me from the Lenny Kravitz concert last year in Marly Park. Yes I have since shaved and gotten my hair cut.

ARTICLE http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6797820.ece