Comhrá - the general chat thread

[JaneJeffer]

Hi Craicnetters!

I was looking for the other thread and see it's fallen way down the list so I decided to make a new one for all our daily musings ☘️

I'm going to visit my younger DS. He's warned me not to moan about the heat high 30's/low 40's and very humid some days. I don't like that heat.

Have a brilliant time @honeyrider !

The cold and damp will still be here waiting for you on your return, I can 100% guarantee that!!

Absolutely what Life said 😁 * *

Since this is general chat, may I have a bit of a rant on here about the Rockshore Cider TV ad which says it is 'Unofficial Sponsor of St Stephen's Day'?

Now I'm a born-again card-carrying 100% atheist, but I deeply respect other people's religious beliefs, and I don't like to see them being commercialised.

So for a brand of fecking cider to be 'sponsoring' the feast day of [if you believe this] the first Christian martyr, celebrated the day after the feast of the Nativity - I think that's so wrong.

I believe it's a localised version of 'Unofficial Sponsor of Boxing Day' in the UK, which is OK because it doesn't have religious connotations, I think it was the day gifts were exchanged? So yeah, sponsor that, Rockshore, no problem.

But sponsoring St Stephen's Day? Anybody else think it's not right?

St Stephens Day? I think Stephenses Day without the St. Might work?
I wonder what ad they use on UTV, boxing day is more usual in the north.

Well it does say unofficial sponsor.
Is that the ad with Ronan Keating or was that last year?
I don’t mind it to be honest. Stephen’s day is traditionally the day to meet up with friends around here.

27th is the big night out here for 20 somethings home for the holidays. Lots of previous relationships that have ended badly end badly again.
Lots of texts to friends of exes so lovers scorned don't end up in the same pub.

I don't like it. I thought we were moving away from drinks companies sponsoring events that are sporting or unsporting, whether officially or unofficially!
People who like Rockshore Cider can drink it on any day they want to. Why do people need to be prompted to drink it on Stephenses Day?! Advertising, isn't it.

I asked my dh a few days ago if he'd like to go for a drink with Ronan Keating. He was unsure if he would, although Ronan would probably pay.

They've been giving out about Rockshore and the St Stephen's Day hijack on Liveline during the week.

I wouldn't have a drink with RK, even if it was free.

Love the way we Irish call it Stephens's Day.

I wonder what one could chat about with Ronan. Keith Duffy would be better.

So it is just me on Craicnet, but it's not just me on Liveline - I never listen to it so I didn't know
Maybe I'm being too respectful towards religion.. I'll leave it, so!

You have backup with people calling Joe, rant away. I might start a thread near Paddy's Day which annoys me unreasonably.
Isn't Ronan always saying God Bless and things. Or am I confusing him with Daniel.

I think any company taking any holiday and using it as an advertising thing is annoying.

I don't generally pay much heed to advertising to be honest, everyone's out to con us

What do we think of the Irish Times charging €100 to 'advertise' a death on RIP.ie?! My DH is really miffed about this, he says its in very poor taste! I told him death is a very expensive business. The undertakers will just add this on as another item on the invoice. I think if they started charging people to access the site and find out who's died that would be a whole other kettle of fish!

I thought you had to pay to put a death in RIP.ie
I must check that with my mother did she have to pay for Granny's death notice to be put in. I thought she had to pay.

I wonder what the terms of sale of RIP to the Irish Times were? Is there anything to stop the undertakers setting up a rival site for half the price?

RipOff.ie methinks!

I think death notices were free, but to put up an acknowledgment or anniversary notice or something like that cost €20 - €30.

Though usually the funeral director put in the notice so maybe they charged for the service iyswim?

The funeral director certainly included a fee for putting the notices on RIP when both my parents died - I can't remember the exact cost but it was less than the local radio station and much less than a national newspaper.

Only a funeral director can place a death notice anywhere - they are not accepted from anyone else.

You put up the acknowledgment and anniversary notices on rip.ie yourself though. Maybe that’s why there was a charge for those notices before, when there wasn’t one for the funeral directors posting death notices until now. I guess the €100 will be added on to whatever they used to charge.

The last few funerals we had the funeral home said to us that their fee included a fee to RIP to announce the death. These were all different funeral homes. Everyone has been paying a fee. I can't remember the total but I do remember them saying that it could not be excluded.

But the papers , RTE etc said the service was free until now?

I understood that to mean that rip.ie weren’t charging, though the funeral directors may have done so for organising it/their time etc.
But I’m not 100% sure…

The rip.ie website says
“To publish a death notice on RIP.ie, simply ask your funeral director to do so. This is a service offered to bereaved families by all funeral directors in Ireland who have secure access to the site for the purpose of publishing death notices for funerals which they are undertaking. There is a fee for this service payable to the Funeral Director.”

Rip.ie made roughly €265 thousand profit in 2023.

Thank you !
So I didn't dream it that the funeral directors charged a fee for putting it on RIP.ie